The 1st Bout began, but the combatants on the stage made no move and instead, they peered at each other in a sword-drawing stance.
Seconds passed, but they remained unmoving in their positions. Only the Sword Innate Talent users in the audience could see the tension between Seath and Kensei.
In a sword fight, the first strike plays a far more important role as it dictates the momentum of the battle.
{Author Note: Check out the reference picture of Seath I have attached in this chapter's comment section. The one I used for Seath before in Chapter 132. Along with that, I have added a reference picture for Kensei as well.}
Soon, the staleness was first broken by Seath as he made the first move by coating both his swords with and dashed towards Kensei.
When Seath was close enough, he extended the Sword Aura on both his swords to as long as 10 meters with and launched himself at Kensei with a twist of his body.
With a sword in each hand, his body spun around like a spinning top, increasing the reach of his attack to a diameter of 20 meters.
Kensei didn't try to block it and instead evaded the range of the attack. Even though the attack failed to land on his opponent, Seath didn't seem to worry about it.
Instead, he continued attacking Kensei the same way, and Kensei dodged them all.
To everyone watching, Seath's actions seemed rash since using and at once consumes a lot of Spirit Energy, and he used them both repeatedly despite failing to land them on Kensei the first time around.
The Sword Innate Talent users among the audience, who anticipated an intense sword battle were disappointed at Seath's performance.
After all, for a Tier-3 Low-Phase individual like Seath, his series of heavy attacks were no different than losing half his Spirit Energy, that too, over nothing.
Kensei would have thought the same if he hadn't known about his opponent's abilities.
Before he climbed the stage, Jay transmitted information on Seath's abilities to Kensei.
Because of that, he knew that the ability of that Seath used in Round-1 to accelerate and decelerate his own time to move at short bursts of unprecedented speeds was just the tip of the iceberg.
The real deal was his two other skills, and .
When Kensei was evading all of Seath's attacks, he paid heed to the spots where Seath had spawned his previous Sword Aura Extension attacks.
He maintained his distance from those spots at all times. Seath ceased using Sword Aura and closed in on Kensei for a head-on sword fight.
Kensei didn't evade anymore and fought his opponent without even unsheathing the Sword from its scabbard.
As someone who had been training in the way of the Sword from childhood, Kensei had the upper hand.
However, the difference in their swordplay was not too wide. Seath was not at the point where he couldn't hold his ground against Kensei.
Their swords clashed continuously as the metal clangs were audible from various parts of the stage every second.
Just as Kensei expected, Seath tried to push him to the spots where he launched his previous Sword Aura attacks.
But Kensei didn't fall for it and steered their fight away from those spots. It didn't take long for Seath to figure out that Kensei somehow knew about his ability that he hid from others.
: Allows the User to save any action and repeat it at will within the bounds of the space it was performed until the Time Draft expires.
The maximum number of Time Drafts usable in any given movement: 15
Cost: 1% of the user's total Spirit Energy per creating a Time Draft.
Current Time Drafts in use: 6
(Time Drafts automatically expire after 3 minutes of their creation.)
So, he changed the strategy and covertly used Time Drafts midst of the ongoing swordplay on one of his normal sword swings.
Kensei couldn't sense them since he didn't have a Time or Space Innate Talent.
Because of that, Seath was able to lead him to the freshly created 7th Time Draft under the pretence of pushing him to another Time Draft.
Kensei was caught off guard when someone appeared out of thin air and slashed from his left while he was in the midst of fighting Seath.
Still, with his best efforts, Kensei drew his Sword out of the scabbard and used it to parry Seath's attack while simultaneously positioning his scabbard in a way it blocked the attack from his left.
But the impact from the unforeseen attack knocked him back several meters.
Everyone watching the fight was shocked at the appearance of someone identical to Seath pop up and attack from the side before vanishing without a trace.
The first thing that came to everyone's mind was that it was Seath's clone, but unlike them, Kensei knew that the surprise attack on him was not a clone but Seath's past self.
To be exact, that was the slashing action of Seath from the exact moment when he created the 7th Time Draft.
As long as Seath wills it, he could spam that slashing action in the spot where he planted the corresponding action's Time Draft until it expires.
Although doing that was feasible, it was best to refrain from spamming the same action in terms of practical use since that would bring the opponent's guard up.
Instead, the Time Drafts can be used when the opponent least expects it, and that was what Seath exactly did.
As for Kensei being able to block the attack from 7th Time Draft, it was thanks to his own combat awareness.
While keeping an eye on Seath, Kensei thrust both his Sword and the sharp edge of his scabbard into the stage to assist his fall.
Just as he came to a halt, Kensei noticed a smile escape the corner of Seath's mouth.
Kensei widened his eyes when he realised the underlying meaning of his smile. Seath's goal behind the previous surprise attack was to push him to the exact spot he was standing at.
Activating both and , Kensei tried his best to move away from there, but still, he wasn't able to escape the range of the attack that suddenly manifested behind his back.