I Became the Youngest Disciple of the Martial God

Hectors condition was terrible.

It was difficult to tell it was him at a glance, he was so bloody. More than his wounds, though, it was his exhaustion that seemed the bigger issue.

One could tell that he had been swinging his sword the entire day with how many wolf corpses surrounded him.

Woof!

I punched a wolf that was charging me.

My flame-covered fist slammed into the wolfs lower jaw. I felt its teeth and jawbone both shatter from my punch.

Crunch.

Right after breaking its jaw, I grabbed its extra-large mane.

Grasping its coarse hair, I picked up the wolf and threw it forward.

They had their mouths open, which ended up being filled with the wolfs corpse.

I looked at the staggered wolves and thrust my right palm forward.

White Sun Form. Second Technique

Flaming Wheel.

Maybe it was thanks to diligently making time to train with the mystic bead, but my flaming wheel was double the size itd been the last time Id used it as it swept up the wolves.

The remaining ones...

There were four wolves left, but I didnt need to kill them myself.

My team members had already succeeded in dealing with them.

Crunch!

Sharyls mace shattered the spine of one of the panicked wolves.

...Fuu.

Seeing Sharyl let out a deep breath, I joked, I told you, coming out here lets you relax a bit. And its good exercise!

Are you really saying that right now? Sharyl noted that Hector was about to collapse, so she quickly ran over and supported him. Sir Hector, are you okay? My goodness, look at these injuries...

When she immediately went to take out the potion, I stopped her.

Sharyl.

What now!

Thats something we bought with our points. We cant just use it lightly.

Are you joking right now?

Do you think I am?

The potion had been bought with the points of all our members.

It would be fine to use it on one of us if we were injured, but using it on someone from another team was a completely different matter.

...

Sharyl bit down on her lip.

She wasnt stupid, so she should be able to understand my intentions.

But... at this rate, Sir Hector will...

Hes not even that injured.

What?

Even though hes covered in blood, most of it isnt his blood. He should be fine if he sleeps for a bit. Right, Hector?

Hector had an expensive body. He had consumed all sorts of elixirs while he was growing.

His body was on a completely different level than an ordinary young heros.

Hector slightly pushed Sharyl away as he said, ...Its as Luan says. Im fine.

He then looked at me and let out a sigh.

Im in your debt, Luan. This debt...

You wont forget and will repay someday?

...Yeah.

I smirked before looking up at Charon in the trees.

Well talk about that later. I want to talk with him first.

Jump.

Unexpectedly, Charon jumped down from the tree.

He then glared at me.

Why were you only watching?

Are you saying I needed to save Hector Bednicker or something?

If you werent going to, you shouldve pissed off. Im asking why you were just sitting there and watching it all happen.

He refused my offer.

Id arrived in the middle of the battle, so I didnt know exactly what had happened.

However, judging by the attitude Hector had shown in the end and Charons words, I could guess.

I didnt expect you to be so obsessed with points even in a situation like this.

Hectors danger is an opportunity for me. Im not a fool that would kick away an opportunity that found me.

Do you even know whats going on in this forest?

It seems demons have appeared.

...

I was speechless.

So even while understanding the situation, he was threatening Hector for some points?

Luan Bednicker, I knew from the beginning that you were hiding your strength. You were intentionally half-assing all the lessons to seem weak and detestable.

Youre mistaken about that.

I hadnt hidden my strength.

I hadnt half-assed my lessons either.

Id panting while running because I hadnt wanted to use my internal energy, but Charon had mistakenly thought that I was acting weak instead.

But you arent the only one who has hidden his power. For you all, the training camp is a place of suffering, but not for me. I have never lived in a more comfortable place in my life.

...

Even if you are a child of the Great Houses, youre just a fragile flower protected by those houses. I am on a different level than you.

He had a weird sense of pride.

Like something you would hear from an old man, perhaps?

I have suffered so much more than you, so compared to what Ive experienced, your experiences are nothing...

People who said things like that tended to have terrible personalities.

Then should we settle this here?

What do you mean?

Your points.

Hearing that, Charons eyes lit up.

Are you saying we should bet our points? On a duel?

No. Just give me all your points. Everything you have. I extended my arm toward Charon, elbow bent, and motioned twice with my hand, fingers curling inward. Or get stomped here like a rat.

* * * * *

* * * * *

Charon looked at me for a moment before smirking.

Ill take that as an invitation to fight.

W-wait. Are you really going to spar here? This isnt the time to

As Evan quickly tried to interject with logic, Charon drew his shortsword from its scabbard and then immediately charged me.

Melee?

