Academy – Awakening (2)

-Tap. Tap.

Blood trickled down Doran’s cheek.

But Jade’s sword stopped just before Doran’s nose, failing to fully sever its target.

Instead, Jade felt a stinging pain shooting through his limbs.

-Zzzzt.

“Ghk?!”

This was because his limbs were bound by electrically charged ropes.

Just seconds earlier, the moment Jade reached Doran’s face,

“Doraaaaan!”

-Vwoom, Crack!

A spell suddenly erupted from the ground, instantly binding Jade’s limbs.

“Y-you… you had this kind of power? Do you realize you almost killed me?”

Even the usually composed Doran’s voice and eyes trembled. He was shocked by how close he’d come to death from Jade’s unexpected move.

The instructor beside the training ground had apparently anticipated Doran’s danger too, already casting binding and protection spells in his hands.

“I thought you were insane when you challenged me to a duel, but you actually believed in this? Still… I came out ahead again.”

“Please!”

Jade desperately struggled, but his tightly bound body wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Swordsmen always think they’ve won once they close in on a mage. Look at you – walking right into a trap laid on the ground.”

‘Just a little more – just a tiny bit more and I would’ve-‘

Was he supposed to fail here? Jade couldn’t accept this reality.

“Now it’s my turn?”

-Zap!

Doran’s magic struck Jade’s bound body.

“Gaaaaah!”

-Thud.

Jade dropped his sword and collapsed as electricity coursed through his entire body.

“Ghk…”

He quickly assessed his condition, but his magic-struck, paralyzed body refused to move properly.

To make matters worse, his mana was depleted, leaving him unable to use aura anymore.

“Did you really think you could beat me? First, let’s get rid of this.”

-Whoosh.

Doran grabbed Jade’s fallen sword and threw it out of the training ground.

Then began Doran’s furious retaliation.

The same torture inflicted on Rena before was now applied to the fallen Jade.

-Zzzzzt!

“Aaaaaaah!!”

“Know your place.”

-Kzzzzzt!

“Ghk, grrgl…”

“Why the hell do you keep crawling back to me?!”

Jade continued screaming under the overwhelming pain coursing through his body.

It felt like his insides were being roasted by the electric currents. In this hellish situation, he naturally recalled images of Rena being tortured.

‘Rena endured this continuously…’

Experiencing it firsthand made him truly understand the magnitude of her suffering. He realized this might be his punishment for letting her suffer like this.

After dozens of seconds of Doran’s torture, Jade teetered on the brink of unconsciousness.

“Grk…”

“Hey, don’t surrender yet. It’d be boring if it ended here.”

Clearly not intending to let him surrender, Doran magically gagged Jade’s mouth.

“Mmmpf!”

“Now what to do with you…”

Doran stroked his chin thoughtfully before suddenly shouting:

“Rena! Come here.”

Rena had been quietly watching the duel from the training ground’s edge. She jumped at Doran’s sudden command.

“Y-yes?”

“What are you doing? Get over here!”

After hesitating, Rena slowly walked toward the training ground.

When she came close, Doran yanked the collar around her neck.

“Ghk?!”

“Rena, look well at this bastard’s state. Coming to your senses?”

“J-Jade…”

-Drip.

Perhaps realizing her last shred of hope had vanished completely,

A single tear rolled down Rena’s cheek as she called Jade’s name.

Doran dragged her onto the training platform.

“Don’t you all want to see Rena’s body too?”

The training hall fell deathly silent at Doran’s words. But the students’ eyes overflowed with undeniable desire.

Reading their gazes, Doran laughed.

“Haha! Curious, aren’t you? Then I’ll let you have a look today. Rena, you don’t mind?”

“…Yes, Master.”

Only eternal submission remained as an option for Rena now.

-Rrrrip!

Doran mercilessly tore Rena’s clothes to shreds.

“Eek?!”

Her hidden pale skin was instantly exposed.

Jade watched this scene through blurry vision.

His body wouldn’t move. His eyelids grew heavy, vision darkening.

‘Is this really the end…’

Right before his eyes – before everyone’s eyes – Rena was about to be humiliated.

‘I did everything I could.’

Jade thought maybe this was enough – that he’d done his best.

But.

-Thump, thump.

Something in his chest kept rousing him.

A growing warmth helped Jade refuse to give up.

‘No, I can’t give up.’

The dying embers in his chest reignited.

“Ghk…”

When Jade tried moving his arm even slightly, his entire body screamed in protest. But he gritted his teeth and rose.

There were so many regrets in his life.

But not this time. He’d promised to save Rena.

Never give up until the end. Because stopping here meant true defeat.

‘Transcend your limits.’

