True Exam

Pinned to the ground, only a part of the woman caught Saki’s eye even with her body breaking down. But it was enough for her to be certain. ‘The one from before…the one Yumi wanted to find…what’s she doing here now?’

“Who are you?” demanded the demon interrupted from her kill.

Masa continued her march towards the demon with her katana slowly rising into an attack stance. “You should be more of a challenge than the last one.” A soft glow seemed to emit from her blade with her attack starting.

“Last one,” the demon’s eyes narrowed, staring down at the human. “It was you that we’re looking for.”

“Makes things easier. I was looking for you as well.” Masa leapt into the air with her katana in motion to strike down the massive fox demon. Saki couldn’t remain conscious anymore, the demon energy raking her body in an endless assault of pain and burning.

Chapter 457 – True Exam

Hokuren reappeared in front of Yumi still lacking any of the dominating presence the others had. He merely existed in the world. She found his whole being to be unnerving. This wasn’t something that she was ready to face, but he didn’t give her any choice in the matter. Their fight would begin. “Show me your strength, warrior.”

Swallowing her fear roughly without choking on it, Yumi stared at him determined. “You sure about that? Don’t seem like that much of a fighter.”

“No need to worry yourself over me. I’ll manage,” he replied with a soft barely uttered chuckle going along with her façade. “You just worry about yourself and keep up a straight back.”

A flicker of annoyance brushed through her skin with her barely keeping her emotions in check. ‘This old man…demon is observant. But I have to listen to what Saki taught me! Keep in check and focused, be practical.’ It unnerved her more than anything how casual the demon was about everything. Even now he never seemed to see it as anything serious. As though their coming battle was merely just an afternoon on a random day of the week for him. It was hard not letting that sort of attitude get under her skin. She desperately wanted to be able to knock him down from that mountain he sat upon. Yet their power gap made it clear that he earned such a position.

Yumi adjusted her stance to one that Saki taught her. It still didn’t feel natural to her yet, a week of training wasn’t going to do that for her. But she took anything she could get out of Saki to improve herself. The goal remained beyond this Demon Lord and she needed to survive to that point. ‘Time to find out what he’s capable of…’

Despite her showing him how serious she was to start their fight, he showed no further signs of respecting that. Everywhere she looked he had openings, yet with his speed it hardly would matter. He didn’t have to worry about such things. Anything that she threw at him wouldn’t connect. That was how she read the situation. He didn’t have to be serious.

Somehow she was going to make him take her seriously.

Seconds ticked by for her as she tried to figure out an approach. Everywhere she looked she only saw failure. Nothing would even get close to him. ‘Dammit…’

“You’re overthinking it, Yumi,” Saki corrected during their fight. She effortlessly pushed her back even after it seemed that she had the advantage. “Now that you’ve gotten some training and lessons from me, you’re spending too much time focused on the plan and not the execution. If you don’t have a clear course, act and expose one. Your mind is faster than you think.”

‘Act…’ Firming up her resolve, she committed to her stance and pushed against the ground. Dirt started to kick up a little at her feet responding to her power. Stoned rattled around her and slowly rolled away pushed by an invisible force.

Yumi burst forward with the same speed that she used to take down the lesser demons. However, the moment that she appeared behind the demon, he was gone. She looked around trying to pick him up. About ten meters away, the old man stood with effortless motion.

Facing the Demon Lord, she tried to see anything about his movement. ‘He was in my sight the whole time until I was behind him. In that instant he was gone…’ His speed was as unnerving as the first time she saw it. No blur, no hints, no movement, she couldn’t even feel the change. It really seemed like he teleported away. Though she couldn’t necessarily rule out that option, the demons could have a variety of powers, she felt certain that it was movement. Nothing fancy more than unbelievable amounts of speed.

“That’s quite the insult.”

She ground her teeth a little. Just from that she knew that he could tell that she wasn’t trying very hard. There was more to her speed than she had shown and he didn’t like her treating him like one of his subordinates. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

Altering her stance for speed, she focused completely on the demon. ‘I need to see even a hint. I know he’s stronger, but I’ll find a way. He’s a demon, if I can find even a single moment of an opening I can kill him.’ Pressure billowed off Yumi’s body making the earth rumble again. Anything small pushed away from her.

Launched at more than five times the speed she used before, Yumi appeared in front of the demon’s position. She hoped with keeping him in her sights she could see something of his movement, but it still failed her. ‘Damn, not enough still…’

“Better, but not close.”

“I’m not finished!”

“I’d be disappointed if you were.”

He kept that same look the entire time. Hokuren waited for her to reach his level. Even with her two misses, she expected him to fight back. In a way she sort of hoped for it. Fighting against Saki she felt that she improved faster while fighting than when she taught her how to fight. A part of worried if she could even survive a hit from him if he did. She really had no sense of scale against him. Her only hope of understanding the scaling difference in their strength was measuring what her speed did to him, but that wasn’t even enough.

