He wasn't absurdly fast. The divine right to know what to do and when to do it was Kazi's priceless, in-born talent. A Rakshasa snuck up behind him and he pointed his staff over his shoulder and blasted it with a Fire Ball, while simultaneously slashing the monster in front of him. He was efficient in the way people wished they were in their dreams. His body moved without mistakes, exactly as he meant to.

So rather than a battle, it was a one-sided slaughter. But the monsters kept multiplying and, in fifteen seconds, Kazi could tell something was amiss.

'Every touch feels too soft. Every kill feels like it's being warped around mana.' The Touch of Thunder seemingly beheaded a Rakshasa, Super Spark Strike activated, and he failed to feel the connective electricity. 'Ah! An illusion that affects the five senses. Rakshasas are known for illusions, after all. That means I have to find the real one.'

He was surrounded by twelve Rakshasa and he had but a second to scan his surroundings. He charged to his north-east, slid between the legs of a Rakshasa, and ran his sword through what lay behind.

"Gotcha!" Kazi grinned. Above the red goblin head, a name and level were revealed: Vikramar, level 26. "You're the real one."

Vikramar didn't have time for a response as Kazi blasted it away with a point-blank Fire Dart. The ensuing smoke would have prevented an ordinary player from pursuing. Not Kazi. Slash, slash, slash! He hacked at Vikramar without a shred of mercy.

"Super Spark Strike!"

His mana nearly bottoming out, his blade reached its heart. The remaining illusions faded away, like sand taken by the wind.

[ You defeated Mini Boss: Vikramar! ]

[ Receive:

85,000 XP ]

[ Congratulations! Gate 6 : Doon Valley

Main Objective: The village is being attacked by Rakshasas! Protect the village! — Complete!

Receive:

25,000 XP

5,000 PP ]

[ Level up! ]

'A mini boss. Alright then, Lucky Break.'

He didn't get to use the skill often. Might as well. A golden light emerged from the ashes of Vikramar and shot towards him.

[ Receive:

1x Kamandalu ]

Returning, he saw expressions of bewilderment. Wearing a bright smile, he unequipped his weapons.

"Yo! Everybody okay?"

"Y-yeah." David nodded. "That was fast."

"Impressive. Most impressive." Drona stood up and broke away from Marta's healing magic. His injuries were not fully healed nor was his flesh fattened by meat. "You carry a good set of eyes on you, Kazi Hossain. Tell me, are you ready for another bout?"

Instantly, Kazi understood and ran a hand through his messy hair. "Phoo..." He opened his inventory and drank a Potion of Mana. Smiling, he put the empty glass back into his inventory. "I am."

"Good." Drona solemnly put his hands behind him. "Then let us begin."

[ Special Objective found! ]

[ Gate 6 : Doon Valley

SCENARIO: Leave or figure out what to do.

Main Objective: The village is being attacked by Rakshasas! Protect the village! — Complete!

Prize Pool: 25,000 XP, 5,000 PP

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: Impress Drona!

SPECIAL PRIZE POOL: ? ]

"Woah, woah, woah, woah! Why are we fighting!?" Shouting and waving his arms, David came between them. He looked at Drona, flabbergasted. "You said you'd teach him, not fight him."

Drona's forehead tensed up, the painted lines merging. "I can tell he is the same as the rumoured Kuru Princes. Talented and with immense potential. And like those princes, he is arrogant. For geniuses, the best learning is loss, not victory."

"I wouldn't say I'm arrogant but…" Kazi rolled his shoulders. "A lesson from Dronacharya isn't something I wish to miss, even if it's a battle."

"You are blessed with Agni's flames," Drona commented. "Use that and whatever else at your disposal. Your comrade healed me sufficiently. I am sure I will attain victory."

"Haha, you probably will."

David's concerns did not dissipate. He opened his mouth, only to close them when he saw Kazi grinning. "Fine. Don't blame me if you get hurt."

