It was difficult to guess her intentions.

Erniaan’s face rarely showed any expression.

The sunglasses made it even harder to read.

She spoke of martial arts, yet aimed a pistol. It was a kind of ‘cut the chatter’ declaration.

Feeling slighted, Park Gangcheol’s eyes flared with anger.

"The king of all weapons is the sword. To carelessly raise a gun against a sword and not realize it’s your loss… how laughable. Are you that scared of my fists you need to hide behind a gun?"

Schwing.

His stance was strange. It was clear he was putting effort into it. The sound of his sword being drawn was bleak.

The blade, catching the light, gleamed coldly. His touch radiated overt reverence and attachment.

Slowly, reverently, as though handling a lover.

His entire demeanor radiated regret at having to draw his sword in this place.

It was underpinned by his belief: a gun cannot beat a sword.

Erniaan spoke.

It was that typical youthful tone of her age group.

Childlike, guileless, not something she tried to do, just how she was.

"Why do you carry around a sword you have to worship? Is it just a character concept?"

It wasn’t mockery or sarcasm. Just pure curiosity.

But that one line completely shattered Park Gangcheol’s patience.

"How dare you insult the Sword Guild by pointing such a crude weapon? You're mad. I see now. This ends here, life or death!"

He didn’t care that his opponent was a child.

He charged in a single bound. His movement was fluid, like flowing water.

There was form. There was structure. His steps were steeped in precise calculation and disciplined training.

A question popped up.

"Is this a chance to broaden my horizons?"

Erniaan had a habit of weighing whether it was worth opening her eyes. Perceiving the world through sight was extremely painful for her.

Still, that didn’t mean she was slow to judge.

"This is worth seeing."

She reached a conclusion quickly.

The closed world opened, flooding into her consciousness.

Like a true sniper, she maintained composure and observed everything.

Her quadriceps and hamstrings contracted simultaneously, her energy flowed through the Blood Sea Acupoint, and even deeper.

Through the Weizhong Acupoint behind her knees, then pooling at the Taixi Acupoint in her ankles.

Her way of stepping on the ground was unusual. Lightly landing on the forefoot to absorb shock, then using the heel for rebound.

That’s how she brought to life the principles of ‘short defeating long’ and ‘the soft overcoming the rigid.’

She blinked once. The opponent was already right in front of him.

Her impression was simple. Sure, this is a way to move the body… but still below [Dominating Step].

"You gave up distance too easily. That’s your loss."

The swordplay began.

It carried the weight of a major conglomerate’s power. A single arc of its trajectory bore the inspiration of prestige. It was a feast for the eyes.

Just watching made her grow.

She barely stopped herself from pulling the trigger at the space between Park’s brows.

To observe further, a stable response was necessary.

Erniaan raised her left hand. The one not holding the gun.

A small hand traced an arc and met the flat side of the sword.

"What?!"

"Are you insane?"

"Did she just put her hand on a moving sword?!"

The watching students’ eyes widened.

Some leaned forward in disbelief.

But the one doing it remained calm. She ignored the spectators’ fuss.

The sword’s force was light enough to be shaken off.

Srrrk.

There was no dramatic sound.

The sword was gently pushed aside, as if it slid away. His expression went blank.

He couldn’t process what had just happened. A gesture like dusting off one’s hands had completely scattered his sword trajectory?

Even among upperclassmen, few could pull that off. Maybe a graduating senior or a Sword Dragon.

His pupils dilated instinctively.

"She drew slower than me, yet how...? No—wait. Was that our Taiji Sword Technique?"

"You sure talk a lot. Isn’t it taboo to ask about a Hunter’s specs?"

With her small mouth, she invoked an unspoken rule of the industry.

Every word was a gem. He wanted to gut her on the spot, but had no rebuttal.

He shelved his questions. His eyes burned with predatory intent.

"Fine. You're right. But I’ll show you that even among first-years, there are levels."

"Haven’t you heard the saying: The world is big, and there are many masters? It’s about me. You’d better be careful."

Beware women, children, and the elderly.

A real saying. It warns of Hunters whose appearances don’t match their strength. Did she think she was some enlightened grandmaster reborn?

A disabled kid, no less.

‘She didn’t become top-ranked for nothing. Even her trash talk is top-tier. Talking’s going nowhere. I’ll prove it with results.’

He couldn’t bear to be goaded any further. The contempt was gone.

His consciousness immersed. Was he the sword? Was the sword him?

The line blurred.

The sword vibrated as if it devoured ideation itself.

Erniaan felt a strange familiarity. He had seen it in textbooks during his advance studies.

"So this is Body-Sword Unification."

The stage before manifesting energy externally.

Something clicked. His scalp tingled. That sense of inspiration on the verge of surfacing.

To avoid missing anything, his gaze grew intense.

"You can even channel ideation into weapons... I want to see more."

His energy had changed. It was correct to say he had become a different person. The sword cried out.

A slash meant to cleave through the torso. Its trajectory wavered, and the direction and magnitude of its force moved as it pleased.

His slashes were elastic, like a spring.

Linear motion curved through rotation, and the resulting curve generated more speed.

A trajectory where gravity, sword force, and inertia were in optimal balance.

‘Nonlinear dynamics and the brachistochrone curve. He doesn’t trace circles for nothing. Sword force and centrifugal force combined enable faster acceleration. Because the interacting forces are inconsistent, the speed and direction of the sword constantly shift. The pivot controlling all this… that’s Body-Sword Unification.’

