Chapter 208
Chapter 208
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 208
Chapter Title: Finals (3)
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Mine.
More precisely, it belonged to my family.
Yet some complete stranger was wielding it.
‘Did I… see that wrong?’
No, that couldn’t be.
He had used it for over a decade.
It would be strange not to recognize it just because its shape had changed a bit.
‘It’s… definitely it, right?’
It wasn’t anything extraordinary, but the blade rippling left and right like waves before vanishing—that was a hallmark of his family’s martial body technique.
Of course, the version Yuri used had a slightly different wave pattern from his own, but it still looked similar enough.
‘But how the hell does that guy know it?!’
As his mind reeled in confusion from those thoughts—
“Hey? That looks kinda… like mine?”
Another member of the 50th Cohort shouted in surprise upon seeing Yuri’s sword technique wrap around Gunter’s blade like a serpent.
And that was the spark.
“Huh?”
“What?!”
A majority of the 50th Cohort felt an uncanny familiarity upon recognizing Yuri’s swordsmanship and let out startled exclamations from all around.
The pinnacle of that reaction was, without a doubt, Gunter himself.
“Huhe?!”
Three claw-shaped sword strikes slashed through the air at high speed.
Even Gunter, whose mind was far from sound, leaped in shock at the sight of Yuri executing them.
“Huuhe!”
Teresia turned to Arin at the sight of him spouting incomprehensible nonsense.
It was a silent request for a translation.
Arin snatched one of Poppi’s rations and munched on it as she replied.
“That thieving bastard! …or something like that?”
Teresia gave a wry smile at the sight of Arin chewing away.
“A thieving bastard, huh…”
Honestly, it wasn’t wrong.
Watching Yuri use their family’s secret arts—the techniques they had honed for so long—even if not exactly the same, it felt like outright theft.
Teresia, who had been the first to have her “Thousand Petals” stolen, knew that feeling all too well.
The problem was that what Yuri had stolen wasn’t just one or two techniques.
“Huh?”
“T-That?!”
Teresia’s wry smile vanished as bewildered cries erupted one after another from victims scattered throughout the 50th Cohort seats.
She stared at Yuri, who was holding her own against Gunter, with utter disbelief.
‘Yuri, just how many did you steal…?’
* * *
When Yuri saw Gunter wielding the sacred sword, he was surprised.
Breaking through a wall after four months and reaching a new realm was impressive enough on its own.
But that didn’t mean Yuri despaired at the prospect of facing such a Gunter.
The reason was simple.
‘In these past four months, I’ve changed just as much. More than anyone, I’ve trained harder than anyone.’
The joint quest where he first clashed with Gunter Rider.
That was when Yuri truly realized how lacking his fundamentals were.
Mana shortage aside, his swordsmanship proficiency, its applications, his physical movement—everything.
The absence of basics that couldn’t keep up with his steeply rising realm.
Fighting Gunter had made it clear: he needed to solidify the shaky tower of skills he had clumsily stacked, lest it crumble at the slightest touch.
The problem was that such fundamentals required long, dedicated effort to truly solidify.
So Yuri decided to steal them.
And fortunately, his surroundings were littered with material ripe for the taking.
‘I started the ranking battles with stealing in mind from the get-go.’
The 50th Cohort’s ranking battles, which began around April.
Yuri, who had kicked things off with the goal of stealing his peers’ secret arts through spars, had somehow become the cohort’s dedicated combat evaluator.
As a result, the cohort’s rankings solidified based on matchups against him.
And in those ranking battles—originally meant for stealing secret arts—Yuri added the goal of stealing fundamentals too.
He began dissecting his opponents’ secret arts, how they applied them, even their combat habits down to the smallest detail.
From then on, he sparred repeatedly with the entire cohort, absorbing anything worthwhile and making it his own.
The first to notice the results was Gunter, who had crossed blades with him.
Ka-gang—.
‘…It’s different from back then.’
Four months ago, the Yuri he faced wielded a sword that was fast and threatening, but light and plain.
His responses to attacks were efficient yet simple, easy to read.
But the sword clashing against his now felt like it belonged to a completely different person from four months prior.
