The wind—as if it had stopped at this moment.

The air around it began to freeze as if it had suddenly become a physical entity.

Ogata and Nanahara are in their own positions, facing each other.

A leaf suddenly fell from a branch above Ogata.

The leaves were falling down boredly.

Slowly, slowly drifting towards the top of Ogata's head.

Just as the leaves were about to fall on Ogata's hair......

Syllable!

Ogata's hind feet stepped backwards and rushed towards Nanahara.

The strong wind that Ogata brought with him as he rushed forward blew the fallen leaf directly into the air, turning it into a black dot and then disappearing completely.

Ogata and Nanahara moved almost at the same time.

The two people who rushed towards each other, the knives in their hands turned into two cold rays of light, slashing towards each other.

Clang!

"Drink, ah, ah, ah——!" *2

Ogata and Nanahara's knives slammed into each other, and the two let out a loud roar that wanted to give their voices a hoarse sigh.

Their knives collided and separated, and collided and separated.

Even after fighting hundreds of samurai, and his physical strength and strength were no longer at their peak, Ogata did not fall behind at all, taking or dodging every attack of Nanahara without giving up, and launched a fierce counterattack against him that was even more fierce than Nanahara's attack.

Sakakiwara Knife Stream: Bird Thorn!

Ogata's sword turned into a streamer of light and rained down on Nanahara's head.

With the blessing of the state of "selflessness", all of Ogata's martial arts have been temporarily upgraded by one order.

The three skills of bird stinging, blade reversal, and circulation have been directly upgraded from "advanced" to "master".

In the past, Ogata also guessed that the conditions for upgrading from advanced to master level were so harsh, then the power of master-level martial arts should be far above that of high-level martial arts.

Now it seems – and so it is.

Ogata doesn't even know how to describe the gap between the two.

Heavens and Earths – this is the only appropriate adjective Ogata can think of.

Nanahara tilted his head, barely dodging the streamer.

But this streamer still grazed Nanahara's left cheek, leaving a huge hole on Nanahara's left cheek, and this half of Nanahara's face was immediately covered with blood.

Almost in the next moment, Nanahara launched a counterattack, snatching the sword in his hand from the bottom to the top.

Clang!

Although the "circulation" cannot be used because there is no coercion available, Ogata can still use the three moves of "Source Breath", "Blade Reversal", and "Step Step" in the two knife flows.

Ogata quickly retracted the sword he had stabbed out, and after blocking Nanahara's sword with the "blade reversal", Nanahara took a few steps back and distanced himself from Ogata.

There was such a big wound on his face, and the blood flowed all over half of his face, and it was dripping down his chin "gurgling", but Nanahara seemed to be unaware of pain, his face was expressionless, and he didn't even have the slightest intention of wiping the blood off his face.

"Ogata Yoshise, your current state is really strange."

"It stands to reason that after so many injuries and just fought with more than a hundred samurai, you shouldn't be able to have any more strength."

"But now you not only have the strength to spare, but you are also quite energetic."

"If you enter this strange state in the realm of full physical condition, I may not be your opponent, not only am I not your opponent, but I can't even pass your 3 moves."

"It's a shame."

Ogata disagreed with what Nanahara said just now: "Even if my current physical condition is not good, I can still kill you!" ”

"Then you can just give it a try."

With that, Nanahara clenched the knife in his right hand again and set up a mid-range stance.

Merely...... As he repositioned his mid-stance, Nanahara unnaturally twisted his lower left wrist.

Because Nanahara's movements are very subtle, if you don't look closely, you won't be able to find this small movement of Nanahara's left wrist.

After resetting his stance, Nanahara did not confront Ogata for too long, and stepped directly on his back foot, turning his body into an off-string arrow and killing Ogata towards him.

Ogata clenched the knife in his hand and stared at Nanahara with his eyes, ready for a new round of attacks from Nanahara.

At that moment—when Nanahara was only four steps away from Ogata—Nanahara suddenly let go of his left hand, which was holding the lower end of the hilt.

Aiming his left palm at Ogata, he unnaturally shook his left wrist.

A small black shadow immediately flew out of Nanahara's sleeve and shot towards Ogata.

Flew straight towards Ogata's eyebrows.

After this tiny black shadow flew away from his sleeve, Nanahara, who was originally expressionless, had a faint look of pride on his face.

While maintaining the smug look on his face, Nanahara clenched the knife in his hand, ready to slash directly after this small black shadow hit Ogata's eyebrows, giving Ogata a stab and completely ending Ogata's life.

However, the smug look on his face didn't last long before it vanished.

Because—when this small black shadow was about to hit Ogata's eyebrows, Ogata slammed the knife in his hand upright, and put the blade between the small black shadow and his own eyebrows.

Clang.

The sound of gold and iron sounded.

The tiny black shadow was bounced off by Ogata's suddenly erected blade.

Then, Ogata pushed the knife forward and slashed at Nanahara, who was only a stone's throw away from him.

This sudden change could only make Nanahara give up the plan of "mending the knife with a horizontal slash", hurriedly changed his moves, blocked Ogata's slash, and then quickly retreated a few steps, and distanced himself from Ogata again.

"Knowing that you have a secret weapon, do you think I will still be successfully attacked by you?"

Ogata said in a disdainful tone as he glanced at the "tiny black shadow" that was now lying quietly at his feet.

The true face of this "small black shadow" is a sharp arrow that is not as long as an adult's tail finger.

"Tsk......" Nanahara let out a "tsk" sound with a look of chagrin.

Then he turned his head slightly and glanced at the bodies of Ichiro and the others in the distance.

"It seems...... It's the corpses of those people that expose the fact that I have a secret weapon......"

"I didn't expect that." Ogata said softly, "Nanahara, who has the title of 'Hirose Domain's No. 1 Swordsmanship', is still a good hand at using hidden weapons. ”

"Hidden weapons are such a useful thing. Why don't I use it? Nanahara looked like he should be, "In your life-and-death match, victory is everything, as long as I can win in the deathmatch, I can use any trick." ”

"You're hiding a lot of stuff, I've never heard you have a secret weapon."

"Because all the people who saw me use this secret weapon are dead!"

Phew——!

Another gust of wind blew.

As soon as Nanahara's words fell, he kicked back again, swinging his sword towards Ogata.