"We’re done over here, Ryuga. How long do you plan on playing around?"
"I was just buying time for you to practice. I had no intention of 'playing around,' I assure you."
Ryuga gave that aloof reply as he turned his cool gaze toward Masanaga.
The heir of the House of Azano felt his face contort. Realizing he had fallen into an overwhelmingly critical situation, he swallowed hard.
(This is bad...! The reinforcement from Enji’s Gunbai War Fan: Gale and Raging Waves has already worn off. Now that most of the subordinates have been defeated, the effectiveness of my Noted Sword: Jinrai has plummeted. I can't exert the same power I had just moments ago...!)
The Formation of Gale and Thunder—the strategy they hailed as invincible—relied on Enji summoning a small army and empowering them with his magic item while Masanaga gained even greater strength through the synergy of his own blade.
But with Enji defeated, that absolute formation had crumbled like a house of cards. Without his subordinates or the buffs from his partner, Masanaga was a shadow of his former self.
As Masanaga grew increasingly frantic over his precarious position, Ryuga spoke up.
"Just so there's no misunderstanding... as I said before, the only reason I let you run wild this long was to give Marcos the time he needed. It wasn't because I was actually struggling against your 'Formation of Gale and Thunder' or whatever you call it."
"Don't you mock me! Do you mean to say you were just toying with me this whole time!?"
"No," Ryuga said, his expression making it clear that someone of Masanaga's caliber wasn't even worthy of being a playmate. "The 'toying' starts now."
Implicitly told that he was now nothing more than a way to pass the time, Masanaga flew into a rage and charged in a desperate frenzy.
"You! A mere nobody like you!! Do not look down on me!! How dare you look down on me, the Next Head of the House of Azano, when you are nothing but the son of a guard! It is preposterous!!"
"The abilities of your magic items aside, you certainly seem to enjoy looking down on and exploiting others, don't you? No matter how much you feign nobility, you can't hide your rotten nature."
"And what is wrong with that!? I am a being far above the ignorant masses! It is only natural for those who stand above to look down on those below! Is it not also natural to increase one's own power by utilizing others as tools!?"
Masanaga swung his katana recklessly, unleashing a barrage of strikes: a Downward Vertical Slash, a Diagonal Slash, then a Reverse Diagonal Slash. Even without his reinforcements, the lightning-clad blade was still sharp and fast, but Ryuga parried the lightning itself along with the steel, handling the assault with ease.
In the heat of their verbal sparring, Masanaga continued to spew his tyrannical elitism.
"When people gather, they become wealth; they become power! To wield greater strength and subjugate others—that is the only truth! That is why I shall have the House of Utsusemi! That is why I shall have Raiha! She won't speak up for herself; she'll just silently obey whatever I say. She’ll be the perfect woman to hand over the Utsusemi fortune to me!"
"...I see. Precisely the sort of thing a low-life would think."
Raiha and the others were too far away to hear the exchange, but Ryuga was glad he had managed to drag Masanaga’s true feelings into the light. The man’s mindset was archaic, obsessed with the hollow authority of a family name—a perfect distillation of the rot within Yamato. Ryuga found it so pathetic it was almost amusing, and the thin smile that touched his lips only served to further grate on Masanaga's nerves.
"You wretch! Do you dare laugh at me!? A low-born like you dares to mock me!?"
"Don't ask me questions. I have no interest in hearing any more of your talk about who is above whom."
"My thoughts are corrupt, you say...? Curse you! Do you intend to deny my very existence at every turn!?"
"I told you," Ryuga said with an air of profound boredom, "don't ask me."
With a sharp flick of his wrist, Ryuga knocked aside Masanaga’s descending katana. He stepped inside the man's guard and swung Ryuo-ga. Masanaga, his face pale with terror, managed to evade the edge by a hair's breadth.
"What you're saying isn't necessarily wrong," Ryuga continued. "But you've forgotten one vital thing. Anything built on power alone will eventually be destroyed by an even greater power."
"Ngh! Wha—!?"
It was a total Reversal of Offense and Defense. With Ryuga turning the tables, Masanaga was reduced to a pathetic state, barely dodging Ryuga's strikes by the thinnest of margins. To the audience, it looked like a series of close calls, but the reality was far more humiliating: Ryuga was intentionally stopping his blade just short of the man’s skin.
Masanaga trembled with fury as he realized he was being toyed with, but Ryuga continued dispassionately.
"A person who only tramples, climbs over, and uses others can never hope to defeat someone who possesses true strength. That is the most important lesson I’ve learned since coming to this country."
"Nonsense! Do you mean to claim that you are the one with this 'true strength'!?"
"No, I still have a long way to go. But I was able to find a partner who does. The bonds I’ve forged while working alongside him and his comrades—the way we push each other as friends—that is what leads to real strength. Unlike your shallow connections based on nothing but convenience, the Power of Unity is what drives me forward."