In the not-so-spacious courtyard, the air felt incredibly heavy as it flowed through, causing everyone's hearts to gradually tighten in response.
Gazef, Gagaran, Evileye, and Climb, standing as a group of four, were utterly speechless as they stared at the two figures facing off in the center, almost unconsciously holding their breath.
Riezel and Brain stood opposite each other—one stood casually, completely at ease, while the other crouched low, body tense, hand hovering over the hilt of his sword in a posture that screamed readiness to strike at any moment.
At a glance, most would probably assume that Brain was the clear favorite to win this duel, as, with his distractions cast aside, he had fully embraced the presence of a swordsman.
Now, his aura radiated sharpness, his posture betrayed no weaknesses, and the pressure he exuded was palpable, while the composed expression on his face, combined with the focus in his eyes, was clearly the hallmark of a warrior who had been tempered by countless trials—anyone could see at a glance his incredible skill and unwavering discipline.
In contrast, Riezel looked almost sloppy.
He stood with a careless posture, his movements loose and relaxed, and he hadn't even bothered to grip his sword's hilt—from head to toe, he seemed riddled with openings. Adding to this was his noticeably youthful appearance, which only gave the impression of an arrogant and clueless youngster.
Against Brain, no one would doubt it would take Riezel all of a second to lose. Yet despite this obvious disparity, it wasn't Riezel who looked tense but Brain.
Riezel, for his part, stood in place casually, but this alone was enough to weigh on Brain with an overwhelming sense of pressure.
Such a question dominated Brain's thoughts.
He wracked his brain, trying desperately to recall any information about a strong individual resembling the young man before him, but no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't remember a single human swordsman who was both this young and this powerful.
'Is he the nineteen-year-old leader of Blue Roses who had already stepped into the Realm of Heroes?'
Brain couldn't help but get lost in thought, wondering if Riezel was the leader of Blue Roses.
'No, isn't the leader of Blue Roses supposed to be a woman?'
'Besides, while the leader might have already entered the Realm of Heroes, there's no way she's strong enough to be on the same level as this guy...'
At the very least, he didn't think someone who had only recently entered the Realm of Heroes could exert this kind of pressure on him, even if he himself had yet to reach that realm.
Given this, who in the world was this young man?
No matter how Brain thought about it, he couldn't find an answer.
'No, calm down... Now's not the time to worry about this.'
Brain pushed down the doubts swirling in his heart, forcing himself to focus on the fight ahead. If he didn't, he knew he wouldn't stand a chance—his honed instincts as a warrior warned him of that.
As a result, he cleared his mind even more, focusing entirely on the fight.
Meanwhile, Riezel, who had been silently watching him, suddenly spoke up.
"Before you draw your sword, how about you tell me what you've been through?"
Such an unexpected question left Brain momentarily stunned before he sank into a long, long silence.
After what felt like an age, he finally responded.
"...Okay, no harm in telling you."
Maybe it was because Brain had reclaimed a bit of his pride as a warrior that he finally relented, so right in front of everyone, he began recounting his experience.
"After losing to Stronoff at the kingdom's tournament, I joined a bandit group to become stronger and hone my skills."
Needless to say, Brain's goal was to seize opportunities to kill and sharpen himself on the edge of life and death.
"In truth, the bandit group I joined was actually a mercenary group, fighting wars for nations, but when there wasn't a war, they'd raid wealthy merchants or nobles to make money."
Such a revelation made several people present frown.
It was clear that it wasn't a path of honor, yet Brain didn't seem to care.
"I joined them not for money, and not for violence either. I only did it to keep my skills sharp and to have a justified reason to kill."
"As long as I could hone my skills, it didn't matter what kind of group I joined—that was how I ended up joining them with that mindset."
"And then, I ran into 'that' incident..."
It happened over two months ago in the Fortress City, E-Rantel.
At that time, Riezel had just been promoted to Mithril Adventurer, while Momon and Nabe hadn't yet made their names known.
