562 Naive Thinking
"Let's move on to swords. Here you go."
Balgaranda handed me a wooden sword. Yup, the champion hasn't had his fill yet.
I guessed right. Sword, spear, fist, bow, and magic. There's a high chance he won't let me go till we have a bout in every school of combat.
Balgaranda has a round wooden shield as his personal equipment. And a wooden sword.
It's not shaped uniquely. But it's clearly pretty heavy.
The sound his wooden sword produced from swinging is different from mine.
"Ah, I'm using a custom wooden sword I use for training. Any issue with that? Yours is a standard one. What do you think? Any complaint?"
Getting hit by that thing is gonna be real hurt. Injury would be the least of your worry.
It could lead to death depending on the spot. Looks like my 30 gold coin reward includes treatment.
Balgaranda must have talked about our agreement with our observer.
Must be why this observer, the manager of this coliseum is here with us right now.
(But this observer has been watching us at the front seat with their mouth agape ever since we started.)
"Even a graze would be risky if we used bladed swords. Let's make this exciting even with wooden ones. Come, let's have some fun."
I wanted to retort, the one you're holding is a deadly weapon in itself.
(A graze of bladed swords? People who got hit by that wooden sword of yours would easily die.)
Probably the same with me and my godly power.
A match where not even a graze is permitted. I took my stance with that in mind.
I have my sword aimed at eye level, while Balgaranda projects his shield forward with his sword pointed to his side.
His style likely consists of flicking attacks with his shield and countering with a slash.
He looks like a huge mountain before me. An unomving mountain.
It's interesting how my impression of him keeps changing from meteorite to mountain.
Which goes to show how weird my line of thinking is.
"Allow me to start."
A sword is a tool to press and cut your opponent. It's different from katana. Well, there are that type of katana too though, like 'Heshikiri-Hasebe'.
That aside. I steeled myself and lunged to strike at Balgaranda's shield.
However, I was too naive. He'll block or parry with his shield. Followed by a counter.
I thought that was the game plan. But that was too naive an idea.
He didn't block or parry. He dodged. A beautiful side step that robbed me of a hit.
I was slashing diagonally from above at the shield. Meanwhile, an attack aimed at my left abdomen was coming while I was focusing at the shield.
The counter came faster than my strike.
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(He got me! I'm so dumb!)
I frantically changed my sword's trajectory and hit Balgaranda's sword.
I barely made it in time. A loud thud resounded loudly as our swords clashed.
"I thought I got you for good. Can't believe you managed to shift your slash in that pose. How did you manage to react? Also... I was so sure you lost your balance there."
The trick is me entering Acceleration for a little bit.
I mean, even if a hit from that ended up not hurting me, I can't bring myself to purposely take a slash from a sword shaped object.
Blunt attack does nothing to me, but what about slashing attacks?
I don't want to test it out, ever. What if a blade actually injured me, what then?
No matter how sturdy this body is, there's no way a blade wound would do nothing.
All the more if the test involves the risk of dying.
That doesn't mean I want to test out cutting myself a bit with a dagger or something either.
Edged tools are scary. I won't forget that.
Nor do I can forget how lethal the katana I have.
Hence why I did all I could to block the sword, including Acceleration.
I entered Accelerated mode right before Balgaranda's sword hit my torso, slipped past it and undid Acceleration. That's how I blocked his sword.
It's not reflex. In fact, that would have been a clean hit if I did nothing.
But I won't allow that. I was too naive for thinking I could do without Acceleration.
Gotta change my mindset. I've been looking down on my opponent because of this power.
(My opponent is far stronger than me. He's so high level all the matches in my past life seem cheap in comparison. This is a different world. You risk your life when you fight. I have zero experience in that kinda stuff.)
I never put my life on the line in a match in my previous word.
I reminded myself of the fantasy I live in now as I faced off against the strong man before me.
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