"Big sister, please be careful."
By the time Leo finished saying it, his feet had already moved.
Each step covered little distance, but the speed was shocking. It was a knight’s short charge. His two swords, one in front and one behind his back, reached Mira in the blink of an eye.
At full charging speed, a fast, heavy strike flew straight at Mira’s left shoulder.
Mira smiled. She raised her left sword and blocked it. Then she calmly struck back with her other sword. She wanted to see whether this little kid could handle even that much.
*Clang!*
Suddenly, Leo stamped his right foot on the ground.
He killed his own momentum right there. He cut off his full-power charge by force. His body hung in the air for just a moment. And the Refined Iron sword he had thrust forward snapped back with the same jolt, ready to answer Mira’s counter.
Rowan’s eyes flashed.
*A skill interruption?*
Leo tightened his grip. For one second, light flickered along the blade. Then, at least twice as fast as before, the sword shot toward Mira’s left shoulder again.
*Pure-White Edge and Thorny Charge!*
He was using two knight skills at once. And he linked them almost perfectly, cracking open a gap in Mira’s attack.
Thorny Charge boosts the speed of an attack and gathers Spiritual Energy while doing it. Pure-White Edge then packs that energy even tighter. Together, they pushed that strike’s power far beyond Leo’s 107 Spiritual Energy.
But Mira wasn’t a Standard Knight. She was a Genuine Knight.
The moment his sword moved, she was ready. At the critical moment, her right sword came up in front of her body. No matter how hard Leo pushed, it wasn’t enough to break that defense.
*Ding!*
The two swords crashed together. Leo’s strike landed near the tip of her blade.
A thrust has no less power than a cross cut. And Mira’s Spiritual Energy was far above Leo’s. Even so, she stopped the blow, but she couldn’t help taking two steps back.
*Pa!*
Leo’s right sword was knocked backward. But his attack wasn’t going to stop that easily.
As his foot kept moving forward, his right sword rose again. He kept attacking without a pause.
A second charge! And from so close!
Mira blocked this one too, even though it was a back-to-back attack.
Leo’s strong right arm swung around from the side. This charge was only three steps. But in those three steps, his body looked perfectly steady.
Then his foot turned. His body spun into a fast whirl. His left sword rose. And a thin, bright white line of Pure-White Edge flew straight at Mira.
Surprise filled Mira’s eyes. But in that same moment, she showed the natural skill of a gifted knight.
Her right foot slid back. Her body settled into a steady stance. Then, with a sword in each hand, she leaned forward and struck. Lightning flashed, and ten sword shadows appeared in front of Leo. New chapters come out on novelping dot com first.
*Lightning Thrust!* A third-stage knight skill.
It defended and counterattacked at once.
But what happened next left Rowan, standing to one side, completely stunned.
A loud clang rang out. Leo’s full-power sword slammed straight into Mira’s blade.
Their Spiritual Energy was almost 100 apart. Even so, Leo’s strike carried skills, and it had pulled extra power out of its speed. The result was shocking. The two swords collided and neither side gained the upper hand.
And if anyone slid back, it was Mira.
Suddenly, Mira unleashed a Lightning Cut. It flew straight at Leo.
At that moment, Rowan thought about stopping the fight. Mira was also getting ready to hold back her hand.
But Leo’s right hand, the one that had just been pushed back, suddenly moved.
An afterimage burst from his sword. It blew away the space in front of his body. And with a sharp crack, the Lightning Cut stopped completely.
Mira had been afraid of hurting Leo. So she hadn’t put her full force in. As a result, her attack didn’t just stop. In that same instant, it was countered.
Leo had swung both swords. One sideways, one downward.
This was the mark of a knight skill called Instant Blast Cross Cut.
The playful look on Mira’s face was gone. After throwing her Lightning Cut, she had no strength left to spare. And she never expected Leo to block her last attack. She hadn’t prepared for this counter at all.
A thin golden light burst from Mira’s body.
Her right hand was pressed to the floor. And suddenly, a golden beam shot up two meters high.
*Clang! Clang!*
With two sounds, Leo’s Instant Blast Cross Cut hit the layer of golden light and bounced back. Leo took a few steps back and dropped into a defensive stance.
He had already used up a lot of energy in the earlier attacks.
Mira looked at Leo, standing back in front of her, with serious eyes.
"Little guy, you made your big sister use the Heavenly Battle Array. Watch out. Now your big sister is going to attack."
The Heavenly Battle Array is a third-stage Retribution Knight skill. It uses a knight’s holy light to build a layer of radiance. Its effect is like a wall of defense made from Spiritual Energy all around the user.
Mira stamped on the floor and leaped. Her right sword came down straight at Leo.
To be honest, she was pretty annoyed at that moment. Just to avoid his attack, she had been forced to use something like the Heavenly Battle Array in front of Leo. It felt almost shameful. Her face burned.
This time, Leo didn’t counter.
He only raised his right hand. And for a moment, he looked like a sacred statue.
It was only a split second, but Rowan’s eyes went wide.
*Clang!*
A clear sound rang out. Mira gasped and stumbled backward.
Her Spiritual Energy was at least twice Leo’s. On top of that, she was attacking from the air. Even though she was holding back, her strike was still far from weak.
By Mira’s calculation, Leo should have been the one pushed back.
But the one forced back was her.
Her right hand holding the sword had gone completely numb.
"I can’t attack... how is this possible!?"
Mira knelt down with a gloomy face. It was clear she had no idea what Leo’s defensive stance meant.
Seeing Mira stop, Leo put both swords back in their sheaths.
When he saw her sad face, he felt embarrassed. He didn’t know what to do.
"Uncle Rowan, please tell me, what was that? Leo is only a first-rank Standard Knight. How can this be? How did he push me back?"
As she spoke, Mira looked up at Rowan’s face.
He stood frozen. This time, he was the one who looked like a statue.
"Uncle Rowan, what’s wrong?" Mira asked, her voice full of doubt.
"Divine Obstruction?"
Rowan walked a few steps and stopped in front of Leo. His eyes were uneasy and his face was full of shock.
"Little Leo, tell me quickly! Was what you just used the Divine Obstruction?"
Mira’s brave face went totally blank.
"Uncle Rowan, aren’t you mistaken? That was a Radiant Knight’s Divine Obstruction? Impossible! Absolutely impossible! Only Radiant Knights can use Divine Obstruction!"
A Radiant Knight. The sixth stage of their path.
Divine Obstruction was their signature skill. And it was said to be the skill that changes a knight’s body the most.
Leo looked from Rowan to Mira, and then down at his own right hand.
He had no idea what Divine Obstruction was.
He hadn’t been thinking about any skill at all. He had only wanted to protect himself.
And as he stared at his hand, a faint blue glow flickered around the ring on his finger.