Sword Saint [2]

(Mikami Loho POV)

I turned and faced the remaining students. They were all staring at me cautiously waiting for somebody else to make a move.

"If you aren't coming to me, I'll come to you."

I rushed forward meeting the nearest opponent to me. He stabbed his spear forward as I approached him, but I calmly deflected it with my katana.

Another student took this opportunity to attack me from behind. However, I saw him coming from a mile away.

I moved to the left, using my weapon to redirect the blow to the person I was facing. Despite the simplicity of the action, it was extremely difficult to pull off in practice.

They collided with each other and I took the opportunity to eliminate both of them when they were distracted.

Slowly, everyone was dispatched one by one, leaving me with 4 students.

They didn't move at all throughout the whole battle. I was thankful for that because I would have to break my self-imposed limits to combat them.

Even though my purpose was to teach the importance of combat skills, a gap in speed and power like that cannot be bridged.

They were B rank, so their minimum speed had to have been Mach 1.5. That was around 2.5 times faster than the speed I set for myself.

Maybe if it was one of them I would be able to win, but 4 simultaneously was nigh impossible, even for me.

I increased my speed to Mach 1 so I could stand a chance against them. Three of them rushed me while the last one stood back.

"Julius! Come attack with us."

The girl with green hair shouted at the person who reminded behind.

'I recognise her. She's Makayla's daughter. Amina Moria isn't it?'

Me and Makayla used to be very close back in the day. We were actually dating. But for reasons that are too complicated to explain, the relationship didn't work out.

Though that was a long time ago and I am now happily married with kids. I just found it interesting that I would one day train her daughter.

"No, I want to fight him alone."

The boy with silver hair replied as stood back just watching my every move. Amina's eyes started glowing as they move tracking my sword's movements.

'{Hawk Eyes} huh?'

I was slightly envious of that ability. Not many S ranks could obtain an ability like that. And to pass it on was even rarer.

There were only 2 among the 20 Rulers, those being Umbra Moria and the person who held rank 2.

The girl with purple hair, which I believed to be Rebecca's granddaughter came at me with extreme speed. Purple lightning surround her dashed forward.

'She's using her electromagnetism attribute to enhance herself further on top of her base mana enhancement. I didn't she'd be able to do it at this age.'

After I defeated the first batch of students, everyone refrained from using their attributes. Activating them required more concentration than just using mana to enhance yourself.

This made them vulnerable for a split second which experienced fighters could take advantage of.

And secondly, attributes had a wide range, meaning it is extremely easy to hit your allies. Seeing me taking advantage of these factors discourages the use of attributes.

But Rebecca's granddaughter use had none of the downsides and her quick movements would make it extremely hard for most to find an opening.

However, her overall skill was worse than Lisa's from before and the main issue was the speed she was moving at.

And her attacks were too predictable. Just as I was about to attack, I felt a weight coming on me. Caught off guard, Storm attempted to slash me.

But I wasn't an SS rank for nothing. I twisted my katana mid-movement, deflecting the blow and used {Mana Slice} to attack the person behind me.

"I saw that attack coming from a mile away."

Amina was barely able to block as my attack killed all movement she had.

"tch"

She clicked her tongue in disappointment as she retreated. The dark-skinned man who had to gravity attribute rushed to block my attack.

Simultaneously he created {Earth Spikes} to rise from under me.

'To be able to use your attributes while still maintaining your speed. It's impressive."

He attempted to kick away my sword but he was too easy to read. I kicked his other leg which was on the ground making him lose his balance.

While he was falling I stabbed him in the chest eliminating him from the match. I asked one of the students to bring him out of the barrier. As he left I gave him a word of advice.

"Don't try to do anything tricky against someone with superior combat skill. Stick to the basics and only try complex movements when you're sure your opponent can't take advantage of them."

He nodded at my criticism. Now there were only three left. The Storm immediately dashed forward with Amina providing cover support.

I had to give credit to Amina. She never hit her teammate and her arrows forced me to make excessive movements to dodge.

Storm took advantage of this by keeping up the constant pressure. I was able to keep up with them by keeping Storm in between me and Amina, stopping her from getting a clean shot.

After a few back-and-forths, I baited Storm into thinking my left side was unguarded. She fell for it and with a small movement, I was placed in an advantageous position.

Amina noticing this, attempted to fire an arrow to stop me from eliminating Storm. But I already predicted that I deflected the arrow to Storm.

Amina was surprised at me doing such a thing as her mana construct explode on impact. However, with fine mana control, it was possible.

In a fight, hiding your cards was an important asset that could be the difference between victory or defeat.

When the arrow hit Storm, she stumbled and during that time I sliced her, knocking her out of the fight.

Amina tried to keep her distance away from me and attempted to defeat me by not engaging in close combat.

Though I would never reach her because of the speed difference, none of the arrows were actually hitting me.

She too realised that she was just wasting mana and she'd be the one to run out of stamina first. Trying to compare our mana levels was like comparing heaven and earth.

My passive mana regeneration already made so that I hadn't lost any mana during this fight.

Amina switched her weapon to the naginata configuration in hopes of defeating me in close combat.

Though her attacks were faster and more powerful than Lisa and the Storm girl, her moves were less skilful. Though it can be excused as she was learning two weapons simultaneously.

Her {Hawk Eyes} made it hard to bait her into various actions, though I was able to defeat her by slowly wearing her down.

She was extremely impressive, with her physical capabilities making it difficult to deal with her.

Now there was only one. He hadn't moved from the spot since the start of the match and was the person constantly probing during the entire fight.

Unlike everyone else in the class, his eyes held no respect for me. He only saw me as a tool. An obstacle to bypass.

He was the first non-S rank to look at me like that. To him, surpassing me was already a given.

'Interesting.'