The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 6

I didn’t know if his goal was to beat some sense into the kid he assumed had gotten an inflated ego since he heard I was some sort of genius or if he was genuinely trying to gauge my strength, but by the smug grin he had on his face while looking down at me (even if it was only natural for him to physically look down at me, it still irked me), I assumed it might’ve been for the former reason.

Retrieving the wooden sword I received as a present from my parents, I walked to the edge of the camp where Adam was waiting near a small clearing.

"You know how to reinforce your weapon right, genius?" he asked, emphasizing the last word.

By this time, my father already sensed that Adam was just trying to put on a show of dominance into his little boy, but he just watched, knowing he wouldn’t hurt me too much.

Many thanks dear father.

My mother looked a bit more anxious as she kept glancing back and forth between me, Adam and my father, keeping a firm hold onto her husband’s sleeve.

Well at least mother was here to heal me if I got hurt, right?

I focused my gaze on Adam, who was just around 5 meters away from me. Images of my past life, dueling other kings with my country and loved ones at stake, popped up into my head. My eyes narrowed, restricting my vision to only the man in front of me. He was the opponent now.

I willed mana into my legs and dashed forward with both my hands gripping the wooden sword to my right...

His smug look still present, Adam prepared to block my horizontal swing when I feinted and used a special footwork I developed in my old world that I used for dueling. Almost instantly, I blinked a foot diagonally to his right. Curse this body! I couldn’t perfectly execute the skill because of the height and weight difference compared to my old body. I wasn’t used to this 40 pound, 110cm. body. While I didn’t reach the area I was aiming for, unfortunately for Adam, he already prepared his wooden stick to block my swing from the other direction so his right side was unprotected.

His smug look all but vanished and was replaced by a look of surprise, with his eyes opening wide, as he realized what was about to happen.

Swinging my wooden sword to his open ribcage, I reinforced my wooden sword with mana at the last moment to conserve my mana, because I knew I was definitely at a disadvantage against a veteran like him.

The look of surprise on Adam lasted all but lasted a split second before he pivoted his right foot with almost inhuman speed. I squatted in time to dodge his upward swing and switched my stance from a thrust to a spinning swipe and landed a blow on his left ankle using all my momentum. His ankle gave out at that moment, throwing Adam off balance.

Or so I thought.

He actually did a full on split, followed by a roundhouse sweep with his legs as soon as he was on the ground.

This body won’t be able to take a hit like that, so I jumped up to dodge his legs when, from my peripheral view, I saw the flash of brown from his wooden stick. _{ƒгeewёbnovel.com}

With no time to use the blade to block the swing, I thrust the pommel of my sword, timing it so Adam’s wooden stick and the end of my handle would clash.

Newton’s Third Law of Motion suddenly came into mind.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction

And boy was the opposite reaction painful. While I did block the blow successfully, my 4-year-old body couldn’t withstand the force of the blow and I flew before gracefully skidding on the ground like a flat rock on a lake.

Thankfully, I reinforced my whole body before I took the blow or I would’ve seriously gotten hurt.

Groaning, I sat myself up and rubbed my throbbing head. I looked up, only to see seven stupefied faces staring at me.

My mother recovered first, shaking her head. She rushed towards me and immediately mumbled a healing spell around my body.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Durden thumping Adam’s head with enough force to make him stumble forward. Heh~

"Art honey, are you okay? How do you feel?"

"I’m fine Mom, don’t worry."

Adam’s voice cuts in, "Haven’t taught him how to fight my ass! How the hell did you train this little monster?" he groaned, still rubbing his head.

"I didn’t teach him that," my father managed to mutter.

He shook himself out of the stupor and came next to me to ask if I was okay. I just nodded my head.

My father picked me up and gently lowered me back down where I was sitting before and squatted down in front of me so he was eye level.

"Art, where did you learn to fight like that?"

Deciding to feign ignorance, I said, putting on a nonchalant face, "I learned by reading books and watching you dad."

I don’t think saying, "Hey dad, I was the King Duelist representative of my country from a world where diplomatic and international issues are settled by battles. I just happened to be reincarnated as your son... Surprise," would get a hearty reaction from him.

"Sorry for roughing you up there little buddy. I didn’t expect I would need to use that much strength to get you off me."

Seeing Adam apologize gave me just a bit of a better impression of him. I guess he wasn’t a total jerk.

I heard a faint voice from my side. "Your fighting style is... unique. How did you do that step after the feint?"

Wow! Two complete sentences! That was the longest string of words Jasmine said this entire trip by far.