Chapter 167: Chapter 167— Raw Combat and Harsh Lessons

He deactivated his Body Enhancement.

The difference was immediate.

His strength dropped to a certain baseline human standard —still trained, still athletic from his continuous Academy conditioning, but just a tad normal. His speed became merely adequate rather than enhanced. His durability reduced to flesh-and-bone vulnerability that certain solid hits could compromise.

For the first time since gaining power…

He felt breakable.

This is what I actually am, Bright realized. No cores. No fusion talent. No hidden advantages. Just a person with a sword facing a wounded monster that still wants me dead.

The spider felt it.

Some primitive predator instinct picked up the difference — the loss of pressure, the drop in threat. What had been a wall now felt like prey again.

An Opportunity.

Where there had been a stalemate… now there was weakness.

So it lunged again with renewed aggression.

Bright dodged—barely. His spatial awareness still functioned, still provided perfect information, but his body couldn’t execute its optimal responses without the enhancement. So he had to settle for an adequate evasion rather than his perfect positioning.

This is thrilling, Bright thought despite the danger. It was an actual challenge, discovering what he could do when his advantages were removed.

His katana struck—aiming for a joint in the spider’s remaining front leg, targeting a structural weakness that would completely cripple its mobility.

The blade connected but it didn’t penetrate as deeply—without his Body Enhancement’s strength, without Absolute Void Physique’s unconscious optimization, the strike produced only a shallow cut rather than a complete severance.

My technique has flaws, Bright recognized with uncomfortable clarity. His growing power had made him out of touch with his basics. He had unconsciously been compensating for his inadequate fundamentals through his overwhelming capability rather than actually developing proper skill.

That was dangerous. Because It worked — until it didn’t.

Against someone equal. Someone stronger. Someone he couldn’t simply overwhelm.

Then only technique mattered.

And right now?

His technique was just… passable.

Not masterful. Not refined. Not lethal on its own.

Just good enough to survive — until he met something that demanded more.

The spider pressed it’s advantage—sensing his weakness,and attacking with coordination that it’s four remaining legs still enabled.

Bright defended on instinct alone — his awareness spotting every strike, but his body lagging behind the information. He saw the attacks perfectly.

He just couldn’t execute perfectly.

Steel rang. Legs scraped. Mandibles snapped inches from his face as his footwork turned messy, angles sloppy, and recovery slow.

For the first time, his limits weren’t theoretical.

They were physical.

I never learned properly, Bright admitted to himself, the truth cutting deeper than any wound.

He’d skipped steps.

Power let him skip steps.

Teleportation erased positioning errors. Spatial sense compensated for his bad guard. His physique corrected any inefficiency before it punished him.

So he never respected technique.

Never needed to.

Until now.

This will kill me one day, he understood with chilling clarity. When I face someone my level. Someone stronger. Someone I can’t overpower.

Because at the peak, advantages cancel out.

Enhancements match. Talents collide. Perception meets perception.

And then—

What decides the fight isn’t power.

It’s who wastes less motion.

Who controls distance better.

Who transitions cleaner.

Who strikes with perfect structure.

Technique.

And right now?

His was exposed.

He wasn’t terrible neither was he useless.

But he was nowhere near the level his power had tricked him into believing.

A mandible strike grazed his shoulder—a shallow wound that his Body Enhancement would have prevented entirely, that Absolute Void Physique’s barrier would have negated unconsciously.

Pain flared. Blood flowed.

Real consequences, Bright understood.

This was combat stripped to truth.

Vulnerability.

And it thrilled him.

He adjusted.

Not with power — with intent.

Spatial awareness stopped being a crutch and became a tool. He didn’t just know where the spider was — he used that knowledge to place his feet better, cut cleaner lines, choose safer angles.

Information became precision.

Precision became survival.

The fifth leg failed —it wasn’t severed, but compromised. His blade bit at the joint, structure failing under correct placement rather than brute force. The limb folded, throwing the creature’s balance off.

Bright felt it then.

The shift.

He wasn’t swinging harder.

He was swinging smarter.

Learning at a speed that would have looked unnatural to an observer.

He wasn’t relying on strength.

He was discovering its mechanics.

Distance. Timing. Leverage. Recovery.

The difference between cutting at something… and cutting through the idea of how it moves.

The sixth leg fell to a tendon slice.

Seventh gave way when he attacked during the creature’s transfer of weight to another part of its leg, as it wasn’t guarded as much at that point.

The spider sagged, it’s body lowered and its mobility ruined not by dominance—

—but by dismantling.

And for the first time since entering the Academy…

Bright wasn’t fighting like someone powerful.

He was fighting like someone dangerous.

This is what the Academy is supposed to teach, Bright realized.

Not just stronger cores make better fighters.

Or maybe they do teach it — and he just never noticed, too busy leaning on power to care.

That was the difference.

The line between the merely strong… and the truly lethal.

When power cancels out, technique decides.

And in that arena?

He was behind.

Badly behind.

His fusion talent had hidden it. Covered the cracks. Let his overwhelming prowess pretend to be skill.

But it wasn’t skill.

It was an advantage.

And advantages failed.

He needed to fix that.

Study forms.

Drill fundamentals.

Build mechanics so clean they worked even when strength didn’t.

Because one day he would face someone who had both.

And that was the kind of opponent who killed people like him.

The spider finally collapsed—too crippled to continue, bleeding from multiple wounds, mandibles still working but it’s body unable to support an attack.

Bright finished it with a precise thrust as his blade found its brain case, ending the threat without unnecessary suffering.

Then he stood over the corpse, breathing hard, bleeding from a shallow shoulder wound,and processing the lessons that the challenge had taught.

No sooner than later He reactivated his cores—Body Enhancement settling back into place its familiar support, Absolute Void Physique resuming its unconscious optimizations.

The difference was stark. An Immediate return to feeling competent rather than barely adequate. Power masking his technique deficiencies once again.

But now he knew. And understood what he was missing.

As he pondered,a flicker of disappointment followed when he checked the Crawler’s body and realized it had no core, no reward for the risks he’d taken limiting himself.

All that trouble for nothing, he thought dryly.

Then his gaze shifted.

Cedric’s remains were still caught between the spider’s mandibles—crushed, blood-matted, and grotesquely still.

The sight cut through everything.

This wasn’t a spar.

Not a controlled drill.

Not some harmless growth exercise.

This place killed people.

And no amount of talent, awareness, or potential changed that.

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