A Little Different

Adis Sefia’s jaw dropped as he watched the Light Wind Squad drive the Iron Battle Squad back.

"H-how did the battle turn like this…?"

He had thought the fight was already over the moment the Light Wind Squad Leader forfeited after taking down only a single vice-commander of the Iron Battle Squad. If both formations had been thrown into chaos, the stronger Iron Battle Squad should have held the advantage—that much was obvious.

Yet it was the Light Wind Squad that recovered first and overcame their disadvantage. While the Iron Battle Squad locked their formation shut to assess the situation, the Light Wind Squad rapidly reorganized their plan, then charged in and shattered the Iron Battle Squad’s core. It was a daring strategy so bold he could scarcely believe it—even watching it unfold right before his eyes.

This is all because of…

Adis swallowed dryly and looked at Raon, standing before the Iron Battle Squad Leader.

That man.

Rallying the stunned Light Wind Squad after Rimer’s forfeit, devising the plan to crush the Iron Battle Squad, pinning down Trevin himself—all of it had been Raon. Without him, this battle would have ended in the Iron Battle Squad’s victory long ago.

And yet…

He was uneasy. He had heard that Trevin, the Iron Battle Squad Leader, stood at Peak Master. Even if Raon had grown, the gap in raw power and experience was vast enough to worry him.

Adis let out a murky breath and turned his gaze to Glenn, standing beside him. Glenn was not watching the battlefield at all. He was glaring at the spectators on the opposite side, his fist clenched so tight that crimson sparks flashed from his fingers.

"L-Lord. Can the Light Wind vice leader defeat the Iron Battle Squad Leader?"

Only then did Glenn’s eyes turn toward the field.

"The Iron Battle Squad Leader’s realm is Peak Master. Once he collects himself, the vice leader of the Light Wind Squad has no path to victory, does he?"

"If he were a Mid-rank Master, that would be so."

Glenn nodded slowly, looking at Raon. His aura settled into something gentle, and the sparks bursting from his fist faded away.

"That child has already reached Upper Master."

"U-Upper Master?"

Adis’s eyes flew wide.

Upper Master at that age. If he keeps growing like this, becoming the greatest on the continent wouldn’t even be a dream. But…

That was a matter for the future. Even if Raon had reached Upper Master, his opponent was Trevin—a Peak Master who had climbed still higher and accumulated far more experience. The gap was enormous in every respect. Adis could not bring himself to believe Raon would win.

"Even so, the Iron Battle Squad Leader is still a Peak Master, is he not?"

"He is. Ordinarily, crossing a gap in martial realm is impossible. However…"

Glenn’s gaze rested on Raon, warm as he continued.

"That child possesses the power to cross that gap. It is a rarer thing than any talent."

"Ah…"

Just as Adis himself had been drawn to the way Raon changed people, Glenn seemed captivated by the way Raon never bowed to any circumstance.

"Watch closely."

A gentle smile bloomed across Glenn’s normally frigid face.

Raon looked at Trevin Zieghart, the Iron Battle Squad Leader, and clicked his tongue softly.

Did the shock actually snap him back into composure?

Trevin’s wavering pupils now gleamed with a chilling light. It seemed he had forcibly seized hold of a mind that had been collapsing under the successive reports of his squad’s elimination.

"Hah…"

Trevin exhaled and narrowed his eyes. He looked at Raon and let out a sigh of genuine admiration.

"Impressive. I already knew your martial prowess and tactics were exceptional, but I never imagined you would be this audacious. In terms of strategy—and as a team battle—this is my complete defeat."

He acknowledged his loss with a purity uncharacteristic of a direct-line descendant.

"But I am still a squad leader of Zieghart. I cannot simply cry defeat in front of the subordinates who are falling because of me."

Trevin raised his sword, and a keen, spear-sharp aura surged from it without end. The man himself seemed to have become a blade.

"I will break you with the sword and deliver victory to the fools who followed this unworthy leader."

"It’s a fine plan. But I have no intention of losing."

Raon smiled coldly and stirred the fragments of Flower Spirit that filled the battlefield.

A colossal storm of flame was on the verge of erasing the field itself when Trevin’s sword shot forward. A single sword-point multiplied into hundreds, punching through every last petal of blazing fire. It was the Peak-level swordsmanship he had mastered—the Iron Piercing Sword.

