The Return of the Iron-blood Sword Hound

Chapter 176 : Hundred Shots, Ninety-Nine Hits (1)

The archery practice field echoed with the sound of arrows hitting the distant targets.

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Students from the Colosseo Academy who used bows frequented this location. Primarily, archery students from the Cold Department practiced here, but long-range mage students from the Hot Department would drop by on occasion. Most regular students only practiced archery during their general courses, so they didn’t frequent this location.

However, among the few students who did visit this place, the one who displayed the best archery skills was none other than Bianca.

As the top student of the Cold Department, she hailed from the legendary Usher House, renowned for their “Divine Bow.” skills. As a result, she was exceptionally skilled with a bow.

Pew!

Bianca’s arrow hit the target, located a hundred meters away, with pinpoint precision, requiring no Aura assistance.

The white circle within the black circle, within the blue circle, within the red circle, within the yellow circle. All of Bianca’s arrows were densely packed within the smallest yellow circle.

“Wow, did you see that? Another perfect ten.”

“Unbelievable, she’s on another level.”

“With this level of skill, she’s guaranteed to score a perfect grade on the mid-term practical exams.”

“She’s like a goddess of hunting.”

The students watching her marveled at her incredible archery, akin to divine art.

However, Bianca herself was not satisfied, despite all her arrows being grouped in the smallest yellow circle.

“Something doesn’t feel right.”

For some reason, her perfectionism about the tiny red circle at the very center had intensified today.

If it had been any other day, she would have been relatively content after shooting ten arrows, getting eight of them as 10-pointers and two as 9-pointers, resulting in a score of 98 out of a possible 100.

But today…

“Ugh, it’s not good enough.”

Her perfectionist tendencies were exacerbated, and she couldn’t help but obsess over it, even though she had Auraged to group all her arrows inside the smallest yellow circle. Today, the sound of her dissatisfaction was even more pronounced.

Pew!

Pew! Pew! Pew!

Yet, her dissatisfaction wasn’t solely due to that, thudding sound from an adjacent lane kept sounding. An overwhelming number of arrows were fired one after the other.

Before the sound could fade, another arrow hit just beside the previous one. This pattern repeated itself ten times in a row, and all ten arrows landed within the yellow circle.

“Ugh, a ten-pointer.”

Bianca tied her bowstring to the side and grumbled.

Then, she shifted her gaze to the neighboring lane, where a figure stood.

This person had long, disheveled bangs that covered nearly half of their face, pale skin, and modest clothing. He was slightly shorter than the average 18-year-old boy, with a lean build. This person was none other than Vikir, also from the Cold Department, specifically from Class B.

Vikir, who was always expressionless, was standing in the adjacent lane with a practice bow and arrows. He’d drawn an arrow with the yellow circle a hundred meters away as the target. It was 1.3 meters above the ground and looked like a needle hole.

Twang!

Vikir let go of the string.

Pfft!

True to form, a single arrow hit the maximum score of 10 points.

Other students who were practicing archery nearby stopped what they were doing and gathered around, gazing in awe at Vikir’s archery skills.

******

“Wow, he’s really good.”

“Can you see it from there?”

“I just see a red dot….”

“Is that Vikir? The one who topped the written exams.”

“Oh, that’s the handsome one? I couldn’t tell because of the bangs.”

“So, he’s an archer. No wonder he’s got less Aura.”

“Archers don’t need as much Aura, generally.”

Meanwhile, Bianca, who was shooting in the adjacent lane, was in an unusual situation.

As the top student of the Cold Department and a protege of the Usher House, she was already well-known throughout the academy for her archery skills. As such, people generally watched her when she stood at the lanes, even though she disliked being watched by others, feeling like a clown in a circus.

But now, what was different?

The spectators’ attention was completely drawn to Vikir in the adjacent lane, rather than her. She wasn’t disappointed about not receiving attention, but the fact that the public had implicitly judged Vikir’s skills as superior to hers was discomforting.

Bianca shifted her gaze to Vikir, observing his archery technique secretly.

The conclusion: It was a mess.

Vikir’s posture didn’t meet any standards in archery, from nocking, grip, hooking, setup, drawing, anchoring, full draw, release, and follow-through. However, once Vikir released the arrow…

Twang!

An arrow was unfailingly pinned at a perfect 10-pointer.

