Return of The Martial King – Chapter 257

Chapter 257

Three shadows overlapped and came to a halt.  

On the left, Russ extended his sword, aiming for the solar plexus. On the right, Tassid swung his saber, targeting the shoulder.  

Their attacks had struck true. They had timed it perfectly, aiming for the very moment Banatel swung his sword in defense. At that instant, Banatel was unable to counterattack, he had no means to evade and simply accepted their strikes head-on.  

And yet, now, Russ and Tassid wore astonished expressions.  

“This… This is…”  

“What the…”  

They still had their sword and saber extended. Their blades remained precisely aimed at Banatel’s solar plexus and shoulder.  

But they never made contact.  

An invisible force stood between Banatel and the two warriors’ Blade Aura.  

It wasn’t an Aura Guard, there had been no time for him to deploy one. And if Banatel had truly drawn on his aura to defend himself, his entire body would have faintly glowed a crimson hue.  

A strange sensation traveled up the blade to their fingertips. It wasn’t like the solid impact of striking rock or steel, as they had experienced when sparring with Repenhardt. Nor did it carry the intense rebound of an aura defense, like those of Kalken or Iniya.  

No, this felt more like sinking into an invisible swamp, an intangible mire that swallowed their full-powered strikes into nothingness.  

Both of them knew exactly when they had felt something like this before.  

Russ muttered in disbelief.  

‘…Is this just passive aura?’  

An Aura User could consciously activate their aura, forging a brilliant blade of light, an unyielding suit of armor, or a formidable shield. These were Blade Aura and Aura Guard.  

However, even without deliberate activation, traces of aura naturally lingered in the body while drawing on Blade Aura. Since the human body was interconnected, focusing aura into a sword would still cause residual energy to spread throughout other areas. This unconscious aura response, influenced by Blade Aura, was known as passive aura.  

Normally, it was barely enough to block minor scratches or a poison dart.  

‘And yet, he blocked Blade Aura with nothing but that useless passive aura?’  

It made no sense. How could something so trivial,not even a proper Aura Guard, produce such a powerful effect?  

As Russ and Tassid struggled to comprehend the situation, Banatel suddenly offered them praise.

“Impressive. You two can really move like that.”  

Banatel grinned as he looked at the two blades aimed at his body.  

“Both of you are geniuses, I see. Well… most Aura Users are.”  

Suddenly, Banatel’s gaze turned ice-cold. A chilling voice seeped out from between his snow-white beard.  

“But it’s useless. Because I’m not a genius.”  

Banatel raised his foot and stomped down hard.  

Boom!  

A deafening roar erupted as crimson aura surged like a violent storm. A vortex of overwhelming energy twisted and churned, forming a massive tidal wave that spread outward with Banatel at its center.  

Russ and Tassid recoiled in shock, hastily withdrawing their weapons and leaping back.  

But it was pointless.  

The rising wave of aura had already swelled into a towering tsunami over ten meters high, looming over their heads.  

Tassid’s eyes widened.  

“Gah! What the hell is that?”  

“This is insane!”  

Russ, too, was aghast as he stared at the crimson wall of aura filling his vision. Everything in sight was bathed in an eerie red glow. A mass of aura this enormous?  

And worse, he recognized exactly what technique this was. Russ, who could analyze and learn most techniques just by seeing them once, understood it in an instant.  

‘That’s just an Aura Wave!’  

Among the most basic techniques every Aura User could use were Blade Aura and Aura Guard. From these foundations, warriors refined and developed various advanced techniques, ones like Blood Rain, Gigantic Blade, and Spiral Guard.  

Aura Wave was just another fundamental skill. Its application was incredibly simple: just channel aura into an attack and slam it into the ground. It was typically a crude technique, used by those who couldn’t project their aura freely into the air, utilizing the ground as a medium to create a shockwave.  

And yet, this basic Aura Wave was now surging forward like an apocalyptic tidal wave! The sheer scale was mind-boggling, and the force behind it was terrifying. Even a glancing blow from that wave would obliterate everything in its path!  

‘This is impossible! There’s no way an Aura Wave can have this kind of power!’  

Overwhelmed by shock, Russ and Tassid immediately raised their Aura Guards. There was no escape, the crimson tsunami had already engulfed everything within tens of meters.  

With no other option, they poured every ounce of their aura into their defenses, focusing all their strength directly in front of them.  