Ganggi crashed against ganggi, baring its teeth, and a magnificent bloom of light spread through the empty air. Beneath the settling white radiance, Trevin’s eyes flashed cold. He seemed to have recovered his original composure.

He erased every last fragment of Flower Spirit. He’s strong, as expected. But…

It felt like he knew my sword.

Trevin’s swordsmanship was not merely fast and powerful. It moved as if it were reading the trajectories of Flower Spirit itself. Raon let his gaze settle and adjusted his grip on the Heavenly Sky Sword.

Let’s test him.

He kicked off the ground and unleashed Revolving Heaven. A sphere of flame condensed at the sword’s tip, spinning as it generated a tremendous surge of power.

Trevin glided forward as if sliding across the earth. From a lowered stance, the white light that leapt from his thrust split Revolving Heaven straight through its center.

The flames of Revolving Heaven, detonating before they could fully form, fountained upward and blotted out the field of vision.

He erased it before the rotation could gather force?

Raon did not panic. He wound Glacia’s energy around the Heavenly Sky Sword as it bounced back, found Trevin’s presence, and carved a diagonal slash down through the fire that blinded him.

A frost-edged strike plunged along the Heavenly Sky Sword’s path, aiming for Trevin’s collarbone—and Trevin’s pupils flashed white.

In a continuous unfolding of the Iron Piercing Sword’s principles, Trevin struck down both the Heavenly Sky Sword’s blade and the blade of cold at once.

"Kh!"

Raon forced strength into his shaking arm and furrowed his brow.

As I thought. This man…

He knows my swordsmanship.

It was not merely that the frost consecutive strikes came in two. He knew where they came from, and how quickly the second followed. Trevin was not simply strong. He had clearly grasped every sword of Raon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Zieghart.

"Did you study me?"

"I did."

Trevin nodded without a hint of shame.

"Fame is not an unmixed blessing for a swordsman. It means your swordsmanship, your movement, and your aura are being researched by your enemies."

He lifted his chin slightly and raised his sword.

"Raon Zieghart. I will fight you as an equal."

"I suppose I should call that an honor."

A gleam of interest circled in Raon’s eyes.

"I hope that conviction of yours doesn’t change before the end."

Trevin narrowed his eyes as Raon charged.

Footwork that leaps through space.

The footwork Raon used was a mysterious art that vanished and reappeared like a blink. It was not yet complete, however—the travel distance was limited, and it could not be used in succession, so the movement inevitably showed itself.

Behind!

Thanks to the sensory net ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had spread around himself, he felt Raon approaching from the rear. The descending sword-strike was packed with savage ferocity.

The Mad Fang Sword.

That vicious slash was a sensory sword art—the Mad Fang Sword, which forcibly carved openings out of an opponent.

A formidable technique. But…

There is a way to stop it.

A sensory sword was a swordsmanship that drove into an opponent’s gaps. All he had to do was deliberately create multiple openings and bait the blade’s path. Before the Mad Fang Sword could gather its full force, Trevin unfolded the Piercing Iron Tip of the Iron Piercing Sword.

Sword crashed against sword, and the sound of twisting metal tore wildly through the air.

"Tsk."

Raon clicked his tongue and dragged his blade down. It was not the Mad Fang Sword. He had formed a thermal edge along the blade—an extreme cutting technique meant to shear through weapon and enemy alike.

I know this one too.

Trevin clenched his molars and drove out Metal Form Severance. A sword-strike sheathed in white light shot forth and knocked aside Raon’s blade an instant before the thermal edge could complete.

Raon fell back with his sword, then shoved off the ground and charged again. Somewhere in that instant he had sheathed the blade, and now he drew it.

The Sword of Sound!

Trevin shut down not only his hearing but every sense in his body, and fired the Iron-Core Contention of the Iron Piercing Sword.

A silver blade caught Raon’s draw and snuffed out the sound that would have sown chaos.

Unable to withstand the crushing force of Iron-Core Contention, Raon left a deep footprint in the earth as he was driven back.

Trevin straightened his waist and let a smile touch his lips.

It works, as expected.

