The Hero Returns

Giiii-iiing—

Su-hyeun loaded the sword with his magical energy.

His energy had come to resemble the Dao energy in some ways after he trained in the Sage Arts and relied on the breathing technique for a while now.

After pouring some magical energy onto the blade, he began picturing the "sword" Milton was swinging earlier in his mind.

To be specific, he reshaped the sword by placing one more layer on top of its blade using his aura.

"Isn't that…?" Waffman's eyes grew large when he witnessed the aura envelop Su-hyeun's own sword. "I see. So you also knew how to wield the aura blade."

"No, that's not true," Su-hyeun replied as he studied "another blade" that now wrapped around his sword. "But I am now able to use it, though."

"What was that?"

"The theory behind it isn't all that difficult to emulate, is it? Anyone who's mastered some degree of control over their powers can recreate something on this level pretty easily," Su-hyeun said confidently.

Waffman nodded contemplatively in response. What Su-hyeun said wasn't wrong. The aura blade simply added aura to the sword to produce an even sharper blade.

You would need exacting control over your own powers in order to manifest the shape and maintain it while swinging your sword around, but when flipping that around, this ability wouldn't be hard to use as long as you were good at controlling your powers.

"Indeed, a talented individual on your level wouldn't have found something like this all that difficult to pull off. But if that's the case, what have you already mastered?" Waffman said.

The aura blade was like a symbol for all the knights out there.

It was the ultimate idealized form of swordsmanship the current set of knights sought to reach. As such, a knight who was capable of properly using the aura blade was often referred to as the "complete knight."

That was why knights dedicated their whole lives mastering that single skill so that they could polish and perfect it for the others to acknowledge them.

Su-hyeun said that he only started using the aura blade today, which meant that he had not fully grasped it yet.

Waffman believed that, rather obviously, Su-hyeun had already mastered some other skills. Otherwise, he would not be able to reach such a realm without mastering a skill at least on par with the aura blade.

"Well, you'll soon see it for yourself, but…" Su-hyeun looked around at the knights and nobles in the vicinity. "Don't you think our stage is a bit too small?"

The members of the peanut gallery heard him speak and began looking at each other before stepping back to create more distance.

Soon, a big open circle was created around Su-hyeun and Waffman. The former nodded in satisfaction after thinking that the stage was large enough for his liking.

"Are you happy now?" Waffman spoke.

"With this much distance, I'm sure they can now mind their own safety."

"Your confidence in your abilities is rather sizeable, isn't it?" Waffman finally stopped smiling and narrowed his eyes. "In that case, allow me to make the first move."

Paht—

Pah-paht—

Almost at the same time as Waffman's figure seemingly vanished into thin air, Su-hyeun's figure also vanished from the spot.

Just as the crowd thought that the two men had disappeared, a loud noise exploded from the center of the hall.

Claaaang—!

Kwa-wuuuu—

The collision of two swords caused the ground to cave in, a mere side-effect born out from the collision of their weapons, and as they swung their swords again, their feet stomped down on the floor underneath.

"Since when…?"

"As expected of Lord Waffman!"

"That man is also quite amazing. To think that he defended against Lord Waffman's attack!"

"No, it's more than simply defending…"

Swiiiish, whoosh—

Claaang—! Clang—!

The two men's swords continued to clash with each other. The shockwaves of each impact scattered in all directions and gouged out countless sword scars on the ground in an instant.

"Aren't they an equal match?"

Waffman was probably the closest to being the continent's number one swordsman after the emperor.

There was another man who was just as good as he was—Duke Layard—but he was a veteran of all veterans who had been wielding his sword far longer than even Waffman himself.

Many believed that in only a few years, Waffman would exceed Duke Layard in power, so for all intents and purposes, one could say that Waffman was the empire's best swordsman.

"Yet, against Lord Waffman…"

"It makes sense that His Majesty has chosen that man."

Their emperor, Wick Bradley, sought out powerful individuals.

