Episode 817
Episode 817
"..."
"I was wrong."
"Wha—Senior?! Why are you doing that there?! You're someone who could've abandoned us and escaped anytime!"
Lee Han shouted in surprise at Yukveltire's words.
Watching this, Catten thought to himself, 'Are they not on good terms?' Since they belonged to the same tower, conducted research together, and were even handling this matter jointly, he had assumed they were close senior-junior colleagues, but there was absolutely no such vibe.
"I stopped her."
Diret answered with an awkward expression. No matter what, he couldn't just focus on the duke and leave while his juniors were fighting.
It was Diret who had blocked Yukveltire's path and pushed her back to prevent her from escaping on her own.
"Ah. So it was you. It was thanks to Senior Diret after all."
At the junior's words, which sounded like he'd expected as much, Yukveltire felt that inexplicable emotion from earlier rising again.
Catten found this strange. It was rare to see a fellow fifth-year trembling like that.
"Are you perhaps angry?"
"...Catten of the Zahan family. Emotions as trivial as anger have no place—"
"You seem angry..."
"I'm not."
With those words, Yukveltire resumed her attack.
The swords Catten had leaped over came flying back from behind. The undead monsters Diret had summoned rushed forward with menacing growls. 'Hmm. This should do.' Blinking, Catten thickened his senses and sharpened his instincts.
In the pitch-black darkness, flying swords emitted illusory sound waves to disorient the senses, and the junior was hiding in an invisible state, targeting him...
But the honed senses of a swordsman instinctively found the way.
Though mages disparaged them as crude and simple, the path of a swordsman who delves deep into mastering their own body was never to be underestimated.
Now, charge at the mages ahead and seize the duke...
Catten instinctively unleashed an advanced sword technique. Immediately, a telekinetic force collided with his sword strike head-on.
The heavy impact surprised Catten.
"Noble-blooded Yukveltire. Since when could you use such magic...?"
"I didn't cast that."
"A trick then?"
But before his words even finished, another barrage of telekinetic strikes flew at him.
As Catten focused on blocking the vicious invisible attacks, he finally sensed something amiss.
Yukveltire and Diret, who were currently controlling artifacts and summons, didn't have the capacity to launch attacks of this caliber.
"So it was the junior from the Wardanaz family! I shouldn't have made such assumptions!"
"Tch." At Catten's exclamation, Lee Han clicked his tongue inwardly.
He'd hoped Catten would suspect Yukveltire, but it seemed he'd immediately recognized Lee Han as the culprit.
As a combat mage, taking the frontline in such situations was natural, but frankly, he wasn't thrilled about it.
"Got you!"
"■■■■!"
Meanwhile, an undead monster closed the distance and pounced on Catten with a roar. Diret let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm not sure this will work...!"
At Catten's muttering, Lee Han felt his stomach drop with a chilling premonition.
Pop!
Multiple afterimages of Catten suddenly appeared, blocking the undead monsters and artifacts charging from behind.
Meanwhile, Catten himself fiercely charged straight at Lee Han.
Diret couldn't believe his eyes and shouted,
"Since when can swordsmanship create afterimages like that?!"
"Tell me about it." Lee Han didn't even have the leisure to retort. He immediately fired three consecutive strikes of <Wardanaz's Telekinesis> at the front before leaping back to create distance.
Catten raised his unarmed arm like a shield and charged with a battle cry. His aura-engulfed arm clashed with the telekinetic force.
Once, twice, thrice!
It was a desperate measure, knowing the junior would disappear the moment he stopped charging to swing his sword.
Even reinforced by aura, blocking three consecutive 5th Circle-level spells with a single arm left Catten's limb tattered and twisted at grotesque angles.
But Catten didn't care. He had achieved his desired goal.
'This is within his sword's range!'
Lee Han immediately activated two spells he had prepared in advance—<Lightning Cloak Enchantment> and <Gonadaltes' Boiling Power>—before tossing his staff aside and drawing his sword.
From this point onward, the sword would be faster than incantations.
CRASH!!!
When his aura-blazing sword was blocked, Catten laughed in delight.
"Junior! Impressive! You can't even use aura yet, and yet you have this much destructive power!"
The enhancement magics taught by the Skeleton Principal, the reckless expenditure of mana typical of a swordsman's physical reinforcement, and the Morning Star—a sword capable of absorbing the opponent's mana.
Combining all of these, Lee Han had managed to block Catten's aura-infused strike head-on.
But unlike the admiring Catten, Lee Han was trembling from the shock.
'What kind of brute strength...!'
Even with multiple enhancement spells active, including <Gonadaltes' Boiling Power>, the impact felt like taking a direct hit from a shock spell—a heavy wave of force crashing through his entire body. The destructive power was absurd.
Just as mages are respected as true experts once they can manifest a Small World, Lee Han now understood why swordsmen capable of wielding aura were considered on a completely different level.
At that moment, his pre-cast divination magic warned him of the next attack. As a storm of strikes rained down from all directions, Lee Han gritted his teeth and charged forward.
His instincts screamed that retreating now would only put him in greater danger.
"Ugh!"
Catten, who had been about to unleash a technique with one arm, was forced back a step by his junior's sharp counterattack.
'Is he using divination magic?'
Though Catten couldn't use magic himself, his knowledge was vast. Unlike himself, who was lacking, his junior had studied across all schools—it wouldn't be strange if he could use divination magic.
That would explain the counterattack. For a junior unfamiliar with Catten's swordsmanship and still at a lower level to react so precisely was no easy feat.
'Even seniors are human. If I just buy time, the advantage will shift to me!'
Lee Han quickly assessed the situation.
Catten was indeed human.
