Chapter 199
Chapter 199
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: Martial God
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The flow of the battle was utterly one-sided.
The White Knight pressed Siwoo relentlessly with a barrage of techniques and feints.
A lance over three meters long freely controlled the distance, unleashing a torrent of one-sided attacks.
It thrust straight at his face one moment, only to whip toward his thigh at an unexpected timing the next.
With the initiative completely seized, Siwoo could barely manage to parry.
The more he moved, the more blood trickled from his torn eyelid, pooling around his eye socket.
-Clang! Clang!
It was maddening.
The slightest lapse in focus invited a killing blow—several times a second, without respite.
Varied and unpredictable.
To counter attacks that followed no pattern, improvisation was the only answer.
In a different way from magical combat, it drained the blood from his veins.
“Hup!”
Siwoo arced his shield to block the sweeping lance tip.
In the same instant, the spinning shaft slammed into his gut.
The impact crushed through his armor, feeling like his organs were collapsing inward.
The air in his lungs was squeezed out against his will, as if wrung dry.
-Boom!
Siwoo's back foot shoved hard against the ground.
Dragging legs heavy as if shackled with lead, he surged forward instead.
Better to close to full melee and turn it into a brawl than fight at an awkward range.
But the White Knight didn't yield even an inch to Siwoo's intent.
As Siwoo charged, it deftly backstepped to receive the rush.
The gap widened once more.
In close-quarters cold weapon combat, distance control decided victory or defeat.
Their separation remained perfectly consistent.
The lance could strike freely while the sword found no purchase—the White Knight dictated that interval from start to finish.
And amid the chaotic onslaught, shaking off with his ribbon was impossible.
The White Knight and Siwoo clashed again.
Shadows scattered like smoke amid flashes of golden and crimson mana reflection.
Stamina steadily drained, scratches accumulating on his armor.
-Thud!
“Guh!”
This time, the lance thrusting twice from below suddenly spun.
The shaft whipped wide, smashing Siwoo's temple.
A sickening crunch from his neck, consciousness blurring for an instant.
Without the gapless join between helmet and armor, his neck would have snapped outright.
-Boom! Boom! Boom!
The momentary concussion from taking a clean hit.
The ground heaved.
His vision rippled as if his eyes were submerged.
Breath he'd barely regulated burst out, raggedness worsening.
The attacks intensified. Having seized momentum, the White Knight hounded Siwoo mercilessly to end it.
-Tang!
The shield he'd vowed never to drop flew aside after three thrusts.
His torso lay wide open.
The White Knight dropped low, knee shoving the ground as it drove its lance with full power.
Aiming for the heart.
Too late to reform the shield.
Too late to twist away.
The reaper's scythe hooked around his throat—he felt it vividly.
In the extreme crisis, Siwoo's sword-gripping hand moved on instinct.
-Ching!
“Huh?”
Coincidence?
The blade's oblique path deflected the thrust's trajectory.
The twisted lance tip glanced off his armor's side, carving a long gash but failing to rend flesh.
Siwoo hadn't put much power into it.
Just shifted the force's axis ever so slightly.
The motion felt startlingly natural and skilled even to him.
Contrary to his shock, his feet advanced.
The lance's greatest opening came after a full-power thrust missed.
He couldn't let this first glimpse of momentum slip.
He clamped the passing shaft under his armpit, gripping tight.
So close.
The unreachable distance to the White Knight—he'd unwittingly breached it.
-Whoosh!
In response, the white shield avalanched forward.
Taking a shield bash wouldn't kill him anyway.
Sacrifice bone for flesh.
Braced to eat the hit, Siwoo angled his blade's tip at the throat.
The White Knight retreated first.
Flinging its helmet back, it desperately pulled away from Siwoo.
The gap reopened, but sensation lingered in his fingertips.
The exquisite feel of redirecting heavy force with feather-light touch—it hummed through his blade.
Could he replicate it?
“Hah... hah...”
Ragged breaths hissed out.
The dance atop the blade raised gooseflesh across his skin.
Terrifying. Agonizing. He wanted to flee right now.
A mere civilian like Siwoo had no reason to thrill at life-or-death combat.
“Ha... haha...”
Yet laughter escaped.
A baffling chuckle wasting precious breath.
Let's try it.
Just see if it works once.
An irresistible, perilous impulse dominated him.
Siwoo summoned no shield.
Instead, he gripped the longsword two-handed.
His recent counter had apparently heightened the White Knight's wariness.
It didn't charge rashly as before, holding the lance at maximum length while watching Siwoo.
-Kreeeak!
The ribbon twisted in midair.
Finally, a breather to use it.
Permitting the ribbon's use after sealing it so long was unmistakably the White Knight's blunder.
-Ping!
Two strands shot through folded space, grazing past the White Knight's flanks.
Seemed like a miss at a glance—but no.
“Haaah!!”
Siwoo slammed the ribbon ends into the rooftop.
Contracting them while kicking off propelled acceleration beyond Shadow Wings.
Siwoo hurtled in like windborne lightning; even against the unforeseen burst, the White Knight readied a counter.
The White Knight targeted Siwoo's chest.
