Chapter 349: One of them is me.
"Bang!"
In the corner of the courtyard, Brian slammed down hard, crashing into a pile of blunted practice swords and scattered them in all directions, clattering to the ground.
"Cough...!"
Brian seemed to expel all the air from his lungs with a violent cough, giving the impression that even blood might come out next.
Reiger’s kick wasn’t particularly heavy; at least, for someone of Brian’s size, it should not have been enough to make him cough up blood.
Yet that kick had stunned Brian, who lay there sprawled on the ground, maintaining his fallen posture without regaining his senses for a long while.
"You..."
It was only after he came to his senses that Brian turned his gaze towards Reiger, his eyes filled with disbelief.
It wasn’t just Brian; the reaction of the others present was similar.
"Caught, caught it...?"
Clem was staring, dumbfounded.
"That slash just now..."
Gegran too looked towards Reiger with a face full of shock.
"He actually caught that slash... with his fingers...?"
Iveyer could hardly believe his own eyes.
All of them were stunned in place, their gazes shifting as they looked at Reiger, cycling through countless emotions.
Even Gejiev, who had previously seen Reiger’s strength and had been sent flying by his "Six Light Continuous Slash," couldn’t help but show a look of amazement. It was unimaginable how shocking it was for Reiger to have caught Brian’s slash between his fingers.
Frankly, the slash Brian had just executed was so fast that even beings from the Heroic Domain would have struggled to react.
At least, Gejiev and Gegran, who were only a step away from the Heroic Domain, did not think they could easily catch or block that strike.
It indeed was the ultimate slash that Brian Angelos, the prodigious Swordsman, had executed with all his might—a move that would amaze even those in the Heroic Domain.
But, such a supreme move, in Reiger’s eyes, wasn’t even worthy of consideration.
"As a return gift, I’ll strike back with a slash of my own," Reiger’s voice sounded slowly.
"Don’t blink, this might just be the strike you should aspire towards."
With that, Reiger casually rested his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist with an exceedingly slow motion.
At this moment, a deadly sense of crisis erupted once again in the hearts of everyone present, involuntarily bringing looks of horror to their faces.
"Wait...!"
Especially Brian, who, sensing that Reiger was about to draw his sword on him, couldn’t help but change his expression dramatically in preparation to speak out.
But by then it was already too late.
"Inhale—Exhale—"
The clear sound of breathing echoed in everyone’s ears.
It was as if the air itself vibrated.
Like the pulse of the world.
"Crackle—"
With that clear breathing came the sound of crackling lightning, as arcs surged forth and coiled around Reiger’s body.
"Thunder Breathing, First Form..."
When such a whisper, as if coming from the depths of the earth, sounded, all of the light vanished from the courtyard.
Replaced by a flash of lightning.
The lightning flashed before everyone’s eyes.
The strike was etched in everyone’s consciousness, seemingly intentionally slowed down, and then vanished in an instant.
When the world regained its original colors and the lightning had disappeared unnoticed, everyone realized that Reiger was no longer in his original spot but had appeared behind Brian.
"Click..."
A faint sound, and he sheathed his sword.
"Thunderclap Flash."
With his back to Brian, Reiger calmly spoke, naming the slash he had just executed.
"————"
Silence.
A deadly stillness.
In that moment, everyone lost their voices, their responses, and it was as if even their souls had been stripped away, standing dumbfounded at the scene before them, motionless.
In their minds, there was only that flash of lightning, that stunning and incomparable strike—nothing else.
Even Brian felt the same way.
"Thunderclap Flash..."
Brian had no strength left to turn and face Reiger, but just stood there, muttering the name blankly.
His body was trembling.
The hand holding his sword was trembling.
And his clothes in front of his chest were neatly sliced open, but without harming the flesh beneath.
Of course, Brian knew this wasn’t because the other party couldn’t do it, but because Reiger had deliberately spared him, purposely not causing injury, and that’s why it turned out this way.
Reiger’s voice sounded once more.
"If you want to evaluate the entire human race, you need at least to be able to unleash the strike you just witnessed to be qualified."
"Otherwise, what right does one who has not even fully entered the Heroic Domain have to casually judge the strengths and weaknesses of mankind?"
"Without having seen the pinnacle humans can reach, how can you assume that reaching there is nothing remarkable?"
"At the end of the day, you’re simply arrogant, arrogantly believing that you are one of the strongest among humans. So when you feel despair, you think that mankind can only feel the same despair."
"But in truth, you’re just a frog in a well."
Reiger walked out from behind Brian, to face him.
"Now you understand, if humans truly become strong, just how powerful they can be, right?"
Reiger revealed a smile to Brian.
"By the way, one of those so-called monsters you encountered in the Ye Lantier Northern Forest was me."