The Absolute Speed of a Certain Comic'

The air shattered, turning into a continuous wave that swirled and surged, sweeping across the entire open square like a violent storm.

"Woah!"

The sonic boom erupted right in the center of the dozen or so soldiers, forcing them to adjust their stances, gripping the ground tightly to stabilize themselves.

But in doing so, they had no time to aim and shoot.

Ryoji and Bishou were only about twenty meters apart. With the explosive boost of his physical power and the raging wind, he was able to cover that distance in just two seconds.

In these two seconds, the soldiers had no time to readjust their aim.

"Didn't fire?"

But those few seconds were enough for Bishou to react.

In his judgment, he had completely suppressed Princess Stella, and Ryoji was the greatest threat on the field. His attention had been focused entirely on Ryoji's movements.

Although the "Sound Speed Bomb" attack had caught him off guard, he was pleasantly surprised to find that Ryoji hadn't fired a bullet capable of absolutely surpassing his speed. Instead, Ryoji had actively rushed towards him.

'This guy lied! He doesn't have that kind of ability!'

Such a thought briefly flashed through Bishou's mind.

"Whirr—!"

Shortly afterward, he saw a long blade, shimmering with ripples of water, glowing with a dazzling yet gentle silver light, appear in Ryoji's hand.

"A swordsman— hahaha! How foolish!"

Bishou's confidence immediately soared.

Having seen the scene where the Crimson Lotus Imperial Princess was defeated, he thought it was utterly reckless for this guy to still use a sword or cold weapon to try to cut him. It was as if he was asking for death!

Indeed, his reflex was an active ability. To reflect an opponent's attack, he had to react in time. But this sword coming straight at him, moving at a speed far less than he had imagined, would be easy for him to block—

Ten meters.

Three meters.

One meter.

Bishou confidently extended his left hand, and the ruby ring on his middle finger emitted an ominous glow.

He could already imagine the victory after this.

"—Flickering Light and Passing Shadows!"

In the blink of an eye, Ryoji was already close to him, making a barely audible low mumbling sound.

"Eh?"

Bishou was suddenly shocked.

Because Ryoji hadn't done anything. He simply held his sword and swept past him.

No, it seemed he hadn't done anything. The sword seemed to have slightly wavered, and there was a strange sound, but nothing else.

"Trying to attack from behind? Dream on— Wait?"

Bishou was just about to turn around.

"Slish!"

In an instant, a clean and neat sword cut appeared across his left wrist, and his left hand, still holding the ring, was immediately detached by gravity, falling off from the wrist.

A large amount of crimson blood spurted out from the severed wrist, tracing an elegant arc in the air before staining the ground.

"What happened?"

Bishou couldn't even respond for a moment.

—To activate his reflection ability, he needed to see the opponent's attack.

But in that brief moment, something had gone wrong with his senses. His consciousness had blurred for an instant as if he had spaced out. And then, suddenly, his left hand had inexplicably been severed.

"My hand... My hand—!"

After a brief moment of dumbfoundedness, intense pain surged through him.

Bishou's complexion twisted, and the tattoos on his face contorted. Clutching his severed left wrist, he let out a horrific, agonizing scream.

"Ha..."

Ryoji had already passed him by, stopping a few steps away, breathing heavily.

The explosive burst of energy from the ancient breathing technique sounded useful, but in essence, it was a method of guiding all the power accumulated within the body in a short moment, unleashing it in an explosive flow.

It was akin to opening a valve as wide as possible and depleting all stamina in one go, sacrificing combat duration for a single burst of power.

Ryoji circled behind the smiling figure, intending to use him as a hostage, hoping the terrorists would hesitate in their actions.

"—Bear!"

But as he turned around, the fierce flames danced, and one soldier after another fell.

Without the worry of hostages, Princess Stella was rampaging, using her Illusionary Form Lævateinn to knock out more than a dozen soldiers.

"Great teammate."

Under the protection of her Empress Dress, bullets were completely useless against Stella.

However, that kind of thing was very troublesome for Ryoji, especially when faced with multiple attacks. His ability was at a severe disadvantage in a group assault.

Because Absolute Speed could only target one object at a time, it was an ultimate duel divine skill, not suited for crowd fights.

Ryoji shrugged, then slashed at Bishou, who was still wailing loudly.

He swiftly switched his Spiritual Item to Illusionary Form, and with a single slash, he drained all of Bishou's stamina. Bishou's eyes rolled back, and he fainted, blood still pouring from his severed wrist in a horrifying spray.

If they didn't stop the bleeding soon, he would die from blood loss within twenty minutes.

"Stella, Shizuku, Ryoji, are you all right?"

After more than a dozen terrorists were taken down, Kurogane Ikki appeared from the third-floor stairs and leaped down, landing firmly on the plaza tiles from a height of more than ten meters.

"Iikki, you're too slow!"

Stella glared at him angrily. "If Ryoji hadn't shown up, what would I have done? I'd have had to take my clothes off!"

"Sorry, sorry. I really meant to rush out earlier, but Eris wouldn't let me..."

Seeing Princess Stella angry but also looking slightly wronged, Kurogane Ikki quickly apologized.

"Sorry, it's my fault. I had to prioritize the overall situation in that moment."

Arisuin Nagi walked down the stairs, clasping his hands together in an apologetic gesture towards Stella, who was glaring at him.

In that situation, had they intervened, it might have triggered the terrorists to harm the hostages.

When Ryoji took action, even though they were surprised, it was unexpected how quickly he intimidated the terrorists with just a few words.

"And, we didn't come away empty-handed!"

Arisuin Nagi snapped his fingers, and, under the group's gaze, a pitch-black spring oozed from the ground.

From that shadowy world, one after another, figures appeared, like rows of monks. Each one was dressed in black with a gas mask—terrorists, all of them, but now all lying unconscious.

"My ability is controlling shadows, so I'm good at surprise attacks. Ikki and I teamed up to eliminate the remaining terrorists hiding around us."

He said with a happy expression.

Including the Blazer Smile, a total of twenty-eight terrorists were decapitated thanks to the efforts of the Student Knights.

"Iya!"

"You all, let go of Bishou Sama, or I'll—"

"Bang!"

With a crisp sound, a black iron fan struck the neck of the last terrorist hiding among the crowd, knocking her out cold as if she were broken.

"Not bad, but don't get too excited. Until the end, we can't afford to let our guard down."

Saikyou Nene retracted her iron fan, smiling as she addressed the group.

That was wrong.

A total of twenty-nine terrorists were put out of commision, thanks to the efforts of the Student Knights and Sensei, while the legal loli had fun fooling around.

(End of Chapter)

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