Chapter 151: My Teacher's Grace is as High as the Sky (2)

Despite the urgent situation, Louis remained composed and undeterred. With a smile, he faced the ogre.

This is fate’s golden opportunity.

An event unfolding as if to showcase a teacher’s dignity to his disciples. How could Louis possibly let such a precious chance slip through his fingers?

He further masked the dragon’s aura, which was already hidden, ensuring the ogre wouldn’t detect him and make a run for it.

Louis continued his slow advance.

When the ogre, already crushing one fence, reached another, Louis vanished from sight.

Whoosh!

In a flash, Louis reappeared directly in front of the ogre, having leaped through the air. The ogre, previously unstoppable in its charge towards the village, suddenly hesitated, confronting the human who had materialized before it out of nowhere.

Grrr, what?

Puzzlement clouded the ogre’s eyes.

It looked clearly frail—surely a pathetic human. Yet for some reason, it hesitated to charge at Louis standing there. Despite Louis having concealed his dragon energy, he could not mask the aura of power he naturally possessed as the strongest being in existence.

Grrrahaaa…

The ogre couldn’t attack because it sensed Louis’s latent power. The two stood at a standoff—one, a giant monster, the other, Louis himself.

The moment he spotted the ogre, Louis realized why it had ventured down to this village.

It’s ancient.

Having encountered many ogres before, Louis knew their condition wasn’t normal. This one looked downright sickly.

Its eyes were crusty and runny, and its skin bore deep wrinkles.

Its muscular build was diminished, giving it a stunted appearance compared to other ogres. The ogre that had descended upon the village was an elderly creature, its days numbered.

It must have lost its territory in a battle.

Ogres were solitary monsters that didn’t form packs and lived alone in designated areas. These creatures were territorial by nature, ruling over their territories like kings. There was only one reason an ogre would venture beyond its domain: when it had been driven off by a younger, stronger individual.

To a young ogre that had recently reached adulthood and lacked a territory of its own, the domain of an old ogre was an easy target. Thus, the elderly ogres who had lost their territories would descend from the mountains to find food more easily at the foot of the hills.

Such was likely the fate of this ogre as well.

Louis scrutinized the hesitant ogre, deep in thought.

How can I dispose of this in a way that will make me infamous?

The most crucial aspect of this situation was making a profound impression on his young disciples’ minds.

Let’s see… What should I use?

Louis pondered how to neatly wrap up this task. Various scenarios flashed through his mind before he had a sudden realization.

Come to think of it… This might be the first time I’ve used dragon magic outside the confines of my home and castle.

Over the years, Louis had relentlessly trained after acquiring the inheritance of the Hero King. The result:

He had managed to elevate all four of his attributes—spatial, temporal, physical, and mental—to the pinnacle, forging them into top-tier Dragon Magic.

It was only natural that Silver Flower Castle would once again be abuzz with excitement. After all, a hatchling—a young dragon not yet fully grown—had managed to elevate all his attributes to the highest level possible. This feat alone would have been enough to astound everyone.

However, what truly set the elder dragons’ scales a-flutter wasn’t Louis reaching the top tier, but something even more remarkable.

During his training, Louis had devised a entirely new system for his martial technique, which was now causing quite a stir among the ancient dragons.

What is this now?

Hmm… How fascinating, truly.

Heh-heh… To think a hatchling created such a thing.

Bwa-ha-ha! Just as I’d expect from my grandchild!

Indeed, our son has done us proud!

Long ago, on that deserted island, Louis had used the Hero King’s Forbidden Magic to lay the foundation for his unique martial technique system. Over the years, he had refined and polished it until it reached its current state.

Furthermore, by incorporating insights gained from Mind Conversion Material about the interconnections between various elements, he had created a rather plausible masterpiece.

The completed technique was completely different from existing systems.

The boundary between sacred and demonic arts had disappeared, and yet, it was both holy and demonic at the same time.

However, there was one drawback:

Only dragons could use it.

Thus, Louis named his system of techniques Dragon Magic, referring to gestures exclusive to dragons.

Now, this newly born Dragon Magic was about to be revealed to humans for the first time.

This is the world’s first glimpse of Dragon Magic; it can’t end boringly.

With a smile, Louis began to move.

Thump.

Louis took a step forward.

The ogre retreated a step at this move.

Thud.

Louis advanced another pace, and the ogre continued its retreat accordingly.

Watching this, Louis frowned. “Huh?”

For an ogre to have survived all this time meant it had overcome countless competitors to reach this point. It spoke to both its cunning and strong survival instincts.

Louis snorted as he observed the creature. “No way. You can’t play along like that.”

Claps only sound when two hands meet; No noise if your opponent refuses to face you.

“If you don’t come at me…” Louis’s smile faded. “I’ll make my own move.”

With that, Louis swiftly charged forward.

With those final words, the teacher approached the monster.

Kendrick and Tania, still in their parents’ arms, stared blankly at their teacher as he walked towards the ogre.

Teacher?

Both Kendrick and Tania knew very well just how terrifying ogres could be. Yet, their teacher moved with a lightness, as if he were simply taking a leisurely stroll. The tension was palpable as they watched him from a distance.

Fwssshhh!

In an instant, Louis vanished from sight. Seconds later, the children and their parents saw him standing directly in front of the ogre. Lia and Aaron swallowed hard, while the children gripped their fists tightly with anticipation.

