Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 51

Chapter 51
Daggers, these little blades, seemed weak at first glance. No matter how deep the cut, the blade was often too short to sever a limb, and even when fully driven into the body, they sometimes failed to deal a fatal blow.
Compared to a spear that could pierce through multiple enemies and still have reach to spare, or a longsword that could cleave through a waist with more than enough room, the dagger was at a clear disadvantage.
That was why dagger users often coated their blades in poison or launched surprise attacks from close range to overcome that lack of reach. In reality, most who wielded daggers as their main weapon ended up being assassins or rangers.
A melee weapon ill-suited for head-on battles—that was the precise assessment of the dagger. It lacked power, and it lacked range.
Without poison or surprise, a dagger lost most of its effectiveness. So, adventurers and mercenaries rarely considered it more than a sidearm.
However, things seemed a little different in this duel.
Blades clashed five times in an instant with not a moment to spare. Leon tightened his grip on the hilt of the Holy Sword, twisting the blade to meet the next strike. The difference in attack speed was at least threefold. Any hesitation made it nearly impossible to counter the following blow.
Contrary to popular belief, dagger techniques rarely relied on one-hit kills. Instead, shallow strikes were rapidly repeated to whittle down the opponent’s stamina and defenses, and then a decisive blow was landed. Precisely what Karen was demonstrating now.
She’s fast!
Leon thought.
His eyes darted in every direction. Even in his slowed-down world under Rodrick’s Vision, her movements were hard to follow.
He had learned this in the Academy too—without Aura, a spear was over three times stronger than a sword. The difference in reach was absolute, and even with a skill gap, closing that distance wasn’t easy.
The difference between a sword and a dagger was even greater. By that logic, Karen shouldn’t even be able to approach him.
“
Hah
, you’re blocking my attacks pretty well,” Karen mused.
Despite her words, she never lost the upper hand. Grinning with two daggers, one in each hand, she crouched low. Leon knew all too well how deadly those thin fingers could become.
So this is the third stage of Dagger Mastery...
El-Cid once said that being intermediate, the second stage, only made one a skilled user. From advanced and onward began the domain of true masters—a realm where one handled a weapon better than their own body and defied logic with technique.
Karen’s dagger skill had reached that height. She used the short blade length to rotate the dagger within her hand, pushing the limits of both trajectory and power.
“I’m gonna turn it up a couple of notches, okay? Because, well...”
With that, Karen vanished with a sharp burst. It was way too fast.
Her speed was even more threatening than the dagger techniques themselves. Leon could barely catch a faint afterimage.
“...your eyes really are a cheat, Mr. Hero.”
Tracking her by voice was impossible; Karen herself had taught him that. Some assassin techniques could distort sound. Turning his head toward a whisper behind him would only expose a fatal opening.
So Leon narrowed his eyes. However, he couldn’t rely on vision. His Vision had evolved from fighting Karen’s Mirage, but that also made her critique his overreliance on his eyes. Ever since then, she’d been targeting his blind spots.
I need to master Aura Sense.
Invisible currents began to flow around Leon. His Aura, faint and thin, awakened a sixth sense beyond the five he was born with. It felt like scanning his surroundings with his palm.
Unfortunately, even that wasn’t enough. Karen’s presence was like a ghost’s—hard to detect. Her Aura was nearly nonexistent. Even in hyper-focus, it was barely a flicker.
“
Phew
...”
Leon exhaled naturally and relaxed his entire body as he poured his intent into the Aura extending beyond his body, sharpening his senses. Just like Karen had taught him, treating the outward Aura like extended blood vessels, he formed a skin-like membrane around himself.
One-meter radius was the effective range of Aura Sense for fighting Karen. Any further, and accuracy dropped sharply.
Where is she?
A flood of stimuli crossed his sharpened senses. The shift in the wind, the scent of bread from somewhere, even the vibration of earth where Karen had pushed off.
Time slowed to a crawl—one second stretched into a minute. He concentrated. No thoughts. Only focus.
And with a bright
clang,
he parried.
“
Oh
? You found me.”
Karen chuckled as she retreated. She was now fighting as an assassin, not an adventurer—strike from stealth, and if it fails, fall back and try again. Rinse and repeat until success.
If not once, then twice. If not twice, then three times. If stamina ran low, retreat and wait for another chance.
I can’t keep up with her speed, and if I try a poor counter, I’ll die.
They were on flat, open ground, and she wasn’t even using the shadows, and yet it was like this. Leon could now imagine what it was like to be hunted by the Keeper.
He rid himself of the pointless thoughts. Again, and again, he withstood eight of Karen’s surprise attacks. He even reacted to the ninth but misread her angle.
Karen removed her dagger from his neck and complimented him.
“Nice, two more blocks than the day before yesterday. And it doesn’t feel like you’re just getting used to me—it’s more like your movements are becoming more efficient? I guess the training to stop relying on your eyes really paid off.”
“Yeah. Maybe...”
Leon nodded, but he knew the truth. The real reason for his improved movements was reviewing the forms of the three strikes El-Cid had shown him three weeks ago. The first was a bit off, the second perfect, and the third went beyond even that.
I didn’t think my body could move like that...
He thought he knew his limits. This was his own body that he trained every day. He had assumed that even if he gave it his all, the difference would be negligible—a foolish notion, in hindsight.
I can go much further than this.
Fingers, wrists, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles—he had seen a perfect model answer that no amount of verbal instruction could replicate. The memory of that ideal form still lingered in his muscles.
So all he had to do was study and absorb it. Just improving a few motions had already raised his skills noticeably.
That moment, Caesare stepped forward from where he’d been watching the two train.
“
Hmm
. Then it’s my turn now,” he said.
