🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 82
Elliot used magic to put some distance between us in order to retrieve his sword.
Though it was magic, its destructive power was low.
“A fireball… even so, the mana behind it wasn’t that strong.”
Even if it had struck an ordinary person, it would probably have ended with nothing more than a slight burn on the skin.
Normally, fire-element magic was quite lethal, but Elliot had deliberately weakened it. After all, this was only a sparring match.
“Still…”
The spell might have been weak, but its trajectory had been precise. For him to pull that off even after losing balance meant his combat sense was sharp.
“I’ll have to reassess him.”
As a swordsman alone, he might not be called a prodigy. But if you considered that he was a magic swordsman—someone who could fight with both blade and magic—then Elliot was undeniably gifted. Genius, even.
It was already difficult to master one discipline; he was managing two at once.
“(As expected of an Aura Master…! To block all my attacks without moving a single step like Brother Arthur—and even dodge my spells!)”
Elliot exclaimed in genuine admiration.
Talking too much in the middle of a duel wasn’t exactly a good habit… but then again, he was still a kid.
“(Keep attacking. I’ll take them all.)”
“(I will!)”
Curious to see how far he could go, I provoked him, and Elliot charged at me with a grin.
“He’s preparing to swing his sword while chanting a spell.”
Unlike before, when he had only swung blindly, this time he was combining swordplay with magic to press me harder.
“(Here I come!)”
His attack was quick. By my standards, painfully slow, but compared to before, he had sped up.
“Haste, huh.”
An ordinary aura user might have been surprised by his sudden increase in speed. Unfortunately for him, I was not.
I guided my blade’s tip against the very point of Elliot’s sword.
Clang!
“(Huh?)”
The tip of a sword usually carried little force—too far from the wielder’s center of strength. Unless one had reached the realm of body-and-blade as one, focusing power at the tip was almost impossible.
So when our swords clashed, his blade bounced away helplessly.
“(Oh…)”
“(What… how?)”
Arthur understood and marveled, but Elliot, the one who had suffered it, was left completely confused.
I had no intention of explaining. Arthur would teach him later. For now, I simply watched Elliot.
“(Ah!)”
Catching my gaze, Elliot reset his stance and crouched low, preparing to lunge again.
“This time… planning a three-pronged strike?”
With his sword, he aimed for my lower body.
With magic, my upper body.
And finally—
“If both are blocked, he’ll blow up the ground beneath me.”
His intentions were obvious. Since I hadn’t moved even a step to block his attacks, he wanted to force me to move out of sheer stubbornness.
“(Haaah!)”
Just as I expected, Elliot swung his blade for my legs while firing magic at my torso.
“Impressive for his age, but…”
Clumsy.
I swung my sword wide, cutting down his spell while blocking his blade in the same motion.
Clang!
“(Urgh!)”
Elliot immediately poured mana into the ground, etching a magic circle beneath my feet. A trap—an explosion spell.
But—
Thunk!
“(What?!)”
I drove my sword straight into the ground, shattering the half-formed circle before it could activate. The spell unraveled into fragments.
“(Elliot! What Gunwoo just did was cut through the core of your spell! Remember what we learned in school about magic’s weak points?)”
“(Oh, right!)”
Arthur, who was acting as referee, explained to the flustered Elliot.
Wait. Referee? Are refs supposed to give advice mid-match? I knew he just wanted Elliot to learn more, but still…
“Well, fine.”
What I had done was simple: slice through the core of the magic. Since his spell had only been raw mana, dispersing it was easy. The circle on the ground hadn’t fully activated, so stabbing it at the right point caused it to fizzle.
“Really, anyone with some knowledge of magic could do the same.”
A swordsman with even basic magical study could pull it off. Some Aura Masters, lacking magical knowledge, wouldn’t be able to—but even someone weaker in aura could disrupt magic if they’d studied enough.
Of course, it still required the skill to perceive and strike a spell precisely.
