The Academy’s Ankle Reaper – Chapter 197

This wasn’t the original plan.

My head has gotten hotter than necessary.

Yes, the original plan was…

As soon as Lucia heard that Carlos was coming this way through the bridge, she trembled with anxiety.

“He’s coming right now?”

“Uh… what should we do?? Nothing is prepared yet….”

It was unexpected. How could anyone think that he would come back just two days after causing such chaos?

Lucia was right. Meeting him again without any preparation was definitely not a good situation.

I at least wanted to have built up some confidence by overcoming a high-level wall before facing him.

Lucia was still afraid of her father.

‘…Could it be that he’s coming to withdraw already?’

It seemed strange that he would be arriving so soon after having been so bold.

For the sake of his pride, it wouldn’t be easy for someone like him to just overturn what he decided.

But the fact he came anyway suggested that the five pillars or the royal family must have pressured Russell.

Anyone among the students at the academy could become Russell’s son-in-law.

That meant candidates also included potential chiefs from the Beastman Alliance and princes from the Five Kingdoms.

In fact, one of the princes even stepped forward himself.

From the royal family’s perspective, they wouldn’t want Russell to become blood-related to them.

“I had such a hard time with that… And now he might flip it like it’s nothing?? That’s just selfish! It’s always like this with my father…!!”

Lucia was furious with Carlos’s unpredictable behavior.

After having so much emotional struggle until now, hearing that he might change things at a moment when things seemed to be improving made her rage boil.

However, the fiery anger quickly diminished.

It seemed that the fear of Carlos had grown bigger than her anger.

Although she said she would confront him no matter what, she hadn’t truly overcome her fears yet.

Overcoming fears isn’t something that happens just because you want it to.

But this might be a good opportunity.

I would try to help Lucia reduce her fear of Carlos this time.

Lucia was afraid of Carlos because she had never seen him lose.

To improve this, it was necessary to show that the seemingly invincible figure could be brought down in front of her eyes.

In simple terms, I meant to catch him off-guard and give him a beating.

“That’s… too dangerous. If you get hurt, I don’t want that…”

Lucia vehemently protested against my plan to face him.

Even after seeing me fight with the Demon Bishop before, it’s unclear whether she doesn’t quite grasp how that fight went, or if in her eyes Carlos looms as a figure of immense power.

“Well, you can intervene if things go south. I won’t lose, so don’t worry.”

What if he retaliates, you ask?

Who’s going to broadcast that a top expert was beaten up by an academy student?

…

“…You… what are you?!”

Carlos, with a deep blue bruise on his face, sprang up and glared at me.

“Head of the House, are you alright??!”

“You bastard!!!! What do you think you’re doing!!!”

With a terrible crash, soldiers waiting outside rushed in.

This is where the trouble starts.

I had already laid my hands on Carlos, and there was no turning back now.

I still hoped to have a conversation, but unexpectedly he is suddenly talking about height?

I had already planned for Lucia to keep the engagement as a way to annoy Carlos, but I accidentally charged in first.

The plan was a bit off, but now that I’ve hit him, I have to face him properly.

“Everyone back off!”

“But Head of the House…!”

“Didn’t I say back off?!”

Carlos seemed embarrassed to show that he had been struck and ordered all the approaching soldiers to retreat.

Even though I had smashed through a window and flown out of the building, luckily the principal had all the people detained in the annex, so it didn’t escalate into a major commotion.

Once he stood up with wide-open eyes, Carlos spoke to me.

“How could you… with that small body of yours, throw me away?!”

Veins began to throb visibly on his forehead.

“Did you just call me small…?!!!!”

Once or twice is one thing? I won’t let this go.

I’ll make sure he ends up badly, but not dead.

—————————————————

Carlos was facing something unbelievable.

‘Did I… just get hit and fly away?’

He wanted to think it was a dream, but the intense pain on his face made him realize the reality.

He couldn’t even remember the last time someone made him leave the ground after he mastered the Sword of Stone.

The last memory was losing to Linda just before becoming a Master in his school days.

Even Linda had thrown Carlos off the ground through sheer strength; Atlas’s attack naturally blew him away too.

As if it was never supposed to be fixed from the start.

Carlos looked at the person in front of him again.

It was a student who seemed so small and delicate compared to him.

‘Just a student? No… Is that even a student?’

Now, he was starting to see them as some unidentified entity.

“How could you… throw me away… with that small body?!”

“Did you just call me small again…?!!!!”

Hearing that, Atlas once again charged at Carlos in rage.

In his hand was a long sword with a pitch-black blade.

Carlos also drew the sword that had been hanging at his waist.

Considering how much I had just been hit, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down.

