Chapter 26

The Swordsmanship Genius Possessed by a God — Chapter 26

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What they had thought impossible had become reality.

No, it was happening right before their eyes.

Two had fallen, so now it was time for four to step forward.

The squad members, their pride wounded, stepped forward.

“This time, I'll do it!”

“Me too!”

“Let's finish him off this time!”

They charged toward Allen with great confidence.

“Finish me off? What a way to speak to your squad leader.”

But the result was devastating.

Crack!

The first squad member to step forward had his head snapped to the side.

From the sidelines, it looked like the sort of attack that shouldn't have worked. That was how anticlimactically one man fell.

The same happened to another squad member after exchanging a few sword strikes.

Thud.

“Gah!”

The squad member's breath was knocked out of him by a thrust to the stomach. The moment his breathing and footwork faltered, his fate was sealed.

There was another sharp crack, and another man fell without fail.

The fight had barely begun, yet two had already been defeated.

“What the hell are they doing?”

“How can they fall for something like that?”

“Get your act together!”

The other members of the Second Squad watching from the sidelines were practically going mad with frustration.

They might be looked down upon within the Flying Sword Division, but they were still members of Vishken's elite sword division.

Outside the family, each of them would be an object of fear and respect wherever they went.

Yet the members of the Second Squad facing Allen now were showing none of that ability.

‘It's not that those fellows are bad at fighting.’

Mary's eyes gleamed as she closely observed the battle.

‘He's making them look that way.’

At first glance, they seemed to be swinging their swords like fools and falling for attacks they should easily have avoided.

But that was because their opponent was Allen.

From the outside, it looked less as though Allen was strong and more as though the Second Squad's members were weak.

He counterattacked effortlessly and defended just as easily. Every exchange of offense and defense was executed perfectly, without a single unnecessary movement.

Allen was making his opponents look like amateurs.

Above all—

Crack!

Another squad member fell.

That made three already.

Allen's wooden sword struck precisely at the vital points that would render his opponents unconscious, and he did so without inflicting any significant injuries.

‘The reason he can target a moving opponent's vital points so accurately and subdue them is that the Second Young Master's abilities are vastly superior to those of the squad members.’

With three down, only one remained.

Allen lowered his stance and charged swiftly toward his faltering opponent.

“Gasp!”

Startled, the squad member raised his wooden sword to block Allen's blade.

But at that moment, the approaching sword tip seemed to narrow into a single point.

Whoooosh!

Crack!

The tip of the wooden sword slipped past his defense and struck his chin. As his head began to spin, Allen's fist struck the back of his head.

Crunch!

Slump.

With the last man down, all four had fallen.

Allen looked down at the swordsmen lying on the ground and spoke.

“Is this the final round now?”

“...”

Their reaction was different from when the previous two had fallen.

Even those who had secretly looked down on Bigra and criticized the two youngest members now realized this was no joke.

Even without using mana, Allen had handled the combined attacks of four opponents with astonishing ease.

It would not have been easy even if he had been allowed to use mana.

Mary spoke to the hesitant squad members.

“Go.”

Her arms were still folded.

She was telling the other seven to step forward together.

Allen looked toward Mary, who stood alone without moving, and asked,

“Are you the deputy leader?”

“Yes. Mary Altran, deputy leader of the Flying Sword Division's Second Squad.”

“I'm Allen Vishken, your new squad leader. It's unfortunate that we're introducing ourselves like this.”

“I'll apologize for our discourtesy afterward.”

“I'll look forward to it. Does the deputy leader not intend to participate?”

“It would be even more discourteous to join in now. I'll step forward last.”

While the two were speaking, seven swordsmen surrounded Allen.

Every one of them looked visibly tense.

Four had already been defeated. If these seven lost as well, it would mean the entire Second Squad had been crushed by a single person.

Seeing their pride fueling their fighting spirit, Allen smiled.

“Well, seven or eight makes little difference.”

Allen raised his wooden sword again.

As though he had no intention of waiting, he immediately charged.

________________

“A good decision.”

Hiren, who was watching the fight from a distance, nodded.

“When surrounded by multiple opponents, you should strike first and break through.”

Unlike earlier, Allen did not yield the initiative.

