Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

A blast of air was thrown off in every direction as Anya launched herself toward Challes. And it was just as she'd stated; before Challes could blink she was behind her.

But instead of slicing his neck like before she turned around and saw Challes behind her, though it was too late. As soon as her eyes caught the sight of Challes his sword was already beside her chest.

Gushing through Anya's chest his sword divided her in half. But, Anya had a smile on her face. "What?!" a surprised gasp escaped Challes's mouth when he saw that there was no blood coming out of Anya.

<strong>-Swish!</strong>

With a blur she vanished; apparently what Challes had slashed was an afterimage. He turned behind as fast as he could and there he saw Anya standing with a menacing smile on her face.

She was already in the posture with her sword rising up high; Challes didn't even have the time to reach. Anya's sword dropped down in an instant and buried itself deep into his left shoulder and—

—Came out from the right side of his waist with no blood at all.

"Tch!" Anya clicked her tongue when she realized that this too was an afterimage.

She turned back her body on instincts because she knew the danger awaiting her if she delayed even a second. Fortunately for her, Challes had just appeared behind her and before he could balance his body she instantly stabbed him in the stomach.

At the same time, she felt something cold on her neck.

"You're fast, that I acknowledge. But you're still a student," someone whispered in her ears.

The Challes she was stabbing with her sword disappeared and she broke out into a cold sweat as something chill ran down her spine.

'Impossible! This just can't be possible!' she screamed internally but her lips didn't move.

Apparently, what she stabbed was also an afterimage; and she'd thought that Challes just appeared but he'd just moved away from there and left an image behind.

Right now he was standing behind Anya. His sword was just an inch away from slicing Anya's thyroid cartilage and his left hand was holding her from the shoulder.

All this time he was always behind Anya and she never really caught him off guard.

The teachers in the Zaforths academy have their own thing they specialize in, and for Challes it was speed—the same as Anya. But he was just on another level and Anya was like a child who'd just learned to walk while he was an Olympic runner.

And he was this fast even when he'd not released his magiken. With his magiken activated, only people like Ryfin could handle him.

"Now…let's end this," he breathed and moved her sword, slicing Anya's flesh.

—But the cut was so fine that it didn't kill her, instead made her bleed.

Anya bit her tongue so as to not scream while she agonized in pain. At this point, all the mana she had put in her magiken was used up hence she'd had to disable it, or else it would've sucked all the remaining mana also—which would've ended up killing her.

A magiken won't deactivate until the command is given or the user dies, hence Anya disabled it and her sword went back to normal. And as it did, a large wave of fatigue and pain washed over her body.

This was the first time she'd used this much strength and now she faced the backlash.

Challes cut her more and was going to finally slit open her throat when he heard a voice.

"Enough! Mr. Challes!" Leon announced.

Up until now, he was just watching from the side because loli_pop's plot wanted that but his time had finally come.

His hand was on the hilt of his sword and his whole body was surrounded by a red-colored aura. It was so bright that the darkness in the room no longer posed a threat.

His eyes showed he was angry…very angry, in fact.

"How could you attack a student like that? That's not what a teacher should do! I think...there's no coming back for you now, you can't undo what you did, hence…I must end you here and now—there's no other way," he stated as if it pained him to do this.

Even though the next morning he'll act as if nothing happened, killing someone was not an easy task—mentally. But now he was forced to do this.

A translucent blue screen—only visible to Leon—appeared before his eyes. There were lots of letters and numbers written on it and the screen looked like some kind of menu. He focused his attention on one specific word or rather, a button.

[Skills]

A new window appeared beside the old one and this was like a list with lots of words written on it. This was the skill window of the magic system Leon had and all these were the names of the skills he possessed.

Though a number of them had a lock sign after their name which stated that he hadn't unlocked and didn't have access to those skills now, a few were still useable.

He then activated a skill: 'Celestial slash!' he said inside his mind.

The name [Celestial Slash] on the window shone in a bright color before both the screens vanished and Leon felt an enormous amount of energy powering up his body.

He slid his left leg back and bent forward with his right hand on the hilt of his sword which was tied to his waist on the left side. His eyes were locked on Challes.

Challes also saw the upcoming attack and hence threw Anya to the ground and prepared for defense. He knew Anya had exhausted all her mana and won't do anything even if he left her be.

He raised his sword in Leon's direction and straightened his back before adjusting his glasses again.

"Rest in peace, Mr. Challes!" Leon screamed.

<strong>-Boom!</strong>

With a sonic boom, Leon dashed forward, and the floor where he standing melted into lava as he kicked off. His sword burned with crimson as if it was covered in a flame.

Challes's eyes widened when he witnessed this power; this was unlike anything he had seen in his whole life. He posed his sword in a defense posture even though he knew it was of no use.

In fact, he was able to do that just because he specialized in speed-based attacks and his brain had developed to think and react at high speed—a normal person wouldn't even have the time to breadth.

"Haaaaaaa!" Leon released a battle cry.

And then—

-There was a sound of sizzling, as though someone had thrown a burning torch into the water.

Leon swung his sword and a red slash of energy—far bigger than the original length of the sword—was released and it went straight at Challes.

'Refuge shell!' Leon said internally.

[Skill, Refuge Shell activated] the system replied and an energy barrier covered Anya.

Melting the ground as it moved forward, the burning red slash finally reached Challes.

He felt incredible heat all over his body, his clothes burned away leaving his naked body facing the heat, and slowly, his skin also started peeling off as it burned.

The slash went through him in an instant and he completely turned into nothing the next second. And the wall behind him was also blown off by the sheer force of Leon's attack.

When the attack finally disappeared, the warehouse which was turned into a melted mess of stone and concrete came into view. The wall behind was destroyed completely so the sunlight was now coming in.

"Sigh~ finally, it's over," Leon sighed as looked at the destruction he just caused. Also, Anya's brother was sure to be held captive in one of the three rooms in front of them. He was just hoping that Zero was not in the middle room he just blew off.

He wiped the sweat off of his forehead and looked at Ellyn who was standing at a distance of a few steps from him and for some reason, was looking at him dumbfounded—no wait! She was dumbfounded, she was stiff.

"Hey, are you alright?" Leon asked, but no reply.

"You are good, that I can confirm. But just like that girl…you are only a student, after all," Leon received an answer, but it was not Ellyn who said that.

At the same time, he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. A chill ran down his spine and he quickly leaped forward and distanced himself.

When he turned to see, he witnessed that a person was standing behind him—a man. And he was…Challes!