176. Sleepless Night
176. Sleepless Night
With the tests nearing their end, Hulan, who had been preparing to leave the academy, encountered a very familiar face.
"It's been a while, Hulan."
Calling it a familiar face was a bit of a misnomer.
That was because the other party was using such potent perception-inhibiting magic that even Hulan, a dragon beastman, could barely see them.
But that was the very trait that defined him.
After all, there were only two swordsmen in the entire world who wore armor that spewed the black mist of perception-inhibiting magic.
"Before you leave, let's do one job together."
"Shadow... which one are you?"
"We took down Evil Dragon Wagner together once."
"So you're the one who uses a single sword."
Hulan identified who his opponent was upon hearing that they had slain an evil dragon together.
Ordinary people knew little of the Master called Shadow, and among those who did, even fewer could determine that there were two Shadows.
At first glance, the two looked similar because of their perception-inhibiting armor, but Hulan, who had fought alongside both, knew that their fighting styles were slightly different.
A wandering life meant he forged many connections with various people, but few had left as strong an impression as the Shadows, so even though their bond was brief, he remembered it clearly.
"Didn't you get one of these too?"
"For you to bring this too... wait, are you even participating in it?"
"Yeah, this one is practically hosted by me."
"By you?"
The Summit was hosted by a Shadow?
A sense of dissonance began to grow in Hulan's mind between the Summit he had understood when he first heard of it and the one now being discussed.
The conversation seemed to be drifting further and further apart.
"I might be clueless here, but what exactly is this Summit meeting that you're attending?"
Shadow glanced up at the sky once, then spoke.
"Do I have to explain it from there?"
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I had been following him out of curiosity, but Hulan was preparing to leave immediately, so I changed my plan.
'First, I should give him the invitation. I'll explain afterward, so please understand.'
'Don't mind me. This is more important.'
Originally, I had intended to give him a full tour of the academy first, but it couldn't be helped.
I immediately donned Squite's armor and addressed Hulan.
He had no idea what was going on, so I had no choice but to explain the situation.
How the Demon Church was running rampant, how if the Masters joined forces at the Summit now to stomp out their influence as much as possible, it would make things easier down the line.
But would the other Masters really step up properly?
Their own countries' safety would be their priority, so they'd just try to push it off onto each other.
An atmosphere had to be created where they couldn't refuse.
I had already killed three Demon Archbishops by myself, stopped a Great Demon's descent once, and driven a Great Demon of Hell to the brink of death to sever its horns.
A warning from me would carry weight.
In case the ones who attended regularly banded together and tried to force others to do the work, I was trying to pull in the other Masters who rarely participated to my side.
Of the seven currently active Masters, the Director and I could align our views, and if Teacher participated, that would be three. Add Hulan to that and it's four... a majority.
There was no such thing as forcibly executing decisions through voting at the Summit, but strong recommendations were possible.
"Right... it's needed to keep the demons in check... That's a fine sentiment. But with just words?"
"...What do you want?"
I had considered that he might want something.
I couldn't grant anything unreasonable, but if I couldn't grant it, I could just refuse, so I decided to hear him out first.
What he requested was quite simple but left me dumbfounded.
"As for me, it's been so long since I fought a similar opponent that I think my body might have gotten rusty. Let's have a spar or a bout."
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Out of the blue, a duel between Masters was arranged in the middle of the night.
It somehow came to this, but I had no intention of half-assing a spar with Hulan.
That would be disrespectful to the opponent, and I wasn't that relaxed to begin with.
Hulan was a strong Master.
A Master who never settled and always sought self-improvement, extremely strong.
He was on a completely different level from a self-ruined Sword Saint.
For the spar, we both moved to the special arena.
"Hurry!! Move if you don't want to die!!"
The academy wasn't small, but if two Masters got serious by any chance, they could cause serious damage, so when the Saintess contacted the Headmaster, the Headmaster and several professors, now aware of the situation, frantically activated the special arena.
It had suffered damage from a series of incidents, but fortunately, there was no problem operating it.
Once the special arena activated, it promptly sent us into a small other dimension.
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It was clearly supposed to be the time when the moon was up, but the special arena's other dimension generated a rocky mountain under a blazing sun.
"This seems to have gotten a bit out of hand, but it's entertainment nonetheless...!"
