How do I describe this Anime effect

[Arctic55]

In anime, when people fight, they will slash the air, and the slash will travel through the air until it contacts something.  Kinda like an energy beam I guess... How do you describe that kind of thing for a story?  I need to know for my book to non-anime watchers.

 

Something kinda like this: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/FbV-7G5Ohes/maxresdefault.jpg

 

Wait... no... that energy beam is attached to Ichigo's hand... but you know what I mean right?  When the character needs to hit someone at range, and they only got a sword, and they slash the air, and the slash (generally colored brightly) flies at the target?

[Htamret]

Yo, this is what you're talking about right?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SwordBeam

and this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RazorWind

It depends what exactly the nature is of the attack. If it's the razor wind thing it's not too hard. You could say something like "[character] slashed their sword, creating a blast of wind at such high speed that it cut through (person, object, etc.)

If it's an energy beam type of thing, maybe: "[character] swung their sword. A flash of light shot out from the blade and sliced through (target)."

 

Hope that helps!