novelraw Chapter 138 : Chapter 138
Chapter 138 : Chapter 138
138
Kantaros, living up to his name of Iron Wall, was a person who handled a huge shield freely.
He stood in front of the platform holding the shield he had leaned beside him.
The shield was a kite shield, about 80cm wide and 150cm tall.
It was curved based on the center, allowing him to deflect an opponent's sword and disrupt their balance with just subtle arm adjustments.
"To think I can witness the shield technique of the famous Sir Kantaros in person."
"I heard he was secluded, teaching juniors."
"They said he suffered a major injury at the end on the battlefield. Anyway, it's a good opportunity."
"It will be a great lesson for the students."
"But I don't know why the students' reaction is lukewarm considering that. Is it because they are still immature?"
"Since they are young, they probably don't realize what a great opportunity that is."
"Tsk tsk."
The people gathered for auditing added a word each, regardless of who they were.
A rare opportunity.
It wasn't wrong.
It was indeed an honor for a hero of the previous generation to step forward personally for sparring.
However, not a single student of the Academy showed signs of rejoicing over this fortune.
It was understandable, as they were on the front line of life that no one else had experienced, not just a rare opportunity.
No matter how rare an experience, it was just another event for them.
The students didn't care what people said and took their respective places.
Students scattered in all directions to create a sparring space, and the designated students came forward holding wooden swords.
The first to step up was a Sword Walker student.
"Advancement Class, was it?"
"Yes. I learned last year. I was ignorant and rude back then. I apologize."
The student who approached Cassian bowed deeply and apologized.
In the past, he was a student who found Cassian's criticisms annoying and offensive, even bullying him.
However, the deeper he delved into the sword, the more he understood.
The advice Cassian gave back then was more valuable and precious than any other advice.
He just didn't recognize it because he lacked the skill to accept that advice.
"Focus on the class."
Cassian accepted the student's greeting roughly with a hand gesture.
It wasn't ignoring the student.
He just didn't care that there were such times.
The student also seemed to have expected Cassian to act like that, calming his breathing and raising his sword.
Instantly, the atmosphere of the lecture hall changed.
"...Oho."
The knights who came to audit looked on with shining eyes, immersed in the student's stance.
In a way, it was an ordinary middle stance.
Raising the sword and naturally taking a posture.
That posture, which didn't seem particularly special, strangely drew attention.
"There are no openings."
"It's sturdy. Looks like he can swing the sword anywhere."
"He distributes the strength of his whole body evenly more than expected."
They were people who brazenly entered here and paid a lot of money to apply for auditing.
People crazy about swords.
And people pursuing strength.
Although they lacked precise theories or systems, their experience was genuine.
It was possible to read a lot of information just by looking at the student's stance.
However, their surprise was nothing compared to Kantaros standing with his shield in front of the student.
He gulped, swallowing dry saliva.
'This makes no sense.'
When roaming battlefields, there are times one meets a leader-type knight who dominates the battlefield.
That person naturally gathers the soldiers' gazes just by lifting a sword.
At the center is fear.
The fear that if one looks away while he swings his sword, one might die.
That makes people unconsciously chase after that person continuously.
But a young man only about 15 years old is showing that level of skill?
It didn't make sense.
"Here I come."
The sparring began.
The student announced his attack and ran forward.
TAP, TA-DAK, TAT.
The sound of footsteps was strangely rhythmical, but there was no pattern at all in each step.
The elasticity springing forward, the weight of the step, and the position of the footsteps were all different.
Each one was threatening.
"Damn it!"
However, Kantaros was not an easy opponent either.
Following the intuition honed through countless battlefields, Kantaros's body moved forward.
Rather than moving to the opponent's rhythm, he intended to enter within the opponent's rhythm.
He pulled the shield to his chest and then pushed it straight forward.
The wide plate split the air left and right, charging like a battering ram.
"Heave-ho!"
That was precisely the student's aim.
The moment Kantaros hid behind the shield, the student stomped his feet with varying depth on the spot.
Even though he was clearly just stomping on the spot, listening to the sound alone made it seem as if the student was running towards Kantaros.
Kantaros pushed the shield towards the impact point.
WHOOSH.
The shield cut through the empty air.
'Damn it!'
The moment Kantaros felt the empty sensation at the end of his arm, he pushed his body forward just like that.
Anyway, only the momentary impact point was different.
If he pushed forward like this and used his strength...
Wobble.
At that moment, his body fell sideways.
He couldn't understand why or how he fell.
Belatedly, pain shot up from his ankle, throbbing.
In that short moment, the student had lowered his body and thrust the sword into the empty space of the shield.
Panic and judgment.
It was a sword that pierced through that short flow of thought.
'Ha.'
Falling over like this on a battlefield meant instant death.
He had never been intoxicated by being called a hero, but to be defeated like this by a mere student.
He was ashamed to the point his ears turned red.
He barely composed his body and mind, got up, and looked around.
How insignificant they must see him as.
Has he become a has-been now?
In that moment mixed with sorrow, shame, and even pride.
"He can certainly be called a Walker. A center where the sword force can be varied diversely, a Sword Intent is established. However, it is difficult to see the movements swinging the sword as unified."
"Hu, huh?"
"Especially those stomping steps just now. The steps at that moment were a process of creating Sword Intent, different from the Sword Intent itself. What if each of those movements had also moved within the Sword Intent without waste?"
