Owari approached the gate as usual, and although the guard gave him a glance of surprise he didn't say anything. Of course the various cityfolk gave him strange gazes due to him pulling such a large cart around, however he didn't really care. He showed his identification and prepared to leave when he felt something off, one of the guards on duty seemed to be radiating faint hostility. Owari glanced over at the guard casually but left without showing any sign of noticing. He didn't recognize the guard in question and had stuck to himself for the most part so he wasn't sure why this guard had seemed to not only recognize him but be hostile.

It took him a little bit of thinking along his journey to guess the reason, it was probably the guy he ran into in front of Noel's home in the hallway. He had probably bribed the guards to keep an eye out for Owari and tell him when he left. After about an hour of walking his suspicions were confirmed when he detected hostility from nearby. He was traveling down the side road which was designed for carts near the highway designed for cars, when he passed by a spot where there was a blind spot a traveler came from behind and they started to follow closely behind him. The person was dressed in a traveling cloak which covered his body and he had a large seemingly full backpack on. Owari figured he probably had someone drive him out here and leave him in that spot, it wasn't like Owari could pay attention to every car, cart, and traveler along the roads. However Owari had the benefit of having the ghost eye moth and he could sense hostility.

Owari didn't do anything though for the same reason the person was leaving him alone, it was too risky out in the open. They would both bide their time and wait for an opportunity. Like this the hours ticked by as Owari made his way to the forest as though nothing was different. Eventually he reached the forest edge and he walked over to a spot he had picked out before and started disguising his cart. He couldn't bring it in and he would rather it didn't get stolen while he was away. As he was busying himself he felt the hostility of the person who had followed him spiking indicating he was getting ready to attack. The person had never left and had carefully followed while using the forest to keep the line of sight as minimal as possible. However even if Owari didn't have the ghost eye moth he would have noticed he was being followed with how amateurish his tail was. The reason the person chose this location and why Owari led them here was because it was secluded, after all it was meant to be a hiding spot.

As soon as Owari put down the last pack he had on his back he turned around and faced his soon-to-be attacker. He saw no need to give them the upper hand from the start, so he leaned forward and took his stance as he identified the threat. Standing out from behind a tree with a newly unsheathed blade was the exact guy he had seen before in the hall, he had come to kill Owari himself it seemed so he at least had some integrity. Either that or he had no way of getting anyone else to do his dirty work, not that Owari cared either way, he only knew his enemy was in front of him and preparing to attack. The guy had a longsword in one hand, and was wearing leather armor with a breastplate made of golden metal of some kind. He had a sadistic grin on his face, and even though Owari turned to him he showed no signs of being surprised or caring about it. His sword started to glow with a green light indicating either wind affinity or a mutant affinity, Owari guessed wind doubting this guy had access to a mutant affinity. As his sword started to glow he spoke up in a gloating tone. "You really did notice me, unfortunately you lost your chance to live when you-" Before he finished Owari shot forward as soon as he realized his enemy wasn't planning on attacking him.

Owari got in range to strike in only a second, his speed was difficult to follow for most people however the guy seemed used to this as he kept his eyes on Owari. Owari pulled out his sword and used a full strength moth wing strike without holding back, meanwhile his enemy had read his movements and swung his own blade to cause a clash. He seemed confident in both his swords durability and his own strength to do that, and although the green around his blade faded a bit it was clear he maintained some of the strength of his mystic art. The two swords clashed and Owari felt a large amount of resistance in his arm, however he cut through it with the skills he developed and raw strength. His enemy was far worse off, he had swung his sword halfheartedly and off-balance thinking Owari would be fairly weak due to his age.

When he felt the unstoppable force traveling down his sword and through his arm and when he watched the green light around his sword being split and scattered under Owari's attack he jumped back while doing his best to grab his sword in both hands and hold back Owari's sword. He just barely got hold of the situation before Owari pressed him too far and backed him into a corner. Instead he was sent back a few meters both from his own dodging and the force behind Owari's attack. He didn't even have time to finish his statement before and now his threats and gloating were blown out of his mind. He was even more shocked as he knew for a fact there was no mana within Owari's attack, there had been no glow of mana anywhere on him.

