༺ Korin Guardians (4)༻
My master Erin Danua against Sword Master Lunia Arden.
The two of them were powerhouses that were classified at the same level of Semi-Unique Grade knights in ❰Heroic Legends of Arhan❱.
The fight between the two of them was destined to be an exciting one to watch, while at the same time being an important stepping stone for the future of their relationship.
In the game, Erin’s lessons were just considered a part of the system that allowed characters to gain experience points and hidden skills, but it was bound to be different now that this had become the real world.
Even in my case, I had learned the essence of Eight Trigrams and the basics of Six Ways of the Spear.
In the last iteration, the strongest member of our party was not me nor stupid Mr. Park; it was Lunia.
However, she started being omitted from the party from the 3rd year onwards, and because of that, she couldn’t receive lessons from Master. Another reason might be that my master, in the last iteration, had been spending most of her time lecturing me.
“Let’s decide the victor with just one fight. The first one to inflict a wound on the other person wins. Does that sound okay?”
“Alright. What about weapons?”
“For safety purposes, let’s use non-lethalized weapons.”
“Agreed.”
Lunia showed her agreement as Lady Josephine walked up and chanted their weapons with the non-lethalizing spell. As a result, a thin layer of mana was created on the surface of the blades, making them closer to a blunt weapon.
‘I wonder how it will go.’
The two of them stood face to face, while respectively holding a spear and a sword. Even though they had yet to clash, their fight had already begun.
There was a saying that the fight between high-level experts was decided in the blink of an eye.
With prudence and caution incomparable to the one she showed during her fight against me during last year’s interim exam, Lunia deeply gazed at Master. She must have already noticed that Master wasn’t just strong.
The chilling breeze was the only sign of movement in the vicinity of the two, but multiple bouts must have happened in their minds.
“…”
“…”
Everyone present, who walked the path of martial arts, was probably thinking about the bouts that must be going on inside their heads.
At last… both Master and Lunia moved at the same time. They moved every muscle in their body for the most optimal posture that would allow them to dash forth at once.
Erin’s feet, thighs, and core neared the ground in a stance akin to that of a leopard readying itself for a sprint, and—
— Sound-piercing Spear
Lunia bent her knees, as her feet pushed off the dust beneath in a diagonal shape.
— Fastest Slash
Their concentration levels were in another dimension; they were in the realm of practically predicting the future. It was a show of perfectly calculating distance and an absurd understanding of the principles of movement.
In their perfect and most optimal postures which they had each practiced hundreds of times,
— One of them stabbed forth,
— While the other slashed sideways.
-Kang!
What echoed across was a relatively gentle sound, unbefitting of the long silence of confrontation that preceded it, but it resulted in a sharp aftermath that reached all the way to out cheeks.
And the outcome of the fight was decided in that split second.
“…Hmm.”
Lunia muttered with her eyes looking at the sharp spearhead that was right below her chin.
“That was not the Domain.”
Their first attacks had the same amount of power and potential but during that brief moment of contact, Erin had slightly twisted her wrist to modify the path of the spear. Due to this slight change, she parried Lunia’s attack and immediately followed through with a second attack that aimed towards her neck.
It was a marvelous stab that could even be praised as the divine manipulation of the spear.
“Spectacular.”
Lunia acknowledged Erin’s abilities from that one attack. That was just how significant and meaningful that attack was.
“You were also amazing, Lunia. Catching up to the speed of a spear stab with a sword is really difficult; just then, you added aura into your scabbard, right?”
“Just a mere imitation of a feature in my sister’s scabbard.”
“An explosive burst of aura in the scabbard to quickly unsheathe the sword… It’s an interesting attempt. In exchange, you lose out on accuracy but you seem to have made up for it through countless practice.”
How much practice must she have gone through for that one demonstration of battojutsu? The way that sword moved just then was proof of Lunia Arden’s extraordinary hard work.
“But I can help you be half-a-breath faster with that same move, by just altering your posture a little bit.”
“…This is the fastest it gets. That is the conclusion I have come to upon thousands; and tens of thousands of strokes.”
“No matter how much time you have put into perfecting that move, you can multiply that by hundreds and still fall short of how much I have lived. I can assure you; Lunia, you can get even faster than this.”
“…”
Out of the top-notch powerhouses, there was no one lazy enough to slack off on training.
At times there were people like Alicia, but even an unprecedented genius like her had limits without experience and practice.
Hard work.
In terms of the talent to work hard, both Lunia and I were quite high in that aspect, but the amount of time Master lived was in a whole other league.
Everything she had built up through a thousand years of strife was the divine spearmanship of the Void; Six Ways of the Spear.
However, against Tates Valtazar, even Erin’s spearmanship…
“Huu… Anyway, that should be enough, right, Miss Lunia?”
