The female disciple stood in the opening she had previously torn open in the room's wall. She was imposing; muscularly large and black-clothed. Her beast-like killing intent indicated she would risk her life to efficiently kill. In contrast to her previous frenzied bloodlust, her honey-colored eyes were focused through the scarf covering her face.

"That's more like it!" she savagely exclaimed.

Her stance was oddly defensive; her large broadsword was being held like a shield. Judging from her previous fighting style, it could be a trap. Or this could be her original style and she liked messing around.

However, Johan didn't care.

Johan's smile widened, as his sense of danger tingled from the female disciple's killing intent. He released more martial aura over his own body. This would tire him sooner, but would also allow him to fight with all the strength and speed his body and brain could keep up with.

Johan also concentrated on his black katana, which he held over his head. He gathered more aura on its surface, sharpening it near the edge as a simplistic imitation of the more sophisticated space-severing techniques.

His aggressiveness was reflected on his killing intent, which caused the female disciple to take a sharp breath, her chest rising and falling rapidly once.

Whiiistle

Johan's katana sharply cut through air, as he took advantage of the mental opening to bring it down towards her head. He would cleave her in half if he connected.

Bam!

The female disciple barely managed to lift her aura-covered broadsword, turning it sideways in its wide side to receive the force of the impact.

She did not seem too bothered from narrowly escaping instant death. Instead, she aimed an aura-covered knee at Johan's lower body. She rotated her massive frame for additional force and speed, but Johan had already stepped back and she kneed the wall, tearing another hole to the adjacent room.

Slash

As she was struggling to regain her balance, Johan executed a firm horizontal slash, aiming to cleave her in two from the waist up.

She dexterously swayed her gigantic frame and the black katana only slashed through her clothing, protective aura and a bit of flesh.

A splatter of blood sprayed from the wound. It wasn't small, but her thick abdomen muscles -revealed through the torn clothing- immediately tightened to prevent further bleeding.

Instead of retreating when wounded, the female disciple lunged her body after Johan's retreating arm. She brought her lifted broadsword forward to bash his face.

"Gaheha!" The battle cry was clearly designed to confuse the opponent.

Johan rapidly retreated, as the large broadsword momentarily covered his vision...

"Twang" Danger

While moving backwards, Johan's picked up on a dagger released from her right boot. He stepped aside, dodging it, and thrust his katana forward from the height of his eyes in an attempt to regain his momentum the maneuver had cost him. He sharpened further the aura on the katana's tip, aiming to pierce through the broadsword and into female disciple's neck.

The female disciple's vision was obstructed by her broadsword. But she might have picked on the danger, because she was already moving backwards through the ruined wall. Recklessly, Johan jumped after her, losing traction with the ground as he soared in a straight path.

This was a mistake.

The female disciple seemed to have been anticipating the action. She stopped mid-motion and fiercely moved forward again, turning her large broadsword sideways to execute a horizontal slash towards Johan's neck.

Driven to a corner, Johan did nothing to dodge the incoming strike. Instead, he concentrated a large portion of his aura on his left arm, which he used to deflect the broadsword's path upwards.

Crack

Johan's arm bore only a fraction of the force, but he felt a couple of bones cracking. If he had used less aura, his hand would have been pulverized, even with the skill he had put into the deflection. All due to the sheer weight that extra thick broadsword boasted.

Johan gritted his teeth through the pain signals and continued the stabbing motion towards the female disciple's neck.

Yet again she betrayed expectations by not retreating; her arm muscles visibly bulged under her clothing and she managed the inhumane feat of halting the heavy broadsword over Johan's head. She then brought it downwards to slam him to the ground.

Johan subconsciously knew that the faster one would obtain a huge advantage. So he further pushed the katana's hilt forward within his palm.

The trick gave him an advantage of a quarter of a breath.

Pierce! Bam!

The female disciple was forced to sway to protect herself first. Still, she had realized the discrepancy of speed too late and the side of her thick neck got pierced.

Unfortunately, Johan did not manage follow through the killing strike, for, despite getting goosebumps from the cold blade, she also managed to complete her downward swing. Johan turned his body in mid-air to avoid it and it slightly brushed his right shoulder before it collided with the ground, causing stone splinters and dust to erupt in all directions.

Even through his protective aura, Johan's shoulder was badly bruised from the touch. The cracked bones in his left hand also complained under the strike's vibration.

However, the female disciple was significantly worse for the wear, her face paling visibly behind her scarf, as a dark red stain of blood spread from the wound on her neck's dark skin.

"Ahahahaha!"

"Ehehehehe!"

