Chapter 384 Volume VI – 17: The Strongest of the Academy

The duel seemed to be over. I had no chance to dodge each of the attacks coming from all four sides.

At least that’s what people thought.

And… even though they were thinking wrong, I actually didn’t intend to move.

I stood where I was, not even moving, letting them make their attack.

I felt Cassandra’s rapier enter my shoulder, piercing through my flesh and touching the bone. One of Jack’s daggers went into my left arm and one into my right leg. The lightning spell from my left struck my body directly, while the fierce wind blades from my right cut through my clothes and opened countless cuts on my body.

The duel was over…

I smiled anyway, speaking slowly, in a calm tone.

“The fourth rule of the battlefield: you will get hurt, you will inevitably get wounded… but you must endure. You will endure.”

Blue flames enveloped each of my wounds, and Cassandra’s eyes widened.

“The moment you collapse, you will lose everything.”

I grabbed the rapier that had pierced my shoulder with my other hand and swung my forehead at Cassandra’s face, giving her a solid blow before she could teleport.

The flames were already melting the daggers of ice and closing my wounds one by one. But I ripped one of them from my leg before it melted completely and quickly plunged it into Cassandra’s shoulder.

I felt her whole body tremble, but I didn’t care. I snatched the rapier from her hand and threw it aside, then grabbed Cassandra by the shoulder and simply spun her around, sending her to the student on my left.

I quickly turned my free hand to the student on my right and sent a huge fireball of blue flames. Without looking at the results, I quickly turned to where Jack was and lunged at him.

His eyes were wide as if he could not believe what he was seeing. But he recovered quickly and took up a defensive position.

“The fifth rule of the battlefield: if you can’t take it, run away. Overconfidence is deadly.”

I clenched my fist, using most of my mana to strengthen it as much as I could. Then, I simply swung at Jack.

Jack was thrown backward with a small shockwave. But without waiting for him to hit the wall, I moved and caught him mid-air. I grabbed him by the collar, then slammed his body to the floor.

I turned my hand behind my back, creating a strong gust of wind that knocked one of the fourth-years, who was just getting to his feet, off his feet and pulled him toward me. I caught him in mid-air too and then hit Jack using his body with all my strength.

As the arena fell silent, I covered both my hands in flames and turned around, blocking Cassandra’s punch. Her expression turned ugly and her lips trembled as the flames from my fists clearly burned her hand.

I quickly tripped her, and without letting her fall to the ground, I punched her hard in the stomach. She could do nothing as she collapsed to the ground.

The arena was really silent this time. They were all on the floor. Jack and Cassandra were writhing in pain while the other two students had already passed out.

The duel… was really over now.

I put a big smile on my face, and as caora retreated from my body, I switched my sword back to cane form, tapping the ground with a loud thud.

“I may be stronger than you, yes. But experience is the real reason you lost today.”

With slow steps, I turned around and looked at Jack, anger in his eyes, glaring at me.

I tore my gaze away from him and turned toward the stands.

“That’s why I advise you not to stand in front of me, because I have not only survived months in that hell called war… but I also have the strength to back up my experience.”

I stopped my eyes on a camera. It was clearly live, pointed directly at me.

“If you want to stand in front of me, that’s fine. I will crush you all like I did Jack and Cassandra today. Either stay out of my way or get on my side. The choice is yours.”

I turned toward Adrian and Lucia, walking toward the corridor that belonged to us.

“Let’s go.”

And we left, leaving the arena as it was.

*******

After the duel in the arena, many things have changed in the academy.

First of all… everyone seems to be afraid of me now. Whether adults or students, almost everyone… and it’s not that I don’t understand why. I’d be a little afraid of myself too…

But such things are meaningless now. Because… I have achieved my goal.

“Three hundred and sixty from the second-years… one hundred and six from the third-years and fifty-four from the fourth-years. A lot more than I thought, huh.”

Some had written to me through the messaging app, some had visited my dorm room directly… but most had made it clear that they wanted to join me.

