The Anomaly Beyond The System

Chapter 150: Not bad…

Coming back to where Lucian and Valentina were—

The forest around them had long since turned into a training ground.

Trees bore deep cuts, and the ground was littered with countless scars left behind by their clashes.

And in the midst of it all, two figures continued moving.

Clang—!

Clang—!

The sound of colliding blades resounded through the forest once again as both of them dashed forward.

“Again…!”

Valentina’s voice echoed through the night as she pushed Lucian back once again, the impact nearly throwing him off balance.

But before he could fall, he twisted sharply, rotating his entire body.

The sword sliced through the air, aimed directly at her neck with lethal killing intent without the slightest hesitation.

Valentina herself had told him to always aim to kill her, and after countless hours of getting beaten, dismembered, crushed and thrown around by the woman before him, Lucian had accepted that approach as well.

Because even he knew that he wouldn’t be able to touch a single strand of her hair—much less carry any possibility to harm her.

So he attacked with everything he had.

But before his blade could touch her throat, Valentina merely tilted her head, letting the sword pass harmlessly beside her neck while her own blade shot forward.

Lucian’s pupils narrowed.

With no time to evade the sword aimed directly at his chest, Lucian immediately grabbed the blade with his free hand, wrapping his fingers around the sharpened edge.

Blood instantly flowed from his palm, but he ignored it.

Rather than trying to force the sword away entirely, he used all of his strength to alter its trajectory by the slightest margin—

Just enough for it to miss his heart.

Still—

The blade tore through his chest, barely missing his vital organs.

Valentina’s eyes gleamed, and a smile slowly spread across her lips as she watched him ignore the wound entirely, focusing only on the fight.

Exactly what she wanted.

But she couldn’t let him have it that easily—not even for a moment.

She instantly moved forward, her grip around the sword tightening.

At the same time, her free arm shot toward him.

Her hand transformed into sharp claws, and before Lucian could even react—

Pierce—!

Her clawed hand plunged straight through his chest, effortlessly tearing through flesh and ribs alike.

“Ugh…”

A low groan escaped Lucian’s lips, but even then, he couldn’t move.

He had been completely trapped during the exchange, caught within her flawless positioning.

Valentina had even prevented him from using his Mist Form, which would have allowed him to slip through the attack with ease… though knowing Valentina, she probably would have broken through that as well.

“What, admitting defeat?” Valentina’s amused voice entered his ears.

Hearing the mock disappointment in her tone and seeing the satisfied smile on her face, Lucian felt even more annoyed.

The woman was clearly enjoying this far too much.

“Not yet.”

Without hesitation, he tightened the grip of his bloodied hand around her sword.

And before Valentina could even clearly understand what he intended to do—

Her eyes flickered faintly with surprise.

Another sword suddenly materialised in his free hand, appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

Lucian immediately rotated the newly summoned blade in his grip and thrust it toward her.

But just then—

“Still too slow.”

Valentina muttered as she slashed the blade sideways—the one already embedded in his chest.

And in that exact moment, she also stepped away from him, effortlessly dodging his surprise attack completely, while pulling her hand still lodged in his chest free.

Lucian stumbled forward, blood dripping from the widening wound in his chest, before the torn flesh immediately reknitted itself within a few seconds.

Valentina didn’t immediately attack again, and the moment he had fully regenerated—

“What was that just now?” she asked.

Lucian raised his head toward her, meeting her curious yet narrowed gaze.

He had just used his [Inventory] skill in front of her, and by her reaction, it seemed even that was a unique ability… which it was.

But instead of answering her, his lips curled into a faint smirk.

“Why don’t you find out?”

Valentina’s lips twitched slightly.

But then she smiled again, revealing her sharp white teeth.

“Fine. Don’t cry afterwards.”

Her body instantly blurred from his vision.

She hadn’t vanished—she was simply too fast for his eyes to properly track.

Yet instead of panicking, Lucian tightened his grip on both swords as his focus sharpened.

“Never.”

Clang—!

The instant he finished speaking, he slashed sideways, the metal hitting Valentina’s blade—exactly as he’d felt.

The impact echoed across the forest.

Both of them moved again—swiftly yet ferociously—as the battle, or rather the training, continued, their movements carrying a strange blend of elegance and wildness that only amplified their vampiric instincts.

Valentina’s movements carried an elegant precision, her strikes looking almost beautiful in their execution, while Lucian’s style somewhat resembled hers, though it was still far too lacking in comparison.

Neither of them cared about the injuries, and Lucian barely reacted even after having the blade pierced through his body or even after losing a limb.

