In Laura’s eyes, the black-haired youth standing before her with a sword was practically covered in openings.
His grip on the weapon was raw and awkward, his footwork was floaty, and his center of gravity was unstable.
Precisely because she could see him so clearly, she was all the more perplexed.
How could someone with no martial foundation and a body full of openings manage to avoid every single one of Li En’s attacks during that previous intense exchange—appearing flustered yet dodging with such precision that he eventually “luckily” won?
The timing of those dodges and the angles of his occasional counterattacks all possessed an indescribable quality of being… “just right.” It logically didn’t make sense.
Therefore, she chose to strike first.
This sword strike was not fast, nor was it tricky. It was more like a gentle probe intended to guide a reaction from her opponent, allowing her to observe his inner coordination and instincts.
The internal conflict within Yize had reached its peak. He could “see” every inch of the wooden sword’s trajectory as it came toward him. Under the influence of his extraordinary Dynamic Vision and Neural Reaction, the strike even appeared somewhat “leisurely.”
He had at least a dozen ways to easily avoid it or respond in a more rational, efficient manner.
But the problem lay in which method would look like a “lucky” ordinary magic student with “slightly faster reflexes than average”?
In that split second, he realized he was trapped in a paradox. Any response that matched his “true” reaction speed would inevitably look “unreasonable” to onlookers.
Conversely, any attempt to feign a “reasonable” reaction might be instantly unmasked as a facade by a Sword Saint.
And so, in the eyes of the crowd, Yize’s performance was thus—
He seemed to be completely intimidated by Laura’s seemingly plain sword stance. He froze in place, his eyes staring blankly at the approaching wooden sword, showing no intention of even the most basic dodge or parry.
“Heh.”
A blatant sneer came from Li En’s side, filled with mockery and satisfaction.
“See that? That’s the normal situation.” Li En’s voice was not loud, yet it was enough for everyone at the side of the field to hear it clearly.
“If I hadn’t been intentionally holding back, carefully controlling my strength and speed to feed him moves, he wouldn’t have even had the chance to touch me, let alone dodge my attacks.”
Even now, deep down, he stubbornly believed that Yize’s physical fitness was only slightly better than a commoner’s and that he had only won through a combination of dumb luck and Li En “holding back.”
As long as he used real Martial Arts, Aura, or even fully unleashed the power of Dragonification, crushing Yize would be a matter of seconds.
“Master Laura’s casual strike, even if it’s just symbolic guidance, carries the presence of a Sword Saint. That alone is enough to make Yize lose his nerve and become unable to move.”
Li En’s tone carried a sense of “as expected” superiority. “I told you, there was no need to trouble the Sword Saint herself. The result is obvious, isn’t it?”
“Hey! Can you shut up already?” Luke immediately glared at Li En, looking at him as if he were an idiot.
“Is there something wrong with your ears too? The Sword Saint clearly said this was a ‘spar.’ Where do you get the nerve to stand there and criticize when you’re a loser who just got knocked down? If you don’t speak, nobody will think you’re a mute!”
The disgust in Sara’s eyes as she looked at Li En deepened by several degrees. She had originally felt that Li En was quite admirable, being a commoner who had reached this level through his own hard work and talent.
But now, his behavior—being unable to accept a loss, repeatedly making excuses, and attempting to belittle others—was truly nauseating. A loss was a loss.
Admitting it gracefully could still earn a shred of respect. However, someone like Li En, who was arrogant when winning and kept saying ‘I wasn’t serious’ or ‘I held back’ when losing, was the most despicable and pathetic of all.
Furthermore, even the Imperial Sword Saint was treating Yize with the solemnity of a “spar.” What right did Li En have to shamelessly emphasize that he had “held back”?
The moment Li En finished speaking, the situation on the field suddenly changed!
The tip of the wooden sword, which seemed destined to hit Yize’s shoulder, was less than 1 inch from his robe when Yize finally moved.
It wasn’t a large-scale shift or a clumsy roll. His movement was so small it was almost imperceptible—his shoulder simply jerked back slightly, missing the blade by a hair’s breadth.
That insignificant, almost instinctive “shrug” caused Laura’s certain strike to pierce through the air, grazing Yize’s clothes!
“Hm?!”
A clear flash of surprise crossed Laura’s beautiful eyes. Although she hadn’t used much force, her angle and timing were extremely precise, sealing off the most natural dodging routes.