-Crunch!

Jade violently bit through the gag binding his mouth.

“Haa, haa…”

Staggering toward Rena, he shouted with all his might:

“Doraaan! Get your hands off Rena!”

In that moment.

Jade’s fury and determination to save Rena reached their peak.

-Kwaaaaaaang!

An explosive energy began erupting from Jade.

Wind swirled violently around him, whipping his black hair and clothes wildly.

Suddenly, the storm subsided.

-Drop.

Pure white light began flowing from Jade’s body.

Swoooosh-

Was this what it looked like when priests gathered to perform miracles in the Holy Kingdom?

Before this sacred radiance, everyone simultaneously stopped speaking or moving, staring dumbfounded.

The holy light slowly rotated around Jade before being sucked back into his body and vanishing instantly.

Along with it, Jade’s right eye that had shone golden now gleamed with blue light.

This was the moment Jade fully awakened as the Hero.

“W-what in the…”

-Thud.

Doran fell on his backside, shocked by the sublime, sacred process.

He sensed something ominous about Jade’s transformation.

He knew clearly that leaving things like this would lead to disaster.

“More hidden tricks? You’re really persistent. Just stay down already!”

Doran began wildly firing spells in disgust.

-Zzzzeeeeek!

Countless spells flew toward Jade.

At that moment, something became visible in Jade’s right eye that now glowed blue.

“Eek?!”

Jade’s vision swam from the sudden flood of information, compounded by eye pain.

But soon the pain subsided, and the blurry images grew clearer.

What entered his cleared vision was a blue wave covering the entire world.

“Could this be… mana?”

Astonishingly, Jade was now ‘seeing’ the flow of mana.

He could even perceive the structural composition of the spells flying toward him.

‘With this power…’

His sword was gone, thrown away by Doran.

But it didn’t matter.

Jade began channeling mana into his hand.

-Vwoom.

Energy from his body rapidly gathered ambient mana, forming aura in his palm.

His arm creaked, barely moving.

But he didn’t need to swing powerfully.

He simply placed his trembling hand where his eyes and intuition screamed.

-Crsssh.

The moment Jade’s hand touched them, the spells disintegrated like sand.

-Crack.

-Snap.

-Crsssh.

After Jade waved his arm a few times, all the once-terrifying spells were destroyed in an instant.

This was something even mages of higher ranks than Doran couldn’t achieve easily.

“Im-impossible! How?”

Doran screamed at the unbelievable scene unfolding before him.

“He’s clearly cheating! Instructor, disqualify him now!”

“Shut up.”

Jade instantly closed the distance, grabbing Doran by the nape and lifting him.

“Doran, you lost. Surrender now.”

“Ghk, you lowly commoner!”

Doran desperately tried to swing his arm.

But.

-Schlick.

The aura in Jade’s other hand cleanly severed Doran’s wrist.

“Aaaaah! My hand!”

“This is payback for Rena and me. Should I do the same to your other hand?”

“Gaaaah! O-okay! I surrender! I surrender!”

-Thud.

“Aaaaaah! Get me to a priest, now!”

When Jade released his grip, Doran collapsed, clutching his severed wrist and screaming.

“……”

Silence fell over the training hall at the shocking turn of events.

The first to recover, the instructor declared:

“The winner of this duel… is Jade.”

As the duel concluded, Doran was carried out screaming to the infirmary.

“Wooooah!”

Mad cheers erupted from the crowd witnessing Jade’s miracle.

The near-failure student had defeated Doran, a 5-Star mage.

“Is this possible?”

“He must’ve been hiding his power all along!”

“But can magic really disappear like that?”

The cheers made Jade finally realize he’d truly defeated Doran.

“Did I… win?”

Disbelieving, he opened and closed the hand that shattered magic.

It wasn’t according to plan, but victory was victory.

Meanwhile, several students quickly approached the training ground.

“J-Jade! I always believed in you!”

“I knew you’d beat Doran!”

These were students who’d previously ignored him, now fawning over him after the unexpected outcome.

‘Vicious bastards.’

The same people who’d pushed them toward hell instead of offering help when needed.

The complete opposite of Jade, who always tried helping others however he could.

But something else mattered more now.

Where was Rena?

Jade looked up and found her standing in a corner of the training ground.

“M-my mana!”

Realizing her contract was broken, Rena touched her body in disbelief before running toward Jade.

“Jade!”

“Haha…”

Every time Jade tried moving forward before, cold reality’s walls blocked him.

He’d always ended up giving up in frustration.

But this time, he’d broken through.

Through grueling effort, he’d saved Rena.

“I did it. I really did it…”

-Thud.

At his limit, Jade lost consciousness and collapsed.