漫画大王

Chapter 213

It had been enough to make me lose my grip.

“Argh!”

Just like Lilka Aaron, I retched several times before getting up.

Even though I’d used Harden to minimize the impact, my insides felt like they had been scrambled.

It seemed he wanted to finish the fight quickly.

Thud!

Once again, Oscar appeared in front of me and threw a punch towards my face.

‘Haste.’

But I couldn’t avoid it.

Blam!

Fortunately, I managed to get my hand up into guard position in time. His fist landed on my wrist, sending a shock of pain so intense it felt like my wrist might break. Fortunately, it didn’t.

Thunk!

“Ugh!”

A kick to my thigh sent me tumbling back to the ground. Oscar had decided to finish me off, and was showing no mercy.

Before I could regain my stance, I was kicked, punched, and sent flying.

Before I could fully register one unfamiliar pain, another was added.

Thump!

.

Blam!

.

.

Whack!

.

.

Thunk!

Oscar’s Mana-Reinforced attacks were relentless. In less than a minute, I had been thoroughly beaten up and pushed to the edge of the training ground, where I lay in a crumpled heap.

It felt like my entire body was shattered.

No—it was probably already shattered.

I thought I had gotten used to pain, but this was pain that made my whole body tremble. If I hadn’t already been accustomed to pushing my body to extreme limits, I wouldn’t have even considered getting up.

It had been the same when I’d faced Mayaton.

Back then, most of my classmates disliked me, but when I kept getting up even after repeatedly being beaten to the brink of defeat, they ended up cheering me on a little.

It had been encouragement born out of pity, and right now, I was getting something similar from the crowd.

The Orbis Class students’ expressions—the same ones who had watched me easily overpower Lilka Aaron—were growing increasingly strange as they watched me being absolutely crushed by a senior that I had challenged.

‘Why don’t you just stop? Why go this far?’ their faces said.

It had been the same with Mayaton, but this was far worse.

My opponent was superior to me even in an ordinary state, and with Mana Reinforcement, I stood no chance.

“You didn’t really think you could beat me, did you?” said Oscar.

“You don’t have to tell me that. I already know it, you bastard.”

“...”

Oscar looked at me incredulously as I continued to curse at him even in the state I was in.

I couldn’t win, and I hadn’t entered this fight thinking I would.

Oscar couldn’t understand my intentions. “I don’t get why you’d fight a battle you know you can’t win.”

I staggered slowly to my feet, glaring at him all the way. “I’ve you already. You’re such a shitty person that even a much weaker junior had to stand up and call you out on it. A junior from a different class had to label you pathetic.”

‘Despite it being a fight I couldn’t win, I stepped up so you’d understand how shitty you are. Because no one else would say it. Because there’s no one in Orbis Class who would or could say it.’

“If no one tells you, you’ll never know. So I’m doing it for them.”

“...”

“Yeah, I knew I’d lose. I’d most definitely lose. But you need to understand that no matter what excuse you come up with, you’re just a sadist who enjoys tormenting juniors. You’re a coward who never gets his hands dirty.”

“Coward?”

“Yeah. You always leave something unsaid underneath your words. That’s a real scumbag move.”

It was a flawed system... But this guy was a perpetrator who refused to fully play the role of a perpetrator within that system.

“... Being classmates with the First Prince and First Princess seems to make you pretty confident, huh?”

He finally said it. He thought I was acting like this because I believed I had the support of the prince and princess.

“No, I’ve always been like this. I’ve never had any backing. What, you can’t even call things out as shitty when they are, unless you have some form of insurance? So you got beaten up in Orbis Class, and now you’re enjoying your role as the bully?”

Even with my fingers trembling, I grinned at him.

“That’s just who you are. Right, it’s not just the environment, but what you’re born with that matters. Just like how certain things are determined from birth, you were born this way too,” I added.

“...”

“You were born a shitty bastard. Cowardly, sneaky, with no will to do anything by yourself. You just accept the problems around you rather than solving them, and put the blame on your environment.

“You say you couldn’t do anything because you weren’t born with talent. Now, bored of tormenting yourself, you’ve turned to tormenting others for satisfaction. You enjoy making others miserable because you see your own misery in them, you shitty asshole.”

‘You’ve got a talent too. A talent for being a piece of shit.’

That was a comment sure to hit him where it hurt.

“You’ll regret making me angry.”

He charged at me, eyes blazing. His movements, enhanced with Mana Reinforcement, were faster and more unpredictable than before.

However, he had lost his composure.

As he lunged, he pivoted on his left foot and swung his right leg in a kick.

‘Haste.’