"Marta is on standby, so need to worry," Kazi said, winking at his informal protégé. The spectacled blonde bobbed her head, failing to hide her anxiety.

Level unknown. Class unknown. Drona wasn't bluffing when he said he could have killed the Vikramar with ease. The hairs on his arms went up as he observed him.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Kazi wasn't sure if he could win against the almighty sage. Hell, he wasn't sure if he would live.

He snapped his wrist and fired off a Fire Ball. The seemingly weak hand of Drona deftly blocked it with the palm of his hand. Using the smoke as a cover, Kazi charged. The distance between them closed, he swung his sword and activated Super Spark Strike.

Twing!

A wall? No, a finger. Drona blocked it with his finger. Kazi smirked and swung with his wooden staff. That too was blocked by the same finger, flicking the sword away to reach the staff. Drona's free right hand balled into a fist and drove in. Kazi wouldn't have been able to leap back in time if he hadn't noticed his shoulder flexing. The space his fist struck created gusts of wind.

Kazi leaped at him with a normal Super Spark Strike and narrowly avoided a flick to the forehead by dropping to the ground. Drona's leg began to move, about to launch a kick. With a single hand, he sprung back.

"Woah! Close one!" Seven feet of distance created and seven seconds afforded to him. Kazi decided to alter his game plan after fully grasping the gap between them.

'He's intercepting my every move,' Kazi thought, 'and I get the feeling if he hits me, I'm a goner.'

"You aren't afraid," Drona noted. "You should be."

He was unmoving. A stone statue, almost. Rather than chase after him, he stayed for the intended purpose of proving his point. In regards to speed, strength, and experience, Drona soared over him. Kazi was a baby duck to a goose. A flailing swordsman to a godly trained martial artist.

The scales weren't totally imbalanced. Kazi retained his own advantages, that being Drona's overt willingness to prove his point as well as his lethal injuries. A destroyed set of ribs and a broken knee.

Abruptly, Kazi fired off, "Fire Ball!"

With the incantation, the Fire Ball was stronger and faster. Drona raised his hand and blocked it, and was surprised when another three Fire Balls followed. The lack of incantation caught the sage off guard, as did the amount of thick black smoke.

Kazi ran circles around and kept firing off Fire Balls in intervals. 'Amazing.' It wasn't his palm that astonished Kazi, it was Drona's footwork that stood out. He knew exactly when to shift his weight and to respond. He couldn't find a single gap to target.

'Drona at a certain point in his life learns from the sage Parashurama. But this is not that point. If it was, I wouldn't be able to see his attacks. Right now, his knowledge is limited to what he was taught by Agnivesha, a sage who in turn learned from Agastya. Mighty but not infallible.'

Indeed, if there wasn't a gap to exploit, then he would have to forcibly create one.

Smoke clouded Drona's vision and the opportunity to strike arrived.

"Spark Strike Thrown," Kazi yelled out.

A skill he didn't use often, he filled his arm with mana, forging a connection between him and the Touch of Thunder, and wham! Threw it as hard as he could. The string of mana between him and the Touch of Thunder let him know when and how it would land—

'He caught it!'

Just as he expected Drona would! Kazi ran into the smoke and powered his staff up. Before he came too close, he fired off multiple Fire Balls. Bam, bam, bam! He thrusted his staff following the miniature explosions—

'Fire Dart!'

His staff pressed into flesh and he fired off his spell without delay. Boom! The heat from the explosion nearly hurt him. He assumed he was resistant since it was his own magic.

The smoke pettered off.

"Not bad."

The tip of his staff was covered by Drona's singed palm. Kazi blinked. Despite the smoke, despite the weapon he caught and the distractions, he was able to block it. He refused to succumb to the smoke.

"But not good enough."

Drona gripped his staff, violently pulled him close, and slammed a fist into his temple.

The world went white. Time skipped. He tasted dirt and he couldn't feel his staff. Footsteps. He could hear footsteps and a gruff voice.

