Ch.104Chapter 104: Contradiction.

An ordinary person would have surrendered at this point.

Valt was fully prepared to withdraw his hammer if Grace called for surrender.

But during that brief yet eternal moment, Grace never uttered the word surrender.

Instead, she was spinning her spear to defend against Valt’s magic hammer.

Whoosh—

CRASH!!

As the Master’s aura collided with Valt’s magic—enhanced by several layers of magical energy and aura—Grace changed direction at a right angle from her falling trajectory and slammed into the training ground wall.

BOOM!!

Rumble—

The impact was so powerful that the wall crumbled, yet amazingly, Grace remained standing with her spear embedded in the wall.

“Impressive.”

Valt smiled at Grace with genuine admiration.

“Remarkable. How did you do that? You shouldn’t have been able to block it.”

“Cough! Hack! *Spits* Heh heh, thanks, I guess. I had a flash of insight right when I was getting hit.”

She wasn’t just similar.

This woman was born into the wrong race.

Before Valt’s eyes stood not a human female Master, but a Gerung warrior through and through.

‘She learns through battle just as quickly as we do. A complete combat pragmatist.’

There are countless types of people in the world.

When it comes to martial arts or magic, people generally fall into two categories.

One type masters theory first before engaging physically.

The other type forgoes theory entirely and learns through physical experience.

It’s easy to assume the former is more efficient, but that’s not necessarily true for martial arts and magic.

Martial arts ultimately involve establishing one’s own insights.

Even with common teachings, following someone else’s organized insights isn’t necessarily the right path.

Such people often get crushed under orthodox teachings and fail to develop their own understanding.

Among geniuses, the latter type overwhelmingly produces more trailblazers who forge their own paths.

Of course, there are well-paved roads like those of the Sword Saints or the Seven Heroes, but walking such a path versus carving one’s own path through dense forest carries fundamentally different meanings.

This woman, Grace, clearly belonged to the latter category.

Valt’s assessment was spot on.

In fact, the Oscar family’s spear techniques were famous for their heaviness.

This was because the first head of the Oscar family was a female warrior with a build larger than most men.

As a result, Oscar spear techniques emphasized weight over speed, and the nimble Grace had thought she couldn’t master the Oscar spear.

But as they say about rare talents returning to their roots, if it was a spear technique that could elevate one to the Grand Master level, then regardless of which path one took, it was undoubtedly capable of bringing one to great heights.

What Grace had realized was the concept of “heavy” speed.

Fast things are light.

But something both heavy and fast cannot be stopped.

What cannot be stopped has tremendous destructive power.

Grace’s spear technique embodied this concept.

“To have such an insight in that moment—truly remarkable.”

Grace appreciated Valt’s sincere attitude.

He could have boasted about winning, but instead, his eyes were asking if she could show him what she had just realized.

“Heh heh, curious?”

“Yes, I’m very curious about what you’ve gained.”

Grace, her speech pattern now changed, answered Valt’s question simply.

“It was something so obvious that I hadn’t even thought about it, but I realized it when you threw me.”

Grace’s finger pointed to the sky.

“That falling from a height is the heaviest form of speed.”

And Grace began gathering her remaining aura.

“Hahaha! When you threw me and I was falling to the ground, a technique came to mind. I felt like—yes! A meteor! Like I had become a meteor!”

Her second insight since becoming a Master.

Valt felt like he had become some kind of insight vending machine, spreading enlightenment to Masters.

But he didn’t mind.

“Alright, come at me! I’ll receive it!”

Grace, having gathered her aura, soared into the sky.

It wasn’t as high as when Valt had thrown her, but a Master’s aura made such impressive leaps possible.

Moreover, since she had jumped voluntarily to use her technique, she wasn’t flailing helplessly in the air like a fish as she had been when Valt threw her.

The moment Grace reached the apex of her trajectory.

She leaned her body back fully and then thrust her spear downward.

But she hadn’t thrown the spear. She had taken debris from the broken training ground with her as she leaped.

Using that debris as a foothold, she became a streaking meteor with her spear.

“Kyahaha!! This is my new technique. Oscar Style! Meteor Spear!”

Grace’s body, enhanced by aura, glowed red as she rushed toward Valt, who was watching her technique with delight.

‘To think such a simple insight could become such a formidable attack—it’s astounding. But I won’t go down easily.’

