Note from the capitalist author: dear readers, inflation has knocked on our door, now there are 15 stones per bonus chapter (:
"Looks like we have a lost bird here, brothers," said the black knight with sarcasm. The arrogance in his tone was obvious.
"Shit", without wasting any time, Kayden carried out an attack on the red knight with all his strength. Even though it was a katana against a giant sword, the knight found himself being pushed back by the impact.
And his surprise didn't end, as the katana passed under his arms, opening a horizontal wound on his torso with a medium depth. Unfortunately, Kayden was unable to continue attacking him, as he had to defend a blow from the knight in black.
Using his remaining strength, he continued attacking. In a few seconds, that one-on-three fight turned into a kind of chess game. At Kayden's slightest mistake, he would be stabbed by one or more blades.
Every defense and every step of his had to be perfectly carried out so that he could launch the next attack. Little by little, the boy fell into a state of semi-consciousness.
He didn't need to think to carry out his attacks and defenses. It seemed like something that came from his subconscious. Even though he was in confusion by the sounds of metal clashing and spells being cast, his mind was in complete silence.
Defense, attack, retreat, advance, flash, concentrated beam. It looked similar to a dance. It was beautiful to see how every little thing was being done to perfection.
The boy was too focused to notice, but even the other participants in that match stopped fighting to watch his fight. She was mesmerizing. Little by little, his blade turned a shade of black without him noticing.
"A katana technique? Who taught that to the boy?" Astolfo's master, who was in the audience, recognized that small coating on Kayden's blade instantly. His technique took on a pink or purple hue, depending on the variant he used.
But that wasn't the problem. The crux of the matter was the fact that he needed hundreds of thousands of fights to establish his technique. It took centuries to do this.
"The reincarnation of a god?" That was Sasaki's thought as he continued observing Kayden's technique.
Every second, he became faster and more lethal. It was as if nothing but his blade existed. There were no breaks between blows. It was a sequence of attacks connected.
His enemies already had dozens of cuts caused by the katana and it didn't seem like they would win that at all. Kayden had subconsciously turned off Transcendence a long time ago.
Even though his strength and speed were not much higher than his current rank, his technique at that moment was at an absurdly high level. It seemed like there were no flaws for the three knights to take advantage of.
It was simply impossible for them to touch a strand of Kayden's hair. It didn't take long and the first one was eliminated. After that, it seemed that Kayden slightly decreased his speed.
This was plausible considering he used the strength of his movements to gain strength and speed. With fewer opponents, he had fewer attacks being carried out.
Even so, he still hadn't come out of his hyperfocused state. A few seconds later, another opponent was removed from the arena. This entire time, all eyes were focused on Kayden.
No matter how much the knight defended or attacked, Kayden was always ready to defend and take advantage of every opening he gave. Quickly, another opponent was removed from the arena.
This time, Kayden stood still, staring into space, as he began to realize what had happened. It took a while, but his memories of that period came back. That had been...bizarre.
Even if he was fighting four or five knights, it would still be the same. Its level was completely surreal. The boy was mentally grateful for having gone through the war experience on the steps of the Sol academy.
If it weren't for that, he would never be able to even come close to developing something like that, even if he still wouldn't be able to use the technique again as soon as he wanted to, as logically he needed to reflect on what happened and absorb this new knowledge.
"I quit."
"I quit."
Kayden's performance took away any hope of the other two being able to win that. His morals were thrown in the trash and trampled on, and as if that wasn't enough, the trash was placed over boiling oil and lit on fire.
"Kayden… what the fuck was that?" The first to recover from what happened was Astolfo. His response was a Kayden smile. If not even the boy knew, how would he explain it to others?
A few seconds later, the officer took them to the VIP room again. This time, the director even cried with emotion. The keys had already come out and they were lucky not to have to fight again.
This meant they could compete in the state championship in two weeks. Kayden mentally sighed. He had achieved one more thing, if it weren't for him taking a unique path in the world, he wouldn't have been able to do any of it.
Kayden shut down and began to meditate on his experience. He had to do this when the memories were still fresh in his mind.
"Kayden, it's our turn to compete for first place." Astolfo's voice brought Kayden out of his thoughts. Now he had to make a decision. If he left now and did anything else, he wouldn't be able to keep the memories so clear in his mind.
"I'm sorry, but I'm in no condition to fight right now. I need to reflect on the last fight and if I go now, I won't be able to do that." Kayden didn't want to do this, but reflecting on his last fight would give him better rewards than ranking in the top spots.
The most he would receive would be resources like mana or beast cores from his elements. That wasn't something that would help him right now. Developing your technique would be much more useful in the long run.
Astolfo realized this quickly and knew the value of good sword technique.
"I'm kind of under the weather myself." Astolfo supported the boy openly and shamelessly. No matter how much the director begged, his prayers fell on deaf ears. Kayden had already gone back to meditating.
The next phase took two hours, which was plenty of time for only nine teams. This was because the fights not only took longer but also had a longer gap between them.
At that time, Kayden managed to get an idea of what happened in their fight. He did not have complete mastery of his technique, but he could use its main concept, making part of the technique useable by him.