He no longer knew how much time had passed—maybe a few days, maybe a week… he didn’t know.

And there was no way to tell either; even the moon was no reliable indicator for tracking the days.

For the first few days, he had felt exhausted—mentally drained and numb after the countless repetitions of combat, after continuously having his body torn apart and tortured, enduring the same sensation of dying without actually dying.

But by now, he didn’t even care about the pain.

If anything, the only thing he wanted was to beat the woman standing before him—the one who smiled maniacally every time she pushed him to the brink of death, often cutting him in ways that were more grotesque and more painful than before.

After a few more minutes of exchanging blows, Lucian decided to try something else.

He had been forbidden from using his affinity, but then he remembered something that had nothing to do with fire.

Valentina’s eyes flickered toward his blade as she felt something in the surroundings shift.

But she didn’t stop. If anything, she only pushed him further.

Lucian had a hard time focusing on what he was trying to do amidst the relentless pressure, but after a few more minutes…

The blade in his left hand suddenly began to glow faintly, an unstable blue light slowly spreading across the black steel of his sword.

Valentina’s brows lifted slightly as she saw him swing the glowing blade toward her, but even then, she effortlessly dodged the incoming attack.

“Not bad… when did you learn it?” she asked calmly, genuine curiosity entering her tone.

It didn’t seem like he had learned it on the spot, though his control over it was far too crude.

Lucian gritted his teeth and focused even harder as he continued fighting, barely maintaining the mana coating around the weapon.

“When… trying to get out of that worm.”

Even the answer came out strained, broken by his concentration.

The thin layer of mana flickered constantly across the blade, threatening to collapse every time he shifted his grip or adjusted his stance.

Valentina was mildly surprised, as that meant he must have learned it during his time as a human, which was… even more interesting.

As soon as their blades collided again, Valentina’s sword chipped slightly for the first time, the mana-coated blade striking against it with enough force to leave a mark.

A small smile immediately appeared on Lucian’s face when he heard the faint sound of metal chipping.

And as if Valentina didn’t particularly like that smile—

Her blade suddenly flared, erupting in a deep, dark-blue glow that wrapped around the weapon. The mana coating instantly became denser and more refined, sharpening the blade while completely overpowering his own crude attempt.

“You are not the only one who knows how to control mana.”

She pulled her blade back and then slashed forward. With a single swift strike, she easily shattered Lucian’s mana-reinforced sword.

Lucian’s eyes widened abruptly, and the little control he had over the mana coating collapsed in an instant.

He silently stared at the mana layer wrapped around Valentina’s sword, glowing with a deep dark-blue hue.

It was condensed so tightly around the blade that it almost looked solid, the mana so dense that even the surrounding air trembled around it.

“Fucking monster…” Lucian muttered under his breath.

And hearing that, Valentina’s smile only widened further.

But Lucian didn’t feel disappointed, something made obvious by the small smile on his face.

Because if she could do that, then he could—no, he would too.

Both of his blades erupted with a layer of mana, pale in colour and crudely wrapped around the weapon. The coating flickered unstably, unevenly, and far from refined.

But Lucian didn’t care.

“Dual blades… fine,” Valentina muttered as she looked at the two swords in his hands.

From the shadows beneath her, another blade emerged.

Valentina immediately caught it with her free hand, now holding a sword in each.

By this point, Lucian was almost certain that there was someone—or something—inside her shadows. After all, Valentina possessed no affinity that should have allowed her to manipulate shadows in the first place.

Another blade emerged from his own shadow, and after a brief moment of surprise, Lucian grabbed it, storing the broken sword inside his inventory.

Valentina’s eyes sparkled with curiosity as she watched the broken blade suddenly vanish.

‘…Spatial affinity?’

The thought crossed her mind for a second, enough to bewilder even her.

But she didn’t dwell on it for long.

She would understand his powers eventually anyway, and even if he didn’t tell her, she wasn’t rude enough to pry into her disciple’s secrets.

Though those secrets were piling up so quickly that Lucian was starting to resemble a golden goose in her eyes—one she was increasingly tempted to cut open just to see where all the golden eggs were coming from.

Meanwhile—

‘Someone like Kanna…’

Lucian briefly thought as he noticed the movement within her shadows, and for a second, he even found himself missing that emotionless maid.

He missed everyone.

But right now, his entire focus was on the beautifully dangerous woman standing before him.

Both of their blades gleamed with a blue glow beneath the moonlight.

And in the next instant, they moved through the darkness, their swords meeting and parting again and again across the forest that had long since turned into a battlefield.