Editing Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume5 Chapter7 (section)

===Part 5===
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(......A distraction, huh!)

What had exploded was a depth charge spirit stone embedded in the ground that was prepared beforehand.

It was a substitute that looked flashy but had no power.

But it had made an opening for an instant.

In tandem with it, Kamito felt determined presences moving in.

(......From below!)

He felt the flash was to disrupt him. Kamito trusted his instinct and jumped.

Right after. The place Kamito had been at just before was replaced with a giant arm of sand.

As he thought, there were others as well.

The sand mass wriggled and stretch towards his arm—

"I won't allow that, freezing fangs, pierce — Freezing Arrow!"

Rinslet's ice arrow pierced the sand arm.

"Kamito, above!"

Claire warned him.

Kamito kicked the ground and jumped-—

"—Crush them to death, stone beast spirit Gargoyle!"

The shadow that instantly fell to the ground. The gigantic mass that fell from above.

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Earth and sand danced in the air as the ground tremored.

The spirit that had taken the form of a stone goblin. The elementalist girl rode on its back.

The beautiful pure white uniform.

"If I recall, that's the Kingdom of Balstan's......''

"—O master swordsman, become my shield!"

From further up the path appeared Fianna's knight spirit.

The knight's sword drew a shining arc. The sound of stone being crushed rang out as the stone beast's arm was destroyed.

Two seconds after the flash, his eyes had finally recovered.

The young ladies got into formation around Claire.

(I can't really blade dance without Est, but—)

He created a short sword using his basic spirit magic.

He attempted to circle around in the disturbance — just then.

Sending earth and sand flying, a sand giant appeared before him.

"Tch......!"

Kamito widened the gap while clicking his tongue.

(The sand spirit user — just where are they?)

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Kamito quickly ran his eyes over the surrounding area.

The first theory was that the elementalist had used their spirit's earth attribute to hide underground with spirit magic. But there were no traces of such.

A second presence appeared behind him—

(The second one......!)

From the shadow of the trees appeared a girl wielding a saber.

An invisible flash split the tree behind Kamito.

Kamito covered himself and dodged.

"To dodge my blades of wind, as expected of the male elementalist."

The girl shouted that as she turned to face him.

"For the act of embarrassing my master — sorry, but I'll have you disappear here!"

"So it's really revenge for that idiotic prince, huh......"

Kamito sighed, astonished.

There were those who foolishly dragged their trivial personal grudges into the Blade Dance.

"......I sympathize with you. Elementalist of Balstan."

"I won't allow ridiculing my master!"

The wind elementalist girl swung the saber.

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Kamito dodged to the side by jumping. The blades of wind lightly grazed his neck.

(......Although if I had Est, that kind of attack would be nothing.)

The storm of wind blades that flew in every direction prevented Kamito from closing in.

"Hah, it seems you really can't fight without a contracted spirit!"

(......Why does she know I lost Est?)

As he raised suspicions, at that moment — bluish-white lightning came from behind him.

He instantly turned his body and repelled it with his spirit magic sword.

The sword burst into grains.

Facing to the direction it came from, a girl stood there with an elemental waffe bow.

"No way, he reacted to that surprise attack just now!?"

The wind elementalist widened her eyes in shock.

"It's because I knew another person would be hiding."

Kamito shrugged.

"As I thought, you're dangerous. We have to crush you while you can't use your contracted spirit."

"You're overestimating me quite a bit."

He observed the surroundings without letting down his guard as he jested.

Behind was the saber-wielding wind elementalist. In front was the bow-wielding lightning elementalist.

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And the sand giant also appeared behind him.

(......Three skilled elementalists. As expected, it's tough.)

Cold sweat gathered on his temple.

From some point in time, a thick fog had coated the forest.

It wasn't natural fog. It was obviously created with spirit magic.

Claire and others should be fighting against that stone beast spirit from before not too far away, but because of the fog, he couldn't hear sounds of the battle or their voices at all.

(From the start, this plan was for taking me down, huh—)

This time's Blade Dance was a battle of attrition.

There was no need to defeat all of the enemy team at once.

He didn't know where they'd received information about his losing Est, but they had aimed for Team Scarlet who had lost their strongest force.

The two elementalists battling Claire and the others were likely just buying time.

(Then I'll also buy time. Just hold on until Claire and the others come—)

Kamito gripped his hands and took half a step.

"It's useless!"

The wind elementalist waved her saber and created blades of wind.

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But Kamito didn't stop. Slightly shifting his center of gravity, he dodged by a hair's breadth.

"He can see my wind blades!?"

