“True Hero Skill - Full Drive!”

The smug voice of the top of the class, no, the top of the school, Jin Chun, echoed across the courtyard. The other practice fights and duels had all stopped to witness this bout.

Who could ignore the strongest rookie fighting the son of the strongest swordswoman? To most people, my lack of ability was some sort of deception. They thought I was feigning helplessness and that they believed I was secretly just as powerful as my mother.

Jin father's Skill, Full Drive, wrapped him in a bright orange glow. I didn’t know the specifics, but it was a Boost class Skill, increasing one’s natural abilities by an order of magnitude. With just this skill, one could become a high class warrior, but Jin possessed more than just this.

Jin dashed forward faster than the human eye could keep up, his sword clashing against my raised blade by mere luck. I had the sword in a basic defensive stance, and the blades clashed off each other. The reverberation from his powerful strike shot along my arm, giving me the sensation of being shocked by a strong electrical current.

I stumbled backwards, barely able to keep my balance against the superior strength of Jin Chun’s attack.

“I’m surprised you kept your footing, scum!” Jin roared, his sword flashing towards me again.

Despite being a training school, the weapons used in sparring were real. A true hero cannot be taught without the threat of death they believed, and once a student was over fifteen, they sparred with sharpened blades. So if his attack hit me, my normal human level constitution would surely fail, and I would die.

I let my knees give out under me, dropping me below Jin’s horizontal swing by a hair’s breadth. I could hear his steel slice cleanly through the air above me. It was too close, I had to end this fight before any serious injury happened. I dove forward, trying to knock him off his feet with my shoulder, but he easily sidestepped me and I nearly fell on my face into the dirt.

“Haha, is that all you’ve got, son of the Platinum Knight?”

“You’ve proven your point, I don’t stand a chance against you… are we done here?”

“I won’t be satisfied until my sword tastes your blood!” Jin’s face twisted in anger, and he adjusted his posture, taking a different sword stance.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see my mother, having arrived to school for her class in the second period. She looked extremely concerned for me, but she wasn’t allowed to interfere with a sanctioned Academy duel.

This wouldn’t end like when I was ten, nobody would come to my rescue. I had to fight my own battle, and somehow survive this on my own.

“Based on your stance, I gather you’re about to use your own Skill, and not your father’s, am I correct?” I ask the enraged man before me. I could feel the hatred towards me in the air, but there was more to it than that. My mother was stronger than his parents, so he had something to prove by defeating her son, even if I was pathetically weak.

“Bingo, zero.” Jin smirked, his grip tightening on his large two handed sword. I couldn’t imagine even lifting the thing, let alone using it like a sword, but he controlled it so easily.

“Then, I guess I won’t hold back either.” I bluffed, taking up a made up combat stance based off of no proper manuals. “I’ll use my ultimate attack as well.”

“Don’t you dare mock me, you trash!”

Jin lunged at me and his sword began to glow white, a sign of his Skill’s activation.

“Shimmering Sword Dance!”

An attack type Skill, it transformed one’s blade into a flash of light that seems to exist at multiple places at once. But really, there was only one blade, and the others were a mirage. At least, that’s what Lei told me before.

Regardless of what it was, a man with Zero Skill had no chance of dodging or deflecting it under his own power, so I guess I was about to die. Since I had no better option, I threw my sword at him without really aiming, and it clattered to the ground harmlessly.

“I surrender,” I said as clearly as possible. And with those words I activated my ultimate skill, ‘overbearing mother’

She couldn’t interfere with a duel, but if I give up, that means the duel has officially ended. I could tell Jin wasn’t planning to stop even if I surrendered, so it was a good thing she was here, or I might have actually died.

“Heaven Rending Flash Step!” My mother’s voice called out as soon as I spoke those two words, and Jin’s attack was stopped dead in the air. The tip of his sword held between two fingers, my mother easily diffused his finishing blow, as if he was nothing more than a small child to her.

I’m sure the other students would use this as fuel to make fun of me for at least a week, probably more, but at least I escaped unharmed… physically.

“No bullying my cute son, Jin.” she looked down on him with a murderous stare, like she was about to snap his neck or something. Against the overwhelming power of the Unbreakable Sword God, even Jin’s smug attitude would shatter.

“Y-yes, I understand.” he replied, withdrawing his sword. Behind the safe wall of my invincible mother, I flashed a smug look at him, picking up my discarded sword.

“Ah man, my grade’s gonna drop from this, what a pain.” I sighed again and walked away, hoping to avoid any follow up with mom, which of course was impossible.

“Zen, are you hurt, did you get cut anywhere?!” The strongest hero in the world pulled me into her breasts, their intense size preventing me from getting enough oxygen. “Oh my poor baby, shall we go home, or do you need to go see a doctor?”

“Can’t… Breathe…”

See looked even more worried then, before realizing she was the cause of that and loosened her arms around me. Able to take in air again, I wheezed for a moment… maybe I should have just let myself be stabbed.

Some of the girls in the training course laughed at me, oh, what an unfortunate life I have. I don’t care if the guys want to poke fun at me, but the girls doing it just fills me with despair. I’ll never get a girlfriend at this rate, and then what happens to my peaceful everyday life plan?!