Let's Die Together
A lightning-fast thrust came screaming in.
Swaaaaaash—!
The air tore. Space itself seemed to buckle. The tip of the blade was locked on Leon's throat.
"…!"
Startled by the sudden shift in Billy's sword, Leon twisted his body in a frantic scramble. He bent his right knee, rotated his hips, and shoved his shoulder forward.
Screeeeech!
The shriek of metal rending metal. Billy's blade scraped across the top of Leon's pauldron and skidded past. Using his armor itself as a last-second deflection, Leon barely kept his neck from being skewered like meat on a spit.
The ruined pauldron dangled, then clattered off his shoulder. Its usefulness spent.
Thud-thud-thud!
Billy recovered his sword and his feet moved with liquid agility—speed that nearly matched the Heavenly Spirit Steps. In a single breath he seized the low ground, and a barrage of impossibly light, impossibly quick cuts began to rain down on Leon.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
As if testing the absolute limits of velocity, dozens of exchanges flashed past in the span of a few breaths. Block and counter. Deflect and counter. Counter the counter. Counter that counter again. At a speed the eye could barely track, the two of them wove a ferocious web of feints and answers.
The fight had become a pure duel of swift swords.
Meeting that pace, Leon unleashed the fastest attack he could throw.
Jecheon Sword Style, First Form: Yeomyeong.
Billy's blue eyes were flooded for an instant by the light of a brilliant sunset. Guided by raw instinct and preternatural intuition, he leaned his waist back. The arc of sword-light carved a crescent just in front of his face—
Slashhh!
A late spray of blood fanned out through the air. The Heaven-Shattering Sword had cut through Billy's leather breastplate and into his chest. A fraction slower on the dodge, and it would have been his entire upper body that came off.
Fast, Billy thought, a silent note of admiration.
"…"
Leon was just as stunned.
He doesn't block it—he dodges?
The arm that had delivered the cut still tingled. That strike had been on a completely different level from the demonstration he'd given Jeniel a few hours earlier. That one had been for show—he'd used less than a quarter of his real speed. This time he had poured everything into it, drawing the blade at the absolute maximum velocity he could produce. Even if Billy blocked, the rebound was meant to open a gap. Timing, trajectory, the blind spot in his vision—every piece had been perfect.
And Billy had simply leaned his waist back and slipped free as if it were nothing.
He hadn't reacted after seeing it. He had already been moving. He hadn't even raised his sword to parry—he'd chosen the perfect option of pure evasion.
A difficult opponent. No question.
Leon licked his lips without realizing it.
"Puhah."
And he laughed. Right up until the fight started he hadn't wanted this—but damn if it wasn't fun. Thrilling. Exhilarating. This moment was genuinely entertaining. Pouring out everything you had against an equal. How could any warrior not find joy in that?
The tip of Leon's sword began to quiver faintly.
Jecheon Sword Style, Second Form—Variation: Baegunyeongcheon.
Phantom blades erupted in an instant. The age of pure speed was over; Leon was changing the game.
Billy's sword began to thrash in answer, tracing brilliant arcs that erased the oncoming blue clouds one by one.
Jecheon Sword Style, Second Form—Variation: Cheonunjincheon.
This time, a thousand. A new sequence Leon had forged while Billy was still dealing with the first hundred.
"…"
Billy's eyes sank deep. An optical illusion bloomed—his blade seeming to multiply like a kaleidoscope.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
Mana around them churned into a mad torrent. Like moths hurling themselves into flame, the clouds withered and died before Billy's sword.
"Take this too, you bastard! Hrrraaah!"
Madness blazing in his eyes, Leon roared out a battle cry.
Jecheon Sword Style, Second Form: Manunbicheon.
Whoooooosh!!
Blue light exploded exponentially, wrapping Billy in a storm of ten thousand clouds.
"…"
Billy's brow lifted a fraction. The wind pressure flung his golden hair back, laying bare a strikingly handsome face. A faint murmur slipped through slightly parted lips.
"All of this is nothing but a trick of the eyes."
So he closed them. And opened his sense of ki.
The world he perceived transformed. Grain. Points. Gaps. Intervals. All of it became so clear he could almost take it in his hands. What remained was simple: swing the sword along the path already drawn.
Shhhk— shhk! Shk!
