Chapter 20
crack
Noah’s arming sword embedded itself into the ground not far away with a clear sound of the earth cracking open. The sharp blade blew away quite a lot of stone on impact, it leaves one to imagine what would have happened if one were to be hit by something like this.
“And this ends it here!”
Erza’s lip curved upwards as she stabbed her thrust her sword.
The target: Noah’s throat.
With Erza’s abilities, she probably could stop her weapon precisely at around 1 inch away from his throat.
When Erza is sure that the battle has ended, Noah suddenly lifted his head and struck out his bandaged left arm. A black shadow flashed and collided heavily with the oncoming sword thrust.
ding
The next second, a loud ring sounded between Noah and Erza. Startled by the suddeness of it all, it wasn’t until she felt the force coming from her arming sword and being sent back a step before she understood what transpired.
In his offhand, there is still one more weapon at his disposal.
The sheath!
It was the sheath that was in his other hand all this time.
He utilized the sheath and wield it like a sword to nullify her sure-win strike by blocking it and turning the tide of the battle around!
Seeing the astonishment on her face, Noah slammed his feet on the ground and blinked in front of Erza like a lightning.
“It’s still too early for it to end!”
Under Erza’s rapidly contracting pupil, he grabbed his sheath and spun half a circle in mid air by taking advantage of his inertia. Weirdly enough, he landed right within her arms. Stopping for an instant, he slammed the sheath at her chest with a force that could generate whistling sound while tearing through air.
Feeling the power behind those moves, even Erza can’t help having her expression distorted as she rapidly charged up her magic power.
“Requip—!”
A silver glow flashed from Erza.
The flash of [Requip].
When the light dissipated, a silver buckler appeared out of thin air.
Noah stopped for a brief moment when he saw this.
shield?
He has seen Erza using [Requip] many times in the 3 months they are together, he has also seen countless weapons she stored away but this is the first time he has actually seen her using a shield.
Does this mean that the battle has turned into a situation where she has no choice but to use a shield?
While thinking something along that line, his hand didn’t stop or slow down, in fact the sheath sped up and slammed the shield hard.
bang
The dull thud reverberated outwards like a formless wave with Noah and Erza at the epicenter.
“—-!”
Though from the feel of it the force isn’t enough to cause any significant harm, it was enough to sent her originally retreating body back even more.
It is only some twenty steps back did she finally managed to steady herself.
But, she can’t move any longer.
The reason being a figure is in front of her with sheath roughly 1 inch away from her throat.
This scene is exactly like what she imagined when she knocked away his arming sword.
The only difference being the roles should have been the reverse of what is going on now.
“This is the real end!”
Noah laughed while pointing the sheath at her throat.
“Erza, you underestimated the enemy ya know!”
She indeed underestimated the foes this time.
It’s not to say she has been going easy on him, rather it’s the moment when she disarmed him that she thought her victory is determined and that led her to let down her guard. She didn’t expect that he would use the sheath to execute a counter attack and blitzkrieg her into a panicked state.
If not becaue of this then with her responsive abilities and reflex, this battle definitely wouldn’t end so fast and he absolutely wouldn’t have gained a win so smoothly.
Eyes on the sheath at her throat, she helplessly relaxed her arms and one could see a hint of displeasure on that exquisite face of her.
“To use a sheath to counter, how sly!”
“The feeling’s mutual.”
Noah rolled his eyes and put down the sheath before walking towards the arming sword still stabbed into the ground not far away from him.
“Didn’t you use magic and shield? We’re even now!”
In the past 3 months, Noah and Erza did this kind of duel practically every day, but they have only ever gone about it using only sword techniques, the purpose is to hone their skill with the blade.
This time, Erza used magic to gain an advantage and Noah responded in kind by using sheath to counter attack, something she didn’t expect and she deployed her shield. Compared to those duels in the past that has more training elements in it, today’s duel seemed for like an actual battle.
Having seriously fought in an almost real battle situation, Noah and Erza couldn’t be happier.
But that’s just to the extent of being serious. Only the two person themselves know just how much of their true abilities did they exhibit in this battle.
At the very least, Erza gussed that Noah still had about 2 more methods up his sleeves.
The first one is the gargantuan amount of magic power he is proud of.
He has made tremendous progress in not just the sword skills that could put give Erza a surprise when she lets her guard down, he has also improved his magic power manipulation during this period.
3 months earlier, he could utilized at full control a magic power amount that rivals tens of magicians and he used it to activate the lake of rituals. The amount he can use right now is definitely not any less than that.
Suppose he were to use that in the previous battle in much the same manner as Erza, that is to enhance his physical abilities. Then let’s not talk about using all he could use, just within the margins of which he could maintain control over, the enhancement would have been many times better than what Erza could muster up. The battle would have been even smoother.
He didn’t use magic power and he kept saying he can’t use magic power at will, but the reality is that he has some apprehensions to using it.
Erza has heard from guild mates how when Makarov just took Noah in, Noah would always almost level the guild due to emotional fluctuations causing his magic power to rampage out of control.
Because of this, before he could fully control his magic power, he will always worry about various factors.
Plus, the foe this time is Erza, not a true foe but a comrade on the same path towards improving oneself. That’s why he subconsciously restrained himself from using magic power in that battle.
Regarding the second method...
Erza glanced at the clear as Ice arming sword Noah just picked up. She could feel faint aura coming off that blade.. Thinking back to the first time Noah wield that blade, she bitterly laughed and shook her head.
“To think just 3 months ago you can’t even see the trajectory of a swing of my sword. Now 3 months later, not only can you keep up with my speed, you are even able to best me...”
“Giving up just like this? That isn’t something you would say now is it?”
He brandished the blade while teasing Erza.
“How about it? One more round?”
“No problem!”
Erza retorted, but she took it back a second later.
“Is what i would like to say but I ran an errand to the guild before coming here and the guild master told me to fetch you.”
“he wants me to go back?”
Noah muttered.
“What happened?”
Erza beamed and left a line.
“We have a new comrade!”
(Tl: delinquent mira, wimpy elfman and kawaii af Lisaanna 10+ chapters away)