F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 291: Brains and Brawn

"Hahahaha! Brilliant, brother Daru! Brilliant!" Caleb roared.

He had a suspicion earlier, but he found it so unlikely that he still couldn’t help but doubt whether Daru was truly scheming something or not.

"You’re acting and all now, yeah? Hahahaha! Well, you learned from the best, after all!"

The crowd was also in a frenzy, so very few heard Caleb, but those who did were utterly shocked.

Something strange had to be going on if an SS-ranker VIP was calling an F-ranker "brother", no?!

First, the crowd couldn’t help but think about who this unknown SS-ranker was, and second, they wondered how two Bladeborns of such vastly different ranks somehow became friends — brothers, even!

There was one person, however, who found Caleb to be quite the eyesore...and this person unhesitatingly approached, a bewildered tail following the young man.

Caleb soon noticed the guy in his peripheral vision, and he turned to look.

"Oh, you’re..."

But then, the smile on his face froze as he was met with a scrutinizing, cold gaze. It was like a hoodlum was inspecting him from head to toe, or an older brother to the suitor of his little sister.

"W-What?" Caleb asked, a bit dumbfounded at the hostility.

"You..." Cody began, "You called my brother Daru, ’brother Daru’, yeah? How did you two meet? How are you so close, hmm? How close are you?"

"H-Hey, Cody, stop that!" Elune reprimanded, slightly embarrassed as she pulled on the arm of her dear, who had somehow gone mad. "What are you doing?!"

Fortunately, this jolted him awake.

"Ah, I’m just asking. I just...can’t help but wonder who this guy is, and how he befriended BROTHER Daru."

Caleb, meanwhile, was still stupefied at being "checked" — perhaps "pressed" wouldn’t be too much of a stretch — by an A-ranker five years younger.

Cody Han...

’If I remember correctly, this guy is Daru’s friend and rival from the same high school...We should be on good terms...’

So why?

Caleb was still puzzled.

However, there was an explanation he could think of, even though it seemed quite unlikely, since the guy in question had a girlfriend.

Before he could respond, however, Nathalie’s voice resounded once more, snatching their attention.

"R-R-Representative Omaru mounts an insidious comeback!! Representative Taiya is breathing hard, and the number of his rocky protrusions has greatly decreased! The size of his mud field, too! Can he end the heavily bleeding representative of Class 70 before he succumbs to exhaustion?!"

Meanwhile, on the stage, the battle had already resumed and was full-on raging once more.

"You damned thing!" cursed Johann as he was sent skidding back a few centimeters.

He was already using one of his sword’s three Innate Sword Skills, Weight of the World, yet the bonus weight provided by the Earthen Essences he had been absorbing seemed to still be a bit inferior compared to the overall strength of his foe’s strikes.

"I was never Damned." Daru suddenly clarified, capitalizing on his advantage and slashing down once more.

Johann was sent staggering back, but he still managed to dismiss the rocky protrusions as he struggled to recover his footing.

Then, his langsax flashed a mossy-earth color once more, and he stabbed at the ground.

The surrounding area turned into a quicksand this time, one that slowly sank his opponent without affecting him.

But Daru was unfazed, simply somersaulting backward, firing a modest red slash mark at his foe, and landing outside the modified terrain’s effective range.

He was in no rush at all.

Johann, meanwhile, felt pressed for time.

His hovering Earthen Swords drained a very small portion of his stamina reserves for merely existing.

However, merely calling upon them from the earth was more expensive, so he had to use them sparingly.

As much as the S-ranker hated to admit, he knew he was no match in a direct confrontation.

He had to force his foe somehow to commit and battle him in a modified terrain that was to his advantage...only, his stamina reserves were running low, and he could not summon as large a mud field as he did earlier.

Johann was running out of options. But gritting his teeth in building fury cost nothing, so that’s what he did to ease his deeply agitated heart, if only slightly.

’There’s no way! I refuse to lose to this F-ranker monkey!’

Unfortunately, no matter what he did, Omaru always had a response. Daru also fought smartly, knowing that every advantage his foe made for himself would cost stamina.

So, he fought defensively — jolting his classmates awake. They recognized that fighting style for sure.

After all, that was how Daru always fought in their sparring sessions, seemingly on the backfoot yet somehow undefeatable.

Everything...Every action was really calculated all along! He was that far ahead in swordsmanship compared to all of them!

The neutrals had long begun cheering for him, while those who once hated him for no reason suddenly found themselves rooting for his victory deep in their hearts.

The crowd was also going wild at the concluding battle.

"Why won’t you die!?" raged Johann as Daru opted to dodge instead of engaging him head-on.

The infuriating thing for the S-ranker was that his opponent was doing this even when he had the advantage in head-on clashes, engaging only whenever his Somersault Slash was off cooldown.

As a result, whenever Johann would invest more stamina in his attacks and setups, they would be wasted, as his frustrating foe would refuse to bite.

But if he didn’t, he would be thrown all over the arena, thanks to the cheap weight trick.

"Damn you! Damn you, Daru Finnley!"

The S-ranker could only continue cursing as the fight progressed. His mud fields grew smaller and smaller, until they stopped existing, then he was forced to invest his Earthen Swords just to maintain ground.

He called more after every use

...Until he couldn’t anymore.

"Daru Finnley!!" was his unwilling roar as he was forced to clash head-on against Daru’s Mountainsplitter.

As Onimaru Kunitsuna, veiled in an eerily silent black aura, clashed with Taiya, the latter’s wielder was sent flying like a broken kite, vomiting alarming amounts of red cubic particles.

Then, Johann just dissipated into the winds, soon finding himself standing at the respawn point.

The crowd thundered.

"I-I-IT’S OVER!! After the most stoic stand I have ever witnessed in my career, Class 70’s representative, the legendary F-ranker, Daru Finnley, has successfully turned things around and claimed victory for himself and his class!! He will move on to the finals to face the one and only Sky Prince, Skylar Ashwind, after outlasting House Seiden’s third young master in a brilliant showcase of brains and brawn! The Darkest Destrier has his eyes set on the sky throne!!"