His specialty should be long range.

In any case, this wasnt a bad battle for me.

Charon swung his shortsword.

We were still about ten steps away from each other. Forget a sword, even a spear wouldnt reach me at this distance.

Vwoong!

Charons shortsword emitted something.

I narrowed my brows.

It wasnt sword ki. Only sword masters were capable of launching an attack with sword ki.

Even if it was Charon, that was impossible.

Meaning...

Its his blessing.

I couldnt see the attack properly because the surroundings were so dark, but the attack was so loud that it wasnt difficult to dodge.

After dodging the slash, I looked in front of me, but Charon had disappeared.

Slice!

I heard the air tear behind me. Even without looking, I could tell that it was an arrow.

I grabbed the flying arrow with my bare hand.

...!

I could sense shock coming from Charon, hidden somewhere in the forest.

I threw the arrow back in his direction, and Charons presence instantly disappeared.

It wasnt that hed stealthily hidden himself; he was teleporting short distances.

Another blessing.

Short-range teleportation was actually pretty common among blessings.

The Lord of Blood and Iron had something similar, as did Sellen.

Charon probably had a similar blessing as well.

Id guess he has three or four blessings.

If hed received five or more blessings, it wouldve been a hot topic. I would have heard about it.

Also, there were countless types of blessings.

Since it was unlikely that all his blessings were related to combat, I probably only needed to be wary of his ranged slash and his teleportation.

Charons presence repeatedly appeared and disappeared around me.

It was a trick to try and dull my senses, but frankly, it was useless.

Bang!

I slammed my right foot down and made the earth quake.

The corpses of the wolves lurched into the air as the terrain around me was disturbed.

...!

And Charon, who had just finished another short-range teleport, stopped moving for a moment.Gt latest ovel chpters on nv(e)lbj/n(.)c/m

This was one of the tricks Id learned while living as a mercenary.

A weakness of skills like teleportation was that the user was naturally slow to take in information about the terrain around them.

It wasnt like they were moving directly while observing their surroundings; there was a delay in their reactions because their surroundings before teleporting suddenly looked different afterward.

It was a short pause, less than a second long...

But one second was more than enough to end a fight.

Crack!

Kugh...

Charon stumbled after being punched in the face.

Even as he did, he used his right hand to aim for a critical strike against me.

He definitely had more experience in real fights than most young heroes, but he was still just a baby chick.

He was much weaker than the average mercenary or even the cult assassins Id fought in the Gem Mountains.

Grab.

I stopped the attack of the shortsword aimed for my neck and kicked Charon in the stomach.

Keuk...!

Charon gritted his teeth as he swung his left hand, but most of his attacks were blocked by me.

What are you doing? Is this all you can do?

At that moment, Charons expression shifted.

I sensed killing intent from his eyes and his expression, and he began to attack me while ignoring his own safety.

They were reckless attacks, the kind I would expect from assassins, and they were much sharper than any of his prior attacks.

I could tell what he was thinking as well.

If I were inexperienced, I wouldve shrunk back from these attacks.

Even if I had real combat experience, feeling the weight of death was an entirely different matter.

I stopped his shortsword with my palm.

...!

Charons eyes widened to the point that I thought they might tear.

He was more surprised than I had ever seen before.

With my left hand now punctured, I kicked Charons face.

Ugh...

Who did you learn this attack from? Its not a skill a young hero should have. Was it your father?

Shut... up.

No.

I didnt imbue any internal energy into my palm as I slapped his face.

No, no, no, no, no.

Slap, slap!

Every time I hit his face, Charons head spun left and right.

Honestly, because his face was pretty lean, there wasnt any texture, but I intentionally only slapped his face.

There were two reasons for this.

Firstly, people like himwho lived and died on their pridedidnt have any tolerance for humiliation.

And secondly, focusing my attacks on one place was my specialty.

Ill kill you...!

At first, Charon glared at me in defiance...

Slap, slap!

S-stop... Let go...

But after a dozen slaps, his resistance faltered significantly...

Slap, slap!

Around twenty slaps in, he declared defeat.

I-I los

Of course, even though his face was now bloated, he still had a surprising amount of energy left, so I didnt stop slapping.

Slap, slap...!

By the time thirty slaps had turned to forty...

Charon was no longer resisting. He was just mumbling quietly.

Around this point, I stopped.

I listened closely to try and hear what he was struggling to say.

...rry...

What?

Sor... I... sorry...

Aha.

He fell unconscious.

I finally let go of Charon. As I turned to Hector, I recalled having done something similar.

...

Hectors eyes had been clenched shut the entire time.