Mitsusue’s Defeat

"I suppose using a weapon is meaningless with you being unable to perceive my attacks!" Tsune's voice resonated from behind.

Pivoting her foot, Mitsusue swiftly slashed her tachi at where the voice had come from.

"You missed!"

She turned her head only to see a punch aimed for her face. She raised her sword to block, but... nothing hit her sword. Instead, she felt a fist slam into her stomach, sending her flying.

Coughing up blood, she landed on her feet with visible difficulty and slid back. 'How is she hitting my stomach when her fist is clearly aimed for my head? At this rate, I'll run dry of spiritual energy before she does.'

In truth, both of them were running low on spiritual energy, but Tsune is conserving hers while she is forced to waste hers to suppress her wounds. It was a losing battle. Unless she could determine what Tsune was doing and counter it, she'd be the loser in the end.

"I should've watched her earlier fights. Maybe then I could have countered it, but now in the midst of this match, it's impossible.' Looking up, a clear sign of determination to win flashed onto her face. 'All I can do is... to go all out.'

She flashed towards Tsune valiantly. Tsune's skills worked in strange ways, so her only chance of victory was to attack first before Tsune could enact it.

"Oh! You now seem determined! How about I break it?" Tsune welcomed Mitsuesue's advance with a slash.

Mistsusue swiftly side-stepped and slashed back simultaneously, to which Tsune leaned forward, dodging her attack, and countered with two horizontal slashes! Tsune's sickles were relatively short and adequately fast. This gave her an advantage, forcing Mitsusue to jump back to move out of her attack range.

"Looks like you discovered my skills weakness! Sadly, you won't be able to effectively use it with how slow you are." Her voice came from behind.

This time, instead of blocking, Mitsusue dodged and effectively avoided the hidden attack.

'She's right. I may know her skills weakness, but I'm too slow to use them to my advantage.'

The battle continued in this fashion, draining Mitsusue's spiritual energy at a rapid pace. In the stands, many spectators had a look of deep confusion on their faces.

All they could see was Mitsusue blocking the attacks in the wrong places. Why was she constantly blocking the wrong places when the Tsune's slashes were obvious?

The match was nearing its end as Mitsusue had nearly dried out her spiritual energy. Her pants were harsh as she propped her body with her sword. She had lost her other sword after it had buried itself into the ground outside of the ring.

"Give up! You can't even walk!"

"No, I can't give up! Father nominated me. I can't lose now after how far I've gone!" With great pain, she attempted to stand up, but with her Achilles' tendon severed, she couldn't even move.

"I didn't want to do this... but"—flashing in front of Mitsusue, she kicked towards her stomach—"this is the only way to get you to concede!"

Bam! Mitsusue was sent flying as she spat out a mouthful of blood. Her face turned paler, as she had lost her sword. Flickering above her, Tsune pounded her body into the ground with her foot, ruthlessly. A crater formed beneath her, followed by an explosion.

Mitsusue's body had numbed to the point where she could no longer feel anything by now as her vision turned a blurry red from the blood caught in her eye. Seeing the glimmer of her sword in the rubble ahead of her, she reached out with a shuddering hand. "I've come so far... I can't lose now."

Tsune's foot stepped onto Mitsusue's head as she pressed the blade of her sickle against her neck. "You have two options: You either give up or you die!"

Mitsusue was still conscious, so the judge couldn't call the match off unless she conceded.

"I can't lose. I've already come so far! If I lose, I would have failed my father. I-I!"

As the ice-cold blade pressed into Mitsusue's neck, she felt a shudder ran down Mitsusue's spine and at the last moment, she burst into tears. "Please don't kill me. I don't want to die..."

After being faced with the reality of death, she had finally conceded, exposing her weakness.

"Minamoto no Mitsusue forfeits the match. The winner is Katō Tsune!" The judge raised the flag solemnly.

"Good. I'm glad you conceded as I'd rather not kill when there are other options!" Sheathing her sickles, she walked away, her hair, which was in a ponytail, swinging side to side, coinciding with each step.

Forfeit… Mitsusue's ascent to the position of a genius might very well have ended with just one word.

She had devoted herself to training, but in the end, it was all fruitless; she had lost. She lowered her head and covered her face with her hair as she laid down sobbing on the ring's floor. She couldn't muster the courage to stand up and confront the public's gaze.

Two attendants approached her and pulled her away, dragging her down from the ring. She tried to run from being treated as a loser, but her efforts were a meaningless act.

When an ordinary warrior meets a genius, most of them become stepping stones for the genius. However, when two geniuses meet, one of them will inevitably lose their momentum.

It was natural for an ordinary warrior to lose to a genius, but when a genius loses, they become the laughing stock of the entire world; their former accomplishments, which had formerly been revered, were now topics of mockery.