Chapter 5 - But It’s Still Not Enough

"It's morning, Arel! Your beloved big sister came to wake you up!"

A loud voice echoed through my room early in the morning.

My sister rushed over to where I was sleeping in bed.

"You're still so weak in the mornings, Arel! Alright, here comes big sister's good-morning kiss—"

*Thump!*

"Morning already."

I stifled a yawn, got out of bed, and left the room.

"Hey! You just hit me full force, didn't you!? And you're acting like nothing happened!?"

Leaving my teary-eyed sister clutching her head and yelling behind me, I headed to the living room.

"Good morning, Arel-chan."

"Morning, Mom."

"Breakfast is ready."

"Thanks."

"Heyyy! Don't just ignore your big sister!"

Yep, Mom's cooking is as delicious as ever.

"Where's Dad?"

"He's still sleeping. Could you wake him, big sister?"

"Grrr… Fine!"

Dad and I don't have much in common, but the one thing we share is being terrible at mornings.

At Mom's request, my sister—grumbling resentfully—went to wake him.

After breakfast, I headed back to the open space from yesterday.

I recalled my match against Red-hair.

I lost.

I couldn't counter his attack skill , and my Divine Protection dropped below half.

But winning or losing didn't matter to me.

From midway through the spar, I had shifted my focus away from blocking and toward simply "seeing" the technique.

"'Double Blade Slash.'"

I wrapped straw around a large tree I always used for striking practice and tried imitating yesterday's move.

*Thwack thwack!*

Hmm.

No good.

That was just two separate strikes—hitting the left side, then the right.

Nothing more.

The real has to hit two spots at exactly the same moment.

"I need more sword speed."

Next I focused purely on going faster.

*Thwack thwack!*

Still no.

Just two attacks again.

"The wrist flick is important too."

After slashing left, I have to reverse the wrist orientation to slash right.

That transition time needs to be minimized.

*Thwack!*

"Hm. That was faster than before. But still not enough."

The gap between sounds had shrunk, but it was hardly "perfectly simultaneous."

"Faster."

*Thwack!*

"Even faster."

*Thwack!*

"Still not there."

*Thwack!*

A month had passed since I began practicing .

Now I was outside town, standing before a dense forest.

I stepped inside.

After walking for a while, I encountered a certain creature.

"Gugyeh!"

A grotesque monster with green skin let out a hideous cry.

A goblin.

It was about the same height as ten-year-old me, with low intelligence.

It held a crude spear made from sharpened animal bone.

I immediately drew my sword and met the goblin that charged the moment it spotted me.

"'Double Blade Slash.'"

"Gyaa!?"

The goblin's head flew off, and its torso split cleanly into upper and lower halves.

Blood sprayed everywhere.

Instant death, of course.

Unlike humans, goblins have no Divine Protection—any decent sword skill is enough to kill them easily.

"Hm. It worked."

Just now, I had sliced the goblin's neck and torso simultaneously.

It was exactly the Red-hair had shown me.

Today wasn't the first success—I'd already managed it many times in practice.

I came to this forest to test whether it would work in real combat.

This was the first time it succeeded against a moving living target.

After that, I encountered several more goblins and finished them all with .

I tried different combinations—neck and legs, right arm and left arm—and every one worked perfectly.

Goblins really are ideal for test-cutting.

They sometimes appear in groups, so that's the only thing to watch out for.

"About here should do."

Satisfied for the most part, I was about to turn back toward town when—

"Aaaahhh!"

A scream echoed from deep in the forest.

"…What was that?"

It was definitely a human voice.

It even sounded like a child's.

I pushed through the trees and ran toward the sound.

Soon I could see what was happening.

Someone was being attacked by a monster.

And that someone was…

"Damn it… I never expected to run into one of these…!"

The face twisted in hatred looked familiar.

It was Red-hair from the other day.

He held a sword in his right hand, but his left arm hung limply.

It was bent at an unnatural angle—probably broken.

It seemed he had taken damage beyond what his Divine Protection could handle.

Facing him was a goblin—but enormous.

It had to be at least 180 cm tall.

An abnormally huge goblin.

"A hobgoblin."

Hobgoblins are a superior species to regular goblins.

They look almost identical, but their bodies are far larger and incredibly strong.

It gripped a club and grinned creepily down at Red-hair.

The broken arm was probably its doing.

Red-hair had likely come into the forest for real combat practice too, but unluckily ran into this thing.

A kid entering the forest alone is dangerous.

Though I'm hardly one to talk.

"Luckily it hasn't noticed me."

I leaped out from the grass where I'd been hiding and attacked the hobgoblin from behind.

"'Double Blade Slash'!"

"!?"

I drove two simultaneous slashes into both sides of the hobgoblin's neck.

Its flesh was far tougher than a regular goblin's.

But thanks to the pinching motion of , the head was severed cleanly.

It spun through the air and fell to the ground.

"Uh…"

The massive body collapsed.

"Hm. Been a while."

"Wha…"

Red-hair's eyes widened in shock.

"What… the hell!? How can YOU use !?"