Haru opened and closed his fist. He could feel how his body had adapted. 'So this is Magic, huh?'
He could feel the power coursing through him as his body assimilated the stone. Immediately, he noticed that the poison had been cleansed and his muscle atrophy had disappeared.
The bandit trio watched and felt their skin crawl.
"Hey Razor, what's up with this kid? What type of stone could that have been?"
Razor instantly turned serious. He knew, based on Haru's reaction, the awakening stone had to be at least Epic level. How did some snot nose brat get his hands on that level of stone? He remembered Snake's comment about him being a rich kid. It seemed they really hit the jackpot.
"It doesn't matter if he's dead; the stone drops." Little did they know, the stone was soul bound and wouldn't drop if they killed Haru a thousand times.
They all rushed at him, trying to end things quickly. Razor moves became a bit swifter as he started to take the fight seriously. He didn't know why, but the stone made him feel uneasy. Needle rushed forward, weaving.
"Reinforce…Huh? Why isn't it working!?!?"
Needle tried to use reinforce which would've repaired his blades. But the blades were broken at the foundation level; they couldn't be repaired. He gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Fine, I was saving this for the initiation. But this brat has ticked me off. Sword Art Magic: Resonating Blades."
Two Blades made of Aura appeared around Needle.
'I can only control two for now, but for him, that should be enough.'
The blades swiftly launched toward Haru as Snake used another Venom magic attack. Haru saw both attacks coming and didn't know what he was going to do. The Pick axe didn't work against magic.
As they closed in, Haru's eyes widened as he braced for impact.
Boooommm!!!
A cloud of dust and smoke kicked up.
Razor laughed. "Needle, you were hiding your moves, egh? Looks like the brat is toast. His fault. He should've handed it over. By the way, what the hell were you gonna do with the stone?"
"Sell it and make us all rich." Needle laughed. Razor shook his head. "Well, let me go collect this stone. You guys sure didn't hold back. Once I do, we will go to that village and find his parents. Make sure they pay for giving us trouble. Then we can get all signed up for the initiation. We will become Warlords for sure."
As the dust cleared, Razor visibly frowned as his face turned from joy to astonishment. "What the hell is going on?"
The laughter died down as both Snake and Needle looked to see what Razor was referring to.
Standing there unharmed was Haru, but what was most shocking was that he was holding both attacks at bay with force. No? That's not correct. Was he using wind?
Snake and Needle both cried out in shock.
"Impossible!!" There is no wind magic capable of holding off attacks like that."
Haru gripped both hands around the wind slide, his foot back, and swung forward with all his might.
The wind shot forward with both the sword aura magic and venom magic. The three combined tripling the force. The force caused the ground to peel up and contributed to the destruction. As the attack barreled towards the three at frightening speed.
"Reinforce!" Needle and Snake shouted. Razor eyes widened as he realized he had no protection. He put his axe in front to block as the force blew right by him like he was nothing. It then slammed into the other two, causing a giant explosion.
Haru sat there, breathing heavily as he exerted a lot of strength. He felt himself swaying almost as if he would pass out. He sat wondering what had just happened.
[Seconds before the attack hit]
Haru saw the attacks and knew if he didn't do something, he was going to die. I need to block it somehow. As he thought this, he felt wind spiraling towards his hands. Not wind.
Connections.
The space between the attacks wasn't empty.
They were linked.
The space was now tangible, and he grabbed it. The moment his fingers closed, the arcs formed.
The attacks slowed—not stopped, but held within the connections he created.
The force slammed into him, nearly numbing his arm. He slid backward under the pressure, feet grinding into the dirt.
His second hand came up instinctively, reinforcing the connection.
Holding it. Guiding it.
"I'm not dying here."
He swung his arm up and felt the impact. It was so heavy that his arm almost went numb. He felt himself sliding back and used his second arm to reinforce and swing out. 'I am not dying here.' Normally wind magi wouldn't be able to push back dual attacks. But Haru's bones being denser increased his resistance and weight, allowing him to withstand the dual strikes.
The smoke cleared as Haru looked around. The three were strewn about across the ground, their bodies damaged completely. Razor seemed to take the most damage and Haru figured it must have been from being the closest. Needle and Snake seemed to get off a bit lighter but was severely wounded and unconscious.