I raised my gaze toward the sky.

It was clear.

A beautiful sun rested in the center of the blue expanse, while a gentle spring breeze swept quietly across the grassy battlefield.

Then I lowered my eyes toward the ground.

The green grass stretched almost endlessly, swaying with the wind like a calm ocean.

No mountains.

No walls.

No obstacles.

Just an open field...

As if the world itself had decided to grant my opponent the perfect battlefield possible.

I raised my gaze once more.

Toward my opponent.

Lord Grass Puppet.

He still stood there without moving.

He hadn’t spoken since the battle began.

Even his face carried no expression whatsoever—

Like another puppet standing within his own green field.

"Well then..."

I whispered lightly.

"Let’s see what you have, silent Lord."

I raised my hand.

Wind blades began appearing one after another.

One.

Then another.

Then dozens.

Until their number reached a full hundred blades.

They spun around me like a miniature storm.

The air itself began screaming beneath the sharpness of their rotation.

Then—

I sent them toward him.

SWOOOOSH—

The blades surged forward at terrifying speed.

And with every meter they crossed...

Their rotation intensified.

Their size increased.

And the edges became sharper.

But—

The Lord didn’t move.

Even when the blades closed to within dozens of meters from him...

Suddenly—

The earth exploded.

Dozens of grassy tendrils burst violently from beneath the ground.

They moved like whips.

Fast.

Flexible.

Deadly.

And in a single instant—

They collided with the wind blades.

BOOOOOOM—

The impact thundered loudly.

The grassy whips moved as though they possessed independent will.

They struck the blades one after another relentlessly.

And within mere seconds...

All one hundred blades had been destroyed completely.

Then—

Every whip swiftly retreated underground once more.

And vanished.

As though nothing had happened at all.

"These grassy whips..."

I murmured.

My opening blades hadn’t been powerful...

But they weren’t weak either.

And yet—

They had been destroyed with absolute ease.

I raised my hand again.

This time—

Two hundred blades emerged.

SWOOOSH—

The new wave surged forward with far greater force.

But before they could arrive—

The earth split apart again.

The whips emerged once more.

But—

My eyes narrowed.

"They’re different?"

I muttered internally.

This time the whips were thinner.

Faster.

And fewer in number.

They moved with greater precision.

As though they had been specifically designed to counter this exact amount.

And within moments...

My blades were destroyed again.

"So that’s how it is..."

I said.

A faint smile appearing on my face.

Then—

I jumped.

Thirty meters upward in a single movement.

My body stabilized high in the sky.

Beneath my feet...

Small yet densely packed wind blades continuously rotated, granting me steady flight.

I raised my hand.

Only five blades emerged.

I launched them toward him.

They were destroyed.

Then I sent a different number.

Destroyed again.

Then more.

Then fewer.

Then blades of varying speed and size.

And the result...

Remained the same.

The grassy whips cut through everything.

No matter the number.

No matter the power.

No matter the attack pattern.

As for the Lord...

He never moved.

He remained standing in that irritating silence...

As though completely certain I would never reach him.

After a while...

And after launching more than a thousand scattered blades...

My first discovery was complete.

"His whips only move when the blades reach a specific point..."

I said calmly.

My eyes narrowed further.

"But the strange thing..."

I looked toward the ground again.

"Is that the whips change according to the number of blades... their intensity... and their speed."

I paused briefly.

Then continued:

"Except for the first clash...

Every attack afterward...

Was met with an exact number of whips."

"No more. No less."

A trace of irritation crept into me.

"I sent blades whose size and power changed during flight...

And yet...

The moment they reached that fixed point...

His whips were already prepared with the perfect number."

I looked toward him.

Still motionless.

"Up until now...

My accumulation loss is greater than his...

Even though both of us are only using simple attacks."

Then I smiled.

"But...

If you think this is enough to stop me...

You’re mistaken."

I raised my hand high.

Wind blades began appearing once more.

By the dozens.

Then by the hundreds.

Gradually...

The sunlight above the arena disappeared.

Shadows stretched outward.

Long black threads began appearing between the blades.

Until—

Their number surpassed four hundred blades.

Then—

I slammed my hand downward violently.

Announcing the beginning of the true attack.

SWOOOOOOOSH—

The wave of four hundred blades surged forward all at once.

The air tore apart.

Grass was ripped from the earth beneath the pressure of the winds.

And with every meter the blades advanced...

They became faster.

Larger.

More savage.

As for the Lord...

He still stood motionless.

As for the whips...

They remained hidden underground.

The blades drew closer.

Until they reached the point I had determined through analysis.

Point X.

The moment they entered that zone—

The ground exploded violently.

More than a hundred grassy whips burst upward simultaneously.

But—

In the very next instant—

The blades stopped.

Precisely at Point X.

They didn’t advance.

They simply continued rotating.

Growing larger.

Increasing pressure.

The whips as well...

Did not attack.

Both sides remained facing each other...

As though awaiting some kind of command.

Several heavy moments passed.

Then—

Suddenly—

The blades surged forward.

BOOOOOOM—

BOOOOOOM—

BOOOOOOOOOOM—

Sky and earth exploded with sound.

This time...

It wasn’t a simple clash.

From the very beginning...

This might have been our first true attack.

The grassy whips struck violently.

The blades continued spinning and shredding.

Grass was uprooted.

The ground cracked apart.

Even the air itself seemed to be ground apart between the two forces.

Outside the battlefield...

Everyone’s eyes focused on the battle that had finally begun to ignite.

As for me...

I simply observed.

Observed...

And analyzed.

Several moments passed.

Then the collision gradually began calming down.

Dust dispersed.

