Kaguya turned and walked toward the center of the training ground.
"Now that you've reached Level 2, it means you've officially become an Upper-class adventurer." She came to a halt in the center of the field. Her left hand rested on the long hilt of Higanbana at her waist, while her right hovered over the scabbard of the short blade, Futaba.
"It's about time I fulfilled my promise. Let's have a match."
Her gaze was different from her usual, somewhat lazy scrutiny. As Su Lun held the Stream-vein shortsword horizontally before him, he could clearly feel the atmosphere shift. The aura Kaguya radiated was no longer the restrained guidance of a teacher; it was the concentrated, lethal pressure of a top-tier Level 3 adventurer, tempered by countless life-and-death struggles.
Just by standing there, she felt like a cold blade against the throat.
"The rules are simple," her voice was flat and steady. "Ten minutes. Don't hold back. Show me everything you've gained from your rank-up."
Su Lun took a deep breath and nodded. "Understood."
"Begin."
The moment the last syllable left her lips, Kaguya's silhouette vanished. No—it wasn't a disappearance. It was sheer speed, so great that the afterimage left on the retina seemed to fracture.
Su Lun felt the scenery at the edge of his vision blur and warp. A long, narrow arc of light, shaped like a crescent moon, appeared before his eyes out of thin air! The blade hadn't even fully cleared the scabbard before the strike—condensed to the absolute extreme—arrived before the sound.
It was faster than thought. Su Lun's body moved purely on instinct. He didn't try to parry a strike that was impossible to block; instead, he threw himself backward, lunging his left shortsword upward. It wasn't an attack, but a conduit.
"Shield!"
a translucent, curved forcefield expanded just inches from his nose.
CLANG—!!!
The piercing screech of metal meeting energy and the whistle of tearing force blended together. The shield warped and flickered violently under the impact. An immense force surged through it, sending Su Lun sliding backward. His boots plowed two deep furrows into the sand, and by the time he stopped, his arm was numb and the skin between his thumb and forefinger was burning.
"Good reaction," Kaguya's voice came calmly from his left.
Before Su Lun could even turn his head, the second wave arrived. This time, it wasn't a single, perfect Iaijutsu strike. Kaguya wielded both blades; Higanbana moved with wide, sweeping slashes for primary offense, while the short Futaba moved with cunning, sinister agility, striking from odd angles. The two blades formed a continuous net of steel, descending like a rainstorm to seal off every possible path of evasion.
A look of gravity flashed across Su Lun's face. He couldn't tank this, nor could he outlast it. He pushed off the ground, retreating rapidly while pointing his right hand forward.
"Grease!"
A five-foot square of slick, shimmering magical oil instantly covered the ground in front of him. Kaguya's charge faltered for a microsecond. But she simply adjusted her rhythm, and in the next heartbeat, she stepped directly onto the oil!
Every time her toes touched the ground, the contact was light and ethereal, as if she were gliding on water. Instead of slowing down, she used the lack of friction to make her dashes and changes in direction even more unpredictable.
To have that level of balance and body control...
Su Lun's eyes narrowed. He stopped retreating.
"Web!"
Pfft! A burst of thick, white magical webbing erupted with Kaguya at the center, spraying upward and outward to cover a ten-meter radius! Countless tenacious strands attempted to bind her legs and snag her blades.
Kaguya's twin blades danced, transforming into a violet-black whirlwind. Wherever the light of her blades passed, the tough webbing was severed and dissipated. However, the sheer volume and area of the webs finally achieved something—her charge speed was noticeably dragged down, and the airtight net of her blades developed small gaps.
Now!
Su Lun raised his hand, pointing his shortsword at Kaguya. The mana within him, which had grown significantly since his rank-up, surged out with unprecedented efficiency.
"Eldritch Blast—Metamagic: Empowered Spell!"
This wasn't just a test-shot. This time, he was testing his limits, pouring enough mana into the cantrip to fuel several normal casts. A beam of energy as thick as an infant's arm erupted from his palm! It was no longer a thin bolt of light, but a pillar of energy so dense it appeared liquid. It let out a low, terrifying roar as it tore through the air, warping the light in its wake!
Kaguya's calm pupils constricted. She had seen Su Lun use this move, but the power behind it now was...
Taking it head-on would be unwise.