After all, the opponent wasn’t just a student.

He was someone who was either as strong or even stronger.

‘Then..!’

As Carlos drew his sword, the space around him began to distort.

The Sword of Stone’s unique ability took command of the space around it.

No matter how fast the opponent might be, if the sword dominates the entire space, a response is possible.

In that moment, Carlos was shocked.

‘The space…?!’

The space around Atlas was also distorted.

‘How is he able to use that?! Could it be… did Lucia teach him?!’

The distortion of space around the sword was a characteristic seen in the swordsmen who mastered the Sword of Stone.

The question about how an outsider like Atlas could use it rattled Carlos.

Even if Lucia had taught him, that didn’t make sense.

Not everyone who mastered the Sword of Stone could reach that level.

It was a technique that could only be used after fully understanding the principle of merging one’s meridian with oneself.

It’s not an easy skill to acquire in just a few months of practice.

‘That can’t be… It must be a trick. If it’s an artifact or some other magic, it could look similar.

He must be trying to confuse me. But if it’s a simple trick… I’ll blow it all away!’

There is one other way to wield that form of sword, but it also seemed unrealistic, so I dismissed that possibility altogether.

No, before it even became unrealistic, I couldn’t accept that.

Carlos shook off his doubts and focused on creating a blade more refined than ever.

Right after, the two swords clashed.

To be precise, the blades of the two swords did not touch each other.

Just before the blades clashed, they both stopped as if an invisible repulsive force was at play between them.

And the 200-year-old reception room on the first floor of the academy’s annex was wiped from history.

-KWA-BOOM!!!

As the formless auras surrounding the two swords collided, a shockwave erupted, seemingly struck by a delayed explosion.

The walls of the reception room, protected by defensive magic, shattered completely, creating a massive hole in the annex, and the entire building shook.

Neither of the two moved from their spots, but Carlos’s arm, which had defended against Atlas’s strike, was trembling.

‘It’s a heavy… sword!’

Atlas’s sword wasn’t just a mimicry of appearance.

The auras surrounding the sword were accurately dominating the space, and they were immensely heavy.

He had clearly grasped the principles of the ‘Greatsword.’

And the depth of that understanding felt like something he hadn’t acquired in just a day or two of practice.

Carlos’s sword was being pushed back by Atlas’s.

Carlos felt as if he’d been dealt a heavy blow to the back of his head from the confusion.

A swordsman using the Sword of Stone, who possessed a realm beyond his own?

There’s no way such a thing could possibly be just an academy student.

“That’s… the Sword of Stone. How… how are you able to use that?!”

“Please don’t compare it to that petty thing.”

“Petty thing?”

Atlas, who seemed displeased at being compared to the Sword of Stone, gripped his sword tighter.

“!!”

Atlas raised the long sword above his head with both hands, taking a high guard stance.

It was merely raising the sword, but the pressure was suffocating.

Carlos felt a sense of looming giants from Atlas, who was much shorter than him.

‘Have I been dominated?’

For a brief moment, he was overwhelmed by the high guard stance posed by that small body.

Normally, someone of that height would not even be a significant threat to someone as tall as Carlos.

It should have just been a stance to respond to Carlos’s attacks.

But right now, what he felt was the exact opposite.

‘This cannot be. This shouldn’t happen!!’

Carlos judged the emotion swirling inside him to be a delusion and erased it, raising his sword high into the sky like Atlas.

Though the grip style and stance were different, it was undeniably a high guard stance.

Just like Atlas, a suffocating pressure emanated from around Carlos.

To hide the fear sprouting in his chest, he gathered even more aura.

The sight of someone under 150 cm standing side by side with someone 2m tall, both raising their swords, was utterly ridiculous.

The Sword of Stone’s “Heaven-shaking Earth-toppling”

With the trajectory of Carlos’s sword, a formidably large aura was unleashed.

The extreme of the Sword of Stone, which could turn the skies and earth upside down with a single strike, descended upon Atlas.

Seeing Carlos’s Heaven-shaking Earth-toppling filling his vision, Atlas responded ‘a moment late.’

He inhaled deeply as if he were taking a deep breath, and with one breath, he absorbed all the mana and meridian around him before crashing down his sword.

Just before the swing, Atlas’s aura was smaller than Carlos’s Heaven-shaking Earth-toppling.

But the moment he swung, the explosively increased aura ripped through Carlos’s.

The technique used by Atlas was the Titan’s Vision Swordsmanship—Measuring Mountain’s Strike, but it had no formal name as a skill.

If one had mastered Measuring Mountain’s Strike, a natural swing would occur.

If an outsider had to name that strike, it would be called…

The Strike of a Giant.