Sidestepping, I drove my elbow into his temple.

Bang!

“Argh!”

Mana Reinforcement also enhanced defenses as well.

I felt the impact reverberated through my elbow, but he was clearly knocked sideways.

By provoking him, I’d forced him into a straightforward movement and succeeded in landing a blow, sending him tumbling over.

I watched as he slowly rose, clutching his temple, his eyes filled with both confusion and rage.

He couldn’t believe I’d landed a clean hit while he was using Mana Reinforcement.

“...”

“Hah. To think I’d make such a mistake...”

‘I should surrender now and end this fight. If I throw one last punch and then surrender, he won’t be able to hit me back. It’s a fight I can’t win anyway, so let’s just claim a moral victory. I’ll congratulate him on his win, and then go get healed by the on-duty priest.

‘I cannot win this fight.’

I knew full well that this was a battle I couldn’t win, and it was time to end it now. Besides, my life wasn’t on the line here, so it was okay to lose.

If defeat here meant death, I’d push harder, but that wasn’t the case.

I was only trying to make a statement, not do anything grand.

Even when being beaten to a pulp, even when knowing you don’t stand a chance, you should still be able to say something is shitty if it is.

The juniors all feared and cowered before their seniors, but not one of them said that they hated it.

Not even one of them voiced out their fear.

I would keep speaking out even as I took a beating in a fight I couldn’t win.

Shitty things are shitty. Even the weak can say that.

In this wretched system, I was showing them that calling out a bastard who toyed with others without willing to be labeled a perpetrator would not result in anything more than just getting beaten up.

It was okay to lose.

As long as the message got across.

Kwaang!

“Ugh!”

However, even as I narrowly dodged his punch and tried to knee him in the face, only to get hit and sent rolling across the ground in return, I didn’t declare my surrender.

I could call it quits. I believed I’d done enough. Yet I couldn’t bring myself to stop.

The thought relentlessly circled around in my mind. ‘I can’t win.’

Then, I realized something.

In the Dark Land, I’d fought battles where my life was on the line.

However, after returning to the Temple, I became somewhat detached from training, sparring matches, conflicts, and disputes within the Temple.

I adopted a more liberal way of thinking, looking at issues with a broader perspective and letting most things slide. After all, things happened. There was no need to get involved.

Even when Heinrich provoked me, I tried to avoid engaging with him, although I’d been forced to take action in the end.

I didn’t offer much reaction to the Hopeless Trio’s provocations early in the semester either.

Things happened. What was the big deal?

I hadn’t become stronger after my trip to the Dark Land.

I’d become weaker.

Brushing everything off with the excuse that my life wasn’t on the line wasn’t growth.

‘It’s a fight I’m bound to lose, so I’ll just lose and just claim a moral victory. It’s not like losing this means I’ll die.’

How is that different from resignation?

I had achieved some degree of strength through persistent training, and had become complacent because of it. I was procrastinating subconsciously, thinking that I’d just become stronger later on.

I wasn’t feeling desperation in the present moment. I trained and put in effort, but I did not have that same desperation I used to have in immediate situations.

I was satisfied with losing just so that I could call out a shitty person for being shitty.

I was satisfied with the fact that Ender Wilton and the other Orbis Class first-year students, who felt the same fear of being harassed by their seniors, would simply hear me call him out.

To think I was satisfied with that...

To say that it was okay to lose just because my life wasn’t at stake...

My mindset was utterly flawed.

‘I can’t continue like this.’

After returning from the Dark Land, I had become weak.

My power was not supposed to be used in this way. This wasn’t how it was meant to be used.

I had forgotten the fundamental basis of my power. Even though I kept using my supernatural power, I had forgotten its essence.

You can’t win a fight if you go into it thinking you’ll lose.

You have to believe you can win. Even if you might not be able to win, you have to believe in it.

This was nothing but stagnation.

I had been stagnant since returning from the Dark Land. It didn\'t matter that I had mastered Tiamata. My mentality was stagnant.

I could not rely solely on training and the belief in incremental improvement.

I had to rise again. I had to believe that I could win in every fight.

“You’re all talk, yet you can’t even stand properly,” Oscar said.

“...”

“I don’t know about being a coward, but you’re pathetic. Your determination is commendable, but at this point, aren’t you just being stubborn? You need to know when to quit, and now is that time, isn’t it?” Oscar smirked sardonically at me while I trembled. “If that’s all you’ve got, even with supernatural powers, you won’t be much of anything even when you’re a fourth-year.”

The stubbornness of the weak...

Oscar mocked me while the others looked on in shock.

I could feel a sense of hope from the others that I would just stay down.

