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Chapter 14 - The Limit Test (2)
After embracing the primordial flame and returning through time.
I had never exerted my full power before.
To be precise, I never had the opportunity to do so.
“Well, there were some incidents here and there.”
But most of them were just scuffles with other cadets.
In that sense, this sparring match with Professor Lucas had me quite excited.
Even if it was just a sparring match, he was the first opponent worthy of giving it my all.
—Clang! Clang! Clang!
The clash between the sword and axe happened at a speed that was hard to follow with the eyes.
“Hmph!”
With a short grunt, Professor Lucas crossed the two axes in his hands in an X-shape and swung them.
He swung them lightly, as if handling a toy, but the force behind them was anything but light.
Wooooong!
A radiant halo burst from his stigmata and surged violently along the axe blades.
The mere wind pressure from his swings was enough to crack the sturdy oak floor of the training ground as if a beast's claws had torn it.
Truly overwhelming destructive power.
‘There’s no way I can block that head-on.’
The power emanating from his nearly 2-meter frame was immense, but the disparity in our magical abilities was even greater.
The stigmata on Professor Lucas’s left chest was the “Stigmata of the Earth God.”
The magic created by the Earth God’s stigmata was heavy, massive, and destructive in nature.
If I tried to block that axe with my sword, the sword would likely shatter in an instant.
‘In that case…’
I lowered my stance and angled my sword.
I squeezed every ounce of magic from my body and condensed it along the sword’s edge.
—Clang! Clang! Clang!
At the moment when the axe and sword clashed, the condensed magic in the sword exploded outward, slightly deflecting Professor Lucas’s axe.
The deflected axe slid down the angled sword as if gliding.
I had applied the technique of ‘Sky Flip,’ taught to me by Berald, to my swordsmanship.
It was my attempt to bridge the overwhelming gap in power.
“You're using tricks now!”
Another axe swung horizontally.
Its target was my shoulder.
I ducked forward, narrowly avoiding the swinging axe.
“Keep using tricks long enough, and they become skill.”
I straightened my body and swung my sword.
The Sun Sword.
A swordsmanship technique created 500 years ago by one of the “Great Five Heroes,” Reynald Helios, and perfected by his distant descendant, Yuren Helios, one of the “Final Five Heroes.”
Now, it was being wielded by me.
—Clang! Clang! Clang!
“Gah… Where on earth did you learn such swordsmanship?!”
“I taught myself.”
I wasn’t lying.
Though my swordsmanship began with the Sun Sword, it had evolved so much that it could no longer be called the same as the one Yuren wielded in my previous life.
After the Demon God destroyed the world.
To honor my fallen comrades, I continued to train alone, leading to a painful realization.
‘I am not Yuren.’
My sword could neither blaze brilliantly nor shine nobly like Yuren’s.
It was fragile, yet persistent.
Feeble, but sharp.
Even if it broke, crumbled, or was crushed.
It would never disappear.
This was the swordsmanship unique to "Dale Han."
‘I should only use magic in the brief moment when the swords collide.’
I didn’t need to be fast enough that my opponent couldn’t follow with their eyes or strong enough to overwhelm them.
What mattered was finding the right moment, targeting the weakest point, and striking with lethal precision.
That alone was enough.
—Clang! Clang! Clang!
The ringing of metal reverberated in my ears.
With each breath scraping my throat, I continued to swing my sword.
Slashing, thrusting, parrying, and twisting.
I could feel it.
‘It wasn’t in vain.’
In the snow-covered fields.
The days of silently training in that white world, alone.
The struggle that lasted hundreds, thousands of years.
‘It wasn’t in vain.’
It wasn’t for some grand ambition.
Nor was it for a lofty purpose.
I simply.
Didn’t want to forget.
I didn’t want to waste the precious legacy they had left behind.
“Ha, haha!”
I couldn’t help but let out a laugh, overwhelmed by emotion.
A thrilling shiver traveled down my spine and spread throughout my entire body.
I felt so ecstatic that I wanted to shout in joy, but.
‘Why?’
Why was that?
At the same time as the joy, another emotion sprouted in a corner of my heart.
‘It’s not enough.’
A burning thirst scorched my throat.
‘If I push just a little further.’
It feels like I could ascend to even greater heights, to more distant realms.
Like I could grab hold of the very edge of the "ultimate" that Yuren used to speak of so often.
It felt as if heavy shackles were hanging all over my body, weighing me down.
In my mind, I knew exactly what I needed to do, but my body just couldn’t keep up.
In the midst of that dreadful disconnect...
I continued to swing my sword.
"Ugh!"
Professor Lucas barely managed to parry the fierce sword strikes, swallowing his breath.
‘What kind of crazy swordsmanship is this!?’
The strikes weren’t particularly fast.
They weren’t especially powerful either.
He could follow them with his eyes and easily deflect them.
But...
‘Why... can’t I counterattack!?’
It felt like being slowly suffocated by an overwhelming pressure, as if trapped in quicksand.
His body, which could normally swing an axe for over five hours without tiring, was now drenched in sweat after less than five minutes of combat.
