A Gentleman's Revenge (3)
A Gentleman's Revenge (3)
- Shhring...
The sharp resonance of metal tapped against bone. The naturally drawn blade glinted, drinking in the light. Lee Ha-yul let the sword droop just shy of the floor.
It was a seemingly defenseless posture. His head and upper body were wide open. Attacking that spot would likely give the attacker a decisive edge in speed.
'I don't think so.'
Yoo Se-i quickly dismissed the easy logic. Standing opposite him, Yoo Se-i steadied his gaze, feeling the weight of the sword in his grip.
To the eye, Ha-yul looked riddled with weaknesses. But Yoo Se-i's accumulated experience and his searing intuition denied it fiercely.
He didn't even need to rely on reasoning.
The murderous intent alone, which seemed to flay his entire body just by feeling it, was enough to shut down such thoughts entirely.
'This is vicious.'
Around Lee Ha-yul, formless slashes seemed to rage, as if ready to dice everything in their path. Just the feeling of stepping into that space made Yoo Se-i's body throb with a sense of crisis, as if he'd be split into dozens of pieces in an instant.
Lee Ha-yul, holding his sword in a reverse grip, seemed like a completely different person from before.
It was only his aura that had changed, yet his harmless impression suddenly felt like that of a monster who had roamed battlefields for decades.
It was a massive transformation. Could a person really be perceived so differently by their mere presence? Yoo Se-i inwardly marveled as he settled into his stance.
[The first match of the 2nd semester midterm evaluation, Combat Major practical, will now begin. Countdown. 10...]
[9... 8... 7...]
A voice echoed from the ceiling. He steadied his sword as he registered the numbers ticking down.
'Common sense suggests that the ferocity won't be limited to just his presence.'
Presence, by nature, is something that radiates from one's true substance. A hollow shell with only a flashy exterior couldn't produce this feeling.
The last time Yoo Se-i had witnessed Lee Ha-yul's skill with his own eyes was during the first semester tournament.
He had been astounded by the incredible growth back then, but given the unbelievable news he'd heard since, Ha-yul must have once again achieved unimaginable progress.
'I'll respond with my full strength.'
Just from his presence alone, this wasn't an opponent he could afford to underestimate. Rather, this was someone he needed to clash against at full force just to pry open the slightest chance of victory.
[3... 2... 1...]
Yoo Se-i roused the mana circulating through his body. He controlled his body, activated through a Body Reinforcement Technique, ready to instantly respond to any attack.
And then.
[Match start.]
Without the slightest trace, he was suddenly faced with a sword tip thrust right before his eyes.
"...!"
Its chilling sharpness knocked against his eyes. His breath scattered through his clenched teeth. Yoo Se-i instinctively swung his sword upward.
- Boom!
A heavy impact traveled up his arm and rang through his head. His hand throbbed. The force of parrying the attack pushed him far back. Yoo Se-i gnashed his teeth and planted both legs on the ground.
Distance had opened up with a single blow. There was no pursuit. Lee Ha-yul, who had appeared in front of Yoo Se-i like a ghost, lowered his sword with a composed expression.
"Hoooh...!"
Only then did Yoo Se-i release the breath trapped in his lungs. His head swam from the tension pulling his nerves taut.
'I almost got finished in one blow.'
If his reaction had been just a bit slower, the sword would have pierced his eye and scrambled his brain.
'...Did I even react?'
He couldn't be sure.
Pushing his doubts aside, Yoo Se-i sharpened his focus even further. The mana pouring from his fingertips turned into aura, coiling around his blade.
Silver aura wrapped around the blade like a placid water surface. Yoo Se-i thinly coated his body in aura as well, then extended his foot forward.
The ordinary scenery stretched long and thin. The gap was closed in a single step. Then, he swung his sword. Moonlight flashed, tracing a long slash.
- Kri-gi-geek!
The attack was blocked as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Aura flickered on Lee Ha-yul's sword as well, the slash severed at once. It was similar to Yoo Se-i's, but the purity was clearly different—a pure white aura.
He had expected it to be blocked. So, without hesitation, he continued to fire off slashes.
- Clang, clang, clang! Thud!
Noise erupted between them. Their swords clashed in the middle of their respective territories. He parried the invading blade and forced his own sword into his opponent's space.
Yoo Se-i's swordsmanship prioritized linking and flow.
Rather than focusing on the power of a single strike, or the speed to take an opponent's head in one go, it was a style that parried attacks and seized the flow of battle.
