TBATE: PRIMORDIAL ASCENSION

Chapter 3: Spar

A/N: This chapter is mostly original until the fight with Adam concludes and soon after that.

ARTHUR LEYWIN'S POV:

I didn't know if his goal was to beat some sense into the kid he assumed had gotten an inflated ego since he heard I was some sort of genius or if he was genuinely trying to gauge my strength, but by the smug grin he had on his face while looking down at me even if it was only natural for him to physically look down at me, it still irked 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, emphasizing the last word.

By this time, my father 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 mother looked a bit more anxious as she kept glancing back and forth between me, Adam, and my father, keeping a firm hold on her husband's sleeve.

Well, at least Mother 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, dueling other kings with my country 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 was still present, Adam prepared to block my horizontal swing when I feinted and used a special footwork I developed in my old world that I used for dueling. 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 realized 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's face lasted all but a split second before he pivoted his right foot with almost inhuman speed. I squatted in time to dodge his upward swing 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.

Or so I thought.

He did a full-on split, followed by a roundhouse sweep with his legs as soon as he was on the ground.

This body won't be able to take a hit like that, so I jumped up to dodge his legs when, from my peripheral view, I saw the flash of brown from his wooden stick.

With no time to use the blade to block the swing, I thrust the pommel of my sword, timing it so Adam's wooden stick and the end of my handle would clash.

For a moment, I almost instinctively tried to gather more mana from my core, but when I noticed everyone watching me and Adam, I stopped myself and accepted defeat. I couldn't let others know about my seven cores, not after what happened in my previous life.....