Currently, the continent was going through an epoch where only one's strength was prioritized above all else. This was an era where your station would reach even higher if you mastered excellent swordsmanship and breathing technique, but at the same time, even a commoner or slave could dream of raising their own stations as long as they had enough strength to do so.

And that's why the nobles and the knights grew suspicious when Su-hyeun was declared as the emperor's personal guardian knight. They wondered if he had the requisite abilities for such a role.

"Wonderful."

Creaaak, creaaaak—

Waffman felt genuinely stunned as he clashed his sword with Su-hyeun's.

He already suspected that Su-hyeun was rather highly skilled when the latter blocked and broke Milton's sword.

The thing was, though, Waffman could also easily defend against Milton's attack with his torso or break the sword in half. Therefore, he didn't initially believe that Su-hyeun would be this strong.

"This man, he's actually testing out the aura blade right now," he thought.

Su-hyeun did say that today was the first time he used the aura blade. And that turned out to be true. From Waffman's perspective, Su-hyeun's handling of the skill fell far behind his evaluation of the young man's actual talent level.

But that was only for a short while because Su-hyeun's aura on the sword gradually took an even clearer shape as it got firmer. As implied, he was copying and practicing the aura blade while fighting against Waffman.

"I need to acknowledge that he is indeed talented. However…" Waffman realized.

Squeeze—

Waffman strengthened his grip on the sword. "As I thought, this much isn't enough for you to talk about standing next to His Majesty, don't you think?"

Shu-ka-aaang—!

Waffman's sword shoved Su-hyeun's sword back.

For a moment there, the aura permeating on the latter's weapon thinned out. At the same time, a small gap opened up in Su-hyeun's stance.

A gap opened up just because of something so small?

However, Waffman's curiousness only lasted for a blink; he quickly made his next move.

Staaab—

His sword stabbed into Su-hyeun's shoulder. Or that was what he thought until he realized that Su-hyeun had caught the incoming blade with his bare hand.

"He even caught my sword?"

It was the same action from the fight against Milton earlier, but Waffman didn't expect that Su-hyeun would be able to grab his version of the aura blade like this.

Drip, drip—

Of course, the end result was slightly different from before.

Blood trickled down from Su-hyeun's hand. He was cut open, albeit only by a little.

"Calm down. Be still."

Griiip—

Su-hyeun seemed to have muttered to no one in particular as he held onto Waffman's sword.

Who was he even talking to? Waffman strengthened his grip on the weapon in order to extract it but didn't forget to listen closely.

"One mistake and…"

Waffman then clearly saw it—Su-hyeun's gaze was locked on his own sword.

Squeeeeze—

He was like a tamer trying to pacify a wild animal trying to go on a rampage.

He then whispered something else to his sword, "Everyone might die."

Shudder—

Ta-dack—

Even unbeknown to himself, Waffman hurriedly leaped backward and created some distance between them, which was only possible because Su-hyeun let go of the older man's sword after he finished muttering to his weapon.

What was this chilling sensation?

The perspiration that didn't break out while Waffman was swinging his sword around was now trickling down his neck, all because of what Su-hyeun muttered just now.

Waffman had a very good hunch.

"He wasn't trying to block my sword."

The reason why Su-hyeun's aura became unstable wasn't that Waffman's attacks proved to be threatening. No, it was because Su-hyeun had been suppressing a certain "power" out of his concern for the spectating crowd in the vicinity.

He was worried that one mistake could result in the death of everyone present.

"Truly interesting."

Smirk—

Waffman grinned again.

Su-hyeun finally managed to calm his sword down and shifted his gaze back to Waffman. The older man that was covered in cold sweat began grinning again.

And his grin was not like the fake smile he displayed before the battle either.

His eyes and his lips were freely smiling. One could tell that his smile was genuine.

"Now I'm genuinely curious about this power you've been trying to conceal."

Woo-uung, woo-uung—

More aura leaked out through Waffman's sword.

This time, it was far greater than at the beginning of the fight. It was as if he was saying that everything so far had been merely an appetizer, and the main course would commence from now on.

Su-hyeun's brow curled up.

This was strange.

