Growth
"No need to be so scared. This is only a test to gauge your skill. I'll stick strictly to defense and pressure."
"And if I fail to stop that pressure, you'll stop?"
"No."
The blunt refusal drew a sigh from Jun. Still, he didn't press the complaint any further. Honestly, he'd only asked half in jest.
"Hoo~."
Jun raised both fists to his chin and exhaled lightly, dialing the tension running through his body down to a manageable level. Next he checked the heat of his Aura Core and the quiet presence of aura circulating through every limb, then made his final preparations before the charge.
A low hum rose as his Magic Core scattered mana — mana dyed in his own color — into the air around him. With his space specialization half-ascended into a super-ability, the surrounding space itself became his eyes and ears.
Skill Activation
His Psychic Core pushed his brain into extreme overdrive. The flood of information pouring in through space was processed in an instant, and with processing power still to spare, the world around him began to crawl.
A slowed world. An accelerated mind.
Inside that stretched moment, Jun issued commands to his arms and legs.
Move. Now.
Whoosh!
Limbs that had felt laggy and sluggish only moments before cut through the air exactly as he willed them. His leg, loaded with power, stamped a driving step into the ground. The reaction force shoved his body forward hard, and Jun didn't fight it — he rode it, rocketing straight ahead like a loosed arrow.
Where do I aim?
No matter how carefully he looked, he couldn't find an opening. A few gaps seemed to present themselves, but each was a cunningly laid trap. Had he not been examining them with accelerated thought, he would have walked right into one without realizing.
If the front is a no-go…
Then take the back.
Jun immediately cast Blink toward Robin's rear. The moment his position shifted, Robin's unprotected back should have been right there — except it wasn't. Somehow Robin had already spun front to back.
"The idea's good."
Robin's left arm coiled with power, ready to lash out at any second. Jun hurriedly swayed his upper body left and right, muddying the strike point —
"But it's sloppy."
The instant the words landed, Jun dropped his torso and slipped the side kick Robin had been quietly loading with his right leg.
"You said you'd only pressure me! And why is the difficulty like this?!"
He snapped his head aside to dodge the follow-up reverse kick from Robin's left foot, then flung himself backward to open distance. That much, at least, he refused to let slide — he protested with genuine heat.
Kicks he could understand. The successive feints he absolutely could not. This was supposed to be a skill assessment! How was any of this a test?!
"Father Leonard already told me roughly how strong you are. I'm adjusting the test with that in mind, so don't complain."
"Tch!"
Jun clicked his tongue and moved again — though not by charging in blindly.
Pop!
He leapt through space and reappeared behind Robin once more. As if he'd been waiting for exactly that, Robin turned and grinned at him. Jun had expected as much, so he didn't flinch — he simply jumped through space again.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
A chain of spatial teleports. Every time Robin sensed a presence and spun around, Jun was already gone. Only the barest afterimage of a mage preparing a spell lingered to needle Robin's focus.
"This one's not ba—"
Robin was about to finish the thought when —
Pop!
— a small, coordinate-locked shield formed above his head. Jun appeared on top of it, used it as a springboard, and dropped into a diving axe kick aimed straight at Robin.
Thud!
Robin snapped both arms up and caught the kick clean. Jun hadn't expected the attack to be shut down so easily, and scrambled for his next move. The deliberation felt long; the actual time was a fraction of a second.
He pushed off the same right foot he'd used for the axe kick, flipped backward through the air, and simultaneously deployed a shield in front of himself. Robin's fist shot out like a thunderbolt and slammed into the barrier by a hair's breadth.
Crack! The shield didn't last a full second under Robin's fist before shattering into pieces.
Wait — is he actually holding back?
Even as the absurdity of it hit him, Jun kicked off the ground and dove into Robin's guard. Robin threw a one-two jab to keep him out, but Jun slipped every bit of that pressure with the bare minimum of movement.
The moment Jun thought it was finally his turn, Robin launched a front kick at a speed that made everything before it look slow. Dodging it would be razor-thin.