He fought proactively to win, without a trace of arrogance.

His footwork was swift, and he responded accurately even to swords coming from his blind spots.

The moment the encirclement began to tighten, Allen leaped high into the air.

Stepping on an opponent's shoulder to escape the encirclement, Allen kicked off the ground once more.

“He knows how to handle a fight against multiple opponents. Has he had a great deal of experience with this?”

Crack!

Allen's wooden sword deceived the eyes of all seven opponents and brought down two of them in an instant.

The smile on Hiren's lips deepened at the sight.

His movements were so perfect that Hiren thought he would have done exactly the same thing.

“Didn't that boy fail his mission to capture some bandits?”

“Strictly speaking, it wasn't a failure. He escaped on his own.”

“But he was captured in the first place, wasn't he?”

“There were circumstances involved.”

“The Lord of Steel Castle?”

As expected, there was no way Hiren, the supreme commander, wouldn't know something Lucas himself knew.

“I heard about it. But at that level of skill, shouldn't he have been able to overcome a complication like that easily?”

Lucas nodded at Hiren's words.

He was right.

Even if the bandits had been armed with heavy crossbows, someone with those abilities should have been able to suppress them without difficulty.

“I... don't understand that either.”

Whoosh!

At that moment, a wooden sword grazed Allen's hair.

The swordsmen of the Second Squad fighting together let out disappointed sighs.

Allen slid across the ground with his footwork and widened the distance.

Hiren's eyes gleamed.

“That fellow is using mana.”

Hiren frowned as he watched one of the swordsmen.

The swordsman who had just unleashed the threatening strike was using mana little by little.

It wasn't enough to be noticeable. Unless someone was exceptionally sensitive to mana, they would never have detected it.

At that moment, Allen briefly stopped fighting and asked,

“Didn't we agree not to use mana?”

The swordsman who had secretly used mana flinched in surprise.

Even in the midst of that chaotic melee, Allen had accurately detected his use of mana.

After hesitating, the swordsman answered,

“...The original Acceptance Ceremony doesn't prohibit the use of mana.”

He chose to make an excuse rather than apologize.

Furthermore, his answer showed that he was determined not to acknowledge Allen, no matter what.

“If that's the case.”

Flash.

Allen charged forward in an instant.

Two wooden swords flew toward him simultaneously as he closed the distance at tremendous speed.

At that moment—

Celestial Star Style, First Form.

Behold.

Whooooosh!

Allen's figure disappeared, accompanied by the sound of rushing wind.

Crack!

“...!!!”

The eyes of the swordsman who had used mana rolled back.

Allen's wooden sword had struck his head in the blink of an eye.

Watching his opponent collapse unconscious, Allen spoke.

“At times like this, you should simply say you're sorry.”

The First Form of the Celestial Star Style was a technique that did not use mana.

It placed considerable strain on the muscles and stamina, but in any case, it did not violate the rules of the Acceptance Ceremony.

“Get him!”

“Uaaaaah!”

Wooden swords came flying at Allen in rapid succession as he plunged into the midst of his opponents. They seemed to believe this was their opportunity.

But Allen's abilities shone even more brightly amid the melee.

Smack!

Between the incoming wooden swords, Allen's blade struck another man's forehead.

Lowering his stance and leaping upward, Allen moved like a wild animal as he evaded the wooden swords.

Whenever the slightest opening appeared, he immediately thrust his sword into it.

His feet never stopped moving, and he never retreated.

“Damn it!”

“Graaaaagh!”

Three squad members remained.

As though they were engaged in an actual battle, they gritted their teeth and swung their swords.

Having survived until the end, all three were among the strongest members of the Second Squad.

Thwack!

“Urgh...”

One of them even endured a blow to the chin without falling.

Despite Allen having struck him with precisely enough force to knock him unconscious.

Seeing the swordsman standing with his wooden sword planted on the ground like a cane, Allen grinned.

“You three and that fellow Bigra are the best of the bunch.”

The three men, who had been attacking him frantically, faltered for a moment at Allen's assessment.

At the beginning, they would have resented such an evaluation from Allen, but now it felt different.

The swordsman leaning on his wooden sword staggered and bowed his head.

