Chapter 21: Magic

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Mei Li likes gambling, and also considers herself good at gambling,

And the core of gambling lies in calculation,

From the moment she saw Xiu Gusu, she had already envisioned the battle's outcome, which for a professional magician who can calculate from five decks of cards at the outset is not a difficult judgment.

Although she doesn't know why the heir of Britannia would be a fellow who is neither a professional nor a magician.

However, the abilities this fellow displayed left even the self‑proclaimed well‑informed Mei Li shocked.

From not knowing how to ride a horse, to skillfully mastering the control of a warhorse, even elevating it into a combat technique called 'Riding',

this fellow accomplished it in less than five minutes.

Su Ya lacks only the physical base ability bonuses that a profession provides and some common knowledge known to everyone.

And his combat skill, or rather, his eyesight—

Whether slaying two scouting horsemen, learning to ride, or cutting through an army of ten thousand, all proved that this most basic yet hardest‑to‑improve ability,

Su Ya possesses the highest level of innate talent.

His eyes are even more formidable than the legendary Demon Eyes!

He seems born for the battlefield, yet for the past fifteen years he has been kept in obscurity by the royal court and by Grand Mage Merlin.

Therefore,

Mei Li judges—

As long as Su Ya can touch a sword, she can, based on the concept of a 'sword', cast an enhancing magic on Su Ya to fill the last shortcoming he lacks.

Then the outcome of this battle is predetermined.

Just as now.

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Pfft!

The thief's dagger slashed Su Ya's shoulder; the tip of the dagger fluttered under the flesh as if doing needlework, seeming to pry open muscle and cut tendons,

Seeing the enemy's shoulder spray a blossom of blood, yet Xiu Gusu's face showed no trace of ease, only a slight change in expression.

In the next instant,

A round‑swinging sword swept across, and Xiu Gusu could only forgo this attack opportunity, retreating with a swift step, sliding his foot to shift laterally, widening the distance.

And a subtitle quietly rose before Su Ya:

【You have mastered: Swift Step (Beginner).】

He employed the peculiar asynchronous method he observed from the red long‑haired assassin before him, successfully evading the strike that should have cut his wrist and severed tendons, thereby roughly mastering this combat technique.

This footwork is somewhat similar to the ninja steps Su Ya saw in movies and dramas in his previous life,

that is, tiptoeing swiftly on a creaking, aged, dilapidated wooden floor, moving with agile speed without making any sound—a peculiar gait.

It gives a strange sensation that combines techniques like the open‑hip lateral step, Nanba walk, and double‑breath exhalation method.

In his previous life, Su Ya had practiced these steps from videos, mastering several early on; now all he needs to do is to permute them, mimic his own movements, and find the feeling of linking the steps with the breathing techniques.

Besides that,

Su Ya also knows Float Foot, Dog Walk, Fox Walk, Deep Grass Rabbit Step, Eight‑Step Chase Cicada, Water Glide, Triangle Step, Nine Palace Step, Eight Trigram Step, Shock Step, Fiore System Footwork, German Master Reverse Step

He only dabbles in them, not mastering, but can roughly understand the principles and perform simple imitation.

In other words,

Su Ya does not learn on the spot like the Uchiha of Naruto relying on the Sharingan, but because of his past life's interests, he possesses a massive, eclectic martial‑arts library, allowing him to quickly locate similar skills and splice them together.

It's like modern people constantly scrolling short videos; each person, due to their own interests, actually accumulates a huge amount of fragmentary knowledge,

and Su Ya's true talent lies in his ability to combine these fragments at the bodily level.

At this moment,

because Mei Li's enhancing magic has made his physique nearly reach the human limit,

thus, many techniques Su Ya had previously replicated but could not employ now can be executed seamlessly!

Various sword arts and footwork are delivered by him in a manner akin to Turtle Fist.

Advances, thrusts, spinning back kicks followed by a rotary slash, straight thrusts, reverse‑blade horizontal blocks, swift‑step forward thrusts, and flick slashes.

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

"Clang!"

Sword blades and daggers continuously clash,

Equal forces collide, sparks constantly erupting in midair!

And because of the dagger's length, Xiu Gusu can only keep retreating, circling, looking for an opening.

He only feels that the little imp before him is wildly hacking with a sword, yet each swing perfectly deflects his inevitable strike, even allowing a counterattack.

This chaotic swordplay forms no system, no form, no combat technique, and lacks the strange power bestowed by true combat arts.

Yet it somehow works in a life‑or‑death clash hanging by a thread!

If his agility weren't above Su Ya's, and his combat experience far surpasses the opponent's, a person of equal level would likely have already been cut down on the spot by Su Ya.

He instantly realized that his two subordinates had been defeated by this reckless sword method.

However,

Now, having roughly grasped Su Ya's pattern, Xiu Gusu narrowed his eyes, already knowing how to deal with Su Ya's Turtle Sword.

Even though every sword swing and footstep Su Ya unleashes is exceedingly refined,

but,

there is ultimately a distinction between martial arts and combat techniques!

These martial arts, which are not inferior to and even more exquisite than his combat techniques, might suit another method of cultivating one's own power.

But in this world, combat techniques—the most basic unit of the warpower system—are what cause ordinary skills to draw great power and undergo a qualitative change!

And at the same time,

Su Ya also realized this.

The thousand martial arts he has mastered cannot become combat techniques; they can only serve as references, assisting him in quickly adapting to the cornerstone of this world's power system.

