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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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Later, Merna’s lips trembled. At that moment, the space between the two wavered. Something that distorted the light seemed to ripple, filling the space between them. The wizard and Merna reached out toward each other and trembled violently. They gritted their teeth and broke out in a cold sweat. What kind of situation was this? Valian, who was seeing a fight between magicians of above-average ability for the first time, was slightly flustered.
He could not know that the spell was to rearrange space and manifest the wizard’s world of consciousness, and that the two worlds were currently entangled as they tried to burst forth into the physical world, resulting in a kind of struggle of power.
However, the knight knew. That’s why he tried to interfere with Merna so that his comrade would gain an advantage.
While the shield knight was knocked away, the dual-wielding knight who had been trying to attack Econ and Drigen changed course, rushed over, and attempted to stab Merna in the back. Valian sensed this movement. He stepped in front of the knight, blocking his path.
The knight’s twin swords clashed against Valian’s holy sword. A loud clang rang out, and both stepped back a pace. In the knight’s case, he was forced back by Valian’s strength, while Valian retreated to create distance.
Despite being taken aback by Valian’s power, the knight thrust his twin swords through the gap that had opened up between them. Even amid his disconcertion, the fact that his swords were moving showed he was a swordsman of considerable skill. Valian deflected the knight’s blades while thinking this, and simultaneously counterattacked.
The knight’s twin swords rapidly spun around his right hand as their axis. The deflected sword blades swiftly returned, colliding with Valian’s sword again. Simultaneous with the collision, the knight’s sword slid along Valian’s blade, thrusting toward his face. Valian raised his holy sword that was locked against the knight’s blade. The thrust lost its mark and merely grazed past Valian’s face.
A ferocious smile formed on Valian’s face. Faint drops of blood beaded on his cheek. This was different from fighting four-armed wolfmen or demon minions chanting spells. In their brief exchange, he sensed the knight’s talent, effort, and experience. This was the sword of a master.
The knight advanced a step closer and swung the crossguard of his twin swords toward Valian’s face – an attack that could have punched a hole in Valian’s unhelmeted head.
But Valian simply caught it with his left hand. The knight’s blade could not budge, as if lodged in rock. Through the slit of his helmet, the knight’s shocked eyes were visible. With his right hand, Valian thrust his holy sword forward.
The knight abandoned his blade and swiftly retreated. Despite retreating, Valian’s sword had still pierced a hole in the knight’s armor.
Red blood dripped from the tip of the holy sword. Even in this clearly wounded state, the knight retreated all the way back to where another fallen knight lay on the ground. He then picked up the discarded longsword that was rolling around.
Glancing over, Valian saw that the battle between the elderly wizard and Merna continued. The churning of space between them grew more severe, clashing with the ground and leaving strange, swirling markings.
Amid this, the knight now held a sword in his right hand and Valian’s axe – previously embedded in his shield – in his left. Seeing this, Valian chuckled.
“Weapons in both hands. Confident?”
“No,” came the reverberating voice, likely due to the helmet. Simultaneous with this reply, he threw the axe in his left hand. It was vastly inferior to any of Valian’s thrown axes. Yet it still flew with enough force to deeply cleave flesh if it struck directly.
Valian eyed the axe’s speed and trajectory, then reached out his left hand and simply caught it. The knight did not seem disappointed – he had thrown it not to hit Valian, but to disrupt his stance. He was already charging at Valian behind the thrown axe.
Gripping his longsword in both hands, the knight swung down a heavy overhead blow. A large, simple motion, but forceful and threatening for that very reason.
However, as soon as he caught the axe, Valian tracked the knight with his eyes. By retreating two steps back, he evaded the overhead strike.
The knight followed through by thrusting his sword forward. Valian spun his body to the left, dodging the thrust while simultaneously striking the knight’s helmet from the side with the wolf-headed pommel of his holy sword.
A dull thud rang out as the knight went tumbling away.
