(AN : This chapter is susceptible to change. Errors might exist.)

“This time I’ll surely win. So old man, get ready! ”

Wielding his wooden sword in front of him, Sato took a deep breath and studied his grandfather who had a relaxed smile on his face.

‘Normally, it’s best to wait fro an attack, however if I do the same with the old man, the battle would be in his hands. His surpasses me in speed and technique but not strength and stamina. So to win, I have to keep the pace of the battle under control.’

“Are you done scheming or what?” Old Juro mockingly grinned.

Sato ignored his comment and began circling around him steadily with his sword held high, pointing towards his grandfather.

“Oh? Trying to distract me with your movements and then launch a surprise attack? But if I attack before you, your plan would be ruined. Or is that what you want? You interrupt me immediately as I make my move and try to control the flow of the battle from there. Is that it?”

Despite having his plan revealed, Sato still remained calm. Instead, he stopped circling his grandfather and smiled.

“Indeed. No matter what scheme I come up with, you always seem to discover it in a glance.”

“That’s because I have lived with you for more than 10 years already. It should only be right for me to know your behaviour and thought patterns.” Old Juro smiled nicely.

“Then let’s see how much you know old man.” Taking a step forward, Sato charged towards his grandfather while hacking his sword downwards for a heavy strike.

“A full frontal assault? You’re full of openings. I thought I taught you better.”

Rather than taking a stance to receive the attack, Old Juro took a step and swiftly moved towards Sato. Looking at his movements, one wouldn’t notice a hint of old age or weakness. Old Juro fluidly wielded his shinai[1] and slashed at Sato’s torso from the right.

*cluck*

Surprising, Sato was able to block the attack aimed it his torso as a weird sound was produced from the collision of the two shinais.

“It seems you’ve forgotten something old man. I have also lived with you for more than 10 years.” Sato smirked at his grandfather’s slightly surprised face.

Old Juro retreated a few step backwards and chuckled a bit.

“Good. Good. You faked a full frontal assault and managed to predict how I’d respond. If you were wrong you would have lost.”

“But I didn’t.” Sato cut him short.

“Yes, you didn’t. Now enough of the chat; warm-ups are over. Time for the real deal.” As he completed his statement, Old Juro released a somewhat illusory aura that was one with his surrounding. It made it almost impossible to notice his presence and for one to easily ignore his body’s movement despite staring at him.

Taking one step forward, Old Juro slashed down vertically while saying in a low voice “Illusory Butterfly Slash.”

Despite the distance of about 3-4 metres, it meant nothing to Old Juro as his sword appeared almost instantly in front of Sato at an alarming speed.

‘Shit!’ Sato was surprised but that didn’t mean he wasn’t prepared for such an attack as he knew his grandfather was far faster than he was.

Pushing his body to its limit, he narrowly dodged the attack and tried to dish out an attack of his one. However, Old Juro expected that and delivered attack after attack, forcing Sato to continuously be on the defensive.

‘If this goes on, I will lose.’

Despite knowing this, Sato couldn’t change it as each time he tried to counter after blocking an attack from his grandfather, Old Juro would deliver another attack at an insane speed, such that Sato can only block it, if he doesn’t want to lose.

‘To make things worse, even as I retreat he keeps following me. I just need some space, no matter how little, as long as it’s enough.’

“Little brat, you actually have the guts to be thinking while we’re battling? Hahaha. It seems I need to up my pace a little bit. Hup!”

Old Juro then held his shinai with both hands and hacked with full force towards Sato. Even though the attack seemed heavy, it also seemed flexible and capable of retracting backwards quickly and easily while retaining its force.

“Seven Dragon moves : Dragon’s claw.”

The combination of the force of claw attack from a wild beast and the flexibility and deadliness of a snake. This was a martial art developed to be flexible and usable on various weapons; it could even be used as a fist art. One of the pinnacle martial techniques made by the Noguchi Family, the Seven Dragon moves consisted of 7 attacking patterns that can be applied in various situations with each of them having high attacking abilities and power. As a result, the criteria for learning this technique is quite demanding of the practitioner, but considering that the martial technique is ranked among the top in the Noguchi family, a family of genius martial artists, then it is pretty much worth it.

‘Old man do you really want to kill me?’ Sensing the ferociousness of the attack, Sato was prepare to retreat even though he might not get away successfully, however, the thought stopped as soon as it came.

Ignoring whether he could really outrun his grandfather, the Dragon’s claw move wasn’t a one-shot attack that could just be dodged and done with. It was designed to be carry-able, in other words, even if the target manages to dodge it, the user can still retain the force and might of the attack and carry it over to his next move or perform the technique once more. Though this carry-able function is hard to use, Sato knew this wasn’t so for his grandfather, who is a pro when it comes to sword arts.

So instead of retreating, Sato held his sword and slashed back at a strange angle.

The best defense is offense.

Sato’s attack wasn’t a heavy one as one would only expect such an attack to block the might of the Dragon’s claw. Rather, the attack looked simple and felt gentle in the eye.

Once his shinai collided with Old Juro’s, the Dragon Claw attack mysteriously glided along the edge of Sato’s sword in a gentle manner. It looked more like the force of the attack was deflected downwards.

“Hmm?” Seeing this, Old Juro was stunned. ‘He’s already learnt the 3rd move of the Lotus Sword art?’

Even though the Lotus sword art is classified as a low level sword art, no technique is truly useless; it only depends on the user. The same applied with the Lotus sword art. By comparison, some of its techniques are weaker than that of the Seven Dragon moves despite so, if used properly, it could triumph over it.

The move Sato had used to deflect the attack was the 3rd form: Water on Lotus. Ignoring its lackadaisical name, the technique was one of the 2 only counter attack movements in the sword art. Even thought it is called the 3rd form, that doesn’t mean it’s easier than the next few forms, take for instance the 4th form: Lotus slash.

The forms in the Lotus sword art are of varying difficulty and the 3rd form is rated as one of the hardest, possibly rivalling the weakest of Seven Dragons moves in difficulty. Keep in mind that the Seven Dragon moves are all difficult for an average sword art practitioner. Even pros may find it difficult. So for the 3rd form of the Lotus sword arts to be able to rival one of it, even if it is the easiest move, is evident of its difficulty and for Sato to have learned such a move was quite surprising for Old Juro.

As Sato deflected Old Juro’s attack, he followed up with another attack but even so, Old Juro still responded timely, retreating some steps away.

Seizing the opportunity, Sato executed the 1st form of the Lotus sword, but Old Juro easily deflected it. As Sato was about to attack again, he noticed the tip of a wooden sword at his throat accompanied with his grandfather’s voice.

“Shadow art : Silent Kill. You’re done Sato.”

Sato then looked up to see his grandfather”s gloating face.

“Tch.”

“Hahaha. You should have already known that you are 30 years to early to face me. Enough now, time for practice.”

*Schaww*

Hearing the sound of the bamboo slide door being open, Sato and Old Juro looked over and saw a worried Hayami.

“Grandma’s ill !”