Academy’s Barbarian

The Knight of Ruins pondered what he should do, his rotten brain cells churning.

Originally, if the one who stole the Rune of Fire turned out to be weaker than expected, he planned to kill them for the crime of ruining the Twilight Plan and plunder their soul along with the rune.

With the corruption of Magi deepening and even the mission that barely maintained his sense of self now shattered into ruins, he couldn’t know how much longer he could hold on even if he reclaimed the Rune of Fire and returned…

Still, he thought it was better than letting the Rune of Twilight fall into unworthy hands.

“What’s this, you’ve slowed down! Are you, a mere specter, getting tired already?”

“Gryaaaa!”

However, his opponent possessed skills and potential that made killing them seem like a waste. In fact, it was questionable whether he could even kill them at all.

If it weren’t for Divinity, he could have pushed forward using his immortal body, but against a being with Divinity, his immortality was meaningless.

Something had happened to the Goddess of Death, Belliona, as the thread of their contract had grown perilously thin.

In his current state, enduring attacks infused with Divinity was impossible.

Even the blue longsword the woman before him wielded seemed to be forged with divine power, carrying the ability to sever blessings from other gods.

‘…Compared to the demigods of old, she’s still far behind… but there’s potential.’

In the end, the specter chose to place his trust in this woman. With her talent, he believed she could one day reach the level of a demigod.

At the very least, she seemed better off than him, a dead body that couldn’t elevate its strength beyond what it had in life and was gradually deteriorating over time.

…Though, even with his fading sense of self, a strange sense of injustice welled up within him.

—

Having shifted his goal from killing to succession, the specter erased his killing intent and began observing his opponent’s combat style more carefully.

‘Converting two types of blessings into physical destructive power… Other humans did the same. Is this the basic combat method of this era?’

Unlike the knights of old who fought using the Power of Runes, destroyed their enemies, and grew stronger by engraving more runes into their souls, the knights of this era fought by distorting the blessings of unknown gods into their own power.

In his time, there were clerics who borrowed divine power to fight, but this was a different method, and as a specter, he found it quite intriguing.

Unlike the Power of Runes, which drew mana from the atmosphere to manifest, they fought by consuming the divine energy within their souls, growing weaker as the battle dragged on…

‘But in terms of power and versatility, it surpasses ordinary runes.’

Power that ordinary runes couldn’t handle. Without special runes created through countless sacrifices, achieving such power would have been impossible.

The specter also possessed a few runes, but aside from the Rune of Twilight, they were all at a level that could be blocked by a single strike from his opponent.

“How about this!”

As Ha-shal-leur stomped the ground roughly, her shadow elongated, and countless blood-red spikes shot up from it.

To do something similar with runes, it would have required combining at least three runes.

“Hagalaz!”

The specter drew out a portion of the power within the Rune of Twilight and drove his sword into the ground to defend himself. The blood-red spikes coming toward him crumbled and exploded in the collapse.

Following that, a blue slash came flying. It was impossibly fast, leaving the specter no choice but to use all his strength to dodge rather than counter.

“Grrrr!”

The specter rolled backward, narrowly avoiding the Reversed Heaven strike aimed at his neck. Though he didn’t completely dodge it, and a chunk of his shoulder armor was sliced off.

‘…A slash where power and speed don’t correlate. Is it a time-based power? Impressive. Even among demigods, few could interfere with time.’

It was a life-threatening situation, but the specter’s thoughts didn’t stop.

He was already a dead body. With the mission he had protected even as a specter now shattered, there was no reason to cling to life anymore.

All that remained was a quiet desire to fully gauge the combat power of the woman he had decided to trust.

‘Come to think of it, she’s not using the Power of Runes at all… Could it be she doesn’t know how to use them?’

A completely different language meant a vastly different culture. What was common knowledge in his era about using runes might have become forgotten knowledge over thousands of years. The specter reasoned as such.

Though the reality was slightly different.

Ha-shal-leur could use the Rune of Fire if she wanted to. Not in the normal way, but by forcibly injecting Life Force Technique instead of mana to activate it.

The reason she wasn’t using Up-hwa was simply a matter of efficiency.

Using Up-hwa against an enemy who could regenerate from self-inflicted wounds was inefficient, as Ryu-rik had already proven. Something the specter couldn’t have known.

‘If she doesn’t know how to use them… then I’ll just teach her.’

Having made up his mind, the specter swung his sword wide to create distance.

It was a reckless move, and he took a heavy slash to his side from the immediate counterattack, but it wasn’t a fatal wound, so it didn’t matter.

