Chapter 179

Chapter 179

Leon set his course of action.

I can’t beat him in swordsmanship. Then I’ll have to stake everything on the one area where I might get ahead.

It stung to admit inferiority as a swordsman, but he didn’t let pride cloud his judgment. The Sword Demon, Cedric, was strong. If Leon’s mastery in Rodrick’s Vision and Footwork had been even one level lower, just holding out this long would have been impossible.

Even with a superior physique and Aura output, once their blades crossed, the advantage flipped instantly. It was swordsmanship at its pinnacle and madness condensed into a single point, cutting down opponents with nothing but pure blade work.

It wasn’t just the exchanges of technique; even stepping into Cedric’s range itself had been a mistake.

Don’t step into his reach. Attack from outside.

Golden flames writhed along the blade of Leon’s Holy Sword. The sun burning within his Holy Sword, Solaris, overflowed from the steel. It was enough heat to melt even a mithril sword within five minutes.

Cedric’s face stiffened as the heat washed over him. Aura Masters, after their transformation, attained a body that no longer felt heat or cold. However, as Leon stepped closer, sweat trickled down Cedric’s brow.

Leon unleashed his first true technique since awakening his Aura Blade.

“Sun Sword, Crimson Lotus Style, First Form: Prominence.”

Like a pillar of fire bursting from the sun, the flames roared upward in a straight line, as though his sword had stretched to dozens of meters.

And that impression wasn’t far from the truth. At twenty meters out, Leon brought his blade down.

The descending arc spat searing light and flame. It was like a miniature version of Grand Chariot’s brilliance, a blade of fire whose sheer intensity matched it. Air along the trajectory evaporated, whipping up sudden gales.

Cedric, for the first time in this duel, chose to retreat instead of meeting the strike head-on.

Now! Press the attack!

Leon spurred himself on.

Forward was always faster than backward. Experience and knowledge pushed Leon’s back onward.

With dozens of meters of reach secured, the fight tilted one-sided. Prominence’s flames heated the entire yard, closing off Cedric’s space and forcing him back.

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

It didn’t matter how well Cedric evaded. At this rate, eventually, they’d clash anyway.

Dodging strike after strike, Cedric muttered with an incredulous look.

“That should be quite the power drainage. Are you stuffing yourself with elixirs instead of meals? Or are you part dragon?”

The higher the firepower, the greater the drain—that was common sense. He’d thought to wait him out and let him burn his strength, but this? The firepower and duration were insane. This junior of his was beyond reason.

Cedric finally stopped retreating. The entire yard was already engulfed in Leon’s blaze; step back further, and there would be no way forward.

Lifting his Aura Blade diagonally, he split the air, locking onto the torrent of flame pouring from above. Indeed, the range and destructive force were terrifying. With that kind of endurance, even an Aura Master could hardly meet him blade to blade.

However, Cedric wasn’t just

any

Aura Master.

“I’m an exception, junior,” he muttered before proceeding to cut through the inferno with his blade as though it were nothing.

“What...?” Leon muttered, but Cedric took a step forward without a care.

Slow, almost casual, yet Leon felt crushing pressure on his shoulders. The incomprehensible bred fear. The blue-grey Aura hardened along Cedric’s blade was something Leon couldn’t understand.

It was not especially long, nor was it especially fierce. Yet this Aura, indistinguishable from a mere Aura Weapon, sliced through flames hot enough to melt iron walls almost effortlessly.

What is this?! A special ability? No, for now, I just need to hold this range—

Cutting off Leon’s internal dialogue, Cedric spoke, his voice drawing closer with each step.

“You think too much. It’s not that thinking is bad; it’s just that they don’t belong in the sword. There’s something in common between no thought, no self, and a mind like a still mirror. To put it simply...”

“....”

Leon swallowed dryly, tension in every muscle. Cedric smirked and concluded, “...Get ready, kid.”

A heartbeat later, both Cedric and Leon swung in unison, their upper bodies twisting as flame and steel collided across dozens of meters. Inevitably, the one at an advantage here was Leon.

His flame-sword stretched over twenty meters. Even the slightest shift of angle swung its tip far wider, unleashing terrifying speed and power. The air itself was ripped apart and burned away, and the sonic boom was consumed in fire, so the strike came silently, a killing edge lashing at Cedric from all directions.

A low slash tore through the training ground floor, bursting upward from underground, aimed straight for Cedric’s groin with a brilliant light. A fraction late, and his body would have been cleaved clean in two.

However, Cedric’s answer was simple. He swung the sword hanging low in his guard once.

The raging fire stopped dead. Even the air, sheared apart, froze in place as the dust settled.

It was absurd, but Leon didn’t falter. Whatever this Aura Blade’s ability was, his task was set.

I’m going to cut it down.

Just as Cedric said, he swept aside all stray thoughts. His opponent was a man who had stepped into the realm of Swordmaster far earlier than he had. Against such a foe, even the slightest carelessness could not be permitted. Leon drew up his focus, and his Holy Sword roared hotter.

Flames lashed wildly from his sword, weaving into a storm, light and heat melting the earth of the training yard into rivers of molten rock. The destructive power was such that even the drake he once fought in the Titan Mountains wouldn’t have lasted a few seconds. Leon was unleashing a storm of sheer force that dominated space itself.

“This is almost scary...” Karen muttered, watching from afar.

She knew he had awakened his Aura Blade in the battle against Nephren-Ka, but not that he had mastered it so quickly in less than a month. Even she, confident in evasive maneuvers, wasn’t sure she could dodge that flaming sword. At best, she might divert its path with clones and leaping through shadows.

