Chapter 17
Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: King of All Weapons (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
—I have to stop this duel.
Avalanche, the training instructor, had been feeling this way for the last ten minutes.
This duel should not be allowed to continue.
He felt it with a grave sense of urgency.
“...”
But he couldn’t.
The two students currently dueling before him were uninjured.
Far from being critically wounded, there wasn’t a single scratch on either of them.
It was, after all, a one-sided affair.
One relentlessly pressed the attack, while the other perfectly blocked the assault.
Despite the duel having gone on for quite some time, neither student’s weapon had touched the other’s body, so naturally, there were no injuries.
Ironically, from an objective standpoint, there was no room for him to interfere.
And yet, Avalanche was feeling a sense of crisis, even alarm.
The reason lay with one of the students engaged in the duel.
The student with the unfamiliar name of Han Cheon-seong.
His fierce offensive was hard to believe from a new student. From his control of distance to the way he thrust his spear, his one-sided assault showed no signs of amateurish weapon handling.
His opponent was a student everyone knew by name—the top-ranked freshman of the year, thanks to his Legendary trait.
Even against Leonhardt, whose name even I had heard, Han Cheon-seong’s assault flowed as naturally and fiercely as a river.
It was a sight that defied common sense, yet it was reality.
A student with a mere Common-grade trait was gaining the upper hand against a student with a Legendary trait. Who on earth could believe such a thing?
If someone had told me this, I would have scoffed at the absurdity.
And yet.
It was happening right before my eyes.
Clang! Clang!!
Large sparks flew from the clashing weapons as the style of his spearmanship changed once again.
Unlike before, each attack was now a powerful thrust or a wide slash, heavily weighted with force.
‘He understands the art of variation.’
At first, he seemed to be unleashing a flurry of speed-focused strikes, but now he was adjusting the tempo, occasionally breaking the flow with powerful blows like these.
For the one receiving the attacks, it was impossible to let one’s guard down; they had to remain tense.
‘And yet, his posture hasn’t faltered.’
As the duel had been a long one, both of them were clearly showing signs of exhaustion.
It would have been natural for either of them to show an opening or for their weapon handling to become sloppy, but aside from the first few exchanges at the start, the back-and-forth had been relentless.
Both of them. They were locked in a fierce struggle, neither giving an inch.
If Leonhardt was pushed back a step after parrying the spear, he would immediately advance a step forward again. And to stop him, Han Cheon-seong would once more unleash a furious onslaught to push him back.
A strange stalemate continued, like two interlocking gears.
It was… incredibly peculiar, even for an observer.
The dynamic of the duel was such that one side was attacking, and the other was purely defending.
In that case, the defending side should have been the one to crumble.
But with Leonhardt on the receiving end, the balance was maintained to a degree I would have thought impossible, allowing the duel to persist.
Clangclangclang!
Amidst the sharp, piercing metallic sounds, the sweat-drenched, blond-haired Leonhardt came into view.
Through his exhaustion, his eyes were different from how they had been at the start of the duel.
He watched the tip of the spear with the calmness of a serene lake.
His eyes never left the spearhead for a moment, his focus absolute on how to receive the assault—a composure unbefitting a student who had just enrolled.
‘He possesses a Legendary trait, yet he is not arrogant…’
The top student of this year’s entrance exam.
Leonhardt Rorient.
As befitting his Legendary trait, Sword of the Azure Sky, his swordsmanship was quite refined.
Even now, his near-perfect defense gave the spear blade no opening to touch his body.
But. That was all.
Leonhardt could not advance any further.
And so, my eyes turned to Han Cheon-seong, who was brandishing the spear from the opposite side.
As if determined not to give him a moment to breathe, the spear’s trajectory was sometimes erratic, sometimes lunging forward as fast as light.
And his exhaustion was incomparable to Leonhardt’s.
That student’s body was already at its limit.
The reason I was so tense, thinking I had to stop this duel, was all because of him.
Not only was his entire body drenched in sweat, but his breathing was also ragged.
Even his gaze had grown hazy; signs of his body crying out in distress were appearing everywhere.
And yet.
The student’s assault had not weakened in the slightest compared to the beginning.
To continue moving a body that had reached its limit meant he was exhibiting an extreme level of concentration.
‘He has the potential to reach the next level.’
That was why I couldn’t bring myself to stop the duel.
A trait’s evolution often reveals itself when one faces their limits and endures a crisis.
This student, Han Cheon-seong, was very likely standing at that crossroads. If I were to carelessly stop the duel, I would be obstructing his path forward…
For me, this duel was truly a dilemma.
I knew Han Cheon-seong’s body was at its limit, to the point where he could be in danger at any moment, but I couldn’t stop it.
Even now, he was swinging his spear in a state close to a trance.
Gulp.
I swallowed unconsciously and made up my mind.
I cannot stop this duel.
And the student himself must have been feeling it.
