Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: Awakening Ceremony (5)
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Theo swung his greatsword at Hyde, who was directly in front of him.
Claaang!
An immense shock transmitted along the blade.
Hyde's eyes flew wide open.
“Urk……!”
A groan escaped his gritted teeth without him realizing it.
It felt like his arm might rip right off.
‘What the hell is this speed……! And what kind of power……! Damn it! There was nothing like this!’
Hyde cursed inwardly, recalling the Elder Council Leader who had said Theo was nothing to worry about.
‘That damn old fart!’
But the fight had already begun.
He knew now it was tougher than expected.
Still, he couldn't lose to some lowly illegitimate bastard.
He tried to push back with all his might.
But.
Craaack—
Theo didn't budge an inch.
Instead, Hyde was the one getting overpowered.
Drake's blade was inching closer.
It looked ready to shatter Hyde's sword and crush his skull at any moment.
And moreover.
Zzzzt, zzzzt!
The aura emanating from Theo was ferociously savage.
Just locking eyes with him sent chills down his spine, his skin prickling.
Cold gaze.
Fierce killing intent.
Overwhelming power.
Hyde recalled a time when he had held his father's hand and visited the White Dragon Knights.
The wyvern he saw then looked exactly like this.
Cold, ferocious, brutal.
The visage only a top predator in the ecosystem could possess.
‘That’s this illegitimate shit?’
Hyde's face twisted in rage.
“Nonsense!”
Hyde drew up his mana with all his strength and shoved Theo back.
At that moment, Kao and Rune charged from left and right.
“Leech bastard!”
“Die!”
Theo didn't charge at Hyde but calmly stomped the ground hard with his foot to steady his balance.
Boom boom boom boom!
Even now, his heart pounded wildly.
The tension heightened by his racing blood sharpened his senses.
He spotted the two incoming thrusts.
Theo twisted his body sharply to the side.
Whish—
Clang clang!
Drake's blade traced a long arc, deflecting both attacks in one go.
“Urk……!”
“This bastard must've just been brute-forcing with that iron……!”
The two recoiled in shock from the unexpected force, stumbling back unsteadily.
And.
That was the opening Theo had aimed for.
As Drake's blade seemed enveloped in a flash of light.
Flaaash!
From above to below. A diagonal dragon's claw struck.
The target: Rune.
The one who hadn't regained his balance yet.
“……!”
In an instant, Rune's face drained of color.
He reflexively raised his sword in a hurry.
Clang!
Drake's blade, infused with the dragon's claw, sheared Rune's sword in half and buried itself into his neck in one fluid motion.
Splaash!
From the left side of his neck to his right waist.
Blood sprayed into the air like a fountain along the red gash.
-Wound deterioration.
Rune's injury seemed far graver than it appeared.
The corruption spread visibly faster through the wound.
“Gurgle!”
Rune spewed bloody foam as he collapsed backward.
“Ruuuune! You dog bastard!”
“Idiot! Don't charge in!”
Kao bellowed as he lunged at Theo.
Hyde shouted in alarm, but Kao's eyes were already rolled back halfway, deaf to the warning.
Thump……! Thump……!
In that moment, Theo's heartbeat slowed noticeably.
The released tension granted him the leisure to assess the battlefield swiftly.
Theo took one step back, then swung Drake upward from below.
Claaang!
Kao's sword, aimed at Theo's blind spot, was flung upward.
“You think I'll fall for the same trick twice!”
But Kao, already aware of Theo's power, had no intention of clashing head-on.
He deflected Theo's attack sideways, twisting his blade to the side.
A bizarre swordsmanship mimicking a serpent's slither.
“Die already!”
Kao was certain this would catch Theo.
Typical zweihander styles relied on power and weight for one-strike kills.
Meaning, a failed attack left a massive opening.
In contrast, his own [Clown's Frolic] boasted ever-changing trajectories.
Changes that ranked among the best in Ragnar swordsmanship.
For Theo, who had gripped a sword for barely half a year, reading those paths was impossible.
‘That single strike he showed in the awakening ceremony was just brute force in the end. He must've been trying to cover the gap with the other examinees using sheer power……! Ha! You think it'll go your way?’
Kao had targeted Theo with calculations in mind.
But.
Fwoosh—
Contrary to Kao's prediction, Drake didn't slam into the ground but bent mid-swing at an eerie angle, sweeping toward his flank.
Whooom!
So fierce that the air itself screamed in threat.
A trajectory defying all common sense.
Motion ignoring the laws of inertia entirely.
‘He, he forced it to bend with raw power?’
Kao finally realized how Theo had produced that path and yanked his sword outward in panic.
Claaang!
It shook so violently it seemed the blade might shatter.
Kao gritted his teeth against the agony threatening to snap his wrist and barely held his balance.
‘Damn……! Need to find another opening……!’
The moment Kao fixed his gaze forward to read Theo's next path,
His pupils dilated in shock.
Whish whish whish whish—
Drake's blade unleashed over a dozen arcs at blinding speed toward Kao.
A sword speed impossible for a zweihander's weight.
Kao had to deploy his ultimate technique to counter it.
Clang clang clang!
[Clown's Frolic – Clown's Mockery]
Their blades clashed in rapid succession.
A standard broadsword against a massive, heavy zweihander.
When two swords collided at equal speed.
Naturally, the smaller, lighter one was at a disadvantage.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Kao reeled from impacts like repeated hammer blows, his head ringing.
