Chapter 977: Sword Test
Strax did not take Zi Bai inside the mansion immediately. As soon as the two crossed part of the courtyard and reached the training area behind the property, he stopped, rolled his shoulders slightly, and extended his right hand to the side.
Mana condensed in the air in a dense and familiar flow. In the next instant, Zani appeared in his hand as though it had always been there, merely waiting to be called. The sword emerged wrapped in a heavy, steady, and ancient presence.
Zi Bai felt it immediately.
The new weapon in her hands reacted as well, releasing an almost imperceptible glow, as though it understood that this would not be merely a test of sharpness or balance. It would be a legitimate confrontation between two weapons with wills, histories, and identities of their own.
Strax rotated Zani once to settle its weight against his wrist and looked at Zi Bai with a calm she knew far too well. It was the tranquility he showed before fighting seriously. There was no uncontrolled aggression or bloodlust, only focus.
The kind of focus that made the air heavier before he even took the first step.
"We need to test your new sword," Strax said. "There is no point trusting a weapon before discovering how much it can endure. I am also not going to let you walk around with that at your waist without knowing whether it truly suits your style."
Zi Bai raised the newly awakened sword to face level, studying the soft reflection along its edge once again before returning her eyes to him. There was anticipation in her expression. A little nervousness as well, though hidden behind genuine excitement she made no effort to conceal.
"If I break the ground again, will Monica become angry?"
Strax shrugged.
"Monica is always angry. So that does not change much."
They moved several meters apart within the private training area. The heated floor had already melted nearly all the snow, leaving only moisture along the edges of the dark stone plates. The space was wide enough to withstand powerful strikes, but enclosed enough to make any duel feel intimate, direct, and brutal.
Zi Bai slowly adjusted her stance.
There was still something equine in certain details. The way she distributed her body weight, the tension in her legs ready to explode, and the sense that if she launched herself at full speed, she would cross the distance between them before an opponent could finish forming a thought.
Strax observed everything without comment.
He merely raised Zani and pointed the tip of the blade toward her.
"No suicidal techniques. No trying to destroy the mansion. And pay attention to what I do."
Zi Bai nodded immediately.
"Understood."
He smiled faintly.
"Then show me what you learned while you were away."
Zi Bai moved first.
There was no shout or exaggerated preparation. She simply vanished from her starting position with a dry crack against the floor and appeared in front of him in a charge so fast that the air itself tore alongside her first strike.
The new sword described a clear and elegant arc, descending diagonally with enough precision to cut a man in half before he even realized his mistake.
Strax blocked with Zani without moving more than necessary.
The impact exploded between the two blades in a heavy metallic collision. Zi Bai immediately felt the difference. His strength was absurd, not merely because of muscle or mana, but because of the way his entire body aligned behind the strike.
Strax did not defend only with the sword.
He defended with stance, foundation, timing, and intent.
Even so, Zi Bai’s weapon did not yield.
The edge did not tremble, the metal did not protest, and the blade’s energy remained stable, as though this were exactly the kind of pressure it had been created to endure.
Zi Bai retreated one step and immediately began a sequence of short slashes, testing different angles.
Right.
Left.
A central thrust.
A grip change.
Then an inverted upward cut.
Strax answered every attack without losing his serene expression.
Zani moved like a natural extension of his arm, redirecting, parrying, and touching Zi Bai’s blade at minimal points, always just enough to break the flow of her attack without wasting movement.
Every collision produced a clean, hard sound that echoed across the field.
Zi Bai began smiling in the middle of the exchange. Not because she was winning, because she clearly was not, but because the sensation was too good.
Her sword sang in her hand.
There was weight, but also lightness.
There was firmness, balance, and response.
For the first time since taking human form, something in her arsenal felt as though it had been created to accompany her until the end rather than merely serve her out of convenience.
Strax noticed and discreetly raised the level.
The next strike came faster.
Zi Bai barely saw the moment Zani left its defensive position and advanced in a short, precise line toward her shoulder.
She managed to evade by the smallest margin, rotating her body and using the momentum to counterattack from below.
The blades collided again.
Then once more.
And again.
The rhythm increased until the outlines of both fighters began disappearing between movements too fast for ordinary eyes to follow. The training field filled with cracks, sparks, and bursts of air sliced apart by the constant passage of their swords.
Zi Bai advanced with increasing ferocity, mixing instinct with cultivated technique.
At some moments, she resembled a refined duelist.
At others, she looked exactly like the creature that had crossed mountains and battlefields through sheer force, using every opening to impose her presence.
Strax remained controlled.
He was better at everything.
His reading was superior. His reaction time, use of distance, and control of his center of gravity existed on another level.
Even so, the way Zi Bai fought and the quality of her sword made the duel far more interesting than he had expected.
Zi Bai leaped backward, opened space, and changed her stance. Her energy concentrated within the blade, flowing across the golden details near the guard and making the weapon emit a soft, cold, cutting glow.