“Indeed.”
It might have been a short battle, but it was enough for Lunia to see and acknowledge Master’s abilities.
At last, this marked the true beginning of Erin’s lessons.
***
A sky above the ground, and a sky above the sky.
There was an overwhelming difference in ability. In between us and Master Erin was a tall and unbreachable wall.
“Haa…”
“Tch.”
This was the same for Alicia, Dorron, and the wolf siblings. The four of them attacked at once but were nonchalantly disarmed by Erin.
“…She saw through everything.”
Alicia even used the Domain towards the end and had the support of tens of magic swords and the agile wolf siblings, Ren and Ron, but none of them were able to land any meaningful hits on Master.
“That’s enough.”
With a stern look on her face, Erin put an end to the fight as the boys and girls immediately collapsed onto the ground. She then started giving each of them feedback tailored to them specifically.
“First of all, Ren and Ron. Your attacks are heavily driven by instincts. Rationally you understand how to fight wisely but you are not following that through with your movements. Sometimes you move before you think. That’s because your rational mind cannot catch up with your reflexes.
“As for Student Dorron, your abilities are extremely well-rounded, but there is a small gap when using particular magic swords. It’s because there are too many swords under your control. Having numerous swords might be very effective when fighting against large numbers, but when fighting against an individual, you should reduce the number of your swords and focus on fine-tuning your control.
“And Student Alicia, you have the habit of relying excessively on the Domain. Your fundamentals haven’t matured enough yet; you would need to work on your postures during close combat.”
Constructive criticism that was both quick and accurate – Erin immediately gave out pieces of advice and guided them down the correct path, all the while explaining tips and tricks on how to use weapons, aura, and mana at certain times, as well as what was going through her mind during the fights.
“And now, Marie, Korin… and Hua Ran.”
When she was done guiding the four of them, Erin turned towards us and continued.
“The three of you are too strong so I will teach you one-on-one. This training ground isn’t small by any means, but…”
-Snap!
Josephine snapped her fingers, teleporting all of us into a pit of absolute darkness..
In that pitch-black area of nothingness, Master’s voice was the only thing I could hear.
“Korin. Try manifesting the Sun.”
“I won’t be able to last 30 seconds with my current… Hoh?”
I immediately poured my mana out.
❰Sun Manifestation. Claiomh Solais.❱
A large sun abruptly appeared out of nowhere. The might of Claiomh Solais brightened up the dark world, revealing the identity of this pure black dimension.
“This…”
Shadow Paradise.
This was the land that could only be accessed by those permitted by the queen. The only sources of light in this world were the moon and the stars, and yet right now, before us was the sun that I had materialized.
“Mr. Korin. Will this be okay? You can’t keep it up for that long, right?”
Alicia asked with concern since the sun was the only source of light right now, however, this was already well above my limits.
From what I checked last week through the mana measurer inside the campus, my total mana capacity was around 8,000. It didn’t fall short even when compared to most semi-Grade 1 mages, but with just this much, it was hard to manifest the sun for more than 30 seconds.
It was because the manifestation of the sun itself cost more than 5,000 mana, and required hundreds of mana each second to maintain.
But what if there’s an infinite source of mana?
“It should be fine. This place… has a ridiculous concentration of mana.”
Being a mage, Marie seemed to have noticed that already, and was befuddled by the density of mana inside the paradise.
This was the Shadow Paradise.
The other side of the world, Tir na Nog.
It was quite literally a perfect paradise that was abundant in everything, including mana.
“In this place, there is no starvation, illness, nor death. It is a segment of paradise where you can dwell in eternal youth and beauty. Naturally, there is no limit to mana here.”
Hearing Josephine’s explanation, Marie muttered in shock and confusion, wondering how such a place could possibly exist. Master said in response.
“You can use an unlimited amount of mana, but of course, the consequence of using more mana than your body can handle is something that you must handle yourself.”
“What? Then, Korin…”
I replied while still maintaining the manifestation of the sun, which was on the same level as using dozens of grand spells at once.
“It’s fine. I’ve already used it for more than a few minutes last time.”
“Good on you, Korin. For now, you need to familiarize yourself with maintaining and making use of the sun. Try to keep it up until everyone else is done with their lesson.”
“Alright.”
There were 3 stages to the sun, Claiomh Solais.
Concentration (Concentrated beam), Manifestation, and Compression.
The monstrous power of Sun Compression and the casualty it could cause was something I still remember from the last iteration. In order to eventually reach that stage, I had to familiarize myself with manipulating the sun.
“Shall we start off with you, Hua Ran?”
“…Okay.”
While I maintained the sun to shed light onto paradise, Josephine summoned Hua Ran into the visible yet intangible dimension that Erin was in.
In front of everyone to see, Master lowered her spear onto the ground.
