Hour Empty Child

Vol. 6 Chapter 1-Presenting the New and the Old Part 4

Clashes of weapons ensued. From one fight to another, serious blows were afflicted to one another, whether they meant to end a life or not. The ground couldn't handle the force delivered by them as they were scratched up like tears on paper.

In one fight, Mizuri's proficiency with her bo staff was exemplary as she spun it around her fingers and arms as if she was controlling it with her mind. Raika's eyes couldn't follow the way it moved as they were spinning around too fast, but she only notices it right when the metal end was about to crush her face.

Raika's savviness of not getting killed under Kudo's teachings guided her head to the left, the metal end barely grazed Raika's cheek. It gave her the opportunity to pivot her foot outward, slicing the air with her dagger straight to Mizuri's abdomen. But Mizuri eyed this and slightly shifted her bo staff to use its bottom part to intercept the dagger, causing them to grate against each other which birthed flashing sparks, a high-pitched squeal resounded.

Being a failure, Raika retracted her body backward just before the other end of her bo staff could meet up with her face with a downward strike, hitting against the ground which burrows deeply into it, and soon after, a disappointed hiss liberated from the user.

"You're always weaseling out. Stop moving!" She cursed, expecting that Raika would take it like she wanted.

"L-Like I would stop and get hit by you, y-you musclehead!" Raika didn't have another insult to use, so she repeated her last statement.

"Y-You just called me that again, you girly bitch!"

Somehow, it managed to work for Mizuri as her red face showed a throbbing vein on her partly-hidden forehead. It looked like that word alone was enough to rattle her mental state.

In her rage, Mizuri spun her bo staff with great acceleration, gyrating a small wind before finishing it off by pointing one end to Raika, the wind blowing right at her through the force alone. It made Raika's skin tingle to see someone with that much power held within such a slim body.

Then, Raika noticed Mizuri's smirk as she shouted: "——《Aqua Blast》!"

Her eyes widened after hearing her shouting her skill as at the end of her bo staff, the air in front of it began to solidify into liquid, forming together to form a torrent-like sphere, the sounds of rushing water filled her ears as it was ready to attack.

The torrent sphere Aqua Blast, like a cannon, shot out of her staff and flew straight for Raika.

It was then that the time around Raika slowed down. Her mind wasn't capable of invoking thoughts at the speed of sound, but instead, it was her body that moved against time itself. Her instincts, that of a beast woman ready to hunt, sheathed her dagger with just one flowing movement with one hand and grabbed the bow holstered to her back with the next hand. That was one second. In the next, Raika pulled an arrow with her free hand from her quiver and nocked it which she then fluidly moved to pull the string right afterward.

Without a second thought, she imbued mana into her arrow as the Aqua Blast was nearing her.

"——《Shock Arrow》!"

Her voice echoed in the air before she released her arrow that has become imbued with powerful electricity, heading straight for the Aqua Blast.

It resulted in a steamy explosion between Raika and Mizuri, the shockwave that followed made them stumble backward.

Recovering from that, Mizuri looked on in surprise and gritted her teeth, barely seeing through the steam that within the radius of the explosion, the ground was scratched off.