Honkai Star Rail: The Archiver

"Feel free to start whenever."

Standing just a few meters from each other, two people holding identical looking swords slowly got ready.

After snacking for a bit under the tree, Yuuto and Jingliu searched for an open spot in the forest where obstacles would not get in the way of the spar that would be taking place.

Jingliu's red eyes stared at Yuuto calmly as she shifted the stance of her feet and held the thin sword parallel to her right arm.

Yuuto gripped onto his sword and formed a similar stance to Jingliu which caused her to raise one of her eyebrows. 

'No openings at all.'

Sword Champion of the Luofu

Transcendent Flash

These were just to name a few of the titles this person in front of him held. 

Even with her showing a relaxed posture, Yuuto was able to feel that taking this spar lightly was not something he should do.

However taking this spar lightly was not something he planned to do in the first place 

'A chance for me to test out my growth.'

With regards to the Doomsday Beast, that fight was mainly him doing his utmost best by using the skills he created in that short time frame to help exploit the weaknesses he knew beforehand.

In comparison this spar was a big opportunity to have him look at the skills he had and at the same time look for any improvements he could make to help hone the memories in his arsenal. 

Looking at an objective view and properly testing what he could use moving forward. 

This is especially true considering that his foundation was based on Jingliu's swordsmanship.

Yuuto took in one last breath and small slivers of pale silver aura wrapped around his sword and body.

With shards of ice appearing in the surrounding area around him.

A hot energy also filled his insides as he began to turn the engine and felt a surge of vitality rush him.

"I'm ready."

Yuuto bursted forward with great speed as he rushed Jingliu and thrusted his sword towards her body.

Jingliu stood still before taking a small step forward and diverted the trajectory of his sword away from her.

Feeling the pressure lighten as she absorbed his attack, Yuuto quickly pulled his sword back and shifted his momentum to slash at her one more time before he attempted to drift his sword to her side where he saw an opening.

Jingliu lifted her sword to block his slash and pointed her sword downward to her side where she stayed on the defensive parrying each of his strikes.

"Good speed and great precision. But try to incorporate more strength in your attacks."

She lightly spoke before flicking her wrist to disrupt his momentum and rushed him to bring his attacks to a halt.

'Damn she's quicker up close.'

Yuuto cursed as he noticed that she had begun to switch from defense to offense and closely watched how each of her limbs began to move.

Shards of ice sprouted outwards to their surroundings as their swords released a burst of cold energy each time they struck each other.

'He's holding well.'

Jingliu thought as she noticed Yuuto's intense focus on each of her attacks as if he were looking deeply at what type of strikes would come next.

'Let's add a bit more pressure.' 

A light blue glow enveloped her sword and her hand flashed, noticing Yuuto's attacks coming towards her.

Tensing her wrist, the sharp blade rushed horizontally to Yuuto's side which raised multiple alarms in his head.

The silver energy rushed towards his legs and he flipped upwards avoiding the cut by just an inch.

A brief calmness arrived as he floated in the air and twisted his body to strike Jingliu's head using a powerful spinning kick.

This sudden kick pushed Jingliu backward and created a brief moment of space between the two.

"You have some excellent senses."

"Thank you."

Yuuto smiled but a bead of cold sweat appeared as that last attack came pretty close to slicing him up badly.

Leaving him no time to rest, it was Jingliu's turn to rush him and her figure disappeared before she appeared right in front of him.

Strings of energy exploded as she struck the sword Yuuto pulled up and jumped upwards.

In the air she leaned her body to the side and after locking on to where Yuuto was, she kicked the air and spun downwards in a fast spiral.

'I thought she was going to shoot crescents at me.'

Yuuto thought as mist flowed out from his body in order to create a shield to protect himself after seeing her jump.

The dense mist that surrounded him flowed as he waved his hand forward creating large spikes to attack her as she descended.

