Chapter 59: A Qualitative Leap (Part Two)

In Electra’s laboratory, Lilith’s hands moved with practiced dexterity, skillfully assembling various parts for an alchemical creation.

Yet, the young woman’s thoughts had already flown outside.

Down in the valley, two figures crisscrossed through the air, their battle auras colliding and sparking countless brilliant trails of light.

“Your speed is still too slow, Hugh Iglaer!” Buckler roared like a lion. “Without the aid of magic, you are as slow as a snail!”

Buckler’s massive silhouette transformed into dazzling streaks of photoelectric light in the air, charging fiercely forward.

Before Hugh could grasp Buckler’s movement pattern, a massive fist materialized right before his eyes, slamming heavily into the bridge of his nose. Bright red blood sprayed in a brilliant blossom. Hugh’s retreating form desperately tried to evade, but Buckler’s speed was simply too much.

Arc-shaped dodging failed to escape Buckler’s attacks; serpentine maneuvering was even more useless against him. Dozens upon dozens of heavy punches hammered madly at Hugh in a split second, sending him flying high into the air before crashing him back down to the ground.

Like a drifting willow leaf, he fell powerlessly to the earth.

A trace of blood seeped from the corner of Hugh’s mouth.

“So strong!” Hugh muttered.

This was the first time Hugh had officially crossed swords with Buckler.

Buckler had forbidden him from using any spells, pets, or alchemy, forcing him to fight purely with warrior strength.

It was at this exact moment that he truly experienced what absolute rank suppression meant.

The power possessed by a rank seven ocean warrior was by no means something Hugh, a mere rank four warrior, could match. Even using only one hand, Buckler beat Hugh until he was seeing stars.

Having knocked Hugh to the ground, Buckler strode over. Stepping heavily onto Hugh’s chest, he shouted loudly:

“Hugh Iglaer, I want you to remember every single word I am saying now. As warriors, while we do not possess the mind-boggling abilities of mages, in actual combat, warriors are far stronger than mages! No matter what kind of mage they are, they can never escape the shackles of magical incantations; they cannot make quick responses in close-quarters combat. Their bodies are frail, unable to withstand even a light blow from any warrior. But warriors are different! We possess formidable physiques, and we can withstand all kinds of blows! Our bodies are our capital, our strength is our pillar, and the things we know are few, but every single one of them is immensely practical. And you, Hugh Iglaer, you rely far too much on magic. You have grown accustomed to using magic as a method of self-protection in combat, which creates the biggest flaw in your warrior cultivation: you bleed far too little!”

The final sentence was shouted by Buckler practically right into Hugh’s ear.

“To become an outstanding warrior, your body must be carved with scars. You possess combat techniques, combat will, and a clever mind—you have everything it takes to become an exceptional warrior, except for one thing: the danger that a warrior must experience during their growth. You lack the experience of using your own strength to break through and push past obstacles at life-or-death moments, and these are precisely what matter most to an excellent warrior! Your wisdom has shielded you from danger, but at the same time, it has restricted your progress. If this continues, there will come a day when your path as a warrior stagnates completely. Therefore, today, I am going to make you fully experience the threat of death! Stand up, Hugh Iglaer. From this moment on, forget magic, forget alchemy, forget everything, and fight me like a true warrior. Remember, being a warrior is a life-risking profession. Those who do not risk their lives, or who risk them too little, are not qualified to be called warriors!”

“Stand up and fight me! Fight me with your life on the line!” Buckler roared frantically.

“Dammit, that is not my style.” Hugh smiled bitterly.

“Bullshit! You are a young man! By what right is fiery passion not your style? It is just that all these years you have kept yourself suppressed. It is not that you cannot do it, but that you simply refuse to! Come on, Hugh, ignite the fighting spirit in your heart, abandon the cleverness of your mind, and learn to fight using your primitive instincts. Trust me, Hugh, not everything can be calculated in advance, because you cannot direct a battle with your brain every single second. In intense, high-intensity combat, fighting instinct far surpasses meticulous calculation. And this instinct is precisely what requires your passion and fighting spirit to unleash!”

“What am I supposed to do? I have never done this before!” Hugh shouted.

“Oh, calm people never easily ignite their passion; that is indeed not easy, but it is not impossible.” Buckler grinned grimly. “You have repressed yourself too deeply. To ignite your fighting spirit, there is perhaps only one method: anger.”

“Anger?!”

“Yes, anger! Hugh, remember your hatred, let your hatred ignite your fighting spirit, and release your energy to the fullest! Think of everything you suffered on Purgatory Island! Think of the comrades who died! Look at me, and imagine me as that old bastard Patrick Haynes, thinking about how to knock me down again. No magic, no alchemy—just use your fists to vent your anger and hatred!”

Hugh stared blankly at Buckler. At this moment, Buckler was still shouting at the top of his lungs: “If you cannot defeat me, I will kill you! Trust me, Hugh, I am not joking!”

