Aura Blade
The red flash of an Aura Blade swallowed the blue flash whole. The azure light refused to yield, bristling like a mane as it pushed back against the crimson glow. The two flashes clashed and tore at each other until they finally retreated to their original positions, sharpening their fangs once more.
So it’s the real thing.
An Aura Blade could only be stopped by another Aura Blade. That red blade was genuine. Its density was far too low and its duration too short, but it was more than enough to decide the outcome of this duel.
“Haha, hahahaha—! I’ve finally reached the stage that countless others could never attain…!”
Damian drooled as he stared at his Aura Blade with naked greed. He looked like a madman. Kyle frowned slightly and pointed his sword at him.
“Shut up. You’re not a kid—stop throwing a tantrum over something as trivial as an Aura Blade.”
“……Wh-what?”
Perhaps that single remark had struck a nerve. A far more violent surge of aura erupted from Damian’s sword. Kyle knew exactly what the man was doing—recklessly pouring out his own life force.
Idiot.
An Aura Master was someone who could externalize their aura. Aura was life force itself—more like blood than anything else. What Damian was doing was no different from punching holes all over his body and spraying blood everywhere. For a brief moment he would possess the same ability as a true Master, but…
He won’t last long anyway.
It seemed he had used some unknown fruit or drug to extend the duration and reduce the side effects, yet the technique was still riddled with flaws and dangers. The single advantage—that an Expert could temporarily become a Master—simply outweighed every drawback.
“Haha— hahaha! Hahahaha! What’s wrong, Kyle—!”
Damian continued to recklessly burn his life force as he pressed the attack. Kyle, who had already sensed that simply enduring would secure his victory, suddenly felt a strange pang of regret. The thought that flashed through his mind made him wonder if he had gone insane.
Regret? His opponent was a temporary Master on the same level as himself—someone who could kill him if he let his guard down.
……It really is a shame.
Realizing his own feelings, Kyle leapt backward and muttered toward Arthur, who was still collapsed on the ground.
“Arthur. Run.”
“What? Kyle, I can’t just leave you—”
“You’re in the way. Get lost—!”
Arthur froze when she saw the look in Kyle’s eyes. They were the eyes of a beast that had finally found its prey. Trembling, she quickly regained her senses and fled the scene. Damian, even while intoxicated by his own life force, had not forgotten his original target. He immediately charged after Arthur.
Kyle swung his Aura Blade at the approaching Damian. Red and blue clashed, scattering sparks of light in every direction.
“Move—! You damn brat!”
“Now that I think about it, it really is a shame.”
“What?”
Shhhk—!
After knocking Damian back with a single swing, Kyle’s lips curled into a grin he could no longer suppress. Before him stood an opponent whose skill was close to his own—someone who could kill him if he grew careless. This was the worthy rival he had been searching for ever since he became an Expert.
“I could win by dragging this out, but… that kind of victory means nothing.”
A hollow win was worthless. Even if it meant dying here, Kyle wanted to cross blades with a true equal one more time. After becoming a Master, he had never found a suitable opponent—until now.
“—Come at me.”
“Ha, haha— …I thought you were just some talented brat.”
How knightly.
Damian looked at the man standing before him and thought exactly that. He had never seen such a dignified knight anywhere else. That was why—
“Damian Rotos.”
“Kyle Meyer.”
Both men instinctively understood that this fight would only end when one of them fell.
“Haa, haaah—!”
Arthur sprinted out of the training ground and collapsed against the wall of the auditorium, gasping for breath. Instructors who had been searching for undiscovered students nearby rushed over when they saw him running toward them empty-handed. After confirming that his entire body was covered in blood and sweat, they immediately summoned a priest to treat him.
“Student Arthur, what on earth happened to these wounds?”
“Haa, haa— Well, you see……”
Arthur tried to explain what had happened, but his mouth suddenly refused to move. Revealing the truth would mean breaking his promise to Kyle. It would also require explaining why the terrorists had targeted him, which would inevitably expose the fact that he possessed a Dragon’s Heart.
The instructors pressed Arthur for answers while he kept his lips tightly sealed to protect their secret.
“Stop.”
“G-Gawain Professor!”
If Gawain had not appeared at that moment, dragging two unconscious students by the arms, the instructors would have continued interrogating Arthur until they got the answers they wanted.
Gawain handed the students over to the instructors and spoke.
“Bind these ones.”
“Pardon? Why the students……”
“They’re terrorists. Whether they infiltrated as students from the beginning or were recruited later, I don’t know.”
“Th-that’s……”
The instructors were shocked to hear that students of the great Dairos Academy had participated in terrorism, but they soon followed Gawain’s orders and began restraining the students. After all, they could not doubt the words of Professor Gawain, a legendary hero.
