Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 725: A Thousand Arrows [Castle Bonus - ]

Alarms rang out in Asher’s head. Before Asher had started this obstacle course training, he had deliberately conditioned his senses to perceive every single attack as a death threat. Even if an attack couldn’t truly injure him, it was always best to evade; after all, who knew when Instructor Sane would introduce an unpredictable variation within something seemingly predictable?

He hadn’t seen the tripwire. Normally, he would have, such a wire would have reflected the faint light of the moon, making it detectable to someone with his level of perception. He had already noticed and expertly avoided several tripwires earlier. But now, he had finally fallen for one, as though some kind of invisible or specially crafted wire had been designed precisely to catch slippery geniuses like him off guard.

Truly, Instructor Sane was wicked, despite his earlier reassuring words. Truly, Crymora was not a world where things, or even words, should ever be taken at face value.

And with that realization, an enormous explosion erupted outward with a cataclysmic burst, a ruinous crescendo tearing through the environment. A ravine split open violently, the ground fracturing as trees snapped backward and were ripped from their roots. Sand and soil were blasted into the air as a devastating shockwave tore through everything within a hundred-meter radius, reducing it to destruction. Thick, hazing smoke blanketed the entire scene, obscuring the aftermath as the devastation remained hidden from outside view.

As for Asher... his body flickered into existence along the vertical side of a tree, suspended momentarily as he stood parallel to the ground in a defiance of natural orientation. He stared at the explosion for a brief moment, his gaze steady, before gravity finally reclaimed its hold on him. His body disengaged from the tree, and he dropped, landing lightly upon the ground below.

Asher shook his head with a quiet sigh. He had nearly been caught in that disaster; if it weren’t for his heightened senses and agile swiftness, he would have been swallowed by the explosion. Although he wouldn’t have been truly injured, he would still have been covered in blackened soot, a minor inconvenience, yet an inconvenience nonetheless.

Without missing a beat, he shifted into motion once more. Asher couldn’t help but wonder how weaker students were expected to survive such overwhelming explosive force. They would undoubtedly lose limbs, if not their lives entirely. But after a brief moment of contemplation, he dismissed the thought. If the Instructor had included such a mechanism, then he must have been confident in his ability to prevent fatalities.

Besides, a Crownstar Life Ranker would undoubtedly be faster than the explosion itself, meaning they could intervene and save a student before being consumed by it, even if they weren’t particularly close by.

Ten minutes passed as Asher continued moving, and within those ten minutes, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. Not a single trap was triggered, nor did any attack attempt to catch him off guard. But Asher wasn’t deceived. He understood this tactic well, Instructor Sane was simply attempting to lull the students into a false sense of security, to make them lower their guard... if they were foolish enough to do so.

Asher could hear screams echoing from various directions, students crying out at the top of their lungs as they endured the wicked torment imposed by the darkness of the night. It wasn’t just the screams, there were also the distant sounds of explosions reaching his ears, the sharp scent of burning wood filling the air, the choking thickness of smoke lingering all around. Beneath it all, faint yet unmistakable, he could even smell blood.

This training made the obstacle course at the Wargrave First Training Ground seem like child’s play in comparison.

Asher could only sigh as he offered a silent prayer for everyone, hoping he wouldn’t find himself in the same situation as them. Besides, he was certain that many students were already thanking the stars that these insane training conditions would only last for a month. If Cindralis had begun earlier as they originally wished and wanted, many of them might not have survived.

’Imagine enduring all of this, and in the end, only one person gets to represent the entire Empire,’ Asher mused quietly to himself.

Although his thoughts appeared somewhat distracted, his senses remained razor-sharp. After falling for that first tripwire, which had been perfectly disguised, Asher refused to make the same mistake again. He had already spotted several more, each one carefully concealed, and had avoided them with precise efficiency.

A minute passed.

Then, without warning, Asher heard it, the sound of countless projectiles slicing through the air from every conceivable direction. He didn’t need to turn; his peripheral vision already caught glimpses of them. More closed in from behind, from the sides, from above, arrows, hundreds upon hundreds of them, converging from literally every angle.

Asher came to an immediate halt.

He understood what this meant.

There was no simple evasion here. No straightforward escape. Dodging alone would not suffice... unless he used a Technique. But he had already made a decision, he wouldn’t rely on Techniques unless it became absolutely necessary.

’Who even sends more than a thousand arrows at a single student?’ Asher thought as he steadied his breathing. ’Besides... these arrows seem to possess some form of homing capability, locking onto their target.’

His senses sharpened even further as he pushed them to their absolute limits. He shifted into a martial stance, his posture grounded and precise. If anyone were to see him at that moment, they might have thought he intended to parry the incoming arrows with his bare hands.

And then... the arrows arrived... and Asher moved.

His body became a blur, his movements reminiscent of a jungle predator in motion. His wrist met the head of the first arrow head-on, shattering it instantly. He didn’t stop. His other hand lashed out like a striking viper, intercepting another arrow and breaking it apart into splinters. His momentum never faltered; his feet left the ground as his legs lashed out, his ankles colliding with multiple arrows, reducing them to fragments mid-flight.

His entire form became a continuous flow of motion, a masterclass in martial precision, efficiency and lethality. Every step was calculated, every movement perfected, every action refined to its absolute peak.

Arrows continued to strike his body, his back, his chest, even his knees, but the moment they made contact, they shattered on their own, unable to penetrate his durability. Asher didn’t even react to those impacts, as though he hadn’t noticed them at all.

But it wasn’t that he didn’t notice them.

The truth was far simpler... Asher was simply too monstrous.

With over a thousand arrows pursuing him, Asher had made a decision in that very instant. Given the restrictions placed upon him, his reduced reaction speed and altered center of gravity, he couldn’t block everything. But as he had already concluded, this training wasn’t about speed, it was about efficiency. Precision.

So Asher adapted.

His senses shifted their focus, abandoning the idea of treating every attack as lethal. Instead, they honed in exclusively on the arrows that truly posed a threat. Only those capable of injuring him were prioritized.

And as for how he blocked such dangerous attacks without a weapon?

The answer was simple.

The bracelets on his wrists became his weapons.

With flawless timing, he used them to intercept and break apart every arrow strong enough to pierce his skin. Each motion was deliberate, each strike perfectly executed. As for the weaker arrows mixed within the barrage, he ignored them entirely, allowing them to strike his body harmlessly.

Once again, Asher displayed his overwhelming battle acumen and terrifying efficiency.

Truly... he was a monster in human skin.

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