Core Stage

Seeing that Bruno looked confident and was ready to step forward, I relaxed a bit and began to observe the environment more. I scanned the dozens of corpses looking for the trainees that I fought a while back and was eventually able to find traces of them.

Their bodies were torn apart presumably by that monster and any wound caused by weapons was nowhere to be seen. I relaxed even more at that point. This was most likely their way of covering up what happened before. The only thing that remained confusing to me was that they left their monster behind. Maybe the creature wasn't as valuable to them as I initially thought.

Regardless, Bruno spoke once more while approaching the beast.

"Keep your eyes peeled boys. It's not everyday that you will be able to see core stages fight. Burn this fight into your mind and always remember what it looks like to be strong."

With his sword resting in one hand, Bruno reached out with his other and a helmet slowly materialized. Seeing this, I was completely amazed. From popular fantasy stories, I knew that this must be some sort of storage device, but it was still shocking to see physical items appear out of nowhere.

After putting his helmet on, he approached the beast. This whole time, the beast was simply enjoying its meal while keeping an eye on Bruno, but after he took one step too close it stood up and prepared to fight.

The beast took a step forward and let out an incredible roar. As soon as the sound reached me, I was forced to cover my ears and stumble backwards in pain. Just a simple roar could incapacitate those weaker than it. I backed away to a safe distance while also keeping them within vision.

Bruno wasn't fazed at all by the deafening sound. I couldn't be sure if it was because his inherent strength or if he used some sort of technique to protect himself, but regardless he soon charged forward.

After noticing that the roar didn't work, the beast then stomped its foot onto the ground causing the earth before it to shoot out towards Bruno. It looked as if the very ground had become a liquid and that monster controlled where it would go.

Bruno's sword started to light up with violent mana surrounding it and didn't pause his charge for even a second. When it looked like he was about to be swallowed by the ground, he swung his weapon.

Everything in front of him was blown away and it looked like the beast even took a bit of damage from the leftover force. I was once again baffled by the power that individuals could have in this world. That strike was the equivalent of a directed explosion, but it was unleashed at will by a man with a sword. I couldn't wait until the day that I was just as strong.

Bruno's strike served to reset the battle for a moment, but neither side remained idle. The beast finally decided to get personally involved with the fight and began to approach Bruno while manipulating the ground around it into weapons.

On the other hand, Bruno prepared by materializing another item in his off hand. I couldn't really tell what exactly the item was because of the distance, but it was small enough to be largely hidden in his closed hand.

Soon the beast began forming and launching various spears from the ground while charging in. Bruno's sword lit up once more as an unreal amount of mana coated the blade. This time, the mana didn't seem nearly as violent as before and it soon became apparent why.

With a simple flick of his sword, each mana spear that approached was deflected or crushed all together. The deflected spears blew up entire sections of the ground where they eventually landed only serving to prove just how much power was behind each one.

Just how strong would a person have to be to redirect that much momentum?

As the earth spears exploded in the surrounding area, some of the trainees were unlucky enough to get hit by the debris. Seeing that and hearing the cries of pain, everybody quickly got behind trees hoping it would provide a bit of cover. I also saw a group of mages drag the injured away before starting to heal their wounds. I had almost forgotten that they brought a couple of healers on this mission, but I guess that just means I was lucky enough to not get hurt.

Bruno's fight continued until the beast was only a few meters away from him. Even though Bruno had an unbelievably large physique for a human, he was easily dwarfed in comparison. The magical attacks of the ground suddenly intensified and even started coming from all directions towards Bruno. It looked like the beast was going all out to end the fight by either hitting a decisive blow with its magic or by personally landing a bite while Bruno was distracted.

I started to get slightly nervous wondering what would happen if Bruno actually lost, but at the moment that everything seemed to be completely against him, Bruno made his move.

He lifted up his off hand directly above him and started channeling mana into whatever item he had retrieved. Soon a vortex appeared around his hand greedily sucking up all of the mana in the area. I was even surprised to find that some of the mana within my own body was rushing towards the vortex as if it wanted to leave.

Luckily, I was at least at the initial stage and could control it to some extent, but after looking at some of the weaker trainees, I knew that not everybody had that luck. They started looking completely exhausted with some even sitting down on the ground with lifeless eyes. While I doubted that it would cause any long-term damage, it was interesting to see what forcibly taking mana away from a person would do.

It seemed like the vortex was going on for a long time, but in reality, only a few moments had passed. Along with countless earth spears, the beast was also approaching in an attempt to bite Bruno in half. At some point, Bruno could not keep up with all of the attacks and instead went all in on channeling mana.

With a considerably weakened defense, some spears actually started to hit. However his armor proved to be just as useful as his other artifacts by promptly negating or redirecting the momentum of the spears while only leaving behind a few scratches. In one of the last possible seconds before the beast could bite him, the vortex finally completed gathering mana and activated.

The whole area around Bruno exploded into a blinding white light. However, instead of the rumble of a massive explosion, there was instead an eerie silence. A wave of energy spread out and eventually reached me in the tree line. I felt as if I were immediately dunked into an ice bath as my body went into some sort of shock.

I curled up to try and regain as much warmth as possible as my blood starting working hard to maintain temperature. I didn't need to wait long though as the temperature quickly began returning to normal. I looked back towards the battlefield and was astounded at what I saw.

Bruno stood relatively fine but was surrounded by solid ice encapsulating everything around him. All the earth spears and even the beast itself stood unmoving in the ice. Finally, Bruno raised his sword one more time while channeling that violent mana from before. With one strike, the beast shattered and the fight was over.

Bruno sheathed his sword and began walking back to us through the path he just opened in the ice. As he approached, I could hear him talking to himself.

"I fucking hate the cold."

I looked around at everybody else and saw that they were all just as shocked about the battle as I was. Bruno truly wasn't lying when he said we should remember what being strong looks like. It's one thing to hear about this kind of strength or even to see it happen in a show, but to actually experience it in real life gave it a sort of validity that could never be gained otherwise.

Soon Bruno stood in front of us once more while seeming much more terrifying and impressive now than ever before.

"What's the matter? Why aren't you all welcoming back your commander from the battlefield?"

Every other trainee that wasn't either injured or passed out immediately stood up straight and gave a salute.

"Welcome back, sir!"

Bruno gave out a rare smile. I guess he really liked showing off to his underlings. He then looked towards me and continued.

"You see that old man? I may not be a mage, but even I am capable of all this. You should take pride in the warrior's path and one day you may reach the same level."

I was a bit surprised seeing him encourage me like that, but I guess I really did make a good impression fighting that windripper. I couldn't help but sneer on the inside though. I would definitely reach that level of power and even surpass it. Nothing could stop my determination to do so.

"I can only hope now, can't I?"

Bruno laughed.

"You better believe it. Only a whole bunch of hope and even more determination can help you on your path."

He definitely meant those words in a different way, but for once I agreed whole heartedly.