Strax narrowed his eyes.
"Are you going to try a technique?"
She nodded.
"Only a little."
In the next instant, she charged again.
The slash came accompanied by a line of compressed energy, as thin as it was dangerous, that broke free from the sword and advanced together with the physical strike.
Strax tilted his head and struck Zani against the technique’s trajectory, splitting it in half.
Even so, the combination was interesting enough to make him smile.
"Better."
Zi Bai barely had time to absorb the praise.
He appeared in front of her and unleashed three cuts in succession. They were not brutal, but fast enough to place her under real pressure.
She blocked the first, grazed the second, and was pushed backward by the third, carving furrows across the floor with her feet.
Instead of becoming frustrated, Zi Bai laughed.
There was blood at the corner of her mouth from some earlier impact, but her eyes looked even more alive.
"Again."
Strax did not answer with words.
He simply attacked.
The two collided once more at the center of the field with even greater force. Zani was no longer limited to parrying. The sword hunted for openings, guided by the overwhelming experience of a swordsman who had crossed far too many wars.
Zi Bai was forced to grow throughout the duel itself.
Every time she was cornered, her new sword seemed to respond slightly better, adjusting to the flow of her mana and refining its own behavior to match its wielder’s rhythm.
A lateral strike from Strax that would normally have shattered her guard was absorbed with surprising firmness.
A short thrust that should have broken her balance was redirected at a clean and precise angle.
Strax noticed the pattern consolidating and released a short laugh.
"So you truly found an interesting weapon."
Zi Bai breathed heavily, but continued smiling.
"I said it was better than it looked."
"You said the old one was garbage."
"And I am still right."
She attempted something bolder.
Using the monstrous speed in her legs, Zi Bai vanished from his frontal field of vision and appeared at his flank, rotating her body through a horizontal slash that combined centrifugal force and raw momentum.
Strax lowered his center of gravity and locked Zani against it at the final instant.
The collision was so powerful that a dry pressure wave scattered all the moisture accumulated on the ground around them. Zi Bai continued forcing against him, teeth clenched and golden eyes shining with pure stubbornness.
Strax held his ground without retreating.
For one full second, they remained that way, sword against sword, close enough to measure not only each other’s strength, but also their will.
"Good reading on the approach," he said. "But you telegraph too much with your hips."
Zi Bai blinked, confused for a fraction of a second.
That was enough.
Strax rotated his wrist, slid Zani along the edge of her sword, redirected the pressure to the side, and struck her with his shoulder, breaking her axis.
Before Zi Bai could recover her footing, Zani’s tip was already touching her throat.
She stopped.
She was panting, covered in sweat, and her white hair clung partially to her face. Her eyes still burned with the adrenaline of the duel, and her sword remained raised, ready for a strike that never came.
For several moments, there was only the sound of their breathing and the cold wind crossing the edges of the courtyard.
Strax withdrew Zani and stepped back.
"Dead."
Zi Bai took a deep breath, examined her own stance, and released a short laugh without any resentment.
"I died badly."
"No. You died trying to think too quickly when your strength was already good enough. You tried to compensate with refinement at the exact moment when trusting the cut would have been enough."
He gestured toward her sword with his chin.
"But your weapon endured far better than I expected. In raw quality, it is not far behind Zani. The real difference is still me."
Zi Bai relaxed her shoulders, but did not lower the sword completely.
"So it passed?"
Strax rotated Zani and dispersed it, causing the blade to vanish into particles of mana.
"It passed. Easily."
He approached and carefully took her sword to examine it again. There were no chips, misalignments, or any sign that the internal structure had suffered during the violent exchanges with Zani.
"This is a serious relic. And it suits you in an irritatingly perfect way."
Zi Bai appeared satisfied, although she tried to hide it behind a more restrained expression.
"Irritatingly perfect sounds like a compliment."
"That is the most romance you are going to get out of a technical analysis. Get used to it."
She slowly sheathed the sword and spent several seconds observing the space where they had dueled. The floor was marked by shallow cuts, impact furrows, and small scars left by dispersed energy.
Nothing had been completely destroyed, which was a miracle in itself considering who had fought there.
Zi Bai turned toward Strax.
"Next time, I will last longer."
Strax smiled with that calm and confident expression that always made her want to charge at him again.
"I hope so. Because if you continue growing stronger at this pace, soon I will need more than technique to keep you in place."
Zi Bai raised her chin proudly.
"Then train hard, Master."
Strax released a low laugh and began walking back toward the mansion.
"Come on. Before someone appears and decides to turn this into another armed family meeting."
Zi Bai followed him with the new sword secured at her waist and a different lightness in her steps.
The duel had made two things clear.
The first was that Strax remained far above her as a swordsman.
The second was that Zi Bai finally possessed a weapon worthy of accompanying what she was becoming.