I Became A Thief Who Steals Overpowered Skills - Chapter 108

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 108. The Coward

A terrifying storm of Black Flame and lightning swept across the Arena Training Ground.

Within the spectacle of burning away every petal from the World Tree as it fell.

Even the students taking the test stood entranced, watching the display.

Krash’s Extinguishing Flame Sky Thunder far exceeded the level of any student—it looked like the very edge of talent itself.

“……A monster.”

Someone muttered the words without thinking.

The spectacle Krash had unleashed certainly earned the title.

Within those Black Flame infernos.

Krash’s eyes moved urgently.

Crack!

The moment Krash’s Thunder Force activated, the Thunder Star Sword moved.

The instant something formless touched the blade of the Thunder Star Sword.

Boom!

With the explosion that erupted, Krash stumbled backward.

“Hah.”

With a light breath, Krash’s eyes burned red.

Krash recognized exactly what that attack had been.

A bomb of condensed Aura.

A specially crafted Aura Bomb, Kairan’s trademark.

That was how Kairan used to blast apart Great Sea Erosion Species indiscriminately.

The fact that she’d unleashed it on a person meant she’d dropped any pretense of mercy.

‘If she goes all out, I wouldn’t mind if she fell unconscious.’

Krash split another Aura Bomb that came flying through the Black Flame with his sword.

Thanks to his Sixth Sense and Thunder Force, Krash sensed Kairan’s presence as she moved swiftly outside the Black Flame.

She wouldn’t keep up long-range attacks forever.

Her specialty was penetrating close combat with that short dagger of hers.

‘She’s coming.’

In that instant, his Sixth Sense flared.

The instant Krash seized the Thunder Star Sword, three blade streaks connected through the Black Flame.

Clang, clang, clang!

His body, drawing upon the Extinguishing Flame Erosion, parried Kairan’s triple strike with certainty.

Revealed between the Black Flames, Kairan’s uniform was charred and torn in places, her skin darkened by soot.

One arm in particular bore severe burns.

Krash’s Extinguishing Flame Erosion, now that he’d reached Master rank, had grown more potent than before.

Though his Aura mastery was only at the threshold of Master level, his output far transcended that boundary.

And that was precisely what drew out his opponent’s carelessness.

Kairan had even yielded the opening move, fooled entirely.

In that moment, Kairan burrowed deep into Krash’s guard.

Her peculiar short dagger technique left her opponents dizzy and disoriented.

Like someone who’d crossed the sea and now suffered vertigo on solid ground.

Her technique shook the eyes with subtle, calculated precision.

But this time, she faced the wrong opponent.

Krash’s Sixth Sense was a secret art created by a blind swordsman—it did not rely on sight.

Snap!

At the same moment, Krash’s Thunder Force elevated that Sixth Sense even further.

Unlike before, the Cheonsal-seong now compensated for both his body and his natural shortcomings.

As a result, Krash could see through exactly where each of Kairan’s blades would go.

“Ha.”

Kairan let out a bitter laugh.

Every short dagger stroke she unleashed was read completely, never once connecting with him.

His offensive power earlier was already absurd, and his defensive technique was equally formidable.

‘This is like fighting a wall.’

He moved as though racing toward the pinnacle of perfect offense and defense combined.

There wasn’t a single opening in Krash’s form.

What could have shaped him into this?

Even a perfectionist wouldn’t train themselves this way.

To be honest, Kairan herself could find no way through him.

‘Then.’

Kairan drew in a deep breath.

In the same moment, a surging Aura rose and spread throughout her entire body.

Following the rippling Aura, her hair began to shimmer with an ashen hue.

‘If the path isn’t visible, you make one.’

A shimmer of ashen Aura wavered across Kairan’s Short Dagger.

The moment Krash noticed it, Kairan’s Short Dagger was already meeting his Thunder Star Sword.

Crack!

The explosive roar echoed through the Arena Training Ground.

Layered atop Kairan’s Short Dagger was the Aura Bomb she’d thrown just moments before.

It was her secret art—Explosion Lamp Life.

She poured forth greater attacks to shatter the defenses of those who chose to defend.

The explosion that pulverized even Great Sea Erosion Species was difficult for Krash to withstand head-on.

Bang, crack, crack!

Successive detonations tore through the air without pause.

Krash’s brow furrowed.

If Kairan used Explosion Lamp Life this directly, she too could not escape the shockwaves.

Yet she unleashed it regardless—she was determined to scatter his Thunder Force by any means.

‘She’s relentless.’

This was, in essence, a battle of endurance—and Kairan had initiated it.

Whoosh!

In that instant, Black Flame erupted from the edge of Krash’s blade.

Boom!

Where Krash’s sword and Kairan’s Short Dagger collided head-on, explosion and Black Flame consumed them both.

Kairan’s eyes met Krash’s.

From his last counterattack, she understood exactly what he was thinking.

A thin smile played at Krash’s lips as sweat dripped down his face.

Sorry, but endurance is my specialty.

“If you’re going for a direct breakthrough,”

Krash’s Black Flame burned more fiercely.

“I’ll break through directly as well.”

It’s a matter of stamina—Black Flame versus Explosion. Whoever lasts longer wins.

* * *

By the time Black Flame and Explosion had engulfed the entire Arena Training Ground,

everyone had stopped to watch, leaving the second test effectively suspended.

And among those watching was Mery Diana herself.

The sight before her unsettled her.

The Krash she saw now was markedly different from before.

The proof lay in the fact that he held his own against the Pirate Empress Kairan without yielding an inch, clashing blades with her head-on.

