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“Request Lord Tokugawa for mercy right away, Lynne! If you do that, I shall cripple your foundation and protect you with my life on the line! This is the last chance you have, Lynne!” The tall and gallant Honda Yahatarou, whose visage resembled that of a hero’s statue, stood in front of the troops with a 5m long pike, the Dragonfly Pike, in hand.
Although Lily could feel Honda’s deep feelings, she had never considered submitting to Tokugawa just to survive.
Lily unsheathed the long blade of Crescent Moon slowly with grace, “Sorry, but I’m not Lynne.”
“Be careful of the man in front of you, Master!” Kagura sent a voice transmission to Lily from inside the mirror suddenly.
Kagura rarely spoke to Lily from within the mirror, so this raised Lily’s vigilance.
“This Honda Yahatarou possesses an innate Buddhist Attendant’s Physique!”
“Buddhist Attendant’s Physique?” Lily inquired Kagura with a similar telepathic transmission.
“A Buddhist attendant has the blessing of Buddha and refers to men with special abilities similar to blade maidens. You can say that they are the natural nemesis of blade maidens!” Kagura stated vigilantly.
“Do you know what those special abilities are, Kagura?”
“A Buddhist attendant can use dharmic spirit power, which is a special-attributed spirit power that can double the attendant’s power. Unlike blade maidens who absorb anima by slaying their enemies, a Buddhist attendant accumulates merit via purification of wicked animas and gains the divine blessing of Buddha from the world as a result. This dharmic spirit power is very harmful towards monsters and even blade maiden spirit power. Conversely, blade maiden spirit power is also pretty harmful towards dharmic spirit power, so we can say that they counterbalance each other and that’s the reason the holders of these powers have always been nemeses1! Also, a Buddhist attendant must never break their sexual abstinence, otherwise, their dharmic merit will weaken by a huge margin. The opponent is a monster among geniuses and also in the Spirit Jade Stage, which is a level higher than you, so you must proceed with the utmost caution, Master!”
“Thank you, Kagura. I understand now. I’ll be careful.”
“If worse comes to worst, please don’t hesitate to use the Blood Spirit Magatama. I can eliminate fellas like Tokugawa and Takeda instantly a hundred times even with just the Sakura Parasol as the medium!”
“I know what to do!”
“Lynne! I never expected a woman like you to possess such courage, it makes me admire you even further. However, I’ve already promised His Lordship, and since you’ve denied surrendering, I can only kill you! Forgive me, Lynne!”
Shrouded in dharmic light, Honda brandished Dragonfly Spike, and opened a path through the vorticial snowstorm, his steps filled to the brim with the overwhelming yang energy specific to virgin men as he strode towards Lily with light speed!
He slammed the pike down towards Lily with the intention of knocking her out and capturing her alive as he didn’t want to kill her.
However, Lily didn’t show any signs of dodging this heavy blow and ignited her Crescent Moon with spirit power, producing a crimson glow akin to fireworks within the everlasting snowstorm!
“Boom!” The pike and the cursed katana clashed directly and produced an explosion of gold and red spirit power!
A dome of mist formed around Lily and Honda, its interior turning into a vacuum-like space bereft of snow, and the wind resulting from their clash exploded outwards and crashed into Tokugawa and Takeda’s army like a blizzard, while also sending hubris from the mountain temple that had also got mixed into the aftershocks flying in random directions.
The slim and pretty blade maiden and the tall and gallant Buddhist attendant actually turned out to be equally matched with each other!
“What?!” Takeda, Tokugawa and the others were all alarmed by this.
Even Tokugawa didn’t dare to take an exceptionally powerful hit from the pike of Honda Yahatarou who was famous for his raw manly power. Yet, this woman, a woman who looked feeble on the outside, had actually given up the dodging and tactical skills she relied on typically and confronted Honda head-on, and didn’t even look leeward!