Ordinarily, a novice who was “intimidated” would either freeze and take the hit or make a clumsy, exaggerated dodge.
But Yize didn’t. His reaction was incredibly small, yet its efficiency was absurdly high! That momentary micro-adjustment was so fast it almost felt like an illusion, yet it precisely avoided all danger.
A coincidence? Or…?
Without time for deep thought, driven by physical instinct, Laura flipped her wrist. The wooden sword transitioned from a thrust to an upward flick, slashing toward Yize’s waist.
This strike was a notch faster than the previous one, and the angle was even more cunning.
Yize seemed to finally “snap out” of his daze. He retreated half a step with somewhat panicked footwork, but his upper body leaned back in a slightly awkward posture.
The edge of the wooden sword grazed his abdomen again, failing to even touch his cloak.
Then, a third strike followed immediately!
Laura’s sword style suddenly became as agile and dense as willow branches swaying in a breeze.
Though she didn’t use Aura to trigger Sword Qi, the coordination of her wrists and footwork turned the wooden sword into several blurred afterimages that shrouded Yize’s chest and arms.
This time, Yize’s dodging appeared even more “clumsy.” His feet stumbled, his body tilted, and he waved his wooden sword around haphazardly as if he wanted to parry but didn’t know where to start.
However, in this seemingly chaotic and opening-riddled state, Laura’s swift and precise thrusts somehow missed again and again, each time by a mere fraction of a millimeter!
Hiss—
A chorus of stifled gasps rose from the sidelines.
If the first strike was a coincidence and the second was luck, then this third round of attacks—which were clearly faster and varied in angle and force—could no longer be explained by either!
Swan watched blankly, his mouth slightly open. In his mind, Iguneel let out an unintelligible low rumble: ‘Huh? This feeling…’
The most shocked person was undoubtedly Laura herself. Her initial surprise was quickly replaced by an even stronger desire to investigate.
Her gaze became incredibly focused, her pupils seemingly shimmering with a faint light as she locked onto Yize’s every subtle movement.
‘Something’s wrong… something is very wrong!’
Alarm bells rang in Laura’s heart. She no longer held back. Her wooden sword changed its pattern, and her speed, power, and angles began to increase steadily!
The fourth strike, the fifth, the sixth…
The wind from the sword began to howl! The speed grew faster and faster until the weaker students like Emma could only see a dazzling blur of sword shadows, with Yize’s figure stumbling and scrambling wildly within them.
However, what sent a chill down everyone’s spine—especially Laura’s—was that she couldn’t hit him!
No matter how much she increased her speed, changed her angles, or predicted his panic, her sword could never truly touch him.
Yize’s dodging still lacked any sense of beauty; it could even be called ugly. Sometimes he looked like he slipped, just barely avoiding a horizontal sweep.
Other times, he seemed to lose his balance from the wind of the sword and fall backward, only to perfectly evade a straight thrust.
Occasionally, his haphazardly swung wooden sword would “happen” to knock against the non-striking point of Laura’s blade, causing its trajectory to deviate by a negligible amount.
But it was these “perfect timings,” “just enoughs,” and “happenstances” that allowed him to dodge everything.
Laura’s expression shifted from calm to surprise, then to intense seriousness, and finally, a flicker of unbelievable shock appeared! She saw it! After the seventh strike, she finally captured the core of the phenomenon she couldn’t understand!
Speed! An irrational, instantaneous burst of minute movement speed!
No matter how fast her sword was or how tricky the angle, at the very moment it was about to hit, some part of Yize’s body would always make a tiny adjustment in an extremely short, near-invisible manner.
The speed at which those adjustments started and finished exceeded her understanding of “human body reaction”!
How fast was it? It was so fast that even with her Sword Saint-level Dynamic Vision, she could only barely catch a few afterimages. She even began to doubt if her eyes were playing tricks on her!
Had she not been facing him herself, she would never have believed a human could achieve this through physical reaction alone.
For a moment or two, she even wondered if Yize was using some extremely subtle magic involving spatial distortion, but there were no Mana fluctuations in the air.
‘How… how is this possible?!’
This thought thundered in Laura’s heart, shaking the foundations of the knowledge she had accumulated over decades of martial arts.
Ten strikes! A full ten strikes!
When Laura thrust the tenth strike, she held nothing back. Without using Aura, she pushed the fusion of physical strength, speed, and swordsmanship to what she considered the peak of “mortality.”
