The Archmage’s Swordsmanship Is Too Strong - Chapter 15

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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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15
Chapter 15. I Was Already Gone From That Place
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The far edge of the ruins reeked of death. As we pushed through the forest of collapsed buildings, a worn and weathered Training Ground came into view.
This place, once a military installation long ago, was now nothing more than a concrete tomb overgrown with weeds.
With each step, fragments of broken cement dust billowed up and pricked the tip of my nose.
The gray sky hung heavy, as though it might collapse at any moment, and the air, laden with moisture and dust, left my lungs feeling damp with every breath I drew.
Screeeech—!
The silence was shattered by the trembling hand of the Hunter who stood at the front. A signal flare shot skyward from his grip.
Blue flame tore through the gray curtain of sky and surged upward. It was a signal of survival, a proclamation marking the end of this hellish trial.
“It’s over……”
That short utterance, spilling from someone’s lips, became a detonator.
“We made it. We actually made it!”
The Hunters whose grip on tension had finally snapped collapsed to the ground one by one. Their faces were caked with mud, the black blood of monsters, and their own sweat all mixed together.
Group C and Group D. The momentum they’d carried when first passing through the Gate was nowhere to be found. Only seven survivors remained.
Standing at the exit with dozens of fallen comrades left behind, their figures looked not just tragic but pitiable.
Yet in their trembling eyes flickered both the relief that only survivors could know and the strange pride of having walked out of hell itself.
Thud, thud.
Lee Seong-chan approached me with heavy steps. The massive Shield that weighed upon his shoulders was dented and warped in places, having lost its original form.
He tapped my shoulder with his calloused hand. The muscles of his arm, which had gripped the Shield, trembled faintly in what looked like convulsions.
That was a medal of honor that a man who’d stood on the front lines as a tank, taking claw and fang, had to bear.
“You’ve been through so much, Do Jin.”
His voice was rough, tinged with the rasp of metal, yet it carried genuine camaraderie.
“You worked hard too, Seong-chan.”
“Ha, well……. I couldn’t do this twice. I don’t know how many times I almost lost my head out there.”
He simply collapsed where he stood and pulled out the water pouch at his hip. The tips of his fingers quivered as he opened the cap.
Lukewarm water ran down his throat, and his Adam’s apple bobbed noticeably. The other Hunters around him were much the same.
They checked each other’s wounds, adjusted their torn clothes, and savored the rush of liberation.
The hope that soon they could return, wash their bodies in cold water, bury themselves in soft beds, and fall into deep, dreamless sleep.
That sweet fantasy filled the Training Ground.
But I could not collapse with them.
A cool sensation trickled down my spine. Mana rippled.
No—it was not a simple ripple but a colossal wave compressing the entire atmosphere.
From beyond the clouds, at a vast altitude, something of tremendous mass was in free fall.
‘…It’s coming.’
Instinct screamed a warning. My lips hadn’t even fully closed.
Kuuuuung—!
The atmosphere shrieked. A sound like wind tearing at the eardrum poured down from overhead.
The gray clouds of the sky spiraled around a single point, and a black meteor plummeted vertically to earth.
It was a descent that transcended any physical force a human body could produce—nearly a cataclysm.
The center of the Training Ground erupted and flipped. Concrete slabs crumpled like paper and scattered into the air.
A hurricane of dirt and dust swept outward, engulfing the Hunters. Those caught in the shockwave screamed and tumbled backward.
The Training Ground became a scene of utter chaos in an instant.
“Cough! What, what is this! What in the world is happening!”
“An attack? Did it follow us all the way here?”
“No……. It wasn’t supposed to end like this?”
Confusion and fear once again seized the Training Ground. The Hunters fumbled for their weapons and reached for them, but their muscles had already hit their limit and wouldn’t obey.
From within the cloud of swirling dust, a figure uncannily still rose to its feet with eerie slowness.
Thud.
The footsteps were heavy. It was not the sound of feet touching ground, but the weight of treading directly upon the hearts of the survivors.
As the wind blew the dust away, the figure revealed defied all expectations.
A black sleeveless shirt. Across the prominent muscles visible through it were countless scars from many battlefields, scattered in disarray.
Draped casually across his shoulders was an enormous Battle Axe that towered taller than a man.
It was the Examiner, Yoo Hye-sung.
“You held out well.”
He slowly, deliberately surveyed us who stared up at him in stupor. Wherever his gaze fell, a prickling killing intent rose beneath the skin.
“But don’t misunderstand. The picnic ends here.”
Click.
He lowered the axe from his shoulders to the ground.
