The air around her feels completely different now... Tatsumi thoughtfully uttered in his mind while grabbing his hand tighter around the hilt of the sword. 

‘‘After losing, don't feel too bad, alright.’’ Akame said with a faint teasing smile clearly seen. ‘‘Oh really, that’s a big word coming from someone who can only dodge moments ago.’’ Tatsumi responded calmly.  

Immediately after those words flew out from him he sped out like lightning, directly arrived behind Akame, and brought the sword down from high up. 

The sword striking down was astonishingly fast and swift, slicing through the wind and appearing like a blur that became dangerously close to Akame in far less than a second. 

Despite this supposed to be a friendly spar between comrades, the strike brings with it a shocking amount of power that anyone who looks from the side would think this fight was anything but a friendly spar.      

Clank!

Unexpectedly, even with the fast and swiftness of the strike. Akame, with no change in expression whatsoever, simply blocked the attack with her own sword by raising it high up and pushing the length of the sword forward at her back. 

Her action was so smooth and seemingly so rehearsed that it was like she had already predicted where he would strike before he even acted upon it.   

Tatsumi's gaze flickered in slight surprise, but he didn’t have time to indulge in such a thing, because immediately after Akame spun around and delivered a swift and powerful kick directed at his torso. 

And being very close in contact with each other, Tatsumi didn’t have the time to put a distance between them to avoid the blow so he could only cross both his arms to lighten the blows.   

Damn! Her kick is heavy! Tatsumi shot backward for over 10 feet of distance, and feeling the numbing sensation ranging through his arms, he couldn’t help but curse inwardly. 

When landing back on the ground and on his feet, Akame blitzed forward, leaving an afterimage behind while instantly appearing in his line of sight with a downward attack from above.  

Dang! 

The sound of metals battering against one another rang loudly in the training ground. 

Tatsumi parried the attack away but was forced to take a step back from the shocking and terrifying strength contained within Akame’s attack. 

She is not only fast and skillful, but each of her attacks is heavy and precise. In terms of pure physical strength stats she can easily match me. Tatsumi thought while proceeding to parry away one blow after another.

After that, they proceeded to avoid while brandishing their swords at each other, forcing each other to take on the submission position back and forth. 

The constant parrying and striking from the two cause the wind to howl and bright sparks to fly out like fireworks. 

Moving at speed unperceivable to the naked eye, the two moved across the training ground in a blurry manner. The sound of their swords constantly ramming into each other non-stop echoed out far and wide, bringing with it an ear-splitting noise.   

Tatsumi bound closer into Akame range and slashed forward in an arc, but the attack missed its mark completely as Akame took to the air and counterattacked by spinning and slashing with her own sword.     

As Akame counterattacked, her sword came streaking through the air toward him like a deadly striking Python lunging at it’s prey. Tatsumi's face immediately flickered in seriousness, he then instantly raised his sword to shield himself from the blows.   

 

Bam! After Akame’s strike landed on his sword, Tatsumi briefly gritted as the force from the strike pushed him back a few feet and caused his feet to tear through the ground and leave behind a small trail.

Swish! 

Flashing forward like a traceless shadow, before Tatsumi could react in time, Akame arrived, spun, and delivered a spinning kick to his abdomen, lifted him above ground, and sent him shooting back.  

When the devastating kick landed on his abdomen, Tatsumi couldn’t help but spit out a trace of saliva while his face turned up from the pain. And after planting his feet back down, he looks at her deeply, eyes flashing with ever burning will to fight.    

If we’re just talking about power and speed, we’re evenly matched. However, she is more skilled than me, and… it’s hard to believe but she has far more combat experience than me. 

Tatsumi continued to measure up Akame and process their battle so far in his mind before coming to this conclusion. After, he then took a deep breath and gave her another long look as a thought came to him. 

The thing that is the most annoying is the fact she seemed… capable of predicting every one of my attacks and how I would deliver them next. It doesn't feel like it’s due to intuition that she can predict the attack beforehand either. 

No! It feels more like she has been sparring with me for years and gaining the ability to innately be able to guess the patterns of my attack. As these thoughts stream through Tatsumi's head one by one, the words she had spoken surface in his mind. 

‘‘For someone who never once won against me, you sure act confident.’’ 

However, before he had time to mull about this any further, Akame's voice interrupted his musing.   

‘‘You’re lost in thought, are you thinking of admitting defeat after I’ve landed a direct hit while you have landed none yet?’’ While saying this, a smirk spread across Akame's lips. And seeing the smirk, Tatsumi’s brows twitched.  

She sure shows a lot of expression when we’re alone! Though annoyed by what she said, Tatsumi didn’t show it outwardly and instead just formed a grin. ‘‘Don’t worry, that direct hit would definitely come. And once it does, no need to hold back your tears from spilling out.’’ 