She crossed her blades into an "X" in front of her and dove to the right. The violet beam grazed the blade of Higanbana, the friction between the dark energy and the steel producing blinding sparks. The beam didn't stop, slamming into a stone training pillar twenty meters behind her.
BOOM—!!!
The pillar exploded into countless fragments amidst a flash of violet light. Dust and energy embers shot into the air. When the smoke cleared, a basin-sized charred crater with molten edges remained, the surrounding ground spiderwebbed with radial cracks.
On the sidelines, Alise gasped, her eyes bulging. "That... that power! Saying it's the all-out strike of a Level 2 is an understatement! Most Level 2 mages aren't nearly this terrifying!"
"The energy condensation is extremely high, the instantaneous destruction is staggering, and..." Lyu's ice-blue eyes were fixed on the field. "From cast to impact, it was nearly instantaneous."
In the field, Kaguya glanced at the shattered pillar, then back at Su Lun. Her expression now held a genuine, unmistakable seriousness. This time, her speed seemed to increase by another margin!
Her twin blades were no longer just a net; they moved with a clear, shifting rhythm. Every heavy slash from Higanbana was weighted with power, forcing Su Lun to parry or make large dodges, while Futaba flicked out like a snake's tongue, targeting the gaps in his guard and the moments his feet left the ground.
The pressure spiked. Su Lun retreated continuously, his footwork growing slightly ragged. He barely parried a heavy strike with his shortsword while firing off instantaneous spells in succession.
"Ray of Frost!" A pale, bone-chilling current attempted to slow Kaguya's movements. "Fire Bolt!" A head-sized, searing fireball roared toward a weakness in the blade-light coordination.
Ice and fire collided in the air, annihilating each other and exploding into a massive cloud of white steam that obscured vision. But Kaguya's momentum seemed unaffected; she used the steam as cover, her figure becoming even more ghostly.
A blade-light pierced through the steam, lunging straight for Su Lun's chest!
It's not enough! The cantrips are powerful, but they can't break through her dual-blade defense or effectively disrupt her movement!
Su Lun's gaze sharpened. He abandoned the counter-offensive. He raised his staff high, mana rushing and constructing at an unprecedented rate.
"Mirror Image!"
Three identical illusions of himself appeared instantly around him. All four "Su Luns" scattered in different directions, their movements, expressions, and even mana fluctuations appearing perfectly identical!
Kaguya's footsteps faltered as her gaze swept across the four targets like lightning. But she didn't hesitate for long. The moment the illusions appeared, she flourished her blades, and five sharp, violet-black blade-lights erupted in a fan shape—her magic, Gokō!
"Calamitous Equinox Flower!"
This time, the blade-lights didn't converge on a single point. Instead, they skillfully blanketed every area occupied by the four Su Luns and their possible evasion routes! Two illusions were shredded by the light and dissipated. The third illusion barely managed a roll to dodge.
As for the real Su Lun...
He wasn't anywhere near the illusions. The moment he cast Mirror Image, his true body had used the cover of the duplicates to silently and rapidly roll toward the rear-left. The moment he hit the ground, he slammed his palm down, releasing a pre-constructed spell.
"Thunderwave!"
He didn't target Kaguya directly, but rather the ground beneath and around her! A cone of shockwaves exploded, sending sand and debris geysering into the air. The violent vibration and sonic interference instantly blanketed the area.
Kaguya's frame wavered. Her twin blades instinctively moved to protect her vitals as her vision and hearing were briefly disrupted. In that split second, she felt a powerful surge of mana from above—
Su Lun, using the effect of a Jump spell, had somehow leaped four meters into the air. He pointed his shortsword downward, a brilliant white light flashing violently!
"Color Spray—Metamagic: Maximize Spell!"
A waterfall of rainbow light, several times more intense and wider in coverage than usual, poured down! The blinding flash struck her vision, while the accompanying kaleidoscopic glare hammered her perception. Even Kaguya was forced to close her eyes, relying purely on combat instinct to retreat.
But Su Lun's attacks were linked in a chain, without the slightest pause! As he landed, he dropped to one knee and slammed his left hand into the sand.
"Web—Metamagic: Distant Spell! Spell Sequence Trigger!"
