King of Blades - Paperback

by Paul Hikari (Author)

Steel will flash. Pixels will spill. But only one can be crowned... King of Blades.

It's the year 2338, time for the orbiting megacity of Arcadia to host one of the biggest sporting events in the world: Children of the Earth-or CoE for short. What makes this event so big? Competitors from all over the world called GladiViRists (short for Gladiatorial Virtual Reality martial artists) take up ancient weapons and armor and fight to the death in-game yet suffer no physical injury in the real world.

Among these GladiViRists is eighteen-year-old Makoto Yamasaki, the daughter of a former champion who was paralyzed from the waist down in a train crash. Guilt-ridden over her assumed role in this injury, she fights to prove her self-worth. But if she's to win, she'll have to conquer her deepest fears and accept help from the friends she tries to push away.