After Stealing Hero's Mother, I Reincarnated in the Fantasy World!

Donat doesn't waste any time.

"Taste defeat!"

He lets out a guttural roar and charges forward, his war hammer swinging in a wide arc. He intends to overwhelm Rain with raw force and aggression from the start.

Rain, calm and cool-headed, sidesteps Donat's charge with minimal movement, dodging the war hammer's swing. Clutching his sword, he delivers a series of blows at him.

Donat, unable to parry the first blow, quickly recovers and uses his war hammer to defend against Rain's swift attack. He follows up with a powerful, earth-shaking blow with his war hammer, aiming to utterly crush Rain on the spot.

Rain, anticipating the hammer's impact, channels his faint golden aura into Unknown Sword and uses it to deflect the blow rather than meet it head-on. The force is enough to send sparks flying, and Rain uses the small window to land a series of rapid, precise strikes, targeting Donat's exposed limbs.

This time the blade accurately found its target, but it didn't have much effect on Donat.

'Just as I thought.'

Because of his very thick body, there was no problem to hit him, but until his vital points were injured, dealing good damage to him was difficult.

Rain takes this opportunity to observe Donat's movements, looking for his weaknesses.

Donat, however, seemed almost oblivious to the superficial wounds. His lips were contorted into a smirk, a crude expression of his confidence. He lunged forward again, his movements even more furious.

"Prepare to eat the earth, pretty boy!"

As Rain shifted his weight, preparing to repel Donat's predictable attack as before, he felt the solid ground vanish beneath his feet.

A slight wave of disorientation washed over him. Reacting on pure instinct, he changed the angle of his blade at the last possible moment, managing to parry Donat's powerful attack and create some much needed distance.

Missing its intended target, the massive warhammer struck the ground with a loud thud. Or at least, it should have.

Where the hammer fell, just like where Rein had just stood, the grey surface of the battlefield lost its color and shape, turning into a puddle of viscous mud.

'System, is that his cool bloodline you were talking about?'

[Pretty interesting and powerful, right?]

'More like dirty and annoying.'

Rain cringed as he saw Donat's deadly mass hurtling toward him again at full speed. Everywhere he passed, the hard surface of the playground turned to liquid mud. Of course, despite his enormous weight, he was able to walk on it, making it seem much more comfortable than the hard ground.

Clang!

The sound of crossing weapons was muffled, swallowed up by the slurping sounds of the transforming arena.

It was a dirty, messy ability. And along with his immense weight, good durability, and pretty good fighting skills, he was a very troublesome opponent for almost anyone. Now Rain understood how Donat had gotten this far in the Academy Tournament.

Swoosh!

Rain frowned as another of his strikes was less accurate than before due to the unstable floor and missed its target. While it wasn't a fatal problem, it was quite a nuisance.

The arena was getting more and more quicksand with every second, and under the force of his own weight, every time he stayed where he was, the liquid mud was trying to swallow him up. Rain couldn't fly – not yet, anyway – so this was not a pleasant situation.

Of course, ending the fight with a single blow was a great idea, but Donat was too zealous in protecting his vital points, and hits to other places wouldn't finish him off instantly.

[Rain, do you need any help?]

'No, thanks.'

Donat manifested his inner energy into an aura on his big hammer and swung it with force.

"Eat this!"

The power behind the aura-enhanced warhammer was immense, creating a vacuum as it passed.

Donat's style was characterized by unstoppable pressure to crush his target as quickly as possible. He would miss blows to his body, but they were neither lethal nor heavy. The naturally thick defences on his body allowed him to ignore such attacks, protecting only vital points.

With confidence from his ever-increasing terrain advantage, Donat further increased his pressure.

Rain, in stark contrast, moves with a calm and efficiency.

He intercepts Donat's charge with a sidestep, as best he can on the quicksand surface of the arena, avoiding the brunt of the attack. The heavy warhammer slams into the ground, creating a small tremor, but Rain is already in motion. The rapid exchange of blows continues.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

As their weapons meet, the sounds of steel against steel and clashing auras echoing throughout the arena. Read latest stories on My Virtual Library Empire

Donat continued his domain expansion, a tide of mud reshaping the entire arena. The once solid battlefield was rapidly turning into a swamp, dramatically increasing his advantage.

"Eat my mud, boy!"

Rain felt the last hard ground beneath his feet becoming increasingly liquid and quicksand, as if wanting to swallow him whole.

'It's really annoying.'

With another glance at his opponent's smug smirk, Rain made his decision.

With a honed motion, he parried his war hammer aside with a heap of sparks. When Donat, whose hammer had again missed its target and hit the ground, was briefly confused, Rain closed his eyes for a moment.

Then, he reached for it. A thin thread of force connected him to the Fading Star Technique he had learned the day before. A subtle, almost imperceptible force that governed all things: gravity.

He focused not on the mud itself, but on himself. On his own mass, his own weight.

He had never used this power on himself before, but his senses told him he was capable of it.

The sensation was subtle, almost imperceptible. It wasn't about eliminating gravity, but about harmonizing with it, about becoming one with the force that bound him to the earth.

A lightness in his limbs, a lessening of the pressure on his feet. It was as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, allowing him to move with greater ease, with greater freedom.

When Rain opened his eyes a moment later, he was no longer sinking in the viscous mud.