Chapter 11

Sagil didn’t have time to wince in pain as the steel sword came for his throat. He ducked, lifting his katana up as he hit the ground, blocking a downwards slice.

He rolled forward as Red twisted around, twirling his thin sword with him as it sliced the air where Sagil just was. He tried and tried to thrust, arc, swing, and slam his sword at Red but each and every time he did, the steel thin sword came down upon him in a flash.

He was stronger and faster than Sagil. His sword danced in the air as it followed Sagil’s movements, catching up with every swing.

Sagil still hadn’t recovered from the start of the battle. He was clumsy and slow, allowing Sagil to close in on him as he rolled backwards, hitting the stump of a tree.

Red thrust his sword to the right and moved to the left, trying to cut Sagil off with aid from the tree.

Sagil gulped, he couldn’t be on the defensive for the whole fight, it wasn’t his way.

Countless images popped into his mind. Hundreds of fierce humanoid insects closing in on him. Countless wolves pouncing at him. The group of kids at Airswell chasing him into the forest. He had dealt with a huge number of attacks before, the only difference this time was that they all came from the same person.

Schwing

Red gave out a grin as black steel pushed his rapier away and a hand pushed on his chest. He stumbled back and the black katana arced in the air, slicing it as it crashed down to Red. He quickly dragged his rapier in front of him and pushed off the katana, using the momentum to pounce forward and pierce Sagil’s flesh.

“Shit!”

It pierced into the hard tree instead.

Red wasn’t fazed and twisted his body to pull his sword from when he hesitated.

Sagil pounced on this opportunity and arced his katana from the ground into Red’s free arm.

Schwing

But as it flew upwards the tree cracked from top to bottom. Red yanked his sword free and instantly pommelled the katana away.

Sagil was sent to the floor by the force, his mouth agape. His katana had been about to slice into Red’s open armpit when the light rapier smashed his heavy katana away. It was unnatural. Not just the force but the fact that he hadn’t been cut. Sagil was sure Red had reacted late. Barely late, but late nonetheless.

Murmurings came from the rangers in the crowd.

Schwing

Sagil’s arms buckled from the force of Red’s swing. The sword pushed forward and drilled into the ground, the katana doing just enough to hamper its speed and force, allowing Sagil to roll away.

What the fuck? He can be even faster and stronger?

His mind was confused as he leapt backwards, trying to create breathing room. Yet, as a metre of space opened up it was sliced through instantly.

Red dashed forward in a split second, almost diving to the floor as he sliced at his opponent’s legs.

Sagil had no time to bring his sword down to block it and barely managed to vault over the steel.

Thud

He landed awkwardly, his foot buckling as he hit the ground. Sagil tried throwing his sword in front as a desperate attempt at defence.

Schwing

The attack came from behind though, parting the air as it flew towards Sagil’s neck.

“Heh, my win.”

Red had a smug grin as his sword froze at Sagil’s neck, only forcing a couple drops of blood.

“Haaah, I guess.” Sagil let out an exasperated breath as he dropped onto one knee. He hadn’t had a workout like that since he accidentally attacked the wrong monster on a d-rank quest and was swarmed by hundreds of the demon imps. That ended up being a C to B rank quest yet I didn’t get a promotion…

“You put up a good fight at first though.” He smiled as he sheathed his sword and patted Sagil’s soldier. “Really had me on the ropes, getting my sword stuck in that tree. If I didn’t manifest au-ahem!”

“What?” Sagil tilted his head as he stood up.

“Uh, nothing-”

“Nice little duel.” The old ranger who had a squabble with Red earlier, hobbled over, clapping his big hands.

“Oh, thanks.” Sagil nodded.

“Though why did you only use weak attacks?”

“Uh, come again?” Sagil’s expression creased, questioning the statement. “I tried my best?”

“You’re… best?” The muscular old man stroked his chin in confusion before he let out an “ah”, figuring out what had happened. “Was this supposed to be a straight-up technique duel? Not full strength?”

Sagil furrowed his brows as he slowly turned to Red. He had a wry smile and scratched the back of his head. He looked back to the old man and said, “by that do you mean Red used that, uh, aura, or whatever?”

