Tokugawa

*Ding!*

[There are only 10 seconds remaining for the next match!]

"Hah… Hah…"

Only when he heard the ringing sound did Ryu finally snap out of his trance, sweat all over his body. Even though the restorative power of the resting room was great, it didn't remove the sweat. As such, Ryu's entire body was drenched in sweat.

'24 hours have passed? Just like that?' Ryu never felt the time, his mind was only focused on training.

While breathing heavily, Ryu noticed the section under the notification. It read; "Lesser Skills Obtained" and showed <Swordsmanship>, <Guard>, and <Shield Bashing>, all of them are at a high level.

His swordsmanship reached level 8, his guarding reached level 6, and his shield bashing reached level 5.

'Level 8 for Swordsmanship? Already?' Ryu was flabbergasted. He only swung his sword for a day, and yet its level skyrocketed? Although it is true he gained many martial arts in the span of an hour or two, and even heavily improved on them, that was only due to Comby showing those moves beforehand. He didn't think by just simply training a bit he'd reach this level. He immediately checked the swordsmanship skill, and noticed it lacked a description just like his martial arts skills. Seeing he didn't much time left, Ryu didn't bother with checking the others.

'Perhaps level 8 isn't that impressive for swordsmanship?' Ryu thought but then decided to discard that idea. The match will begin in a few seconds, and this will show him the results of his training. H

[4 seconds remaining.]

Ryu took a heavy breath, his body aching a bit. Even though the room restores his stamina every 5 minutes, his training went a bit overboard at the end, and he kept on slashing without even a second to rest. As such, he managed to deplete quite a bit of stamina.

[3 seconds remaining.]

"Hah…"

Suddenly, a green light appeared all over his body, and like magic, his body was restored to its peak.

[2 seconds remaining.]

'The system said that there are 3 matches available. I assume it would give me a choice on which one to choose, right?' Ryu thought. He had assumed the choice to choose the match will be given at the end, and hoped he would not be wrong. But even so, Ryu didn't care that much. Regardless of whether he fought the All-Hearing or any other opponent, that didn't change much. Regardless of who it was, he still would've chosen Sword and Shield.

[1 second remaining.]

Surprisingly, Ryu wasn't afraid this time. Despite knowing that this wouldn't be easy, and could even be worse than the combat dummy, he felt excitement. Even if he died, he still, hopefully, had 2 tries left. Although he wouldn't want to die, he was a lot more lenient knowing that there were more tries.

[Time is Up!

Please choose your match;

1. The All-Hearing. Reward: Hearing Enhancement

2. The All-Seeing. Reward: Sight Enhancement

3. The All-Sensing. Reward: Touch Enhancement

Time: 00:00:58]

'So I was right!' Ryu thought happily, before taking in a deep breath, preparing himself for the fight.

After preparing everything, Ryu chose the first option with a single thought.

*Swish!*

Just like every other time, Ryu's surroundings instantly changed. Gone were the depressing, gray walls. Now, he was in the same arena he fought Comby in. The sun shined brightly, and the marble floor was the same as it was when he fought Comby. Except, Comby's body is not there.

Ryu clicked his tongue and looked in front of him.

There, 50 meters away, stood a rather tall person— no, he wasn't sure if this thing was even a person. Although it had a humanoid shape, its entire body was red, and it had 2 sharp horns coming out from its head. Its eyes and mouth were closed.

Although this would've shocked any normal person, but Ryu was relatively calm. After he had seen the dummy, he wasn't so shocked when he saw this thing.

He was a bit confused about what it was, though.

'…Is it a demon?' Ryu thought, confused. It didn't know if demons existed, but if they did, then Ryu would've thought that they'd look a bit more… well, demonic. Aside from the horns and its rather red skin, it wasn't that scary to look at.

'Its ears are normal sized, too.' If anything, Ryu was most shocked at its ears. Considering its name, he thought they'd have comically large ears, but that didn't seem to be the case.

