Chapter 223
Chapter 223
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 223
Chapter Title: Practice Confrontation
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Krash and Charlotte teamed up against the rest of the Lion Squad.
This absurd training session proposed by Delron was accepted all too easily.
"Approved."
Because Charlotte had given her consent.
In the Lion Squad, Charlotte's word was as good as law.
So no one raised any objections.
Besides, the Lion Squad was full of hot-blooded types by nature.
Most of them had gathered precisely because of Charlotte's or Krash's overwhelming strength.
They were no exception—they itched for a straight-up clash with Krash and Charlotte too.
And so, excluding the literature club members, this impromptu training kicked off.
The rules were simple.
Charlotte and Krash won by descending the mountain unscathed.
The rest of the Lion Squad won by stopping them before sunset.
Direct combat was, of course, fair game.
"Roughly six hours until sundown."
As they listened to Delron's briefing, the Lion Squad members scattered in a flash.
They planned to claim their positions thirty minutes before Krash and Charlotte even budged.
"We'll be off, then."
The literature club folks started down a different path, not wanting to get caught up in the mess.
"You—don't go getting hurt for nothing."
Astria headed down with them.
Watching them go, Krash suddenly found himself alone with Charlotte.
In the slightly awkward silence,
Krash broke the ice first.
"Senior Delron's pretty reckless himself, huh."
His opener drew a light smile to Charlotte's lips.
"That's why I keep him around. He tags along no matter what crazy stunt I pull."
She knew full well her antics could be reckless at times.
Which was why she was so pleased with how Delron handled things.
After all, he was always the one cleaning up after her escapades.
'That guy's something else.'
He was utterly devoted to Charlotte.
Case in point: when she went down with the World Erosion Sword Lord in mutual destruction, he'd even tried to follow her into death.
Whatever else, his loyalty to her was among the fiercest anywhere.
"How are your second-year pals doing?"
Just like that, Charlotte asked about the second-years.
She usually showed zero interest in anyone but Krash.
So she knew next to nothing about them beyond his friends and acquaintances.
"Plenty of impressive ones."
Back in the day, guys he'd never even stand shoulder-to-shoulder with—ones he'd have to crane his neck to look up at.
But now...
"They're weaker than me."
Krash stood ahead of them all.
Right at the front of the pack.
Charlotte didn't wipe the smile from her face.
"Is that so? Good for you."
Her gaze drifted down the mountainside.
For once, her usually lifeless eyes sparked with vitality.
"Same here."
No one in the first-years could match her.
That arrogance was Charlotte in a nutshell.
And the scary part? It was all true.
"So just strolling down the mountain would be no fun, right?"
Charlotte turned to Krash.
Her face wore that familiar mischievous glint she got before stirring up trouble.
Like that time at Staron's Star Sanctuary, when she'd thrown on some skimpy clothes on purpose, then beat the tar out of every creep throwing leers her way.
It was exactly that expression.
"Since it's just the two of us..."
She crooked two fingers.
"We oughta make it decisive."
Before heading down, smash them all to pieces.
That was her declaration.
'We're supposed to be the prey here.'
But Charlotte had no intention of playing hunted.
She was a born hunter, after all.
Krash let out a short breath as he watched her turn hunter even in a training exercise.
Well, it was so Charlotte he had nothing to say.
"Sounds good."
And in moments like these, they were dead ringers as siblings.
Krash had zero plans to play prey either.
If they were descending this mountain, they'd crumble the entire Lion Squad first.
It had to be that thorough—for the squad's sake too.
Identical smiles crept across Krash and Charlotte's faces.
Lion Squad hunt.
Let it begin.
The Lion Squad members.
Scattered through the woods, they waited for Charlotte and Krash to make their move.
Their positions naturally clustered by usual cliques.
Especially stark was the divide between first- and second-years.
Ironically, Charlotte and Krash were the root cause.
The first-years orbited Charlotte.
The second-years, Krash.
Both so ridiculously skilled they'd become the cores of their cohorts.
The result? An unbridgeable wall between years.
Different stars to follow made mingling tough.
Even within the same squad, the senior-junior gap felt wider than in others.
As everyone tensed, waiting for Charlotte and Krash to stir...
"Do we even stand a chance?"
Karandis spoke up first.
The ninth princess of the Posseus Kingdom, Karandis Posseus.
Worry etched her face.
Aslan, Haring, and the other second-years turned her way.
"A chance at what?"
"Winning, obviously."
Karandis answered Aslan's question with a sour look.
Aslan didn't deny it.
He knew Krash's strength all too well.
Krash was an overwhelming freak among second-years.
His raw firepower outdid even magic in a straight shootout, and that was just the start of his absurd prowess.
