Chapter 370 Twilight Zone
Crouching down slightly, she narrowed her eyes and waited for whatever it was that was going to attack her.
*BANG!
Suddenly, tens of black orbs appeared in her vision as she quickly twisted her body. Roundhouse kicking the first orb, she sent it flying towards two others that knocked them off course and stopped them from hitting her.
But despite this, she was still in danger of being hit.
Raising up her hand, she took a deep breath and punched towards the closest orb. With her extended hand, she then swept it to the right and hit another orb with the back of her hand.
Flowing through her movements with ease, she created an area of influence around her of which the orb could not approach whatsoever.
Using her Asura Sword Path as a base, she determined the 'weakest' orb and attacked with ferocity. As the speed of the orbs increased, so did her movements. Of course, she could use her magic but that would be no fun.
Meanwhile, a similar situation could be seen in Lisandra's room since she took Shiro's teachings to heart. Analysing the situation calmly, she was somewhat able to replicate Shiro's feats by targeting the closest orbs and denying them entry. While her area of influence was not as big as Shiro's, it was enough to help her fend the orbs off.
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Continuing to hit the orbs away, Shiro noticed their subtle change in direction when being fired. It was as if their centre of gravity was changed at the last moment, forcing them to deviate from their paths.
With a change like this, it would be unproductive to go for jabs instead, one should use sweeps. It was so that you can redirect that momentum to knock the orbs aside.
Relaxing her arms a little, she lashed them out as if they were wh.i.p.s and sent three orbs flying at once. There were a few that tried to hit her from behind but Shiro was able to determine their location through her incredible hearing.
Twisting her body, she kicked them into the ground and crushed it under her boot.
"Oops… I don't think I'm allowed to do that." Shiro muttered with a smile.
With the current test, she was having quite a bit of fun since the ever-changing patterns and speeds forced her to use her mind and think about what she should do.
Compared to a human opponent, since she couldn't kill the testing apparatus, this was a much better experience.
It was unknown how long has passed but the orbs had been through several variations of movements already. From curves, zig-zags, drill motions to a sudden stop, 90 degree turns and even change in shape to become more streamlined.
With every passing second, the orbs will become faster. Whenever she tried to use mana to reinforce her body, the orbs will get a sudden boost in speed. Knowing this, she stopped reinforcing her body since there may be times where this wasn't an option.
Sweat dripped off her face as she no longer had the carefree look. Her face was deadly serious since each orb was now travelling at a speed where a single mistake would be difficult to correct.
*CLACK
Suddenly, without any warning, the lights turned off as her pupils shrank in shock.
Quickly pushing her other senses to the limit, she dodged the orbs at the last second but a few of them managed to scr.a.p.e the hem of her dress.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro wondered if she should use her skill analysis.
'Let's use it. If the orbs change due to me using this skill, I practice more with it.' She mused to herself and activated her skill.
Unfortunately, a pulse of mana disrupted her cast as she realised that there was a skill cancellation formation around this room.
'Well damn.'
Shaking her head, she continued to push her hearing and touch to the next level in order to survive against this wave of attacks.
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*Yawn~
Stretching his body back on his chair, the director of the Kyoto Fighter's Association looked through the window and at the main hall filled with students training in different martial arts.
Sighing slightly, he had a bored expression on his face.
"Why must you sigh so often, master?" A man smiled wearily.
"Hideo, do you know why I became the director to begin with?"
"Mn, you wanted to learn more about the strongest martial arts and challenge people to prove your might." Hideo replied instantly.
"Indeed. But after learning the so called 'strongest' martial art, I never got a good challenge. I tried to go closer to the front lines to find people but they are few and far between. Plus, my obligations as the director forces me to stay here." The director shook his head.
"Do we not have spars often though master?" Hideo raised his eyebrows.
"We do but having fought with each other so much, we pretty much understand each other's movements and habits. There's no new mystery, no change or excitement that comes with it anymore. You feel that too don't you?" He asked.
Staying silent, Hideo agreed to his statement. At first, it was always a challenge to land a hit on his master but once the first hit appeared, the second soon followed. Then the third, the fourth and so on.
After a certain point, they were trading blow for blow since they understood each other.
If they had a few more people to spar with, things would not get so boring. Of course, they tried to train up someone that could fit the requirements but they simply couldn't reach their standard.
And despite them putting the best manuals they have for public acquisition as long as they managed to get the highest grade and beat them, no one had even come close to reaching S rank, never mind facing them in combat.
Hell, even those that reached A rank barely got in.
"Master, I'm sure that if you gave up this role to someone else, you can have the freedom to look for a suitable opponent." Hideo persuaded as the director shook his head.
"No can do. This dojo is the blood sweat and tears of my family. I cannot simply leave it to someone else's hands."
"Ku… this wouldn't be a problem if you could actually get a wife without needing to face them in combat.' Hideo rolled his eyes.
"Oi. I'm not old to the point where I'm deaf you know?" The director deadpanned.
Chuckling softly, Hideo got a chair and started to help the director with some work.
However, they soon hear a notification that hadn't been heard in such a long time.
Widening their eyes, they stood up in shock.
"Could it be? Could we finally have someone we can fight?" The director muttered in excitement.
But before they could even leave the room, they received a second notification.
"Two!!! There's actually two!" The director smiled widely while shaking Hideo's shoulder.
"Mn, let's go spectate their test." Hideo suggested as they quickly rushed over to the testing chambers.
With two people that had reached Twilight Zone, it meant that they entered the middle to high section of A rank. If they kept this up, S rank will be within their grasp.
Upon arriving at the scene, they could see a small crowd of instructors gathering around both rooms.
"The directors here!" Someone shouted out as they parted and bowed in respect. Nodding his head, he looked at the screen for tester Lisa since she was the closest.
"Hmm… she has been hit a total of 15 times so far with 10 of them received the moment she entered the twilight zone. If this keeps up, she should be around the middle of A grade." He muttered with a shake of his head.
The test is set up so that you're allowed a certain amount of hits per level and for her to be hit only 5 times before reaching twilight zone was quite impressive. But unfortunately, it wasn't enough to reach the S rank.
His initial excitement faded since there was a good chance that they are only A ranks and nothing more. Walking up to the next chamber, he set his expectations low so that he wouldn't get too disappointed.
"!!!"
Widening his eyes, he looked at the stats once again just to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating.
"Current Hit Count: 0…" He muttered in shock.
Despite the sudden transition into the twilight zone, she wasn't hit at all.
His hands quivered slightly since it was very likely that this girl could reach S rank.