Black Iron Magician

Chapter 277 Master and Disciple Talk with Their Fists

After that, Nell and Chinatsu left to make preparations for the new weapon, and Touko left to continue taking care of Lily. Me and Haru? Well, I have to fulfill my promise, so we are staying in the training ground. If possible, I hope that she will hold back so that I won’t lose my face as a master. Well, there’s no way Haru will hold back. Now, I have to do my best as a master.

「Let’s do our best!」

「Yeah, let’s do our best.」

Sparring with Haru begins with a bow. It’s not that I told her to do so. Haru started it, and after doing it several times, it has become a formality. My motto is to return a favor with favor, and return evil with evil. If she gives me a greeting, I will greet her back.

So, here is the scary part of Haru. The moment she raises her head, her cute drooping eyes are transformed into the eyes of a hunter looking at the prey. The stronger the opponent is, the more Haru will be silent and act in a matter-of-fact way, so it’s quite hard for me, who’s good at disturbing the enemy’s mind. After all, Haru in this state almost can’t be disturbed. Besides, as a master, there’s no way I will use that kind of tactic against my disciple. It’s really hard.

「Are you not going to use the Doggan Staff today?」

「Yes, I want to fight under the same conditions as much as possible.」

There are two patterns when sparring with Haru. One, I will get into trouble if I let my guard down when Haru is using her Doggan Staff. Two, I will get into trouble if I let my guard down when Haru is using her martial arts. They are the same, you said? Yeah, that’s right. Either way, it is terrible. Recently, she has been using aiki through the Doggan Staff, and even if she’s barehanded, I can’t read ahead because there are countless attack patterns.

「Then, here I go.」

「Yeah, come at me.」

Haru’s first stance is a boxing style that I’ve seen several times before. She’s measuring the timing with a while kicking the ground nimble footwork. However, it doesn’t mean that she’ll come at me with boxing.

――――Whoosh!

Yeah, like this. The moment Haru put her feet on the ground at a certain timing, she suddenly rushed in at the maximum speed while leaning forward. It looked like she was going to tackle me, but she suddenly sent a kick at my head. I pulled my body backward and avoided the kick that was close to my nose. Yep, the kick was applied with magic that increase weight and poison, raising the lethality.

「Geh.」

One difficulty is gone, and now comes another one. Immediately after Haru’s kick passed in front of my face, her other leg is approaching my flank. Looking closely, Haru is rotating vigorously in a handstand position. What’s that, Capoeira!?

Also, elaborate dark magic was applied to this kick. Because I wanted to act as a master, I declared that I won’t attack. So, my only choices are to avoid or defend. Well, now I’m using two arms, so let’s defend it this time. However, I can feel the poisonous pressure, so I will purify it before it touches me. Alright.

「Too bad.」

「!?」

In addition, I disabled the gravity manipulation and made the kick lighter. When the weight of her body was changed and the power of the kick didn’t come out as expected, Haru frowned for a moment while still in a handstand position. However, she intuitively realized that it was my mischief. She immediately changed her strategy, and then tries to sweep my legs with her arm this time.

I’m impressed that she was able to move on from that series of attacks without killing the momentum from the handstand. You would normally think that her slender arm won’t be able to sweep the legs, even more when she’s in that position. However, Haru has aiki. It’s better to think that no matter what stance she takes and no matter where she touches, it will lead to the reflection of power. In other words, if I let her slender arm sweep my legs as it is, I would fall down.

But as a master, I can’t just fall down so easily. I still don’t understand the principle of aiki, but I know that it’s not omnipotent. For example, let’s tamper with each other’s weight the moment Haru’s arm touched my leg. I make my weight so heavy that the floor is squeaking, and increase and decrease the weight of every part of Haru’s body, including both arms and legs, with a series of Graviton. Ta-da! Haru can’t activate her aiki.

Haru’s arm, which was trying to sweep my legs, turned into an ordinary horizontal chop and hit my shin. Ugh, it hurts a little….

「Your aiki didn’t activate, eh?」

「………」

I said so after enduring the pain. Perhaps Haru understood the true meaning of my words, she jumped back.

I’m guessing that her aiki that can cause a fantasy phenomenon is originally a complicated technique that involves many factors, such as perfect timing and mutual breathing. When Haru, someone with amazing ability, is supplemented by Skills, that ridiculous technique is formed.

Then, how can we overcome this aiki? The answer is simple, just break the balance. Just like before, I shifted the timing and Haru’s center of gravity, and drastically changed my weight. Anyway, just disturb her. If you can do that, you will be able to prevent Haru from using her aiki. Even Hund would have been able to deal with it if he was constantly changing his body in that fight.

「This is my unique way of dealing with it using dark magic, but even the Great Eight Demons can deal with aiki in the middle of a fight if they want to. Aiki is not all-powerful, so don’t overuse it. Especially against someone who knows about it.」

「I learned a lot. Can I have one more fight?」

「Not just one, but I will accompany you until you’re satisfied. It’s your reward after all.」

「Thank you very much!」

After that, Haru continued to come at me with her unpredictable mixed martial arts moves, and she tried to get me down on my knees at all costs. I wonder how many hours passed? The growth of this girl is really amazing that it gradually became tiresome. However, today is not the day of my defeat. I successfully defended her attacks.

「Ahh, I’m so tired…. Even after the battle with Aralkar, you were so energetic until the very end, huh? How much bottomless stamina do you have?」

「Wheeze… wheeze….! T-Thank you, very much!」

「Yeah, good work.」

Haru said her thanks while sprawling on the floor. It’s no wonder she’s like this. After all, she kept attacking at full power while I was just defending.

「Uhh, I was supposed to be in a good shape today, but I feel like it went bad in the middle. I know the reason, though….」

「Of course. After all, I was messing with you using gravity manipulation so that you would become like that. You couldn’t move like you hoped, right?」

「Yes….」

In order to move perfectly in that frequently changing weight, Haru herself must neutralize the magic I cast on her. She has to sharpen her senses, feel the flow of magic power with her skin, and think fast to deal with it. It was a wonderful spar for Haru. But, the price is that I’m tired too!

「It’s about time for dinner. If you keep lying there, Chinatsu will come, you know?」

「I-I’ll get up now. U-Uoooh!」

「Ooh, you really got up, huh…. Ah, that’s right. We are going to another continent soon, so keep it in mind. Chinatsu and Touko will be coming too.」

「Eh? Yesh~….」

Oh no, Haru’s battery is about to run out. I will tell her again after she has recharged with dinner.