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

Rain, dressed in light black leather armor reinforced with several movable alloy plates for strength, with a black sword at his waist, looked at his opponent.

Opposite him stood a young man with a slight smile on his face, wearing stylish rich clothes, inlaid with several good enchantments and without a speck of dust on them. And even against this appearance, his weapon stood out – a long odachi in a lavishly decorated scabbard.

Waiting for the instructor to give the signal to begin, Rain placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. At that moment, his opponent spoke.

"You must recognize me, right? I'm Izumi Russ. I don't mean to brag, but after the Rift collapse incident, I've become quite popular in and out of the academy."

A bitter smile appeared on Izumi's face and he shook his head guiltily as he continued.

"What can I say? You're just unlucky. Not many people get someone like me as their first opponent in a tournament. You can only blame it on your bad luck."

"..."

"That's a shame. If only you had given up before coming here, you would still have a chance. However, how could you have known that of all people, I would be the one to be your opponent? But now that I've seen you, I can't just let you go. My sword demands blood."

Izumi gently stroked his sword on his waist.

"As compensation, I, Izumi Russ, and my blade, Twilight Curse, will demonstrate to you the Supreme Demon Slaying Technique passed down to me by my Master."

A reassuring smile appeared on the young man's face.
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"So you can be proud of yourself, this is the best thing that could happen to you in this tournament. And I don't want to scare you, but I've been perfecting the Supreme Demon Slaying Technique since I was a kid, so right now I'm in my best form and I'm as confident as possible about making it to the finals..."

Finally, the instructor signaled for the fight to begin, interrupting his words.

"I'll try to finish this quickly...!"

As soon as the signal sounded, Rain lunged forward and, interrupting his opponent's next words, covered the distance separating them in moments. Before Izumi could fully draw his long odachi from its sheath, Rain blocked his arm, preventing him from doing so.

"Urgh...!"

With a light footstep, he knocked him to the ground and then delivered one clean sword strike.

Beep!

The signal sounded, announcing the end of the fight.

'For fuck's sake... I really thought his monologue would never end.'

Rain cast a glance at the instructor standing nearby, as if asking if he was purposely waiting for his opponent to read out his entire autobiography.

'Though this guy didn't lie and it was actually over quickly.'

Rain twirled the sword in his hand, assessing his previous actions.

'Hmm... The balance is pretty good, but it's still not perfect. It would be better if I change my style a bit...''

Getting his thoughts in order, he looked down at the guy, who showed no desire to get up, just lying there and muttering something to himself.

"Uhhhh… no way... my years of cultivation... my waterfall training... my Supreme Demon Slaying Technique... in such a cowardly way... I'm dreaming, aren't I?"

Although the weapon in Rain's hands was real, and the blow had hit a vital point, there wasn't a drop of blood on Izumi's body. Moreover, he was literally unharmed, save for the dirt on his clothes.

Rain rubbed the bracelet on his wrist thoughtfully.

Despite its modest size, this bracelet was one of the marvels of magical engineering and was responsible for creating your projection, on which all the wounds your body receives were transferred. In doing so, all the pain from receiving wounds was retained.

This allowed participants to not hold back during the bout and to have the closest experience possible, ignoring the unnecessary spending on treatment.

Depending on lethality, wounds were divided into 4 colors.

Yellow for minor injuries slightly larger than a scratch, red for serious injuries, purple for lethal injuries, and black for instant death.

Of course, the use of these bracelets was possible due to the expensive magic equipment installed in this room, so it wouldn't work outside the room.

Rain turned his attention to the two projections that reflected their bodies in all proportions.

On his opponent's projection, there was a deep wound on his neck, glowing black.

Instant death. Rain shifted his gaze to his opponent, Izumi, who was still lying at his feet, still showing no desire to get up, only hugging his long odachi, which hadn't even had time to leave its scabbard.

Having already experienced a near-death experience once before, Rain knew there was little pleasant about it.

"My abstinence… my Supreme Demon Slaying Technique… no way...it's just a dream..."

...Though it seemed that this pain from the wounds meant nothing compared to the mental damage that had been inflicted upon him.

Leaving behind his split soul and shattered dreams, Rain headed out to find his next opponent.

***

"Consider it an honor to fall by my hand...!"

Thud!

An excited scream echoed in the space, followed by the thud of a body falling to the floor. This time Rain's opponent was a girl.

...It really didn't change anything.

"Y-you...! Bastard!"

Struggling with herself, she stood up, only to look at him fiercely.

'Huh? Does she really think her compliment is going to change the outcome of the fight?'

Rain looked at her puzzled.

"You should at least finish listening to your opponent before you attack!"

"Hmm? Did I say I would listen to you?"

It seemed to anger her even more.

"It's called martial ethics!"

Seeing her blurt out words unfamiliar to him, Rain could only think deeply.

'Maybe she's just a little deaf and didn't hear the signal to start the fight?'

Rain looked at her pityingly.

"...Hey. Why are you looking at me like that?!"

Turning around, he walked toward the exit.

"Hey, I haven't finished my sentence yet! You again...!"

Are they all going to be like this one?

'It's starting to get a little annoying.'

Rain thought, walking on his way to the next room he had a duel in.

***

"It's not even funny anymore."

Rain hadn't originally thought there would be any worthy opponents in the first half of the tournament, but it turned out to be even worse. His sisters, the beauty elf Aelorian, the head of his class Olivia, or even Hero Cale, none of them Rain had met during all these matches.

...And with that, there were a lot more freaks here than he thought.

Not only his first opponent had turned out to be weird, but all the subsequent ones as well. And compared to some of them, even that guy, Izumi, was starting to seem normal.

Thus, even though more than half of the tournament had passed, Rain still had the feeling that it would be more useful to spar with air, or at the very least with a wall.

There were a couple of opponents that caught his attention though.

Of those who lasted long enough to have time to use their bloodline's abilities, there was a girl with a fire lizard bloodline that could spit fire. It was quite a hot battle.

There was also a girl student with a unique fighting style, able to summon another pair of hands. She was so skilled with them that it even made Rain wonder for a second how this extra pair of hands could be used...

Except for them, everyone else seemed to have it in their blood to underestimate their opponents and constantly shout out strange phrases.

"If the Will of the World has anything to do with this… damn, I hate it even more."

Is this some attempt by the World's Will to test his composure?

Rain exhaled and rubbed his forehead.

If this was really the Will of the World's attempt to influence him... well, it did work.

Clenching his fists, Rain felt one burning desire boiling inside him.

"I promise that if the World's Will has a physical embodiment, I'll be sure to fuck her. And if she doesn't, I'll create it and then fuck her."

Even more convinced of his desire, Rain arrived at the location of the next fight.

Upon entering the room, which wasn't much different from the previous ones, Rain noticed that both the instructor and his opponent were already in place. So he simply walked straight to the battle ground.

His opponent quickly took his place across from him. He was dressed in a gray battle suit, and a mask covered half his face.

And more importantly...

He was silent.

'Hmm...? He's not that bad?'

***

Ahem, it's your dear author. I'm back.