You Weren't the Only One Waiting
The bitter frost clinging to Raon's blade spread like a wind, and the earth began to freeze over in a sheet of pure white.
"Ice? A water attribute?"
Shock flickered even in the Mad Blood Demon's yellow eyes.
"First a fire aura strong enough to beggar belief, and now a water aura on top of it? What the hell are you?"
A freezing aura that rivaled the firepower of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames was apparently a novelty even to him. For the first time, genuine surprise roughened that gravelly voice.
"What's it to you?"
Raon twisted his sword and slashed. The frost along the blade shot out like a spear of light.
"Hah. Sword aura, too?"
The Mad Blood Demon let out a hollow laugh and threw a punch. A fist like a boulder smashed the white sword aura to pieces.
The blade of energy he'd fired with everything he had had shattered — but Raon's gaze remained calm.
The power of frost isn't just for attacking.
A sound like a lake locking over in ice rang out, and white frost bloomed across the back of the Mad Blood Demon's hand.
"This is…"
The Mad Blood Demon scowled down at his frozen hand. He tried to clench his fist, but it wouldn't quite close.
"You've even bloomed your attributes? You really are a brat who doesn't know the meaning of a limit."
"……"
Raon didn't let the tension slip. He fired another blade of sword aura, packed with the bitterest cold.
I can't let my guard down.
If he got careless just because an attack had landed, his head would come off in a single blow. He had to keep defense in mind even as he struck, and constantly shift his position with his footwork.
"You little…"
This time the Mad Blood Demon didn't throw a punch. He spun his body and slipped past the sword aura.
A high, keening ring split the air. Raon pushed the bitter frost to its absolute limit and swung, and the freezing cold blooming from his blade flooded the space around them.
A low, resonant hum rolled out. The ground froze over. The temperature of the air itself dropped, and the Mad Blood Demon's movements began, little by little, to slow.
Watching her paid off.
Raon glanced at Runaan, who was biting her lip. Thanks to observing the way she scattered frost, unfolding a frost aura hadn't been difficult at all.
"Kh…"
The Mad Blood Demon moved without rest, dodging both the cold laid across the ground and hanging in the air and the sword aura Raon kept sending at him. Those fists that had been so fierce and so fast were growing slower. Weaker.
"GRAAAAH! You rat bastard!"
The Mad Blood Demon roared and threw a punch. A heavy whoosh tore through the air. Raon turned his ankle, slipped past the fist, and brought his sword down in another slash. A blade of freezing sword aura split the empty air in two.
"Kh!"
The Mad Blood Demon stumbled back from the frost, a groan escaping him.
Anyone watching would have said Raon had the upper hand.
But the tension never left the depths of Raon's eyes. He swung his sword wrapped in even more intensity than when the fight had first begun.
The opening still hasn't come.
"Hah… hah…"
After getting everyone to safety, Burren had returned to the village with ten trainees.
The village center was a ruin, as if it had taken a magical bombardment. Fire raged on one side; on the other, the ground was frozen solid — a bizarre, split scene.
A massive boom crashed from the left, and Burren's head snapped toward it. No — his head had already been turning before the sound even hit.
Raon, his sword sheathed in a blue light, and the Mad Blood Demon were trading blade and fist at point-blank range.
Sword aura? When did that bastard reach Sword Expert…
Using sword aura meant he had stepped into Expert Low-Class. Expert Low-Class at fifteen. Even in the middle of all this, it was enough to leave Burren stunned.
No — wait. Raon's aura—!
The shock didn't stop at the sword aura. The frost blooming from Raon's blade made Burren's eyes go so wide they nearly popped from his skull.
Frost?!
A frost aura colder and sharper than even Runaan's. The fact that Raon had been hiding that all this time dragged a hollow laugh out of him.
A frost aura, and Expert on top of it. Just how far up have you climbed?
Martial artists across the continent divided strength into several ranks, and the same ladder applied whether you wielded a sword, a spear, a bow, or your bare fists. The moment you first stepped into aura, you were called a Beginner.
Past Beginner low-class, mid-class, and high-class, once you grew familiar with aura, you reached the User realm — the stage at which you could load aura not only into your body, but into your weapon. User had the same low, mid, and high divisions, and above that sat Expert: the realm in which you could project the aura loaded into a weapon. That was the stage at which one could use what people commonly called sword aura. The stage Raon occupied now.
The Mad Blood Demon was known to sit at the very peak of Expert — or at Master.
Watching Raon, Expert Low-Class, drive back a Mad Blood Demon so far above him sent a fire roaring up through Burren's chest.
"Haa."
Burren shuddered.
A monster…
The Mad Blood Demon made the world around him explode with every punch he threw — and the one facing him down felt even more terrifying. It wasn't simply that Raon was using two kinds of aura, or that he'd reached Expert so young.
It was the swordsmanship. The footwork.
Watching him face the Mad Blood Demon with the most basic sword forms and footwork anyone would know sent a cold shiver crawling up Burren's spine.
A dull thud rang out. Raon's movement was elusive — like a young flower petal caught on a typhoon, he used the very wind pressure of the Mad Blood Demon's punches to slip past them. Setting aside realm and talent, that was something only an enormous amount of effort could make possible. Raon was a monster of hard work.
But still…
Raon's attacks were sharp, yet they weren't inflicting any real damage. Only the Mad Blood Demon's right arm had frozen over in white.
The gap in raw power is still there. Then… huh?
Burren had been watching the two of them fight when his eyes narrowed. As Raon brought his sword down, he flicked a glance in Burren's direction.