The strengths of the Iron Piercing Sword were precision, speed, and penetrating power. It was a swordsmanship that arrived first even when it started later, and against an enemy whose information he possessed completely, he was confident.

"As I said, I do not take you lightly."

Even with the advantage in hand, Trevin kept his emotions in check. Raon was a master of reversals. He could not afford a moment’s carelessness.

"I will smash you with everything I have."

Raon gave no answer at all. He simply surged in and poured out the sword-strikes that had become legend across the continent. Flames leapt high enough to touch the sky, and killing frost rolled in to freeze the entire battlefield—but Trevin did not yield a step.

He unfolded the secret arts of the Iron Piercing Sword in relentless succession, shattering Raon’s techniques one by one according to the plan he had prepared in advance.

"Kh…"

Raon fell back, blood running from the corner of his mouth. He seemed to have taken an internal wound, unable to fully withstand the aura-piercing force nested in the Iron Piercing Sword.

"Hoo!"

Trevin gripped his trembling wrist and let out a ragged breath.

Remarkable…

He had researched Raon’s swordsmanship endlessly, and he stood in a higher realm besides—yet breaking those techniques was still no easy thing. That monster would climb even higher once this fight was over. That much was certain.

But this time, I win.

The realm of Peak Master, and the research he had done on Raon, had kept him gaining ground throughout the battle. This fight was as good as finished.

And yet…

Trevin bit his lip and studied Raon.

Why does he look like he’s enjoying this?

He was stopping every technique, and still Raon’s eyes would not die. If anything, the aura around him seemed to burn more fiercely with every exchange.

"So it really was true. You researched me."

Raon’s voice skipped with something like delight. The sudden shift into formal address flowed as naturally as water.

"Why the sudden formality?"

"Because you have earned it."

"What?"

"At first I thought you were no different from the fools who believe in nothing but blood and rank. This fight taught me otherwise."

Raon offered a faint smile. Trevin could not understand why a man being overwhelmingly pressed would smile like that.

"You didn’t just study my martial arts. You even predicted that my aura would rise."

"That’s right. Your growth is unpredictable, so I accounted for an increase in both the quantity and quality of your aura."

Trevin nodded. Every time Raon finished some affair and returned, he came back stronger than before. On that basis, Trevin had prepared for the martial force of an Upper Master Raon.

"I can only call it thorough. But the level of my swordsmanship you imagined—that would be from the Six Kings duel, wouldn’t it?"

"It would."

"Then you’d best be careful. From this moment on…"

Raon smiled with bright excitement and adjusted his grip on the sword. Nothing in particular seemed to have changed—and yet a cold shiver crawled up Trevin’s spine.

With those words, Raon rushed in and drove out the Mad Fang Sword. He had drawn up every last drop of his aura; the speed was faster than before.

Trevin thrust the Iron Piercing Sword into the ferocious, bending slash.

He launched his blade at the same timing as before—but the principles of the Iron Piercing Sword failed to take, and his sword was knocked away.

What?

The aura had risen, yes, but he could not believe the difference would be this great. There was no time to think, however. Raon’s sword-strikes were still coming.

"Hup!"

Trevin drove the Hundred-Iron Bend of the Iron Piercing Sword into Raon’s razor-honed slash.

Blade locked with blade, and a violent shockwave burst out and swept the surroundings.

"Kh…"

Trevin shook out his wrist and let a groan slip. Unlike before, the impact was enough to make his bones ache, and his face twisted of its own accord.

"Nnh…"

Raon, too, was bleeding more heavily, as if the penetrating force of the Iron Piercing Sword had dealt him an internal wound. What mattered was that the counter no longer worked.

"You…"

"This is only the beginning."

Raon dropped his body like a swallow and closed in. In a sliver of an instant, a sword steeped in killing frost was already before Trevin’s eyes.

Trevin bit his lip and wound the formula of the Iron Piercing Sword’s secret art—Lion’s Binding Lotus—around his blade.

Two collisions, same as before. But Raon’s first blade was fast, and the second was slow. That tiny difference twisted the form of Lion’s Binding Lotus out of true.

"Krgh!"

Trevin was flung to the right, biting down on his lip. His insides churned as if he had taken an internal wound.

