Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage

Chapter 885: Sparring with a Legendary Dark Knight

CH885 Sparring with a Legendary Dark Knight

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‘Legend,’ he realised. ‘Jared has progressed to the Legendary rank!’

It was at that moment that it finally clicked in Alex’s head.

‘I see. So the Legend father mentioned he could “spare” wasn’t him himself, but rather Jared,’ he realised.

“Isn’t this too much? I am a mere Elite. I can’t put up a fight against a Legend,” Alex complained to his father.

“I am also a Legend, but you were willing to spar with me,” Drake replied.

“That’s you,” Alex retorted.

“Oh, Young Master Alex, are you perhaps saying I am incapable of sparring with you?” Jared said sharply.

‘Of course. You sadistic drill sergeant are going to beat the hell out of me in the name of sparring!’ Alex thought inwardly, but he dared not say it out loud.

Jared seemed to be in a good mood as the Dark Knight actually chuckled. Unfortunately, that only made Alex’s skin crawl, making him even more hesitant to spar with the brooding middle-aged man.

“Don’t worry, Young Master Alex. This is only a martial spar. I, of course, won’t use my mana during the spar, while you will be free to do so,” Jared said.

‘As if that matters. Your cells are literally saturated with energy. Your body is a potent mass of mana by default. Not moving extra mana makes no difference,’ Alex complained inwardly.

However much he complained, he knew there was no getting out of this. He sighed and accepted his fate.

Mana deployed to coat his body thinly. Then, through his True Martial Intent, the energy also moved to coat his sparring sword as well.

“As always, attack anytime you are ready, Young Master Alex,” Jared beckoned with his hand.

[Abyssal Conqueror’s Step: First Step – Ghost Step]!

Alex’s figure flashed, slipping in and out of Jared’s blind spot.

He feinted an overhead slash, only to transition into a horizontal slash. However, Jared saw it coming and moved to block.

Boom!

Instead of Alex’s sword making the impact, it was actually a roundhouse kick to the head.

However, the kick was easily blocked by Jared with a backhanded guard.

Jared moved in for the attack, but Alex’s body moved swiftly, closing off the counter-attack opportunity.

Alex continued to push the initiative while Jared mostly blocked and countered, allowing the young noble to pull off his moves and only attacking intermittently.

The spar soon settled into a rhythm where Alex attacked as seriously as he could while Jared blocked seemingly easily—showing the gap between an Elite and a Legend, even when the former was going all out while the latter wasn’t even trying.

Realising he couldn’t beat Jared with anything he did, Alex changed his focus to at least getting one hit on Jared.

As if realising the youth’s motivation, Jared slowly sped up his attacks, thus increasing the pressure on Alex.

[Phantom Sights Lv2] (Pre-cognition)

It got to a point where Alex had to rely on the pre-cognitive abilities of his Truth-Seeker eyes just to keep up.

‘I am about to lose.’

Orion continuously spammed buff after buff spell on Alex throughout this high-intensity spar.

Body Strengthening Magic! Featherflight! Fleetfoot! All Attribute Buffs!

The wasted mana emission from the buff spells—which usually produced very little—finally gathered enough for Alex to begin pulling out his biggest hits.

[Second Sword – Thrust]!

Alex deflected Jared’s attack away, then stabbed at the man’s chest. Instinctively sensing the danger, Jared quickly used his hand to grab the sword and deflect it away.

To his surprise, the blunt-edged sword actually tore a wound in his palm.

Alex followed up with a side kick that kicked Jared’s sword away while opening the distance between them just a bit, allowing him to make another strike.

[First Sword – Slash]!

An overhead diagonal slash came down fast upon Jared.

The Dark Knight realised he couldn’t bring his sword back in front of him without violating the rules of the spar, so he instead energised his body, creating a relatively thin energy coating before his torso to receive the attack.

Alex saw this and smiled, putting his weight fully behind the attack instead of pulling back.

The sword swiped diagonally down across Jared’s torso, leaving a thin line that surprised both Jared and Drake.