After delivering that line he immediately sped forward and swung his sword from the left-down, and when it was parried by her, he switched to the right-up. With no surprise whatsoever, both were parried again with ease. 

However, not minding that fact he continued an onslaught of swings with his sword, switching from left-down, right-down, left-up, right-up, left-side, right-side, and in that order repeated the process over and over without letting out.      

With his non-stop onslaught swings bearing down on Akame like an endless bombardment of destructive force, Akame was put in a defensive position and was pushed back little by little. 

And every time she tried to gain control, he would disrupt her from doing so by ranging his attack on her blind spot and causing her to have no choice but to parry the blows, and when she did, he would repeat his onslaught of swings.   

Because of that it caused the two to be put in a position where they were stuck in a deadlock with one another. And while it may seem like Tatsumi was holding the advantage in the deadlock, the truth of the matter was, that they were actually on equal footing.  

Simply because, while Tatsumi’s onslaught was fast and powerful and annoying, in the end—it was just simple repeats of attacks with very readable patterns that were extremely easy for someone like Akame to defend against.   

Eventually, a short 5 to 10 minutes brisk by in that manner.    

Akame’s breathing quickened and heated up, the slight shortage of breath would have been noticeable to anyone when gazing at the sight. 

Needless to say, for Akame, while defending against Tatsumi's onslaught of attacks was an extremely easy and simple thing to do, it was still draining on her stamina. Especially with how annoying the fight turned out to be! 

When Akame first asked to spar with him alone, she was previously filled with excitement and happiness at the chance to relive her fond memories with him. But she would never have thought he would resort to tactics like this after landing a direct blow on him once.

The entire fight became monotonous and drawn out with no sign of them winning or losing. 

Whenever she tried to break off from the deadlock, it never worked since he would simply change style and prevent her from doing so. The most vexing thing was that whenever she moved he would be right on her tail and stick to her like glue—truly preventing her from having a chance to break away from the deadlock. 

So the fight began to feel monotonous since it was just him unleashing a flurry of attacks while she defended for the past 5 to 10 minutes. 

Clank, Clank, Clank! 

Now, Akame only felt a little annoyed, losing all her previous excitement. She sighs while continuing to defend. 

‘‘I thought this is spar is supposed to be about understanding each other's style and improving, not a drawn out battle of stamina.’’ She said, in the midst of fending off another blow. 

‘‘What, don’t believe you would last?’’ Tatsumi grinned, curled his lips, and said in a mocking tone. At that, Akame only rolled her eyes at him and calmly replied. ‘‘You're panting and sweating far more than me, so what makes you think you would last longer?’’ 

It wasn't a lie. Tatsumi was indeed looking far worse than Akame at the moment. Many drops of sweat could be seen rolling down his forehead to his face and down to the ground, while his breathing was much rougher and more heated than Akame’s.    

But that is only because he was consuming much more energy than her this entire time. One has to know—Akame is a very strong and skillful fighter—so to prevent Akame from breaking away from the deadlock he was forcing her into. 

It took him a lot of effort; using all his strength to deliver each of his swings to keep her from breaking away from the deadlock.  

So if the entire fight really came down to who can last the longest like now, then anyone could obviously tell who would be down for the count first of the two.  

‘‘While I won’t deny that, thankfully for me the battle won’t have to come down to that.’’ Tatsumi casually uttered. But when it reached Akame’s ear, her brows furrowed slightly in thought of what he meant by it.  

Hmm? Does he have something else planned, when so far he is just repeating the same patterns of attack and forcing our fight into a stalemate? 

Holding some expectation for the hidden meaning in his words just now, Akame parried a strike from the left-down and right-down, like she has done countless times by now, and was able to instinctively know where it was coming from, even timing it.          

However, it didn’t mean it was completely easy either because… while she was able to know where the next attack would come from since it was an easy pattern to follow and therefore block it. Leaving other obvious factors that are involved—having blocked the attack itself is also much of a problem. 

Remember, each of Tatsumi’s swings is backed by the full force of his strength, and that is not something to joke about.  

If it wasn’t because Akame herself had great strength; her arms would swell and go numb completely, most likely feeling like it’ll fall off from the endless battering from his attacks.         

But that expectation didn’t last for long, as another few minutes brisk by and Tatsumi repeated his endless repeats of swings, stopping her at any chance of breaking from the deadlock.  

‘‘Hah...hah…’’ Akame's lips curled up bitterly, she panting harder, sweat forming, and her breathing rougher than before. ‘‘You wasted far more energy than me swinging around your sword like that… you’ll collapse soon, in which case, I would win.’’ 

