Lucian's body moved, flickering back and forth as he entered full defensive mode. His hand, shoulder, waist, and feet moved in perfect unison, like a single, well-oiled machine in motion. Every shift was precise, every adjustment deliberate. He knew Anthony had changed his style, and he had no issue adapting on the fly. Lucian could feel the pressure and tension mounting with each attack Anthony unleashed, the weight of every swing pressing down on him like an invisible force, but he welcomed it all without hesitation.

When he had said he wasn't going to hold back, he had meant it. Even now, he was unleashing everything he knew and understood about the katana. Every principle, every refined movement, every lesson carved into his bones through countless battles was being put on display. Yet Anthony took it all as though it were nothing more than a light breeze brushing past him. But Lucian didn't care. He knew how much of a monster Anthony was. He had always known. Still, he wasn't going to simply accept defeat just because Anthony was the protagonist of this multiverse.

His black eyes danced within their sockets as he tracked every single sword attack with frightening precision. He parried, he deflected, he blocked, he did it all. However, there was one thing he would never do: dodge. That wasn't part of the katana's fundamental defensive techniques. To abandon the blade's principles was to abandon oneself, and Lucian would never allow that.

'Is he testing me?' Lucian thought to himself as he began to discern Anthony's intentions. After all, there was no one who understood Anthony better than him.

'How arrogant,' he mused internally, a huge smile stretching across his face.

He wouldn't deny it, he loved this pressure. Without pressure, how could one grow? Without adversity, how could one take a step forward? But make no mistake, he wasn't here just to remain on the defensive. He was here to show why he was Lucian Darkheart. He was here as a side character who refused to fade quietly into the background. He was here to challenge the protagonist. No, he was here to challenge the author himself.

With that resolve, his entire demeanor shifted.

His presence changed, his aura sharpening like a blade drawn from its sheath. His speed surged to an impossible degree, defying logic and perception alike. Lucian took a single step, and vanished. It was as though reality itself failed to keep up with him. In the next instant, he was already beside Anthony, his katana screaming through the air as he swung to cleave Anthony's flesh.

Anthony's instincts screamed in warning. His current katana style guided him as his body twisted with impossible grace. His own katana blurred upward in a flash of crimson light, and with an impactful clang that echoed across the battlefield, the two swords collided violently.

But Lucian was far from finished, he flowed seamlessly into a second attack, linking it to the first without pause. Anthony parried it with ease, his instincts bordering on clairvoyance. Still, Lucian didn't care. He tore forward like a storm raging through the dead of night, chaining a third attack to the first and second in flawless succession.

Anthony blinked.

His sky-blue eyes shone as he read Lucian's movements as though they were written on a billboard. Three attacks, all executed within a fraction of a nanosecond. It would have been impossible for most to defend against, but not Anthony. His fist tightened around the hilt of his katana, muscles straining as his wrist flicked in a single rotational motion. With that one movement, he parried all three attacks at once.

Lucian couldn't care less.

He had expected as much. Expecting to injure Anthony with just a few attacks was sheer delusion. One would have a better chance of seeing a pig take flight. Without hesitation, Lucian shifted his stance and thrust toward Anthony's knees with lethal force. The air warped and twisted under the sheer power of the strike, groaning as though it might tear apart.

Anthony's feet left the earth as he jumped. Even as he dodged, he parried the attack. His body swung overhead, flipping cleanly over Lucian in midair. But Lucian did not miss this opening. The moment Anthony was airborne, Lucian's hand shot upward. His katana became a blur of crimson light as he unleashed a storm of slashes, over a thousand attacks delivered within a split millisecond.

Time seemed to slow.

Anthony was upside down in midair as the attacks converged upon him from every direction. Yet he did not panic. Instead, he smiled. His style shifted instantly in midair, the primal instincts guiding him moments earlier vanishing as he transitioned into another mode entirely. His wrists flashed, producing an endless ringing sound as steel met steel. With insulting ease and breathtaking grace, he parried every single attack before his feet even touched the ground.

The instant he landed, Lucian was already there.

It was as though Lucian had predicted the exact spot Anthony would descend upon. But Anthony had predicted Lucian's prediction. He struck first, launching his attack before Lucian could even move, despite Lucian arriving first. Lucian reacted immediately, parrying the thrust aimed at his head. However, he didn't stop there. Using his own katana, he locked Anthony's blade in place, aiming to snap it from his grasp.

In Anthony's eyes, that was child's play. His fingers and wrist flickered. His katana danced through the air between them in slow motion. Anthony smiled as he released the blade entirely, catching it midair with his left hand. In the same breath, he unleashed a storm of lightning-fast attacks. Lucian did not hesitate. He moved like a ghost, his body shifting seamlessly between each strike as he parried them all simultaneously.

The earth below shattered in madness. Sword marks tore into it as though carved by the galaxy itself. Massive chasms of varying lengths yawned open beneath them, the ground unable to withstand the violence of their clash. Even the air trembled in terror, as though afraid of being erased by their blades.

The two of them appeared before a mountain, then vanished. They reappeared atop a tree, vanished again, and emerged upon a distant hill. In the next instant, they stood upon the surface of a vast body of water. They changed battle zones like lightning tearing through the night sky, yet they never stopped moving, never broke their rhythm.

Anthony's sword flashed in a wide horizontal sweep, aiming straight for Lucian's neck. Lucian deflected it in less than a blink, sending the redirected strike tearing through a series of mountains in the distance. Peaks collapsed, reduced to rubble under the residual force.

And with that, they continued.

Their sheer derangement, their uncontrollable mania, the continuous collision of wills and steel, this was the battle of the katana.

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