A wintry breeze pushed past my hair.


    An autumn leaf slowly made its way down from the tree, joining the fallen piles of red and gold.


    "Young master..."


    A whistle spread through the air as Keith pulled his de out of his scabbard and brandished it. The air seemed to have been sliced through as the sword curved along an arc and stopped in front of my eyes.


    "Go! Young master!"


    "Bring that Keith bastard down a peg, young master!"


    From the sides, the voices of Lily and Maria reached my ears as the two cheered on me while sitting on some couches we had ced on the Veranda.


    I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, unsheathing my de.


    "Pfft. You girls, the young master is still a hundred years too early to defeat me!"


    "Really?" I said, carefully taking a stance with the tip of my de in front of my eyes. "You are just a punk, Keith. I bet I''ll hand you your ass."


    Keith smirked. "Can you only bber? Come at me already."


    Sure.


    A cloud of dust rose through the ground as I pumped my Ki in my feet and zapped through the ground. Catching Keith off-guard, I stopped in front of him in the blink of an eye and swung my sword upward. Keith blocked the blow without much trouble, but his posture was shaken up. Why would anyone ever give up the first strike?


    Without hesitating for a moment, I lifted my leg and sent a low kick to his calf.


    Keith shuffled back and dodged the kick, shaking up the sword arm to break out of our deadlock.


    I dived in again, and a storm of sword strikes broke out. Like the bangs of a drum, the sound of metal hitting against metal filled the skies as our swords met each other faster than a normal person''s eye could move.


    Keithunched a downward strike, I redirected it with my sword and closed in for a stab. At that moment, he switched things up by swinging a punch at my face.


    Right as I stopped the punch, a kick came rushing toward my abdomen. I held my sword in front and blocked the kick, but was pushed back, leaving a trail through the ground below.


    "Young master." Keith held his sword in front of him, he held his zweihander with one hand while touching the base of the de with the other. "If you won''t get serious, then I will."


    As his hand coursed through the de, a reddish glow started oozing out from the sword. Charge Sword... huh?


    The glow that seemed to be wrapping the sword eventually started flowing into it, almost as if imbuing itself within the de. Sword Aura!


    Keith pulled his hand away from the tip of the de and held the sword in both his hands. His sword arced mid-air.


    I gripped my dius tighter and slowly engaged my mana core.


    "You better dodge, young master."


    Keith''s eyes held no pretense. He was out for blood. What could he do from this distance—


    My thoughts were stopped in their track. Swifter than the wind, Keith brandished his sword and a wave of red energy came sting out at me.


    Keith had already gone a step beyond Sword Aura and was using Projectile Ki. I didn''t have the chance to voice my surprise as I stretched my palm forward in front of the oing wave of crimson.


    "[Honeb Defense]"


    Translucent hexagons formed around my palm like a honeb imbued with holy-element magic, the hexagons served as shields.


    Sparks flew out at point-nk range as Keith''s Projectile Ki and my mana shield shed against each other. I moved the seven hexagons to my will and intercepted every twist and turn the Ki attack took.


    Jumping out from my blind spot, Keith had already narrowed the distance between us and was swinging his sword at my waist. The sword aura in his de gleamed like a hawk''s eyes staring down its prey.


    My feet hopped off to a backflip. My body turned through the air while my hand coursed up my de. Purple Ki infused itself inside the dius.


    Inded back on my feet. Keith closed in again, but it was my turn to go on the offensive. The shields of the honeb defense gathered around the knight and rammed into his joints.


    Keith''s posture faltered.


    At that moment, I shed against him again. My sword left a scratch on Keith''s cheek. Instead of defending, Keith brought his sword toward my stomach instead.


    This bastard was leveraging his height.


    I had no choice but to jump and make some distance in front of his sword that hid no killing intent.


    "Bastard." I smiled and shook my sword arm that was tingling from the shes. "Projectile Ki at 23? What kind of absurd monster are you?"


    "Fucking hell?" Keith grinned and answered back. "Should you even be saying that? When did you learn Sword Aura!? Twelve-year-old monster."


    The chant wasplete.


    I snapped my fingers and looked at him again.


