Chapter 439: Yuma: "Could it be that Hollow Raiders can be wholesaled?"
Himeko's elegant phrasing perfectly accommodated Section Chief Miyabi's strict personal principles, offering her a graceful way to accept the sudden, very useful gift.
"As for any intricacies you might struggle to grasp during your training, please feel free to consult Stelle," Himeko added, a fond, knowing smile touching her lips. "Although that child's teaching methods can be... well, rather unconventional, her mastery over the Fire Dance Whirlwind is absolute. I have no doubt she would be thrilled to share her insights with you."
Pushed to this point, continuing to decline would border on sheer stubbornness—perhaps even coming across as ungrateful toward such genuine goodwill. Miyabi was strict, but she was never pedantic. After a brief moment of silent deliberation, she gave a slow, measured nod. Her slender fingers tightened respectfully around the copy of the Fire Dance Whirlwind manual, holding it close to her chest.
"I understand. Thank you, Mr. Welt, Ms. Himeko, for your guidance." Miyabi's sharp, fox-like gaze swept across the gathered group before settling back onto the ancient text in her hands. When she spoke again, her usually cool voice carried the obvious weight of a solemn oath. "Since I have accepted this gift, I shall guard it with my life and study it with unwavering diligence. I will adhere strictly to my original convictions, carrying out the mandate to slay evil to my very last breath. I will never abuse the power contained within these pages, nor will I betray... the deep trust placed in me by Your Excellency Stelle."
With that heavy promise, the impromptu gift-giving ceremony reached a natural conclusion.
Miyabi carefully tucked the secret manual into the inner folds of her uniform, securing it tightly against her body. She resisted the urge to immediately flip through its pages. Instead, she let her eyelids flutter shut, drawing in a long, steadying breath. She focused inward, forcefully regulating her surging heartbeat and smoothing out the lingering adrenaline from her fierce duel with Stelle, alongside the complex swirl of gratitude and anticipation bubbling in her chest.
When her eyes snapped open once more, the icy, unwavering focus of Section 6's chief had fully returned. Yet, beneath that placid surface, a newfound spark of anticipation flickered—a quiet eagerness to walk the unknown martial path that now lay before her.
She rolled her shoulders and stretched her wrists, listening to the faint pop of her joints. Despite having gone completely all-out against the Trailblazer, her stamina remained surprisingly abundant, her mind razor-sharp. The environmental protections integrated into this Mimicry Hollow Arena were truly advanced, ensuring that participants suffered virtually zero physical wear and tear even after crossing blades with devastating force.
Her gaze drifted back toward the spectator seats, sweeping over the eclectic members of the Chat Group. Her fighting spirit hadn't been quenched by a single sparring match; if anything, crossing blades with Stelle had poured gasoline onto the embers of her martial drive. Clashing against absolute powerhouses from entirely different worlds and combat systems was the ultimate crucible. It was the perfect opportunity to temper her own skills and shatter the limits of her current horizons.
She parted her lips, fully intending to issue an open challenge for her next opponent—
"This time, allow me!"
A crisp, melodic voice beat her to the punch. Lumine rose gracefully from her seat, her white dress swaying as she stepped forward. The blonde Traveler approached the edge of the arena, offering Miyabi a gentle, yet radiantly confident smile.
Hearing the challenge, Miyabi shifted her stance, her expression instantly hardening into a mask of solemn respect. The Section Chief harbored a deep, lingering impression of this blonde maiden—a girl who called herself a Traveler from a distant world known as Teyvat.
During the chaotic, desperate struggle within the Epis Port Hollow, Miyabi had witnessed Lumine's terrifying versatility firsthand. She had watched the Traveler effortlessly weave together five entirely distinct elemental forces: Anemo, Geo, Electro, Dendro, and Hydro. The transitions between these elements were as fluid as breathing. Her coordination was nothing short of exquisite. Whether she was launching a devastating offensive, erecting an impenetrable defense, or controlling the battlefield to support her allies, Lumine displayed a terrifying depth of combat experience and flawless on-the-spot adaptability.
While she might not possess the sheer, unadulterated destructive impact or the overwhelming, chaotic aura of Stelle, the sheer complexity and complete nature of Lumine's combat system made her an incredibly dangerous opponent. Underestimating her would be a fatal mistake.
"Your Excellency Traveler, please enlighten me." Miyabi brought her hands together in a crisp, formal martial salute. Her posture was coiled tight, radiating a level of scrutiny and intense caution that far exceeded her initial stance against Stelle. Pure physical force could be predicted and countered, but the unknown mechanics of Teyvat's elements represented a chaotic storm of variables.
The instant the match began and their blades first crossed, Miyabi felt a suffocating pressure that was entirely distinct from Stelle's overwhelming might. Lumine didn't rely on brute force to shatter techniques, nor did she stubbornly tank attacks with an impenetrable defense.
