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I drew my Mana Steel sword, which was still a bit too big for my current body, and charged. To a full-grown man, my bastard sword would be just that, a manageable and size-appropriate bastard sword. Whereas in my hands, it looks and feels like I am wielding a great sword, but with my aura strengthening me, it is of little issue.

I raced down the corridor as bolts flew over my shoulders, past the hobgoblin brute, and toward the human shaman who was forced to dodge, interrupting his chant.

As me and the hobgoblin brute closed in on each other, we both raised our swords, ready to clash with each other. That is when I made my first move, Secret Technique: Pocket Sand!

Knowing that people who believed in fair and honorable fights in life-and-death situations usually ended up dead, I was prepared ahead of time with a handful of sand that I skimmed off the walls and floor using instinctive magic. That sand flew at the hobgoblin brute’s face as I dodged to the side, avoiding a downward slash.

I bounced off the wall and went in for a lunge to finish off my opponent, only to be parried. Surprised at its reaction, I jumped back to make some distance between us. I had expected the brute to be covering its face and trying to clean out its eyes, but what I saw was a pair of bloodshot eyes, bespeckled with grains of sand directly on the eyeballs, staring back at me.

The sand clearly caused the brute pain, but this motherfucker is ignoring the pain just so it can keep me in its sight. Seeing this great display of will, I study my opponent more carefully.

It was obviously a he, and from our opening exchange I could tell that he had a great amount of fighting experience, and the many scars on the exposed parts of his body reinforced my assumption. Even now as we stared each other down, I could feel its intense and unflinching concentration on me.

The next signal for our fight to start again was when one of the boys behind me decided to take a cheeky shot at the brute’s head, causing it to tilt his head to the side to avoid the bolt.

I charged, sword point first, while the brute brought his guard onto a lower stance. When I was in range, I feinted right and thrust forward, only for my sword to be slapped aside by his blade while using the momentum of the blade slap to swing his blade diagonally up at me, while his blade was coming from the bottom, I used the momentum of my sword being slapped away to swing my sword around and come in from the top.

As my heart was pumping in the excitement of battle and we were going for a mutual exchange of hits, the brute’s experience and trust in his armor showed as he moved his shoulder pauldron in the path of where my sword was aiming, that was when I knew I lost this exchange. My sword, even if swung with my aura-enhanced strength, would at most just destroy the pauldron while the brute’s blade coming from below would most definitely disembowel me.

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So I did the only thing I could to save my life, I disengaged from the bad situation by forcing myself into an awkward side roll as I heard and felt the wind pressure of the blade come through where I was once standing.

But as I was about to recover from the roll, the brute was already above me with a raised foot ready to stomp me flat. I wanted to do another roll to get out of the way, but I could not make it in time and the only thing I could do to avoid my chest being caved in, was flip on my back and bring up my sword between me and the brute.

The brute’s foot slammed down on the flat side of my blade that I was bracing with both arms and even with aura on, this mofo was still a heavy bastard.

As I was pinned to the ground, the brute reversed the grip of his blade and was about to stab my pinned form. I knew this was no time to be holding back just because I wanted to keep my secrets, what's the point of keeping secrets if I am dead?

I took a page out of Instructor Greyham’s playbook and cast the light spell Flash, but instead of forming a concentrated point, I wanted to minimise people seeing that i could perform instinctive magic, so I closed my eyes tight and released Flash from every part of my body.

My Flash elicited a reaction from everyone, Dave and Sam, the shaman, and even the brute stepping on me.

Ha! Suck it! You sure are regretting not closing your eyes this time, huh?

While I felt the pressure of the foot ease off my sword for a moment, I used instinctive magic to quickly shift the ground beneath the brute’s other foot away from me, forcing him to do a split.

Shortly after I did so, the pressure was taken off my chest and I heard a hefty *CLUNK*, and turned to see the brute’s blade embedded into the floor just next to my head.

When I looked over at the hobgoblin brute, a smile crept onto my face. The brute was fumbling around while trying to get to its feet, and I knew it could still not see me because he was facing in my general direction, but his pupils were dancing around the area like they were trying to lock on to something.

Not letting this chance slip by, I did not bother getting up, I pulled back my sword, trusted it into the kneeling hobgoblin brute’s throat, and felt the sensations of flesh parting and my blade severing something hard.

It was then that I knew, I severed his spine.

The moment that happened, the hobgoblin brute went limp and I pulled my sword out as it collapsed to the ground with a metallic thud.

“You little bastard! Do you know how long it takes to raise those warriors?!” I heard the shaman shout. As I turned to the shaman, he was looking at me with a hateful gaze, or at least as hateful as his squinting eyes could convey. Seems like he was also caught in my flash and is still recovering.

Talking about this shaman, why is he not being shot at with bolts?

“Dave, Sam, why aren't you shooting!?” I shouted to the boys.

“Because you blinded us too you idiot!” Dave replied.

Oops…