After lunch, it was time to introduce Henry to the other trainee cadets before starting the afternoon class.

“Cadet Henry received a perfect score on his first week exam, despite joining us in the middle of training. Therefore, he will join the class starting today. Cadet Henry, say hello to your batchmates.”

“I’m Henry. Nice to meet you.”

His family name was deliberately not disclosed. After all, it was obvious that everyone present was the son of a Noble family. As soon as the introduction was over, a round of formal applause followed. It was apparent that no one was interested.

“You can do a round of proper introductions at the end. For now, let’s begin the afternoon class.”

According to the academy, theory lessons would be conducted in the morning and martial arts in the afternoon. This is because commanders were expected to be both highly literate and combat-ready.

“Let’s start with hand-to-hand combat techniques. Before the lesson begins, Cadet Henry, please come forward.”

When his name was called, Henry stepped forward and stood at attention.

“Since this is your first day as a trainee cadet, let’s check out your skills.”

“Yes, understood.”

“Cadet, you are to start a one-on-one battle with your classmates. The match is to continue until you are defeated or when all the other cadets are defeated. So, who will be the first to face Cadet Henry?”

Several cadets raised their hands.

‘So, it’s basically an endless sparring session.’

Henry knew the rules to some extent; there had been a similar test that was conducted in the Mystical Tower. Henry roughly counted the number of classmates he would have to fight.

‘About twenty people.’

Before the sparring session began, Henry spoke up.

“Sir.”

“What is it?”

“May I ask how many of these cadets got a high score when they did this test?”

“Around ten.”

“Thank you.”

Ten. Or, about half the total number of people. Henry felt that this test was very doable.

“We’ll start off with Nid. Cadet Nid, step forward.”

“Yes, sir!”

With a few exceptions, most of the cadets were of similar height and build. The two cadets, Henry and Nid, took off their jackets as instructed by the officer and stood in front of the sparring arena.

“If you stab your opponent in the eye, strike them in their groin, or use a dishonorable technique, such as biting, it’ll be considered an immediate loss. Now, begin!”

Henry stared silently at Nid. Nid had short-cut yellow hair and a well-trained body. Unfortunately for him, however, Henry was significantly taller.

‘One guy first.’

It was Henry’s first time sparring unarmed, and it was also the first time he had a sparring match with someone other than Barren. However, he was not afraid or upset, and had no intention of making a fuss. Everything that happened at the academy would reach Iselan’s ears eventually, after all. For that reason alone, Henry needed to put up an overwhelming performance.

Henry took the most standard guard stance, putting his left foot forward and raising both his fists. It was the standard stance of the Imperial Combat Art. Nid took the exact same posture.

“Mm?”

However, the moment Nid thought they were both starting from the same stance, Henry stretched his left hand out in front of him.

‘What the hell is that?’

It was the first time Nid had seen such a posture. Henry had assumed the standard stance of the Imperial Combat Art, just with his left fist outstretched. Nid ignored this change and decided to strike first.

“Hup!”

Taking a short, deep breath, he lowered his hips, leaned forward, and took a shot at Henry’s ribs. But…

‘Huh? Huh?’

Naturally, Nid had assumed that Henry would lower his right arm to defend his body against his attack. However, instead of defending himself with his right hand, Henry lowered his outstretched left hand, putting his left fist in the way of Nid’s attack.

Henry’s long arm and outstretched hand extended forward like a spear. Nid failed to strike Henry in the ribs. In addition, Henry’s long outstretched left hand temporarily obscured Nid’s vision.

Henry did not miss his opportunity.

Nid hesitated for a moment while his vision was obscured. In that split second, Henry counterattacked, his right fist striking Nid on the side of the neck.

“Kurgh!”

The neck was considered a vital point. However, most aspiring knights had sufficiently trained neck muscles, so they would not die from an attack like this.

Instead…

Thud!

Hit precisely between his jaw and shoulder, Nid passed out from the excruciating pain. It was Henry’s victory.

“...uh?”

“W-what was that?”

“No way, Nid passed out?”

Nid was more talented in unarmed martial arts than in swordsmanship. He had the third highest score among the trainee cadets when it came to melee combat, so it was a shock to the others to see him defeated with one strike.

“Next.”

Defense, followed up with offense. Henry had linked both principles in a single chain of moves. He waited patiently for the next challenger with an expressionless look on his face.

* * *

 ‘This is the ninth, I think.’

There was only one opponent left until Henry could claim superiority over the ten best trainee cadets in melee combat.

It was a series of overwhelming victories.

As everyone was using the one-size-fits-all Imperial Combat Art, they had no choice but to suffer helpless defeat at the hands of Henry’s techniques that they had never seen before.

‘I’m only realizing it now, but Hector, that bastard…what an outstanding fellow!’

Henry’s ‘unique’ hand-to-hand fighting techniques were actually Hector’s originally. The Sword King’s aggressive approach to martial arts extended not only to swordsmanship, but also to unarmed combat.

Having learned both Hector’s techniques and the Imperial Combat Art, Henry had created yet another combat art that was unique to himself, just like how he had done with his swordsmanship.

Thanks to that, the other cadets who had only learned the Imperial Combat Art could not even hold a candle to his skills.

‘Who the hell is this guy?’

Berik, the hand-to-hand combat instructor, could hardly keep his mouth closed. He thought that Henry may have set a new record among the trainees.

In fact, this entire test of skill was a ruse put together by the officers. Originally, this test would only have been administered to a cadet with a certain level of training in melee combat. However, with Henry getting a perfect score on the intermediate commander’s test, the officers were naturally curious about Henry’s proficiency in barehanded combat. This was the result.

