Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 33: Phantom Slash

A few hours later, Damion could be seen jogging across the academy grounds, his head held down.

He thought of the mask on the lower half of his face receding, and it vanished, disappearing from view even though he still felt it there.

"Surprises me everytime," he said with a smirk.

With the help of the Blessing of Knowledge, he figured out how to equip and unequip the Jaws of Ophidia.

It was a great boon to him because of its skills, and it could also be equipped far faster than he could retrieve something from his storage.

Unfortunately or fortunately, Damion couldn’t take off the mask no matter how hard he tried. It appeared to be stuck to him permanently.

His gaze roamed through the items in his storage, and rested on the sword he had gotten from Craig. The weapon had been tampered with by someone, but he didn’t know who.

Damion didn’t remember anything that happened after he placed the mask on his face. He only recollected struggling to put the mask on before passing out shortly.

The consciousness of the two mysterious beings that appeared in his room had spoken for what seemed like a minute or two, but they had actually appeared for less than a split second before disappearing.

Of course Damion didn’t know all of these, and perhaps it was best he didn’t. All he knew was that he had gotten a good equipment added to his arsenal, and his strength was increasing gradually.

Damion closed the storage tab after one last glance, having decided to keep all his belongings there. He spared the Tang Dao sword in his storage a glance one last time before eventually closing it, and concentrating on his jog.

He slowed down to a walk as he stepped into the Combat Class. What he didn’t expect, though, was to meet an almost empty classroom with only two figures in it.

Damion was ready to walk over to Hakuro and Kenzo who stood opposite each other, but he stopped himself and watched on with keen interest.

"This would be interesting," he said with a smile.

Kenzo’s eye patch wasn’t on as usual, and for the first time since they had met, Damion saw what his eyes really looked like.

A sharp silver light emanated from it, glowing with an otherworldly feel. A stigma that glowed with the same silver light spiralled round the left half of his face, trailing down his neck and across his chest to his right, where he held his Nodachi.

The top part of his robes were off, leaving it to fall down and reveal his slim but muscular torso. His Stigma spread all over his right arm, and the Nodachi he held was coated with a silver sheen.

’That’s a confusing Ability,’ Damion thought.

Kenzo blurred as he kicked off the ground, creating a web of cracks in it and reaching Hakuro in no time, his sword raised. A quick slash was made, but Hakuro parried it easily using the wooden sword in his hand.

He didn’t linger and followed up with another downward cut. Again, the strike was parried easily. A sharp thrust was made, and Hakuro dodged, before getting behind him and using his wooden sword to smack Kenzo’s back.

Kenzo stumbled forward, his face twisting into a scowl, and the Stigma over his body brightening up for a split second.

He turned around so fast it looked like a picture had been flipped horizontally, took a strong and calculated step forward, and like a flash of lightning, did a quick draw, his blade tearing a path towards Hakuro’s neck.

Still, even worse this time around, the horizontal slash was blocked with the wooden sword.

"My turn," Hakuro’s words snapped Kenzo out of his shocked state as he moved.

Kenzo barely blocked the first, simple looking sword strike, stumbling back and almost falling on his butt. He raised his sword in defence, but the attack only made him look like an amateur.

Before he could even recover from that one strike, another swipe of the wooden sword forced him back by a few more steps, his Stigma flickering.

Hakuro stomped his foot and drove his wooden blade forward with intense speed. This last attack seemed slower than the previous two, but the moment it came in contact with Kenzo’s sword, the sword, along with his body, were flung back like puppets cut from the puppeteer’s strings.

Luckily, he was able to regain his bearings and land on his feets right before he crashed.

Damion stared with mild surprise as he witnessed the battle. He knew what this short battle was called. "Three for three," he muttered. "Or maybe not, Kenzo attacked four times."

The game pit two individuals against each other, both wielding the same kind of weapon. Each player takes turns landing three consecutive attacks, while the other must dodge or block.

The match continues on for three rounds, or until one of them is knocked off stage.

Damion stared at Kenzo as his stigma dimmed considerably, before suddenly blinking out. There was a sharp intake of breath from him before he rose to his feets, shooting Damion a fierce gaze.

Damion returned the fierce stare with a subtle mocking smile. The defeat might not have injured him, but his pride definitely must have taken a hit no matter how small.

"You’re late!" Hakuro’s voice echoed in the hall, garnering the attention of the duo.

Damion walked closer to Hakuro, and Kenzo did the same. They stopped before him simultaneously and waited. They didn’t look surprised that the other was also being tutored by Hakuro.

"Both of you seem to know each other, so there won’t be a need for introductions," Hakuro stated. "Today’s lesson would focus on a technique, Phantom Slash."

Hakuro strolled to the side and picked up his cane, and without further ado, walked to a platform and took a stance.

Damion and Kenzo naturally moved closer to the exalted platform to get a better look, each standing on two different sides.

Hakuro noticed this, but merely laughed lightly at their rivalry. His concentration returned to the technique he was about to execute, and a faint mist-like substance escaped his mouth as he breathed out slowly.

Damion furrowed his brows. He had seen this same substance when Hakuro was showing them the Dragon’s Reflective Skin skill. Then, it wasn’t very obvious, but Damion could now see it clearer than before.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden stump of Hakuro’s foot as he fluidly unsheathed his cane-like sword, only to sheathe it back just as smoothly. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

Both Damion and Kenzo raised a brow, puzzled, having seen nothing, until they looked at the other end of the hall...