"You’re still not ready to tap out," Sigan said after the first impact. This was the first time Sagiri had fought someone with a blade like that. It was almost exciting, and it made Sagiri feel something more. Or was it Nokai’s desire to win against Yanki?

The two exchanged a few more blows, neither blade giving in. The remaining thirteen joined in and went for Yoka and N’varu seven to six. Sagiri was forced to split Nokai into four. He was using two to go against Sigan and the other two to back up his two teammates.

"You are using half a blade to fight me!! You dare disrespect my blade?" Sigan said, his smile growing into one of madness.

"You don’t deserve to fight my full blade!" Sagiri returned the sentiment. The two were moving like two blurs, and only the surroundings were feeling the heat.

Sagiri met Sigan in the narrow space between two scarred trunks, and the forest seemed to draw tight around them as Nokai and Yanki collided for the hundredth time, the impact cracking bark behind them as both slid off and returned instantly, faster, sharper, neither giving ground.

Sigan moved first, a sudden step that cut the distance in a blur, Yanki driving in along a tight line toward Sagiri’s center, but Sagiri turned with it, Nokai catching and redirecting the force. The two blades screamed against each other before separating just enough for the next exchange to slam in.

Sigan shifted angles mid-motion, his wrist turned, his body folded low, then rose into a second strike that came from a direction Sagiri had just cleared, forcing him to pivot hard. He planted his foot against a trunk to twist out of line. Nokai snapped up to intercept again as wood split beside his head from the force of the miss. The two moved together without pause, stepping off trees, rebounding, cutting through the air in tight arcs that overlapped and collided, each strike answered instantly, each defense turning into another attack.

They moved almost like a deadly spinning wheel.

Sigan pressed forward with relentless precision, Yanki carving fast, controlled lines that forced Sagiri into constant adjustment. Sagiri matched him, Nokai, on both hands, flashing in sharp counters that broke all the attacks.

Both of them seemed to read ahead, anticipating each other’s moves, closing openings the moment they formed. They left the ground almost at the same time, meeting mid-air, blades clashing again and again in rapid succession, metal ringing in tight bursts as their bodies twisted around each other. They landed apart only to drive back in, faster now.

The exchanges tightened until there was no separation between attack and defense, just continuous motion where one mistake would be lethal, yet none came, the balance holding on a razor’s edge as two blades of equal intent carved through the forest, splitting bark, shattering branches, and still refusing to yield.

This was going to take a while.

Sagiri did not have that time. His two teammates were seconds from death. If only he could capture the remaining veil blades in his archive pocket. Sigan was not giving him that time, however. If only he were using the whole of Nokai, he could have for sure finished the job. Yanki was not to be underestimated at all, and Sagiri knew that now. To some extent, the blade was like Nokai following its master’s will.

"You can’t save them and fight me at the same time. They are going to die in no time," Sigan said, his smile growing bigger. Even with his now reduced strength, Sagiri still had to do something, or Yoka and N’varu were going to die. He could only hold two in his archive pocket, and that is what he did. The archive pushed out and pulled two into the pocket.

"Not if I suffocate your buddies first," Sagiri said. He could feel the two choking away in the archive pocket. carrying them, however, had repercussions because he was now slower, and Sigan pushed him on the defensive. He was not cornered, but he had slowed down momentarily. Yanki slashed the aid and tore open Sagiri’s clothes and his chest. The cut was deep, but not too deep to slow him down.

"Stay back!!" Sagiri roared. The archive hit Sigan with force and sent him back. It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it was enough to slow him down. Yoka and N’varu had one less member to deal with, but they were both now wounded.

This was getting deadly.

Yoka, especially, was now cornered. Not even the piece of Nokai was enough to have his back. The surviving veil blades were deadly and most elite. Just when Sagiri thought Yoka could die, someone tore through the tree line.

"Captain!!" he called, getting straight to action and breaking the offence, giving Yoka momentary relief.

Tavora?

Such an impulsive child.

Sagiri needed to end the fight quickly. The wound was not healing, and if he had to guess, Yanki was poisoned.

No!

No time to waste. Sigan joined the fight again. They were now both wounded, and they both knew this was the most critical part of the fight.

Hang in there, everyone.

"You are poisoned. You can not save anyone now." Sigan gloated.

Sagiri felt it instantly, a cold burn spreading from the wound, sharp and wrong, sinking deeper with every heartbeat. Sigan slowed, just a fraction, watching, knowing the poison would do what his blade didn’t need to rush.

Sagiri’s breath tightened in calculation, the Archive inside him shifting, rising, answering the threat with something heavier. Sagiri rose and got into a menacingly offensive stance.

He stepped forward once, and the rhythm changed. His body moved differently now, each step placed with absolute intent, the flow turning into something precise. Nokai moved with him, in clean, decisive arcs that forced Sigan back for the first time since he put away the two veilblades in the archive pocket.

"I’m going to defeat you with half my blade," Sagiri said. It was not his first time being poisoned. This was not as lethal as the time eating poison, but he could feel it eating at his strength quickly.

Yanki met Nokai again and again, sparks snapping between them as the tempo climbed. Sagiri’s steps sharpened into a pattern turn, step, pivot, cut, each movement linking perfectly into the next, faster, tighter, the dance compressing the space between them until there was no room left to disengage.

The forest blurred around them as he pushed forward, every motion fueled by the Archive, every strike carrying weight that broke Sigan’s defense, forcing him to adjust, to give ground, to break his own rhythm.

The poison spread, clawing at Sagiri’s veins, but he didn’t slow. He accelerated, the attacks reaching their peak, movements overlapping into something relentless.

The two inside the archive pocket were refusing to die, to say the least. It would take longer for them to die, and he did not have that long.

Sigan sank into a low stance before he attacked again. He moved like a blur, but Sagiri did not miss him. The archive spat the two in his archive pocket just as Sigan landed an attack. He split his two buddies in two. Yanki was lethal indeed, and the cut was deadly. Sagiri used the opening to charge forward, cutting, already inside Sigan’s open defence, his final step landing with absolute certainty as Nokai carved through the last line of defence in a single, flawless motion.

Nokai sank into Sigan’s heart. Even though Yanki had taken his two opponents, he still managed to slice Sagiri’s shoulder as he thrust his blade deeper.

Silence.

"You lost my half-blade!" Sagiri laughed, but coughed up blood.

"And you will die from the freezing tongue in a few minutes." Sigan laughed an evil cackle before his eyes rolled to the back of his head. And he fell back.

"No wonder you could never wield the full strength of this blade. Clan betrayer." Sagiri said as he fell to one knee. How dare he coat such a blade with poison? Sagiri stabbed Nokai to the ground to keep himself steady. If a true wielder of Yanki had been the one to fight Sagiri, perhaps he could have unleashed its full strength, and Sagiri would have had to use his full blade.

Such a pity.

"Captain, no!!" Just then, Tavora’s voice tore through the clearing, snapping Sagiri to his senses immediately.