Henry's Test (2)

When Henry began charging at him, Neo stood his ground and began analyzing his opponent's movements. He was able to grasp the subtleties of Henry's bodily movements and anticipate what he was going to do.

'A rising slash from the left aiming for my torso…but it's just a feint.'

Neo reacted accordingly, but he found that his body was moving a beat slower than what he wanted.

'I guess sleeping for too long has dulled my body's reaction speed!'

Since he couldn't do what he originally intended, Neo decided to just take Henry's feint and do his best to react to his opponent's following attack.

Henry saw Neo react to his charge and realized that the young lad knew that his charge was only a feint. He praised him inwardly and changed things up a bit. Instead of going for the feint, he pressed on and attacked Neo instead.

"!"

Neo reacted quickly enough and managed to block Henry's attack though it was a taxing on his body.

The stats that were shown on the Adventurer Plate should've made him a step above ordinary people. Unfortunately, his opponent was anything but an ordinary person. Henry was the adventurer guild's guildmaster, meaning that he was previously a SSS-rank adventurer who earned the title after stepping down from being an active adventurer.

All SSS-rank adventurers were usually those with extremely powerful combat skills. It was why Henry was able to become Neo mentor in all of his previous lives. Not just anyone could become the Goddess's Champion's mentor after all.

"Ugh!"

The attack was heavy but Neo was able to shift the weight of his body and sword to deflect it away. Contesting strength with this old man wasn't something he was willing to do at the moment, especially since his body was a bit unfamiliar in this lifetime.

"Haha, I guess ordinary techniques won't faze you, Uria's Champion! How about we take things a bit further?"

Henry said this as he wrapped his greatsword in aura and pointed it at Neo. Neo didn't say anything and did the same.

"Oh?"

It wasn't like what Henry was expecting. He expected Neo to wrap holy energy around his sword in place of a sword aura, but the sharpness he felt from the golden aura that was coiling around Neo's sword was definitely a sword aura.

"So the Goddess's Champion is capable of this little trick! Impressive!"

'Little trick? Ordinary people could only dream of possessing this 'trick' that took me a year in my first life to learn…'

Learning sword aura in a year was definitely a magnificent feat if anyone else knew about it, but as Uria's Champion, Neo could easily learn such things at a glance though it took him that long to learn how to use sword aura.

It took him even longer to learn how to use fighting energy. Mana manipulation was easier for him since he could control mana directly to some extent which gave him an advantage over regular mages.

For now, he wasn't going to show his other abilities since currently, sword aura was putting a strain on his current body.

The toll his body had taken in his previous fight inside of the demon gate where he used fighting energy also hadn't gone away just yet, so using anymore of his abilities would be dangerous for him.

Neo raised his sword and calmed himself. Calming his mind was easy since he didn't have emotions to begin with. The sword aura that was undulating on his sword began to similarly calm down and Henry smiled at this.

"So, your sword aura is actually at the second stage where it's connected with your state of mind. I can't express how relieved I am to know this."

"..."

"Anyway, I'll put the praises aside. Let this old man show you a few tricks!"

Henry once more charged at Neo but this time, his sword was wrapped in a blazing-red aura. He performed the same movement technique as earlier and the way he held his greatsword was as if he was going to perform the same attack as earlier, but this time, he swung his sword before he was even close to Neo.

After swinging the greatsword, a crescent energy blade was ejected from it and it flew towards Neo, destroying the ground as it passed through.

Neo's response was to swing back in kind, firing his own crescent blade of energy at the attack. When the two crescent energy blades struck each other, they exploded and sent out a shockwave that nearly blew Neo off of his feet.

'...My body in this life is pretty weak. At least in comparison to my bodies in my previous lives.'

The Goddess's powers were waning and so too were his. Since he couldn't rely on his Goddess to provide him with power, he really needed to start training again to obtain the power needed to compensate for his lacking strength.

'I'll have to train on my own while I go around vanquishing the Demon King's fragments.'

Neo had to put this thought to the back of his mind for now because his battle with Henry wasn't over yet. After the shockwave, Henry had jumped into the air and was now descending on top of Neo's head.

