What You Can't Understand is Boring

SHADOW

It’d been a long, long time since I’d felt that specific sensation.

I stared down the woman with the violet eyes and let a smirk play across my lips behind the cover of my mask.

She was smiling too. I had a feeling we were both tuned into the same frequency.

See, in my mind, combat is a dialogue.

The slight quiver of a blade’s tip, the direction of a gaze, the positioning of the feet—every tiny, trivial detail carries weight. Reading those meanings and coming up with the right response? That’s what it means to fight.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the ability to decipher intent from the smallest action—and then providing a superior answer—is the very definition of strength.

That’s why fighting is a conversation.

The higher the "conversational" skills of both parties, the more they can read ahead, counter, read the counter-counter, and counter the counter-counter. It’s a beautiful, endless loop.

But when someone’s communication skills are trash, or if there’s a massive gap in ability, the dialogue never even starts. One side—or maybe both—just does whatever they want until it's over.

There’s no dialogue there. No process. Just a result. Honestly, if you have no intention of talking, you might as well just settle the win with a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, I thought. Delta, I’m looking at you.

Her version of Rock-Paper-Scissors is just throwing "Rock" and physically pulverizing both "Scissors" and "Paper" into dust. It’s completely unfair.

Then again, I’m one to talk. It’d been ages since I’d had a proper, meaningful conversation myself.

The only difference between me and Delta is that I at least try to have a dialogue at first. I just usually end up blowing people away with Rock anyway.

That’s why I was so happy to meet this woman. She actually looked at me. I mean, she really looked. The tip of my sword, my eyes, my footwork—she was reading every single meaningful movement I made while pretending to smile casually.

I decided I’d call her Violet-san. Dear, sweet Violet-san.

For a while, we just stood there, staring at each other and "talking." Little by little, we began to understand one another. She was a long-distance fighter. I, on the other hand, was the type to adapt my style to my opponent. I am definitely, absolutely not the type to just smash people with a Rock.

And so...

After you, I thought, yielding the first move.

A split second later, I pulled my lead foot back.

Immediately, something resembling a Red Spear thrust out from the spot where my foot had just been.

Aiming for the feet? Rational. I like it.

I took a half-step back. I hadn’t expected the opening move to be an underground attack. The Red Spear split into two, pursuing me from the left and right like a pair of pincers.

My first move? Observation.

I needed to gauge the speed, power, and mobility of these Red Spears.

I sidestepped the one on the left and parried the one on the right with my blade. The feedback was heavy. Definitely enough force to kill.

The spear I’d dodged split even further. Suddenly, there were what looked like a thousand red lines, sharp as wire, filling the air. They swarmed me from all sides.

I channeled Magic Power into my blade and swung, clearing the field of Red Spears in a single sweep.

"Even if mosquitoes swarm, they cannot kill a lion."

Violet-san offered an elegant smile. We went back to our staring contest for a moment.

The better you are at the dialogue, the faster you can sense your opponent's true depth. You even start to get a feel for their personal circumstances.

I knew. And I’m sure Violet-san knew too. We both already saw how this fight was going to end.

Then, nine spears as thick as logs erupted from the ground, shattering the silence.

I dodged the heavy strikes, but they changed shape like tentacles, following me with a mind of their own. They pierced like spears, ensnared like threads, and snapped at me like jaws.

So this was her style. Using these free-moving tentacles to one-sidedly torture her prey to death.

I just kept observing. By watching the rhythm of the tentacles, I began to optimize my own movements.

I trimmed away every unnecessary motion. One step became a half-step. Two moves became one.

You can't win just by dodging, though. Evasion is just the setup for the counterattack. And the smaller the evasion, the faster the strike that follows.

Evasion and counter—simultaneous.

In a single step, I was suddenly standing right in front of her.

She was already gripping a Great Scythe. She swung it in a wide arc.