The closer she was to the spikes, the bright light blue glow around her began to increase in shape before she instantly vanished from her position.

Yuuto's hair rose as he felt her presence suddenly appear behind him and dense ice rushed towards him.

'She's definitely trying to trap me like last time.'

Yuuto gripped his sword tightly and his legs blurred avoiding the rush of ice coming his way and ran toward Jingliu who was standing in the back.

'I should try and prevent her from taking the initiative when attacking.'

He thought as he placed more strength in his legs and approached the ice wall that suddenly appeared before him.

Seeing the wall, Yuuto's eyes glowed white and he slashed the wall a few times until he created a few deep grooves into it and placed his fingertips on the surface.

"[Break]"

The wall before him shattered into dust which surprised Jingliu standing on the other side.

'I still need to incorporate some more memories into [Break] to make it stronger but so far it looks like a good weapon to have when facing defensive obstacles.' 

Yuuto didn't spare a single moment and continued to attack Jingliu causing the Stelleron in his body to pump vigorously trying to meet the supply his body was demanding.

Jingliu met his onslaught with some tricks of her own as she continued to apply more pressure onto him using faster and stronger strikes compared to the beginning of the fight.

Yuuto on the other hand had his eyes wide open and continued to take in each of her movements and his body began to slowly change with each encounter he had with Jingliu.

'Upper right… lower left…a thrust…give me more of this memory..'

Memories of her movement began to slowly enter his mind and his body moved according to what he thought would happen.

Even if it was for a short while, Yuuto had immersed himself in the memory of [Jingliu's Swordsmanship] countless times.

The ways she moved her sword and the way she shifted the different limbs in her body. He knew to some extent just how her sword would flow.

The patterns of attacks he faced were familiar but hints of stronger movements began to appear in front of him seeing that Jingliu began to move faster. Trying to place more pressure.

'Add this to the memory.'

As the consecutive attacks continued to go on, Yuuto churned his mind to absorb any hint of new memories he had not seen before and place them inside the fragment containing [Jingliu's Swordsmanship]

Like how a person would update a piece of data. 

'The moonlight is beginning to grow stronger.'

The previous slivers of aura that she saw before slowly grew each time she clashed with him and she felt like something may happen if he were to be pushed further.

'Let's see if he has the courage to step forward.'

Jingliu swiped her legs under his feet and after seeing him jump, she used the heel of her feet to kick him a few meters backward.

The air in his lungs left his body and Yuuto attempted to stabilize himself in the air. 

Seeing him stagger, she widened her stance and allowed a deep blue hue to cover her sword. 

The faint outline of a moon slowly appeared behind her and she twisted her body forward releasing a large crescent towards him.

Yuuto watched the crescent slowly approach him and a pale silver aura wrapped around his legs in an attempt to escape but he paused when he felt his instinct urging him to stay.

Jingliu was also on the opposite side standing completely still as if agreeing to follow his instinct.

'Don't just avoid. Approach more.'

The energy that supported [Jingliu's Swordsmanship] fluctuated as the crescent approached and Yuuto gripped his sword tightly.

'Screw it.'

A wry smile appeared on his face when he felt like he was crazy to face this enormous projectile head on but he felt like he needed to trust his instinct flashing at him.

His eyes glowed an even brighter white as he looked at the crescent coming his way and noticed its shape, size and formation of energy being used.

Yuuto deeply exhaled before gathering all the silver aura he had and drew his sword forward allowing all that energy to flow outwards.

'Not strong enough.'

Looking at the size of the crescent, he knew that it wouldn't be enough so he decided to add something onto it.

'Let's stack it.'

The Stelleron in his body pumped even harder and Yuuto exchanged all his stamina to support the pale silver aura that wanted to materialize into something more.

Clips of the new memories he gained in this fight following the flow of the sword also permeated into the [New Moon] and the way his body positioned itself slightly changed.

Yuuto gripped the sword using both his hands and swung downwards.

