Without realizing, Ketis essentially replicated the relationships that made LMC mechs and particularly prime mechs so special.
The resonance that formed between her greatsword, Sharpie and herself roughly equated to that of a mech, a design spirit and a mech pilot!
All of these coincidences enabled her to execute her move with remarkable speed and fluency.
A shining white corona formed around her CFA greatsword. It appeared in an instant and quickly expanded to triple the size and length of the weapon!
This also caused the tip of the manifested energy blade to be a lot closer to Ivan than the physical blade!
"SWORD OF LYDIA!"
Yes! Ketis executed a smaller and more simplified version of the impressive battle formations of the Swordmaidens!
Once displayed by a company of Swordmaiden mechs, now Ketis was materializing the attack that defeated Venerable Foster on an infantry scale!
Yet even if it was vastly reduced in size, reach, power and cohesion, it was still beyond anything that she had unleashed before!
Ivan widened his eyes! The energy blade appeared too abruptly! He hastily adjusted his sword and put his violent tornado blade in the path of the sharp and solid energy blade projected by the Sword Devil.
"My storm shall sweep everything away!"
Yet even as the powerful tornado blade that had been fed by an entire storm came into contact with Ketis' condensed energy blade, the latter cut through the former like a hot knife through butter!
"What?! That's impossible!"
Ivan spent minutes accumulating power in order to maximize the power of his finishing move. He expended so much energy to perform continuous Hurricane Charges just so that he could finish this match in the most dramatic and visually impressive fashion possible!
When his Eye of the Storm had reached this point, a swordsman or sword initiate shouldn't have been able to shake his attack, not even his fellow seeded competitors!
At the very least, his adversaries would never be able to break his strongest move if they did not put in the same amount of effort!
Therefore, the already-solid energy blade that cut right through the tornado blade and forcibly dispersed all of his wind energy should never be able to do this in the first place!
It didn't make any sense to Ivan!
Yet to Ketis, it made complete sense.
Even if the energy manifestation was very rough and unstable, there was an additional factor that strengthened it even further.
Her spirit lent its strength to the attack.
Her design philosophy, which not only centered around swordsman mechs, but also emphasized the concept of sharpness.
Her design philosophy was incredibly compatible with Sharpie, so her sentient sword intent did not hesitate to borrow from her professional obsession as well!
This extra influence caused the Sword of Lydia to gain a surprisingly sharp edge. The tornado blade might have been able to resist the cutting power if it was more condensed, but the nature of wind was that it was always loose and dispersed!
"DEATH!"
The Sword of Lydia not only cut the Eye of the Storm apart, but also went on to slice through Ivan's sword arm!
Blood spurted into the wind as the seeded competitor's arm along with the fencing sword in its grip dropped to the arena floor.
"AHHHHHH!"
Despite Ivan's will and fortitude, he could not suppress the pain of losing a limb! His final charge fell apart as pain overwhelmed his senses.
He tripped and skidded across the surface as the momentum of his body caused him to continue to slide for ten more meters!
At the same time, the Sword of Lydia finally dissipated as Ketis slowed and stuttered to a stop.
Her hands still kept an iron hold of her greatsword, but the rest of her body was completely drained of strength!
Sharpie had exhausted itself to such an extent that it had turned dormant. Ketis felt as if she squeezed the limits of her potential until there was nothing left.
"I still… got your arm… bastard…"
She was no longer able to hold on to her consciousness. She closed her eyes and dropped to the arena floor, still holding her weapon as if it was her greatest possession!
The audience had long turned silent at this time. Every single spectator was completely gobsmacked at the dramatic sights that they had witnessed.
The Sword Devil cut down Ivan Reid's ambitions!
Even if reattaching a smoothly-cut arm was not a difficult procedure, the recovery and rehabilitation process took at least a month even if the Heavensword Association utilized its best means!
Perhaps the Life Research Assocation had even better treatment options available, but as it was, Ivan Reid basically lost his ability to rely on his primary weapon arm to fight his subsequent matches!
[Victory… goes to the Cloudstriders!]
Although Ketis managed to take out the strongest Cloudstrider, there were four more disciples who sat out the remaining fight. Even though they looked completely lost at what had happened, the fact was that they were still battle effective while all of the Swordmaidens were no longer able to put up a fight!
Yet even as the audience reluctantly acknowledged that the Cloudstriders had won this match, they still felt that Ketis and the Swordmaidens were the true victors today!