Chapter 133: Rite of Passage [4]

Everyone in the hall was silent except for the agonizing screams coming from the hologram showing Pedro getting his limbs sliced off one by one.

They had watched Pedro jump straight into Yves’ trap, and now he was being punished for it.

Pedro getting his limbs cut off didn’t surprise them at all. After all, doing so was permitted as long as they didn’t kill each other. What surprised them was how expressionless Yves remained. He simply kept the same aloof expression, as if he wasn’t torturing someone who shared his own blood.

"Haha, this kid is merciless. I like that." Jean-Marc laughed, earning a few strange looks from the people beside him.

"So is that one of his Gifts? Threads?" The person next to him murmured.

"I don’t think we’ve ever had anyone in our family who used threads. I doubt there was even anyone in previous generations who had something like that." Another elder spoke.

"Well, we don’t know what the God of Stories has in store for us, so anything is possible. But I don’t see how that complements our sword culture." Another elder said.

The Laurent family was a family that only used katanas and no other weapons. Their Gifts normally complemented swordsmanship, though there were some exceptions. Those who didn’t have the talent for the sword were extremely rare.

It practically ran in their blood to use a katana.

So seeing Yves now using threads had some of them questioning whether he simply lacked the talent for swordsmanship.

Though that was a big misunderstanding.

"Hmm, I doubt that. He chose a katana, didn’t he? We still have to wait for him to use it." Andromeda, who was sitting on Jean-Marc’s left, answered.

Next to her was the guild leader of the Northern Guild, Lara Artina. She had also come to watch the Rite of Passage.

Normally, the Laurent family never allowed outsiders to watch their traditional rites, but Lara was so close to them that they considered her part of the family, giving her special treatment.

"He was carrying a katana when we met at the border, so he definitely uses it. But that’s actually an interesting and useful Gift, specifically for laying traps. If he’s smart, he could do amazing things with it." Lara said with a smile.

Jean-Marc nodded before looking behind him.

A man with a short, trimmed white beard and green eyes was resting his face against his closed fist.

"Are you not going to say anything? That’s your son, Laporta. You haven’t even shown a reaction."

"What do you want me to say, brother? He’s foolish for charging in without a plan or caution, so he deserves what’s happening to him right now. He’s always been too cocky. It was about time someone humbled him." Laporta replied with a straight face.

"Eish, you’re always so harsh." Jean-Marc shook his head before turning back toward the hologram.

When Jean-Marc looked at Yves’ cold face, he couldn’t help but remember his brother, Van Der Vaal, who had worn the same expression when he was younger.

"Just like his father..." he mumbled.

Ezio, who had been listening to their conversation with a straight face, was resisting the urge to laugh.

’If only they knew that’s not exactly his Gift...’

...

I sliced all of Pedro’s limbs off, and he could no longer scream.

His blood dripped down until it hit the ground.

He had made a lot of noise, really, and I thought it would be fine to send a message to everyone watching.

Not long after, a shadow wrapped around Pedro’s figure, and he disappeared.

So did his severed limbs.

He was teleported away, leaving my threads covered in blood.

Well, if he remained here any longer, he would’ve died from blood loss.

"Hmmmm, the threads are really good for traps." I said as I let them disappear.

I still had to improve them. I needed to make them so thin that no one would actually notice them.

But I knew these threads wouldn’t work on anyone who was really cautious or significantly stronger than me.

"Anyway." I stood up and stretched myself. "Time to hunt some people."

I took a step forward into nothing but air, and gravity immediately pulled me down.

The moment I landed in a crouch, mana coiled inside my legs before I accelerated forward with incredible speed.

Swoosh.

My figure blurred through the forest, and in roughly a minute, I had covered two kilometers.

I spread my mana senses forward, searching for anyone nearby, but I didn’t find anyone, so I kept running.

It didn’t take long before I sensed someone.

Actually, two people.

I felt a mana signature to my left, in the western direction, so I turned my feet and ran toward it.

They soon came into view.

Two girls were exchanging katana attacks fiercely, their hands blurring as each one aimed for the other’s vital points. Both of them had slash wounds across their bodies, and blood stained their clothes.

It seemed like they had been fighting for a long time.

So I sped up and reached them in no time.

One of the girls, who had brown eyes, suddenly snapped her head in my direction as she sensed my presence behind her.

But it was too late.

My fist was already inches away from her stomach.

Bam!

"Urk!"

The girl coughed blood as she was sent flying like a ragdoll, her back slamming into the bark of a thick tree.

The other girl had blue eyes. Her eyes widened at my sudden appearance, but she quickly regained her composure and launched herself forward, throwing a horizontal slash at me.

