177. Sleepless Night
177. Sleepless Night
Once he confirmed that my attacks had no effect, Hulan immediately went on the offensive.
Realizing that my attacks did absolutely no damage to him, Hulan's attacks grew fiercer and bolder than before.
Dodging the claws that grazed the tip of my nose, I stabbed my sword into his abdomen once more.
"Hup!"
-Peok!
But the sword produced only a dull sound again.
The dragon scales on his abdomen were shallower, so the skin was slightly torn, but it was merely a scratch — it did not penetrate.
It was cheap. Way too cheap.
That was the Law Hulan had acquired upon becoming a Master.
While he was using his Law, his stalwart body, hardened over long years, could not be broken.
No matter how much you slashed or struck, it would not break or deform.
From a swordsman's perspective, it felt like he was using an invincibility cheat.
Fighting something that resurrects no matter how many times you kill it still has the thrill of impact, but Hulan's Law made even that trade-off meaningless.
"I was wondering if you could still block a Master's attacks with ease, but I've still got it, don't I!!!"
The Aura Blade of a Master who had reached the Extreme was an ultimate technique that was quicker to count the things it could not cut, yet Hulan was blocking it with a Law he had established himself.
I was curious what kind of enlightenment he had attained upon reaching Master to make such a thing possible.
I had known about that Law from the beginning.
According to the author, it was impossible to inflict damage on Hulan while he was using that Law, but he was not invincible nonetheless.
Not that this meant I could pierce through it, though.
His Law was not a passive, always-on type; he had to activate it with intent.
He had to perceive the attack clearly, and the moment he thought to defend and activated it, it turned on.
In other words, an attack he was unaware of would catch him helplessly.
I was curious who could possibly land an attack by evading the senses of a Master... and a dragon beastman on top of that, whose senses were far superior to an ordinary Master's, but I didn't know the other drawbacks well.
It didn't really matter if I didn't know.
"You're calling me cheap, but you're no slouch yourself!!"
Because just as he took no damage from my attacks, I was taking no damage at all from his.
I was weaving the Law of space-folding into my footwork as I moved, so I didn't even get grazed by Hulan's fierce assault.
An impregnable shield and an untouchable man — their bizarre exchange continued.
.
.
.
The students barely even knew that the Special Arena had activated.
That was because the Headmaster, knowing that it would only cause a bigger commotion if it got out, had proceeded with it in secret.
But a small number of people, knowing about it beforehand, gradually gathered in the VIP Room where they could monitor the inside of the Special Arena.
Among them were professors and students, but also Carmel, who had been enjoying a date with Atlas in the academy building just moments earlier.
'You said you were going to talk, and then suddenly the two of you decided to fight??'
'That's how it turned out.'
When they said they were suddenly going to spar, she had been dumbfounded.
She had asked him to help her participate in the Summit, but the condition was a sparring match — she still could not understand the way men thought very well.
Because of that, the interruption of what they had been in the middle of didn't show on her face, but she was very dissatisfied.
But she had to understand; Atlas was doing what he had to do, what he had been asked to do.
Inside the Other Dimension created by the academy's Special Arena, the two were fiercely competing.
Hulan rushed in, ignoring all of Atlas's attacks, and struck; Atlas dodged all of Hulan's attacks with bizarre movements.
Looking at it that way, it didn't seem like much, but if you broadened your view just a little, you could see how terrifying their battle was.
The attacks from Hulan that Atlas dodged left deep scars on the terrain, and the shockwaves from Atlas's attacks that Hulan endured caused the rock faces to collapse.
They had started on a rocky mountain with nothing but boulders, but the two large rocky mountains they had been using as footholds had already been destroyed, so they continued fighting while constantly changing positions.
But every time the position changed, Atlas preemptively seized a foothold and launched one-sided attacks at Hulan, who was in the middle of pulling away.
Then Hulan, left with no foothold, would helplessly take Atlas's attacks, yet remained perfectly fine.
She didn't have much insight into combat, but she could tell that the two were engaged in a high-level confrontation.
"Even if you both get seriously hurt... I can quickly heal you with holy relics, but please don't get too injured."
Carmel could only pray that the two would not suffer major injuries before the Summit.
