Chapter 21
Sardia Maneuvering Footwork.
An orc trying to swing a longsword at me passed by me. I quickly moved to the back of his side and swung my sword.
The orc tried to swing a longsword at me, but I dodged. I quickly moved to the side and swung my sword.
Shwaaaah!
My sword merged with Inferno’s fire, tore into the orc’s flank. Dense muscle split apart with a burst of flame.
Its scorched skin sizzled, filling the air with the stench of burning flesh.
Thump!
The orc slammed its right foot into the ground. Its lower body, still carrying the force of a full sprint, drove into the earth like a stake.
Crack!
Its waist twisted violently, causing its torso to spin toward me. The longsword in its hands followed that trajectory in a wide arc.
I activated [Sardia Maneuvering Footwork] again.
‘Tch!’
Unfortunately, my body still wasn’t used to the technique. It required brutal use of the lower body muscles, and my stance collapsed under the strain.
Slash!
The orc’s longsword grazed my shoulder. Or at least, I thought it had only grazed me—but the wound was deeper than expected. If I hadn’t been wearing armor, my arm might’ve been severed.
I staggered back, barely managing to regain my balance. The orc didn’t pursue me but stood its ground, snorting heavily as it glared in my direction. The wound I had inflicted was quite deep.
“…Was it a mutant?”
The orc’s injury began to bubble and seethe. It was a phenomenon usually seen only in trolls.
Natural healing.
And not just any healing—this was advanced regeneration.
But interestingly, not all of the wounds were reacting that way.
The parts scorched by the spirit flame weren’t bubbling at all.
“Inferno, if you get the chance, burn its face.”
Inferno flew out from my sword and rose high into the air. The spirit began to circle the orc’s head, launching fireballs. The orc, growing irritated, started swinging its longsword wildly in the air.
“Young Master, are you alright?”
Thanks to me, my retainers had safely landed in a secure area.
Brown was holding a bow instead of a sword.
He ran forward, drew the bowstring tight, and let the arrow fly.
Swoosh, Clang!
Despite Inferno’s harassment, the orc managed to deflect Brown’s arrow with its sword.
Brown furrowed his brow, then reached for another arrow from his quiver.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Clang!
The arrows missed, but they achieved their purpose.
They irritated the orc.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Taking fireballs to the back of it’s head, the orc ran towards Brown. Just then, a gust of wind kicked up and blocked the orc’s vision.
A sandstorm stirred by the wind spirit.
From behind, I felt a pulse of mana.
As expected, vine-like tendrils burst from beneath the orc’s feet and seized its ankles. It was Jansen’s Binding magic.
Crack!
The orc broke free with brute strength, tearing through the vines. The spell couldn’t restrain it—but it had succeeded in creating a brief opening.
I rushed towards the orc.
The orc sensed me and started to turn.
Slash!
A cut formed on its chest.
My blade tore through tough skin and thick muscle, but couldn’t sever the bone.
KUWAAAH!
The orc lashed out wildly with its fists and longsword in a frenzy. But such mindless attacks couldn’t touch me.
“El, cut off its sight, hearing, smell, and taste with the wind.”
Swoooosh!
The sandstorm concentrated around the orc’s face, harassing it relentlessly.
Turbulent gusts swirled around it, assaulting its ears with noise.
‘She’s got talent.’
It was El’s first battle using a spirit, yet she was fighting as though she’d done it countless times.
More accurately, the wind spirit was proving quite adept.
KUWAAH!
The frustrated orc went berserk.
It kept breaking every Binding spell Jansen cast on its feet, and the sandstorm wasn’t doing any real damage.
“Shield!”
Jansen enchanted Brown’s shield with a spell.
A bluish glow wrapped around the round shield, and Brown, without hesitation, rushed straight at the orc.
Claaang!
Brown deflected the orc’s blow.
He tried to counter, but didn’t quite succeed.
‘…I can let this go on a bit longer. This makes for an excellent training partner.’
Brown was holding himself surprisingly well against the orc.
He hadn’t landed any real hits, but he consistently dodged or deflected its attacks with precision.
‘One mistake and it’s over!’
That urgency pushed Brown to his limits. He never faced the orc head-on. He angled his body, leading with the arm holding the shield. It was clear—if it came down to it, he was willing to sacrifice that arm.
“Inferno.”
Boom!
Just as the orc was about to focus fully on Brown, a fireball slammed into its face. Brown took every one of those moments to strike at the openings.
Bit by bit, shallow wounds began appearing on the orc’s body. But each of them soon began to bubble and regenerate.
‘So the more it heals, the more stamina it loses. Just like a troll.’
The orc was tiring fast.
Its movements were sluggish now, and the sharp edge of its offense had dulled.
But Brown was exhausted too. Even though he deflected the attacks, blocking the brute force of an orc with a shield and sword left his arms trembling.
In the end, I stepped in.
I swung my blade and directly intercepted the orc’s longsword.
Claaaang!
“That’s enough. Your training’s over for today.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Brown didn’t push himself. He recognized his limit.
He quickly retreated.
The orc tried to overpower me with sheer force. The mark etched into its forehead pulsed, and a dark aura seeped out from it.
‘Trickster… What were you thinking, unleashing a monster like this into the world? And how did I end up as the heir to House Hebron? Is all of this your doing?’
In my previous life, they called me a theoretical genius—but now, my intellect was average at best. Worst of all, I knew nothing about the Trickster, so I couldn’t even form a hypothesis.
Grrrrnnnnkkk!
The orc tried to crush me with brute strength.
