Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5 Draft (section)

===Part 2===

The male elementalist rushed to the fallen Knight’s side.

Armed with the elemental waffe—Terminus Est, he stood next to her and spread his arms as if trying to shield her.

Claire was a short distance away with Fianna following her. The princess was out of breath.

"Ellis, are you alright?"

"...I-It isn't a big deal."

Kamito lifted Ellis up by her shoulder and she turned red, facing away from him.

"What on earth happened? Who is that person?"

"It is nothing you guys should concern yourselves with. This has been entrusted to the Knights, so step back."

"That won't do. We are elementalists. And even if there weren't any Knights, we have the obligation to fight and protect the academy."

"That’s right. Besides—"

Staring directly at her face, Kamito asked.

"Do you think we could just stay silent when our precious comrade is being hurt?"

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"Kamito..."

Ellis's face turned bright red and she brought a hand to her chest.

At that moment—

"Hey, I can't believe you came. Kazehaya Kamito."

The enemy elementalist raised his <!-- is it supposed to be his or her?--> voice. For some reason, it sounded very irritating.

"...Who are you? Why do you know my name?"

"You are famous, you know. '''You're the same as me, a male elementalist'''."

"What!?"

Before his eyes, the guy started slowly taking off his overcoat and hood.

Kamito and the girls gulped nervously.

Coming to sight from under the overcoat was a boy.

He had dark, brown skin and tattoos applied all over his body, but his most notable feature was the pair of shining, red eyes.

"Such a thing... don't tell me, there are male elementalists other than Kamito!?"

Claire raised her voice in surprise.

It wasn't a girl disguised as a boy. <!-- 男装した少女--ではない。-->

Not just his voice or face, but his physique too, no matter how one looked at it he was a male.


(This guy, who on earth... No, more importantly –)

Before Kamito's eyes, the injured Knight girls collapsed. <!—weren’t they already on the ground-->

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"Was this done by you?"

"Yeah. However, I didn't kill them. That lot was raised in a safe miniature garden<!—maybe “greenhouse”--> and isn't worth the effort."

"What did you say!?"

"Calm down, Ellis, it's just a cheap provocation."

Ellis grinded her teeth and whispered in Kamito's ear.

"Be careful, Kazehaya Kamito. He has a double contract with spirits."

"…?"

In other words, he had contracts with two spirits at the same time.<!--The words “double contract” were used three times in a row and then there was the fourth “contract” so I shortened it.--> 

By using several spirits, one could cover the weakness of his fighting style.

However, it also placed a lot of limitations on the elementalist.

The fellow contracted spirits interfered with each other, making it impossible for them to manifest their original powers.

Kamito was in the same situation right now. As the contract with the darkness spirit was not broken, it ended up shutting out Est's energy and allowing her to use only a fraction of her true strength.

“A male spirit contractor and with two spirits to boot?"

"Yeah, the Wolf Fang for close-combat, and the Blast Gear for attacking from a distance."

Ellis nodded.

"Hey, could you overlook this for today? I am not in the mood to fight you now."

"What was that?"

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Kamito frowned at the boy, who waved his hand dismissively, as if making fun of him.

"As long as I obtain this, that's fine."

The boy took out a small black lithograph from his chest pocket to show them.

"What is that?"

"The classified materials of the seal specification that I stole from the academy library. By using a special spirit device, it is filled with high density information that can be deciphered."

Arming herself with her demon lance of wind, Ellis muttered.

"Why did you steal such –"

At that moment, a leather whip flew from behind her aimed at the boy's hand.

He easily dodged Claire's surprise attack. Had it been foreseen?

"—Kamito, Ellis!"

"Ahh!"

Even before Claire shouted, both of them were already moving.

"Tch, what a stupid lot—"

"You bastard—"

Hearing someone insult her comrades enraged Ellis

She lashed with her Ray Hawk in a perfect horizontal arc – the wind blades, dancing boisterously, severed the roadside trees.

