LIGHTNOVELONLINE 10. Practice makes perfect
Since I saw the speed of the bald man whose name I don't remember or care about, I had to rely on my prediction based on my experience to block it. Assassins are specialists in attacking from behind, but there was the probability that he would attack me from the front as a form of contempt, and I was not wrong.
When the bald man was about to slice me with his short sword, I used the katana in my hand and put it in front of me intending to block the blow to my throat... and no, it's not like I had awakened as a brainless novel protagonist and raised my strength above 3 ranks and returned the blow.
The force of the short sword was so strong that it sent me with a single blow to the wall in the corner of the room, the instant I hit the wall, I felt the taste of iron quickly build up in my throat, while the unbearable pain invaded me, I was going to scan my physical state, but there were more important things to think about before that.
'I thought third-rate villains were more predictable, when I wanted the villain to do his typical mocking talk, he launched into the attack, could it be that he didn't follow villain protocol because he's bald? Or he has some kind of mental retardation, But common sense doesn't dictate that it's okay to attack instead of speaking, so is he or I the mentally retarded one?
'Ha... at least I confirmed that my mental speed is excellent, my mind was able to keep up with the bald guy's attack speed, but my body wasn't responding as I wanted, it was the body's survival instinct that made it move fast enough to not die from a blow.
I slightly opened my eyes and despite having my monologue, the bald guy was barely landing after his jump and punch, confirming my mental speed.
I saw the bald guy talking something while exchanging glances between the 2 terrified women and me, but my ears were ringing from the blow and I couldn't hear anything.
'He keeps distracting himself talking about things, so let's see... I have at least 6 broken ribs, a dislocated hand, and a nearly useless leg, the bald guy must have underestimated me too much because of my low rank, anyway, let's see, um?
I just noticed that the bald guy hit me and threw me very close to the door, so I could leave if I wanted to, my body is useless, and even if I used the plan I thought of on the way, I don't know if it will work... should I just leave?
While my mind seriously considered how to balance between the options of leaving or staying, a phrase from my old life decided to stay win by a lot.
-Remember to keep your promise, silly brother.
'... ha... who tells me to promise to help?
Knowing that I had no choice, I began to get up from the ground, my bones creaked as if begging me not to come closer, but I had to.
The bald man had been staring at me silently since I got up from the ground, he didn't stop me in my tracks and he looked at me mockingly in silence until I got in front of the mother and daughter who were silently behind me.
-It was a stupid decision kid, you could have escaped
"Adolescence is a time when many stupid things are done, right?
The bald man didn't respond to my words, he silently got into a fighting stance.
'Well... I have the items activated, although they didn't do physical tests on me, I guess I must be an E rank if I'm not mistaken, so I guess I have to get going quickly before time runs out.
Thanks to the knowledge of the game, at least I have a chance... who would say that my sister's boring talks would be of any use? I'm thankful that I didn't fall asleep while listening to her.
I secured the mask on my face, this thing is an A rank item, called [The Mask of the Forgotten] used by a general of the demons specialized in brute force years ago, when said general died, the demon king in his honor made this mask an artifact, its effect is to use the user's mana to improve their physical stats.
Normally if someone who has less mana than a rat, that is, me, used this, would die as soon as I activated it, the reason why I didn't run dry is because of the katana in my hand, another A-rank artifact called [the usurper's katana] used by some powerful vampire years ago, the demon king hunted him down and made the sword his artifact.
This katana originally absorbed blood from enemies to momentarily increase his abilities, but it was modified by the demon king, it was owned by Aiko's guards in case of emergency, one of the guards was someone of A-rank, and using those 2 objects would give him a strength of an S-rank due to stat inflation, but it was known that after that guard would be bedridden for at least 3 months.
This sword is connected to the mask and one of its main characteristics is that it absorbs mana from the air over time or by cutting and wounding enemies it takes away their mana and stores it, it was prepared in advance for the emergency, so I don't have to worry about the accumulation, what I have to worry about is what will come.