Even now, the only thing that lets Su Ya barely keep up with the enemy's movements is the newly mastered 【Swift Step】.

Combat techniques and martial arts differ fundamentally; when using 【Swift Step】, his body becomes lighter, a special boost that other skills lack.

Moreover, after Su Ya demonstrated his extremely rapid learning speed,

the enemy, the red‑haired assassin, no longer showed Su Ya the combat techniques he possessed.

He was circling, wandering, waiting, preparing a killing blow!

At the same time,

time was not on Su Ya's side either.

Su Ya did not forget that their position had been exposed; the assassin before them was merely a vanguard, and if they kept being delayed by the opponent, their situation would become increasingly perilous!

And at that moment—

"Su Ya, use magic!"

"Your magic is a spirit‑summoning magic based on the Third Law, a magic that can render the caster 【invincible】!"

"Every head of the Pan Delagong family who inherits this magic is a battlefield rose that never retreats before ten thousand armies!"

Mei Li's voice came from the ground.

Shugusu's expression hardened; as Mei Li spoke, he ceased circling, leapt three meters high like a great winged roc, his form fading silently in the air.

He swooped toward Su Ya like a hawk!

Su Ya felt a chill, instantly rotated his blade, raised his Knight sword overhead, assuming the roof stance of German swordsmanship, and cleaved down at the enemy who flew like a target!

However,

within the shadow of Shugusu falling to the ground, a vague figure stared coldly at the gaping Su Ya, revealing a cold smile.

He gripped a dagger in his mouth, pressed both hands and feet against the ground simultaneously, and lunged at Su Ya like a poisonous snake!

【Shadow Strike】!

However,

at this moment—

Shugusu, believing he had already succeeded, looked up during the lunge and saw a pair of cold, emerald eyes staring at him.

Even though he raised his sword to slash at the shadow in the sky,

Su Ya's eyes did not look in that direction!

While the enemy launched the attack, thanks to the insight granted by his Trickster vocation, he keenly sensed the oddity in the opponent's assault.

Indeed, Su Ya does not possess the unusual skill of combat techniques.

But Su Ya has four vocations—

Hyena: prevents his muscular contests from being crushed.

Trickster: allows him to continuously observe the opponent's movements and expressions.

Counterfeit: this vocation seems to grant him the uncanny ability to perfectly replace others, using items that originally belong to them.

Therefore,

even the newly implanted magic seal, once Su Ya comprehended what magic is, can be used without hindrance, despite belonging to someone else.

"Path—"

"Connection!"

"Material, elucidate!"

"Third Law, spirit‑summon!"

"Soul homogenization!"

"Declaration!"

Su Ya slightly opened his mouth, stared coldly at the charging enemy, and whispered rapidly:

"My body becomes a single sword!

The broken corpse falls, leading to rebirth.

The light of ideal brings guidance,

Reaching the place of return,

This realm is—

the distant, independent Ideal Land!"

All the incantations were completed within half a second,

at the moment crimson Magic Circuits lit up on Su Ya,

Su Ya flung his sword into the air!

He fixed his gaze on the charging enemy, took a two‑meter running stride, and slammed his foot onto the ground,

shifting his weight to the right, pulling his left foot half a step inward, knees bent in a half‑crouch, forming a horse stance,

Bow stance, elbow up!

Open‑gate cannon!

"Bang!"

The tip of his elbow hammered onto Shugusu's face like a heavy hammer, crushing his eye socket and breaking his nose bridge!

Before Xiu Gusi could regain his senses,

Su Ya jerked upright, his other arm swinging to smash an elbow into the opponent's cheek, forcibly blasting out two bloodied molars,

Then,

He fiercely drove a downward elbow strike into the back of the opponent's head!

A flurry of Eight Extremes Fist struck Xiu Gusi, making him see stars and temporarily lose his counter ability.

But even so, this professional's aura remained steady, the opponent's HP bar absurdly solid, and he seemed about to regain his senses any moment!

And after losing the sword in his hand, Su Ya felt all his stats plummeting rapidly!

Su Ya gritted his teeth,

He grabbed the opponent's head and slammed it down into the mud!

His five fingers locked tight on the opponent's already struggling skull, as if holding down an elephant that could break free at any moment.

"Circuit, Link!"

"Treatment, start!"

The last barefoot doctor profession — takes effect!

Scarlet magic surged, following the scarlet circuit glowing on Su Ya's palm, wildly pouring into Xiu Gusi's mind!

After successfully using the magic,

Su Ya already understood,

The Pendragon family's magic shapes the user's soul into the form of Avalon's sword sheath, thereby linking via a loophole to the normally unattainable Ex-rank Noble Phantasm 'Far Away Ideal Land' — that is, the sheath of the victory-sword from Arthurian legend — seizing the sheath's abilities to heal wounds, halt aging, ignore all magic and physical attacks, and even reflect all attacks back, a conceptual power.

The barefoot doctor profession's ability is:

【Your ability to treat external injuries increases; when you treat a person, there is a high probability of causing irreversible massive damage.】

As the dent on Xiu Gusi's forehead from the elbow blow slowly healed, his struggling strength grew weaker and weaker.

No one knew what kind of major failure the treatment had triggered.

Finally,

Twenty seconds later, Xiu Gusi stopped struggling.

He died.

And at that moment,

Ge, ge, ge!

Su Ya heard a dice-landing sound like a storm!

(End of chapter)