The devastating tidal wave crashed down upon them.  

Enveloped in a flood of crimson light, Russ and Tassid screamed.  

“Gahhh!”  

“Aaargh!”

The massive, crimson tidal wave of aura engulfed everything in its wake, its force radiating nearly a hundred meters outward from Banatel. The walls of White King Castle trembled violently, and a thick cloud of dust rose like mist.  

The sheer destructive power of the attack extended even to the other Aura Users observing the duel from afar. Sensing the danger, they instinctively activated their Aura Guards and leapt backward to escape the onslaught.  

Landing a safe distance away, Sir Kamerun, one of Hallein’s Aura Users, let out a dry chuckle.  

“Hah, that old man is still a monster.”  

The free knight, Marrad, grimaced.  

“No matter how many times I see it… I can’t get used to it.”  

As the dust cloud settled, Russ and Tassid emerged, covered in dirt. Both were panting heavily, but neither bore any wounds.  

Banatel grinned.  

“Not bad. You both survived that?”  

Russ clenched his teeth.  

“Hmph! No matter how powerful it was…”  

Tassid finished his sentence.  

“…We won’t fall to such a simple trick!”  

Repenhardt’s Avalanche Kick was a refined technique, one that harnessed the body’s entire aura to split the earth and achieve maximum wide-range destruction.  

But this?  

This wasn’t a technique at all. There was no refined form, no precise control, Banatel had simply stomped the ground with raw aura.  

And because the attack was so simple, countering it had been straightforward. Russ and Tassid had countered Banatel’s Aura Wave by rotating and elevating their own aura, splitting its destructive force to the sides.  

The real problem was that Banatel’s Aura Wave carried such overwhelming power that even successfully dispersing it had drained a significant portion of their aura.  

“Haaah… haah…”  

“Hooo…”  

As the two struggled to catch their breath, Banatel swung his hand once more.  

“Then how about this?”  

With a casual flick of his sword, a crimson veil of light spread across the sky.  

Russ and Tassid’s eyes widened in disbelief.  

Even after unleashing such a massive Aura Wave, he could still wield this much power?  

“Tch…!”  

Tassid, startled, swung his saber in rapid succession, unleashing a barrage of slashes in all directions. He concentrated his aura into a single point, rotating it like a saw to maximize its cutting power. The concentrated, teal-colored Blade Aura began tearing the crimson curtain apart, shredding it into pieces.  

“Hooo…”  

Steadying his breath, Russ raised his longsword vertically. A flow of blue aura enveloped his entire body.

A great tree may break in the wind, but reeds merely bend without falling. Rather than resisting the opponent’s assault head-on, Russ transformed his aura’s properties, making it as flexible as rubber, allowing his body to flow with the attack. The veil of light split like waves and passed harmlessly to his sides.  

Banatel let out an exclamation of admiration.  

“Hah! You two have quite the talent. You handle aura like it’s nothing more than dough.”  

With a hearty laugh, Banatel swung his sword once more. The previous strike had been a horizontal slash, this time, it was vertical.  

“But it’s useless before overwhelming power!”  

The crimson veil of light folded upon itself in midair before cascading down like a waterfall. Tassid bit his tongue in shock.  

“Gah?! Again?”  

It was still an absurdly simple aura maneuver. He was merely expanding his Blade Aura and swinging it wide. Yet the sheer force contained within that light was staggering. Even though both Russ and Tassid maximized their efficiency by focusing and refining their aura, this crude, straightforward strike was stronger than anything they could muster!  

Russ cried out in frustration.  

“Just how the hell does he have so much aura? It never ends!”  

His breath was ragged, there was no way he could counter it head-on. Both of them leapt backward, trying to redirect the impact rather than block it outright.  

But it was futile.  

The sheer force within that falling light couldn’t be avoided with mere footwork.  

Their aura defenses shattered, and both warriors screamed in pain.  

“Ughhh!”  

“Gaaahh!”  

The cascading light struck the earth with relentless explosions. Like leaves caught in a storm, Russ and Tassid were sent flying, blood scattering in the air.  

Russ hit the ground hard, rolling across the dirt. He barely managed to lift his head, blood dripping down his lips.  

“T-That… that’s…”  

Struggling to rise, Tassid leaned on his saber for support, growling in frustration.  

“I was wondering how the hell he was doing this…”  

The answer was simple.  

Every Aura User knew it.  

