Masaru's lips curled downward, and his eyes narrowed into a scowl.
"Never."
There was a bitterness behind his words that Aaron had only heard from one person before, a man so devout to his hatred that he slew dozens of them with his own two hands.
For the swordsman before him to speak in the same tone as him, then there must have been some reason.
Now, though, regardless of what that past entailed, he could clearly tell that Masaru Kurogane would not lie about such a thing.
"Then would that piercing gaze behind you be…"
As he began to speak, he was quickly shushed by the black-haired man.
"Do not stir a force that wishes to remain stagnant. If you've seen it with your own two eyes, then you know why you mustn't stare too long, or awaken it in its current state."
Aaron frowned, but also thought about what the man was truly saying.
He's all but confirmed it now… That thing… It's the deity that inhabits his sword, and by that logic, it is none other than the God of Space himself…
A chill went down his spine, and he swallowed hard.
"I understand."
The swordsman nodded his head and shifted in his seat; the armor he wore made a heavy sound as he did so.
"Now then, since you've acclimated to your new state, I think it's fine for you to return to your battles with Rudiger."
Aaron's expression dropped slightly, causing an immediate reaction from the man.
"You think not?"
There was a strange way he said the words that surprised the boy; however, he ignored it and said what was on his mind regardless.
"What am I supposed to do to beat him? Mages wouldn't even dream of killing a mid-level terror, yet you expect me to cut the leg off of one without mana or an arm?"
He was calm as he voiced his concerns, not allowing his irritation to get ahead of him and drag him into a fit of mindless anger.
Masaru watched patiently before sighing.
Slowly, he reached towards the sheath at his side and pulled the sword that could split space from its rest.
Instantly, the pressure pressed down on Aaron's form while mana erupted throughout the room like an explosion.
Yet, the man said nothing as he merely stared at the sharp edge of his weapon.
"Camilla Buckley killed a Sea King with a pocketknife and without even a trace of mana. Not only that, but she had never hurt even the smallest of creatures or practiced the blade in any way. Born with a defective core and removed as a child, she has never even felt the taste—no, the urge to use mana. When everything around her was erased, and her entire world was shattered into pieces, she did not crumble. She did not bend. She fought on, and only a few years later, she stands at the pinnacle of the new world she forged."
He paused, taking a breath.
"I killed thousands before I even laid a finger on this blade—whether it be innocents, those who had nothing to do with my mission; criminals who I had been paid to assassinate, either by corrupt politicians or other felons; or even the terrors whose cores I personally ripped from their chests, then presented to my employer as if I were a slave."
Once again, he stopped and took a long, heavy breath in.
"If you are nothing without your mana, an arm, or even a sword, then would you consider either of us weak? Were our efforts merely results of some gifted power?"
He stared directly into Aaron's turquoise eyes, questioning him intently as if looking for a real answer.
The boy couldn't even respond, his mouth dry and his mind working faster than he could process a sentence.
He had been utterly foolish and pathetic to even consider his situation to be impossible, to be pointless.
Both of his mentors, the people he should've respected most in the world, he had lumped in with himself.
Perhaps the problem was the way he'd been trying to solve it.
And that impossibility that he had thought existed would never be overcome with a self-centered mindset like that.
It was a certainty that the boy knew well, and something that he would not forget.
He was weak without his gifts, but he would not allow himself to be defeated so easily.
…
"You seem less excited than last time."
Aaron smiled at the sight of Rudiger's uneasy posture, its strange green eye flickering back and forth as if trying to meet the gaze of anything but the boy.
The tundra was colder than before, the snow falling harder, and the sound beneath his feet of ice was only crackling harder.
Overhead, rare thunder boomed far in the distance while the sun was entirely blotted out after the brief daily window.
It was the same day that he had failed to best the creature before, but it would also be the final day of his failures.
Today, he would take the leg of that beast and bring this hellish test to its end.
He would face success, no matter the cost.
"If you have no qualms, we'll begin in ten seconds."
Scanning the terror's body language for any sense of rejection, he prepared for what was soon to come.
10… 9… 8…
He carried no blade nor tool of any kind, his entire plan relying on the one thing that he had left in his arsenal.
It was a mechanical marvel crafted out of the tooth of a juvenile Apex-level terror that had personally donated it to the boy during the Hunters' Exam.
7… 6… 5… 4…
In a normal fight, such a heavy thing that also contributed to his balance would be impossible to use efficiently alongside Ocean's Bane.
But here, in a wasteland created by the remains of a fallen demigod, anything was possible.
