Martial Arts Vs Magic - Chapter 155

Chapter 155: Technical Mastery vs Raw Power

Lightning seared the air where I'd stood a half-second earlier. The smell of ozone and scorched stone filled my nostrils as I landed in a crouch, still cradling Sathari's unconscious form against my chest. 

"Careful with that, Professor. You'll wake the princess," I said, trying to keep my voice light despite the weight of dread settling in my stomach.

Katheran didn't smile. He adjusted his sunglasses with his middle finger. A gesture that might have been coincidental if not for the slight curl at the corner of his mouth.

"Still making jokes while kidnapping royalty. Some things never change." His voice carried no emotion, which somehow made it worse than anger. "Though many things do. You've grown stronger since you left. Shame about the direction you've chosen."

I looked for an opening, a path to escape, but Katheran's presence seemed to fill the courtyard like a storm cloud. The ambient magic prickled against my skin, making the hairs on my arms stand on end.

This really wasn’t good.

"There's been a misunderstanding," I said, taking a careful step backward. "I'm not kidnapping anyone. I'm here on Amelia's behalf–"

"[Lightning Step]."

He vanished. At this stage, there was no reason to spell out the technique names. But I suppose it was a form of showing confidence in this world, displaying that the fighter felt just relaxed enough to mutter the Skill Names slowly rather than do it mentally.

My Demonic Sphere screamed a warning a fraction of a second before he reappeared behind me, his palm crackling with concentrated electricity.

"[Thunder Palm Strike]."

I twisted at the last possible moment, feeling the electrical discharge graze my shoulder as it passed. Paralytic energy rippled down my arm, numbing my fingers and nearly causing me to drop Sathari. The air around us crackled with displaced power.

How the hell did he move that fast?

Even with my enhanced perception, I'd barely tracked him. This wasn't just the speed of an 8th Ascension practitioner. This was something else. His Lightning-related Class gave him lightning-fast speed, it seems.

His sunglasses had slipped slightly in the movement, and I caught a glimpse of what lay beneath. Eyes like faceted gemstones, with pupils that swirled and shifted like living calculation engines. Energy patterns danced across their surface, cataloging every twitch of my muscles, every fluctuation in my mana.

Aetheris Eyes. No way I’d forgotten that detail. These eyes were rare, and in my years in this world, I only knew one other person with a similar set of eyes, Lilian. Katheran had an entirely different power set, though. That's how he recognized me instantly. That's how he's tracking my movements so precisely.

"I see your reputation isn't entirely undeserved," Katheran said, straightening his posture as electricity continued to dance between his fingertips. "Most would be paralyzed by now. But then, you're not most people, are you, Heavenly Demon?"

"Look, there's been a misunderstanding about Merasca," I said, shifting my stance to better support Sathari's weight while keeping my guard up. "I… I didn't sacrifice your students. I was trying to save them."

"Save them, huh?" For the first time, genuine emotion cracked through his professional veneer. Something cold and brittle. "Like you saved Victor Seraph? By turning him into a vessel for an Outer God? Like you saved the thousands who died when you tore Merasca apart?"

Since when was it me who turned Victor into an Outer God? Dammit. False rumors. That was it. The catalyst for his ascension, the fuel that had driven him from 7th to 8th. Grief, rage, and the protective fury of a teacher who burned with the feeling of betrayal, seeing one of his students murder a dozen others.

Before I could respond, he raised both hands. 

"[Spellsword Technique: Lightning Clones]."

The air shimmered, and suddenly I wasn't facing one Katheran but five, each identical down to the last thread on their immaculate clothes. They moved in perfect unison, spreading out to surround me in a pentagram formation.

All five registered as equally real, equally dangerous to my five senses. Fortunately, my Demonic Sphere managed to differentiate between them. One of them stepped forward, drawing a short blade that crackled with electricity.

"The funny thing about lightning," all five said simultaneously, their voices overlapping into an unsettling chorus, "is how perfectly it mimics the nervous system. Every thought, every reflex, every intention… they're all just electrical impulses."

I backpedaled, trying to keep all five in view. "Once again, professor, I don't want to fight you. Just let me explain–"

"Actions explain better than words." Three of the clones lunged forward.

I was still carrying Sathari because putting her down was too dangerous. Someone else might slip in and take her away. So I channeled Qi into my legs and jumped, executing a backward flip that carried me over the first clone's sweeping blade. 

