CHAPTER 655: CHAPTER 655 - HOW DOES IT FEEL?

Chapter 655 - How Does it Feel?

"Didn’t you say you were going to meet the fairy?"

Jaxen asked, his words slipping into informal speech as they often did when he was surprised.

Even from atop the roof, his voice struck Enkrid’s ears clearly.

That was the intensity behind it—a cold flame, perhaps.

His tone was sharp, carrying both chill and heat, a challenge laced within. His eyes gleamed, but his voice was low and heavy, making it sound even more so.

"I went, and there was a demon instead."

No matter what Jaxen said, Enkrid remained unfazed. There was even a slight hint of confusion in his voice.

"And then?"

Jaxen pressed again.

"...So I cut it down, strong and clean."

Normally, he wouldn’t have phrased it that way.

He could offer a more detailed explanation now, rather than sounding like a madman.

He had organized his thoughts. But this wasn’t the kind of situation to be explaining things in detail—certainly not when dealing with people brimming with sharp, bladelike energy. So, out of habit, he spoke as he would have to Ermen. Not that anyone here would complain about such a blunt statement.

"Not wrong."

Ragna agreed as he stood up.

He took a few steps forward, drawing his sword.

Chiring.

A crisp, cutting sound rang through the air.

Ragna tossed the scabbard in his left hand aside and gripped the sword with both hands.

"Step aside, you cowering pup. It’s my turn now."

It seemed Ragna had acquired a fine sword in Enkrid’s absence.

The blade gleamed with a soft light, its color resembling the sky.

A sword crafted from Valerian steel, Noir soft iron, and pure silver.

The thick, elongated blade—much like the black gold sword he had before—was a trademark of Ragna’s.

A talent blessed by the heavens, the genius Ragna’s eyes burned with visible flames.

He wasn’t even trying to hide it.

As Enkrid quietly observed him, Ragna spoke.

"If you can’t block, you die."

In sword practice, losing an arm or a leg was expected.

That was how Ragna had learned.

His voice was serious, but the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Expectation, joy, excitement—those emotions were clear.

Enkrid, keenly perceptive, read Ragna’s expression and attitude with ease.

He was good at reading emotions to begin with, and recently, spending time among fairies—who naturally suppressed their emotions—had sharpened that skill even further.

So when Ragna spoke, filled with expectation, Enkrid asked seriously, "Are you going to hold back?"

Ragna answered with his sword.

It felt as if there had been no preparation at all—one moment, his sword was still, and the next, the tip was cutting through the air like a severed piece launched forward.

Clang!

Enkrid lifted Penna vertically, blocking the attack with the flat of his blade, then leapt aside as if taking flight.

Boom!

With a tearing sound, Ragna’s second prepared strike carved through the spot Enkrid had just vacated.

From the initial thrust to the follow-up cut, not a single strike was light.

At a glance, it looked as if Enkrid was moving lazily, dodging everything effortlessly.

"He’s predicting and reacting."

If any miscalculations occurred, he adjusted in an instant. If it couldn’t be avoided, he blocked with raw strength. If something fell outside his predictions? He used skill and force to counter.

At times, it even looked absurd, yet in the end, it felt as if Ragna was being led by Enkrid’s design.

"He adapts his tactics in real time."

Adjusting calculations while fighting, maintaining complete focus—only then was such a feat possible.

"But does this even make sense?"

If you look up, you can’t see the ground beneath your feet.

What Enkrid was doing now was like lifting his head and still being able to see the ground.

"He makes luck and coincidence seem inevitable."

It was as if he was watching the fight from a distant, strategic vantage point.

Normally, something like this shouldn’t be possible.

Yet here it was, happening before their eyes.

Rem knew the outcome before the fight had even begun in earnest.

Before Enkrid arrived, Rem and Ragna had fought ten times—each time ending in a draw.

There had never been a decisive winner.

But if even Rem was being overwhelmed like this, Ragna wouldn’t fare any better.

