Chapter 245: Absolute Severance

Chapter 245: Absolute Severance

We both lunged forward at the same time.

As the stones shattered beneath my feet and flew backward, I brought my sword, covered in black flames, down toward Marven’s neck. He raised his spear diagonally to block. The pressure from our clashing weapons cracked the ground between us and sent pieces of stone into the air.

Golden flames closed over my black flames once again.

I pulled my sword back and shifted to the side. Marven’s spear passed through the spot where my head had just been and struck the ground. Stone exploded outward, but he had already pulled his weapon back before its tip could sink into the dirt.

I deflected his next strike from below with my sword. As I turned my wrist and aimed for his neck, Marven ducked and swung the butt of his spear at my ribs.

A sharp vibration ran through my sword and into my arm as I blocked the blow.

The distance between us widened and closed several times. With every clash, more stone shattered beneath our feet, and golden and black flames tangled together before scattering around us. The protective barrier at the edge of the arena rippled constantly as stones struck it.

As Marven’s spear passed over my shoulder, I spotted an opening on the left side of his chest.

I pressed his weapon outward with my sword and closed the distance. Just as I was about to place my left palm against his armor, I noticed him turn his front foot slightly.

He had left that opening on purpose.

The shaft of his spear slipped beneath my wrist. As it forced my arm upward, his free palm struck my elbow.

I heard a dry snap.

My left arm bent at an angle it never should have, and a knee to my stomach lifted my feet off the ground. Marven freed his spear and struck my chest with its shaft, sending me flying several meters backward.

When my feet hit the ground, I left two long trails across the stone before managing to stop.

I lowered my head and looked at my left arm. Everything below the elbow hung loosely, and trying to move it sent pain all the way up to my shoulder.

So this was the benefit of martial arts.

I was faster than him. Yet he had caught me the moment I thought I was close enough to use that speed. First, he had prepared a spot I would want to attack. Then he had used my reaction to break my arm.

It was a clean move.

"Speed alone isn’t enough," Marven said.

I looked up from my arm.

He was right. In a fight between two people of similar strength, small details like that could decide the outcome.

But what did any of that matter in a battle between monsters?

My lips curled into a scornful smile. If you didn’t have the strength to stop a blow, knowing what angle to block it from only let you choose how you would break.

I retreated as Marven came at me again.

The tip of his spear passed over my shoulder, cutting through both my uniform and my skin. I tilted my head to avoid his next attack, but the golden flame extending from its tip left a thin cut on my cheek.

My face tensed involuntarily when that heat touched my skin.

I had thought I would get used to the Golden Dragon’s mana. Yet every touch brought the same disgust rising inside me, strengthening my urge to extinguish those flames.

I was still using Storm Heart at around half strength. Going a little faster would have been enough to avoid those attacks. Even so, I clashed my sword against his spear a few more times and watched his movements.

His last attack left another shallow cut on the outside of my leg. As I jumped back to put more distance between us, I heard voices rising from the stands.

"He can’t use his arm."

"Marven’s been sizing him up this whole time."

"I wish he’d just finish it already."

My eyes briefly shifted to the spectators.

Layla had stood up. She watched me with her arms folded in front of her, not even trying to hide the smile on her lips. She was leaning forward slightly, as though expecting the next blow to knock me down.

’She really is too eager to see me in a sorry state...’

Considering I had paid for dinner last night, she could have shown a little more gratitude.

Felix, on the other hand, looked slightly worried. Rose was saying something beside him, but he kept his eyes on me. Alicia was also leaning forward in her seat, her hands clenched on her knees.

I could see the same expectation across most of the stands.

They had decided I would lose. They were only waiting for the final blow.

My gaze shifted to the section where the student council sat.

The girl with long black hair hadn’t moved. Her red eyes were on me, but there was neither excitement nor concern on her face. While the students around her leaned toward each other and talked, she continued watching in silence.

What was she thinking?

That familiar feeling she gave off was still there, too.

Maybe I should use Kraken’s Coffin to see what was going on inside that little brain of hers.

I dismissed the thought as quickly as it came.

There was someone else I needed to deal with right now.

"Pay attention."

As Marven spoke, the golden light at the tip of his spear grew brighter. He planted his front foot and thrust his weapon straight at my chest.

Before the spear hit my chest, I reached out and caught it just behind the sharp tip. Golden flames curled around my fingers, but I didn’t loosen my grip.

The weapon stopped in my hand.

Marven’s eyes widened for a moment. When he tried to pull his spear back, I tugged it toward me, then drove forward with my whole body.

His feet left the ground.

The moment I released his weapon, he flew several meters backward. As he landed and bent his knees to steady himself, I released the mana I had been suppressing in my core.

The pieces of stone around my feet were pressed flat against the ground all at once.

Then the pressure spread throughout the arena.

The conversations in the stands stopped. As the runes on the protective barrier lit up one after another, the students in the front row recoiled instinctively. Some gripped the edges of their seats.

Marven tried to straighten, but his knees buckled. If he hadn’t planted the butt of his spear in the ground and held on with both hands, he would have collapsed.

The bones in my left arm began to move.

My twisted elbow snapped back into place with a few short cracks. As the wound on my shoulder closed, the burning on my cheek faded. The bleeding from my leg stopped, leaving unbroken skin visible beneath the tears in my uniform.

I opened and closed my fingers.

It had all taken only a few seconds.

Then white flames appeared on my skin.