As I landed, the second fired a bolt of lightning that I deflected with a hastily formed [Astral Rend]. The starlight energy cut through the electricity like a sword through paper.

The third appeared directly behind me, its blade aimed at the junction between my neck and shoulder – a disabling strike, not a killing one. I twisted again, but something was wrong. My movements felt sluggish, like I was swimming through honey.

"[Static Veil]," the original Katheran announced, as fine threads of lightning began weaving themselves around me. "First, I’ll take your smell."

The scent of ozone and stone vanished, replaced by nothing. Not the absence of smell – the concept of smell itself seemed to disappear, like a sense I'd never possessed.

"Then your hearing."

The sounds of battle, the crackle of electricity, even my own breathing. All of them vanished, leaving only a ringing silence that pressed against my consciousness.

I realized with sudden clarity what he was doing. The [Static Veil] wasn't just an attack, it was systematically shutting down my senses, cutting me off from the information I needed to fight effectively.

I needed distance. Space to think.

[Void Step]!

I phased through reality itself, stepping into the space between moments and reappearing twenty feet away. For a heartbeat, I thought I'd broken free, but then electricity erupted from the ground beneath my feet, wrapping around my ankles like living chains.

"[Lightning Tether]," Katheran's voice somehow penetrated the silence he'd imposed. "Did you think I wouldn't prepare for teleportation techniques? I've studied every recorded instance of your fights, Romani. Every technique, every pattern, every preference. This is your end."

The chains tightened, sending paralyzing currents up my legs. I gritted my teeth against the pain, focusing on keeping Sathari protected.

This is bad. The thought echoed in my increasingly isolated mind. He's not just powerful, he's prepared specifically for me.

The five Katherans converged, moving in perfect synchronization as they raised their blades. "[Spellsword Sequence: Five-Point Circuit]."

They struck in rapid succession, each blade aimed at a different vital point. I managed to evade the first three by contorting my body in ways that shouldn't have been physically possible. The three blades crashed into the buildings nearby, transforming them into explosions of light. But the fourth clipped my shoulder, and the fifth– 

The fifth blade stopped an inch from my throat as I finally managed to free one hand and form a shield of Soul Fire between us. The flames didn't burn in the conventional sense, but they disrupted the electrical patterns holding the clone together, causing it to destabilize.

I couldn't keep this up, not while protecting Sathari. She was becoming a liability in this fight. Thankfully, I’d thought of something already.

"Vyrn!" I called out, focusing my intent through the Elven Spirit Pendant around my neck.

The spectral owl materialized from nothing, its ghostly form casting pale light across the battlefield. With a thought more than words, I wrapped Sathari in a protective cocoon of Soul Fire and mentally commanded. Take her to safety.

Vyrn's spectral talons closed around the cocoon, and with a dive that defied physics, the owl phased into the ground itself, taking the princess with it.

"Interesting pet," Katheran observed, the five clones coalescing back into a single figure. "Sending away your hostage? Why didn’t you do the same?"

"She was never a hostage," I said, rolling my shoulders as sensation gradually returned to my limbs. "And I'm not leaving because you'll just chase me. This needs to end here."

With Sathari safe, I could fight without restraint. I reached into my Soul Storage and drew Kurayami, the Demon Blade of Darkness. The weapon hummed with hungry anticipation, its edge drinking in the ambient light.

[True Demon Sword Art: First Form]. 

Energy coalesced around the blade. It sang. 

[Absolute Cataclysm of the Demonic Butterfly]!

The technique exploded outward, demonic energy taking the form of a thousand razor-edged butterfly wings, each capable of slicing through steel. It was one of my most basic techniques, but executed with the precision and power I'd gained since leaving the Academy.

Katheran observed the oncoming assault with clinical detachment. His eyes flared beneath his sunglasses, tracing the pattern of my attack with inhuman speed.

"[Mirror Circuit]."

He moved his hands in a complex pattern, electricity flowing between them to form a perfect geometric reflection of my technique's energy structure. When my attack hit his defense, each butterfly wing found its exact opposite, neutralizing perfectly. The ground around him clipped and vanished as the butterflies fell.

I let out a sigh.

He’s really troublesome, like some anime main character.