To think that straight lines are the fastest is a misconception.

They may be the shortest in distance, but not in time.

Objects reach destinations faster via well-designed curves than through simple straight paths.

His thoughts projected freely through his sword. That’s why the sword’s aura was both soft and powerful.

"This is the Sword Guild’s martial art, Taiji Sword Technique!"

I could see every path. I raised Asadia to meet the approaching sword. A Relic-class item. It deflected without a single scratch.

Clang! Cha-chang!

The ringing of metal. It wasn’t sound… it was a vibration.

The clash of blades shredded the air. Sparks flew with every clash and deflection.

The flow bent and recoiled. If his attack was met properly, he became even more dominant.

The corners of Park Gangcheol’s mouth lifted slightly.

It wasn’t joy. It was composure. Excitement.

Already, hundreds of exchanges had passed. He should have been out of breath, but his breathing remained steady.

His body remembered the flow. His strikes never faltered.

The better his opponent responded, the more sublime his swordplay became. That arrogant girl must’ve turned pale by now, unable to find a way to handle the situation.

He hadn’t even seen her face in the flurry, but it had to be true.

‘The Sword Guild’s martial art is one of gradual completion. The more exchanges, the greater the power. It’s too late for her to realize it now.’

A vortex sustains rotational motion while conserving energy. His sword moved in circles along the flow, absorbing his opponent’s force like a whirlpool and retaliating.

It resembled the rotation of fluids.

The sword was a circle. The circle was a sword.

Bending the flow, compressing, and countering, a continuous motion growing ever stronger.

Sword power he himself had never commanded before. What he now held in his hands was a typhoon.

Whoooosh!

The wind howled. It was a banshee’s wail.

There was no turning back. He had to kill.

The growing vortex from their exchanges could not be dispersed so easily.

The final sword strike rained down toward Erniaan’s brow.

Eight-Directional Wind and Rain.

A stabbing form from the Three Disaster Sword Techniques.

When wielding great force, nothing beat the basics. So much sword power had amassed that further finesse was meaningless.

The onlookers were frozen in dread. Even Loran flinched and drew her bow. They were in the same club.

She didn’t like her face, but a bond had formed without him realizing it. She had few friends… she couldn’t afford to lose one.

"That crazy girl!"

But there was no room to intervene. No projectile could stand against that sword force. It would be swept away by the vortex.

The situation had escalated beyond control.

She felt a chill at the thought that not even a corpse would remain.

"What are you doing? Run! Do you want to die? Even if you lose limbs, save your life!"

The Miles gear shield might be pierced. It had reached lethal intent.

They had to know that, yet neither of them retreated.

No… Erniaan instead lowered both arms. Her chest thrust out proudly. She was daring him to stab her.

"Your arrogance shortens your life! You think I’ll hold back out of fear of killing?"

Killing the top-ranked freshman.

No matter how you calculated it, it was only beneficial.

As he brimmed with confidence, Erniaan spoke. Her tone was calm.

"The corpse is talking."

When HP is fully depleted in the Miles gear, a drug is forcibly injected that halts movement. A non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocker.

It paralyzes muscles by blocking nerve signals but doesn’t affect the brain or consciousness.

That was her target.

He was already dead. He just didn’t realize it yet.

"It was a good show. But I only gained one thing."

Body-Sword Unification.

She learned that even weapons could freely channel ideation. Her body already moved according to her thoughts.

What if her gun did the same?

The result was simple: supernatural.

The moment Asadia danced atop her hand, a shot had already torn through, draining all HP. No one seemed to have seen it.

The vortex’s noise had drowned out the gunfire.

"He follows curves because he longs for the most destructive straight line."

Brachistochrone curve, nonlinear dynamics, inertia, gravity, vortex and flow. Those shaped the trajectory of the sword.

Curves are efficient. They flow like fluids, absorb force, store energy through spin.

It became a slashing storm that followed the optimal path.

But what’s the point of drawing circles?

A direct-fire weapon.

Overwhelming force needs no compromise. It pierces through, just as it is.

Guns are superior to swords.

"There wasn’t much to learn. Skill activation—[Negation of Existence]."

Against sword techniques, her gun technique exploded.

The accumulated damage triggered. As his HP hit zero, his shocked face turned to horror.

"This can’t be… this is a bug!"

Even as paralysis took hold, he couldn’t accept what was happening. To him, this was sheer injustice.

She felt no need to explain. She wasn’t obliged to resolve his confusion.

She merely traced a circle.

The brachistochrone curve, the path a falling droplet instinctively follows. The curve that best stores speed and energy.

To the techniques of [Na Han Kwon], she added the aesthetics of curves.

Delayed First Strike. Moving late but hitting first, the technique unfurled in her hands.

His falling, uncontrollable body couldn’t be left alone. That typhoon of sword force had to be used wisely.

She caught a bit of the sword wave and manipulated its flow.

Like a child piggybacking an adult.

Target? The students who had entered the first fork, lurking from behind.

The Miles shield would react to the vortex.

That level of sword force was more than enough to deplete their HP entirely.

"Hiiik?!"

"W-wait a second."

"Let’s talk this through, okay? Put that down for a second."

She showed no hesitation—just as a Hunter should.

The sword wind roared outward.

[TLNote: Hey everyone, This novel has officially been discontinued by the author, and this is the last remaining chapter of their work. Thanks for reading! -WhitezTL]