Only Wisdom Awakened - Chapter 231

Chapter 231: A Change
The underground training facility of the New York Association branch was known for being a heaven for those who wanted to go all out… but that day of winter, it was… how to say… quite chilly.

The surface of the walls, just like that of the ceiling and the floor, had been covered by a thin layer of frost, and the temperature was way lower than the already cold temperature outside.

Two people stood almost in the middle, one holding her sword pointed forward, and one opposite to her taking a stance similar to those of boxers, with both his hands raised to parry incoming attacks.

The loud sound that had just resounded throughout the empty room had almost stunned the girl, and it took a couple of instants for her to get back in the right mind.

When she did, she managed to comprehend what had just happened…

Her sword had taken the trajectory she wanted, and yet it hadn’t reached its target.

Just a few centimeters short… something had stood in its way.

‘That is… not possible’

She immediately concluded.

Standing between the sword and its target were Hans’a arms, however, they were covered in a thick layer of ice, which took the shape of a dragon claw.

{frozen dragon armor}(tier-6)

Behind those two claws, the young man smiled with a pleased look on his face.

“Just because you can defend against my basic spells and you can get close to me… doesn’t mean you can just take me out as you please!”

That moment of distraction was taken advantage of by Hans, who immediately used his gravity spell once again to send the girl flying.

{repulsion}{tier-5}

Once again, her body hit the wall, this time cracking the layer of ice that had formed over it.

As she fell to the ground, she was still shaken by what had just happened.

‘There is no way…

Apart from that incredibly sturdy ice spell, which acted as perfect armor, why wasn’t he just sent flying?…

And why wasn’t his body injured in the least?

Am I really… fighting against a mage?

It doesn’t feel like it anymore…’

Her concerns were understandable, after all, no mage would be capable of withstanding an attack like that, even with perfect armor, but what troubled her even more wasn’t what Hans did, but what he didn’t do.

‘I had considered his casting speed to be so fast only for telekinesis… if he can cast every spell at any time then… why hasn’t he defended with a simple barrier, and why hasn’t he counterattacked with another spell?

Either there are some kind of restrictions to his instant casting or…

He’s just toying with me.’

To be precise, it wasn’t exactly correct to say Hans was toying with her.

He just… didn’t want to go back on his words even further…

‘Damn… I promised myself I would manage with only Gravity spells…

In the end, I had to use my ice armor…

Sigh.

I could’ve attacked her right that moment when she stood still for a few seconds, but since I already used a spell I shouldn’t have used once, maybe I shouldn’t use any other spells that don’t belong to the gravity path…’

Hans wasn’t quite sure since his opponent wasn’t an easy one to deal with, and now that he had pissed her off, maybe she could’ve even inflicted a serious wound on him if she found the chance to, so it wasn’t really wise to play with his life on the line when it wasn’t necessary.

‘Mh… I’ve decided, I can use my ice armor during this fight, but other than that, only gravity spells will be allowed, after all, it’s been a long time since I last upgraded my gravity path spells, it’s better to train in real life I want to improve faster…’

He was interrupted by the fierce attack of Chloe, who had regained her will to fight once again…

He blocked the attack with a single arm, and then simply dashed away.

Even though he just retreated, his speed took the girl off guard.

‘As I thought… He also has the body of a knight…

and that speed…

he’s at least S-class.’

She continued her attacks, fencing over and over again, coming close to injuring Hans many times but always getting blocked by his armor…

Since her swordsmanship looked like a dance, with him parrying the hits and moving out of the way in rhythm, it looked like they were performing a ballet.

As he backed down and evaded the attacks, Hans was trying to figure out a way to counterattack.

Even though thanks to the ice armor he was able to defend himself, and having two arms that acted like shields he could parry Chloe’s only sword without regard to the difference in their dexterity, trying to brawl it out with someone whose physical stats were far superior to his was probably the worst option he could hope for…

He intended to create a new spell he could use to beat the girl, and to do that, he began analyzing her.

The loud noise of their clashing resounded through the room for a couple more minutes as Hans continued to evade while occasionally casting a couple of spells to test out the frozen armor’s effectiveness.

‘I already knew it from her status window…’

Hans thought as he avoided yet another attack headed his way.

‘… but she’s amazing…’

He was still fighting, so other attacks came his way even when he tried to concentrate on other things.

‘… her frozen steps combined with her frozen dance create an incredible skill, which becomes even more lethal when paired with her SS rank swordsmanship…

To add onto that, her absolute frost aura cools down everything around her blade and her frozen defense simply shields her body and maintains her agility without slowing her movements by weighing her down…

And she can endure all of that thanks to her cold resistance skill…

She’s at a different level compared to the other SS class I’ve met… I’m pretty sure Ava wouldn’t hold a candle when faced against her.’

His thoughts were continuously interrupted by the incoming attacks, of the relentless young woman.

‘A normal awakened won’t even obtain a single skill surpassing A-rank in half a dozen years of training and hunting… and yet she…

{swordsmanship}(rank-SS)

{frozen steps}(rank-S)

{frost defense}(rank-S)

{frost immunity}(rank-S)

…

Has four of them.

Everything I’ve said is also topped by her high endurance, which doesn’t fall short by much when compared to her other stats…

So this is… a real SS rank.

I must admit it, a normal eight-ranked mage would’ve probably lost against her…

But I am not normal am I?’

Even though fatigue was already building up for Hans who wasn’t used to fighting close-range battles that lasted more than a couple of minutes, he had finally figured out a way to get past the young woman’s defense.

It was something he had never tried doing… he needed a new spell for it…

While evading and taking the hits with his reinforced arms, Hans was trying to think of a way to put into action the spell he had idealized.

But his efforts to distance himself for a second were always nullified by the woman’s insanely high dexterity, which allowed her to leave Hans no time to rest…

Fencing and moving like a wild beast would, her movements became more refined with every step she took.

‘Faster… faster… it’s not enough… it’s still… too slow’

She had entered a trance, and her rapier seemed to have changed its movement…

Hans thought he was just imagining it at first but… two rapiers were coming his way at the same time.

In a panic, he parried them both, and his body was lifted off the ground from the impact.

‘What was that?!’

He immediately thought.

As he was launched away, Hans realized he wouldn’t have any chance of making it out of there alive if he left things as they were, and in a desperate attempt to gain enough time for the creation of a new spell, Hans enclosed his body in an ice armor.

But the attacks didn’t stop coming…

The time it took for Hans to land back on the floor was 2.8 seconds, for the first two seconds, the girl stabbed as fast and strongly as she could…

The tip of her blade collided against Hans’s ice armor a total of thirteen times, and after those thirteen hits, she realized something she had never been able to…

The essence of her swordsmanship wasn’t smoothness or swiftness…

The rapier’s movements had never been smooth nor swift…

The essence of her swordsmanship was…

“Pierce!”

A cold purple aura enveloped her sword, as she thrust one last time towards Hans’s falling body…

This time… her blade pierced the unyielding defense, as the ice shattered into pieces and crumbled to the ground.

Chloe had undergone a change…

{sword aura(pierce)}(new!)

{swordmanship}(SS)—>(SSS)(up!)

[…

Evaluation:

High SS-rank—>peak SS-rank / low SSS-rank]