[Please get ready. The countdown will start now.]

As the notification appeared, Ryu suddenly remembered something. With a thought, he tried to open the inventory.

Sure enough, it opened. Ryu let out a sigh of relief and closed it with a thought. He had a small doubt that he might not be able to use his inventory, but thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. After all, he had a few tricks he wanted to do with the inventory mechanic.

[Three]

Ryu inhaled deeply, his eyes completely focused on his opponent, the "All-Hearing"

[Two]

Ryu exhaled, his grip on his equipment getting stronger. His eyes were entirely focused on every minute detail of his opponent.

As if sensing him, the demon slowly raised its head, its eyes and mouth still closed. Ryu felt a bit of sweat appearing on his forehead.

[One]

He knew that his opponent would be able to move, but he still had a small bit of hope that it couldn't, considering it only had the sense of hearing. That hope, however, was quickly crushed.

The demon's hands slowly twitched. Ryu gulped. Even his hands began to shake slightly. He didn't know why, but—

[BEGIN!]

—He had a very bad feeling about this.

*Swish*

Ryu's eyes widened to the extreme, and he felt his instincts screaming at him! The demon just—

Disappeared!

Ryu's pupils shook, and his instincts warned him— to his right!

Just as he glanced to his right, Ryu saw a kick as fast as lightning, and then—

*Bang!*

Ryu staggered to his left, losing his balance for just a moment, almost losing grip of his sword in the process. Before he could regain his balance, Ryu saw a shadow instantly appear in front of him—

*Bang!*

An inconceivable blow at an astonishing speed. Ryu's head recoiled back, causing him to take a few steps back. Then, just like before, another punch appeared before Ryu could regain his balance—

However—

The demon immediately stopped, and immediately jumped a few steps back, no longer attacking Ryu. Although its eyes were closed, Its head was slightly pointing towards Ryu's hand— the one where he held his shield. The shield was horizontal, and its front faced the ground, making one able to see Ryu's fist, clenching the straps of the shield heavily.

*Spit*

Ryu spat out a bit of blood from his mouth, his eyes still not showing. A small trail of blood dripped down from his nose, which he cleaned with his hand.

"So that's how it works…" he muttered, before finally showing his eyes to the demon, filled with a sense of excitement, worry, anxiety, and fighting spirit.

"Although you're only 1.4 points above my speed stat, you're incredibly fast— akin to teleporting. This can't be achieved by a simple two times speed advantage. You are far faster than me, more than two times." Ryu's mouth gradually turned into a small smirk, although beads of sweat were appearing on his forehead.

"Similarly, you only have a strength of 0.9, while my durability is that of 1.3. It's only a difference of 0.4 points, it should be negligible. And yet, your attacks weren't that strong. Even with your speed and kinetic energy, you only managed to make one of my teeth a bit loose."

The demon remained motionless, its stance or body not changing one bit. Ryu strengthened his grip on the sword and held the shield near his face.

"It seems the stats aren't linear. A 2x difference in points could in actuality be much higher than a simple 2x difference." Ryu's eyes locked on the demon, and he inhaled deeply.

"I have no clue how you are moving, but what I'm more confused about is how you managed to know I was going to attack you, despite everything pointing at me being in a pitiful state."

Indeed, Ryu wanted to throw a jab at that monster, putting his shield in his inventory at the last moment to throw a powerful jab. But it seems it was 'seen' through by that demon.

The demon— the all-hearing— didn't answer. Rather, it bend its body a bit forward, its entire face not leaving Ryu's gaze, as if it staring at him.

"Tsk." Ryu clicked his tongue and focused. Although he might seem confident, there was one thought in Ryu's mind;

'What the hell is this disgusting speed?!' Ryu panicked in his mind, sweat appearing all over his body. Although he was ready to see a significant speed gap, he didn't think it would be this fast! Everything he just said now was to appear like he was confident, to at least lower the guard of his opponent. But really, Ryu was the one panicking here.

