Chapter 328: A Hellish Sword Technique

Want to read ahead? Join my Patreon for just $7 to get early access to all upcoming chapters!

> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations

─────

The sword was angled toward the ground. The raging flames surrounding his body seemed to pull entirely inward in an instant, leaving only violent, crackling sparks dancing restlessly along the blade's edge.

The air itself seemed to solidify.

The moment she recognized that stance, Ais's golden pupils shrank to pinpricks.

"Watch out!" she shouted, the words tearing from her throat in sudden desperation. "It's that stance!"

The next second, "Aiden" vanished from his spot.

Moving along a trajectory that completely defied the laws of physics, he instantly closed the distance to Hogni. The flaming sword descended in an agonizingly plain, unpretentious arc, carrying an aura that felt stripped back to absolute basics.

Governed by his second persona's raw combat instincts, Hogni reacted without a shred of hesitation, raising his cursed sword, Victim Abyss, to parry.

A crisp metallic clang rang out.

He blocked it. He perfectly intercepted the guaranteed strike aimed right at his front.

But in the exact same microsecond his block succeeded, Hogni's body abruptly went rigid.

An excruciating, soul-tearing agony violently erupted from his chest, his flank, his shoulder, and his thigh... all at the exact same time.

SCHLICK—!

The sickening sound of flesh being instantly shredded by razor-sharp steel was clear enough to make anyone's scalp go numb.

Hogni's bloodshot eyes widened in sheer, incomprehensible bewilderment.

How... how had he been cut?

But to the eyes of Hedin, Finn, and the others, what transpired was an entirely different, yet equally mind-bending spectacle.

In the exact instant "Aiden" swung his sword, one, two, three, four, five... a total of five crimson slashes erupted simultaneously from completely different angles, blooming outward like a peacock fanning its tail.

Hogni had only blocked the first strike coming straight at him.

The other four cleaved into his body without the slightest resistance.

Like a broken ragdoll, Hogni was sent flying by the terrifying force of the slashes, vomiting a massive mouthful of blood in mid-air.

"Aiden's" silhouette flickered, immediately surging forward to deliver the killing blow.

But then—

RUMBLE—!

Countless thick, dragon-like bolts of lightning crashed down from the ceiling without warning, forming an impenetrable, crackling wall of electricity directly in his path.

It was Hedin who had intervened.

"Tch."

A cold scoff of sheer displeasure cut through the air.

Immediately following it, a streak of silver light moving at a speed completely imperceptible to the naked eye tore through the air like a striking viper, aiming directly for "Aiden's" throat.

It was Allen. The Fastest in the City, the Vana Freya, had finally made his move.

Seizing the precise moment Allen intercepted the clone, the real Aiden moved like lightning. He dashed into the chaotic battlefield, scooped up the critically injured Hogni, and hauled him back to the rear lines.

Almost the instant Aiden touched down, Riveria's highly potent healing magic enveloped Hogni in a warm, restorative glow.

"That move again."

Ais stared at the four bone-deep, parallel lacerations on Hogni's body, gritting her teeth.

That was the exact technique she had lost to.

If it hadn't been for that, with her strength, she would never have been defeated so easily by an imposter.

And now, Hogni had suffered the same fate.

He was struck down by a 'first-sight kill'. Completely off guard, he had been critically injured in a single exchange by a sword technique that entirely defied logic.

After all, who in their right mind could anticipate a sword strike that unleashed five lethal slashes from five different angles in a single, solitary instant?

"What exactly was that sword strike just now?"

Hedin didn't bother asking Hogni, who was still being healed. Instead, his razor-sharp gaze locked directly onto Aiden.

As far as Hedin was concerned, the bizarre clone fighting in the center of the cavern belonged to Aiden. If the copy could utilize such an earth-shattering technique, there was absolutely no reason the original wouldn't know about it.

However, things didn't exactly align with his expectations.

Because, awkwardly enough...

The original really didn't know how to do it.

An embarrassed, stiff smile crept onto Aiden's face.

"Don't tell me you don't know either?" Hedin's brow creased deeply.

Beside him, Finn and the others leveled their own questioning gazes at Aiden.

"I've sort of guessed the basic principle," Aiden admitted, his mouth twitching slightly. "But this is the first time I've realized my own skill could be used like that."

Almost the moment he witnessed the strike, Aiden figured out exactly how the clone had executed such a mind-bending attack.

Alpha Inforce.

The power to retrieve elapsed battle time naturally meant retrieving "past" slashes.

The mechanism behind that sword strike wasn't swinging five times at godspeed in a single second.

Instead, in a single instant, he extracted slashes from entirely different timelines, forcefully overlaid them onto the exact same temporal point, and released them simultaneously.

In that microsecond, he physically only swung his sword once.

But there was no rule saying he couldn't unleash attacks from the "past" and stack them on top of the attack in the "present."

Naturally, Aiden wasn't going to explain the core mechanics of his most crucial skill in detail.

"...As long as you've seen it once and stay on your guard, there should be a way to counter it," Aiden offered vaguely. "Though, it will definitely be a massive pain."

One only needed to look at Allen, who was currently locked in a deadly dance with the clone, to confirm that statement.

The face of the Fastest in the City was etched with unprecedented gravity.

Heavily wary of the bizarre Five-Slash Instant Strike, his entire nervous system was wound to its absolute breaking point.

None of his godspeed thrusts were executed at full power; he purposefully held back enough momentum to guarantee he had the space and leeway for an emergency evasion at any given second.

Furthermore, at this stage, it doesn't look like "Aiden" can unleash that technique casually, Aiden thought to himself. Every time he uses it, there's a very obvious wind-up motion—like he has to charge it.

If the day ever came when he—or rather, the clone—could casually unleash that technique with a flick of his wrist...

That would be truly hellish.

Facing five simultaneous slashes in a single instant meant that no matter how fast someone's reaction speed was, perfectly defending against it would be impossible. And five slashes might not even be the limit.

When the day came that it evolved into an instant ten slashes, a hundred slashes, or even a thousand slashes... it would become an utterly unblockable sword technique. Aside from staying completely out of its range, there would be no counterplay whatsoever.

─────

Support this fanfict by leaving Positive Review, Comments, and Power Stones.

For Advance Chapters:

> Patreon.com/NegativeTranslations