The Sorcerer's Handbook-Chapter 12: Guess

Their blades met again and again, creating a series of clangs that weaved together into a symphony of iron. Felix was genuinely surprised. His training sword, forged from black steel and ebony, was a top-tier weapon in its own right.

Sonya, by contrast, wielded nothing more than a simple wooden sword. Yet it had withstood multiple direct clashes with his ebony blade without so much as a crack. Felix found himself wondering whether the wood was miraculously tough, or if her skill in swordsmanship was simply extraordinary. He believed both to be true.

As Sonya pulled back into guard, Felix's eyes sharpened. He raised his sword high, twisted his body to channel every ounce of strength, and struck with full force. To onlookers, it seemed as if he were sliding forward at impossible speed. His ebony blade crashed down like a shockwave, but it was met with nothing. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

As before, the moment Felix tried to exploit an opening, Sonya executed an almost unnatural maneuver. She abandoned whatever offensive she had in reserve and slid across the ground, evading blows that should have been enough to defeat her by mere inches.

Felix turned and caught Sonya's calm, indifferent eyes. It was accompanied by the afterimage of her wooden sword sweeping in for a counterattack.

Clang!

He barely raised his sword in time to block. Anxiety gnawed at him. Sonya hadn't landed a single hit yet, but it was clear she was growing increasingly attuned to the Wave Stance, and the pressure she exerted on him only kept rising.

Felix had admitted earlier that Sonya's talent surpassed his, but he didn't believe he would lose. Setting aside her stamina consumption, the Wave Stance alone already gave him an unshakeable advantage.

Sonya was clearly using the Starry Stance from the Swordsmanship Manual. The name sounded grand, but in reality, it was a basic form meant to strengthen fundamentals, allowing practitioners to transition smoothly into other techniques and summon the three spirits: Cut, Thrust, and Slash. Its flaw was its mediocrity.

The Wave Stance, in contrast, was the secret tradition of the Vlozrada family, famed for its explosive power. Its summoned spirit, Wave, was a burst-type spirit. Felix had assumed that by maintaining relentless offensive momentum, he could easily defeat the swordsmanship prodigy who had suddenly emerged out of nowhere before him.

He had never anticipated her mastery of such bizarre footwork, allowing her to slip away from every strike that should have landed. While Felix gradually deciphered her rhythm, she was already unraveling the secrets of the Wave Stance, steadily closing the gap between them.

On top of that, she commanded a sword-drawing technique[1] of her own.

But compared to the Wave Stance, the explosive force of the sword-drawing technique still fell short. Felix almost wished she would clash with him using it. The recoil alone would shatter her wrist. Yet after suffering that once, Sonya immediately abandoned sword-drawing and instead focused entirely on maneuvering around him.

Felix didn't want, and couldn't afford to drag this out. Even if he waited for her stamina to run dry, it would be nothing but a hollow victory.

Beside her graceful, alluring figure, Sonya seemed to possess endless endurance. Felix had a nagging feeling that, if this continued, he would be the one worn down first.

It's time to end this.

He didn't try to create an opening. Instead, he took an abrupt step back and assumed the Wave Stance once more. He released a long breath of turbid air. Fixing his sharp gaze on Sonya, he declared firmly, "If I don't win with the next move, I'll admit defeat," he declared firmly.

"Fine."

A moment later, the spectators' eyes widened in disbelief, while Felix's expression twisted with fury.

Sonya had lifted her wooden sword in one hand, turned sideways to face him, and taken up the exact same stance. She had adopted the Wave Stance!

No one could believe it. Putting aside the fact that she had only witnessed it for the first time today, even if she had watched Felix train before, it was near impossible. Felix practiced openly in the training grounds for everyone to see, yet no one had ever successfully stolen the Vlozrada family's secret art.

A stance demanded more than sword positions. It required proper breath control, precise footwork, and mastery over every subtle detail of power. Mere imitation was not enough. Even with instruction, not everyone possessed the talent to grasp it. Any discipline capable of helping the practitioner reach the Astral Plane came with a high threshold.

