Razvolnic’s Fist

‘A century ago? Friend?’

Haineken and his guild members, as well as Berthe, felt perplexed by Doyun’s words.

“Just who the hell are you…!”

However, Berthe could not dwell on it for long.

“But!”

Berthe unleashed a barrage of fists at Doyun, his movements spasming with rage.

Each impact shook the very earth with the explosive force of the advanced Hecleus’s Style. Even the retreating Alliance soldiers and the Demon Lord’s officers who had long since evacuated inside the fortress staggered from the tremors.

“This matured Hecleus’s Style has been tailored to match his developed physique! It deviates from the path of the Hecleus’s Style from a century ago! No human body could withstand the recoil!”

Indeed, even Berthe with his Level 9 Endurance cried out in agony with every strike, his bones screaming from the excessive recoil of the Hecleus’s Style.

Yet the enraged dragon paid no heed to his own body’s protests.

For he could not discern the true identity of the figure before him.

[Acquired Genius]

(You were born untalented, but through dozens of deaths and hundreds of years of effort, you have altered your very qualities. You face no difficulties in learning anew, and can swiftly hone existing skills. This is not innate enlightenment, but the seasoning of immense experience. Thus, your growth is based on what you have witnessed and learned.

A correction is applied to your growth rate. This is proportional to the number of years you have lived.

A correction is applied to your growth form. This is based on your experiences.)

He had spent over a century alongside Hecleus.

He had researched Hecleus’s Style for over a century.

He had named Hecleus’s Style.

He had witnessed Hecleus’s 4 deaths.

He had avenged the 4 deaths of Hecleus.

He was the only man who could truly understand Hecleus.

The one who knew him better than anyone else in the world, even better than Hecleus himself.

He was Enoch Razvolnic. Han Doyun.

With his trait [Acquired Genius], Doyun could flawlessly utilize Hecleus’s Style due to his profound understanding of the Fist Saint.

Doyun nonchalantly caught Berthe’s explosive fists with his remaining hand, pondering the essence of Hecleus’s Style.

‘Hecleus, you…’

He even recalled maneuvers that Berthe had not demonstrated, techniques he had never witnessed before.

This was the result of his overwhelming comprehension of Hecleus and his [Acquired Genius] trait.

Doyun trembled with emotion as the miraculous intricacies of Hecleus’s Style surfaced in his mind.

‘You truly… grew stronger…’

The new Hecleus’s Style was infused with his friend’s longing.

The new Hecleus’s Style, modeled after Busker’s swordsmanship and Razvolnic’s style.

Sadly, it had been customized to be more accessible even for Enoch, who had mastered Razvolnic’s style.

Yet Enoch’s human body could never withstand the recoil. Or rather, from the beginning, the now-deceased Enoch would never have the chance to unveil Hecleus’s Style.

But it mattered not.

Longing for his comrades during their training days, the paramount fist master had imbued his art with the essence of his friends.

This was how the strongest man on the continent reminisced about his friend.

Doyun had already dismissed Berthe from his mind, engrossed in reciting the mantras of the Hecleus’s Style resurfacing in his thoughts as he reminisced about his friend.

‘This little…!’

Sensing Doyun’s demeanor, Berthe seethed with rage.

‘This insect is disregarding me…?’

His draconic pride, shattered into pieces, drove him to the brink of insanity with fury.

“Uaaaaaahhhh!!!”

He relentlessly bombarded Doyun with enraged, killing intent-laced fists.

“No matter who or what you are, I’ll slaughter you right here and now!!!”

Every joint of his massive body cried out from the excessive recoil of the Hecleus’s Style, yet the infuriated dragon paid no heed.

“As the sole inheritor of Hecleus’s Style among dragonkind, the paramount fist master of this continent, that is me alone!!”

He had forsaken the war and Doyun’s identity, consumed solely by preserving his final bastion of pride.

Having succumbed to the terror and downfall of the Demon Lord, abandoning his draconic dignity to become a Fallen Dragon, Berthe clung to his sole remaining self-worth.

The ‘sole inheritor of Hecleus’s Style’ – the ‘paramount fist master of the continent.’

“You shall be utterly overwhelmed by the irresistible gap in our might that you cannot hope to surmount…!!”

Berthe soon halted his onslaught, preparing for something.

He drew his left arm back.

His flexed arm, legs braced against the earth, sturdy waist, and entire torso – every muscle bulged to its limit.

Hecleus’s Style’s ominous black aura engulfed his form as a fierce gale erupted across the battlefield, centered around him.

