The Last Place Hero’s Return - Chapter 166

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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 166. Witch of Night (7)
Whoooooosh!
The holy mark etched upon Aaron’s left chest blazed with light.
A cerulean aura wrapped around his spear, burning fiercely.
I watched Aaron leisurely unfurl his aura, then turned my gaze toward the other two seniors.
They were watching me with gleaming eyes, as though finding the current situation utterly fascinating.
“What are you doing? Just spectating from there?”
“…Huh?”
Flick, flick.
“You two should come as well. We’re in the same Party, aren’t we?”
“….”
Bella and Laios let out hollow laughs, their expressions bewildered.
Bella sighed and shook her head slowly.
“Aaron. I’m starting to think that guy’s actually insane?”
“I told you from the beginning. You can’t trust that bastard.”
Laios clicked his tongue as though he’d expected this all along.
“Haha. Quite the confidence, isn’t it?”
Aaron didn’t even glance at him, but smiled faintly upon seeing me beckon to Bella and Laios.
His mouth was smiling, but his narrowed eyes had turned cold and sharp.
It seemed my blatant disregard had struck a nerve.
“Fine then. Let me directly verify whether you possess the skill to back up such confidence.”
Aaron’s eyes flashed with lethal intensity.
Crack!
In the blink of an eye, as though his body had stretched impossibly long, Aaron’s spear arrived mere inches from my face.
Thunk.
I seized the rushing spear blade with my bare hand, as though snatching a fish from water.
“…!”
His pupils dilated.
I wrenched the spear blade roughly and drove my heel into Aaron’s abdomen.
Thwack!
“Gack!”
Aaron was hurled backward, sliding across the ground.
Aaron stared at the spear in his grip with trembling eyes, unable to believe what had just occurred.
The spear blade was unmistakably burning with a fierce cerulean aura.
“How did you catch that with your bare hand…?”
I understood that a skilled martial artist could wrap aura around their hands and catch a blade barehanded.
But that was only possible when the gap in ability between them was overwhelmingly vast.
And besides, Dale’s primary weapon wasn’t martial arts—it was the sword.
“So… it wasn’t mere bluster after all.”
Aaron’s eyes widened sharply as he drew upon his magical power.
Even so, I had planned to hold back appropriately since he was my junior, but it seemed that wouldn’t be necessary.
“If you’re serious, then I’ll be serious too.”
Aaron adjusted his grip on the spear and lowered his stance.
A blue aura exploded outward, enveloping his body.
“Blink.”
Whoosh!
Aaron’s form dissolved into the air itself, vanishing and reappearing behind me in an instant.
The spearhead wreathed in blue aura rushed toward my back.
The speed was terrifying, as if he had moved through space itself.
“Serious?”
I twisted my lips into a smirk and rolled my feet lightly.
Berald Combat Arts.
Earth Tremor.
Crack-crack-crack-crack!
The ground split with a sharp sound as massive earth and soil erupted upward.
Aaron’s center of balance wavered, and the trajectory of his spear twisted.
Clang.
I hooked the spearhead once more and yanked it roughly toward me.
“Ugh!”
Aaron’s body was dragged forward like a fish caught on a hook.
With the hand that had caught the spearhead, I seized Aaron’s throat as he was pulled toward me.
“Gack, hack!”
“Who said they were serious?”
Aaron was undeniably strong.
If he continued growing at this rate, he would become a hero rivaling Yurina in the not-too-distant future.
But.
That was only a matter of the future.
Right now, his abilities actually fell short of Yurina, who had grown dramatically in recent times.
“You’re the only one showing sincerity here, you little brat.”
Squeeze.
I tightened my grip on his twisted neck.
“Ugh… gah, hack…!”
Aaron dropped the spear he’d been holding and clawed at my hand with both arms, trying to pry it away.
His face began turning blue, and his legs thrashed pitifully.
“Aaron!”
Bella, who had been watching, drew her sword and rushed at me.
Bella’s blade swung toward me at a terrifying speed.
I thrust Aaron’s body forward like a shield, offering him to Bella.
“Tsk!”
Bella barely twisted her swinging blade, deflecting it to avoid cutting him.
Forcing the sword to twist had created a gaping opening across my upper body.
Berald’s martial arts.
Thunder Kick.
Crack!
A sound of an entirely different magnitude erupted compared to when she had kicked Lanez in the stomach earlier, and her body bounced away like a stone skipping across water.
“Cough! Ugh! Gaaahhhhh!”
Bella collapsed to the ground, retching violently.
I looked down at her and spoke one final time.
“Don’t move recklessly when your allies are captured. Otherwise, charge in from the start prepared to die alongside them.”
“You, you bastard….”
Bella clutched her stomach, trembling uncontrollably.
“Ugh… Cough!”
Boom!
I hurled Aaron, who was gasping as though his breath might fail him at any moment, toward a nearby tree.
“Huff, huff!”
Aaron, breathing heavily, gritted his teeth and reached out his hand.
The spear lying on the ground began to float in the air, attempting to return to him.
Crack!
I roughly stepped on the spear shaft, driving it back into the earth.
Watching Aaron pant for breath, I spoke calmly.
“A warrior should never carelessly release their weapon from their hand. No matter how much agony you suffer.”
Thud.
