Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume20 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 3===

"&mdash;Fight me, Ren Ashbell!"

A body of a lion and the wings of an eagle.

Luminaris' mount, the Griffin, launched a surprise attack from overhead.

"...! An ambush!?"

Ellis widened her eyes in surprise.

Simorgh twisted his massive body, trying to evade the attack.

"&mdash;Murgleis!"

However, Luminaris swung her holy sword, leaving a deep wound on the demon wind spirit's wing.

Feathers of pure white scattered in the air like petals.

"Simorgh!"

Ellis cried out.

Losing balance due to the wounded wing, Simorgh circled while gliding through the air.

The pressure of gravity increased all at once, almost causing Kamito to fall off.

"...! O wind!"

Ellis chanted wind magic to produce a small rising air current, lifting one wing.

However&mdash;

"Ellis right above!"

"...!

The shadow of a gigantic magic beast appeared silently overhead.

(...She's catching up to Ellis' Simorgh!?)

Sacrificing stability as a trade-off, Luminaris' mount&mdash;an older generation militarized spirit, the Griffin&mdash;was somewhat faster than the Pegasus. Be that as it may, this speed was too&mdash;

(Nothing less expected from the Holy Kingdom's strongest knight, huh?)

It was combat instinct built upon abundant battle experience.

Predicting what Ellis would do after evading the initial attacks, Luminaris had circled around in advance.

"&mdash;O Wind, sweep away mine enemies, Wind Bombs!"

Ellis immediately released spirit magic to intercept Luminaris.

However, Luminaris used her holy sword to slice apart the howling gale.

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Murgleis glowed with brilliant holy light.

Claaaaaang!

Kamito blocked the potent sword strike.

(Crap&mdash;)

However, even though he blocked the sword, it was not enough to dissipate the force.

Kamito was not sitting very securely to begin with, and ended up blown away into the air by the impact.

"Kamito!"

Ellis stretched out her hand but could not reach him.

After leaving the effective range of the wind barrier, he instantly fell with gravity's pull.

(...! I'll fall to my death at this rate... I have to take a gamble!)

Whiling falling, Kamito closed his eyes and concentrated, circulating divine power of darkness throughout his body.

It was possible in theory, but he had never actually tried it.

However, Kamito as he was right now was confident.

"Hahhhhhhhhhhh!"

Opening all the circulating channels in his body, he released refined divine power in one go.

In that instant, Kamito's body emitted black light and suddenly stopped in midair.

"Ha, only after trying do I realize it's easier than I imagined."

Remaining suspended in midair, Kamito muttered.

"Wha&mdash;"

"W-What!?"

Ellis and Luminaris both exclaimed in surprise.

"Impossible. To hover in midair simply by releasing divine power without relying on the power of spirits&mdash;!?"

"There is nothing to be surprised about. It's just a physical technique that uses divine power."

Among the assassination techniques learned by Kamito at the Instructional School, there was a move named Water Lily that enabled unfettered movement in water. This counted as a versatile application of it.

Of course, though it was easy for Kamito to say, hovering in the air through the release of divine power was an act requiring high levels of concentration and precise control, and impossible to execute without vast amounts of divine power.

No elementalist could achieve it apart from Kamito who possessed all the necessary requirements.

"Although I still need to put in some work to get used to it, there happens to be some to practice with&mdash;"

Readying his black and white swords in a stance, he boasted arrogantly.

"...! Damn you&mdash;!"

Luminaris intensified her blood lust.

"Ellis, it looks like she wants a duel with me. Leave this to me."

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, I'm entrusting the ship to you."

"...Understood."

After a moment's hesitation...

Ellis disappeared into the clouds, riding Simorgh.

Her firm trust in Kamito was very evident.

She strongly believed that Kamito would not lose&mdash;

Luminaris did not even glance at Ellis as she left the battlefield.

She only had eyes for Kamito&mdash;Ren Ashbell, the Strongest Blade Dancer she had crossed swords with three years ago.

From intensity of her gaze, Kamito could feel her determination.

"Sorry, there's not a lot of time. Bring it on, Luminaris."

"Here I come, Ren Ashbell!"

The holy light emitted by the elemental waffe Murgleis turned the sky white.