    "[ze Rain]"


    Fire-element magic circles formed in the air above us. Before Keith could react, balls of fire came gushing down from the skies. The zing balls haphazardly fell down in the yard of the mansion and Keith broke into a dance to avoid them all, shing and striking away any that would hit him while dodging the rest.


    I shifted my gaze to the side to see Maria and Lily casually enjoying some peanuts while watching the fight. Whatever sparks went their way collided against an invisible wall around the mansion and faded away.


    Keith closed in. He swung his sword.


    "Rise. [Earth Wall]"


    A wall of earth formed between the two of us. He promptly destroyed the wall.


    But I wasn''t sitting around. I lowered my stance and came stabbing the sword up from his blind spot beyond the Earth Wall.


    "Damn it!" Keith screamed and shifted his grip on his sword. He narrowly avoided the sword stab, letting his hair be caught in it. "[Azure Nine sh!]


    His sword came crashing down.


    It split halfway through its path. Then again, and then again. In the blink of an eye, nine des were out for my neck. I infused more of the aura in my de and struck toward the sky. It was aplete brute force counter to his skilled move.


    A brute force counter I could perform with my abundant Ki.


    A sh of purple and red blinded the two of us. Dozens of stings spread through my body and a giant force emerging from my sword pushed me back. I soared through the air and twisted in the air tond back on my feet, pushing another trail down on the ground.


    When I opened my eyes, Keith was standing much further from before with cuts all over his body as well. His condition was much better than mine.


    "Let''s end this now, Keith."


    That didn''t mean I had lost.


    "Bring it, young master!"


    I ced two of my fingers on the base of my de.


    My mana core pumped out my purified mana while my dantian surged the Ki in my body. My veins and mana circuit pumped at once, all of their energy coalescing at the tip of my fingers.


    Slowly, very slowly, and carefully, I merged the two opposing internal forces into my de.


    "[Synergy...]"


    Keith shuddered. Still grazing my finger up the dius, I took a bold step forward, and then another, and then eventually broke into a sprint.


    Ki surged from Keith as he prepared all his internal energy to take on the blow. My finger was almost at the tip of my sword. The white de gleaming purple was now filled with two opposing energies forced to merge into one. The coagtion of the forces sent whirs through my de as a ck light filled it.


    My hand quaked in front of the force, but my lips were tugged up in a smile.


    As I approached closer and closer, Keith''s mouth opened wider and sweat started forming over his body. "Y-young master!? The mansion might not be able to take it—"


    "[WORLD...]"


    I lowered my stance.


    "[....END]"


    Light disappeared from my eyes. Only my de and my target were within my sight.


    "[SLAS—]"


    —BOOM!


    An enormous explosion broke out from my hand. My eyes shed white before cking outpletely and my body wasunched away.


    "Young master!!"


    "Young master!?"


    Two shrill voices entered my ear.


    Argh, this throbbing in my dantian and core. The pain all over my body...


    I slowly lifted myself up and opened my eyes.


    In the ground where Keith and I were about to face off, was an enormous craterrge enough to make another pond.


    Lily and Maria came rushing to my side from the veranda. Their voices dripped with concern.


    "Tsk. I failed."


    As I muttered, Lily came next to me and got down on her knees. She gently touched my head and my chest.


    "Sir Keith! Did you have to be so brash!?"


    "What?! That brat did it to himself!! Heck, I am the victim, I almost died here!"


    I scoffed. No way would Keith die from just that. I would have to do it twice.


    Much to his chagrin, though, Lily seemed to have taken my scoff as a way of saying that the responsibilityy with Keith after all. She puffed her cheeks and worriedly started touching my head all over.


    I held her hands and pulled them away.


    "Healing sl—Lily... Don''t worry, these are minor injuries. Just heal the ones on the surface."


    "O-oh! Got it!" Lily flushed and nodded her head while Maria too crouched down and gently touched my wounds. Was I a damn exhibition here?


    Unlike my initial impressions, the more she trained with it, the crazier she got with healing magic.


    "Bring happiness and prosperity on this faithful child of god, [Heal]"


    A magic circle formed around her palms and a gentle, soothing light emerged from it. The light seeped into my wounds and the pain started fading away as the wounds closed up.


    Right then, a loud bang came spreading through the mansion grounds.


    "Open up!!"


    "Open the damn doors!"


    My eyebrows perked.


    What was this now?