Nina's sudden words surprised everyone.
The Swordsmen present didn't expect her to stand up for Jino. Most importantly, Jino himself was unconscious and completely unaware of what was happening.
Therefore, the people present could only judge for themselves whether Nina's action was correct.
First of all, the Swordsmen taking the test definitely approved of Nina. They felt that Eris's victory over Jino was too strange. She hadn't even mastered Longsword of Light, yet she was able to defeat Jino who had mastered it, which was really hard to understand.
The Sword Saints of the Holy Land of Swords had a similar attitude. They didn't approve of Eris's victory over Jino either, and supported Nina's actions.
However, the Sword Kings, Sword Emperors, and even the Sword God, who were above the Sword Saints, had different views on this.
But they didn't express their opinions. They just watched the commotion coldly, even with interest.
"You're saying you want to fight me?"
Eris flipped her neatly arranged hair and looked at Nina like a hawk.
Noticing Eris's gaze, Nina felt a strange sense of fear, but she was still stronger than Jino. She withstood Eris's killing intent and said, "That's right, I don't think you defeated my cousin Jino fairly. If it was a normal fight, he wouldn't have lost!"
"Really? Then how do you explain that this kid is on the ground?"
Eris didn't care about Nina's words.
She believed she had won fairly. Jino, who lost, might indeed have better swordsmanship than her, but since he had lost, there was nothing more to say. He was simply the weaker one.
This couldn't be described by swordsmanship or technique alone.
After experiencing so many things during the great change and even receiving guidance from Ruijerd, Eris now clearly realized one thing: battles aren't just about which side is stronger. Many factors interfere with the outcome of a battle, and it can't be judged purely by the level of strength.
If done right, even the weak can defeat the strong.
After all, on a real battlefield, the opponent will never let you prepare fully, and will never fairly compete with you using pure technique.
Jino lost to Eris, that's all there is to it.
There's no other explanation.
However, Nina clearly didn't accept Eris's idea. She and Jino had both grown up in the Holy Land of Swords, and their world was still very narrow. They couldn't understand Eris's beliefs.
She didn't think Eris's victory was worth recognizing, so she decided to have a fight with Eris and decide the real winner.
When both sides insisted on their own opinions, and it seemed destined to be settled by a fight, the Sword God in the distance seemed to be bored, and said:
"Stop arguing, Nina. I set the rules for the test. As long as you defeat your opponent, the Sword Saint, no matter what means you use, I will grant Eris the title of Sword Saint."
"But..."
Nina still seemed unwilling, but the Sword God's attitude was very clear.
The Sword God just waved his hand and said coldly, "Alright, Eris is the first person to pass the test and become a Sword Saint today. The others, don't waste time, hurry up and continue."
"..."
Since the Sword God had already made a decision, Nina and the many Sword Saints present couldn't argue.
They could only watch Eris get the title of Sword Saint with faces full of resentment, and become equal to them in rank and status.
Eris didn't care about the Sword Saints' dissatisfaction. She didn't even walk towards them. She immediately turned around and went back to Shirou's side.
"What are you doing back here?"
Shirou was quite surprised, "Now that you've become a Sword Saint, you can stand over there."
"I don't want to. It's just a bunch of trash who have no strength but care about face. I don't want to stand with them."
Eris unhesitatingly showed her sarcasm towards the Sword Saints in the Holy Land.
Her words weren't concealed at all, and quickly spread to everyone's ears.
Not to mention the Swordsmen taking the test, the Sword Saints nearby turned green with anger. They never expected to be mocked by a little girl who had just become a Sword Saint.
They all showed cold expressions and their attitude towards Eris and Shirou became very unfriendly.
The Sword God noticed all of this, but didn't care too much. Instead, he smiled brightly and watched the test continue in silence.
"It's my turn."
After waiting in line, it was finally Shirou's turn to take the test.
He wanted to casually pick a Sword Saint to fight, but Nina, who had just had a conflict with Eris, suddenly came to him.
The girl said coldly, "I want to fight you."
"..."
Seeing Nina's attitude, Shirou realized that she intended to take revenge for Jino's matter.
But that matter was essentially caused by Eris, and he wasn't involved at all. He was completely caught in the crossfire.
But looking at Nina's attitude and the reactions of the surrounding Sword Saints, they probably all thought Shirou and Eris were together, so even if they couldn't target Eris, they could take it out on Shirou.