As the battle pushed him closer to a trance-like state...
He began to feel the suffocating pressure making his breath increasingly labored.
‘At this rate, I’ll die.’
It wasn’t about losing.
It was about dying.
The thought that he was sparring with a student had completely left Professor Lucas’ mind.
‘If I don’t want to die...’
He had to kill him.
He had to pour everything he had into this and kill the ‘enemy’ before him if he wanted to survive.
“Huuu.”
The moment he realized this, his body instinctively reacted to the crisis.
-Wooooong!
The color of the light emanating from his stigmas changed, and a blood-red aura enveloped his body.
‘The Blessing of the Blood Warrior.’
It was a unique ability possessed by only a handful of heroes, allowing his blood to flow through his veins at an incomparably faster rate than before.
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His muscles swelled, and his bloodshot eyes turned crimson.
Enveloped in a blood-red aura, he looked just like the title implied—a ‘bloodthirsty hound.’
“Grrrrrrrr!”
With a ferocious roar resembling that of a wild beast, Professor Lucas’ axe swung violently.
-KWAAAAAANG!
The sound that erupted when the sword and axe collided was so loud that it was hard to believe it came from a mere clash of weapons.
Dale’s body flew through the air like a kite with a cut string and crashed into the training hall wall.
* * *
“Dale! Dale Han! Are you okay?!”
Professor Lucas urgently rushed toward Dale, who had crashed into the wall.
Seeing the training hall wall collapse entirely, Professor Lucas’ face turned pale.
Even though he was cornered, using the blessing against a student was unforgivable.
“Damn it...! I’ll send for help from the school immediately, so just hold on!”
He knew he wouldn’t avoid disciplinary action if word got out that he had used his blessing against a student, but what did that matter when his student’s life was on the line?
Just as Professor Lucas was about to contact the school through his Hero Watch...
“I’m fine.”
Dale, who had been lying against the wall, slowly stood up.
“...Huh?”
Professor Lucas looked at Dale with wide eyes, as if seeing a ghost.
“Are you... okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Dale nodded calmly, and Professor Lucas tilted his head in disbelief.
‘Judging by the state of that wall, those weren’t injuries he should’ve been able just to walk away from...’
At worst, it should’ve been instant death.
Even in the best case, he should’ve had at least a couple of broken bones.
But here he was, perfectly fine?
Thinking it might be a bluff, Professor Lucas examined Dale’s body, but he was genuinely unharmed, without a single injury.
“It’s my loss.”
“Huh?”
“The sparring match, I lost.”
“Ah.”
Only then did Professor Lucas realize that he had been in a ‘sparring match’ until just a moment ago.
Dale smirked at the bewildered expression on Professor Lucas’ face.
“At least I’m relieved to confirm that I’m at the level where I can draw out your true ‘power,’ Professor.”
“Ahem! Sorry. I ended up using my blessing without realizing it.”
“No, if you hadn’t used it until the end, I might’ve been a bit disappointed.”
With those words, Dale sheathed his sword.
“It was an honor to receive your guidance today. I have another class, so I’ll take my leave now.”
“Ah... Y-yeah. If you feel any pain later, make sure to let me know.”
“Yes.”
Without any hesitation, Dale turned and left the training hall.
“......”
Left alone in the half-destroyed training hall, Professor Lucas recalled his sparring session... no, his battle with Dale.
“Whew. I’ve been a professor long, but this is a first.”
When he had first heard Dale wanted to spar with him, all he could think was that the kid had finally lost his mind.
It wasn’t unreasonable.
Regardless of his recent achievements, Dale was still just a candidate.
The lowest-ranked candidate, even, often considered the worst in the history of Reynaldo Academy.
“A kid like that managed to push me this far...”
He never would've believed it if he hadn’t experienced it firsthand.
“Did that kid actually come back from the future or something?”
That absurd thought even crossed his mind.
“Well, in the end, I still won!”
Sure, it felt strange to be pleased with a victory where he had to use his blessing against a student.
But a win was still a win.
At least he managed to avoid completely embarrassing himself as a professor.
‘Uh... wait a minute.’
His expression stiffened as Professor Lucas reviewed the battle with Dale in his mind.
From the bizarre swordsmanship he had never seen before to the near-acrobatic mana control and precision movements...
Dale’s abilities had transformed as if he really had come back from the future.
Except for one thing.
There was one aspect that hadn’t changed from before.
“Dale... His mana wasn’t much different from what I remembered.”
His mana level was less than 10% of the average candidate.
Compared to himself, the difference was more than twentyfold.
And yet...
With that pitifully small amount of mana, he had pushed him to the brink of ‘death.’
“......”
For a hero, mana is like weight class.
Considering the vast difference in their mana levels, it was like struggling to win against an eight-year-old child.
But what if...
What if Dale maintained his current abilities and also gained more mana?
“Ha.”
A chilling shiver ran down his spine.
“I might not be teaching a hero candidate... but a baby monster.”
A deep sigh escaped Professor Lucas’ lips.
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