The moment his sword reached my face, I immediately jumped backward and shouted, "Hey kid, you'll injure someone with that sword!"

"You scumbag, draw your weapon!" the white-haired boy shouted, pointing his sword at me.

"I have no intention of fighting a kid—"

As I was speaking, he again sprinted at me, clutched the hilt of his sword with both hands, and swung it horizontally, aiming for my neck.

"Don't try to act like a saint after what you did!"

I bent my back, letting the blade brush past my hair, and retreated a few steps sideways.

"Do you need my assistance?" Ume asked, sitting gracefully with her arms and legs folded on the top of the wall beside the street.

"I can't possibly ask for your help to fight a literal teenager," I replied, then turned my focus to the white-haired boy and said, "Kid, you've got the wrong person—"

Before I could complete my sentence, the tip of his sword came for my eye in a stabbing motion.

I raised my hand and hit the side of the blade lightly with the back of my palm, letting it pass by my face.

As the young man reached closer to me, I grabbed his robe and threw him over my head to the back.

"Don't attack someone when they're talking!" I shouted.

While in mid-air, he bent his knees closer to his face and landed on his feet with a perfect backflip.

"Shut your mouth and face me properly!" he barked, taking a sword stance again.

"Kid, I don't know what riled you up so much, but you can't go around attacking random people."

I moved one foot backward, raised my hands to my face in fists, and said, beckoning him, "Come."

Seeing me get serious, the white-haired young man took a deep breath and calmed himself. His face changed from brimming with anger to expressionless.

He tightened the grip on his sword and leapt at me again, but this time, he didn't charge blindly. His eyes were locked on me, the tip of his blade pointed at the ground beside him, and the moment he reached closer, his blade moved like a wave of water all the way from his leg to my hands in front of my face.

I pulled myself back, trying to dodge the attack, but he loosened the grip on the sword and pushed its pommel, extending the range of his strike. The tip struck my fist but didn't even leave a mark, thanks to my dense skin due to metamorphosis.

"Don't you know that a swordsman should never let go of their sword?" I said, extending my hand to grab his blade.

To my surprise, the sword immediately vanished as he pulled it backward with a ribbon wrapped around his hand and the hilt of the blade.

"Whom do you think you're trying to teach about swords?" he muttered, attacking me again.

He had a rather unique sword style. His single attack contained three to four slashes in continuity with a slashing motion of Z, N, or W, making his movements look both graceful and precise. However, in between, he would punch or kick the hilt, sending the sword flying toward me, then manipulate its movement with the ribbon wrapped around his hand, making its trajectory wild and unpredictable.

Yet, even with these fancy movements, he couldn't injure me once. The reason? My body had become so strong that normal attacks were useless against me.

After one point, I didn't even bother to dodge his slashes.

"Tsk, it's getting annoying now," I clicked my tongue, caught the sword that was relentlessly trying to get under my skin for the past thirty seconds, and snatched it forward, pulling the white-haired boy along with it.

As he reached within my range, I clenched the fist of my free hand and hurled it toward his face.

In the blink of an eye, he waved his arm upward, creating a wall of ice that emerged from the ground and trapped my hand inside it.

At the same time, he again seized the hilt of the sword whose blade was still in my hand, and the moment he did, the blade glowed with an intense white.

He pulled the sword backward, splattering my blood along with it.

"So you're an ice type, huh?" I murmured, staring at my bleeding hand. "I also know someone with a similar attribute to yours."

His eyes twitched, and veins popped on his head again as he snapped, "Shut your trap, you rakeshell!"

His hair rose, and a sharp white aura enveloped the blade of his sword.

"Repent for your crimes," he declared, raising the sword over his head with both hands before descending it again, targeting my stuck arm.

When the blade nearly brushed my arm, lightning flickered in my eyes, and the next moment—

"Blink."

His sword sliced through the air, missing my arm by a nail's length and striking the ground, slashing the stone road beneath with a sharp cut.

"Have you had your fun, kid?" my voice echoed from behind him.

He got flustered and blindly swung his sword horizontally in a one-eighty-degree arc.

I clenched my fist, bulging with golden pulses, and directly struck his incoming blade.

"Lightning Bolt!"

The instant his aura blade met my Lightning Bolt, it effortlessly shattered into pieces.

"Y-you're a Thunderb—"

Before he could complete his statement, a booming uppercut landed in his gut, sending him several feet into the air.

Blood vomited from his mouth before he fell to the ground motionless.

"What wrongs have you committed against this child for him to bear such hatred toward you?" Ume asked, jumping off the wall.

"I would also like to know that. I haven't met anyone besides you four gods and Nymeria"

Thud...

As I was talking, a mask fell from the face of the barely conscious kid, and from beneath it, the same face emerged with only one difference—his forehead carried the same diamond-shaped mark as mine.

"W-wait a moment. Forehead mark, white hair, snow attribute..."

Sweat cascaded over my skin as I put the pieces together.

"Hey kid, what's your relation with Nym—"

"Doran, is that you?" Nymeria's voice came from the other side of the street before I could inquire further.

"E-El... Elder Sister..." the kid mumbled, coughing blood.

"Ume, I-I think I need to make a run for it," I whimpered, swallowing the lump in my throat.

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