‘‘You might not be wrong, but...’’ Tatsumi  replied with a wry smile, hands swinging and never stopping for even an instant to rest.

Unlike Akame, he was looking far worse. His face and shirt were drenched with sweat all over, breathing laborious and difficult, and exhaustion consumed him.  

‘‘But what?’’ Hearing the word ‘but’ at the end, Akame lifted her eyelashes, asking.     

‘‘...’’ Tatsumi didn’t say, only faintly grinned. 

Akame's red eyes scrutinized him with any sign of suspicious action, but that didn’t stop her from splitting the other half of her attention on the still continuous onslaught of swings. 

Seeing that everything was normal, she was about to shoot him an unhappy glare from him deliberately trying to act mystified. But then, at that moment…

Swish!

One of Tatsumi’s swings that was previously following its original trajectory suddenly changed its course and flew toward Akame's blind spot at a remarkable pace. 

‘‘...!’’

In the midst of such sudden change, Akame, who grew used to blocking those repeated strikes during the course of the entire fight, was caught off guard when it happened. And already due to being more than just a little exhausted from the drawn-out fight—she was slow to react.

However, one shouldn’t count her out yet just because she was taken by surprise and slightly slow to react. 

After all, Akame is an extraordinary individual in combat, with a keen sense, great experience, and not to mention her strong combat instinct that might even be better than Tatsumi, something Bulat even admitted was extraordinary.       

With all these factors combined in one person, it undoubtedly made a terrifying individual! 

While knowing this wasn’t a deadly battle and only a non-lethal sparring as the attack had no deadly intent and would stop the instant she announced defeat or show sign of it—but not wanting to lose to the boy whom she had never lost to before—Akame faced flash with Intense seriousness unlike what she had ever shown before throughout the spar.   

Noticing how it was too late for her to raise her sword in defense since the attack was already at an extremely close distance, Akame's terrifying instinct immediately came in handy. 

Right when the sword was but a mere inch away, with an insane reaction that was humanly impossible, Akame bent her upper torso back and... successfully avoided defeat by his hand.  

However, such a joyous moment lasted less than a fraction of a second.   

Akame’s eyes flicker in unease the instant her eyes meet Tatsumi in less than a fraction of a second. 

Tatsumi's mouth parted, curled up, and formed into a smirk at the tip of his lips. 

Bang! The next instant, a loud sound erupted as his right knee went flying, tearing through the air as if it was made from paper, and lunged directly at Akame's abdomen.  

Akame's face flickers with shock as the flying knee reaches her instantly; slamming right into the center of her abdomen and knocking her flying backward.     

Blasted up at least 10 feet above ground, Akame spit out saliva while her consciousness directly blank out from the blow for a fraction of a second. When she regained consciousness, the only thing she could tell was her body, pulled by gravity, streaking down to the earth like a fast-speeded meteor. 

Boom! 

A small crate formed in the training ground, sending out dust and smoke through the air. 

‘‘Ugh,’’ pains streamed through the nerves around Akame's abdomen, causing her to groan for a moment before the sudden burst of pain subsided slightly. She then tried to open her eyes, but the dust got into them, forcing her to close them back.   

Whoosh! 

A sudden gust of wind blew by, sending all the smoke and dust away. Akame's long and beautiful silky black hair flutters about within the air, despite her current state, her deep beautiful face and features were ever apparent.       

After the gust of wind blew by and cleared up the dust and smoke, Akame reopened her eyes once more, and there… The first thing to appear in her line of sight was a boy, 16 at best, pointing the tip of the sword down out at her.  

Standing before her was Tatsumi, panting heavily with sweat drenching his plain white shirt, looking down at her with a calm face while uttering. ‘‘You lost, admit defeat.’’ 

Although Akame heard what he said, she didn’t immediately respond back for a while, only staring at him in a daze. Being lost in thought, as countless streams of images flash through her mind at that moment.   

‘‘You! I’ll beat you for sure the next time!!’’

‘‘Damn! I’d lost again, this won’t happen again Akame!’’ 

‘‘‘Sigh’, just how many losses have I faced at your hand with this? I swear you will lose next time! For Sure! 

‘‘... haa...’’

When each and every one of these precious memories with the boy in front of her, who has now grown up, flashes throughout her mind. Akame’s face expressed a beautiful and breathtaking smile, she then softly said. 

‘‘Yes, you won this time, but I will win the next one.’’ 

‘‘Hmph,’’ Tatsumi snorted at her words while lowering his sword and resheathing it back up. After, he lowered his sweat-soaked hand down to her and asked with a smile and a trace of worry. ‘‘Are you okay?’’

‘‘Hmm,’’ when noticing the trace of worry on him, Akame’s breathtaking smiled widened further as she gently nodded.