God of Tricksters

"Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Nine-Tailed Fox Form."

"!!!" The Sword Saint widened his eyes, staring at his daughter. The aura from her body changed as if she had turned into someone else. "This is…"

Before the Sword Saint could figure out her change, Rea leaped forth while swinging her sword.

The Sword Saint didn't see anything from this sword, so he only raised his twig to block it.

However, the Sword Saint felt danger right before the sword hit, forcing him to duck.

"!!!" The Sword Saint lowered his head and body as he saw the swords release a black aura that turned into a claw. If he didn't lower his body, this claw would hit him.

Rea didn't give up on hitting him. She truly wanted to deal some damage to her father for the first time, so she spun her body, pointing her tail at her father.

The Sword Saint jumped back as the tails suddenly expanded and turned into spikes, almost piercing her.

Still, this might be the first time the Sword Saint jumped back like this when he fought her.

Rea wasn't satisfied yet, so she hurriedly spun her body and released a sword strike.

The Sword Saint confidently smashed this sword strike, and surprisingly, nothing happened unlike the previous attacks.

"…" Rea maintained her silence while staring at her father. She knew the gap between them, but this wasn't all her ability.

'Represent.' Rea muttered inwardly while swinging her sword.

Instead of a sword strike, Rea actually summoned another nine-tailed fox.

*Aooo!*

'This is different from her usual ability.' The Sword Saint furrowed his eyebrows. Normally, her summoning creatures would be lifeless and they had no will other than following Rea's control.

However, the Sword Saint could feel the gaze of this fox as if it had a soul in it.

"This is…" The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath. It wasn't supposed to happen, considering Rea wasn't a summoner. But he couldn't deny the fact he was feeling the ferocity and killing intent of the fox.

"What is this?" The Sword Saint took a step back while raising his twig, trying to cut it down.

However, the nine-tailed fox, whose body was five times that of a human, suddenly shrunk into the size of a cat. After that, the fox leaped forward while gathering the energy in its mouth.

But before the Sword Saint could destroy this fox, the energy gathered by the fox suddenly flowed to Rea's sword.

"!!!" The Sword Saint hurriedly turned his body around, realizing Rea had disappeared from her position. 'She's become faster?'

The Sword Saint struck the blade that almost hit his neck, but surprisingly, the blade swiftly maneuvered as if it was using the bounce from the stick to move to another place.

*Cling!*

*Cling!*

*Cling!*

In an instant, three clicking sounds echoed, impressing the Sword Saint even more.

'This is…' The Sword Saint sucked a cold breath and recalled what had happened earlier. 'The blade actually hit me three times? Her current speed is three times… Yeah, I think she is three times faster.'

The Sword Saint tried to measure the change while Rea kept attacking the Sword Saint, clashing their swords a hundred times in less than thirty seconds.

"Kh." Rea clicked her tongue and jumped back, regaining some distance from her father. She thought she would be able to surprise him this time, but as expected from the third strongest person in the world, the Sword Saint.

"You've grown quite strong, Rea." The Sword Saint smirked. Even he had to be serious for a moment to stop all those strikes, so normal people might be heavily injured when fighting at that speed. "But you are wrong about something…"

The Sword Saint suddenly disappeared.

"!!!" Rea hurriedly turned to the right and raised her sword as the Sword Saint appeared before them, striking her sword. The power was so strong that it launched her thirty feet away. "Kh."

"Your speed is quite good at that level, but you haven't fully mastered this ability yet. I think you can go faster once you've gotten used to this ability. Also, that sense… It seems that you're able to sense my presence."

Rea took a deep breath while feeling numb in her hands.

'As expected, my father is a monster.' She gritted her teeth. What the Sword Saint said wasn't entirely right. This battle armor has been created from all the lessons she's got from Theo and her father.

She had been thinking about the word 'represent' after the lesson from Theo. She wondered what kind of thing she could represent, considering she had been impersonating a Magic Warrior and a Summoner this whole time.

But when she heard what her father said about the sword, she realized that the ability actually represented everything. Every attribute in the former system, every aspect, and every characteristic.

This Nine-Tailed Fox Form represented her Agility Status, allowing her to be faster. It also contained her Awareness. Although it wasn't something she mastered, she managed to recreate the Awareness a bit with the help of the characteristic of a wolf.

The ears turned into an antenna to read the flow of Magic Power and her brain predicted what her father would do in this situation, thus the reason for her being able to keep up with her father's speed.

Yet, it seemed she couldn't defeat her father with only this.

"Still, I can see that Sojuro might have a hard time winning against you." The Sword Saint smiled, proud of his child's achievement.

"I'm sorry, Father. The person I chase after is not you or Brother anymore. It's my teacher. That's why… Please don't insult me any longer. I won't lose to anyone in my peers, even if it's my brother!" Rea glared at her father. She had broken off her shell and didn't walk in her brother's shadow anymore.

This was the declaration to her father that she was Nagasawa Rea, not the daughter in the Nagasawa Household.

"Is that so? I apologize then. But you need to have the skill to back it up!" The Sword Saint disappeared once again to strike Rea from the back. This time, he would be using all his power to launch her into the wall.

Rea turned around like previously as if planning to receive her father's attack. But before the sword landed on her, the transformation disappeared before a clicking sound echoed in the garden.

*Cling!*

"!!!" The Sword Saint was astonished because Rea didn't even take a step back and the clicking sound came from the shield on her left hand.

Rea smiled. "Mythical Creature Summoning, Battle Armor, Genbu Form."