Right before that, Eugeo moved his right hand as well. Pulling his wooden sword from his left waist, he activated a secret move after an instant of concentration. He went against the opponent's sword that shot down from straight above with a slanted upward slash from below. Aincrad-style, «Slant». The many secret moves taught by Kirito were all named not in the Common Tongue, but the Sacred Tongue instead, for some reason. It seems that even Kirito himself didn't know why. He likely forgot it due to the memory loss that he had when he appeared at Rulid as a «Lost Child of Vector», but in that case, it was a true stroke of luck that he did not forget his sword techniques as well. Slant was a single-hit technique just like Lightning Flash Slash, but the ability to attack in two directions, from top-right to bottom-left, or from bottom-left to top-right, was its best feature. Especially the latter, with its stance being the same as the action of drawing a sword from the waist, thus allowing a major reduction in the time required to activate it. Normally, if the opponent in a duel was spotted using a secret move, there wouldn't be enough time to receive it with another one, so one had no choice but to jump backwards or to the sides with all of one's strength to dodge—though that was rarely successful. But the Slant that Eugeo let out late drew a pale blue streak as it violently collided with Humbert's Lightning Flash Slash in the air, causing noise and light unthinkable for a couple of wooden swords. "Nuoo...!" Humbert let out a short cry, but the surprise that showed instantly on his face was converted to wrath and he applied pressure to his sword with all his might. The blue and light blue radiance enveloping the clashing swords had yet to vanish. If either of those swords were to be pushed back a few cen, the secret move would end in that moment and that person would likely be sent flying. Eugeo put his spirit in bracing his feet, pushing the sword in his right hand to the very end. With a dull grating noise, Humbert's sword drew back by two cen. The blue gleam of the Lightning Flash Slash flickered, implying the end of the skill. —As I thought, I'm better in terms of pure strength! It might have been within expectations, but receiving this opportunity to prove it for real gave true meaning to Eugeo. He could not hope to match the motions of the nobles, refined to the extent of even paying attention to the angles that their fingertips were at, but in just this one thing, the physical strength tempered by waving a heavy axe two thousand times day after day in the forest back home, was not something he would lose at. Even Gorgolosso, who boasted about his steel-like body, praised Eugeo's body for being "slender, but masterfully trained". There were some among the noble students trained in the High Norkia-style who ridiculed the Valtio- style displayed by Gorgolosso, who was born of common folk, as «rural swordsmanship», but putting aside the performance art it was a competition of beautiful, brute strength that served as a splendid weapon for duels. And along with the adaptive Aincrad-style passed on from Kirito, he could bring any situation into a simple clash of swords. —Even if he had not found «something to put into his sword», with the techniques and strength polished by those two, he wouldn't lose no matter who the high ranked noble was! Embracing that conviction in his chest, Eugeo put all he had into the swing of his sword. However, it happened then. Humbert's face, visible beyond the crossed swords, became an eerie countenance that could be described as evil. "Don't get... ahead of yourself!"