I really think I’ve trained hard.
The church where I spent my childhood was set ablaze by the Demon Race, and I was thrown into this unfamiliar world in the body of a little girl, with nothing but a Holy Sword to trust.
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before I was taken in by Melissa. Well, I guess it’s better to say I was “picked up”? Anyway, the first companion I met was Melissa.
Starting with Melissa, after meeting the Saintess Elena and the Dwarf Ain, our group began to seriously fight against the Demon Race. Then, the Elf Igrim joined us from the north.
While continuing the battle against the Demon Race with them, I repeatedly trained to master the power thrust into me by the Holy Sword.
I collapsed from exhaustion, sat down on the ground, and gasped for breath. Melissa looked at my blistered little hands with a pained expression, but she didn’t lessen the intensity of the training.
“Block, thrust, slash. The swordplay is the same; a longer slash is simply a stronger slash.”
“What if we encounter a really tough enemy? Isn’t there some flashier swordsmanship that confuses the opponent’s gaze?”
“Oh, the elders in our family used to talk about creating such techniques. Hoo, you’ve seen me in battle, right? While techniques that dig into the opponent’s gaps are of course important, it’s all just an extension of thrusts and slashes. If you block confidently, then quickly thrust at the gap created, and slash hard afterward, everything will fall into place.”
“Block confidently, thrust quickly, and slash hard, is that it?”
“Yeah. Those who learned swordsmanship clumsily tend to treat this as a fundamental and try to insert their techniques afterward, but that’s unnecessary. Ultimately, that’s all there is to the sword’s purpose.”
Block, thrust, slash.
“Ah! Melissa! Oh my, you’ve done this to Rain’s hands again today…! Rain, come here. Sister Elena will heal you!”
*
Silence fell over the training ground.
Chak.
The commotion from Eleonora didn’t last long.
She let her sword hang and took a deep breath.
“Alright, girl. It pains me, but I must admit that your swordsmanship is a level above mine. I won’t even ask how you learned the basics of swordplay that our family teaches.”
Wooh.
“Right now, don’t think about anything.”
Her body began gathering tangible energy.
Ka-whooom!
From the raised sword, a brilliant blue sword energy began to rise.
“I shall do my utmost to defeat you.”
Final phase of Eleonora.
She declared she would give it her all.
I lifted my sword and felt cold sweat trickling down.
And then I smiled.
This was the real deal.
The duel with sword energy that I had experienced in the battle against the “Ancient Hero.”
Why is the Master called the Master? It’s the stage that a warrior reaches after endless inner training. The proof of that shows in the tangible energy emanating from her sword.
Wooh.
Starlight began to gather on my sword, Astaroth. Before that overwhelming energy, I felt like a firefly before the sun.
But I felt I could mix swords now.
Eleonora’s blue sword energy. While weaker than the golden energy of the hero appearing through the Holy Sword, if misaligned, I would be sliced in half all the same.
I too once knew how to do such things. But not every Master is the same. I was also an incomplete Master. I could only emit a strong energy through the power thrust into me by the Holy Sword.
The only true Master who had completed both swordsmanship and inner training was sister Melissa. If she had the Holy Sword, she would have been a far better hero than a timid little hero like me.
Of course, I could still use it now. The system lent me the power of the past in my near-death state.
But.
“You don’t need to use it.”
I could win without using it.
This world is a game.
Without borrowing the hero’s power.
Pahhh!
Eleonora’s new type of attack shot towards me like lightning, growing larger in an instant.
Kaboom!
The blue sword energy clashed with the starlight.
*
The raid leader of the Skada raid, Skada, found it hard to keep her mouth shut.
The fight happening right before her eyes was far beyond common sense.
“W-what is this?”
Kaboom!
Blue and silver flickered everywhere. The rapid exchanges of light were so fast they were hard to follow. It was like watching a finely crafted film.
I could understand Eleonora. A named enemy that was nearly impossible to handle with a user of the current level. A final boss-level named enemy requiring the first team of 12 users to devote days or weeks of tries to barely clear. If nothing else, the “Master Eleonora” in front of me was understandable.
But.
“What does it mean that Rain is fighting her evenly 1:1?”
Could a simple user fight like that?
Can a user display such movements and strength using only given stats and skills?
Clink-clink-clink!
The nearly fading starlight on the sword fought proudly against the powerful blue light, shedding silver light repeatedly.
Spapapah! Ka-ka-ka-ka-boom!
