(Arin's POV)
The pale morning sunlight forced its way through the gap in the dormitory curtains, illuminating my desk cluttered with stacks of paper. However, my focus right now was not on the thick anatomy books or complex machine sketches, but on the condition of my own two hands.
I sat on the edge of the bed, biting the end of the white bandage with my teeth, then pulling it tight to wrap my right palm.
"Hiss..." A suppressed hiss escaped my lips.
A dull ache throbbed constantly from within the metacarpal bones, sending warning signals to the brain.
Instructor Brook's crazy "Conditioning" training yesterday had left a trail of real damage. Although the Grizzly Serum in my blood worked overtime regenerating damaged micro-tissues, my bones had not fully recovered. My bone density had indeed increased, but the periosteum or the outer layer of my bone was still severely inflamed.
Every time I tried to clench my fist, it felt like glass sand was being rubbed roughly between the joints.
"Fingers stiff, cannot grip fully," I analyzed coldly while moving my thick-bandaged fingers. "Grip strength reduced by thirty percent. I cannot rely on power clashes or blade locks today. Strategy must change. I have to rely on momentum and attack deflection."
I stood up, reaching for the pile of silvery glittering metal on the table.
A gift from Selena Rhyms.
Mithril-Weave Armor.
When I put it on, the sensation was truly different from heavy and stiff ordinary steel. This metal felt light, almost as light as thick leather, yet its density was three times that of the best forged steel. The chest plate, shoulder guards, and vambraces or arm guards fitted precisely, clinging to the body without restricting my movement in the slightest.
Finally, I picked up a pair of black leather boots with thick soles carved with glowing blue runes.
Water Gliders.
"Time for field testing," I muttered while tying the shoelaces. "Let's see if these expensive toys are useful."
I slung the Adamantium sword on my back and stepped out of the room.
The Academy Main Gate looked crowded with students preparing to enjoy their weekend. However, the crowd parted naturally as I walked toward the administrative checkpoint. Their gazes were a strange mixture of fear and respect. Gossip about my duel in the Exam and mysterious "connections" with the Rhyms Family had apparently spread wide like fire.
I handed my Class B badge and hunting permit to the guard on duty.
"East Sector Swamp Forest?" The guard frowned, staring at my bandaged hands with a skeptical look. "The terrain is quicksand and deep water, Kid. Are you sure you want to go there with injured hands like that? You won't be able to climb if you sink."
"Mud is good for skin care, Sir," I answered carelessly, trying to joke.
"Bad sense of humor for someone looking to die," a sharp voice cut our conversation from the side.
I turned slowly. Beside me stood someone who made my Mithril armor look like cheap flea market goods.
Rose Carlos.
She wore a custom-made hunting suit made of deep red Salamander leather, sewn tightly wrapping her athletic body. On her shoulders and knees were pure gold protective plates carved with intricate thorny rose symbols. Her favorite Rapier hung at her waist, its hilt studded with sparkling rubies.
She looked like fire walking on earth.
"And you look like a walking wallet, Lady Rose," I retorted while taking back my permit from the dazed guard. "Do you want to hunt or have a fashion show?"
Rose grinned, her eyes scanning my appearance from top to bottom with an assessing gaze. "Hand-me-down Mithril armor from Uncle Edwin's warehouse? Smells a bit musty like an old warehouse, but at least better than your old rusty iron scrap. You are starting to look human."
"Functionality over aesthetics," I answered indifferently while walking through the gate. "You going to the Swamp too?"
"Yes, I need a challenging moving target," Rose matched her pace with mine. "Wooden dolls in the training arena cannot scream in pain. And you... you need a living punching bag to test your new destroyed hands, right?"
I glanced at her briefly. She was sharp. Rose knew my condition exactly just by seeing how I held the bag strap slightly awkwardly.
"Then, do not get in my way," I warned.
"You are the one who shouldn't fall behind, Turtle," she replied while speeding up.
The East Sector Swamp Forest was a logistical nightmare for anyone unprepared.
Giant mangrove trees grew with roots protruding chaotically from murky deep green water. The smell of methane gas and decaying vegetation hung heavy in the air, suffocating the breath. There was no solid ground to step on safely, only small mud islands surrounded by waist-deep water.
Normally, moving in terrain like this required double the energy just to lift feet from the sucking mud.
But not today.
I channeled a little mana or rather bio-electric vibration from the Piston Heart to the soles of my Water Gliders.
Vwoom.
The runes on the shoes glowed bright blue, humming softly.
I stepped onto the water surface carefully. The sensation was truly strange. It didn't feel solid like ground, but not liquid either. Like stepping on a thick layer of rubber bouncing on water.