"Fascinating," Katheran said, his voice echoing from multiple directions as the clones reappeared. "Your technique has evolved. The demonic contamination is more pronounced, yet you maintain control. Not what I expected from someone who supposedly embraced chaos."

I didn't waste breath responding. Instead, I shifted stances and channeled a different technique. 

[True Demon Sword Art: Second Form – Infernal Blossom of the Abyssal Moth]!

Fire bloomed from Kurayami's edge, spreading outward in petal-like formations. Unlike the first technique's wide-area effect, this one concentrated destructive force in a narrower pattern, harder to analyze and counter.

But Katheran was already moving, his Aetheris Eyes tracking the flow of energy before it fully manifested. "[Spellsword Technique: Fractal Counter]."

His blade became a blur, striking each petal formation at precisely the point where its energy structure was weakest. One by one, my attack dissolved, the flames sputtering out like candles in a hurricane. The backlash of the techniques rained around our surroundings, destroying the buildings and streets.

We exchanged techniques for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. Each time I adjusted, he adapted. When I used my Class Skill [Echoes of Oblivion] to create shadowy duplicates, he deployed a lightning field that revealed which was real. When I tried [Fate Unraveled] to disrupt his precision, his eyes simply recalculated my patterns.

It was like fighting a living algorithm, one that learned and improved with every exchange. One that didn’t care about destroying this academy as long as I could be captured. Much of it was already destroyed, with fire dancing around us.

"You're holding back, how strange," he observed during a momentary pause. Blood ran from a cut above my eye, and my breathing had grown heavy. "Is it because you don't want to kill a former teacher? Or because you know the moment you use your full power, everyone will see the monster you've become?"

"I'm not a monster, Professor," I said, wiping blood from my face. "And I'm not trying to hurt anyone here. I just came for the princess because Amelia asked me to."

"Chancellor Duskleaf isn’t what she used to be," Katheran's voice hardened. "Memories remind me of times when she was a motherly figure to me. When she saw the lightning in my fingertips despite my slum rat origin. Yet, she’s now become another victim of your corruption… And now you're here for another princess. How many lives will you destroy before you're satisfied?"

The accusation stung more than it should have because I already knew how people saw me. But… really? Is this how the world saw me despite me nearly sacrificing my all to save a million lies? Am I a corrupter, a destroyer? The demon who stole a dragon princess and shattered cities?

But there was no time for self-reflection. Katheran was gathering power for something bigger, his mana concentration reaching levels that made the air itself heavy with potential.

"[Lightning Dominion: Heaven's Judgment]."

The sky above the academy darkened as storm clouds formed from nowhere. Lightning arced between them, building toward a massive discharge that would turn the courtyard into a crater.

I had seconds to react. To survive this, I needed something unexpected, something his analytical eyes couldn't predict.

And that's when I understood the flaw in his perfect defense. His eyes read patterns. Energy flows, muscular tensions, and the mathematics of technique. But what if there was no pattern to read?

I raised Kurayami again, gathering energy for what looked like another [True Demon Sword Art]. But this time, I deliberately introduced flaws into the technique. The asymmetries, energy leaks, and structural weaknesses.

Katheran's eyes flared as they detected the imperfections. He adjusted his counter-technique accordingly, preparing to exploit the openings I'd created.

Except they weren't really openings. They were bait.

As he committed to his counter, I abandoned the flawed technique entirely and switched to [Astral Rend], manifesting an ethereal blade that bypassed his physical defenses completely. The starlight-edge struck him squarely in the chest, not deep enough to kill but sufficient to disrupt his concentration.

His [Heaven's Judgment] faltered, the storm clouds above dissipating with a final rumble of thunder. Katheran staggered back, his perfect composure finally broken.

"Interesting," he said, a thin line of blood trailing from the corner of his mouth. "...Using imperfection as strategy. Creating weaknesses deliberately to bait a specific response." A smile spread across his face, but it held no humor. "You really have grown."

I thought I'd gained the upper hand. Until he started laughing.

It wasn't the laughter of someone in pain or fear. It was the laugh of someone who'd just confirmed a theory, who'd found the missing piece in a puzzle. And it chilled me to my core.

"Thankfully, I’m not so arrogant and overconfident to think I can take down the man who’d defeated an Outer God," he said. “I’ve bought time.”

That's when I realized we weren't alone anymore. Figures had gathered around the courtyard's perimeter. Professors with grim expressions, guards and Knights with weapons drawn, and students watching with a mixture of fear and fascination.

