Holding the sword with a firm grip, she lowered her stance and collected her breath.
The blood circulating around her body turned scorching hot and her concentration broke through the limits and slowed down the surrounding world.
In a sluggish world where she could see the wind currents and hear segmented shouts of the crowd,
Yeorum took a step forward.
Instantaneously, her body flew forward. She wasn’t using a fast movement technique nor was she bending the dimension. There was a fundamental difference to what she was doing right now.
The energy pushing her forward was from the explosion beneath her feet. It was impossible to control a movement skill like this, if one didn’t have a strong enough body to endure it or couldn’t precisely calculate the location of the explosion as well as the magnitude.
[Ember]
But Yeorum successfully crossed a hundred metres in one step. Like a jet she flew, and the end of her path was met with a sword.
Although her sword had been aiming for the neck, it instead collided with another sword.
—!
Then flared out an aftershock as blazing embers flickered into all sides. In the next moment, Javier moved and his sword was right in front of Yeorum’s face in the blink of an eye.
The grand golden sword aura reaching 4 metres in length fell towards her like a guillotine.
—!
She blocked it but her bones were still shaken. It felt like she was being suppressed by a large press machine – the ground beneath her feet quivered and shattered.
Unable to stay in place, she instead chose to be flung away. After retreating dozens of metres, Yeorum finally regained her stance.
Or rather, she tried to. She didn’t have enough time due to Javier flying after her with the sword in hand.
Kwaangg–!
Twisting her body in mid-air, she somehow blocked it. The aura of the sun fell straight from the sky and drove in as if trying to kill her.
But Yeorum still managed to block his attack.
Surprised?
I’m a lot stronger now yeah, you fucking bastard?
Using all of her strength, she barely flicked the sword away. He fell back and she chased after him while bombarding him with her sword.
Once again, a pillar of brilliant light came striking down at Yeorum from the sky. At the same time, Javier used several supportive spells: restriction, neutralisation, fragmentation and motion seal.
In return, Yeorum split her mouth wide open since she could now also use draconic mana in human form.
The condensed cluster of mana was fired from her mouth.
Tung–
However, the breath was blocked and negated by his longsword. It created large sparks like that of a welding machine except a lot bigger.
Even though he stumbled from the impact and half of his armours were either dented or shattered, he still swung his sword at Yeorum.
Their swords collided ten times. Each and every strike created a tear in the dimensions and crushed the ground.
Screams of the crowd reached her ears as the mages zealously used their mana to block the aftershock from reaching the audience.
Thirty times.
Fifty times.
And a hundred times. The two of them endlessly swung their swords. Each swing came at a lethal angle aiming at their vital points and the inability to block one attack would immediately cause a fatal wound so Yeorum’s senses were more sensitive than ever before.
“Kuut!”
Before long, Javier distanced himself with a groan. Yeorum should have ran in but was also fatigued and was slightly late to do so.
An incomparably immense aura of fire seeped into his sword.
She knew what it was from the dozens of videos she had seen.
A blinding light gathered at the risen longsword. What came next was the authority that allowed one to reign over a small territory!
[Solar Sword]
The sheer amount of presence stifled her breath.
His sword came rushing through the dimension. The area under the reign of the Solar Sword would make everyone else feel like they were underwater and interfere with their movement. On the other hand, he would be like a shark underwater.
Yeorum also raised her mana and prepared for the strongest skill she could use. The essence of the Karl-Gullakwa Stand-up Martial Art – the last skill ‘he’ taught her when she came back to the land.
Answering her call, the onion core added strength to her attack.
Flames started gushing out of Yeorum’s longsword. The secret move of the barbarian warriors that used to rip the ancient dragons to pieces – that astonishing flow of explosion soared from the ground all the way to the sky.
[Volcano]
Their swords intersected.
—-!!
The world quaked from the ridiculous impact.
She felt one of the bones dislocate around her ribs and her mind turned dizzy for a bit. What let her come back to her senses was the pain caused from the dislocated rib bone pointing at her innards. However, she couldn’t spare any effort for recovery.
Enduring the pain she stood her ground.
“Uguguk…”
The core trembled like it was having a fit.
Her body also wobbled. Even though she was withstanding it with her tough body, the moment she added more strength to push the sword away, more ribs followed suit and cracked from the unbearable pressure.
Drip–. Blood started flowing from her nose and it spreaded out to both her mouth and her chin.
She pushed down.
She blocked his march with all her might.
Using her two arms and her body, she pressed down and clenched her teeth to the point they would break to endure the pain.
When he desperately retaliated, the ground started to crumble and scatter while leaving behind long crevices. It felt as if a mountain range was focusing all of its weight on her. While being oppressed by that sheer pressure, Yeorum looked at the eyes of the blind man.
Even though he couldn’t see with his eyes, he was still staring at her. The reason he was so serious despite this officially being a spar, was because he had also recognised his opponent.
And embedded in his eyes was a scorching fighting spirit.
He blatantly started disregarding his safety, and was now looking for any ways out even if they were to come at the cost of sacrificing his bones.
It would be over if she was pushed away once. This was a bout and a test of vigour that she could not lose.
She had to push him away and fortunately, she knew how to do it – she had learned it already.
Yeorum calmed down the pulsations of her heart.
Regaining her breath, her body was at last able to stand up and walk forward.
By walking forward she would be able to run, and at the end of her sprint, she would be able to stand straight again.
‘Stand straight up and gaze ahead.’
‘His’ voice grazed past her ears.
Yeorum widely opened her eyes and from within the pouring embers of flame,
She looked at her enemy.
