Chapter 261
Chapter 261
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 261
Chapter Title: All Darkness Comes from the East (7)
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Siu charged without hesitation toward the nearest White Knight.
No matter that it was wrapped in rigid armor or that its heart was shielded by a thick plate, fear did not simply vanish.
The enemies were strong and numerous.
Even with Eloa watching over him, a moment's lapse in concentration could lead to a bitter lesson.
Charging in fearlessly wasn't mere recklessness.
Siu had learned this.
The principles of warfare that Eloa had always emphasized during their spars.
Preemptive, simultaneous, and follow-up.
In battle, one must always seize the initiative.
Never yield the flow to the opponent, never be swayed by their movements.
Only by controlling the situation can you gain the upper hand.
This was preemptive.
You couldn't always hold overwhelming initiative throughout a fight.
The enemy wasn't a straw dummy; it would counterattack to claim the initiative itself.
Retreating at that point meant losing the initiative entirely.
Striking before the flow tilted toward them, refusing to hand it over.
This was simultaneous.
When forced to receive an enemy's fierce assault.
Not just blocking, but deflecting it while preparing a follow-up attack.
This was follow-up.
They sounded simple enough, but these three principles shared a core truth.
In battle, you must seize the initiative at all costs—even the briefest hesitation or fear was unacceptable.
Thus, before the five White Knights could surround him and trap him, Siu lunged at the most forward one.
Unlike its appearance, the knight's armor alone weighed over 200kg, and its charge cracked the ground with each leap.
-Shuuuuk!
The spear thrust out to meet the charging Siu.
The spear aimed at him bent unnaturally in a split-second moment.
What had targeted his lower body now soared like a water swallow, aiming for his heart.
-Kwang!
But Siu blocked the attack with ease.
He angled his sword forward to pin the spear shaft, preventing any fancy maneuvers, then deflected it with his left-hand shield.
The motion was so fluid, like flowing water, that even he was stunned by it—far smoother than before.
Siu was surprised for two reasons.
One, its speed and ferocity were far greater than he remembered.
Two, despite that, he had deflected it effortlessly with his sword.
But deflecting an attack didn't mean he could stand there dazed.
Siu relaxed his entire body.
He released the tension from muscles that had been needlessly taut and planted his feet firmly.
Swinging the sword came not from the arms, but from the legs and waist.
The arms merely gripped it.
Grip it so tightly you could even forget you're holding it.
"Hup…!"
With a single breath, power infused his relaxed body.
He awakened every dormant potential in the muscles at the tips of his limbs.
If he poured his whole body's true energy into one slash, that blade could cleave mountains.
The White Knight belatedly withdrew its attack and swung the spear back to strike Siu's head.
He'd experienced this before.
The shaft strike that had pushed him back just as he'd closed the hard-won distance.
The spear tip whirled like a windmill, moments from smashing his helmet.
Siu's sword swung first.
-Kwaang!
From its right shoulder blade to its left waist.
The longsword traced a clean arc, slicing the White Knight in two as if wrapping around its body.
The blade bent flexibly, drawing a trajectory that melted into the air.
A lingering sensation remained in his fingertips.
As Siu finished his slash, he quickly tilted his head back.
The spear shaft grazed his helmet in a razor-close timing, then slipped from the now-limp hand, spinning wildly to smash a parked car.
Success.
He'd seized the initiative in what could have been a 5-on-1 and dropped one early, turning it into 4-on-1.
To so easily fell a White Knight he'd had no idea how to approach.
He was dumbfounded.
"It's not over yet. Stay focused."
"Hup!"
With Eloa's sharp reminder.
Siu's body spun wildly through the air.
-Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!
Simultaneously, four spears stabbed sharply into the ground where Siu had stood.
Force is proportional to mass and speed.
Just as Siu had amplified his shadow armament's mass using earth element magic.
The White Knights' spears struck with impossible weight for mere cold steel weapons.
Four White Knights yanked the asphalt-shattering spears from the deep-cracked ground, formed ranks, and aimed at Siu.
Facing one felt worlds apart from facing four—the pressure hit differently from the start.
Siu felt sweat trickling down his spine as he observed the enemies.
Could he win?
Could he do this?
Doubts about himself welled up.
It wasn't like he had no experience against multiple foes.
He'd already handled up to 50-on-1 against the black dogs charging in the department store.
But against intelligent foes systematically pressing him in combat?
Could he hold out?
Siu drew four ribbons.
Through training with Eloa and personal magic research, he'd increased the number he could wield.
This should keep him from being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
The White Knights in their eerily glowing white armor.
Two closed the distance in an instant, charging forward.
The other two flanked to his sides, aiming to surround him.
Siu split the ribbons in two to prevent encirclement.
Meanwhile, he faced the frontal foes with sword and shield.
-Bung! Hung! Hung!
The White Knights' heavy thrusts.
Perhaps his insight had sharpened through repeated spars with Eloa?
Before, he'd just thought of them as "wavy, bending attacks."
But now, after encountering and learning various techniques, they felt different.