Anyway.
“……”
Elliot, realizing how easily I had nullified his spells, grew more cautious. He steadied his stance, eyes sharp, waiting for an opening.
I thought about creating a false one just to see if he’d take the bait—
“(Wait!)”
A girl’s voice rang out from the stands, and the next moment she walked into the arena as if stepping through air.
“(What are you doing, Elena? This is my duel!)”
“(You were just getting beaten without doing anything.)”
It was Elena, like Elliot, of the British royal family. She casually took her place beside him.
“(And I want to spar with Gunwoo too.)”
“(What? Then schedule it later. I told you—this is my duel!)”
“(And I told you—you’re just getting thrashed.)”
The siblings immediately started bickering—not with fists, but with words.
“So this is what real siblings are like, huh.”
I couldn’t help thinking that maybe they were programmed at the DNA level to fight.
“(Ahem!)”
Someone in the stands coughed loudly enough to be heard by everyone. Both royals glanced that way, then turned their gazes back to me.
“(We’ll settle this later…)”
“(Right now isn’t the time for us to fight each other.)”
They both readied their stances. I focused on Elena.
“So she wasn’t just a polite young lady after all… was that just an act?”
And then—
“Interesting.”
Elliot was already promising as a magic swordsman, but Elena too was fascinating. Just moments ago, she had walked into the arena as though stepping through thin air.
Not aura, not magic, not psychic power.
“—A Spirit User.”
Among the many powers gifted to humanity by the Awakener system, after aura, mana, and psychic force, came spirits. And those who commanded them—Spirit Users.
“She definitely commands wind spirits.”
Of course, spirits weren’t actual beings with will like in fantasy novels. Rather, Spirit Users called upon the forces and flows of nature itself as “spirits.”
[Over time, I had learned to mimic magic and aura by gathering inner energy in my lower dantian, and even psychic powers by storing it in my upper dantian.]
[But because I couldn’t perceive spirits, I could never use spirit arts.]
Even I, who had mimicked aura, magic, and psychic powers, knew little about spirits. That made this even more interesting. With Samadhi, I should now be able to perceive them.
“So that’s a spirit, huh.”
The wind that had lifted Elena into the arena—I traced its flow and smiled faintly. I roughly understood how it had supported her.
Which meant—
“If I gather enough data and analyze it, I could mimic spirit arts too.”
I looked at Elena, hoping she would actively use her spirit arts during this duel. I wanted to grow stronger by studying them.
“(I’ll support you. Move when I give the signal.)”
“(Tch. I don’t need it.)”
“(Seriously! Fine, but don’t regret it later—just take it when I give it!)”
Elena’s spirit power flared faintly around Elliot.
“…A buff through spirit arts?”
It seemed to speed him up, but if that was all, it was disappointing. She had burned too much energy for such a small effect. Inefficient. Better for Elliot to just cast Haste on himself with magic.
“(Tch. I don’t like this!)”
Elliot charged at me, sword flashing toward my vitals.
Clang!
I blocked it easily, but he pressed on, swinging again and again for other weak points.
Clang! Clang!
His relentless strikes surprised me—because I recognized them.
Arthur’s sword style. Zedel Style, Chapter 5: Monster Hunt.
A style Arthur had once used in Australia to hunt monsters. Suited more for slaying beasts than fighting humans.
Meaning—Arthur must have taught Elliot.
“Not ideal for a sparring match, but…”
Just as I prepared to deflect him again—
Whoosh.
“!”
A gust of wind surged from Elliot’s blade. I stepped back quickly, dodging it.
Crash!
The ground where I’d stood split as though cut by a sword.
…That wasn’t Elliot. It was the spirit’s doing. Elena had bound a spirit to his body and timed the attack for when he closed in.
I turned my gaze to her.
“(If you’re really an Aura Master, something like this shouldn’t even scratch you, right?)”
“……”
She wasn’t wrong… but something about her smug tone annoyed me.