Amidst their overwhelming tension, they witnessed an unbelievable spectacle.

“Huh?”

The ogre, which had been charging towards the village with reckless abandon, abruptly halted. Despite facing a human so diminutive their head barely cleared the ogre’s belt, it stood still as if rooted to the ground.

What followed was nothing short of astonishing. A gasp escaped from the shocked Lia’s lips.

“The ogre… it’s avoiding him…?”

With each step Louis took forward, the ogre retreated. This was the very same beast that had previously rampaged fearlessly. Such behavior was inconceivable to onlookers.

Louis advanced steadily, and the ogre receded just as methodically. The standoff continued for several heart-pounding moments.

Suddenly, Louis’s figure vanished from sight.

“W-Where’d he go?!”

Louis’s charge was so swift that onlookers thought he had vanished from sight.

Whoosh!

In an instant, Louis reappeared directly in front of the ogre. Startled, the ogre let out a blood-curdling scream and swung its fist with enough force to destroy a towering oak tree in one blow.

“Oh!”

“Professor!”

The children yelled in alarm. Their eyes registered Louis as being in grave danger, fearing he’d be turned into a human slush by the ogre’s strike at any moment.

But then…

Graaaaah!

Against all odds, Louis remained unscathed even amidst the ogre’s deafening roars and savage punches. To the untrained eyes of the children, it seemed as if Louis was defying gravity, not crumbling under the ogre’s assault but somehow… standing his ground.

However, Aaron had honed his discernment over years of training, and he instantly recognized the extraordinary mastery on display.

He’s… he’s avoiding every single blow!

Louis’s movements were executed with exquisite precision, predicting and anticipating every strike within an infinitesimal margin. The ogre’s attacks seemed to miss him by mere millimeters—akin to evading an invisible sheet of paper.

Though Aaron couldn’t fathom the principles or mechanics behind this feat, witnessing it alone was enough to leave him utterly dumbfounded.

Grrraaah!

Infuriated by its missed strikes, the ogre swung its fists more wildly, all the while growing increasingly weary with each futile attempt.

As the assault continued, something astonishing unfolded:

“W-what… is that?!”

Astonishment erupted from Aaron’s mouth. His eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

Louis’s body had soared, landing lightly atop the ogre’s fist. And as the ogre continued its onslaught, Louis hopped from one fist to the next, like a master acrobat.

Aaron could only gape in amazement.

Are all tier-1 warriors like this?

The way Louis toyed with the creature—even two tier-2 beings were barely enough to subdue one—was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

With fluid grace, Louis rode the ogre’s fists up to its shoulder and casually took a foothold. His light footfall almost seemed as gentle as a falling leaf, but the consequences of that step would be anything but.

Thud!

The ogre fell to one knee with a loud thud.

Graaaah!

It let out a roar as if resisting an invisible force crushing upon it.

Creak.

As it desperately tried to rise, its flesh screeched in protest and thick veins bulged.

Despite its efforts, the power holding down the ogre proved insurmountable, gradually pulling its head toward the ground.

Thud.

At last, the ogre’s body slammed flat against the earth; its limbs and torso touching the ground utterly and completely, its eyes wide open, face also firmly pressed into the dirt—a perfect display of obeisance.

To those watching, it appeared as though the ogre were showing utmost reverence toward Louis.

Observing the prone ogre from above, Louis slowly came to a decision.

Shamble.

He took a step closer to the fallen beast and muttered something under his breath.

“Well done.”

It was both the first and last word he spoke to the creature that had danced to his tune until now.

The space around them began to ripple.

A sacred scripture was cast without the slightest hint of manifestation.

Twok.

Within the collapsing space, the ogre’s body started to shrink rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, its flesh transformed into a small sphere, leaving no time for it to even scream.

The sight of the once four-meter-tall monster being compressed into something tiny was nothing short of bizarre.

How much time passed, Louis wondered.

Thud.

Louis gazed down at the brown sphere, now the size of a fist, that had fallen right in front of him.

With an indifferent expression, Louis casually lifted his foot and ground it under his heel.

Fwish.

The yellow sphere disintegrated into dust, swirling around Louis before scattering in the wind. An eerie silence descended upon them.

The ogre’s haunting cry was gone. The prayer bells’ chime that had once filled the village was silenced. Even the Lias’ shocked exclamations at Louis vanished. All sound ceased to exist.

Instead, all eyes were fixed on a single presence.

The bell ringer, Lias family, and even the villagers were rendered speechless, their gaze locked on a young boy with snow-white hair.

Then, Louis began to move.

His destination: the disheveled family. With the same unhurried, leisurely gait he’d used when approaching the ogre just minutes ago, Louis once again stood before Kendrick and Tania.

He smiled as he gazed upon their dilated pupils.

“Do you see it clearly? You will learn all this in time.”

It was noon, and though the sun was high in the sky, they felt like Louis’s back was glowing with the light of dawn.

Brighter than anything else.

“Ohhh…”

“Wow…”

The image of their teacher was deeply etched into their minds.

That day

If it hadn’t been for Louis, that specific moment would have remained etched as their worst memory ever. Instead, for Kendrick and Tania, it became a rebirth of sorts.

“Teacher…”

Looking at Louis, there was profound reverence and awe in Kendrick’s eyes.

“Ohhh…”

Tania, cradled in Lia’s arms, had eyes that sparkled excessively. In those moments, Louis’s figure was deeply imprinted within her glass-like clear eyes.