Yumi focused on her body, further pushing herself. ‘How much do I need to even match him in his current state? This is insane!’ Cracks started to form beneath her feet and stretch away from her with the rumbling turning into quakes. ‘I’m not at my limit yet, but I’m starting to get close to what Saki and I sparred at…’ With the ground beginning to crumble under her pressure, she shot forward taking another jump in her power.

Her tightly focused attention caught a glimpse of something. It felt more like a blink of her eye in the instant. She couldn’t clearly place it. ’What was that? Did I see him?’ Yumi wasn’t sure if her eyes were finally starting to adjust to him that she could see him or if it was just her mind playing tricks on her because she wanted it so badly. Perhaps it was just showing her what she wanted to see. It was too brief for her to even know. It could only be a guess.

Even for a guess, it gave her a little more confidence that she might finally reach the current plateau that Hokuren stood upon. But she needed to see more. A guess wouldn’t take her very far if it proved to be empty. She burst forward with the two blinking around the tilted earth in an unsuccessful game of cat and mouse. As the cat, Yumi failed to make any sort of progress in getting closer. ‘I think I’m almost there!’

With an explosive release, Yumi charged at Hokuren with her hand passing through his fading body. Her eyes widened for a moment, finally having seen more of him. ‘I’m at the level I fight with Saki in our sparring…this is just his default…’ She had hoped to have reached it sooner than that. The ceiling for her power was closer than she wanted it to be.

The old man stood in front of her a couple of meters away. Still no change in his expression as he watched her. “You’re definitely a rare human. Few that have tried to fight me could reach this stage.”

“I’ll surpass all of them!”

“You might indeed.”

His casual attitude still grated against her. She didn’t like how much he seemed to be divested of their fight. That needed to change for her. Yumi still had more to give, but she had to be careful. Whispering of Saki’s teachings for how to fight kept her from just following her instincts.

Yumi increased her speed a little to evenly match the Demon Lord. With her eyes now fully adjusted to his movement and tracking him, she could keep up with little effort. Their pace was an easy one, though they were mostly just dodging, not able to make a connection against the other with Yumi still on the offensive.

With each dash over the land, they kicked up clouds of dirt and cracked the unstable ground. This came all from Yumi as her power flowed freely from her. Their movements ran over so much of the land. They passed by the man-made volcano and then through a ruined forest. Before long, Yumi could no longer even see the Capital. She completely lost track of how much ground they covered. Her entire focus went to him with the world melting away.

Everything at the pace now felt completely natural for her. She no longer even felt like it was an effort to meet it. Though it was obvious as well that the Demon Lord wasn’t even getting a work out from it. This sort of pace wouldn’t remain for long. She watched him cautiously to see if he would make the move to challenge her.

Because of his attitude, he was a hard one for her to read, not that Saki improved her ability that much. And he was the worst sort for her to try to practice that sort of skill on. He had no tells and no reaction to anything. It was just a normal day for him. So she had no idea what he was thinking or planning. She didn’t know if he was treating this like a warm up or a test.

He might have wanted to see what she could do and if she was worth his time. Since he hadn’t fought back yet, it felt like he might have still been testing her. Perhaps he waited for something. The Lord wanted a sign from her to show that he could put in some effort. Yet it was just guessing on her part. He might have just been lazy and didn’t plan to do anything until she did.

The uncertainty about her opponent really made it difficult for her to plan ahead. And worse she still had no clue what his ability was. All he showed so far was raw physical power and barely even that. He survived lava without even an effort and matched Saki in speed without even thinking about it. It was a high bar to start out.

But Yumi knew things had to change. They wouldn’t get anywhere with the low level that they were fighting at, especially if he wasn’t going to actually do anything to her. The only way their fight would actually begin would be if they started trying to kill each other.

She saw enough of what he could do right now that she felt ready for the next step. ‘It’s time Saki. I don’t know what will happen, but I can’t delay any further. Swift and lethal…don’t drag it out further than necessary…’ Their fight was longer than Saki probably would have wanted, but she couldn’t follow the standard approach that Saki outlined. With someone this far above, she needed to adapt first and attack without mercy off guard.

Yumi forced them back into a dodging pace like before. However, unlike before she slowly started gathering up her strength without letting it slip out. She needed to space it out so not let the demon realize what she was doing. Their dance could continue with no change until she was ready.

In the striking move, she disappeared completely, having jumped up her speed beyond what she had used before. Appearing in his blind spot behind the Demon Lord, she in a flash gathered her energy to form a sword and stab him through the heart. It sank into him making a clean hit. ‘I got him!’

However, he looked back at her with no change. She noticed something was wrong. Her energy sword was broken. It hadn’t pierced him, something destroyed it as it attempted to thrust. The sneak attack failed. Demon energy started to bleed a little off him with a soft pink glow with the ground being destroyed completely under him into particles. “Ready to fight?”