"Weren't you going to meet the fairies?"
Jaxon asked.
He switched to casual speech, as often happens when surprised. Even though he was speaking from the roof, his voice pierced through clearly. Such was the intensity he carried. Perhaps it was like a cold flame.
A chilly yet passionate and challenging tone. His eyes sparkled, but his voice was so calm it gave off that impression.
"I went, and there was a demon."
Encrid remained unfazed by anything Jaxon said. There was even a hint of bewilderment.
"So?"
Jaxon asked again.
"..I sliced it to death with vigor."
Normally, he wouldn't phrase it like that. Now that he could explain things more thoroughly, he wouldn't have to sound like a madman. He had established a system for himself.
But this wasn't the time to be elaborative, not when facing someone whose spirit was as sharp as a blade.
So, as a habit, the words he used with Ermen slipped out.
Then again, these guys weren't the type to take issue with something like this.
"Not wrong."
Ragna agreed as he stood up. He gripped his sword and took a few steps forward, unsheathing it.
Ching!
It was a piercingly clear sound. Ragna tossed the scabbard, held the sword with both hands on the grip, and spoke.
"Step aside, weak puppy. It’s my turn."
While Encrid had been away, he seemed to have obtained a rare sword. Its blade emitted a soft glow, a color resembling the sky.
The sword was made from Valyrian steel and Noir Mountain wrought iron, with a blend of refined silver.
Its thick and long blade, reminiscent of his previous black gold sword, had become a symbol of Ragna.
The talent granted by the heavens, the genius known as Ragna, revealed the flames igniting in his eyes. He wasn’t hiding them either.
Encrid watched Ragna quietly, and the latter spoke.
"If you can’t block this, you’ll die."
While practicing swordsmanship, it wasn’t uncommon to lose a limb. That’s how Ragna was taught.
He was serious, but a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. It was the kind of smile born from anticipation, joy, and excitement.
Encrid, observing Ragna’s expression and attitude, easily guessed his emotions.
He had a keen sense for reading such things and had recently honed this ability further while spending time with fairies, who typically suppressed their emotions.
In any case, Ragna, with a voice full of anticipation, asked,
"Will you be kind enough to watch me too?"
Encrid asked seriously,
"Are you going to hold back?"
Ragna answered with his sword.
It didn’t seem like he made any preparatory moves, but the blade was already thrusting forward as if it had simply snapped forward.
Clang!
Encrid raised Penna vertically, blocking the attack with the flat of his blade before leaping sideways as if propelled.
Bang!
With the sound of the air splitting, Ragna’s prepared second strike passed through where Encrid had just been.
From the initial thrust to the follow-up slash—there wasn’t a single light move in the mix. On the surface, it looked as if Encrid was casually dodging everything.
'Predict and respond.'
If errors emerged, he recalculated in an instant. If that didn’t work, he blocked with brute force. If things deviated from predictions?
He countered with skill and strength. Though some moments seemed forced, from a broader perspective, it appeared that everything was unfolding according to Encrid’s plan.
‘He adjusts tactics in real time.’
He could recalculate variables and maintain pure focus even amidst battle. That’s what allowed such feats.
‘But does this even make sense?’
When you look up, you can’t see your feet. What Encrid was doing was akin to looking up and seeing his feet simultaneously.
‘He makes random luck seem inevitable.’
It felt as though he were observing the battle from a bird’s-eye view.
Normally, this shouldn’t make sense, but with it happening before their eyes, they had no argument.
Rem already knew the outcome before the fight had truly begun.
If Encrid fought Ragna ten times before arriving, all ten would have ended in a draw. There was no clear winner. If he had struggled against Encrid, then Ragna would as well.
The Wave Blocking Sword wasn’t a technique that could be countered easily. It blocked anything and everything. Ragna would be unable to break through and, inevitably, it would turn into a battle of attrition.
‘Usque.’
When that moment arrived, the unending Will would greet the lost wanderer with open arms.
When fighting Encrid, Rem often felt like he was being dragged into a swamp. His intuition had always been sharp in this regard.
Encrid’s tactical thinking could be likened to grabbing an opponent’s ankle and gradually dragging them underwater until the field was completely in his favor.
What Rem perceived, Ragna sensed.
‘I’m going to lose.’
His genius allowed him to shorten the process and predict the outcome. If they continued fighting like this, he would lose. The moment he felt himself being overwhelmed, he changed his stance.
It was a move he had shown Rem a few times before, a technique that was hard to counter.
Tensing every muscle and pouring all his Will into a downward slash.
Although it appeared to be a simple middle sword downward cut, it didn’t look that way to the person on the receiving end.
It was like lightning thrown by a thunder god.
It was a technique Ragna had reworked after witnessing Encrid’s method of pouring all his Will into attacks.
To Ragna, it was simply a powerful slash.
He spread his stance and lifted both arms high. Everything happened in a fleeting moment. His preparatory moves were so brief that it made blocking him difficult.
When engaged in a fight where a single slash could determine life or death, even the most seasoned warrior couldn’t help but focus only on the immediate moment.
That’s why they called the Knight’s technique of foresight “the ability to see an inch ahead.”
No matter how sharp a Knight’s insight was, predicting a moment like this was impossible. Even if you predicted it, it would be too late. Trying to dodge would result in the slash following you. Ragna’s footwork, despite appearances, was remarkably fast.
Even when compared to himself, who had once raced across the vast plains of the West as a playground, Ragna’s speed was impressive.