“Th-thank... you.”

“What's your name?”

“Hamil... sir.”

“I'll remember it. Now stop struggling and fall down.”

Thud.

At Allen's words, the tension left Hamil's body, and he collapsed to the ground. There was a limit to how long he could endure through sheer willpower.

The two remaining squad members exchanged glances, then charged simultaneously from the left and right.

Under the combined assault of the two men fighting with all their strength, Allen retreated one step at a time.

Perhaps because he had been fighting without rest, beads of sweat gradually appeared on Allen's forehead. His breathing was visibly becoming uneven.

Smack!

Allen's legs wavered as he blocked both wooden swords at once.

At that moment—

‘We've got him!’

‘Here's our chance!’

For the first time, the two men spotted an opening and lunged forward simultaneously.

“You fought well, Second Young...”

Crack!

A look of confusion appeared on the swordsman's face as he tried to finish speaking.

His voice cut off abruptly. Allen, who had looked exhausted just moments earlier, was now smiling.

Strangest of all, his vision was already beginning to blur.

‘He wasn't tired. He was pretending to be...’

Slump.

One of the two charging swordsmen collapsed to the ground.

At that moment, the last remaining swordsman was targeting Allen from behind.

Whooooosh!

Crack!

A solid impact.

The strike he had believed impossible to block had been stopped.

Before he knew it, Allen had turned to face him.

“Haaah!”

Clack, clang-clang.

Crack!

Their two wooden swords clashed repeatedly.

There was a reason he had survived until the very end.

He blocked Allen's sword more than twenty times and launched several counterattacks of his own.

Inwardly impressed, Allen asked,

“What's your name?”

“Plio, Flying Sword Division, Second Squad!”

“I take that back. You're the best.”

Of the fourteen swordsmen who had challenged him so far, Plio was the most skilled.

Bigra, Hamil, and Plio. These three were the core members of the Second Squad.

Plio's eyes widened at Allen's assessment.

‘Could he have been testing our abilities all along—’

Whoooosh!

Thwack!

Allen's sword struck Plio's arm.

Plio frowned at the throbbing pain.

“Urgh...”

He endured the pain in his arm and held on to his consciousness.

Thwack, thud! Allen's sword struck his body several more times.

The pain was enough to make him feel as though his bones were breaking.

But at that moment, Plio displayed extraordinary mental fortitude.

‘I have to endure. No matter what—’

He protected his head and vital points while fending off Allen's wooden sword.

If he couldn't dodge, he blocked. If he could block, he gritted his teeth and focused solely on protecting his vital points.

And just as he felt his entire body becoming covered in bruises—

‘Now!’

Whoosh!

Plio's wooden sword cut through Allen's head.

Whoooo.

It was then that Allen's figure vanished like an illusion.

Plio had been certain he had struck him.

But in a battle between skilled swordsmen, losing sight of one's opponent meant defeat.

“Excellent.”

Crack!

Slump.

Plio, who had endured until the very end, lost consciousness. The wooden sword struck his chin, snapping his head to the side and knocking him out.

A total of fourteen swordsmen lay collapsed on the ground.

Mary did not know how to interpret the situation.

‘So there was a reason he was appointed squad leader.’

Only now did she begin to understand.

Even without mana, he was this strong. That was why he had been able to attain the position of squad leader in the Flying Sword Division.

Now, only she remained.

And she alone could defend the pride of the Second Squad.

Mary gripped her wooden sword tightly and stepped forward.

“Mary Altran, deputy leader of the Flying Sword Division's Second Squad. I ask for a lesson in swordsmanship...”

“Bwahahahaha!”

At that moment, thunderous laughter rang out, threatening to shake the entire training ground.

Frowning at the interruption to the final sparring match, Mary turned her head.

At that instant, her eyes widened almost to the point of tearing.

Beside Lucas.

It was because of the identity of the tall, white-haired man standing there.

‘The supreme commander?’

“Interesting! Truly interesting! Wahahaha!”

Supreme Commander Hiren.

One of the giants who led Vishken, the dominant power of the continent.

He strode toward Allen.

“By the way.”

Hiren asked with a broad grin,

“How long do you intend to keep playing these children's games?”