Bagan VS Vidion
It was the very essence of the spear-throwing art that Vidion had spent years honing and perfecting. The Dragon Strike was an instant away from slamming directly into Bagan’s face.
Through accelerated thought, Bagan had held a frantic debate with Sally and found his answer. He began drawing in the surrounding mana with ferocious intensity. It rushed toward him as if it had always been his, violently disrupting the natural flows around it. All that gathered power poured into the core seated in his heart, where it was refined into the one force Bagan could wield better than anyone.
With Epentes so close that its heat scorched his face, Bagan wrinkled his nose and quietly uttered a single word.
“Absorption.”
His right hand was occupied with the mana sword, so he lifted his left and seized the incoming Dragon Strike. Vidion’s spear technique was the equivalent of the wide-area devastation that mages loved to unleash. Years ago, during the war with Sog Kingdom, a single throw had claimed countless lives. Veterans of that conflict still wet themselves at the mere sound of Epentes resonating.
There was no way Bagan could absorb a technique of such destructive scale in its entirety. He had absorbed a dragon’s power before, but the resolve he held then and the resolve he held now were completely different. A trait could evolve dramatically when backed by sufficient will.
It feels like landing a critical hit in a game.
A tremendously powerful move that activated at the most desperate moment—that was a trait’s evolutionary leap. Bagan’s Absorption, which had never experienced such a leap, was simply an S-grade trait he had steadily raised in proficiency until now.
CRACK!
Epentes resonated as Vidion’s thrown spear entered Bagan’s grasp. As previously noted, he couldn’t absorb everything, so beyond a certain threshold he had to offset the rest with magic. That was why he had refined the mana.
Now.
Magic circles bloomed in rapid succession from Bagan’s left hand. They immediately drew on the purified mana from his core to construct high-tier magic—the fastest, most reliable spell he could form.
Absolute Shield.
The eighth-class defensive magic Absolute Shield manifested in Bagan’s left hand, then slipped beyond his control to embrace the remaining Dragon Strike.
(You blocked it safely.)
Even while accelerated thought continued, Bagan felt the same satisfaction Sally expressed. His magic and Vidion’s spear technique canceled each other out, birthing a thick cloud of white smoke. The collision had been so violent that the haze blanketed the entire training ground.
Bagan walked slowly toward the spot where he sensed Epentes. In the distance he could hear what sounded like Gion and Lilia shouting something.
Can I even grab this thing?
Epentes stood embedded in his defensive barrier, still pouring out every ounce of its power. Out of pure curiosity, Bagan reached out and touched the spear. It trembled in his grip like a living thing resisting him.
Soon the dust and lingering smoke cleared. Bagan tossed Epentes back to its owner.
Time passed. Both men had reset their stances.
“All right. Let’s begin again. I won’t underestimate you anymore. It was arrogant of me to think I could end this with a single throw.”
Vidion acknowledged his mistake and finally faced Bagan with true sincerity. It made sense; he hated the fact that the man who had accomplished the fundamental goal his family had pursued for generations was standing right in front of him. He had heard until his ears bled that dragons were the strongest creatures alive, and he had trained relentlessly to surpass that limit—only to feel that all his effort had been meaningless.
Perhaps that was why he had refused to acknowledge the man before him. Because Bagan had reached the final goal first.
“I now recognize that you are the one who defeated Palamus. And I’ve changed my mind. Only by defeating you—who defeated Palamus—can I prove that my efforts were not in vain.”
Vidion had decided to set aside all thoughts of Palamus. It wasn’t born from inferiority. It didn’t matter that someone else had claimed the objective his house was meant to achieve. Now that the one who had succeeded stood before him and had proven his worth, Vidion would acknowledge him and then surpass him.
“Allow me to learn from you.”
“What the hell are you thinking on your own? I only killed him because I wanted to live.”
Bagan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The bravest warrior of all, the strongest champion who had always stood at the vanguard as hope for every race, was saying he wanted to learn from him. It was something Bagan’s mind simply couldn’t process.
“The Vidion I respect most isn’t the kind of guy who bows his head to others when it comes to skill.”
Only then did Vidion realize his error and correct himself.
“You’re right. Let us focus solely on victory and defeat in the spar between us.”
Though it had begun as a simple spar, the blazing will of both men now threatened to burn everything around them.
“Here I come!”
Before he even took a step, Bagan released every ounce of power from Vidion’s earlier throw into the mana sword he held. The blade drank in the immense energy and swelled until it resembled a massive greatsword that would normally require two hands. Yet because it was pure crystallized mana, it weighed nothing. Bagan kept using it one-handed without issue.
He had long since abandoned any thought of holding back. The talk of “proof” was irrelevant now. This had become a true contest to decide who was the stronger warrior.
With that resolve, he kicked off the ground.
“Hup!”
This time he accelerated his entire body, boosting his overall speed. Thanks to that, Reinhardt’s sword style—the root of Bagan’s technique, which was never meant to be a fast-draw art—looked exactly like lightning.
A single downward slash from above to below. He poured every ounce of power into it. Simple, yet the most fundamental technique. That was the true nature of the descending cut.
BOOM!
“This sword style is…”
Vidion met the blow with Epentes, his pupils widening in shock. But Bagan had no intention of giving him time to think.
He recovered the blade from the downward cut and stepped forward with his right foot. Vidion had retreated a step to deflect the attack, so Bagan’s rear foot followed as he unleashed a diagonal slash from lower left to upper right.
Normally an upward diagonal cut from below carried little force. But in Reinhardt’s swordsmanship, that common sense meant nothing.
