Chapter 74 - 1v2

After Evan’s sword forced aside one claw and his blade struck Zephyr’s reinforced shoulder, the baby dragon decided that magic alone wasn’t going to work as easily as expected.

Body Technique — Titan’s Might

Power surged through the dragon’s muscles as he landed and charged again.

Evan’s sword deflected the first paw, his blade caught the second, and their positions reversed so quickly that the point of his sword nearly reached Zephyr’s throat before the dragon pulled back.

Zephyr growled and forced mana into another circulation pattern without cancelling the first.

Body Technique — Obsidian Scales

His black scales became even darker while Titan’s Might continued strengthening his body.

The two techniques immediately began interfering with each other, but the pressure of Evan’s approaching weapons gave Zephyr no chance to stop and restart them.

Alaric silently counted the dragon’s breaths while Evan also began changing.

Until now, his sword had led every exchange while the blade followed its movements.

That method allowed his existing Sword Mastery to compensate for what the blade lacked, but it also meant the second weapon was never acting independently.

Against Zephyr’s increased speed and strength, that slight delay became impossible to ignore.

On Zephyr’s seventh breath, one reinforced claw knocked Evan’s sword away while the dragon’s tail swept toward him from the opposite side.

Evan intercepted it with his blade, but the impact drove the heavier weapon outward.

His first instinct was to reverse it immediately so it could follow the sword into the next defence, yet the blade’s weight interfered with the sudden change.

Instead of fighting that weight, Evan allowed the blade to continue moving.

He turned his waist, carried the blocked defence into a complete arc and forced Zephyr to withdraw with the returning cut.

At the same time, his sword moved through the opening created by the blade without waiting for the second weapon to follow it.

Something finally connected inside Evan’s mind.

The sword could find openings through precision and rapid changes, while the blade could create those openings through commitment and momentum.

Neither weapon needed to follow the other. They could move separately while still contributing to the same attack.

He had crossed the boundary into Minor Mastery of the blade!

Zephyr reached his ninth breath and launched one final attack as the circulation of Obsidian Scales began collapsing.

Evan’s sword redirected the claw descending toward his head while his blade continued independently toward the thinner scales beneath Zephyr’s jaw.

The dragon forcibly corrected both Body Techniques and twisted his tail toward Evan’s exposed ribs.

The tenth breath passed just as Evan’s blunted blade struck beneath Zephyr’s jaw and the dragon’s reinforced tail smashed into the formation protecting Evan’s ribs.

Red light flashed across Evan’s armour as both of them were thrown away from the collision.

“Enough,” Alaric called before either could continue. “It’s a draw.”

Two sets of notifications appeared before him almost simultaneously.

[Quest: Attain Minor Mastery of the blade — Evan Lionheart.]

[Completed]

[Grade A – 50 coins]

[Issuing Rewards.]

[Body Technique — Return Step has been granted.]

[Quest: Sustain two Body Techniques together for ten breaths — Zephyr Nightscale]

[Completed]

[Grade A – 45 coins]

[Issuing Rewards.]

[Minor Mastery in Mana Control has been granted.]

Ninety five coins from two quests was considerably more than Alaric usually received, but he barely had time to enjoy it before knowledge of Return Step entered his mind.

At the same time, his understanding of mana changed completely.

The mana inside his body no longer felt like a current he could only push in a general direction.

He could sense the amount entering each mana channel and make small corrections before an imbalance formed.

The difference was especially obvious after struggling with Mountain Grip earlier that day.

Evan pushed himself upright while Zephyr shook the impact from his head.

Both of them looked exhausted, but neither appeared unhappy with the result.

Zephyr was still trying to understand how a human his own realm had matched him, while Evan kept glancing at the dragon, finding it unbelievable that he had just fought with a damn fucking dragon.

The only reason Zephyr was even able to match Evan’s minor mastery in sword was because of his ridiculous Magic Path talent.

Not to mention that the dragon race had talent at the peak of Magic Path, but even among them, Zephyr was a genius.

However, now that Evan had two minor masteries, it would be difficult for Zephyr to fight him to a standstill if he couldn’t maintain two or more body techniques for a long time.

One must keep in mind that Evan was still a newly advanced Knight with no body techniques learned yet.

This just went to show how broken Minor Mastery was. Something even the majority of the Champion Knights didn’t have.

Alaric stepped into another area of the training hall and began circulating mana according to the knowledge he had just received.

Return Step was designed to pull its user out of a committed attack by reversing their momentum through the legs, waist and back without destroying their balance.

The change in mana flow needed to occur almost simultaneously across several channels, which would have been extremely difficult with his previous control.

The complexity of this body technique far exceeded that of Mountain Grip he learned from Rowena.

However, Alaric found that with his newly acquired mana control, this was no more a problem for him.

The Minor Mastery of Mana Control was an extreme leap in mastery of one of the core foundations of the power systems. After all, all power systems used mana.

This was far, far, FAR more important than minor mastery in some weapon.

Body Technique — Return Step

Alaric’s body shot backward by several paces while his upper body remained steady.

He landed without stumbling, examined the flow he had just used and immediately activated the technique again with more mana.

This time he crossed half the training hall and stopped exactly before the boundary line.

Evan stared at him. He knew how long it normally took a Knight to use an unfamiliar Body Technique without injuring himself, yet Alaric had seemingly understood this one within two attempts.

Zephyr’s reaction was even more direct. “When did your mana control become that good?”

Alaric ignored the question and considered what he could do with Return Step, Mountain Grip and his reinforced mana channels working together. He then looked toward the two Geniuses who had just completed their quests.

“Rest for a few minutes,” Alaric said. “After that, both of you will fight me together.”

Thank you for reading!