Brain Play: Gawain Coldster
Gawain Coldster. The imperial hero who suppressed a rebellion that erupted decades ago. Though injuries and curses sustained while quelling that uprising had left him unable to wield his full strength, turning him into a shadow of his former self… his spirit and technique as a Master remained completely unrustled.
“Come on then, brat. Attack me.”
And in this very moment—within the virtual world created by magic—Gawain cast aside his aged, decrepit body and regained the physique of his prime. The reason he had gone so far as to request this new body, when it hadn’t been necessary, lay right here.
Shring—
“Old man, you’re acting like a fool at your age.”
“Hahaha, what does it matter? Just think of it as watching this old geezer’s little performance.”
“Good grief.”
He couldn’t release Aura. They had already confirmed that an Aura Blade would collapse this virtual world entirely. The only options left were to bring down the opponent using a sword infused with Aura and his physical body. No—in his case, the difficulty doubled or tripled because he had to protect the hostage while preventing other soldiers from approaching.
‘What the hell is this mess during an exam?’
If he wanted to fight, he should have asked outside the exam. Why pick a fight on exam day of all times? Kyle, who had no intention of failing, decided to go all out from the start.
He charged forward and thrust his sword. To the opponent’s eyes, the thrust appeared as nothing more than a tiny dot. It was an attack that should have been impossible to handle easily, yet Gawain blocked it as if it were only natural. For masters above a certain level, defense was synonymous with offense.
The moment he blocked the sword, a counterattack followed. Counter to the counter, counter to that counter—attacks and ripostes chained endlessly. Kyle realized that this damned old man was genuinely trying to kill him.
‘No, old man, please!’
It was a virtual world created by magic. Pain was less severe than in reality, and dying wouldn’t cause any real problems. If this had been a game, Kyle would have enjoyed the fight whether he won or lost. But this wasn’t a game. It was an exam that directly affected reality.
“Hup—!”
The instant he recognized that fact, Kyle deliberately created an opening while swinging his sword. It was such an obvious gap that anyone who didn’t thrust into it would be called an idiot. Gawain reflexively stabbed at the opening. Kyle, who had offered the gap, knew exactly where the attack would come from. He naturally closed the distance, dodged the strike, and drove his head into Gawain’s face.
Crunch—!
Even as the sound of his skull smashing into a nose rang out, Gawain looked down at Kyle with a grin, completely unfazed.
“You sure like using tricks, don’t you?”
“Huh?”
In the next moment, Kyle realized his body had been flipped over in an instant. It was wrestling—something he had learned to a degree but never mastered. Naturally, this aged Aura Master had trained far more than just swordsmanship to the level of a master. Wrestling was one of those skills.
Though Kyle’s wrestling was only superficial compared to Gawain’s, while he struggled to escape using what little knowledge he had—Gawain hurled him far away.
“Gah—!”
He felt the sensation of his breath being knocked out and all the air in his lungs escaping at once. There was no pain, but his shocked body couldn’t rise immediately. Gawain looked down at Kyle rolling across the floor and warned him.
“Brat. Did you really think you could beat me with those cheap tricks?”
“……Old man, you’re insanely strong.”
“Fight me with your sword. You can’t win against me by relying on tricks.”
Gawain raised his sword to cover half his face and looked down at Kyle with the dignified expression of an honorable knight.
“If you manage to beat me, I’ll give you a good score.”
“—You should’ve said that from the beginning.”
Upon hearing those words, Kyle cast aside every other stray thought. That’s right. This was a fight that wouldn’t help much in reality. He had come to rescue a kidnapped hostage, and prolonged combat against an enemy Master while infiltrating their base would only result in being surrounded and captured. However, from an experiential standpoint—not reality—fighting another Master would be tremendously helpful. It would serve as fertilizer for the future.
“Here I come, old man.”
“I’ve been waiting since earlier. Are you trying to bore me to death?”
The moment the words ended, Kyle swung his sword upward from below. It was the Meyer-style secret technique he had practiced until his hands were raw—Earth Dragon Slash.
Unable to simply deflect this attack like the others, Gawain brought his sword down hard to block it. A massive opening appeared afterward. Kyle chose the method only a young man could employ. He swung, and swung, and swung again.
“Hahaha! You brainless fool! Can’t you think at all!?”
Boom—! Boom—!