“Sjáðu (Behold). Eftirmaður (Successor).”

His sword scraped the ground, engraving a hook-shaped rune.

[ᚲ]

The specter, having engraved the rune, quickly closed the distance, dodging Ha-shal-leur’s swing and retreating a few steps. The moment her foot touched the engraving—

“Kenaz (Fire).”

The engraving erupted into a pillar of fire.

—

[Ha-shal-leur]

A pillar of fire suddenly burst from beneath my feet. Like a moth diving into a campfire, I had no choice but to be engulfed by the upward surge of flames. It was like stepping on a landmine.

“Ahhh?!”

Hot…! Wait, not hot. I reflexively jumped back, letting out an undignified scream, but upon reflection, I realized I couldn’t be hurt by flames.

Ever since the Rune of Fire was engraved on my wrist, flames that touched me were absorbed by the rune instead of burning me.

-Hwaruk…!

This time was no different. The flames clinging to my body didn’t even singe my skin, slowly dying down and leaving only warmth behind.

…If I had rolled on the ground to put out the fire, I would’ve been utterly humiliated in front of Leonor and Rana.

“Pointless move.”

I coughed awkwardly to hide my embarrassment and straightened my posture. A truly meaningless attack. No, it was even helpful to me.

Thanks to the monster attacking me with fire magic, I finally learned the activation word for the rune I hadn’t understood until now.

It was… Kenaz, right? The pronunciation was a bit different from the Imperial Language, but it didn’t seem too hard to mimic.

Should I try it?

I lowered my stance, pulled Durandal back, and extended my left hand toward the Knight of Ruins, who was charging at me with his sword raised. I imagined flames shooting from my fingertips.

And then.

“…Huh?”

The next moment, I faced an unexpected drawback of the rune.

The Rune of Fire only protected my body from being burned by flames, but it had no interest in damage to anything other than my body.

The flames that surged from below didn’t just pass through my torso.

-Swish.

The sound of fabric and leather brushing against skin. The hem of my clothes, half-burnt by the flames, slid down like a snake shedding its skin. Both my top and bottom.

Though the chest covering and pants, made from Ryu-rik’s leather, regenerated instantly, the torn fabric didn’t magically rise back up against gravity.

In other words, I was left with my chest covering hanging around my hips and my pants and underwear pulled down to my knees, looking like some kind of exhibitionist!

…Being completely naked would’ve been less obscene than this.

“What the hell…!”

My thoughts froze for a moment. My cheeks burned red from the sudden exposure.

But, as much as it sucked, I wasn’t given a chance to pull my clothes back up.

“Grr…rrrk?”

With the specter’s blade swinging toward my face, I couldn’t leisurely adjust my top and pants.

No, I even had to take off my pants entirely. My legs were tangled in the fabric, like shackles.

Activate Reversed Heaven…! No, too late.

I had no choice but to dodge…!

With no other option, I pulled one leg out of the tangled pants, starting a fight that would forever be remembered by those watching.

“You damn bastard!”

This is ridiculous.

At least give me time to put my clothes on!

I roared with frustration, barely dodging the specter’s sword with my now-free leg.

The blade, shrouded in Magi, grazed my swaying upper body, leaving only a red mark, like a scratch from a nail. Unlike before, this time there was no wound.

I didn’t want to test the blessing’s effectiveness like this.

“Grrrk!?Þetta (This), er ekki viljan (wasn’t intentional)…!”

“Drop dead, you bastard!”

In the close-quarters exchange, I reflexively parried with Durandal and kicked upward with enough force to dislocate his jaw.

The specter twisted his body to dodge my rising kick and swung his sword diagonally.

I brought my right foot down onto the specter’s shoulder, using the momentum to leap over him. His sword sliced through the air.

-Kwaaaang!

The missed strike slammed into the ground, shattering it and sending shockwaves in all directions. The pants tangled around my legs were caught in the wind and flew far away. A tragedy unlike any other.

“Grrk!”

“Too late-!”

Having landed behind the specter, I twisted my waist and swung my left fist at his head. This time, it was a punch filled with pure rage. A frost-covered fist slammed into his helmet.

-Crack!

The Knight of Ruins’ neck spun seven times. For some reason, it felt familiar. A follow-up kick drove into his spine.

-Kwaaaaang!

With a deafening explosion, the specter’s armor shattered into pieces. The Knight of Ruins, having even dropped his longsword, flew through the air like a kicked chick and crashed into the city wall.

The wall, unable to withstand the impact, cracked and crumbled. A wave of dust surged upward.

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