12 remaining.
Dust still hung in the air.
The compression around Sakura tightened again. The terrain rippled under her feet, never stable for more than half a second. The remaining Iruka students adjusted formation—wider arc now, less reckless.
They weren't underestimating her anymore.
They were hunting.
One enhanced-speed user burst forward again not alone this time. Two melee fighters flanked him, while the terrain user subtly tilted the ground inward, forcing Sakura toward the center.
'A trap' mentally guessed Shido as his eyes narrowed slightly. 'They're herding her.'
The speed user vanished—
Reappeared low.
A feint.
The real strike came from above—a reinforced fist descending toward her collarbone.
Sakura didn't raise her guard.
She stepped diagonally across the attacker's centerline instead of back.
Her rear leg slid behind his lead foot—
Her hip rotated sharply—
And in one seamless motion, she swept his base while twisting his upper body in the opposite direction.
The reinforced fighter flipped.
Not stumbled.
Flipped clean over her hip and crashed flat onto his back with a thunderous impact.
The ground shook.
Shido's eyelashes lifted.
…That's not pure striking.
Another attacker lunged in rage.
Sakura pivoted again but this time her hands shot forward, not to punch—
She caught his wrist mid-strike.
Turned it.
Stepped through.
Her shoulder dropped under his arm—
Then she rotated, pulling him across her back.
He flew.
A clean arc through the air before slamming down beside the first one.
Shido's eyes widened slightly further.
"That torque… that balance break…:
The terrain shifted violently to disrupt her stance, but she adjusted mid-motion, lowering her center of gravity instantly before the instability could topple her.
Then it clicked.
Her earlier compact strikes.
The hip-driven kicks.
The high chamber.
And now—
That throw.
His lashes rose fully for the first time.
"No way…"
Another attacker rushed her from behind.
She didn't look.
She shifted weight, caught his sleeve—
Turned—
And executed a sharp outer reap, cutting his leg out from under him while driving him down with controlled force.
Shido's voice echoed in his mind.
"Judo. No not just that there's other types of martial arts she's using," he whispered to himself his breath hitched faintly.
"She's blending kick-based striking with Judo transitions…"
One more came, trying to grab her from the side.
She pivoted, stepped across his body—
Loaded him onto her hip—
And launched him over with explosive rotation.
This time Shido's lips parted slightly. "Seoi Nage…" he muttered under his breath.
He hadn't meant to say it aloud.
But he had.
That confirmed it.
Not renamed.
Not altered.
The same principles, same mechanics.
His eyes sharpened. "So this world preserved it…"
Meanwhile, Sakura flowed between ranges—striking when distance opened, throwing when they closed, never committing fully to one rhythm.
Another fell.
Then another.
The compression user tried one final concentrated blast—
She slipped inside the release window and drove a tight knee into his solar plexus before sweeping him down.
Silence spread gradually.
Bodies on the ground.
Groaning.
Breathing hard.
Only two Iruka students remained standing now.
Both positioned instinctively in front of Ryuen.
Guard up.
Protective.
Not attacking.
Protecting.
Ryuen's expression darkened.
His jaw tightened.
"…Useless."
The two remaining students stiffened but didn't step aside.
Ryuen rolled his shoulders slowly. "Fine."
His irritation shifted into something colder.
"If I don't step in, you idiots will lose everything ans the boss will have my head."
He stepped forward. The air pressure changed subtly.
This was different.
Ryuen cracked his knuckles once.
"Alright, Sakura." He took another step.
"Now I'll enter."
Ryuen's foot touched the fractured stone.
The atmosphere changed.
Not dramatically.
Not with some explosive surge of aura.
It was heavier than that denser like the space between movements had gained weight.
Sakura felt it immediately.
So did Shido.
The two remaining Iruka students shifted backward in perfect sync, their guard tightening as they created a lane for him. Not retreating out of fear.
Yielding the stage.
Ryuen stopped just outside Sakura's range and tilted his head slightly, studying her the way a predator studies something that has already proven it can bite.
"You really don't get tired of sticking your nose into my business, do you?" he said, voice flat.
Sakura didn't answer.
Her stance had changed again.
The earlier flow—the seamless transitions between striking and throwing had tightened into something more compact. Her weight sat lower, her guard narrower, elbows closer to her ribs.
She had already calculated it.
"Oh her stance changed. So she's taking Ryuen seriously," shido watched the micro-adjustments.
She's preparing for power.
Ryuen moved.
He didn't go for a feint. No setup.
Just a straight punch.
It was clean, too clean.
Sakura slipped to the right and countered to Ryuen's right ribs with a short hook.
The moment their strikes connected—
A sound like a compressed explosion cracked through the path.
Sakura's arm jolted violently back. Her feet slid back half a step despite her angle being perfect.
Shido's eyes sharpened.
Impact amplification?
The mechanics were obvious.
The physics were not.
Her technique had been flawless but the collision still punished her.
Ryuen smiled faintly.
"Every hit," he said casually, "feels heavier than it should huh?"
He stepped in again.
