Ex’s eyes followed the faint shape embedded in his chest.
It stretched away from him, disappearing into the smoke of the distant explosion.
It was so faint that he wouldn’t have seen it at all without focusing.
But there was no mistaking its sharpness, or the terrifying cutting force condensed within it.
It was an Aura Blade.
“How…?”
Ex tried to back away and escape the attack.
The Aura Blade moved one beat faster.
SHNK-!!
“Ghaaaak-!!”
The wound where the Aura Blade had pierced his chest ripped open diagonally in a long, vicious slash.
Blood sprayed out in a heavy burst, splattering the ground around him.
It was nothing short of miraculous that the pain hadn’t knocked him unconscious.
If he’d blacked out, his head really would have come off this time.
“Khup-!!”
CLANG-!!
The instincts beaten into him through Roxwell’s hellish training reacted on their own.
Thanks to Lung’s sword, a blade worthy of being called a masterpiece, Ex managed to knock aside the strike aimed at his neck.
But that single collision tore open the hand gripping his sword.
There was no way he could pull off the same block again.
“Fine. I’ll admit it.”
A voice came from within the dust.
“For a worthless little insect to push me this far with nothing but this pathetic nonsense… I was far too careless. I’ll give you that. I truly will.”
A burst of internal energy erupted within the storm of dust, blowing it away in every direction.
Griphoc emerged from the haze.
His entire body was scorched and covered in wounds and burns.
His eyes, cold and murderous, were fixed squarely on Ex.
‘Yeah. He’s seriously pissed.’
While Ex checked Griphoc’s condition,
Griphoc finished gathering his strength and slowly declared,
“Very well. I’ll show you exactly how House Dremore earned the reputation it enjoys today.”
Griphoc raised his sword toward the sky.
Just as before, he concentrated every last bit of his internal energy into the blade.
But this was different from before.
His raging fury became fuel.
His cold reason gave that fury purpose and direction.
And Griphoc revealed the true essence of Dremore Swordsmanship.
WHOOOOOOOM-
The Aura Blade continued condensing.
The sword’s reach stretched farther and farther without end.
Its edge held enough sharpness and cutting force to sever anything in its path.
“…Good lord, that’s long.”
It extended past the ceiling and continued beyond it.
It looked as though Griphoc had reached up and seized a beam of light descending from the heavens.
He gripped that light with both hands.
“It’s over.”
Then he brought it down.
The fact that more than ten meters separated them meant nothing.
If anything, the greater the distance, the more absurdly fast the tip of the descending blade became.
At this moment, there was no way to dodge that sword.
No way to block it, either.
It was one-sided slaughter made possible by an overwhelming difference in reach.
This was the true nature of Dremore Swordsmanship.
But.
“I’m not planning to just stand here and die.”
Ex tightened both hands around his sword.
Blood poured from the gash across his upper body, and his mouth was smeared red, but none of that mattered right now.
He had to hold on to his sword.
Opposite Griphoc, Ex took a stance with his own blade pointed upward and poured internal energy into it.
Ex wasn’t a 5-Star martial artist.
Naturally, he couldn’t use an Aura Blade.
He also knew perfectly well that ordinary aura was meaningless against an Aura Blade.
That was exactly why Roxwell and the Chairman had tried to stop this duel.
No matter how they looked at it, Ex had no chance of winning.
But Ex had never stopped preparing.
While Griphoc had been certain of his victory,
Ex had relentlessly searched for a way to win and pushed his body through one grueling training session after another.
And the result was…
CLAAAAANG-!!!
The compressed aura wrapped around Ex’s upward swing and knocked Griphoc’s Aura Blade aside.
“How…?!”
For the first time, Griphoc froze in confusion.
No matter how durable Ex’s sword might be, mere toughness couldn’t explain how easily it had repelled his Aura Blade.
‘…That’s?!’
Then Griphoc saw the answer on Ex’s sword.
Thin threads of blue light.
Those glowing strands were tightly wound and interwoven around the blade.
Griphoc knew exactly what they were.
Ex opened and closed his numbed hand, settled back into his stance, and said,
“Everyone keeps going on about how I’m only 3-Star and all that…”
What glowed around Ex’s blade was an Aura Line.
“Starting now, I’m 4-Star.”
Proof that he had reached the 4-Star level.
Griphoc’s thoughts descended into chaos.
‘4-Star? A mage?’
That was impossible.
Magic power and internal energy could not coexist within the same person.
Throughout all of recorded history, only one person had ever been capable of such a thing.
‘This worthless bastard is using the Hero’s power?’
“Quit thinking…!”
That brief moment of confusion was all Ex needed.
Tap-!
Ex launched himself forward and instantly closed the distance.