In the northern forest near E-Rantel, a powerful vampire had appeared.
"At that time, the group I was with happened to be stationed in that area—right inside that forest..."
Brain continued his recount.
"They had set their sights on some rich merchant's daughter, supposedly from the Baharuth Empire. She was staying at the Shining Golden Pavilion, the fanciest inn in E-Rantel, throwing money around like it was nothing. Unfortunately for her, she caught the attention of one of our scouts."
"I still remember it like it was yesterday... it was such a quiet night, until a fire suddenly broke out at the Shining Golden Pavilion, causing the merchant's daughter to leave E-Rantel in a hurry."
"Seeing the opportunity, our scouts lured her into the forest, and then... that was when the horror began..."
Brain's voice began to tremble.
"I don't know the exact details of what happened since I wasn't part of the ambush. I stayed back at our base, and then outta nowhere, there was countless earth-shattering noise and chaos everywhere."
"Someone came running back, screaming that everyone we sent out was dead. He said they ran into a terrifying vampire, and that vampire was fighting someone."
"I ignored the complete mess at the base and ran out on my own."
"And then, guess what I saw?"
Brain's expression twisted into something dark and anguished.
"I saw two people—no, two monsters, fighting each other."
"Every clash between them shook the ground, shattering it like glass..."
"Every blow sent trees crashing down, one after another..."
"I couldn't even see their faces—just two blurred shadows chasing and colliding with each other. Everywhere they went, it was like a natural disaster had ripped through, tearing the entire forest apart."
"And me? I was barely hanging on, struggling just to survive the shockwaves from their fight. I gave it everything I had to stay alive, and even then, I barely made it out..."
As Brain recounted what he had experienced that night, everyone listening felt as though they were right there in the middle of that battlefield—his fear, despair, and utter helplessness seeping into their minds.
Faced with something so catastrophic, the fragility of humans became painfully clear.
Brain continued, his voice heavy with emotion.
"Afterward, a massive explosion suddenly went off in the forest—way worse than anything I'd seen before. I was lucky enough to escape the center of it and somehow made it out alive."
"Even so, whenever I think back to that moment, to the sheer power and terror I felt, it's like all the effort I've put in so far has been one big joke."
"Can you even imagine? While we humans train endlessly just to chop down a single tree with our swords, there are monsters out there who can level an entire forest just from the shockwaves of their battle."
"It was then that I realized... Humans are weak and powerless... No matter how hard we try, we'll never match those beings who are born strong."
Brain gripped his sword so tightly that his hand began to bleed, and his eyes looked as though they might weep blood.
"Against that kinda power, it wouldn't matter if I trained for another ten years or even a hundred... no way I could even begin to hold my ground..."
"Heh, why bother training? Why bother honing my skills? Might as well go back to my hometown and be a farmer again!"
From that moment, Brain's spirit was utterly crushed, and his confidence shattered as he fled the forest in disgrace, leaving E-Rantel far behind until he finally reached the royal capital, Re-Estize.
Needless to say, that was how Brain Unglaus had ended up like now.
"..."
Everyone remained silent.
Gazef and Gagaran, in particular, had especially complicated looks as they gazed at Brain.
Truthfully, they could understand him.
They understood that the stronger a warrior became, the more unimaginable effort and training they had to endure to reach their current level. Both of them clearly knew how much blood, sweat, and tears they had shed, as well as the struggles and perseverance required to get there.
Yet, to have worked so hard, to have fought so desperately, only to find that even surviving the shockwaves caused by the battle of others was extremely difficult, leaving no choice but to flee, was a truly pitiful fate.
Even Climb fell into silence, staring at his own hands, which had been blistered and worn countless times during sword practice.
For a long while, Climb was unable to say a word.
"Hahh..."
Finally, even Evileye couldn't help but let out a sigh—unmistakably one of sympathy and pity.
Only Riezel, listening to Brain's story and watching the sorrow and unwillingness on his face, had a strange emotion flicker in his eyes.
