The Magician of Sound

Clank!

Kai and Ria clashed their swords against each other in the middle of the room.

A magic circle appeared on her hand as she began pouring her magic power into her right hand. Meanwhile, Kai pushed her back with his strength. Even Ria would lose to him in terms of strength.

"Heh. You can control your strength now? Back then, you broke every single thing you touched because you couldn't control it… You even needed to lie to your parents for a week-long school trip. I even had to use my status there to have the school make a fake letter to your parents." Ria smirked, taunting Kai. She jumped backward before looking at her hand, feeling Kai's strength.

Kai wasn't flustered hearing the embarrassing thing he did a decade ago. Instead, he smiled and said, "Said the person who killed a kid eleven thousand times. You shouldn't be known as a genius, but a kid killer."

"Heh. I just want the best for you, my beloved student. Taunting me is the same as asking me to kill you. But look, how you're brave enough to provoke me now is proof that my training was successful," she said with a smile before leaping toward him again.

It only took a single look for Kai to realize that she was faking the attack. He slashed her sword right in front of her face while preparing for another change.

As Kai predicted, she continued her swing toward Kai's neck before leaping right above Kai and directly swung her sword at the back of his head.

Kai merely smiled upon seeing this. He turned his wrist and swung his sword in a completely different direction. Knowing how hard it would be to kill her in a single strike, Kai was planning to take one of her legs first. Meanwhile, his other sword went toward the back of his head, protecting his head from her sword.

Just like how he predicted her, she also predicted him.

'Got her!' As soon as he thought that, Kai heard another sound.

Rumble! Rumble!

'She read me.' Kai thought after pinpointing the exact location of the sound. He gritted his teeth and shifted his sword again, but it was a bit late.

A sword with the same appearance as the white sword in Ria's hand appeared from the ground. It punctured out of the ground and flew toward Kai's right hand.

He pulled back his hand, but the sword still grazed his upper arm before it stuck on the ceiling. Kai gritted his teeth and leaped forward, widening the distance between him and Ria.

"Hehe… Why don't you continue? You could have gotten one of my legs earlier." Ria smirked and teased him after escaping unscathed.

"For what price? Your sword would have cut my hand if I truly attacked you. You can just replace your foot with a sword… though it may not be as good as moving with a real foot, it would probably only decrease about ten percent of your prowess. But for me? I would need to fight you with only one hand. I would be at a far disadvantage." Kai snorted.

He explained his train of thought from earlier honestly, which made Ria smile. "The 7-year-old you would have continued though."

"That's because I didn't have any experience. I only believed that I would be satisfied if I could get one of your feet. However, now, I won't be satisfied with only that." Kai took a deep breath before releasing his killing intent once more. "I fully intend to bring you down this time."

"Ho, are you sure you can do that?" Ria pointed her finger at Kai's wound and said, "That wound is already a point for me."

Kai took a deep breath, ignoring her words. He looked at his own teacher as if he was looking at his mortal enemy and his prey to release a stronger killing intent and animal instinct from his body. A magic circle appeared and enveloped the two spheres of his swords. "Vibration Sword."

"You're using it already?" As soon as she uttered those words, she jumped forward and struck Kai's swords a few times. "Do you really think I'll let you?"

Kai didn't say anything and kept backing away despite getting struck by Ria. Her aim was to disrupt the vibration to prevent Kai from activating it. After all, even her sword wouldn't be able to handle Kai's Vibration Swords.

It was only after being chased around for a few minutes that Kai finally made a counter-attack. Kai said with a smile, "It's my trump card, why would I use it so early?"

"!!!" Ria Ross looked at Kai, specifically his finger in which a green magic circle appeared. She gritted her teeth and thought, 'Sound Attack!'

She quickly created a magic circle on her ears. Although it wasn't as effective as Kai's magic, it was better than nothing. Yet, despite her efforts, Kai already finished his magic before her. He snapped his fingers while covering his ears with Sound Insulation magic. "Lullaby!"

Ding!