It inhaled deeply, then raised its longsword high above its head—just like a man about to chop firewood.
‘Stupid.’
The orc was no knight.
They might be natural-born warriors, but knightly swordsmanship was designed to overcome instinct-driven fighters. That was precisely why other races and kingdoms had lost the war against the Kingdom of Xenon.
KWAAAAH!
The orc’s longsword slammed into the ground.
I vanished from its sight using Sardia’s Maneuvering Footwork.
I slipped into its blind spot and executed the Antaria Swordsmanship. My flame blade slashed its flank, then carved into the back of its thigh.
Once again, the orc twisted its waist to counter with a strike. But this time, its body refused to move flexibly. I had already damaged the muscles essential for such a motion.
Stagger!
The orc began to topple.
THUD!
It swung through empty air and collapsed, its posture twisted, and a crackling sound echoed from its pelvis.
In its large eyes, it saw me with a sword in hand. I drove the sword into its chest.
Thunk!
As the sword sank deep, Inferno’s spirit fire burst from within.
The searing-hot blade interfered with its regeneration.
Swoooosh!
Inferno unleashed a surge of crimson flame.
Displaying the full force of a mid-tier fire spirit, it incinerated the orc’s internal organs.
Ching!
Even though the orc hadn’t resisted, my sword broke. Blocking its earlier blows and channeling too much spirit fire had pushed the sword past its limits.
Crack!
I took the jagged, broken blade and thrust it into the orc’s neck. The short piece of metal was embedded so deeply it disappeared from view—and even there, the spirit flame lingered.
Kuwaah…
The orc wasn’t dead yet. Its hand groped at my neck and chest before finally grabbing my face. There was no strength in its grip, but just the feel of that rough, calloused palm brushing over my skin sent a chill down my spine.
There was no other way to describe it—it was a monster. If I’d faced it without spirit or magic, I’d have been the one to fall first.
“El, finish it.”
Shwaaaah!
Blades of wind conjured by the spirit slashed at the defenseless orc’s neck. A low-tier spirit’s wind could not cut off the orc’s neck.
Shwa—shwa—shwa—shwa!
Yet the orc, drained of all strength, couldn’t resist, and its neck was finally severed.
“Guard me.”
With that command, I sat down on the ground.
It was time to refine my aura.
‘Just as I thought!’
It was the same as when I’d slain the marked goblin.
A powerful surge of energy hit me, as if I had just wiped out an entire enemy battalion. Magical energy poured into my body like a raging flood, seeping through every pore.
RUMMMMBLE!
It had been overwhelming before—but not anymore.
I’d grown. That alone spoke volumes.
“Huuuh…!”
I steadied my breath. There was no rush this time.
I centered myself and adjusted my posture.
Then I turned my gaze to the orc’s lifeless corpse.
‘Just one body. But if I’m absorbing its life force and mana, the sheer amount flooding into me defies logic. Which means… there must be something else embedded in this mark.’
I placed my hand on the orc’s marked forehead. The skin around it was distorted, as if seared by fire, but the mark itself was embedded deeper than any scar.
When I practiced aura cultivation in that state, a greater amount of energy gathered than before. The amount of magical energy absorbed through the pores of my whole body was the same as before. However, the amount of energy flowing through my palm increased significantly.
The energy gathered in my dantian.
It spread outward with searing warmth, awakening each muscle in my body. Strength surged through me.
‘Aura is flowing evenly throughout my body.’
I had reached a higher stage in the Antaria Aura Cultivation Method. Unlike other techniques that stored aura solely in the dantian, the Antaria method circulated it through the entire body.
‘Strengthen the entire body by embedding aura in the veins. That is the first transformation.’
That was a line I read in <Antaria Aura Cultivation Method>.
And I might… just might… be on the verge of the next stage.
‘The paths through which aura flows are known as aura roads—or mana roads. Most people overlook it, but aura roads aren’t singular. Some claim there are several, but in truth, the human body is riddled with fine channels called veins.’
Antaria’s theory had been right all along. The knights of Xenon Kingdom may have known how to counter Antaria swordsmanship, but they’d failed to see the merits of the training method that had been achieved over a long history.
RUUUMMMBLE!
I let aura flow through every one of those fine channels.
Thanks to my fire-attributed aura, I could sense the flow more clearly than ever.
‘These are the orc’s memories.’
The same thing had happened when I absorbed aura from the marked goblin—I felt its memories and emotions for a fleeting moment.
And then, I heard a voice.
—I’ve been waiting for you, Louis.
That same voice called out to me again.
It vanished as quickly as it came—faint enough to dismiss as a hallucination.
I opened my eyes.
There was no more energy left to absorb.
‘The aura in my dantian has doubled. And the amount diffused into my veins wasn’t small either.’
Unlike other cultivation methods that stored all aura in the dantian, the Antaria Aura Cultivation Technique stored aura in the veins as well. The whole body effectively became one giant dantian.
Bubbling…
Then I noticed something strange.
My injuries were boiling. The minor wounds had already vanished, and the shoulder that had taken a blow from the orc was visibly swelling as it regenerated.
‘Did I… absorb the orc’s regenerative ability?’
It was astonishing. I wanted to understand why this was happening to me, but I still lacked too much information.
‘No need to rush. If someone’s waiting for me, they’ll come in due time. All I have to do is survive—and make sure that whoever is trying to use me ends up regretting it.’
* * *
El, having recovered her spirit energy, crossed over with a rope in hand. Meanwhile, Brown had already driven a large stake into the ground.
They finished the basic setup by tying the rope securely to the stake.