It absorbed powerful blows and let lightning-fast attacks be swept along and diverted. It was meant to seize the overall flow, entangle the opponent, cut off their retreat, and finally, claim their head.
Mana lingered along the trajectory of the sword, creating a silver stream.
- Crash!
A violent roar burst out. The flow was disrupted, and the arm holding the sword shook.
Even a great typhoon begins from a small gust. But the opponent showed Yoo Se-i no mercy in letting him establish even a small flow.
Somehow, he knew exactly where to cut, severing the head of the forming flow with a single stroke.
'How?'
His eyes were closed. He'd heard Ha-yul sometimes walked around with them open, but right now, they were shut. Because of that, reading his opponent's intent through the position of his pupils was impossible.
They said he used his detection ability in daily life. Was it really possible to have such precise detection in a battle this fast-paced?
Small bubbles of doubt surfaced amidst the disrupted flow.
He understood more clearly now why the cadets who had clashed with Lee Ha-yul couldn't hide their questions.
With his eyes closed, he perceived far more than those who had theirs open.
And then, a sword wedged itself through the disrupted flow.
It was Lee Ha-yul's sword. The blade that had decisively severed his flow now slipped through the gap, continuously ripping it apart.
- Clang, clang, clang!
His occupied space was stolen. Lee Ha-yul's sword, devouring its place, suddenly thrust forth.
It was too difficult to reorganize the broken flow on the spot. Yoo Se-i took a step back.
'He's not letting me go this time.'
He had intended to retreat and regain control, but unlike before, Lee Ha-yul pursued him relentlessly.
Should he try engaging with his sword again? He hesitated for a moment, but quickly dismissed the idea.
He had been certain of it the moment their swords first crossed. When it came to pure swordsmanship, Yoo Se-i's skill was easily outclassed by several moves. Continuing to charge in with swordsmanship wasn't a wise choice.
'What about a battle of aura?'
Kri-gi-geek! The blades met.
Yoo Se-i planted his feet firmly on the ground and pushed his weight into the sword.
A violently grating metallic sound erupted as sparks and aura mixed, scattering through the air.
Yet, his opponent showed no sign of being pushed back. With his eyes still closed, Lee Ha-yul held his ground without a single tremor, as if he were a massive tree.
In the process, aura was scattered. Fragments of shattered aura fluttered through the air.
The fragments scattering outside his field of vision were Yoo Se-i's aura, containing a comparatively murky energy.
'Can't get through here either.'
It was already a known fact that Lee Ha-yul's mana was extraordinary, and the aura produced from it easily transcended ordinary power.
Even for Yoo Se-i, who had been born with mana of a special nature since childhood, being so overwhelmingly pushed back was a novel experience.
Boom! He gave a great shake of his arm, pushing himself back to create distance. Lee Ha-yul, casually flicking his sword, immediately closed the gap.
Before that happened, Yoo Se-i gripped the hilt with both hands and poured in his mana.
The aura coiling around the blade swelled massively, and from its surface, dozens of elongated aura strands shot out like branches.
"Hup!"
Planting his feet firmly on the ground, Yoo Se-i swung his arm wide. Dozens of auras protruding from the blade rained down.
It was a technique that just slightly fell within the category of an expansion ability. The aura flooding the air and flying in was sharply honed, feeling like crescent moons.
'No, considering the mental image, it really is a crescent moon.'
Thinking about how Yoo Se-i's unique ability and techniques were related to the moon, it wasn't an illusion. He must have imagined and manifested crescent moons.
Facing dozens of crescent moons slicing through the air from floor to ceiling, Lee Ha-yul, without any fear, extended his right arm.
It was the hand holding his sword. But instead of swinging the sword, he violently twisted his hand.
It wasn't a very fast motion. The sharpness of the oncoming crescent moons drew closer, slicing through the wind.
- Kri-gi-gi-geek...!
Instead, his circuits twisted. A violent pain scraped fiercely at his nerves. It was the pain of twisting too many circuits at once in a single moment.
He ignored it. A slight mistake could make his hand explode or cause mana backflow that would permanently cripple him, but he had practiced a lot.
Moreover, this was the sparring hall prepared beneath the Struggle Hall.
Fused with the pinnacle of modern technology and magic, this facility could withstand high-ranking superhumans fighting it out to a certain extent.
On top of that, since it was partially judged as belonging to the Tower of Growth, even fatal injuries could be dismissed as fiction.