'I thought it would be a two-times difference, or something close to that! How fast is this thing?! 4? 5? 10 times faster than me?' He had no clue just how fast this thing was. Every time it moved, it looked like it teleported.

In that split-second where the demon first kicked him, Ryu came up with a plan to take it off guard, to throw a jab in the middle of the fight. He thought it would at least graze it, but to think it 'saw' through it!

'Still, at least its attacks aren't that strong. Even if it managed to knock all my teeth out, I can still manage.'

The Demon was not moving, its body was bending slightly forward, but not an inch of its body was moving. Ryu gritted his teeth. Every second he looked at the demon, he felt a foreboding sense of doom.

'If I can't perceive it, then…' Ryu's eyes began to scan every inch of the demon's body, analyzing everything about it. Its breathing— despite being so soft and low as if it wasn't breathing at all— Its foot, its face, its hands, arms, the extremely subtle twitching of its muscles, Ryu began analyzing everything. Ever since his fight with Comby, his combat skills skyrocketed, and with his martial arts skills, he was now able to predict his opponents just like Comby previously predicted him at the start.

'— So what If I can't see you?' Just as Ryu thought of this, the Demon suddenly vanished from sight. Ryu eyes glittered for a split-second, and he immediately swung his sword to his left at an unimaginable speed.

'I'll just predict where you're going to attack!'

Just as he swung, the demon appeared right next to the sword—

Except, it looked like it predicted that attack, as its head was already hung low, just a few inches below the sword. The sword slashed right above its head, and Ryu widened his eyes as a jab was thrown right at his face.

'Shi—'

*Bang!*

Ryu's head recoiled back once more, causing that one loose tooth to finally come off.

————

As Ryu took a few steps back, trying to regain his balance, the Demon 'stared' at him with its eyes closed. Or, to be more precise, it visualized him in its head.

'For a boy your age, your stance and swordsmanship are not half bad, and your prediction would've worked on any other martial artists, had it not been me.' The Demon thought, praising Ryu a bit. Its body was relatively relaxed, not feeling a bit threatened by Ryu. Meanwhile, Ryu was panicking, his entire body tense.

'I have no clue what you were rambling about these "points" or "stats", but whatever it is, it doesn't matter.' The Demon bent its body forward, 'Boy, consider it bad luck that your opponent was I, the soon-to-be Asura, Tokugawa! Playing a game of predictions against me is simply suicide.'

*Swish*

'Tokugawa' suddenly disappeared, and another bang could be heard as Ryu's head recoiled once more.

Ryu's thoughts were in shambles as he continued to try to find a way to counter Tokugawa. He had no idea how this demon could move, or how he could even predict Ryu's moves.

The only thing that came up was that perhaps that Magical Ability they had let Tokugawa control his body as if he didn't lose his sense of touch. That was the only logical conclusion he could come up with.

However, that couldn't be further from the truth. That 'magical ability' had nothing to do with Tokugawa being able to move or predict Ryu's actions. Rather, it was all thanks to his exceptional hearing and willpower.

With sheer will, Tokugawa was able to control his body. Although he couldn't feel his body in a normal sense, he could hear his blood flow, his heartbeat, his muscles, his bones— all of them, and all of them indicated he had moved. He had long since been able to move his body, visualizing his body, his opponent's, and even the surrounding.

While Ryu's prediction relied on his opponent's appearance, Tokugawa went a step further— to what was inside oneself!

Ryu could read the twitching of the muscles, meanwhile Tokugawa could visualize the image of the muscles' entire structure, its tendons, the blood in them, and even the creaking of the bones. Ryu could read the breathing of his opponent. Meanwhile Tokugawa was able to outright visualize the lungs of his opponent's, feeling inflating and deflating, as well as 'seeing' their heartbeat.