His entire body was battered beyond recognition, but thanks to Roxwell, he had long since mastered the art of fighting in exactly this kind of condition.
‘I can’t let him take the offensive…!’
Ex immediately thrust his sword at Griphoc’s face.
Griphoc avoided it with ease, and Ex instantly converted the thrust into a downward slash.
The transition flowed so naturally that even Griphoc was forced to hesitate.
His swordsmanship was clearly well trained.
The relentless combination of attacks was surprisingly sharp.
Not that it was truly threatening.
The instant Ex revealed even the slightest opening, Griphoc could seize control of the exchange.
‘That’s what you’re thinking.’
Having read Griphoc’s intent, Ex deliberately made his next swing too wide.
Clang-!
Griphoc did not miss the opportunity.
“An inexperienced brat like you…!”
He immediately swung his greatsword diagonally.
Everything within the reach of his aura was split apart.
And Ex stood at the end of that path.
Of course, Ex wasn’t about to remain still.
“Watch your chin.”
“…!”
Griphoc sensed aura erupting from beneath his feet.
‘That again!’
The mysterious glowing sword, the White Light Sword, burst from the ground and shot toward Griphoc’s chin.
“You won’t fool me twice!!”
He immediately jerked his head back while preparing his next move.
The White Light Sword came too quickly for him to avoid it completely.
He gathered Aura Armor around his chin, intending to reduce the impact even if the sword clipped him.
Then he saw something bizarre.
Whoosh-
The White Light Sword passed straight through both the Aura Armor and his chin.
“What the…?”
“Is this really the time to look away?”
Ex immediately swung his sword.
The three basic sword paths forming the foundation of his swordsmanship were exceptionally solid, making them annoyingly difficult to break through.
And that wasn’t all.
“Fireball!”
Ice blasted toward Griphoc from behind Ex as Ex pulled back his sword.
“Thunderbolt!”
The instant a gap opened, flames erupted and swallowed Griphoc’s vision.
“Ice Spear!”
As Ex thrust his sword, bolts of lightning crackled outward in every direction.
“The spells you’re shouting aren’t even the spells you’re using…!”
“What kind of idiot announces which spell he’s about to cast before using it?!”
Griphoc wanted to break away and create distance, but Ex clung to him with such persistence that he couldn’t.
It felt like fighting a mage and a swordsman at the same time.
Worse, the White Light Swords that kept appearing at random intervals were getting on his nerves.
“You irritating little…!”
Every time Griphoc tried to reverse the momentum, another White Light Sword came flying from somewhere.
One would suddenly shoot out from behind a stone pillar.
Another would erupt from beneath the floor.
Sometimes they even appeared by passing straight through Ex’s body.
‘That is definitely aura…!’
The White Light Swords weren’t illusions.
They unmistakably carried the presence of real aura, which meant a martial artist’s instincts kept screaming at Griphoc to avoid them.
Yet the way they appeared was completely unpredictable, and whenever he made a serious effort to block one, it would simply pass through him as though it had never been real to begin with.
‘At this rate, he’ll keep controlling the entire fight.’
He had been dodging them instinctively until now.
From this point onward, he would have to consciously force himself not to.
‘Now’s my chance.’
Ex knew he had finally seized the momentum.
Keep attacking.
Never give the opponent an opportunity to retaliate.
‘I can’t give him any distance!’
Under no circumstances could he allow Griphoc to create space between them.
Without distance, Dremore Swordsmanship was effectively sealed.
So Ex stayed at point-blank range and continued pressing him.
The three days of hellish training with Roxwell had all been for this.
But.
“Do you really think you’re the first person who’s ever tried fighting me like this?”
That assumption underestimated Griphoc.
Without hesitation, Griphoc released his right hand from his sword and shot his arm forward.
His outstretched arm slipped toward the inside of Ex’s elbow.
‘Sword wrestling?! And he’s fast!!’
Ex recognized what Griphoc was attempting, but it was already too late.
The greatsword was pressing down with too much force for Ex to carelessly release his own grip.
And in a contest of strength, Griphoc’s arm had already entered the perfect position.
That split-second hesitation was enough.
Their arms tangled together, and Griphoc twisted Ex’s arm, breaking his stance.
“Kh…! Even then, this much is…!”
Ex was used to wrestling and grappling after suffering through them day after day with Roxwell.
He had learned how to respond.
Before his entire posture collapsed, he could break his fall.
Then he could regain his footing, resume the offensive, and keep the pressure on.
That would have worked.
If Griphoc had merely thrown him to the ground.
“Get out of my sight, you filthy insect.”
Instead, Griphoc hurled him away.
BANG-!!
“Khaak…!”
The raw strength of a martial artist reinforced with internal energy launched Ex across the training hall.