‘Tsk!’ Alex clicked his teeth.

He didn’t get the hit he wanted. The experienced Dark Knight had managed to step back during the attack just enough that he dodged the strike by only millimetres—maybe even less. His clothes and epidermis had only been cut by the force and intent powering the strike.

Essentially, by leveraging the element of surprise, Alex had only managed to leave a very thin scratch.

Boom!

However, before Alex could cuss or celebrate the attempt, a counter-kick from Jared to his stomach almost took the air out of his lungs.

Already fatigued from his all-or-nothing attack, the kick sapped his remaining stamina.

Afterwards, the ‘spar’ degraded into a one-sided beating contest as Jared proceeded to beat the living daylights out of Alex, using the side of his training sword like a bat to beat the youth from various angles.

Eventually, a smack to the face with the sword sent Alex into the air in a barrel roll before slamming him back to the ground under the influence of the indifferent gravity, sending him unconscious.

Jared stood over Alex’s unconscious body. And while the youth couldn’t see it, the Dark Knight had a clear, appreciative smile on his face.

He looked at Drake, who was leaning against the wall by the side.

“He is good,” the Dark Knight evaluated.

The scratches Alex had managed to inflict had healed.

Even without Jared bothering, his energy-flooded body innately healed itself back to peak condition passively.

“Looks like he has begun exploiting his Weapon Master talent. It seems he has comprehended up to a Class 2, potentially a Class 3 Intent related to this talent. Perhaps thanks to this, he was able to overcome the innate fear those under Legends have when facing Legends and above,” Jared observed.

Arguably from the Saint rank, but definitely from the Legendary realm, those below sense a feeling of awe and dread when standing before those at this threshold or higher.

It is for this reason, amongst many others, of course, that the Saint rank is seen as the beginning of shedding one’s mortal status, while Legends are seen as beings beyond mere mortals.

The innate fear and awe those below have when looking at people beyond this threshold is believed to be due to a difference in status.

After all, doesn’t it make sense for a mortal to gaze at those beyond their mortal status without fear and awe?

“Overall, if we ignore that he has adapted his battle style to skew too far towards a battlefield-suited fighting style, then he has improved significantly.

“I would put his peak physical prowess at Peak Veteran. And if he can synergise it with his spells, I believe he should be able to face a ‘half-Saint’. He will probably be able to hold his own for a bit against a new Saint, especially one still adapting to their infant domain,” Jared analysed.

Drake acknowledged with a nod.

“Considering the plane he found himself in, this is the bare minimum if he wants to survive,” Drake said.

‘But it is not enough.’ He thought to himself. ‘There are too many threats ahead of him that his current strength is not enough to overcome.’

Jared seemed to see through Drake’s thoughts.

“Your worry is showing on your face, Captain,” he suddenly said. “Nothing you do will make your son suddenly ready to face all the challenges life can throw at him. You and he have done all you both can. He is just eighteen years old, and he already has the ability to at least retreat from an early-stage Saint.”

“Hmm…” Drake nodded at Jared’s words.

A moment later, he sighed, shaking his head.

“Have you spoken to him about taking revenge on the brats responsible for his departure incident?” Jared asked.

“I haven’t,” Drake replied. “The boy probably has his own thoughts on how he wants to go about it. I will just leave him to it.”

“Do you want me to shadow him when he does, to prevent those duchies from getting involved?” Jared offered.

Drake was indeed tempted, but eventually, he shook his head.

“No, that’s not necessary. Like you’ve said, I have already done all I can for him. The rest will be up to him, and so too will the responsibility to bear,” Drake said decisively.

Though the hand gripping behind his back betrayed the state of his heart.

He turned to Jared.

“Right now, I need you to clean the rot within. I have been too lenient for a while now, and those fools think they can place people right under my nose,” he said. His eyes flashed. “It is time for another round of trimming to help the tree grow.”

“What about Stormwind?” Jared asked.

“Now that the boy is back, I am not so eager to do anything anymore. Continue to watch him—for old times’ sake,” Drake replied.

His eyes flashing with a cold light.

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