Chapter 600: Experience

Shin POVHe let his feelings of discontent fuel his next sword swing. was a powerful skill that utilized his emotions and let them power his abilities. The bandit facing him was shocked at the power and fell back, swinging his sword without any grace. Shin moved forward and thrusted, tearing through the man’s guard and into his shoulder.

Another bandit took his place, and Shin tilted his body out of the way, infusing some fire mana into his blade. Once he gathered enough mana, he stepped forward with his movement skill and sliced upwards.

His sword missed its intended target, but the superheated blade made of fire lacerated his opponent’s chest. The cheap leather armor shredded as if it weren’t there at all. He was about to press forward, but he saw that one of the bandits had made it past the other caravan guards and was heading toward a family of four.

He launched himself at the approaching bandit and engaged in a brief clash of swords. These bandits were not skilled in any way. If they had any training at all, it was minimal at best. It probably hurt them more than helped. Shin danced circles around the bandit, and in a matter of several seconds, the man’s cold corpse was on the ground, blood soaking into the ground.

He looked over to make sure the family was safe before heading back into the fray. For some reason, his grandmother, Cassandra, insisted that he get as much experience fighting real fights as possible. He understood where she was coming from, but she made it sound like the fights he experienced so far in his life weren’t real fights.

He didn’t like that.

However, he really didn’t like how much attention Cassandra gave to Julius. In all of his years, he could count the number of times she had given him personal lessons. Forget about personal lessons; he rarely ever spoke to the woman if it wasn’t related to the sect or his training.

Yet, this boy comes in, and she treats him like he is someone special. Sure, Julius won his way through the tournament, but it was a tournament with Tier 3s. The truly powerful talents were either already Tier 4 or didn’t care to participate in tournaments like the one held in the capital.

A small part of him admitted that Julius was quite strong for his age. But he shoved that part of him into a deep hole to save his own pride.

Regardless, he felt that the other boy was quite hasty in his advancement. Shin had been held back from advancing for over a year now. Cassandra insisted that he wasn’t ready. Stating that he needed to gain a few more epic skills and build up his willpower before he advanced.

Shin and his father disagreed. Those things could always be improved during Tier 4. In fact, it was a lot easier to do so than in Tier 3. The improvements to one’s soul and mind would make skill development easier. As for willpower, it could always be honed in the specialized training chambers the sect had available to its members, and it would be easier once he was in Tier 4 as well.

At this point, his skill improvements had already slowed to a halt, and he was ready to advance. His patience was faltering, and he was beginning to not care what his grandmother told him. He had already decided to advance it if he didn’t see any meaningful growth during this period while traveling home, regardless of her wishes.

He let out a scoff.

She kept talking about him gaining experience, but the only thing he experienced was seeing the Empire fail to defend itself against foreign invaders. If something like that happened at the Burning Sun Sect, it would have been humiliating.

Shin glanced over at Maya. He was about to go over and help her, but he saw that she had everything well in hand. The only issue was that the Tier 4s would soon be overrun. If they wanted to help, they would need to do so soon.

Finishing off his opponent in front of him with a few quick slices of his blade, he gave Maya a pointed look and rushed off toward the nearest Tier 4. It was an archer standing in the back as he harassed the caravan’s Tier 4s with arrows. The man didn’t even sense him until he was already on top of him.

Shin swung his sword at the archer, and only at the last moment did the archer react. Their eyes widened, and they swung their bow at Shin. Knowing that Maya was backing him, he focused all of his strength into his sword, meeting the blow head-on.

The weight behind the archer’s swing was immense. Despite being a ranged combatant, the man was still Tier 4 and was physically stronger. With that said, Shin had the leverage and was able to hold his own against him.

The problem was the man’s authority. There was nothing Shin could do as his concepts were brushed aside by the signature ability of Tier 4s. Knowing that he couldn’t engage in a battle of strength, he grunted and shoved as much power into his sword, knocking the bow to the side and slashing upward. His sword managed to nick the archer’s arm, but the natural defenses of a Tier 4 were strong, and he wasn’t able to cut deeply despite the blade being extremely sharp.

However, he did his job, and Maya was already flanking the enemy, her staff filled to the brim with fire mana. It was a little embarrassing that an archer of all people had such bad perception and awareness, but Shin wasn’t about to complain.

It was because of this that Maya’s blow smashed into the enemy’s spine. The blow was strong enough that it broke through the man’s defenses, and he heard several bones crack. It wasn’t surprising. Maya was ridiculously strong despite her meager size, and since the man wasn’t prepared for her attack, he paid the price.

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Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep the man down. A sharp authority ripped out and targeted Maya. Shin watched as the authority hit her dead on, and she flinched at the pain, unable to keep it from hurting her.

He was already moving in for another attack. But now that the archer was aware of him, it was a lot harder to do. The archer used a movement skill, increasing the distance between them. The string of the bow was pulled back, and an arrow made of pure mana flew his way.

He tried to disrupt the arrow, but the man’s authority was infused into it, and he was forced to throw himself to the side as the arrow shrieked past his face.

