The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 104

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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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Chapter 104. The Ryu Family’s Reckless Fool (5)
The day of the decisive battle had arrived.
Berald and I made our way to Laios’s Private Training Ground right on schedule.
“Sigh.”
On the path toward Laios’s Private Training Ground.
Berald repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists while swallowing hard, his anxiety evident in every gesture.
I slowed my pace slightly to match Berald’s speed as he followed behind me.
“Why, are you nervous?”
“W-What? Haha! Me, n-nervous? That’s, that’s impossible, isn’t it?!”
For someone claiming otherwise, he was stuttering quite badly.
“Haha.”
Berald himself seemed aware of it, offering a bitter smile as he scratched his head.
“Well, since Laios and I are around the same age, I’ve been compared to him constantly since childhood.”
“Compared….”
There was no need to hear what was said when comparing Laios—who had been recognized since childhood as the genius destined to inherit the legacy of the Thunder God Raonel Ryu—with Berald, who had even been called the Ryu Family’s reckless fool.
“He was an opponent I could never hope to match… but now that I’m about to face him, my mind feels muddled.”
“Yet you seemed to enjoy pummeling him before?”
“T-That was because I got heated up in the moment!”
I burst into laughter and patted Berald’s shoulder.
“Relax. Just do what I taught you.”
“Understood, brother.”
And so Berald and I entered the building that housed Laios’s Private Training Ground.
“Oh, right.”
“Hm? Did you forget something?”
“You’re wearing the Hero Watch right now, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
Berald showed me the Hero Watch fastened around his left wrist.
“Hand it over to me for now.”
“Is it because you’re worried it might break during the fight?”
“Something like that.”
“I see. Understood.”
After receiving the Hero Watch from Berald, I entered Laios’s Private Training Ground.
Inside the training ground—which was embarrassingly vast and equipped with state-of-the-art facilities compared to Berald’s—Laios Ryu was already waiting for us.
“Impressive that you didn’t run away and actually showed up.”
Laios asked in a relaxed stance, his arms crossed.
“Are you ready to get beaten down?”
“Heh. I won’t go down so easily.”
Berald stepped forward confidently with a smirk playing at his lips.
Laios’s expression twisted savagely.
“Then show me what you’ve been preparing all this time.”
Saying so, he turned his gaze toward me.
“You know how to set up the sparring device, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Then go turn it on in ‘Magic Sparring Only’ mode.”
Magic Sparring Only mode.
True to its name, it was a special mode where the moment direct physical contact other than magic was confirmed between sparring partners, the one who initiated the contact would be marked as the loser.
Following Laios’s instruction, I activated the sparring device installed on one wall.
[Sparring mode has been changed to ‘Magic Sparring Only’.]
[Match begins in 5 seconds.]
[4, 3, 2, 1.]
“Strike down.”
Crackle!
The moment the numbers vanished, a brief incantation accompanied a flash of blue lightning.
“Hup!”
Berald evaded the blue lightning with nimble movements and extended his hand forward.
Whoooosh!
The stigma blazed with light as mana surged violently.
“Haaah!”
A fist-sized mana projectile formed alongside the rough battle cry.
“Is that all you’ve managed to practice—a mere mana projectile?”
A scoff escaped Laios’s lips upon spotting the translucent sphere.
“And that’s a mana projectile you’ve abandoned ‘control’ over, isn’t it?”
It was no accident he’d been called a magical prodigy since childhood.
Laios grasped the flaw in Berald’s mana projectile at a glance.
“What are you planning to do with magic that can’t even move?”
Watching the mana projectile float motionless in the air, Laios burst into laughter.
“When the body is strong, the mind doesn’t have to work so hard.”
“…What?”
“Heh. Watch closely, senior.”
Berald grasped the mana projectile floating in the air and simply ‘threw’ it.
“This is my magic!”
Whoooosh!
The mana projectile shot forth, releasing a terrifying sound of air being torn apart.
“This crazy—!”
Laios twisted his body with an expression of shock.
Whoosh, crash!
The mana projectile Berald threw narrowly grazed past him and struck the Training Ground wall.
With a sound like an artillery shell detonating, a heavy impact shook the Training Ground.
“Ha.”
Laios turned to look at Berald with an expression of utter disbelief.
“Cast magic…directly?”
Theoretically, it wasn’t impossible.
However, it was an extraordinarily inefficient approach.
Who would hurl a finely sharpened arrow by hand instead of nocking it on a bowstring and firing it?
“This isn’t over yet!”
Berald cried out as he hurled the mana bullets he’d conjured in rapid succession.
Whoosh! Whoom! Whooooosh!
Fist-sized mana bullets tore through the air with terrifying force.
“Tch.”
Laios bit his lip and swiftly drew upon his mana.
“Such a pathetic trick!”
Crack! Crackle!
Blue lightning flashed, intercepting the incoming mana bullets.
“Thunder’s Call!”
With the incantation, a tidal wave of blue lightning crashed down upon Berald.
“Arghhhh!”
A high-tier spell incomparably superior to the basic magic of mana bullets.
Black smoke rose from Berald’s body as he was engulfed by the torrent of lightning.
“Cough, cough!”
Berald remained hunched over, releasing pained groans.
“Hah. Now do you understand? This is what true magic really is…”
“Hyah!”