Instead, her footwork was feather-light and maddeningly elusive. She danced through the arena's rocky terrain like a phantom, the dull silver blade in her hand acting less as a primary weapon and more as a conductor's baton, guiding the flow of battle. The true nightmare lay in the boundless, cascading elemental energy she commanded with a mere flick of her wrist.
Whenever Miyabi unleashed a razor-sharp arc of blade energy, a jagged Geo construct would erupt from the earth, absorbing the blow in a shower of golden sparks. If she attempted to close the distance with a rapid, blinding dash, thick Dendro vines would burst through the floorboards, thrashing wildly as they sought to entangle her ankles and cripple her mobility.
Forced to rely on her superior speed to pull back, Miyabi attempted to suppress the Traveler with a barrage of long-range slashes. In response, Lumine simply raised her free hand. Crackling Electro bolts intertwined with surging Hydro torrents, while razor-thin Anemo blades materialized from thin air, shrieking through the arena as they intercepted Miyabi's strikes.
But the true horror of Lumine's fighting style lay in the devastating chain reactions triggered whenever these distinct elements collided.
Bang!
A pulsating, bright green Dendro Core was masterfully kicked by Lumine directly into Miyabi's predicted evasion path. A split second later, a crackling streak of purple lightning grazed the core. A violent Hyperbloom reaction erupted, sending a homing bolt of raw, unstable energy tearing through the air. The sheer area-of-effect damage caused by the fierce conflict between Electro and Dendro forced Miyabi to violently abort her dash, twisting her body mid-air to avoid the blast.
Splash!
The arena floor, already slick with residual Hydro energy, was suddenly blanketed by a surge of Dendro. The resulting Bloom reaction caused a thicket of thorny, aggressive flora to rapidly sprout, transforming a massive chunk of the battlefield into a treacherous, impassable hazard zone.
Lumine orchestrated the chaos like an elegant, terrifyingly precise grandmaster. She used the five elements as her chess pieces, constantly shifting the layout of the battlefield. Every elemental reaction was a calculated trap designed to restrict Miyabi's movements, steadily bleeding away her stamina and taxing her mental focus to its absolute limits.
Individually, these elemental bursts might not possess world-ending power, but their sheer volume and unpredictable nature made them nearly impossible to defend against. They severely disrupted Miyabi's core combat style, which relied heavily on maintaining a flawless, uninterrupted rhythm of precision and speed.
Yet, astonishingly, this elemental onslaught wasn't what Miyabi found most difficult to deal with.
During a desperate, high-speed charge, Miyabi's keen eyes caught a microscopic gap in Lumine's elemental weaving. Seizing the momentary lapse, she channeled her strength, unleashing a condensed, hyper-focused arc of blade energy aimed dead center at the Traveler's chest. The strike was blindingly fast, launched from a wickedly tricky angle. It was a guaranteed hit.
But Lumine didn't even attempt to dodge. She simply raised her left hand. A tiny, almost imperceptible vortex of distorted space materialized just inches from her palm. The moment Miyabi's razor-sharp, ice-blue blade energy made contact with the anomaly, it was like a drop of water falling into a bottomless ocean. It didn't even cause a ripple. The devastating attack simply... vanished, swallowed whole in absolute silence.
Miyabi's pupils shrank to pinpricks. What... what kind of ability is that? Devouring pure energy?
Refusing to believe her eyes, she rapidly fired off several more mid-to-long-range slashes, even lacing the strikes with the biting, absolute chill of her Tailless technique. The results were identical. Without exception, the moment Lumine raised her hand, every single energy-based attack was effortlessly consumed by the bizarre spatial distortion hovering over her palm.
Left with absolutely no other viable options, Miyabi was forced to abandon all attempts at mid-to-long-range suppression. She gritted her teeth, aggressively closing the distance to drag the confrontation back into the purest, most brutal world of close-quarters blade combat. If energy was useless, then only cold, physical steel could pierce through that terrifying devouring power.
The deafening shriek of clashing metal echoed through the arena once more. The two figures became blurs of motion—crossing blades, violently separating, and colliding again in a shower of sparks. Lumine's swordsmanship was incredibly solid, brimming with unpredictable variations forged through countless life-or-death battles across the stars. While she couldn't match Miyabi's absolute, blinding speed, her combat intuition was terrifyingly precise. Her defense was an iron wall, and her counterattacks were razor-sharp and utterly merciless.
The duel escalated into a fever pitch. Both warriors were locked in a state of absolute focus, pushing their physical limits, martial spirits, and technical skills to the absolute breaking point. Miyabi found herself completely, blissfully immersed in the high-intensity, high-skill confrontation. The world around her melted away into a blur of motion and sound. In her eyes, there was only the gleam of her katana, the steady breathing of her opponent, and the exhilarating thrill of the dance.
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