"But Krash isn't invincible."
He had a chronic flaw.
His power was so immense it overloaded his body.
He pulled every trick to mitigate it.
But he was still a glass cannon at heart.
"The real question is whether we can force him to that point."
Even without going all-out, few second-years could overpower him physically.
Dragging out his full strength was the key.
"Krash alone, maybe. But Charlotte's there too."
Karandis shuddered at the thought.
Her intense reaction puzzled Aslan a bit.
He'd heard plenty that Charlotte was a monster.
Not for nothing did she hold the Sword Saint title solo at their age.
Still, rumors aside, Aslan had never seen her fight.
He knew the feats, the rep... but not the scale.
"Is she that bad?"
"You've never seen Charlotte fight, have you, Aslan?"
The other second-years perked up too.
They were in the same boat.
Only the Staron kids went pale.
"She's straight-up cheating. Could you block a storm raging across the entire continent?"
"No way."
Maybe the top-ranked Magic Emperor among the Heavenly Four.
But Aslan couldn't claim he could.
"Exactly. Charlotte's the same. She's not something humans can stop."
Human calamity.
That was how Karandis saw her.
Everywhere she swept through ended in ruins.
No one could stand in her way.
"She's the gem left after forging talent after talent into shining brilliance. If Krash is an overwhelming mountain of rock, Charlotte's a razor-sharp diamond."
She looked like she wanted no part of facing her.
That was when it happened.
Click—
A heel strike echoed, chilling voices to silence in an instant.
The second-years froze solid.
The pressure from that approaching presence, far off in the woods, was on another level.
As if the world itself had halted.
Even the insects fell silent, the wind holding its breath.
Click—
Another heel strike rang out.
Only then did the world resume.
Their faces drained white in that instant.
Between shadowed trees, dark blue hair gleamed.
"Thanks for thinking so highly of my brother and me."
Blue eyes glowed coldly beneath that dark blue hair.
In that moment, they all understood.
The Valheim family was a den of utter monstrosities.
"But I'm not going easy."
Her lips curled.
Charlotte vanished.
"Everyone, brace!"
Haring—who'd tangled with the most powerhouses—yelled just as
a sword hurtled toward her face. She swallowed hard.
The aura swirling the blade warped space itself.
This was mid-Master... no, upper-Master at least.
At just sixteen.
'Monster.'
Haring's honest assessment hit just as the blade pierced her guard—
her face already in its path.
"Sensing types first."
Crack!
The impact boomed through the forest, shockwave tumbling second-years.
Charlotte's gaze fixed on her blade's tip.
There, Haring had barely parried with a dagger.
Grind—
She'd swallowed a poison pill sometime; vicious purple energy leaked from her body.
At the same instant, Aslan unleashed flame magic from behind Charlotte.
'Impressive.'
Krash was right about their talent.
Even with the poison boost, blocking her ambush?
Sensing her killing intent first, reacting top-tier.
Talented kids aplenty.
Too bad that talent...
Whish!
"Guh?!"
Haring's dagger was yanked toward Charlotte's sword like a magnet; she stifled a scream.
Her wrist twisted unnaturally with it.
She'd triggered extreme body reinforcement via poison pill.
Yet Charlotte's strength overwhelmed her flesh anyway.
As Haring fumbled for her spare dagger,
her vision blurred.
"Wha..."
Haring belatedly checked herself.
From head to neck, chest, flanks.
Every vital struck.
She hadn't even registered the hits.
Her who'd dodged Nightless Castle's glow in endless dark.
Not one attack sensed.
Shatter!
Aslan's magic cracked apart.
His eyes bulged.
Charlotte was still locked in parry with Haring—yet his spell broke.
Not just that.
The second-years attempting their own ambushes? Weapons flung, bodies rolling.
With Charlotte right there by Haring.
What the hell had she done?
Aslan stared blankly, vertigo hitting,
"Aslan! Get everyone and run—now!"
Karandis's shout brought a massive wave crashing down, blanketing the woods.
Boom!!
The wave swept through—
a sword flash gleamed amid it.
Slash!
The wave split on the blade, vanishing in a blink.
Charlotte stood dry as ever, scanning around.
Karandis had bought a moment; Aslan short-range teleported the group out.
"Hmph. Friends do make the difference, huh."
Without her, second-years wiped.
But short hops wouldn't save them.
Charlotte's senses blanketed the mountain.
Boom!!
Another ferocious blast erupted elsewhere.
Black flames soared skyward; Charlotte chuckled briefly.
That side had started too.
"Bet with my little brother."
Murderous aura wafted from her like heat haze.
"Gotta go all out."
Can't lose to him, after all.