Bang! Crunch!
Khan met Karyan’s punch with Draupnir and dug his feet into the ground to stop his body’s backward momentum, immediately following up with a punch of his own.
Boom─!
It was a strike powerful enough to crush a massive boulder. Karyan countered with his other fist, and the sound of their collision filled the entire sanctuary.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
At such a close distance that they could feel each other’s breath, Khan, having momentarily abandoned his sword, initiated a flurry of punches. The rapid exchange was so fast that it seemed as if frames were missing, and Khan held his ground.
In the past, Karyan would have predicted Khan’s movements, found an opening, and ended the fight quickly. But now, Khan fought on equal footing with Karyan.
Had Khan finally grasped the ‘sense’ Karyan spoke of?
‘Grrr…!’
No, he hadn’t.
Khan still hadn’t mastered the ‘sense’ that Karyan, the Great Warrior, and Tarak possessed. Yet he was able to fight Karyan on even terms.
『You can now hold your own for quite a while even with that brute force approach!』
“Shut. Up!”
Karyan, despite being a God of war, seized the moment Khan spoke to launch a surprise attack. It was a crude tactic any street brawler could use, but Khan didn’t find it dishonorable. In a fight, there was no such thing as dishonor.
Instead, Khan jumped and spun his body so that his head nearly touched the ground. Karyan’s punch, which would have struck Khan’s chest, hit nothing but air with a loud ‘pang’, and Khan used Karyan’s fist as a platform to push off and deliver a knee strike.
Thud!
Though the maneuver was extraordinary, Karyan easily blocked it.
Khan retrieved his knee from Karyan’s shoulder, a blow that would have shattered the bones of even the strongest paladin, but Karyan remained unfazed—a testament to his monstrous physique.
‘He’s coming!’
Sensing the muscles in Karyan’s fist twitch, Khan used the ‘Leap’ skill to widen the gap. Karyan immediately pursued, striking the air. Once again, Karyan unleashed a long-range attack using shockwaves.
“Huff!”
Khan retaliated with a punch of his own. Every time the intangible shockwave struck his fist, it felt as if his grip might fail. Gritting his teeth, Khan withstood the force and shattered the shockwaves, landing back on the ground.
‘What’s next?’
Khan once again tried to predict the next move. Recalling the minor habits and muscle movements Karyan exhibited before attacking, Khan remained alert but noted that Karyan didn’t rush in.
Instead, Karyan stroked his thick beard and spoke in a strange tone.
『Hmm, you’re becoming quite formidable. At this level, you could have a decent fight with your father.』
“Spit-. And what good would that do?”
『You’re right; it might be pointless since you haven’t mastered the ‘sense.’』
It was true. No matter how one looked at it, Khan’s efforts were brute force compensating for a lack of talent—nothing more, nothing less.
He was analyzing all the signals his opponent sent: eye movements, subtle muscle twitches, warnings from Combat Foresight, and so on. Using these, he picked the best possible moves for himself, predicting and counter-predicting his opponent’s responses.
That allowed him to fight on somewhat even terms with someone like Karyan, who seemingly could see the future. But that was all.
『That method has very clear limits. First, the sheer amount of information is overwhelming for a mortal’s consciousness. Transcendents don’t need to painstakingly gather and compute information like you do. They just see and decide using their transcendental perspective. Honestly, I admire your method of mimicking a transcendent’s vision, but…』
If you can’t fully utilize your abilities, what good is any of this?
Karyan continued his evaluation of Khan’s ‘brute force method’ with a stoic demeanor.
『That’s the second limit. For your see-calculate-act method, you need to be at least as quick as or quicker than your opponent. Sometimes, acting on pure instinct might be more effective. Right now, I’m restraining my power to match your level, but what opponent would fight you at your level? Moreover, you’re not fully utilizing your innate strengths while using this method.』
Of course. His brain was maxed out processing information, making it difficult to activate his skills fluidly. Activation required a mental switch—something that had to be explicitly thought of.
‘There’s room for improvement in skill activation.’
Having to mentally switch to activate skills was a cumbersome process that Khan knew he needed to overcome eventually. He even had a rough idea of how to do it, but mastering the ‘sense’ took precedence, pushing this issue to the back burner.
『Lastly, although it’s not strictly a limit of your method, it’s an environmental issue.』
“An environmental issue…?”
『Yes. In my opinion, just continuing to spar with me as you have won’t lead you any further.』
“…….”
『This isn’t about talent. It’s an issue arising because the way you’ve been trying to learn the skill is different. Think about how you’ve acquired your techniques until now in that body.』
Khan understood what Karyan was hinting at. Perhaps, deep down, he had thought the same thing.