While the instructors bound the captured students, Gawain looked down at Arthur.
“What happened?”
“……It’s difficult to explain.”
“Was it that brat Kyle?”
“—How did you know?”
Arthur’s eyes widened in surprise. Gawain chuckled and nodded.
“I was the first to notice he was a Master. If it weren’t for me, that kid never would’ve been accepted into the Academy.”
Recalling Kyle’s written exam scores, Gawain could easily imagine what would have happened without his intervention. A Master wouldn’t starve anywhere, but he certainly wouldn’t have passed the Academy’s entrance requirements.
Gawain crouched down to meet Arthur’s eye level.
“If it’s that kid, there’s no need to worry. Unless a Master suddenly drops from the sky, he won’t be in any real danger.”
“No, that’s not……”
“Well then, let’s leave him be for now—Student Arthur, wait over there with the others.”
“Professor……?”
“Still got something to say?”
“……He’s fighting a Master right now.”
“……What?”
Gawain wore an incredulous expression, but he quickly steeled himself and headed in the direction Arthur pointed. His body, injured during the war, was no longer fit for battle, but he could still protect one promising young sprout.
Clang—! Clang—!
Amidst the fragments of aura scattering through the air, Kyle realized that Damian’s swordsmanship was better than expected. Swordsmanship that utilized an Aura Blade was fundamentally different from ordinary swordsmanship. A blade that could cut through anything simply by touching it could not be wielded like a normal sword.
Thus, Aura Blade techniques were lighter and more agile than standard longsword forms. Without the need to add weight behind each strike, it resembled dance more than swordsmanship. Anyone unskilled in proper technique would inevitably cut themselves while trying to use an Aura Blade.
“Huff— Huff—!”
To the sound of crackling aura, the two men danced a waltz. Both realized the end of this fight was drawing near.
Damian made the first move. He gathered the aura he had been wasting so recklessly and concentrated it into his sword. Kyle did the same, focusing all of his aura into his blade rather than scattering it. The moment their concentrated Aura Blades collided, an explosion like a storm erupted and sent both men flying backward.
Shrrrk—
Kyle drove his sword into the ground to stop his momentum and looked toward Damian, who was kneeling on one knee in the distance.
“You alright?”
“—Uweeegh—!”
Watching Damian vomit blood, Kyle thought, As expected. An Expert forcing aura outside their body was fundamentally impossible. If such a wall could be overcome with drugs or fruits, countless swordsmen throughout history would not have died in vain, unable to surpass it.
Kyle spoke to Damian, who still could not stand.
“Pick up your sword, Damian.”
“Cough, cough!”
“Pick it up. And fight me!”
Damian looked at the shouting Kyle, then slowly rose while gripping his sword. The aura that had been gushing out like a broken dam was now nearly depleted. For someone who had been burning his own life force, this meant death was close at hand.
“……I envy you. If only I could have become like you—”
Damian gazed at Kyle with envy before squeezing out the last of his strength to reignite his aura. Kyle, looking satisfied, charged forward. Though far weaker than before, it was still an Aura Blade.
The meeting of two Aura Blades. Kyle pressed down on the weakened blade and slashed across Damian’s upper body.
Shhhk—!
The little blood that remained sprayed out like a fountain. The life force that had already been running dry was completely exhausted by this final wound. With his life force depleted, Damian died.
“That was fun.”
Kyle sheathed his chipped sword and turned toward the auditorium. The dragon that had been flying overhead had long since vanished, and the explosions that had echoed throughout the territory had ceased. Everything was finally over.
The first act had ended on a happy note.
It also means there are still plenty of guys like him—and even stronger ones—out there.
The thought of the future filled Kyle with a thrill he could not hide. Smiling, he headed for the auditorium when he spotted Gawain in full armor approaching from afar.
“Kyle! You alright!?”
Gawain rushed over in a panic, as if Kyle were his own son. After checking him over and confirming he was unharmed, Gawain finally let out a sigh of relief.
“What happened?”
“I was fighting terrorists over there.”
“I heard something about a Master.”
“Ah, well—something like that?”
Gawain felt an indescribable emotion as he looked at Kyle, who had fought something close to a Master without a single scratch. Is this how other people feel when they look at me? If he kept experiencing this sense of inferiority, he might go senile, so Gawain laughed and headed with Kyle toward the place where he had fought the terrorists.
“……Hey, Kyle.”
“Yes, old man.”
“Did you kill him?”
“Obviously?”
At Kyle’s casual tone—as if not killing the man would have been strange—Gawain’s expression hardened. Kyle merely shrugged.
“Kyle Meyer, you are under arrest on suspicion of murder.”
Clank—.
Staring at the firmly locked iron door, Kyle belatedly realized something.
Ah, right.
Killing people isn’t allowed, is it.