The Legendary Hero is an Academy Honor Student

Leo stared at Arron in silence.

Arron raised his fist toward Leo.

The atmosphere was completely different from when he’d been dealing with the other students just moments ago.

“Why aren’t they moving? Why are they just standing there?”

“Hmph. In the end, a mage is still a mage.”

Borman puffed up with a smug expression.

“A fight between warriors who’ve reached mastery is like this! It looks like they’re doing nothing, but they’re locked in a fierce battle of wits! The one who moves first shows an opening, so the more skilled the warrior, the less likely they are to make the first move! It’s a contest of patience! They’ll probably stay like that for dozens of minutes more!”

Whoosh-!

Before Borman could even finish, Leo closed the distance with Arron.

Chelsea looked at him like he was pathetic, and Borman’s face twisted in embarrassment.

Ar widened her eyes, as if she refused to miss a single moment, and focused on the sparring between Leo and Arron.

'The black rabbit is insanely skilled.'

Ar knew it too.

That there was a massive gap between Leo and her.

Leo’s martial arts were so deep, Ar couldn’t even gauge them.

'But even the black rabbit’s skill won’t reach Arron-nim.'

Her opponent was the Brave Arron.

The one praised as a war god, the absolute owner of overwhelming might.

It wasn’t simply because he possessed great power.

In Master Dweno’s world before.

And in the sparring just now, Ar had clearly realized just how unfathomably high Arron stood.

'He feels even stronger now than when I saw him in Master Dweno’s world.'

Against Arron, it seemed nearly impossible for Leo to fight him to a standstill.

'But maybe… he can force Arron-nim to show at least some of his true skill?'

With Leo’s bottomless potential, it might be possible for him to draw out Arron’s real strength.

That was why Ar didn’t want to miss even the smallest detail of this spar.

'If it’s the black rabbit, he’ll definitely aim for Arron-nim’s flank—'

Swoosh-!

“Straight on?!”

Ar’s eyes went round.

Because Leo charged in without hesitation, straight from the front.

'Arron doesn’t have blind spots, anyway.'

Arron’s Hyper Senses were sharp enough to foresee even fragments of the future in a fight.

(T/N: Changing Supersense to Hyper Senses as it sounds a lot better and it makes more sense.)

As long as he had that, Arron had no blind spots.

No matter how fast Leo moved and tried to disrupt his vision, he couldn’t escape Arron’s awareness.

Swish-!

Leo’s sword thrust at Arron.

Arron’s eyes narrowed as he watched the blade.

'I can’t block it.'

He considered batting the sword away, but the moment he did, Leo would undoubtedly slip into his guard.

Arron’s senses picked up the dagger strapped at Leo’s waist.

In pure close-quarters ability, Arron had the edge over Leo.

But in irregular feints and exchanges, Leo held a slight advantage over Arron.

If Arron’s strength was born from innate senses, reaction speed, and overwhelming kinetic vision, then Leo’s strength had been honed through countless battlefields.

Arron had also experienced countless battlefields.

But Leo… Kyle, the Surviving Hero, had been through a different number of wars.

'Because Kyle stood on battlefields long before I ever did.'

And Arron wasn’t the only one who could read the flow at a near-precognitive level through Hyper Senses.

Not to Arron’s degree, but—

Leo, too, was a warrior who had stepped into that realm.

Arron evaded Leo’s blade and reached a hand for Leo’s abdomen.

Leo twisted in midair and slipped out of Arron’s strike.

Tap- Shing!

In that instant, Arron drew the dagger strapped at Leo’s waist as a secondary weapon.

With that, the sight that had been blocked returned to Arron.

His field of vision came alive, and the hearing and smell he’d sealed off began feeding him information.

Whoosh-!

Arron moved.

Arron, who hadn’t budged even when eight people attacked him while his senses were sealed, now moved with all his senses fully released.

No matter how much of a hero Arron was, he couldn’t secure the advantage against Kyle, the Hero of Beginning, starting from a restricted state.

Clang-! Kraaang-!