‘It’s real combat. Situations where my life was on the line. That’s when I’ve acquired skills.’
Indomitable Will, Combat Foresight, Antares-style secret swordsmanship, and the Heavy Sword…
All high-level combat skills he had acquired during life-or-death battles.
‘Could it be that the barbarian race…’
『From what I see, your talent can only truly shine when you’re fully immersed in a fight. Not just a spar where you don’t fear death.』
“If that’s the case, fight me as if you intend to kill me.”
『No, that still won’t work. To you right now, I am something insurmountable, no matter what. Isn’t that so?』
After a brief consideration, Khan nodded.
Karyan was a God whose power rivaled the Goddess of Justice. Even the Great Warrior, his apostle, was undoubtedly one of the continent’s strongest. This was proven when the Great Warrior effortlessly blocked a strike enhanced by Surging Strength.
‘Would it change anything if I stacked skills…?’
Surging Strength, Dragon Fang.
Using both A-rank skills simultaneously?
‘No, it wouldn’t.’
The only possible option might be to replicate the sword strike that had partially obliterated Argon’s royal city alongside the Golden Dragon.
But that was impossible.
That strike required not only the divine blessing of agility for precise power control but also required being constantly healed by Aries. It was a miraculous move that couldn’t be replicated.
‘From the start, it’s a ridiculous notion.’
Asking Karyan to fight with the intent to kill? Although he had said it out of desperation, Khan wanted to kick himself for it.
To Khan, the Great Warrior wasn’t his father. Naturally, the parents who had raised him for over thirty years were on Earth, not in this world. But to the Great Warrior, ‘Gordi Khan’ was his child.
Asking the Great Warrior to fight to kill was akin to asking a father to murder his son.
‘Then, what should I…’
Khan fell into deep thought, and Karyan remained silent, perhaps hoping Khan would find the answer on his own.
Then suddenly, a thought struck Khan. Khan suddenly remembered someone who was eager to kill him, without needing to ask anyone else.
“Leniyar.”
『Leniyar? And who is that?』
“There’s a woman who’s desperate to take me down.”
『Is that so?』
Karyan raised an eyebrow with a mischievous grin, wagging his pinky finger suggestively. Khan grimaced at the God’s crude gesture. He had dealt with Karyan’s vulgar behavior several times now, but he still wasn’t used to it.
The Goddess of Justice had been the epitome of divine grace.
“What nonsense are you spouting? I’m talking about someone who actually wants to kill me.”
『Back in my day, there was a crazy woman who tried to claim me. Said she’d stuff my corpse to keep by her side for eternity. Naturally, I killed her myself. I wonder what she’s up to now.』
Rather than argue about Karyan’s insane logic of wondering about the life of someone he killed, Khan focused on confirming one thing with Karyan.
『There’s no reason it can’t be done. After all, the ‘Proof of Valor’ is about imparting the sense.』
“Then, I’ll proceed with that.”
With Karyan’s consent, there was nothing stopping him. Khan took a long, deep rest to prepare himself and immediately headed out of the sanctuary upon waking.
“Khan.”
“…Great Warrior.”
It was the Great Warrior Gordi, who had taken back control from Karyan, that stopped him. The words that followed caused Khan’s eyes to flicker.
“Return victorious!”
Before him stood not the strongest warrior of the Hoarfrost Gorge clan or a God’s apostle, but a father concerned for his child’s safety. In front of him stood Khan—though not by choice, a specter inhabiting that child’s body.
“…….”
Khan, whose tongue had always moved freely even before the gods, found himself at a loss for words. The efforts he had put into avoiding unnecessary conversation with the Great Warrior crumbled.
Struggling to find the right words, Khan hesitated, then let out a deep sigh before awkwardly responding.
“I’ll come back and pay you back for all the hits I’ve taken.”
“Haha─! That’s the spirit of a son of Hoarfrost Gorge! I’ll be waiting-!”
***
“Hmm? Who are you?”
Ashuk was in the middle of doing menial tasks as punishment for instigating a desertion attempt. Today, he was repairing the fence surrounding the sanctuary.
“A dwarf woman and… a dwarf with pointy ears?”
Two figures approached, almost looking like walking corpses due to their exhausted appearances. While Hoarfrost Gorge warriors had ventured out to the continent, the reverse was rare. The only exceptions were the companions who had come with Khan this time.
That’s why Ashuk, curious about these humans who had come to the sanctuary without any escort from the clan, stopped his repairs and approached them.
But as he closed the distance—just within the range where he could strike with a few strides—a sudden realization struck.
“Enemy──!”
Sensing a lethal aura by instinct, Ashuk grabbed his weapon from his back and charged.
And then—
“Die, you filthy short-lived race.”
Invisible blades of wind—blood splattered.