The wooden sword pierced the air, letting out a sharp, short shriek. The shadow of the blade flashed as if it had broken the boundaries of vision!
However, Yize stumbled, his body tilting to the side in a posture that looked like he was about to fall—
Whoosh!
The wooden sword grazed his ribs and pierced into empty space.
Silence. A deathly silence blanketed the entire training ground.
Laura maintained her striking posture, not withdrawing for a long time. She was breathing slightly hard—not from physical exhaustion, but from the shock to her soul.
She slowly straightened her back and looked at Yize, who was also “panting” with a face full of confusion and lingering fear. Her gaze was complicated to the extreme.
“I—” Laura took a deep breath to suppress her churning emotions. Her voice returned to its usual steadiness, though a tiny tremor could still be detected if one listened closely. “I lose.”
“What?!”
“The Sword Saint lost?!”
“This… you’ve got to be joking?!”
After the brief silence came uncontrollable exclamations and sounds of disbelief.
Aside from Luke, who had blind faith in Yize, everyone else—including Sara, Dio, Emma, Swan, and especially Li En, whose eyes were turning red with a mix of shock, confusion, and jealousy—was dumbfounded, nearly doubting their own ears.
Yize was also stunned. The “exhaustion” and “fear” on his face froze for a second.
His original plan was to wait until Laura gradually increased her power and he was in “mortal danger” to a certain degree, then voluntarily admit defeat by saying his stamina had run out or his reactions couldn’t keep up.
That way, he could show a certain level of “talent” without being too ridiculous.
But he never expected Laura to admit defeat first! And… judging by the look of it, she hadn’t been “holding back” much? Or rather, she had truly done her best without using Aura or Martial Arts?
“You… you must be joking.” Yize forced an incredibly awkward smile, his voice a bit dry. “You were also going easy on me, right?”
“I am not joking, nor was I holding back.” Laura interrupted him, her tone more serious and certain than ever before. “I delivered a total of ten strikes. Without using Aura for reinforcement, starting from the first strike, the speed and power of each subsequent strike increased by 10%. By the tenth strike, I had reached the limit of speed I can achieve purely through physical strength and technique without damaging this body’s foundation.”
Her gaze was like a torch, locking onto Yize. “Even so, I failed to touch even a corner of your clothes. This is not holding back; it is a fact.”
Yize was stunned again, his mind racing with complaints: ‘So you were adding power bit by bit? I thought your strikes were all at the same speed! No wonder I didn’t feel any difference!’
‘If you had used 10% on the first strike and went straight to full power on the second, wouldn’t I have been able to tell and then admit defeat? Now look at this mess…’ He truly had a grievance he couldn’t voice.
“But,” Yize said, trying to save the situation, “I didn’t defeat you either. In a spar, shouldn’t it end when one side is subdued or admits defeat? I only managed to dodge; I didn’t even counterattack. How can that count as you losing?”
Laura shook her head, her voice carrying the absolute confidence of a peak powerhouse.
“There is no need. Even without Aura and Martial Arts, my body has long been tempered a thousand times over; ordinary blades cannot harm it. As an ordinary person who has not trained in Martial Arts and has no Aura in your body, it is absolutely impossible for you to truly defeat or even injure me through dodging and your current level of strength. Therefore, in this ‘spar’ under restricted conditions, my inability to hit you is equivalent to my loss. This is how I measure victory and defeat.”
These words were spoken with a frank and domineering air, yet they were perfectly logical. One side couldn’t be hit, and the other couldn’t be hurt. Continuing the stalemate was meaningless, and the “inability to land a hit” itself signified a level of failure.
Yize was completely speechless. This Sword Saint… was way too honorable!
At this moment, almost everyone’s eyes involuntarily focused once more on Li En, whose face was flushing between red and white at the sidelines.
The Sword Saint herself had admitted that, under the same restrictions, she couldn’t touch Yize even while giving it her all.
Then, the excuses Li En had made earlier—claiming he “held back” and let Yize “win by luck”—how pale and powerless did they sound now?
They were practically laughable! His previous claims now felt like invisible slaps, hitting his own face over and over, solidifying his status as a “clown.”
Li En felt his face burning. Intense shame and jealousy toward Yize grew wildly in his heart.
Just then, Laura suddenly took a step forward, her gaze becoming sharp and inquisitive. She looked at Yize and asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to:
“So, Yize… now, can we have a proper discussion? How exactly… did you do all of that?”