Duel (5)
-Thud!!
The shattered door, kicked with savage force, barely grazed my head before smashing through the window and tumbling outside.
A panicked voice drifted up from below moments later—someone must have been down there.
I ignored it completely, brushing the dust off my clothes as I turned to face the culprit who'd kicked in the broken door.
'He wants to kill me.'
Even without him declaring it outright, the sharp killing intent stabbing at my body screamed it loud and clear.
Welcoming that murderous aura with glee, I addressed its slowly approaching owner.
"Do you even know what you've just done?"
"Shut your mouth!! I'll smash your skull!!"
Peter bellowed that, his rage intensifying, and I smirked inwardly.
Those who reach the Sword Master realm predict their opponent's attacks by reading muscle twitches, eye flickers, the flow of aura, and more.
The angrier they get, the easier those attacks are to foresee. The more composure they lose, the harder it becomes.
Having successfully enraged Peter, I sensed the incoming attack and rested my hand on my scabbard.
Sure enough, aura gathered in Peter's legs, just as I'd predicted.
In less than a second—feeling like a compressed spring finally released—Peter's body launched toward me.
'Simple. But...'
It was a straightforward attack even a non-Sword Master could read, but Peter was confident he'd land it.
Far more refined and powerful than Jessica's wild swing yesterday, the hammer hurtled toward my head.
The speed was similar to before. But this time, there was distance between us, and more importantly, I was fully aware of it coming.
Unfazed by the hammer swinging at me, I threw my body toward its arc.
Ducking my head with minimal movement to evade, the hammer merely grazed my hair—but it didn't end there.
'His waist...'
Missing its mark, Peter's waist twisted, spinning his whole body for a full rotation before the hammer came flying at my head again.
Even in his fury, Peter had anticipated my dodge and readied this follow-up.
Impressed by his unyielding insight and mental fortitude, I bent backward more dramatically to evade the second strike.
Thanks to predicting the waist twist earlier.
Peter's body spun past after the failed attack, exposing his unguarded back.
Would a warrior at the Sword Master realm ever turn their back so vulnerably?
With my hostility toward Peter unwavering, I held back from attacking and just watched that exposed back.
And sure enough, my hunch was right—if I'd stepped forward to draw, a kick would have nailed the spot where my head had been.
Dodging the kick as heavy as his hammer, I unleashed a Battōjutsu strike not at his back, but his ankle.
-Sring!
With a satisfying frictional ring, Jinta leaped from its scabbard and struck Peter's ankle dead-on.
But what would have torn someone else's ankle clean off barely fazed him.
His aura coating was too thick; I couldn't pierce it, so the damage was minimal.
"Guh...!!"
Peter recoiled sharply after taking the hit, and I resheathed Jinta, ready for another draw at any moment.
Seeing me like that, fully aware of Battōjutsu's danger, Peter's face twisted in discomfort.
Unlike the visibly annoyed Peter, I was having the time of my life.
'...I wish every day could be like this.'
Those mere ten seconds of exchange were the most fulfilling time of my life.
A moment to clash my lifelong-honed Battōjutsu at full power!
A human who gets back up no matter how many draws I feed him—right in front of me!
Fuck, this is paradise.
Grinning with unprecedented joy, Peter scowled even harder and spat,
"Arrogant bastard... Have you been toying with the weak like this all along?"
"...Pardon?"
Toying?
I tilted my head, not grasping his meaning, and Peter spat on the floor, gripping his hammer tighter.
"Let's see how far that crap gets you!!"
With that, he charged like a bullet again, swinging his hammer wildly.
Not heavy like before, but light as a dagger—creating a storm of steel bearing down on me.
The increased frequency reduced individual power, but each blow was still enough to pierce my aura.
Grazes wouldn't kill me, but eating one head-on? Game over.
'...Planning a short fight?'
Peter's aura reserves outmatched mine in volume, but not enough for this reckless flailing.
Slowly pressuring me would have been smarter than these predictable swings. Why this?
Anyone else, I'd call it a misjudgment. But not this guy.
Dodging the hammer storm while retreating, I soon reached the corridor's end.
Before my back hit the wall, I spun and leaped through the window into the open air.
'Opposite from before...!'
The moment I jumped showing my back, needle-like killing intent pierced my heated body.
Intense enough to knock out an ordinary person, I closed my eyes amid it and relied on my other senses.
Focusing nerves on hearing and touch, I caught the faint muscle twitches and the wind from the swinging hammer.
At this point, it was as good as seeing it.
Feeling the hammer aimed to crush my spine, I spun my body like Peter had and drew in an instant.
-Clang!!!
My Jinta clashed with Peter's hammer faster than the blade's frictional ring.
In the brutal exchange of metal on metal, aura on aura, our eyes met, and I told him,
"You're no spring chicken, yet you've got some real power. Overflowing with it like this—why come to the academy? Nowhere else to go?"
"Shut up and die!!"
Peter poured more strength and aura into his hammer, blasting me away.
I flew far, landing before the academy's grand central fountain.
Several students still lingered there, not yet back to dorms; they jumped up from benches and the fountain edge as I hurtled in.
"Fuck off if you don't wanna die!!!"
My aura-laced roar sent the loitering students scrambling away from the fountain.
Moments later, as they fled, Peter approached leisurely from the direction I'd come.
"Unexpected. I figured you'd use the students as shields for a sneak attack."
"Why bother when I can win without that crap?"
With those words, I focused aura in my legs and exploded forward, closing in on Peter in a blink.
Even as I lunged, Peter stood statue-still, unmoving, just staring.
Something felt off, but momentum carried me—I couldn't pull back now.
Battōjutsu: One Flash.
A technique amplifying the already mighty Battōjutsu with speed for greater power.
Jinta, glowing orange in the sunset, flew straight for Peter's throat.
But even on a direct hit, his neck neither flew off nor shattered.
Instead, the ground cracked as if absorbing the shock, the impact rippling to the distant fountain.
'...That's not aura!!'
As I pondered what magic it was, Peter—frozen like a statue—stirred again, so I leaped back.
'Shock dispersion magic? Or some hidden magic tool?'
Mulling countermeasures, Peter charged at a speed incomparable to before.
'What the hell is that speed?! And the ground...!!'
Noticing the odd crack pattern, Peter was suddenly right in my face.
Up close, he swung his hammer with all his might.
"Grah...!!"
I thrust Jinta forward to block in time, but couldn't fully withstand; I flew back again.
From the central fountain to the main building—I crashed through the doors, slamming into the central staircase.
"Ugh... Fuck...!!"
Blood trickling from my mouth, I hauled myself up the stairs, pondering that blow while awaiting Peter.
Why hadn't he used that technique in his initial ambush?
Not lack of intent—his killing intent was there from the start.
Aura drain too high? No, he'd been gunning for a quick finish.
Had he hit me with it first, the fight wouldn't have dragged.
'Not that he didn't use it... but couldn't?'
That thought triggered a setting from the original novel. Smirking, I realized I might win.
'If I'm right, he'll try dragging me outside again if I wait here.'
Hand on hilt, bracing for the assault—
Suddenly, the air chilled sharply, a chill urging me to glance back.
"What the—?"
"What is my line."
With those words, a ghostly woman appeared, blanketing the area in white.
"Student Ian, explain yourself. What in the world is going on here?"
Marina Snowwhite, the academy head, thrust her staff forward as she demanded.