14

At the signal, Haral swung down his raised arm.

The instant the signal was given, Talidge took a huge step forward.

Despite his massive frame, his movement was quick. Of course, his speed did not match that of Sophia or Ains, but considering his burly body and the heavy two-handed sword he carried, he was actually quite fast.

It seemed like a probing attack. Talidge closed in until he was within striking distance, then raised the sword with his bulging arms and brought it down from overhead.

Ains, who had kept his sword hanging loosely at his side, evaded the swing by stepping backward. He did not counterattack after dodging and remained still.

Talidge, likewise, did not press the attack and instead slowly reset his stance.

‘I see. He’s no complete amateur. I exaggerated that swing, but he didn’t flinch or pull back.’

Though a fallen knight, Talidge claimed his own skill to be at the Sword King level. When it came to analyzing swordplay, he was capable of cool-headed evaluation.

“Next one’s coming!”

Talidge advanced on Ains again.

Cutting through the air, he swung the long blade at Ains. Ains leapt aside to evade the horizontal slash as well.

He continued to do nothing but dodge the follow-up attacks, never crossing blades with Talidge.

After Talidge had thrown out several heavy blows, with Ains still on the defensive, Ains finally seemed to give up, letting out a large sigh and raising his sword.

“What’s wrong? You finally decided to swing your sword? You could’ve just kept running away, you know.”

“No, I’m done with that. Even if I keep dodging, you don’t look like you’re getting tired at all. I figured it would end if you exhausted yourself, but that doesn’t seem likely.”

Fixing Talidge with his blue left eye, Ains tightened his grip on the sword, thinking that it would be faster to decide the outcome than let things drag on.

‘That stance… what school is it? I’ve never seen it in the Empire, and I’ve never seen anyone use it since coming here either.’

Sensing the change in Ains’s presence, Talidge did not charge in recklessly and instead focused on watching Ains’s initial movement.

“If you’re not coming, then I’ll go this time. I don’t have the mindset of a knight or swordsman, nor do I have any such nobility.”

With that, Ains tilted the blade of the sword he was holding.

“…?”

Talidge did not understand what he was trying to do, but the next moment, a blinding light struck his eyes.

The exam had already ended and the sun was beginning to sink, and Ains used the angled blade to reflect the intense western sunlight straight into Talidge’s eyes.

“…Damn it!”

Talidge was hardly a refined swordsman, but even he had never used such a despicable trick as blinding an opponent when facing someone for the first time.

As Talidge flinched and reflexively closed his eyes against the intense light, Ains leapt in.

Laika knew this kind of movement from Ains, but Kirishiya and Seidel were astonished by the motion of his prosthetic leg.

Darius, unable to follow Ains’s movement with his eyes, showed little reaction.

From a low posture, Ains moved with soundless footwork. Rather than heading straight at Talidge, he closed in at a slight angle.

Against an opponent whose vision was even momentarily impaired, such lateral movement made it even harder to track his position.

From that low stance, Ains swung his sword diagonally upward from below. His folded legs and lowered torso acted like a spring, giving sharpness to an upward slash that normally struggled to generate power.

“…!”

For a swordsman, intuition—reading an opponent’s presence—was a vital ability.

Even with his vision numbed, Talidge faintly caught sight of Ains, sensed his presence, and picked up the sound produced by the sword swing. He thrust his sword forward in time to block the strike. However, because he merely stopped the blow with his blade, the impact reverberated through his body.

“For such a scrawny body, that’s some serious power!”

With his attack blocked and Talidge’s center of gravity lifted slightly, Ains aimed a kick from his prosthetic leg at Talidge’s legs.

It was a sharp sweep, but Talidge’s heavy body did not budge an inch. Ains clicked his tongue softly and pulled back to create distance.

“You fight dirty, but your footwork and body movement—yeah, I’ll admit it. Your swordsmanship is the real deal. You’re definitely on the level of an advanced swordsman.”

But Talidge continued,

“I’m beyond the realm of mere effort. I’ll show you right now!”

Talidge slowly exhaled and shifted the two-handed sword into one hand.

Ains reacted for just an instant—and no more.

Watching from the sidelines, Laika and the others widened their eyes.

With Talidge’s level of strength, it was possible to hold a two-handed sword in one hand. But swinging such a heavy weapon one-handed would normally dull the motion, making it useless against a fast opponent like Ains. That was why they could not understand Talidge’s action.

Talidge was still, at his core, a swordsman. He would not do anything meaningless in a bout. That meant he had something that eliminated the disadvantage of wielding a two-handed sword with one hand, and Ains realized it.

‘…I see. Mana control.’

“…Here I come. Keep up.”

Talidge stepped forward.

In the same instant, a small explosion kicked up dust at his feet.

At a speed on a completely different level from before, he plunged into Ains’s space, raising the two-handed sword as lightly as if it were a one-handed blade, then swung it down with razor sharpness.

The dulled edge of the imitation blade tore through the air with a thunderous roar as it was swung straight at Ains’s torso.

Ains judged instantly that he could not evade in time. Even if he blocked it directly, the sheer force would shatter his wrist, crush his arm, and break his ribs.

He used mana control to reinforce his entire body in support—true to Ains’s caliber, he accomplished it in less than a blink as the sword bore down on him.

“I’m taking a few of your bones!!”

With a violent crash, Talidge’s sword and Ains’s sword collided.

Thanks to mana control, Ains’s body did not break under the load, but his posture had not been perfect. He managed to block the blow, yet he was blown backward by the impact.

With a loud crash as Ains slammed into the wall behind him, a massive cloud of dust rose up.

“Ains-san!”

Seeing this, Kirishiya cried out in concern.

“Lady Kirishiya, please don’t worry. That is Ains-dono. He will surely be fine.”

Seidel reassured her.

“Yes, Ains will be fine. He’s probably acting nonchalant as ever.”

Laika said confidently, waiting without worry for the dust to settle.

“Did you get him with that one, Talidge!”