His back slammed into a stone pillar, forcing the air from his lungs along with a mouthful of blood.
But he couldn’t afford to stay there.
“Damn it…!”
Before he could even check his condition, Ex threw himself sideways and rolled.
Had he not moved, he would have been sliced apart along with the stone pillar behind him.
The moment the pillar was severed, it exploded.
KABOOOOM-!!
“Khak-!”
The explosions kept coming.
Whenever Ex came close to the blast radius of another stone pillar, Griphoc swung his sword and cut it apart.
Ex had no choice but to keep running if he wanted to escape the explosions.
“Watching you scurry away suits a worthless insect like you!”
Griphoc wore a vicious grin as he toyed with Ex.
After a while, he stopped aiming at Ex entirely.
He only targeted the stone pillars.
He wanted to enjoy watching Ex get tossed around by the explosions.
Every blast felt as though it would crush Ex’s entire body to pieces.
Even so, he kept running.
“The bleeding… is getting bad…”
His consciousness was beginning to dim.
He had already lost far too much blood from his wounds.
If this dragged on even a little longer, he would lose completely.
‘Almost there…!’
As Ex dodged explosion after explosion and sword strike after sword strike, he eventually completed a full circuit around the training hall.
Every stone pillar along his route had been sliced apart and detonated one after another.
Before long, he was heading toward the location of the final pillar.
“Now this is getting boring.”
KABOOOOM-!
Before Ex could reach it, the final stone pillar was cut apart and exploded.
“So that’s the end of your pathetic struggle.”
“…I wonder.”
Griphoc slowly walked toward the center of the training hall.
From there, with the extended reach granted by Dremore Swordsmanship, his Aura Blade could strike anywhere in the room.
In other words, Ex had nowhere left to run.
Completely relaxed now, Griphoc said,
“I’ll admit that, for a mage, you did well to push me this far. So I’ll give you one final chance to earn my mercy.”
“Wow, I knew you’d say something like that. What is it?”
“Who’s the traitor?”
That question had never stopped bothering Griphoc.
The Sword Gang had fractured beyond repair.
And yet the traitor had still never been identified.
Everyone simply accused everyone else, cursing and denouncing one another as traitors.
If they wanted any hope of restoring a center of authority, they had to uncover the traitor’s identity.
“Whoever is backing you can’t be happy with the current situation either. Our final objective is already within reach, so what purpose does this division serve? Tell me who the traitor is. If you do, I’ll guarantee your life.”
“Hmm. That’s a pretty tempting offer.”
Ex walked slowly until he reached the remains of the last stone pillar.
By coincidence, what remained was just the right height to sit on and rest.
Ex used the broken pillar as a chair and looked over his battered body.
“Usually, when someone talks after hearing an offer like that, they get killed immediately afterward.”
“…I swear on my honor, before Her Highness the Imperial Princess, that I will spare your life.”
Ex glanced toward Beatrice.
As the momentum of the duel tilted further and further toward Griphoc, she had become visibly restless.
“Well, if you’re willing to swear an oath like that, I suppose I don’t have much choice.”
Ex lowered his head with a defeated sigh, and Griphoc became certain of his victory.
“Yes. I never break a promise. Now speak.”
‘I’ll turn you into a slave and make sure you suffer for the rest of your life.’
The oath he had made before Beatrice was merely that he would “spare Ex’s life.”
He had never sworn not to enslave him.
‘And it doesn’t matter if he refuses to talk.’
In that case, Griphoc could simply kill him here and force Beatrice to reveal the traitor afterward.
No matter what happened, his victory was complete.
Just as Griphoc reached that conclusion, Ex spoke again.
“Do you know the activation conditions for magic?”
The question came completely out of nowhere.
Griphoc frowned at the abrupt change in subject.
“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Magic is part of the basic curriculum, isn’t it? I’m just asking.”
“…Do you think being a martial artist means I don’t know something that basic?”
Griphoc settled into his stance and continued his explanation.
“When magic power is given form and infused with intent, it becomes magic. The most efficient structure for doing so is a magic circle.”
“As expected of a top student. Correct. Then what are the components that make up a magic circle?”
“Elemental points and mana lines. A magic circle is completed by connecting elemental points, each imbued with an elemental property, through mana lines. What exactly are you trying to do? Stall for time?”
Ex pressed a hand against one of his bleeding wounds, coating his palm and fingers in blood.
Then he used that hand to draw something on the stone pillar beneath him.
“That’s about as far as the basic curriculum goes. Once you move into advanced theory, you start distinguishing between minor magic and grand magic.”
A geometric pattern naturally took shape beneath his bloodied fingertips.
Its form was something any Academy student would instantly recognize.
