Reincarnation Of The Magicless Pinoy
From Zero to Hero: " No Magic? No Problem!"
Encounter 35: Old Rivals!
The silence that followed the mention of his old name was heavier than the smoke clogging the courtyard. Rolien felt the phantom weight of the Magisterium trophy in his hands for a split second before the reality of the Tenbatsu no Yari snapped him back.
Luke wasn't just fighting a "magicless" rebel anymore. He was fighting the ghost of his greatest humiliation.
"Gray," Luke spat the name again, his voice trembling with a decade of fermented spite. "The 'Miracle' of the arena. The one who crawled out of the dirt to stand on a pedestal he didn't deserve. Tell me, does it hurt? Knowing that no matter how many toys you build or how many dragons you kill, you're still just a magicless bug I can crush with a thought?"
Rolien didn't flinch. He adjusted the seal on his mask, the hiss of the filters the only sound in the sudden stillness.
"Pedestals are for people who care about looking down on others, Luke," Rolien said, his voice dropping an octave, losing the playful Filipino lilt for something harder, more jagged. "I was always fine in the dirt. It's where I learned how to bury people like you."
The violet light in Luke's hand didn't just flare—it screamed. The air around the Duke began to warp, stones pebbles lifting off the ground as his mana output spiked into the red zone.
"Thane. Vorax," Luke commanded, his eyes glowing a predatory purple. "Kill him. I don't care if there's enough of him left to identify. Just stop that mouth from moving."
The Slayers didn't hesitate.
Vorax moved first, his heavy blade trailing sparks as it cleared the stone in a massive horizontal cleave. Simultaneously, Thane vanished into a blur of grey scale, reappearing above Rolien with both claws extended like a falling guillotine.
Rolien's vision swam with system prompts:
[Sync Rate: 94%]
[External Mana Interference: High]
[Notice: 'Tenbatsu no Yari' resonance detected. Activating 'Dragon-Slayer's Will'.]
The blackened steel of the spear-sword began to hum, the crimson veins turning a violent, angry scarlet. Rolien didn't retreat. He stepped forward, deep into the pocket of Vorax's swing. He parried the massive blade not with his sword, but with the reinforced plating of the Jawbreaker, the impact vibrating through his teeth as the curse veins absorbed the kinetic energy.
With his right hand free, he thrust the Tenbatsu upward.
The serrated edge caught Thane mid-air, sliding through the Slayer's chest-plate like it was parchment. Thane let out a choked gasp, the dragon-killer enchantment eating through his natural resistance.
"One," Rolien grunted.
He kicked off Vorax's chest, using the momentum to rip the blade out of Thane and spin mid-air. He fired a point-blank Gerbarra burst into the ground, the concussive force blasting him backward just as a pillar of Luke's violet lightning vaporized the spot where he'd stood a millisecond prior.
Rolien landed in a crouch, sliding toward the Blackfort survivors.
"Get back!" he roared at the knights. "This isn't a skirmish anymore! This is an execution!"
He stood tall, the Jawbreaker hissing as it vented excess heat. The blue fire from Luke's previous hit was still smoldering on his cloak, but Rolien ignored it. He leveled the Tenbatsu no Yari at the trio—two Slayers bleeding black, and one Duke losing his mind.
"Hey, Luke," Rolien called out, his grin returning, sharper and meaner than before. "You remember what I told you after the finals? About how magic is just a shortcut for people who are too lazy to learn how to fight?"
He thumbed a switch on the hilt of his sword. The blade didn't just glow—it began to vibrate at a frequency that made the very air ache.
"I'm about to show you the long way home."
Luke roared in fury, his hands weaving a complex spell circle that spanned five meters wide. The courtyard groaned under the pressure.
"ENOUGH!"
The word didn't just echo.
It detonated.
Mana exploded outward from Luke like a collapsing star turning itself inside out. The spell circle above his hands spun faster and faster, lines of violet sigils multiplying until the air itself looked cracked.
Stone lifted from the courtyard floor. Rubble floated. The bodies of fallen soldiers dragged across the ground as gravity twisted under the pressure.
Rolien felt it slam into him like a wall.
The Tenbatsu no Yari vibrated violently in his grip, the crimson veins burning brighter as if the weapon itself was angry.
Inside his vision the system screamed warnings.
[External Mana Output: Critical]
[Hostile Magic Density: Catastrophic]
[Recommendation: Evade Immediately]
Rolien snorted.
