Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang had never thought about teaching a beast how to fight like a warrior.

Usually, it was warriors fighting like beasts.

However, the Thunder King showed that it definitely wasn't impossible to teach a beast how to fight like a human. After all, the Thunder King was a Mage.

So, why couldn't the fish bird be a warrior?

It was definitely possible.

"No."

Silence.

"Please tell me why," the fish bird transmitted.

"I don't take on any students, and you are neither powerful nor wealthy enough to be of use to me," Shang transmitted. "Ask one of the Mages of the Lightning Manor when they appear. The Lightning Manor also has warriors that fight with weapons. Maybe they are interested in teaching you like they taught the Thunder King."

"Are these other warriors stronger than you?" the fish bird asked.

"No," Shang answered.

"Then, I don't care," it transmitted. "I am not learning from weaker beings."

"Suit yourself," Shang said. "Now, leave! You're wasting my time!"

The fish bird didn't seem like it wanted to leave.

At that moment, Shang's Aura intensified. "If you don't leave, I will kill you."

The fish bird could tell that Shang was dead serious.

After two seconds, it turned around and left the Isolation Barrier.

Shang recovered the Death Mana he had used, which was quite easy thanks to the level four Concept of Death.

About a minute later, Shang's opponent entered the Isolation Barrier.

His next opponent was…

The fish bird.

"I'm here to fight again," it transmitted.

Shang didn't immediately give an answer.

The fish bird was quite powerful, and it even knew about Shang's Infection now.

That probably made it even more powerful than in the last fight.

Additionally, fighting against it had helped Shang a lot since it was like he was fighting a powerful warrior.

"Fine," Shang said as he readied his sword again.

The two shot at each other again and clashed.

Due to the fish bird's superior power, Shang had to be on the defensive the entire time, parrying the attacks with his inferior power.

The fish bird tried to hit Shang again and again, but the human's weapon moved in such frustrating ways.

It was like it couldn't fully use all of its power.

It knew that one peck with its beak would turn the human into a pile of meat, but it simply couldn't land any hit.

Shang could land some hits, but he couldn't land any good ones.

Surprisingly, the problem was the small arena.

One would think that Shang preferred fighting in a close space, but in this specific case, it was bad for him.

Shang wanted to use his Sword Heart to hit the fish bird from the side since its massive beak basically covered the entire fish bird's front, making it really difficult to damage it.

Yet, Shang couldn't use Sword Heart since he didn't have time to gather his focus.

If the arena were bigger, Shang could use Mana Step to retreat and gather his focus.

Sadly, it was only about a hundred kilometers across.

So, Shang was stuck with launching several small attacks that didn't have a lot of power.

This was how he had managed to infuse the fish bird's body with Infection, but this time, the fish bird got rid of the surrounding flesh of any wound that was inflicted on it.

Shang thought about using his Concept of Purgatory but decided against it.

SHING!

Suddenly, a huge part of the fish bird's beak was destroyed.

Shang had used the level two Concept of Death, Weakness.

But the next moment, green water appeared around the beak, restoring it to its peak condition.

The fish bird hadn't used its Water Affinity before this moment since its natural recovery had been good enough.

When Shang saw that it could also recover from that attack, he became frustrated.

If Shang used his Domain of Entropy, he would win very quickly since the fish bird's beak would slowly turn into Neutral Mana, but he couldn't use it due to the Thunder King.

Shang had to use his all to resist the fish bird's assault.

Well, almost his all.

There were a couple of things he could use to land some good hits, but they wouldn't really help him in training his swordsmanship, which was his primary goal.

So, the fight just continued.

The fight continued for minutes, which was probably one of the longest fights Shang had ever fought.

Shang wasn't allowed to make any mistakes.

One mistake and the fish bird's beak would turn him into a pile of meat.

Eventually, they fought for over an hour.

Shang had never been in such a long fight before, and he felt more and more stressed as the fight dragged on.

Even more, the fish bird was getting better at using its beak!

In only one hour, it had already learned to parry!

One had to remember that dodging, parrying, blocking, and so on were things that even normal humans could learn.

As a Late Beast Lord, the fish bird had a mind on the level of a Late Mage Lord.

How long would someone like a Late Mage Lord need to learn to parry?

Because of that, the fish bird's speed of growth was incredible!

Just learning the basics of fighting was already increasing its power!

Naturally, Shang had already noticed what was going on.

Shang had refused to teach the fish bird, but he was doing exactly that.

His compliance didn't matter.

After just a couple of hours, the fish bird's techniques reached the level of a General Stage warrior.

Luckily, Shang could adapt to the fish bird's new techniques.

His sword was designed to counter everything, and Shang simply needed to counter the new techniques.

It wasn't very difficult for Shang to come up with counters for such weak techniques.

The main problem had always been and will continue to be the fish bird's power and speed.

However, the fish bird wasn't the only one making progress.

Shang was also making quite a lot of progress.

Additionally, since he constantly had to keep his concentration up, his mind was also moving far faster.

Yet, since he was that much more advanced than the fish bird, he was making zero progress in comparison.

Shang found a couple of opportunities to end the fight, but he decided against ending it.

Fighting against the fish bird was probably the most efficient method of making progress.

And finally, it happened!

And it only took a couple of months!

WHOOOOM!

The intensity of the battlefield increased in an instant.

Finally!

The fish bird had comprehended its True Path.