"Alright, I get what you've been through..." Riezel scratched his cheek awkwardly, like someone who had accidentally gone too far with a prank. "Okay, enough talking. Draw your sword and start."
Hearing this, Brain took a deep breath, steadying his nearly collapsing spirit.
Right now, he didn't want to think about anything else and just wanted to draw his sword. Maybe this would very well be the last swing of his sword, so he would let it end everything with a perfect finale.
'With this one strike, I'll give it my all.'
Brain resolved to let all the effort he had poured into his training shine through in this one strike since he knew he owed himself that much.
"Ability Boost."
He immediately used a Martial Art that could temporarily enhance his body's overall strength by an entire level, offering a more comprehensive boost than the simpler 'Body Strengthening'.
Afterward, he focused his entire consciousness on one point, allowing his senses to expand outward and making him acutely aware of the sounds, air, and vibrations in his surroundings.
It was, in fact, his original Martial Art known as 'Field' that allowed him to clearly grasp everything within a three-meter radius, pushing both his attack accuracy and evasion rate to their absolute limits. Through years of effort, he had created several original Martial Arts, with Field being just one of them.
He had also developed another original Martial Art in his relentless pursuit of striking faster and more precisely than his opponents—a Martial Art called 'Instantaneous Flash'.
Instantaneous Flash was a single, lightning-fast slash that pushed his attack speed to its peak, and to master it, he had undergone extraordinary training, swinging his sword not hundreds of thousands, but millions of times.
Such relentless practice had caused his hands to develop calluses specifically adapted for Instantaneous Flash, as even the grip of his sword had been worn into the shape of his hand.
What was unexpected, however, was that this endless pursuit of perfection eventually gave rise to yet another original Martial Art that had attack speed surpassing even Instantaneous Flash, leaving no blood on the blade after a strike and making the attack trajectory impossible to detect—a Martial Art named 'God Flash'.
By combining God Flash and Field, he fused the two Martial Arts into one, creating an unavoidable and absolutely precise strike of unparalleled speed, named 'Wind of the Great Forest'.
"THIS IS MY BLADE!"
Brain shouted with all his might, pouring a lifetime of effort into this one strike, making it shine in this very moment.
*BOOM!*
With a fierce stomp, the genius swordsman let out a roar and turned into a gust of wind, a shadow, launching himself like a fired arrow, causing the air to whistle as he charged straight at Riezel.
*Schwing!*
Finally, the sword in Brain's hand left its scabbard.
It was a slash—fast and relentless.
As Brain drew his sword from its scabbard, it took no more than a fraction of a second for the cold glint of the blade to reach Riezel's neck.
No one could react to this strike, not even Gazef or Gagaran.
All they saw was a flash of an arc in front of their eyes, and then—nothing.
Among everyone present, only two people reacted to Brain's rapid and fierce strike.
One was Evileye.
Behind her mask, her pupils shrank sharply, as if shocked by the speed of the strike.
As for the other, who else but Riezel?
He calmly stared at Brain, then at the sword coming at him, his eyes glinting with sharp clarity.
And then—
*Schwing!*
*Whoosh—!*
A crisp sound, accompanied by the howling wind, echoed abruptly.
It was the sound of Brain's sword being stopped.
Yes.
Brain's sword had been stopped—or rather, held between two delicate fingers, trapped tightly in the gap between them.
"Wh-What...?"
Seeing such an unbelievable scene, Brain's face twisted in shock.
""!!!!!""
At the same time, everyone present had their eyes widened in disbelief.
No choice.
At this moment, Riezel stood calmly in place in front of them all, holding out two fingers and effortlessly pinching Brain's sword near his neck.
"Not bad."
Riezel offered a calm evaluation.
"Still not fast enough, but it's decent."
In the next moment, Riezel kicked out, his foot slamming into Brain's chest.
*BANG!*
With a dull sound, Brain was sent flying backward.