Chapter 86
Shin Da-eun felt like she was facing an unbreakable stone wall as she stared at the one-armed swordsman.
She could reach out and touch it, and even attempt to scale it.
But the wall before her was too tall and solid to cross or break down.
“Huff… Huff…”
Da-eun gasped for breath, clutching her bleeding shoulder.
From behind Kana’s usually expressionless face, she seemed to catch a glimpse of disapproval.
Was it because she wasn’t fighting as well as Kana expected? Or was it because Kana was upset that she was losing?
‘…I hope it’s the latter.’
Though she hoped it was the latter, Da-eun knew all too well how strict Kana could be whenever she taught swordsmanship.
Taking a deep breath, Da-eun slowly exhaled.
After several deep breaths, her rough breathing gradually steadied.
Her heart, which had been racing with excitement, also calmed down.
‘Let’s admit it.’
Kana was right when she said it was impossible.
The man was a level above her.
Before now, they seemed evenly matched… She even thought she was defending well enough…
But none of that mattered.
The truth was, Da-eun’s sword couldn’t break through his defenses, while his sword broke through hers.
‘What should I do?’
She had tried everything she could think of.
The move she had practiced the most and her strongest skill were all rendered useless.
If the man were like an impenetrable fortress, she might have given up.
But because he was just within reach, it made her all the more frustrated.
‘What would Kana have done?’
Instinctively, Da-eun thought of the strongest person she knew, Kana.
Even when she sparred with Kana, Da-eun’s sword couldn’t touch her.
No, perhaps saying it didn’t touch her was inaccurate.
During their spars, Da-eun was too busy defending against Kana’s strikes to even attempt an attack.
There were times when she thought she had blocked Kana’s blade, only for it to slide down and aim for her throat, or when a terrifyingly fast thrust would make her blood run cold.
‘Hmph. As expected, this is impossible.’
Reflecting on the sparring sessions, Da-eun shook her head vigorously.
To her, Kana’s swordsmanship was like magic.
It was like watching a coin disappear only to reappear inside a cup. She could see the result, but had no idea how it was achieved.
That’s why Da-eun couldn’t replicate Kana’s swordsmanship, no matter how hard she tried.
Acknowledging this, but still unable to give up, Da-eun sought other methods.
‘Should I mix in more feints? Or abandon defense and go on the offensive…?’
Her head was spinning so fast it felt like it would explode any second now.
“You seem to be deep in thought.”
The man’s voice brought Da-eun’s whirling thoughts to a halt.
“I see now. You must be one of the so-called Apostles.”
“Yes.”
“No wonder… For your skill to be so lacking despite your level… That makes sense.”
“…Lacking… skill, huh.”
She knew she wasn’t skilled, but she thought she had improved a lot since receiving Kana’s guidance.
Feeling as if she’d been punched in the gut by a stranger she’d just met, Da-eun staggered back slightly.
The man, on the other hand, looked at her as if wondering why she was acting like that.
After a moment of puzzlement, he spoke.
“You must be aware that I’m missing an arm.”
“If you have eyes, it’s hard to miss.”
“Then you must also know that I’m vulnerable to attacks from my left.”
“Well….”
Even Da-eun, who wasn’t experienced in combat, knew that much.
“Knowing that, why don’t you target my weak spot?”
“What?”
Did the man she’d been crossing swords with just now say something like that?
What’s more, he was asking why she wasn’t attacking his weakness.
Da-eun couldn’t comprehend what he was saying, and asked back in confusion.
“Are you pitying me? Even with one arm, I’m stronger than you. You must have felt that yourself. Do you have room to spare for pity?”
“No, I didn’t… pity….”
Da-eun started to deny it, but then stopped herself.
Sometimes, when she swung her sword, it would head toward his left side.
Of course, those attacks were blocked, but his reaction was slower than when she aimed elsewhere.
Why hadn’t she targeted his empty left side more?
As Da-eun pondered over it, she caught the answer in the corner of her vision.
— “Are you attacking a disabled person? That’s low, despicable, cowardly.”
The chat window was filled with jeers like that.
Most of them were probably just saying it to mock Da-eun rather than actually meaning it.
Even though she knew that.
“So, that’s how it is.”
This was a fierce struggle to exploit each other’s weaknesses—a desperate battle, not some childish play or a mere joke for anyone’s amusement.
Da-eun closed the chat window and raised her sword. The man then assumed his stance as well.
Their exchange of blows that followed was even more intense and brutal than before.
“Grr…!”
The man swung his sword down hard from above, aiming directly at Da-eun’s heart.
The force of his strike caused the tip of her sword to waver, and Da-eun, who was about to lose her balance and roll on the ground—
Whirr-
Caught herself by placing her hand on the ground and spun around, sweeping her leg out.
If the man had both arms, this attack wouldn’t have worked, but since he had used all his available methods to parry Da-eun’s sword, he had only two options left.
Dodge, or take the hit and endure it.
The man chose to dodge.
It was because Da-eun’s kick, despite being delivered from an unstable stance, was surprisingly powerful.
Pure physical strength.
An attack that leveraged the inherent physical advantage of the Apostles.
“Seems like you finally understand.”
Utilize your own strengths while exploiting the enemy’s weaknesses.
Seeing that she had finally grasped this fundamental principle of combat, a faint smile appeared on the man’s lips.
But only for a brief moment.
The man quickly wiped away his smile and adjusted his grip on his sword.
“Still, it’s not quite there yet.”
Even if you know you have a weakness, failing to compensate for it is foolish.
