Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 341: Talent And Defiance [I]

Michael was ridiculously strong.

Juliana had known this.

She had seen him fight during the Massacre. She herself had fought him during the Entrance Exam. She had heard of what he did to Samael and his gang back on the final day of high school.

Not only was he blessed with a battle IQ that nearly rivaled Samael’s own, he was also naturally versed in hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship.

Yes, it was clear he had learned a thing or two from somewhere — or someone — but his inborn talent was undeniable.

Talent…

That was a word Juliana had a very close relationship with.

She was not modest enough to pretend she wasn’t talented.

She was.

She was talented. That was also undeniable.

Aside from perhaps two or three Cadets back at the Academy, no one her age could best her in swordplay.

She also knew she was highly intelligent, and just crazy enough to use whatever tactic necessary in order to win.

…But was that enough? Was her talent enough here?

After spending so much time traveling with this group, Juliana had realized something. These people were elites among the elites.

Lily was a strategic genius, and not just because of her Origin Card. Sure, her powers amped her inherent intelligence for controlling the flow of the battle, but Juliana had no doubt she’d be just as useful without it.

Why would she think that? Because merely seeing four to five seconds into the future was not enough to prevent it on its own.

Lily needed to have a deep understanding of not only everyone’s powers, but also their personalities, fighting styles, and position preferences.

She needed to know how to use everyone best, how to utilize the group to its full potential.

Her call-outs were always the difference between life and death for them, but Juliana knew Lily also had to account for how to best proceed after avoiding a fatal scenario. In the worst case, she also had to account for failures.

As a self-proclaimed strategist herself, Juliana knew this was no easy task.

Thankfully, her allies were just as much of geniuses as her.

Alexia needs no praise. The girl had literally fought a Demonic-rank creature alone, not only holding her own but pushing him back.

Okay, sure, the creature was weakened as hell — but it still counts. And yeah, Juliana had done it too, so she knew it wasn’t as easy as Alexia made it look.

For a small and harmless-looking, doll-like beauty, that young woman was a goddess of close-quarters combat. The only reason she was injured against Vaeghar was because Ray was going down and Lily was out of the equation.

And speaking of Ray, he was probably one of the best mid to long-range fighters she’d seen at their rank. He was capable enough to both create openings for others or exploit them himself if need be by speed-blitzing his opponent.

In that way, she guessed, his role was very similar to hers.

Then there was Kang. While an excellent scout by trade, he was usually the one fearlessly diving in after Ray and her.

Since he held the mid-line and supported the frontline fighters just like her, Juliana had observed him fight up close. The boy was a feral beast — quite literally.

But if she was most surprised by someone, it would have to be the unsung hero of their party. The one who didn’t get enough recognition because he did his work in silence, always stayed low, and never complained.

Vince Cleverly.

His Origin Card allowed him to drastically buff himself and his allies at the cost of being unable to use their powers after the battle for a certain amount of time.

His Arsenal was full of Enhancement and Buff Cards, without even a single Card focused on offense.

Juliana had met him before. She knew he was the third-ranked Cadet back at the Academy, though that was mostly because the rankings of the Top Ten hadn’t been shuffled much since the Entrance Exam.

Still, such a high rank was a testament to his prowess.

But when he had first revealed his Arsenal, his choice of build had confused Juliana.

Is this guy even going to be helpful at all? she remembered thinking.

And oh boy, was she wrong.

Vince, as it turned out, was a monster at making split-second decisions.

By actively listening to Lily’s calls and analyzing the ongoing battle, he majorly improved the team’s execution by pre-empting the needs of his comrades before they even realized they were lacking.

While Lily saw the danger coming, Vince was the one who ensured everyone was physically capable of reacting to it.

He predicted the exact moment a frontline fighter like Ray would hit a stamina wall or when Kang would require an extra layer of durability to survive a hit.

Unlike other supporters, he didn’t waste Essence on flashy spells or unnecessary shields.

Instead, he waited for the precise millisecond of impact to layer a reinforcement Card, or timed a buff just as someone was about to pivot for a counter-attack.

It was a terrifying level of synergy. He was the oil in their perfectly tuned machine, turning Lily’s strategic vision into tangible reality.

Juliana realized then that while Michael and Samael were monsters of individual prowess, Vince was the ultimate force multiplier.

But the funny thing is, most of the time, no one even noticed the extra support. Juliana understood the pain of hard work going unnoticed. She had saved many of these people more than once, but no one seemed to remember much of it once the rush of adrenaline faded.

Well, whatever.

She was going to get her use out of them one way or another.

Anyway, the point is — she knew what it was like to be talented.

But after being surrounded by such exceptional people, she also realized what it feels like to know you’re not the only chosen one.

It’s a strange feeling when your talent is eclipsed by someone else’s.

It’s a humiliating feeling.

And for her, that was especially the case now… when she was being pushed back.

Clang—!!