The Wavebreaker sword wasn’t something one could simply counter with attributes or affinity—it blocked everything.

Ragna wouldn’t be able to break through.

If this dragged out, it would turn into a battle of endurance.

"Ridiculous."

When that moment arrived, the bottomless Will would embrace Ragna as well.

Fighting Enkrid, Rem had always felt like he was being dragged into a swamp.

His instincts were sharp in that regard.

Enkrid’s tactical approach was like grabbing an opponent’s ankle, pulling them into the water, and slowly submerging them.

Once the water reached their head, the battlefield would belong to him.

That was his intention.

Rem had seen it.

And Ragna had felt it.

"I’ll lose."

His genius mind condensed the process, skipping straight to the result.

If this continued, he would lose.

And the moment he realized that, he changed his stance.

Rem had seen this technique before—a strike nearly impossible to counter.

Tensing every muscle in his body, pouring all of his Will into one downward swing.

The motion was deceptively simple, a heavy sword descending in a vertical slash.

But for the one forced to receive it, it wasn’t simple at all.

A sword like a thunderbolt, as if thrown by a god.

This was a technique reinterpreted in Ragna’s own way after witnessing how Enkrid fought, channeling his full Will into his strikes.

To Ragna, it was nothing more than "a strong swing."

He widened his stance, lifting both arms high above his head.

All of it happened in an instant.

The preparation time was remarkably short.

That made it even harder to block.

During the heat of battle, a warrior’s vision naturally narrows.

When every sword swing carries the weight of life and death, even the most seasoned fighters are sometimes forced to focus only on what lies immediately ahead.

This is why a knight’s ability to foresee a move is called "the eye that sees an inch ahead."

No matter how insightful a knight may be, predicting this was impossible.

And even if they did predict it, it would be too late.

Dodging?

He would chase and strike again.

Despite appearances, Ragna’s footwork was incredibly fast.

Even compared to Rem—who had spent his childhood racing across the vast western plains—Ragna was swift.

Simply jumping back wouldn’t be enough to escape.

Rem had found a way to counter it: instead of retreating, he had stepped in close just before the strike landed.

That way, he could reduce the force behind the attack.

But attempting that in a real fight?

A truly terrifying gamble.

Both had nearly died, and after that, they had stopped sparring.

If they continued, one of them was bound to die.

Ragna’s sword was about to come down on Enkrid.

It was a moment when everyone believed there wasn’t even the slightest opening.

"This is bad," Audin muttered.

Just as Ragna gathered momentum to take his stance, Enkrid had already leaped far back.

It was impossible to tell whether Ragna had taken his stance first or if Enkrid had retreated first—it all happened at the exact same time.

Of course, even with that retreat, Ragna could still chase him down and swing his sword.

After all, it wasn’t just an ordinary slash but one infused with Oara’s Connecting Blades technique.

However, the further the distance, the greater the loss of power. Enkrid had retreated just enough to make a difference.

’A tactical maneuver.’

He had already foreseen and grasped the flow of the battle.

It reminded them of Aker’s Spiderweb swordsmanship, yet it was a step beyond that.

Aker’s Spiderweb swordplay trapped opponents, leaving them unable to escape.

But what Enkrid had just done was beyond that—he blocked every possible move his opponent could make.

’Is his thought process just faster?’

No—it was as if he had two separate streams of thought.

If Rem had noticed, then Jaxen, Ragna, and Audin would have caught on as well.

Their eyes gleamed with realization.

Ragna eventually swung his sword, but Enkrid intercepted it with his short blade, swinging it horizontally.

Two weapons infused with Will clashed with an explosive roar.

Boom!

The air itself seemed to shatter from the impact.

It was like a lightning strike from above meeting a volcanic eruption from below.

A streak of sky-colored light clashed with a pale-blue moonlit arc before separating.

A full-powered clash would have resulted in mutual damage, so they pulled back just enough to deflect each other’s strikes.

And since this was a spar, they each took a step back.

As they retreated, their bodies crossed—one moving left, the other moving right—widening the distance between them.