What do I do?
Fall back safely? Or risk it and slip past by a whisker?
While Jun deliberated, his body — spooked by the crushing pressure rolling off Robin's kick — tried to retreat on its own. Unfortunately for that body, its owner made the opposite call.
I keep driving in.
If he let this chance go, there was no telling when he'd next get into striking range. Jun ruthlessly crushed his body's survival thrashing. Whether it was a backlash or whether some part of him had flinched unconsciously too, his limbs refused to obey.
Robin's front kick closed in.
Move.
Jun clenched his teeth and pictured it — himself slipping past that kick. Then he triggered the skill that would drag that image into reality.
Realize
A sharp, ringing hum as the Psychic Core issued its command. The Aura Core, receiving that order, ramped its output to the absolute limit. The Magic Core climbed with it, bracing the Aura Core from behind. Jun's body, reinforced beyond anything he'd managed before —
Crack! Crackle!
— was pushed one stage further by the vivid blue bioelectric current erupting from his flesh. His eyes flooded with a clear, lightning-bright azure.
Dodge.
The body that had been ignoring him started moving to his will again. Through space, every one of Robin's motions came through in crystalline detail. The vague image in his head solidified. He dropped his torso, twisted, shifted his legs. He controlled every movement through space, driving it as close as possible to the picture in his mind.
And then —
"What—!"
— Robin's unprotected gut filled both of Jun's eyes.
That's it, our Junie! Land one on him!
That was the plan. His right fist clenched tight on the strength of that imaginary cheer, and he poured even more power into it. Crackle! Blue current coiled naturally around the knuckles. The sound rising from it — like a thousand birds crying at once — tore a shout from Jun before he could stop himself.
"Chidor—!"
Whoosh! Thud!
A clean lightning punch. The impact, though, felt terrible — like he'd just driven his fist into solid rock.
"Nngh…"
Robin made a pained sound. So the hit hadn't been completely useless.
Now what?
Follow up? Or fall back and prepare for the counter?
Jun spotted the fine tremor running through Robin's frame and decided on the spot: more hits. When an enemy was stunned, you poured on the damage. That was the rule.
Thud-thud-thud!
A short, chopped flurry. Robin's body jerked visibly with each blow — and still the impact felt wrong. Had the man used some Iron Body technique straight out of One Piece?
Strikes are pointless.
Then fry him properly with current. Jun set both hands against Robin's stomach, exhaled, and started to ramp the voltage —
Flinch! Thud!
— and before he could so much as shift his weight, a fist cracked into the back of his skull and drove his face into the dirt.
"Oof. That looked like it hurt."
"You should've known when to stop. Moderation."
"…You started it, mister. No — Instructor. You didn't do 'moderation' first."
Fortuna shot a glare at the growling, clearly irritated Robin, then went to Jun — who still hadn't lifted his face, either knocked out or close to it — and poured healing into him. Robin snorted at the sight. The one who actually needed treatment right now was him, not the kid.
Monster brat.
Robin rubbed his still-tingling abs and looked down at the collapsed Jun with a thoroughly unsettled expression. The boy's judgment, reaction speed, and physical ability had all blown past what Robin had imagined — and that imagination had already been jacked way up by Leonard's glowing praise.
The reaction speed in particular went beyond surprise into pure shock. The finishing blow that had knocked the kid out had been as fast as Robin could throw. And the boy had still reacted to it. He hadn't managed to move his body in time, but the reaction itself was unmistakable. If his body had answered that call…
"Monster brat."
The half-formed picture of that scene stung Robin's pride enough that the assessment finally left his mouth. Fortuna fixed him with a look that clearly said, Is that really something you say about a child?
Robin felt deeply wronged. Anyone who could picture a ten-year-old brat slipping a full-power strike from a man who'd spent decades adventuring through labyrinths would have reacted the same way.
So how do I raise this monster?
He shook his head, shedding the inferiority, and started thinking through how to train Jun. What he didn't notice was the smile on his own face — thicker and more genuine than it had been in a very long time.