He quickly dodged and swung his sword at Henry, firing another aura blade at him. Henry deflected it into the sky so that it wouldn't hit any of the surrounding spectators.

"Boy, if you use your aura like that, you'll deplete it very quickly!"\

"...I know."

"Good! At least you understand that much!"

They continued exchanging blows with one another and without anyone realizing it, a magic barrier had been erected around the training field at some point. Watching over the battle through one of the castle windows nearby was Merlina.

She was observing their battle quite intently and nodded to herself after seeing that Neo was at least adequate enough to hold his ground against Henry in a sparring match.

"He has some ability, but unfortunately, he's fighting against Henry. He's going to lose."

It was just as Merlina said. Neo was slowly losing ground as he continued to use up his aura. His body really was too weak in comparison to his previous lives' body and he couldn't maintain his aura for too long.

"Ugh…so this is my limit…"

After losing his aura, Neo became defenseless and Henry quickly subdued him. The audience that was watching had been on their toes since earlier but after seeing the outcome, they all expected as much.

"An ex-SSS-rank adventurer still is a SS-rank adventurer! Master Henry was overwhelming in that match!"

"It's as expected, but to think we'd be able to see Master Henry's sword after so long! Who is that young man?"

"He put up a decent fight. He's still young yet already has a sword aura. He's definitely not just a run-of-the-mill kind of guy!"

"Anyone know who he is? I've never seen him before."

Henry was able to hear what the knights and soldiers were saying but in his mind, he was quite shocked by Neo's power.

'This lad, if he had a bit more stamina, he would've outlasted me. I may not be at my prime, but if he can develop a little bit more, he'll definitely surpass the current me in no time.'

He offered his hand to Neo who quickly took it and pulled him up from the ground. Cecilia came over and handed the two of them towels to dry their sweat-drenched faces.

"Master Henry, Uria's Champion, the Queen will be expecting you in her office later after you've washed up," Cecilia reported.

After delivering the words that Merlina had passed to her earlier through magic transmission, Cecilia stepped back and waited for their responses.

Henry chuckled and nodded while Neo just nodded his head, not refusing. He wanted to meet her anyway so this was good.

"Croche! Come here," Henry called out to one of the squires who was watching the battle earlier from the sidelines. When the young squire arrived, Henry quickly told him, "Lead this young man to the shower room! Once he's finished, bring him to my office, okay?"

"Yes, Master Henry!"

After Neo finished cleaning himself up, he reunited with Henry at his office and the two of them along with Cecilia went to meet the Queen in her office.

"How was he, Master Henry?" Merlina asked the moment they entered her office.

"More than we expected him to be," Henry replied.

"That's good. So it looks like we won't have to worry about anything then."

"Mhm."

Merlina turned towards Neo after she finished addressing Henry and said, "I was watching your battle with Master Henry from afar. I'm glad that Uria's Champion has the ability to stand up against one of our continent's finest warriors."

"..."

As usual, there was no expression on Neo's face when he heard Merlina's praise. Merlina gave him a wry smile before saying, "You really are an expressionless person."

"I'm sorry. This was how the Goddess made me. Although I do not have it, I try my best to understand it."

"Haha, I was only joking with you. It's not a bad thing or anything. Anyway, my friend gave me a quick reply and he said he should be here by tomorrow morning so you won't have to wait too long at the castle."

Neo nodded and replied, "Is your friend perhaps…the Sword Saint, Sigurd?"

"Oh? You already knew that? Well, I guess that'll save time for any useless pleasantries."

"...The Goddess informed me of the names of the important and powerful people that are on her side who are fighting against the Demon King."

"I see. Anyway, I only wanted to inform you that our departure for the catacomb that's sealing the Demon King's Fragment is tomorrow. If you want, please go ahead and rest for today."

Neo confirmed the departure time but didn't leave the room immediately. Seeing that he didn't have any notion of leaving just yet, Merlina eyed him and asked, "Did you have something else to say?"

"Yes, I have a few questions that I would like you to answer, if possible."

"...Sure, please ask away."

"I'd like to know more about what Miss Cecilia actually is…"

"..."

"The High Priest called her a Shade. The Goddess didn't give me information about what a Shade is so I'd like to know."

"...Take a seat. This will be quite a long story."