446 Flying Leaves (2)
Anna was extremely fast. She could appear in any place on the stage in just an instant.
Her battle style was based on that speed. She moved extremely quickly while using the dagger in her hand to attack her enemy.
She could be considered an assassin-like fighter, just like Sara and Aya. But unlike them, who relied upon stealth to attack, Anna relied purely on her astounding speed and agile movements.
Every second, she appeared in a different place, using her dagger to try to stab and slash Bloed's body.
Unfortunately for her, her battle style wasn't very advantageous against Bloed.
Bloed was already used to facing people with extreme speed. In fact, just a few days ago, he fought and won against the leader of Wings of Liberty, Nathan, who is considered the fastest student in the city.
Compared to him, Anna was noticeably slower. Bloed could follow her movements easily thanks to his modified eyes.
No matter how fast she moved, she was never able to escape Bloed's senses. And no matter how tricky her attacks were, Leto was able to stop them using its metallic sand.
More than once, she was close to being caught by Leto's metallic sand, and a few times, she was forced to avoid Bloed's saber or bullets.
Anna soon frowned. Although she still had the initiative of the battle, the fact that none of her attacks had landed was bothering her.
'Should I move faster?'
With that thought in her mind, Anna disappeared again.
This time, though, her speed was almost twice as fast as her previous attacks!
She could not keep this speed for long, but using it for just a second was enough.
Until now, she had met only a handful of people that could keep with her movements when she moved at this speed!
But when she arrived behind Bloed and got ready to stab his back, she saw a pair of bright blue eyes looking at her calmly.
'… Retreat!'
Anna's instincts warned her of the imminent danger, and she did not hesitate to obey them.
In the next second, a saber slash cut the place where she was a moment ago!
Anna felt cold sweat on her back. That was close.
But before she could sigh in relief, her body suddenly became heavy!
It was Oculus' [Suppressive Gravity Field]!
Bloed had calculated Anna's route based on her previous movements and ordered Oculus to use [Suppressive Gravity Field] on the place where he predicted she would be!
The effects of [Suppressive Gravity Field] were instantaneous, and its two-fold gravity was very effective against opponents that specialized in speed. Anna's movements were slowed down to almost half of her usual speed!
She hurriedly tried to jump away to escape from the area where the gravity was affected, but then, Bloed took a step forward and activated another ability.
[King's Aura]!
Psychic power was turned into mental pressure that assaulted Anna, making her movements even slower than before!
Anna was an A-Rank, so King's Aura was not very effective against her. But even so, it was able to slow down her movements for half a second.
Plus the effects of [Suppressive Gravity Field], Anna became a sitting duck!
And there was no way that Bloed was going to miss that opportunity.
Leto turned into a wave of metallic sand, surging towards Anna from all directions. At the same time, Bloed kicked the ground, rushing towards Anna while swinging his saber downwards.
However, Bloed made a mistake.
He underestimated Anna.
If Bloed would have used Imaginary Slash instead of rushing with his saber, he could have defeated Anna right there; but because he thought it was unnecessary, he gave her an instant to react.
And that instant was enough for her.
When it seemed that she would be unable to evade Bloed's attacks, Anna stomped the ground.
Her body was launched upwards, and at the same time, several small knives appeared all around her body.
Then, under Bloed's astonished gaze, the knives flew towards him simultaneously!
Bloed's expression turned grave. He did not dare to receive the knives head-on. He had the feeling that Tito would be unable to block them!
Thus, he was forced to evade them and ask Leto to form a barrier of metallic sand in front of him.
However, that gave Anna enough time to escape from the effects of King's Aura and jump away from the Suppressive Gravity Field's area of effect.
With just a movement, she had escaped from that dangerous situation.
Clicking his tongue, Bloed jumped away to distance himself from her.
"… Flying knives, huh… That was not in the information Prince Calisto got about her…" Bloed muttered to himself.
"Well, few people have seen me using them." Anna grinned. "They are like my trump cards, you see. The reason why I named the club Flying leaves."
Bloed smiled wryly and shook his head.
He could have ended the battle right there. If he would have been more decisive, Anna would have been defeated.
However, he was not discouraged. He was still confident that he could win.
Feeling his confidence, Anna curved her lips up.
"Hey, Mr. Bloed. Now that I taught you my trump card, I'll start to fight seriously, okay?"
As soon as her words finished, Anna disappeared again.
But this time, instead of appearing near Bloed, only a flying knife came flying towards him!
Bloed calmly used Leto to stop it, but to his surprise, the strength behind the knife was enough to pierce a hole through the metallic sand!
Obviously, this knife was much stronger than the flying knives she threw hurriedly while trying to escape from Bloed's previous attack.
Fortunately, the knife lost most of his strength after breaking through the sand, falling on the ground powerlessly; but even so, Bloed could not help but turn his expression serious after experiencing its power.
Anna did not give Bloed time to think. An instant after throwing the first knife, several more knives came flying towards him.
Every one of the knives was packed with enough power to break through the defenses of an average A-Rank easily. It was an attack approaching the peak of A-Rank!
Knife after knife flew towards Bloed one after another, forcing him to block them with Leto or avoid them.
However, Bloed knew that the situation could not continue like this. Right now, Anna was attacking freely without fear of being attacked. At this rate, she would overwhelm him sooner or later.
Fortunately, Bloed possessed his own means of long-distance attack.
With a thought, the floating eye on the sky was activated.
Then, it aimed to the ground and fired!
*BamBamBamBamBam!*
Energy bullets were shot one after another at great speed.
Moreover, the bullets were shot all around the arena, only avoiding Bloed's location. This way, Anna would find it hard to avoid them completely!
Of course, Bloed knew that the energy bullets were not strong enough to defeat Anna, but at the very least, it helped him to limit her movements.
Then, he charged once more.
[King's Aura]!
His technique was activated a second time, freezing Anna's movements briefly.
However, Anna had already experienced this technique before, so this time she managed to free herself from it even faster than last time.
But when she freed herself from the technique, Bloed's saber was already about to pierce her chest!
Anna reacted quickly, throwing a Flying Knife towards Bloed's neck, but Bloed easily avoided it without stopping his attack. Similarly, Anna twisted her body aside to avoid the saber as she grabbed a dagger with each hand and attacked Bloed!
In the next instant, a fierce exchange of attacks occurred between Bloed and Anna!
Both of them moved quickly to avoid the attack of the other while trying to land their own attacks!
But when it seemed that both of them were evenly matched, Anna's expression changed.
Because Bloed's knee had hit her abdomen.
"Gah!" She vomited a mouthful of blood and was blown away. Meanwhile, Bloed calmly retracted the knee that he had used to land a hit on her abdomen.
"Give up," Bloed spoke. "My last hit should have caused you severe internal injuries. You are no longer my match."
Anna wiped off the blood on her lips and smiled wryly.
"… It looks like you are proficient with other martial arts besides using the saber. I was not expecting that."
"I seldom use them. Few people are able to force me that far."
"Is it so?" Anna heaved a small sigh. "Such a shame, I would have liked to fight you for a bit longer. There is a lot that I have not shown you yet."
Bloed frowned. For some reason, he got a bad feeling.
Then, he saw Anna's lips curve upwards.
"Unfortunately, it's already time."
As soon as her words finished, an explosion shook the entire city.
...
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