Author's note: Bonus chapter as promised, I don't know how the chapters will be released this week as I'm in exam time at college
It didn't take long, and within 30 minutes, the battle was over. The prince had simply caused silence throughout the kingdom. He was a genius never seen before in the history of the kingdom.
First, his rank as a peak mage, and then, single-handedly he managed to tip a battle ten against one. It was just bizarre. Kayden was impressed. This was probably the level of true geniuses.
After that, everything went normally. The test results would only come out in a week. Even with the duke's invitation, Han preferred to return to the orphanage. He had been away for a long time.
A week later, Kayden was at the orphanage saying goodbye to Heimer. The old man threw a party to celebrate the boy's passing. Not for a second did Kayden doubt that his friend was capable of passing.
Heimer said he had a little parting gift for Kayden. Even though he was the one leaving, he didn't want to say what it was but said that a letter would arrive in the next few months explaining everything.
Kayden had a feeling Heimer had just forgotten to write the letter, which was why it wouldn't be written now.
The next day, Kayden arranged to go see Shang. He should start his life and death struggles soon. It was a necessary step for his progress. He saw in his illusion the difference that experience made when facing the fat man.
It didn't take long and he was at the club. The boy found Shang drinking at one of the club's random bars.
"Hello, Shang," Kayden's voice made Shang wake up from his drunken state. "I'm ready to fight." The boy didn't need to say anything else for the blonde to understand what he wanted to say.
Shang's eyes glowed red and... Kayden didn't even flinch. This time, his will had been honed by thousands of battles. Probably, the illusion made him fight harder than all the fighters in that place.
Even though it wasn't a direct increase in his battle strength, his experience, and combat awareness had increased exponentially. Even though 70% of his fights were useless, it was still an absurd amount of fighting.
"Congratulations, kid," Shang praised when he saw that he didn't even sway. "I'll look for an opponent today if that's okay with you?" Kayden nodded.
The boy didn't have much money, so the 5 gold coins from his savings were put in and Shang supplemented it with another... 15 coins. That was the minimum to enter that category.
It wasn't long before Shang came back telling Kayden that he had found a perfect opponent. His opponent would be on the same level as him and, even better, Kayden had already faced him once.
No matter how many times the boy asked, Shang refused to talk, saying it would ruin the fun. The prize for this match was to triple the amount of coins they had. This was only possible because the opponent seemed to be desperate.
A few minutes later, Kayden went through the entire ritual to cover up his identity and climbed into the ring. As soon as he entered, he saw who his opponent was.
"Fate is a hypocrite, isn't it?" Muppet said with a smile. Before Kayden could respond, the match narrator commented.
"Muppet, at apprentice level 6, against the famous Reaper who, oddly enough, is also at level 6. And guess what's best?" He paused dramatically. "This is a fight to the death!" With his sentence, the arena caught fire.
Even though a life-and-death battle in the club was not rare, it was still not that common. Normally, one fight in ten was in this category. Kayden understood why Shang didn't say anything to him.
This wasn't a match. It was, in fact, a forced retirement.
"Fate is a complicated thing. Good luck," Kayden said in a friendly manner. Then he assumed a fighting stance. Muppet just waited for the boy's attack.
He knew that at some point the flashbangs would be used and he was waiting for it. Unfortunately for him, Kayden was no longer the same person.
The boy rushed with all his strength against his opponent, he didn't even use any technique. The knight raised his sledgehammer and made a sideways swing at high speed.
Kayden simply made a feint and, using the strength of the sledgehammer, the boy bounced it to the side, unbalancing the knight, and, without mercy, brought his blade down towards his opponent's arm.
Sledgehammer retreated, but not without suffering deep wounds in one of his arms. The old man understood that his opponent was no longer the same as before.
"Come with everything, show me this respect at least", Muppet said with the smile of someone who accepted his death. Kayden decided to show this small act of respect since he wouldn't fight again today.
"Transcendence", with his spell active, he rushed towards Sledgehammer at an insane speed. Before the man could mount a good defense, Kayden's blade came down on his sledgehammer.
The man's base was strong and well crafted and took the impact without flinching, but the next blow came almost instantly. The man's feeling was that he received two different blows.
Kayden's katana looked like a snake, each strike was violent and fast, but the worst thing was that it seemed like they connected. Marreta's defense seemed to be receiving dozens of consecutive blows, without even a break between them.
This was a technique he developed in illusion, it was similar to Astolfo's, but he only used his momentum to land the next blow. His technique was practically polished.
There are two ways to improve something: knowledge or practice. In Kayden's case, there were thousands of battles just trying to improve small things. His technique, from a professional point of view, was strange.
He didn't have fluidity in his movements, it seemed like he was making his attacks subconsciously, almost within the time limit between one and another. After a few more seconds, Muppet destabilized again.
Kayden took this opportunity mercilessly to finish off his opponent's arm. Muppet practically had one of his limbs severed. This time, he simply dropped his weapon.
There was no point in fighting anymore, he couldn't even swing his huge sledgehammer.
"Looks like this is the end, doesn't it?" A sad tone came out of his voice, a fighter who faced dozens of battles, even life and death, was defeated in just a few moves.
"Everything comes to an end," Kayden replied in a neutral tone. And before the man could reason, the katana blade pierced his neck. The speed of the blow combined with the transcendence left half of the neck hanging.
The man fell to his knees and a pool of blood began to grow around him. Kayden, seeing this, felt...nothing. No emotion took over him, it was simply as if he had killed a fly.
The boy retreated amidst the screams of the crowd.