Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Boom... Boom... Boom...

The world seemed to tremble.

Riyan slowly raised a hand and placed it against his chest.

It wasn't his heartbeat.

Then there was only one answer.

The audience must be stomping their feet.

Battlefields had filled most of his previous life.

He remembered legion soldiers trapped against monsters with nowhere to retreat.

They had often stomped their feet to raise their courage.

Maybe that was why.

Riyan felt something close to excitement rising inside him.

Unusual for him.

He rested a hand on his scabbard.

The familiar leather against his palm immediately calmed him.

"Your turn."

An armored guard signaled lazily.

The heavy iron gate began rising.

Light poured in.

Blinding light.

The passage beyond the gate connected directly to the Arena.

The waiting room had been dark and damp like a cave.

The sudden flood of light created a strange sensation.

Almost as though he were walking toward heaven.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Riyan stepped onto the stairs.

The vibrations that had sounded faint behind the closed gate became clearer as he advanced.

"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"

"Yavrik! Die, butcher bastard!"

Some individual shouts became distinguishable within the roar.

Riyan ignored them.

That too came from Eldred's teaching.

Once you've stepped onto a battlefield, the only things you trust are yourself and your sword. Everything else? Screw it.

His words had ended up almost prophetic.

Riyan had, after all, eventually been betrayed by his companions and stabbed through the chest.

He smiled bitterly.

Then began slowly drawing the environment into his own rhythm.

The sand feels good beneath my feet.

That was Riyan's first thought after stepping onto the Arena.

"Woooooah!"

That giant sounds like a pig in mating season.

That was his impression of Yavrik standing opposite him.

Saaaaa...

So that's a Masterpiece? Ugly thing.

That was what he thought upon seeing the dark crimson weapon resting on Yavrik's shoulder.

Bwoooooom!

A horn drowned out the cheers of tens of thousands.

For a moment, silence.

Then the Arena announcer broke it.

He wore a shining red silk robe with luxurious fox fur around his neck.

He raised one arm and shouted until the veins stood out.

"People of the Empire! Witness the new song born today upon the Imperial Judgment! Will it be a funeral hymn praising Yavrik, who has continued his executions without equal? Or will it become a heroic poem for Fighter Riyan, the prodigy who revealed himself by slaying a monster despite impossible adversity?!"

The crowd exploded again.

They stomped.

Shouted.

Waved their hands.

Half the cries cursed Yavrik.

The other half demanded Yavrik's execution.

Compared to the atmosphere that had previously been almost entirely hostile toward Yavrik, the balance had been restored remarkably well.

That was the announcer's job.

Unlike the heated crowd, Yavrik looked calm.

He even lowered his upper body slightly so he could look directly at the smaller Riyan.

"Riyan, was it?"

Riyan nodded.

"Yes."

"They say you killed a monster."

"I did."

"Strange."

Yavrik tilted his head.

Riyan shrugged.

"You expected me to either look terrified or act overly brave?"

"Yeah. Exactly."

"Does it matter?"

"No."

Yavrik showed his white teeth.

Then moved his arms.

The enormous battle axe swept through the air with heavy whistles.

Riyan's eyes followed its path.

Up.

Down.

Left.

Right.

At the same time, that extraordinary sensation returned.

A huge red circle.

Yavrik's domain.

It was enormous.

Far larger than those of the instructors at the training center.

Riyan moved immediately.

Searching for safety inside the flood of red.

BOOM!

The axe crashed down in the blink of an eye.

The force and sound seemed strong enough to split the Arena itself.

For a moment, the crowd fell silent.

Then the dust cleared.

Riyan was no longer standing at the center.

The audience erupted.

"He dodged it!"

"Fight, Riyan! Kill that butcher bastard!"

Riyan had thrown himself aside and rolled once.

Still crouching, he lowered his body.

His left hand extended slightly forward.

The sword in his right hand hung relaxed.

His left index finger moved strangely.

A tiny twitch.

As though counting something.

To Yavrik, the sight looked like a small deer presenting fragile antlers.

He sneered.

Only for a moment.

Riyan's crouching body straightened.

He launched himself forward like a streak of lightning.

"Hup!"

A sharp warning sensation ran through Yavrik.

He turned the axe sideways.

He hadn't consciously seen the attack.

It was instinct.

Even Yavrik couldn't have explained why his body moved.

Ka-gak!

His instinct saved him.

Sword and axe collided near Yavrik's thigh.

A harsh metallic sound rang out as Riyan swept past him with a slash.

This bastard...

Yavrik had executed countless people in countless ways.

He immediately recognized the target.

The femoral artery.

One of the body's most dangerous weak points.

Sever it, and blood would erupt like a fountain.

Yavrik wore almost no protection except the breastplate covering his chest.

And Riyan had immediately targeted one of the most lethal exposed areas.

"You little rat..."