If it were someone else, sure, but a man like Waffman should have realized by now why Su-hyeun went as far as grabbing the knight's sword to temporarily halt their battle.

"Unfortunately, I can't show it to you now," Su-hyeun replied.

"No, I'd like to witness it right this moment."

"You're being stubbo—"

"Are you worried about the people in this place? Is that why?"

Shu-wuwuwu—

The aura leaking out from Waffman's body began emitting a sinister atmosphere now.

It was killing intent.

As a matter of fact, Waffman's whole demeanor had transformed completely after his eyes began smiling.

"You don't have to worry about them."

Madness could be spied on him now.

With a different expression on his face, Waffman began approaching Su-hyeun. "If bad things happen to them, that only means they were too weak. It'll be the same story for me, too."

Whoosh—

Aura shot out from his sword and split into three stunningly sharp strands.

One headed straight toward Su-hyeun, while the two others flew in different directions. He fired these attacks while predicting which path Su-hyeun would take to evade.

"Son of a—"

Su-hyeun's brows shot up high as he hurriedly swung his sword.

Paaaang—!

The aura that split into three strands collided against his sword and dissipated. If he hadn't smacked them away, the spectators in the distance watching the fight would have been attacked as well.

However, they seemed none the wiser at the moment, which wasn't surprising, considering that no one got injured yet.

No, they merely thought that the fight between Su-hyeun and Waffman had become a bit more intense, that's all.

Su-hyeun angrily asked, "What do you think you're doing?!"

"It's like you were too mindful of them from what I can see, so I decided to go all out first."

"Did you do that deliberately?"

"I'm not really planning to kill them. However, you don't need to mind them and restrict your own powers, after all."

"Are you insa—?"

"I'm perfectly sane, thank you."

Swish, swhoooosh—

Kwa-gagagagagak—!

Waffman's aura suddenly scattered in all directions. His eyes gradually changed into a crimson hue as he watched Su-hyeun smack away all those aura strands one by one. "To me, it's you who is not of a sound mind. Why do you care so much about some stranger's life? It's not your life, after all."

Bang, ka-boooom—!

As if to match his transformed atmosphere, even the power and nature contained within Waffman's sword had changed.

He was no longer conscious of his surroundings. He also didn't seem to care that in case Su-hyeun dodged or deflected his attack, the spectators would get sucked into the battle unwittingly.

He had now transformed into someone else entirely, whether it be his speed, his power, or even the viciousness of his aura.

"Weren't you aiming to reach the pinnacle of aura control? In that case, you better discard your humanity! Let your ambition take over you! If you don't, you shall not progress any further!"

Woo-wuuuung—

The aura permeating on Waffman's sword rapidly grew larger and larger until it became a massive blade.

"Become a true monster! If it's you, it should be possible!"

"Crazy son of a—"

Su-hyeun hastily looked behind at the spectators.

Even they had come to realize that something was off now that things had reached this stage. One by one, they noticed the madness in Waffman's expression and tried to escape.

But it was too late by then.

Shu-aaaahk—

And so, Waffman's giant aura blade descended on Su-hyeun's head. The power behind the strike was more than enough to completely decimate the underground drill hall.

Jiggle—

"…?"

However, Waffman's face was filled with confusion after his plan of splitting Su-hyeun's head apart in one strike failed to come to fruition.

Some kind of a whitish cloud or fog had suddenly materialized, and it blocked his sword mid-way.

"Man, you're a true nutjob, aren't you?"

Clack—

For the first time since the battle started, Su-hyeun assumed a stance. He gripped his sword with both hands and then placed it behind him as if he would take one mighty swing with it.

"You said you are curious about what kind of power I was hiding, didn't you?"

Also, for the first time during the fight, Su-hyeun's expression displayed hostility toward his opponent.

He initially started this battle so that, one, there wouldn't be any annoyance later down the line and, two, to witness and research more about the technique of this world called aura control.

However, since the event had escalated to this state, it seemed that he needed to get a bit more serious now.

And so, as if swinging a fan, Su-hyeun brought down his sword in a strange manner as he muttered, "Blow away, Palm Leaf."