It was merely the blade touching the earth, yet the air of the Training Ground grew heavy, as if thousands of tons of lead had been poured into it.
“Now we begin the Final Trial.”
Final Trial. At those words, the Hunters’ faces drained of all color. Their bodies were already battered beyond recognition, their spirits worn to the breaking point.
But Yoo Hye-sung continued as if their circumstances meant nothing to him.
“Scenario setup. You’ve encountered a villainous Awakened who stole a precious Mana Stone from deep within the Gate and murdered his comrades in cold blood to cover his tracks.”
He hoisted an enormous Battle Axe, leveling it at us. The sharp blade surface reflected no light from the gray sky—only a cold, savage darkness emanated from its edge.
“The villain is me.”
It was no jest. His eyes held the readiness of a predator about to charge down and reduce every living creature before him to meat.
“Time limit: five minutes. Your final test is to survive this place without being killed by me.”
The opponent was Yoo Hye-sung, notorious among active B-rank Hunters as a combat fanatic.
To newly awakened Hunters who had barely completed the Tutorial was like asking them to endure the jaws of a tiger.
“This is insane! We’re already at our limit!”
“How is this even fair? You should at least give us time to recover!”
Despair twisted into rage and erupted outward. It was less a protest than the pathetic shriek of those denying the death closing in around them.
But Yoo Hye-sung snorted and adjusted his grip on the axe shaft.
“Quit your whining. Does a villain check your condition before he comes to carve you up? Instead of sniveling, grab your weapon properly. That’s the only way any of you last even one more second.”
A brilliant blue Aura began to ripple across his entire body. Several Hunters’ legs gave out beneath them, and they collapsed where they stood.
An overwhelming wall that crushed even the will to fight. And it stood before them, utterly real.
But then, a dull sound cut through the silence.
“······Fine. Let’s do this.”
It was Lee Seong-chan. With trembling hands, he picked up the two crumpled Shields and reset his grip.
His face was pallid with fear, yet his eyes burned with light. Not the absence of terror, but the courage to suppress it and take one more step forward.
“Are we going to die here? After we’ve come this far, I’d rather not end it like this!”
Thud!
He drove his Shield into the ground and lowered his stance. His rough, labored breathing became white vapor that scattered into the air. His broad back loomed especially large.
‘Passing grade.’
I whispered it softly in my mind. Yoo Hye-sung’s intent in creating this absurd scenario was clear. This test wasn’t about beating Yoo Hye-sung.
It was asking a fundamental question: Could they hold their ground before absolute power and terror? Could they raise a Shield for their comrades? What it meant to be a true Hunter.
Lee Seong-chan answered that question with his actions.
“Yeah, damn it! Five minutes! We just have to hold on for five minutes somehow!”
“Let’s go! We can’t die here!”
Lee Seong-chan’s courage became kindling, and it spread. The Hunters who had collapsed to their knees staggered back to their feet. Defiant eyes turned toward Yoo Hye-sung.
“Not bad.”
Yoo Hye-sung’s mouth twisted savagely. The predator’s delight at prey that bared its teeth.
“Punch drunk passed. Now let’s see if your actual skill matches that much spirit.”
Whoosh—!
There was no warning. Yoo Hye-sung’s body moved faster than the sound of rending air.
He didn’t vanish from sight—he approached at a speed that exceeded the brain’s capacity to process.
“Scatter!”
As my cry echoed across the Training Ground, an explosive shockwave erupted.
Boom!
The place where the Hunters had been standing moments before exploded into a massive crater.
Where the Battle Axe had grazed past, deep and jagged crevasses carved themselves into the earth.
“Gagh!”
“Aaaahhh!”
Unable to withstand the impact, the Hunters scattered like autumn leaves in all directions. I kept low and let the debris pass over me. Yoo Hye-sung didn’t stop.
His gaze was already fixed on the next target: Lee Seong-chan. He was clearly intent on crushing first the one foolish enough to charge forward.
“Take this!”
Yoo Hye-sung swung the axe in a wide horizontal arc. The trajectory itself was simple. But overwhelming mass and velocity filled that simplicity.
The air was driven back by the blade, forming a massive wall of wind.
“Uuuurraaahhh!”
Lee Seong-chan roared. He deployed his unique skill, Aegis’s Blessing. A translucent, silvery barrier materialized between his two Shields.
A defensive stance powered by every scrap of Mana he possessed—his greatest output to date.
Screeeech—!
But the result was brutal. The moment the giant Battle Axe blade made contact with the barrier, the golden shield shattered like a window struck by a hammer.
The steel Shields crumpled like tissue, and the impact transferred directly into Lee Seong-chan’s body.