“I-” As Red opened his mouth to defend himself the old man burst out with laughter.

“Hahaha! He tried going back on what he said just to win, no surprise there.”

Sagil pinched the bridge of his nose as slight anger rose, telling himself, It is what it is, better now than when fighting someone trying to kill me.

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“Shut up, ya old bastard!” Red snapped, shoving his face in front of the man’s brown eyes.

“Ah, ya want round two, do you? Just because you only beat this clueless lad by going against ya own rules?”

Schwing, Schwing

The two jumped back in a flash, their sword unsheathed in unison. The old man large sword dropped to the soil as he swivelled his stance.

“N-Not right now.” But Red kept a defenceless stance, showing no signs of attacking with his rapier only floating in the air as a slight caution. “You know aura was only discovered and researched a couple of years ago, right? Barely any swordsmen can control it, before then we just, well, uh, we just practised the sword. We didn’t know we could break boulders in half, shatter trees, crack the earth and do other superhuman shit because of some kind of mana thing. We just did it. Some could, some couldn’t. Some could crack a boulder, some could split it fully in half. I…”

“Wha…”

Sagil nearly stumbled over as he stepped back in shock. His pale face was even paler as his lips quivered and eye wavered. I could have been split in half…?

“What’s wrong?” Red asked, pausing his explanation.

“Uh, um…” Sagil took a second to compose himself, pinching his skin. “I’m sorry if I don’t understand fully, I’ve kinda been living under a rock my whole life which is why…” He shook his head, reminding himself to be careful. He didn’t want to be outed as an otherworlder. “A-anyways, you’re telling me swordsmen can do stuff like that-”

“Not all, but if you’re above the beginner rank in any of the sword styles then you should be able to at least… I don’t know, uh, crack rock? Maybe more to be honest, but yeah beginners can’t really do that shit, obviously.”

“Right,” Sagil nodded slowly at Red’s explanation. “Well, you at least, can do similar stuff, naturally, without thinking too much.”

“Yeah.”

“And then there’s a discovery made along the lines of that the reason swordsmen can do that, superhuman things, without magic is… because of magic. Well, mana, I guess.”

“Yeah…” Red said slowly, unsure where Sagil was going.

“So, you haven’t really had much time to figure it out, to work out the benefits that knowledge grants you, nor stop the negatives.

“I guess…”

“So, you accidentally used it in our spar, duel, whatever.”

Red’s wobbly lips firmed and widened into a smile. “Yeah! I knew you’d-”

“But you told me, knowing full well that you can’t control your power or this aura shit, whatever it is?”

“Um,” Red averted his gaze and gritted his teeth as he scratched his ginger hair.

“And you knew I couldn’t use that shit, or was just weak… or whatever,” Sagil spat as he admitted his lack of strength. “And lied about a fair show of sword techniques?”

“Um, I… Uh, I guess…” He stammered and stumbled over his words until he eventually let out a deep breath. “Yeah, I did. Sorry.”

Sagil stared blankly for a second before he too let out a deep breath, blowing his lips as he exhaled and shook his head.

“B-b-but I thought I could. I know it was wrong but I was trying to practice it myself with you.” He spewed. “I have no idea who you are, where you come from, or why you don’t seem to know shit, but I could tell by that cursed sword and your rough hands that you had to be a good swordsman.”

Again, with that cursed sword shit.

“Well, well, I think that’s enough.” The old man said after patiently enduring the argument. “As Red said, well, no, as you just showed us, you must be a good swordsman.”

Sagil blushed slightly as he patted his back.

“The way you pulled your sword up to not only block his attacks but to redirect them. The way you used your environment to your advantage, rolling and dodging towards the tree to get his sword lodge in it. The way you swing your sword, the grip…”

“Yeah, it ain’t like any sword style we have around here, nor around the central continent. Hell, not even around the whole wor-”

“No…” The old man cut Red off as he stroked his white beard. “I think there is a style… a relatively new style… but a sword style nonetheless. I think it first popped up somewhere on the demon continent three, four, or five years ago?”

A style like mine?