Thus, everyone came to the same conclusion. Sonya had adopted the Wave Stance solely to provoke Felix. Nothing was more humiliating than being defeated by your own technique.

Clearly, the provocation had worked. Felix's face darkened almost to black, and he said nothing.

Meanwhile, Sylvia silently praised Sonya in her heart. What an impressive tactic... To provoke and humiliate Felix like this, he wouldn't be able to forget her even if he tried. Who would've imagined someone this formidable would come from the first-year? I've really learned something today. Next, she'll probably lose just enough to give Felix a dignified way out, then line up a rematch and create more chances for contact.

Felix roared, "You're asking to be humiliated!"

He stepped forward, turned sideways, and swung his sword down. The blade snapped forward like a whip, crashed like a falling weight, and flowed like water pouring down in a powerful arc.

There was no elaborate name for this technique. Its entire essence was built on one concept—break. Pour everything into a single strike and break the enemy's defense.

Felix locked onto Sonya's knee. He had already noticed that whenever she used her strange footwork, her knee always moved first. From that, he could predict which direction she intended to dodge, then adjust the trajectory mid-swing and crush her with one decisive blow.

But to his surprise, Sonya didn't dodge. She mimicked him step for step. She drove forward, slid sideways, and swung her wooden sword down with full strength. She answered the fiercest strike with one just as fierce!

A teeth-numbing clang rang out as their swords crossed. The crowd collectively held their breath as they waited to see the result.

Crack.

Sonya's wooden sword snapped in half and fell to the ground.

No one seemed surprised. They had all seen the One-Winged swordsman manifest behind Felix. The most striking detail was the sword in its hand, formed of dark light. It was the Wave spirit.

"A breakthrough in the heat of battle! So mid-fight breakthroughs really do happen!"

"He summoned his innate spirit right in the middle of combat!"

"As expected of the Vlozrada!"

Angelica stepped forward to support Sonya and offer comfort, "Don't be discouraged. You'll be able to summon your spirit soon, too. When that day comes—"

Her words were cut short. Sonya replied calmly, "I haven't lost."

Everyone froze, assuming she was simply refusing to admit defeat. But a moment later, Felix's ebony sword cracked sharply and dropped to the ground as well.

A One-Winged swordswoman emerged from Sonya's shoulder. Unlike Felix's, the sword in its hand was formed of pure white light.

"The Wave spirit!?"

"How did she summon Vlozrada's Wave spirit, too? Don't tell me..."

"She learned Felix's Wave Stance during the fight and summoned it right away?"

"That's impossible..."

"Wait! Does this mean she went from a beginner apprentice to a full-fledged swordswoman in just a few hours?"

Hearing this, almost everyone felt their minds go blank. They couldn't fathom that Sonya had achieved in a single night what many of them had spent years trying, yet failed to accomplish.

Sonya saw a mix of reactions. The crowd showed admiration, Angelica expressed awe, Sylvia glared with jealousy, while Felix wore a complicated expression. However, she had no mood to care about any of it.

She stared directly at the Watcher standing among the spectators, her gaze saying clearly, I already know the truth.

She asked in her mind, "So you mean to say you're just an illusion formed from my own mind? That you're not something real, but merely a reflection of my thoughts? That you're just a hallucination?"

The Watcher remained silent. He crouched, picked up the broken sword, and pressed it against the snapped end of Sonya's wooden blade. With a light sweep of his hand, the sword restored itself perfectly, as if it had never been broken.

Even after performing such a miraculous act, no one noticed him. Not a single spectator realized the sword had been restored.

He dusted his hands, turned, and walked away, leaving Sonya with a single word that made her blood boil. "Guess."

1. The term 拔剑术 (bá jiàn shù) literally means sword-drawing technique. In martial arts and novel contexts, it refers to a skill or technique focused on drawing a sword from its scabbard and immediately using it in combat, often with speed, precision, and sometimes hidden or deceptive movements ☜