"...ll for a mere mortal. I will say this once more: this loss will serve you better than any victory."

Kazi tilted his head up and saw the eyes of the great Brahmin. He was neither proud or arrogant about his words of victory; he just was. He accepted it.

"Y-you…" His vision distorted from the sides. "...have eyes in the back of your head. That's how you read my every move."

Drona gave no response.

The horrible bruise on his temple caused his left arm to numb. He could barely see with his left eye too.

With the last of his adrenaline and determination, he slammed a fist onto the dirt.

BLAM!

Drona went wide-eyed. "What—!?"

A spectacular burst of flames suddenly fell on his back and, as Drona staggered down, Kazi uppercutted him in the jaw. Hit so hard his feet left the ground, Kazi was able to launch a haphazard Fire Dart and propel him away further. He followed Drona's soaring body, grabbed his sword and staff along the way, and immediately secured his victory.

How?

By shoving his staff down his throat.

"This is my victory." To reinforce his words, Kazi subtly heated his staff. It wasn't much but a warning to show it was enough to blast Drona's innards to smithereens.

Disbelief was written all over the sage. Oh, sure, he could dismantle the staff or kick his ankle or do literally anything else that demonstrated his physical superiority. However, that wasn't the point. Drone presumed him to be arrogant and Kazi proved that accusation to be wrong. It wasn't a battle of power he won but of wits and spirit.

Accepting that, Drona nodded and Kazi removed his staff. Drona lifted himself up and squinted. He desired an explanation.

Kazi wore a big smile. "I noticed the way you were fighting. Not with your eyes or ears, but something else. A sixth sense. I figured you sense your surroundings through energy, like echolocation. And if it's echolocation, then that means there's a break. A moment, an instant, where you're scanning and comprehending what you sense. A weakness. It was less than two seconds. Longer if you're not intending to use it at all, which was the case at the end there."

"So how did the fire hit me…?" Drona thought back to the battle. "Ah! You sent your magic upwards at that moment! When you were in smoke and distracting me with flames!"

"Yep." Kazi rolled his shoulders. "It was a precaution in case my plan didn't work. For a second, when you hit me, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to control it. But when I was on the ground, I got control of it again, sent it down, and boom! Got you."

"Remarkable." A lovely smile appeared on Drona. "Truly remarkable! You were already aware that I could kill you at any moment but you devised a strategy that maximized victory nonetheless! You sought a single hope even when you knew there was none!"

'I did have four back-up plans, but no need to tell him that.'

"So…how was that?" Kazi asked.

"Parshurama himself would praise you!" Drona's smile widened and he gestured to sit down. "Sit, sit! I have something to teach you! Something besides victory and loss. It will help you in your journey, Kazi Hossain."

[ You defeated Boss: Impoverished Drona! ]

[ Receive:

1,070,000 XP ]

As he sat down, he did a double take. 'Over o-one million!?' Kazi read the remaining displays and explanations, yet none shook him as much as the XP he gained from defeated Drona. It almost seemed like he wasn't supposed to beat Drona. That the parameters of the mission was to simply impress him in some way and not actually defeat him in combat.

'If I had the Amateur Player Class equipped, I would have gotten even more XP—from seven percent to nine percent. Ugh, and I also wasted a Lucky Break on that Rakshasa. Imagine if I used it on Drona.' Kazi sighed. 'Oh well. It's not like I could afford to hold back. I should be thankful for what I got.'

[ Congratulations! Gate 6 : Doon Valley

SPECIAL OBJECTIVE: Impress Drona — Complete!

Receive:

53,500 XP

60,000 PP ]

[ Congratulations! You are the first player to complete the Gate 6 Special Objective! ]

[ HIDDEN OBJECTIVE found! ]

[ Gate 6 : Doon Valley

HIDDEN OBJECTIVE — Learn everything Drona has to offer you! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]

[ Level up! ]