Akane clenched her fist and charged forward. The orb on Gigas glowed once more and the silver lines began appearing.

"Take this!"

Ichiro stomped on the floor and sliced with all his might. The wind that came along with it was so strong that it became visible.

Akane punched the floor and the debris came flying towards Ichiro but the wind had sliced all the debris apart.

"A rune of earth? No..."

Ichiro furrowed his brows as he looked at Akane's attacks, what were those silver lines?

Ichiro's attack didn't stop and went straight through what's left of the debris and into Akane's gauntlets.

"[Iron Cannon]!"

Akane used both of her hands to punch forward in sync, the silver lines accompanied the gauntlets and a shockwave was produced when her gauntlets had hit the great sword.

A metal ding was heard and both of them took a few steps back.

"I see. The rune is metal, a gauntlet wouldn't make that much of a sound against a great sword."

Akane didn't answer but one look at her face exposed it all.

"I still don't know what those silver lines are but they're certainly made of metal."

Ichiro leaped forward and slashed multiple times in mid-air.

"[Dark Breeze]!"

It was [Dark Cut] but used wind and darkness instead of darkness alone. It was stronger since it had two attributes instead of one but overall still the same.

The silver lines on Akane's gauntlet moved like they had a mind of their own and hit the wind that was heading towards Akane with a clang.

"They're definitely metal."

Ichiro arrived next to Akane and slashed upwards.

"[Boar's Charge]!"

Akane's fist slammed down to counter it and another metal clang resounded.

If this continued, the battle would never end. Sooner or later, one of them will make a mistake and the other will win.

Akane punched with her other fist and the silver lines looked like wind being pierced through as they were in front of the gauntlet and covered it whole.

"[Iron Fist]!"

The orb glowed once more and striked Ichiro but it was blocked with the hilt of the great sword.

"I expected that."

Ichiro grinned and kicked Akane in the abdomen which sent her going a few steps back. Ichiro wasn't finished and slashed out with her great sword.

Akane crossed both her arms in front of her to cover her face and chest as the great sword striked and sent her flying.

"Ugh..."

Akane flipped multiple times on the floor before finally sliding down to stop.

"Haa..."

Akane sighed before facing Ichiro once more.

"You must've taken a lot of internal damage."

"You could tell?"

Akane smiled wryly.

"Of course, with all the shockwaves we were producing; it would be a miracle for you to not take any damage. I'm safe because of my great sword taking in all the shock but your gauntlets are in your arms so the shock must've transferred to your body. But strangely..."

Ichiro swung his great sword to the side as if he had wiped off blood.

"...You haven't taken enough. Is it because of those silver lines transferring some of the shock?"

Akane stood up straight and clenched her fists multiple times.

"Well, you're correct. You've mostly figured out my gauntlets except for a few more things yet all I know about your great sword is that it has the rune of wind."

Ichiro kept his great sword at the side ready for any attacks.

"That's only because I can't use it. All I've mastered with this weapon is the rune of wind, the others are useless for my battle style, though there are some that I want to use."

"I see, because of the massive size of the great sword more runes could be engraved into them."

"Exactly."

Ichiro placed the great sword on his back but kept his hand on it.

"[Dark Breeze]."

It was bigger than before as he had more momentum to use it. The wind was rampaging instead of the calm that it was before, it was the opposite of breeze.

Akane used her palms to block it, metal grinding against metal was the sound; the wind didn't disperse immediately but kept rampaging. When Akane sensed it was weakened, she used the silver lines to tear it in half.

The wind dispersed to the side and Akane took the opportunity to counterattack.

"Haaaa! [Iron Cannon]!"

"The same move!"

Ichiro mocked and used the blunt part of his great sword to block it by placing it in front of him.

"Now, fly. Haaaaaa!"

Ichiro shouted and the great sword produced a huge burst of wind that flung Akane away.

"Ugh..."

Akane held onto her right shoulder that was dislocated by the sudden force. Akane then proceeded to twist her shoulder back into its proper place while gritting her teeth, one of her eyes even closed because of the pain.

"Now you know that your moves are useless now. Repeatedly using two moves will easily be countered."

Ichiro launched another [Dark Breeze] and Akane just dispersed it.

"I could say the same to you who has only used two moves as well."

"Then, I'll use more."

Ichiro stabbed his great sword into the floor at the side and leaped forward towards Akane.

"Abandoning your great sword?"

Akane mirrored his movements and also leaped forward.

"No."

Akane furrowed her brows as she launched her fist towards him.

But, contrary to her expectations; he dodged.

"Wha-?!"

Akane missed but kept flying forward due to the force she had placed into her attack.

Ichiro's hands moved and the great sword flew into his hand.

"Fly."

Akane immediately placed her other hand on her stomach just as the blunt side of Ichiro's great sword landed.

"Haaaaa!"

Ichiro spun around the great sword with Akane in tow and slammed it to the floor with a huge bang.