Tokugawa broke out in a cold sweat inside his sturdy armor as Lily’s decision to receive the attack head-on even in such a disadvantageous situation meant that she held absolute confidence in her strength.
“Why
” Honda’s eyes opened wide, “Why do you possess such strength, Lynne?!”
“The Late-Awakened Stage. Based on her aura, she’s clearly a late 7th-stage Awakened. Why then is she able to match Honda, a gifted Spirit Jade powerhouse, in terms of strength?” Tokugawa held a lot of questions in his mind.
Lily naturally had a reason behind her confidence. Although she was just a 7th-stage Awakened and not that far from attaining the Spirit Jade Stage, there still existed a fundamental qualitative difference as well as a several-fold gap in power between her and Honda.
However, Lily possessed a special physique, the blade maiden spirit power, and the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle, which provided an eighteen fold boost altogether!
Although Honda’s unique pike arts provided a threefold power boost, his Buddhist dharmic spirit power was equally matched with blade maiden spirit power, while his power at the early Spirit Jade Stage which was thrice that of a 7th-stage Awakened added up perfectly to match Lily’s current strength2.
On the other hand, Lily possessed a higher awareness of her opponent’s strength in comparison to Honda, which was the reason she had the courage to face him head-on.
Honda’s expression turned grimmer and he began to treat Lily as a true foe from this moment onward, deciding not to hold back against her any longer. He stepped back widely and spun Dragonfly Spike in his hands once before bringing swinging its three-pronged tip up towards Lily, who countered with a downward slash instantly.
“Clang!”
Crescent Moon smashed Dragonfly Pike into the ground and raised up a cloud of mist around them.
“You’re pretty strong, Lynne! I never expected you to possess a power equal to me. It seems like I was really underestimating you until now!”
Honda pulled back his pike savagely and the two leaped a step back in tandem.
A golden light emanated from Honda and his eyes lit up like flames as he howled loudly, “Omnidirectional Stinger!”
The pike in Honda’s hand turned into dharmic light instantly and shot towards Lily’s vitals with fierce momentum.
Although Lily could face Honda head-on, it didn’t mean she couldn’t dodge his attacks. Her footwork turned unpredictable like that of a celestial maiden’s as she spun around to dodge Honda’s pike.
“Hmph!” Honda grunted coldly. This move, Omnidirectional Stinger, was a series of stabs, and in case the first stab missed, a subsequent stab followed behind it, which was followed by yet another stab until the opponent’s vitals were struck. In addition to this, each consecutive stab was stronger and faster than the former because the previous stab’s power and speed superimposed on the later stab’s a little!
An ordinary human would undoubtedly mess up their footwork while dodging consecutively and become forced to keep dodging the increasingly strengthening attacks, but Lily didn’t rely purely on talent and instincts to dodge like in the past. The sword-dance of the Tsukuyomi Swordstyle produced a mystical cadence specific to celestial maidens that was manifested via Lily’s footwork, and this allowed Lily to dodge each stab of Honda’s lightly like a phantom.
A series of eight stabs, representing the eight directions, each fiercer and scarier than the former, yet Lily dodged each one of them wonderfully in style!
“A genius
 this samurai woman is a real genius!” Takeda’s retainer, Amari, who was watching the battle from the back, praised their enemy subconsciously, “I’ve spent half my life campaigning with the previous lord and the current lord, yet I’ve never seen such marvellous evasion skills until now! I-Is this woman really human? The unimaginable power possessed by her that normal women can only dream about was amazing enough, but her evasion skills were actually so amazing as well! It would be a great loss to humanity if she were to fall today as no one would be able to match her in the East and even the entire Heian Empire if she were given enough time to train
 but, alas, luck isn’t on her side even though she’s a genius. With Lord Takeda and Lord Tokugawa, as well as the army, besieging her, she’s bound to lose no matter how much of a monstress she is
”
The fact that someone as loyal as Amari was feeling pity for the enemy proved that the beauty and complexity of Lily’s footwork surpassed the norm so much that it evoked the praise of this candid eastern samurai. However, as he was under orders to kill Lily, he wouldn’t hold back just because of this.