Despite Leon’s exponential growth, her tension didn’t ease. The reason was simple.

“The other guy’s just as much a monster...”

Cedric was no less of a freak of nature.

The blue-grey Aura carved arcs through the air. Each stroke cut off Leon’s flame mid-surge, severing not only Prominence’s blaze but also the heat and shockwaves that followed, clearing every obstacle from his path.

If Leon unleashed a hundred parts of power to sweep the four quarters, Cedric condensed ten parts into the blade itself to create a sharpness so dense that it overwhelmed just about anything.

The clash of the two swordsmen grew fiercer. Cedric did not stop even under Prominence’s storm, but his hair and skin grew scorched red from the heat and shockwaves bursting between strikes.

Leon remained unscathed, but the distance was closing, his eyes locked on the foe who would soon be within reach.

Then, Cedric’s eyes flared as Leon entered his sword’s range.

“Alright, that’s it,” he said. “No more fireworks. Let’s have a real sword fight.”

As if their furious exchange had been a lie, both froze. In the sword-circle, within their minds, dozens, hundreds of exchanges were already played out in advance. Prominence, once stretched to over twenty meters, had shrunk to less than two. At this length, a mere graze could shear through enchanted steel.

It was enough precise power that even Cedric could not take it lightly.

Sweat traced down Leon’s back as he thought to himself,

I think I understand his Aura Blade now.

Cedric wielded a sword that cut even Prominence like a bundle of straw, severing the flow itself. Its ability had to be specialized in one phenomenon: to cut.

By condensing all that power, which could shatter mountains, into the narrowest edge of the blade, Cedric had achieved sharpness that could slice through anything. Leon’s raw output dwarfed his, but in density, he was utterly surpassed.

El-Cid chucked lightly, —There’s an old saying that one could polish one thing so thoroughly it overwhelms ten thousand others. That’s this crazy guy’s motto, it seems.

Cedric had poured all his talent into nothing but the act of cutting. In return, he abandoned most of the versatility and conveniences of Aura Blades, but as a swordsman, he had reached a domain where even other Swordmasters could hardly stand equal.

Still...

Leon raised his blade. From here, Prominence would not suffice. It was time for another technique, one that also focused power into the edge, though by a different path. The Holy Sword began to glow white-hot, flooding with incandescent light.

Eclipse.

Like the veiled light of a solar eclipse breaking past the moon’s shadow, radiant energy surged up the blade. Cedric felt it too and grinned.

“You sure? You want to take me on blade-to-blade like that?”

“There’s no reason I can’t.”

“I like that spirit. But if you die, don’t blame me.”

Their words went no further. In the next instant, both men stepped into the realm of forgetting the self—two Swordmasters crashing together like bolts of lightning.

On their first exchange, blazing white light and blue-grey crossed once, and in that instant the entire field blazed bright, snuffing out sound itself. The air burned away before a shockwave could form. Great power always manifests as heat—Leon and Cedric’s clash seared the grounds in a heartbeat.

And of course, one strike was never the end. Swordmasters could hold their breath for minutes even in the middle of battle. Leon and Cedric both stepped forward, and in that split second, six more strikes collided.

“

Ugh

!”

Leon tightened his grip, slippery from the blood that seeped out of his torn palms. The shock rattled through to his organs and stole his breath. They had only crossed blades, yet it was enough to wound him inside.

Not even Rodrick, in life, had managed to break the Holy Sword El-Cid. And indeed, even Cedric’s Aura Blade left not a single mark. However, the backlash of that condensed destructive power was something Leon alone had to endure.

Ten strikes, twenty. In just a handful of seconds, their blades rained down with such force that even his blessed recovery couldn’t keep pace with the damage.

“

Khugh

!”

Finally, Leon spat blood. He tried to hold it back, but mouthfuls welled up his throat as if to prove that his insides were shaken to the point of bursting like powder kegs.

Cedric was no better. In fact, he seemed worse.

How often had his Aura Blade failed to cut something? Against other Masters, one clash, two at most, and he could shear their blades apart.

Leon’s sword was different. He couldn’t cut it. Every attempt sent crushing recoil screaming back through his arms.

Not even Jugend Steel has this kind of durability...

Cedric thought.

For the first time since becoming a Swordmaster, he felt certain: This cannot be cut. Not even staking his life on it will let him break this blade.

Interesting.

Instead of despair, Cedric felt exhilaration. For a genius, nothing was more suffocating than the impossible, but nothing was more rewarding either.

Even with torn hands and bleeding organs, he never once slowed, throwing his full might at the Holy Sword. The S-rank evaluation, the duel with Leon—all of that had fallen away. Only the sword remained in his world.

How many more exchanges they had, neither Leon nor Cedric knew. Karen, ready to leap in and break them apart if needed, was counting for the right moment, and then, a clear crack sounded as shards of steel went flying.

It was inevitable.

Cedric’s Aura Blade was honed to condense and cut anything. When such a blade failed to cut, that recoil crushed not only his foe but also himself and his weapon.

And against a Holy Sword that not even Rodrick could scratch, Cedric had no chance. This result had been decided from the start.

“Damn. The thrill’s all gone.”

Cedric tossed aside the broken stump of his blade, killing his fighting spirit, and looked at Leon—battered and bloodied, but still gripping his sword and holding his stance.

“This time, you win, kid. Let’s say you passed the evaluation.”

It hadn’t gone his way, yet strangely, he felt delighted. Letting himself drift in that unfamiliar feeling, Cedric left the training yard without once looking back.

This was Jugend’s Area 1. There weren’t many more places in the world more worthy as the place to forge a Swordmaster’s blade.

woo: Leon using hinokami kagura?