Hasib turned the blade slightly in his grip, watching violet light ripple along its edge, throwing faint shifting glows across the sand at his feet.
This thing is actually insanely cool.
He didn’t have long to admire it.
A deep boom rolled across the desert again, and this time it didn’t stop, wave after wave of cannon fire arcing up from the Hog lines and shrieking down toward the battlefield. Minions scattered in every direction, diving into hastily dug pits, burying themselves in the sand with practiced panic.
Hasib turned to check on Dora, and his stomach dropped.
She hadn’t moved. She stood exactly where she’d been, staring at the glowing violet blade in his hand, completely unaware of the cannonball arcing straight for her.
"DORA!"
He moved without thinking.
In one motion he closed the distance, hooked an arm around her, and pulled her against his chest, twisting his body to shield her as he swept the violet blade up in a brutal slash. The cannonball split clean in half above them, both halves shrieking past on either side before slamming into the dunes and detonating in twin bursts of sand and fire.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Dora’s eyes were wide, her small hands still clutching the front of his shirt where she’d grabbed on instinctively. Slowly, she looked up past the blade, past his arm still wrapped around her, and met his eyes.
Her face went red from her ears to her chin in about half a second.
Two more shells hurtled down before Hasib could react to that. He spun, slashing both out of the sky before they reached the ground, sand and shrapnel scattering harmlessly around them instead of tearing through what remained of the pavilion.
Only then did he remember he was still holding her.
"Ah, sorry!" He let go so fast she nearly stumbled, took a step back, and rubbed the back of his neck, refusing to look at her.
Dora spun away just as fast, both hands pressed to her burning cheeks, her whole body vibrating with fury and embarrassment in equal measure.
"D-don’t you dare mention that again," she hissed, not looking at him. "Not one word."
"I wasn’t going to say anything!"
"Good!"
Far across the battlefield, a single Hog scout crouched atop a ridge, watching the exchange through a cracked spyglass. The moment he got a clear look at the boy wielding the violet blade, the color drained from his face.
"...No. No, no, no."
He didn’t wait to see more. He scrambled backward down the dune and ran, half-tripping over his own boots in his hurry to reach the command line.
"Captain! CAPTAIN!"
The captain turned, annoyed. "What now?"
"It’s him! It’s Karon! He’s back. I saw the blade myself, it’s purple, just like the old stories said it would be someday!"
The captain’s face went slack. He turned toward the general standing a few paces away, his voice dropping close to panic.
"General, we need to fall back. Now. If the legends are even half true, that boy alone could..."
"SILENCE."
The general’s roar cut through the ranks like a blade of its own. He rounded on the captain, nostrils flaring. "A children’s story has you shaking in your boots? He is one soldier. ONE. We have three hundred behind us. Advance the line! NOW!"
The captain flinched but didn’t argue, turning to relay the order, his jaw tight with something he clearly didn’t agree with.
Back at the pavilion, a young minion soldier tugged at the hem of Dora’s dress. "Princess, should we loose the arrows now? They’re advancing!"
Dora’s eyes stayed fixed on the approaching Hog line, calm settling over her features despite the color still lingering in her cheeks.
"Not yet. Let them come closer."
The minions held, bows drawn, waiting.
The moment the Hog front line crossed within range, Dora’s arm shot up.
"NOW!"
A storm of arrows tore into the sky, and with Hasib standing at the center of their line, violet blade raised, calm, the minions surged forward with a ferocity they hadn’t shown all battle, driving the Hog vanguard back in a scrambling retreat.
It was the general himself who finally stepped forward, shoving through his own retreating soldiers with a snarl, a massive jagged weapon dragging furrows through the sand behind him.
"KARON!" His voice boomed across the battlefield, silencing everything else. "If the legends are true, then prove it. Face me. One blade against one blade. No armies. No tricks."
The battlefield went still.
Hasib rolled his shoulders, tightening his grip on the violet blade.
"Fine by me."
Beside him, Dora hesitated, worry flickering across her face for a moment, but when she looked at him, really looked, his eyes held the same stubborn certainty she’d seen since he crashed into her pavilion.
She said nothing. She stepped back and let him go.
The wind kicked up as Hasib walked out to meet the general, sand hissing across the open ground between them, stinging his eyes. The general didn’t wait for ceremony. He came in fast, far faster than something his size had any right to move, his massive blade cutting a wide arc through the swirling sand.
Hasib dropped low, felt the wind of the blade pass a hair above his head, and drove forward.
The general recovered instantly, twisting into a second strike, but Hasib was already moving faster than he had any right to, the fraction of speed the System had granted him bending his body around the attack in ways that would have been impossible yesterday. He ducked under the general’s guard, spun past the reach of that enormous blade, and drove the violet sword upward in one clean arc.
The general froze mid-motion.
For one long second, nothing happened at all.
Then he collapsed, sand exploding outward around his fallen weight, and went still.
Silence swallowed the battlefield.
A notification bloomed in front of Hasib’s eyes, glowing against the settling dust.
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU KILLED ONE GENERAL]
[YOU GET A REWARD]
The rest of the Hog army didn’t wait to see anything more. The moment their general fell, the entire line broke, soldiers scattering back across the dunes, abandoning weapons and formation alike.
Minion soldiers erupted into cheering, tossing helmets into the air, and Dora crossed the distance to Hasib at something close to a run, both hands clasped in front of her.
"You did it," she breathed, eyes bright. "You actually did it. Thank you... thank you so much, Karon... I mean... whoever you... thank you!"
Before Hasib could answer, before the reward box could even finish materializing in front of him, the world around him flickered.
[DOMAIN TASK COMPLETE]
The violet blade faded in Hasib’s hand.
The desert, the cheering minions, Dora’s grateful smile, all of it dissolved into light, scattering apart like sand caught in wind, and Hasib felt himself unravel along with it.
Hasib’s eyes opened to darkness.
The wall clock across the room read 2:00 AM, its faint ticking the only sound in the cramped mess room. A thin sliver of moonlight slipped through the gap in the curtains, falling across his face.
His stomach chose that exact moment to growl, loud enough to cramp him fully upright.
He dragged himself off the bed and opened the cupboard, already knowing what he’d find before he found it.
One packet of instant noodles. That was it.
He didn’t complain. He filled the small pot, boiled the noodles, and ate them straight from it, sitting on the edge of his bed, too tired to bother with a bowl. The moment he finished, he set it aside, dropped back onto the mattress, and was asleep before his head fully hit the pillow.
The next morning, the school’s largest fitness hall was packed wall to wall with students, the air buzzing with nervous energy ahead of the day’s testing.
Hasib pulled his shirt off along with the rest of the boys lining up for the physical assessment, and for a moment he simply looked down at himself.
Nothing had visibly changed. No new muscle definition, no dramatic transformation, nothing anyone glancing at him would notice.
But he could feel it.
Beneath the surface, his body moved lighter than it ever had, joints loosening with an ease that hadn’t been there before, muscles carrying a coiled, ready strength he hadn’t earned through sweat alone.
Whatever that System is doing to me...
He rolled his shoulder, testing the unfamiliar looseness in the joint.
...it’s working.
Simon stepped up beside him, throwing a quick once-over at his own build, clearly relieved to find it wasn’t any more impressive than his own. They exchanged a small nod.
"Honestly," Simon muttered, arms crossing over his bare chest, "having to strip down like this for a test is kind of annoying."