That his trait was on the verge of evolving, of moving forward. The exhilaration he must be feeling…
As an instructor, I could not interfere with that.
I shouldn’t stop the duel. I had to watch until a victor was decided.
Instead, I had to be fully prepared, tensed and ready to leap in at any moment to prevent any potential accidents.
The blue light enveloping the sword in Leonhardt’s hand was growing more intense with time.
Naturally, its destructive power was also increasing.
As the student named Han Cheon-seong grew, Leonhardt’s own trait began to shine even brighter.
And in an instant, a change occurred.
Claaang!!
With a deafeningly intense sound, the spear was forcefully knocked away.
As Leonhardt, seemingly exerting his full power, skillfully deflected the spearhead, the student named Han Cheon-seong staggered back two steps.
‘It’s over.’
Immediately, I sensed the end of the duel.
I tensed, ready to spring forward, but.
“...!”
Incredibly, though he had staggered greatly, the student named Han Cheon-seong did not let go of his spear.
Swoosh!
As if to forcibly dissipate the powerful force, he spun sharply on the ground and righted his spear. At the same time, he thrust it forward again.
In fact, he began to stab with his spear even more frantically than before.
“Ha.”
Leonhardt, who had been about to close the distance in a single breath, had no choice but to stop in his tracks and receive the onslaught.
Clangclangclang!
A rapid flurry of attacks, different from before. Sparks flew from the sword that met them, and the duel refused to end.
A sound of pure admiration escaped my lips without me realizing it.
‘I’ll have to chalk it up to natural talent…’
It was astonishing.
It wasn’t the power of a trait.
That split-second improvisation—righting his body and sweeping the ground to bleed off the force before thrusting his spear again.
It couldn’t possibly be a movement that a Common level 3 trait could account for.
Yet that single move had prevented the end of this duel.
He had cut off the moment that would have led to defeat and once again seized the offensive advantage.
If he had hesitated for even a moment after being pushed back so hard, or if he had been unskilled in dissipating the force, Leonhardt would have exploited the opening and ended the duel.
“...He’s insane.”
“How is he still able to swing that spear?”
“That can’t be a Common trait, can it?”
As I heard the various comments from the students who had gathered one by one, a smile unknowingly played on my lips.
There were rumors that this year’s freshmen were more exceptional than last year’s.
But to feel it on the very day of the entrance ceremony…
Seeing Leonhardt, who had entered as the top student among all the outstanding freshmen, and this student, Han Cheon-seong, who was his equal, it seemed a great storm was about to brew.
‘Spearmanship.’
A Common trait was certainly not an outstanding power.
Even if they managed to enroll, most of them would finish their academy life in D-Class—such a trivial trait.
And yet this student, who possessed a trait that most now gave up on even trying to enroll with, was shining so brightly.
Could he have understood his trait to such a degree in such a short time?
‘Should I call this effort?’
As that thought crossed my mind, I was suddenly reminded of one of the academy’s instructors.
An instructor famous for her incredible feats on the battlefield, her crimson hair flying like a blazing flame.
‘Kalli Ishtar.’
I recalled the words she had emphasized during our encounters over the past few days.
—Effort never betrays you.
In truth, because Kalli’s own trait was so superior, everyone took her words as a joke.
But now, I understood them completely.
A student who proved those words through action.
Fighting a duel with a Common trait against a Legendary student and holding his ground. No, he had not once been on the defensive.
Instead, he was showing that he was in a superior position, displaying the pinnacle of what effort could achieve.
Ssk.
Even as I was lost in thought, I did not unclench my left fist.
It had actually been quite some time since the blue light, the precursor to my trait’s manifestation, had settled in my hand. And it seemed I wouldn’t be able to relax this tension for a while yet.
The two students dueling now were incredible.
While the student named Han Cheon-seong was showing a performance that surpassed his Common trait, it didn’t mean his opponent, Leonhardt, was any less extraordinary.
With a calm and serious demeanor, he once again blocked the spear.
In doing so, he never once allowed an attack to land. More than anything, that showed the extraordinary nature of the student named Leonhardt.
Focusing on defense and giving no openings—that alone showed why Leonhardt was this year’s top student.
Most students become arrogant if they possess even a Unique trait. I myself had been like that in the past.
Because I was special and superior to others, I focused on making a flashy impact with offense.
It was only after months and being deployed in actual combat that I realized the importance of defense. Yet Leonhardt already understood it now.
“Excellent.”
Watching the two students, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
And soon, gasps of admiration erupted from among the students.
“...Insane.”
“No way!?”
“That light is…”
Their admiration was not directed at Leonhardt.
It was because a faint blue light was now lingering on Han Cheon-seong’s body.
It was a sign.
The blessed light that appears just before a trait evolves and enters the next level.
‘He might actually do it.’
On the day of the entrance ceremony, the unprecedented feat of achieving trait level 4.
That student, Han Cheon-seong, was on the very brink of it.