Chapter 251
Chapter 251
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Rewards (1)
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One great thing about making a ton of money and climbing the ranks is this.
Even if you smash everything to bits, you can cover all the compensation.
I gripped my twin swords tightly.
And in that instant, as I swung them upward together.
――――――!!
Two massive crescent blades of sword energy surged forth like twin moons, charging straight at Lize.
"Impressive..."
The southern shaman immediately erected a square barrier.
Her distinctive emerald eyes flashed as she confronted the onslaught.
Kagak――――!!
A chilling friction rang out as the sword energy clashed with the barrier.
But in the end, it was the barrier that shattered first.
Kwajik!!
It splintered and scattered like shards of glass.
I darted through the fragments in an instant.
I was certain her barrier couldn't withstand my sword energy.
Trusting that certainty, I closed in on Lize in a flash.
And with the resolve to hold nothing back any longer, I struck the flat of my blade against her neck.
"...?!"
But the sensation that returned was utterly bizarre.
It felt like slicing not flesh, but water.
Sure enough, the elf's neck, caught on the blade's edge, rippled like mud.
Then her entire body dissolved into blue water, spilling onto the floor.
'A clone...?'
A curse technique using elemental manipulation, a staple among shamans.
It was definitely different from magic.
"Hoo... You're far more savage than you look..."
Lize's ragged breathing echoed from behind.
I turned my head leisurely to follow the sound.
"You're supposed to be the continent's top shaman, but all that posturing, and here you are scrambling just to dodge?"
Glittering powder scattered in the air as she dropped her invisibility and reappeared.
She wiped the cold sweat from her brow and let out a smirk.
But that smile vanished completely in an instant.
Because I'd left an afterimage and closed in on her again.
"Is this the skill you've been using to fight the Empire?"
I smashed the hilt of my sword into her smooth forehead.
At the same time, I swung Hector briefly with my other hand, slashing at her side.
"Krk...!"
This time it wasn't a clone—red blood sprayed across the floor.
Yet, even as she sacrificed her side, she grabbed my wrist.
"...!!"
The wrist gripped by the elf began to harden like stone.
I pulled back, shaking out my fist lightly.
Channeling aura, the petrification magic encasing my body crumbled off neatly.
'Buying time, huh.'
I quickly realized her technique was an illusion meant to fluster opponents.
As I retreated, Lize extended both hands, summoning countless tree roots from the ground.
"Impressive indeed. That speed and swordsmanship deserve praise. You might even be on par with Leonhardt in a one-on-one."
The southern arch-shaman, still with room to spare based on her experience fighting the Emperor.
She spread her arms, flaunting her vast mana.
――――――.
The eons of power accumulated over time far longer than any human lifespan.
"But you're sorely lacking in experience."
Lize's eyes regained their elven calm.
In the pitch-black shop with all lights extinguished, her verdant eyes gleamed like those of great nature itself.
"...!!"
Then the surging tree roots all morphed into perfect replicas of Lize.
Suddenly, five more arch-shamans stood beside her.
"Now let's get serious, Mikhail."
The half-elf smiled sweetly.
She gestured elegantly, like a conductor tuning an orchestra.
In that moment.
―――.
The five Lizes pointed their staves at me.
As intense flashes gathered at their tips.
Kwaaang――――!!
Five beams of brilliant light pierced through my silhouette.
"..."
Lize shook out her palms irritably.
She brushed back her emerald hair as if loathing the murky air.
"This is why I hate flashy fights."
She moved to leave the shop, intending to catch up with her disciples.
The five blasts had filled the air with such thick smoke, their power was undeniable.
"I need to slip away while I have this opening."
They boasted the destructive force that had once routed an Imperial cavalry charge—no Grand Master could shrug that off.
Or so she thought.
"Hm...?"
But then she saw it.
An intense white glow flickering amid the dense smoke.
And that glow piercing through the smoke to engulf her and her clones.
――――――.
A blinding white sword energy sliced through all their waists.
The thunderbolt strike cleaved the clones in half before they could even defend.
