Scene 25

Silent Swordsman, Wataruske Maxias

White empty space, nothing, but ring around it in the middle. Tension got worse when Nora went out of the ring. Nora waved at the rest of the Mages on her side. There were bruises on her body, but she didn't care. Mage's way of regeneration worked a bit different than ordinary human. Junpei could see her wounds and bruises closing as she approached to them. It healed quick with efficiency. The blood got sucked into the open wounds. Soon blood was gone just leaving out her soft white skin. In further detail, it was healing with remaining mana she had. The mana can be the source of casting magic, but it also has a duty of healing. When one Mage were to be damaged or injured, mana morph into shape of dozens of strings and try to sew the wounds or bruises. Of course there are ways to get someone injured. It works when the attack has powerful impact or attack that had depth into it. In twenty fifth scene, instead of how Mage's body works, it will cover the Swordsman's' way of fighting.
On the contrary, Detsu's injuries were still there. It showed how Nora's attack was deadly and very impact. She was unconscious lying down on Yaru's shoulder. With anguished face, Junpei stood up to get to where Detsu was. Shinji saw it coming. He put his arm in his way gesturing not to go. He didn't know if he was giving him the cold shoulder or just telling him to follow the rules.
On the other hand, his head wasn't in the right place, he passed by neglecting his arm. He went into the ring trying to reach up to Detsu. This time, Maxias in the ring hastily pulled out his katana out of the sheathe putting close up to his neck. He spoke in a low key voice with discreet tone.

"Don't, those who loses in the field should be respected, not pitied. Every guilds have their moral and theirs is dignity. You should think about others, before you run into them."

Jenpei dropped down on the floor with strained words.

"Anyways, I think that guy seems to be excited. I gotta go now."

When Maxias faced forward, Kuren was all jumpy waiting to start a match. His jumpy attitude went up to being rude in a sudden.

"So, You are one of the the thirteenth Swordsmen, eh? And you are at the bottom of all thirteen Swordsmen. As known as Silent Swordsman, Wataruske Maxias, no?"

"Huh, you sure know a lot, don't you? I thought you wanted to fight me, but I guess you wanted to talk. Who knew?"

In a flash, Kuren dashed into Maxias putting his hand right in front of his face. Blood red star drawn magic circle appeared creating explosion. The explosion was quite small, but it was destructive. This took just few seconds. He couldn't wait to see his expression on his face along with the damage. However, there was katana before him. The katana was held upside down with two hands.
Kuren turned the other way to strike again with his other hand. He tried different approach by spinning slightly right. Then he went behind him to punch him. Blood red magic circle appeared again to make an explosion.
This time Maxias didn't stay still, he crouched down to avoid the blow. He then hit right up to his chin. It made a loud clank sound that made him float in the air for a second. One second was enough for him to make a move. He pushed him off to make a slash wave out of his katana. His movements were very agile, Kuren didn't see it coming. The slices of waves assaulted him away leaving cuts on his body.
Even in this critical case, he gave all the strength into his feet to burst into air. He flipped backward and stood touching his body covered in blood. He wiped away good chunk amount of blood out of his body. Instead of frowning with pain, he gave out a smirk on his face.

"Not bad for a Swordsman. Good thing you are better than I thought."

He cleared out his throat and spit out the blood out.

"Swordsman can't use magic, thereby, can only do frontal attack. No?"

"You got me, but don't you want to know what we can do that you can't do?"

Kuren raised his arm to cast magics. When he did, there were small red magic circles surrounding Maxias. Magical circles' symbols were same as the last time. From these, he knew he was trying to use the same tactics. He was rather observant about the situation he was in. He rubbed his chin asking to himself.

"I guess you are thinking that I won't be getting out of this one? True, true, now, how should I do in situation like this? Even though I train hard, but my front and back, right and left are blocked with dozens of magical circles."

Maxias shrugged it off and started spinning. Kuren didn't even care what he did at this point since he was trapped with his magic. When he released the magic, the circles around Maxias burst into flame. But, also at the same time, there was a slice mark on his body.

"Urgh, What's this?"

When Kuren faced up, the whirl of wind was right before his eyes. There should be left over flame on the ground somewhere, but there were none. As the whirl of wind was soon gone, Maxias stood fine and dandy holding katana with his right hand. and sheathe of the katana with his left. Surely he was supposed to be damaged, but there was not a single injury.

"Ara, ara, I didn't know I could blow off those flame if I spin fast enough."

It wasn't just about spinning though. Almost at the same time the explosion had gone off, he spun around grabbing both katana and sheathe to make slice of waves. Continuously doing so, it made each waves to combine each other to make a barrier to himself. This was possible in such short time because of his training. Training to how to swing his katana faster. Hence, his training paid off. One single slice was worth three slice. Kurean stared Maxias for good long 10 seconds with puzzled look.

"You know I hate to say this, but if I were to say one single blow was three blows while I was spinning, how many times do you think I made slice of blows just now?"

Right when Kuren tried to calculate the counts. before he knew it, there was a straight line on his body what it seemed to look like a cut. Then there was another. The cut after another, it kept appearing giving him the severe wounds.

"You, you!"

He finally realized what Maxias did. Along with making barrier, he cut Kuren without him noticing. It was too late now, there were too many open wounds. There were too much blood bursting out of his open wounds he dropped unconsciously right away.