Despite their injuries, the two people almost simultaneously laughed in exhilaration. The adrenaline rush so close to death was beyond any description!

Immediately they charged each other again, their clashes producing tremors that rocked the small room, dancing between technique, trickery and fatal force. Their exchanges were so fast-paced, they did not even get time to unleash grant techniques!

However, the female disciple's copious bleeding from her neck put her at a tremendous disadvantage, since blood loss made her movements sluggish. It was just a matter of time before Johan would overwhelm her.

"Skullsong! Get him, dammit!" Markus Mayers complained through gritted teeth.

The net of water and light around Taliesin trembled unstably once again but Markus held it together through sheer force of will. He had not expected his chant to get countered, since Taliesin's condition did not allow him to use much power, despite his indescribable amount of skill.

He had been relieved when Skullsong -a master- and his disciple had arrived. But now Skullsong was sitting it out. Markus had no idea what went through that idiot's mind.

"Brat, watch your tongue! I'm saving your hide here!" Skullsong irritably replied in a low voice. His clean hard features were visibly on edge. He did not understand how, but his intuition told him both he and that Mayers family brat would face inescapable crisis the moment he attacked. Like all seasoned martial warriors, Skullsong trusted his battle intuition unconditionally.

He did not know what kind of attack it would be - although he would never admit this to a simple disciple. But he felt that, as long as he maintained a defensive precaution, there would be no problem.

Once more, he gathered martial aura on his eyes to examine Taliesin, who was just standing there, surrounded by Markus's net. He found nothing more than a weak disciple mage, but this only caused his brow to wrinkle more. His intuition told otherwise...

Skullsong snorted. This was turning to be surprisingly complicated. He wished he had brought a dozen low-tier fodder, as the Mayers brat had suggested.

"What do you - " Markus paused to concentrate the full quantity of his magical energy on the net. "-mean?" Luckily the chant had created an efficient structure that was difficult to break, even with a counter-chant.

"Pff! Haha! Two idiots at the peak of idiocy!" Taliesin interrupted them, seemingly without a care in the world, despite the net of magic hanging all over him.

"Strength means nothing against me, only numbers. Mayers brat, I thought you knew that? Oh, wait, maybe you knew, but the master of idiots thought he was sufficient on his own and ignored your advice? Buhaha! I was worried a bit when you stalled so successfully, but idiots will naturally bond with other idiots and be incompetent forever!"

Both Skullsong and Markus tried their hardest to ignore Taliesin. He was obviously provoking them. But maintaining the standstill was not so bad, since Taliesin's energy was consumed alongside Markus's. This meant that Skullsong would have a better chance to pounce the moment they were both exhausted.

Furthermore, Skullsong's direct disciple was here. Although she was currently wrecking the rooms aligned in the walls as she chased after the unforeseen variable, she would soon finish the job and would help break the equilibrium.

The sound of walls breaking and weapons clanging could distinctly be heard in the silence permeating the caved-in courtroom.

Skullsong was feeling uneasy though. Why had his disciple not disposed of her prey yet? Although she liked to play around, she did not have that much patience...

Rumble.

Even Markus, who was focusing on maintaining the net could detect the subtle but noticeable vibration that rocked the humongous building.

"What the hell?" Skullsong involuntarily shouted. His guard was up against Taliesin -who was mockingly grinning at them- but his gaze was fixed towards the ruined door, from where a bloodied Johan unsteadily emerged, clutching his black katana.

Johan coughed and wheezed a bit, as he spat a mouthful of blood. He wore a thin grin.

Crazy woman!

In the end, the female disciple had chosen to detonate her remaining martial aura inside her muscles! It was almost certain she would have been crippled forever, but it allowed her to hazardously raise her physical prowess for a single breath. She had then slammed into Johan, trying to embrace him in a death grapple.

However, even with half his martial energy used up, Johan had managed to clumsily produce a space-severing slash, slicing her right hand clean off her shoulder. All his current internal injuries had come from the slam, which he had not adequately guarded against.

Johan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of the hand grabbing the katana's hilt and spared a glance at the female disciple. Her large figure kneeled amidst her dark robes. She silently clutched the stub of her shoulder to stop the bleeding, even as more blood run from her pierced neck’s side. To her credit, she did not even whimper. However, she was out of commission for sure.

Johan had no desire in dealing the deathblow to an opponent without the ability to fight and his intuition did not instruct otherwise. Not to mention, he had to help Taliesin, who was miraculously keeping both the one surnamed Mayers and the master -was his name Skullsong?- on a standstill.

"Not even a killing blow? You're too sweet..." the female disciple called after him in a faint voice, as he stepped out of the ruined room