Among them, I recognized familiar faces. My siblings, Riasmin and Iaskin, wore expressions with a complex blend of worry, anger, and uncertainty. 

Prince Orion stood apart from the others, his royal bearing unchanged but his eyes colder than I remembered. Prince Alaric Roshmar and his guard Jana watched from another angle, his face betraying nothing while hers held clear disapproval.

Even the Elven Prince, Rhydar, was there, his gaze fixed on the Elven Spirit Pendant still hanging around my neck. His expression suggested I'd committed some grave offense by continuing to wear it.

"So that's him?" A new voice cut through the tension like a blade.

Every head turned. A man stood in the air above the administration building, hands casually tucked into the pockets of his impeccable robes.

He looked to be in his seventies, meaning he was much older than that. He was tall, lean, and his grey hair bound into a loose silver topknot that shimmered faintly with golden threads of mana. Despite the serenity on his face, every line and wrinkle carried the weight of discipline. His robes weren’t ornate, but their folds radiated authority, as if reality bent to uphold them unwrinkled.

His presence wasn’t loud, but it filled the world. Like calm before a storm. No, he felt like the storm itself. Katheran’s little show couldn’t compare.

Beside him was Principal Ardath Valenwood, whose aura was already far beyond what I could handle. Even so, he didn’t look so scary in comparison.

[Ardath Valenwood, Archmage of Iron, Level 178]

"Chancellor Thorne," Katheran acknowledged, straightening his posture despite his injury. “Yes, this is him. He came to take the Princess of Nagadip.”

Of course, the Principal wasn’t even the main problem here. Goddamit. This school was doing too much. Why the hell would they hire a 9th Ascension?

[Marcus Thorne, Golden Buddha, Level 210]

The man, the new Chancellor, studied me with clinical detachment as he floated in the air. "Sikandar's grandson. The Heavenly Demon."

There was something in his voice that raised every warning flag in my mind. It wasn't just dislike or disgust. It was recognition – the kind that comes from having studied an enemy extensively.

“I see.”

The air crackled.

Willpower of a 9th Ascension filled the atmosphere.

"Everyone clear the area!" Katheran suddenly shouted, limping away from me as quickly as his injury allowed. "NOW!"

The crowd scattered, professors herding students toward buildings, guards forming defensive formations. The Principal raised his hand, and a wave of force yanked Katheran to safety beside him.

I didn't understand their panic until I saw Chancellor Thorne's hands emerge from his pockets. Behind him, the air shimmered as a translucent figure began to form. It was a thousand-armed entity that radiated power beyond anything I'd felt in this academy.

He raised a single palm.

Then, gently, he pushed it toward me.

"[Thousand Hand Buddha: Judgment of Heaven]."

A barrage of titanic-sized attacks exploded toward me from behind him. Not physical blows but condensed constructs of mana and willpower that resembled bombs more than magical spells. Each of them carried enough destructive potential to level a building, and there were dozens heading my way.

I had no time to dodge, no space to run. The courtyard had become a killing field, and I was the only target.

Shit, shit, shit! Panic rose in my throat as I curled my fist, frantically searching for any option. I couldn’t win, and even if I somehow did, it would drain me so much that even a nobody would be able to capture me next. The Demonic Sphere couldn't track all these attacks simultaneously. My usual techniques wouldn't be enough.

If Katheran hadn't detected me with those damned Aetheris Eyes, I'd have been gone with Sathari before anyone knew I was here. Those damned Atheris Eyes! Now I was trapped, facing opponents far beyond what I'd prepared for.

I might have to use one of my self-damaging skills.

[True Demon God Art: The Temporal Overdraft] or something equally destructive. The Worldforge Creation. But… even that might not be enough against whatever the Chancellor was channeling.

As a 9th Ascension himself, if I pulled out my half-baked Worldforge, he could easily overpower me with his own, perfected one. Goddamit. I knew my days were going too peacefully.

As the first wave of attacks closed in, a thought flashed with clarity.

I might have severely underestimated Waybound Academy's new defenses.

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The Veiled Man Note: Those who know already can tell, but imagine Isaac Netero (HxH) mixed with Sengoku (One Piece) for our new Chancellor. As always, if you're enjoying the chapter, don't forget to leave a like!