Chapter 40: 37 – World splitter

April 8^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

CLANG—!

Shockwaves was sent across the room as I met swords with my opponent.

The opponent, a woman in her 20s with brown hair and eyes, was a force to be reckoned with.

The woman smirked as she widened the distance between us. "You're pretty good, aren't you?"

"Save the useless banters for later!"

Immediately, I focused mana on my feet and shot towards the woman.

Although she could have ended the battle right there with her skill, she took my attacks head-on with a smile.

CLANG—! CLANG—! CLANG—!...

After exchanging a series of blows with me, the woman jumped back again; However, this time, mana suddenly surged from her body.

SWOOOOOSH—!

Her figure disappeared, before reappearing right before me.

She brought her sword up and slashed.

CLANG—!

Again.

CLANG—! 

And again.

CLANG—!

Her attacks were monotonous. However, it was understandable, as she was a mage.

Strangely though, each of her attacks shook the earth violently, making my hands feel like they were going to burst at any moment.

Screeeeech—!

A screeching sound of metal grinding against metal rang out as I tried to parry her strikes.

However, her sword slid against the flat side of mine, slicing the cross-guard in half. 

Seeing this, I immediately formed a new cross-guard using [F - Mana blood].

CLANG—!

Her sword was stuck half-way through the newly formed cross-guard. 

I decided to widen our distance.

<[III - Roteare style]: Release>

BOOM—!

The force that had been accumulating in my sword was released in an instant, exploding my sword into a million pieces and creating a shockwave that pushed both me and her a couple of meters away.

Despite the shockwave being immensely powerful, we were unscathed, as we had both used [Mana reinforcement] at the last second.

"Haaaah..."

<[F - Mana blood]>

Exhaling, I focused spatial attribute mana on my newly formed sword made of blood.

I was sure that the woman would let me finish my concentration, as she did so many times before.

And, just as I had just finished focusing space mana on my sword, the woman shouted and dashed forwards.

"12 seconds have passed, here I come!"

Locking my eyes onto the woman's figure that was quickly approaching me, I mentally calculated the distance between us.

20m

'Not close enough'

15m

'Almost there'

'5m'

'...'

'2m'

<The second movement of [V - World splitter]: Rupturing thrust>

Rip—!

A ripping sound could be heard as the tip of my sword violently teared the space around it apart.

Spurt—! THUD—!

Blood spurted, and a body fell to the ground.

The only problem was that I was the one on the ground.

Well, rather, my right hand was pinned to the ground.

"I- I give up! Cancel your spell already!"

The woman clicked her tongue as she cancelled her spell. "Already? You did worse than yesterday!"

Ignoring her words, I checked my hand for any injuries.

'Broken bones... and it's bleeding too'

"Could you not go easier on me? My hand was almost flattened!", I complained to the woman as I wrapped bandages around my hand.

"Says the one who almost killed his professor", the woman, whose identity was professor Misha, retorted.

"You're an <A-> rank, why are you scared of an <E-> student?"

Clink—!

Removing the metal bracelets that suppresses her power, professor Misha snorted.

"My power was at <F+> rank during the fight. I'd have died if you hit me with that"

"...Fair enough", I sighed.

"By the way, I still can't believe that your battle art is a V-graded one, and a growth type at that!"

"...I can't believe it either", I muttered under my breath with slight resentment.

I was in fact, also surprised that my battle arts suddenly turned into growth-type - the rarest type of battle arts

Even Arthur didn't have a growth-type battle art in the novel.

You are reading story Theodore ‘not the protagonist’ Gray at novel35.com

As to how my battle arts suddenly changed? Well, it all started about a month ago.
...

March 13^rd, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

"Mhm... I see...", professor Misha cupped her chin in thought as I explained to her what my battle art did.

I kept silence, waiting for the professor to finish whatever she was doing.

"Ah! I got it!"

Professor Misha then mumbled something, and kept nodding to herself.

CLAP—!

Clapping her hands, she turned to me and spoke. 

"The description of you Art doesn't specify what you can use it on, correct?"

"...Yes"

"So can you use it with your fists too?"

Nodding my head, I concentrated space mana on my hand and punched the ground.

A fist-sized crater appeared where my fist struck.

"I see! Can you use it on other magic too?"

"I'm... not sure?"

Thinking again for a while, professor Misha spoke.

"Alright, here's your first lesson. Try fusing your battle art with any of your attack spells. Even if it doesn't work, you will have learnt how to combine 2 elements into 1 spell"

Hearing this, I immediately tried it out.

<[Lightning spear]>

A spear made of red lightning hovered right besides me. 

Ignoring professor Misha's sparkling gaze at the [Lightning spear], I tried to move space mana.

However—

"FUCK!"

—It was simply too hard.

The red spear of lightning dissipated into nothingness, while the space mana I was concentrating dispersed into thin air.

Trying to control two different kinds of mana at a time was like trying to draw a circle and a square at the same time.

Seeing my disappointed reaction, professor Misha slapped my back and chuckled.

"Don't worry, if you could do it first-try, the <Mage tower> would have had no qualms sending people to infiltrate Avaron and kidnap you"

"Haha... T- That's true...", I laughed professor Misha's joke off, but I knew full well they would really do it.

After all, that was exactly what happened to Arthur in his 2nd year according to the novel.

Chuckling again, professor Misha walked out of the training ground.

"Well, just keep trying to fuse your battle art with... the Lightning spell you just did. We'll move onto reinforcing your body with mana once you're done with it"

CLANK—!
...

March 24^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

"HAHAHAHAHAH! I DID IT!"

I laughed like a crazed maniac once I've successfully fused [V - World splitter] and [Lighting spear] together.

"Good! I'll name you... [Lightning of rupture]!"

"Let's test it out, shall we?", I spoke to no one in particular as I shot the spear at a dummy that was wrapped in a thick layer of mana.

As such, I expected [V - World splitter] to erase, or at least weaken the mana protecting the dummy, and [Lightning spear] would finish the job.

However—

"HUH?"

I rubbed my eyes, looking at the dummy again. But—

'Where did it go?'

—It was nowhere to be seen

'No... it was erased from existence', I thought as I inspected the place where my [Lightning spear] struck earlier, only to find that the dummy had indeed disappeared.

'It can't be, right?'

Gulping my saliva, I decided to test it again.
...

<[Lightning of rupture]>

Upon erasing the 3rd dummy that could withstand attacks from an <B> ranked individual from existence, a creepy smile crept up on my face.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!"

How could I not laugh? After all—

"THIS IS TRULY MAVERLOUS! MANA CAN'T MAKE [WORLD SPLITTER] USELESS ANYMORE!" 

—The one and only restriction of the battle art aside from the ridiculous amount of time it took to concentrate space mana was removed.

Now, no one could defend from my attacks.

Still laughing like a maniac, I made an arrogant claim.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! IM THE GREATEST MAG-"

|...Hey kid|, a somewhat lethargic voice suddenly rang out.

Startled, I snapped my head at the sound. "Huh?"

|I'm Ezra, the god that created Status|

"What?"

|So... I owed Lumaria one, and she used that favor to make me erase your [Lightning of rupture]|

"What are you sa-"

Ignoring me, the voice continued. |As a compensation, I'll modify your battle arts a little bit. I hope you'll forgive me for this time|

"Wait! What are y-"

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