The students had no emotional reaction whatsoever.
No, they didn't even look at him.
They were focusing on the class as if this situation was natural.
'Come to think of it, did the student kindly say 'Here I come' before starting the sparring earlier?'
Was he the only one seriously setting the mood?
Eventually, Kantaros looked around while standing up awkwardly with an embarrassed expression.
Whether fortunate or unfortunate, the auditors who came with him all wore similar expressions.
"Then now it's a Runner. Um, Mr. Kanta?"
"It, it's Kantaros."
"Yes. Please, once again."
Once again.
And with a guy stronger than this one just now?
Kantaros felt the back of his neck getting damp.
However, there was no way the student would know Kantaros's feelings.
Even more, the student who came out this time was 14 years old.
A green child, and a girl at that.
"When did you become a Runner?"
"Four days ago!"
Cassian looked at the student with a proud expression.
Although the Advancement Class student was also his student, he couldn't help but feel more affection for the Basic Class students he was currently teaching.
The student also took a stance as if gaining courage from that gaze.
"......."
Now the auditors had no energy left to be surprised.
The female student's stance was far superior to the student just before.
'Of course.'
Bridget snorted looking at the reactions of the people around.
It might look strange in their eyes.
But the Basic Class students now were elites who trusted and followed Cassian from their first admission and repeated training for a year.
They were on a different level from the Advancement Class students who focused on ignoring and slandering the teacher's words.
He seemed to have completely forgotten the fact that he was the leader of that bullying.
"Ugh."
Kantaros felt like dying.
His ankle kept throbbing, but the opponent's momentum was even more immense.
Although she had a small physique, the intimidation alone felt like a 2m giant was standing there.
"Here I go!"
Such a person ran towards him cheerfully, again announcing a charge.
TAP, TA-DAT.
Short steps rushed in at a fast tempo.
It was an elasticity that made one wonder how there could be such acceleration from zero speed.
"Kuh!"
He hurriedly raised his shield.
Normally, fine control matching the expected attack trajectory was needed.
However, if the expected range becomes the whole body, it's meaningless.
It was all he could do to struggle to survive, curling up like a turtle while protecting his heart, neck, lungs, etc., as much as possible.
Yes, this was a struggle.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CLANG!
A fearful barrage of consecutive attacks pounded the shield.
Perhaps because she wasn't using Aura, there were no attacks powerful enough to collapse the shield.
No, the impact felt at the end of the arm itself was rather light.
Since she was young at 14, her physical limits were clear.
He just had to push the shield like this to scatter the opponent, then thrust his sword just like that.
That would be it.
That would be it, but.
'Damn it.'
He couldn't do that.
Each attack the opponent aimed for approached too distinctly.
If he applied force now, his heart would be pierced.
If he lowered his body now, his neck would be cut.
If he twisted his body now, his ankle would be cut just like that.
Every single attack contained killing intent, and it was felt too distinctly.
'Felt?'
Suddenly, Kantaros felt something strange.
The moment he questioned 'Why?'.
THUD.
He was rolling on the floor again without realizing it.
It was the ankle again.
"Aaaah!"
At first, he was dumbfounded, but later he got angry.
As he shouted, pain shot up sharply from his ankle.
And based on that shouting sound, Cassian calmly continued his explanation.
"This attack is more faithful to Sword Intent. You were aiming for the ankle from the beginning, right student?"
"Hehe, was it obvious?"
"To deceive the location you intended to cut, you overlaid all other attacks. Strong will was at the center, and other actions were mere derivatives. Yet, being able to make it an overall meaningful attack. This must be a Runner. Thank you."
At Cassian's explanation, the students nodded as if they understood well.
Actually, frustratingly enough, even Kantaros understood well what Cassian's explanation meant.
His explanation was somewhat abstract, but for some reason, whenever he spoke, the attack from just before replayed as an image in his head.
'Ah, so that's what those words mean.'
It felt like the nuance was understood in the heart, not the precise meaning of the words.
It felt as if someone was forcibly inserting knowledge into the head using magic.
'That can't be. I'm not possessed by a ghost or anything.'
While Kantaros was massaging his ankle like that.
A young man walked towards him with steady steps.
He was the best-looking young man in this auditorium.
"It's me now."
Aura Adept.
The student at the pinnacle of all those students.
Kantaros fell into thought for a moment.
"...How about facing someone other than me? As you can see, my ankle hurts."
He decided to be cowardly.
The previous two sparring matches were closer to mockery than sparring.
If he fought against this young man in this state, it was clear he would end up reflecting on his life, let alone saving face.
So he was implicitly proposing to call it a draw.
"Your leg is uncomfortable. That works out well. We just got the latest medical personnel."
"Wh, what?"
"Serris."
A beautiful boy, no, beautiful girl? A student of unknown gender and ambiguous beauty appeared like a ghost from the side and exerted holy power on his ankle.
Not the level of an ordinary priest's holy power, but at least High Priest level holy power.
The pain in the ankle subsided in an instant.
No, not just subsided; with this condition, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it became as lively as his ankle in his prime.
"There. Now it's okay, right?"
The problem was that even if he had the skills of his prime, he didn't seem likely to beat the young man in front of him.
Kantaros's eyes went dead and dull.