After standing in front of Aiko and her mother, I activated the artifacts in my body.
At this moment I experienced firsthand why these artifacts were only for emergencies, I felt a great accumulation of strength in my body, I felt the strength in my arms increase like never before, and my senses heightened to the point where I felt exactly a fly passing through the entrance of this place.
'ugh, this is a lot of sudden power, but I know that I will break my muscles and bones if I attack the bald guy right now it would be like hitting a rock with another rock, but with the hardness of an egg.
As much as I'd like to see Aiko's expression of disbelief wondering how I know the correct use of these artifacts, there are more important things.
It was lucky that Aiko didn't suspect when I asked her for the sword and mask with the instructions I asked her, to join artifacts they must be compatible with each other, a perfect example would be Kiriko's armor from the game, 4 pieces of equipment given and kept by each of the 4 races, and a sword given by the goddess herself.
If Aiko hadn't given me even one of the two, I would have had to fight with the resolution to die right now, it would have been a short life.
While the bald man was distracted by the two women with unconcealed lust, I searched my memory for my past life sword style...
When I was young, my mother forced me to practice martial arts since I was 12 years old, among the many disciplines I practiced was kendo.
The tutor was an arrogant 50-year-old man who firmly believed that kendo was the best style of sword use. I was kicked out after 3 months because I didn't obey the tutor. It was because I didn't want to stand there like an idiot with my hands up all the time. I mean, who creates a style that makes you use energy just by holding the sword? I didn't like the attitude of the old man who shouted at me, "You will never be worthy of practicing kendo."
As a rebellious young man, I couldn't stay still when faced with the words of that old man, so I invented a new stance. I called it [the lazy man's stance]. It's not the best name, but I didn't want to waste too much brain power on something that wasn't even a known style, hey... who would say that style would become so famous?
After leaving the dojo, out of courage I created and perfected that style and after 2 years of polishing it, I went back to the dojo and challenged my old teacher who said something like "Kendo is unique and there will never be anything good like lazy stance"
I defeated him with 2 moves and left, I remember his last words, "Your deceitful style will not be able to beat all the martial arts masters"
I sincerely have to thank that old man now, back then the old man instead of showing a change of attitude for losing, he made fun of it, so I decided that I would beat all the martial arts masters I met.
After a while, I was at home when a news item came out in the newspaper [lazy style, the new battle method that destroyed all the martial arts masters]
My martial art became so famous that many martial arts masters wanted to challenge me, it was too annoying, so I stopped using that style and started using it again many years later.
Although I keep my memories, my style needed a strong and flexible body, as well as the muscle memory that I perfected over the years...
It would have been good to have come here, even if it was just a month earlier to have time to train... I guess all that's left is to scratch my nose and get into a fighting stance.
'Well, it's time to force this body to learn the lazy man's style before 2 minutes, which is when the mana in the sword will run out and it will die either from mana exhaustion or this bald guy's dagger.
After letting out a sigh, Ren put his right foot supporting his weight and the left one loose, and the sword with 2 hands pointing to the ground as if he were going to lean on it, the 3 people who observed this, although they didn't know each other, all 3 thought at the same time:
'He's too lazy to stand up, that he uses his weapon as support instead of aiming at the enemy?
The same bewildered expression that the 3 people who saw this style had were the same expressions that the sword masters in Ren's past life had, seeing Ren who was leaning his body on the weapon that should be aimed at the enemy looked ridiculous to anyone who saw it.
Seeing that sword style was like a slap of humiliation to the bald man, he had decided to wait for the boy to prepare himself to increase the women's sense of despair even more, but... who would say that the boy would mock him like that? Without speaking any further, the bald man just charged forward.
The man ran at a speed invisible to the human eye, being a renowned B-rank assassin, he was confident in his work, the boy had the muscles on his body bulging as if they were going to explode, it was obvious from a physical stat boosting artifact, yet the bald man was confident to cut him down.