***
“Uwaahhk!”
“Huuk! This is insane!”
The rising flames covered the sky as the astonished screams and shouts of the audience echoed in the background.
They were appalled.
Javier’s secret move that had killed a large monster of 20 metres in body length in the blink of an eye during the Great War was blocked. It was blocked by a young 20-year-old superhuman…!
“Huh?”
“Nn?”
But the situation rapidly turned on its head again.
Yeorum, who should have been in the lead, did not attack.
Or rather, it looked like she couldn’t attack judging from the apparent stiffness of her body.
“What! What’s going on?!”
“She was doing so well until now…! Why didn’t she push the lead!?”
The onlookers could not guess the reason and lamented with concern.
“…Did she push herself too much?”
“Yeah. I guess it is hard to hold off against an attack like that.”
When the fight returned to having little to no progress, the crowd began to think that Yeorum was exhausted to her limits. Even the Association’s manager appeared to be thinking that from how flustered he was.
“Ahjussi. What’s wrong with unni? Is she really out of energy?”
In response to Kaeul’s question, Yu Jitae gave a frown.
She shouldn’t be exhausted already.
“Dunno.”
‘That is strange…’ he muttered.
***
Yeorum gasped for breath.
It was too much.
The output of the core had exceeded the boundary of her control. When the second heart embedded on the sword pulsed irregularly, its own ego was conveyed directly to her heart and shook her mind.
It was as if someone was screaming into her ears: Kill them. Go kill them. Kill all of them, and die.
The voice of a devil was inciting her impulse.
However, it was still controllable.
In that extreme situation, Yeorum forced down the crazy rise in fury and that was when opportunity came knocking on the door. The Sword of Ra wobbled and the lead was transferred down to her as Yeorum found a small gap between Javier’s thick protective walls.
This was the first time she had an opportunity.
Because of that, she tried to end the fight with one stab.
But that was when something strange happened.
Her arm refused to move.
‘Huh?’
Her sensitive senses commanded her again. There is still a gap so stab it.
‘What’s happening.’
However, her arm just did not move and the gap wasn’t big enough for her to hesitate three times.
Kaang–!
Regaining his protection, Javier flung her away.
She heard the surrounding crowd shout, ‘Aigo!’ and ‘Wow, he managed to survive from that!’ but Yeorum disagreed.
No, she thought to herself. Javier did not manage to survive and it was she who failed to stab forward.
After confronting his attacks several times, Yeorum realised that she would not lose this fight. Although Javier was strong, she was a little bit stronger.
So over the next several bouts, Yeorum had a few more chances to land a fatal strike on Javier but whenever there was a chance, her body refused to move. It literally froze on the spot.
Yeorum could not understand what was happening.
Just once.
Just one stab and she would come out as the victor of the fight.
It would let her prove to herself that she had grown through all the hardships of the past, and that she had gotten stronger after grinding in all her effort. That celebratory moment was right in front of her grasp.
So why?
Why can I not stab forward?
It was a fight where every second mattered. Their strength level was too similar and losing one opportunity would make it hard for her to be assured about the result of the fight. In a fight like that, after losing three to four opportunities, Yeorum also couldn’t avoid showing a gap herself.
His blade scraped past her arm as the golden mana continued like an ocean wave.
This ability was called the [Light of Circulation]. The sunlight turned into tens of thousands of small and sharp needles. They grazed all across her body and created countless wounds behind their path.
Even though she was using a high level artifact to protect her body, and even though her skin was one crafted with the mana of a dragon, Javier’s attack made her body seem like a normal person’s that had sandpaper rubbing at their bare skin.
Her cheeks, her neck, wrists, hands, arms and thighs. Although all of her limbs were being pulverised outside of her control and were starting to ooze out blood, Yeorum did not care nor did she try to dodge it.
By sacrificing her flesh, she waited for the last opportunity.
‘It’s coming. It’s coming…!’
Patiently, like a tiger waiting to pound on one’s neck, she waited and was finally met with a chance. It was inevitable for an ocean wave to go crashing down at least once and a hail would not last forever.
Yeorum waited for the split moment for the destructive ability, [Circulation of Light] to cease for a moment. Even though Javier distanced himself in that very moment, that was within her expectations.
[Ember]
Shot like a cannonball, Yeorum flew forward at a low stance. She then stabbed the longsword as hard as she could.
Or rather, she tried to.
Once again, her body turned slow.
‘Like, what the fuck. What is going on.’
Her fingers and her toes were turning stiff. Reaching her arm forward once would decide the battle and yet she could not do so.
‘Why is this happening? Why?’
In fact,
She might have known the reason already.
‘What is wrong. Why, why. For fuck’s sake, why?!’
She thought the body would follow the heart, and thought her heart was the only thing that she needed to deceive.
But even though she had deceived her sisters with falsehood, and also managed to deceive him, her heart was one that did not fall to her lies.
‘Why is this happening…’
When her honest thoughts that had been suppressed in her heart raised its head like a budding flower, Yeorum realised that she would never be able to beat Javier.
Because if she were to beat Javier here,
That would mark the end of her Amusement.
The end she did not believe even when everyone else was crying and weeping their hearts out, would be brought by her own hands.
‘…’
The trigger was placed in front of her eyes,
But Yeorum could not make herself pull it.
.
.
.
“Unnniiiiii!!”
Kaeul let out a sharp scream.
The cost of missing her last opportunity was brutal. Javier’s sword grazed past Yeorum’s neck as red drops of blood tainted the white wall.