“Not dead, huh.”
No experience points had entered him – meaning both knights still lived. As Valian considered finishing them off, he noticed Merna’s pallid complexion. Moreover, over there, Econ was busily tangling with a ghostly suit of armor that had emerged from somewhere.
Merna’s situation seemed the most urgent for now. Like before, both she and the elderly wizard had contorted expressions and were drenched in sweat. But now, crackling arcs of electricity danced across the old man’s hands before fading out. The spatial distortion between them was also gradually being pushed back toward Merna’s side, gouging the floor primarily in front of her.
Valian quickly gauged the distance between himself and the old wizard. He picked up his throwing axe, traced an invisible trajectory, and then released it.
To any observer, Valian’s left arm would have blurred for an instant, accompanied by a whooshing sound, before the hand axe suddenly embedded itself in the old wizard’s skull in the next moment.
The wizard toppled backwards, the axe lodged in his head as the arcs of lightning winked out. The spatial distortion between him and Merna also dissipated, returning to normal. Merna sighed and sank to the ground where she stood.
Valian did not stay to confirm the kill on the old wizard – he doubted the man could deflect this axe like the fairy Gio before. He immediately rushed over to the ghostly armor that Econ was grappling with and simply cleaved it in two.
“…I thought I was going to die…” Econ whined petulantly. Bullshit. It wasn’t that bad. Econ demonstrated combat readiness far exceeding his somewhat immature speech and behavior. He was martial enough to be called a knight.
“Don’t let your guard down. There are still others.”
“Others?”
“The ones who fired the ballista bolts are still here.”
Just as Valian said, a group emerged slowly from between the bushes and trees. There were around thirty of them, all clad in black chain mail with their helmets pulled down low. The one leading them wore a steel breastplate emblazoned with a golden shield crest.
After calmly surveying the dead wizard, fallen knights, and piles of shredded ghostly armor, he spoke:
“I can’t tell if it’s because the mages we hired for a hundred gold were of low caliber, or if you are simply of exceptional ability.”
A hundred gold? Ah, so they were hired mages then, who got themselves killed working for someone else.
“The standard for mercenary mages is consistently low. I don’t know what you expected.”
At that point, Merna stood before them, swaying slightly. Valian went over and asked quietly:
“Are you alright?”
“No. That old man only used spells to borrow power from elsewhere, but his world of consciousness was incredibly resilient. I almost died.”
Valian couldn’t make full sense of what she said, but he understood that Merna’s current state was not good. Then a voice came from the other side:
“From what I saw, you very nearly lost to those mercenaries.”
In response to the breastplate knight’s words, Merna scratched her forehead.
“Ah, yes. The noble knight Nauri. So in the end, you spent a hundred gold and still couldn’t defeat three people. Are you familiar with the concept of ‘ability’?”
The knight had raised his face guard, revealing his expression, which was peculiar.
“But I did neutralize the mage. Now that spells are no longer a factor, a few sword-wielding soldiers should suffice to finish the job. And where could you run to catch your breath in that time?”
Merna’s expression remained calm – or rather, she seemed to be feigning nonchalance as much as possible. She said:
“To be honest, even in my current state, I could probably kill you.”
“Very well. Let’s see if that’s true.”
The knight lowered his face guard and drew his sword. Those behind him also spread out, encircling Merna and Valian.
Merna’s gaze shifted uneasily left and right. Econ swallowed hard and gripped his shield tighter. As for Valian? He simply spat on the ground and stepped forward.
“Sword-wielding soldiers are my specialty.”
The helmeted knight with the reverberating voice spoke:
“You’re the one called Valian, aren’t you? I saw your skills. That knight you so easily dispatched over there is one specially favored by his lord. If you can do that much, you have reason for confidence. However, a one-on-one duel is on an entirely different level from being surrounded by scores of men. Fairy knights and dwarf warriors all avoid such unfavorable fights, knowing they cannot win. So retreat. If you do, we may even hire you ourselves. We can promise far more than the frontier lord offered.”