That look…
Maybe it was because they'd spent more than three years together. He read the intent in Raon's eyes at once.
He wants help.
Raon would make an opening. They were supposed to strike together.
"Mm…"
Burren glanced to either side. Marta and Runaan had read Raon's intent as well, and were already cycling their aura at speed, ready to move at any moment.
Right. What's a Mad Blood Demon? We're House Zieghart.
He clenched his fist and drew up the aura welling in his core. Feeling the green wind surge, he pulled his sword from its sheath.
We're the ones who are going to save this place!
Eyes wide, Burren locked his focus on the fight between Raon and the Mad Blood Demon. He had no idea when or how he would have to go in, so he kept his breathing steady and cycled his aura without pause.
His palms were just starting to sweat from watching the two monsters clash when Raon's sword strike landed on the Mad Blood Demon's left hand.
A sound like icicles bursting into existence cracked through the air, and the Mad Blood Demon's hand froze solid.
"Now! Pour everything you've got!"
Burren was already moving before Raon had even finished the words. He kicked off the ground, sword raised, and hurled himself at the Mad Blood Demon.
The same sound exploded from the right and the left. Runaan and Marta were charging in with him.
A deep, rolling hum filled the night. The auras in Burren's, Runaan's, and Marta's swords surged up like a sun erasing the dark.
"You…"
The Mad Blood Demon seemed rattled. He shook both frozen hands and ground his teeth.
We can win!
That startled face was all the proof Burren needed. Victory was right there.
The hum of their auras swelled. The three of them were about to pour their strongest sword strikes into the Mad Blood Demon's vitals when—
"Ah…"
"Huh?"
Burren, Runaan, and Marta lifted their heads as the air suddenly grew heavy. As if they had rehearsed it, all three of them went wide-eyed.
A deep, crushing pressure rolled out. The Mad Blood Demon's gaze, which had been full of panic, had settled into something as cold as a sheet of ice. The moment they met those eyes — manic, and yet refined — their hearts dropped.
The atmosphere itself warped around the Mad Blood Demon's vicious smile.
"I've been waiting. You insects."
A low rumble shook the ground. The Mad Blood Demon threw a punch packed with aura, and the wind of the blow caved in the earth.
Raon endured that blast of force and sent his sword flying. A blue-white strike, frost rising along the edge, drove into the Mad Blood Demon's shoulder.
"Kh…"
The Mad Blood Demon bared his teeth, yellow eyes flaring — but inside, there was not a trace of wavering, not a shred of anger. Only interest. Only anticipation.
A genius who'll go down in the continent's history, is it?
Judging by his face and his skin, the boy was still in his mid-teens, and yet he wielded sword aura and both fire and water attribute auras as if they were nothing. A genius with the makings of the strongest on the continent.
But that's only if the child is allowed to grow.
The Mad Blood Demon glanced around. Even setting aside the monster called Raon, the three children behind him were no ordinary talents either.
A thin ringing cut the air. Raon's sword aura nicked the Mad Blood Demon's chest in a fine line — and his heart didn't so much as flinch.
Of course it didn't. For all that he looked like he was being pushed back, he hadn't used even a tenth of the power he actually possessed.
Hot breath steamed out from under the ogre helm. A laugh rose on its own. The thought of crushing these young sprouts' hope sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine.
A sharp clang split the air as Raon scattered a razor-fine blade of sword aura at the perfect instant.
"Kh—!"
He could have dodged it easily. Instead, the Mad Blood Demon swept his left arm as if in a panic and blocked the sword aura head-on.
White frost surged up, and his hand began to freeze.
"Now! Pour everything you've got!"
At Raon's command, Runaan, Burren, and Marta — who had been gathering their strength off to the side — hurled themselves at the Mad Blood Demon.
A rumble shook the earth. Burren's blade carried the wind. Marta poured every ounce of the earth's energy she had. Runaan unfolded frost along her edge like a row of icicles. All three of them drew up every last drop of aura they possessed and brought down their strongest sword strikes.
A deep hum rolled out. Raon charged the Mad Blood Demon head-on and thrust a sword burning with blue fire.
"Kyahaha!"
The Mad Blood Demon laughed at the very moment of crisis. His prey had stepped perfectly into the net.
A roar of power exploded outward. The entire ogre helm flashed yellow. The white ice that had caged his hands shattered, and an enormous force surged up.
The moment House Zieghart's children spotted an opening and committed everything they had — that was the moment to drop them into a pit of despair.
A rumble like the world splitting open. Yellow light exploded over both of the Mad Blood Demon's hands, a colossal pair of fists perfectly sheathed in materialized aura.
"Ah…"
"Oh, hell!"
"G-Ganggi!"
Ganggi that crushed even space itself could not be stopped by anything that was not Ganggi in turn. The color drained from Runaan's, Marta's, and Burren's faces, hope collapsing into despair.
"This is the end!"
The Mad Blood Demon laughed, the sound thick with excitement, and threw a punch. A mass of Ganggi the size of a boulder came down, and the children's eyes filled with darkness.
And you?
He sent his last glance toward the blond brat, wanting to savor the despair in those eyes as a finishing touch.
But—
"Huh?"
The Mad Blood Demon's eyes flew wide. There was no despair in Raon's gaze. No hope, either. Only a calm, level look — and a killing intent that wanted nothing but the enemy dead.
A roar of power tore through the air. An enormous murderous will, unlike anything he had ever felt, flooded over Raon's blade.