This time Sakura didn't meet him.
She angled away, low kick snapping toward his lead leg.
It landed.
His stance dipped—
And his return stomp struck the ground beside her foot.
The shockwave traveled through the stone and up her leg like a hammer.
She disengaged instantly. Making distance between them. Not to run but to reset.
"He doesn't need clean hits," Shido analyzed. "Any contact becomes damage."
Sakura's eyes narrowed, but her breathing stayed controlled.
She stepped in with a fast three-hit combination.
Jab to obscure vision.
Cross to the sternum.
Lead hook—
Ryuen blocked the last one and drove a short elbow downward.
The amplified force crashed into her shoulder.
Her knees flexed involuntarily.
He didn't chase.
He waited.
He wanted the next clash.
He's built for trading, Shido realized.
He wins the longer the exchange lasts.
Sakura changed tempo.
No more extended combinations.
Single strikes.
Enter—damage—exit.
Her footwork became sharper, shorter, conserving impact.
A feint low.
She stepped inside his guard and clinched.
Shido's eyes lit.
"Close range—she's removing his leverage."
Her knee drove into his thigh.
Not once. But twice.
She shifted for a throw—
Ryuen's fist dropped into her side.
An amplified attack.
The air burst from her lungs.
The throw still happened her hip turning, his balance breaking—
But he twisted mid-fall and slammed his forearm down across her back as he landed.
Both separated.
Both marked.
Blood traced from Sakura's hairline down past her jaw.
Her shoulder was already swelling.
She rolled it once ignored it.
The two remaining Iruka students stayed behind Ryuen, abilities active but restrained not interfering, just ready.
A defensive wall.
They're preserving his openings, Shido noted.
Ryuen stepped forward again.
This time Sakura met him.
Not with a punch.
With a kick.
A full hip-driven roundhouse that slammed into his guard and forced him to shift his stance for the first time.
Shido's lashes rose slightly. "Huh, she's testing how much he can absorb."
Ryuen grinned.
He drove forward through the recoil and threw a body blow.
She caught his wrist.
Turned it.
Her shoulder dropped under his arm—
Shido leaned forward unconsciously.
She's going for the—
She didn't complete the throw.
She released it halfway and pivoted into a knee to the abdomen instead.
A hybrid.
Judo entry with a Kickboxing finish.
"Whoa…" Shido whispered under his breath.
His mind ran through the mechanics.
'She's not using full kata. She's extracting the most efficient fragments from each discipline and chaining them in real time.'
Ryuen answered with an amplified backhand. It clipped her guard and still snapped her head to the side.
Blood scattered across the stone.
Her stance wavered for the first time.
Only for a fraction.
Shido saw it. So did Ryuen.
He advanced.
Relentless now. Three heavy strikes where unleashed. Each one was blocked. But each strike still forced her backward.
The terrain user tried to tilt the ground subtly to aid Ryuen—
Sakura shifted her footing mid-retreat, compensating without looking.
Her body was still reading the battlefield perfectly.
But the accumulated impact was there now. Her breathing had deepened. Her left arm lagged a fraction behind her right.
Ryuen threw a straight punch—
She slipped oug and countered with a tight hook to the liver—
The reaction was real this time.
He bent.
She stepped in for a throw—
His knee drove upward into her thigh mid-entry.
Another amplified strike. Her leg nearly gave.
They broke apart again.
Silence pressed down over the mountain path.
Wind moved through the dust.
Shido's gaze didn't leave her.
"She can still win," he calculated. "Her technique is superior. But at this rate the damage will stack faster than she can finish it."
Sakura wiped the blood from her jaw with the back of her left hand. Her eyes shifted.
Not with panic. But decision. She had reached the line.
Martial arts alone isn't enough.
The two remaining Iruka students leaned forward slightly, sensing the change.
Ryuen rolled his neck once, smiling through the bruising. "What?" he asked. "Running out of options?"
Sakura's shoulders lowered.
Her stance opened.
Not for another exchange.
For something deeper.
Her ability.
She was about to use it.
Shido exhaled.
The sound carried clearly through the tension.
"All right then."
Every head turned.
He stepped forward at last, silver-white eyes no longer half-lidded.
He cracked his neck. "I should have entered long ago instead..." he said, voice calm but completely different from before, "of letting the girl keep fighting for my sake especially before she got this injured."
A faint, self-aware huff left him.
"I should've stepped in earlier… but my lazy act is hard to get rid of."
He lifted his head fully. "But now—"
The very air around them suddenly felt 6x heavier. A golden aura slowly began to pour out of shido's body. The dense golden aura, spread across the shattered ground and painted every face in molten gold.
The dust in the air froze as if time itself hesitated.
Sakura's eyes widened slightly.
Ryuen's smile vanished.
The two remaining Iruka students instinctively shifted their guard toward Shido.
The aura didn't flare nor spike. It simply existed vast and unshakable.
"But now..." Shido paused, rolling his shoulders once as the golden aura continuously poured out of him, "I'm serious."
And every person on that mountain path felt it.
The moment the balance of the fight changed.