Lily also felt the threat of her opponent’s strength and talent while batting with him. As expected, Honda Yahatarou really lived up to his fame as a genius of Mikawa and it was undoubtedly a miracle of the century for someone with his disposition to be born in Mikawa. He was a frank man with a compassionate heart on top of that, which was pretty rare, and was a man with top-class strength, looks and conduct, an opponent truly worthy of Lily!
Lily’s sword-arts were as fluid as water and clouds, and her attacks became fiercer with each passing moment, producing metallic sparks as her katana and Honda’s pike clashed with each other!
Although unbelievable, Lily’s attacks turned so fierce that even Honda began feeling that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with Lily’s pace soon, and his forehead was soaked in sweat as a result. The reason for this was that he still felt fatigued even though he possessed an indestructible dharmic diamond physique.
Having the divine blessing of a deity didn’t mean the deity would act personally, and there were a lot of things in this world that received the blessings of deities. In fact, Honda only had an unseen partial blessing aiding him.
Filled with anxiety, Honda shouted loudly, and the phantom image of an eight-armed golden Buddha wielding eight different weapons manifested behind him along with a sudden increase in power!
Lily shivered when she saw Honda’s pike stab through the heavy snowfall and didn’t dare to receive his attack head-on. She dodged backward with phantom-like movements and donned a solemn expression as she dashed forward to stab towards Honda’s neck in the next moment.
“So fast!” Honda failed to pull back his pike in time as it was too long, so he was forced to change into a one-handed stance and draw the tachi at his waist with his free hand to block Lily’s stab!
However, such a move couldn’t stop Lily’s attack. She side-stepped and glided across the snow-covered ground to speed up and turned around after jumping to stop, delivering a slash to Honda’s back towards the end. As Honda still hadn’t pulled his pike back, he failed to turn back and defend in time.
“Crush!” Lily’s katana slashed through Honda’s wide shoulder plate and left a three-inch deep wound on his robust diamond-like shoulder!
If Honda wasn’t twice as large as a normal human, this slash would have undoubtedly left him crippled.
“What?!” Amari was shocked once again, “S-She hadn’t gone all out until now?! This woman
 she’s definitely not a normal samurai woman. Could she be the reincarnation of a war goddess? Her power was matched with Honda until now, but she’s actually changed her tactics to use the elements of the battleground to her advantage now to put her enemy in a disadvantaged position! With her making the best of her combat talent, Honda cannot defeat her even with the power boost provided by the blessing of Great Bodhisattva Hachiman’s phantom! Although Honda is a tad bit stronger than her, he’s still greatly disadvantaged as things stand!3”
“Argh!” Honda grabbed his bleeding shoulder and realized the blunder he had made. As such, he threw the tachi away and focused on battling Lily with his pike.
However, even though Honda’s power was boosted greatly by the Buddhistic phantom behind him, his overly long pike and massive body hindered him instead. He could’ve shown the full power of his pike if he were facing a Great Demon, but faced with Lily, an exceptional samurai woman with a relatively petite stature and unpredictable footwork, his pike’s length didn’t bring him any advantages and served as a burden instead.
Thus, with the gap in strength between Lily and Honda being too small, Honda’s combat arts were restrained by Lily conversely!
Tokugawa, who was spectating the battle from the side, concluded that it might turn into an unfavorable outcome if things continued like this, and ordered the troops at the back in a low voice, “Shoot the arrows!”
“But
 we might hit Lord Honda if we shoot now
” the archer division’s leader stated hesitantly.
“You idiot! Honda possesses a dharmic diamond physique and is also wearing heavy armor, so your arrows won’t bring him any harm at all. On the other hand, Lily is just dressed in thin garments, so even though your arrows won’t kill her, they will give her small injuries that will make her bleed continuously and exhaust her!”
“Shoot the arrows right now!” Tokugawa chided.