He gripped his sword stepped forward preparing a horizontal strike to make Owari back off, however before he got his sword behind him Owari had shot towards him once again. Owari realized from their previous clash that the moth wing strike wouldn't work as it took too much energy and he couldn't use raw strength to overcome the enemy for now. Instead he changed his breathing and footwork and took a solid leap forward as he prepared to use his second technique to apply pressure to the enemy and take them down with a string of attacks. He strode forward with three swift but solid steps kicking up a bit of dirt and debris behind him as he shot forward almost as fast as his previous speed. In a mere second he was in front of the enemy and bringing his sword down in a diagonal arc with both hands to cut straight through his chest.

Obviously his enemy wouldn't just sit still and die so he switched his grip and swung to intercept Owari's strike, however doing so caused him to rely on the passive enhancement technique of his mystic art to boost his attack strength and his swords durability. Owari's sword came down and the two blades clashed once again, this time his blade had less strength to it though, but it was even sharper and focused so it still overcame the resistance of his enemy. The longsword wielding man had to switch his grip again and kill the force of the blow by shifting his weight and taking a step back. He felt invigorated by the fact that Owari's strike was weaker, he assumed Owari had either injured himself or had used too much energy in the previous attack.

Unfortunately reality crashed into him a moment later as he switched his stance a bit and prepared to use a mystic art once again. Owari's sword continued on its previous path as though the clash had never happened, and before it reached the point of throwing him off balance it suddenly turned midswing and came straight at him once again. In order to defend himself the man had to lift his longsword into the path of the blade, he leaned to the side away from the attack and parried Owari's attack hoping to throw him off balance by knocking his sword into the air. He used the parry to give his sword some momentum as he turned it to attack Owari, however his sword was intercepted by Owari's as he kept his attacks going.

Again he was sent a step back as the force of Owari's blade couldn't be stopped so easily, and again he tried to use this as a chance to regain his footing and retaliate only to find Owari stepped forward and redirected his blade for another attack as if he needed no rest. Owari's breathing and aim stayed steady and even as he swung over and over, meanwhile the man who had been so sure of himself before continued to be knocked back step by step as he did everything he could to deflect, block, and dodge Owari's strikes. Sparks flew as their blades clashed and the sound of metal ringing out didn't stop as the seconds ticked by and as dozens of attacks flowed from Owari towards his enemy. He even tried to jump back to make some distance only for Owari to use the momentum he built up and the force of his attacks to throw himself forward without even stopping the chain of attacks. He was like a swarm of insects who never left you a chance to move or even breathe as they followed you closely and tore into you.

Realizing he couldn't keep this up, the man steeled himself, he closely watched Owari and waited for his moment. It was then that he really noticed Owari for the first time, so far he had been too focused on survival. Owari was grinning with an eagerness that couldn't be described easily, like someone who was in the middle of playing their favorite game. However he had no time to think about this, instead he waited and when he saw his moment he took it. He took a short breath and let out a whistle as he jumped back with all his strength and made use of a mystic art to cause his leg to flash with green light before shooting some wind off to increase his speed. Owari was prepared to use that moment to attack his enemy as he tried to escape, however he suddenly shifted his path of attack.

From behind a tree a blade of green-tinted wind shot out towards him, he was attempting to intercept this attack with his own sword swing. However if he just cut the blade it would only split the blade and with the momentum it had it could still last long enough to cut into him. Of course he could duck under it or even jump back as he cut it to give himself enough time to dodge it, however he felt like this was a good chance to test out one of his new ideas for a technique so he resolved himself and reminded himself that if he failed he could die to bring out his full potential.

As the blade of wind approached and as his sword swung to intercept it he stopped using his resistance removing technique completely and felt the drag on his blade increase a few times. He didn't stop there though and even used his technique to increase the drag on his blade, and although it slowed his swing he made up for this by switching to the moth wing strike and enhancing the power of his attack. Then he threw his full weight and strength into the swing to the point of making it look more like he was swinging a baseball bat than a sword, but the results spoke for themselves. Around his sword a noticeable draft was picked up and dragged along the path of his strike, and soon his attack and the blade of wind collided. As the wind blade hit his sword the pressure wave of his strike hit the wind blade, and as the edge of his own blade cut through the wind blade the draft following it pushed through it as well.

The effects were shocking as even though Owari was pushed back over a meter and a half and forced to leave gouges in the ground to brace himself, the wind blade suddenly got cut in half before being broken apart and scattering into pieces while shooting off harmlessly behind Owari. He had used the pressure wave he kicked up with his massive strength and the minimal drag on his blade to break apart the mana formed blade of wind, all without mana. The feeling he got from doing that was beyond words and he couldn't help but laugh out loud right on the spot. The danger that attack placed him in had caused him to overcome his barrier of having no defense against proper long ranged mana based attacks. With some training and practice he could develop this even further, and it had even given him more ideas for future techniques.