This technology manipulated water surface tension at the molecular level, creating a repelling layer between the shoe soles and the liquid. The key was perfect weight distribution. If I stood still in one spot too long, the mana bond would break and I would sink like a stone.
I had to keep moving.
Beside me, Rose had already glided ahead. She moved with the elegance of a professional ice dancer. Her legs curved beautifully, her body tilted following the axis of rotation with perfect balance. She glided over that murky water as if it were a marble dance floor in a palace.
"Slow!" she mocked while spinning around me, creating water splashes that soaked my pants. "Are your shoes broken?"
I snorted in annoyance. I didn't have that kind of natural elegance.
I bent my knees, lowering my center of gravity. Instead of gliding beautifully, I used the Power Skating technique. I stomped my feet to the side strongly, using mana friction to push my body forward aggressively.
Skrrrt... Skrrrt...
I glided roughly, cutting the water surface like a motorized surfboard. Not beautiful, but fast and stable. My balance forged by Brook's "floating leaf" training kept me upright even though the footing swayed.
We sped into the heart of the swamp, leaving long ripples behind us.
Suddenly, Rose stopped abruptly. She performed a sharp brake until water sprayed, her Rapier drawn in the blink of an eye.
"Visitors," she whispered warily.
I stopped beside her, my boots hissing softly on the water.
In front of us, about twenty meters away, the calm water surface began to bubble suspiciously.
One by one, long serrated snouts emerged from the murky water. Yellow reptilian eyes stared at us with terrifying primal hunger.
Irianian Crocodiles. Tier 2 Monsters.
Their length was about five meters. Their back skin was not ordinary scales, but osteoderm plates as hard as forged steel. Their jaws had a bite force of three thousand psi, enough to crush ordinary plate armor into a dented can in one chew.
Four of them appeared surrounding us.
"Formation?" asked Rose briefly, her eyes locked on the largest crocodile in the center.
I analyzed the situation quickly. My hands hurt; I couldn't cut their hard skin with ordinary slashes. I needed crushing force, not cutting force.
"I am Breaker. You are Finisher," I answered. "I will open their hard shells, you stab the internal organs."
"Do not die, Partner."
"You too."
BOOM!
The four crocodiles lunged at once. Their tails hit the water strongly, launching their giant bodies toward us like living torpedoes.
"ADVANCE!"
I did not retreat. I activated the machine in my chest.
Piston Heart: Minimum Senior Aura.
My heart pumped strongly. My leg muscles tensed. I glided straight to meet the first crocodile on the left.
The crocodile opened its jaws wide, ready to swallow me whole.
At the last second, I pressed the button on the Feather-Touch Glove.
Weight: 0%.
The Adamantium sword on my back was drawn with lightning speed because it had no mass. I did not slash with the sword but used it as a vaulting pole.
I stabbed the tip of the sword into a mangrove tree trunk beside me, then used my gliding momentum to swing to the side, dodging the crocodile's jaw snap.
Its jaws snapped shut on empty air with a terrifying CLACK sound.
As I swung in the air and was right beside its exposed body, I turned off Feather-Touch.
Weight: 100%.
I did not hold the sword hilt with two hands because my fingers hurt. Instead, I held the hilt with my right hand, and pressed the back of the sword blade with my armor-clad left palm.
Technique: Half-Swording - Pommel Strike.
I slammed the iron knob (pommel) at the end of my sword hilt onto the vulnerable spot behind the crocodile's eye which was the balance nerve center.
THUD!
Solid metal impact met skull bone.
The crocodile convulsed violently. Its brain was concussed. Its body tilted, revealing its pale white and soft belly.
"Rose! Now!"
Without needing to be called, a red flash had already shot out.
Rose glided low, almost touching the water. Her Rapier stabbed three times in one second.
Stab-Stab-Stab.
Three neat holes appeared in the crocodile's belly. Heart, lungs, liver. Surgical precision stabs piercing vital organs without damaging the valuable skin around them.
The first crocodile died instantly, red blood coloring the swamp water.
However, two other crocodiles were already behind Rose, ready to snatch her exposed legs.
"Behind you!" I shouted.
Rose could not dodge; her momentum was spent after the attack earlier.
I landed on the water, my glider shoes splashing mud. I couldn't reach Rose in time to slash them.
So, I became a shield.
I glided cutting the path, placing myself between Rose and the gaping crocodile jaws.
I raised my left arm wrapped in Mithril Vambrace.
"Bite this, Lizard!"
CRUNCH!
The second crocodile bit my left arm squarely.