'I've never seen someone with such weak mana as this child, your death was decided since you wanted to be a hero
The bald man thought with contempt, being centimeters away from cutting Ren's neck, the bald man saw something that slightly surprised him.
Ren's free foot wanted to come forward and give him a Brazilian kick, the bald man thought it would be a good idea to cut it so he started to change the direction of his dagger, moments later, he saw how the sword that should be on the ground being used as support was now connecting and deflecting his dagger.
When he lost his balance, in the middle of his confusion, Ren's kick connected with his face and hit him squarely, sending him flying with the force of a B rank.
*punch
2 pairs of open mouths were behind Ren and watched the whole short exchange.
Each of the beautiful women had a lot to say, but they would agree on something if they could speak normally.
'There is such a strange art?'
Ren's art, in the words of that old kendo teacher, would be:
Hateful... that sword style could only be described like that.
At first glance it seems like a stupid art, until you face it head on... every move Ren made you feel humiliated as he deflected your attacks in ways that you would think the opponent never took you seriously, the deflections with that style were perfect to connect blows, the art was not only included Ren's skill, it also included his experience of having faced different masters in his life, there were also external factors, whether it was help from gravity, the terrain among other things, whether you were on top of some slippery, sticky liquid or whatever, the sword style could be used on any terrain, any situation without problems, because at first glance it seemed that Ren only relied on the sword.
That posture seems full of holes at first glance, but in reality, it has no blind spots.
After having knocked out the bald man for a moment, Ren held back the groan of pain that wanted to come out of his mouth.
'ugh, I barely moved, and I feel like I almost pinched a tendon in my leg, was this style always so demanding? Right now I can only be on defense and use its strength against it.
Ren realized that his style caused more stress than expected on his body, and he was not wrong, his main focus is defense and counterattack, and for that, it requires a great ability to predict and precision when hitting the enemy with the sword, a quick and skillful judgment to deflect the attack and finally a perfect timing control to counterattack moments after the deflection.
Although the mask helped him go up 4 ranks for a short time, the stress of the stat increased and the lazy style caused incredible pain to Ren, thanks to his mental resistance and determination he can stay focused on the fight.
-brat!
The bald man ran back after the initial shock.
Unfortunately for him, the style defined as hateful was experienced firsthand by the bald man, and for more than a minute he could see how his attacks were blocked, redirected, and counterattacked by a brat.
With each second of the fight his anger only grew more and more and the worst thing was that the bald man ran out of time, at first it was just kicks and punches, but when the sword grazed the bald man's cheek, he felt as if some of his mana had been taken away.
The brat also noticed it, causing a smile on his face and his kicks were now sword strikes, each slash of the brat's sword after the exchange took away mana, and although it was not much for each slash, there were many slashes that he received, he knew that if he loses more mana and enters a state of mana exhaustion, it will be his end.
After stepping back, he saw the brat who still had a stoic look, he could only grit his teeth and shout his special ability
- [shadow attack]
Ren could see how the bald man turned black and sank into his shadow.
Although it was an initial surprise, Ren did not panic, he concentrated on the sounds, making sure to keep an eye on the 2 women who were cuddling on the ground.
'He's too wrapped up in finishing me off, it's a relief.
As Ren's body was not yet accustomed to using the lazy style, in other words, imperfect control, he also received damage from the bald man, on his body some wounds did not stop bleeding due to a characteristic of the bald man's daggers [bleeding]
In the game, there were characteristics that your weapons could obtain depending on the blacksmith, in the game it required mana stones from specific monsters for certain characteristics, but in this case at least, the bald man's weapons had poison which gave him the effect [bleeding]
'Thanks to looking like I'm about to bleed to death, the bald man only focuses on me and not the girls, it was lucky that Aiko's mother understood with my sign that she should not interrupt and give me potions, thanks to the increase in my stats, my recovery ability also increased, which saves me from bleeding to death, but there is not much time left.
A sound of wind approached Ren's back, and the foot Ren was leaning on stopped exerting force causing Ren to begin to fall.