The two energies blurred, creating a moment of distance. A menacing burst of blue sword energy erupted from Eleonora’s sword. As Rain lowered his stance, his sword unleashed Starlight energy. It precisely targeted the center of Eleonora’s blue sword wave.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The overwhelming power difference between the Starlight sword energy and the blue sword energy felt palpable with each clash, yet they perfectly canceled each other out.
“He aimed for the flow of the sword energy.”
“He aimed for the flow?”
The Skada team’s tank, Park Jeong-kwon, had approached Skada and was watching the duel with keen eyes.
“There should be strategies when dealing with named monsters. Likewise with named NPCs, but it’s also easy to break through invulnerable skills with techniques. However, when they come in rapidly, it’s hard to resist them all. In those cases, aiming for the weak points in their strength allows you to offset with lesser power. Well, theoretically.”
“I can’t even guess what skill they’re using. Is Rain really a swordsman class? This seems more like a hidden job that breaks balance.”
“No, all of that is swordsmanship skills. Backward evasion, then a charge, left counterattack, leg slash, right counterattack, repeated backward evasion—has he reset cooldowns? Then backward evasion again, and Starlight swordsmanship. Whoa, that’s fast.”
Park Jeong-kwon’s eyes widened as he barely followed Rain’s movements. Skada clicked her tongue.
“So, can you do it too?”
“Cough, in keyboard-mouse games, you can sort of do it with macros, but what year is it? In VR games, it’s naturally impossible.”
“However, Rain is naturally executing the skill combinations that are theoretically possible.”
“The same goes for invulnerable moves. I fought before, right? That woman called Eleonora follows through with counterattacks with her eyes. But if you use it just before the sword touches, you can target the very brief attack delay. Rain gets a sword nearly touching his throat but holds out without using it until the very end.”
Just listening to that chaotic combat style made me dizzy.
Of course, ‘Astria Online’ is a game. You could learn the patterns after dozens or hundreds of tries. But this was our first battle.
Skada groaned.
“I had been analyzing the fights Rain had in the attack team with his alternate character. Until today, no, until I saw this, I had been skeptical about whether Rain really cleared a raid dungeon alone.”
“Seeing this, it wouldn’t be surprising if he did. Time attacks? I feel like even if Rain faced berserk patterns, he could push through and clear it.”
Skada didn’t find Park Jeong-kwon’s words merely a joke. Even if the system prevented solo clearings, he would have found a way.
Skada glanced at Chris.
The raid leader of Hong Baek. The person closest to Rain. A beauty with red hair. What was her take on this fight?
“Uh?”
Chris’s reaction also deviated from Skada’s expectations.
She clasped her hands over her chest, looking worriedly at Rain.
“Rain, you mustn’t get hurt…!”
Skada tilted her head.
It’s just a game, so what is she worried about?
The fight, conducted under the astonished gazes of the user group and someone’s anxiety, reached its climax.
Ka-ka-ka-boom!
The blue sword energy shooting from Eleonora’s sword increased in number. It became so overwhelming that canceling it was difficult, as dozens of sword energy bursts targeted Rain. Even the floor of the training ground, magically treated, began to crack and form massive grooves. The aftermath of the blind sword energies hit the mana barrier cast by mages. Even the powerful wall formed by several court mages flickered like a candle in the wind.
And Rain’s brilliant silver sword energy burrowed closely into Eleonora. Evading was no longer an option. It was time to gamble.
Eleonora’s sword, which had been raining down sword energies, was pulled back, and with immense power concentrated, it slashed towards Rain’s waist like a wicked strike. Ka-ka-kak! The powerful blue sword met the flimsy Starlight sword and turned.
Park Jeong-kwon, being a fellow swordsman, did his best to analyze Rain’s skills.
“Block.”
And the silver sword, now like beams of light, pierced through Eleonora’s shoulder armor.
Crack!
“Thrust.”
Eleonora’s face warped as the shoulder’s guard shattered. Gritting her teeth, she lifted the sword imbued with sword energy, ignoring the impact to attempt to cleave Rain in two.
Flash!
Rain became a flash of light, slicing through Eleonora’s waist with his raised sword.
Cling!
The lower part of Eleonora’s armor, sliced in half, echoed as it hit the training ground floor.
The last sound wasn’t that of Park Jeong-kwon but rather a girl’s voice that echoed throughout the silent training ground.
“Slash.”