Karen jumped in surprise and asked, “You’re really going right away? Without a break?”
“Yes. Hero Leon hardly used any Aura, isn’t that right?”
“Well, that’s true, but...”
Karen looked a little tired of training, but Caesare only turned to Leon with a bright smile.
“With your mental fortitude, Hero Leon, it shouldn’t be a problem—correct?”
“
Phew
...”
Leon wiped the sweat from his palm and gripped his sword again. Caesare was right—training with Karen had been purely physical, so all he needed was a short rest to recover his stamina. A few sips of water and a moment of focused breathing were enough.
“Let’s get started,” Leon said.
“Excellent!”
As Leon raised his sword to the middle guard, Caesare seized the iron chain separated from the ball in both hands.
At that moment, two Auras flared to life. Just like before, Caesare’s aura shimmered in silver-white, while Leon’s blazed in gold. The Sun and Moon Auras trembled in resonance, vibrating as if calling to one another.
I can finally stabilize it now,
Leon thought as he glanced down at the golden Aura coursing through his sword.
He had achieved Aura manifestation the previous week, but only recently had he managed to maintain it consistently. It was around that time he began sparring with Caesare regularly.
Since he still couldn’t wield it freely, the focus of their training was on reacting to Caesare’s attacks.
“Here I come!”
The chains lashed out with a metallic slither. Caesare, whose skill had already reached the expert level, made the ends of the chain writhe like live serpents. They surged from multiple directions, sweeping toward Leon’s body.
Even with the force restrained, it was still an Aura Weapon attack. A mere graze could tear flesh.
I need to combine evasion with defense.
Leon’s eyes sharpened at the center of the incoming chains. A whip narrowly missed and slammed into the ground, cracking the earth and kicking up shards of stone.
He deflected the next strike with his blade and batted away a chain trying to wrap around his neck. When he took two steps back through the gap he created, the encirclement loosened.
Of course, Caesare’s technique didn’t stop there.
“That’s not all, Hero Leon!”
Now the chains slithered along the ground and sprang up with the ferocity of venomous snakes. Human anatomy was particularly vulnerable to low attacks. Caesare’s strike targeted that weakness precisely.
Just dodging and blocking isn’t going to be enough for this one.
Reading the trajectory, Leon thrust his sword into the chains’ path. The two auras clashed and shredded at one another.
In terms of attribute advantage, the Sun held a slight edge—but it wasn’t absolute like against Shadow. Caesare’s Aura, refined through years of discipline, was denser than Leon’s.
Still, it was enough to push back the chain, which had its power split among multiple segments. The chains tangled and recoiled, thrown off their devious trajectory.
Now.
Leon stepped forward. Moving sideways or backward would only keep him within the chain’s range. It was better to close the distance.
With a weapon like a chain, maintaining range was everything. Letting the enemy get too close was crippling.
“Correct decision, Hero Leon.”
Caesare praised him even as he moved his hands with deft precision. The chains danced, interweaving to block the path. One strand could be cut. But four or five? That was pushing it.
Or is it?
Leon’s body moved faster than expected. Tilting his body diagonally, he channeled his Aura across the blade in a flowing motion.
“Grand Chariot, Second Form, Merak,” Leon muttered the name of the horizontal slash that had once cleaved both arms and the neck of the Evil’s bloody giant creature in a single stroke.
I still can’t release the Aura from my sword, but... if I just swing with the Aura embedded...
The sword lit up. A radiant golden glow flared so brightly it was dazzling. Leon even felt a moment of vertigo from its intensity—proof of its overwhelming output.
He forced his focus higher. That power El-Cid once called “will”—he now summoned it not through instinct but by sheer intent.
However, as recoil, a nosebleed burst from one nostril. No matter. he could endure it.
Unwavering, Leon poured every ounce of his focus into the sword. The golden Aura began to move in response to his will.
He compressed his Aura. Layer upon layer, he condensed it onto the blade until only the sword glowed with a faint golden hue. Blood vessels bulged in his eyes from the strain, but he had to swing while it was in this state.
I could pull this off maybe twice. Three if I’m willing to faint after.
This was the Sword of Eclipse, and Leon was now capable of using it once without overexerting himself. Moving his breathless body with effort, he slashed diagonally with the golden blade.
Every chain caught in that arc was sliced clean through with a sharp cutting sound, crashing to the ground with a cascade of metallic clamor. Even Caesare couldn’t hide his surprise.
“Hero Leon, this is...”
“It’s still an incomplete technique.”
Leon relaxed his trembling hands. He was nowhere near perfecting the Grand Chariot yet. He knew the feel of it—but couldn’t yet replicate it fully. That filled him with self-frustration.
The Sword of Eclipse was nothing more than a temporary measure, a shortcut he devised to wield an unfinished technique. However, it was at least enough to land a blow. That much, he had achieved.
Unfortunately, Caesare’s high praise didn’t truly land because of that very reason.
“Amazing! For someone who only just began wielding Aura Weapons to produce this level of cutting power...!”
And just then—
“Um, sorry to interrupt, but...”
Karen stood by the rear gate, now back in her outdoor clothes. She’d apparently gone out at some point and returned without anyone noticing.
As the two turned to her, she smiled brightly and said, “A guest came to the Guild to see you.”
Leon lowered his sword and asked back, “Who is it?”
“You know Lize, right? The receptionist?”
“She’s the one who handles all my cases. Of course, I know!”
And he knew what her visit meant. He picked up the towel he’d left nearby and wiped his sweat-soaked hair. As the coolness settled on his scalp, his mind—fogged by combat focus—returned to its usual clarity.
Leon realized at once. It was finally time to leave this city.