Hero – Part 10
“Ugh!”
Though her speed confused the four-legged beasts around her, Cecily wasn’t as composed as she appeared.
The day she made the decision to join this battle, Aria said there was something she wanted to try, something that had to do with their coordination. Cecily had always fought by making the most of Aria’s wind, but Aria expressed a desire to reach an even higher level.
“I want to become stronger, Cecily, just as much as you do. Both in mind and in blade.”
Over the past few days, Aria had been wearing a troubled expression, as if something deeper weighed on her than the time she’d once begged for her own sheath. But despite the pain clouding her face, she pushed her turmoil aside and looked Cecily in the eye with firm resolve.
Cecily knew one thing for sure: she couldn’t call herself Aria’s comrade if she didn’t match her resolve.
The wind, meant to be her ally, dragged Cecily violently through the air. Aria’s wind enabled rapid, unnatural bursts of movement far beyond human capability. But at an unbearable cost. She mimicked Luke’s gliding footwork, but lacked his finesse. Every step threatened to snap her ankle. Her upper and lower body moved out of sync, and her core muscles screamed from the strain. Her vision shifted constantly, disorienting her, her brain rattling with each movement.
But compared to a few days ago, it was an improvement. In the beginning, she was completely thrown off balance. She even crashed headfirst into a seedbed at one point. Even now, it was far from perfect, but she was getting better.
I will master it.
Cecily accelerated through the encirclement of Inhumans. She dodged their charges, parried their spiked blades with ease, and outmaneuvered their relentless pursuit. Their movements were clear to her now. She could see their intent, how they tried to corner her, how they moved to kill her. It wasn’t just because Aria’s wind made her move faster than them.
“See the whole picture.”
Luke’s teachings had firmly taken root within Cecily. Instead of focusing on individual foes, she observed the overall flow of the battle. Suddenly, what she couldn’t grasp before became clear. She could anticipate where the attacks would come from, recognize the subconscious movements of her enemies. The surprise attacks? They weren’t surprises anymore. She could read two or three steps ahead and strike first.
The tenth Inhuman lost sight of her. A second later, its neck was stabbed from outside its field of vision. It let out a cry of agony. As it turned its head toward the source of the attack, a swift strike pierced its forehead, killing it instantly.
Once again, Cecily broke away from the pack, her heart racing. Limitless energy surged within her. Before the fight, she was full of nerves. So why? Watching Luke fight without a shread of fear had shaken those feelings loose.
Francisca seemed to have issued a command, as the scattered Inhumans began to converge. Lining up side by side, they formed a wall of six balls of spikes, charging toward her. Dodging them would mean going the long way around.
“Bring it on.” Cecily regarded them with a triumphant grin. “But it won’t be that easy.”
A gust of wind erupted from beneath her feet. She unleashed everything she had. Silver wind crackled along the rapier poised for a thrust, spreading like wildfire before converging into a single point. Normally, firing this at the Inhumans would only result in the wind being nullified.
“Keep this in mind.”
In that case, she just needed to overwhelm them with power that couldn’t be nullified.
“We may be weak, but we’re reckless!”
The silver torrent surged forward, engulfing the Inhumans.
Blasted by the roar, shockwave, and swirling dust, Luke narrowed his right eye.
“You’ve gotten stronger,” he muttered with a smile.
Though she had been discouraged by her defeat at Hilda Cavendish’s hands, Luke could now say, without a doubt, that Cecily Campbell had grown stronger.
Who could have imagined that the woman currently holding her own against Inhumans was, just half a year ago, shaking before a mere homeless person?
“Normally, you can’t just learn to do something after watching it once or twice.”
But Cecily had absorbed every lesson, like cotton soaking in water. He had to admit, he was impressed by her straightforwardness.
Luke scanned the battlefield. The clash between Cecily and the Inhumans had intensified, and now the forces of the Militant Nation were beginning to retreat. The layout of the battlefield had become much clearer.
Francisca’s Inhuman weapons versus the blacksmith and the female knight.
No. There was one more person on the latter’s side.
“Luke! Sorry to keep you waiting.”
Turning around, Luke spotted a small figure standing there. It wasn’t the demon left behind by Liza Oakwood. It was Lisa, the blacksmith Luke Ainsworth’s only assistant, the one person he was proud to have by his side. She handed him a piece of jewel steel.
Luke took it from her. “You’ll be my eyes, won’t you? When the time comes, and I lose my right eye.”
“If that’s what you want,” Lisa nodded firmly. “I’ll return the left eye you lost, just like this.”
Her voice was steady, without hesitation.
“But sometimes, let me lose something too.”
“When I feel like it,” Luke replied.
He thrust his katana into the ground and released his grip on the tang. His right hand was raw and scraped after holding it tightly for so long.
No words were needed between them. Lisa closed her eyes.
“Commence forging,” Luke announced.
Suddenly, the girl’s left eyelid snapped open, revealing an unnerving, wriggling eyeball. It darted around like a separate living thing before settling on one fixed point.
At the spot where her gaze landed, a black fireball materialized in the air. It emitted no heat but flickered like a flame, scattering embers, but it was completely cold to the touch.
Luke tossed the jewel steel into the fireball, then plunged his bare right arm in after it.
And then, he began chanting.
“Mizubeshi. Kowari. Senbetsu. Tsumikasane. Tanren. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Orikaeshi. Shinkane keisei. Munekane keisei. Kawakane keisei. Hakane keisei. Tsukurikomi.
Sunobe. Kissakizukuri. Hizukuri. Arashiage. Tsuchioki. Akame. Yakiire. Kajioshi.
The finer details of grinding and finishing were omitted. They weren’t necessary for this weapon.
Lisa’s supernatural ability, Infernal Bladecraft, replicated Luke’s experience, instantly creating a single katana. And this one was a replica of his latest masterpiece.
“
Tsukaosame nashi
.”
As soon as Luke pulled his right arm out, the black sphere exploded. The shockwave hit both him and Lisa, passing over them like a burst of energy. The small explosion cleared the mist, leaving the area crystal clear.
Cutting through the rising dust was a naked blade—elegantly curved, adorned with a beautiful temper line, its brilliance proof of its craftsmanship. The Infernal Katana they had just forged emitted a faint blue glow along its surface. There was no handle, just the exposed tang.
With the sword in hand, Luke assumed the stance for a sweeping slash.
“Cecily!”
He called out to the female knight engaging with the Inhumans at a distance.
“Get down!”
Her reaction was instant. Even when surrounded by the Inhumans, Cecily dropped to the ground without hesitation.
Just as he saw that, Luke’s right eye suddenly blurred. A violent wave of nausea hit him. His inner ear spun, and he lost his sense of balance, nearly causing him to faint. The soul-draining toll of Infernal Bladecraft ravaged his body. He staggered under the sheer agony of what felt like his limbs being torn apart.
“Luke!”
A small hand touched his back. Warmth spread through him, restoring the fading strength in his body. He woke.
With a roar, he drove his foot firmly into the ground, stabilizing himself, then rotated his upper body in a swift, twisting motion, like releasing a drawn bowstring.
A horizontal slash. Blue light surged from the blade.
It swept past Cecily’s head and the human corpses around her, slashing through the six Inhuman weapons, severing them in half from top to bottom. It sundered even the remains of the eleven Inhumans. The flash of light cleaved the air across the entire plain.
In its wake, a spray of blood erupted from the Inhumans all at once.
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