Blood leaked out of the corner of Akane's mouth but she stood up.

"I suggest you surrender. Even with your Enchanted Gear, you've only done superficial damage to me."

Akane once more leaped without any words and launched another [Iron Fist].

Akane's fist landed on the great sword and another shockwave spread out. But then, Akane used her other fist and used [Iron Fist] once more. She kept repeating the process until Ichiro was sliding backwards from all the punches.

"[Iron Rebound]!"

She punched repeatedly and it kept getting stronger and stronger after each strike.

"Grr... Fine, take this! [Dark Tornado]!"

Ichiro used the gap in her attacks to launch his sword upwards and accompanying it was a spiral wind that sent Akane flying upwards.

"Wha-?!"

Akane floated upwards with several cuts on her skin and was plumetting straight down.

"Then, I'll use your attack against you! [Crater]!"

Akane plummeted downwards while holding out her fist which had silver lines flying all over the place.

"I'll counter you with my move as well! [Ram's Ascent]!"

Ichiro used the blunt of his great sword upwards as a huge aura of pressure erupted from his body. The pressure from Akane only came from the wind that had raised her up.

Looks like the move they were both using had at least five times as much power as their previous attacks but the aura on their bodies signified that this was the only time that they could use this type of move. Akane had used the launch for momentum and used the metal lines as boosts to her attack, there were five times as much metal lines as before.

""HAAAAAA!""

Both of them roared as gauntlet and great sword clashed. The instant the two of them hit, a crater appeared on Ichiro's surroundings and his feet sunk into the crater.

Akane's momentum was rapidly slowing down until Ichiro flung her to the side and made her flip on the floor at least tens of times, severely injuring her in the process.

Akane spat out a bit of blood and covered her mouth.

Ichiro had blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth and the only reason he hadn't spit out any was because he swallowed it back.

Ichiro was standing inside the crater that had broken through the stage and was using his great sword as a stand.

Akane had both knees and a hand on the floor. It looked like the battle would end with the next attack.

The audience fell silent and everyone was intent on watching what happened next. Akane's family were watching the fight like it was a matter of life and death for them. Ichiro's family wasn't worried as much as Akane's family because Ichiro was still standing.

Yoko had tears on the side of her eyes as she bit the nail on her thumb in suspense.

"Haa...haa..."

Ichiro raised his head to face Akane and was breathing roughly, one of his eyes was closed as he wiped off teh blood on the corner of his mouth.

"...looks like... this contest... is my win..."

He barely managed to let out those words and Akane kept breathing heavily.

"...our mana is just about empty. Though, I can tell that you have bit left to spare."

Ichiro could talk faster than before as his breathing stabilized a bit.

"...that should be enough."

Akane released the hand that was holding her mouth and spread the blood on the floor.

"With my blood as a medium, I summon you, [Iron Maiden]!"

Akane yelled as a circle of blood was drawn on the floor in front of her.

"Wha-!?"

Her gauntlet had blood dripping on it but her face had unyieldingness written all over it.

"It's my win!"

Lines of metal started moving from the crater and moved towards Ichiro while forming a human shaped cage, it had spikes in them but were only positioned at places that would avoid his vitals.

The lines were wrapping around the area as if the air had a blueprint and the lines were just building them.

"Haven't you ever wondered where those lines of metal ever went? And, since the rune is metal; liquid metal also falls into the category. I simply turned the metal into liquid and hid it on the floor. Now, fall."

The human shaped cage finished forming and trapped Ichiro inside it. There were no screams but blood fell from the bottom of the cage.

Akane's family were the only ones in the silent arena to cheer and Yoko had a huge smile on her face.

The head elder looked at the cage for a few seconds before standing up.

"Semi-finals winner is Kuroshi Aka-!"

KLUNK

The sudden noise woke the crowd from their daze as they looked at the cage.

KLUNK

The metal cage had huge dents in them that looks like they came from the inside.

KLUNK KLUNK KLUNK

More and more dents appeared until a great sword finally pierced through one side.

"No..."

Akane's pupils constricted in shock.

DING

The metal cage was sliced apart and fell to the floor.

There, the body of Ichiro who was riddled with wounds appeared.

"...sorry, but it's not your day."

Ichiro held the great sword with one hand and swung it forward.

The [Dark Breeze] directly hit Akane and struck her unconscious outside the stage.

"One of the winners for the semi-finals, Kuroshi Ichiro!"

The smile on Yoko's face quickly drained and she ran over to Akane. Akane's family went and brought her to the infirmary as the next match was about to start immediately.

Yoko glared at Ichiro but knew that he had no fault.

"...I'll defeat you."

Yoko swore as she looked at Ichiro and walked atop the repaired stage facing off against Inejiro.

"...That's some crazy bloodthirst you're releasing... I'm not the one who injured her, you know..."

Inejiro backed off a bit under Yoko's bloodlust and prepared his weapons immediately.

The head elder raised his voice.

"Let the fight begin!"