Chapter 108
One exchange between Leon and Richard had just passed.
Gasps erupted among the knights watching the duel.
“Did you see that just now? His movement?”
“No. It happened so fast I couldn’t even tell what he did…….”
Even though they were, in their own way, the empire’s elite knights, it was hard for them to even understand that split-second exchange.
Aurora, who had been listening to their conversation with one ear, asked Aslan beside her.
“What did Leon just do?”
“He shook the ground Sir Richard was standing on and ruined his stance. Once the axis twisted, the point where the pull formed shifted, and he broke through that opening with force.”
“Gravity?”
“Sir Richard’s sword technique.”
Richard’s Gravity Slash.
A distortion of space created by swinging mana condensed to an extreme density with full force.
The coordinates of space momentarily warped, sucking in everything around it.
Even the members who had sparred with Richard often found it nearly impossible to deal with.
But Leon improvised and broke through it in one move.
“Is that impressive?”
“Even this old man still remembers how much trouble he had in his first spar with Sir Richard.”
“That much…….”
Aurora was completely ignorant when it came to fighting. She had not learned magic like Aether either.
She was an utterly ordinary commoner.
When she passed through the imperial palace, she often saw the knights training, but she had only ever thought, ‘They must be working hard.’
And yet, Aurora.
“…….”
She couldn’t take her eyes off Leon as he dueled Richard.
She still didn’t know exactly what Leon was doing.
Even watching it, even hearing the explanation, she still couldn’t quite understand.
And yet she kept watching. Her gaze was drawn to where he stood.
‘I knew Leon was strong, but…….’
Seeing it with her own eyes, it was simply fascinating.
Aurora gazed intently at Leon.
“Huh…?”
Suddenly, Leon closed his eyes.
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“Closing your eyes during a spar. How am I supposed to take that?”
“Don’t mind me. Just continue as you were.”
“Hmm.”
Closing your eyes in battle was practically suicide.
Of course, sight wasn’t everything, but even so, vision played an enormous role.
‘A feint? A trap?’
He had already seen Leon’s skill once.
Whatever the reason for closing his eyes, confirming it in close combat would be dangerous.
In that case.
‘Shake him.’
Richard’s sword tip scraped across the sand. He swept the ground up in a wide slash.
-Shwaaak!
The sand surged up like a curtain.
The line of sight between the two was instantly cut off.
“He blocked our view?”
“And the opponent has his eyes closed?”
The knights voiced their confusion.
Aurora looked at Aslan as if expecting an explanation.
“He’s dulling the senses.”
No sooner had he said that—
Yellow light flashed beyond the sand curtain.
The yellow glow lining the blade took shape for an instant.
It was a lion.
The form of a massive beast with its mane bristling high.
The next moment.
-Grrroooaaar!
With a deafening roar that called to mind a real lion’s bellow, the golden lion tore through the sand curtain and burst out.
He had intended to test Leon’s response by sending a slash from a distance.
-Vwoom.
A golden ring rose beneath Leon’s feet.
The master it was sworn to protect was gone, but once declared, the vow of guardianship continued unbroken.
The circle was tiny, barely large enough for two feet.
The more the circle was reduced, the more his physical abilities rose to an extreme degree.
It was a size that made moving impossible. But Leon had never intended to move in the first place.
He stood rooted in place and faced the onrushing slash.
Just before the lion that had rushed up to him was about to swallow Leon.
-Sshhk!
The air split.
The charging lion split in two and scattered to either side without being able to swallow Leon.
Only the force of the wind lashed at Leon’s hems.
“The slash…… disappeared?”
“Did the commander make a mistake?”
“He’s not the kind of man who’d make a mistake like that. Besides, it suddenly split in half.”
Aurora looked at Aslan again, asking him for an explanation.
“That just now could it be…….”
But Aslan only murmured to himself with his eyes wide open.
Richard felt the same sense of wrongness.
“Swift Sword…?”
Something had split the slash.
Yet if he had swung his sword at a speed too fast for the eye to catch, Leon’s posture would have changed at least a little.
‘There’s something invisible.’
Richard reached that conclusion at once.
He had no intention of stopping at a guess.
On the battlefield, the one who clings to uncertainty dies first.
He just had to confirm it.
-Srrng.
Richard raised his sword at an angle.
A yellow mass of light coiled once more around the blade.
This time, it did not shape itself into a massive form like before.
Instead, long and thin.
It split into many strands and layered itself over the blade.
“I’ll tear apart whatever trick you’re using.”
He swung his sword.
Once.
And immediately again.
Two sword energies flew in along different trajectories.
Their speed and angle were both different.
A chain of slashes that would be hard to block even if you could follow them with your eyes.
Aurora, watching from the sidelines, held her breath without realizing it.
But.
Leon was still standing in the same spot.
‘Up. Down.’
Leon’s senses traced the grain of the incoming slashes.