‘Is he really a trainee knight raised by our commander-in-chief?’

At first, one or two officers barely paid attention to Henry. They attributed his victory to sheer coincidence. However, as the sparring session continued, they could not shake off the strange sense of disparity that they felt watching Henry’s mysterious combat technique surpass their imperial martial arts style.

Finally, the tenth challenger was called up.

“Cadet Ronan, step forward.”

A lean body, strong muscles, well-groomed blond hair, and flawless white skin. It was enough evidence for anyone to see that the man in front of Henry was the child of a high-status family.

The education officer spoke.

“Cadet Ronan currently has the best grades in the hand-to-hand combat class. So, if Cadet Henry defeats Cadet Ronan, they will both stand equally at the top of the class.”

“Understood.”

Henry wanted to argue that he should be the new top of the class if he defeated the current top cadet, but apparently, this test judged his performance solely based on the number of people he defeated.

Henry furrowed his eyebrows before taking a deep break.

‘He looks like a nerd, but he’s the top of the class?’

Having just defeated the second-place cadet, Henry stretched out his left hand again, thinking of this match as the final round. It was Hector’s combat stance once again.

As soon as Henry took up his stance, Ronan’s golden eyes, which matched his blond hair, stared sharply at Henry.

“Begin!”

As Henry had barely taken any damage while taking down the first nine challengers, his breathing was still very stable.

‘Looks like I don’t need my magic buffs again this time.’

He was on a hot streak despite not even arming himself with any magic buffs. In addition, he had gotten accustomed to not relying on his magic buffs after working on his swordsmanship, and would only use them if he was put in a difficult spot.

However, this battle would take longer than he expected.

‘The top-ranking guy is a little different from the others, huh?’

Unlike the previous challengers, Ronan kept his composure, never breaking eye contact with Henry. However, he was using the Imperial Combat Art as well, and his stance was the same as all the others.

Everyone held their breath as they watched the two men.

However, this battle of wits showed no signs of ending, as the two of them continued to analyze the other. In the end, Henry decided to be the one to make the first move this time.

‘Since you’re the top dog here, I’ll give you the respect you deserve.’

When Henry made his move, the onlookers’ eyes lit up. He pretended to move in a circle, before instantly shifting to the Hector Step and narrowing the distance between the two men. Then, just as he had done with the Purple Gehenna, he circled around Ronan and attempted to strike him from behind.

However…

Thud!

Ronan kicked backward and hit Henry in the elbow. A tingling sensation rang through Henry’s arm.

It was the first time during this test that Henry was forced to take a step back.

‘Oh?’

Henry had assumed that the test would end with a strike to Ronan’s back, but that was precisely why he could not be any happier. It was as if he had finally found suitable prey after hunting so many weaklings that were nothing more than fodder.

‘I thought too lightly of you,’ Henry thought to himself.

This guy was definitely different.

Whoosh!

Ronan made his move.

He, too, seemed to be drawing a circle around Henry, using the Circle Step himself. However, something happened right before his right foot closed the circle.

‘Mm?’

His foot suddenly came to an abrupt stop, creating a sharp angle instead. From that angle, his foot pointed forward like a sharp blade.

‘A different Step?’

Noticing that it was not the Circle Step, Henry deliberately did not evade the attack. This was the better choice. Henry wanted to disguise his skills using the chaos of a brawl, rather than attempt to identify this unknown Step.

Thud! Pow! Thud!

Right arm, left shin, right knee.

The sound of bones clashing rang across the training ground. As if fighting a mirror image of themselves, the two men matched each other, strike for strike. Since neither of them were skilled in Aura, it was a battle of pure physical strength. As they fought, the spectators grew more and more fired up.

If one of them was struck in the face, he would retaliate by striking the opponent in the chest, then the opponent would counterattack to the abdomen.

Thud!

Their outstretched fists hit each other’s faces at the same time. However, the two prepared for their next move without even batting an eyelid.

Crack!

The mirror-like battle continued. Their upper bodies grew redder and hotter like iron in a forge.

‘Persistant bastard!’

Henry had no intention of losing. The longer the fight dragged on, the greedier Henry grew, but it seemed that neither man was willing to give in any time soon. However, at that moment, Ronan leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Henry’s thighs, causing him to fall on his back.

‘Uh, uh?!’

In an instant, Henry had lost his footing and collapsed to the floor. Refusing to let the opportunity slip by, Ronan got on top of Henry and took an advantageous position.

“It’s over.”

Ronan began to rain down an indiscriminate flurry of blows. Henry put his arms together and covered his face.

He was in immense pain. Due to the sheer amount of damage his arms were absorbing, Henry felt like his arms could break at any moment. Perhaps because of the pain, a thought of conceding defeat momentarily flashed across Henry’s mind.

‘Never!’

When all was said and done, victory or defeat depended on a single fleeting moment. And Henry had one trick left up his sleeve.

Magic.

‘Lighten Gram!’

It was a spell that lightened the weight of its target. The moment Henry cast the spell, Ronan—whose weight had been crushing Henry’s chest—suddenly became as light as a child.

“Aaaaargh!”

At that moment, Henry roared and lifted his upper body, and with his magic-induced lightweight body, Ronan had no choice but to fall backward helplessly.

“Huh?”

There was confusion written all over Ronan’s face. Henry immediately grabbed Ronan by the ankle.

“Now it’s over.”

Henry threw Ronan against the wall with all his might.

‘Lighten Gram, cancel!’

Crash!

Ronan’s body collided against the wall with a thunderous noise.