Episode 14. Limit Test (2)

After embracing the Primordial Flame and traveling back in time.

I had never gone all out before.

To be precise, I never had the chance to go all out.

‘Well, there were some incidents here and there.’

But most of them were just scuffles with the Candidates.

In that sense, I had high expectations for this duel with Professor Lucas.

Even though it was just a duel.

He was the first opponent worth pouring everything into.

-*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The sword and axe clashed at speeds hard to follow with the naked eye.

“Huup!”

With a short shout, Professor Lucas swung the axe in his hands in an X shape.

Though he swung it as lightly as if handling a toy, the force behind it was anything but light.

-*Whoosh!*

A burst of light from the Holy Mark surged along the axe blade, fiercely blazing.

The wind pressure from the swing alone tore through the solid oak floor of the training ground, as if clawed by a beast.

Truly overwhelming destructive power.

‘There’s no way to block this head-on.’

The sheer force from his nearly 2-meter-tall frame was immense, but the gap in Magic Power was even greater.

The Holy Mark engraved on Professor Lucas’s left chest was that of the ‘Earth God.’

The Magic Power created by the Earth God’s Holy Mark is heavy, massive, and destructive.

If I tried to block that axe with my sword, the sword would shatter instantly.

‘Then.’

I lowered my stance and tilted my sword.

I squeezed out all the Magic Power in my body and condensed it into the blade.

-*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The moment the axe and sword clashed.

The Magic Power condensed in the blade exploded, slightly pushing back Professor Lucas’s axe.

The pushed-back axe slid down the tilted blade.

I applied the principle of ‘Sky Flip,’ which I learned from Berald, to my swordsmanship.

It was my desperate attempt to bridge the overwhelming gap in power.

“Playing tricks, are you!”

Another axe swung horizontally.

The target was my shoulder.

I ducked forward, narrowly avoiding the swinging axe.

“Even tricks can become skill if you keep at it.”

I sprung up from my crouch and swung my sword.

Sun Sword.

A swordsmanship created 500 years ago by Reynaldo Helios, one of the Five Great Heroes, and completed by Yuren Helios, his distant descendant and one of the Last Five Heroes, was now unfolding in my hands.

-*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

“Grr… Where did you learn such swordsmanship?!”

“Self-taught.”

It wasn’t a lie.

The swordsmanship I wielded started with the Sun Sword, but it had changed so much from the Sun Sword Yuren used in my past life that it could hardly be considered the same.

After the world was destroyed by the Devil God.

While training alone to remember my fallen comrades, I realized something deeply.

‘I am not Yuren.’

My sword cannot blaze as brilliantly or shine as nobly as Yuren’s.

Weak but tenacious.

Frail but sharp.

Even if it breaks, crumbles, or shatters.

It will never disappear.

The swordsmanship of ‘Dale Han.’

‘Using Magic Power only at the moment the swords clash.’

It doesn’t need to be so fast that the eye can’t follow, nor overwhelmingly strong.

What matters is striking the most vulnerable part at the most opportune moment, with the most lethal precision.

That’s all it takes.

-*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The sound of metal ringing in my ears.

Feeling my breath rise to my throat, I continued to swing my sword.

Slashing, thrusting, flicking, and bending.

I realized.

‘It wasn’t in vain.’

The snowy plains.

The days I spent walking alone in a white world, silently continuing my training.

The struggles over hundreds, thousands of years.

‘It wasn’t in vain.’

I didn’t have a grand goal.

Nor a lofty purpose.

I just.

Didn’t want to forget.

Didn’t want to let it rot.

The legacy they left me, more precious than anything.

“Ha, haha!”

A laugh escaped me as my chest swelled with emotion.

A thrilling shiver ran down my spine and spread through my body.

I was so happy I could have cheered right then.

‘But why?’

Why is it?

Along with the joy, another emotion rose from a corner of my heart.

‘It’s not enough.’

A burning thirst scorched my throat.

‘Just a little more.’

I feel like I can reach higher, further.

Like I can grasp even the edge of the ‘ultimate’ that Yuren spoke of.

My body felt heavy, as if weighed down by heavy shackles.

My mind knew what to do, but my body wouldn’t follow.

In that agonizing disconnect.

I continued to swing my sword.

“Grr!”

Professor Lucas barely managed to block the fierce sword strikes and swallowed hard.

‘What kind of insane swordsmanship is this?!’

The sword strikes weren’t fast.

Nor were they particularly strong.

I could follow them with my eyes, easily deflect them.

But.

‘Why… can’t I counterattack?!’

The pressure slowly suffocating him, like sinking into a swamp.

His body, which could swing an axe for over 5 hours without tiring, was drenched in sweat in less than 5 minutes of combat.