Hugh’s thoughts drifted back to Purgatory Island. Those countless grinning faces, the miserable deaths of his companions, the desperate, dying screams of Fink—each and every sound struck hard against his mind.

The warrior's blood began to boil madly within his body, surging until it felt as though his entire being was burning.

Buckler’s words were still clamoring in his ears, but Hugh could no longer hear what he was shouting.

“Roar!” Hugh let out a roar toward the sky.

The battle aura energy within his body circulated wildly. The heavy foot pressing down on Hugh finally felt the surging counter-current of energy and shifted slightly.

Hugh struck back with a fist, carrying the momentum of a thunderbolt as it slammed heavily into Buckler’s ankle joint.

Buckler pulled his foot back, tracing a graceful arc across Hugh’s chest before his toe kicked fiercely toward Hugh’s fist.

When fist and foot collided, the battle aura energy surged violently once more, crackling and bursting with countless sparks of energy. The immense force nearly broke Hugh’s arm; that was the rank seven warrior’s battle aura breaking through his rank four battle aura energy, inflicting erosive damage upon his arm. If it were the past, Hugh would have chosen to temporarily retreat rather than meet the opponent head-on, but at this moment, Buckler had thoroughly ignited the fierce pride within his heart.

That’s right—regardless of his past life or this one, he was ultimately a young man. For the sake of survival, there were many times when he had to repeatedly deliberate, worry, plan, and scheme. But deep down in his bones, he likewise yearned to act like a true young man, to do things with youthful vigor, to charge forward, and to challenge all external might with his youth and fearlessness.

Hugh finally decided not to give ground anymore. Instead, facing the frantic pressure of a rank seven warrior, Hugh desperately mustered all the energy in his body to attack Buckler, with no regrets even in defeat.

“Argh!” Amidst all-out combat, Hugh roared with a deep, rugged voice.

Puff! A fierce, chilling stream of blood shot forth, painting magnificent colors against the constricted air. In an instant, amidst the billowing mist of blood, a scorching red light flew out from the grand scene, and Hugh’s body was sent flying backward.

It was Buckler’s battle aura energy showing no mercy as it blasted him away. Once this bandit leader of Acacia Town started fighting, he truly held nothing back.

Mid-air, Hugh’s body executed a peculiar fold, his battle aura energy reversed and surged, and his warrior skill, Thrust, was activated.

In a flash of lightning, his figure returned to the exact spot where Buckler had kicked him away. A fierce, heavy punch, carrying the biting chill of a sudden gale, struck squarely against Buckler’s chest.

“Yes! Just like that!” Buckler, having taken a punch, shouted excitedly. “This is the combat style of a warrior! Never retreat! We don’t need magic, because we have our own way of solving things!”

“Roar!” Hugh shouted up at the sky once more.

The battle aura all over his body surged like a tidal wave, rolling wildly outward in all directions like an ocean tide, forming a turbulent storm of wind and thunder.

A look of startled alarm flashed in Buckler’s eyes as Hugh’s power escalated frantically.

“Haynes!” Hugh roared wildly, the eyes he fixed upon Buckler burning with a turbulent sea of bloody fury like a phoenix rising from the ashes, dyed entirely in red.

“Oh, dammit, this fellow is truly risking his life.” Buckler muttered a groan.

The next moment, the battle aura swirling around Hugh swept toward Buckler like an angry wave. Daring not to underestimate his opponent any longer, Buckler let out a low cry, bringing his hands together in a circle and assuming a peculiar combat stance.

As his hands swept outward and embraced the space, a massive surge of battle aura whipped up a swirling vortex of air, charging straight toward Hugh.

The two battle aura storms, fully charged with energy, collided head-on in the middle of the valley, forming a swirling gale. Two pillars of wind intertwined and soared straight into the sky like dancing wind dragons, and the valley echoed with a peculiar whistling of wind. The energy impacted the surroundings, churning up turbulent shockwaves that even forced the Crimson Flame Bird watching from the sidelines to spread its wings and fly high to evade the massive aftermath.

“Boom!”

Finally, the two intertwined battle aura energies simultaneously pierced through each other’s resistance, crashing unreservedly into each other’s bodies. Hugh and Buckler were struck by each other at the same time, and Hugh coughed up a large mouthful of blood, tumbling backward through the air...

When he opened his eyes again, the sky had grown dim.

Buckler stood beside Hugh with his arms crossed, alongside Lilith.

Trying to sit up, pain racked his entire body as if it had been dismantled, and Hugh could not help groaning aloud.

Lilith hurried over to support him, casting a glare at Buckler by the way.

“Buckler, I... I still lost, right?” Hugh managed to squeeze out the question with difficulty.

“That is not surprising. Your ability to take a beating is inferior to mine. I said it long ago: you need to be injured, you need proper tempering,” Buckler said with a smile.

Lilith was deeply dissatisfied: “You almost tempered him to death.”

“Bad weeds live long; I knew he wouldn’t die that easily.” Buckler couldn’t care less. For someone like him who had walked past the gates of life and death too many times, he truly looked past the issue of mortality—especially since Hugh’s physique was not bad, and he had the finest healing potions.