He cursed. He couldn’t wait until he got his own authority. At least that way, he wouldn’t be so helpless when against another Tier 4.

Another volley chased after him. Maya used this opportunity to attack the archer. However, now that he was prepared, it wasn’t as effective. Her staff slammed into the skin of the archer, which had taken on a bark-like texture and bounced off it.

They continued exchanging attacks with this Tier 4, and while they weren’t making much progress, it took some pressure off the caravan guards. With one less Tier 4 shooting arrows at their backlines, they were able to regain some space.

Unfortunately, the other bandits also realized this issue, and Shin was attacked from behind. Due to his quick reactions, he prevented a serious blow from landing. He was able to get his sword up in time so that he was sent flying back twenty feet instead of getting cut in half by the enemy’s axe.

He was also lucky that his sword was made of incredibly tough materials. Otherwise, his sword would have been shattered by that direct contact. He tumbled back to his feet, hands completely numb from the exchange, and watched as Maya tried to delay the axe user. Unfortunately, she had met her match in strength and was tossed away, similar to Shin. She landed next to him, and they exchanged a look.

They both knew this wasn’t going as well as they hoped. The only thing that alleviated his worries was knowing his grandmother was around and would protect them if they were in danger.

A volley of arrows rained down on them. Shin did his best to dodge them and used to shroud his body with fire, protecting it from the worst of it. Maya did the same, but the arrows were fast and strong. He let out a pained groan when a few arrows nicked him.

The burly axe user took this opportunity to run them down. The large man’s feet exploded with mana, and he was suddenly charging them down, axe held above his head. The speed at which the man struck down with his axe was shocking; it was only due to the obvious nature of the attack that Shin was able to get out of the way.

Still, the axe smashed into the ground and exploded with mana. The shockwave knocked him and Maya off balance. The real danger was the arrows racing toward them. They were fewer in number than the previous ones, but much stronger.

On the bright side, they had now occupied two of the opposing Tier 4s. However, it also meant they were forced to fight two Tier 4s. As strong as they were for their tier, neither of them was strong enough to beat a Tier 4 straight up. Especially not a pair who were working this well together.

Shin threw up every defensive measure he could and used his movement skill to avoid the arrows. However, these projectiles had some kind of tracking function, and his eyes widened when one of them tore through his veil, slamming into his shoulder, missing his heart by a few inches.

He felt the first flash of panic as he realized how close he had just come to dying. He looked off where Cassandra was likely watching from. He knew that she told him that she was going to let him make his own mistakes, but he didn’t think she meant she would let him die if he wasn’t careful.

His blood went cold when he understood that he was actually in danger. To his shame, this fear of death made his movements sloppy and erratic. He suddenly found himself dodging the incoming attacks with too much force and urgency.

also demonstrated why the skill was a double-edged sword. If used correctly, it would be a powerful tool, but if fueled the wrong way, it would restrict its users' abilities.

At least Maya didn’t seem to be suffering from this. Then again, she was always the calm one. Still, he could see that she was worried about him getting pushed back so aggressively.

He did his best to control his raging emotions, but it was hard when an axe the size of his chest almost decapitated him for the second time. The axe warrior must have sensed his weakness and pounced forward, while the archer delayed Maya from helping.

Then, to make a shitty situation even worse, he felt the ground collapse below his retreating foot. He had been so distracted that he wasn’t aware of his environment, a stupid mistake. His teachers would scold him for this.

Off balance and unable to move himself out of the way, he watched as the axe descended, mana glowing around its edges with horror. He closed his eyes and waited for death to come to him.

But it never came. He felt his heart pound in his chest and pried open his eyes to see a form standing in front of him. The axe, which had been about to split him in half, was stopped by a single slim arm.

Relief suddenly turned into frustration.

Julius had snatched the axe right out of the air and was staring at the axe warrior with a mixture of excitement and contemplation. The warrior was confused at seeing a young boy stop him with his bare hands, but he reacted swiftly and kicked Julius in the stomach.

To Shin’s surprise, Julius didn’t move an inch. He knew just how strong that axe user was. But Julius didn’t even bother to block the kick. He took the blow without so much as a flinch and with a frown, tore the axe out of the man’s grip as if one would take away a toy from an unruly child.

Without his weapon and confronted with the abnormality of Julius, Shin didn’t blame the man for panicking. The archer must have noticed the appearance of Julius and his teammates' situation, and an insanely powerful arrow screamed across the ground and slammed into Julius.

Unlike the kick, the arrow actually managed to do something and puncture Julius’s flesh. However, it might as well not have done anything based on the boy’s reaction. It was like seeing someone get stung by a mosquito. Julius looked down at the offending arrow, protruding from his chest, and over at the archer.

Shin watched with shock as an enormous amount of life mana surged out and reinforced Julius’s arm. Then, in a flash of movement so quick that he barely saw it, Julius threw the massive axe at the archer.

The shockwave released by the throw knocked Shin onto his ass, and his mouth gaped open when he saw that there was nothing left of the archer. The only evidence left behind was a destroyed bow, a single boot, and a massive bloodstain where the archer had been.