The Mech Touch

A rush of white fog surged forward as if it wanted to engulf Ketis!

Though the woman wondered how she was supposed to block an incoming attack when she was unable to maintain vision on her opponent's sword, an even greater priority occupied her mind.

"Eww! I am not about to let you submerge me in your own sweat!"

Disgust and indignation welled in her. Although she was not a woman who cared too much about girly stuff, there were some lines that shouldn't be crossed!

"Get away you disgusting creep!"

Her greatsword resonated with Sharpie and her will. A sharp energy formed around it, which Ketis quickly launched forward with a simple slash.

This was the Beheader, a simplified version of the Executioner technique!

The sharp and thin energy wave she unleashed did not possess the grandness of the original technique. In exchange for giving up a lot of power, the Beheader condensed a lot faster, demanded much less energy and did not require as much concentration.

However, as her sword energy attack entered into the foggy cloud, nothing happened. It was as if the attack she unleashed had disappeared.

"Huh?"

The Cloud Cascade had already rushed up to her! Ketis had no choice but to set her bewilderment aside and enter a blocking stance while she hastily stepped back.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ivan's fencing sword spontaneously emerged out of the fog and slashed at Ketis from different directions.

There were two reasons why Ketis managed to block the incoming blows despite the lack of time to react.

First, her large and wide greatsword could cover a lot of angles without needing to move too much.

Second, Ketis relied on her intuition and other senses to determine where Ivan would launch his next attack!

While this sounded easy, Ivan put Ketis under a lot of pressure with this move. It was several times harder to fight against an opponent who was able to keep his body hidden!

The properties of the cloud surrounding Ivan were too strange. She knew the fog didn't consist of ordinary sweat.

"I need to blow it away somehow!"

Yet when she thought about which technique she could utilize to remove the annoying cloud screen, she came up empty.

None of her attacks was able to affect such a large area!

As Ketis continued to remain on the defense, Ivan slowly gained momentum. Since this trick was effective against his opponent, he had no reason to drop it at this point!

Seeing that Ivan was more than willing to stick to a single winning strategy, she grew more grim. She jumped back and executed another Beheader!

Even though she swore that Ivan was hiding in the fog right in front of her, when her quick energy attack sank into the cloud without generating any sound, she became dismayed.

There had to be a way to deal with this odd technique!

She unleashed a couple of more Beheaders. However, it seemed that each of her attacks missed Ivan again and again.

Not only that, but as time went by, the cloud continued to expand. It first encompassed a width that was just thrice Ivan's body. After a minute had passed, it was as wide as six humans standing side by side!

"Damn! Did your entire body transform into sweat or something?!"

Of course, Ivan was not stupid enough to respond and give his position away.

After Ketis unleashed her fifth attack, she suddenly frowned.

What was she doing?

Why was she wasting her energy on ineffective sword energy attacks?

As her rationality reasserted itself, she realized that she had fallen into a trap. She allowed herself to get swept up in her heated emotions. While that was usually not a problem, this time she had unknowingly entered into a losing exchange!

So far, aside from generating and maintaining his so-called Cloud Cascade, Ivan had done nothing but approach and launch some simple attacks behind his unique form of concealment.

From her understanding of energy, she recognized that Ivan was actively channeling his will over an area around him in order to maintain his unnatural cloud.

Therefore, under the premise that she could not eliminate him in her current condition, her best choice was to stall and adopt a more conservative approach!

Though she felt tempted to switch to annihilation mode and release a glob of annihilation energy, the move was quite wasteful. It wasn't worth it to expend so much effort to get rid of some trivial sweat.

Ketis decisively drew back. This forced Ivan to move forward, dragging his misty fog with him if he wanted to remain under concealment.

She grinned. "Huh. So that's how it works."

The sight encouraged her to keep stepping back and avoiding a confrontation. She made conscious use of one of the conventional dueling rules. Since her loadout was heavier, she was under no obligation to approach her opponent.

It was different for Ivan! If he did not actively engage Ketis in combat for a certain duration of time, then he would forfeit the match by default!

Normally, this shouldn't be a big deal for a swordsman who possessed superior speed, but the problem right now was that he had to expend a lot of effort to bring his cloud forward!

Eventually, Ivan recognized Ketis' solution and the futility to fight against it. He retracted his will and let his sweat dissipate.

Ivan huffed and breathed heavily. His skin was still red from discharging so much sweat at once. Even though this action should have cooled his body down, Ketis could sense his body was still in an overheated state.

"You should lie down and take a rest." Ketis kindly suggested.

"Ah, this is nothing but a warm up to me. I didn't think you would be so clever. Every other swordsman I confronted with this move in the past tried to do their best to break it by force."

"Well, now you know what it is like to fight against a mech designer. Dispense with the tricks!"

Ivan smiled as his battle intent grew stronger despite his failed gambit. "As you wish!"

He darted forward in a familiar oblique fashion. Ketis had to move quickly in order to block the incoming attack.

Clang!

However, she barely had time to turn around before Ivan swept past again!

Clang!

