NOVEL WEB Chapter 20 – Mock Battle (9)
CRACK—!
He was gone.
And then—
BZZZZZT—!!
Lightning surged behind me.
(Where is he...?)
My eyes widened too late.
A flash grazed my ribs.
Not a punch.
Not a kick.
Just a graze.
And yet—
My body twitched, nerves reacting like they'd been stung by a thousand volts.
"Tch... this is a problem."
I slid back three steps, steam hissing from my side where his strike landed.
Shigeo stood a few meters away now, scratching his head lazily like nothing happened.
"You're pretty sharp," he muttered. "Didn't think you'd read the angle of rebound that fast."
I narrowed my eyes.
(Shigeo's a genius... He's not just reacting—he's calculating. He's already figured out half my movement patterns by now...)
His lightning didn't roar. It hummed soft, constant, almost silent.
Deceptive.
"Static," they call him.
Because once he latches onto your rhythm, your whole body shuts down.
He took a lazy step forward.
"Still want to fight?"
"Of course," I said, planting my foot and channeling energy through my arms.
"You're not the only one with a brain."
Wind around my fists.
Not raw lightning like his.
Mine howled.
Rumbled.
A build-up.
He tilted his head.
"Now. That's reckless."
(Wrong.)
I blurred forward—not aiming for him.
A feint.
I punched the floor beside him, Wind Crack
The explosion sent debris flying.
He moved to counter just as planned.
(You're a genius, Shigeo. But geniuses love patterns...)
He ducked left—
I was already there.
My knee collided with his ribs, lightning and Wind slamming together in a violent shockwave.
BOOM—!
Shigeo flew back, skipping across the arena before stopping on one knee.
He didn't look angry.
He looked... annoyed.
"Tch… You broke my tempo."
"Not complicated enough for you?" I smirked, steadying my breath.
He stood without a word, brushing dust from his uniform as if it were nothing. No pain. No panic.
Just mild inconvenience.
The air shifted again.
Buzzing. Dense.
His fingers twitched.
"Tsk… What a complicated world."
Then, he closed his eyes.
Both hands raised, palms facing one another like he was holding something invisible between them.
A strange gesture like shaping air.
But I knew better.
(No. That pose… this is bad.)
(Shigeo isn't just fast. He's calculating.)
(When he does that… it means he's found a way.)
The space between his hands pulsed, faint arcs of electricity crackling silently, spiraling inward. Not outward like an explosion but inward.
A sphere of compression.
A circuit forming between his palms.
(Damn it… this is his move—)
(Thousand Way.)
A technique only a genius like Shigeo could create.
Not a supermove.
Not raw power.
A predictive web.
A thousand possibilities—simulated in a split-second.
He was calculating every move I could make from this position.
The angle of my stance.
The length of my arms.
My dominant foot.
Even the way my muscles twitched with tension.
And he was eliminating them one by one.
Leaving only paths that led to defeat.
(Shit... this is what he does if he's serious... he creates a way to beat you.)
(Like an algorithm. Like a damn trap.)
I clenched my fists, wind building around my arms.
No time to wait.
No time to breathe.
I had to break it—before he finishes.
My body shot forward like a wind, feet pounding against the floor, closing distance.
(Move before he completes the prediction. Break the pattern. Be unpredictable—)
But Shigeo's eyes opened.
Electric-blue.
And he smiled.
His smile was calm. Too calm.
Like someone who'd already won.
"Caught you."
(Tsk… What a troublesome guy.)
(If only I could use all my power… this would be over already.)
The thought burned in my chest like dragonfire.
But I couldn't.
Not here.
Not in front of them.
(If they find out… if anyone even senses that I'm a Dragonknight… this whole world will flip on its head.)
I grit my teeth, suppressing the rising surge inside me.
My mana veins ached.
My blood stirred.
The Echo within me whispered:
"Unleash. Tear him apart. He's in your way."
But I shut it out.
Not yet.
(Think, Khael. You're not some battle junkie. You're not like the main characters. You're a tactician.)
(Analyze. Deconstruct. Adapt.)
The currents of wind spiraled around my legs, flickering faintly. I masked them behind the stormlight shimmer. Shigeo was good—too good. But if he was calculating every path I could take…
Maybe it was time to take one I shouldn't.
I faked a right lunge—
Then stumbled. On purpose.
(Throw his equation off.)
His expression flickered just for a second.
There.
A gap.
Small. Risky. But real.
I slid low, shoulder grazing the floor, twisting to the opposite side with a dragon step technique half-formed from instinct.
(He didn't calculate this. Because it's stupid. Because it looks like a mistake.)
Shigeo's arms shifted, but not fast enough.
I was inside the range of his "Thousand Way."
He couldn't predict my trajectory because even I didn't know what I was doing.
It was chaos.
And that was my answer.
(Sorry, genius. Sometimes a storm just doesn't make sense.)
I drove my elbow toward his ribs wind-enhanced, minimal mana.
Just enough to hit, not enough to expose my core.
It connected.
He staggered.
Eyes wide.
Like a computer fed the wrong input.
(Got him.)
For a moment, the electric tension around him snapped like a cord had been cut mid-symphony.
He caught his balance, eyes locked on mine.
Not furious.
Not scared.
Just... confused.
"How did you break free from it?" he muttered, voice low, strained.
"You… What are you?"
I smirked, stepping back.
"I'm just your normal guy," I said. "Who only uses wind."
He didn't answer immediately.
The energy around him slowly dimmed—
But his gaze only grew more distant.
Like he wasn't just looking at me anymore—
He was calculating everything.
"...What a complicated world," Shigeo whispered.
Almost like he wasn't talking to me.
Like he was talking to himself.
(Shit. He's not done.)
His fingers twitched again subtle, barely noticeable.
(He's recalculating. Already.)
This wasn't over.
Not even close.
To be continue