He glanced over at his enemy with a glint in his eye, he wanted to improve himself more and to fight more. "I suppose we should begin round two." His tone was full of confidence and fearlessness.

The man who had come here to kill Owari and had even felt it was a waste to go himself suddenly started to feel genuine fear. He had always felt he was a predator, he toyed with so many weak hunters who had slighted him before so why would this be different? Independent hunters were just prey to be hunted and enjoyed at his leisure, but watching Owari he felt differently. He couldn't put his finger on it but the feeling Owari gave off was nothing like the feeling he was used to when dealing with others like himself. He also had no time to consider this as he noticed Owari preparing to attack again.

He shifted his own stance and held his sword above his head as his whole body began glowing green as he activated a mystic art, he swore to himself that he would train his skills to be faster in the future as he felt so helpless against Owari when he had no time to activate his techniques properly. Owari of course had no intention of allowing him to activate some powerful mystic art so he leaned forward and prepared to rush him, however he pushed off the ground and jumped to the left as a wind blade suddenly came from behind him and gouged out the ground. If he had been a second slower he would have been cut in half, and before he got the chance to land on the ground another blade of wind came from his left after curving from behind a tree. Owari didn't panic and instead he carefully observed the wind blades path before throwing his weight to the side while tucking in his body to allow the blade to pass by him harmlessly.

As he spun he reoriented himself and landed on the ground near a tree, but he didn't let his guard down as he focused his attention on the area around him. He only noticed those wind blades because the ghost eye moth was still on him and allowed him to sense mana. As he guessed the wind blade he had dodged suddenly turned midair and started to come back at him, at the same time another wind blade came from behind another tree and veered off towards him from another direction. His enemy was using a magical beast from the shadows to turn the fight in his favor.

Owari jumped up in the air and spun backward to reorient himself and kicked off the tree behind him and out of the path of both wind blades at the last second, however they just turned shortly after and came back at him. Clearly the magical beast that created them was of decent quality and even though the first wind blade was hemorrhaging mana it was still good enough to hurt him if it managed to hit. Owari turned mid-air and swung his sword using his newly developed technique to clash one of the wind blades as it flew at him. If he tried to dodge it while midair he would be hit by the other so he had no choice but to clash mid-air even if he had no solid ground to give him a foothold. The wind blade and his sword clashed and he was pushed back a few meters as he tried to tear apart the mana formed attack. However he didn't have the preparations or foothold needed and instead he only got halfway through before it started to push back. In order to keep it from slicing through his sword he put his foot on his sword and used it as a lever to push himself up and over the wind blade at the last second using the last bits of resistance his attack could give him.

He quickly reoriented himself and observed his enemy as he sensed the two wind blades with his ghost eye moth and his own sensory training. The man with the long sword had finished his preparations and had already kicked off the ground to rush Owari. His speed wasn't at all slower than Owari's and was even faster due to the aid of the wind which seemed to propel him forward. His body was cloaked in a green light and green-tinted wind was flowing around him like a barrier, he was using a body enhancing mystic art and was probably not willing to risk relying on the temporary boosts of individual moves to take Owari down. However techniques like this sapped mana away quickly and were difficult to maintain due to the micromanagement required to keep the mana in the body active, and usually came with a risk like Lance's lightning and how it could injure him due to its power. Because of that Owari knew he would only need to survive his enemies onslaught and he would win, however it was still a question of if he could do that. To start with he was still off the ground and his opponent would reach him in less then a second, meanwhile two wind blades turned midair ready to swerve into his path and cut him in half even if he manages to survive his current predicament.

Owari didn't panic and instead he calmly did his best to consider his options in this short moment, luckily he always had a fast mind and the threat of death only sped it up further. The man swung his sword and Owari was forced to make a decision, He realized he could never dodge the attack coming in, and if he tried to block it he would be injured for sure, as for clashing with it he didn't have the footing or strength to rival such an attack. So he curled up and pulled his sword back before stabbing straight at the enemy, if his enemy didn't stop the attack then with Owari's accuracy even if he died he would still pierce the man's eye and kill him.

