Chapter 34: Where are you going to abstain?

The rules of the ranking match were simple.

An unarmed, physical duel.

Both participants wore mana-measuring bracers.

Repeated hits to the bracers, accumulating past a certain threshold, resulted in automatic defeat.

Unless an attack was strong enough to bypass the bracers, inflicting significant damage was impossible.

‘Or so they thought. That’s how it’s always been.’

But there was a loophole.

The bracers only measured attacks within a certain range of power.

What would happen if you used attacks too weak to register?

‘You could beat your opponent senseless without ending the match.’

That was my plan.

Provoke him, make him exhaust his Aura, then pummel him with ordinary punches and kicks.

I didn’t know his exact stats, but as a top 10 family heir, he’d be slightly below Jin Baek-ryong.

A perfect punching bag.

Before the match began, I asked him one last question.

“Hey, Wang Wei. Want to apologize? Kneel and beg for forgiveness now, and I’ll go easy on you.”

Kim Yu-won, the hero who’d saved the world as a member of the Hero’s party, offered Wang Wei a final chance for mercy.

Apologize now, and I wouldn’t ruin his life.

‘But I hope you don’t apologize.’

Kim Yu-won, of the Demonic Heavenly Sect, hoped otherwise.

“What nonsense are you spouting, you? I’ll cripple you and make those your toys, so you better be prepared.”

I felt a sense of relief.

I’d questioned whether crippling a 17-year-old for a single slip-up was right.

But this guy didn’t deserve my consideration.

He was beyond redemption.

Arrogant people never changed.

“Hey.”

“?”

“Thank you. For being so consistent.”

With no lingering guilt, I embraced my anger and contempt. But as promised to Estelle, I wouldn’t let my anger consume me and kill him.

‘But for him, losing his dantian is worse than death, isn’t it?’

His pride shattered, his power gone, his family abandoning him… I wondered how he’d react.

I eagerly anticipated the moment his face contorted in despair.

An instructor stepped onto the platform in the spectator area.

“Are both participants ready?”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t even bother with honorifics when addressing the instructor.

How rude.

“A ranking match on the first day, and he’s already disrespecting his superiors. Alright. Match… begin!”

At the instructor’s command, Wang Wei charged towards me.

Thirty meters separated us.

A distance an A-rank superhuman could close in seconds.

He drew viscous, lava-like flames from his dantian, infused them into his spear, and swung at me.

‘That’s Unique-grade cultivation and spear technique.’

In my 137 years, I’d seen and mastered countless techniques.

While I possessed the overpowered Ink Lightning Divine Art and Blood Sky Dance, learning other techniques wasn’t pointless.

Using those techniques myself allowed me to understand how to counter them. Like now.

I raised two fingers in a V-sign and caught his spear between them, as if picking up food with chopsticks.

I used no energy whatsoever.

“Ugh… Uhh!!!”

He strained, but the spear wouldn’t budge. I had 103 Strength, Ymir’s body, and the S-rank Divine Strength trait.

My raw strength far surpassed Wang Wei’s Aura-enhanced physique.

Though the numerical difference was only around 30, it made all the difference.

I tightened my grip, lifting the spear, and Wang Wei, holding on for dear life, was lifted off the ground.

“What… What kind of monstrous strength is this?!”

Lifting an A-rank Hunter, exerting his full strength, with just two fingers.

Doubt flickered in Wang Wei’s eyes.

Doubt about whether he could win this fight.

“Pfft.”

I smirked at him.

Enraged, he abandoned the spear and summoned a new one from his inventory.

“Oh, are you rich? Another expensive spear?”

“Shut up!”

He attacked again, faster, more precise, with greater power, trying to avoid getting his spear caught.

He was improving, as expected of a top 10 family heir.

I decided to show him something in return.

I held the spear I’d taken from him, adopting a basic spear stance.

The spears clashed, producing a metallic clang.

“You’re… fighting me with a spear?”

“I wanted to show you how it’s done.”

While his skill was impressive for his age, unmatched by most, he was too distracted to notice.

I, known as a ranged Hunter and having used fists against Jin Baek-ryong, was now wielding a spear.

It must have seemed like a joke to him.

As his attacks intensified, his flames growing fiercer, I unleashed a spear technique of my own.

[Skill acquired: Universal Spear Technique (Lv1).]

A culmination of spear techniques from around the world, created by the legendary “God of Spears,” the master of the Hero in my third life.

A miraculous technique that grew stronger with each new technique incorporated.

The Hero had taught it to me to improve our synergy, and I’d mastered the basics.

Combined with my two centuries’ worth of internal energy, enhanced physique, and the foundation of the Universal Spear Technique, Wang Wei’s attacks were no threat.

He was pushed back with every clash. He seemed to want to yell in frustration, but my relentless attacks gave him no chance.

I infused my spear with energy when blocking, then released the energy at the tip when striking, inflicting small wounds on his body.

These attacks didn’t register on his mana bracer, and the wounds weren’t ordinary cuts.

‘Ink Lightning.’

With each strike, I infused minute amounts of lightning energy into his body, directing it towards his dantian.

The amount was so small, and my control, honed over centuries and enhanced by my past life in the Transcendent Realm, was so precise, that he didn’t notice.

Once enough energy accumulated, I’d trigger it, and his dantian would crumble.

Doing it here would expose me, so I’d wait until he was taken away, alone and vulnerable.

I’d permanently sever his connection to his power.

He was oblivious, desperately trying to defend against my spear, a pathetic sight.

A few minutes passed. Wang Wei’s flames were visibly weakening.

“Wh… Why…?”

Having overexerted himself, he’d exhausted all his Aura, while I hadn’t even used half my power.

His dantian, barely flickering with embers, would take at least an hour to recover. It was time for his lesson.

I threw my spear to the ground, shattered it underfoot using Divine Strength, and approached him.

“Don’t come any closer!”

“Why not?”

He swung his now energy-less spear, trying to fend me off. If he couldn’t even stop my two fingers before, what chance did he have now?

I flicked his spear with a single finger, shattering it. He summoned another, and I broke that one too.

After I’d destroyed over ten of his spears, he stopped.

“Come on, keep going. Don’t you have any more spears?”

He seemed to have run out.

His face was a mask of despair, his arms limp.

He’d lost the will to resist.

“You were bullying weaker students and insulting my friends with that pathetic level of strength?”

I finally unleashed my energy. Ink lightning crackled around me, darkening the arena and triggering his primal fear.

Trembling before me, he raised his hand, trying to speak.

“F-For… Ugh…!”

I covered his mouth and forced his arm down.

‘You’re not forfeiting.’

The real fun was just beginning.