Deus Didymus: Sunder

Chapter Eighteen

Minju giggled, "Really?! That sounds horrible!!"

Y/n shook his head, "That was nothing!! In fact, he's actually a lot easier on me as a trainer than Mr. Park is."

"Is he? I think I'd rather have Mr. Park as my trainer."

"With Mr. Park, it's because you know he's the strongest that everything you do feels hopeless. It's like looking at ten years of homework and thinking you have to do all of it in one session instead of breaking it up into pieces."

Minju nodded, "That makes sense. But what if you don't try to think of it as trying to beat Mr. Park, and instead you think of it as trying to beat the you of yesterday?"

Y/n scratched his head, "You know... I never thought about that."

"If you think like that, I'm sure things will be a lot easier for you."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"Well," Minju stood on her feet, "I have to go inside or my parents are going to get worried. I'm glad we could talk, Oppa."

A soft smile grew on the boy's face, "Me too."

The proceeding day, Y/n returning with a reinvigorated spirit. Set on winning, the boy knew no matter who he went against, he would at least be able to stand a good chance against his opponent. 

As most expected, Yujin won her match against Eunbi with just the raise of her hand. A more controversial match stood second as not many knew who would win between Bae and Nako. 

Due to her performance against Hitomi compared to Bae's, most figured that Nako would win. This served true--though Nako didn't win without extreme struggle.

The third match felt just like the first as Rei defeated Minju with virtually zero difficulty. Much to Y/n's relief though, Minju didn't appear as distraught--instead carrying a sense of determination with her.

Despite spending eleven days in the Placements setting, no one knew who would win between Y/n and Yena. In the past rounds, Y/n hadn't performed quite like how they expected. 

Given his performance against Bae and Minju, the class expected Y/n to stand near the top of the class as he was capable of performing moderately well in a two-on-one fight with Bae, and was capable of dodging Minju's invisible punches. But, after his fight against Minju, Y/n's capabilities appeared to have dropped. 

Seeing nothing wrong with his deposition, everyone assumed that it was a fluke. Day eight, Y/n struggled against Gaeul, barely earning a win against her. Day nine, Y/n struggled even harder against Hyewon, only winning by sheer luck. Day ten Y/n had a bye, so from what everyone knew, Y/n wasn't as exceptional as they thought.

Day eleven. Pumped by the match he watched between his two teammates, Y/n stood in front of Yena. Both friends locked eyes, activating their alleles the moment Kami initiated the match. 

Carrying his dull sword, the two clashed creating an ear wrenching sound as Yena's talons scratched against Y/n's sword. On multiple occasions, Yena gained the upper hand, disarming Y/n. 

Much to her dismay, Y/n served just as difficult with his sword as he was without. This wasn't the same Y/n she expected to fight from the past three days. Y/n's spirit cut sharper than any blade he could. 

The two students clashed blows with Y/n avoiding Yena's talons as best as he could. He knew if he were to sustain a potentially lethal cut, his talisman would break and the match would end. However, he suspected a well placed cut would also end the match.