Rin ignored the searing agony in his shoulder. His focus shifted entirely to the Knight's aerodynamic armor—the shell that had been refracting his every move.
'Calculations are zero? Then I'll break the math,' Rin thought.
He didn't retreat. Instead, he lunged forward, intentionally baiting the Knight's six blades. The monster didn't hesitate; it swung with surgical lethality.
Rin took the hits.
Steel pierced his side and grazed his ribs, but he used the impact to close the gap until he was inches from the Knight's main chassis. He grabbed the central armor plate with his mana-hand, locking himself to the beast.
"Refract this," Rin hissed.
He didn't fire a beam. He focused all his remaining mana into a single, microscopic point between his palm and the Knight's chest—a forced fusion of Flame and Frost.
The two opposing elements screamed, rejecting each other within the confined space. Rin wasn't aiming for a clean hit; he was triggering a localized collapse of reality.
The Knight's visor flickered with something resembling fear. It tried to shake him off, but Rin's grip was a death vice.
"Yuro... watch closely," Rin whispered.
The air between them turned a violent, unstable violet. Then, the contradiction exploded.
Rin tightly coiled the enchanted rope around his fists, reinforcing it with a swirling mantle of Wind energy.
'Flame negates Frost,' Rin calculated rapidly, his eyes burning with intensity. 'And then there's Lightning and Wind. Wind moves Lightning; it's the breaker element.'
With a guttural roar, Rin unleashed a barrage of punches. Each strike sent ripples of wind through the Knight's six blades, attempting to deflect the jagged arcs of electricity. The wind caught the lightning, shifting its trajectory just enough to keep Rin from being incinerated.
But the Lightning Knight let out a rasping, mechanical laugh that chilled Rin's blood.
"How foolish," the Knight hissed, its six arms vibrating with lethal power. "You think you understand the game of opposites? You believe Wind breaks Lightning because it moves it?"
The Knight's aura flared, the blue electricity turning a blinding, unstable white.
"From another perspective, boy... Lightning is the predator of the Wind. It doesn't just move through it—it ionizes it. It consumes it."
The blade grazed Rin's fist, but there was no deflection. Instead, the lightning surged forward, searing through his defense. The Knight had exploited the truth: Rin's enchanted rope contained metal fibers, and his wind mantle only acted as a conductor.
Rin recoiled at maximum speed, his breath heavy. 'My mana arm won't drain me,' he thought, teeth gritted against the pain. 'My reservoir is deeper than Yuro's or Rhino's. My awakening was more complete than theirs.'
Rin stood his ground, centering his remaining energy. Sensing an opening, the Knight lunged with a terminal velocity, its blade whistling through the air to deliver the killing blow.
The steel tore through Rin, bifurcating his body down the center.
But there was no blood.
The Knight froze as Rin's form shimmered and split into two identical, solid entities. The real Rin stepped out from the shadows of the illusion, a cold glint in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Rin's voice echoed from both directions. "It seems I'll be finishing you off with a trick that looks quite a lot like your own."
The Lightning Knight stood paralyzed, its sensory field haywire. For the first time, the predator was the one being hunted. It was no longer facing a wounded boy—it was facing two.
The Knight recoiled in disbelief. Rin and his clone lunged simultaneously, a synchronized storm of vengeance. Rin snapped his enchanted rope into two equal lengths, handing one to his double.
Both Rins reinforced their fists with pure mana and surged forward. The clone lashed out first, throwing its rope with pinpoint accuracy, snagging and pinning two of the Knight's blades.
Rin didn't waste a microsecond. He dove into the gap, jamming his hands between the Knight's neck and shoulder plates. With a primal roar, he strained every muscle, attempting to tear the armor asunder—to rip the monstrosity apart with his bare hands.
The Knight screeched, plunging one of its remaining sabers into Rin's side to force him back. Rin grunted, blood spilling from the new wound, but as he retreated, he dropped into a low crouch with a bloody smirk.
The Knight didn't see it coming.
A massive, swirling orb of energy—launched by the clone—slammed into the beast's flank.
"This is it!" Rin shouted, his voice rasping. "The refraction shield is failing!"
Rin channeled his most concentrated mana beam directly into the point of impact. The Knight desperately fired a counter-beam, but Rin's orb, reinforced by the continuous stream of light, overpowered the defense. The explosion tore through the Knight's aerodynamic shell, exposing the dark, pulsing core beneath.
Rin and his clone surged forward for the final strike. The Knight looked broken, its armor shattered.
But as they closed in, the beast let out a hollow, echoing growl. "It seems... I must play my final card."
In a flash of obsidian light, a seventh blade manifested in the Knight's grasp. With a sickening metallic shriek, the energy from the new sword flowed into the broken hilts, restoring all six blades to their lethal, glowing prime.
Rin froze. The math had just changed again.
The Knight didn't just hold the blades; he positioned them in a perfect, lethal symmetry. He began to spin with a manic velocity, creating a colossal vortex of frost and lightning. The cyclone acted like a vacuum, dragging Rin toward a center of certain execution—a swirling death trap that incinerated anything it touched.
"You think this storm will stop me?" Rin shouted over the roar of the wind.