Michael’s dark longsword came down on her with the force of a sledgehammer.

Juliana blocked by crossing her katana over her wakizashi, but was still flung several meters across the rocky ground.

He didn’t give her a moment to breathe.

Like a man possessed, he closed the distance in a blur of motion, his armored footsteps heavy enough to crack the ground.

He wasn’t just optimizing his strength, he was weaponizing it.

Every move he made and every cut he dealt was a masterpiece of refined violence.

Where Juliana relied on grace and agility, Michael practiced a form of elevated swordsmanship that stripped away all flair in favor of pure, crushing efficiency.

He was executing quick and precise swings, a barrage of mechanical slashes with no visible flaws at all.

Skidding to a stop, she gritted her teeth, the vibration from the last impact still numbing her forearms.

Juliana had spent her life honing her skills, convinced that she had what it took to surpass her mother… or even her paternal grandfather, the last Sword Saint of the West.

No, not only that.

She was actually arrogant enough to think she could maybe one day rival the current Sword Saint of the West, Prince Raigan V. Kallith.

But against Michael, she felt like a rough draft being rectified by a master editor.

He wasn’t just fighting her so much as he was systematically dismantling the notion that she was ever special, that she was ever… talented.

CLANG—!!

Michael attacked again, invading her personal space. Juliana could see herself in his visor like it was a dark mirror reflecting her true self — weak.

She didn’t like what she saw.

His sword, wrapped in layers upon layers of churning shadows, came down at her with enough force to shatter a boulder.

She threw her katana up in response, catching his blade above her head before it split her skull open.

Sparks flew.

And just like before, she was shaken by the force of the impact… only now, she had managed to intercept his strike a fraction of a second faster.

She was adapting.

…Yet it wasn’t enough.

Michael stomped his foot to push in, forcing Juliana to take a step back. She wasn’t going to win in a contest of strength. It was evident when her knee nearly gave way under the weight.

But before she could take a serious wound, Juliana slanted her sword at a sharp angle, letting his massive blade slide harmlessly off her steel with a metallic hiss.

Screeech—!!

As his heavy blade bit into the stone floor where her head had been a millisecond prior, she didn’t retreat. Instead, she stepped into his guard.

Her wakizashi — the shorter, faster blade that she held in a reverse grip now — flickered toward the gap in his armpit from below his stretched-out sword-hand.

It was a strike meant to punish his crushing efficiency with utter opportunism.

But Michael didn’t panic. He didn’t even shift his weight. He simply released the hilt of his longsword with one hand and caught her wrist in a grip that felt like a shackle of cold iron.

Then he whirled around and hurled her toward a speeding Vince.

She had to jump in time to not get sliced by Michael’s sword, which meant she had to relinquish her footing and could offer no resistance when he tossed her away.

In fact, she barely had time to register the sensation of her feet leaving the ground before Michael’s centrifugal force turned her into a living projectile being launched at her own ally.

Vince immediately activated a Card to buff her so she wouldn’t be too badly hurt when she crashed into the canyon wall — though he could tell it was still going to fracture a rib or two — then he slid under her, never stopping his charge.

Michael twirled the longsword in his grip and readied himself just before Ray came blasting in like a rocket and speared him from the side.

The collision was a thunderous bang of kinetic energy.

Ray, moving at a supersonic velocity that blurred the air into a shimmering heat haze, struck Michael’s flank with the force of a battering ram.

The shockwave from the impact rippled through the canyon, sending a cloud of pulverized stone and dust billowing into the air.

Michael, despite his mountain-like stability, was finally uprooted. He skidded sideways across the rocky floor for several meters, his armored boots carving deep trenches as he fought to maintain his balance.

Ray didn’t let up. Upon realizing the spear-tackle wasn’t going to put him on the ground, he let go and assumed a fighting stance to engage in close combat, delivering a mean right hook before Michael had the chance to do anything about it.

He followed up by detonating an explosion from his left palm to propel it forward with the speed of a rocket, hitting Michael’s midsection at point-blank with all that force.

Ray still couldn’t understand how this guy didn’t double over.

A deep gash above Ray’s own forehead was bleeding, slightly blurring the vision of his right eye. He had taken a vicious hit a few minutes ago, leaving Juliana to engage with this monster alone. If not for his fast reflexes and Lily’s warning cry, he’d have lost an eye — or worse.

But that didn’t stop him from joining the fray right back again.

Meanwhile, Juliana hit the canyon wall with a bone-jarring thud.

Thanks to Vince’s last-second buff, the rock didn’t shatter too many of her ribs. It just felt like slamming into a high-density foam mattress from a two-storey jump.

She slid down the stone face, coughing out a cloud of grit, her vision spinning but her consciousness mercifully intact.

Vince didn’t even look back at her. He was already sliding to a halt near the center of the fight as he fanned out a new set of Cards from his Arsenal.

“Ray, don’t overextend!” he shouted.