3… 2… 1…
Pressing his lips together tightly, he felt the small tick of the stopwatch within his pocket finally mark the passing of the last second.
Launching off with his left leg with the speed of a stallion, his right leg thrummed to life with the springs shifting its form.
Rudiger could hardly sense such a minuscule change, though, and darted forward with his usual tactile precision.
His plan, the same one as normal, was a clean headshot to end the battle for the day without any unneeded bloodshed.
For most of their battles, it had worked flawlessly; however, today, there would be no such victory.
Aaron's speed far exceeded what the beast had planned, causing it to readjust quickly and protect its lower half with its octopus-like head.
Tentacles wrapped down its body and around the hard shell that covered its spider limbs, clashing with the mighty blow that soon collided with it.
CLANG!
The sound echoed throughout the tundra with its impact, blowing away any snow within the immediate vicinity.
Having thrown a side-kick at the creature's frontmost leg, he pressed that same metallic leg back, allowing the springs to blast him away, creating enough distance that he couldn't be struck.
And exactly as he had planned, his head dodged a barbed leg by less than a centimeter, allowing him to stay in the match for now.
Reaching a location a couple of meters away, he dug his left foot back into the soil and felt the false leg buzz to life again.
Regardless of how much mana he was supplying, which was none at the current time, it was still the remnant of an Apex, and no matter what restricted it, there would be energy.
Using that to his advantage, he leaped at the creature again, who had only just recovered from his previous attack.
Yet Rudiger's own head had plenty of tentacles, and as each kick landed again and again, they met a blockade each time.
Dozens of strikes, windups, and clashes occurred until each of them was sweating from head to toe in the middle of a blizzard.
The storm howled and yearned for a winner while neither of them could accomplish their goal.
Failing to land even a single wound on the boy left the terror on the losing side of the fight, while Aaron was slowly whittling away at the front leg.
With progress, though, came failure, and the constant shifting of the creature's feet made it nearly impossible to hit the same leg every time.
Therefore, he would need to hit every leg again and again, endlessly, until one finally gave in.
CLANG!
CLANG!
CLANG!
Their previous matches had taken mere seconds, but now, they were pushing into the half-hour mark.
Blood oozed from Rudiger's legs, and Aaron's entire body was trembling from the overexertion of his low muscle mass.
He couldn't hold out much longer, and if he couldn't sever one soon, it would be too late.
Such was a fact that he knew for certain, and it was for that reason that he gritted his teeth once more as he launched away from the beast.
Now, from a distance, he watched as Rudiger scanned his opponent for any sign of weakness or an unguarded point.
Aaron did not allow this to go unnoticed, and in fact, for a brief moment, he allowed a flaw in his defense to show.
The green eye instantly zeroed in on the spot right below his shoulders, the lens flickering ominously.
Nonetheless, a smile crossed onto the turquoise-eyed boy's face.
One more strike… That's all I need…
Taking a deep breath, he jumped from his post and purposely kept his remaining arm high, allowing the monstrosity to see his opening.
Its entire body radiated with the desire to win, and it knew now was the time.
It had not yet realized that Aaron's exposed side was nothing more than a cleverly hidden trap.
Instead of allowing his metallic leg to physically connect with the sea terror like he had done countless times, he tensed one nerve in his leg that he had held back the entire fight.
He hadn't done such a thing since his climb of Mount Evermore on Blackport Ridge; however, now was the only time when he could do it again.
As Rudiger's long, spiky leg prepared to slash into Aaron's side, the foot—made from the tooth of an Oblivacis—shot out like a bullet and collided with the creature's form.
The sheer force alone sent the monster tumbling backwards in roaring agony while its entire leg was ripped from its flesh.
I—
Aaron's side instantly felt a new sense of warmth, a tingling feeling rasping at the back of his skull.
Looking down in confusion, he witnessed a piece of shrapnel from the destroyed limb now clinging to his side.
Blood seeped out slowly, but steadily enough to be an issue.
Ah…
Taking a step backwards and nearly falling over without his leg, he gradually sat himself down and looked at the wound carefully.
It was deep, but a piece of the scale was still sticking out.
With his improved Regeneration ability, if he could simply remove the shard, he would likely heal within the next day.
Yet to do such a thing, he would need to pull it from his body by himself.
For a moment, he sat in silence, merely thinking and waiting.
Then, with images of that nail from Cauron Thorn's castle flashing through his mind, he ripped the remnant from inside his body.
While the thunder in the distance and the howling winds might've overwhelmed all other noise throughout the tundra, the sound of Aaron Grimstall's scream broke through even the most vile of storms, soaring high into the heavens in testament to his success.