There was no complex technique or intricate maneuvering behind Banatel’s monstrous power.  

It was just that his aura reserves were on an entirely different scale, far beyond what they could ever hope to match!  

*         *         *  

Watching the battle from afar, one of Vasily’s Aura Users, Sir Walgran, muttered blankly.  

“He’s still only using simple techniques. He really isn’t a genius…”  

Dekril, a warrior from Chatan, replied.  

“Yeah… but he’s definitely a monster.”  

The free knight, Marrad, simply shook his head.  

“Seriously… how can someone whose aura control is stuck at the basics have such an absurd amount of aura…?”  

Russ, who had only recently become an Aura User, and Tassid, being an orc, were unaware of the truth. But most Aura Users knew exactly who Sword Star Banatel was.  

The greatest swordsman on the continent, the undisputed strongest, Sword Star Banatel.  

And yet, he was never a genius.  

In his youth, Banatel had not stood out as a swordsman. Unlike famous warriors who could grasp ten concepts after learning just one, or those who could master in an instant what others took ten days to learn, he showed no such extraordinary talent.  

It wasn’t that he lacked ability. He possessed the physical strength, reflexes, and agility befitting a first-rate swordsman.  

The problem was that Banatel had terrible combat sense.  

Battle was always unpredictable. Opponents weren’t puppets that repeated set movements, they adapted and responded in real time, forcing a fighter to adjust their techniques accordingly. Banatel, however, lacked the ability to adapt. He could execute techniques exactly as he had learned them, but the moment an opponent moved unpredictably, he would often end up swinging at empty air.  

In his youth, he was merely decent, nothing more, nothing less.  

However, Banatel possessed one remarkable trait.  

He was unyielding.  

If he learned one thing, he could do only that one thing. He had no adaptability. No improvisation. He simply practiced what he was taught, over and over, until it became his own. And that one thing, he would master it more perfectly than anyone else.  

This wasn’t to say that other Aura Users were incapable of perfecting their techniques.  

Every martial school in the world emphasized the basics, and mastery could only be attained through a solid foundation. Anyone who had awakened their aura had an unshakable grasp of the fundamentals.  

Aura Users weren’t just born with talent; they honed themselves through thousands of thrusts and slashes each day. Even Russ, a prodigy among prodigies, had spent years perfecting a single downward strike.  

But Banatel was different.

If one performs a simple downward strike a thousand times, there will always be moments of fatigue and lapses in concentration. The difference between a novice and a master lies in the ability to push past those moments, to reset their focus and see the strike through to the end.  

No matter how skilled an Aura User might be, they were still human, there was no way their first swing and their thousandth swing could be identical.  

But Banatel never experienced such lapses in concentration in the first place.  

From the first swing to the thousandth, he struck with the same power, the same focus, as if it were his very first attempt.  

A true embodiment of unyielding perseverance, one could even call him a genius of discipline.  

With that sheer tenacity, Banatel eventually awakened his aura and ascended to the ranks of the superhuman.  

But merely awakening to aura didn’t grant him the combat sense he lacked.  

Surpassing human limits through the power of aura allowed him to overwhelm ordinary swordsmen with ease. But against other Aura Users, things were different.  

For all his strength, that was Banatel’s ceiling. He had awakened his aura, but that was it. Through his sheer stubbornness, he had mastered only the most basic techniques, Blade Aura, Aura Wave, and Aura Guard. But that was all he had.  

Other Aura Users developed a vast array of techniques using their aura. Experienced warriors could launch their aura over distances, concentrate and shift its flow to deliver devastating strikes, or execute dazzling combinations.  

Some true prodigies even altered their aura’s properties, solidifying it into different forms, achieving feats so miraculous they were almost indistinguishable from magic.  

But no matter how hard Banatel tried, he could never do any of that.  

His instincts simply weren’t sharp enough. If he could at least grasp how something worked, he could train endlessly to master it. But when he couldn’t even perceive how to begin, there was no effort to be made in the first place.  

And yet, Banatel never gave up.  

Even after becoming an Aura User, he remained steadfast on a single path.  

He clung to what he could do, the most basic aura techniques, and trained them relentlessly. Repeating them over and over, refining his fundamental abilities again and again, without end.  

And so, for thirty years…  

Banatel ultimately attained an aura reserve beyond comparison to any other Aura User on the continent.  

Along with the title of Sword Star, the strongest swordsman in the land.