I parried the blow with my sword and, in the same heartbeat, kicked her in the leg.

A Slime Sword extended from my toe, piercing her limb. Lately, this Toe Sword had been relegated to the status of a mere stage prop for my "performances," but it was originally a very reliable weapon for breaking stalemates against high-tier enemies.

She froze for a fraction of a second. For me, a fraction of a second was plenty.

Violet-san smiled, accepting the outcome.

"I wanted to fight you at your best," I whispered in a voice only she could hear as the blood began to spray.

---

ALEXIA

"Just as I said. Shadow can't even touch her," Nelson boasted.

Alexia tuned him out.

From the very first move of the battle between Shadow and Aurora, the witch had been on a relentless, one-sided offensive. Alexia watched with wide-eyed shock as the red lines danced through the air at terrifying speeds.

Whatever those things were, they weren't normal weapons. Aurora manipulated them like extensions of her own body, shifting their shapes at will. She could likely spread those spears across a massive area and impale an entire army at once.

If you tried to fight her with conventional swordsmanship, you were dead before you started.

So this is the power of Ancient Combat Techniques, Alexia realized. She had to admit it—she was nowhere near that level.

"He's holding out longer than I expected, but the gap in their skill is obvious," Nelson continued.

No, you’re wrong, Alexia countered in her head.

Shadow looked like he was being driven back by Aurora’s fierce assault, but he hadn't even tried to attack yet. He was simply analyzing a style he was seeing for the first time.

Aurora was strong, certainly. She was actually managing to keep up with Shadow, after all.

But the Red Spears hadn't touched him. Not even once.

"Even if mosquitoes swarm, they cannot kill a lion," Shadow declared, obliterating a thousand needles with a single strike.

The Red Spears thickened into massive logs, swarming him from every direction. They roared with enough power to pulverize a lion, splitting and snapping like the jaws of a beast as they pressed him.

Yet, they wouldn't hit.

In fact, with every exchange, Shadow’s movements became smaller and smaller. Just when Alexia thought he’d reached the absolute minimum required to dodge, he would overwrite it with an even slighter motion the very next second.

Every time she thought she was witnessing the peak of martial arts, Shadow pushed the ceiling even higher.

"Incredible..."

"As expected..."

Alexia’s murmur overlapped with Natsume’s.

A truly powerful warrior can checkmate an opponent using nothing but defense. Her old sword instructor had told her that once.

The living proof was standing right in front of her.

"What are you doing, witch?! Finish him off already!" Nelson’s voice was cracking with irritation.

But it was too late. Aurora couldn't stop Shadow anymore.

The end came in a literal blink.

Alexia only caught a fraction of the final exchange. Shadow stepped in, Aurora’s Great Scythe flashed through the air, and suddenly, blood was everywhere.

It was Aurora who fell.

The conclusion was so sudden and anti-climactic that it felt like a lion casually snapping a lamb’s neck. No one could understand what Shadow had done or what had actually happened in that final moment.

That was why it felt so abrupt.

The stadium fell into a stunned silence, as if the fierce battle had been a collective hallucination.

"She... lost? Impossible! Aurora was the one attacking!" Nelson shrieked.

To his eyes, it must have looked like Aurora was winning right up until the end. The victory had flipped in a heartbeat, and his brain couldn't process it. He wasn't the only one; most of the audience looked like they were wondering if they’d mistaken the winner for the loser.

"What happened?! There's no way she could lose! That woman is—!"

Shadow flicked his pitch-black coat and leaped into the night sky.

"W-Wait! After him! Don't let him get away!" Nelson snapped back to his senses and screamed.

The Holy Knights scrambled into action, frantically chasing the dark figure.

Alexia finally let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She replayed Shadow’s movements in her mind over and over, desperate to burn them into her memory.

"His sword is as terrifying as ever..." Rose whispered, her voice like a sigh.

Just as Alexia was about to agree, a blinding light swallowed the arena.