“Minor magic refers to spells cast by an individual mage without relying on outside factors. Grand magic, on the other hand, uses external factors as part of the spell.”
As Ex finished explaining, his hand stopped moving.
“Like this.”
What he had drawn was a magic circle.
More specifically, an activation circle for grand magic.
KIIIIIIIIING-!!
Blue light shot out from the stone pillar in both directions.
Its path followed mana lines drawn in Ex’s blood.
The light traveled from pillar to pillar.
In a matter of seconds, the bloody mana lines formed one enormous circle.
“What is this…?!”
Griphoc stared in shock.
He was standing at the very center of a grand spell.
It was already too late to escape.
“This is impossible! A spell on this scale would require an equally massive source of magic power! Where could you possibly have gotten…?!”
Then Griphoc remembered.
Every stone pillar had contained Mana Potions.
“But those should’ve been consumed by the explosion spells…!”
“Why do you think the pillars were two meters tall?”
“…! Don’t tell me you filled the entire pillars with Mana Potions…!”
Ex stepped backward with a smile.
“Correct.”
Tier 4 fire-attribute combat grand magic.
Flame Buster.
The grand spell activated.
“You worthless bastaaaaaard-!!!!!”
Griphoc immediately swung his sword at Ex’s neck.
But the magic activated faster.
The stone pillars serving as elemental points and the bloody mana lines connecting them all flashed blue at once.
Then explosive power erupted across the entire area.
All the mana in the vicinity became fuel for a single detonation, erupting violently and crushing everything within its target zone.
It was, in the truest sense, a massive explosion.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM-!!!
‘Now…!’
The instant the explosion erupted, Ex charged in.
He drew one short breath.
Then held it.
Cutting off his breathing, he forced every remaining scrap of strength into his body.
He lowered himself and shot forward, almost skimming across the ground.
Dust and violent winds swallowed his vision, but he had only one target.
The long, seemingly impossible distance between them disappeared in an instant.
Ex planted his feet and raised his sword to strike.
At that exact moment…
“DIEEEE-!!!”
Griphoc, driven by nothing but rage and sheer obsession, emerged from the dust and brought his greatsword down.
In that brief instant before the explosion struck, he had managed to wrap himself in Aura Armor and barely survive the blast.
His entire body was mangled, and he looked as though standing upright should have been impossible.
Yet he remained on his feet and swung his sword down.
“HAAAAAAAAAAAH-!!!!!”
Ex unleashed a battle cry of his own.
This clash would be decided by whoever completed their strike first.
Whichever man’s will faltered first would break.
Both of them committed everything they had.
Both poured every last ounce of strength into the exchange.
Griphoc had decided to wager everything on this single blow as well.
Of course, in Ex’s case, even that was a lie.
“Watch your head.”
“ANOTHER LIE!!!”
Griphoc sensed three aura swords flying toward the back and sides of his head.
As expected, they were fast.
Even under normal circumstances, detecting and dodging them would have been close.
In this situation, avoiding them was completely impossible.
Those White Light Swords would reach his head before he could finish bringing down his own blade.
But.
“I ALREADY KNOW YOU ALWAYS AIM FOR THE HEAD!!”
Whether those things were illusions or real didn’t matter.
All he had to do was block them.
Griphoc released the Aura Armor covering every part of his body except his head.
Then he concentrated the entirety of his Aura Armor around the back of his skull and his temples.
‘Only three swords! I’m ready for them!’
Their blades descended toward one another.
CLAAAAANG-!!
The three White Light Swords aimed at Griphoc’s head failed to penetrate the Aura Armor and ricocheted away.
CRAAAAASH-!!
Ex’s sword collided with Griphoc’s.
The strength behind a 5-Star martial artist’s blade was vastly superior to that of Ex, who had only just reached 4-Star.
Ex’s sword was overwhelmed and knocked aside.
His upper body was left completely exposed.
Griphoc’s sword did not stop.
It continued its descent, ready to end Ex’s life once and for all.
『One Truth (S) activated!
Required Points: 5,000』
That was what should have happened.
“I wasn’t lying.”
Something that should not have existed shot past the side of Ex’s head.
White aura, blazing with pure light.
A fourth White Light Sword.
‘A fourth…?’
The White Light Sword was faster than Griphoc’s confusion.
THAAAAANG-!!!
It slammed directly into Griphoc’s forehead.
“Kh… Hrk…”
He hadn’t protected his forehead with Aura Armor.
The impact was far too powerful to ignore, rattling his brain inside his skull.
His sword path wavered, lost its direction, and carved uselessly through empty space.
And once again.
“I’m not the kind of person who lets an opportunity slip away.”
Ex’s sword swept across Griphoc’s body.
“So I’ll be taking that executive position.”
The duel was decided.
–TL Notes–
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