It felt like my arm was clamped by a hydraulic press. The bite pressure was immense. The Mithril creaked painfully, withstanding a load of thousands of kilos. My radius bone felt severe pain, but not broken. This armor saved me.
But the crocodile made a fatal mistake: It locked itself onto me.
I grinned holding back pain.
"Now you are mine."
Piston Heart: Maximum Senior Aura.
THUMP-THUMP!
My muscles enlarged, veins bulged in my neck due to increased blood pressure.
Instead of trying to break free, I used my bitten left arm as a pivot point. I spun my body, and with pure physical strength enhanced by serum, I lifted the four-hundred-kilogram crocodile out of the water.
"HAAAA!"
I slammed the crocodile toward the third crocodile that was charging.
CRASH!
Hard body met hard body. The two crocodiles collided with the horrifying sound of breaking bones. They rolled in the water, confused and severely injured.
Rose took advantage of that moment perfectly. She jumped onto the back of the chaotic crocodile.
Dance of the Thorny Rose.
Her Rapier glowed red. She stabbed right in the eye slits of both crocodiles alternately. Fast, efficient, and deadly.
Three down.
One left. The last crocodile, the largest one, stayed put. It watched its friends slaughtered in seconds.
The crocodile looked at me, then looked at Rose. Then slowly, it retreated, submerging itself into the murky water to hide.
"It wants to escape by diving," said Rose, her breath slightly ragged. "Underwater, we cannot chase it. It will disappear."
"Not that easy," I growled.
I pressed the button on the Feather-Touch glove. But this time, I did not change the sword weight. I picked up a large rock the size of a human head from the shallow mud bottom near me.
Weight: 0%.
The rock became as light as a feather in my hand.
"Bullet Physics," I mumbled while aiming.
I threw the rock with all my might toward the water ripple where the crocodile disappeared. As the rock left my hand and flew in the air right above the target...
Feather-Touch: OFF. Weight: 200% (Overload).
The gravity circuit in the glove was still connected to the mana residue in the rock for a few seconds. I reversed its polarity. The rock suddenly became twice as heavy as its original weight in mid-air.
Plus my initial throwing speed, the momentum became a terrifying destroyer.
SPLASH!
Water exploded five meters high.
The rock struck the crocodile's back underwater with an impact force equivalent to a mini meteor fall.
A dull CRACK sound was heard from underwater. Its spine snapped instantly.
The giant crocodile floated to the surface, belly up, moving no more.
Silence fell again on the swamp. Only the sound of our breathing and water ripples slowly calming down.
I lowered my trembling hand. The bandage on my right hand was already seeping fresh red blood. My old wounds opened again due to impact pressure. My bitten left arm felt severely bruised under the armor, but the bones were intact.
"Show off," commented Rose while sheathing her sword. She walked closer, but her eyes were not mocking. There was a flash of admiration there. "You throw rocks like throwing cannonballs. That is cheating."
"That is the only way to hunt when your hands cannot hold a sword properly," I answered while grimacing, checking my hand bandages. "You yourself... your stabs were very precise. You didn't touch the gall bladder. The skin is still smooth and the price is high."
Rose smiled thinly, then kicked the crocodile carcass near her. "Decent teamwork for a cripple and a spoiled princess."
"Decent?" I chuckled. "We just slaughtered four Tier 2 monsters in less than three minutes without serious injury. That is a record, Lady Rose."
We stood there, amidst the carcasses of swamp predators. Two young predators who had just proven their fangs.
I took out a small scalpel from my waist bag.
"Now the best part," I said, my eyes sparkling seeing the crocodile teeth and skin. "Looting. Irianian teeth sell for five silver apiece. The skin can go for fifty gold per sheet."
Rose rolled her eyes, disgusted but amused. "You are truly stingy, Arin. Hurry up, the smell of this place is making me dizzy."
As I began slicing the crocodile skin with surgical precision, I did not realize one thing.
That we were not alone.
Far above a tall mangrove tree, about two hundred meters from our position, hidden behind dense foliage, a pair of eyes was observing through magic binocular lenses.
The figure did not wear an academy uniform. He wore mud camouflage military tactical clothing, tight and efficient. There was an old burn scar running from his neck to his left cheek.
In his hand, he held a black Falcata sword that reflected no light.
He stared at me busy pulling crocodile teeth with a wide smile.
"Target Arin possesses limited gravity manipulation abilities and abnormal physical strength. While the Marquis's Daughter possesses agility and point-blank precision."
The figure smiled thinly, a cold smile.
He disappeared back into the shadows, like a ghost patiently waiting for its prey to let its guard down.