A sharp strike unblockable or evadable from high guard.
Siwoo aimed a diagonal slash from shoulder to flank.
Faster than the thrust—he'd cleave before it struck.
-Slash!
Their shadows crossed; Siwoo's body tumbled across the roof.
Unable to withstand the full-power slash's momentum, he'd somersaulted midair.
Like a cat righting itself, he rebounded and whipped around.
The crumbling White Knight came into view.
-Clatter!
The lance aimed at Siwoo's heart severed alongside thick armor.
The heavy plate cleaved clean through; only the thrilling vibration of slicing metal remained in his hands.
“I won!”
Siwoo whooped in triumph.
A funeral madmovie addition unlocked.
Adrenaline flooding to numb his brain lingered post-battle, exhilarating his mind.
Siwoo slumped to the ground, catching his breath.
He replayed that final strike—over in a blur, hazy even in memory.
Mystical.
Sword and fingertips as one, a bizarre unity.
A slash that would have parted rock smoothly.
That technique emerging from his own hands.
“Never even peeled fruit before...”
Well, in a world of witches, magic, and rampaging monsters, this was tame.
Siwoo rose to fulfill his purpose here.
Mana and stamina both bottomed out.
Bracing shaky knees, he sliced the flute atop the altar clean off.
-Whiiieeeek!
A eerie wail echoed, as if exorcism succeeded.
Like a deep-sea beast's death cry.
The murky barrier enveloping the building like stagnant water vanished.
With the oppressive mana lifting from his chest, Siwoo sighed in relief.
“Hoo...”
The grueling deathmatch over, thoughts turned to the tragedy.
Innocents torn apart by the monster.
Siwoo didn't fancy himself a saint.
Nor the shonen protagonist blaming himself for strangers' deaths with 'If only I were stronger!'
Just acrid bitterness and rage at the witch behind it coated his parched mouth.
The horrific first scene flickered in his retina.
He shook his head to dispel it.
“Time to bail.”
Time to extract.
His magic use was secret anyway, and his spirit weary.
Cold sweat soaked his clothes under the armor, making him shiver idly.
-Clack clack clack
Calculating coordinates for instant teleport to his officetel, Siwoo went wide-eyed.
Three White Knights scaling the outer wall entered his sight.
Mass-produced homunculi of identical make triggered deja vu.
Like the black dogs fissioning from the mother beast.
“Fuck this, that's crossing the line.”
Barely downed one, now three more?
No way in hell.
He'd resolved to pour everything into escape when...
A bolt of white lightning flashed.
-Boom!
Not lightning, precisely.
A slash of astonishing speed and power.
A ferocious strike testing physics' limits, accompanied by flash and thunder.
The hard-won White Knight cleaved vertically like a dressed chicken.
Siwoo's eyes, stolen by the strike, belatedly caught the witch who'd summoned the bolt.
White.
Pink.
Even utmost focus identified no more.
That sheer agility.
The newly aware White Knights turned lances on the witch.
-Boom! Boom!
Futile resistance.
The twisting thrusts Siwoo struggled against deflected cleanly.
Something flashed, and one White Knight's breastplate crumpled like a crushed can.
Another lost limbs and head.
Only after the witch halted her one-sided demolition did Siwoo see her clearly.
Standing amid scattering White Knight debris.
Pale pink hair impossible in reality, magenta irises.
Straight, slender lashes thick and long, like cherry blossoms blanketing her eyes, mystical aura.
Her off-hand gripped a mangled helmet like a knuckleball.
Obviously beautiful as a witch.
Yet despite her disorientingly bewitching looks, her aura evoked a warrior more than witch.
Mana afterimages rippled like haze from her shoulders.
How could a human exude such presence?
Magenta eyes whipped around, piercing Siwoo.
A shiver hit him.
That gaze, dense with fury and hatred, stabbed with raw killing intent.
Having slain the White Knights, he'd assumed ally.
Siwoo hastily readied for battle.
Survivability irrelevant.
Couldn't just bare his neck, right?
Ribbon from the maiden's loom to veil half his form with shield, sword poised for counter.
“I've come to keep my promise.”
A cute voice utterly mismatched to her solemn tone spread like chill breath.
Promise?
No time to ask.
Bluish veins bulged on her small sword hand's back.
She's coming.
Siwoo lowered his stance, nerves locked on her every motion.
Breath, pounding heart, even blood in his veins—he felt it all in hyperfocus.
The witch kicked off the ground.
And vanished.
Missed her.
Awareness triggered reflexive shield to guard heart, throat, head.
Turtled up, Shadow density maxed for defense.
-Kwaaang!
“Keurk!”
Spine-shattering impact.
Full-body hammer blows; breath stopped amid agony.
Blood gushed from his mouth, spraying mist through the visor.
Not a sword strike.
She hadn't even swung.
Just stepped in and punched midriff.
That alone shattered shield and armor.
He knew instinctively.
Ribs pulverized.
Liver maybe burst.
Heart targeted? Dead.
“You haven't forgotten me, have you?”
His darkening vision, tunnel-visioning to black, conjured her face—grinning in ecstasy.