Reinhardt swings every strike with the intent of a one-hit kill.
Bagan tried to imitate that mindset. Even though the slash rose from below, he swung it with lethal conviction—making it impossible to even consider blocking.
CLANG!
“Reinhardt’s style!”
Vidion had met Reinhardt once before. He would have naturally experienced this heavy, oppressively heavy sword art. But idle thoughts had no place in the middle of a duel.
Vidion looked as though he needed an explanation, yet Bagan’s sword continued its relentless assault. Vidion blocked the one-hit-kill strikes with apparent ease, but the confusion, combined with the overwhelming speed and lack of openings in Bagan’s style, left him unable to find a chance to counter.
“It’s been a long time since I faced a blade I couldn’t deflect!”
Recalling his meeting with Reinhardt, Vidion quickly derived a counter. The weakness of a style that pushed forward so stubbornly that the opponent had no choice was that the user also found guarding difficult. Continuous power had to be poured into every slash; any other movement would break the flow and render all that built-up force useless.
So Vidion used that opening.
The instant Bagan executed a perfectly vertical upward cut—when the sword’s speed slowed by the tiniest fraction—Vidion sacrificed flesh to take bone.
Reinhardt’s footwork was unique; even if the attack was dodged, the user could close the distance again instantly. That meant no matter how well one evaded, they could never seize the initiative.
SLASH!
That was exactly what Vidion did. Even though he had predicted the path and dodged, he couldn’t avoid it completely. As Epentes returned to his hand and a wound opened across his chest, Bagan himself was thrown off balance.
He had already raised his sword high for the next linked attack.
But Vidion’s eyes flashed as he thrust forward. The tip of Epentes raced toward Bagan’s eye.
What the man called the Divine Spear prided himself on most wasn’t raw power, but flawless spearmanship and blinding speed. Vidion’s Lan-Na-Chal was truly lightning. The pushing motion of Lan and the pulling motion of Na were omitted, but the thrusting Chal moved at a speed that was astonishing to witness.
And the legendary weapon Epentes supported it perfectly.
SWOOSH!
No matter how well Bagan wielded Reinhardt’s style, there were things he could not block. The thrust had been aimed at his eye, but his unconscious use of accelerated thought let him twist his head at the last moment. The spear still carved a burning line across his ear.
Hot blood trickled down Bagan’s cheek. Vidion clicked his tongue in clear disappointment.
Though it had begun as a spar, the situation had changed. Now it was a duel where victory truly mattered. A mere scratch could not decide the outcome. At this rate, one of them would have to be rendered completely unable to fight.
The second attack was a wide, sweeping slash. Because it wasn’t a staff, distance was everything. Too close and swinging became impossible; too far and it was easily avoided.
Vidion performed such a difficult technique with ridiculous ease. Moreover, a slash delivered by Epentes could not be compared to any ordinary spear. Epentes was the very model of a straight spear—if it cut you, there would be nothing left to collect.
With the initiative now in his opponent’s hands, Bagan thought,
As expected, I can’t win without using magic.
He had wanted to overwhelm Vidion with pure physical ability and swordsmanship alone, but Vidion was one of the Seven Great Heroes—the strongest warrior in all of Pangea. He was clearly not an easy opponent.
“Arc Barrier…”
As Bagan spoke, bright electrical light formed between them, creating a wall. Having more breathing room than when he blocked the spear throw earlier, he was able to cast properly this time.
The seventh-class lightning spell Arc Barrier sent a counter-shock to anyone who struck it.
CRACKLE!
At the sound, Vidion instantly withdrew his attack. His instincts had warned him not to touch the barrier.
Having successfully rattled his opponent with the sudden magic, Bagan immediately followed up with another spell. Vidion’s body was under immense strain simply from retrieving his spear. The best way to exploit that wasn’t high-level magic.
Grease.
A first-class status-altering spell. Normally an obvious trap that was hard to fall for, but in this exact situation it proved devastatingly effective.
For a split second Vidion felt the ground turn slick beneath his feet and shouted,
“A pathetic trick!”
Yet Vidion knew exactly how to handle mages. He wrapped aura around his soles and nullified the spell.
Bagan, who hadn’t expected such a response, was momentarily caught off guard. Vidion seized that opening and launched an attack that surpassed physical limits by using aura.
Unlike before when he had shown Lan and Chal separately, this time he demonstrated Na—the pulling motion—while retrieving the spear.
What followed was, of course, Chal.
SWOOSH!
With destructive power that seemed impossible after stepping on grease, the thrust tore through the air. Bagan had already allowed one Chal. His ear still burned. This time he had no intention of permitting another.
With absolute resolve, he cast his magic.
WHOOSH!
Epentes sliced through empty space.
“Blink.”
Bagan’s voice came from behind him.
I will block every variable.
It was already too late to turn. A Reinhardt sword swung at close range after a teleport and full acceleration could neither be blocked nor dodged.
Vidion was completely at Bagan’s mercy.
“As expected… you truly are an incredible warrior.”
Vidion retrieved his spear and planted it beside him. With the firm resolve to receive the coming attack, he raised his head and spread both arms wide.
The moment Bagan saw Vidion—who seemed to have already accepted defeat—
“Stop!!”
A command to cease came from outside the arena.
“Hup!”
All the mana was withdrawn. Bagan landed lightly on the ground as if nothing had happened and shook both hands in disgust.
Clap, clap, clap!
Applause rang out from the second floor.
“Bagan, I am truly impressed by your skill.”
Montihall’s voice was raised with open astonishment. For some reason Lilia’s face had turned bright red.