Descent of a God

Testing my abilities

Jude POV:

And so our journey began. Nothing much happened while we travelled with a few carriages. Our house was in a rural area, after all, there was nothing eye-catching here. In the night, we decided to start a bonfire to cook food and keep us warm as we laid down for rest. Suddenly, Helen asked, "I heard you two already awakened your mana cores."

This piqued others attention. Adam shouted, "Ha, how about we do some good old sparring." Dad looked at both of us, only nodding his head after seeing both of us were interested. Arthur decided to go first.

Arthur POV: 

I didn't know if his goal was to beat some sense into the kids he assumed had gotten inflated egos since he heard we were some sort of genius or if he was genuinely trying to gauge our strength, but by the smug grin he had on his face while looking down at me, I assumed it might've been for the former reason.

Retrieving the wooden sword I received as a present from my parents, I walked to the edge of the camp where Adam was waiting near a small clearing.

"You know how to reinforce your weapon right, genius?" he asked, emphasising the last word.

By this time, my dad already sensed that Adam was just trying to put on a show of dominance into his little boy, but he just watched, knowing he wouldn't hurt me too much.

Many thanks, dear father.

My mom looked a bit more anxious as she kept glancing back and forth between me, Adam and my dad, keeping a firm hold onto her husband's sleeve.

Well at least mom was here to heal me if I got hurt, right?

I focused my gaze on Adam, who was just around 5 meters away from me. Images of my past life, duelling other kings with my country and loved ones at stake, popped up into my head. My eyes narrowed, restricting my vision to only the man in front of me. He was the opponent now.

I willed mana into my legs and dashed forward with both my hands gripping the wooden sword to my right...

His smug look still present, Adam prepared to block my horizontal swing when I feinted and used special footwork I developed in my old world that I used for duelling. Almost instantly, I blinked a foot diagonally to his right. Curse this body! I couldn't perfectly execute the skill because of the height and weight difference compared to my old body. I wasn't used to this 40 pound, 110cm. body. While I didn't reach the area I was aiming for, unfortunately for Adam, he already prepared his wooden stick to block my swing from the other direction so his right side was unprotected.

His smug look all but vanished and was replaced by a look of surprise, with his eyes opening wide, as he realised what was about to happen.

Swinging my wooden sword to his open ribcage, I reinforced my wooden sword with mana at the last moment to conserve my mana, because I knew I was definitely at a disadvantage against a veteran like him.

The look of surprise on Adam lasted all but lasted a split second before he pivoted his right foot with almost inhuman speed. I squatted in time to dodge his upward swing and switched my stance from a thrust to a spinning swipe and landed a blow on his left ankle using all my momentum. His ankle gave out at that moment, throwing Adam off balance.

Jude POV:

Incredible. The way that Arthur fought was nothing short of incredible. The fast-paced footwork followed by great swordsmanship putting many knights in my old world to shame brought it down hard to Adam. However, his movements somehow felt wrong, like they were intended for someone much bigger and stronger, someone with an adult body. 

Of course, Adam wasn't down for the count just like that. He did a split, followed by a roundhouse sweep with his legs as soon as he was on the ground. He jumped up to dodge when Adam swung his wooden sword from the other side. Arthur managed to block the sword properly, however, the strength difference caused him to be overwhelmed and caused his body to fly away. Luckily, he reinforced his body before he took the blow. 

My mother shook her head. She rushed towards him and immediately mumbled a healing spell around his body. "Art honey, are you okay? How do you feel?" He replied, "I'm fine Mom, don't worry." Adam's voice cuts in, "Haven't taught him how to fight my ass! How the hell did you train this little monster?" he groaned, still rubbing his head. "I didn't teach him that," Dad managed to mutter.

I got up from where I was sitting and went to ask him if he was okay. He nodded his head. I looked towards Adam, looks like it was my turn. Adam seemed to want to continue talking but decided to ready himself. I breathed in as I held my wooden sword.

Something which I discovered after being born was that I still had my Cheonmujiche and Yin-Yang body even in this life. Even though I lost my body of a God and my sword arts, I still had my talent, my means to reach the top. 

I led my sword as I charged towards Adam. Adam got serious after fighting my brother and did not hold back. His spear and my sword clashed directly. Again and again. Instead of a fight of evasion, I was going to force him into a direct fight. 

I mixed in slashes from various angles to meet against his spear. However, it seemed like it was still impossible for me to overwhelm him, or was it?

In my previous life, I relied on Ninth Heaven's and Nine Doors martial arts to elevate my body strength and increasingly move towards the sword horizon. I decided to do the same in this life, this time with the help of mana as well. Ninth Heaven's and Nine Doors combined with my mana core in of itself. 

I opened the first door of this technique. A sudden rise in power emerged in my body and I felt fuller instantly.

The others looked shocked as this saw the rise in power I got. I smiled and stepped forward, increasing the intensity of my attacks. At this point, Adam was barely deflecting and holding on for his dear life against my attacks.

He was only able to deflect the previous attacks due to the difference in our physique, but, the second door was able to close that gap.

 I decided to be nice and end it in one attack. I called the mana to me. {Wind and lightning flurry strikes}.

A bombardment of thirteen slashing attacks suddenly hit Adam. Adam was wide-eyed in surprise as he struggled to deflect all the attacks. I decided to hold back so I don't hurt him too hard, resulting in him surviving the first 12 attacks. Just when he thought he was in the clear, I released the thirteenth strike, the strike which in my previous life would've split the sky and the world itself. The spear was cut through. Luckily, I managed to shift the sword to the left, causing Adam's body to go unharmed. 

My sword hit the ground, causing the huge slash which went on for hundreds of meters from the sword. Adam collapsed on the ground, panting. 

Dad looked at me in utter shock. Well, so did the others. 

I scratched my head and said, "Looks like I won!". 

The others shook their head, not even knowing what to say as Dad came over to me. 

He asked me, "How can you fight so well?" 

I replied, "I don't know, my body just moved naturally." I continued when the others sent me an inquiring gaze, "When I am fighting, my sword is getting attracted to somewhere, so I go there." 

While everyone was thinking of what I just said, my mom, hugged me and said, "As long as you are okay honey!"

During the night, I couldn't help but wonder how truly weak my sword has become. Sure, it was strong, but it couldn't even be compared to that of a swordmaster. I wasn't anywhere close to the horizon. I knew that I would be starting my journey from zero but it was so frustrating. Having to learn all my martial art techniques again, purify my mana core, continue on the path of the sword, meet with Cordelia... there just seemed to be so much to do. Well, there was so much to do in my previous life as well. I smiled. But this time, I was alone. I slept, feeling alone in this new world even with my family right by my side.