The roar of the wind faded.

And in the end...

The whips triumphed once more.

But—

Less than twenty whips remained intact.

"My second discovery..."

I whispered.

Then smiled lightly.

Quickly—

I summoned another six hundred blades.

They appeared around me like a colossal black storm.

Filling the entire sky.

Even the sunlight began vanishing behind them.

Some blades were small and razor-sharp.

Others massive and heavy.

Some rotated slowly.

Others trembled violently as though on the verge of exploding.

But—

All of them charged toward the Lord simultaneously.

SWOOOOOOOSH—

The air tore apart beneath the pressure of the overwhelming number.

Grass on the ground was uprooted.

Violent winds battered the edges of the arena.

As for the Lord...

He still stood motionless.

He didn’t move.

Even his eyelids didn’t twitch.

The blades approached.

Closer...

Closer...

Until they reached Point X.

And the instant they arrived—

They stopped.

Once again.

Then in the next moment—

The blades began rotating more violently.

Faster.

Harsher.

Carrying even greater pressure.

Their size gradually increased...

Until every single blade became nearly a full meter wide.

Spinning with horrifying force.

The air around them twisted into genuine vortexes.

As for the earth beneath them...

It began cracking apart from the pressure alone.

Then—

They surged forward again.

BOOOOOOOOOOM—

The explosion thundered loudly.

This time...

It was far more violent than before.

The entire ground shook.

The air burst outward in a shockwave that swept across the battlefield.

And the sounds produced by the spinning blades...

Turned into a horrifying hum.

Sharp.

Continuous.

As though hundreds of blades were screaming together.

In response—

The ground exploded again.

The grassy whips surged upward with even greater ferocity than before.

Thicker.

More savage.

They moved like enraged serpents.

And slammed directly into the rotating storm.

BOOOOOOM—

BOOOOOOM—

BOOOOOOM—

Even the sky itself began trembling.

The whips struck.

The blades shredded.

Grass and dirt scattered in every direction.

Visibility itself began disappearing within the forming storm.

But this time...

Things weren’t the same.

The whips began tearing apart.

And so did my blades.

Each side was gradually crushing the other.

After some time...

The clash finally began calming down.

The sound diminished.

The storm weakened.

And the air slowly returned to normal.

Eventually—

The dust dispersed.

Only several blades remained spinning weakly before shattering and falling.

As for the grassy whips...

Only a few torn strands remained twitching above the earth before retreating underground.

I lifted my gaze toward the Lord.

He was still standing.

But—

For the first time...

His robe trembled slightly.

And for the first time as well...

I noticed his right foot sunk deeper into the ground.

I smiled.

"As expected..."

I whispered calmly.

"The number of whips isn’t fixed."

My eyes narrowed.

The analysis inside my mind finally coming together piece by piece.

"They are produced according to the level of danger sensed around him."

I looked again toward Point X.

"But no matter how precise they are..."

My smile widened.

"They still require calculation."

I raised my hand once more.

The winds slowly gathered around me.

"And anything that requires calculation..."

Threads of shadow began appearing between my fingers.

"Can be deceived."

The blades began forming high in the sky.

One after another.

Until the air above the battlefield looked as though it were gradually filling with transparent monsters made of wind.

The atmosphere grew heavier.

The winds around the arena began spiraling chaotically beneath the pressure of accumulated energy.

As for me...

I watched silently.

My eyes never leaving the grassy Lord for even a moment.

Suddenly—

Four hundred blades completed their formation.

They aligned behind one another like deadly swarms.

Then—

They began spinning.

Slowly at first.

Then faster.

Then even faster.

Until their sound became a piercing hum that shook the ears.

But—

That wasn’t all.

The blades began stretching.

Their shape gradually elongated...

Until they lost their usual circular appearance.

And became...

Something resembling long, sharp French loaves of bread.

Four hundred blades—

But in a completely different form.

Long.

Rotating.

And charged with the same overwhelming force of pressure and rotation.

The air around them began tearing apart by itself.

Even the nearby space looked distorted from the violent motion.

But I still didn’t stop.

"Not yet..."

I whispered.

I raised my other hand.

Another four hundred blades formed.

This time—

I didn’t make them long.

Instead...

They formed into star-like shapes.

Each blade resembled a four-pointed star.

And at every point...

There existed smaller groups of miniature blades.

The four edges didn’t rotate in the same direction.

Instead they moved at opposing angles.

Colliding with the air.

Generating conflicting wind currents.

Simply looking at them...

Was enough to make anyone dizzy.

As though they weren’t blades at all...

But geometric traps built purely for destruction.

Below...

The Lord still stood there.

Calm.

Silent.

But—

The grass around his feet had begun moving slowly.

As though preparing itself.

I smiled faintly.

Then—

Raised both hands.

Once again—

Another four hundred blades began forming.

But this time...

They retained the traditional circular shape.

Except...

They were larger.

Much larger.

Each blade was nearly the size of a carriage.

Rotating with heavy slowness.

Yet the pressure radiating from them...

Was terrifying.

Even the sky above them began trembling faintly.

I left them there briefly.

Rotating.

Growing larger.

Twelve hundred blades.

Three different patterns.

Three different styles of rotation.

Three different pressures.

The air inside the arena had nearly vanished completely.

Breathing itself became difficult.

The grass below bent entirely beneath the pressure.

As for the grassy whips hidden underground...

Their tips had already begun emerging from the soil, though they still hadn’t attacked yet.

At that moment—

I smiled.

A wide smile this time.

And raised my gaze toward the Lord.

"Let’s see..."

I whispered lightly.

Then my smile widened further.

"How exactly you’ll block this... hehe."