The bald man saw how Ren began to fall, being centimeters from his neck, Ren's sword met the dagger, deflecting it.
'How?
The bald man noticed that all the force of his momentum was being stopped by Ren's leg which was still in contact with the ground, which was in a bad position due to the loss of strength.
The bald man immediately met Ren's free leg and his sword at the same time, the bald man had no choice but to block the sword causing Ren's kick to connect.
When he was launched, the bald man did not hit the wall, he turned into a shadow and melted into the darkness.
Ren returned to his original position and waited for more attacks.
And so attacks began to arrive from Ren's blind spots, and Ren could only block since when trying to return the counterattack with his sword, the bald man sank back into the shadows.
The bald man, seeing his 2nd best move blocked and failed, decided to bet everything, using his remaining mana to end this and use the best of his arsenal.
- [Jack's cut]
The air felt heavy from the bloodlust that appeared in the bald man, Aiko began to tremble strongly at being subjected to such bloodlust, like a girl who did not see the world, her mind went into shock, her mother on the other hand could only hug her daughter in her bosom while covering her eyes and looking at Ren.
'Can he bear it?
Bianca looked at Ren with concern, although Ren showed a fight beyond any expectations, he was still a child, and being subjected to such bloodlust would leave him with fear, even for a moment, like his daughter who did not stop shaking even though she is not even the target of that bloodlust.
'eh?
Both Bianca and the bald man looked at Ren with surprise.
The bald man had this movement called [Jack's cut] as a triple hit, he used his bloodlust, which was the result of the many deaths under his hands along with his mana that enhanced him as a way to affect his opponent, in the game this would give the effect of [stun].
Ren, although he was strong was still a brat in the eyes of the bald man, he hope that this movement stuns Ren and thus jumps towards him with his legs enhanced with mana for a unique and powerful attack.
Instead... Ren's gaze as he faced the bloodlust head-on... there wasn't even a change in his gaze, he kept his stoic gaze as if the bloodlust that was pouring out of the bald man was nothing to him, as if he was used to it.
Seeing his first failed move, the bald man gritted his teeth and jumped toward Ren.
Ren blocked a direct stab that came towards him, but the force of the blow was fast enough to leave him for a moment with both hands raised and his posture broken, but that instant was what the bald man was waiting for.
Ren was about to raise his guard and counterattack when he saw the bald man turn into a mass of shadows and disappear, as the mass disappeared, Ren saw the bald man still in the same position with a smile jumping towards him.
Seeing the attack a second away from connecting with my neck, I thought reluctantly
'um... I didn't even go to school for 3 days
When a person is about to die, they relive their experiences, I thought, what am I going to remember if I was only alive for one day here? I said to myself with irony, but my mind took me to a different memory, something I knew as a curious fact.
I remembered that the brain produces electricity for the nerves to be able to move the body, what if I accelerated my nerve impulses with electric mana? Although it was a new idea, it was something crazy, if I used electricity more than possible, it could fry my nerves, also... I don't know how to use my mana since I never did it.
If I did, there was a good chance I would be paralyzed if I failed with this, who knows what could happen to my body from frying my nerves and overloading my brain, if I didn't, I would die anyway with a dagger to my throat and the women behind me would pay the price, either way, the odds are not in my favor at the moment.
But well, I guess I can't be picky right now right?
I tried to feel the mana in my core, with the idea of guiding it to the brain, and as if it were an extra part of my body, my mana smoothly moved to my brain, overloading my senses, I felt my body faster, while I saw that the dagger that was about to reach my neck seemed slow.
At that moment I thought "This shit is good"
My body faster than before deflected the dagger that was heading for my neck and I moved his body into a position where his neck would hit the wall, it would be lucky if he broke his neck.
The bald man saw how, almost reaching the brat's neck and finally finishing him off, he saw how the brat who had his gaze unfocused for a moment as if he was distracted came back to himself.