Especially since his weakness was so blatantly obvious that, like Da-eun had mentioned, anyone with eyes could see it.
He had spent a great deal of time compensating for his weakness.
A bluish Mana enveloped the man’s sword.
Screech!
“Eek?!”
Da-eun recoiled, startled, as a blue sword beam flew past her.
Slash-
The remnant trace of the sword beam that she couldn’t fully avoid left a thin red line on her cheek.
Seeing the sword beam shatter a tree behind her, slicing it cleanly in half before it collapsed onto the ground, Da-eun’s face turned pale.
“…Sword aura is cheating!”
“Why? Don’t you have the ability to wield Mana as well?”
“I can’t! I can’t do something like that!”
“Is that so.”
The man nodded in response to Da-eun’s outcry.
And then, he raised his sword again.
“That’s perfect, then.”
“…W-what do you mean, ‘perfect’?”
“If you have no way to counter sword aura.”
“…What?”
The man answered Da-eun’s question by unleashing a flurry of blue sword beams.
“Ahhh!”
Da-eun screamed and ran, trying to escape the barrage of sword beams.
The effective range of a sword is usually determined by its physical length, but if a swordsman can envelop it with Mana, that’s a different story.
Of course, since the sword is still the medium for launching sword beams, there are ways to counter it.
However, since Da-eun didn’t know those methods, all she could do was continue dodging.
“An opening…!”
Despite the overwhelming disadvantage, she looked for a chance with gleaming eyes.
“Not so fast.”
“Ugh!”
But the man, who had already read her movements, swung his sword at the waiting moment, forcing her to hastily block.
“That’s enough.”
By the time several more red lines had been drawn on her body, Kana, who could no longer watch, intervened to end the fight.
“Celine.”
“Understood.”
When the Holy Power enveloped Da-eun’s body and seeped through her wounds, new flesh began to regenerate.
The wounds on Da-eun’s body disappeared in an instant, leaving only the dried red bloodstains on her skin as evidence that she was ever injured.
As Da-eun caught her breath, the sound of small footsteps approached her.
“How was it?”
“It was exhausting…”
Da-eun collapsed to the ground as she spoke, putting all her sincerity into those words.
Kana looked down at her and spoke in a teasing tone.
“I told you it was too much for you.”
“You did. I should’ve listened to you.”
Da-eun knew that the man had never shown his full strength while fighting her.
Judging by how only his breathing had slightly faltered, even the storm of sword energy he unleashed at the end wasn’t his full power.
The world is vast, and there are many strong people out there.
Completely drained, Da-eun flopped onto her back.
‘Ah, right. The dust…’
She worried about getting dust on her clothes for a moment but quickly gave up and laid her half-lifted body back down on the ground again, too tired to care.
“How was it? Didn’t I do better than before?”
“A sweet lie or a bitter truth. Which one do you want?”
“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.”
And if she remembered correctly, she didn’t get a very good response back then, either.
“Pfft.”
Just as she murmured bitterly, a light laughter drifted down over her bowed head.
“You’ve improved a lot.”
When she instinctively lifted her head, she saw Kana’s lips forming a soft smile and her eyes curved gently.
As Da-eun blankly stared at the innocent smile of the pink-haired girl, she couldn’t help but smile herself.
“Then… maybe we don’t need to increase the training time…”
“If you had trained more, you would have won.”
“…You’re absolutely right.”
Da-eun’s shoulders slumped down.
Kana, who awkwardly patted her, then stepped forward.
“Have you been waiting long?”
“Not really.”
Even though he didn’t get much time to rest after the fight, the man’s expression didn’t show any sign of resentment.
The slight fatigue he had accumulated was already gone, and despite unleashing a storm of sword energy earlier, he hadn’t used much Mana.
Kana’s slight nod was enough to make the man charge forward.
Enveloped in excitement, the man’s skill exceeded his best performance.
The speed was incomparable to when he fought against Da-eun.
-!
The moment his first attack was blocked, he launched another.
Head, chest, legs, and back to the head again.
‘Oh my god…’
Da-eun watched in awe as the swords flashed at a speed that was almost impossible to follow with her eyes.
Despite the ferocious onslaught, Kana calmly parried without even blinking.
The sound of clashing swords echoed ceaselessly.
Kana merely defended, while the one on the offensive was the one-armed swordsman.
The man, firmly planting his feet on the ground, swung his sword toward the girl’s neck.
With just one step, Kana pulled her right foot back and twisted her body to dodge it. She attempted to swing her sword, but the man had already retracted his arm and launched a horizontal slash.
Kana instantly halted her attack and raised her sword vertically.
A textbook defense to block a horizontal slash.
Swoosh-
“…!”
Instead of the sharp sound of swords clashing, a faint noise, like the brush of a feather, resonated.
The sword the man swung with all his might slid down Kana’s sword without resistance and lodged into the ground.
The direction of his horizontal strike was forcibly changed to a vertical one, an almost magical maneuver that left the man wide-eyed.
A memory of Da-eun’s struggle flashed through the man’s mind.
The man placed his hand on the ground, attempting to use his remaining balance to launch a kick.
However, his counterattack failed to materialize.
“Hiya!”
“Gah!”
An adorably soft shout accompanied a powerful blow that struck his back.
With his already unstable posture, the impact only worsened his stance, and he couldn’t maintain his balance as he was thrown to the ground.
Swoosh-
As he desperately tried to get up with one arm, a cold blade pressed against the back of his neck.
Feeling the warm liquid trickling down his back, the man released his grip on his sword.
“…I’ve lost.”
The moment the battle’s outcome was decided.
—
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