"What’s the matter? Realized you can’t win and finally given up on that pointless resistance? Smart move, but I’m not nice enough to let you off that easily!"
Cyan’s voice grew even more arrogant as he watched Ryuga stand perfectly still, his sword still sheathed. Yet Ryuga offered no reaction to the taunt. He simply stood there, staring Cyan down with silent, icy intensity.
"Tch...! It’s annoying. You know nothing you do matters, right?"
Cyan’s irritation finally boiled over at Ryuga’s dismissive attitude. He spat the words out like venom and raised a fist. As Cyan charged head-on, Ryuga knew the moment he’d been waiting for had arrived. He drew his katana in a flash, cutting through the empty air before him.
"Wh—!? What was that!?"
Ryuga had struck from an Iai stance, but the timing of the draw appeared completely off. Seeing a slash that lacked even a shred of intent to actually hit him, Cyan felt a prickle of unease alongside his confusion.
Then he saw it—a tiny sliver of space where Ryuga had cut seemed to ripple, subtly out of sync with its surroundings. Cyan let out a sharp gasp and skidded to a halt.
"W-What the hell was that!?"
"Oh, you noticed? You’ve got a sharp eye."
Ryuga’s lips curled into a rare smirk as he addressed the bewildered Cyan, who was struggling to comprehend the spatial distortion that had vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Sensing Cyan’s growing wariness, Ryuga spoke with calm deliberation.
"That was a dimensional shift. If you’d charged into it, that part of your body would have been severed... though it seems you’re more composed than I gave you credit for."
"H-Huh...? What...? You can actually do that...?"
"...You only nullify damage, but you still feel the impact. You aren't immune to external interference. Even if I can’t cut you directly, if I use the phenomenon created by slicing through a dimensional wall... I might just be able to tear you to pieces."
"What!?"
Cyan groaned, his eyes bulging at the claim that Ryuga could literally cut through dimensions. Ryuga had successfully rattled him—but the entire story was a total lie.
He hadn't cut through dimensions at all. He had simply used a combination of wind, water, and lightning magic to create a refraction of light and a series of air fault lines to simulate the effect. Naturally, he’d made sure Cyan saw the distortion on purpose. While the move seemed meaningless on the surface, Ryuga’s sole aim had been to plant a seed of doubt.
Seeing that Cyan was visibly shaken, Ryuga swung his katana again before the boy could recover, delivering a sharp strike to the golden Magic Armor Beast’s body.
"Gah!? W-What is this?! Why does it hurt?!"
Perfect. Just as I thought, Ryuga noted.
The three slashes hadn’t torn Cyan apart, but they had inflicted enough pain to make the supposedly invincible warrior cry out. As he watched Cyan stumble back in shock, Ryuga felt a surge of certainty. He had finally seen through the trick behind [Invincible].
There's no doubt about it. The strength of his ability is determined by how much he believes in his own invincibility.
A Clear Plate’s power shifted based on the user’s mental image. That meant the user’s mindset directly influenced the capabilities of the Magic Armor Beast they became. It made perfect sense. In any battle, the psychological state of the fighter was paramount—the one with the most confidence always held the edge.
At the start of the engagement, Cyan hadn’t harbored a single shred of doubt. He’d truly believed that Yugo and the others couldn’t land a scratch on him. That was why Melt and Setsuna’s attacks had failed to do anything, and why even Yugo’s strikes hadn't made him flinch.
But when Ryuga landed a counter that used Cyan’s own strength against him, that absolute confidence had wavered for a split second. The only reason he’d been sent flying by the next attack was because his agitation had caused [Invincible] to weaken.
And now, after hearing Ryuga’s bluff, Cyan had started to believe that a method to wound his "invincible" body actually existed. That thought bred more anxiety. As his faith in his own power crumbled, the Clear Plate’s protection grew thinner. The result was clear: he was now taking damage from attacks that should have been harmless moments ago.
In this fight, the target wasn’t Cyan’s flesh—it was his heart. By severing his spirit and wounding his body, then using that physical pain to crush his will even further, the protection of [Invincible] would eventually vanish entirely.
"Now then, shall we continue? I’m going to strip every last bit of that gold-plating off you."
"Guh... dammit...!"
Cyan’s ultimate misfortune was that he’d fought Abyss before facing Ryuga. Having already suffered a total defeat while using [Invincible], the cold, hard fact that he wasn't truly invincible had already been etched into his subconscious. Even Abyss, the man who had crushed him, likely hadn’t realized he’d left Cyan with such a fatal flaw.
I’ve found the opening I need to take him down. But completely nullifying that ability is going to take time.
Even with his confidence shattered, [Invincible] likely possessed a passive damage-reduction effect that operated independently of Cyan’s will. There wasn't much Ryuga could do about that, and as long as it was active, this wasn't going to be a quick finish.
It was going to take a bit longer before he could catch up with the others who had gone ahead. Ryuga steeled himself and focused on the fight, watching as the cracks in Cyan’s armor slowly began to widen.