Fundamentally, Zignir's strategy was hit-and-run. However, the sheer speed granted by his formidable leg strength and the sharpness of his honed blade allowed him to unleash fatal, decisive strikes from his opponent's blind spots. As a result, his foes were forced entirely onto the defensive. In fact, even Arnold, the greatest knight in the kingdom, had his hands full simply enduring those blows and watching for an opening.
Yet what was currently unfolding before their eyes was completely beyond anything anyone could have anticipated.
Zignir sprinted across the ground, sweeping his longsword horizontally from behind, but Kai deflected it with the wooden sword in his right hand without even looking back.
A strike unleashed by Zignir from Kai's rear right—whose sword tip moved so fast that Rose could not even register an afterimage—was effortlessly parried as Kai smoothly guided the path of his wooden sword to meet it.
Next came a horizontal slash from the front left, aimed straight for the neck. Anticipating that it would be parried, Zignir dove inside his guard, attempting to drive the dagger at his waist into Kai's abdomen. However, that dagger was brushed away along with the sword by the wooden blade.
(What is going on?)
To be frank, the clash between Zignir and Arnold just moments ago had felt far more awe-inspiring to Rose.
There was no fierce intensity in this battle. On the contrary, Kai's movements were so plain that even Rose could track them with her own eyes. With movements of this level, Zignir's godspeed strikes ought to have decided the outcome in an instant. Yet there was not the slightest sign of any attack connecting.
"Arnold, why aren't Zignir's attacks hitting Kai?"
Driven by profound bewilderment, she questioned Arnold, who was still standing beside her, staring blankly at the clash between the two.
"..."
"Arnold?"
"Y-Yes. Well... it is likely because their skill with the blade is simply on entirely different planes."
"Their skill with the blade is different?"
"Yes. It is like a novice who picked up a sword for the very first time today compared to a battle-hardened veteran who has swung a blade for decades. The difference in skill between those two is even greater than that."
"B-But Kai has talent..."
"No, that's not it! This isn't something as simple as talent! A mere thing like that could never create such a vast disparity! This despair-inducing gap is surely born from a difference in sheer, accumulated experience!"
He was clearly shaken to his core. Arnold's tone was uncharacteristically stern for someone usually so gentle, and an eerie intensity gripped his expression.
"A difference in experience?"
It made less and less sense. If Kai were an elderly swordsman, she could at least understand. But Kai was far younger than Zignir.
"Yes. My swordmaster always said: no man can swing a sword while forgetting fame, pleasure, pride, and the like. Only one who can cast all of those aside and continue swinging with an empty mind can reach the true path of the sword. He must have continued to swing his blade. And after a dizzying eternity of discipline, he finally arrived."
"B-But Kai is only fifteen years old!"
"That has to be some kind of mistake. He has lived far longer than any of us. Above all else, his swordsmanship speaks for itself."
Arnold asserted this with utter conviction.
Kai has lived far longer? Did that mean Kai was an elf? High elves were exceptionally long-lived even among elves. She had heard that some could even live for a thousand years. Looking at it from that perspective made some sense, but—Kai's lineage was well documented. He was human. There was no mistaking it.
"It seems it will be over soon."
Arnold's words forcibly dragged her back to reality.
Just then, Kai struck Zignir's right hand with the wooden sword, sending Zignir's blade clattering to the ground.