I kicked the spear embedded in the ground toward Aaron.
Aaron stared down at his spear rolling toward him, his fists trembling.
“Are you… teaching me right now?”
“That was the original plan, but I’ve changed my mind.”
I clicked my tongue and shook my head slowly.
“You don’t seem worth the effort.”
“….”
Aaron’s expression twisted savagely.
“You….”
He reached toward the spear lying on the ground.
The spear rose into the air of its own accord and returned to his hand.
As he gripped the shaft so tightly it seemed ready to shatter, grinding his teeth.
Suddenly, an odd sense of dissonance brushed across my mind.
‘Wait.’
Had Dale ever used a ‘sword’ during the recent exchange?
I quickly turned my head to check on Dale, and there he stood leisurely, his sword held in one hand and extended down to touch the ground.
“….”
So right now.
Did that mean he was simultaneously facing both him and Bella without even using the hand that held his sword?
And him a swordsman who wielded a blade as his primary weapon?
“You… what exactly are you?”
Aaron stared at Dale with trembling eyes.
This wasn’t a matter of seniority or junior status anymore.
‘A Candidate? Really?’
A top-tier ranker, counted among the top five even among all rankers.
Only those heroes commonly called ‘Masters’ could accomplish such a feat.
‘No, that doesn’t make sense.’
The title of Master was granted only to heroes capable of facing an Archbishop-class Demon Human in single combat.
Even within Hero Academy, no hero had received the Master title except for Raonel Ryu, the Thunder God.
Yet a mere Candidate—and one still only in his third year—was concealing Master-class power?
“…Nonsense.”
Aaron gritted his teeth and raised his spear.
“Hah.”
Exhaling sharply.
He slowly drew forth his ‘Blessing’.
“Grraahhh!”
Uuuuuuung!
An explosive torrent of radiant light poured from his stigma.
“Aaron, no!”
“Aaaahhhhh!”
Ignoring Bella’s desperate cry, Aaron continued drawing forth his Blessing—the ‘Meteor’s Blessing’.
Crack, crunch!
Eerie bone-like sounds echoed across his entire body as blood vessels bulged across his skin like tree roots.
The Blessing’s power was so overwhelming that using it once meant spending at least a week in the infirmary.
‘But now…!’
Aaron drew his spear back and stomped his feet roughly.
Kuuuuuung!
A heavy boom resounded as blue luminescence gathered around his spear.
“Hyaaaaaahhhhh!”
With a fierce battle cry, he hurled the spear he’d drawn back with all his might.
Whiiiioooooo!
The blue radiance gathered on the spear tip erupted in a blinding explosion of light.
A spear shot forth at supersonic speed.
The brilliant blue luminescence stretched behind it like a tail, making the spear resemble a meteor falling from the heavens.
Kwaaaaahhh!!
Along the spear’s trajectory, stone, earth, and wood shattered without leaving a trace, scattering as a crater several meters deep was carved into the ground.
Destruction too overwhelming to be called the work of human strength.
From this single strike alone, one could easily understand why he would later earn the epithet ‘Meteor Spear’.
But.
“You’re trying hard, aren’t you?”
I clenched my fist and twisted my lips into a sneer.
“Ignite.”
Fierce flames erupted, wrapping around my body.
Through the swirling ashen smoke.
A fist engulfed in ash-fire was hurled forward.
Berald Combat Art.
Mountain Breaker.
KABOOOOOOOM!
With a deafening roar, a terrifying shockwave of force shook the earth itself.
“Cough!”
Aaron, swept up by the shockwave spreading like a tidal wave, coughed blood and tumbled across the ground.
Aaron flew back dozens of meters before crashing into the earth and losing consciousness.
“Phew.”
I withdrew the ash-fire and sheathed the sword I had never even drawn.
“Laios.”
“Uh, huh?”
Laios, who had been watching my battle with Aaron with his mouth agape, startled and turned to face me.
“Could you look after Aaron and Bella?”
Aaron was unconscious, while Bella remained conscious but unable to move properly.
“Oh, sure!”
Laios nodded with a respectful tone and rushed toward the distant Aaron who lay unconscious.
“….”
I turned my body toward Lanez, who was staring up at me with vacant eyes.
“…Ah.”
When our eyes met, Lanez trembled slightly.
Sigh.
Seeing her, complicated thoughts flooded my mind once more.
Was this truly the right thing to do?
Remembering the catastrophe she had caused in my previous life, the logical choice would have been to kill her immediately.
But.
‘I’ve already decided.’
To take the hand of the woman I had not saved in my previous life.
To shine light upon the witch who yearned for warmth.
“Th… th-thank… ow!”
Perhaps her ankle had been injured when she fell earlier.
Lanez winced and sat down as she tried to rise.
“….”
Could it be the effect of the Blessing of Bitter Cold?
Lanez’s lips were still tinged blue, and her body trembled uncontrollably.
A soft crackling sound.
I summoned a small flame in my palm and approached her.
Whether this would dispel the bitter cold she was experiencing, I couldn’t say for certain.
“Ah….”
As I brought the flame closer, Lanez’s eyes widened dramatically.
Her trembling ceased, and the blue pallor that had consumed her lips faded, replaced by a healthy crimson hue.
“How is it?”
I brought the flame a bit closer and asked.
“Are you warming up now?”

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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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