Dodging backward wasn’t an option. To counter that slash, Rem had once closed the distance instead, stepping in just before the sword swung down.
That move reduced the force of the slash, but it was an incredibly risky tactic during a sparring match.
Both had nearly died, and after that, they stopped sparring altogether. One of them would have died if they had continued.
Now, Ragna’s slash was about to descend upon Encrid.
It was a moment where anyone would think there was no opening.
"Damn."
Audin muttered under his breath. Encrid retreated the moment Ragna’s intent flared as he prepared his stance.
It was difficult to tell if Ragna had set his stance first or if Encrid had retreated first; they happened almost simultaneously.
Even with that distance, Ragna could still pursue and swing his sword.
After all, wasn’t it a slash enhanced with the technique known as Oara’s Continuous Blade?
But the power loss would be inevitable. Encrid had retreated just far enough.
‘A tactical retreat.’
He anticipated and read the form of the battle in advance. The sword technique known as Aker’s Web came to mind, but what Encrid displayed was on another level.
Aker’s Web involved cornering the opponent until they couldn’t move, but what Encrid showed was blocking everything the opponent did.
‘Is his thought process faster?’
No, it wasn’t just faster, he had two streams of thought. If Rem noticed, then Jaxon, Ragna, and Audin could also realize it.
Their eyes all sparkled. Ragna finally swung his sword, but Encrid intercepted it by swinging his short sword horizontally.
The two blades, imbued with Will, collided with an explosive sound.
Bang!
It was as if the air was crushed and burst outward. Like lightning striking from the sky, only to be blocked by a volcanic eruption below.
The sky-blue line met and parted with the light-blue, moonlit line.
Since clashing at full force would harm both sides, they grazed past each other with minimal contact.
Given that it was a sparring match, they each took a step back.
As they moved back, their bodies crossed paths—one moving to the left, the other to the right, creating distance between them.
That marked the end of the fight. Ragna had exhausted most of his energy and needed time to recover, while Encrid did not.
"Shall we continue?"
Encrid asked, holding Penna upright in front of his face.
Ragna briefly stared into Encrid’s blue eyes, then lowered his sword and moved to stand next to Rem.
Seeing the two of them side by side looked somewhat amusing. For those aware of how much their relationship had soured during Encrid’s absence, it was a surprising sight.
"The two shrunken brothers, step back."
Audin spoke as he moved forward. His eyes burned with the same intensity. He approached Encrid, his eyes brimming with joy, exhilaration, and anticipation. Had he always been like this? Or had he changed because of Encrid?
Either way, it didn’t matter much at this point.
They were all driven by a burning desire for victory and competition. They seemed like madmen, desperate to fight no matter what.
Golden light flowed across Audin’s entire body. The light scattered like sand, lingering on his body before trickling down. When it reached his feet, it climbed back up along his calves. The golden sand that covered his body was a symbol of the divinity Audin possessed.
"This is my current strength."
Audin said as he moved. Light exploded from his clenched fist.
Whoosh!
The light gathered into a single point and shot toward Encrid’s face.
In terms of movement, it was a punch thrown by twisting his waist with his left foot as the pivot. But when combined with his divinity and the strength of his well-trained body, it was like a spear made of light.
Bang!
Encrid blocked that as well. The spear of light didn’t stop with a single strike, it scattered and rained down like starlight. Punches, kicks, and claw-like strikes from his fingers all aimed to grab at different parts of Encrid’s body. Encrid blocked each one, repeatedly stepping and dodging.
The fight appeared to be a one-sided offensive by Audin. One side tried to close the distance, while the other refused to let it happen.
Eventually, when Audin managed to get close, Encrid dropped Penna, grabbed Audin’s arm, twisted it, and drove his knee into Audin’s jaw.
Thud!
Audin managed to block the strike with his palm, but he couldn’t stop Encrid from stepping back and reclaiming Penna. Every movement flowed smoothly, as if part of a single sequence.
Even the act of dropping and retrieving Penna seemed calculated. Battles often involve chance and luck, but Encrid made it all feel inevitable. Even when his calculations were off, he acted as if those errors were within his expectations.
His method was to split his thoughts and accelerate his thinking, allowing him to calculate everything in an instant and fight accordingly.
‘I can’t win.’
Rem thought, peeking into the future once again. Audin probably thought the same.
Even though Audin’s divinity was the most stable among them, it had its limits.
While they watched from the sidelines, Rem’s axe trembled in his hands. The weapon, imbued with its own spirit, spoke to him.
‘I know. But we’re not here to kill each other, so there’s no need to intervene. This is just playing.’
The axe claimed it could end the fight, but Rem didn’t intend to go that far. The axe had misinterpreted Rem’s desire.
The urge to win and the urge to kill were two different things.
If he unleashed the curse within the axe, he could find a way to win. But he didn’t want to do that. Despite losing, Rem felt neither bad nor frustrated. In fact, he felt exhilarated and refreshed. It seemed Audin felt the same way.
"I’ve lost."
Audin admitted, being the only one of the three to say it aloud. As sweat poured down his face, he asked,
"How do you feel?"
Now that he looked, Encrid also seemed to have endured quite a bit. His entire body was drenched in sweat.
Ragna and Rem were in the same condition.
Audin’s question carried multiple meanings.
They all recalled the moment Encrid had first arrived as their squad leader.
LET'S FUCKING GOOO ENCRID!!