'He can indeed help a lot in the operations, but maybe this is for the better…'

At the side, Ascalon seemed to be deep in thought while watching Daru's seemingly desperate defense.

Onimaru Kunitsuna had been on the back foot since Lesha began using her innate sword skill, though, surprisingly, he was holding quite well for the past minute now.

Needless to say, Daru had suffered a few cuts, some deeper than he preferred.

His right arm felt slightly heavier due to them.

However, he was all for it. A battle with semi-realistic consequences was more fun than mere sparring with wooden swords.

Daru watched his opponent with the same level of focus, despite being pummeled with a lot of sharp blows.

The reason for this was because of…

'That…good…keep doing it…' he thought inwardly, observing the short, unpredictable speed bursts of his opponent with an enthusiastic, studious gaze.

From what he had read, it was one of those rare movement-type sword skills.

Needless to say, Daru couldn't afford one, so this battle with Lesha truly turned out to be an unexpected, delightful surprise for him.

He had the choice of using his sword skills to get out of his current situation, but why would he, when there's such a good skill to be learned?

His previous point investments in Perception truly turned out to be a golden decision.

Daru busily moved his arms to continue defending, his breathing growing a bit ragged from buying himself time.

The bursting steps his opponent was doing were instantaneous — sudden, as though she was merely somehow managing to explode in a short yet drastic increase in movement speed.

He was skeptical at first whether the skill could be learned through observation.

After all, there were no visible preparations for the skill.

At least in the beginning.

But then, he realized there were, and not so complex at that.

It was her footwork in the midst of her ferocious onslaught. Lesha wasn't just using the skill randomly; she was setting it up first, then using it to reposition and attack from another tricky angle.

Those small, subtle circular motions her legs were performing as her four arms slashed away seemed to be the preparatory steps to whatever movement sword skill she was using.

Daru had been trying it since earlier, only for his attempts to end up in a clumsy mistake and a deep cut.

He had even been taunted by the Veshari because of his seemingly dumb and forced maneuvers.

'I'm still missing something…'

And while he still hasn't figured out what he was missing, he shall hold on.

The onlookers cheered in excitement at the fierce duel.

A majority was happy that Lesha was turning things around, though some wanted Onimaru Kunitsuna to win, just for the sake of having a savior who could protect himself well.

It would be a huge boon if they didn't have to worry about the lone individual who could get them out of the god-forsaken realm all the time.

The deadly dance continued for another minute, one more ferocious than the other as she moved everywhere, attacking from insidious, hard-to-defend angles.

Frustratingly for Lesha, she was still having trouble finishing her opponent off.

A part of this, however, was her innate wariness as a Veshari.

Onimaru Kunitsuna hadn't used another sword skill aside from the spinning cross slash and his strange aerial maneuver that got the better of her in the first clash.

While both were amazing in their own ways, she doubted they were worthy of being called an S-tier innate sword skill.

'Tch…just save your skin already…I know you still have something up your sleeves…'

In the meantime, she would remain cautious and force her opponent to use his trump card in a sub-optimal situation.

Lesha believed victory was in her grasp as long as she didn't stray from her strategy.

'I guess I'll just have to keep forcing you, then…' she thought to herself, eyes turning eerily blank from time to time.

The female Veshari would dash, strike a few times, then dash again, repositioning before resuming her onslaught.

She continued doing this over and over again, chipping away at her opponent's stamina and hit points.

She would even throw a few taunts from time to time in an attempt to dishearten:

"Just give up, it's clearly only a matter of time before I win."

But Daru ignored them, his focus as sharp as they had been since the beginning, if not sharper.

His breathing eventually grew heavier.

Another minute later, he was clearly spent. However, there was a satisfied grin on his face.

"So that's what it was…" he muttered in a barely audible volume.

Lesha's eyes narrowed, but she didn't falter, swinging, moving around like a mad beast.

'Mental states, huh…' Daru mused, performing the same small, subtle circular motions on his steps while backpedaling.

He had been trying it since earlier, so he already had the motions down.

The only thing he was lacking was the sudden shift to an eerie blank look on the young female Veshari's face.

Needless to say, simply imitating it wouldn't work. But Daru still tried.

Done with the preparatory steps, his face blanked out as though his brain just shut down, for whatever reason.

He looked so stupid that Lesha couldn't help but stop for a moment.

"What…are you doing…?" she asked in a mix of a bit of disgust and puzzlement.

But how could Daru answer when his movement skill failed, and he was still within the range of his opponent's four swords?

He hurriedly angled his tachi to block instead, staggering a few steps backward and somersaulting to dodge the follow-up cross-sweep.

Daru then fired a red crescent, giving him just enough space as Lesha was forced to deal with his sword skill.

To her surprise, her opponent dared charge at her, splitting into two.

But Havoc Rush wasn't too effective against dual-wielders.

So, Daru's attack ended up being blocked quite easily, but the small leeway was all he needed.

He managed to wrestle a bit of a weak offensive for himself.

Then…

'Is it…like this?'

He exploded into a short burst to the right, catching Lesha off-guard and severing one of her Arm Avatars.

[Congratulations! You've learned the sword skill: [Swallow Step (A)]!]

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