‘How on earth does he shoot? I can’t even understand it when I see it.’

Vikir’s posture appeared too relaxed, giving off the impression that there was no specific format or structure to his shooting. He seemed like a savage from the forest, carelessly firing his bow.

“If I shot like that, my arrows would usually go blind, but how is he hitting the bull’s eye?”

Bianca squinted, gazing at Vikir. His posture appeared exceedingly comfortable, making it seem as if there was no framework or format for him to follow.

Bianca wrinkled her forehead, observing Vikir. She, too, released her bowstring…

Pfft!

As expected, her arrow hit the 10-point mark. Just like Vikir, she was consistently nailing each arrow into the center of the target.

However, there was one difference between her and Vikir.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

The speed at which they were shooting was significantly different.

While Bianca carefully shot one arrow at a time, Vikir was shooting five or six arrows in rapid succession. Even though the points they were scoring were similar, there was a tremendous disparity in the rate at which they were consuming arrows.

‘Gosh! Is speed all he cares about?’

Bianca bit her lip.

But contrary to her assertion, Vikir wasn’t just about speed.

He combined rapid shooting with exceptional accuracy, achieving a continuous march of 10-point shots.

On the other hand, due to a lapse in concentration in the early part of the session, Bianca found herself two points behind Vikir with two shots scoring 9 points each.

“Can’t afford to make a single mistake from now on!” she thought.

Tiny differences in the early stage often lead to significant gaps in the later rounds. So, Bianca focused harder than ever before. She couldn’t afford to let this chance slip away.

In time, she drew the last arrow from her quiver and released it, her heart pounding with anticipation.

Thwack!

But the result was disappointing. Due to a bead of sweat making her thumb slip, Bianca’s arrow landed in the 9-point zone.

“Darn it!” Bianca wanted to throw her bow and stomp away in frustration, but she couldn’t afford to show weakness with so many eyes on her. She needed to stay composed.

‘I can’t tarnish the honor of the Cold Department!’ She thought.

As the daughter of a renowned archery lineage, she couldn’t allow herself to be outdone by an unknown commoner. Being defeated in archery would invite mockery from all over the world.

Bianca realized that Vikir had paused his archery practice in the neighboring lane. All eyes were now focused on the tip of her arrow, where a miracle was about to happen.

In a moment…

Whoosh!

The arrow pierced through several layers of compressed air.

Thwack!

It hit dead center on the 10-point bullseye.

It also cleaved through an arrow that had already been embedded in the bullseye, cutting it in half.

“That’s it!” Bianca exclaimed triumphantly.

She had achieved 10-point shots 141 times and 9-point shots three times. Plus, the nail-sized X10 bullseye had two of her arrows, one of which was cut in half and the second one stuck through it.

Bianca had shot a total of 144 arrows and scored 1437 points out of a maximum of 1440. Given her usual scores, which fluctuated around 1433-1435 points, today’s performance was notably good.

Meanwhile, the spectators who had been watching were in awe.

“She’s incredible. Truly worthy of being the top student of Cold Department”

“She keeps hitting the center, shot after shot.”

“…Hey! But Vikir, he’s amazing too, right?”

All eyes were once again directed toward the lane beside Bianca’s, where something extraordinary was happening. Even Bianca, who had finished her own round, turned her head to see what was going on.

“Why isn’t he shooting?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s trying to focus.”

“Why would he go to such lengths at the very end?”

“Isn’t hitting 10 points good enough? There are no higher scores than that.”

“Yeah, he could just keep hitting the 10-point bullseye like he did before.”

“Wait, if he gets a 10 now, he’d have a perfect score of 1440 out of 1440, right? Incredible, I’ve never seen this before!”

“Wasn’t the official highest score at the academy 1439, from about 30 years ago when the current head of the Usher House was a student here, and he also did it without using aura?”

“That’s right. It’s unofficial but still so cool.”

“Wow, it’s a shame it’s not an official record. This could be an unprecedented moment in history, a new unofficial record.”

The students watching couldn’t hide their excitement, discussing the potential history being made.

In this tense atmosphere, Vikir continued to hold his bowstring taut, as if in deep concentration. His calmness was in stark contrast to his previously rapid and relentless archery.

Moments later…

Thwack!

The arrow was released from Vikir’s bow and struck the target.

“Wow!” Everyone watching had their eyes wide open in disbelief.