Barely fifteen years old.

It was almost impossible to believe he’d reached such a height at that age.

Even Mery, blessed with the Heavenly Martial Body, could not have fought like that at fifteen.

Or perhaps she still couldn’t, even now.

In the old days,

She could sense with absolute certainty that she was going to be cast aside.

Sigrin was the type to excise whatever he deemed unnecessary without hesitation.

‘No. No, that can’t happen. Not that.’

If Sigrin abandoned her, Arthur might abandon her too.

Mery Diana had long since noticed that Arthur held Sigrin in slightly higher regard than himself.

Caught in the grip of an obsession to win.

Meanwhile, the battle between Krash and Kairan raged on.

By now both their bodies were singed and slashed from the relentless exchange of blows.

Even with physical prowess and Aura defense, there was always a limit.

And so both of them were becoming increasingly battered.

Yet even in this deadlock, there was a shift in advantage.

Just as Kairan had devoted herself entirely to attack.

Krash too had altered the trajectory of the Thunder Force.

The Thunder Force was a secret art born of the Tyrant Sword combined with Lionner.

With the Thunder Qi from Lionner added to it, the Thunder Force moved slow to the eye, yet filled every space where the opponent’s attack would land.

The Thunder Force could rightfully be called the next realm beyond the Tyrant Sword’s mastery of space.

But in this moment, Krash changed his approach.

Because he could predict every one of her attacks, he swung his blade first at the very point where her strike would arrive.

The result: Krash’s sword seized the space before her attack could even complete.

Thud!

Kairan’s short dagger twisted and recoiled against Krash’s blade.

Kairan’s eyes widened in shock.

Yet Krash’s sword did not pause, driving deeper into her attack space once more.

A speed one level faster than Kairan’s own assault.

Even though Kairan was the one choosing to attack, she felt as though she were the one being attacked.

Kairan felt her breath catch in her throat.

Krash’s strikes, enhanced by Extinguishing Flame Erosion, were already crushing in their weight.

To wield them in such a manner left her feeling as though she were trapped in an airless chamber.

Krash’s sword was no longer the realm of the Tyrant Sword.

Tyrant Sword.

It had transformed into a tyrannical sword that existed solely to obliterate its opponent.

And Kairan’s body, meeting it head-on, could not withstand the force—she found herself driven steadily backward.

The pirate empress, renowned even in the twilight years of her fame, was being overpowered by sheer strength.

Krash’s crimson eyes, ablaze with the Extinguishing Flame Erosion, rippled with intensity.

Krash’s Tyrant Sword evoked the image of a demon.

Seeing it, Kairan understood.

She grasped that time was running short—that she would not be able to defend against his blade for much longer.

Even now, Krash’s sword was closing in on her.

Soon enough, it would shatter her defense entirely and press against her throat.

‘Good thing I didn’t accept that teaching position.’

The Aura shrouding Kairan’s blade began to exceed its former level by far.

Her ash-gray hair, luminous with Aura, danced in the wind.

‘There’s no shame in going all-out against a student.’

Then—a single move, face-to-face.

She would pour everything into that one strike.

Kairan’s Aura Blade, the mark of a Master, burned a brilliant crimson in this moment, radiating fierce heat.

“Everyone, get back!”

The test monitors who witnessed this began hastily pulling the students nearby away from the area.

The sheer volume of Aura gathered in Kairan’s blade was powerful enough to tear apart the very air around them.

It was a level of force that should never be unleashed against an entrance applicant.

But Kairan had already forgotten that Krash was merely an admission candidate.

An opponent worthy of meeting with full power.

That recognition alone flooded her mind.

As if she had resolved to obliterate this entire arena.

Kairan’s short dagger extended toward Krash.

Explosion Lamp Life.

Great Explosion Star.

Kairan’s secret technique—the one that had shattered a Great Sea Erosion Species in a single strike.

And then came the moment when Krash’s blade and Kairan’s dagger, imbued with the Great Explosion Star, were about to cross.

Crack!

The blade of Krash’s sword, which had been bearing down on Kairan’s dagger, suddenly began to fracture.

The moment Kairan’s eyes widened at the sight.

Clang!

Then Krash’s sword blade shattered into fragments.

Because of that, Kairan’s Great Explosion Star tore through empty air instead of Krash’s sword.

Boom!

The explosion of the Great Explosion Star consumed the entire arena.

But beneath that blast.

Krash, who had deliberately shattered the Thunder Star Sword’s blade, held it again in the lowest possible stance, gripping it tight.

Kairan understood then.

Krash had never intended a direct confrontation from the start.

The provocative display and head-on counters he’d shown before were designed to bait her into unleashing her full strength.

From beginning to end, this man had been waging a careful war of tactics.

For this single moment.

Thunder rumbled.

And there, the Thunder Star Sword’s blade had already reformed once more, scattering golden light.

Upon that reformed blade, Krash’s full power was concentrated once again.

Deep within the spirit.

In that moment when a single droplet fell upon the Lake of Spirit, sending ripples across its surface.

The waterspout that rose gathered entirely upon Krash’s blade.

And then that blade reached Kairan, who bore the burden on her body from unleashing the Great Explosion Star.

Kairan swallowed a laugh at the sight of that blade before her eyes.

‘The coward.’

If he still had that much power left, the least he could do is give her a fair fight.

Extinguishing Flame Erosion.

Second Form.

Extinguishing Flame Heaven Sword.

In that moment when the Black Flame consumed the arena alongside Kairan’s brief regret.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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