The loud sound echoed inside the room. Although she had a lot of connections in United Asia, she didn't know Kai's magic at all. Hearing this loud noise filled her head with pain. The two magic circles on her ears gradually disappeared. Even her sword started deforming as it was purely made out of magic, showing that she lost control of her own magic.

Kai took advantage of that split second of confusion to fully activate his Vibration Swords and swing them at her.

In the midst of the tearing pain, Ria Ross still retained her ability to think and parried Kai's attack with her deformed sword.

Unfortunately, Kai's Vibration Sword was far better. The slash that also contained his extraordinary strength shattered Ria's sword and made its way toward her neck.

'Got her!'

The moment he thought that, a magic circle appeared on Ria's cheek before a small sword rose. The sword looked like a fork, and its only purpose was to block Kai's attack.

Kai snorted at her, knowing it was futile since that metal wouldn't be able to block this attack. At the same time, a magic circle appeared below Kai's feet as another sword appeared. Unlike before when he didn't have Sound Insulation magic covering his ears, he couldn't hear that sword coming.

The sword flew at high speed, planning to pierce Kai's head. It was only after it almost struck him that Kai's animal instinct sensed it. He tilted his head to the side to avoid the sword, but it was too late. The sword grazed him from his right cheek, running to the right side of his forehead without running through his eyes.

Not wanting to be outdone, Kai finished his swing.

Clang!

Kai felt a bit of restriction on the small fork on Ria's cheek, but it was easily cuttable. Little did he know, the actual purpose of the small weapon wasn't to stop his attack. Instead, she used the little restriction it gave to force her head to move downward. She had proved such a thing was possible after knowing about the restriction and used it right after learning about it from Kai.

It only cut the upper section of the fork.

Even so, the flying piece of the fork grazed at the same spot as Kai. Both of them jumped backward at the same time as the sound stopped echoing.

Kai released his Sound Insulation magic while Ria took a deep breath. Her cheek inflated like she was munching something, and after two seconds, she spat a tooth to the ground.

"You outsmarted me for a second. It's truly good to take a moment of pain to deal a deadly blow, but it won't go so well if the opponent knows about your sound ability. Using my knowledge about your Sound Insulation magic, I sent an attack from your blind spot," Ria commented calmly after spitting the tooth.

"I understand. I rushed too much earlier. If I had built up the trap a little bit more, I would've been able to take you down." Kai sighed.

"Nah. If it were the same move, you would probably only take my ear, nothing more. Besides, my cheek is still aching right now because of your attack," Ria complained before complimenting him. "Though, I can see how much improvement you've made in a decade. I can say that I am proud of you."

"You are still a barrier that I need to overcome before I can climb higher." Kai shook his head.

"You're 27 years too early for that." Ria laughed.

"Please don't say the difference between our ages. It sounds too realistic." Kai had a weird expression on his face. However, hearing it made it obvious that Ria treated him as someone with equal talent and magic.

"You're right. Then I should probably say the more common one. You're ten years too early… Nah, sounds bad. Fine, you should be able to surpass me in five years." Ria shrugged.

"If it's in close combat, I also believe so. But your fighting style is more suited to fighting magical beasts than humans…" Kai narrowed his eyes, not taking the compliment.

"Haha… You're right. Maybe I should take this one more seriously?" She grinned.

Outside, Ayaka looked confused, not understanding Kai's words. She muttered, "What did he mean by more suited to fighting magical beasts?"

Michelle let out a long sigh after listening to her question. She answered with another question, "What do you think her title is?"

"Eh?" Ayaka tilted her head in confusion and thought about Ria Ross's fighting skill. She didn't know Ria Ross very well, hence she said with an unsure tone, "Genius Fighter?"

"Mad Scientist," Tasha was also interested in this matter and answered.

Michelle shook her head with a helpless smile. "She was known as a woman loved by the swords."

"What do-" Ayaka wanted to ask, but soon saw Michelle point her finger at the screen.

There, they could see a huge silver magic circle beginning to cover a fifth of the ceiling before a few tens of swords appeared, ready to shower Kai with love.