Cold Steel - Inazuma Gaiden

IV: Of Law and Disorder

Through his eyes, he could only see a blur of white and blue as she dashed forward, katana in hand now glimmering in a lighter blue color in place of its usual silver. The woman opened her assault by infusing her blade with that same arctic powers she used before, likely a result of her mastery in the utilizing her Vision, which she would then followed with a lightning-quick horizontal swipe.

It's only through pure reflex that Nobutada managed to raise his arms in an attempt to counter her attack. Using the wide, blunt edge of his sword, he answered her greeting by mimicking, yet mirroring her movements, swiping a low horizontal slash from right to left as he pivoted his body and spread his legs wider to the side to soften the incoming blow. Their weapons made contact and sure enough, while he recoiled ever so slightly, he managed to swat away her blade whilst preserving both of their momentums.

His fingers trembled and burned at the blow, feeling the full force of the impact once again reactivated the once-numb pain receptors of his hands. His palm seared with exertion, while the edges of his fingertips received immense stings that it continued to throb even well after their blades separated from each other, making his teeth grind against each other in reflex. He also noted how his hand quickly went back to being numb again after receiving a sudden burst of chill being transferred from his blade and right into his hands.

Whatever this woman was made of, even from that one move - he knew that she has some degree of mastery in the ways of the blade, and she also had the power of the elements to back up her swordsmanship.

Through her eyes, despite doing her best to numb her emotions as she now faced her adversary, Ayaka couldn't help but to feel some kind of astonishment at his dexterity at the back of her head. The opening cut of the Kabuki was a pretty simple horizontal strike, and she made sure that she didn't put too much force into her attack, but it certainly wasn't something that can just be basically shrugged off just like that.

Thanks to her acutely trained eyes, the Frostflake Heron caught the intruder using the blunt edge of his shinobigatana, purely as a form of defense. True enough, he also mirrored her attack to merely swat away her blade, but ultimately keeping the speed and force of both strikes. Through his kata, he was able to transfer the blow from fully disarming his arms and into his entire body instead.

Not to mention, he also managed to withstand her Cryo infused blade right after her Senho - which in itself practically transformed her physical body into a blur of ice and snow that would then dash forward at incredible speeds. She saw minor twitches happening on his fingers and a grimace made its way to his face when he felt the cold stab through his flesh, but it wasn't enough to deter his fighting spirit, as his grip was just as strong on his weapon's worn tsuka.

She immediately followed up with a mighty vertical slash, to which he would receive her attack by rotating his blade arm to once again use the blunt edge of his sword to just barely catch the edge of her blade mid-swing, and then adding his own force to drive her weapon downwards, once again deliberately using the momentum of her swing to redirect her own assault elsewhere, therefore reducing the overall pain to his fingers and damage to the already-damaged sword compared to just blocking or connecting their blades outright.

Ayaka winced, this was his second time in successfully parrying her blow. It was a respectable feat, one that she'd argue would even be worthy of her praise if she wasn't so worried about her own safety herself.

In fact, she began to question - just how was he doing this? Being a lifelong student to the way of the blade, she'd like to think that she would be able to at least judge one's stance and bladework through their movements. The thief's kata looked... messy to say the least. His footing and posture looked terribly off-centered, meaning he would easily lose his posture and balance after a few more strikes. His deflecting parries also looked less like a calculated move and more of a desperate attempt to avoid receiving blows, but he was still able to minimize the risk of being hit nevertheless.