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Neither of them tired quickly nor lost concentration midway, so a similarly-matched situation dragged on for a long time.
Occasionally, a variable arose whenever the terrain features couldn't withstand their attacks and collapsed, but all those variables worked in my favor.
I could create footholds at any time regardless of terrain, so whether the mountain I was currently stepping on crumbled or not, I could freely press the offensive.
Hulan, being a dragon beastman, could fly through the sky, but there was a difference in reaction speed, and flying through the sky was very different from stepping on footholds, even in midair.
Still, my attacks couldn't get through.
It was time to break the balance once and for all.
Rather than a fierce close-quarters fight between Aura Blades, I prepared a single massive attack.
"Haaaat!!"
-Kwaang!!!
Hulan's claws and Squete clashed.
The moment the two Aura Blades collided, a shockwave so large it swept away the clouds erupted, causing a massive earthquake that shook the foothold.
Unlike Hulan, who was shaken mercilessly, I had already stepped into the void and stood on a stable foothold, allowing me to seize the momentum.
Then the rocky mountain collapsed once more.
I exploited the fact that his foothold had disappeared and he couldn't properly exert force, and pushed him back.
I took that opening to launch a decisive strike at Hulan's ankle, but damnably, his body hardened and his ankle was not severed.
My slash failed to cut even a single man's ankle, but it did cut something completely unexpected.
"Gek?!"
The subspace of the Special Arena was torn apart.
Along the sword path I had drawn in the empty void, a black scar appeared.
No matter how simply it was made, it was still a subspace.
It was absolutely not something that could be torn open so easily.
After all, creating a new world was an act that embodied one of the ultimate pinnacles of magic.
The person who designed the subspace generation device for the Special Arena probably did not build it assuming that Masters would clash inside it.
An Aura Blade manifested from the pinnacle of one's mindscape affected even space, and since the two had clashed mercilessly, the temporarily created subspace apparently could not hold out.
I had known this could happen, but perhaps they thought that since it was being installed at the academy anyway, Masters would never fight each other. Or perhaps they truly hadn't known.
It wasn't really important.
What was important was that the arena where we could run wild to our hearts' content had been smashed.
The sparring was forcibly ended.
"Hmm... Should we end it here?"
"I don't mind, but shall we go a little longer?"
I spoke to Hulan, who was clicking his tongue in disappointment, but the Headmaster, who had been watching the situation from the VIP Room, had a terrifying expression on his face.
He seemed to be appealing to us to please stop here, but that wasn't my job.
Well, if two Masters wanted to spar a bit, what could he do about it?
Even though a dimension had just been torn apart in the process, well, what could he do? He just had to endure it.
I was willing to go as long as Hulan wanted, but Hulan shook his head.
"No, it's fine. The ending fizzled out a bit, but I worked up a good sweat for the first time in a while, so it's okay."
Looking at the subspace that had completely collapsed, Hulan laughed.
If this had been a fight within the academy itself, something quite terrifying might have happened.
"Hmm, if this is how it is, there's really nothing left to do here. Since I had nothing else going on for a while anyway, I'll attend. If you want, I'll even agree with your opinions."
"You could have just ignored it, but thank you for doing this."
"No, it was a good experience after so long. Your techniques seem to be growing familiar to my eyes, so next time will be different."
He seemed to be reviewing the sparring match from moments ago, one move at a time.
It was my first time crossing blades with Hulan like this as well.
What could I have done better? At first glance, his Law looked invincible, but nothing in this world was absolutely flawless.
There had to be a way to counter it.
I had only been thinking about countermeasures against Great Demons, but after that business with the Sword Saint last time, I should keep fights between Masters in mind as well.
"So... is this the invitation, then?"
After the sparring ended, Hulan took the invitation I handed him.
"Yeah, if you tear this, you can move right aw..."
-Riiip!
The moment Hulan received the invitation, the sound of paper tearing rang out.
"You tore it?"
"Uh... was I not supposed to tear it right now?"
The invitation, which had been perfectly fine until just now, was torn in two.
Hulan stared at me with a startled expression.
"Wait!!"
Right before my eyes, Hulan was enveloped in light and vanished.