Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Chapter 10 Dragon Sword Duke (1)
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1
In an instant, everyone froze in shock. The voice had boomed out so suddenly, with such terrifying volume.
Startled birds took flight from all directions, and the clamor of fleeing beasts filled the air. Amid the chaos, the voice continued.
“Where— are— you— hiding—?!”
The sound was so deafening it felt like their eardrums would burst. Enora clamped her hands over her ears and collapsed to her knees. Zail and Boer used Spirit Order to protect their eardrums, but it still hurt.
Azel moved first.
Clang!
His sword clashed with Durang’s, sparks flying. Azel had seized the brief opening to strike at Durang.
“Princess!”
Calling out to Arietta, Azel accelerated. With every heartbeat, explosive mana surged, his movements accelerating to an extreme speed.
‘This is the turning point!’
Generating and controlling mana beyond one’s capacity placed a heavy burden on the user. Azel’s body and spirit veins already ached faintly from using it once before.
But this was the moment to go all in. Not to win, but to survive! Azel had no time for foolish thoughts of what came after.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
“Gah, you insolent whelp…!”
Durang, who had seized the initiative, was pushed back relentlessly. Azel’s movements accelerated so wildly that Durang had no chance to counter. And then…
‘Behind!’
In an instant, he vanished with Flash Step, switching positions. By shifting with short-range Flash Step, he disrupted the rhythm of his attacks, delivering bone-chilling strikes each time.
‘Where did this brat come from?’
Mastery of mind and senses was the essence of Spirit Order. Azel demonstrated its true power fully. He threatened Durang with psychic waves and disrupted his senses with unpredictable movements. Once caught off guard and forced on the defensive, Durang couldn’t find an opening to turn the tide.
In the meantime, Arietta moved.
“O radiant light that cleaves the sinister darkness!”
Woooong!
The pure white sword she raised to the sky unleashed a blinding flash. The light shot straight ahead, bleaching the night’s darkness white and revealing the group’s position.
At the same moment, Azel vanished from in front of Durang and appeared before Nibelis.
Nibelis’s barrier activated automatically, blocking Azel’s sword strike. At the same time, she reflexively fired a flash wave at him.
“Guh!”
An explosion rang out, followed by Durang’s scream. Nibelis’s flash had hit him!
Nibelis was stunned. She had clearly aimed in a different direction from where Durang stood, and even if she had aimed at him, he should have handled it easily. Yet he failed to defend and took the hit squarely.
‘What trick did he pull?’
As she reeled in surprise, Azel spun his body, activated Flash Step, and unleashed a powerful overhead strike from behind.
Crackle-crackle-crackle!
This time, Nibelis abandoned offense entirely, concentrating her mana to block the sword strike. Azel clicked his tongue.
“I wanted to take you out too… but that was too greedy.”
He retreated without hesitation.
Nibelis was still recovering from the shock.
‘What kind of trickery is this?’
Azel asked her as she stared in astonishment.
“Want to keep going? Looks like your time’s up anyway.”
“……”
Nibelis glared at Azel. He met her gaze with a shameless grin.
The ploy Azel had used was simple.
First, he vanished from in front of Durang with Flash Step to ambush Nibelis, while simultaneously scattering an afterimage behind Durang. Durang scoffed and tried to ignore it, but this wasn’t a mere illusion. It was the same afterimage that had startled Nibelis earlier—one that attacked like a solid entity.
Durang whirled in panic to block it, and right then, Nibelis fired her flash wave.
Seeing that, Azel inwardly cheered. It was the best-case scenario he had anticipated.
When a mage needed quick physical destruction, they favored flash waves or lightning strikes. If Nibelis had chosen lightning, Azel’s plan would have failed. But because Azel had evaded lightning with insulation earlier, she unconsciously opted for the flash wave.
And there, Azel’s second trap awaited.
‘If you read the move in advance, deflecting the trajectory is child’s play.’
In close combat, skilled fighters often predict the next attack and deflect it slightly.
Advanced Spirit Order practitioners could sense mana fluctuations to predict spell types and counter accordingly. Once Azel was certain Nibelis would use a flash wave, he deployed a deflection barrier to bend its path.
The timing was exquisite. It struck the moment Durang turned to block the afterimage behind him—the instant he least expected an attack.
Azel shrugged.
“If you’d hit him harder, I could’ve taken him out in one shot. What a shame.”