–BOOOOM

The clash between him and the crescent caused the surrounding area to burst up once again into a thick layer of ice.

And a large echo caused the leaves of the nearby trees to fly vigorously. 

–SWISH

"Congratulations, it seems like you can now materialize moonlight into tangible material outside your body."

"Yeah, and it's all thanks to you."

Feeling a sharp edge pressed against his neck, Yuuto showed her a faint smile and raised his hand showing his loss.

His body was ridden with pieces of hard ice clinging to his limbs while dust and other matter stained his ripped-up clothes.

Yuuto felt his legs soften as he sat down on the ground and took in deep breaths as he felt like the majority of his energy left his body.

But the smile on his face failed to hide just how happy he was to slowly enter a new territory he hadn't been in before.

The spar finally ended and Yuuto basked in the afterglow feeling like his usage of moonlight flowed outwards trying to blend into the surrounding area.

He actively turned his engine to help restore his missing energy and slowly felt like it had begun to fill back up.

Adding [Heal] to the mix, his recovery was faster and after waiting a few minutes a tendril of moonlight appeared in his hand.

'It feels like water.'

If the way he previously used moonlight was like an unhindered waterfall flowing downwards without a care.

Now it felt like a smooth flowing river following in whatever direction he willed it to.

'The amount also increased.'

Yuuto shaped the moonlight into a thin line and swiped his hand forward.

The energy left his hand and shot like a small crescent before digging itself into the dirt ground he was sitting on.

"How does it feel for you?"

"How it feels…"

Jingliu posed a question as if she was curious and Yuuto stared at the light in his hand.

"Feels clear and soft."

"Clear and soft…"

A brief silence appeared between the two of them as Yuuto played with his newfound moonlight while Jingliu looked at the moonlight he had.

"Shit!.. I thought I could use the noise here as a distraction."

This silence however was broken with a loud curse coming from a tall male who floated in the air.

His large bird-like wings moved around as his face showed panic and distress seeing that noise he heard before stopped.

"A Wingweaver?"

Yuuto saw the man and looked confused but a sharp coldness erupted from Jingliu as she manifested a sword that took an appearance that was different from the thin one she had before.

Her body disappeared and before the man could react, his body turned into minced meat with various incisions ripping his body apart.

Jingliu's cold eyes stared at the now deceased Wingweaver and she looked around trying to see if more of them would appear.

'Merciless..'

Yuuto stood up and looked at the pool of blood, feeling like that man was unlucky to appear before Jingliu considering her dislike for the abominations following the Aeon Yaoshi. 

"It looks like the one who got away unfortunately encountered Miss Jingliu. And… also a face I didn't think I'd see so soon."

Running out of the abundant forestry, a man with long blonde hair and green eyes smiled as he looked at the two people in front of him.

"Did you get all of them or was that the last one?"

Jingliu quickly said what was on her mind and looked towards Luocha who got closer to the two.

"All the camps except one were eliminated but a few got away and entered a structure preventing me from getting any closer."

"How annoying."

"I agree. "

Luocha crossed his arms, looked past Jingliu and smiled at Yuuto who was staring at the two of them.

"Sorry if I appeared abruptly but a certain nuisance you may have been familiar with suddenly appeared once again."

"Did it involve the guy you trapped last time?"

"The guy from last time…"

Luocha thought for a bit before he understood who Yuuto was referring to.

"Not exactly since he only 'helped' me for a bit but it does involve the crew he was with."

Yuuto mentally prayed for the unfortunate fellow he fought last time and saw how Luocha pulled his phone out.

"Do you recognize this inscription?"

He showed his phone to Jingliu who was in deep thought and had her inspect some letters he noticed hindering his progress from before.

Yuuto peeked at the phone as he was curious and Luocha didn't seem to mind as he even turned his phone closer to him as if inviting him to share any knowledge he may have about the image.

'Wait that tombstone looks familiar…'