“Gruahhhhh!”
Lee Seong-chan rocketed backward. After rolling across the Training Ground floor a dozen times and slamming into a dust-filled crater, his momentum finally ceased.
His arms, still gripping the Shields, twisted at grotesque angles and trembled uncontrollably, while dark blood poured ceaselessly from the corner of his mouth. One blow. Just one.
A demonstration of overwhelming force that rendered everything a tank stood for utterly meaningless.
Yoo Hye-sung approached the fallen Lee Seong-chan slowly. Then he raised the axe once more above his head. It was the posture of a coup de grâce—cold and efficient.
“Don’t get up. The moment you try to force yourself to your feet, that’s when you really die.”
The low-pitched warning carried the weight of a command. Lee Seong-chan’s pupils contracted in terror. The killing intent radiating from the man before him was no bluff.
That was when it happened.
“Now! Fire!”
Ranger, who had been watching for an opening from behind, screamed out the order. The special arrow he’d been saving for last cleaved through the air.
Whistle—Bang!
The arrow detonated above Yoo Hye-sung’s head. Dense silver smoke poured down like a waterfall, engulfing the entire Training Ground in an instant. A Fog Shot.
It was a smoke flare that completely severed vision and disrupted the flow of mana. A tactic that had proven effective against the Mirror Golem.
‘……A blunder.’
I clicked my tongue softly. The tactical assessment had been wrong.
It might be lethal against a monster that relied on sight, but to a seasoned B-rank veteran hunter with experience in every conceivable situation, this clumsy vision obstruction was little more than a gift of opportunity.
All it did was make it harder to locate allies and amplify the fear.
“Gaaaah!”
“Where is he? I can’t see! Where’s Yoo Hye-sung?!”
The prediction proved accurate. Screams and cries crossed through the fog.
Though Yoo Hye-sung’s form was invisible, the cutting sound of his swinging axe found the hunters with perfect precision.
An unseen predator danced on wings of mist.
‘He’s sensing through aura.’
He wasn’t reading the world through his eyes, but through the aura pressing against his skin and the minute fluctuations of mana flow.
Moving without a sound, riding the currents of air, hunting the uneven breathing born from the hunters’ terror.
Whoosh.
A cool current of air scraped past my very side. Before instinct could even warn me, I tilted my head back.
The cold sensation of metal grazed past the bridge of my nose. A few strands of severed hair scattered into the fog.
“Huh, you dodged that?”
Yoo Hye-sung’s voice emerged from beyond the thick haze. It was genuinely delighted.
He was savoring this moment as if the hunters’ extreme terror were a well-orchestrated play.
My fingertips trembled faintly. But it wasn’t from fear.
What set my heart racing was the exhilaration of standing on the edge of life and death—a sensation I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
‘I can see it.’
Though the fog remained thick, everything was clear to my eyes. A blue flame danced roughly through the darkness.
It was the aura wave radiating from Yoo Hye-sung’s body.
An ordinary mage would never have sensed this. A mage’s mana and a swordsman’s aura operate on fundamentally different frequencies.
But I was neither an ordinary mage nor an ordinary swordsman.
I activated Synchronization, channeling all fourteen of my remaining skill points into it.
This wasn’t merely a technique for wielding mana.
It was a perilously dangerous synchronization—forcibly matching the vibration frequency of my nervous system and mana circuit to the external aura wavelength.
My senses had now transcended the realm of magecraft. I had entered a heightened sensory state, exquisitely attuned to the sharp killing intent of aura and the tremor of air itself.
‘If I’d been who I was before the return, my neck would’ve been severed already.’
As a mage, my mana sensitivity is vast, but there are limits to perceiving the condensed killing intent unique to a swordsman.
The old me would have recognized the attack only after the axe had torn through the carotid. But now—things were different.
‘It’s all readable. Everything.’
The moment his quadriceps contracted, the rhythm of his breathing, and even the minute friction sound as aura concentrated at the edge of that colossal axe blade.
All the air in the fog collapsed into stillness, flooding into my mind like a frozen frame.
‘Ten meters to the left. Ground strike angle of forty-five degrees. Approach velocity—seventeen-point-five meters per second.’
‘A straight charge, then a lateral strike.’
He was coming. With no hesitation whatsoever, targeting only my destruction.
‘Four seconds.’
I adjusted my grip on the sword’s hilt. I slowed my heartbeat to its minimum while concentrating mana into the blade. The computational power of my 9th Circle produced the optimal timing.
‘Two seconds.’
Killing intent pricked my skin like needles. The heavy Battle Axe began carving its arc through the fog.
