Chivalry of a Dark Knight [Batman x Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry]

CH6: The Yaksha Princess's challenge (prt 3)

With the drop of the hand, Nene and Bruce rushed each other. Nene was able to cover more ground and reach him faster and Bruce could see why: her feet barely touched the ground as if she was skating on thin air, an obvious sign of her gravity manipulation abilities.

As she neared him, she spun her whole body with her iron fans out like a rotor blade. Bruce felt a technique like that was difficult to evade to the side and so he vaulted over her. She reacted by flinging one of the fans towards him as he was over her but he deflected it with his sword, she didn't allow him pause when landed as she immediately rushed and caught the deflected projectile and in continuous motion, renewed her assault with a flurry of slashes.

Despite her using dual weapons, he was able to use the length of the blade as his defense, parrying attacks from various directions while switching from forward to reverse grip when needed.

However Bruce stayed vigilant; without the weight of the Batsuit and his tools, he was much faster but Nene was at another level. Her fighting style seemed to be a combination of Wushu and traditional dancing, making her movements appear unpredictable. It wasn't something he hadn't encountered before but her gravity manipulation allows her to amplify her speed and force behind her attacks. Kurono was right, she was a dangerous and formidable opponent. He was sure that even his old master Kirigi would've been impressed with her.

"Unbelievable...he's able to keep up with her." Yuuri remarked with awe.

Kurono remained silent while observing the fight intensely. Like Bruce, she too thought that this challenge wasn't necessary but she couldn't help but be curious. She figured that perhaps direct combat would reveal why Bruce's magic was behaving so differently or bring it to the state that she witnessed.

And it wasn't only that but also the fact that he was facing Nene. She was one of the few who knew about the petite woman's true abilities and wondered how she would react if she saw what Bruce was capable of.

Indeed, Kurono was glad that this was a private match but what she didn't know was that the stands wasn't completely empty. Hidden between the seats and armed with her camera was a girl with short peach blonde hair, red ribbons tied on both sides and styled in a way that a single 'antena' protruded at the top. Her reddish eyes behind a pair of glasses gleamed with enthusiasm as she spied on the people below.

"I knew it!" she thought excitedly. "I knew Director Shinguuji, Oreki-sensei and Saikyou-sensei have assembled here for some reason! But who's that person dueling Saikyou-sensei!?"

Looking through her viewfinder, she zoomed in on Bruce's face.

"He's wearing a student uniform but I've never seen him before. I smell a SCOOP!"

Nene switched up her assault by having her iron fans folded and using then like daggers, occasionally unfurling one of them for an overhead slash. The quickness of her stabs managed to make it past Bruce's defenses and tag him a couple of times. Had they not summoned their Devices in Phantom Form, Bruce would've had bleeding cuts over his upper body but that didn't mean that he couldn't feel the pain of every stab.

He was ready when she tried stabbing at him again. With his blade occupied with her other fan, he used his free hand to grab her wrist and yank her forward. He turned his shoulder towards her as she stumbled forward before plowing his elbow into her gut and after tossing his sword to his other hand, he followed it up with a back fist to her face. Continuing his momentum, he spun his body to deliver a horizontal slash but Nene recovered in time and jumped back, putting some distance between them.

She rubbed her bruised chin with the back of her hand while grinning in exhilaration.

"Hmph, Not too bad. Let's take this up a notch, shall we?"