Noah watched everything unfold with cold, calculating eyes. The political dynamics playing out before him revealed a truth he had already understood but was now seeing demonstrated with perfect clarity. Strength was all that truly mattered in this world. Power and connections determined who faced consequences and who operated with impunity.
Had Ichigo possessed such backing, he wouldn’t have been left brutalized and hospitalized while his attacker faced no repercussions. If Kenzo had been a weaker opponent without influential connections, Noah’s decisive victory would have been celebrated rather than creating a dangerous confrontation.
The hypocrisy was stunning in its transparency. These same judges who had allowed Kenzo to nearly kill Ichigo without intervention were now paralyzed by fear of a master swordsman’s potential anger. Justice wasn’t blind or fair. It bent toward those with power.
A smile slowly formed on Noah’s face as he processed this revelation. It wasn’t a new revelation, not at all; he knew this very well, but it was still amusing. The expression carried no warmth or humour, just amusement at the pathetic display of cowardice masquerading as respect for tradition and hierarchy.
"Are you finished with your threats?" Noah asked Saika, his voice cutting through the tension the entire arena was feeling with absolute calm. "Or should I wait while you intimidate a few more officials who are supposed to be maintaining order?"
The judges and referee lowered their heads in shame. Noah was right, but they could do nothing about it.
Saika whirled back toward him with renewed fury, apparently interpreting Noah’s composed demeanour as mockery rather than indifference.
"You think this is funny?" Saika’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper as he advanced with his katana held in a perfect offensive stance. "I’m going to carve that smile off your face along with your ability to ever hold a sword again."
"You talk too much. Why don’t you try?" Noah replied simply, his tone suggesting he was discussing something as mundane as the weather rather than facing a threat to his life, or so people thought.
What followed was less a battle than a complete and utter dismantling of Saika’s inflated reputation. The champion’s opening attack came with championship speed and precision, a complex feint followed by a devastating real strike that had defeated countless opponents throughout his career.
Noah’s dull blade intercepted it with contemptuous ease, his counter coming so fast that Saika barely registered the movement before the tournament sword cracked against his ribs with bone-jarring force.
Saika staggered backwards, shock replacing rage on his face as he processed what had just occurred. Nobody should have been able to counter that combination, and certainly not with a dull practice blade against live steel.
"Impossible," he muttered, adjusting his stance to something more defensive. "That was just luck."
His next attack was more cautious, probing Noah’s defences rather than committing fully to an assault. But Noah simply walked through his guard as if it didn’t exist, his blade striking Saika’s sword arm with enough force to numb the muscles and weaken his grip on the katana.
"Stop toying with me!" Saika roared, launching into a desperate combination that represented his absolute best techniques, the culmination of years spent perfecting his craft.
Noah blocked the first three strikes without moving his feet. The fourth, he simply allowed to bounce off his shoulder without effect. The fifth, he caught on his blade and used the momentum to spin Saika completely around, leaving his back exposed for a devastating strike to the spine that dropped the champion to his knees.
The entire exchange had taken perhaps five seconds before the crowd erupted in shocked gasps and confused murmuring as they watched a former champion who was supposedly strong with more experience being reduced to a kneeling position by someone they had assumed was simply a talented tournament participant rather than a martial artist operating on a completely different level.
"Who is this Noah Carter?" someone whispered with awe. "He is something else. It’s like earth has just borne its natural champion, this kind of potential...it’s insane." The source of thɪs content is novel{f}ire.net
"That wasn’t even close," another spectator observed with disbelief. "It looked like a master disciplining a student rather than two champions fighting."
Saika struggled to rise, his pride refusing to accept the reality of his complete outclassing. Blood trickled from his mouth where he had bitten his tongue during the impact, and his sword arm trembled from the nerve damage Noah’s precise strike had inflicted.
"Stay down," Noah advised without emotion. "This doesn’t have to get worse for you."
But Saika’s ego couldn’t process surrender. He forced himself to his feet despite his body’s protests, raising his katana with shaking arms for another futile attack.
Noah’s next strike was almost pitiful in its restraint. He could have crippled Saika as thoroughly as he had destroyed Kenzo, but instead merely disarmed him with a precise blow to the wrist that sent the katana clattering across the platform.
Then Noah’s dull blade caught Saika under the chin with just enough force to snap his head back and send him sprawling unconscious onto the platform beside his fallen junior brother.
Although Saika was annoying, Noah didn’t cripple him like Kenzo. Not out of mercy, but simply because Saika hadn’t attempted to hurt him without reason. He could understand the reason why Saika had fought him: to protect his junior brother, who was crippled. But Kenzo’s actions...they were unforgivable in his eyes.
The silence that followed was absolute. Every person in the arena stared in shock at the scene before them: two champions, one current and one former, lying defeated on the platform while their supposed inferior stood over them without a scratch or sign of exertion.
The judges stood frozen, their earlier paralysis now transformed into something approaching terror as they realised they had just witnessed someone operating at a level that made even Master Hideaki’s legendary students look ordinary by comparison.
"So...What now? Is Noah declared the champion?" One of the spectators asked in confusion.