But internally, his mind was racing. 'From another perspective... it won't just stop me. It will erase me.'
His muscles screamed for respite, every fiber of his being begging for rest. But Rin grit his teeth. 'Once I move, I won't feel a thing,' he lied to himself, channeling the last of his mana.
Rin slammed his hands and his enchanted rope into the frozen earth. The fibers snaked through the soil, erupting beneath the Knight to pin him down. The cyclone detached from the beast, continuing its path of destruction, but the Knight was now anchored.
Rin locked eyes with his clone. With a silent nod, the double unleashed a hyper-concentrated, explosive energy orb directly at the Knight's core.
Rin didn't stop there. He pressed his palms together, focusing every remaining drop of mana into a dual-beam—a massive, reinforced stream of light that slammed into the orb.
The resulting detonation was absolute.
The smoke cleared to reveal the Knight, his armor shattered and his energy depleted. All but one of his blades had been ground to dust. He slumped over, leaning heavily on the single remaining sword he had driven into the ground, refusing to let his knees touch the earth.
A chilling, hollow laugh escaped the Knight's visor. "So... the cliché is true. Those who underestimate the weak find only their own end. Even knowing the trap... it was truly entertaining."
The Knight looked up at Rin, a strange sense of respect in his fading aura. "You have won. But I refuse to let my end be written by your hand."
With a swift, brutal motion, the Knight gripped his last blade and plunged it into his own heart—repeatedly—until the light in his eyes flickered out.
"Boy... I acknowledge your intellect," the Knight's final rasp echoed. "You are the strongest."
Rin stood silent in the wreckage, the only sound the fading crackle of spent lightning.
Rin gazed down at the fallen Knight, a strange, lingering ache in his chest. 'I wish you had lived,' he thought silently, respecting the warrior who chose his own end.
"There is no room for the heart when facing an enemy, Rin," Shiron interrupted, his voice steady as he approached. "I know you are the most sensitive among them, but pity is a luxury you cannot afford."
The group retreated to the safety of the Great Rock. Loren moved quickly, her hands glowing with healing light as she began to close Rin's jagged wounds.
As the mana mended his flesh, Rin looked up at Shiron. "What is the point of fighting these monsters in the real world," he asked, his voice strained, "if I can face them in the Hall of Illusions and keep my life?"
Shiron leaned against the stone, his expression grave. "The Hall is safe, yes. But in there, you fight only with your soul, not your flesh. Your physical body does not grow stronger there. You only gain combat experience, new skills, or a hardened mind free of fear."
He paused, looking at Yuro and Rhino before returning his gaze to Rin. "As for the powers you all manifested inside... the Hall didn't give them to you. That energy was already dormant within you. The Hall's only purpose was to force you to finally reach out and grasp it."
Yuro looked at Rin, his expression softening into a rare moment of honesty. "I'll admit it, and I won't be arrogant or overbearing," Yuro said, patting Rin on the head. "You're the strongest right now." He paused, a smirk playing on his lips. "But no matter what happens, I'll always be the boss. I'm older than you, after all."
Rin rolled his eyes. "It was only two days, Yuro."
"It doesn't matter," Rin said, looking directly at Yuro. "Prove you're the strongest, and only then can we say you're the eldest and not just the stupidest."
Rhino cut them off, his voice heavy with a reality check. "It's like I'm not even here. Neither of you would last a second against a real Tyrant, yet you're boasting about defeating a Knight and a stray beast? One mistake on my part, and even Shiron wouldn't have been able to save me. A big mistake means death. Period."
Loren stepped forward, her arms crossed. "Enough. You're all still on the very first step of the ladder, and yet you're acting like kings. Save the pride for later."
Shiron didn't say a word. He simply gestured with his hand, and the world blurred. In an instant, they were standing in front of their house. Without a sound, Shiron vanished into the darkness, heading toward his own dwelling.
The three of them walked inside, the silence of the night heavy with the adrenaline of the fight.
"Goodnight," Yuro muttered as they prepared to disperse to their rooms. But he stopped, his hand on the doorframe. He turned his gaze toward Rin and Rhino, his expression unusually serious.
"Hey... before we sleep," Yuro began, his voice low. "I want to know what you guys think. What did Shiron really mean by the monsters' intelligence levels? If they can think like us... what does that mean for our next fight?
"Goodnight," Yuro muttered as they prepared to disperse to their rooms. But he stopped, his hand on the doorframe. He turned his gaze toward Rin and Rhino, his expression unusually serious.
No one had an answer.
Yuro finally went to his room, his mind still spinning. He collapsed onto his bed, staring at the ceiling until his eyes finally closed.
Suddenly, Yuro bolted upright, his heart hammering against his ribs. He scanned the darkness of the room, his instincts screaming. "Someone is watching," he whispered, cold sweat dripping down his neck. "I'm sure of it... there's someone here."
But as quickly as the panic had surged, it vanished. A strange, unnatural heaviness washed over his senses, extinguishing his fear in an instant. His body went limp, and he fell back onto the pillow, slipping into a deep, forced sleep as if the entire moment had been nothing more than a fading dream.