SWNOVELXO Chapter 92: 92. Defeated
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'So fast!!'
Gion was shocked when she saw Ikki's black blade already coming at her. She quickly raised her sword and blocked Ikki's strike.
BOOM!
The moment the two swords met, the corner of Ikki's mouth turned up, and then Tensa Zangetsu released black spirit energy straight toward Gion.
"Tekkai!"
Gion's heart raced as she immediately used the Tekkai technique from Rokushiki and wrapped her whole body with Armament Haki to defend against Ikki's sudden attack.
Still, she was blown away by the sudden burst of black Reiatsu from Tensa Zangetsu.
With difficulty, she used Geppo in mid-air to stabilize her body.
"What powerful energy, and such a strange aura," Gion said after swinging her long sword to disperse the black Reiatsu from Tensa Zangetsu that clung to her body. She looked at the sword in Ikki's hand with amazement.
Although the black sword in Ikki's hand appeared to be just an object, now that it had transformed into Tensa Zangetsu, Gion's Observation Haki sensed more and more that Ikki's sword seemed alive.
"Geppo, what an enviable ability," Ikki raised his head, looking at Gion walking casually in the sky, and murmured.
This strengthened his desire to learn Geppo even more.
"If you want to learn, I'll teach you," Gion chuckled lightly, and stepped on the air to rush toward Ikki at high speed.
Ikki raised his eyebrows, swung his sword and headed toward Gion.
Almost instantly, he appeared in front of her again.
'He's really fast!' Gion's advanced Observation Haki sensed Ikki suddenly appearing beside her, and she immediately slashed to the side with her sword.
However, her blade only hit an afterimage.
Gion frowned, looked around, and found that she was surrounded by Ikki's afterimages.
Seeing this, Gion frowned even more and immediately focused her Observation Haki around her to guard against Ikki's surprise attack.
Just as Gion finished her preparations, Ikki's attack came again.
Tensa Zangetsu had almost completely turned into afterimages in Ikki's hands. Faced with such attacks, Gion had to keep swinging Konpira to defend herself.
It was manageable at first, but gradually, Gion began to feel tired.
'His movement speed and sword swinging speed have both increased. After the sword transformed, his speed doubled. What a strange ability.'
Gion took a deep breath, pushed her sight and Armament Haki to their limits, and used all her strength to slash at Ikki's sword.
With a bang, both of them were pushed back several meters by the force of their own attacks.
"Ikki, you're really strong. If we keep fighting like this, we might not determine a winner for quite a while," Gion said, holding her famous sword Konpira upside down with the tip pointing to the ground. "How about we decide the outcome with one final attack?"
"Sure." Ikki nodded slightly and raised Tensa Zangetsu above his head.
His energy quickly transformed into black Reiatsu through Tensa Zangetsu, gathering on the blade.
For Ikki, Gion's proposal was exactly what he wanted.
Using Tensa Zangetsu required a lot of physical energy.
Although he might not lose if they continued fighting, the chance of winning wasn't very high.
However, if the battle was decided by a single strike, Ikki was quite confident.
After all, the 'Getsuga Tenshō' performed with Tensa Zangetsu was several times stronger than the one performed with Shikai Zangetsu.
When Gion saw the black energy gathering on the tip of Ikki's sword, she immediately gripped the long sword in her hand tightly, and strands of pink energy began to surround her.
"One-Sword Style, Shooting Star!"
After a moment, Gion, who had finished gathering her strength, suddenly raised her sword and swung it from bottom to top.
A pink slash flew from Gion's blade, rushing toward Ikki like a leaping rabbit.
Any ground touched by this sword energy would instantly split open, forming cracks tens of meters deep.
'To produce such powerful sword energy, she must be a swordsman at the Mountain-Cutting realm. Perfect.'
Ikki was overjoyed, and the black energy in his Tensa Zangetsu grew even stronger.
For him, the stronger his opponent's swordsmanship, the greater the rewards he could get.
If Nami and the others couldn't defeat Gion, Ikki planned to let them challenge her.
After all, if they won, they might receive double the rewards from Gion's swordsmanship realm.
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
With a sharp shout, Ikki slashed with Tensa Zangetsu.
A huge black crescent rushed toward the sword energy unleashed by Gion.
BOOM!
The two energy slashes collided, causing a deafening sound in the air.
The already fractured earth now completely shattered. Surrounding the two stalemate sword energies, a whirlwind rose directly into the sky and swept away the clouds within a kilometer.
After unleashing their attacks, Ikki and Gion silently agreed not to continue fighting.
Instead, they waited for the battle between the two energy slashes to end.
As time passed, Gion's slash began to gradually weaken until it finally disappeared, as if being swallowed by Ikki's Getsuga Tenshō.
