NOVEL NEXT Chapter 92: Brother
**[FALCON GUILD]**
**Hand over your little trump card within the next twenty-four hours, and we will not find it necessary to eradicate your guild's existence from this world.**
**The choice is yours. We would prefer to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, but our patience has limits.**
**Signed: Yuki Nakamura**
Master Sung remained frozen in place, the letter trembling slightly in his hands. For fleeting seconds, he stood motionless, his mind struggling to process the implications of what he had just read.
Yuki Nakamura. A name he recognized instantly. A name that belonged to someone he hadn't met in over fifteen years, someone who had the same blood as him.
Minutes passed as Master Sung stood there, lost in inner puzzlement. The letter remained clutched in his hands. But eventually, slowly, a smile began to spread across his face.
This smile was something rarely shown by him—gentle on the surface, but carrying a different meaning that was almost an opposition to his outer reflection.
"Well, well," he murmured softly, his voice vibrating gently in the quiet room. "After all these years, you finally decide to make contact."
Dwang Sung carefully folded the letter the same way he had spread it open and returned it to its bloody envelope.
The walk toward the door felt longer than it should have; he was hesitating before taking each step. He paused before the polished wooden door, his hand hovering over the doorknob.
Part of him—the part that still remembered their shared youth—hesitated. Nakamura had not always been his enemy. There had been a time, but unfortunately, life has its way of doing things.
"Hand over our most recent trump card to your guild, or you'll bring war?" he spoke aloud to the empty hallway, his voice carrying a mixture of amusement and unwavering determination. "I'll be here waiting when you march your army to my doorstep, brother."
****
Meanwhile, in the magical grasslands of the Tian district, the trainer and the trainees were busy with their own things.
Ryder and Akira in particular were the main focus at this moment.
"*Explosive Rush!*"
Ryder's voice rang out across the field with intensity. The technique name was pronounced with so much force that it shook the air itself.
His body shot forward like a blur, moving at a speed that startled even Akira, who had been prepared for something impressive but had not expected so much.
The grass beneath his feet didn't even have time to bend before he had already passed over it, leaving a visible trail of gamma energy behind.
In what seemed like a heartbeat, Ryder had covered the five-meter distance between himself and Akira, halting with perfect control just inches away from her face.
"How did I do?" he asked with a smirk, his voice carrying just the right amount of cockiness to make a prideful cocktail.
There was confidence in his stance, satisfaction in his eyes that made it clear that he knew exactly how impressive his speed had been. But Akira's response was not what anyone had expected.
"Your performance is even worse than Mara's first try."
"What?! How?!" Ryder screamed, his earlier confidence evaporating instantly. His voice cracked, his composure shattering completely just like his earlier pride.
Akira stared into his eyes and began.
"Because you didn't channel even the slightest bit of gamma energy into your movement," she explained.
"What you just performed was nothing more than closing the gap between us using your natural speed, which is extremely fast due to you being a black mark summoner.
It may have looked impressive to the untrained eye, but it wasn't the Explosive Rush technique at all—it is your raw speed."
"A true Explosive Rush consists of gamma energy channeled through the appropriate pathways to build up in the feet," Akira continued.
"The speed comes not just from muscle power; rather, it comes from muscle power, appropriate stance, and properly directed energy. Without all three, you're just a very fast runner sprinting through a distance."
Before Ryder could formulate a response or defense, Akira's body moved fast enough with greater strength than she had used on Mara, striking Ryder.
*Wham!*
She delivered a 360-degree spinning kick, her leg sweeping through the air and connecting with devastating force against Ryder's torso. The impact of the collision produced an abnormal sound like a gunshot. She used so much energy on purpose, knowing how strong Ryder's familiar was.
Although she placed all her strength on the strike, it still wasn't an attack meant to seriously injure him, but rather to inflict enough pain on him to make him not want a second round.
The impact sent Ryder's feet skidding backward across the grass, his body remaining balanced despite the force of the blow.
He slid several meters before the force of the hit finally dissipated, leaving parallel tracks in the ground caused by his heels.
However, what was most remarkable about the hit was Ryder's reaction—or more appropriately, his lack of reaction. His body remained as perfect as ever, showing no signs of distress. He didn't even flinch as Akira's strike connected, absorbing the tremendous force with casual dismissiveness.
Again, Akira was startled. She had at least expected a reaction from Ryder because, in all honesty, she didn't hold back her strength.
"So this is the strength and physical capability of a black-marked summoner," her inner voice wondered. His raw speed was as fast as someone performing the explosive rush, and now his endurance was strong enough to take a full-power hit from a red mark summoner without dying!
"Come at me again!" Akira instructed, stretching her hands open. "This time, use the instincts that come to your head as you press on my correction. Blend them with the knowledge you've been given through Yuki's technique transfer, and pour all your energy into your legs where it should be."
Ryder took a deep breath, feeling the cool air fill his lungs. As he exhaled slowly, a genuine smile began to spread across his features—not the cocky smirk from before, but one with good reason.
"It's been a while, Luxy," he spoke aloud, his voice carrying warmth. "Any tips on how to get this over with quickly and correctly?"
'Yes,' Luxy responded. 'I can assist you with this performance. The key is just like Akira said—technique and raw ability must work together, not in isolation.'
"Alright! Ryder took his stance. Bring it on, will ya!"
Suddenly, he began to feel energy surging from somewhere in his body rapidly—energy increasing so much that he began to question himself halfway through if he was actually the wielder of so much power.
"The shortcut to truly learning any technique," Luxy began, "is to allow your body to feel it both mentally and practically. You already possess muscle memory of how to perform the Explosive Rush, as well as the theory-based experience provided by Yuki's technique transfer."
"By helping you feel the energy moving through your body in real-time," Luxy continued, "I'm automatically linking your mind and body, instantly granting you mastery of the Explosive Rush or any other technique you ever want to try out."
Ryder's eyes suddenly began to glow with bright purple crackling gamma energy that danced across his irises.
"*Explosive Rush!*"
The entire grassland, the entire field, and everyone on it showed evidence that an extraordinary explosive rush was performed in front of them. Explosive rush was a really quick move that enables one to move at lightning speed.
Even when performed by weak summoners, the move makes it seem as if they are simply blurs or flashes, especially over short distances. Ryder, on the other hand, moved at a speed that was just too quick to be classified under teleporting speed.
Everyone present could testify to what they had witnessed. This hadn't been just another successful performance—it was perfection.
"I believe we are done with the Explosive Rush portion of our training, aren't we?" Ryder said with a grin as he stared at Akira's stunned face. The glow had faded from his eyes, and the crackling energy that had surrounded him during the technique had dissipated.
"Uhh, uhm, ye-yes, we certainly are," Akira stammered, her usual authoritative composure replaced by a startled tone.
"Let's move on to the next technique among the seven most relevant ones," she announced, quickly regaining her composure. "We'll be learning the First Fall technique."