“I’ll give it my all. Hup!”

Significant changes began to occur in Valt’s body.

Instead of donning his Blood Demon Gauntlets, Valt began creating a massive shield-shaped construct before him.

A gigantic metal shield made of blood-red energy.

He layered aura over it to increase its durability.

He chose this defensive technique because an interesting story had come to mind.

The ‘paradox’—a spear that can pierce anything versus a shield that can block anything.

What happens when the two meet?

The shield Valt created began to rotate.

Whirrrrr—

The Blood Demon Shield, formed into a perfect round shield shape, emitted an eerie vibration as it awaited Grace’s spear.

WHOOOOSH!!

“I’ll pierce through!! HYAAAAH!!”

Finally, spear and shield—offense and defense—collided.

BOOOOOOM!!

The collision of aura and magical power created a massive explosion and tremendous shockwaves.

“Kyaaa! What are those monsters?!”

Even the people watching from within the protective barrier were all blown to the corners of the training ground by the explosion’s aftermath.

The only ones barely maintaining their positions were Solphin, who had planted his legs into the ground; Aileen, who was kneeling with her sword stabbed into the floor; and Faral Olkes, who had planted his mace and was blocking with his shield.

Faral’s expression in particular had gone beyond surprise to shock.

“M-my lord, just how much stronger do you intend to become?!”

He even looked impressed.

But Solphin had already figured out who the winner of this clash between spear and shield would be faster than anyone else.

*Grin*

“Heh, how nice. Your lord is getting stronger. But you’d better take good care of him today.”

“What?”

He blocked that attack? Impossible.

Attack always overwhelms defense.

There’s a reason they say the best defense is a good offense.

Rumble rumble rumble—

As the explosion’s aftermath subsided, the dust cloud obscuring people’s vision began to clear.

The spectators outside the barrier were in an uproar.

A battle between Masters was something most might see once in a lifetime, if at all, and such confrontations rarely occurred.

There was a saying that in fights between Masters, winning was breaking even, and losing was a great loss.

After reaching the level of Master, losing to another Master would be a tremendous blow to one’s reputation.

But while Grace might have had the dignity of royalty, she apparently had no such concerns as a warrior.

As the dust settled, the figures of the two combatants became visible.

Grace’s form was suspended in mid-air, her spear embedded in the shield Valt had created, frozen in the moment of her charge.

Valt finally dismissed his magically created shield.

Whoosh—

Thud—

Flop—

“Today’s victory is mine. Do you acknowledge it?”

Grace, having expended all her strength, nodded as she sprawled on the ground after Valt’s shield disappeared.

“What is there not to acknowledge? It is your complete victory. My spear could not pierce your shield.”

Grace returned to her original polite manner of speech now that the duel was over.

Though the battle had been incredibly intense, everyone present breathed a sigh of relief that both combatants had finished without major injuries.

“You were amazing too. That Meteor Spear truly made me feel like I was facing a massive meteor.”

Grace made an incredulous expression at Valt’s excited words.

“And you are the man who blocked a meteor?”

“I suppose I am. Not bad, huh? Hehe.”

It had always been this way.

Valt enjoyed fighting by blocking and overwhelming opponents’ full-power attacks with his sturdy body.

Although he had now reached a level where he couldn’t block such attacks with his bare body anymore, magic and aura allowed him to maintain this fighting style.

“A magic shield that perfectly blocks an aura blade… even a 9th Circle magician would find that difficult to create… Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”

Flop—

With that, Grace simply lay down where she was.

“Still, I’ve become stronger.”

She said this while clenching her fists and raising them to the sky.

She truly sounded like a celestial barbarian warrior.

“Take care of yourself. The date will probably be set for next week.”

“Huh?”

“You haven’t forgotten already, have you? The arranged meeting.”

“…Wasn’t that a joke?”

Valt pulled Grace’s arm to help her up as he spoke.

“What joke? You might not want to return to the Central Continent after you go there.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“You’ll see. I’ll contact you later. My brother is a good man. You’ll like him.”

“Hmm… meeting another Gerung warrior like you would be a good exchange. Alright, I’ll meet him!”

And so, the duel between Grace and Valt came to an end.

***

Meanwhile, unaware of this development, Valt’s sixth brother was currently in seclusion after being flatly rejected by Quan when he begged to be sent to the Central Continent.