Each White Knight's spearwork was masterful.
Steps merging seamlessly with upper body motion, thrust-and-retract timing, wrist snaps and rotations for deceptive feints.
Systematic, tactical.
Executing the ideal pierce for the enemy's heart.
-Kwang! Kwang!
The two White Knights took turns hounding Siu.
Against one, he'd deflect and exploit the gap.
But with two, those gaps nearly vanished.
If one missed, the other covered it.
Hesitate, and dual attacks came from tricky angles.
It felt like facing well-trained, battle-hardened soldiers.
1+1 equaled more than 2.
And with the flanking White Knights tied up by ribbons, his focus splintered.
He couldn't hold his ground and began inching backward.
"……"
Eloa watched the scene restlessly.
Her grip tightened repeatedly on her contract sword.
She fought the urge to jump in and butcher those pests.
The Red Knights were homunculi renowned for vast combat experience and superior skill.
Thus, their lesser copies, the White Knights, wielded veteran battle arts.
This was beyond a single homunculus's power.
Only four were visible, but that was mere mana output—their threat dwarfed six-eyed foes.
Their coordinated assaults drove Siu expertly, breaths perfectly synced like a single body.
Despite dropping one first for advantage, he'd be pushed back at this rate.
Was it too soon?
Had she overhyped his rapid growth?
-Kwaaang!
A massive roar echoed.
The ribbons restraining the two White Knights slammed limply into the ground.
Unhindered now, the two charged Siu from both sides.
He'd struggled in 2-on-1; now two more joined.
Indeed, not yet time.
As Eloa moved to help Siu.
"Huh…?"
Siu's back came into Eloa's view.
He tossed aside the shield dangling from his arm like baggage.
Gripped his one-handed sword with both hands firmly.
-Chaeng! Chaeng!
Siu's sword traced a single arc, smoothly batting away two thrusts.
No brutal crashing force like before, no clash of powers.
Just a clear chime, like tapping a glass with a fork—the spears' paths perfectly deflected.
"Huu…."
The battle wasn't over, but the world seemed steeped in stillness.
Amid it, only Siu's sharp inhale rang out, his sword—charged with one breath—tracing a spiral dance.
A beautiful dance devoid of excess force.
The pure, ideal sword path that swordsmen and strength-seekers had only dreamed of in death, now shattering moonlight.
His body wove leisurely through the spears thrusting from all directions.
Feet tapping the ground in waltz rhythm, sword flowing as part of the dance.
Enraptured in sword-dance like a trance, his figure seemed too serene for this brutal melee.
Eloa unwittingly rubbed her eyes.
A familiar someone overlapped his silhouette.
"Rafi…"
The child loved by the sword.
The child who could hear the sword's voice.
A genius among geniuses who, had she become a witch, would have far surpassed Eloa.
Her faint apparition overlapped Siu's form.
The endless stalemate.
Gradually tilting toward the White Knights, it suddenly shifted.
The two spears acrobatically slicing air tangled in the straight sword path, scattering like leaves.
Eloa, dazedly watching, grew urgent.
The two White Knights, now freed from ribbons, joined the fray.
One pierced from 7 o'clock rear flank, the other from a perfect blind spot.
The White Knights' spears shared effects akin to their progenitor, the 'Red Branch'.
Not quite forming the Red Branch's distortion field, but severing mana composition and flow.
No matter how thick the shadow armor, a direct hit would shred it like paper.
In this hair-trigger moment, Siu's foot slammed the ground as if waiting.
Not mere leap.
Manifesting footwork's essence, a preparatory spin with full power.
Asphalt burst in agony.
A shockwave shattered from the sword tip, breaking the sound barrier.
The waist-height swing brutally repelled the frontal pursuit while cleaving the ambushing rear and flank White Knights in half.
Ambushers were vulnerable to counters.
Siu had deliberately allowed it, timing his riposte.
The bold-thrusting White Knights' upper bodies floated side-by-side in air, but Siu didn't halt his spin.
-Peng!
Two ribbons steadied his mid-spin body.
Black ribbons pierced the gravel-strewn, battle-torn asphalt.
With grinding shrieks, they gripped the ground, letting Siu unleash another spinning slash.
Second rotation.
The sword's path merely grazed a White Knight's helmet.
-Peng!
That alone burst the helmet like an aluminum can smashed by a mace.
One foe left.
White Knights felt no emotion.
No fear or hesitation despite losing three comrades in seconds.
It hammered Siu's exposed side with an uppercut thrust.
Evasion, block, counter—all impossible now.
-Kwajik!
Yet two ribbons erupted from the ground, skewering the White Knight like a ragdoll.
Not just pierced—it soared high, dangling midair with vitals run through.
Siu had planted them like traps during his earlier spins.
As Eloa watched Siu dispatch the last White Knight, the upper body of the airborne one thudded at her feet.
In the blink of an eye, he'd felled all four.
Time, which had flowed languidly, resumed its pace.
No doubt.
Siu's perfect victory.