Level 1 Strongest Sage 1

"And the winner is Cain from Clan Silveray!"

Johann, the referee, announced Cain’s victory. Ryuushin had transformed into a semi-dragon when he fought, but even that wasn’t enough. Cain read all his movements with his Extreme Intuition and his mastery of the anti-dragon weapon, Dragon Killer, sealed the deal. Ryuushin never stood a chance.

Oh, and by the way, the clan name "Silveray" was taken from Anna’s family name.

"Dammit, I lost! Are you sure you're even human?"

"Well, my family’s got a few freakishly strong people, but compared to them, I’m just a normal human."

He reached down, offering a hand to Ryuushin, who grabbed it and pulled himself back onto the battlefield.

"That was a good fight. Haven’t gone all out like that in a while."

"Same here. It’s annoying that I lost, but I gotta admit, I’ve got a new goal now thanks to you."

"A goal?"

"I always wanted to beat Halt someday, but before that, I've gotta take you, the strongest human, down first.”

Ryuushin never really considered Halt a human. The same went for Anna and Akari.

"There are probably stronger humans out there, y’know. Besides my mom and Halt, of course."

"As far as I know, you’re definitely the strongest non-reincarnated human I’ve ever seen. So yeah, you’re my new target."

"Cool. Then work hard, I’ll spar with you every now and then."

"For real!?"

Losing was frustrating, but Ryuushin had a blast fighting Cain. He learned a lot of things from their fight against each other. It was a whole different kind of experience from training with Halt.

"Hit me up beforehand, I’ll make time. Just don’t go ambushing me outta nowhere, alright?"

"Like sneaking up on you would even work, when you’ve been blocking me in all your blind spots."

Cain had dodged every single one of Ryuushin’s attacks—attacks that were nearly impossible to see coming. His rare skill, "Extreme Intuition," and his natural battle intuition had made it possible. There were a few people in this world who also possessed Extreme Intuition, but that ability in itself wasn’t enough to fight against Ryuushin at par.

"You’d be surprised. People still try, thinking they can catch me off guard. It’s just a pain when I have to rearrange my plans to deal with them."

"So even with a future-sight-like ability, life’s not that easy, huh?"

"I can see a little bit ahead and react to it, sure. But it’s not like I can fully control what’s gonna happen. Some things are just out of my hands."

"Ooooh. That sounds like a weakness I can exploit!"

They chatted for a bit more before stepping off the arena.

──＊＊＊──

"Sorry, guys. I couldn’t pull through."

Ryuushin returned to the Familia camp, bowing his head in apology.

"Nah, don’t worry about it. That was an insane fight."

"That was an amazing match, Ryuushin-san."