Valian asked with a dull expression:
“How much would you offer?”
“What?”
He gestured to the slain wizard.
“You said you paid him a hundred gold? Then for killing him, wouldn’t you give me two hundred or so?”
“…Are you being serious?”
Valian chuckled.
“Of course not. You really took that seriously?”
The breastplate knight said nothing more. After a moment, he simply gestured wordlessly to his subordinates.
The black chain-mailed soldiers approached cautiously, swords and shields at the ready. Merna spoke in a low voice:
“Just buy me a little time. I’ll try to cast spells as quickly as I can.”
Valian cocked his head for an instant, not quite understanding her meaning – then realized this female mage was underestimating his own capabilities. He could only laugh again. Certainly, all she had witnessed was him clumsily batting away some animated armor, and heard stories about how he had killed a manticore long ago and such.
So he let out a loud battle cry and charged forward.
“Valian – attack!”
Valian rushed the nearest soldier and simply brought his sword crashing straight down. The soldier tried to block the overhead blow with his shield, but ended up bisected diagonally, shield and all. It was an astonishing sight produced by the combination of the shield’s wooden construction, Valian’s overwhelming strength, and the unblemished edge of his holy sword that had not dulled in the slightest.
Merna and Econ’s mouths fell open at the eruption of viscera and blood. Even the breastplate knight seemed stunned, freezing in shock.
“…Attack! Attack him!” he shouted, as if in a frenzy. Spurred by his order, the other soldiers moved in, unmoved by the gruesome death of their comrade as only well-trained warriors could be – stabbing their swords toward Valian.
“Ah! I have to help…!” Econ started forward unsteadily, but Merna held him back. In the next instant, however, Econ realized there was no need for him to help at all.
Shields thrust inward. Swords stabbed through them. Wooden shields were impaled effortlessly, and the soldiers behind them suffered the same fate, hearts pierced as they died. Valian infused his lodged blade with strength, using it as a pivot for a sweeping horizontal slash that bisected the dead man and the one next to him who had been thrusting his sword.
An overhead strike came from behind. Though unseen, Valian’s remaining senses painted a vivid picture of the attack. He advanced forward, evading it, then spun and backhanded the attacker’s face with his sword hilt, pulverizing the helmeted head and spraying out brain matter.
Valian met any blocks with brute force, any attacks with equal violence – shattering and counter attacking everything in his path.
Ordinarily, even Valian could not have fought with such reckless slashing. Any normal steel blade would have shattered partway through, unable to withstand his strength. The ‘Ancestral Blessing’ was not a skill he could use indefinitely either. But today, he intended to test the limits of his holy sword – to see just when its edge would finally dull, how much of his power it could endure.
The sword’s hilt creaked and groaned in protest of his savage treatment. The blade itself also wobbled and swayed, as if complaining about Valian’s excessive show of force. Yet in the end, it weathered his onslaught of raw might.
Even while bisecting the twentieth soldier, the holy sword’s edge remained pristine, gleaming with an untarnished white sheen and faintly glowing runes down its center.
The breastplate knight spoke in a trembling voice:
“…What are you? Some demon minion?”
After slaying one more twisted-faced soldier, Valian responded:
“I’ve killed demon minions before.”
“What?”
Valian kept slaughtering the soldiers without pause, his momentum unchecked as the knights unhesitatingly charged to their evident doom in the face of such a slaughter.
Finally, when Valian stood before the lone breastplate knight after killing all his men, the knight held sword and shield yet trembled uncontrollably – unable to muster any will to fight.
“What’s your name?”
“…Estian.”
The knight reflexively answered Valian’s question. Valian nodded once, then thrust out his holy sword. The knight raised his shield just as reflexively, but it was easily pierced through. He dropped to his knees and said:
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