In the near-trance state of battle.

He felt the pressure of his breath quickening.

‘If this continues, I’ll die.’

Not ‘lose.’

‘Die.’

The fact that this was just a duel with a student no longer remained in Professor Lucas’s mind.

‘If I don’t want to die.’

I have to kill.

Pour out everything I have.

Only by killing the ‘enemy’ before me can I survive.

“Huuh.”

The moment he realized that.

His body, sensing danger, moved on instinct.

-*Whoosh!*

The color of the light flowing from the Holy Mark changed, and a blood-red aura enveloped his body.

‘Blood Warrior’s Blessing.’

A unique ability possessed by only a few among heroes activated, and the blood flow in his body began to race at an incomparable speed.

His muscles swelled, and the veins in his eyes burst, turning them red.

Enveloped in the blood-red aura, he looked like a ‘bloodthirsty hound.’

“Grrrrrr!”

With a roar like a beast, Professor Lucas’s axe swung wildly.

-*Crash!*

With a deafening roar that couldn’t possibly be from a sword and axe clash, Dale’s body flew through the air like a severed kite and slammed into the training ground wall.

* * *

“Dale! Dale Han! Are you okay?!”

Professor Lucas rushed toward Dale, who was embedded in the wall.

Looking at the training ground with one wall completely collapsed, Professor Lucas’s face turned pale.

Even if he was cornered, using a Blessing against a Candidate…

“Grr… Damn it! I’ll send a rescue request to the school right now, just hang in there!”

If word got out that he used a Blessing against a Candidate, he wouldn’t escape punishment, but in a situation where a student’s life was at stake, what did punishment matter?

As Professor Lucas tried to contact the school through the Hero Watch.

“I’m fine.”

Dale, who had been embedded in the wall, got up unsteadily.

“…Huh?”

Professor Lucas looked at Dale as if seeing a ghost.

“You… are you really okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Dale nodded calmly, and Professor Lucas tilted his head in confusion.

‘Looking at the state of the wall, he shouldn’t be okay…?’

At worst, instant death. At best, a few broken bones. But he’s completely fine?

Wondering if Dale was bluffing, Professor Lucas checked his body, but there wasn’t a single injury.

“I lost.”

“Uh, huh?”

“The duel. I lost.”

“Ah.”

Only then did Professor Lucas realize that he had been in a ‘duel’ until just now, and a low sigh escaped his lips.

Dale looked at Professor Lucas’s bewildered expression and chuckled.

“Still, I’m glad I could at least bring out your true ‘full power.'”

“Ah, ahem! Sorry. I ended up using a Blessing without realizing it.”

“No. I would have been disappointed if you hadn’t used it to the end.”

Dale said as he sheathed his sword.

“It was an honor to receive your guidance today. I have another class, so I’ll take my leave.”

“Uh… yeah. If you feel any pain later, be sure to contact me.”

“Yes.”

Dale turned without hesitation and left the training ground.

“…”

Professor Lucas remained in the half-destroyed training ground, recalling the duel… no, the battle with Dale.

“Phew. Teaching for so long, I’ve experienced all sorts of things.”

When I first heard he wanted to duel me, I thought he had finally gone mad.

Of course.

No matter how impressive his recent actions were, Dale was just a Candidate.

The worst underachiever since the founding of Reynald School.

“And now, in a single day, he’s become strong enough to push me to my limits.”

If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it.

“Did he really regress or something?”

Such a ridiculous thought even crossed my mind.

“Well, in the end, I still won!”

It might be pathetic to be happy about winning against a Candidate by using a Blessing.

But a win is a win, right?

At least I managed to avoid completely tarnishing my reputation as a professor.

‘Ah… wait a minute.’

As Professor Lucas reviewed the battle with Dale, his expression hardened.

From the bizarre swordsmanship he had never seen before, to the acrobatic Magic Power control, to the precise movements.

Dale’s skills had completely changed, as if he had regressed from the future.

But one thing.

One thing remained unchanged from before.

“Dale… his Magic Power was no different from what I knew.”

Less than 10% of the average Candidate’s Magic Power.

A pitiful amount, over 20 times less than mine.

Yet he pushed me to the brink of feeling ‘death.’

“…”

For a hero, Magic Power is like a weight class.

Considering the difference in Magic Power between us, it was like fighting an 8-year-old kid and sweating bullets to win.

What if.

If Dale, with his current skills, were to gain ‘Magic Power’ as well?

“Ha.”

A chilling shiver ran down his spine.

“Maybe what I’ve been teaching isn’t a hero Candidate… but a little monster.”

A deep sigh escaped Professor Lucas’s lips.