The Anomaly's Path

Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me. This old bastard really wanted to kill me!

My mind went completely blank as I stared up at the old man, my chest heaving and my muscles screaming in pain.

The big training room suddenly felt like a very nice, very decorated coffin. Zephyr stood twenty steps away, his dark blue coat calm around his ankles, holding a plain wooden stick over his head like he was about to swat a bug.

Except that mosquito was me.

And that wooden stick was giving off an invisible wall of pure destruction that made the protective marks on the walls start to crack and hiss.

I insulted the whole freshman class, threatened the Astra Union, caused a political mess, and escaped a death trap in the valley... just to get killed by an old man with a toy sword, I thought, a crazy laugh bubbling up in my throat.

If I die here, I swear, I am haunting this crazy old man forever.

”Focus up, brat!” Zephyr’s voice roared, cutting through the heavy, dead silence of the room like a physical shockwave. ”What the hell are you doing looking at the floor? Focus on the strike and see what you are looking at!”

The sheer pressure slammed down on my shoulders, forcing me to drop an inch lower into the floor. The floor beneath my boots groaned under the weight.

”Remember your path!” the Sovereign shouted, his ocean-blue eyes flashing with a terrifying intensity. ”Remember your purpose! How will you ever forge the foundation of your soul space if you fold under a simple breeze? Remember who the fuck you are!”

Who I am?

I gritted my teeth so hard I felt one crack. My breath hitched, my lungs burning as the air got too thick to breathe. I wanted to tell him to shut up. I wanted to tell him I was a guy who had been pulled away from a hot meal less than twenty minutes ago.

No. Fuck that. Focus, you bastard! I screamed at myself internally. Think! There has to be a way. There is always a loophole. There is always a crack in the system.

I repeated his words in my head, my vision starting to blur from the weight of his power. Remember my purpose...

Ah... right. My purpose.

My purpose in this godforsaken world wasn’t some big, heroic prophecy. It wasn’t about being a perfect savior or a noble knight. It was something much simpler.

Stubbornness.

The hard, stupid refusal to stay down. The hate for letting the world break me.

My mind flashed back to what Roran said to me: ”You are stubborn, Leo. More stubborn than anyone I have ever met. That is not a weakness. That is your strength.”

He was right.

My sword wasn’t a grand wall meant to protect the weak. It was a wall for the people I cared about — and a giant middle finger to fate for everyone else. Every time I dragged myself back up from the dirt. Every time the system tried to script my end and failed.

Every time the world tried to crush me, and I just kept walking out of pure, spiteful stubbornness.

I’m not the strongest person in this world. I’m not the smartest. I’m certainly not the most naturally talented. But I am the most stubborn bastard this world has ever seen. And that is the only reason I’m still standing.

”Fuck it! I am not sitting down,” I growled out loud, my voice raw and thin.

I gripped the hilt of my katana with white-knuckled desperation.

Soul Flames, I commanded, reaching deep into my core. Listen to me. Wake up.

The black flames did not just light up.

They roared to life like hungry wolves let out of their cages. They knew the threat in front of us, and they lunged forward, climbing up my blade. The fire did not just cover the steel. It clung to it, weaving through the metal, turning the blade into a dark, moving tear that ate the light in the room.

But I knew a dense flame shield wouldn’t be enough. I couldn’t possibly counter a Sovereign’s strike with just everything. I needed everything.

The power in my blood answered the call, acting as the painful support it always was. I forced Energy Siphon to open up, pulling whatever speed and force I could find in the air straight into my empty mana channels.

At the same time, I pushed Mana Generation to its limit, forcing my bloodline to squeeze out every last drop of mana it could produce. My channels burned, but more power flowed in.

And then, I used my active sensing skill: Flash Instinct.

Snap.

Everything around me suddenly slowed down to a painful crawl. The wind froze. The light turned thick and slow. Through my sharpened senses, I could see the world as a web of movements — every twitch, every flow of mana, every sign of life laid bare in front of me.

Zephyr’s wooden sword began its descent. Even in slow motion, it was moving with a terrifying, fluid perfection.

More, I thought, pushing my consciousness past its absolute limits. I need to see more!

I pushed a big chunk of mana into my eyes, forcing my body to its breaking point.

Pop.

A sharp, stabbing pain exploded behind my eyes. Small blood vessels burst, and warm, thick blood began to leak from the corners of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks like red tears.

”AAARGH!” I screamed, a raw, deep cry tearing out of my chest as the pure agony of Mana Burn scorched my insides. It felt like hot metal was being pumped through my veins. My core throbbed as tiny cracks spread across its surface.

But through the blood and the blinding pain, something suddenly clicked.

The world shifted. I looked past the wooden sword. I did not see a piece of wood anymore. I saw what the strike really carried.

It wasn’t a simple, heavy swing.

The strike was a perfect mix of many techniques, all balanced into one point. It was heavy, yet incredibly swift; it was slow in its setup, yet completely unstoppable. There was an intentional, terrifying space between the wooden sword and the raw air around it — an empty space where they didn’t even touch.

...And under those physical things was something deeper.

If I had to give it a name... it was Intent.

It was pure Will.

The wooden sword was carrying a piece of Zephyr’s soul. The strike was not just swung by his muscles. It was commanded by his mind. The blade was not just trying to cut. It was carrying a rule that simply said: This space will be split.

...I see it, I thought, the truth hitting my mind like a flash of light. The third form... it is not another space trick. It’s a manifestation of will.

I couldn’t watch for even a moment longer. My vision blurred completely as the blood from my eyes covered everything. Time rushed back to normal with the force of an exploding mountain.

Crash!!!

The wooden sword hit my wild, desperate counter-swing.

My Energy Siphon had only managed to convert a small part of his force, barely slowing him down at all. The raw power of the Sovereign smashed straight through my black flames, breaking my stance in an instant.

The force hit my chest like a falling rock.

I flew backward across the whole room, crashing into the metal wall. The marks on the wall flashed bright purple as they tried to take the leftover impact. The air left my lungs as I slid down the wall, collapsing onto the cold floor in a broken heap.

”Cough! Hah... cough...”

A heavy spray of blood burst from my mouth, splattering on the floor. My body was wrecked. My ribs were broken, my muscles were ripped apart, and my mana channels were burned out. Since my core was completely empty, my passive healing didn’t work at all.

I had to feel every bit of pain like a normal person, slow and awful.

The bloodline had kept me alive. It had stopped my heart from exploding. But it sure as hell didn’t make me comfortable.

The slow, rhythmic thud of boots echoed through the quiet hall as the old man walked toward me.

I lay there in a pool of my own blood, barely able to keep my eyes open, holding my broken chest. But as the dark edges of sleep began to creep into my sight, a wild, crazy grin slowly spread across my bloody face.

My body was broken. I would not be able to fight for weeks. But the fog in my mind was gone. My body had learned from the hit, and my tiny soul space had been hammered into something harder and stronger.

Is this the peak of swordsmanship? I asked myself, my vision fading to black as the old man’s shadow fell over me. A wall so high that it reaches the sky? Will I ever be able to reach that domain one day?

I did not have the answer. But as my mind finally slipped away into the dark, one last thought sparked in my soul.

...Just you wait, old man. Next time, I won’t be the only one bleeding.