Chapter 59: Lucian’s Overwhelming Strength

"You forgot who you are."

He advanced another step.

"A dirt-born commoner with a little spatial luck..."

His voice dripped with contempt.

"Acting like an equal around Evelyn. Calling her ’wifey’ in front of the me."

Eric’s expression twisted.

"You disgraced the nobility of Silverwood City."

He raised the saber and aimed its tip directly between Lucian’s eyes.

"Today, I’m going to teach you the natural law of this world."

The four retainers tightened their grips.

"The Sterling family doesn’t tolerate trash that doesn’t know its place."

Eric’s voice became colder.

"You will drop to your knees."

The blade remained perfectly steady.

"Snap your own wrist watch so your points are destroyed."

A cruel smile spread across his face.

"Then you’ll beg me to let you crawl back to the gate on all fours."

The ravine fell quiet.

Lucian glanced at the tip of the silver saber, hovering barely six inches from his nose.

Then his gaze moved past the blade.

Straight to Eric.

There was no fear in his eyes.

Not even irritation.

"Is that all?"

Eric blinked.

"What?"

"I asked if that was your entire plan."

Lucian calmly removed his hand from the grip of his sword.

His arm fell loosely to his side.

"Corner me in a dead end."

His voice remained almost conversational.

"Give a speech about family nobility."

His gaze dropped briefly to the expensive saber.

"And threaten me with an expensive weapon you’ve never used in an actual life-or-death fight?"

Eric’s face flushed crimson.

His grip tightened around the saber until his knuckles turned white.

"You arrogant bastard...!"

"You assume I’m exhausted from fighting low-level beasts," Lucian said, taking half a step forward.

He closed the distance between his chest and Eric’s blade without even flinching.

"You assume this ravine is your trap."

His gaze remained fixed on Eric.

"You make a lot of assumptions, Eric."

"Shut your mouth!"

Eric roared, the veins in his neck standing out as refined, bright-blue energy erupted from his arms.

The energy surged into his silver saber.

HMMMMM—!

The blade vibrated with a sharp, metallic hum as the compressed energy wrapped around its edge.

"I’ll carve that smug look off your face myself!"

Eric’s expression twisted with fury.

"Sterling Blade Art: Crescent Strike!"

He lunged forward.

His saber swept down in a brutal diagonal arc, aimed directly at Lucian’s collarbone.

The blue blade tore through the damp air, leaving behind a brilliant trail of compressed energy. The force behind the strike was heavy enough to split bone and shatter the stone beneath Lucian’s feet.

It was a high-tier academy martial technique.

Fast.

Heavy.

Lethal.

To Eric and the four retainers, the attack became little more than a streak of blue light.

There was no opening to evade.

No time to retreat.

Yet Lucian didn’t draw his sword.

He didn’t step backward.

He didn’t raise a defensive energy barrier.

He didn’t even shift into a recognizable footwork stance.

In the final fraction of a second before the glowing blade reached his shoulder—

Lucian’s right hand moved.

There was no explosive motion.

No visible technique.

His hand simply appeared in the saber’s path, moving so quickly that it seemed less like a strike and more like a ghost slipping through reality.

SNAP!

The heavy, blue-lit silver saber stopped dead in mid-air.

Eric’s eyes widened.

For several seconds, his mind simply refused to accept what he was seeing.

Lucian’s right index and middle fingers were lightly pinching the flat edge of the silver blade.

The brilliant blue energy surrounding the saber had vanished.

Not deflected.

Not blocked.

Shattered.

The moment the energy touched Lucian’s fingers, it fragmented into countless harmless blue sparks before dissolving into the damp air.

Even more terrifying was the blade itself.

Eric’s full downward momentum had been completely neutralized.

The saber hadn’t moved more than a millimeter.

"Impossible..."

Eric’s voice came out as little more than a gasp.

His hands trembled as he desperately tried to pull the weapon free.

Nothing happened.

The blade remained trapped between Lucian’s two fingers, immovable as though it had been wedged into solid mountain stone.

"What... what kind of monster strength—"

"Your stance is completely open."

Lucian’s voice was quiet.

Almost casual.

Eric’s eyes flickered.

Before he could release his grip or attempt another technique, Lucian’s left hand moved.

SMACK—!

The sound wasn’t that of an ordinary slap.

It cracked through the ravine like a cannon blast.

Lucian’s palm struck Eric’s right jaw with terrifying force.

The impact sent a violent pressure wave through the gorge, tearing through the surrounding fog and blasting it several dozen feet backward.

"GAAAAAH!"

Eric’s head snapped sideways.

A sharp CRACK came from his neck as his entire body was lifted off the ground.

He spun through the air, helplessly rotating several times before crashing face-first into the basalt cliff twenty feet away.

THOOM!

The impact fractured the rock.

Chunks of basalt broke loose and rained down around him.

Eric’s body slid down the cliff face, leaving a dark smear across the wet stone before collapsing heavily into the mud.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

The silver saber slipped from the air.

It landed upside down beside Lucian’s boots, the ornate blue monster core embedded in its hilt cracked beyond repair.

"Young Master!"

The four retainers cried out in horror.

The color drained from their faces.

Eric lay on his side in the mud, his body twitching weakly. The entire right side of his face had swollen grotesquely, already turning a deep purple beneath the layer of mud and blood.

When he tried to draw a breath, blood spilled from his mouth along with several shattered teeth, scattering across the damp pine needles.

He couldn’t even stand.

His vision spun violently, the world around him reduced to a nauseating blur.

One moment.

That was all it had taken.

His confidence.

His arrogance.

His pride as the heir of the Vance family.

All of it had been crushed in a single strike.

Lucian didn’t even glance at his injured hand.

He simply stepped over the broken saber and began walking toward the four retainers.

"Y-You... you monster!"

One of the spear-bearers stumbled backward.

His knees shook so violently that the metal plates around his greaves rattled against each other.

"What... what did you do to him?!"

His voice cracked.

"He’s the heir of the Vance family!"

"He talked too much."

Lucian stopped a few steps away.

His expression remained completely indifferent.

"Are the four of you going to pick him up and leave?"

His eyes swept across them.

"Or do you want to find out how many teeth you have left?"

The four retainers froze.

They exchanged a terrified glance.

Then they moved.

Without another word, they threw their serrated spears into the mud and scrambled across the rocks.

Two seized Eric by the arms.

The other two grabbed his legs.

"Careful!"

"Lift him!"

"Move!"

They dragged their bloodied master toward the mouth of the ravine as quickly as their shaking legs allowed.

Eric’s boots scraped across the wet ground, leaving a broken trail through the mud and pine needles.

None of them dared look back.

Lucian watched them disappear into the fog.

For a moment, he remained silent.

Then he shook his head slightly.

"Disappointing."

He turned away.

The broken silver saber remained where it had fallen, its cracked blue core reflecting the faint light filtering through the mist.

Lucian returned to the flat shale slab at the dead end of the ravine.

He had no intention of wasting any more time on Eric.

There were still higher ridges to explore.

And somewhere beyond them were the high-tier beasts actually worth hunting.