“Grr…”
Durang ground his teeth. Azel’s scheme had landed a hit, but as an advanced Spirit Order practitioner with excellent armor defense, he hadn’t taken serious damage.
“You— worthless— fools—!”
Then, a thunderous voice boomed even closer than before.
Durang said,
“Miss, we need to withdraw now.”
“Was it because of him?”
“Yes.”
“The Dragon Sword Duke… So the elders’ nagging wasn’t just old folks’ worry?”
Nibelis bit her lip. The owner of that thunderous voice was Kairen Tarantos, the acknowledged strongest swordsman of Lurein Kingdom, known as the Dragon Sword Duke.
Nibelis asked,
“How did he find out about this?”
“It means not everyone in the Lurein royal family is a fool. Miss, we’re out of time.”
“Grr… Fine.”
But then—
“How dare you lay a hand on my precious princess! Stay right there! I’ll lop off your head!”
The voice came from much closer now. In the distance, five hundred meters away, a flash shot skyward. Simultaneously, an overwhelming mana wave spread out.
“Dragon Sword, burn the sinister darkness!”
As he shouted, the distance shrank by another hundred meters. By the time he swung his sword through the air, it had closed another hundred.
“At this range…?!’
Nibelis was aghast. He had closed in instantly, but three hundred meters still separated them. A swordsman known as the Dragon Sword Duke, not even a mage, attacking from that distance?
Durang stepped in front of the stunned Nibelis. Black mana erupted from his body as he unleashed a desperate strike.
At the same time, a wave of light surged across hundreds of meters.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
‘This power…!’
Nibelis swallowed dryly.
It was clearly the same type of technique Arietta invoked with Spirit Chant.
But incomparable in power. Like the difference between an arrow and a ballista?
A section of the forest was shaved clean away, and as the chant foretold, the darkness burned.
“Uwaaa…”
Boer trembled at the sight. Horrific power. The thought of that grazing overhead sent chills of fear through him.
Rumble-rumble-rumble…
As the light dispersed, the thick dust settled. The dazed group coughed amid the haze, but Azel alone stood calm, clicking his tongue.
“Tch. They got away.”
Boer asked in surprise,
“They’re not dead?”
“If they were the type to die from that, I’d have killed them already. He telegraphed it from way off and still swung—think they couldn’t dodge?”
“No, normally you couldn’t…”
“At their level, they can. Big power, but huge, slow wind-up—like a telegraphed punch.”
Azel shook his head at Boer’s objection. Boer couldn’t comprehend it but lacked the energy to argue.
Then, a figure appeared between them. Emerging with Flash Step, he slid through the dust.
Swoosh!
So abrupt his deceleration failed. He churned up the dusty ground, skidding over twenty meters before stopping.
“Guh, not bad… made it… in time… haven’t I…?”
A gasping voice echoed from the dust.
Everyone stared blankly as Azel bowed his head.
“Perfect timing. Thank you for your help.”
“Heh… huff… For a thanks… huff huff, you sure… haa, huffed a lot… huff… of cheeky… haa haa… stuff… huff huff… just now… haa.”
Everyone thought the same upon hearing him.
‘Either catch your breath or act cool while talking—pick one?’
Gasping like he might keel over any second, yet rattling off everything. Even trying to play it cool casually, but it was so obvious it was pitiful.
Azel said,
“That’s one thing, this is another. Well, you rushed from so far, it’s natural you’re short on leisure.”
“…Hoo.”
Finally catching his breath, he rose from the dust.
“Map made it look close, thought I’d get here quick. But over mountains and rivers? Tough. Nearly killed me. Feels like a real stamina workout for once.”
The group flinched upon seeing him up close—all except Azel and Arietta.
Because he wasn’t human. He was a Dragon Demon youth with long black hair.
Azel bowed to him.
“An honor to meet you, Dragon Sword Duke.”
2
Kairen Tarantos, the man called the Dragon Sword Duke.
Known as a living legend of Lurein Kingdom, he rarely appeared in public unless on the battlefield, so few knew his face.
Lately, he had half-retired, so the young especially were unfamiliar. Thus, Zail and Boer were shocked.
Said to be over a hundred years old, Kairen looked mid-to-late twenties—like Azel or Boer. His distinctly Dragon Demon features set him apart from humans, though.
Kairen was a handsome youth with long black hair. His deep navy eyes gave a cool, piercing impression, and his ears were noticeably longer than Arietta’s. Above them curved two black horns, thick and imposing like a rhinoceros’s.