An eruption of sparks and blood, a strike that was supposedly blocked, yet the force carried alongside it pushed the defender's blade right up against their own chest, allowing the attacker's edge to cut into the flesh.
Griar was thrown back, barely managed to land on his feet, the strike had been diagonal, first reaching his left shoulder and then his right side, cutting deeper as it went, going as far as his ribs, he felt rather confident that some of his bones had been part way sliced as well.
It was misjudgement on his part, he had activated his art, which now allowed him to prevent his enemies from activating their techniques and disturb the circulation of energy within their bodies on top of the previous effects of his previous mastery.
By focusing on his art rather than his guard, he had committed a fatal mistake, because the attacker used neither of what his art could target, they had just pushed off with the sole strength of their legs and swung their blade as mundanely as was possible, not using anything else.
One's own body performances and system stats were outside of the reach of his self-taught art, a fair amount of blood was leaving his body, and he did not have a way to seal the wound, and also continue fighting, the sheer attack strength had left him somewhat disoriented.
"Well, well, well… You again! Whatever your name is, sorry, but the blondie looks more interesting" Three said, signing for Milo to get out of the way as he blocked the path toward Griar.
"Shoo, Shoo" Milo did not budge, even if he was rather worried at the moment, it had not been this long since this very same woman had diced him up so quickly that he barely saw it, everyone always told him that he progressed at great speeds, especially after he had suffered a defeat, but he still was not exactly confident on taking Three on.
Unlike last time, the terrain did not allow him a way to slow her down, it was obvious that her speed was greater than the two of them, she had appeared from directly behind them, meaning that she caught up in barely an instant through the woods, so tactically running away in fear was not an option this time.
He either had to win, somehow damage her enough to prevent from going after them, or even less probable, convince her that she really ought to let them leave.
Considering that Milo was now certain that those people worked with the undead to eradicate life, he doubted that anyone could pull onto her sympathy or humanity.
"If I may ask…" he fought back the urge to swallow saliva "...Why exactly are you so intent on fighting Griar?" his golden elemental mana was circulating at maximum velocity throughout his body, Milo was going all in, augmenting his entire physical form, ready to switch focus to any body part on a whim, although he could not switch between internal and external like Rosemary, and his outer manipulation was not nearly on par with his inner, so he employed a little trick, extending mana a few centimeters above his skin, but leaving mana connected to that on the inside, allowing for him to partly make use of inner manipulation even if it clearly was out of his body.
It was a trick that he had been taught a while back, but now, he was also using it alongside his defensive reinforcement which he had focused on learning after being shown how much getting slashed hurt by the very gentlewoman right there.
"I just want to" as expected, she was a freaking lunatic.
She had a saucy smile on her face, her muscles tensing up as she lowered her body, tip of her green blade pointed forward, fingers running down the edge as her eyes almost seemed to glow with how utterly focused she turned.
"He'll grow stronger with time, can't you wait a bit?!" Milo gritted his teeth, focusing on his eyes to try and catch her moving, was she going to use some sort of skill? An innate ability? Energy? A battle art?
He had learned from the best, if he could just catch sight of her in movement, the sort of ability she was using would become clear, and from there, he could defend better.
Seeing her form blur, Milo could barely make out anything, the only thing he knew was that she was not going for thrust at all, mostly relying on instinct, he reinforced his forearms, successfully blocking the blade, a shallow cut drew blood even then, and pressure was put on his legs.
"Kid, do I look like the patient kind?" looking like a maniac, she continued on pushing down on him.
Letting go of her sword, she leaned forward and took hold of his midsection, picking and throwing him to the ground, only leaving him time to reinforce his back as he came crashing down hard.
Milo had not been expecting to get wrestled today.
'This woman is unbelievably strong despite not being that tall or bulky…' and he had seen it, she was not using anything to enhance herself, either she was born with a particularly egregious physique, or she had slaughtered so many people that the system stats were actually showing, considering the way she looked at her sword like it was her lover, he presumed that the second option was most likely.
Clearly, Three was trained in Tochian combat, wielding their signature blade and dressing vaguely like a warrior from there, she even mimicked the typical arts from there despite not using any.
Milo rolled away before his head could receive a new hole, casting a simple mana bullet at his enemy, who casually deflected it.
He glanced over at Griar, the noble was not in a great state, but he was putting pressure on his wound, and it seemed like none of his insides wanted to come out and discover the outside world.
His carefully crafted battle art was completely useless here however, Three reminded Milo a bit of the halbardier, this man seemed to just be built different, so was the shieldmaster, but the latter at least had been born with an aspect granting him incredible defences, Pierre-Ornée just seemed to bend the wind to his will with nothing but elbow grease and determination.
Milo blocked multiple other strikes, him and Three moving in a circular fashion as they clashed, the depth of the cuts inflicted with each attack was growing deeper and deeper, Milo could not always luck out and predict exactly where an attack would come from.
He was trying to find an opening to strike back, kicking the ground and throwing random rocks infused with mana, but she remained at a good distance, she had the advantage and she knew it.
Milo charged, by attacking continuously, he exposed himself to attack he was unable to defend against but he trusted in his defences, throwing punches and after punches, sprinkling kicks and other attacks in the mix.
And slashed landed right across his face, followed by a high-kick straight to the chin, spinning him around.
"You're sloppy beyond belief, punch to kill!" she chastised him, mana converged at the top of one of Milo's fingers, he pointed it at the face of the swordswoman without turning around, emitting a bright glow of gold.
And instead, taking this chance to run or counterattack immediately, he moved back, the sound of something cracking and pulling sounded out, greeting Three once she recuperated sight was a tree, underside of which was currently out of its element and instead looking her in the face.
With a jolt, Three sliced the entire tree apart, leaving herself open as Milo appeared on the side, intensely focused, landing a strike right against her ribs, this one felt stronger than usual, not that he noticed.
The woman was sent sliding across the soil, leaving two trails in the ground, remaining standing even then, Milo cursed under his breath.
"Huh… Say, which of your arms is your favourite?"