“Yuki, Nana, time for the final round.” Rin’s voice echoed out.

Yuki stood up with her broken sword and began walking towards the arena but felt her hand being tugged. She turned to see Nana looking at her hand. “Sword?”

Yuki lifted the sword in her hand and softly answered: “It’s fine….”

Nana did not ask further as she nodded her head, and the two walked towards the arena. They both took their places, and the entire place became quiet. It seemed no one wanted to miss this fight for anything.

Rin looked at Yuki’s broken sword and felt it was bad luck for her to have to fight with a broken sword. But there was nothing she could do about it. Rules were rules, after all. “This will determine the best out of this year's new disciples. I wish you both luck! Begin!”

Yuki did not hesitate to rush forward. She knew Nana’s strength was very good, but she also knew Nana’s habit of using the flat side of her blade. She would make sure to use this to her advantage. Luckily she was not too worried about how strong Nana was. She had dealt with demonic beasts that were much stronger than herself many times over and still survived.

Many times she had almost died but because of this cycle of being beaten and escaping with a thread of her life left, she was able to gain enough battle experience to not lose to people in the same realm at the very least. But even if she did end up losing to Nana, she would not care. It would just be another lesson to her. And the more she learned and overcame, the closer she got to her goal. Her goal of growing stronger and trying to save her people.

Nana frowned, seeing Yuki charge at her. She knew Yuki had charged forward before as well, but she wondered if she had watched her last fight properly or not. Raising her huge sword over her head, she slammed it down, kicking up dust and debris. She was doing the same thing she did against the short haired girl in her last match. But sadly for her, instead of Yuki coming through the cloud of dust or getting it in her eye, a broken sword cut through the cloud of dust, causing her to have to dodge. And over the top of the dust and debris, a slim, barefooted figure appeared over her bringing her foot down. Nana was caught off guard but still managed to raise her large sword to block!

*Boom!*

The impact was so strong that everyone could hear it. Nana’s feet even sank into the ground slightly as the earth around her began to crack. But what Nana did not expect was that Yuki, in one swift motion, pushed off her sword, springing herself back into the air, flipped around, and brought her foot down once more!

*Boom!*

The impact, not as strong as the one before, was still quite powerful, causing Nana to grit her teeth as she pushed forward to push Yuki away. She had never expected Yuki to be able to pull off such an attack. Yuki had no choice but to flip backward and land with her body forward and one hand on the ground as she looked up at Nana.

She had to admit that Nana’s strength was truly amazing. She knew she would need to watch out for that sword, or else she might get flung out of the arena. With this thought in mind, She dug her toes into the dirt and shot forward. At this moment, Yuki was more like a beastkin in how she fought. She had no weapon, but she was able to use her abilities to the fullest and move her body in ways most humans should not be able to do. You could say she was truly using the natural abilities of her race. She ran forward and jumped up into the air, sending a kick toward Nana, who was already waiting and swinging her sword back at Yuki. This time Nana was not using the flat side of her blade. She knew that in order to beat Yuki, she would need to go for the kill because Yuki was doing the same. While she did hold back, she knew Yuki was fighting as if her life was on the line.

Seeing the sword about to chop at her leg, Yuki had no choice but to spin her body mid air, place her hand on the flat side of the sword and pivot her body while swinging her legs around, aiming for Nana’s head with her foot.

Nana was shocked by this agility and had no choice but to quickly jump back to dodge Yuki’s kick, forcing Yuki to retreat as well. The two stood at the sides of the arena, just staring at each other.

While the two girls were taking a moment to size each other up, the audience, who was watching the fight with their jaws on the ground, were all in shock. While it seemed that Nana was only on the defensive, it was clear as day that the both of them were amazing at fighting! Nana’s reaction and decisions were on point, while Yuki’s splendid examples of what the human body can do with a bit of effort were out of this world.

“Geheh…. Ghehehehe!” Elder Nishikawa was drooling over her two disciples while letting out a weird laugh! She had seen that the two girls were amazing already, but when pitted against each other, they were really showing their skills and abilities! Elder Nishikawa really had a perverted face on as she stared at the two. She was so glad they had come to their sect and not any of the others! Her only thought was how to slip them a bit of extra resources so they could grow even stronger over time. “I will need to get that old bastard on the main peak to turn in his favor. I hate to use it, but for these two, it’s worth it! They will get all the best they can get in the outer sect!”

After watching these matches, she now understood she had to do a bit more than just letting them survive on their own in the outer sect with a bit of bonus to their resources. She now knew she had to do as much as she could without overdoing it too much. Of course, they would also need to make sure they worked hard as well.