A Regressor's Bucket List

“…You just died once. Right now.”

I deliberately provoked her, as if to tease her further.

As someone who was once officially appointed as a Hero, she must have had her own pride.

I didn’t think she would go all out against a mere Hero candidate right from the start.

…Besides, I knew all too well that the kind of people who become Heroes are generally prideful and don’t easily admit defeat unless they are thoroughly crushed.

Time was short, so every single step had to be a sure one.

“……”

She had seemed to maintain some semblance of reason up until she drew her sword, but taking off her mask must have been quite a shock.

Without answering my words, Namgung Soso, who had been staring at me with a furrowed brow and bitten lip, pulled another sword from her waist and threw it in front of me.

Clank-

“Take it.”

“……”

“Since you seem to know how to handle a sword.”

As if my opinion didn't matter, I could feel her Mana Circuit spinning at maximum output the moment she threw the sword.

Kwwaaaaa-

…It seemed the real fight started now.

Shing.

The moment I followed her lead and gripped the sword’s hilt, a barrage of sword strikes, incomparably faster than before, rushed toward me.

Swiiiiiish-!

A sword strike so fast that my path for evasion became noticeably tight.

I barely managed to raise my sword and deflect its trajectory.

Clang-!

Along with the clear ring of the sword I hadn't heard in a while, a heavy weight settled in my grip.

Heh-

‘…Better than I thought.’

Having spent my life using whatever weapon came to hand, I didn't have a particular main weapon, but the sword was one of the weapons I used most frequently.

That’s why I could gauge her level just by clashing blades once.

And that single exchange confirmed it.

Her best was quite a handful for my current physical state.

‘…….’

With her resolve, the level of the engagement rose sharply.

The weight of the sword hilt was decidedly heavier.

Clang!

The rhythm of the battle was decidedly faster.

Cla-clang-!

In between the rapid sword strikes, I occasionally blocked an attack with a trajectory that was impossible to evade.

I received her sword in a manner that was completely on the defensive rather than offensive.

Then, suddenly, I felt a chill from her sword strike, which was rushing in just like all the others.

‘……!’

…It couldn’t be just a feeling.

It was more of an intuition than a feeling.

The unconscious combat sense I'd honed in countless life-or-death situations was sending me a warning.

That it would be dangerous to take this blow as it was.

Following that feeling, I took a step back.

Perhaps because it was a forced disruption of the battle's rhythm, her sword strike, which I thought I had dodged, tore through the front of my clothes.

And at the same time as that chilling strike was delivered, the blade formed a bizarrely twisted path before being sucked back into her scabbard.

Simultaneously-

Click-

Instantly leaning forward and sheathing her sword, Namgung Soso took a deep breath—‘huff’—and explosively rotated her Mana Circuit.

Soon, the mana swirling through her Mana Circuit formed a specific pattern.

As the inside of her scabbard began to churn, she muttered a single word.

“Plum Blossom Sword Style, First Form……”

“……!”

Kwwaaaaa-

“Plum Blossom Dance.”

The sword, brimming with mana, tore through the air.

Kwagagaga-

Although there was only one visible slash, I had realized it even before the technique had fully burst from the scabbard.

That it was not a single attack.

[Innate Ability: Absolute Realization is activating.]

[The operation of a Mana Circuit has been detected.]

[Analyzing the Mana Circuit’s pattern…….]

Fsssh-

[Skill: Mana Chain(★☆☆) is activating.]

I used the Mana Chain I had prepared in advance, wrapping it roughly around my torso and deflecting the few strikes I could follow with my eyes.

A few of the strikes I couldn't keep up with scraped against the Mana Chain, leaving bruises, while several strikes that the Mana Chain couldn't block tore through my skin, leaving deep lacerations.

Slice-

As if that wasn't enough, the eerie sound of residual mana gouging the floor echoed several more times before, finally.

“…I did not cut deep enough to be life-threatening.”

Her technique stopped.

…Outwardly, my condition looked quite serious.

There appeared to be three sword wounds that had pierced through the Mana Chain and into my torso, and all three were lacerations no smaller than 10cm.

‘…….’

Furthermore, the blade of the sword she had given me was not just chipped, but broken in half.

The damage had already been accumulating as I stuck to defending, and its durability gave out after blocking the powerful strikes in succession.

Perhaps that was why.

“…Now, tell me. Why did you come looking for me? How do you know?”

“……”

“This is as far as my leniency goes.”

She seemed confident of her victory.

Pfft-

A chuckle escaped me before I knew it.

Just as when I had taken off her mask, her brow furrowed for a moment.

“…What are you laughing at?”

Instead of answering her, I asked her a question in return.

“Twelve times. Right?”

“…Pardon?”

“That skill you used. The Plum Blossom Dance. I’m asking if it’s made of twelve strikes.”

“……!”

She didn't confirm it, but from her eyes widening in surprise, I could tell that what I saw was accurate.

…Well, it’s not like I thought I was wrong anyway.

Click-

I released the Mana Chain wrapped around my body and sheathed the broken sword at my waist.

I stably lowered my center of gravity and raised the output of my Mana Circuit.

“You, right now……”

Guessing what I was doing from my stance, Namgung Soso's already wide eyes expanded even further, revealing her bewilderment.

Huff-

Just as she had done, I took a deep breath.

Recalling the mana pattern I had seen for a brief moment, I activated my Innate Ability.

[Innate Ability: Absolute Realization is activating.]

[The operation of a Mana Circuit has been detected.]

[Analyzing the Mana Circuit’s pattern…….]

…Even for me, it wasn’t easy to perfectly realize something after seeing it just once.