Numerous exchanges like this happened every second or so. It seemed that his previous injuries hadn't affected his stamina at all. He continued to run as if he had turned himself into a breeze and performed quick and difficult-to-intercept attacks that quickly put Ketis on the backfoot again.

This time, Ketis wasn't content to remain in a passive position.

When Ivan was about to make his next attack pass, Ketis lurched her body to the side and boldly attempted to tackle her opponent!

Ivan reacted quickly though and turned and danced around Ketis, not forgetting to make a quick swipe, only to get blocked by her greatsword.

"Damn! That was dangerous!"

The Cloudstrider disciple stopped performing his Breeze Steps after a while. Even if Ketis was too slow to intercept him after he behaved more cautiously, all of his attacks were blocked without fail.

Ketis was too good to fall for this approach!

He decided to enter into a direct confrontation, which was outside of Ketis' expectation. His fencing sword glowed as he directly lunged at Ketis!

Though Ketis managed to deflect the stab with ease, Ivan was not done yet. A familiar disturbance swept her body and mind as she blocked the next incoming attack.

Though she really wanted to counterattack, Ivan did not let up on the pressure. He continually lunged and stabbed at her at different points.

Each time he did so, a bit of wind picked up. At the same time, Ketis felt some sort of pressure acting on her mind.

Ivan was summoning the hurricane again!

Yet different from last time, Ketis did not experience any disorientation. Her mental fortitude had grown by leaps and bounds. Her will might not be as solid as that of an expert pilot, but she was considerably stronger than before!

Even so, Ivan did not give up on his plan. As his flurry of stabs continued, the raging breeze slowly turned into the beginnings of a storm.

As Ketis grew more and more annoyed at the accumulating winds, she decided enough was enough.

Her greatsword glowed as she performed a counterattack, heedless of her fencing sword heading in her direction.

In any case, her weapon had greater reach, so Ivan would definitely be the first to suffer!

Though the Cloudstrider skillfully evaded the swinging greatsword, Ketis did not miss her attack.

Attacking Ivan was just an opportunistic attempt. Her real goal was to break something else!

"Conceptual Cut!"

Although  her glowing greatsword only cut through empty air, the supernatural storm that Ivan had accumulated with persistent effort suddenly died down!

Only a gentle breeze remained as much of the power that Ivan previously invested in the storm had forcefully dissipated!

This time, Ivan had truly become surprised! "I didn't know you could do that!"

"There is nothing that I can't cut! Even energy fields don't stand a chance against my blade!"

Spotting an opening, Ketis rushed forward and began to hack at her opponent. Her greatsword still glowed with sharpness, but Ivan still managed to negate her strikes without incurring any significant damage.

A part of that had to do with his odd defensive technique. In the few times that Ketis managed to pull off a feint, Ivan's body spontaneously pulled back as if he was grasped by a giant hand.

Most of the time, Ivan merely evaded her attacks. His dodging capabilities were so good that he even found chances to counterattack!

As the clash increasingly favored Ivan, he began to accumulate power in a different fashion.

Instead of expanding his will to the immediate environment in order to generate extra wind, he kept his power within his body.

Slowly but surely, Ketis felt as if Ivan was growing stronger and faster by the second. Even though Ivan's body shook a few times, the strength and speed he exhibited became increasingly unnatural!

"Face my strongest state!" Ivan roared as he lunged forward and struck out with his fencing blade three times faster than before!

Ketis felt a lot of threat from this sudden attack. She wasn't able to move her greatsword fast enough to block the accelerated strike!

Her will spiked as Sharpie suddenly released a large amount of power at once!

A strange field formed around Ketis just as Ivan's empowered sword was about to stab through her shoulder.

The field partially blocked Ivan's sinister's move!

"What!?"

Not only did the energy field slow down Ivan's sword to the point where Ketis gained enough time to move her body aside, it also attacked and damaged the weapon in question!

When Ivan pulled back his sword, he noticed that a portion of the tip looked worn.

That was dangerous!

Though Ketis was happy at the result, she winced at how much energy she expended. It took a lot from Sharpie to generate this strange new field!

The fight wasn't over, though. Ketis took back the initiative and pressured Ivan with repeated attacks. Though Ketis did not try very hard at trying to outmaneuver a nimbler opponent, the force she put behind her blows caused Ivan to feel a lot of distress!

However, when he attempted to pull back and open up some distance, Ketis smirked and began to accumulate power.

She did not unleash a cheap Beheader this time. Instead, she intended to go all the way and unleash a full Executioner!

Ivan recognized the threat. "How powerful!"

In order to prevent his opponent from completing her power move, Ivan dashed forward while also circling towards the side.

This forced Ketis to unleash her attack prematurely. Even though the Executioner she released was a bit weaker, it was still powerful enough to knock Ivan out of the tournament if he got struck!

"Oh no you don't!" Ivan roared!

To her surprise, the Cloudstrider's will spiked as he forcefully jumped and stepped onto the air!

Even though he was only able to step on the air twice, he managed to gain enough height to completely jump over the lethal sword energy attack despite its last-second course correction.

As Ivan's will continued to flare, some sort of wind propelled his body forward. He dived down onto Ketis with his sword ready to overcome her defenses by force!