I Reincarnated as a Shinai

Stella and Diether met many sword practitioners who uses wooden swords to practice their sword art and on rare occasions, they are even using it in real battles. 

However, the shinai that has a white leather strap in the middle and cap on its end was completely different! It was also made of a unique type of bamboo that it's hard to make a mistake recognizing such sword…

The two are also extremely familiar with this since they've held Reiji for a very long time.

Diether could still remember his master's weird instructions telling him not to unhand the sword for even a second. Because of that, he would just normally stare at the sword aside from practicing Kendo…

'Master Reiji… Is that you? Can you hear me?' Diether attempted to use their 'Sense Link'.

'Master… This is Stella, though I want to beat up your other student to establish my seniority, I would first like to know whether you're in good condition. I'm worried.' Stella similarly used their Sense Link…

The two Kendo Practitioners waited in bated breath as they didn't want to miss Reiji's answer.

Three seconds, five seconds, ten seconds… fifteen seconds had passed but there was no response!

'What now?' Diether and Stella could not understand what's happening.

However, the fight between the Knight Champion Sayel and this Dark Elf Reiji had to start immediately!

Sayel no longer used his fingers to fight but instead, formed a light sword out of his hands and waved it to Reiji!

"This is the True Solar Sword! I don't care how a Dark Elf managed to become this powerful, but you have to die now!"

Sayel said as he already felt how powerful this Dark Elf was just by meeting him for a brief moment. 

At his level, he became extremely good at gauging the strength of his opponent.

Right now, this Dark Elf in front of him exudes the same Aura as the Knight Champions of Chaos Knights… This evil being must be a Sword Grandmaster!

Bang!

The two clashed with their swords and created a powerful shockwave… 

The bodies of the others watching the fight felt the vibration in their bodies.

At this time, the Dark Elf still appears to be expressionless…

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The battle continued for a while but after about a hundred exchanges of sword strikes, Sayel actually jumped away looking confused…

Reiji didn't follow to attack him but he simply walked forward to slowly chase him.

"Sir Sayel, is there something wrong?" Diether noticed the Knight Champion's reaction so he immediately asked.

"Hmm… It's weird… He doesn't have any killing intent… I was told that Reiji is purely evil as he killed the members of the Night Brigade. However, it feels like I'm fighting against a puppet right now."

His words were heard by everyone including Stella's group.

"A puppet?" As soon as Stella heard this, she immediately made a wild guess!

Diether was also enlightened as he somehow had an idea about what's going on…

'Something probably went wrong to Master Reiji… He can use an ability to control his wielder… However, if something unexpected happened, perhaps there was this kind of side effect? Ugh… I can't say for sure. But most likely, Master Reiji used Take Over and had some problems… Or worst, Master was being controlled by another and more powerful Sentient Arcana?'

Diether and Stella felt worried.

They somehow have the same line of thought about this. 

They know that their Master Reiji is really strong. However, they are also aware that he is still recovering when they met the Sentient Arcana.

He would request many blood and other things so he can slowly recover his strength. If their Master had unfortunately met a stronger enemy while he's still recovering, then it wouldn't be surprising that he could be defeated and end up like this for various reasons.

Diether glanced at Stella who was hiding behind a pillar and observing the battle.

They both stared at each other seemingly confirming each other's thoughts…

However, both of them were helpless in this situation. They couldn't interrupt the battle between the Dark Elf and the Knight Champion.

In the end, they could only watch and wait to see the winner of this battle. 

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sayel approached the Dark Elf again to see whether his guess was right…

It didn't take long for him to realize that the Dark Elf was indeed moving in a set of practiced movements. It feels like he was programmed to defend or counter a move in certain sword-stoke angles that he encountered.

Sayel decided to attack using an overhead strike thirty times…. With these thirty probing attacks, he realized that the Dark Elf's possible response was only five kinds of sword techniques. 

This made him even sure that Reiji was indeed some kind of puppet or perhaps golem.

He has encountered such things before and it was made by the best Arcanists of the country. 

"There's no way I would lose against someone without any emotion and could only respond in a set of predetermined movements…"

Sayel said as he was now planning to end this farce. 

Of course, even if Reiji was in this state, Sayel didn't dare to overly underestimate him since the Night Brigade that Julian created was completely destroyed by this man. 

Hazy Flash Step!

Sayel's flash step has no delays at all. He just appeared behind the Dark Elf in an instant…

Clang!

Bang!

He managed to land a powerful kick on Reiji's back but his sword stab was surprisingly blocked by the wooden sword!

"Hmph! You avoid a critical attack but my kick should be enough to kill you…"

Sayel said with a grave look on his face.

In truth, he is finding this fight really weird… The Dark Elf has only been using his sword skills during this battle.

That's right, this dark elf named Reiji may be using Sword Intent, Sword Will, and Sword Art, but he is clearly not using any of his Arcane Magic!

On the other hand, Sayel has been using Vibration Sword, Fierce Slash, Intimidation Gaze, Sword Echo, Hazy Flash Step, and Fiery Martial Arts in each of his strikes…

'Just what kind of opponent am I facing right now?'