Before Laios could finish speaking, Berald—still crouched—hurled the mana bullet clutched in his hand.
“Gack!”
A strangled cry escaped Laios’s lips as the mana bullet struck him.
“You…reckless bastard!”
Laios’s expression twisted savagely as he spread both arms wide.
Crack! Crackle!
Blue lightning erupted around his body, mana surging wildly.
“Thunder, arise!”
Boom!
With a deafening roar, a colossal wall of lightning materialized, encasing Laios’s form.
Watching the duel from a distance, I narrowed my eyes at the wall of lightning.
‘Thunder Wall.’
The spell that had earned Laios the title of “Thunder Emperor.”
‘The Thunder Emperor was far more renowned for defensive magic than offensive spells.’
Among them, the Thunder Wall—which conjured a barrier of lightning to protect the surrounding area—was a formidable spell, the signature technique of the Thunder Emperor.
‘Smaller in scale and far thinner than what I witnessed in my past life, though.’
Boom! Bang! Kaboom!
Berald’s mana bullets shattered helplessly against the wall of lightning.
‘This magic is difficult for Berald to break through right now.’
I watched Berald hurling mana bullets with furrowed brows and ragged breathing.
I couldn’t step in and help directly.
All I could do was trust Berald and observe.
“Haa, haa!”
“Still don’t understand?”
Laios snapped his fingers leisurely as he watched Berald gasping for breath.
Crackle, crackle, crackle!
From the wall of thunder protecting his body, blue bolts of lightning shot forth.
“Ugh!”
Berald swallowed a groan and retreated backward.
‘This won’t work.’
Those petty mana bullets couldn’t pierce that wall of thunder.
“Hrrrrrrgh!”
Berald wrung every ounce of mana from his entire body and stretched both arms forward.
Whoooooosh!
A torrent of mana far greater than what Laios had unleashed to create the thunder wall swept through the air.
“Haaaaaah!”
What emerged was a colossal mana bullet—the size of a human torso.
The largest mana bullet he could currently create.
“So after all that commotion, you’ve made nothing but a mana bullet?”
Laios’s eyes gleamed coldly as he regarded the mana bullet Berald had created.
“After studying magic for over a decade, is a mana bullet the only spell you can use?”
“Senior Laios… or rather, I cannot dare compare my magic to yours, but I have done my utmost with the magic I can manage.”
“Done your utmost? Bullshit.”
Laios lifted the corners of his mouth, a bitter sneer playing across his face.
“Well, sure. You probably did try. You’ve been brutishly devoted to magic training since childhood, after all.”
Having known Berald since childhood, Laios understood well how much blood and sweat he had poured into mastering magic.
He even knew that because of such diligent effort, the Thunder God Raonel Ryu held Berald in special regard.
But.
“No matter how much you try, if there are no results, is that really trying?”
“….”
“Do you know what we call effort that doesn’t work, like yours? Huh?”
Laios clicked his tongue as if exasperated and continued.
“Wasted effort. That’s what it’s called.”
He ruthlessly trampled over more than a decade of effort with a single phrase—”wasted effort”—and laughed mockingly.
“Wasted effort….”
Berald offered a faint smile at Laios’s words.
“You’re right, Senior. After clinging to it for so long, the only spell I can use is a mana bullet, after all.”
And even that was a half-baked mana bullet that wouldn’t move unless he threw it directly himself.
Laios had mastered a spell in merely three days of study, yet even now, after more than a decade, I could not wield it properly.
It wasn’t just mana bullets—the same held true for every other spell.
Magic that Laios had grasped effortlessly in mere days remained for me an unreachable fruit suspended at an impossible height, no matter how I strained to reach it.
My efforts were nothing but wasted time.
The sweat I shed was merely unpleasant waste.
And yet.
Still.
“I do not regret those years.”
Even if they yielded no reward. Even if they brought no compensation.
I do not regret them.
“Because there was someone who never gave up on an inadequate, insufficient fool like me.”
Berald turned to look at me and grinned widely.
Laios let out an incredulous laugh.
“If you don’t regret it, what difference does that make? Hmm? What can you possibly do?”
“I’ll show you.”
Berald gazed upon the enormous mana bullet he had created.
“That my efforts were not in vain.”
It was far too large to throw casually.
I could grip it with both hands and hurl it, but that would diminish its power considerably.
Then.
I drew mana upward.
I pulled my clenched fist backward as if drawing a bowstring.
Stance low. Elbows slightly raised.
“Haa.”
A strange exhilaration spread through my entire body.
An indescribable, electrifying thrill.
Suddenly, a memory surfaced—the first time I learned martial arts from Dale.
-Hmm. So what is the name of that martial art technique, anyway?
-It doesn’t have a separate name.
-Ha, a martial art of that caliber has no name?
Dale smiled at my disappointed expression and made a suggestion.
-How about this instead?
-Hmm? What do you mean?
-If you ever master this martial art completely… we’ll attach your name to it.
No matter how much I pondered it, I could never understand why Dale insisted on attaching my name rather than his own.
‘If that is your wish, I shall follow it.’
Berald stomped down fiercely and unleashed the fist I had drawn back.
“Berald’s Martial Art.”
Mountain Shattering.
KABOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A terrifying blast accompanied the mana bullet as it pierced through the wall of thunder and struck Laios’s body with devastating force.

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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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