Chapter 110: The Scuffle Part 1

Kenji paused with his hand barely an inch above the silver platter. He turned around slowly, his eyebrows raised in clear irritation.

"Seriously, Ayanokoji?" Kenji scoffed, crossing his arms and shaking his head. "First Miyuki gets jittery, and now you? Just because you’re an S-rank Spear Master doesn’t mean you get to call the shots for the rest of us. Don’t tell me what to do when free stat buffs are on the table."

"Take a closer look at the inner rim," Ayanokoji said evenly, pointing toward the black bands. "Those curved thorns are angled inward at forty-five degrees. When slipped over a forearm, they won’t simply rest on the skin. They are designed to pierce the flesh, catch against the bone, and prevent manual removal. The mana frequency isn’t radiating outward like an enhancement buff; it’s pulling inward. It is a parasitic binding mechanism."

The murmuring behind them ceased instantly. The other eighteen students froze, their eyes darting nervously between the black bands and Ayanokoji’s blank face.

"A parasitic binding...?" an A-rank mage whispered, taking a cautious step back. "Wait, is this true?"

Viona’s benevolent expression shattered.

The warm, maternal smile vanished from her lips, replaced by a cold, venomous sneer. The stained-glass windows rattled as a heavy wave of divine golden mana exploded outward from her body. The air inside the cathedral grew suffocatingly dense, heavy with divine pressure.

"Insolent mortal," Viona hissed, her voice layered with divine resonance that hammered against everyone’s eardrums. "You dare question a gift bestowed by my hand?!"

Prime Minister Belis scurried back behind the altar, screaming at the top of his lungs. "Guards! Subdue them! Ensure the sacred armbands are affixed immediately!"

The heavy thud of armored boots echoed through the hall. Dozens of silver-armored royal paladins advanced from the colonnades, leveling their halberds and blocking every exit. High priests began chanting in frantic unison, raising silver staves to erect barrier circles around the perimeter.

"What the hell is going on?!" one of the students screamed in panic, reaching for his weapon. "Why are the guards surrounding us?!"

"Kenji," Ayanokoji said, his voice remaining flat despite the chaos. "Step away from the altar."

Instead of retreating, Kenji scowled. His pride as the self-proclaimed strongest hero flared violently.

"Step away? You think you can give me orders, Ayanokoji?!" Kenji snapped. His right hand snapped to the ornate hilt at his hip, drawing his radiant longsword with a sharp metallic ring. Pure white holy mana enveloped the steel blade. "Lady Viona summoned us! She gave us our stats, our skills, and our gear! If she says these armbands are sacred relics for the dungeon, then they’re sacred relics! You’re just a paranoid control freak!"

Kenji turned toward the goddess and bowed with an arrogant, confident smirk. "Lady Viona, don’t mind this guy. He’s always been a buzzkill in class. I’ll put it on right now, and then I’ll beat some sense into him so the others follow suit."

"Good boy, Kenji," Viona purred, her eyes gleaming with dark triumph. "Take the band and prove your loyalty. Subdue that insolent spearman for me!"

Kenji reached down and grabbed the black metal armband.

The instant his fingers closed around the metal, the dull black alloy flared with violent crimson light. Kenji didn’t hesitate. Grinning smugly at Ayanokoji, he shoved the band up his left forearm.

SHCK!

A sickening sound of tearing meat echoed across the altar.

The inward-facing thorns snapped shut like the jaws of an iron bear trap, driving directly through Kenji’s school blazer, puncturing his skin, and grinding against his radius bone.

Kenji’s arrogant smirk instantly vanished. His eyes bulged out of his head.

"Aaaagh! What—what is this?!" Kenji shrieked, dropping his sword with a loud clatter. He grabbed the armband with his right hand, desperately trying to pull it off, but the metal wouldn’t budge. Dark red veins spread outward from the band, spider-webbing up his neck and into his face. "It’s burning! It’s digging into my mana core! Get it off! GET IT OFF!"

"Kenji-kun!" Miyuki cried out.

As an S-rank Divine Healer, her reaction was instantaneous. Pure emerald-and-gold restoration mana surged through her wooden staff as she began weaving a high-tier purification circle to purge the curse.

"Quiet, puppet!" Viona snapped, flicking her wrist.

A concentrated bolt of golden divine force shot from the goddess’s fingers, hurtling straight toward Miyuki to interrupt the cast.

Ayanokoji moved before the spell could connect.

A ripple of spatial mana opened beside him as his signature weapon materialized into his grip—a sleek, pitch-black spear forged from abyssal steel, humming with sharp, dense S-rank offensive aura.

With a lightning-fast sweep of his haft, Ayanokoji shoved Miyuki safely behind a thick marble communion rail while thrusting the spear’s steel tip directly into the path of the incoming golden bolt.

CLANG!

The tip of the spear pierced the core of the divine projectile, deflecting the concentrated blast upward into the vaulted ceiling. The stone above cracked, showering dust and pulverized plaster across the altar steps.

"Stop him!" Viona commanded.

Kenji’s agonized screams abruptly stopped.

The blood-red gemstone on his arm flared with blinding brilliance. His pupils shrank to pinpricks, turning a dull, glassy crimson. All emotion drained from his face as his body went completely rigid.

"Command received," Kenji muttered in an empty, robotic drone.

He lunged downward, snatched his fallen holy sword from the floor, and unleashed the full output of his S-rank stats. In a blinding burst of white speed, Kenji closed the distance, slashing his radiant blade in a horizontal arc aimed straight at Ayanokoji’s neck.

The strike was fast—a master-level sword art capable of slicing clean through enchanted plate armor.

Ayanokoji didn’t flinch. He spun the black spear between his hands, catching the radiant edge against the reinforced shaft with a deafening ring of steel. The shockwave of the collision blew outward, shattering the nearby communion vases.

Clang! Skrrrrt!

Using Kenji’s own overwhelming forward momentum, Ayanokoji tilted the angle of his spear, guiding the holy sword harmlessly into the floor. Before Kenji could recover his balance, Ayanokoji stepped inside the sword master’s guard, thrust the blunt butt of his spear violently into Kenji’s solar plexus, and followed up with a sweeping low strike to his lead ankle.

Kenji crashed hard against the marble floor.

Without breaking his fluid rhythm, Ayanokoji pivoted and swung the heavy spear shaft directly into the base of the stone pedestal.

CRACK!

The thick pillar snapped, toppling over with a resounding crash. The silver platter flipped into the air, scattering the remaining nineteen Torment Bands across the wide marble floor, sending them clattering into the darkness beneath the church pews where no one could easily grab them.

"You insolent worm!" Viona screamed in absolute fury.

Seeing her carefully laid trap dismantled in seconds, the goddess abandoned all pretense of divine grace. She descended from the altar steps, her feet floating inches above the ground as a golden halo of pure destructive mana materialized behind her back.

"Paladins, pin the heroes down! Retrieve the bands and force them onto their arms!" Viona roared, her golden eyes burning with divine hatred as she fixed her gaze on Ayanokoji. "And as for you, boy... I will shatter that spear and break every bone in your body until you beg to wear the leash!"

Kenji pushed himself up from the floor without showing any sign of pain, his glassy red eyes locked on Ayanokoji as divine golden light gathered in the goddess’s outstretched palms.