I closed my eyes for a moment.
The noise around me continued. The sound of magic, of metal, of impact. Everyone's heavy breathing. The wind carrying dust and the smell of broken earth.
But for one second, I needed silence.
I didn't need to think about winning.
I needed to think about hitting.
The sword in my hands felt heavier than ever. Not because of its real weight, but because everything in me was at its limit. My muscles trembled. The cut on my arm burned. The air no longer entered my lungs easily.
I only had one more attempt.
I opened my eyes.
The Fifth General was walking toward me with steady steps. He wasn't in a hurry. He knew exactly the situation I was in.
I let him come closer.
I released the air slowly.
I concentrated everything.
Not just physical strength. Not just mana.
Everything.
The exhaustion, the pain, the pressure, the fear of failing, the responsibility of not falling there. Every thought was pushed into that single movement I needed to make.
The blade began to vibrate lightly in my hands.
The sword's enchantment responded.
I felt it.
As if it had been waiting for that exact moment.
The General noticed the change.
He moved first.
Fast.
Very fast.
Fast enough that, in any other situation, I wouldn't have had time to react.
But I wasn't waiting to react.
I was waiting for him to come.
At the exact instant he entered my range, I stepped forward.
Not back.
Forward.
I twisted my body with everything I still had left and delivered the strike.
It wasn't beautiful.
It wasn't elegant.
It was raw.
It was direct.
It was everything.
The blade cut through the space between us with a dry, heavy sound, as if the air itself had been torn apart along with it.
The impact didn't create an immediate explosion.
There was one second of absolute silence.
The sword passed through him.
And then the world around us reacted.
The ground in front of us split open as if struck by lightning. Trees were cut in half. Rocks shattered. A shockwave swept across the area, tearing up earth, leaves, and dust in every direction.
The force of the strike spread so far that I couldn't see where it ended.
The General stopped.
He looked at his own body.
A thin line appeared from his shoulder to his waist.
There was no blood.
No resistance.
His body began to fall apart.
Ashes.
Slowly.
The wind carried away the first fragments before I could fully understand what I was seeing.
He still looked at me for a second.
Without anger.
Without fear.
Only understanding.
And then he disappeared.
The copies around us simply ceased to exist at the same instant.
Gone.
As if they had never been there.
Silence fell over the field.
I remained standing, still holding the sword.
My hands began to tremble.
The adrenaline that had kept me upright vanished all at once.
My knees gave out.
I fell.
The taste of blood returned to my mouth as I coughed. My vision darkened at the edges.
I heard footsteps running toward me.
"Takumi."
Lyannis's voice came first.
Then Rai'kanna.
"He did it."
Elara's voice came right after, mixed with relief and concern.
I felt hands grabbing my shoulders.
Vespera kneeling at my side.
Liriel's light illuminating my face as she tried to assess the severity of my injuries.
"Stay awake," someone said.
I tried to answer, but I could only breathe with difficulty.
I looked around.
The scene was absurd.
Split mountains.
Destroyed forest.
The ground completely torn apart.
All of that because of a single strike.
I did it.
But my body felt as if it had been crushed from the inside.
"Let's take him to the guild now," Rai'kanna said.
"Quickly," Elara added.
I felt them lift me.
Every movement hurt.
My head tilted to the side, but I could still see the sky between the shattered trees.
Blue.
Calm.
As if nothing had happened.
Before losing consciousness, the last thing I saw was their worried faces around me.
And the sword still gripped in my hand.