An overwhelming presence that could shatter mountains and incite earthquakes.

Haineken gripped his spear shaft, shouting to his subordinates.

“All of you, behind me! Doyun, you too!”

He mustered the last ounce of his mana reserves. Truly, even staking their lives may not suffice against this impending attack.

Yet Doyun stood unmoving.

“Quickly! Doyun!!”

Despite Haineken’s desperate pleas, Doyun remained unresponsive for some reason.

“Behold! This is the ultimate secret of Hecleus’s Style!”

Pooling all his energy, Berthe launched his fist.

“The paramount fist of the continent!!!”

“Doyun!!”

Ignoring their respective cries of desperation,

Doyun extended his remaining left arm.

Kwung.

“…!”

“Ah, no…?”

Berthe’s fist came to a halt.

The supposed ultimate secret of Hecleus’s Style was effortlessly halted by Doyun’s small palm.

A failure in manifesting the technique.

“Th, This… what in the…!”

Berthe’s potent aura had vanished, leaving only his and Haineken’s and his guild members’ bewilderment.

No matter how many times Berthe replayed the mantra in his mind, he could find no fault.

“This can’t be…! I had definitely reached Level 8 in Hecleus’s Style!”

As Berthe stood dumbfounded by this anticlimax,

Ttuk.

A single droplet fell to the ground.

Snapping back to his senses, Berthe’s eyes widened as he beheld Doyun’s face.

“You…?”

A damp trail of a single teardrop glistened on Doyun’s cheek.

Witnessing Berthe’s fist had moved Doyun to tears of joy.

‘Hecleus… you bastard…!’

The unexpected individual demonstrating his dearly missed friend’s legacy was enough to

‘Finally… at last…’

reawaken the dormant wellspring in his eyes after decades of aridity.

‘You attained the Manifest Sword (Hyungeom)…!’

Doyun retracted his extended left arm, clenching his fist.

Then, he recited the ultimate technique of Hecleus’s Style in his mind.

“…The essence of Hecleus’s Style is the will to ‘strike mightily (gangda).'”

“What?”

Before Berthe could question him, the same ominous aura he had displayed erupted around Doyun’s body – no, an even more potent presence.

“Th, This is…!”

“Doyun…!”

The reason Berthe had failed to unleash the ultimate technique.

It was because the ultimate secret of Hecleus’s Style embodied the enlightenment of the Manifest Sword (Hyungeom).

Manifest Sword (Hyungeom).

Channeling stalwart willpower to manipulate mana, extending the very phenomenon one wills into existence.

Hecleus, among history’s paramount geniuses including Busker,

had ultimately attained this enlightenment after 40 years of training following Enoch’s departure.

However, Hecleus’s Manifest Sword did not ‘bend’ phenomena, but rather materialized the will to ‘strike mightily.’

“Legion Commander Berthe.”

Lowering his stance and clenching his fist, Doyun gazed up at him.

“The one who will slay you now is not I.”

As Berthe regarded those eyes he had confronted countless times on the battlefield,

‘…!’

He finally grasped the source of the disconcerting feeling that had lingered within him.

‘Impossible…!’

Those irises flickering with golden mana.

Eyes tempered by innumerable battles.

The flawless execution of Hecleus’s Style.

An inconceivable assumption, yet the draconic instincts could no longer deny it.

“You are…!”

“The one who will slay you.”

Enoch Razvolnic.

Doyun’s eyes blazed with a golden radiance.

“Is my friend, Hecleus’s fist…!”

The True Hecleus’s Style (Hecleus’s 式). Ultimate Secret. Manifest Sword (Hyungeom).

The sole technique of Hecleus’s Style named by Hecleus himself rather than Enoch – a skill imbued with his friend’s yearning to reunite.

At last fulfilling that wish, that of his friend.

‘Razvolnic’s Fist (Razbolnic’s 拳).’

Manifests in Enoch Razvolnic’s hands.

Beholding that monumentally overwhelming fist, Berthe’s eyes shot wide open as realization and dread gripped him in that final moment, and he roared:

“RazvolniiiiiC!!!”

Kwaaaaaahng–!!!

His cry was shattered amidst the shockwaves along with his formidable body.

The climactic battle against Legion Commander Berthe involving 40,000 troops, 1,000 Apostles, and two Heroes to retake Metapolis Fortress was ultimately concluded with the Legion Commander’s defeat at the hands of:

Hero Haineken.

Hero Ley.

And finally,

Apostle Han Doyun.

Victory for the Alliance.