Bring Your Master

"What are you talking about?! Get back — you too!"

Ran's voice cut through the roar of the magic tool's rampage.

"This is a magic tool going berserk! It's my fault for mishandling it. You've got no reason to get caught up in this!"

"No, that's—"

"Don't worry about me! I'll find a way to get it under control, so just get out of here!"

Ah. That one stung.

Ran was a better man than I'd given him credit for. Even now, with everything falling apart around him, the first words out of his mouth were telling me to run. Considering I was the one who'd caused all this, my face burned.

Then again, this guy had come out of retirement just to administer my exam. He'd wanted to test me, sure. But underneath it all, it had been kindness. The exam itself had been an excuse to walk me through magic tools — to a monster hunter fresh from the countryside, they were still unfamiliar things. That alone made it obvious he was a decent man. And now, because of me, one of his magic tools had been completely wrecked.

I can't exactly admit I was the one responsible. But I was going to clean up my own mess.

"I'll handle this. Won't take long."

Ran shouted something else. I wasn't listening anymore. He couldn't control the magic tool. The darkness was already swallowing him.

"D-don't—"

And then it took him whole. Ran's struggling slowed, then stilled. The hand that had been thrashing went limp and sank.

It's moving.

The darkness pouring from the cursed blade compressed around him in an instant, shaping itself into armor plate by plate. Muscle twitched beneath the dark metal. So this magic tool enhanced physical ability as well. That was no ordinary piece of work. It had to be expensive. I felt a pang of guilt.

"Ran."

No answer. His life flame didn't so much as flicker. There was no consciousness left in him. He'd been completely consumed. He'd become a magic knight.

Guilt aside, I rolled my shoulders loose. If his mind was already gone...

"Guess I don't have to hold back."

I was going to take full responsibility. The moment I clenched the gauntlet on my hand, my mana surged. This would be my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠second time fighting a magic tool, after Leksan — and since my opponent was a magic tool, I intended to cut loose.

That was when something unexpected happened.

A deep rumble rolled through my bones. The mana wrapped around my body suddenly began pouring into the gauntlet I was wearing. My eyes went wide. Sudden as it was, I knew what this gauntlet was. I understood almost immediately.

Haneulseo.

The unfinished magic tool Grimer had given me. An unfinished masterpiece, built by a man who didn't even understand mana. Haneulseo had never reacted in combat. Not once. So why now? Why this moment?

A smile crept onto my face. I understood what that surge meant.

"Right. Even a magic tool's got pride when it sees a rival."

Haneulseo had been born carrying the will of Grimer's masterpiece. Unfinished or not, that will had carried through to this day. At last, a chance to go toe-to-toe with a proper magic tool. It had picked its moment well. Just like its master.

"Eat your fill."

Now that Haneulseo was finally feeding on mana, I poured it in with everything I had. And as I did, its form began to change. Until now it had been pitch-black, like a shell clapped over my hand. Now it flushed white and blue, the colors of the open sky. It clung to every joint of my fingers — countless tiny grains linking together, piece by piece.

This is...

I clenched my fist and opened it. Bare skin. So it functioned as light armor, but left the hand completely free?

I see what Grimer was going for.

A gauntlet that held the freedom of the sky. Haneulseo. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Sky Iron. True to its name. The thing Grimer had dreamed of had met my mana and become real. If he could see this, he'd be over the moon. And right now, in this moment, it was also the gauntlet that suited me best.

I clenched my fist and thrust it forward. That alone was enough. Haneulseo moved with my intent, as if it were alive. It felt like I'd grown a new limb.

"Not bad. Grimer, you really are a genius."

Now then. Time to test how tough it really was.

A heavy whoosh cut the air. Right on cue, the magic knight swung its sword with everything it had. The swing alone generated a blast of wind; the pressure was overwhelming. This was a magic tool a mage had built with serious intent. Leksan had dismissed it, but it was drawing out every last drop of its wielder's skill. Perfect for putting Haneulseo through its paces.

The magic knight tightened its grip on the blade. In that instant, the roar of the mana packed into the sword came flooding through my Third Eye.

Here it comes.

The moment I felt it, the magic knight brought its sword down in a straight, brutal arc.

A shrieking tear of metal and darkness. A slash packed with shadow came screaming toward me — a cut forged from pure mana, with more than enough force to carve a human body in two. I flattened my hand into a blade. Haneulseo sheathed itself along the edge and held the shape. Mana layered over it, and with that, it became far harder than before.

The slash was right in my face. I trusted Haneulseo and swung my hand-blade with everything I had.

