Humanity Return

Ch. 56 – Big Difference

The young man's terrified expression turned serious and he swung his sword once more.

This time Leinn stepped back and released the creature in his hand, making the young man stop his attack and capture the creature and jump back.

“Psssht!”

The creature, a white snake like the color of the arena floor, showed its fangs to Leinn.

The audience around them noticed a new small hole was behind where Leinn had stood before. It seemed like the snake crawled underground without making any sound and then launched its attack from within the stone arena.

“How can you..”.

The young man had already shown a different expression to his previous fear, an annoyed expression.

Leinn was seen smiling as he looked at the young man who showed his real face, then saw the 50-centimeter-long snake beside him that looked dislike him as well.

“Easy, as long as you can-“

Clangs!

The tip of the sword stopped once more, this time a few centimeters from Leinn's throat.

Some of the crowd were aware of the identity of the wall. One of them stood up and pointed towards the arena.

“Mana Shield?!”

The shout shocked everyone there, especially the young man in front of Leinn.

He jumped back and pointed at Leinn with a sword in his hand.

“How can that Mana Shield invisible to the eye be able to withstand my attack?!”

Leinn was smiling and did not answer for a while, as if he was waiting for something.

After a few seconds of silence, he opened his mouth again.

“Huh? You're not gonna attack me again?”

The young man clasped the sword in his hand violently and launched a streak of attacks.

“Aaaah!”

Clang clang...

Slash after slash rained down on Leinn's body. The face, chest, stomach, thighs, arms, neck, but all those slashes came to a halt like they hit a wall and could not reach their target.

Leinn just stood there and did not move in the slightest other than his right hand which always pointed to one place.

The hand moved whenever the snake in front of him intended to attack him, successfully stopping his intent repeatedly.

“Aaaa..ah.

After doing the same for a minute, the young man stopped his attack then stepped back slowly and saw that his opponent had still not taken a single step since this fight had begun.

“K-you..”.

The Mana Shield that protected his entire body continuously, something that only high magicians with MAG could do that pierced through A Class.

That sword ability which if it followed the scattered rumors, already exceeded most of the teachers in that academy.

His high sword ability and unreasonable magic potential, indeed matched his nickname.

“Hah..”.

Only despair could be seen in the young man's eyes now.

Clang...

His sword slipped out of his grasp and fell onto the stone floor below him, being stabbed with himself who also fell to his knees with a look of despair.

Leinn saw this and shook his head, then extended his right hand.

“Thank you” sword

A calm voice without feeling reigned the slightest bit out from the mouth of the black-haired young man.

Unnoticed by the young man himself, he grabbed the sword that was beside him and stood up once more. Only the snake beside him could see himself standing there blankly.

“Strike me”

He swung his sword half-heartedly at the opponent in front of him. Who received his attack by extending his right hand at the sword.

Spring...

The young man regained his senses and realized his sword which was in the air, missed its target. He saw that his opponent had still not taken that step, then on his sword that momentarily touched something hard before sliding to the side.

Why did the attack miss?

“Hah!”

The Sring Clang

This time a new expression appeared on his face.

“Hah!”

Spring

“Haaah!”

The Sring Clang

The sight where the young man showed a messy attack and slashing the air around his opponent was visible. Leinn could only be seen swinging his right hand and his opponent's sword seemed to be curving away from it.

“Oooh!”

Stab

The young man took off his short sword, letting it stick on the stone floor beside him. The expression on his face looked like a child who found something interesting.

He launched a straight fist towards the right hand that Leinn extended.

“Huh”

Leinn was aware of the young man's intentions, but still let him be.

The young man opened his fist and turned into an open palm, which managed to capture that invisible wall and discover his identity.

Claps

“Ooooh... Mana Shield is this small.”.

“Congratulations”

The disc-shaped Mana wall with a width of no more than 10 centimeters was in his grasp.

His excited expression could be clearly seen, then he turned his attention from his palm forward again and looked at Leinn's left hand that had already reached before his face.

Chop

“Ugya!”

The young man immediately fell onto his back while holding his head that was in pain.

He started rolling on the floor of the arena for some time, until the pain started to subside, then looked at the black-haired young man in front of him while stroking his forehead which was still in pain.

Leinn looked at that gaze and pointed at the young man's face.

“You are not weak..”

Then he pointed to himself, with a big smile on his face.

“I'm the one who is too strong”

The statement could be heard clearly because of the silence around it, reaching all the spectators in the stadium.

“I lost”

The young man on the floor raised both his hands and gave up, but a satisfied expression could be seen on his face.

He noticed a noticeable difference in strength between the two of them and realized it was nothing more than the result of training.

All of his previous attacks were successfully stopped by the Mana Shield concentrated on where his sword landed, making the illusion as if Leinn's entire body was protected by an impenetrable wall.

“Train again”

Leinn turned around and waved his hand, leaving the young man sitting on the floor with his little snake.

He jumped down and walked back to his previous seat, then noticed the other three couples who started fighting after his fight was over.

In fact Leinn had thought today's tournament would be so boring without an equal opponent to him, but the truth was that he was proven wrong.

The two young men who had fought against him showed something interesting, something new.

So he began to watch the six-man fight over the arena more closely, trying to find something else of interest from them.

“Hm..?”

But he instead found a new group that had just entered the stadium through one of the four main gates.

A girl who was being followed by two large Beasts, white and black.