Kiba stood with a sword at hand, waiting at one end of the testing grounds that he was to spar with Shirou, his eyes on him stretching and his mind on other matters.
He would not deny it, he had been a bit curious about Shirou for quite a while now. His appearance belied a talent for combat and a shrewd mind for strategies, and his battle style was particularly intriguing. And for the ladies, there was the 'mysterious past' that followed Shiro, considering the amount of effort both Rias-Buchou and Sona-Kaichou took to unearth his whereabouts and came up empty, noting that there no record of him prior to arriving at the hospital a few months back for some serious injuries.
His magic was also something unusual, given that Shirou was able to create blades similar to Sword Birth, but the main differences were the amount of power emanating from such creations, and the fact that Shirou was able to create both holy and demonic blades at a whim. Truthfully, there was also a small part inside Kiba that felt a little lost and somewhat jealous of Shirou, seeing him effortlessly creating and using those holy blades easily as though he was their chosen owner from the start, while Kiba and his friends were constantly experimented on and subsequently put to death for trying to even touch the blade without repercussions. It was a very complex feeling to have.
And perhaps the biggest mystery to him…
Kiba tiled his head slightly to look at the blade he had created for the match. Its name was [Earth Shatter], but contrary to its strong title, it was just a simple sword with a very low power output, designed merely to disrupt the footing of his enemy through small tremors while he remained unaffected by its attack. It was a single edged blade with a light brown handle and no jewels on it, with a thin layer of gold on the backside of the blade.
But Kiba was not bothered by its appearance or lack of firepower, rather he was more interested in the reaction towards Shirou.
Ever since that small incident at the Student Council Room, Kiba had been monitoring Sword Birth's behaviour towards Shirou, and he was honestly baffled by the various manners around him. Every time they meet up to hunt down Stray Devils, Sword Birth always reacted like a child excited to meet his dad after a long time. Then the few times Kiba tried to go against Shirou for being a little too confrontational with Rias over certain matters, Sword Birth would retaliate by hurting him in different ways.
Heck, that one time Kiba had a lightning blade out, the sword actually electrocuted him and knocked him out for two whole hours.
There were also the other hunts where Kiba felt that Sword Birth was exerting more power than he normally planned out as though it wanted to show off to Shirou that it could also handle monsters its own way, like a child wanting to impress his father.
Kiba took one last feel of the blade as he watched Shirou finishing up his warmup. There, it was faint but he could sense it. The blade was reacting to Shirou again, this time feeling that it wanted to prove that it can be worthy for something. What it was, he can't tell, but it did trouble him a little.
"Okay, thank you for waiting." Shirou's voice drew Kiba's attention back to him who had just finished his stretches and was now in a very questionable stance with those two scimitars that seemed like works from China, given the black and white theme of balance. Kiba narrowed his eyes at the amount of openings from that stance. There was something very wrong with that position, it was as if he was begging for someone to attack him at those points. And yet…
Why did Kiba feel that going for those obvious openings would mean certain death for him?
He shook his head to get rid of unnecessary thoughts and readied his stance. No, it must be a part of Shirou's strategy; Kiba had seen Shirou's fighting up close and concluded that he had an extremely unorthodox style of fighting, with the use of unusual magic that replicates weapons easily. He would need to be careful in dealing with Shirou, even if it was just a spar.
Time to test the grounds first.
He stabbed the ground hard with [Earth Shatter], quickly using that window of opportunity to run straight at Shirou who stumbled slightly at the tremors and swing a brand new blade at one of the openings, only to have deflected just inches from his skin by his left scimitar.
'No surprise there.' Kiba sped up and tried another opening at his side, only to be blocked again by the blade on his right. Clearly that attack did little to disrupt Shirou's footing, if anything it seemed to have aided him more. He even used the weird position he was in to his advantage by spinning on his heel, lightly nicking Kiba on the cheek before planting his feet firmly on the ground.
'Interesting.' Kiba quickly made his way back to his initial position and pulled out [Earth Shatter], adopting a sword stance similar to Shirou's and slowly moved around to keep him in his sights. He had some doubts about it, but it seemed Shirou was using a somewhat suicidal style of fighting to handle his opponents by giving them fake openings for them to exploit and using that to take them out. It was illogical. It was totally insane.
And yet it worked well for him.
Kiba leapt forward again, this time using his speed to circle around Shirou a few times before aiming for the neck, and just like last time, got his blade deflected just inches away and nearly getting one himself right in the eye. He threw back his back and used the momentum to get away from Shirou, landing a few feet near the trees.
Honestly, he was having harder time than he had anticipated; he did not think that Shirou's fighting style could be so effective, it was somewhat damaging to his pride.
And yet…
Kiba could not help but have a roughish smile adorning his face as he rushed forward to attack Shirou again, exchanging strikes and blades thrusts while barely dodging each other's attacks. This was oddly exhilarating, not even the other times he fought with other swordsmen would make his blood and swords sing so loudly!
"Clank!"
"Clank!"
"Clank!" "Clank!"
"Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!"
...
Well, this was a pretty good workout.
I noted with slight approval as I blocked Kiba's blade from cutting my neck. I was already told about the Knight Piece and the powers granted to the chosen person, not to mention seeing it in action during my hunts with the Devils, but experiencing it myself let me have a better understanding of it.
Kiba wasn't too shabby himself, using the sword called [Earth Shatter] to create mini earthquakes to disrupt my balance and moving in to attack my blind spots, and he recovered quickly to avoid my attacks, using another sword called [Sonic Flash] to avoid my movements and perform hit-and-run tactics. In addition to that, his two sword style was actually a lot better than mine in terms of power and speed.
With all that said and done, it was a bit of a shame to have to label him as average.
Kiba was being too reliant on his speed to deliver any quick attacks that would be a little weak to finish off anyone with one hit. Also he was a little direct with his intentions to target certain parts of my body even if he tried to use a feint to confuse me. His preference for attacking from the front seemed to be more related to his ideal of a knight, always facing the opponent upfront and never attacking from the back. Nice concept, but terrible for an actual fight.
But perhaps the biggest offender of his fighting style would have to be his usage of his Sacred Gear, Sword Birth. Rather, his under-usage of Sword Birth.
Based on Sona's explanation and what I have seen, Sword Birth was basically a simplified version of my Reality Marble, one that could create any type of demonic blades based on the user's will and imagination. In many ways, both of his gear and Unlimited Blade Works have corresponding strengths and weaknesses that complement each other.
While my ability allowed me to copy and project almost every single blade, spear and shield in existence, Sword Birth had the advantage of producing any type of sword imaginable with the added bonus of low Prana costs, with the disadvantage of having a seemingly lower output.
If in the hands of a more capable person, Sword Birth could potentially be stronger and more versatile than Unlimited Blade Works. Heck, if managed properly, it could even take on Gate of Babylon for the first few minutes before Gilgamesh would think of taking on the user seriously.
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Hey guys I really need you to throw some power Stones ;)
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