"Gah!" Kai clenched his fists and maintained his vision on Ria, enduring the sharp pain he received just now.

Ria seemed to have no intention of stopping here and created another sword that flew toward Kai at the same speed.

Luckily, Kai had a larger distance to react completely despite his bewilderment at her new technique. He used his Sonic Sword and slashed it.

The force carried by the sword collided with Kai's Sound Wave, sending a shock wave to the surroundings. Still, Kai managed to remain calm and looked on the ground beneath his feet before jumping to the left.

"Not fast enough." Ria clapped her hand as multiple Sword Strikes ran through the ground, moving toward Kai from all directions. Unlike the previous version, the Sword Strikes actually made its own path on the ground.

"Seriously?!" Kai gritted his teeth and observed their movements to see which way he could go. After contemplating for a second, he halted his step and moved in the opposite direction while slashing his way through that.

To his surprise, the Sword Strikes that missed him didn't change their direction. He instantly realized that the Sword Strikes were programmed before they were launched. This gave Kai a chance to avoid it completely, so he took this note in his mind and planned to use it when he had the chance.

Meanwhile, his eyes observed Ria's current condition. He was surprised by Ria's transformation, but he could sense with his instinct that Ria's magic power was leaking from his body. In other words, she could have this power-up but only for a few minutes.

"What is that power, Teacher?" Kai shouted, trying to check something.

Ria heard that question too but didn't answer him. Instead, she raised her right hand as white swords hovered around her body. The swords suddenly flew toward Kai as soon as she waved her hand down.

'As expected, she doesn't have much time in that state. If I can stay alive under her continuous attack for a while, I should be able to win.' With this thought in his mind, he slashed the first two swords.

However, this turned out to be Ria's surprise to him. The broken swords formed another three smaller swords that automatically flew toward him.

Seeing three swords and six smaller swords flying toward him, Kai activated his instinct to the fullest. The first thing he did after that was leaping backward while creating six smaller Oscillation Shields to block all the smaller swords.

Due to his ears and instinct, he could pinpoint where all the swords were going, so the smaller Oscillation Shields managed to perfectly block every single of them.

Meanwhile, Kai slashed another two swords and used the distance between them to block the smaller swords from those two before destroying the remaining swords.

"What—" Before he could even take a breather, Ria already created a spear in front of her eyes, aiming at Kai's heart.

"Go." The spear was launched like the sword, but due to the design of the spear, it moved faster than the sword and contained more power behind it.

Kai waved both Sonic Swords and struck it down.

As one would expect, he still had problems cutting it down. The shock wave shook the ground, but Ria and Kai simply ignored everything other than each other.

When Kai cut the spear down, Ria already summoned the five swords that already made their way to him.

"Oi, oi. You devil teacher! Give your student a breather first." Kai shouted before handling the swords again with the same trick. "You are a fortress right now!"

However, Ria finally made her move this time. If he stayed still and kept repeating the same movement, Kai wouldn't have a chance to reach her, but it seemed she needed to do it.

Kai listened to her steps and smiled, knowing that there was a chance for him to defeat her.

The moment she appeared behind him, Kai leaped to the front, taking the full brunt of her attack, making a distance between the two.

As he expected, Ria chased him with the two swords in the air and two swords in her hands.

A few magic circles appeared in that chase, and Kai shot two Sound Bullets that destroyed the two swords in the air, turning them into six smaller swords before destroying them with the second volley.

With this, Ria had no more defense that could protect her. He and Ria had a clash in that instant, resulting in Ria being blown away.

Rolling a few meters on the ground, she stabilized herself and pointed her hand toward Kai while summoning another sword.

This was the moment. The Sword broke into pieces, and her transformation was undone. Together with her shocked face, Kai concluded that this was his win and leaped toward her, planning to wrap this battle with his victory.

Ria gritted her teeth and clenched the two Sword Swords. She sent another two Sword Strike—One from the front and one from the side.

"It seems I am coming on top this time, Teacher." Kai smirked and leaped toward her, planning to cut her down. He completely ignored the second sword strike that came from the side because he could simply outrun it while planning to use his sword to destroy the attack from the front as he made his way toward her.

Due to the sword wave, Kai couldn't see that she had actually stood up again perfectly fine. His ears picked up that movement but believed that it was her desperate action.

When the sword strike disappeared after the cut, he realized that everything turned out to be not as he expected.

Ria Ross only smiled. "Have you forgotten what I taught you in the past? My second rule of fighting?"

Kai widened his eyes as a scene of his past self flashed in his mind.

A decade ago, Kai was lying down on the ground while complaining. "Teacher…Why are you bullying me? Haven't you done enough by killing me five thousand times? There is no way I can fight you…"

Unlike the current Ria, the past her had short grey hair and fierce eyes. With that military uniform on, she looked completely like that of a general. She only looked at him and asked. "This is like you are asking the opponent that wants to kill you to screw themselves over because you don't want to die and can't fight them. Do you think they give a damn about it?"

"But you said I am stronger than most of my peers."

"In the battlefield, there is no such a thing as peers. There are only those who are stronger and weaker than you. That's why no matter what you face in the future, never stop fighting." She thought for a moment. "Well, I do have one piece of advice for you in this case."

"What is it? Even though I can't use it against you, I can still remember it for the future case."

"Good. Listen well. One of the most important things that you need to do to defeat an opponent who is stronger than you other than control is…How well you can deceive your enemy with false information. For instance, though you appear weakened so that you don't look exhausted, you pretend you are.

"Or though you have no strength left in your body, you suffer through without flinching, showing how strong you are. Since there was a chance that you would think everything is a lie, I used more magic power than I usually needed, but it seems it was very effective.

"If you ever get another chance, you should try that as well. It's crucial for planning and execution in battle. Because the opponent who thinks they can win will leave a gap in their defense at the right moment. Don't miss that opening no matter what."

When he recalled everything, Kai drew a gasp and looked at Ria with a dumbfounded look. He panicked a little and realized that everything was a trap.

"You—"

"You had used this trick in your previous battle, but has the achievement gone through your head, raising your ego?" Ria smiled as she transformed again, and the two sword strikes changed their direction.

Kai gritted his teeth and tried to create Oscillation Shields but without enough time. The two sword strikes cut him right on the abdomen, separating his lower half and upper half.

"This is the end." Without a doubt, Kai would die from something like this. Ria wanted to honor him for his effort and chose to kill him with that strange sword that had more power than any other.

She blinked her eyes once and launched the sword.

Maybe it was a desperate move, but he knew that he had no chance of stopping the attack, so he raised his hand before her attacks split him into two, creating five magic circles.

Ria was amazed. It was his Sound Bullet.

Even though she wanted to block it, she simply had no method left. Her transformation was undone because she didn't have enough magic power anymore and tried to step back to avoid it.

In this exchange, Kai was shredded into pieces with that sword and blood was splattered in all directions. But the five Sound Bullets Kai released in his last move managed to perfectly pierce her vitals as well.

She remembered the past scene as well, especially the part where she told him to never give up fighting.

Kai obviously never gave up in that position, still trying to kill him despite knowing there was no way he could win.

Her eyes gradually became blurry before she closed her eyes completely and fell down while saying.

"Well done, but I still win."