"Huh, another charge? You have no finesse!"

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After dodging the raging wind blades, the boy charged.


His strength and speed were definitely inhuman. He moved like a shadow passing through his opponents unhindered and drove a counter punch into Ellis's stomach.

"Guu—"

"Ellis!"

Kamito shouted.

The girl fainted after being hit and the guy used the opportunity to escape into the darkness.

(To knock her out with just one strike...)

"You won’t escape!"

Claire immediately lashed with the Flame Tongue. The beautiful arc that the whip drew left a red, hot trail that vividly stood out in the black night.

A sculpture, modeled after the appearance of the spirit lord, was severed in an instant and blasted with a loud sound.

Kamito took a stance with Terminus Est and jumped into the rising cloud of dust.

The attack just now shouldn't have connected. So he searched for the enemy by his presence—

At that moment, he felt bloodlust coming from behind.

Kamito immediately jumped sideways and a dagger flashed past the place his head was a moment ago.

The boy stepped in without a sound. He didn't give him a chance to get any distance between them.

There were no wasted movements. It looked like the art of Silent Killing.

(This guy – he's a professional assassin!?)

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Kamito barely stopped the blow of the drawn sword, flashing in the darkness, with his blade.

At that moment, there was a strong impact to his stomach. The powerful punch made Kamito's stance crumble. An assassin's dagger swooped over – but he knocked it aside with the bottom of his fist and used the force to roll on the ground and get some distance.

"Hey, aren't you pretty good, as expected of the strongest blade dancer."

"What!?"

Kamito's eyes widened in surprise.

(This guy, does he know my true identity!?)

In that moment of surprise, when Kamito stopped paying the battle attention, the boy smiled and came at him once again.

There were no weapons in his enemy’s hands while Kamito was armed with Terminus Est—

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Sword Spirit|Falchion|margin=13}}!"

"Wha!?"

There was a violent explosion and Terminus Est, which he swung horizontally, was repelled.

The boy was holding in his hand a large blue shining sword.

It wasn't an ordinary blade, but an elemental waffe of a sword spirit.

"Another one!?"

Several times he had crossed swords with elementalists that used two spirits simultaneously.

However he never heard of anyone using more than that.

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"This isn't something to be that surprised about. The Demon King Solomon was said to have used seventy-two spirits, you know."

"Don't mess around... that's just a legend—"

"What if the proof of that legend was now right before your eyes?"

The boy warped his lips into a smile.

"I am Jio Inzagi – '''The one who will succeed the Demon King'''."

"Kamito, get away!"

At that moment, countless fireballs were released from behind. It was Claire's spirit magic.

His reaction was instantaneous as he jumped aside.

It was a barrage of fireballs. However, the boy –Jio Inzagi held out his hand with a calm composure…

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Wind Spirit|Aerial|margin=13}}!"

And released a gust of compressed air.

The violent whirling wind erased the fireballs and blew away the surrounding rubble together with Kamito.

(Aerial...His fourth spirit!?)

Jio's shadow appeared right above Kamito, who was extremely surprised by the recent turn of events.

It seemed that the intruder used the force of the release for a jump.

The edge of the sword spirit in his hand shone silver.

"Die—{{Furigana|Strongest Blade Dancer|Ren Ashbell|margin=13}}."

"...!?"

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The tip of the shining sword approached Kamito’s heart.

At that moment, a pebble flew from the side.

"Tch—"

Jio repelled it reflexively, and at that moment—

A flash of light filled his vision.

Blinded and disoriented he dropped his sword. Falling, the blade pierced the ground.

Kamito quickly regained his stance—

Katsun! –There was a dry sound. A broken transparent stone fell at Kamito's feet.

(...Is it a spirit crystal?)

Taken aback, Kamito turned around.

Over there—

"Hey, I wonder, could you please not forget about me?"

Fianna was standing with her hands at her waist.