He was injured, and the spatial teleportation and clones must have drained a significant amount of his mana.
If he could hold out long enough, Yukveltire and Diret would arrive to support him.
"Hmm."
But Lee Han soon realized his judgment had been naive.
While other seniors had been researching magic, this senior had spent his time in the Punishment Room swinging his sword—even injured and low on mana, he was still a monster capable of overwhelming Lee Han.
BAM! BAM! BAM!
'His sword's trajectory... it's warping?!'
Lee Han was certain he had seized the initiative, unleashing strikes powerful enough to shatter walls.
Yet, with each clash against Catten's defensive stance, his sword gradually lost control.
When his fourth strike failed to deliver the expected force, Lee Han belatedly realized—
'He's redirecting my sword!'
It was unbelievable.
Under normal circumstances, it might have been possible. Just as Lee Han could effortlessly deflect Gainando's attacks when he tried to steal snacks, Catten—several levels above Lee Han in swordsmanship—could redirect his strikes even while weakened.
But this wasn't a normal situation. Catten was under constant magical assault from all directions.
And Lee Han wasn't just attacking normally—he was borrowing the power of multiple enhancement spells to amplify his strikes.
Yet Catten was calmly redirecting them, steering Lee Han into an increasingly disadvantageous position.
It was terrifying swordsmanship.
For a brief moment, Lee Han met Catten's eyes. The vertical slit pupils, characteristic of a feline beastman, were sharp with predatory focus—waiting for the perfect moment to strike back.
Even injured, exhausted, and at a disadvantage, there was a razor-sharp determination that refused to let prey escape.
'This won't work!'
Instinctively, Lee Han played his trump card. His pocket watch flared with mana, accelerating his personal time.
When his junior's speed increased to a level beyond ordinary enhancement magic, Catten was startled.
'Damn, I'm jealous. To have such magical abilities!'
Even as he marveled in envy, Catten's body moved with practiced ease.
The sword imbued with aura intercepted the trajectory of the opponent's attack.
Though Lee Han didn't realize it, the acrobatics Catten was currently displaying were the secret technique of the Willow Sword style he had mastered—Withered Willow, Fading Blossom.
The essence of illusion that redirects an opponent's attack and lures them into a disadvantageous position!
No matter how injured and exhausted Catten was, it wouldn't be easy for a junior to break through this with brute force.
Quickly adjusting his stance, Lee Han unleashed three sword strikes. Catten deflected them all.
Two more strikes flew. Catten deflected them again.
"...?"
For the first time today, Catten felt something off about the sword.
His junior wasn't moving where he wanted him to.
'What's going on?'
Just then, Lee Han's invisibility magic dissipated. When Catten finally saw Lee Han's eyes for the first time, he was startled.
His junior wasn't overwhelmed by his senior's sword—he was still looking for an opening.
'It's surprising he broke free from the redirection, but with that kind of attack, he can't possibly break through this defen—'
Kwarurung!
A sound—inaudible to those not sensitive to mana—rang out as mana condensed abnormally.
Catten was stunned.
Aura was coalescing on his junior's sword.
Crisis.
Enhancement.
Foresight.
Acceleration.
The powerful concentration born from the situation, intertwined with unshakable intent, had created something beyond ordinary mana condensation—a plasma-like form of aura.
The aura flashed and merged with the Azure Rock Sword technique Lee Han had learned. That single strike shattered Catten's Withered Willow, Fading Blossom and sent his sword flying backward.
BOOM!!!!
"!"
Lee Han, who had sent the sword flying, was more surprised than Catten, whose sword had been knocked away.
He hadn't expected to actually break through his senior's defense.
"...Magnificent, junior!! I never thought you'd be able to use aura!"
Catten spoke cheerfully, as if the defeat he'd just suffered wasn't his own.
Lee Han wanted to thank him properly, but he couldn't. The rebound from the time magic—and everything else—was surging through his entire body.
"Ugh... ugh... keugh... Th-thank you... But what do you mean... aura...?"
"That attack you just unleashed. That was aura. Hmm. That must be why your invisibility magic dispelled too."
Catten nodded. He'd heard that aura, being an abnormal condensation of mana, could sometimes interfere with surrounding magic—but to witness it like this... Magic truly was a mysterious thing.
Gritting his teeth against the pain wracking his body, Lee Han asked again,
"But... there was no visible change in my sword..."
If it was aura, shouldn't there have been flames or something blazing from the blade?
To that question, Catten answered as if he didn't quite understand it himself.
"That's what I'm saying. It clearly tried to flare up but got snuffed out insid—... Ah."
"?"
"...Junior. You're wielding a sword that absorbs mana, aren't you?"
"...Ah... My apologies."
Lee Han felt embarrassed.
Now that he thought about it, asking "Why didn't my aura ignite?" while holding Morning Star—a sword with a black magnetite blade that absorbed mana—was downright ridiculous.
"Um. Senior."
"Ask me anything."
"I think... you should look behind you first."
Catten turned his head.
Flying swords summoned by Yukveltire were aimed at every vital point on his body—including his neck—while above his head, the blood-drenched undead monstrosity summoned by Diret glared down with its maw wide open.
"Ah. I lost. I surrender."
"Can't you let it slide, as fellow students?"
"Shouldn't you offer something in return?"
As Diret and Yukveltire looked ready to tear Catten apart on the spot, Lee Han grew slightly concerned and asked.
Catten answered with a sullen expression.
"Junior. I have no possessions. Most of them are in the Punishment Room, so I couldn't take on requests or research."
"...Just give us your broken arm or something."
"Even healing magic... Unlike me, you're truly amazing, junior—"
"Please be quiet."
Watching the two seniors' expressions, Lee Han hastily covered Catten's mouth.