Kyle vs Uzura

Of course, Kyle had strengthened his own body with spirit arts too, but there

was a vast difference in the basic fundamental build of a human and a

werebeast. That difference was all the more emphasized when their bodies

were enhanced with spirit arts.

"Hah!" With a powerful yell, Uzura flew into the air and launched a follow-up

attack on Kyle. He aimed at Kyle's limbs in mid air, stabbing his spear four times

in one breath with precision.

Kyle twisted his arms and legs around his body to evade them by a hair's

breadth. Then, before Uzura could withdraw his extended spear, he grabbed

the pole with his left hand and pulled her towards him instead.

Kyle swung his longsword horizontally, aiming for Uzura's torso. Uzura

immediately let go of the spear and flapped his wings upwards, positioning

himself just out of reach of Kyle's sword.

With his left hand, Kyle readjusted his grip on the spear and swung it at Uzuraabove him, but the tip of spear uselessly cut through empty space. It would be

difficult to catch him in the air.

The two landed back on the ground, maintaining their distance — until Uzura

charged at Kyle once more. Kyle casually tossed the spear towards Uzura.

"Kuh!"

Uzura's specialized weapon was voluntarily returned to him before he could

steal it back, slowing his reaction by a fraction. In the time he took to hurriedly

catch the spear, Kyle spied an opening and charged forward.

Oh, how the tables had turned.Uzura tried to back away to regain his balance, but Kyle closed in so he

couldn't escape, now so close to his that he couldn't freely swing his spear.

He weaved through the gaps of his defenses sharply, slashing his sword.

"Guh..."

Uzura was at a disadvantage. Overwhelmed by the factors working against

him, he only barely managed to block Kyle's attack, forgoing his own to do so. If

Kyle had been swinging a real sword, he would have been covered in countless

wounds already.

Kyle thrust at Uzuma's momentary opening with massive force, swinging his

sword in his strongest hit yet. The spear was blown away, causing Uzura to

stumble back from the recoil. He leapt after the spear, catching it midair.

"...I acknowledge that your abilities are worthy of a warrior. It seems I must

take this seriously." Uzura's aura suddenly changed as he landed on the

ground.

A chill ran down Kyle's spine. It was like looking into the eyes of a starving

beast.

In the next instant, Uzura had closed the distance between them and aimed

a harsh thrust at Kyle's body. The suffocating pressure made Kyle step to the side

immediately. At the same time, though, he could feel a bad presence flanking

him, so he stepped backwards next.

Moments later, Uzura's spear passed through where Kyle had just been with

the sound of air being ripped through.

"Huh, well done evading that. Let's see if you can dodge this!" Uzura said in

delight as he firmly stepped forward and swung his spear with all his might.

So heavy!

Kyle had tried to receive the attack with his sword, but he felt the difference in

their physical strength, and had to jump back to negate the power of the spear.

"Isn't this a bit too much for a sparring match?" Kyle said with a wry smile, but

he seemed to be having fun.

"You'll have to forgive me! I haven't encountered an opponent this worthy in the last few months!" Uzura yelled with a ferocious smile. It seemed as though

Uzura was a bit of a battle junkie... That thought made the corner of Kyle's

mouth curl up faintly. He certainly wasn't one to talk. It was nice to have a

simple and straightforward fight like this sometimes, where neither opponent

was overthinking things. At the very least, Kyle could feel himself getting heated

by being able to spar with someone who he could face with all his might.

That being said, while he wasn't losing in technical ability, as a werebeast,

Uzura was far in the lead in terms of physical ability. At this rate, the fight

would slowly become one-sided.

He didn't want to use his dragon aura for this battle either. But he had to even the playing field.

With that decision, Kyle released a huge amount of ode from within his body.

Then, he condensed it, and poured all of it into his physical enhancement. In

using physical enhancement through spirit arts, physical ability was raised in

proportion to the layer of ode cloaked around the body, so if his base strength

was lower than a werebeast, all he had to do was strengthen his spirit arts

enhancement... that was Kyle's thinking, at least.

"Mm... What dense ode." The werefox elder's eyes widened as she looked on. Emmily and Emma, who were watching

beside her, gulped. The villagers who had gathered out of curiosity were in a

similar state.

The answer Kyle had come up with was simple, but not something anyone

could do. Even if a considerable amount of ode could be released, controlling it

was another matter completely. Condensing such a massive amount of ode to

cloak the body required a considerable display of control; it was no wonder

their audience was surprised.

"I see you weren't taking this seriously before, either," Uzura said with a

grin.

"No, I was serious. Although I may not have been using my full power."

"I see. However, you still seem fairly far from your limit..." Uzura closed in on

Kyle as he spoke, swinging his spear.

"No, I'm having a fairly difficult time here." Kyle received the attack head-on. This time, he didn't lose to the battle of power.

"You can say that with a straight face? Ha!" Uzura thrust his spear forward

wildly, but Kyle moved his hand swiftly to intercept each move.

Their weapons clashed several times in quick succession; if they had been

using metal weapons, sparks would have been flying. Their exchange of blows

appeared to be a close contest, but Uzura was slowly being pushed back.

While Kyle hadn't moved a single step, Uzura had been moving around to attack

from all angles. Eventually, Uzura's breath grew short.

"Amazing. No matter how I attack you, it doesn't feel like I can land a blow at

all!" Uzura stated unhappily, and in a stubborn attempt to make Kyle move, drove

his spear up from a lower angle, putting all his might into one thrust. Kyle took

half a step to the side and evaded it elegantly.