Cid - Feints and Glares make woman hallucinate

Mundane’s gaze shifts again.

As he stares straight ahead, the tip of his sword twitches as though he’s predicting the future.

The moment it does, Iris envisions her arm getting lopped off.

“Oh no…”

Now she finally realizes.

Mundane had simply been making feints.

He understood her movements in their entirety, then used his eyes and minute movements of the tip of his sword to send her a warning.

If you don’t stop, you’ll get cut, he’d been telling her.

That had been enough to make her hallucinate.

That’s how real the illusion had been.

Iris recalls something her mentor once taught her: “An expert’s ‘lies’ seem all too real.” And sure enough, she’d fallen for her mentor’s feints time and time again.

Mundane’s moves felt even realer than her mentor’s.

Was that even possible?

***

After steeling her resolve not to stop, she takes that one step forward.

Something whizzes through the air.

A second passes.

Then, a fierce impact rocks Iris’s body.

Her mind goes blank for a few seconds, and before she knows it, she’s looking up at the sky.

She’s collapsed faceup in the dead center of the arena.

What happened?

She had been unable to see Mundane’s blade, but he’d caught her in his gaze the moment the impact landed.

It’s a miracle she’s still holding on to her sword.

She forces her unresponsive torso to rise.

“Iris Midgar…I expected more from you.”

She finds a sword being thrust into her face.

***

Volume 2, Chapter 8