Every time sword met sword, explosions rang out as if gunpowder were detonating, and their limbs began to tremble. The intense anaerobic exercise deprived his entire body of oxygen, and the madly circulating Aura began to burn him from within. Yet Kyle never stopped swinging his sword.
After blocking several strikes with a smile, Gawain finally understood Kyle’s intent and frowned.
‘He’s confident he can beat an old man with stamina?’
He hadn’t considered that this world was virtual, nor that Gawain’s body had returned to its prime. Moreover, the arrogance of thinking he could overwhelm him with nothing but stamina without technique was irritating.
While blocking the sword and observing Kyle for a moment, Gawain thrust forward the instant Kyle drew breath. He had thought it was the perfect timing to strike at a lapse in concentration, but he was wrong.
Clang—!
‘What?’
Kyle swung his sword regardless of whether he was inhaling or exhaling. It was common biological sense that muscles couldn’t exert full power while drawing breath, but no such sense applied to Kyle. Whether inhaling, exhaling, posture twisted, or balance broken—he swung his sword with full power every single time. Watching this, Gawain felt as though the common sense he had cultivated was crumbling one piece at a time.
‘Just how…?’
Clang! Clang!
“—!”
After blocking for some time, Gawain realized his sword had been cut in two. He had thought it was impossible and absurd, yet Kyle had accomplished it. Very well—now he would have to ask about that method. Thinking this, Gawain raised both hands and declared his surrender.
“I surren—”
Slash—!
“—Guh?”
Kyle mercilessly swung his sword at Gawain, who had lowered his weapon to surrender. After his blade bisected Gawain’s upper body, turning him into “Ga” and “Wain,” he sliced the bisected halves into eighteen pieces along with the lower body. When Kyle finally noticed there was nothing left for his sword to touch and looked ahead, only a dismembered corpse remained.
“……What? When did he die?”
Kyle, who had been swinging his sword in a frenzy on pure instinct, scratched his head while looking at the already-dead Gawain. It was a virtual world, so there shouldn’t be any major issues, but would he complain about it later?
‘Nah, no way. He’s a Master, after all……’
Thinking this, Kyle hoisted the remaining doll onto his back and left the base. Enemy Master eliminated. Hostage rescued. Zero casualties in the process. A perfect operation.
* * *
“……You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“Come on, old man. Don’t tell me you’re sulking?”
After the exam ended, while waiting in the waiting room for the other cadets to finish, I greeted Gawain when he came to find me and burst into laughter. He was frowning as if to say “How could you do that to me?” but from my perspective—someone who didn’t even remember how he died—it just looked like the grumpiness of a bad-tempered old man.
“Right, what face does this old man have left to save at this point? If I want to sulk, I’ll sulk. If I want to get angry, I’ll get angry. I’ll live however I please.”
“Wow…… You really live like a true Master.”
When I exclaimed in admiration, Gawain tilted his head, unable to tell if it was praise or sarcasm. But that only lasted a moment. After clearing his throat with a few coughs, he decided to ask the question that had brought him here in such a fuss.
“—You. That last move. How did you do it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Swinging your sword like a madman. That shouldn’t have been possible in reality.”
“Ah, that?”
Realizing what he meant, I tapped my head and answered.
“I used my brain.”
“……Used your brain?”
“Yes.”
As Gawain stared at me with wide eyes, as if asking what on earth that meant, I began to explain kindly.
“Superhuman strength in a fire. You know, that kind of thing?”
“Ah, I’ve heard of it. A woman lifting a carriage off a child with incredible strength. Something like that, right?”
“Exactly. Why do you think that happens?”
“Well, maybe when you’re in danger?”
“Similar.”
The human body doesn’t exert its full power. More precisely, it can’t exert its full power. Strength beyond one’s limits would destroy the body itself. Therefore, the body always has a limiter in place, and it only releases temporarily when one’s life is in danger or when protecting something more precious than one’s own life.
“And the thing controlling that limiter is this brain.”
“……I heard all that, but what does it have to do with using your brain?”
“Ah, since it’s a virtual world anyway and I won’t die, I just overloaded my brain with Aura and removed the limiter.”
“……What?”
Looking up at Gawain, who was staring down at me in disbelief, I shrugged. Why? What? It was using my brain, wasn’t it? He continued to look at me as if he couldn’t understand until the very end, then let out a hollow laugh and left the waiting room.