It defied all reason for him.
How could someone wield that sword and match his speed?
By what means?
‘No way he’s achieving this speed with pure strength alone……!’
Only then did Kao grasp that Theo's ‘power’ was monstrous beyond their expectations.
Monstrous strength.
Freakishly immense power.
That was the only way to describe it.
They too had been born with Ragnar-blessed bodies, confident they outmatched anyone in strength.
But comparing to Theo was pointless.
And Theo's sword speed was accelerating even further as time passed.
Flash! Flash!
Like lightning streaking across the sky.
Before it.
Kao seemed utterly insignificant.
Shaking wildly like a paper doll in a typhoon.
‘He figured out…… how to chain Dragon's Claw……?’
With that final realization, a beam of light sliced across his right eye.
It hurts.
It's hot.
That was Kao's last thought in this world.
Splat!
Drake's blade crushed Kao's head like a watermelon.
Blood and brains splattered, staining the pristine snowfield.
Whish whish whish whish……!
Amid the steam rising from the friction heat of Drake's blade, Theo turned toward the last one standing: Hyde.
Hyde's face was now rigid with tension.
Unlike Theo's cool composure.
“Do you know what your mistake was?”
“…….”
“Not bringing a proctor.”
The corner of Theo's mouth curled up.
“You should've considered you might die.”
“……!”
Hyde ground his teeth.
‘How can this former retard be so desensitized to killing?’
In Hyde's experience, people usually reacted negatively to their ‘first kill.’
That was how he and his crew had hunted even stronger ‘lowly scum’ before.
But Theo was different.
Too nonchalant.
As if it were the most natural thing.
-Like one of them.
‘No way his first kill?’
It might be.
Otherwise, it made no sense.
“……When did the Plum Palace Lord teach you swordsmanship like that? Or when did you start screwing her?”
Hyde had noticed Theo's style blended the Family Head's personally named [Dragon's Claw] with elements of the Plum Palace Lord's techniques.
‘Looks like he's misunderstanding something.’
Theo let out a hollow chuckle.
* * *
Over the past three days, Theo had repeatedly deconstructed and reassembled the [Plum Blossoms in Full Bloom] taught by the Plum Palace Lord, desperate to grasp it.
The foundational knowledge and mastery of ten secret sword arts from Evelyn proved invaluable.
Thanks to that.
He had gotten a feel for [Plum Blossoms in Full Bloom]'s components.
-Speed and arcs.
The secret lay in swift speed and circular ‘arcs.’
‘Not just slashing in straight lines fast, but drawing curves with circles and arcs…… then the technique can show endless variations and applications.’
-Like painting abundant plum blossoms blooming in empty air.
Of course, he couldn't fully internalize the insights in just three days.
Nor did he want to abandon [Dragon's Claw]'s sharpness.
So he focused on unleashing Dragon's Claw in arcs.
And in this real battle, he finally shaped it somewhat.
Chaining Dragon's Claw ‘three times’ in succession.
-Dragon's Three Claws
Theo named the technique that.
If he could do four, it would be ‘Four Claws’; five, ‘Five Claws,’ and so on.
‘Still far from 120 arcs and circles like Plum Blossoms in Full Bloom.’
But when that day came.
It wouldn't be called ‘claws’ anymore.
-Dragon's Shredding
Something like that, perhaps?
“……Right! There's no way a retard who's held a sword for half a year beats us like this. Spill it! When did you start learning from the Plum Palace Lord? That meeting before the awakening ceremony—was it all a show?”
Hyde's suspicions snowballed.
His eyes gleamed with madness.
“Yeah. Now it makes sense. You pretended to be a retard while secretly being a sword forged by the Plum Palace Lord and White Dragon Knights Captain to target the Elder Council? Yeah, that has to be it. Nothing else explains this.”
How far would the conspiracy theories go?
Theo was getting curious now.
“Filthy scum……! Ragnar representatives handing insane power to lowly blood.”
Craaack!
Hyde ground his teeth to dust.
“Rose Palace retard. You're the real retard. Can't even realize you're being raised as a hunting dog. Though, for lowly trash, it's a perfect fit!”
Theo stared at Hyde silently, unresponsive.
Hyde's lip curled.
“Hit a nerve, huh? Then……!”
“Is the chit-chat over?”
“What?”
Hyde's face twisted.
“Then die.”
“……!”
Hyde swung his sword at Theo.
But.
‘He, he vanished!’
Theo's figure had sunk away in an instant.
Snowflakes swirled, blurring his vision.
Where?
‘……Below!’
Hyde hurriedly dropped his gaze.
Contrary to his assumption, Theo hadn't vanished.
His dynamic vision had simply failed to track the ultra-fast movement.
The fact that even this absurd speed came from pure ‘power’ kicking off the ground,
Sent another chill down Hyde's spine.
Terror.
The emotion unavoidable when facing the incomprehensible flooded his mind for the first time.
Then, Drake's blade drew a beam of light.
[Dragon's Three Claws – Rupture]
Shhhhwick!
The dragon unleashed three claws in a flash.
The first claw shattered Hyde's sword,
The second slashed diagonally across his lower body,
The third leaped up and severed his neck.
Slice—
Spurt!
Hyde's head flew into the air.
His upper and lower halves exploded outward, utterly pulverized.
Like a bomb had detonated.
Rupture.
No word fit better.
How the Illegitimate Son of the Return Sword Family Survives