Kuroshi Clan's Grand Tournament Arena

Akane and Yoko are in the surroundings of the arena alone with Inejiro and Ichiro.

The tournament's semi-finals would start in a few more minutes. Akane had rested enough to be in fighting condition, Yoko was infinitely nearing E-class and her body was also at the peak of E-class. Akane was still at her same status with magic yesterday but reached E-class, third step with her body from all the fighting yesterday.

Inejiro was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, a part of the audience was cheering his name; it looked like it was his family. There were quite a lot of them, about twenty odd members; actually, only Kai's family consisted of three people. Since it was a clan, the branches spread with a lot of people.

In this day and age, it was quite encouraged to have more than one children in each family. It was more so encouraged with royalty like kings and dukes. Thus, it wasn't strange that in this clan for nearly everyone to be cousins; even if they aren't first cousins. Only the ones who married into the clan aren't related with everyone else.

Marriage between relatives is also legal in some situations, if a royal family is dying; siblings may marry and have an offspring to continue the line. Cousins marrying each other is also quite common in this world, this is the reason why Akane and Yoko could go after Kai without any worries and no judgement came from Akemi and Juro.

Science hasn't improved enough to know of increased birth defects between siblings; even if only minimal. But this world has created technology that weren't seen on Earth or have yet to be invented through the use of magic.

Yoko and Akane's family were watching the event from the side and cheering, Kai's family sat near them; these three families hadn't attended the other days but certainly attended today where their own family members were part of the main event.

Yoko and Akane just conversed with each other as they sat near the audience. And the strange one was Ichiro.

Ichiro was swinging his great sword over and over on the side. Each one of his swings produced wind as if it was cutting through air itself.

The fights were already announced, Akane versus Ichiro and Yoko vs Inejiro. Truth be told, it was the perfect matchup for Akane, a brawler has a great advantage against a swordsman with a great sword. A rogue would not deal enough damage to someone with a high armor but a brawler's physical prowess and versatility would be a huge advantage against a swordsman that swings slower than most.

But, a rogue is also a bad matchup for a shield user. Even more so when the shield user also has a halberd to fight back against Yoko.

Although they didn't really have any ceremony to be called a swordsman, rogue, or brawler; just by using the weapons would make others call them by those titles.

A few minutes silently pass by as the head elder stood atop the grand stage. Everyone quickly went silent as they all took their attention towards the head elder; Ichiro had also stopped swinging his sword.

"Everyone, I welcome you all to the semi-finals of this tournament. After three days of arduous battle with only a day of rest, our competitors will now fight each other in a one on one battle. The matchups were decided randomly by making the competitors choose pieces of paper; round one has competitors Akane and Ichiro, and round two has competitors Yoko and Inejiro."

The head elder signaled for Yoko and Inejiro to leave the area and go to the audience. Then Akane and Ichiro walked up the stage then and went to the opposite sides. The grand stage was many times larger than the stages from the first round so the area that Akane can use to evade Ichiro's attacks were much larger than her previous fight with the dual attribute user, Higashi.

Akane split her legs a bit and her hand were holding onto the floor. It was like she was ready to leap at any moment.

"...Looks like you don't want to talk. Since we already know each other, we don't need to introduce ourselves. Now, let's do battle!"

Ichiro released the great sword from its sheath. The sheath was metal and dark in contrast to the striking silver color of the great sword. It had golden patterns all over it, one could tell how much it was cherished.

Akane didn't have the gloves that she usually wore and her hands were bare.

"Where are your gloves?"

Ichiro questioned Akane.

"I'm not using them today."

"I see, the great sword will be a bit too much for you to face with your bare hands though."

With that, their conversation ended and the head elder raised his arm.

"Now, let the fight begin!"

(A/N: Ah, I also just realized this by looking at chapter 12 but it's implied that the elder has yet to reach E-class but it's actually a bit different. Since the attribute of darkness barely have any defensive attributes, dark attribute users only use the element-indepent skill [Barrier]. Since the head elder isn't specialized, he can't block the E-class power that Kai was releasing. The actual level of the head-elder is at E-class, fifth step; I mean why else would he become a head elder, right?)

The head elder's hand sliced down and his figure disappeared. He had used the shadows to get to his seat near the patriarch and duke.

The duke and patriarch had attended each day of this competition without impatience.

Ichiro leaped forward with a war cry and slashed down with his great sword.