An intangible sword came into his hand.
No, he felt as if it had.
He pictured himself swinging that sword as he had tens of thousands of times before.
And he twitched the fingers holding the sword.
Then.
-Sshhk.
The slash was cut apart.
He twitched his finger once more.
The second slash’s trajectory twisted and skimmed past Leon’s side.
-Kwaak!
The sand behind him was gouged out in a long furrow. Only then did Leon’s hem flutter belatedly.
Richard’s eyebrow twitched.
He hadn’t swung his sword.
He hadn’t extended his arm.
He hadn’t turned his shoulder.
He had only moved his fingers by the slightest amount.
Yet all of the attacks were neutralized.
There was something around Leon that could not be seen with the eyes.
It wasn’t a simple barrier. If it were a barrier, the slash would have been blocked.
But what just happened wasn’t blocked.
It had been cut.
It had been shaved away.
Its direction had been thrown off.
As if they were trading sword blows.
“It’s a blade.”
A blade without form.
Formless Sword.
At the realization, the corner of Richard’s mouth slowly lifted.
“Interesting.”
He adjusted his grip on the sword.
This time, he didn’t split the slash into two.
At first, one line.
Then two.
Three.
Soon dozens of thin lines wrapped around the blade.
It looked as if he had layered other blades one atop another on the blade itself.
“Then let’s see how far you can cut.”
Richard’s arm blurred.
-Chwa-jajajak!
Sword energy poured out.
Not one. Not two.
Dozens.
Thin, long yellow lines scattered down like rain.
A number of slashes too many to track with the eye rushed toward the tiny circle where Leon stood.
There was nowhere to evade.
He hadn’t intended to move from the start.
As if playing the sword like an instrument, Leon snapped his fingers.
Then.
-Sshhkshhkshhkshhkshhk.
Unseen blades moved in succession around Leon.
The slash falling from above split apart.
The slash aimed at his flank twisted.
The line aimed at his neck was severed.
The trajectory aimed at his ankle lost its power in midair.
All of it happened almost simultaneously.
-Kwa-kwa-kwa-boom!
The fragments of cut-down sword energy exploded all around Leon.
Sand surged upward.
The wind burst.
His hems whipped violently.
But none of it touched Leon.
Not a single one.
“…….”
At some point, even sounds of surprise vanished. Everyone stared blankly, having forgotten even to blink.
The sand settled.
The torn yellow afterglow scattered into the air.
Leon, standing at the center, slowly opened his eyes. He looked across at Richard.
Richard was silent for a moment.
Then.
“……Heh.”
A short laugh slipped out.
A laugh of disbelief.
But there was no displeasure in it. On the contrary, his face looked strangely refreshed.
-Swish.
Richard sheathed his sword.
And slowly raised both hands.
“That’s enough. I lose.”
The entire training ground rippled at those words.
“The commander……?”
“Surrender? The commander lost?”
Voices of disbelief poured out from all around.
“Already?”
Leon also blinked, seeming a little surprised as well.
“We haven’t even properly gone at it yet.”
“A swordsman should know his own limits. If we kept going, what else would happen but my defeat?”
Richard spoke calmly. His voice held neither resignation nor humiliation.
It carried only the calm of someone stating an obvious fact.
“I can hardly believe it. You’ve grown this much again in such a short time.”
Aslan, watching from the side, let out a hollow laugh.
He hadn’t been this strong when Aslan fought him during the Witch Suppression campaign.
He had climbed several more levels.
“…….”
Aurora couldn’t smile. She could only stare blankly at Leon.
Richard raised his hand.
Even without Aslan explaining it, she could understand what it meant.
Leon had won.
Exactly how he had won, she still didn’t know.
She didn’t understand even half of the talk about Formless Sword, Gravity Slash, or sword energy.
But one thing was clear.
The slave standing there was a little different from the Leon she knew.
‘……No.’
No.
Maybe he had always been like that.
She had simply not known.
The spar was over.
Leon and Richard returned to where the others were.
“So, how was it sparring with him yourself?”
Aslan asked, unable to hide his smile.
“It’s quite different from what you told me, isn’t it? You downplayed his strength just to mess with me.”
“What are you talking about? I told you exactly as it was. He simply got stronger in the meantime.”
Richard didn’t believe it.
It had only been a little over a month since Leon came to the imperial capital.
The martial prowess he had shown was not something that could be reached in such a short time.
He was sure Aslan had lied just to make a fool of him.
Richard glared at Aslan in displeasure, then turned away.
At the end of that gaze was Leon.
Even though the spar had ended, Leon didn’t seem particularly moved.
He looked deep in thought, as if mulling something over.
Richard watched Leon quietly.
“Leon.”
“Yes?”
After a brief hesitation, Richard continued as if confirming his judgment.
“Would you have any interest in joining the Imperial Knights?”