Following Jean Stardust's words, the entire blade flashed with white light and then shot forward; with a 'click,' it pierced into Lia's armor.
Currently, the overall quality of this blade cannot support it shooting out like that famous Zanpakuto'Shinso,' but it is more than enough for the distance of two people.
The current length of the blade was just right to be used as a nodachi, but Jean Stardust had no experience using such weapons, so she adopted a second method.
Taking advantage of this moment, she quickly moved forward, shortened the blade's length again, and rushed into Lia's embrace.
She applied downward force to deliver the first strike, but Lia noticed this, quickly dispelled that part of her armor, and relied on the change in the direction of the force to dodge the blow.
But this was merely the beginning of Jean Stardust's attack; relying on the downward force, she quickly retracted the blade, then activated the crystal inside the scabbard to draw the blade once more.
Within that very second, a second strike was unleashed.
Lia, having dispelled her armor, suffered the consequences; the sharp blade of White Wind left a bloody gash on her petite body.
Because the angle was poor, the wound was not deep, but as the Red Dragon of Britain, Lia possessed dragon attributes; blood quickly gushed from the wound again—this was damage amplification.
However, Jean Stardust had no time to rejoice over the results, as she was still within the Holy Sword's attack range; she used mana burst again to accelerate, forcibly dodging a horizontal sweep.
But just as Jean Stardust was struggling to regain her footing, Lia caught up with her sword again; although injured, she had removed the burden of her armor and applied that portion of her mana toward body reinforcement.
Her speed increased by more than a notch, and her strength grew as well.
The two entered the close-quarters combat phase once more, but with the increase in Lia's physical attributes, Jean Stardust's original advantage in this area was no longer as apparent.
Fortunately, the wound on Lia's body slightly affected her movements, weakening the dual advantage brought by her instinct and experience.
Overall, the two were evenly matched, falling into a stalemate.
---
At this moment, Jean Stardust began to hesitate whether she should terminate her contract with Rin and use her true power directly.
However, Cú Chulainn also sensed the deadlock; he did not interfere with the battle between Jean Stardust and Lia, but instead used his high speed to rush toward Illya.
Whether for this battle or the entire Holy Grail War, Illya held immense importance; securing her first would be nothing but beneficial.
That was his thought, and that was his action, but reality did not go according to his wishes.
When he lunged to Illya's side, he was blocked by a layer of transparent, invisible Barrier.
To prevent Lia from returning to reinforce, and having no time to think it over, he pulled out his long spear and thrust it forward.
However, even this magic spear had no effect on the Barrier, unable to advance even an inch.
"Damn it, what is this!"
He slammed his fist down with a 'bang,' startling Illya just as she was about to deliver a taunt, and tears welled up in her eyes.
Cú Chulainn hurriedly retracted his hand; although he intended to kidnap her, making a Little Girl cry was not something he wanted to do.
---
The two on the battlefield were, of course, paying attention to this, but seeing that Lia had no intention of returning to defend, Jean Stardust knew that Cú Chulainn was destined to return in defeat.
Both stared at each other simultaneously, preparing to take advantage of the other's distraction to secure victory in one fell swoop.
"avalon?"
"That's right."
"If you were holding that scabbard, perhaps you would have already won?"
"But if the master is lost, what difference is there from failure?"
"However, I am still very curious; your scabbard can actually be used by others, so why has its legend never appeared in history again?"
Jean Stardust began trying to fish for information, but unexpectedly, Lia actually began to explain.
"This scabbard requires my mana to activate, and after that, only designated entities can enter the Barrier; anything else will be blocked, and even the Second Magic among the Five Great Magics is no exception."
While chatting, Jean Stardust scanned the entire situation; Sakura seemed to want to replenish Rin's mana, but after being refused, she was just watching the spectacle. Although Rin had provided Jean Stardust with that amount of mana, she actually still had some energy left.
Cú Chulainn was trying to figure out how to break the Barrier while making faces at Illya; fortunately, Illya was strong-willed enough to force herself to look away, and she was not actually scared to tears by him.
Seeing Illya hold back her tears, Cú Chulainn looked full of pride, as if his face-making had stopped the Little Girl from crying. Seeing this, Sakura even pulled out a gun, likely intending to put this embarrassing fool out of his misery.
The situation had now fallen into a true stalemate; although Jean Stardust could break the deadlock by simply tapping the interface, she intended to make one more effort for the sake of the potential mana replenishment.
She unloaded the bullets from her hand cannon and switched to wind elemental rounds; although their power was lower, their fire rate was fast, they could be fired continuously, and they didn't even require reloading.
Lia swung her sword forward to stop her, but what awaited her were the wind rounds fired by 'overture.'
'Bang, bang, bang.' While harassing Lia's movement as much as possible, she simultaneously used her sword to coordinate.
She mentally added learning Gun Kata to her schedule; the hand cannon, originally intended as a transitional weapon, was actually incredibly easy to use. Even with the gun-sword coordination of a complete novice, the rhythmic 'bang-bang' sounds provided a unique sense of satisfaction, much like a rhythm game.
However, as Lia's instinct allowed her to judge the trajectories with increasing precision, this tactic would likely be unable to take her down completely; but before that, Jean Stardust decided to enjoy using this gun and sword to the fullest...
---
"I understand, is that Saber's master? I just need to catch her, right? Let's go, Ruby!"
Just as Cú Chulainn was still fretting over the Barrier, a pink figure suddenly rushed out from the forest behind and easily entered the Barrier.
The person herself didn't even realize a Barrier existed there, while the Ruby in her hand emitted a 'wow' sound.
Although this master didn't look very old from behind, she hardened her heart for the sake of returning home, pressed her staff against the other girl's neck, and shouted in a childish voice: "Nobody move! This master is already in my hands!"
Hearing her voice, everyone, including Jean Stardust and Lia, stopped their movements, looked over, and were stunned on the spot.
Afterward, the captive Illya turned her head to lock eyes with the 'kidnapper.'
Then, the two identical Little Girls stared at each other for three seconds before both letting out a huge shriek:
"Eh?!!!"
"Eh?!!!"
-------------------------------
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