No matter what Ryu tried to predict, Tokugawa would've already seen through it, and could do it a step further.

With his exceptional hearing and prediction abilities, Tokugawa was able to stand unrivaled. With his abilities, he could read his opponents like a book. Their attack patterns, rhythms, habits, and the timing of their attacks. There was nothing he couldn't read.

As Tokugawa appeared once more in front of Ryu, Ryu inhaled a deep breath, and suddenly, both his sword and shield disappeared— causing Tokugawa to be momentarily shocked— and Ryu threw a powerful jab at Tokugawa. However, even while being in shock, Tokugawa still felt something off about this whole ordeal even before Ryu's weapons disappeared, Ryu's blood flow and heartbeat were off the whole time. With light movements, it managed to dodge Ryu's jab.

"Damn it!" Ryu cursed under his breath, and immediately switched his martial arts, throwing a kick in the process. It was Taekwondo. But even then, Tokugawa effortlessly dodged the attack as if it was child's play.

Tokugawa didn't attack, causing Ryu's eyes to glitter with hope, and immediately, he began to throw punches, kicks, and tried several martial arts. But…

All of them were effortlessly dodged. The more Tokugawa dodged, the more Ryu felt despair. Even his martial arts, which he was so proud of, were nothing in front of this monster.

'Not bad, not bad at all. The other martial art skills of this boy are clearly far superior to his swordsmanship. Truly wonderful.' Tokugawa thought highly of Ryu. Although it was nothing in front of him, but compared to other martial artists of his age? Ryu would stand unrivaled.

'Unfortunately, you are a few years too young to kill me.'

Ryu threw one last jab at Tokugawa, and he found it pitiful. He thought Ryu's luck was truly horrible to face off against him, but alas, destiny and luck were also an important part of a martial artist's talent. Tokugawa casually bends his head slightly to the side, which should've been easily able to dodge this jab, especially considering the speed difference.

However, Tokugawa felt something was off. Just as he was dodging, he noticed something odd about Ryu's fist. The sound of the blood flow and the creaking of his bones didn't suggest a normal fist. Rather—

It was slightly open, as if he was holding something. Something such as—

'A sword!' Tokugawa felt a bit shocked, and due to his exceptional speed, he immediately tried to dodge backward.

However, mid-way through the dodge—

*Swish!*

—The sword suddenly appeared, and with a single swing, Ryu was able to slightly, just slightly, graze Tokugawa's nose, causing a small amount of blood to drip from the wound.

Tokugawa managed to retreat a few steps back, his expression a bit sour. Ryu widened his eyes in surprise. This was the first time he managed to graze Tokugawa, he didn't think it would work! Furthermore, Tokugawa's expression changed!

He thought that demon couldn't express any emotions, considering its expression didn't change throughout the fight. But it seemed that wasn't the case.

Tokugawa clearly felt the wound— not through pain, as he couldn't feel that. But rather, he could clearly hear the blood in his nose, and the sound it made when it dripped.

Tokugawa stayed still for a few moments, before slowly, he opened his eyes a tiny bit, revealing silver eyes.

"Boy," Tokugawa muttered, which caused Ryu's hairs to stand on end, his pupil shaking a bit. He didn't think this demon could speak!

"You are truly…" Its eyes opened a bit more, and his gaze immediately turned towards Ryu, despite the fact that it was blind.

"A peerless genius."

*Swish*

Tokugawa suddenly vanished, his speed even faster than before. Before Ryu could summon his shield again—

*Bang*

Ryu inhaled sharply, as his entire body recoiled back. This time, it wasn't a punch to the face, rather, it was a kick aimed at his stomach.

With Tokugawa's newfound speed, Ryu felt as if a cannonball hit him in the stomach, the kinetic energy of Tokugawa's speed was all poured into this kick.

"And today—" Tokugawa whispered near Ryu's ear, in the middle of the attack"—A peerless genius, will die by my hands."