My Gang of Swordsmen-Chapter 114 - 80: The Niō Stands Tall!

However, the aura he felt from those experts before, compared to the aura radiating from Aoto now, was completely different.

The former’s aura was that of strength, an aura that instinctively invoked fear in others.

But the latter’s aura... brought Mogami a sense of powerlessness.

A sense of powerlessness, as if standing at the foot of a towering mountain reaching into the clouds...

This sense of powerlessness, for reasons unknown, sparked a wave of fear in Mogami’s heart.

These waves of fear uncontrollably manifested on Mogami’s face, gathering.

However—before these waves of fear could fully take form, a fierce glint flashed in Mogami’s eyes.

What’s this?! What is there to fear?! When you decided to devote yourself to the "Anti-foreigner Cause," hadn’t you already cast aside concerns of life and death?!

This angry shout from within his heart, like a sudden blow to the head, halted the fear on Mogami’s face that was spreading.

... Mogami silently let go of the right hand that had been covering the wound on his left shoulder, raised his Wind Cut once more, and stood firm on the vast snowy plain.

At that moment, the night wind, which had stopped since the beginning of tonight’s grand battle, suddenly picked up again!

The snow stirred by the night wind slapped against Mogami’s face, which still retained a hint of fear.

He laboriously raised his left arm, gripped the spear with both hands, and assumed a posture with the spear tip pointing diagonally towards the ground.

"...Treasure House Stream."

"Mogami Shofu."

Mogami, no longer daring to underestimate Aoto, who was now exuding a strange flow of qi, solemnly declared his name.

Announcing one’s name—this, in the duels of samurai, signifies respect for the opponent and a declaration of full effort!

Seeing Mogami bestow him with the samurai’s courtesy, the deranged smile on Aoto’s face deepened a bit more.

He quietly positioned his blade in front of him.

"Natural Reasoning Heart Stream."

"Tachibana Aoto."

In the next instant, after exchanging the samurai’s salutation, both moved simultaneously!

Mogami swung his Wind Cut upward from below, lifting layers of scattered snow from the plain!

Aoto, on the other hand, swung his blade downward, stirring swirls of snowflakes into the air!

Under the snow-filled night, sword and spear clashed in mid-air.

The airwaves generated dissipated the surrounding falling snow!

...

...

Another person, almost simultaneously with Mogami, sensed the change in Aoto.

When Aoto had just stood again, Kiryu, who had been watching from a distance, suddenly twitched his eyebrows.

As if wanting to deeply imprint every scene he saw next into his mind, he held his breath, focused, and stared intently at Aoto in the distance.

...

...

—Ah... it seems the injury to his left shoulder is worse than I expected.

Aoto, who had refrained from confronting Mogami directly until now, dared to confront Mogami’s spear to test how much strength remained in Mogami, now injured in the left shoulder.

Although Mogami could barely grip the spear with his left hand, he was clearly unable to exert force.

Despite his heightened emotions, Aoto remained very calm.

With only one arm usable, Mogami’s strength was no longer a match for him — one after another, new strategies to defeat the opponent emerged in Aoto’s mind...

Mogami’s agonized scream when his shoulder was injured naturally attracted the attention of the still-fighting members of the Anti-foreigner Group.

Seeing Mogami injured, many members of the Anti-foreigner Group wanted to come and support Mogami.

However, Saito, Oomura, and the others were not invisible; the members of the Anti-foreigner Group, upon noticing Mogami had been injured by Aoto, naturally also noticed this uplifting news nearly simultaneously.

Feeling a further boost in morale, they tightly engaged the members of the Anti-foreigner Group, preventing them from interfering with Aoto.

The stabs from the arm-weakened Mogami, in terms of both strength and speed, were far less than before.

However—Mogami did not retreat in the slightest.

If anything, he fought even more fiercely than before.

Because he knew in his heart that time was now against him.

With such a large wound on his left shoulder, if the fight dragged on, the increasing blood loss would further diminish his strength.

Mogami frequently used step techniques to press Aoto.

But Aoto remained calm and unhurried.

With a faint deranged smile still on his face, Aoto continued to dodge Mogami’s attacks while carefully observing the trajectory of Mogami’s spear as before.

Mogami’s current strength already fell short of his—this led Aoto to think of new methods to break Mogami’s defense and get close to him!

Aoto took a deep breath, adjusted his breathing.

Then he squinted slightly, concentrating his spirit.

Hoo...!

Ahead, Mogami swung his long spear again, thrusting it straight towards Aoto’s chest!

Aoto tightened his grip on his knife and swiftly switched his stance to a lower right.

After Mogami’s Wind Cut reached the optimal position, Aoto fiercely swung his knife at a diagonal angle.

Target—the tip of the Wind Cut!

Aoto’s knife precisely struck the tip of Mogami’s Wind Cut from the side.

A massive force traveled along the shaft of the Wind Cut to Mogami’s arms.

Mogami felt as if a galloping horse had collided with his Wind Cut.

If his arms were unharmed, Mogami would surely not fear a contest of strength with Aoto.

However, there was no "if" in this world.

With only one arm left, Mogami could not compete with Aoto in raw strength at all.