Fududuk....
The bisected Lizes crumbled into tree roots and scattered across the floor.
Only the true body, holding the most mana, barely managed to raise her staff in defense.
"Haa..."
But this was merely the beginning.
I'd launched the sword energy while bursting through the smoke myself.
Kaaang!!
I gave her no chance to speak.
Just swung Hector with cold, unflinching eyes.
Lize raised her massive staff to block the blade.
Worthy of an arch-shaman's weapon, it was made of some unusual material that resisted cutting.
But that was all it could do.
Block Hector, and I'd follow with Irina's sword.
Block that, and I'd spin into a flurry of Hector strikes.
For an elf who'd devoted her life to shamanism, fending off twin swords was excruciatingly difficult.
"Krk...!!"
Even as she scrambled to block, Lize hurriedly moved her feet.
She drew faint ritual patterns on the ground while retreating.
But I caught on and gave her no further leeway.
I infused both swords with white radiance.
Like Leonhardt's grand spear.
"Time to end this."
The two blinding flashes crossed paths, hurtling toward Lize.
"Not so fast...!!"
Lize thrust out her palm, blasting mana into the floor.
She summoned underground water in an instant, shaping it into a shield as large as herself.
The flashes canceled out against the ultra-compressed water pressure.
Instead, the sword energy that grazed past her blasted the stream behind the shop.
Shwaaa――――.
The erupted water column shot into the sky.
Then it rained down under the full moon.
"You really are a Grand Master..."
Amid the downpour, Lize wore a bitter smile.
She elegantly wiped the clear droplets trailing from her brow.
"Both you and Leonhardt... I can feel the traces of your long training."
The southern arch-shaman planted her staff firmly on the ground.
A clear chime echoed through the ruined shop and shaman district.
"But that's as far as it goes."
Lize grinned, pointing at the ground beneath her feet.
I glanced down at the floor as well.
In that instant.
――――――.
I spotted the synthesis array she'd secretly drawn while deliberately parrying my attacks.
The traces of her ritual etched into the shop floor and backyard with her shoe heel.
"Unlike the Emperor, you have one major flaw."
Lize approached haughtily, leaning on her staff.
Her elven figure and curves stood out beautifully with every step.
"Your 'power' just isn't built up enough yet."
The woman who'd lived over a century smiled sweetly as she closed right up to my face.
Even though I could decapitate her with a swing at any moment, she showed no more fear.
She wasn't scrambling to flee in panic like before.
As if she no longer needed to.
"The synthesis array you're standing in is called the 'Absolute Hierarchy' among us elves."
The arch-shaman shed her cumbersome robe entirely.
Revealing her elven battle attire: an armored dress.
It clung dizzyingly from chest to thigh.
Her ample hips swayed gracefully as she walked.
"Anyone caught inside submits to the one with the greatest mana."
'So that's why she was so relaxed.'
Indeed, my shoulders had felt heavier since earlier.
As if ensnared by some spell.
"It's the most effective way to discipline the prideful."
Lize stroked her ancient-wood staff.
Then, gazing at me up close like a cute pet fox, she smiled.
"Isn't it fascinating? A spell for child-rearing, used in a decisive battle like this."
She spoke in a mother's gentle tone.
"Humans are no different. All the aura you've absorbed from those you've killed will be measured and compared to mine."
The arch-shaman pulled a mana-infused cord from her back pocket.
She tossed it at me like a collar.
"That's how the loser ends up eternally subservient to the victor."
Lize's face lit up with childlike excitement, as if unwrapping a grand gift.
She approached me in my shirtsleeves, slowly rubbing my left chest with her finger.
"In other words, no matter how skilled you are, if the power you've accumulated falls short of mine, you lose."
The half-elf circled me appraisingly.
Then, apparently taken with my broad back, she embraced me from behind to measure it.
"Hmm... Pity. Leonhardt at your age would've been perfect."
Lize's full breasts pressed softly against my back.
"Back then, he wouldn't have killed as many foes, so this spell would've worked."
Leonhardt, active on battlefields for over twenty years.