A massive, viscous white web erupted with Kaguya as the center! It was denser and stickier than before. More importantly, the eruption didn't end with one wave. Just as Kaguya slashed through the first layer and attempted to clear the area, the second pre-set web from the Spell Sequence erupted from beneath her feet once again!
Kaguya's ankles and lower body were instantly ensnared by more strands, causing a distinct lag in her movements!
The chance!
Su Lun stood up abruptly, his mana surging once more. He chose a reliable first-tier spell—one that was difficult to defend against for an opponent in a brief state of entanglement—and utilized his newly gained power.
"Jim's Magic Missile—Metamagic: Heightened! Empowered!"
It wasn't three missiles, but four! Bolstered by the Empowered and Heightened metamagic, the silver-white orbs were more condensed than ever. They formed at the tip of his staff, then split in two—two on the left and two on the right—tracing arcs through the air to close in on the trapped Kaguya from two different angles!
A sharp light flashed in Kaguya's eyes. Though restricted, her sword-hand remained steady. Facing the incoming missiles, she twisted her body with incredible flexibility. Higanbana traced a perfect semi-circle, its violet-black light acting like a curtain to intercept and detonate the two missiles on the left in mid-air! Futaba danced like a butterfly, deftly parrying one of the two missiles on the right.
But the final missile slipped past Futaba's defensive perimeter and lunged toward her right shoulder. Her evasion space was sealed by her own momentum and the remaining webs.
Kaguya simply stopped trying to dodge, tensing the muscles in her shoulder.
Sizzle!
The orb of light grazed her shoulder armor, leaving a distinct charred mark and causing the edge of the metal to curl and turn red from the heat. Kaguya felt a wave of searing heat penetrate her armor.
The training ground felt as if someone had pressed a pause button.
The two stood facing each other. Kaguya's breathing was slightly faster than usual, and fine beads of sweat were on her brow. Su Lun was drenched in sweat, his chest heaving and his shortsword trembling slightly; his mental energy was more than half depleted.
"Ten minutes are up," Lyu's cool voice broke the silence.
Kaguya exhaled slowly. With a flick of her wrists, Higanbana and Futaba slid precisely back into their sheaths. She walked over to Su Lun, her gaze sweeping over his pale face—marked by exhaustion and tension—before looking down at the fresh scorch mark on her shoulder armor.
"Not bad," she finally spoke. Her voice had returned to its usual tone, but the laziness was gone, replaced by respect. "A visible improvement, indeed." She paused, locking eyes with Su Lun. She reached out and patted his shoulder with a firm hand. "These three months of teaching weren't in vain."
Su Lun grinned. Though his body was exhausted, his eyes were thoughtful.
"That was amazing!" Alise cheered, rushing over to pull Su Lun into a hug. "Spectacular! That final chain of crowd control—the timing was perfect! I almost thought you were going to lose!"
Lyu also approached, her ice-blue eyes full of praise. "To hold out against Kaguya's serious offensive and even land a strike like that..."
Kaguya walked to the edge of the field, picking up her water skin and taking several long gulps. The cool liquid soothed her throat and calmed her racing blood. She looked at Su Lun as he caught his breath.
"Don't let it go to your head, though." She set the water down, her voice returning to its habitual sharp edge, though her eyes remained serious. "I didn't use my true killing moves just now."
Su Lun wiped away sweat and nodded, his expression calm. "I know." He had clearly felt the gap—the difference wasn't just in level, but in a combat state forged by countless brushes with death, something that had become near-instinctual.
"Good." Kaguya hung the water skin back on her belt. "In our next training sessions, I'll try to find ways to make you familiar with those, too." She turned to walk toward the exit, her long black hair swaying in the morning breeze.
As she reached the boundary of light and shadow at the door, she spoke without looking back: "By the way, keep your wits about you during the next street patrol. The eyes watching you now aren't just those of Dungeon monsters. Don't embarrass the Familia."
With that, her silhouette vanished into the light outside.
Alise immediately leaned in and whispered excitedly, "Did you hear that? 'Weren't in vain'! Kaguya praised you! She usually only tells me 'It's alright' at best. I think that's the first time I've ever heard her say that to anyone!"
────────────────────────────────────────
My : https://p*tre*n.com/Noctra418
Danmachi: My Magic Style is Different from Yours (43 Chapters – Ongoing)
────────────────────────────────────────