"Yeah… thanks for the advice."
Luke's voice thundered through the storm.
"You think you're still in the arena, Gray?!" he screamed, veins bulging across his neck. "This isn't some game where you embarrass nobles in front of a crowd!"
The spell circle snapped into alignment.
Five layers.
Seven rotating rings.
Each sigil carved from pure mana so dense it looked like burning glass.
Rolien's eyes narrowed.
"Ah," he muttered.
"Big spell."
Luke thrust his hand forward.
"VIOLET CATASTROPHE!"
The world turned purple.
A beam the width of a castle gate erupted from the spell circle. It didn't look like lightning anymore. It looked like a river of raw destruction ripping through the courtyard.
The ground shattered instantly.
Walls collapsed.
Everything in its path disintegrated.
Rolien moved.
Not away.
Forward.
His boots slammed against the stone as he sprinted straight into the incoming blast.
Behind him, one of the Blackfort knights screamed.
"He's insane!"
Maybe.
But Rolien's brain was already calculating angles, velocity, mana density.
The beam roared toward him.
At the last second—
He dropped.
The Gerbarra unit on his arm exploded downward with a thunderous burst.
BOOM.
The concussive blast slammed Rolien sideways like a cannonball, throwing him across the courtyard just as the beam obliterated the space he'd been standing in.
Heat scraped across his armor.
Mana lightning lashed against his cloak.
Rolien rolled once, twice, sliding across broken stone before slamming the Tenbatsu into the ground to stop himself.
Luke's attack kept going.
Straight through the fortress wall behind Rolien.
For a moment there was silence.
Then—
The entire section of the outer wall collapsed.
Dust and rubble poured into the courtyard.
Rolien stood slowly, coughing once as smoke drifted past his mask.
"Jesus," he muttered.
"You trying to delete the map or something?"
Across the battlefield Luke stared, breathing hard.
The Duke's eyes twitched.
Rolien was still alive.
Still standing.
Still talking.
Something inside Luke cracked.
"Kill him," Luke whispered hoarsely.
Vorax roared first.
The giant Slayer charged like a battering ram, boots smashing craters into the ground. His massive blade swung downward in a brutal overhead strike meant to split Rolien from skull to spine.
Rolien stepped inside the swing.
The Tenbatsu flashed.
CLANG.
Sparks exploded as the dragon-killing blade slid along Vorax's weapon, redirecting the strike past Rolien's shoulder.
At the same time—
Rolien drove his elbow straight into Vorax's throat.
CRACK.
The Slayer gagged.
Rolien pivoted.
His knee slammed into Vorax's ribs.
Another crack.
Then the Tenbatsu came around in a vicious upward arc.
The serrated edge bit into Vorax's armor and tore upward across his chest.
Black blood sprayed.
"Two," Rolien said calmly.
But Thane was already moving.
The grey-skinned Slayer blurred across the battlefield, claws ripping through the air like knives. His body twisted mid-dash, aiming to tear Rolien's spine open from behind.
Rolien didn't even turn.
The Gerbarra unit fired again.
BOOM.
The blast launched Rolien backward just as Thane's claws slashed through empty air.
Rolien flipped once in midair, landing behind Thane.
Too close.
Thane's eyes widened.
The Tenbatsu drove forward.
THUNK.
The blade punched through the Slayer's back and out his chest.
Thane choked, staring down at the serrated steel protruding through his ribs.
Rolien leaned close to his ear.
"You really should stop jumping at people with swords."
He twisted the blade.
Thane collapsed.
The courtyard fell quiet again.
Two Slayers down.
Luke stared at the bodies.
His breathing turned ragged.
"Impossible…" he whispered.
Rolien slowly pulled the Tenbatsu free and flicked the blood off the blade.
Then he pointed it directly at Luke.
"You brought backup," Rolien said.
"You brought magic."
He tilted his head slightly.
"And you're still losing."
Luke's entire body trembled.
The mana around him surged again.
But this time—
Something darker moved beneath it.
Rolien felt it immediately.
The Tenbatsu reacted too.
The weapon began humming louder.
Warning symbols flashed in Rolien's vision.
[Unknown Energy Signature Detected]
[Source: Duke Luke Arcadia]
[Threat Level: Rising]
Rolien's grin slowly faded.
"…Oh."
Luke lifted his head.
His glowing purple eyes had changed.
The color was wrong now.
Too deep.
Too ancient.
