Chapter 345: Clean Cut…

It all felt strange, but when Lily remembered what Donn and Aria had tried to do, the uneasiness faded.

Even at her young age, she understood things very clearly.

This world was not Earth.

Here, danger existed everywhere.

Monsters roamed the wilds.

Dungeons appeared without warning.

Entire villages could disappear overnight if adventurers failed to stop the creatures emerging from those cursed places.

The people of this world were not naïve.

Even those who valued morality understood a simple truth.

When someone tried to kill you…

you fought back.

There was no room for hesitation.

No room for mercy.

So Lily simply continued watching quietly.

The movie moved forward.

The next scene appeared.

The forest battlefield.

Thirty awakened recruits.

Against one man.

Bruce.

The atmosphere inside the theater shifted immediately.

People leaned forward in their seats.

Some instinctively held their breath.

They had all heard about this moment.

The infamous clash where Bruce faced thirty opponents at once.

But hearing about it and witnessing it unfold on the massive screen were two entirely different experiences.

The recruits surrounded him cautiously, forming a wide circle among the broken trees and scattered rocks.

Some of them stood with obvious confidence.

Others looked tense.

But every single one of them understood that Bruce had already defeated several powerful opponents earlier in the trial.

And yet…

none of them stepped back.

Lightning crackled faintly around one recruit’s weapon.

Another’s blade burned with flickering flames.

Mana gathered in the air like a brewing storm.

Then.

the battle erupted.

The screen exploded into motion.

One recruit charged first, a massive warhammer raised above his head as he roared and brought the weapon crashing down with crushing force.

Bruce sidestepped.

The hammer smashed into the ground with a deafening impact, stone fragments exploding outward.

Before the attacker could even recover.

Bruce’s dagger flashed.

A single clean strike.

The man collapsed instantly.

Another recruit rushed in from behind, twin blades spinning in a deadly arc aimed at Bruce’s neck.

Bruce bent backward.

The blades sliced through empty air just inches from his throat.

Then he twisted.

His elbow drove violently into the attacker’s ribs.

The crack of breaking bone echoed through the clearing.

The recruit collapsed without another sound.

A fire technique suddenly roared across the battlefield as another awakened unleashed a blazing torrent toward Bruce.

Flames surged forward like a raging beast.

Gasps erupted in the theater.

But Bruce didn’t dodge.

He stepped forward.

Straight through the flames.

His body moved like flowing water, weaving through the gaps between the fire as though he could see paths others could not.

In the next instant.

he stood directly in front of the caster.

The dagger moved once.

Just once.

The opponent dropped.

A wave of shocked murmurs spread across the theater.

The battle did not look like thirty people fighting one man.

It looked like prey throwing themselves at a predator.

Bruce moved continuously across the battlefield.

Efficient.

Controlled.

Every motion precise.

Every strike lethal.

There was no wasted movement.

No hesitation.

Within less than a minute.

the battlefield had changed completely.

Bodies lay scattered across the forest clearing.

Broken weapons glinted between fallen trees.

Those who remained standing looked shaken.

Some stepped back unconsciously.

Others swallowed nervously as they stared at the calm figure standing in the center of the battlefield.

Their earlier confidence had vanished.

From the audience’s perspective…

Bruce did not look like a recruit anymore.

He looked like something else entirely.

A monster walking through a battlefield.

And yet.

Bruce himself remained calm.

He simply stood there quietly.

Waiting.

That single detail slowly shifted something in the audience’s perception.

At that moment an arrow killed of the last remaining recruits fighting Bruce.

That small act planted doubt in the minds of the people watching.

The screen dimmed slightly as the narrator’s voice returned.

“At this point…”

“…only two opponents remained.”

The camera slowly panned across the battlefield.

Jean Frost.

And Sophie Reign.

The battlefield shifted once again.

Jean’s ice mana erupted outward like a violent winter storm as frost spread rapidly across the clearing.

The ground froze over instantly.

Sharp crystalline spikes burst from the earth, racing toward Bruce from every direction.

Bruce moved between them effortlessly.

His steps were light.

Precise.

Jean’s attacks were fast.

But Bruce’s reactions were faster.

Their clash lasted longer than any previous fight shown in the movie.

Jean was skilled.

Disciplined.

Her techniques were refined through years of careful training.

For the first time in the trial.

Bruce was forced to fight seriously.

Ice blades collided with flashing daggers.

Frozen winds tore through the battlefield.

Jean unleashed one technique after another, her control over ice mana turning the clearing into a deadly frozen field.

Finally.

she launched her final attack.

An entire storm of razor sharp ice spears erupted from the ground around Bruce, converging from every direction at once.

For a brief moment.

it looked unavoidable.

But Bruce vanished.

A blur.

A flicker of motion too fast for the eye to follow.

Then.

he appeared behind her.

His dagger rested lightly against her throat.

Jean froze.

The battlefield fell silent.

The fight was over.

Clearly this place had a lot of editing but it was ok.

The theater remained quiet for several long seconds.

Then the scene slowly faded. Then it was Sophie

The moment Sophie appeared on screen again.

the entire theater grew silent.

This was only the second time she had appeared in the movie.

But the earlier scene featuring her had already left a powerful impression on everyone present.

The film briefly replayed that moment.

The vast grasslands.

A thunderous herd of Bronze Horned Buffalo charging across the open plains.

Hundreds of massive beasts shaking the earth with their approach.

And Sophie standing calmly before them.

Unmoving.

Unshaken.

Her Arcane Sword moved only once.

A single elegant swing.

For a brief moment nothing happened.

The buffalo continued charging.

Then every single one of them split cleanly in half.

Their upper bodies slid from their lower halves at the exact same time.

The cut had been so impossibly clean…

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