Chapter 231: Training without Sword!
Kael stood motionless.
His knuckles were sore.
Riku Virehart had left and he left with the impression.
Then Kael slowly exhaled.
"...I almost lost."
Closing his eyes, he replayed the fight piece by piece.
At the beginning, Kael had held back, relying only on his raw strength and simple movements.
He wanted to test Riku’s ability before unleashing his skills. But Riku’s swordsmanship had been sharp, precise, and relentless.
Each swing was his preside experience, as if every strike was meant to break him down little by little.
"His blade wasn’t just sharp either but," Kael muttered to himself.
"Every slash sought out a weakness... every thrust forced me on the defensive."
For a time, Kael’s bare hands were enough.
He blocked, dodged, and countered where he could. But it hadn’t taken long for him to realize the truth: without his skills, he would have been cut apart.
He remembered the moment he unleashed Astral Severance.
For the first time in the duel, Riku had been forced to retreat.
But it wasn’t enough.
"Even with Astral Severance, he matched me..." Kael thought bitterly.
"If I didn’t follow with Astral Punch, the battle might have tipped in his favor again."
He recalled the impact of his fist crashing forward, empowered by condensed energy that rattled the training hall.
Riku had staggered, but he didn’t fall.
That man’s resilience was remarkable, his sword stabilizing him as he roared back with strikes that tested Kael’s limits once again.
It was only when Kael unleashed Abyss Cyclone that the tide truly shifted. The spiraling force of dark energy had forced Riku onto his heels, overwhelming his defenses and nearly tearing the sword from his grip.
Kael’s final push had sealed the battle, but only barely.
Kael’s eyes narrowed as he leaned back against the wall, replaying those moments again and again.
"I had to use everything. Every skill I trained, every ounce of strength I built these past six days... and still, it wasn’t easy."
"He could’ve beaten me if I faltered, even for a breath."
His arms throbbed with a dull ache.
He flexed them, noticing the muscle that had grown from sleepless nights of relentless training.
The results were there, visible and tangible. But the fight with Riku proved something far more important: even with his advantage of future knowledge, sheer willpower, and determination, he wasn’t invincible.
(If this is just Riku—rank three of the third years—then what about the top rankers? What about the other enemies waiting in the future?)
He thought. Yet, instead of discouraging him, it lit a fire deep within.
He stood and walked slowly toward the rack, though he hadn’t used one in the battle.
The training room felt light with his sword.
Kael gaze fixed on his bare hands.
"My sword will return tomorrow," he whispered to himself.
"But my fists, my body—they will never leave me. If I can’t rely on them, then what am I even fighting for?"
He dropped into a fighting stance, fists raised, and began to throw punches at the bag.
as minutes turned into hours, his rhythm became sharper, steadier, more precise.
At the corner of the room sat a massive metal ball, easily 500 kilograms.
Kael walked toward it.
"Again," he muttered. "Until I can lift it as if it were nothing."
With a roar, he heaved it upward.
His muscles screamed, veins bulging along his arms as he raised the monstrous weight just to chest level before letting it slam back down.
The sound thundered through the room, but Kael didn’t stop.
Again, and again, and again—he forced himself to lift it until sweat soaked through his clothes and his arms shook violently.
His breathing grew ragged, but his eyes burned with focus.
"This pain... this weakness... I’ll crush it all here!"
When his arms could no longer hold the ball, Kael collapsed onto the floor, but he didn’t allow himself rest.
He dropped into a plank and started push-ups.
His muscles felt like fire, his chest heavy as if something heavy was pressing on him, yet he kept pushing.
"One... hundred... two hundred... three hundred..." he counted under his breath, his voice rasping with exhaustion.
By the time he reached a thousand, his arms trembled uncontrollably.
He fell onto the floor, gasping for air, but the faint smile that crept across his lips betrayed his pride.
Midnight arrived quietly.
The moonlight shone through the tall windows.
Kael staggered to his feet, his body dripping with sweat, and decided to cool his burning muscles.
He walked to the bathing room and lowered himself into the steaming water of the hot spring.
The heat wrapped around him like a soothing blanket, easing the knots of tension in his body.
His eyelids grew heavy almost instantly.
"I’ll just... rest for a moment..." he murmured, leaning back against the stone edge.
Sleep claimed him quickly, his body desperate for reprieve. But Kael’s discipline was stronger than his exhaustion.
After barely two and a half hours, his eyes snapped open.
The water had cooled, the moon had shifted, but his determination hadn’t dulled.
Dragging himself from the bath, Kael dried off and returned to the training hall.
The surrounding was silent, the academy grounds still asleep, but soon the night air was broken by the relentless thud, thud, thud of fists striking into the practice dummies.
He attacked them with everything—jabs, hooks, straight punches, elbow strikes.
His legs followed, sweeping through with precise kicks, his body twisting with powerful roundhouses that sent echoes bouncing through the surrounding corridors.
The rhythm of his strikes grew like a storm.
To anyone who might pass nearby, it would sound as though a furious boxing match raged on deep into the night.
Kael’s knuckles split open again, blood dripping faintly onto the wooden floor, but he didn’t care.
He pressed forward, striking harder and harder.
"Faster," he growled between breaths.
"Stronger."
"Unstoppable!"
By the time the first rays of dawn crept into the training hall, Kael was drenched in sweat, breathing heavily.
As the morning bells of the academy rang faintly in the distance, Kael muttered to himself, "if only i had more time to train".