"Gray," Luke said quietly.
"You wanted the long way home."
The ground beneath his feet began to crack.
"Let me show you hell."
The battle had stopped being clean minutes ago.
It was chaos now.
Steel clashed. Mana detonated. Stone shattered under the pressure of their movements.
Rolien ducked under Vorax's massive blade, the wind of the swing tearing at his cloak. He stepped inside the giant Slayer's guard and slashed upward with Tenbatsu no Yari, the serrated edge scraping across Vorax's armor and drawing a line of black blood.
Vorax didn't even flinch.
The giant answered with a brutal backhand that Rolien barely avoided, the strike smashing a crater into the courtyard where his head had been.
Rolien jumped back—
And a bolt of violet lightning exploded at his feet.
Luke.
Rolien twisted mid-air, firing a burst from the Gerbarra unit to throw himself sideways. The blast launched him into a roll across broken stone.
He came up breathing harder.
The system flickered across his vision.
[Sync Rate: 87%]
[Fatigue Detected]
[Warning: Reaction Speed Decreasing]
"Yeah… I noticed," Rolien muttered.
Vorax charged again like a charging bull, blade swinging in brutal arcs that forced Rolien backward step by step. Each impact with Tenbatsu rattled his arms.
CLANG.
CLANG.
CLANG.
Rolien parried another strike, sliding across the ground from the force. Before he could counterattack, Luke flicked his wrist.
Three violet blades of mana shot toward him.
Rolien twisted aside, but the last one grazed his shoulder plate and detonated. The blast spun him halfway around just as Vorax's elbow crashed into his ribs.
The air left his lungs.
Rolien staggered.
They didn't give him space.
Vorax attacked again.
Luke's spells came from every angle.
The two of them moved like predators that had already decided how the hunt would end.
Rolien dodged.
Blocked.
Countered.
But every second felt heavier than the last.
He couldn't build momentum.
Couldn't finish Vorax.
Every time he tried—
Luke interfered.
Another exchange.
Vorax swung low.
Rolien jumped.
A lightning strike forced him to twist mid-air.
He landed wrong.
Vorax's shoulder slammed into him like a battering ram.
Rolien skidded across the courtyard, boots grinding against stone.
Across the battlefield Luke watched calmly.
Then he spoke.
"What's wrong Rowan?"
Rolien's body froze for a fraction of a second.
"Tired?"
The name hit like a bullet.
Rolien's head snapped toward him.
"What—"
That was all the opening Vorax needed.
The Slayer's massive blade came down in a brutal horizontal swing.
BOOM.
The strike caught Rolien square in the side.
His armor screamed as the force launched him through the air.
He crashed into a massive boulder at the edge of the courtyard.
The rock exploded on impact.
Stone fragments scattered everywhere as Rolien's body smashed through it and rolled across the ground.
For a moment he couldn't breathe.
Pain exploded through his ribs.
Inside his vision the system alarms screamed.
[CRITICAL IMPACT DETECTED]
[HP REDUCTION: 50%]
[Remaining HP: 48%]
Rolien coughed, forcing himself onto one knee amid the rubble.
His vision swam.
But his mind was somewhere else entirely.
Slowly he lifted his head and stared at Luke.
His voice came out hoarse.
"…What did you just call me?"
Luke tilted his head slightly.
"You heard me."
The Duke's smile was thin and sharp.
"Captain of BlackWolf."
Rolien's heart skipped.
Luke continued, almost casually.
"Or what they used to call you…"
His glowing purple eyes locked onto Rolien.
"Black Ripper."
The courtyard fell silent.
Rolien's mind spun.
BlackWolf.
His old unit.
Earth.
The special operations squad he led before the mission that killed him.
Before the bomb that killed him.
Before he woke up in this world.
No one here knew that.
No one could know that.
Unless—
Unless they came from the same place.
Rolien slowly looked up at Luke's face.
And then he saw it.
Not the Duke.
Not the noble.
Something else behind the smile.
Luke's grin widened into something almost nostalgic.
"Oh…" he said softly.
"Figured it out eh?"
He started laughing.
A low, twisted laugh that echoed across the ruined courtyard.
"Hahahaha… look at that face."
Luke spread his arms as if greeting an old friend.
"Long time no see."
Rolien felt a chill run down his spine.
A name surfaced from the deepest corner of his memory.
One he never thought he'd hear again.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"…Hunter Solomon.!"
To be Continue....