“…What are you doing?”
“I will fight you with my bare hands.”
“…”
Hua Ran seemed slightly irritated by those words as a faint frown appeared on her face. She seemed to have taken her comment in as a provocation that bare hands were enough to deal with her.
“You’ll regret it.”
Despite saying so, Hua Ran did not blindly jump in at Erin.
Just a few weeks ago, Hua Ran had gone against the monster, Tates Valtazar, and had become a lot more prudent through the experience of going against someone who had the ability to make up for the difference in strength with skill.
Her eyes weren’t at the same level as Lunia’s, but nonetheless, she deeply gazed at Erin and took in every single movement of hers. Her feet were cautious and heavy like Mt. Tai.
She was no longer heavily dependent on her Unbreakable Vajra Body and had become a lot more cautious.
-Tak!
It was then – the first one to kick off the ground was Erin. After closing the distance in the blink of an eye, she threw a palm strike as Hua Ran calmly retaliated with a punch of her own.
The moment Hua Ran’s fist came in contact with Master’s palm, her fist was wrapped around like a rock losing to paper.
Immediately after that, Master used the momentum of her punch against her by pulling Hua Ran deeper in. That alone was enough to crumble Hua Ran’s balance and make her stumble forward.
“Don’t treat me…”
…Like a fool.
Before Hua Ran could even finish her sentence, a kick landed on the back of her knee. A kick of that level was probably unable to even inflict 0.01 of damage through the Unbreakable Vajra Body.
However, what Hua Ran experienced next was a complete loss of balance. That small kick and a subtle movement were all it took for her to crumble onto the ground.
-Flop!
Her eyes turned as her body landed on the ground. Without following suit with more attacks, Master stepped back allowing Hua Ran to immediately get back up.
Demonic Aura—
The destructive and explosive aura of Yin gathered in her hands, threatening to destroy the air molecules nearby.
“Remember the fundamentals. You must always stand firm like Mt. Tai.”
Hua Ran threw her explosive fist but in response, Master intentionally dodged slowly with leisure, as if teaching her that the seemingly fastest and strongest moves were not always the solution.
-Pang!
All she did was slightly twist her ankle. Hua Ran’s punch, which had crushed the ground beneath with just its aftermath, was unable to harm Erin in any way.
“Secondly, do not be provoked into using your full force. It is okay to not win the mental war, but you cannot lose it.”
After grabbing the fist that went past her, Erin did a shoulder throw to toss Hua Ran away. Before anyone could even realize it, she managed to finish writing runes on Hua Ran’s body.
“Yo-?!”
The runes activated, flinging Hua Ran away in the blink of an eye. Unable to control herself, Hua Ran rolled across the ground several times before finally standing back up on her feet but by the time she stood up, Erin’s fist was already right in front of her temples.
-Pang!
The air popped around her temples, and the explosion that occurred right next to her head was enough to shake her body momentarily.
“Uht…!”
There was still no damage done to her body, but it was a scene straight out of her memory. She forcefully swung her arm in retaliation but was easily deflected as Erin then brought her palm to Hua Ran’s forehead.
‘Eight Trigrams Heavenly Palm…’
-Bam!
Hua Ran was flung back one more time, rolling numerous times on the way. The shock itself wasn’t that big, but her body wobbled as she stood back up, suggesting that her brain had been jolted just then.
Instead of relying on pure power or speed, Master demonstrated how it was possible to retaliate using small movements of the joints and by predicting the opponent’s movements. Following that, she repeatedly struck her vitals in an elegant manner.
“The principles of Fanged Fist is one I have personally taught Tates. No matter how tough you are, your brain will jolt if you allow your vitals to be hit numerous times.”
“…I know.”
It was something she had experienced first-hand from Valtazar. Hua Ran admitted it as Erin gave a loud clap for a change of mood.
“I believe you were learning it from Korin already but just a reminder. Hua Ran, you should practice the principles of Eight Trigrams. What you need the most right now isn’t an addition to your strength but getting used to the postures and theories.”
“…Okay.”
“Next up, Marie.”
“Y, yes!”
Marie nervously walked up in response. It wasn’t strange for her to be nervous after seeing everyone lose so one-sidedly.
“Try everything you can without holding yourself back.”
“Umm, I, is that okay?”
“This is a practice for an actual battle so it would be better to have no restrictions. We came here to avoid damaging the facilities so don’t worry.”
“…Okay. Doggo, come out.”
First of all, she started off by summoning Doggo. Leaving Doggo as the vanguard, Marie fell back to support with magic. The fighting style of the boss character, Marie, was extremely well-balanced and versatile.
“You are Korin’s master so… I’ll go all out.”
❰Blood Realm❱
Without even a slight bit of hesitation, Marie activated her absolute realm. Now that she was forced into this area, Master had to fight against Doggo and Marie with her agility restricted.