He had resolved himself to die should his enemy decide to go down with him or fail to realize the danger. Luckily his enemy was far more cowardly than he was and skilled enough to realize what was going on, as soon as he realized that Owari was going to take him down with him his fear skyrocketed and he shifted his sword into the path of Owari's attack. The tip of Owari's sword struck the side of the man's blade, and he used the force of the strike to push himself away and towards the ground separating the two from one another. However he didn't get out of this unharmed as he slammed into the ground and did his best to roll across the ground and kill his momentum. Although he stopped after a few rolls he still hit the ground pretty hard as he had put a lot of force into his attack to get himself away as fast as possible. His body was a bit battered and his arm was numb from striking the wind barrier and mana enhancement of his enemy's mystic art.

On top of that he jumped back as two wind blades cut through where he had just been giving him no time to rest and recover. Meanwhile his enemy, who he put so much effort and risk into getting away from, landed on the ground and jumped at him again by the time he had stopped moving and dodged the wind blades. This time however his feet were closer to the ground so he had more options. He planted his feet into the ground and stopped his backward momentum as he put his sword into a sword draw position. His enemy reached him a second later and swung his sword with both hands down from an overhead position, clearly he wanted to cut Owari straight down the middle in the most vicious way possible.

The fear he had felt before was all transformed into rage as he felt himself get the upper hand again. Owari decided to test and improve his new technique as he had no other option if he wanted to live, different from before where he chose to take the risk this time he had no choice. However this only increased the potential he could release as the pressure on him increased, he gave the same smile he had when he had been in the train tunnel when he had been abandoned to die by Erikson and knocked into enemy territory. He had the same feeling then as he did now, and just like then he held nothing back and risked everything without worrying if he would survive the consequences.

He used his entire body to swing his sword, planting his feet firmly into the ground he pivoted his body, while using his legs to lean into the swing, and using his torso to generate extra strength by rotating it, and finally using his arms to control the force and aim the attack. As his sword moved through the air with so much force he didn't remove any of the air resistance it experienced, not only that but he also changed his breathing method. Instead of the moth wing strike method which enhanced his arm strength and the toughness of his body or the blade swarm stream method which gave him some stamina and stability, this method of breathing took in as much air as possible and by swinging as he released it he was able to use the muscle contractions of his chest during his exhalation to increase the force of his attack at the cost of burning even more energy.

The result was the single most powerful swing he could make which made use of every possible ounce of strength his body could generate, at the cost of a massive risk. Of course the effects were worth it as his blade generated a massive force and the pressure wave that followed it was equally as impressive. Unlike when he used his resistance removal which lessened the sound his attacks made a very audible slashing noise and the howling of the wind showed the terrifying physical force he could generate, he had long surpassed what a normal human was capable of.

The two swords swung, one up and one down, and collided mid-air. The physical strength behind them canceled one another out and the two swords stopped mid-swing, however Owari was able to carefully transfer most of the rebound through his body safely while his enemy felt as if his arms would snap. Next came the clash of the pressure wave of Owari's swing and the wind of his enemy's mystic art. The wind howled and the two waves of wind, magical and mundane, turned into numerous wind currents as they blended together and tore each other apart.

Of course Owari's pressure wave couldn't hold a candle to the mystic art of his enemy and was torn apart but it had managed to disrupt the enemy's attack and make it pass by him harmlessly. Owari's legs sank into the ground a quarter of a meter as the rebound of their clash pushed him down, the speed he was pushed down caused some dirt in the area around his legs to be kicked up and dragged off in the wind currents. Meanwhile the wind cloaked man was sent flying into the air from the rebound, much higher than Owari had been sunk and the wind kicked up by the clash caused him to become disoriented and spun around a bit.

Owari's arms shook from the rebound he couldn't displace and his whole body ached from such a forceful and self-destructive technique, however because of the earth affinity he had been developing he wasn't badly injured and was only stunned. It only took a second before he was able to move a bit and he immediately used this chance to pull his leg from the ground and shove himself backward causing himself to skid across the ground a bit as the two vulture-like wind blades tried to take advantage of his immobility to kill him. He quickly reoriented himself and managed to get to his feet as he killed his momentum.

