With This Treasure, I Summon Primordial Weapons
Chapter 9: Strength of the Awakened

Chapter 9: Strength of the Awakened

Godric shifted his body to the side and wrenched his blade free. He thrust it forward, missing the beast by a hair’s breadth.

The snake twisted and coiled backwards for a moment, its body shifting from side to side as though masking its next strike.

"You sure you can block again?" Dain asked. "Why don’t you yield now and save—"

"Bring it," Godric replied flatly, and without anyone’s surprise, Dain did just that.

The Crimson Serpent charged once again.

This time, Godric didn’t move.

The students watching the battle assumed he had finally accepted defeat.

A sword against an Elite Grade beast.

The result was obvious.

The serpent opened its jaws, revealing rows of venom-coated fangs as it descended upon him.

Godric raised Blackpearl and swung the weapon in a wide arc.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the entire arena went silent.

The serpent’s charge stopped, and a thin black line appeared between its fangs.

The next second, the beast’s enormous maw split apart.

The sound of cracking scales echoed through the arena as Blackpearl continued through its body, cutting through flesh and bone as though they were nothing more than paper.

The Crimson Serpent collapsed. It wasn’t defeated through some clever strategy or overwhelmed by a stronger beast.

It was simply cut down by a human wielding a sword.

Nobody dared to laugh anymore.

The silence was broken only by the professor who shouted a moment later.

"Get the medical team!"

Students acted almost immediately, running to get the academy’s best doctors, those who specialise in beasts rather than humans.

While a beast could recover from most wounds inside the Core Space, something this serious would kill it in a matter of minutes if left untreated.

Dain stared wide-eyed, as if unable to process what just happened. He wasn’t alone, the entire arena shared the same look as their gazes shifted between the fallen beast and Godric and his weapon.

A heavy silence filled the arena as everyone awaited the medical team’s arrival, unsure what else to do or say.

The quiet, however, didn’t last long as a sound of heels clicking across the concrete echoed through the arena.

Godric turned to see Raven stand beside him, her purple eyes fixed on him rather than the collapsed beast.

"Come with me."

Godric frowned. "What?"

"I’m taking you as my mentee."

The answer came so naturally that it almost sounded like the decision had been made long before she spoke.

"I don’t remember agreeing to anything like that," Godric replied.

Raven tilted her head slightly.

"You don’t have a choice. Second-year students pick mentees. Not the other way around."

For a moment, Godric stared at her.

There was no arrogance in her voice, just certainty of someone who had never faced a ’no’ in her life.

"Either way, I refuse."

Before Raven could respond, Godric turned around and walked away from the arena.

The students who quickly turned their attention away from the fallen beast and toward the Heir of House Stormbourne looked completely flabbergasted at his rejection.

After all, who refused someone from House Stormbourne?

Raven, however, simply stood there.

Her eyes followed Godric’s back as he disappeared through the doorway.

Then, her glossy lips curved into a smile, something she hadn’t shown before lit behind her purple gaze.

***

Moments after leaving the combat arena, Godric was already on his way back home.

There were no classes left on his schedule, and as much as he would like to take some time to practise with his summon, his duel with the Crimson Serpent made quite a bit of commotion in the academy, so much so that he couldn’t take a turn without a small crowd gathering around him.

Surprisingly, when he left the inner part of the city, he found himself not drenched in rain for once. Instead, a pale sun rose above the sky, basking the outskirts in a rare warm radiance.

He was one corner away from his house when a loud shout cut through the narrow street.

"Ey!"

Godric turned to find three familiar figures walking hurriedly toward him from the other side of the street.

He didn’t need to look twice to recognise the sight of a boldheaded man and his two lackeys, the exact same sight that had been pestering him for years.

In the past, he had tried to deal with the loan shark his late father had left behind in many ways. He tried running, giving them all the money he had. He even tried to negotiate, which, in hindsight, was probably the worst thing one could do with loan sharks.

But now, he was long past that.

"Look what the cat dragged in!" The baldheaded man grinned. "You damn rat, we had to sit in a cell for 24 hours because of you! I think your debt might just have doubled!" he laughed alongside his two lackeys.

Godric looked at them in amusement. "Doubled? How about we call it even, and I’ll let you morons walk away."

"Even?" The baldheaded man’s brows furrowed. "Morons? I think you’re forgetting your situation—" the man’s hand reached toward Godric’s collar, something he always did to threaten him, but today it went a little different than he expected it to.

Before he could reach the collar of Godric’s shirt, a fist crashed into his jaw, sending him flat onto the ground.

The bald-headed man’s world went dark for a second, the impact reverberating not just through his jaw but through his entire spine, half the bones in his face broken loose.

It took a couple of moments until his eyes snapped back into focus and a slow realisation washed over him.

This was the strength of an awakened.