Modern World Warlock

A few days after Master Hayato's arrival, Dante had been attending his lessons with Alice out of curiosity.

He wasn't participating at first since he wanted the sword-master to focus on teaching Alice the basics before he could interrupt their lessons.

The warlock noted that Hayato was using blunt swords when sparring with Alice, and he hadn't unsheathed his katana a single time since arriving at the Jade Palace, not even when showing his student a few basic swings.

He also noted he hadn't seen the man's face as he was always wearing his tengu mask, but the warlock didn't care as much as seeing the sword.

After one session with Alice was finished, the warlock decided to inquire about the man's sword, saying that he felt something strange coming from it. However, it wasn't any type of magical energy—such as umbra or mana.

"Ah, you have a good eye!" Hayato said.

"This is a 'Kaminari Weapon,'" he continued.

Showing his sword inside its scabbard, the sword-master explained that Kaminari Weapons were created by the Kuroi Tengu.

All of the weapons were produced with the strongest alloys in the world and would electrocute their targets with a shock of two hundred million volts.

"Two hundred million!? That's a bit overkill…" Alice commented.

Hayato replied that their weapons were made to kill their targets without fail, and Dante understood why the man did not use his katana during training with Alice.

Nonetheless, the sword-master's words only made Dante more interested in his abilities, so he asked the man for a spar session with him.

Zac and Megan, who were training in the adjacent room, heard their conversation and stopped their practice to watch Dante and Hayato.

Clara and Paige didn't want to miss it either, so they happily sat in the spectators' room, where June and Maya joined them, curious about the match.

When the warlock and the sword-master stood before each other, only a few meters between them, Hayato tilted his head laterally while inspecting Dante.

"I see…" Hayato said in Japanese.

"Even though you are not using a weapon, I can still feel the danger from standing before you…" he continued, placing a hand on the handle of his katana.

"Not using my full strength would be insulting," Hayato muttered, unsheathing his katana from the scabbard.

Everyone watching could hear the crackling of the electricity coming from the blade, generating strands of lightning around it that made it look more dangerous than it already was.

Dante could feel a faint essence of mana coming from the weapon, but he could tell that its functionality wasn't done with magic but science.

Initially, the warlock suspected that the weapon had been enchanted with lightning magic, but after he was able to take a closer look, he realized it was man-made power.

As the warlock got into a close combat stance that Megan taught him, Hayato held his katana with both hands and slightly bent his knees.

"Begin!" Paige shouted from the spectators' room.

In the blink of an eye, the two combatants appeared in the center of the room, ready to attack each other.

However, the moment Dante was about to unleash his fist, he felt the sudden urge to evade the incoming attack, noticing that Hayato's movements were faster than his.

The warlock bent his back to avoid the horizontal slash, vaulting backward and kicking Hayato in the chest. Still, the man blocked the attack with his arm.

'This guy is fast…' Dante thought.

Hayato followed up his advance with a relentless barrage of attacks, making the warlock concentrate with all of his focus, knowing that a mere cut from the blade could be lethal for him.

Dante wasn't using any spells, but he was accumulating umbra in his physical attacks to make them stronger. Nevertheless, Hayato's skills proved to be the real deal, as the man either avoided them or fully blocked them.

'Hmmm, is it possible…?' Dante thought.

At that moment, Hayato went for an overhead strike that came crashing down at lightning speeds toward Dante, making him point his palm and unleash a blast of umbra to push him back.

Hayato crossed his arms to protect himself from the invisible force, surprising Dante, who widened his eyes with perplexion.

"Heh…" The warlock scoffed with a smirk, keeping his palm pointed at Hayato.

"Rapture," Dante chanted, unleashing an invisible slice that traveled straight at the sword-master, shocking the spectators.

Still, Hayato clenched his katana and sliced upwards with a rising strike that split the invisible attack in two, leaving two broad cuts in the wall behind him.

"You can see it!" Dante exclaimed with excitement.

"You can see my umbra, right!?" he continued, but Hayato seemed a bit confused at his words.

The sword-master explained that he didn't 'see' anything. However, he could feel a strange energy that was coming towards him, so he simply decided to cut it down.

"What…?" Dante muttered in disbelief.

Hayato decided to stop the sparring match for a moment as he explained his technique.

While the man didn't know what kind of energy Dante was using against him, it didn't mean that he couldn't feel it.

"I'm a simple man. If it can be cut, I do it…" Hayato said.

Dante thought that the man's abilities were a bit ridiculous, as it was the first time he had met someone who could effectively protect himself against his spells without using any type of magic.

Still, as ridiculous as it sounded, Dante acknowledged that the man had incredible talent, letting out a carefree chuckle.

"I could teach you how to improve your senses. However, you must tell me about that strange energy you are using…" the sword-master said, evidently interested in knowing how umbra truly worked.

"That sounds like a good deal to me," Dante replied, shaking the man's hand.

Hayato said they would start that same night, and when the warlock pondered what type of exercise they would do, he said that they needed to practice 'meditation.'

Dante was familiar with meditation since he had to do it a lot when learning how to suppress his umbra. However, he understood that Hayato's method focused on a different type of energy.