章 176: Iris

An overwhelming, tension-filled silence envelops the room which is broken only by the faint sound of their blades grinding against each other and their strained grunts of effort as the two women conduct a serious power struggle.

Then, suddenly after a sharp intake of breath, Ayame shifts her weight and uses my frame for leverage as she leans onto my back, lifting her feet off the ground and placing them on the stomach of our opponent. With a fierce, shout she kicks out mightily, with so much force that I almost fall face-first onto the blood-soaked wooden floorboards of the barracks.

The force of such a move should have sent the dark-haired woman crashing into the wall, but instead, she barely budged. She only slid back a few steps' worth of distance. 

Her expression is almost nonchalant as she absorbs the impact as if what the two of them had just gone through was just a normal training exercise.