With that, the fight came to an end.

Ragna had exhausted most of his Will. He needed to recover.

Enkrid, however, had not.

"Want to keep going?"

Enkrid held Penna upright before his face and asked.

Ragna stared into his blue eyes for a moment before lowering his sword and walking over to stand beside Rem.

The sight of them standing together was almost comical.

Anyone aware of how much their relationship had deteriorated during Enkrid’s absence would have found it absurd.

"The shriveled-up brothers should step back now."

Audin stepped in as he spoke.

His eyes were burning just as intensely.

Excitement, joy, and anticipation filled his gaze.

Had he always been like this?

Or had Enkrid changed him?

Either way, it hardly mattered now.

Every single one of them was ablaze with a thirst for battle.

Like madmen itching for a fight, no matter what.

A golden light emanated from Audin’s entire body.

It trickled down like sand, pooling at his feet before climbing back up his calves.The golden sand that coated his body was a symbol of his divine power.

"This is my full strength right now."

With that, Audin moved.Light exploded from his clenched fist.

Whoosh—

A single point of light condensed and shot forward, hurtling toward Enkrid’s face.

The motion itself was a simple punch, pivoting on his left foot and twisting his waist.

But with the addition of divine power and the sheer strength of his honed body,it was nothing short of a spear made of light.

Boom!

Enkrid blocked it.

But the spear of light didn’t stop after one strike—it scattered, raining down like stardust.

Fists, kicks, and even clawing fingers lashed out, attempting to grasp him from every direction.

Enkrid deflected each one, moving his feet constantly.

At a glance, it seemed like a one-sided assault from Audin.

One tried to close the distance, while the other refused to allow it.

In the end, Audin managed to get in close.

At that moment, Enkrid let go of Penna, grabbed Audin’s arm, twisted it, and drove his knee into his chin.

Thud!

Audin blocked with his palm, but he couldn’t stop Enkrid from stepping back and reclaiming his sword.

Every move had flowed seamlessly together.

Even letting go and picking up Penna again felt calculated.

In battle, chance and luck were inevitable factors.

Yet, Enkrid fought as if he turned every coincidence into a certainty.

Even when his calculations were off, he acted as if he had accounted for the mistake all along.

He fought by dividing his thoughts, accelerating his mind, and instantaneously calculating everything.

’He can’t win.’

Rem once again glimpsed into the future.

Audin must have realized it, too.

Even if his divine power was the most solid among them, his limits were clear.

As he stepped back to watch, Rem’s axe trembled.

The weapon, imbued with a will of its own, sent a message directly into his mind.

’I know. But I’m not stepping in. We’re not trying to kill each other. This is just... play.’

The axe insisted that it could kill them all, but that wasn’t Rem’s intent.

It had simply misread his emotions.

Wanting to win and wanting to kill were two very different things.

If he unleashed the cursed power within the axe, there might be an answer.

But he didn’t want to.

Even in defeat, Rem didn’t feel bad.

If anything, he felt exhilarated and refreshed.

Audin seemed to feel the same way.

"I lost."

Of the three, Audin was the only one to say it aloud.

Then, drenched in sweat, he asked,

"How does it feel?"

Now that they looked, Enkrid had endured just as much.

His entire body was soaked in sweat.

The same went for Ragna and Rem.

Audin’s question carried a deeper meaning.

They all recalled the moment Enkrid had first arrived as their squad leader.

***

If you enjoy the series and want to get more Chapters early, head over to my kofi

https://ko-fi.com/averagetl

[SHOP BEST BUY] - 50e - Every Chapter translated - Latest WN-800 + daily Chapters from monday to friday for a month

[MEMBERSHIP TIERS]

-SQUIRE - Cost 10e - Next 40 Chapters of ERK + daily Chapters from monday to friday for a month

-KNIGHT - Cost 20e -s 750-800 + daily Chapters from Monday to Friday for a month

Discord server - https://discord.gg/snCZVX3mr4