The dagger’s short blade and the longsword’s edge crossed.

Holding the dagger in a reverse grip, Arron knocked the sword upward.

Sparks flew between steel and steel.

Leo’s right hand, gripping his sword, was knocked high.

Whoosh-!

With his right hand raised, Leo’s abdomen was exposed.

Completely defenseless.

Arron saw it and unleashed a kick.

Boom-!

Leo’s body was launched back.

Screeech-!

The soles of Leo’s shoes scraped the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Regaining his balance, Leo quickly shifted out of place.

Boom-!

Arron’s fist slammed into where Leo had been.

The ground caved in, and dirt and dust blasted outward in every direction.

“How can he put out that kind of destructive power with movements like that?!”

Celia’s eyes widened.

From the kick that landed on Leo just now to that strike, Arron hadn’t even shown any sign of drawing out tremendous strength.

And yet the destructive force erupting from his feet and hands far exceeded what anyone expected.

“He concentrated a handful of power into a single point.”

Chen Xia answered, watching their exchanges with unusually sharp eyes.

“In that split second, he compressed his Aura and detonated it—at a speed too fast to notice easily.”

“If it’s that much… then even Leo would’ve taken a huge hit, wouldn’t he?”

“Not sure.”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Leo.

'He didn’t manage to deal heavy damage.'

Arron looked at Leo.

In that split second, Leo had quickly compressed his Aura and neutralized Arron’s attack.

'You’ve gotten stronger.'

This wasn’t the Kyle Arron remembered.

If you compared total output, Leo still didn’t reach the level of the Kyle Arron knew.

'Because Kyle is regaining his strength now.'

The reason Arron thought Leo had grown stronger was his skill.

The Kyle Arron remembered couldn’t have blocked that attack so perfectly.

And once again, Arron realized that the friend in front of him wasn’t the same friend he used to know.

'Even in this era of peace… you still haven’t stopped.'

Even while living in an age of peace, Kyle hadn’t dulled in the slightest.

Arron could tell.

That Kyle hadn’t spent a single moment at ease.

To pass down, intact, the peace they’d protected with their lives.

How hard his friend was working.

Arron glanced at the students, all watching their spar.

'Then…'

He adjusted his grip on the dagger.

'So I can pass even a little on. I should try.'

He wanted to pass down even a fraction of his technique to the next generation.

Arron lowered his stance.

Leo shook out his hands when he saw it.

'So he’s coming in for real.'

He shook out the left hand that had blocked Arron’s kick, forcing away the lingering numbness.

Whoosh-!

As Arron moved to attack first this time, Leo tightened his grip on his sword.

Clang-!

Sparks flew as their blades crossed.

“How was it?”

After the spar ended.

Arron looked at the students lined up in front of him and smiled warmly.

“It was incredible!”

Borman shouted with a moved expression.

“I could feel that Instructor Arkan-nim’s techniques are at a level we can’t even begin to measure! Is all of that because of Hyper Senses?”

“Hyper Senses is a technique that pushes your senses to their limit. What I used in that fight is a different realm from that.”

“Ooh!”

“If you’re curious about my techniques, I’ll teach you as well.”

All the students’ eyes went wide.

To a warrior, technique is like a mage’s core spell formula.

Even mages who publish countless magic papers don’t reveal the core spell formula when they disclose the principles behind their secret arts to academic circles.

Not making your years of research easily public is only natural for a scholar.

Martial artists are the same.

Sharing the results of long training with others is never an easy thing.

And yet the instructor before them said he would teach them—without hesitation—techniques from a realm so far above.

“First, I’ll teach you how to activate Hyper Senses.”

“Yes!”

The students answered with enthusiasm.

“You’ve learned The Hero’s Breath, so you’ll pick up Hyper Senses quickly.”

“Is it a derivative technique of The Hero’s Breath?”

“You could say that.”

More precisely, it was something Arron used naturally while breathing.

'I remember how much it drove me insane trying to learn his technique.'

Leo clicked his tongue inwardly.

Arron’s breathing and Hyper Senses were absurdly difficult to master.