But now... something felt different, in that short moment the bald man noticed the movement of mana from his core, he thought it wouldn't make any difference if he could use mana or not, but he changed his mind when he saw that his arms that were raised by the previous clash began to lower them at a great speed, very quickly deflecting the attack that was heading for the brat's neck.
Seeing himself diverted, the bald man tried to cancel his ability, his ability that propelled him was canceled, but his current momentum did not, the laws of physics did their job and the bald man flew into a concrete wall, hit the back of his head, and fainted.
The bald man's last thought before losing consciousness was.
'The brats of today are scary, I would have become a baker'.
Ren remained in a fighting stance waiting for the bald man, despite his unique stance, the women felt a sense of seeing a warrior persevering in the face of difficulty.
Ren in Bianca's eyes, was a 16-year-old boy who appeared to save her, a human boy who should not know anything about the world, but this boy demonstrated great skill and experience with the sword despite his young age, experience that Bianca only saw in men who went through many battles in their lives.
The instant Ren noticed that the bald man was out of action, his body, which had been subjected to stress by 2 artifacts, lightning magic, and a demanding sword art, lost strength completely.
His body began to fall forward, in his last conscious moments, Ren thought
'fuck, I was careful not to hurt my face, it will be bad publicity to go back to school with a bruised nose.
Ren braced himself for the impact of hitting his snout on solid concrete, but the pain didn't reach his face, instead, he felt a warm hug that held him.
Ren heard a motherly voice, for an instant, it reminded him of someone.
-Thanks for coming.
Ren didn't understand why, but a tear came out when he heard those words and he closed his eyes.
(Here the beloved author of more than 100 chapters in advance,
As you can see, I'm reconfiguring my story, I'm sure the narrative will be more cheesy (I hope... rewriting 100 chapters is fun, but exhausting), but those who read back will notice it immediately, and the new ones, I hope you like it.
Here are the words of my self from a year ago:
(Here is the new author.
I must emphasize that, although it seems easy to reach rank D, the truth is not.
The reason why Ren is ranked D does not refer to being a power, it is because to become heroes humans make children from 10 years old do basic exercises until they can enter the academy, Ren should be ranked E in itself, like all normal children except Kiriko and the heroines, but upon realizing that his attribute is lightning, his body began to accept it instinctively, he began to apply mana passively to improve his body, and no, it will not be something like that that he will go up a rank every 5 chapters or something like that, it is one time, and it is something like his way of starting in the world. and that he does not have too many difficulties.
"Are you taking away my sleep time author!?
" why the hell do you put the improvement of my body at one time!?
(For the same reason that I made you lazy, I gave it to you, but if you get used to it, you won't go to training and the developments I planned 5 seconds ago won't happen to you.)
"Just because you're the author I'm letting you win this time. )
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(Does it feel weird to read what I did a year ago, yes or no narrator?)
I don't think so, I still dislike you like 100 chapters ago.
(It doesn't matter, let's see if I change what I said 100 chapters ago)
(Ren came to this world as an E rank, as his body is not trained like many others, it is natural that he has one less rank, the sword that previously gave him 3 stat ranks, now there are 4, and now there is a reason why Aiko carries that sword and mask.
You will have noticed that unlike Ren who received 4 stat ranks, the guardian demon received only 1, it is because there is an abysmal difference between an A rank and a S.
As I said at the beginning, the normal kids who enter All are nobles, almost all of them, therefore, they received an education from a very young age, with the best teachers and the best trainers.
This year, other races are being included, even so, in all races the awakened young people are trained from an early age, on the other hand, Ren Artega as a simple commoner will have to make his way.
Ren's body by using the lightning actively improved his senses, but also passively allowed the neural pulses to improve, which increased his reaction speed and his physical speed, the speed of thought is something that the old Ren had as a bookworm.
These are details that are explained later, but I wanted to explain them now because they are things that are like who says a preview of Ren.
By the way, the next chapter 10.5 will be an adventure of Ren's past life, for the new ones it will be like a preview of what Ren was, and for the old readers it will be new adventure material.
Now yes, see you later dear readers)