He can modulate the speed of the form…

The swordsmanship Raon had just unfolded was the Dual Consecutive Strike, a technique that subdued an opponent with two slashes carrying the principle of extreme speed. Trevin had never imagined he would adjust that speed to break his balance.

Raon’s sword traced a curve as soft as a ribbon. Along that line, buds of blazing fire bloomed.

Flower Spirit.

It was Raon’s signature swordsmanship—the one Trevin had broken only moments ago.

"I’ll break it again!"

Trevin held his breath and drew his sword back. The blade stretched out, sheathed in white light. It was the Iron Piercing Sword’s secret art—White Wave Myriad Severance.

Trevin held Flower Spirit at bay and swallowed dryly.

This has changed too.

Unlike before, when he could read the trajectories with precision, more than a hundred petals now moved as they pleased, and their power was enough to make his bones ache. Each one was, quite literally, a true sword.

Petals he failed to stop split his uniform, inflicting burn and bleeding at once. The pain was dizzying enough that his teeth clenched of their own accord.

Trevin forced Raon back and spat a ragged breath. The blue pupils that held Raon wavered once more.

"You—what in the world are you…"

Raon watched the shaken Trevin and smiled faintly.

"The growth you accounted for, Squad Leader, was limited to aura alone."

The Iron Battle Squad Leader had clearly understood and prepared for a great many of his techniques. The effort was admirable enough to draw genuine respect.

"But my growth is not aura alone."

From the day he left the Owen Kingdom until now, there had not been a single day he had not swung a sword. When he could not train, he called his shortcomings to mind and corrected them in the landscape of his imagination. Swordsmanship that endlessly mended its flaws and magnified its strengths was bound to change with every passing day.

Raon stepped lightly across the earth and drove the Heavenly Sky Sword forward.

Revolving Heaven’s activation has gotten faster.

The technique whose power had increased at the cost of a slower start had, through endless drilling, learned to complete itself more quickly.

Trevin thrust a half-beat early—but the rotation was already complete. The two secret arts collided and detonated in a massive explosion.

"Kh…"

Trevin threw up a wall of ganggi and fell back. The shock of Revolving Heaven had turned the left side of his upper body an angry red.

"Tsk."

Raon clicked his tongue. His right arm stung as if a spear had been driven through it. Peak Master, indeed. Even in his confusion, Trevin’s swordsmanship had found the gap.

"Nngh!"

Trevin’s eyes, however, were wavering as if his spirit had been broken. This was not the moment to sink into pain. It was the moment to press further.

Raon stepped the Supreme Harmony Footwork. He leapt through space and brought the Heavenly Sky Sword down from Trevin’s right.

A single thermal edge bloomed along the Heavenly Sky Sword’s blade and aimed for Trevin’s chest.

"Damn it!"

Trevin bit his lip and thrust the Iron Piercing Sword. The keenness and speed that leapt from it were enough to freeze the blood.

Trevin was driven back hard enough to be swallowed by that storm, and he spat a ragged breath. A vivid wound had opened across his chest, carved on a diagonal.

"Did you hide your strength in Owen…?"

He trembled in the hand that held his sword, as if he could not believe it.

Raon spat a clot of blood that had surged up from the internal wound and shook his head.

"No. I got stronger. I’ve been training the entire time."

"…That’s even harder to believe."

Trevin let out a hollow laugh and raised his sword.

"If my information is useless, then I had best end this in a single stroke."

A clear, luminous haze gathered along his blade. It was as if a colossal spear fit for a god had risen from the edge of the sword.

"I’ll take it."

Just as Trevin had acknowledged him, Raon wanted to receive the man’s full strength in turn.

He drew the Heavenly Sky Sword back. Flame surged from the tip and wrapped the entire blade. Fire shaped like a dragon’s head blazed, baring a crimson maw.

The enormous wave of force raised by a Peak Master felt as if it would pulverize bone and tear skin apart.

"Hoo…"

Raon found his breath inside the white light that filled his entire vision.

There was no need to be afraid.

Like a flame that would not go out.

Like a glacier that would not melt.

All he had to do was trust the sword he had built until now, and go forward.

The instant the ganggi of Hundred-Battles War Peak came within a hair of his nose, he drove the Heavenly Sky Sword forward. The crimson dragon that had descended upon the blade unleashed a roar of blazing flame.