“I remember my last strike seemed to...” Hugh said, somewhat bewildered.

“You hit me, and it was a direct breakthrough. Congratulations, you’ve advanced. You are now officially a rank five warrior.”

“I broke through?” Hugh was very surprised. “How is that possible?”

“Not surprising. This is a rapid breakthrough method similar to extreme training methods. You must know that when people experience critical moments of life and death, they are often able to erupt with formidable power, stimulating the full potential of the human body. If this potential is stimulated while consciously mobilizing battle aura, it is very easy to cause a substantial surge in one’s battle aura energy. For high-level warriors, such improvements might not be very noticeable, but for low-level warriors, advancing this way is not uncommon either. The reason I had to anger you and threaten you was to make you experience that emotion. No matter what means are used, as long as it makes you go hysterically wild and fight with your life on the line, it is very easy to stimulate yourself.”

“Is that so? Then I suppose we’ll have to do this a few more times in the future.”

“Useless.” Buckler shook his head. “This kind of thing only yields maximum effect the first time it is done. Wandering on the edge of life and death for a long time will gradually fortify your mind and make you indifferent to life and death. Even if you face danger and erupt in the future, there might be some improvement, but the effect will never be better than the first time. Yet the dangers you encounter will not decrease in the least. You must know that this method of growth is quite dangerous; if you mess up, you will die.”

“So that’s how it is. Is that why you wanted me to fight with my life on the line?”

“Not just for that, Hugh. What I told you earlier was correct. Being a warrior means learning how to risk your life. You lack opportunities to risk your life far too much, which is why most of the time you cannot truly unleash your power. If there is a chance in the future, try your best to train your warrior abilities. You must know that no mage can ever surpass a warrior in reaction speed, no mage can surpass a warrior in survival capability, and no mage can surpass a warrior in adaptability. As someone who will rely on puppet dolls as your primary combat method in the future, strengthening your own warrior abilities is the best way to increase your survival probability.”

Buckler’s words moved Hugh deeply.

“Thank you so much, Brian.”

“Don’t stand on ceremony with me. Do you know why I was in such a hurry to have you promoted to rank five?”

“There’s another reason?”

“Of course,” Buckler replied with absolute certainty. “Have you forgotten the Devotion Magic Crest? Hugh, with Lilith here, having advanced to rank five, you can already temporarily elevate yourself to a rank seven warrior. I want you to experience the existence of materialized battle aura before you truly become a rank seven warrior, which will be of immense benefit to your future.”

This time, it was finally Hugh’s turn to be utterly astonished.

He never imagined that Buckler would consider things so comprehensively for him.

——

Materialized battle aura: a unique battle aura ability belonging exclusively to warriors of rank seven and above, which can only form once battle aura energy reaches a certain threshold.

This was also the greatest distinction between them and lower-level warriors, and the core reason they could be called free warriors.

Some even believed that only warriors of rank seven and above possessed true warrior qualifications, while warriors below rank seven could at best be called fighters.

The greatest manifestation of materialized battle aura was the ability to create one's own unique combat techniques, thereby forming a distinctive combat style. Combat techniques were battle skills akin to magic that could be used freely without spell-chanting; some special combat techniques were even dazzling enough to rival magic, and certain effects could not even be achieved by magic.

Cahill’s Iron Roar, Chaklai’s Impact Blade, and Kevin Beers’s Shadow Attack Art were all their proprietary combat techniques.

As high-level warriors, every warrior could create one or more combat techniques, though the vast majority of warriors would not choose multiple combat techniques. Warriors advocated a minimalist combat style; viciousness, sharpness, precision, and efficiency were what they pursued.

To give the simplest example, Chaklai’s Impact Blade did not differ too much in its form of use from a wind mage’s Wind Blade spell, but the former could be casually unleashed to maximize its utility in combat, whereas mages had to chant incantations to generate it. In terms of power, Chaklai’s Impact Blade far surpassed ordinary Wind Blade spells.

As for Kevin Beers’s Shadow Attack Art, it created multiple phantom clones for himself through high mobility and materialized battle aura energy. When executed at full power, multiple phantom duplicates could even appear. These phantoms possessed no offensive capability, but they could confuse the opponent’s vision—advancing to attack or retreating to escape.

In the hands of a warrior with rich combat experience, these simple combat techniques exerted effects far stronger than the magic cast by ordinary mages. This was precisely why, once warriors reached rank seven, they were qualified to stand on equal footing with ordinary mages and were dubbed free warriors.

Between rank seven and rank six lay a qualitative leap.

Hugh never expected Buckler to tell him that he could perceive the existence of materialized battle aura in advance, laying the foundation for his future advancement. At that moment, he was truly stunned.

Overflowing joy filled his entire body.

“Brian, what should I do?” He stared blankly at Buckler.

Buckler replied: “First have Lilith help you elevate to rank seven, and then... you will naturally know what materialized battle aura is all about.”

End of Chapter.

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