When I met Isaac in Kunlun, the Mana Chain I showed him was possible only because it was a skill whose principles and realization I had already experienced in my past life.

And even that was closer to a downgraded piece of junk that I failed to realize perfectly.

No, to be honest, no matter how many times I saw and practiced it, there was a limit to realizing a skill exactly like the original.

My Mana Circuit had plasticity and could change its shape at will, but it was impossible to quickly catch up to a circuit that had been solidly built through years, even decades, of honing a single skill.

Even if I could raise the synchronization rate to a roughly similar level, it was impossible to draw out the same 100% output from someone's dedicated circuit, which was formed through countless repetitions.

Therefore, the ‘Plum Blossom Dance’ I was about to perform could not perfectly follow hers.

Even considering it was a 1-star skill, copying it after seeing it just once would, at best, be a mere imitation of its form.

[Skill: Plum Blossom Dance(★☆☆) is activating.]

[Warning! This is a forcibly realized skill. The skill's power is reduced.]

Kwwaaaaa-

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■Name: [Plum Blossom Dance(★☆☆)]

■Type: [Swordsmanship-General]

■Description: [The first form of the Mount Hua Sect's unique sword style, 'Plum Blossom Sword Style'. It combines 12 mana blades into a single drawing strike and fires them at once.]

■Special Features: [This is a forcibly realized skill. The skill's power is reduced.]

+

…Of course, that didn't mean I wasn't confident.

It just meant that for me, a mere imitator, the ‘Augmentation Circuit(★☆☆)’ was all the more crucial.

“Plum Blossom Sword Style, First Form……”

“Don’t tell me……”

As I repeated the words Namgung Soso had muttered, mana charged tautly within the scabbard holding the broken sword.

Then, gripping the already vibrating sword even tighter, I activated the Augmentation Circuit situated along my Blood Paths.

The Augmentation Circuit, receiving a large amount of mana for the first time, pulsed once, and at the same time, a new pattern was overlaid on the mana pattern configured to realize the Plum Blossom Dance.

Tiring-!

[Innate Ability: Augmentation Circuit is activating.]

[The 'Disperse' property is granted to .]

Jjeojeojeok-

The amplified mana gathered back into my right hand along the circuit, and the scabbard, already bearing a load close to its limit, shook as if it would shatter at any moment.

And as the scabbard could no longer hold and began to crack, I drew the sword and muttered.

Heh-

“…Twenty-Four-Movement Plum Blossom Dance.”

* * *

Namgung Soso couldn’t believe what was happening before her eyes.

“Plum Blossom Sword Style, First Form……”

Even when he first identified the number of strikes in her Plum Blossom Dance as twelve, she had been a little surprised, though she didn’t show it.

It wasn't easy to count the number of strikes while taking them head-on and being hit by them.

But what happened next was something that couldn't be described as mere surprise.

‘My god…….’

The mysterious person who had introduced himself as a Hero candidate from the lower world was taking the preparatory stance for her own secret technique, the Mount Hua Sect's unique ‘Plum Blossom Sword Style’.

Normally, if someone else had done so, she would have snorted and dismissed it, but this time, it was impossible to laugh it off.

Though it was somewhat lacking to be called perfect, the stance U-jin took certainly contained the essence of Hwasan.

‘He’s using the Plum Blossom Sword Style after seeing it just once…?’

To see another school's sword style and immediately copy it.

In Namgung Soso's world, before U-jin interfered, this was absolutely impossible.

No, in the first place, if such a thing were possible, why would sects exist? How could a family's unique sword style be protected, and what would be the use of the sect's secret manuals given only to the leaders and family heads?

The Plum Blossom Sword Style was not a low-level technique, either.

It was one of the top-tier sword styles in the ‘Mount Hua Sect,’ the great sect that protected the southeastern region of the Murim Empire.

That was why the only form of the Plum Blossom Sword Style she could use was the ‘First Form.’

But she couldn't deny what was actually unfolding before her eyes.

This man was trying to use the same Plum Blossom Dance he had just experienced from her, after taking it only once.

And what's more.

“Twenty-Four-Movement Plum Blossom Dance.”

Twenty-four movements.

Unless she had misheard, he was muttering about deepening the Plum Blossom Dance, which unleashed twelve strikes simultaneously, to fire double the number.

And whether she could accept this fact or not.

U-jin's monstrous sword strike was unleashed upon her.

Woooong-

Blades of brilliant mana, which seemed impossible to have been created from a broken sword, rushed toward her, their power so immense that it couldn't possibly be blocked by wielding a sword.

‘……!!!’

Snapping out of her astonishment too late, Namgung Soso realized it was too late to dodge or block the attack, and she suddenly recalled a single movement.

It was not a movement to dodge, nor was it a movement to block.

Rather.

Like a moth diving into a flame.

Swoosh-

It was a movement that pushed her body between the rushing sword strikes.

A movement where she clasped her hands behind her back, wore an endlessly indifferent expression, and lifted her right foot to take a single step forward.

It was a simple, seemingly meaningless movement without any distinct parts.

But what happened the moment that one step touched the ground was astonishing.

Tap-

The 24 sword strikes flying right before her nose vanished in an instant, and the ground she had lightly stepped on cracked—

jjeojeojeo—

as if it had been struck by a small planet.

“…Huh?”

“……?”

Jerry and Loxy, who were watching the duel from behind U-jin, found their knees naturally hitting the floor.

Gulp-

A considerable amount of blood trickled from the corner of Namgung Soso’s mouth.

And seeing this scene, U-jin, his eyes wide open, muttered in disbelief.

“…Heavenly Demon's Reigning Step?”