Where else would he practice this if not here?
...Ariel's warning flashed through Lee Ha-yul's mind for a moment, but since regeneration here came without lasting side effects, it should be fine.
Making excuses to himself, Lee Ha-yul forcefully twisted his circuits.
- Kri-geek!
The circuits inside his arm artificially deformed, and mana flowed through them without stopping.
Originally, it would just be mana flowing, but...
'Mana Strike.'
The deformed circuits roughly formed the shape of a spell formula, and thus, magic manifested whenever mana flowed through them.
- Shwoooosh—!
From his twisted arm, slashes poured out like rain.
It was an overwhelming manifestation speed and volume that even Silent Incantation couldn't hope to match.
He somehow Harmonized it all.
He shifted the location of the manifesting magic from inside his arm to outside, and twisted the direction of the randomly pouring slashes to the front.
Literally pouring down like rain, the slashes swallowed the dozens of crescent moons.
The crescent moons, which seemed to resist briefly, were soon buried within the overwhelming volume of slashes.
But the slashes did not advance further, instead dissipating into the air.
- Shing...
"Huh..."
Seeing this right before his eyes, Yoo Se-i shrugged.
A sensation of something poking his neck. He looked down slightly to see Lee Ha-yul already standing right next to him, pressing a blade against his throat.
"What was that just now? Magic?"
Yoo Se-i asked, examining the ceiling and floor, which had been turned upside down by the slashes.
[Yes.]
[I used a bit of a shortcut, but it's technically magic.]
"A Mana Strike... I'm certain that's the lowest-grade spell. My expansion ability getting blocked by the lowest-grade magic is quite disheartening."
[Well... isn't it just that my case is weird?]
"Maybe so."
Letting out a small laugh, Yoo Se-i released his sword and raised both arms above his head.
"I lost."
[Match over.]
[Winner: Ipchun Class, Lee Ha-yul.]
The match-end announcement echoed from the ceiling. Only then did Lee Ha-yul nod and step back.
At the same time, his ferocious aura instantly dissipated, and his previous harmless impression returned.
It was hard to believe that this harmless-looking person was the same one who had mercilessly sliced through his flow moments ago.
Yoo Se-i shook his head at the startling shift in perception, which he found difficult to believe even having seen it with his own eyes.
[Good work.]
"Thanks. If you hadn't held back, it would've ended with your first attack before I could even show the evaluators anything."
[Hmm... you noticed?]
"I wasn't sure at first, but I became certain as we exchanged blows. If my skill was that outclassed, there's no way I could have cleanly avoided an attack I reacted to so late."
Shaking his head, Yoo Se-i extended his hand.
"I've wanted to get to know you for a while, but there was never a good opportunity. I'd like to get some advice on martial arts from you. Your swordsmanship, in particular... seems to share a lot of common ground with ours."
[I'd be grateful.]
Faced with a straightforward friendly request, Lee Ha-yul brightened and reached out his hand. At the same time, he thought about Yoo Se-i's words.
'A lot in common with my swordsmanship... Ah, I've copied a lot from the 2nd Iteration, so maybe that's why?'
He tilted his head for a moment but quickly found the answer.
The 2nd Iteration had visited martial sects in Japan and challenged their dojos to train his unique ability.
If the 2nd Iteration I faced in the Tower of Growth had followed the same path, it explains why traces of a similar style show up in me, who copied his techniques.
'Should I go to Japan and do some dojo challenging too?'
I'd copied a ton from the 2nd Iteration, but I still couldn't match the original.
In the end, until the very last brawl with the 2nd Iteration, I hadn't landed many decent hits.
Of course, if we fought now, the result would be quite different...
Anyway, it would be nice to visit Japan under a different identity and do some dojo challenging if I have time later.
"Why is your hand injured?"
[Ah, I slipped up a little while controlling the magic just now.]
"Hm...? It's not mana backflow, but it caused an injury deep enough to be a major cut...?"
[...That's just me being peculiar.]
"It's a dangerous technique. One wrong move and your hand could fly off."
[If you do it right, it won't.]
Lee Ha-yul brushed the blood off his hand and averted his gaze.
* * *
"Wait, me again?"
His second opponent was Aiden. He entered through the opposite door, drawing his sword with a face full of injustice.
[3... 2... 1...]
[Match start.]
"Ah, shit... Did someone rig the bracket or what?"
[Don't curse.]
- Clang!
"Gak!"
The solid shaft crashed down onto Aiden's hard head.