Before Yavrik could finish speaking, the hair on the back of his neck rose.

Too late to rotate the axe.

Yavrik threw himself forward and rolled.

An iron sword passed through the exact space where his right arm had been.

He awkwardly recovered his stance.

Then burst out laughing.

"Uahahaha!"

Danger.

How long had it been since he had felt this sensation?

Yavrik's laughter spread across the Arena.

"It's been so long since..."

He never finished.

Riyan's chilling black eyes moved again.

Yavrik instinctively stepped backward.

Normally, after one exchange ended, fighters would regulate their breathing.

Maybe exchange insults.

Maybe taunt one another.

That was the normal rhythm.

This was not normal.

Yavrik began feeling confused.

Clang! Clang!

A downward strike.

When Yavrik blocked, Riyan used the rebound to rotate and slash toward his waist.

Yavrik avoided that too.

Riyan used the rotational force to throw a spinning kick toward Yavrik's temple.

The attacks never stopped.

Blood vessels began appearing in Yavrik's eyes.

Should he simply accept one strike and split Riyan's skull?

No.

Impossible.

The moment he accepted one attack, he would die.

Every strike targeted something fatal.

Slash.

The edge of the sword finally grazed his forehead.

Blood flowed.

It ran down between his brows and entered his eye.

Yavrik lifted his left hand to wipe it away.

The iron sword immediately curved toward the blind side created by that movement.

"Guh!"

Yavrik twisted.

Even so, the sword moved like a snake.

His ring finger and little finger flew away.

He gritted his teeth and counterattacked with the axe.

Riyan had already slipped away.

He opened the distance and prepared for the next attack.

A wooden doll...

Yavrik felt like a training dummy.

Something planted in place so another person could strike it however they wanted.

"Raaaaaagh!"

Yavrik roared and gripped the axe with both hands.

Kill him.

He would kill him.

Uncontrollable rage burned through his mind.

At the same time, Yavrik's eyes began turning red.

Riyan, who had been preparing to attack again, instead stepped back twice.

Something's strange.

He had been steadily crushing Yavrik's territory.

Given a little more time, the red domain would have disappeared completely beneath Riyan's white.

But after that roar, Yavrik's energy began surging again.

Something changed.

Anyone could see it.

Not only someone with Riyan's senses.

Dark crimson energy flowed from the axe and wrapped around Yavrik's entire body.

Is that the power of a Masterpiece?

If Riyan was an Old Knight who had vanished with time...

Then the opponent before him was one of the New Knights born with the Empire.

This was an excellent opportunity to compare their strength.

Riyan rotated his sword and settled into stance.

First, stamina.

Yavrik had lost a fair amount of blood from his forehead and missing fingers.

There were plenty of other cuts too.

Normally, the symptoms would be predictable.

Dizziness.

Nausea.

Shortness of breath.

Yet Yavrik now looked twice as energetic as before.

Second, perception.

Riyan's white circle was shrinking.

It felt like watching a carefully built castle crumble into sand.

Third... destructive power.

Dark red energy rolled off Yavrik's body.

Blood dripping from his chin touched it.

Fsssh.

The blood evaporated.

And the aura was clearly most concentrated around the axe.

Anything it touched would probably be split apart without mercy.

Just like the pale blue aura Eldred and Riyan once wielded.

That did create a problem.

To attack, Riyan needed to thrust or swing his sword.

Which meant entering the range of that empowered axe.

But Riyan didn't consider it particularly serious.

Then I'll finish this without touching it.

The answer was simple.

So what?

Yavrik might rule over the Arena.

He might possess a Masterpiece and use Mana.

He might have crushed countless fighters.

But ultimately...

He was a flower raised inside a greenhouse.

He knew when he would fight.

He knew where.

He could choose how.

He had familiar equipment.

He could even refuse certain opponents.

That could never compare to Riyan's experience.

Riyan had spent years separating life from death against countless unpredictable monsters under the worst imaginable conditions.

"He's using it!"

"It's the Masterpiece! That's the power of the Masterpiece!"

The energy behind Yavrik gathered.

It took the shape of a burning wolf.

"I'll devour you."

Red energy streamed continuously from Yavrik's eyes.

He slowly walked toward Riyan.

His voice carried an echo like a growling wolf.

Riyan shook his head.

"That won't happen."

Click.

Riyan slowly pulled a small ampoule from inside his clothes.

It was the elixir he had prepared after visiting the market with Haral.

Using only his thumb, he opened the stopper.

Then poured it into his mouth.

The surrounding space had already been blurred by Yavrik's energy.

There was no reason to hide it anymore.

"..."

Riyan smiled faintly.

It was a familiar feeling.

Until now, his unstable body had prevented him from drawing out even a fraction of the power he possessed in his previous life.

But this moment would be different.

Saaaaa...

Blue light began gathering in Riyan's eyes.