‘The sword… it’s solidified.’
Still fast and threatening, the once light and plain blade had grown firm and heavy.
His responses still pursued efficient paths, but now tangled with varied maneuvers that made them impossible to read.
Moreover, the relentless barrage of diverse techniques felt like facing not one person, but several.
A chill ran down Gunter’s spine at Yuri’s astonishing transformation.
‘Yuri Holland, you…’
For months, he had gritted his teeth in training, consumed by the sole desire to crush Yuri.
Bolstered by his father the Sword Lord’s insights, he had leaped over a wall in one bound.
Gunter had been certain this would let him utterly crush Yuri in the Dragon Tournament.
But that certainty… was gone.
Yuri Holland had grown just as much as he had through his father’s insights.
And on his own, without anyone’s help. By himself.
Didn’t that mean the talent of Yuri Holland, who had grown alone, surpassed the Sword Lord’s insights he had received?
For the first time in his life, Gunter felt fear toward someone else’s talent.
‘You…!’
Gunter ground his teeth.
‘What the hell are you… really?!’
A silent scream roared inside him.
With it, energy exploded from his body.
At the same time, the black blood thickened and darkened further, completing the pitch-black sacred sword.
Gu-dook— gu-dook—.
His grotesquely swelling flesh let out eerie sounds as his speed surged exponentially.
Yuri’s eyes gleamed at the sight.
‘You wanna get serious now?’
Pachik—!
‘Fine by me. Let’s see if the Sword Lord’s sword is faster. Or…’
If our old man’s is.
Patsutsutsuk—!
As Yuri smirked, blue lightning spread across his entire body.
Bbang—.
The golden sacred sword was complete.
* * *
Gunter Rider, appearing stronger than even a few months ago—let alone a year.
And Yuri Holland, rising to meet him.
Yuri, who had advanced to the finals via byes and thus faced skepticism about his strength, dispelled all doubts in this single match.
No, the reaction went beyond that.
“That’s… just a first-year?”
“Beating Gunter in the last quest… wasn’t a lie after all?”
“Even so… there’s a limit… that’s… that’s too much…”
Gunter had already far surpassed the level of graduates.
Yuri’s skill holding up against him was no slouch either.
The clash unfolding in the arena was beyond imagination.
But that was all the spectators could perceive.
Kwarung— kwang!
Black haze shot vertically into the sky from the arena.
Blue lightning exploded in all directions to counter it.
With that, Yuri and Gunter’s forms vanished completely from view.
The crowd’s eyes went wide.
‘M-My god… I can’t even see them?!’
‘How fast do they have to be moving…!’
Yuri and Gunter were gone.
In their place, all the spectators could see was—
Pachik—.
Gooo—.
Trails of pitch-black and gold.
* * *
The pitch-black and golden trails clashed and parted repeatedly.
Ka-gang— kwang!
The ever-present pitch-black sacred sword spread thick trails across wide areas like a dark night.
The golden sacred sword, manifesting only when needed, flickered like stars against that night sky.
With differing mana reserves, the two wielded their sacred swords in entirely different styles.
Logically, the constantly active pitch-black sacred sword should hold the advantage.
Yet bizarrely, their duel remained perfectly even.
Kwang—.
As the black and gold trails entangled and separated once more—
Shik—.
A golden crescent suddenly leaped from the golden trail, slicing through the black one.
“…?!”
Gunter faltered at the unexpected non-sword attack.
His evasion was a fraction too slow, and the golden crescent grazed his shoulder.
Suk—.
Blood seeped from the sharply cut fabric.
It was a mere graze, but the first wound since the fight began—both Yuri and Gunter froze in place.
“…….”
Gunter glanced at his bleeding shoulder.
Yuri snickered at the sight.
“Non-sword strikes… aren’t as hard as I thought.”
For Yuri, the past four months hadn’t just been about building fundamentals; they were also for honing new things.
“How about it? Surprised?”
Gunter lifted his head to meet Yuri’s gaze at the smug remark.
Reading the bewilderment and frustration in Gunter’s eyes, Yuri flashed a bright smile.
“What, pissed that I’m reading all your attacks? Wondering how I’m reacting and moving so effortlessly?”
