Chapter 262 – Academy Arc (35) – The Gap In Skill
263. Academy Arc (35) – The Gap in Skill
After leaving the academy and following Armion, she entered a mansion not far away. She said that she would conduct a simple interrogation to investigate the suspicions, and asked for my cooperation. Since it wasn’t far from the academy and the building was located within the village, I thought it would be okay.
If necessary, I could always make a run for it.
With that thought, I entered the building, but I quickly realized I was wrong. As soon as I stepped inside, a powerful magic began to activate within the empty mansion.
‘I didn’t sense anything like this outside.’
My expression hardened, and I even focused my divine power to punch the wall, but it only cracked slightly, and the magic continued to function smoothly. Seeing this, Armion shook her red ponytail and looked up, laughing.
“Hahaha…! You weren’t given divine power to run away like a rat!”
“Armion. Did you come to kill me?”
“Hmm? You seem to have a rough idea. But knowing won’t change anything. You have a pretty face, heh heh. Do you know you’re the only male proxy? Blame your god for being disliked.”
“…Aren’t proxies not supposed to use divine power in fights between each other? What kind of magic circle can’t be torn apart with divine power?”
“What do you mean, ‘can’t’? If the highest power had no countermeasures, the world would have been destroyed by the demons long ago. Magic circles are just… like a kind of stage setting. I heard you use a sword too, so it’s fair, right?”
“You…”
“Ah. Enough with the idle talk. I came a long way because of you, so let’s start quickly.”
Armion interrupted me, then took a sword from the weapon display stand next to her and threw it towards me. She then took out a sword for herself.
My heart was pounding like crazy. I tried to calm myself down, secretly taking deep breaths and adjusting my stance.
Could my life in this other world end so futilely like this?
No way.
Having gone through the convent, the cathedral, and the academy, I have my own strengths. Within the academy, I was already overpowering many of the higher-ups. But, but was that really…
‘Stop. Focus.’
I suppressed the rising anxiety and raised my sword. I had tried clapping my hands when I followed her, but my authority didn’t work at all. Now it was time for a straight-up fight.
“Let’s see your skills!”
Armion rushed at me, swinging her sword. A clear sword aura formed at the tip of her blade, proving that she was indeed a Sword Master. I hastily supplemented my lacking sword aura with divine power, managing to prevent damage to my sword.
The difference in skill was revealed not long after.
The anxiety I had been suppressing became a reality.
In fact, my overall power was not inferior to hers. Considering my blessed body and the power I had absorbed from Serena, I was no different from her. However, it was Armion who was efficiently utilizing her power. She began to subdue me by applying her powerful strength to her refined swordsmanship. Her attacks were so threatening that I had to retreat several times. The way she raised the corners of her mouth, saying, ‘Not bad!’ looked quite relaxed, and my heart was filled with anxiety.
A frontal assault wouldn’t work.
Then…
I breathed roughly, deliberately appearing more and more focused on defense. Seeing my visibly exhausted state, she came in with a glint in her eyes. I barely managed to block her quickly thrusting attack, and then, I extended one hand and sprayed the fire magic I had secretly charged in front of me.
Whoosh! A stream of fire burst out with a tremendous roar.
But before I could even think, ‘Did it work?’ I was left pale. Armion had also taken one hand off her sword and quickly grabbed my arm. All the cast flames passed by her head. I had even done the groundwork of emitting divine power throughout my body, just in case she caught me casting. She had simply caught it with her insane reflexes.
‘Crazy bitch!’
Focusing my strength, I managed to shake off her grip.
“What’s this? Intermediate attack magic? Well, the power seems much more destructive. You can use magic at a pretty high level too?”
“……………”
“Heh heh. You were so tense.”
After that, Armion relentlessly attacked me, not giving me any chance to secretly use any tricks.
I couldn’t hold out any longer. To think there was such a gap in skill, even though we were both proxies. Do all the other ones have this level of skill? And am I really going to…
“Where do you think you’re going!”
As I was lost in thought, my body became tense. Sensing the threat, I created some distance, and Armion shot three consecutive arrows of sword aura at me. I barely managed to block them by raising my sword, but through the gaps in the scattered arrows of sword aura, I saw her already close to me, swinging her sword. A chill ran down my spine.
Clang!
With tremendous force, she knocked my sword aside, causing my body to stagger. Then, a powerful kick landed on my arm. I ended up dropping my sword.
“Ugh…!!”
From the moment she shot the three sword auras, the series of actions were so fluid and natural, like a killing technique engraved through countless experiences and animalistic senses.
I felt my arm, which had been hit by the kick, was broken.
“Huff. Huff…!”
“What, you weren’t that special after all?”