I used the same footwork as Sister Friede, standing on the tips of my toes as I stepped backward and avoided her blade, which sliced through nothing but air.

With the same footwork, I launched myself forward and kicked her in the face.

She quickly twisted her katana and held it near her face, blocking my kick and sending herself backward a couple of steps.

"You sneaky bastard!"

The voice came from behind me, so I ducked.

The girl I had punched away attacked me from behind, but she missed.

"There are no rules on the battlefield."

I pressed my hand against the ground and lifted my torso, putting as much strength as I could into my leg before kicking her directly in the chest.

I heard something crack.

Twack!

"Gahh!"

Blood spilled from her mouth.

She was sent flying through the air before hitting the ground and bouncing like a ball across the dirt until she finally came to a stop.

She didn’t get up again.

Not long after, she was teleported away.

At the corner of my eye, I saw a blade inches away from decapitating me, but my own blade was already there.

Clang!

I scanned her mana.

She was a Peak Ascendant.

She released one hand from the grip of her katana, and a second katana suddenly appeared in it. She immediately slashed down toward my neck from a different direction.

I pushed her first katana away from mine and parried the second.

She spun on her heel and delivered a roundhouse kick toward my chest, but I simply sidestepped it before using my toes to launch myself forward and close the distance between us.

The girl’s eyes widened as my katana descended toward her chest.

She quickly brought her second katana in front of her and blocked my attack, sending sparks flying through the air.

She then used the momentum to pull back her outstretched leg and perform a backflip, creating distance between us.

I didn’t attack this time.

I simply watched her.

"You really have improved." She said with a serious expression as she took a stance.

Her name was Genevieve, another cousin of mine.

One of her Gifts allowed her to create a second katana, while another allowed her to dual-wield without any problems.

"I guess." I shrugged.

My figure flickered.

In the next instant, I appeared directly in front of her, slashing diagonally toward her torso.

Her eyes widened at my sudden burst of speed, but she quickly brought her katana up and blocked my attack.

Clang!

I didn’t stop there.

I immediately attacked her legs, prompting her to bring her other katana down to stop my attack.

But that was only a feint.

I twisted my wrist and slashed upward.

The blade bit into her chest, carving a red line all the way to the side of her left shoulder.

Blood splattered through the air.

"Argh!"

She winced in pain but never backed down, even after I had wounded her.

Instead, she increased the pace of her attacks.

Her katanas blurred with speed as they slashed and thrust toward me.

And so did my blade.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Our blades collided over and over again.

Every attack she launched was blocked perfectly.

And every time I blocked, I countered with another attack, drawing more cuts across her body and spilling blood onto the ground.

I could see the confusion growing on her face.

"How is this—"

She was probably wondering how I was able to block her attacks even though she was wielding two weapons while I only had one.

I never let her overwhelm me.

Every time I parried one of her blades away, my katana was already moving to block the other before it could harm me.

The difference was simple.

I was faster.

And after exchanging swords with her only once, I had already memorized her patterns.

Not long after, my blade drew a vertical arc.

Her left arm was sent flying into the air, still gripping her katana as blood stained the ground beneath her.

"Kugh!"

She gritted her teeth and tried to attack me with her remaining arm.

I dodged.

Then I brought my katana down.

Her remaining arm fell to the ground with a thud.

"Aghh!"

She screamed in pain.

Blood poured from her stumps.

I flicked my katana before holding it horizontally with one hand, while my other hand pressed against the back of the hilt.

Then I drove it into her stomach.

The blade pierced through her flesh and came out the other side of her back.

We stood there quietly.

Blood leaked from Genevieve’s lips, staining her shirt.

I had made sure to avoid her vital organs.

I wasn’t going to kill her.

The shadows immediately wrapped around her body, and she was teleported away.

I stood up straight, cleaned the blood from my katana with a swing, and returned it to its sheath.

Mana ran wildly through my body as I dashed in the opposite direction, searching for more people to fight.

I kept running until I eventually reached a circular clearing where the trees formed a perfect ring around a patch of grass.

I came to a stop.

And right in the middle stood a boy with a buzz cut, one hand resting on the hilt of his katana as he looked directly at me.

It was my older brother, Josh.

The aura coming from him screamed Peak Ascendant.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

"It was about time you arrived, youngest." He said calmly.

"Did I make you wait long?" I tilted my head.

"No. You came right on time."

’This guy has a really tricky power.’

Genuinely, I wanted to avoid fighting him for now.

But curse my luck.

I had to fight him.

We remained silent, staring at each other.

Then we both started walking forward.

Slowly at first.

Then our figures blurred forward.

We met in the middle.

And the forest shook.