He'd slain countless enemies, naturally absorbing their power.
From Lize's elven perspective, that must have been intimidating.
But I appeared to her as just a young prodigy brimming with talent.
"Guess I'll have to settle for you."
Lize elegantly covered her mouth with her palm.
Then murmured with a lewd smile.
"..."
I smirked at the leisurely elf woman's antics.
The princess had done it too—this shaman kept trying to grope me once hypnotized or enchanted.
But I wasn't putting up with it anymore.
I seized the wrist of the brazen elf groping me freely.
"Oh my? Still got some fight left?"
Lize brimmed with leisure still.
She figured the array hadn't finished gauging my power yet, so I could still thrash about.
"But that's all it is."
Even with her wrist caught, she played it cool.
Just stroking my large hand like a pet fox's paw.
"Leonhardt might be another story, but a novice like you can't beat me with that puny power."
Lize glanced trustingly at the glowing array on the ground.
Her body still moved freely, after all.
But...
"How much do you even know about me to boast like that?"
"...?"
My grip on her only grew stronger.
Lize began feeling pain sharp enough to furrow her brow.
"What...? How can you still move...?"
"You don't seem to know what it takes for a Grand Master to reach that realm."
I twisted the arm of this arrogant shaman who mocked me and His Majesty's power.
Lize let out a shallow groan and dropped to her knees.
"O-Of course I know! I'm an arch-shaman!"
The elf looked up at me with eyes full of disbelief.
As if the wealth of knowledge she'd amassed couldn't comprehend it.
"It's when you've fully slain three or more Sword Masters with your own power!"
Lize declared proudly.
"But you're barely twenty. At best, you've killed three Sword Masters..."
The arch-shaman soon felt her body refusing her commands.
The moment she looked up in confusion.
Her lips parted at the array revealing my vast memories.
「Fifteen years on the front lines through endless hardship, finally rising to captain of the guard knights.」
「Faced down dozens of knights single-handedly to protect one woman.」
「And in that process, slain over five Sword Masters.」
"N-No way... These memories...!!"
Even an elf over a century old trembled at the unprecedented sight.
"D-Did you turn back time?!"
I approached the slumped elf calmly.
Gazing down at her with cold eyes, I said.
"You're the pathetic one."
I nudged the cord with my booted foot.
It brushed against Lize's ample thigh.
"Over a hundred years alive, and you've accumulated less power than I did in fifteen."
The array on the shattered shop floor glowed.
Its light began binding Lize's body tighter.
"L-Liar. The Empire doesn't have that many Sword Masters! And most of them are still alive!"
The half-elf cried out in injustice.
And rightly so.
In this life, the only Sword Master I'd slain was Captain Hammus, Hakim's subordinate.
"How do you know...? How...?!"
But I offered no reply.
Just smirked with mocking eyes, as if consoling her.
"What else? If you don't know, you lose."
What happens on the battlefield when you don't know your foe?
Defeat.
"Blame your own weakness, Lize."
I pointed at the cord with my finger.
Then indifferently ordered the elf I'd just fought, as if she were vermin.
"Bind yourself."
Lize recoiled from the cord she'd produced.
Yet her fingers began trembling under the spell's compulsion.
"N-No...!!"
Perhaps due to the elves' innate mental fortitude.
No matter how she struggled, the arch-shaman couldn't stop her hands from binding themselves.
She even used shamanism to secure her arms even tighter with the metal cord.
"Hng... This can't be...!!"
With Lize thus self-bound, the synthesis array faded.
Only the ruined shop remained in the wasteland.
"Sob... Hic... sob..."
The elf who'd lived over a century began weeping pitifully.
Watching her, I could guess she had little actual war experience in those hundred years.
'No wonder she couldn't use it on His Majesty.'
It wouldn't have worked on the battle-hardened Leonhardt in his forties.
I shook my head and clasped my hands behind my back.
Then passed the time waiting for the princesses to return.
'Everyone pulled off a feat by the time they get back... They won't be expecting rewards, will they?'