Armion, having kicked away the sword I had dropped, approached me leisurely as I knelt on the ground. I tried to cast magic somehow, but she quickly shot sword auras, neutralizing my remaining arm. Then, I was kicked and sent flying into the wall behind me, spitting out a mouthful of blood.
My arm wouldn’t move.
It was painful.
My head was spinning, probably from spitting out blood.
“Hahaha! That’s right. If a weakling like you is a proxy, your god’s level must be obvious. Isiz’s words make sense.”
Was she going to kill me?
Was I going to die so futilely and suddenly?
I curled up, staring at her as she approached.
“Let me tell you first, I’m not a sadist who enjoys torture. But well, Isiz told me to thoroughly crush you, so what can I do? So, I’m going to do some work on you… Don’t resent me. If you’re lucky, you might live, right? Though usually, you’d die!”
…………
…………
Since it was her plan, she was probably watching from above, right? With that thought, Armion turned Raul into a pulp, just as her god wanted. She stabbed his entire body with her sword, causing him pain, and then sent her energy through the wounds, inflicting tremendous pain inside his body. Each time, a painful scream echoed from the man in front of her.
The work took over ten minutes.
Just as Armion, who had been inflicting pain with a blank expression, was about to take Raul’s life, a huge roar came from behind, and the building’s door was torn off.
And through the smoke, a small magic sphere rushed in.
Noticing the powerful energy contained within the sphere, Armion instantly created an aura of sword energy at the tip of her sword and split it in two with a ghostly thrust.
Boom! An explosion occurred on both sides of her.
As the smoke cleared, a blonde-haired girl was seen glaring sharply at her.
Charlotte, feeling uneasy, had followed her. After releasing the magic circle with her high-ranking mages, Charlotte’s face turned pale as she saw Raul, covered in blood and groaning.
“So, it’s that Allton girl. Attacking from behind so suddenly, do you want to die?”
“If you don’t stop, I’ll attack again!”
“M-Master… no, Raul! Eek…!!”
Lewin, who had rushed over after hearing the news, also held her sword, her eyes burning with anger. She was also ready to jump out at any moment. She didn’t know what kind of relationship she had with Raul. As Armion was a legendary student of the swordsmanship department, she had a vague admiration for her. But not anymore.
‘It’s that bitch again. Annoying.’
The Allton family was not an opponent to be taken lightly. They had a wide network, interacting with various nobles in the Bahin Kingdom where they resided… Well, she didn’t really care about such trivial matters.
The problem was that her mother was a famous archmage of the Glishen Kingdom, and she was also a formidable opponent. From what she knew (well, everyone who knew knew), she was a doting mother and a very interfering person, and she didn’t know what she would do the moment that tomboy ran to her mother and said something.
She had been running at her to kill her since earlier, so she couldn’t just not attack.
‘Well, they told me to act flexibly.’
Armion suddenly remembered the words Isiz had said.
To her god, the message sent to her lower gods was more important than the life or death of a mere proxy.
Honestly, there was no problem even if she let them go here.
This man named Raul?
She was confident that she could win every time, even if they fought a hundred times.
She also had the backing of a goddess who was one level higher.
So how dare he even think of attacking her?
Unless he developed trauma and became more withdrawn. That was the extent of the gap between them.
Thinking that, Armion chuckled and placed her sword back on the display stand.
“Wait. I have something to say. Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”
“Ugh…!”
She gestured for Charlotte’s group to stop for a moment, then slowly approached Raul again and grabbed his messed-up hair. She whispered in a calm voice to Raul, who was groaning.
“So, you’re hiding behind a woman’s skirt and benefiting from it. You ended up like this because your god was disliked. I’ll let you off this once… If you don’t want to suffer, tell your god to behave. Tell them to stay quiet like a mouse, without thinking of anything else, as befits a lower god.”
The last part was also what her god had said. It was annoying that Louis had received the privilege of being a proxy, and when he showed signs of being the first to be promoted to a mid-level god, this story came out. Of course, Armion didn’t know that fact. Anyway, there seemed to be no problem with saying something that insulted her. After delivering her god’s message, Armion lightly adjusted her clothes and walked out the door.
“This is an outrageous act! Do you think you’ll have no problems after doing this!”
“Oh. We’ll see if there are any problems later, blonde girl.”
“Eek…!! You!”
Armion scoffed and left the scene. Now that all her business was done, she would rest in her home country and then return to the hunting grounds.
Charlotte bit her lip as she watched her retreating figure, but it wasn’t the time for her to chase after her now. In the first place, what was so important about fighting with Armion, who was known for being arrogant? Charlotte had no intention of ending things with Raul like this. Unlike the days when she lived with only her pride, Raul had shown her more complex and numerous emotions. The same was true for Lewin.
Charlotte and Lewin rushed to Raul, who had collapsed.