Of course, there were some who didn’t take my warning seriously and went to Jack and Cassandra anyway. And there were many more who chose not to join anyone else than to join me.

But I had gotten what I wanted. So I didn’t really care about the rest.

Instead… I was working on improving my sword mastery right now.

I had almost completely mastered the second phase of Ambiguous Flow, and with a skill like Saturated with Mana, and my greatly improved mana control, it hadn’t been too difficult. And now… the third phase was next.

The third phase was basically an advanced version of the second. Instead of creating simple illusions by affecting the mana in the atmosphere, it aimed to directly manipulate and use that mana by making it wild.

Of course, it was impossible to do this directly with the mana technique alone. That’s why this was the first phase of the Ambiguous Flow that specifically required sword techniques.

And this was a big problem.

Because… it was almost impossible for me to practice something like sword technique thanks to my body. My right arm wouldn’t go above my shoulder, and my right leg felt like it was going to stumble with every step I took. It was impossible to do physical training like that.

So… I didn’t have time to train non-stop like before.

I had very little room for trial and error.

I had to absorb each phase in minute detail, research what I was going to do right, decide on a definite outcome, and only then try it physically.

And, well… that’s exactly what I was going to do.

I read the guide containing the third phase of the Ambiguous Flow countless times from beginning to end, every body movement, the flow of mana, the change in the way the atmosphere reaches for mana, and everything…

Again and again… and again.

I tried to simulate the technique in my mind, creating different ways of practicing, comparing them, and trying to find the best options.

Minutes followed minutes, hours followed hours… finally, though, I took a deep breath. It was late at night, but I didn’t care. I stood up, reached for the caora… and got a response.

It’s much easier to get a response from the caora since I woke up from my coma. Maybe it’s because of Aiden and Alaric, maybe it’s Durandal again… I’m not sure. But I’m not complaining.

I just concentrated the caora to the point where I could use mana, and I kept it from escaping into my surroundings so that it wouldn’t disturb those in the dormitory building.

I picked up my sword and moved slowly through the center of the hall. My footwork was perfect and it was easy to direct and manipulate the mana with my sword. In this way, I was able to create illusions simply.

Then I went to the hard part. My footwork changed, becoming harder but slower. The flow of wild mana surrounding my sword slowed and intensified. The mana entering my body and extending into the atmosphere changed step by step.

But soon, I paused, disrupting all movement and opening my eyes, which I had closed to focus.

“I’m doing it wrong.”

It wasn’t hard to realize. My movements were right, maybe, but… not enough.

They had to be more accurate, more perfect. The same with my control and refinement of the flow of my mana.

“Again.”

And again.

After two or three minutes, I stopped supporting my body with the caora. I thought about the technique again from the start, I tried to analyze my mistake… and then I tried again.

After a few minutes, again.

‘Aiden…’

I paused at the sound of Sith’s voice, raising an eyebrow at his hovering figure.

‘It’s getting morning.’

“Oh…”

My eyes drifted outside, to my window… and then to the sunlight I could see through it.

“I’d better go to sleep… thanks.”

I was thinking that it wouldn’t matter if I skipped classes anyway. In fact, when I went to bed, it wasn’t even about classes I was thinking about.

It was more about… the future.

And Sue.

“Haaaah…”

I cleared myself of my thoughts and tried to surrender myself to sleep, even if it was less than normal. I counted the seconds with my eyes closed, one by one.

…

…

Then a strange sensation came from literally nowhere.

My closed eyes slowly opened as I focused on the uncomfortable sensation spreading through my body. It was like as if something was… wrong.

This feeling remained for a while. Always there and… quite disturbing. After a short while, though, it disappeared as if it had never existed.

“Strange…”

I couldn’t help sighing deeply as I threw myself back on my bed.

I should go to the doctor sometime and get examined… something might be wrong with my body again.

*******

*(A/N: I have an important thing to do today so I will not be able to write any chapter. So the next chapter will also come late, not at the usual 00.00 for UTC+0. Sorry, but it’s really important. And don’t worry, I will start writing the moment I get home.)*

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