Chapter 56: Underhanded Victory

The battle began with the katana-wielding girl taking the initiative, dashing towards Cyanide at incredible speed. Cyanide had checked her stats with Inspect II earlier and discovered that while she was only Level 21, she had an AGI stat of 100, which was higher than Cyanide's own.

Naturally, this meant she was lacking elsewhere—and Cyanide planned to exploit that.

First of all, since her INT stat was still the default value of just 1, she couldn't use any Soul Arts. However, Cyanide decided not to use any Soul Arts in this duel, since that might make the girl complain about how he didn't wear fairly or something like that, then he would have to fight her again… and it'll just be a pain.

Secondly, Cyanide saw that the girl only had a STR stat of 50, while Cyanide's own was 60. Now this, he could abuse. This meant when it came to a showdown of raw muscular strength and nothing more, Cyanide would emerge victorious.

With this in mind, Cyanide too dashed from his starting location and met the girl's blade with his own. Metal struck metal, and the sound of two swords clashing rose into the air. The girl smirked and slid her katana along Cyanide's to go for his neck, but Cyanide leaned back to avoid her strike and countered with a lower-body slash of his own.

The girl parried swiftly, knocking Cyanide's blade upwards before diving in once again for a forward thrust, but Cyanide ducked down elegantly, deflected her blade with his like water, then drew a beautiful circle with his katana to turn defense into offense with a graceful moulinet.

"—!"

This advanced technique caught the girl off-guard, and she took several steps back to put some distance between herself and Cyanide.

"… Wow. I thought you were a beginner, but… it's actually difficult to tell who's the more experienced one here," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Where did you learn how to use the katana? I'm well-versed with all the major sword academies of Japan, but I don't remember your face."

'Japan…?' Cyanide thought. 'So that's where she's from… but she sounds like she's speaking English to me. Is it because of the game?'

Cyanide had studied every language in the world during his upbringing, but English was still his primary language despite being born in Japan. This is because his former teacher, Anthrax, was American.

"… I was taught by an old man," Cyanide said at last, not sure how else to answer. "He's dead now, but I doubt you know him. Even I don't know his identity."

"Huh, so some secluded master… I see. There's no shortage of those in Japan," the girl murmured, then shook her head. "Anyway… let's continue. It would seem I need to get serious."

Meanwhile, Cyanide was completely unconcerned as they dove into battle once more. Instead, he was more interested in how she just naturally assumed he was from Japan as well. She wasn't wrong in the sense that he was born there, but she didn't actually know that. Cyanide guessed she probably thought so because to her, he most likely was speaking fluent Japanese.

Either way, it was clear the girl was stepping up her game in the duel. Her movements were now even faster and more precise, her gaze focused and her smile confident. Cyanide remained as unconcerned as ever and used just enough effort to keep up with her, before suddenly-

"Take… this!"

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The girl suddenly reared back for a moment before lunging forward again, but this time in a flurry of rapid thrusts with her katana rather than just a single one. Cyanide's eyes widened a bit at this change and did his best to deflect them, but there were simply too many different angles. So, instead, he backed away, but the girl didn't give him a chance to rest and jumped after him by kicking herself off the floor and soaring forward like a bullet herself.

"Orbital Slash!" She yelled, spinning her body around in the air and becoming the living embodiment of a drill.

But Cyanide merely smiles as if her putting so much effort into this was nothing but a joke to him, and accepts what's coming without even trying to defend. The girl, seeing this, widened her eyes and quickly tried to a skid to a stop lest she kills Cyanide by accident.

A fatal mistake.

That was exactly what Cyanide wanted to happen, and she fell right into the trap.

"… Hmph."

He bent down slightly, and angled his katana so that the girl's would slide right over his. The girl realized what he was trying to do, but it was too late now to stop her momentum.

"Hngh-!" She cried out in pain as Cyanide grabbed her by the wrist just as she soared over him, then slammed her into the concrete ground before pointing his katana at her neck.

"… Second rule of survival. If you've already made up the mind to strike, do not show mercy to anyone or anything, no matter who or what they are. You've lost. Now… tell me what I want to know."

"Ngh… that wasn't fair at all!" The girl yelled, pouting in anger and sitting up despite the blade pointed at her face. She was clearly frustrated, but whether that was directed at Cyanide or herself, she did not know. Cyanide found this quite intriguing. Most others would be terrified of the blade practically at their neck, but this girl didn't seem scared of him at all.

Slowly, he moved the katana away from her face and instead stuck it into the ground.

"Fair?" He laughed darkly. "This is a survival game where life and death are on the line. If you think mutants or other players are going to play fair, you won't last a week."

"I've already lasted a week, thanks," the girl said sarcastically, rolling her eyes and getting to her feet before dusting her school uniform off. It had the label of Lumina High on it, and Cyanide assumed she found a fresh set somewhere in the building. "A deal is a deal, though, and however underhanded, you won. I'll tell you about auras, but before that…"

Suddenly, the gurgling of a stomach could be heard, and it certainly wasn't from Cyanide. The girl blushed deeply and averted her gaze, playing with her long brown hair, then snuck a glance at Cyanide.

"Um… do you have any place we could eat, perhaps…?"

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