“…….”
Gunter said nothing, but Yuri knew that silence was affirmation.
His bright smile twisted into a sneer.
“What’s most important for piercing through a fleeting world… guess you never learned that?”
As Yuri grinned mockingly, lightning flashed across his body.
Mana raced along the Redner family’s mana circuits, drawing crackling lightning to his head.
With it, Yuri felt the world sharpen and slow.
‘Motion perception…’
Johann had said drinking the Harmony Divine Water would grant him motion perception perfectly attuned to the Redner family’s martial body technique.
But Yuri realized that was half right, half wrong.
‘This… isn’t just motion perception.’
It certainly allowed sharper vision of the world and incredible dynamic vision, qualifying as motion perception.
But the divine water’s effects didn’t stop at the eyes.
They extended… to the brain and nerves.
‘Visual nerves enhanced, cognition and perception boosted, visual processing capacity greatly increased.’
Even processing vast visual data in just over a second no longer overloaded his brain and nerves.
Thanks to that, Yuri could now perceive things he had never seen before—or overlooked even when he did.
A prime example…
‘Changes in that body, like that.’
Yuri licked his lips as he eyed the pitch-black aura swirling around Gunter’s entire form.
Feeling an inexplicable disgust at Yuri’s gaze, Gunter stomped the ground hard.
Kung—.
Rider family secret martial body technique.
Dominion.
A heavy thud echoed, followed by crushing pressure from all directions.
Even as his breath caught in the suffocating pressure, Yuri grinned in satisfaction.
‘Good, good! Show me more! Lots more!’
Now that he could see what he had missed before, no fight could be more thrilling.
As ecstasy lit Yuri’s face—
Kwang—!
Their clash resumed.
* * *
The pitch-black and golden trails collided anew.
Kwa-gang—.
As the two trails met and parted, a powerful shockwave surged toward the stands, battering the spectators’ faces.
Yet no one so much as blinked, all eyes fixed on the arena.
In that moment, the same thought crossed every mind.
‘This fight…’
‘Who will…’
‘…claim victory?’
Holding even their breaths, the crowd immersed themselves in a match for the Yoram history books.
* * *
Kwang—.
As Yuri deflected the pitch-black sacred sword, he marveled inwardly.
‘Just how massive is this guy’s mana pool?’
And with how much mana stuffed in it, how was he still overflowing after spamming that sacred sword nonstop?
At this rate, did the guy suckle elixirs and tonics instead of milk as a kid?
‘…I’m starting to get dangerous now.’
Over the past four months, Yuri had swept up every elixir Yoram dispensed, extending his sacred sword duration from 3 seconds to 10 seconds, then to 10 minutes.
An astonishing improvement.
The catch: that was 10 minutes of just holding the sacred sword idle.
In a real fight like this, with mana going elsewhere, 10 minutes was a pipe dream—5 was pushing it.
He was managing by flickering it on and off, but with his reserves down to a third, even that was nearing critical.
‘Time to wrap this up.’
He wanted to observe more, but it was too risky.
He had seen enough of what he needed, and now knew Gunter’s level for sure.
‘Speed-wise, I have the edge, but not a complete overwhelm.’
Raw destructive power was so overwhelming on Gunter’s side that clashing blades directly was terrifying.
‘As expected of the Sword Lord’s martial body technique, wielding utmost strength and utmost speed at once.’
To handle two things others struggled with singly, and wield them so masterfully.
Any other Rank 6 certified fighter would’ve buckled far sooner against him.
‘Well, that’s that… time to end it for real.’
As if sensing Yuri’s intent—
Gooo—.
Gunter ramped up his aura too, signaling his own intent to finish the fight.
His momentum soared as if his limits had been nowhere near reached moments ago.
At the same time, even the whites of his eyes blackened with the blood aura.
Seeing it, Yuri whistled inwardly.
‘Saved an ace for the finale, huh?’
The space-warping pitch-black promised destructive power on another level entirely.
Knowing that full well, Yuri still smiled.
As if he had been waiting for this exact moment.
‘You’re not the only one with an ace up your sleeve.’