They rose between my fingers first. They wrapped around my wrists and spread up my arms, then over my shoulders and across my back. As my white hair lifted slightly with the rising mana, the shadows in the middle of the arena were drawn beneath my feet.

The golden flames on Marven’s spear wavered.

I smiled faintly.

Looking at those white flames stirred an inexplicable sense of familiarity inside me. For some reason, the Princess of Equality came to mind. Then, for a moment, I saw a face that resembled my own, along with the same flames rising from someone else’s hand.

When I tried to hold on to the image, nothing remained.

I couldn’t remember where or when it had happened.

But I knew how to use this power now. Ever since I had made a contract with Auralis, drawing on it had become as easy as setting the mana in my core in motion.

It was like a higher form of chaos. The power I had felt scattered throughout my black flames was far more concentrated and unified within the white ones.

I looked at the stands again.

Layla’s smile was gone. Alicia had frozen in place, while Felix had straightened and turned toward the barrier surrounding the arena. Several students were getting out of their seats, unable to take their eyes off me even as they bumped into the people behind them.

The faces that had been waiting for my defeat now showed fear.

Marven gritted his teeth and straightened.

The moment he pulled his spear from the ground, the dragon patterns on his armor lit up. Golden mana flowed along the lines running from his chest to his shoulders and down his arms. As the flames around him rose, the stones beneath his feet began turning red.

A harsh hum rose from the dragon-shaped tip of his spear, filling the entire arena.

He was finally using all his strength.

The golden flames above his shoulders joined together, forming the silhouette of a dragon with its head raised. When Marven drew his spear back, the enormous shape followed his movement, its neck stretching out and winding around the weapon.

The professor refereeing the duel moved a few steps to the side. As he raised his hand toward the runes at the edge of the arena, the barrier’s light intensified.

I reached down with my right hand.

The moment I gripped my sword’s hilt, the white flames on my body began flowing into the weapon. As the fire on my arms thinned, a bright, unbroken line formed along the blade’s edge.

I tightened my fingers around the hilt.

One by one, the tongues of flame reaching outward were drawn into the sharp edge. As I compressed their mana along the same line, I could feel a faint vibration from the sword in my wrist.

When I lowered its tip slightly, a thin slit opened in the ground before the blade had even touched it.

Marven saw it.

His gaze flicked to my sword for a moment. Then he clenched his jaw and leaned forward. He wasn’t going to retreat.

The flames at the tip of his spear grew even denser.

The ground collapsed beneath Marven’s foot.

He became a streak of golden light as he lunged at me, and the dragon silhouette stretching behind him opened its mouth. The flames rising from his spear advanced in a broad wall. Marven was at the center of that fire, gripping his weapon with both hands and pouring all his mana into a single attack.

I planted my left foot forward and raised my sword above my right shoulder.

The distance between us closed rapidly.

I could see the sharp tip of his spear through the golden flames. Behind it were the hands gripping the weapon, the armor covering his chest, and the protective runes constantly shining across it.

They were all in the path of my sword.

As I took my final step, I released the mana held in my wrist along the blade’s edge.

"Absolute Severance."

I brought my sword down from above my right shoulder toward my left side.

The white line touched the golden flames first.

The fire that had swallowed my black flames only moments earlier tried to close around the blade’s edge. But wherever they touched, the gold vanished. As my sword advanced, the white line extended, cutting through the wall of flames from top to bottom.

A thin gap opened from the head of the dragon silhouette behind Marven down through its body. As the golden flames tried to come back together, the mana binding them was severed. The enormous shape broke apart into fading sparks.

My sword continued through the same motion.

Marven raised his spear diagonally at the last moment.

A brief, shrill sound rang out where our weapons met. The last golden layer around his spear scattered, and a white mark appeared on its silver shaft.

Then the spear was cut in two.

As the severed upper section spun into the air, Marven’s arms were still completing their defensive movement. Before the shock had faded from his eyes, my sword reached his armor.

Every line of the dragon pattern on his chest lit up. Golden mana rose from the runes, forming overlapping layers in front of the blade’s edge.

The first layer broke apart. The second split along the same line.

The pressure against my sword’s hilt increased for a moment. As I completed my step and turned my shoulder, that resistance vanished as well.

The white line cut through his armor.

A deep wound opened beneath Marven’s left collarbone and ran diagonally across his chest. Blood sprayed between the pieces of shattered metal as the golden light covering him went out.

The last white streak left my sword’s tip and struck the ground behind him.

The stone floor split along a long line. Pieces on either side of the cut flew into the air before falling slowly back into the arena. White sparks burned for a few more seconds in the dust rising along the cut, then vanished.

Marven staggered past me.

Only the lower half of his spear remained in his hand. He tried to take another step, but his knees gave way. First, he dropped to his knees. Then he toppled onto his side, pressing a hand against the split in his armor as though trying to stop the blood pouring from his chest.

A hoarse breath escaped his throat.

He was alive.

I lowered my sword. A few meters away, the severed piece of Marven’s weapon hit the ground, its metallic clang ringing throughout the arena.

No one spoke.

Even the spectators who had stood up remained frozen in place. When I extinguished the white flames and drew my mana back in, the pressure on them lifted, but not a single cheer rose.

The professor hurried toward Marven. He turned to me and opened his mouth, but I didn’t wait to hear what he would say.

I let my sword dissolve in my palm and headed for the arena’s exit.

After glancing at my torn sleeve, I brushed a few pieces of stone off my uniform. I would have to change before seeing Iris.

I was passing through the exit when I heard footsteps behind me.

The stands were still silent.