“Doggo. Bite.”
“Woof!”
Doggo, who was even less hesitant than Marie, marched towards Master at an explosive speed. It was a blind charge. There was no living being in this world that would be left unscathed after receiving that attack from the front so Erin had to do something.
In response to the charge, she responded in the exact same way as I had.
The spearhead went crashing down at the large claws of the dog. Modifying the trajectory of the attack, the Secret Arts of Lan Na Zha attempted to break the balance of the attacker. Following that through with a stab was the typical use of Scavenging the Grass, however…
“Kyaohh…!”
Remembering its experience with me, Doggo twisted his body in that slight instant to dodge the spear and continue with the attack.
“A quick response, but not a smart one.”
However, Master was prepared for that already. She used the orthodox bare-handed martial art techniques to parry Doggo’s frontal assault and instead drove him into the ground.
“Woof?!”
Due to the sudden shock to his neck and spine, Doggo had trouble moving for a while. Since he was in the shape of an organism, he was unable to escape the aftermath of a powerful strike straight to his vitals.
“Doggo, come back!”
Marie shouted as Doggo’s body immediately dissipated and scattered away into crimson shards of mana. He quickly returned to her shadows.
The fact that she retrieved Doggo the vanguard, meant that she had finished preparing a powerful spell that did not need someone to defend her.
❰Crystal Lance❱ ❰Blood Spear❱ ❰Ice Rain❱
Countless magic circles appeared behind her back. None of them were at the level of grand magic, but the amount of power and mana embedded into each and every one of those spells rivaled that of several grand magic spells.
It was because of Marie’s specialty, Mana Amplification, which allowed elementary-grade spells to be as powerful as medium-grade or even high-grade spells.
“This might sting a little!”
Saying that, she relentlessly bombarded Erin with spells with no end in sight.
The falling raindrops of ice and spears of blood destroyed the ground as an enormous crystal lance penetrated deep into the ground. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a scene straight out of hell.
Bombardment after bombardment.
Dust filled everyone’s sight as the barren ground showed nothing but signs of destruction.
Everyone watched in horror but without becoming complacent, Marie seriously gazed into the dust to see what was happening behind its veil.
Some of us that were a bit more perceptive than others had already noticed it though.
“Careful. It’s the right side of your neck.”
“Haht?!”
In that short span of time, Marie responded with haste by building a barrier of blood ice. However, the kick shattered through the ice barrier and struck her on the neck.
“Uhhk?!”
Her body fell straight to the ground from that direct kick to her neck. Fortunately, she wasn’t injured thanks to quickly creating a layer of ice that mitigated the shock of her fall but…
-Tak.
“Huh?”
Marie gasped, sensing the cold blade of the spear resting by her neck.
“Don’t overuse big spells. When fighting against a single individual, all it does is cover your sight.”
“I, I admit defeat.”
Both Doggo and Marie couldn’t even last more than 5 attacks. Marie admitted defeat, acknowledging the wondrous amount of her opponent’s experience.
“Mana Amplification, was it? The one that lets elementary-grade spells hold the same amount of power as medium-grade spells?”
“Yes…”
“Keep the power, but reduce the size and increase your accuracy.”
After giving Marie feedback, Master finally turned herself towards me.
“Last off is Korin. Pick up your spear while keeping the sun there.”
“I’ll try.”
It was finally my turn. Raising my silver spear, I walked towards her.
In her teacher mode, Master was slightly colder than her usual warm and benevolent self and gave constructive feedback whenever possible.
Of course, she was still nice due to being born such a kind person, but those who knew her as someone who was always amicable and smiling tended to be surprised by that difference at the start.
Being strict when the situation called for it, all the while having a hint of kindness – that was the type of person Master was.
I was ready to take in any comment no matter how strict and cold they might seem and slowly fix myself over time; because in the eyes of the creator of Six Ways of the Spear, I was probably no different from a newbie.
***
“Excellent job, Korin! You are wonderful at calculating distance and spacing yourself! I can tell just how much practice you have put in every day!”
***
“It’s not perfect, but I can see your strenuous hard work! A little bit of work and you’ll be even better than me in no time!”
***
“I said it once and yet you are so clever and quick at learning! Absolutely amazing! I wonder who you took after!?”
***
“You are doing so, so well! Shall we try that one more time? Try to make your strides wider this time. Your legs are very long and beautiful, so it won’t be hard!”
***
“Ahht! Did you hurt yourself? I should have held back a bit more! Look at the graze on your forehead… Should I blow on it for you?”
“…”
What was going on? This… is a bit different, isn’t it?
“Amazing! Wonderful! As expected of my Korin! How can someone be so handsome!?”
Umm, Master?
Aren’t you being way too partial?