A screaming clash of metal — then a boom. The slash shattered against my hand-blade. Darkness sprayed in every direction. Haneulseo vibrated on its own, dispersing the force packed into the cut.

Magnificent.

A heavy thud. Through the scattering remnants of the slash, the magic knight charged in a straight line. Its silhouette wavered, then split in two. So it could use the boot magic tool as well? And the mana I felt from both sides was identical. It had split its power with surgical precision, disguising a fake as the real thing. A trick that would've fooled a novice mage. Against someone with a Third Eye, it was meaningless.

I ignored the fake's swing and drove my hand-blade at the real magic knight.

Steel rang against steel. The magic knight's sword came on in a relentless chain of strikes, using the swordsmanship etched into Ran's body, unfiltered. The flurry never let up.

I'd planned to cut off its mana with Instant Death the moment our blades met. But the magic knight's mana core had already shifted — not in the sword, but in the heart. The magic knight itself was already a magic tool. Relocating its mana engine was well within its capabilities.

So it remembered. From a moment ago, it knew I could cut off mana.

Like Leksan, it couldn't talk — but it could learn. To sever its mana, I'd have to reach the heart. Which meant I had to put the magic knight down.

Clang. Kang. Clang. Sword and hand-blade crashed together, the ringing never stopping. There were no gaps in the swordsmanship. It had wrung even more performance out of Ran's body and accelerated. Sword strikes came from every direction, attacks so fierce they stole the breath from my lungs.

And yet... why? A smile tugged at my mouth. It had been a long time since I'd had a proper brawl. Haneulseo answered my rhythm with everything ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it had, ramping up its hardness without restraint.

If my opponent wanted to go all-out, meeting it head-on was only polite. And punching straight through that all-out assault was how I'd return the favor.

Mana seeped into every part of my body. At the same time, Haneulseo began to burn hotter and hotter, radiating heat like the sun hanging in the sky. The strongest force against darkness is light. A sun rose, carrying a fierce radiance that was darkness's opposite. My body's performance began climbing, steep and fast.

Mana can become anything. Just as the magic knight had sheathed Ran's body in armor, I seeded mana through my entire body and covered myself in it. The hand-blade, holding the sun, moved faster and faster. And the power packed into that edge began to exceed human limits.

A thunderous impact. The magic knight staggered back from the clash with my hand-blade, losing the contest of strength, if only for an instant. The sunlight held in Haneulseo blazed fiercely. For a magic knight that commanded darkness, its power was being carved away with every exchange.

But it had no intention of folding. Instead, it burned every last scrap of remaining mana to push its physical performance even higher.

Boom. Crash. Explosions of sound erupted between us. Sword and hand-blade crossed without pause, each collision sending a shockwave outward. I slipped a sword aimed at my head and stepped into its guard, swinging ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the hand-blade. The magic knight anticipated it, twisting the blade's path with stubborn precision to block. What unfolded between us was a fight no human body should have been capable of.

A sickening crunch. But the magic knight had forgotten one crucial fact. Unlike me, who possessed mana as a source, the magic knight was, in the end, just a magic tool. Its mana was not infinite.

A grinding crack. The blue-black darkness wrapping the sword began to split. Even the finest blade will crack if you keep swinging it against a mountain of stone.

I concentrated mana into Haneulseo at the tip of my hand-blade, right up to the limit. Spin joined the mana, and Haneulseo began to rotate along with the edge. A magic tool that moved freely according to my will — and so, to the very end, it reflected my intent completely.

Thank you, Grimer. This was the finest gift I could have asked for.

In this moment, granted the strongest penetrating force I had, there was nothing I couldn't break through. The nature of the mana gathered at my elbow shifted. The transformation: detonation. Pure mana as propulsion.

A deafening blast. With the explosion, my arm punched through the darkness. The magic knight swung its sword in a final, desperate thrash — their last strike as well, every remaining scrap of mana poured into it. But that last stand was swallowed by sunlight and vanished into nothing.

A crystalline shatter. Focused to a single point, a single flash meant only for destruction smashed the sword to pieces. The magic knight was a magic tool. It could not exceed its own limits. Which meant that from the very beginning, it had never had a way to beat me.

I drove my fist toward the magic knight's heart. The instant it touched, the flame of its mana snuffed out.

A colossal explosion. With its mana cut off, the magic knight's armor shattered into fragments.

A magic tool made not by a mage, but by an ordinary man. Haneulseo. This was the day that gauntlet defeated a magic tool forged by a real mage.