Since it was Arron’s unique technique, learning it would’ve been impossible if Leo’s mana nature hadn’t allowed it.

But more than that, what made learning Arron’s techniques difficult was—

“First, inhale and feel the mana.”

“Yes.”

“Then spread the mana through your whole body.”

“And then?”

“Use the mana spread all around to stimulate the sensory organs throughout your body.”

“…Pardon?”

The students, who had been listening with shining eyes, froze in place.

“You get the feeling, right?”

Dion raised his hand while looking at Arron.

“Instructor Arkan-nim.”

“What is it?”

“Could you be more specific? The explanation is too difficult.”

“Hm? Was that too abstract? I guess so. Every kid I taught always found my explanations hard.”

Arron crossed his arms in thought, then smacked his fist into his palm.

“Right! It’s like turning mana into grains of sand, putting them in a glass bottle, and shaking it!”

“…”

“…”

At Arron’s bright explanation, the students’ faces turned even stranger.

“Is it hard? Hm… then…”

Arron tried to explain in as much detail as he could.

What it felt like to move mana, the timing of his breathing, and so on.

He tried to put into words the sensation of using Hyper Senses.

But the more he explained, the more bewildered the students looked.

“Let’s take a short break. I’ll try to explain it better.”

In the end, Arron gave them a rest.

“Leo-nim, good work with the sparring!”

Eiran approached Leo, pulled a towel out of subspace, and handed it to him.

Between the hot weather and the intense movement, Leo was drenched in sweat.

“Thanks.”

Leo smiled and wiped his face with the towel Eiran gave him.

Then he tugged at his collar to let air circulate inside his clothes.

Watching him, Eiran’s face flushed slightly.

The collarbone that showed in brief flashes was far too stimulating for a teenage girl.

She looked away but kept stealing glances at Leo.

Then—

“As expected of the black rabbit! Even if Arron-nim’s senses were sealed, you still held out against him!”

The other students believed that Arron/Arkan had kept his sensory restrictions in place when facing Leo.

“H-Hiiik?! I-I wasn’t peeking at anything!”

At Ar’s voice from behind, Eiran shrieked in shock.

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I-It’s nothing!”

Eiran shook her head frantically at Ar, who looked completely confused.

“Anyway, Arron-nim’s the same as ever. His explanations are too hard.”

“I guess his perspective is just that different.”

Ar let out a small sigh, and Eiran gave an awkward smile.

The two of them had already trained under Arron in Master Dweno’s world.

Even then, Arron’s explanations had been hard to understand.

So their training had mostly been sparring.

“This one’s going to be even harder, since we can’t just muscle through it.”

“M-Muscle through it?”

At Ar’s words, Eiran’s ears perked up, and she blushed to herself.

Then her eyes met Leo’s, and she flinched before clearing her throat.

“Leo-nim, do you also find it hard to understand Arron-nim’s explanations?”

“I get the gist, more or less.”

“Huh?”

“What?!”

At Leo’s answer, both Eiran and Ar jumped.

With her tail standing on end, Ar asked,

“Really? You’re not lying, right?”

“Why would I lie?”

“As expected of Leo-nim!”

Eiran beamed.

“Once I fully grasp it, I’ll give you some advice too.”

After that.

When the break ended, the students spent the whole day listening to Arron’s explanations.

In the middle of it, Leo also gave them far more concrete explanations than Arron did.

By the time the sun set, the students were able to understand the basics of activating Hyper Senses to some degree.

“You’re all amazing!”

Arron clapped, genuinely delighted.

Seeing Arron so sincerely proud, the students were sincerely happy as well.

“Instructor Arkan-nim, you must have put in blood, sweat, and tears to use this technique, right?”

Celia asked, her face slightly flushed.

Arron answered in a bright voice.

“No, it just came naturally from birth.”

The students’ faces turned strange.

And what Arron said next was more than enough to crush their spirits.

“So? Now that you’ve got the feel for it, isn’t it pretty easy?”

'It’s not easy.'

The students screamed internally.

***

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