Lilka Aaron had wished to fall during our fight, so I had granted her request and felled her.

But I wasn’t going to fall now.

I wouldn’t stay down. I had to let go of the thought of losing.

I couldn’t be stagnant. I couldn’t hide behind the excuse that my life wasn’t on the line.

I had to give my best in every moment, even when being a defiant bastard.

I had forgotten this while basking in what little strength I had gained.

Belief was my spear and my shield. I had forgotten my most powerful weapon, lost in my superficial strength, holding onto other weapons while my most powerful one lay forgotten.

Skills didn’t matter.

I could not forget the foundation.

I had to reclaim my strongest weapon. I had to fight with it.

‘I will forget the pain. Pain will vanish, and I will return my body to its peak condition.’

The trembling in my limbs ceased.

“... What are you?”

“I am.”

Words I hadn’t remembered in a long time came up in my mind.

I looked into Oscar de Gradias’s eyes.

“I am going to beat you.”

The words that defined who I was, in that moment.

I glared at him as I repeated those words in my mind.

Ultimately, Ender Wilton and all the other things were secondary.

Systems, revolution, upcoming incidents—they were all irrelevant.

I just wanted to crush this bastard.

In the end, I was just a crazed dog, driven by my emotions rather than altruism.

‘I want to win. Therefore, I will win.’

Ellen’s words suddenly echoed through my mind.

—“Why can’t you do it? I can do it easily.”

—“Because I’m not like you.”

I had given up. I never believed that I could do it, and thought that it was natural that I couldn’t. After all, Ellen was a genius, and I was just ordinary.

—“Believe that you can achieve Mana Reinforcement.”

—“I’ve been trying that already!”

—“Then why isn’t it working?”

—“How should I know?”

No.

I hadn’t genuinely believed. I’d believed I could achieve Mana Reinforcement, but not sincerely.

I thought Ellen could do it because she was Ellen, and that I would never be able to do it.

Deep down, I had not believed in myself.

I’d known Ellen for too long, and seen how ridiculously talented she was, so I subconsciously dismissed the idea that I could do what she could.

This was the time to eliminate that subconscious disbelief.

The final belief needed for victory:

‘I can sense mana. I can manipulate mana.’

Kururung!

“What...the...?”

I succeeded in using Mana Reinforcement.

Adding to that, I used Haste to enhance my agility, Single Strike to amplify my attack power, and Harden to bolster my defense.

I employed three supernaturally-enhanced skills, combined with Mana Reinforcement.

Kwack!

With a force strong enough to fracture the training ground floor, I charged at Oscar.

Boom!

An attack that combined all three supernatural Skills...

I didn’t yet know what to call this mixture of abilities.

Leaping forward with a single powerful step, I channeled all my strength into a side kick, aiming for Oscar de Gradias’s abdomen.

Thwack!

“Argh...Ugh!”

The thunderous noise of our bodies colliding was unlike anything I’d ever heard. Oscar was sent flying to the opposite end of the training hall.

Kaboom!

I watched him crash into the far wall and crumble to the ground, motionless.

Thud!

Everyone stared in wide-eyed shock at Oscar’s unmoving form, slumped against the wall of the training ground.

[Achievement Unlocked - Path of the Superhuman]

[You have received 500 Achievement Points]

“...”

An astonished silence filled the training hall. Even A-1 Gladen Amorel looked stunned.

B-10 Ender Wilton stood with his mouth agape.

But my body was in tatters as well. It wasn’t just the pain from the blows I had taken.

My whole body felt like it was being torn apart, an unfamiliar agony pulling me toward unconsciousness.

Clinging onto the last shreds of awareness as my consciousness slowly slipped away, I staggered forward.

“You guys... saw that... right? You... bastards,” I said to the frozen Orbis Class students.

I forced a sternness into my gaze as I spoke. “So just stand up to your seniors... The worst that can happen is you getting a beating... There’s nothing else.”

Their eyes trembled violently, stricken by the sudden, terrifying speech from a complete stranger.

“So just... stand up. It’s not like you’re going to... die from it,” I said.

Even if you take a severe beating, you won’t die. In fact, you might even pull off a miracle and take down your senior.

That was what I wanted to say.

“Don’t be scared! If something is shitty, say it’s shitty! You won’t die! At worst, you’ll just... Guh!”

—Uh, uh oh!

—What’s happening to him?!

“Ugh!”

I coughed up blood and was unable to finish my sentence.

‘No! This invalidates everything I just said!’

—Get a priest! Call the priests!

—I-I’ll go get them!

The frantic voices of the Orbis Class students faded into the distance.

That was my last memory.