Hulan took off his top, showing off his rugged body, and settled into a stance.
The scales covering his skin glinted like armor under the sunlight.
Hulan, a dragon beastman, wielded a weapon that was his own sturdy body, tempered since birth.
Real dragon claws, scales, and various other parts were processed and sold as high-grade artifacts, but dragon beastmen boasted scales and claws of equal strength.
Since it was a body part and not an artificial object, nothing was better for channeling aura into it.
Though it had somehow come to this, Hulan's stated reason applied to me as well.
Since it was so hard for Masters to fight each other, this kind of experience was quite valuable.
"They say dragon beastman scales are crazy expensive. I'll use this chance to peel every last one off you."
"Interesting, is it? Give it a try if you can!"
With that as the signal, we charged toward each other.
A battle between two Masters had begun.
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The Aura Blades formed on all of Hulan's fingers—it wasn't one Aura Blade per hand, but all ten fingers were individual Aura Blades.
The biggest reason he could maintain ten Aura Blades, when even maintaining one was difficult, was because they were part of his body.
It was far easier to infuse aura into one's own body than to draw it out and infuse it into an external object.
"Then, as a greeting first... Ten-Day Claw (十日爪)!!"
Hulan's nails tore through the empty air as five sword energies came flying, ripping the atmosphere to shreds.
It was the technique that had torn Asmodeus's body to pieces in Hell.
Each individual strike possessed enough destructive power to destroy a castle wall, but to Hulan, they were merely checking attacks he could fire off as many times as he wanted.
I could have used my Law to leap over them, but I was curious about their level, so I deflected them head-on.
They were attacks with powerful might, but for me too, they were merely checks.
When I swatted away the sword energies without issue and closed the distance, Hulan thrust his nails out as if he had been waiting.
Both hands moved with unpredictable fluidity, poised to tear off my armor, but I feigned taking the attacks and struck down at his forearm, which wasn't cloaked in aura.
"Hup!"
-Clang!!
But the descending sword let out a strange sound and stopped.
The scales and aura met, scattering sharp noise and sparks in all directions.
I was trying to cut through, but couldn't.
My Aura Blade let out a dull sound and was blocked by Hulan's arm.
"Heh heh, couldn't cut me, huh?"
It wasn't just a regular sword; it was in a state of being cloaked in an Aura Blade. The same Aura Blade that had shredded a Great Demon's barrier in one go was unable to cut through Hulan's bare arm.
It was true that his arm was so densely covered in dragon scales that a normal sword couldn't cut it, but an Aura Blade was different.
A Master's Aura Blade could cut through even genuine dragon scales with ease.
If so, was there some kind of defensive magic cast on his skin?
That didn't seem to be it, either.
The vast majority of defensive magic couldn't withstand a Master's Aura Blade and would be completely destroyed, that was normal.
Yet Hulan's dragon scales, without any defensive magic cast on them whatsoever, were nonchalantly blocking my attack.
"Seems my skills aren't dead yet after all."
Seeing that, Hulan was satisfied.
I had expected this, but experiencing it firsthand was a baffling sight.
"You knew full well it'd be like this, you know that's really dirty?"
"Haha, then you should've just refused to take me on!"
Having confirmed that my attacks couldn't hurt him, Hulan immediately went on the offensive.
Having confirmed that my attacks could do him no damage whatsoever, Hulan's attacks became rougher and bolder than before.
I dodged the nails grazing past the tip of my nose and thrust my sword at his abdomen once more.
"Hup!"
-Peok!
But the sword again only produced a dull sound.
The dragon scales were thinner on the abdomen, so the skin tore a little, but it was only a superficial wound; it didn't penetrate.
To block even the extreme of the Aura Blade... it was dirty, way too dirty.
That was the Law Hulan had acquired upon becoming a Master.
While he was using his Law, his sturdy body, tempered over a long period, would not break.
No matter how much you cut or hit it, it wouldn't break or deform.
From a swordsman's perspective, it felt like he was just using an invincibility cheat.
Something that resurrects no matter how many times you kill it at least offers some satisfaction in the hitting, but Hulan's Law turned such exchanges of value into pointless thoughts.
"I was curious if I could still easily block a Master's attacks, and it seems I've still got it!!!"