“Wait, I think I know what you mean now, Gad,” Red mumbled with a hand on his chin as he tried searching through his memories. “Swear one of the great powers uses it… or was it one of their students? Well, I don’t even know which it would be… I guess it’d be one of the sword ones… but maybe not if it’s one of their students. Maybe not then…”

“Yeah… Well, either way, that style certainly ain’t common, but…” The old man, Gad, looked Sagil up and down. He paused for a minute until he decided against expanding his thoughts with the other two. “…but either way, you certainly have a solid understanding of the sword.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, you don’t seem to know of the style I used but dealt with it with your own ability.”

Sagil grew even redder than before as praise was heaped on him. It had been a long time since he had received genuine praise from strangers, and it made him feel… weird.

“But for some reason, you can’t use aura.” Gad plainly stated.

Ahh, there it is, the real point. Sagil winced as the reason for the compliments showed. No one praises you like that if there isn’t something negative at the end.

“Yeah, now, it’d be one thing if you didn’t know of it, how to control it, etcetera etcetera.” Red started walking around the sparring area, swinging his rapier up and down with varying force. “But… uh, you don’t seem to do it naturally.

Because I’m not fucking from here, he screamed inside. “I can’t.” He agreed out loud.

“Well, wanna see if you can?” Red said with a wide grin as he brought down his rapier in an instant. The small boulder in front of him cracked. He turned to Sagil and pointed towards it as the top half slid off the bottom. “Would be pretty neat if you can actually use your experience and that cursed sword with superhuman speed and strength.”

True…” he mumbled, gripping the hilt of his katana with excitement he tried to push back. M-maybe it isn’t because I’m not from here. I can use magic after all. But...

“But… you obviously might be like Ban,” Gad pointed a finger to the kid running around in the distance, flailing his wand around expelling water before he was suddenly encased in a sphere of it, courtesy of Silvia who marched towards him. “He only started learning magic when the war with the beasts across the river started but…” His eyes grew sullen. “… his dad was a Knight. He died last year after a scuffle broke out with a mercenary band near the town he was stationed at. He wanted to pursue the sword but he just didn’t have the strength, like many of the men here. Luckily, he still has a way to fight – magic. Even though he was lucky enough to have some talent for it he refused to learn it until the war started and he threw away the notion he had to be exactly like his father.”

“I… see.” Sagil averted his gaze and stared at the ground whilst Gad talked about how great Ban’s father was. He tried tuning the father talk out with a clenched fist and focusing on the reason the old man had ended up talking about Ban’s father. So, it’s something like only one in every certain number of people can take up the sword efficiently. Anyone can pick up a sword and swing it but not anyone can train to break boulders with superhuman strength. So, even if someone trains for all their life, it basically doesn’t matter if they weren’t talented, because even if their technique was good they could never have the speed to close in on someone in a flash, or the strength to break a boulder. Sagil sighed. Probably why they're weirded out by me, wondering why I’m fairly decent at fighting when I don’t have the strength.

He looked to his black katana and tightened his grip. Maybe they aren’t assuming I’m someone hopeless because they think I have some special sword, and why would someone who isn’t talented have a special sword?

Sagil successfully distracted himself from the father talk and as his thoughts grew tiresome, Red’s hand patted his shoulder.

“So, what do you say?”

“Uh…”

“You weren’t listening?” Gad asked.

“Hahaha!” Red burst out in laughter. “Man, I love this guy. No one listens to Gad’s tangents… but anyways,” his laughter stopped and his smile faded, his auburn eyes staring into Sagil’s. “I know you haven’t wasted your life. I don’t know why you’re so clueless but I’m not the smart one on the team. My job is just to lead the fighting, I’m smart in that, and train new recruits, that I’m smart at finding. So, we can figure that shit out as we train, how about it?”

Sagil looked at the two rangers in front. He glanced around the training area. He looked forwards to Silvia scolding Ban. He followed the winding path next to them that climbed up the hilly prairie, connecting small shacks, cottages, and a church together. He looked back at his rough hands, and to his black katana.

“I gu-”

A deafening horn coursed through the air. It blared from the forest behind the trio, bellowing louder than the screeching of the monster from before.

“Shit!”

“We should have fucking known!”

The two rangers rushed into the forest.

“Sagil! Tell everyone the beasts are attacking!”