Ivan's final charge completely leveraged the power of the storm.

And this was not just in a figural sense. As his body surged forward with indomitable speed and momentum, the chaotic storm that he had condensed with his will began to return to the source.

​​

The winds changed direction. They flowed towards Ivan Reid. Instead of slowing his march, his steps continued to accelerate.

The vortex around his potent-looking sword grew stronger and more violent as it continued to absorb the power of the storm.

What Ivan managed to achieve at the moment would not be a strange sight if it centered around an expert mech, but the fact that a single sword initiate was able to summon so much power with his will alone was incredible!

If not for the fact that it was difficult to observe all of the details from an outside perspective, the audience would have become more amazed at what Ivan was able to accomplish!

This was the power of a sword initiate!

Different from an expert candidate, a sword initiate was already able to affect reality to a significant degree.

While the latter did not have the assistance of a mech, the scale of the battle was a lot smaller!

If an expert candidate tried to whip up a storm when piloting a mech, then it would hardly surpass the girth of the machine.

The scale of mech battles was too large to allow expert candidates to affect the outcome with their willpower alone.

Rather than waste time and effort on accomplishing something that would only have a minor influence in a mech battle, it was better for expert candidates to focus on improving their piloting skills and polishing their will!

This might also be the reason why expert pilots were more prevalent than swordmasters. Sword initiates allocated a lot more time on mastering difficult and opaque techniques.

Yet right now, Ketis couldn't say that their decisions were wrong. The power that Ivan was able to demonstrate in a personal combat match was beyond anything she had ever faced!

It was so easy for her to give up and accept the loss. As long as she lowered her weapon and signalled her surrender, she could end this nightmare in an instant. She might even be able to avoid suffering a crippling injury that would prevent her from continuing her run in the solo tournament!

Yet giving in never registered in her mind. As a Swordmaiden, she had her own pride.

"Swordmaidens never back down when challenged."

That wasn't strictly true. In practice, back when they were pirates, Lydia's Swordmaidens often turned around and took detours if they strayed near a powerful or dangerous rival pirate group.

Even if the Swordmaidens got entangled in battle against a superior foe, they were still willing to disengage if the odds weren't on their side!

If the Swordmaidens didn't do so, they would have been wiped out decades ago!

The true meaning of their determination to stand rather than bend was that they realized that running wasn't always the solution. Constantly showing weakness was a good way for a pirate gang to turn itself into a juicy target!

In order to earn the respect of fellow pirates and deter anyone who possessed ill intentions, the Swordmaidens had to show their strength and fight a battle even if the cost was ruinous!

The history of the Swordmaidens recorded many instances where they had to fight against stronger and more numerous opponents.

While their prospects weren't good, the Swordmaidens always managed to achieve a victory.

How?

By fighting harder, more recklessly and more ferociously than the opponent! By fighting to the death without any regard for escape, the Swordmaidens turned themselves into rabid warriors!

They already exhibited this determination to fight rather than surrender on the surface of Aeon Corona VII. Of course, the reason why Swordmaidens never considered surrender in the first place was that their end would not be good if they fell into enemy hands!

Rather than suffer death or humiliation, it was always better to fight to the end!

While the circumstances were vastly different this time, Ketis felt that she was drawing upon the bitter determination of the Swordmaidens.

A beast woke up in her heart. A determination to cut her adversary surged from her spirit.

Her confidence surged as Sharpie continued to condense her will!

Even as Ivan absorbed so much energy from the storm that his fencing sword was surrounded by a violent tornado, she no longer felt oppressed by his prowess.

Instead, she became swept by the urge to resist! No matter how much more power Ivan was able to leverage, she could not allow herself to get defeated without launching a counterattack!

"WE ARE UNYIELDING!"

There wasn't much time for her to think, let alone make a move. She recalled one of the new techniques that Venerable Dise attempted to teach her. The tutoring session did not go well as Ketis hadn't been able to pull off the moves.

Yet now that Sharpie augmented her will, she instinctively felt that this time might be different.

She no longer stayed in place. The storm no longer restrained her and Ivan had already absorbed the storm in order to empower his killer move.

Rather than stand around and attempt a futile defense, she committed to an attack of her own! She quickly gained speed and charged forth, her muscles straining to close in on her opponent!

Ivan did not take much notice of her actions. While it was beyond his expectations that she was able to bring herself to put up a fight, he did not believe that the Sword Devil was capable of aborting his fully-charged finishing move!

Yet even as his abnormal and impossible tornado blade began to thrust at Ketis' incoming body, his opponent began to resonate with her greatsword.

Ketis actively tried to execute the first empowered technique of the Swordmaiden Sword Style.

An essential step to doing so was to resonate with the weapon. When Venerable Dise taught and demonstrated the move to Ketis, the expert pilot's Unending greatsword sang with determination!

Ketis possessed an Unending greatsword of her own. Once Sharpie directed her condensed will into her weapon, the mysterious alloy that covered it easily absorbed the input.

Her upgraded CFA greatsword not only became an extension of her body, but also turned into an extension of her will!

