6 – Like Thunder

---

…Cutting Form – Breaking Thread.
The blade was extended through wind magic. A technique that allowed slash attacks to have a longer reach.
But it was not a technique for unleashing shock waves, so whether or not it would cut through, depended on the user’s skill.

And so the flash only scratched the wings of the black dragon.

(Damn, it’s hard! You can’t even compare it to other monsters!)

I dodged the explosions with sky walk, landed, and cursed angrily.
Thanks to all my training with the old man, I had never experienced this, being unable to cut a monster that my blade had reached. This would be my first defeat then.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

The black dragon unleashed a roar of rage after being hit. A chain of wild, uncontrolled explosions followed in rapid succession.
I jumped and dodged them with a sigh.

“…I guess I have no choice but to use it.”

The explosions were getting bigger, but the black dragon showed no signs of being out of breath.
How tough was it? I thought with exasperation.

I exhaled all of the air in my lungs, and told myself to calm down.

After the old man left.
The reason that I stayed on this mountain… Aside from conquering it, there was one other reason.
And it was to test this.

‘…Looking forward to it,’ eh?

I would surpass that old man.

Wanting to become like him. It was that sole desire that made me start swinging.
Aspire, shake, crave.
The sincere wish to surpass.

However, the old man was gone.
And so I could not leave.
If I left the mountain, the house… That sight; burned into my memory…it would start to fade.

I calmed my breathing.

The techniques that he taught me… Among them, there were some that used magic.
Sky walk and Breaking thread.
However, he never actually taught me magic. Watch, learn, understand.
Ultimately, that was all it ever was.

I did not understand what magic was. The logic behind it.
And so…it took me three years to complete this technique.

“…Thunder, unleash.”

There was a sound, like the air was cracking.
In the next instant…the spot where I had just been standing, exploded from the black dragon’s attack. However, I was not there. Or anywhere in the dragon’s sight.

I was up in the air.
Above it’s head. Far above.

…Renki, Thunder Unleash.
That was the name of the technique.

Renki was about body strengthening. Special breathing techniques were used to raise your physical abilities to the limit.
And from there, Thunder Unleash. Turning oneself into thunder and acquiring superhuman speed. An original of mine.
It wasn’t just speed. Nerves, cells, it strengthened your flesh to the very core.

But it required incredibly delicate control of your mana. I had failed so many times, and experienced such pain that I thought I was dying.

“It’s over.”

I deactivated sky walk, and my body fell freely.
Perhaps it felt the intention to kill, the black dragon looked up at me and rapidly fired off its wind magic.

However, I was now moving at the speed of lightning, and it could not catch me.
While just leaving traces of light behind, I vanished.

…I had it.

As I entered striking distance of the black dragon, the thing that came to mind was the old man’s sword that I had seen on that day…

As if tracing.
As if falling.

The sword swung through the air and cut off the black dragon’s head.

Next Chapter

Ken yo, kaku katariki ~ Ken to mahō no isekai ni tensei shita noni jitsu wa bunmei ga gendai reberu datta ken