Irene’s first strike is a direct attack. It is a thrust made by pushing the foot from a low-centered crescent stance. The tip of the spear comes in at an angle targeting slightly below the upper body and the abdomen. I verticalize my sword blade to deflect the thrust. I angle my sword blade diagonally against the incoming spear tip, minimizing friction as I evade.
Then, I slightly withdraw one foot and lean to the side. I lower my sword, but my center of gravity remains completely stable. Irene follows with three thrusts aimed at me. Straight, lower, upper diagonal. The rotation point of the spear’s central axis and handle moves freely, disturbing my field of vision.
I receive the first strike head-on, evade the second by withdrawing my foot, and for the third, I lay my sword blade diagonally to strike the spear tip. The spear’s advantages are continuity and range, it strikes like a wave without interruption. Even if a thrust goes astray, it changes to follow its own flow. I maintain the initiative of an offensive with subtle adjustments of strength in both arms holding the spear.
I swing the spear’s shaft and draw the spear blade horizontally. The strength of a non-human being pushes me back even without a direct hit. With wind pressure as if lifting the training ground from the floor, Irene surges forward.
A horizontal cut arcs around the spear, retrieving the recoil from the previous thrust and continuing with a continuous technique. I twist the force of the misaligned attack with strength and accelerate further. In an instant, the accelerated curve of the spear targeted my right shoulder.
The speed battle, gaining an absolute advantage over an unsuspecting opponent, was one of her strengths. If one did not know her, they would be endlessly drawn in, but we knew each other far too well. I focus on a habit of hers that even Irene may not be aware of. A moment when the wrist turns in the opposite direction immediately after the rotation of the spear’s joint. I moved in that 0.4 seconds gap.
I stomp the ground. Accelerating three times by bouncing irregularly with my knees, ankles, and toes. Before the thrust could pierce my body, it reaches just close to her. I pushed her hand, which grasped the spear shaft with her left hand. I thrust the sword blade grabbed in the reverse direction from the front.
Realizing she had been drawn in, Irene’s aura reverses. An aura bursts out around her, twisting the trajectory of the thrust aimed at her neck. Ignoring the sword blade that grazed her neck, she kicked my body away with her foot.
Irene quickly threw the spear behind her waist to stabilize it. Pushing off her left heel, she rotated counterclockwise. Utilizing the centrifugal force generated by her body’s rotation, she made a wide lateral swing with the spear to cut. A circular attack carrying the rotational weight and recoil, a powerful strike that shifts the axis of impact. A massive amount of aura clung to the spear surged like a wave.
I raised my wave too. I wrapped the sword blade with two diverging waves, countering the wave of aura. I feathered the sword down while twisting my wrist and fingers in opposite directions. With a sound like a thread breaking, a circular concentric circle burst from the tip of the sword. A huge hole formed in the wave that had been surging.
Irene’s pupils widened as she thrust in from beyond the hole. Hiding the sword behind my back, I planted my left foot firmly. I made an upward cut in a crescent shape. The sword clashed with the spear. The spear shaft rang, and the sword tip lightly pierced the inside muscle of Irene’s right arm.
I chased after Irene as she retreated without counterattacking. I blended myself infinitely with the wave, creating dozens of branches of aura directed at her. The sword blade continuously thrust, cut, and shook, crossing horizontally and vertically. Irene could also see the waves. Following the waves I created, she thrust, cut, and evaded with her spear.
It seemed she was gaining momentum, but the actual impact lines twisted at the ends. I introduced a variable to the opponent’s defensive angle, leading her to misjudge her defense. Once, twice, three times. Each time Irene raised the spear in a vertical defensive stance, I would enter at an angle, cut her wrist, or dodge to shake her shoulder angle.
Dozens of branches of wave appeared in sight and vanished in a second. Initially, Irene, who had tried to thrust back according to the wave, soon gave up and explosively unleashed her aura. The wave was my territory. It was her judgment that there was no chance of victory with the same wave. The aura and wave collided, drawing a massive concentric circle. The wave surged like blue lightning, and the aura embraced the northern cold, freezing the training ground.
