Chapter 92: Usage

“Bang!”

The thick, tough palm covered in dense body hair came crashing down like a giant fan.

But it struck only air.

The black-haired figure who had just been standing before the bugbear suddenly blurred for an instant.

In the blink of an eye, his body slid a great distance toward the rear.

The chest that should have suffered a heavy blow from the enemy was now completely unscathed, without even the slightest scratch.

He even had strength to spare. Seizing the backswing after the bugbear’s attack,

he gripped the iron-gray long sword in his hand, lightly tapped with the sword tip, the blade brushing past,

and opened a bleeding wound across the enemy’s solid, bulging waist and abdomen.

“Roar!!!”

The beast roar, laden with rage, seemed to stir up an invisible wave of sound in the air, echoing between the stone walls.

Fine frost-white fluff swayed gently in the vibrating sound waves, ice-blue eyes reflecting the two figures in the field.

Foggon did not deliberately restrain his aura, but neither did he interfere in the combat between Xia Nan and the bugbear.

He merely stood in the corner of the cave, silent and still like an ice-thorn totem.

If one looked closely, with the rise and fall of his chest and his long, slow breathing,

threads of faintly glimmering frosty mist drifted through the air, brushed against Xia Nan’s body, seeped into his pores, sinking into his muscles and bones.

The bone-piercing icy wind from the distant Northern Territory would help this young man, who had grown up in the heart of the Continent, regulate his body temperature, feel with cold clarity the minute movements of bone and muscle, and subtly guide his actions when he released Combat Techniques toward the most standard and correct form.

In his line of sight, the black-haired youth again attempted to use the Combat Technique he had only recently begun practicing, evading the incoming leg-whip from the enemy before him.

Using the inertia of his movement, he raised the arm shield in his left hand in front of him and slammed it into the bugbear, nearly knocking it off balance and sending it stumbling backward.

Barely perceptible, Foggon gave a slight nod.

The reason he had chosen to teach 【Fang Hunt】 to Xia Nan

was that the Half-elf mother had once been his teammate in his youth, and he owed her several favors from past adventures.

Now that her offspring had been entrusted to him, he naturally had to do his best.

And Xia Nan’s combat style happened to be a perfect fit.

That was one reason.

The other lay in the inherent qualities of the Combat Technique 【Fang Hunt】 itself.

It was just like a standard-issue one-handed sword: in the hands of an ordinary adventurer versus in the hands of a Legendary Sword Saint, the power it could display differed like heaven and earth.

On the surface, 【Fang Hunt】 seemed to be nothing more than a simple and straightforward Movement Combat Technique.

Dodging attacks, closing in or widening the distance between oneself and the enemy appeared to be its entire function.

But in reality, it was precisely because of its simple movements that it possessed far greater potential.

Defense, offense, evasion, and even other types of Combat Techniques…

Anything one could imagine could be woven into it.

During a charge, depending on the battlefield situation, combined with various actions,

its upper limit was extremely high.

The demonstration Foggon had given two days prior was essentially 【Fang Hunt】 enhanced by his own totem power and the frosty aura of his Transcendence Class 【Grieffrost Oathbound】.

Likewise, to unleash the extraordinarily high potential of 【Fang Hunt】,

the user had to possess rich combat experience, or—

extremely high combat talent.

A “flash of inspiration,”

the ability to sharply perceive those fleeting opportunities in the heat of battle and firmly and promptly seize them.

In his view, Xia Nan possessed exactly such a trait.

This was something Foggon had already tentatively confirmed after completely watching one of Xia Nan’s full battles two days ago.

And in the time since, as Xia Nan grew increasingly proficient with 【Fang Hunt】,

Foggon could not help but develop some faintly strange thoughts.

It seemed… too fast.

Not yet twenty years old—at the same age, he himself had already been able to bare-handedly hunt alpine ice pythons alone,

yet when learning Combat Techniques, he had not progressed like Xia Nan, as if every breath he took and every step he made contributed to his Proficiency.

Every day, even every hour of training, brought tangible growth and advancement.

This was precisely why Foggon believed that even if he ignored the other Combat Technique Xia Nan had already trained to the level of “Mastery,” Xia Nan would still become a Class Holder in the future.

Even setting 【Whirl Slash】 aside and starting from scratch, using 【Fang Hunt】 as the first step toward a Class Holder’s path,

he would only need to learn two more Combat Techniques and raise the Proficiency of one of them.

At the rate of progress Xia Nan had shown over the past two days,

a few years would be more than enough.

A Class Holder just past twenty years of age could be considered remarkably young.

Even in the Tribe…

His thoughts suddenly stalled.

The previously smooth stream of thoughts grew faintly disordered, and the ice crystals floating in the air around his body trembled in response.

Foggon lowered his gaze. A moment later, the ice crystals around him stabilized once more.

He turned his attention back to the battlefield.

“Roar!”

It was still the bugbear’s ferocious, rage-laden roar.

But compared to before, its momentum was clearly much diminished.

The combat was nearing its end.

Tap.

Beneath his leather boots was muddy filth laced with ice crystals.

His eyes fixed on the burly figure ahead.

Holding his sword in both hands, Xia Nan gently angled his body.

As the lock of hair at his brow swayed, he once again dodged the enemy’s attack.

After several exchanges, the bugbear’s speed had gradually slowed compared to earlier.

His footwork did not halt in the slightest.

His body leaned forward slightly, abdominal muscles tensing, calves tightening.

Inhale… exhale…

Crystal-like frosty motes dispersed into the air with his breath.

The exquisite Combat Technique that he was by now gradually proficient with, already turned into Muscle Memory, was unleashed once again.

“Bang!”

Mud sprayed, and on the wet, muddy ground a dried imprint appeared abruptly.

His figure blurred. Using the exertion Technique of 【Fang Hunt】, Xia Nan had already moved behind the bugbear.

And at that very moment,

that familiar Combat Inspiration flashed through his mind once more.

He did not consider feasibility, nor did he hesitate.

It simply felt like this was what he should do.

Almost by Instinct, after using 【Fang Hunt】 to evade the attack and move to the bugbear’s back,

Xia Nan did not even look back.

His right foot slammed into the ground, turning his forward momentum into the driving force for twisting his body.

Step, turn.

—【Whirl Slash】!

The razor-sharp iron-gray Sword Light carved a crescent-like arc through the air.

Buzz.

Blood sprayed.

The roar cut off abruptly.

The bugbear’s mane-covered head spun away and crashed to the ground.

Xia Nan stood where he was, maintaining his sword-swinging posture.

His gaze was slightly dazed.

In his heart, he replayed the movements born from that sudden flash of inspiration.

【Fang Hunt】 and 【Whirl Slash】.

Charge, followed by a sweeping strike.

“So it can be used like this too.”

He murmured in his heart.

The end.