Shirou couldn't help but smile bitterly at this, but he didn't care. He just nodded silently and accepted Nina's challenge.
Since it was just a test, neither side would use a real sword, as it would be easy to accidentally cause death.
So Shirou took a wooden sword from the testing area nearby.
On the other side, Nina didn't take a wooden sword from the testing area. Instead, she received a seemingly ordinary wooden sword from a Sword Saint in the distance.
The wooden sword looked normal, but once you picked it up, you could feel its extremely heavy weight.
Nina couldn't help but look at the Sword Saint in front of her, realizing that the wooden sword he had given her was special and contained metal.
With this weapon, if combined with Longsword of Light, accidental killings were possible.
Nina couldn't help but frown. Although she was angry about Jino's matter and wanted to get revenge, she didn't want to kill anyone.
But the Sword Saint who gave her the wooden sword looked at her coldly, signaling her to act.
Faced with the Sword Saint's attitude, Nina was silent for a moment, but finally nodded in agreement.
The Sword Saint who gave her the wooden sword was her teacher when she first started learning swordsmanship, so Nina naturally wanted to listen to his advice. Although using a wooden sword with lead inside was a bit unfair... it was all because that girl named Eris was so rude, not only winning by cheating, but also having such a bad attitude.
Thinking of how Jino had been humiliated in front of her eyes, Nina felt that Eris should also taste the same feeling as her.
After preparing, Nina and Shirou came to the dueling arena, and the two took their stances.
"Start!"
After a Sword Saint's voice fell, Nina suddenly raised the wooden sword in her hand, took the Sword God Style stance that she had practiced tens of thousands of times, and swung her sword at Shirou.
Nina's movements were clean and neat, a very excellent Sword God Style upper stance.
Most people couldn't even see her movements clearly, and could only feel a sword energy like a flash of light directly attacking Shirou.
Feeling Nina's amazing strike, Shirou raised the wooden sword in his hand to block it as soon as possible.
Due to the pressure of the armor on his body, his movements were much slower than Nina's, and he could only barely block her attack.
At the same time, the moment the swords collided, a crisp sound rang out.
Some cracks appeared in the wooden sword in Shirou's hand.
Only Shirou noticed this strange situation. He immediately judged that Nina's weapon was a bit unusual.
The wooden sword probably contained metal.
If it were an ordinary person, they would probably protest immediately and report Nina's bad behavior.
But with Nina's status and position, plus the interference of many Sword Saints, it would probably end without any result.
Therefore, Shirou didn't want to complain about such a small matter.
More importantly, he was already wearing this exaggerated armor, so would he care about the opponent's little trick?
No matter what kind of problem he faced, he only needed to solve it with his own means—
"Hoo."
The moment he realized the difference in weapons, Shirou immediately created distance and began chanting.
"Synchronization, start!"
"Basic structure analysis!"
"Material composition analysis!"
"Basic structure alteration!"
"Material composition reinforcement!"
"Reinforcement complete!"
Shirou hadn't used reinforcement magic for a long time, because since he learned the Longsword of Light of the Sword God Style, he basically had no chance to use reinforcement magic.
Now that Longsword of Light was sealed, Shirou used reinforcement magic again and found that his reinforcement magic had improved a lot without him realizing it.
He realized that this should still be related to his forging skills.
Forging skills not only affect projection, but also affect reinforcement.
Or rather, projection and reinforcement magic were originally from the same source for him.
From reinforcement to projection, and finally to forging... he had come this far on the path of weapon creation, and gradually mastered a higher level.
When he looked back, Shirou unknowingly found that he seemed to have reached an extremely high level in the art of weapon creation.
His reinforcement magic could even make an ordinary wooden sword reach the level of a divine weapon!
"Haa!!!"
Nina in the distance didn't know what was happening. She continued to confidently rush towards Shirou and swung the wooden sword in her hand.
But the moment her metal wooden sword collided with Shirou's wooden sword, the sword body was shattered.
"Clatter!"
The wooden structure and metal materials shattered all over the ground.
"This..."
Seeing such an exaggerated scene, Nina and her teacher were dumbfounded. They never thought that such a scene would happen.
The others present also looked over, showing surprised expressions.
Only the Sword God, although he was also surprised, his gaze towards Shirou became deeper, with some indescribable complexity and expectation.
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