Calmly. Without haste. With perfect composure, Billy's blade carved Leon's clouds into chunks. Not one by one—by the hundreds, by the thousands. He wasn't merely receiving the technique. He was dismantling it. Disassembling the form itself.
Leon saw it and shouted.
"You fucking bastard!"
A goddamn talent freak!
Leon understood at once. Billy had invented that countermeasure on the spot. Was that even possible? The talent was absurd. Unfair.
Slash! Slash! Slaaash!
Before long Billy had shredded most of the clouds. Watching it happen, Leon felt the alarm bells in his skull start to ring. Something felt wrong. They were fighting the same fight—yet only his opponent seemed to be getting stronger…
Then it happened.
Gooooooooh!
A colossal surge of power erupted from Billy's sword. Like an exploding volcano. Like a flooding tidal wave. His sword aura burst free and swelled violently outward.
Gooooooooh!
"…"
The eyes of the boy holding that sword had gone slightly unfocused. And they were growing more and more hazy, more vacant.
"…!!!"
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
A dizzying alarm like a dawn bell hammered through Leon's skull.
That bastard… is evolving!
He'd read it in the novel more than once—Billy gaining enlightenment mid-battle and ascending to a higher realm. Leon felt it. He was certain. This was that moment. Anyone could see he was about to plunge into a state of no-self.
Crazy.
Seeing it with his own eyes sent a cold shiver down his spine. It was like watching a monster evolve. No—it was exactly that. The process of becoming a monster.
Absolutely not.
Leon was sure of one thing: if he let this continue, he had zero chance of winning. He had to end it now. This was the only window.
He decided to play the trump card he'd been saving for a last resort.
Crack!
Leon kicked off the ground and launched himself forward.
Shhhhhk!
He cut through the air and closed the distance to Billy. The instant Leon entered range, Billy's sword moved on pure reflex and smashed into him.
Clang!
The two blades locked together as if magnetized. Leon shoved with his arm as if to force the bind—then suddenly released all strength from his grip.
Slip.
He let the falling sword trail behind him and dove straight into Billy's guard. Leon-style dirty trick: discard the sword. It bought him one more step of distance.
Two steps left.
Shhhk!
The redirected blade came for his throat. Leon triggered the mana barrier in the bracelet he'd been hoarding.
Wooooom!
A blue shield bloomed around his body.
Crunch— crack!
The sword seemed to lose a fraction of force against the sudden curtain—then shattered it almost at once. But that brief instant was enough for Leon to take another step.
One step left.
Now Billy and Leon stood close enough to touch with an outstretched hand.
"…"
In the depths of his hyper-focused state, Billy showed no surprise. In his world, only the sword remained. Mechanically, he drove a powerful thrust straight at the center of Leon's body.
If I just weather this—!
Leon had already predicted it. Both arms were out. His gauntleted hands snared Billy's blade. He poured every ounce of grip strength he had into them.
Grrrrrind!
But Billy's sword overcame the resistance and kept driving forward. The tip passed the front left hand, then the rear right hand, and shoved all the way to Leon's chest.
Grrrrrind—
Crack!
A sickening rupture. The sound of Leon's breastplate giving way over his solar plexus. But it didn't pierce the flesh. Only a sharp, stinging pain remained.
Leon shoved the sword aside, took that final step, and—
Wham!
—threw himself into Billy like a tackle, wrapping him in a brutal embrace. Hooking a leg behind him to wreck his balance was just a bonus. Their bodies tangled and crashed to the ground.
"Let's die together, you bastard!"
Leon's eyes burned red. His mouth split wide in a manic grin.
Wheeeeeee!
Light began to rise from inside his coat. Blue radiance.
"…!"
Whether he finally understood what was about to happen, Billy's eyes went round. The unfocused pupils snapped back into clarity. He immediately used arms, fists, elbows—
Thud! Crunch! Crack! Thump, thump!
—pounding, striking, hammering the leech clamped onto him. But—
"Kyahahahahaha!"
—against Leon's reinforced strength and every limb locked at full power, he couldn't break free.
And then—
KRAAAAAAAAAANG—!!!
All four mana bombs nestled against Leon's chest detonated at once. The blast and the shockwave swallowed the battlefield whole.
…And so.
Billy and Leon. Leon and Billy. The century's duel between two first-year cadets ended in a glorious mutual explosion.