"Haaaah!"

Akane dodged to the side and the great sword landed on the floor. The great sword broke the floor itself and debris began to fly around them.

That would've been dangerous...

Akane furrowed her brows and made another stance.

"I actually though that you'd leap earlier but you actually moved to defend. You're quite unpredictable, huh?"

Ichiro leaped once more but slashed sideways, Akane dodged it by jumping and using the great sword as leverage to get away.

"If you keep dodging, you'll still run out of stamina faster. My body is of C-class and your stamina is no match for me, remember?"

Ichiro leaped forward and spun once before slashing diagonally upwards.

"[Boar's Charge]!"

Ichiro's great sword slashed upwards and Akane intercepted it.

"What the...?"

Akane's arms blurred for an instant before stopping the great sword.

On her arms was a silver gauntlet with a manica, it reflected light as the sun's rays hit it. It looked like any other gauntlet except for the green orb on the middle of the back of the gauntlet.

(A/N: Manica is the arm guard from knight armors.)

She had stopped the great sword with only her hands.

"Enchanted Gear?! You have one as well?!"

Akane gave a hehe before elbowing him. The gauntlet and manica looked very flexible, it was as if it could bend as much as the arm could. It was very well constructed for battle so it wouldn't restrict movements.

Akane raised her fists in a fighting pose and charged out. Left jab, right jab, left jab, right jab. She kept alternating punches which put Ichiro on defense. Carelessly attacking people with unidentified Enchanted Gear wasn't wise at all, they may have some secret effects that would put the attacker at a disadvantage.

Ichiro's great sword had a rune of wind, any further runes are unidentified. The runes on Akane's gauntlets were all unidentified.

Even though Ichiro's body and magic were higher, he still couldn't underestimate Akane's power enhanced with her own Enchanted Gear.

While Akane was jabbing left and right, Ichiro dodged once. Akane's right jab missed and her balance fell apart as she had put too much power in her attacks.

"I've got you!"

Ichiro was going to swing the great sword down but was stopped when Akane's body twisted. Akane had purposely missed to go under his line of attack and kick.

She went down and performed a crescent kick on his jaw from below which made him go out of balance.

"Gah..."

Ichiro held his jaw with one hand and his great sword was stabbed into the floor with the other.

Akane didn't miss this chance and leap forward.

"It will take more than that to beat me!"

Ichiro held onto his great sword with both hands once more and swung sideways.

Akane jumped and twisted in mid-air and used the great sword as leverage to jump.

Akane opened her fist and closed it before her fist shot out towards Ichiro.

Her gauntlet had silver lines around it as if it was a trail of visible wind.

"[Iron Fist]!"

The green orb on the back of the gauntlet glowed brightly as the gauntlet slammed down into the side of Ichiro's face.

Ichiro grit his teeth as the gauntlet landed on his cheek and sent him stumbling to the side.

Akane instantly appeared behind him and used both of her gauntlets to punch his back.

"Ugh..."

Ichiro stabbed the great sword into the floor and looked back at Akane who had stopped her attacks.

"...Your attack power the other day couldn't even compare to your attack power now. It's as if you're a different person entirely."

Ichiro's tongue travelled around his mouth before he spat on the floor.

"Guess I'll have to get serious as well."

Ichiro placed both his hands on the great sword and the dark dragon patterns began to shine and the blade began to turn golden in color.

He then released his left hand and took the sheath from behind him. He tied the rope of the sheath around his arm and then began to hold onto the great sword with both hands once more.

"...What is that...?"

"It's only adjusts the color of the blade but the shining dragons are the real deal."

Kai's Enchanted Gear was only a regular sword enhanced by runes, a true Enchanted Gear is crafted from scratch and uses a medium to unleash its true power like the gem on Akane's gauntlet or the dragons on Ichiro's great sword. It doesn't have to be a different entity, it could be a drawing, a gem, or even a spell.

Kai had no sufficient resources for things like that and hence couldn't create an Enchanted Gear that can hide its power. But, Kai's Enchanted Gear was certainly stronger than both the gauntlet and great sword.

"Then, I'll get serious as well. With my Enchanted Gear, Gigas; I'll defeat you."

Akane aimed her fist towards Ichiro.

"And with my Enchanted Gear, Robur; I shall confront you to the best of my ability."

Ichiro answered her with a swing of his sword.