‘Now.’
Without hesitation, I hurled myself into the fog toward Yoo Hye-sung’s approach.
Whoooosh—!
I layered aura over the blade. I synchronized the frequency of Yoo Hye-sung’s released aura with the vibration of my sword down to the decimal point.
“You planning to commit suicide, kid?!”
Along with Yoo Hye-sung’s shout, the axe blade, sheathed in cyan aura, descended vertically toward my head. Dodging was meaningless.
At that speed and range, the moment I evaded, the follow-up would bisect me. There was only one way.
‘Breaker.’
Crash—!
Sword and axe locked. It was not merely the sound of metal striking metal. It was as if a colossal bomb had detonated, shaking the entire Training Ground.
The shockwave rippled outward in concentric rings, shredding the murky fog in a single violent sweep. The concrete beneath my feet spiderwebbed and buckled inward.
“This bastard—!”
His Battle Axe hung suspended in empty air, blocked by my blade. It wasn’t a simple clash of strength.
I had read the precise point of impact where his axe’s weight committed, then twisted the force of his blow perpendicular to its trajectory. It was a victory of technique.
Honed precision in Mana control from my days as a Grand Magician, married to sword forms perfected across ten thousand real fights—an almost miraculous parry.
The tendons in my wrist screamed. Fire bloomed through every joint. But I held my ground, meeting his gaze without flinching.
“You actually… blocked it head-on?”
Confusion flickered across Yoo Hye-sung’s face for the first time.
A greenhorn Hunter—a mere novice—had taken his full-power strike and neutralized it perfectly, weaponizing the principles of force itself against him. He seemed unable to process it.
His fingers trembled slightly around the axe handle. I pressed forward, driving his weapon back with a fresh surge of blade-force.
“Shall we continue? Or would you prefer to end the examination here, examiner?”
A blatant provocation. Words designed to rake across his pride without mercy. I wasn’t ready to stop.
I wanted to see deeper into this man’s power, into the primal essence of the warrior hidden beneath. I wanted to engrave it into my sensory database.
In that instant, confusion vanished from Yoo Hye-sung’s features. What replaced it was the icy predatory instinct of a true hunter.
The playful edge evaporated. In its place rose a dense, suffocating killing intent—the kind only genuine masters could project.
“Cocky bastard. Fine. Let’s see how far you can go.”
Whooooom—!
The Aura pouring from his Battle Axe writhed with an otherworldly shimmer. The pale blue radiance shifted now to a deep, ocean-dark indigo.
The air around us plummeted in temperature, frost creeping across the ground. He no longer saw me as a test candidate.
‘This is it.’
Electricity spiked down my spine, flooding into my skull. Walking a razor’s edge with death as collateral. This overwhelming pressure was the finest teacher I’d craved since my return.
Whoosh—!
Yoo Hye-sung’s body melted into the fog like it was absorbing him. Acceleration that dwarfed anything before. He moved at speeds that left no afterimage.
His attacks weren’t simple slashes. They came from above, below, left, right—even from the blind spot behind.
Axe blades screamed down simultaneously from all directions, a storm of consecutive strikes. The residual trails of his weapon enveloped me like the gnashing teeth of a starving wolf.
Yoo Hye-sung’s signature technique—Reaper’s Fang—erupted toward me.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
Even defending felt impossible. Blood sprayed from my palms as my grip tore open; my shoulders burned under the overload like fire consuming them from within.
But my eyes never surrendered. In that dizzying vortex of death, I was decomposing Yoo Hye-sung’s unique breathing pattern, his rhythm.
‘I see the pattern.’
No matter how flawless the technique, so long as a human executes it, rhythm exists. The volume of Aura expelled, the placement of his footwork, the angle at which he recovers his axe.
All of it rendered itself like a musical score inside my mind through the Synchronization skill.
Yoo Hye-sung raised his axe high overhead. The final strike—the crescendo of his barrage.
His entire Aura compressed into a single point, becoming a guillotine meant to crush both ground and opponent in one cataclysmic impact.
“It’s over!”
His roar. The axe fell. Space itself warped under the crushing, absolute weight of his gravity.
It was destruction incarnate—a force that could not be blocked, could not be stopped.
And I smiled in that moment.
Catastrophic crash—!
The massive axe blade struck earth. The entire Training Ground lurched as though caught in an earthquake, and an explosive cloud of dust rocketed skyward.
Yoo Hye-sung, confident in his victory, tightened his grip on the axe handle.
But as the dust cleared, his pupils dilated like they’d never done before.
Because I was already gone from that spot.

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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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