If she was a mech pilot, then her sword became her mech! They were two halves of a single whole, united by a common will that transcended mortal limitations!

Ketis had never experienced anything like it before! It was so tempting to get lost in the rush of power and new sensations!

Just her ability to resonate with her sword as if she was an authentic sword initiate was a complete revolution to her! For the first time in her life, she felt her CFA greatsword agreeing with her determination.

It was alive!

The time she spent on nurturing and taking care of her personal weapon was not in vain! Through constant love and diligence, the attention she poured upon her weapon had produced a result!

Even if the results were not that impressive, the fact that it possessed life at all was incredibly heartening to her! Her blade sang in unison with her will and purpose!

Without realizing, Ketis essentially replicated the relationships that made LMC mechs and particularly prime mechs so special.

The resonance that formed between her greatsword, Sharpie and herself roughly equated to that of a mech, a design spirit and a mech pilot!

All of these coincidences enabled her to execute her move with remarkable speed and fluency.

A shining white corona formed around her CFA greatsword. It appeared in an instant and quickly expanded to triple the size and length of the weapon!

This also caused the tip of the manifested energy blade to be a lot closer to Ivan than the physical blade!

"SWORD OF LYDIA!"

Yes! Ketis executed a smaller and more simplified version of the impressive battle formations of the Swordmaidens!

Once displayed by a company of Swordmaiden mechs, now Ketis was materializing the attack that defeated Venerable Foster on an infantry scale!

Yet even if it was vastly reduced in size, reach, power and cohesion, it was still beyond anything that she had unleashed before!

Ivan widened his eyes! The energy blade appeared too abruptly! He hastily adjusted his sword and put his violent tornado blade in the path of the sharp and solid energy blade projected by the Sword Devil.

"My storm shall sweep everything away!"

Yet even as the powerful tornado blade that had been fed by an entire storm came into contact with Ketis' condensed energy blade, the latter cut through the former like a hot knife through butter!

"What?! That's impossible!"

Ivan spent minutes accumulating power in order to maximize the power of his finishing move. He expended so much energy to perform continuous Hurricane Charges just so that he could finish this match in the most dramatic and visually impressive fashion possible!

When his Eye of the Storm had reached this point, a swordsman or sword initiate shouldn't have been able to shake his attack, not even his fellow seeded competitors!

At the very least, his adversaries would never be able to break his strongest move if they did not put in the same amount of effort!

Therefore, the already-solid energy blade that cut right through the tornado blade and forcibly dispersed all of his wind energy should never be able to do this in the first place!

It didn't make any sense to Ivan!

Yet to Ketis, it made complete sense.

Even if the energy manifestation was very rough and unstable, there was an additional factor that strengthened it even further.

Her spirit lent its strength to the attack.

Her design philosophy, which not only centered around swordsman mechs, but also emphasized the concept of sharpness.

Her design philosophy was incredibly compatible with Sharpie, so her sentient sword intent did not hesitate to borrow from her professional obsession as well!

This extra influence caused the Sword of Lydia to gain a surprisingly sharp edge. The tornado blade might have been able to resist the cutting power if it was more condensed, but the nature of wind was that it was always loose and dispersed!

"DEATH!"

The Sword of Lydia not only cut the Eye of the Storm apart, but also went on to slice through Ivan's sword arm!

Blood spurted into the wind as the seeded competitor's arm along with the fencing sword in its grip dropped to the arena floor.

"AHHHHHH!"

Despite Ivan's will and fortitude, he could not suppress the pain of losing a limb! His final charge fell apart as pain overwhelmed his senses.

He tripped and skidded across the surface as the momentum of his body caused him to continue to slide for ten more meters!

At the same time, the Sword of Lydia finally dissipated as Ketis slowed and stuttered to a stop.

Her hands still kept an iron hold of her greatsword, but the rest of her body was completely drained of strength!

Sharpie had exhausted itself to such an extent that it had turned dormant. Ketis felt as if she squeezed the limits of her potential until there was nothing left.

"I still… got your arm… bastard…"

She was no longer able to hold on to her consciousness. She closed her eyes and dropped to the arena floor, still holding her weapon as if it was her greatest possession!

The audience had long turned silent at this time. Every single spectator was completely gobsmacked at the dramatic sights that they had witnessed.

The Sword Devil cut down Ivan Reid's ambitions!

Even if reattaching a smoothly-cut arm was not a difficult procedure, the recovery and rehabilitation process took at least a month even if the Heavensword Association utilized its best means!

Perhaps the Life Research Assocation had even better treatment options available, but as it was, Ivan Reid basically lost his ability to rely on his primary weapon arm to fight his subsequent matches!

[Victory… goes to the Cloudstriders!]

Although Ketis managed to take out the strongest Cloudstrider, there were four more disciples who sat out the remaining fight. Even though they looked completely lost at what had happened, the fact was that they were still battle effective while all of the Swordmaidens were no longer able to put up a fight!

Yet even as the audience reluctantly acknowledged that the Cloudstriders had won this match, they still felt that Ketis and the Swordmaidens were the true victors today!