Having lost its opposing force, the black crescent rushed straight at Gion like a wild horse and crashed into her sword.
The powerful impact knocked Gion back hundreds of meters. It wasn't until she managed to redirect the black crescent into the sky that the destruction caused by the Getsuga Tenshō stopped.
"Phew, what a powerful slash," Gion said, taking a deep breath. She squatted on the ground and sighed as she watched Ikki approaching with Tensa Zangetsu. "Ikki is truly a formidable swordsman."
As she spoke, her hands trembled slightly.
Obviously, dealing with Ikki's Getsuga Tenshō had taken its toll on her.
"You're not bad yourself," Ikki said as he walked up to Gion and helped her up from the ground. "If this were a life-or-death battle, it's hard to say who would win."
"That may be, but you didn't use your Demon Slayer Mark or Sun Breathing after transforming your sword. If we really kept fighting, I probably would've lost."
Ikki smiled and couldn't deny it.
Just using Tensa Zangetsu was enough to drain his physical energy. If he used the Demon Slayer Mark's power at the same time, the time he could last would be greatly reduced.
It would be fine for a short battle, but if Gion dragged it into a prolonged fight, the situation would be quite unfavorable for Ikki.
"Well, no matter what, I lost this time," Gion said as she handed Konpira to Ikki with a sigh. "I'll leave this Konpira in your care for now. But I'll tell you this – when I get stronger, I'll challenge you to win it back. You can't refuse when that time comes, Ikki!"
At the same time, a system notification appeared in Ikki's mind.
[Ding! Congratulations to Host for defeating Momousagi Gion, obtaining her sword skill 'Shooting Star', and obtaining the 'Mountain-Cutting Realm Swordsman Gion Challenge Permission']
[Host can now claim Gion's famous sword 'Konpira']
'Shooting Star! That must be the swordsmanship Gion just used. This is great,' Ikki thought. 'But the sword shadow summoned by this challenge permission probably won't be as powerful as the real Gion, right? If that's the case, I'm afraid Nami and the others won't be able to challenge her sword shadow for a while.'
Ikki took Konpira from Gion's hand, then turned his attention to the newly obtained "Mountain-Cutting Swordsman Gion Challenge Permission."
[Name: Gion]
[Age: 23 years old]
[Life Force: 30020, S level]
[Weapon: Konpira] [Swordsmanship School: Gion One-Sword Style]
[Abilities: Rokushiki, Intermediate Armament Haki, Intermediate Observation Haki]
'Gion with only 30,000 life force points? And she's only 23 years old!' Ikki thought, staring at Gion. 'This must be a younger version of Gion who's just reached the Mountain-Cutting realm in swordsmanship.'
'With only 30,000 life force points, the challenge against Sword Shadow Gion has been made easier, but it's still too difficult for Nami and the others right now. We need to get some A-grade nutritional potions.'
"Ikki, why are you staring at me like that?" Gion asked with a smile. "Don't you agree that I can challenge you in the future to get my Konpira back?"
"That's not a problem, but since you will learn my swordsmanship style, you might become stronger quickly, so we need to set a timeframe," Ikki replied. "Vice Admiral Gion, you can't challenge me for one year. After a year passes, you can come and challenge me to take back Konpira. Of course, if you're worried that I'm progressing too fast, I can have one of my crewmates accept your challenge instead."
The corners of Ikki's mouth turned up. A year later, he was confident that his crewmates could reach Gion's level.
By then, even if Gion came to challenge them, she wouldn't be getting Konpira back.
"You're really confident, Ikki," Gion said. "You will reach to the level of a Marine Admiral candidate within one year? Forget it, since you've made your conditions, it would be petty of me to argue. Just one year then. In one year, I'll challenge you using the swordsmanship you teach me. I believe it was called Moon Breathing."
Gion fixed her somewhat messy hair as she spoke to Ikki.
"Yes, it's Moon Breathing," Ikki confirmed. "You're very compatible with it. I'll use special methods to help you master this style. You should be able to learn the basics very quickly. Since Vice Admiral Gion wasn't shy about joining me in the bathhouse, I'm guessing you won't have any issues with my special teaching methods."
"With your talent, you might even be able to incorporate Moon Breathing into your own swordsmanship."
At this point, Ikki paused for a second, then smiled.
"Vice Admiral Gion, you said you wanted to see Moon Breathing, right? Now that our battle is over, I'll show you."
Ikki nodded to Gion, turned to face an open space, and pointed his sword at the ground, just like Gion had done when using her "Shooting Star" technique.
"Moon Breathing, First Form: Dark Moon, Evening Palace!"
Swoosh!
As the sword light flashed, a crescent moon-shaped slash flew from Ikki's blade.