It was a deadlock. A standoff. Yet, amidst it all, I gradually won the tactical struggle. Layering countless small victories, I succeeded in landing one decisive hit. Bang―――!
The sword strike clad in dark blue waves smashed against Irene’s spear shaft. The residuals of the wave remained as sparks around the point of collision. Even though she defended, the shock resonated down to the bone, lifting Irene’s body off the ground. Her arms, unable to perfectly dissipate the shock, shot up as if bouncing.
“…!!”
Only a single success was needed to conclude the fight. I gathered the waves. I reproduced the strike that had killed Erebeon once more. I wove together the dozens of branches of waves into one. The trajectory was off, but the center remained fixed in a straight line. The only remaining directive was a singular direction at the end of the sword.
One step forward. I drew back the sword then pushed it forward in a thrust. The air at the tip of the thrust compressed and burst, creating a peculiar force that wrapped around Irene’s body. It was a strange phenomenon, not aiming at her, but drawing her as if pulled in the direction of the thrust. Just as she clenched her teeth, focusing all of her aura on defense, the black wave passed through the training ground’s gaping ceiling, erasing the looming dark clouds.
Irene avoided the thrust. The thrust just barely grazed her right shoulder, shattering all of her aura into pieces. With the crumbling, blurred fragments of aura, Irene fell to the ground of the training ground. I caught her falling body. Even though I didn’t hit her with the thrust, her clothes were torn.
Before the dust of the training ground settled, silence descended. The knights, whose breaths had been shallow in the tight tension, only then realized they had stopped breathing.
“Did you just… see that?”
“Can that even be called a duel?”
“Just now… what was that last move? It wasn’t movement… it was space being pulled in.”
“Does it make sense that the commander couldn’t even react in that position?”
“Both of them aren’t human, after all.”
Suddenly, a thunderous applause erupted. The vacant expressions of the trainee knights watching the duel and the horrified faces of the knights at the commander’s defeat intertwined. In the midst of all the cheers, I looked at Irene. The torn fabric revealed her right arm clearly.
“…This is.”
Irene’s right arm bore a wound that was fragmented like a spider web. A faint red hue seeped from the cracks. It was clearly not normal just by looking at it. But it was not a sign of monsterization. Irene wrapped her left hand around her right arm and replied.
“It’s not monsterization.”
“Then what is it? What could it be…”
“This is the injury I sustained five years ago, just as you saw.”
It wasn’t a simple injury. Severe enough to render her unable to move at all. Had Irene been fighting on the front lines all this time carrying such an injury? Irene smiled awkwardly in response to my gaze.
“If I’m not on the front lines, it won’t do.”
I was at a loss for words. I forced out a voice.
“Aren’t you going to retire?”
“I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I have something to confess to you.”
Irene got down from my arms. I wrapped the coat I had draped around her around her. Amid the deafening cheers, a quiet conversation continued between the two of us.
“Additionally, there’s something I didn’t tell you. The rumors about your fiancée spreading on the front lines are probably my fault.”
“…?”
What could that possibly mean all of a sudden? Why would the rumors regarding a fiancée on the front lines be because of Irene?
“I did my background check on you before bringing you into the Special Forces Unit. That’s when I found out you were actually Ian Balthazar and about the canceled engagement.”
Does that mean the rumors spread during the background check process? That being said, I found a part of her statement that I needed to correct.
“Well, yes, I was Balthazar, but the reason I went to the front lines wasn’t because of my canceled engagement.”
Irene chuckled at that response.
“I thought you had come looking to end your life after the shock of the breakup. I guess I was mistaken.”
Her question reminded me of my first meeting with her. She had definitely asked me, “Did you come all the way here to die?” Was that what it was about? Just as I was about to retort, Irene continued.
“And there were people looking for you since you enlisted on the front lines. More precisely, they were looking for Ian Balthazar, not Ian Valencia.”
She paused for a moment, looking at me with a serious expression.
“Shortly after, Duke Nordelheim spread rumors that Ian Balthazar was dead.”