"—It's a pity but their paths are easy to read in a forest!"

The blades themselves were invisible, but he could see the leaves and branches they cut. After being shown the attack so many times, Kamito had discerned their speed and width.

Of course, to actually carry it out required extraordinary senses and courage.

Messing up just a tiny bit would mean the end. Due to the rules, his head wouldn't fly but his consciousness would.

Accelerating, he closed in on the wind elementalist.

"You, I won't let you!"

Immediately, an arrow of lightning came towards him — however,

That instant, Kamito disappeared.

"Wha!?"

Kamito had kicked the ground and flew straight up.

The battle techniques that had been hammered into him at the Instructional School — Meta three-dimensional movement.

The other orphan from the Instructional School, Jio Inzagi, had also used this move, but his speed did not match the overwhelming version of Kamito's Shadow Weaving.

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Weaving between the branches of the trees, it was a technique of moving at top speed in all directions to toy with the opponent. Amongst the elementalists that had received ordinary battle training, there were none that could do this.

Kicking the trunk of a tree, Kamito accelerated. The wind elementalist and lightning elementalist fired at the afterimages he left behind and hit nothing.

"—Sandman, topple the trees around you!"

The wind elementalist shouted sharply.

The sand spirit roared and knocked down the surrounding trees.

Despite its dull-looking body, it was unexpectedly fast. He had fought with members of the earth attribute — such as rock, but this was the first type that had such mobility.

"Tch......"

Losing his footholds, Kamito had no other choice but to land.

"—O wind, blow wildly!"

The blades of wind from the side severed the sand giant's arm.

The blue ponytail waving in the wind.

Ellis who had her elemental waffe Ray Hawk in hand.

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"—Ellis, that's a great help."

"Sorry for being late. The mist spirit caused me trouble."

Ellis landed lightly and readied her spear with magnificent movements.

"Kuu, the plan is a failure, huh......retreat!"

The enemy wind elementalist's judgment was quick.

The plan to take Kamito out with a swift attack coupled with a surprise attack had failed. There was no point in fighting any further.

"—Like I'll let you run!"

Ellis waved Ray Hawk.

Ellis' demon wind spirit was several tiers above the opponent's wind spirit. While cutting down the trees in its path, the wind blades attacked the retreating elementalist.

In its path — the sand giant stood up.

The blades of wind landed a direct hit. The wind elementalist and lightning elementalist had disappeared into the forest.

Ellis bit her lip in frustration. The sand spirit immediately began to rebuild.

However, at the moment the front had been blown open, Kamito realized.

(I thought its movements were too good......so you hid there.)

The sand gathered again and completely resealed its wound --- just before that.

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Kamito instantly jumped into the sand's opening --- he punched through the giant's solar plexus.

It was the feeling of sand that greeted his fist.

The rebuilding sand giant crumbled in moments.

The one that appeared from within was a girl who had fainted.

"What does this mean?"

"That sand giant was her elemental waffe."

Kamito shrugged and answered Ellis' question.

"......Sorry. I'll be taking this."

Kamito leaned down and took the magic stone from around the girl's neck.

If they waited one minute, this girl would be transported back to the grand shrine.

"Kamito!" "Kamito-kun!" "Were you okay?"

Claire and the others came running from the other side of the forest.

It seems the other fight had also reached a conclusion.

"Are you guys also unhurt?"

"Yeah......rather, don't tell me you defeated them without a contracted spirit?"

Claire widened her ruby eyes.

"No, it would have been dangerous if Ellis hadn't come. They ran away in the end."

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"Here," he said as he tossed the magic stone to Claire.

At that time, the fainted sand elementalist was enveloped by a transportation circle and disappeared as shards of light.

"We defeated the stone beast elementalist. The mist elementalist got away."

Claire gripped the two magic stones in her hand.

"It's dangerous to chase them too far. They seem like a meticulous team."

"At any rate, I never thought we would be attacked this quickly."

"Yes, it seems like it would be a good idea to find a camp site quickly."

Claire nodded at Ellis' words.

As expected, they weren't going to be elated at their first victory.

Kamito turned to the path forward that was covered in the remnants of the depth charge spirit stone.

(The mysterious thing is how they managed to ambush us.)

Even though it hadn't been even an hour since the start, they had moved like they knew Kamito and the others' location.

(Also, they knew that I've lost Est.)

Just who was leaking information, he wondered.

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"......"

Kamito dropped his eyes to the spirit seal on his right hand.

In the end, even when Kamito's body clearly felt danger, the Gate had shown no signs of opening.

"Est......"