Chapter 1636 - 228 - On The Frontline (12)
After I said that, he went completely silent.
He looked like he wanted to argue, but whatever words had been forming in his head seemed to disappear before they could actually leave his mouth.
That was fine with me.
I wasn’t looking for his approval.
I wasn’t trying to make him like me either.
If he hated my methods, then so be it.
As long as he understood why I was doing this, that was enough for now.
"You’re next," I told him after a moment. "Grab your sword and fight me, and don’t even think about hesitating when you finally decide to move."
After hearing that, he reached for his sword and pulled it into his hand.
His weapon was a broad sword that looked like something designed for a massive knight rather than an ordinary person. The blade was large enough to look intimidating even from where I stood, and its overall size made it seem like carrying it around would be a hassle.
However, once he actually held it, that impression disappeared.
The sword didn’t seem to give him much trouble at all.
In his hands, the massive weapon almost looked weightless.
That alone told me something.
He wasn’t physically weak.
Whatever power had been given to him as a hero was clearly doing its job.
"I advise you to use another sword instead of a wooden one," he said, glancing toward the weapon in my hand.
"You don’t have to advise me about that," I replied as I tightened my grip around the wooden sword. "You just have to swing that sword with all your might, and you need to do it with the intention to kill."
I wasn’t asking him to hold back.
If anything, I wanted him to stop thinking about this as training.
The moment he stepped toward me, I wanted him to imagine that I was his enemy.
If he couldn’t even do that against me, then there was no point in throwing him into an actual war.
After I told him that, he seemed to take my confidence seriously.
His expression changed slightly.
He looked at me for another moment before suddenly lowering his stance.
Then he dashed forward.
He was fast.
I’ll give him that much.
Unfortunately for him, he still wasn’t fast enough to completely disappear from my sight.
I tracked his movement as he rushed toward me, watching the direction of his shoulders and the position of his sword rather than simply following the blade itself.
A moment later, he suddenly appeared at my side and swung his broad sword horizontally toward me.
The attack had enough force behind it to be dangerous if it actually connected.
I raised my wooden sword and blocked the strike.
The two weapons collided with a sharp impact.
"...?!"
His eyes widened immediately when he realized that I had stopped him.
"You think I would use a real sword against you when you’re only displaying this level of power?" I asked him.
His expression tightened.
He quickly pulled his sword away and retreated several steps, creating some distance between us.
I didn’t chase him.
There was no reason for me to do that.
Instead, I simply stood there and waited.
He looked at me for a moment.
Then he looked at the wooden sword in my hand.
Afterward, his eyes moved toward my stance.
I was deliberately leaving plenty of openings.
My guard wasn’t particularly difficult to break through, and several parts of my body were exposed enough that an inexperienced fighter could easily convince himself that he had found an opportunity.
The problem was that he wasn’t completely inexperienced.
At least, he seemed to have some battle sense.
He could see the openings.
He could also tell that something was wrong.
That was why he wasn’t immediately taking the bait.
He understood that I was deliberately leaving myself open, and attacking recklessly just because an opportunity appeared in front of him would probably be exactly what I wanted him to do.
That was actually a decent instinct.
Still, I wasn’t going to make things easy for him.
I slowly placed one hand behind my back, leaving myself even more exposed than before.
Then I motioned toward him with my wooden sword.
"Come on," I said. "What are you waiting for?"
He clicked his tongue in irritation.
Apparently, taunting him had worked.
He dashed toward me again, moving even faster than before.
This time, however, he didn’t repeat the same attack.
Instead of another horizontal slash, he raised his broad sword above his head and brought it down toward me in a powerful overhead strike.
The attack had considerably more force behind it this time.
I could feel the pressure from the swing even before the blade reached me.
Still, it was predictable.
I raised my wooden sword and blocked the overhead strike without much difficulty.
The impact pushed against my arms, but it wasn’t enough to force me backward.
His strength was impressive, but strength alone wasn’t going to win a fight.
There was something else missing.
His attack carried plenty of pressure, but it lacked genuine bloodlust.
He was swinging hard because he wanted to hit me.
He wasn’t swinging like someone who had decided that the person in front of him needed to die.
That distinction mattered far more than he probably realized.
If they genuinely had the intention to kill, then by this point they could have broken through the wooden sword.
The problem was that they weren’t willing to commit themselves completely.
They were still thinking about this as training.
They were still thinking about me as someone who was supposed to teach them rather than someone who might actually kill them.
That hesitation would get them killed in a real war.
His overhead attack also created another obvious problem.
A powerful swing like that required him to commit his entire body to the motion, and once the blade came down, he needed time to recover his stance.
That meant he had opened himself up.
I didn’t need a second invitation.
The moment his attack finished, I moved.
I stepped inside his range before he could properly recover and drove my leg forward.
My foot slammed directly into his solar plexus.
"Gah...!"
The impact forced all the air out of his lungs at once.
His body folded slightly from the force before he was sent flying backward.