One More Time: Rebirth

Chapter 50: Retreating

The battle above ground was getting more intense as the commander who was flying on top of his sword was unleashing a barrage of sword strikes using his other sword that was in his hand. Tsukiyomi who was aggressively attacking before was finally able to calm down as she went into the defensive.

Due to the sign of the contract being extremely weakened, her berserker state didn't last for long. Not only did the weakened sign of the contract made her go into an incomplete berserker state, but it also didn't provide her with the empowerment it should've given.

Usually, when an Ethereal was faced with a Contract Breaker, they would go into a berserker state and their power would triple. Yet that didn't happen right now, which confused Tsukiyomi. Still, based on the man's level he shouldn't be so strong that he could kill an Ethereal. Since she was the current youngest among her kin, that would mean that the Ethereal contracted to the commander was older. Which would make the idea of overpowering his Ethereal near impossible.

Also Based on the commander's personality, and the mana he was emitting, an Ethereal wouldn't have chosen him as a partner. The only time someone like him would be chosen would be if the Ethereal was on the verge of dying.

'This all doesn't make sense... Is that really a sign of a contract?...' While Tsukiyomi was distracted the commander attacked by making his other sword fly towards her. Now in a more calm state Tsukiyomi was able to block the incoming move with a lot more ease.

Edge's POV:

I stood in front of six more Eastern Kingdom soldiers, behind me were a pile of half-dead soldiers. Even though I was excited that I was able to use the Moon Edge Style effectively in battle, I didn't kill the soldiers. Since these soldiers were part of the Eastern Kingdom, and since we were technically the first ones to strike, killing them would be the worst possible choice in this situation. The others were also not killing their targets, even the hot-headed Cliff-senpai didn't kill anyone.

On the other hand, it looks like Tsukiyomi wants to kill that man flying on top of his sword. Well, if it's just one person it might not be that bad.

As I was thinking about it the six soldiers had already surrounded him. Their swordsmanship was superb and their control of mana to strengthen their bodies was not the same as the people of the Northern Kingdom. Still, because of their lack of spells of any kind they only had few options available to them, using their swords. Though with my current body and strength, I won't be able to match them with swordplay alone.

'But unlike them, I do not solely rely on swordsmanship.' As I blocked another attack, I used [Stone Wall] to block the attackers behind me. Even though using this kind of spell will only delay the soldiers momentarily since they can cut through low-tier to mid-tier spells, it gave enough time for me to counter-attack those in front of me.

The fluency of my swordsmanship and magic had greatly increased, and I was getting better as the fight went on. Even back in my previous world, when I didn't know how to swing a sword, I was able to quickly learn. My ability to learn techniques was one of the things that made me the hero of my previous world.

Even now I still had that kind of talent. As I fought them I analyzed their sword techniques, they were better than Setsuna by a large margin. Still, they weren't a match for Tsukiyomi, I guess only their commander was at that level. Each one of these guys were either as skilled as me or even slightly better than me in the way of the sword. But if you factor in my magic, then I'm pretty much above them.

Another attack came from my side I lifted my staff to block and summoned a wall of flame in front of me. I then used my sword to slash at the nearest enemy. I kept on doing the same thing, over, and over as I finished the other soldiers. Basically I used magic to hinder them and then finished them off with an attack from my sword.

Once I was done with my opponents, I noticed that everyone else was done as well. The only one remaining was the commander of the unit.

Third Person's POV:

The commander of the unit of soldiers from the Eastern Kingdom continued to fight Tsukiyomi, but he noticed that he no longer held the advantage. The rage that Tsukiyomi had was replaced with an eerie calmness. He couldn't understand what happened, but now that she regained her calm she was a combatant equal to himself.

As he was thinking about how to proceed, the commander finally noticed that his men have all been beaten to near death, and were captured by the students. He couldn't believe his eyes his unit that consisted of thirty challenger stage swordmen, forty expert stage swordsmen, and ten master stage swordsmen have all been defeated.

He had underestimated the students of the Northern Kingdom. if all of them attacked him now, then he would be beaten half to death and lose shamefully. Yet if he flees, he could argue that it was his unit that cost him the loss. Even if it was shameful it wasn't as shameful as truly losing to a bunch of students. So without any more hesitation, he fled at top speed.

The moment he tried to flee the students started bombarding him with spells. Normally it wouldn't bother him so much since he was capable of cutting even High-class spells. But the problem was he was not only bombarded by mid-tier spells, he was also bombarded by numerous high-class spells

He was even nicked by some spells here and there. As he was already quite far and expected that he was safe, he saw a huge ball of fire approaching him from behind. The commander then thought that he could slice the attack, but decided against it. He quickly moved to the side, but the speed of the huge ball of fire was faster than he expected. Fortunately, he was able to somehow evade it and was finally able to flee from the scene.

Tsukiyomi looked at the retreating back of the commander and didn't give chase. The sign of the contract of that Eastern Kingdom commander could be fake. She wasn't too sure of this, since there has never been a fake sign before, but based on everything she experienced during the fight, it was a possibility.

'If it really is a fake, what could be its purpose? What does the Eastern Human Kingdom want to do with a fake sign of the Ethereal's contract?'