He looked up to get a view of his enemy who dropped towards the ground quite quickly, the green light and streams of mana infused wind around him faded in and out and he slammed into the ground with a loud bang as his defenses finally failed and scattered into the air. Owari carefully watched and noted that he wasn't moving but he was breathing so the guy was likely alive but unconscious. Before he could go over and finish his enemy off though he dodged back and out of the way of three wind blades. The magical beast under the man's control seemed to have gone berserk as the three wind blades rushed at him and refused to give him a break. However they also became more simple and easier to predict as they no longer coordinated between one another and came at him at poor timing. Owari easily sidestepped each of the blades as they tried to come from every direction, whether it be from above or the side he easily dodged them all. Over time the blades would dissipate and be replaced by new blades and he used this as a chance to practice his sensory and dodging skills.

However doing this forever was a bad idea regardless of the fact that his enemy could wake up and turn the tides, after all he was quite sore and his body was battered. Eventually he managed to triangulate the source of the attacks and rushed off into the forest. After about a dozen meters he saw the enemy with his own eyes, up in a tree was a bird the size of a typical hawk. However this bird had four wings and three eyes, and had green and orange feathers. Owari recognized it as an omen hawk which has a decent wind affinity and good sensory abilities, however they are incredibly stupid and aggressive to the point of being suicidal and the only reason they even still exist is a combination of humans protecting them for their sensory abilities and dumb luck. Owari jumped up and used a few trees as footholds to rapidly approach it, the thing was so stupid it didn't even dodge as Owari decapitated it with a swing of his sword. It had seemingly believed the three wind blades it had created before would catch up and kill him.

After killing the dumb bird he landed softly on the ground and set back out to finish off the master. When he arrived back at the location he left him, the man was already awake and was trying to get back up. He was using his sword to prop himself up and he had just regained his footing when Owari came into sight.

"You can't kill me! The Howling Wulf agency will do an investigation!" He yelled out in terror as he saw Owari approaching.

Owari of course ignored him and rushed full speed at him without stopping. Seeing this the guy picked up his sword and used what little mana he had left to reinforce his sword as he swung it to clash with Owari. Their blades collided and he was sent reeling and stumbled back a few steps barely getting his footing back before Owari had reached him again and struck once more. He pulled every bit of his strength out and even risked injuring himself as he forced his body into overdrive to dodge or deflect Owari's strikes, being sent stumbling each time.

As this repeated his fear grew greater and greater as he realized Owari was going to kill him, he even tried negotiating, sneaking in offers or threats whenever he could catch a breath but nothing worked. Owari continued to swing his sword with the same ferocious grin on his face. The man realized that Owari was enjoying this, not just the fighting but also the fear and the pain, every aspect of combat was fun to Owari. He had kept the same smile regardless of if he was about to die or if he was being injured, he seemed to love everything about what was going on. He didn't just love the feeling of combat, he thrived in it. However Owari was different from him, he didn't try to drag it out, even now Owari was attacking to kill. The only reason he hadn't done so yet was that his enemy was simply too stubborn and refused to die, he even accepted permanent injuries to survive even a second longer. As Owari swung one more time and the man finally realized what the difference between him and Owari was, he barely survived an attack by sacrificing his arm. Using that as a chance he turned and ran as fast as he could not looking back and using up every ounce of ability he had to run.

The difference between him and Owari wasn't a difference between good and bad, it had nothing to do with morality and even less to do with their personal moral codes. They actually weren't too different in many ways, the difference between them was simply that while he believed he was some apex predator and he went around doing as he wished and killing anyone who he didn't really like, even going so far as to toy with them as he did so, Owari was the real deal. He didn't go around stirring up trouble or acting like some big shot. He stuck to himself and stayed quiet, that is until you overstep your bounds and try to intrude on his territory. Owari loved the thrill of the hunt and the thrill of the kill just as much as this man did, the difference was that while this guy liked to toy with his food and make himself look big and strong, Owari was like a real predator who only hunted when it was necessary and when he did he ended it when it was time without dragging things out or going in too soon.

He thrived in the wild where morality and society didn't hold him back, whereas someone like this guy only thrived in an environment where he can hide behind someone when he needs to and run out and cause trouble when he wants to blow off steam. It was only now that he really understood what Owari meant by him merely being a chained puppy who can bark loud. Unfortunately the realization came too late and as he was running away he suddenly found his vision began spinning. As it did he saw the trees around him, his own body with a stump for a neck and covered in wounds, the sky which was clear as ever with the sun shining through the sparse forest ceiling, and the shine of the sun on steel. It was that final scene, the flash of light from Owari's sword that struck a chord. Not once through that entire fight had he seen the familiar light of mana that is indicative of a mystic art being used.