187
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 187
The swordsmanship of Elijah, who revealed himself as a Sword Master, had subtly changed. Even with the added sword energy, it didn't become dramatically faster or stronger. In fact, Yan, who used buff magic, was much faster and stronger. This meant that while Elijah's greatsword moved at a speed sufficient to react, Yan found it difficult to handle Elijah's greatsword.
The reason was quite simple. When Yan tried to block Elijah's greatsword, it would suddenly speed up and steal Yan's perfect striking point. When Yan tried to dodge, the greatsword would abruptly stop and then flow in the direction Yan was trying to dodge. Elijah perplexed Yan with his ‘experience,’ which earned him the nicknames ‘slowness’ and ‘timing.’ Of course, since Yan was faster and stronger, he could somehow break through that ambiguous greatsword and land an attack.
Clang!
However, Yan's sword couldn't even touch Elijah's armor. This was because it was blocked by the thick energy surrounding Elijah's entire body. The fact that it couldn't cut through even with the supreme cutting magic ‘Blade of Funeral Song’ suggested that Elijah's energy was harder and more concentrated than Yan's. Yet Yan's sword couldn't even shake Elijah's body. This was because Elijah had completely bonded his feet to the ground using the aura manipulation technique ‘Root Planting.’
Failing to counterattack typically creates a big opening. Yan sensed Elijah's greatsword coming down as if to split the ground in two. Yan immediately twisted his body and barely managed to dodge.
Kwaaaang!
Sticky mud splashed up, creating a thin wall of mud between Yan and Elijah. Yan swung Nameless. Yan's Nameless advanced toward Elijah's armor, cutting through the mud wall while emitting a sticky blood scent. Elijah made no attempt to block Yan's sword. As if planning to trade blows, he pulled up his greatsword that was stuck in the ground. This was because he knew Yan's Nameless wouldn't be able to penetrate his energy.
Jjeeeeeong!
The thunderous sound created by Yan's Nameless and the greatsword shook heaven and earth. Yan slid backward.
'I can't read him...'
Yan found Elijah's ambiguous swordsmanship more frightening than the energy surrounding his armor. Yan was exceptionally skilled at identifying opponents' patterns. Whether magic, sword, or spear, habits inevitably show through regardless of the weapon used. Especially during intense exchanges, people can't make rational judgments and follow the ‘fixed patterns’ they've honed for decades.
Those patterns combine and interweave to become ‘swordsmanship’ and ‘aura manipulation techniques.’ Understanding this, Yan was able to master countless sword techniques and aura manipulation methods, and even exploit their weaknesses. But Elijah was different.
'It keeps changing.'
Yan had served Elijah for 10 years and learned swordsmanship from him. Therefore, he knew the Friedrich family's greatsword technique ‘Lion Slash’ that Elijah used like the back of his hand. However, despite clearly using the same Lion Slash technique, Elijah showed hundreds of variations. Sometimes it was majestic yet quiet like an eagle's wingbeat, sometimes flowing and powerful like a fish swimming upstream. Sometimes it showed power as if it could behead a dragon, and sometimes it was so light it couldn't even twist a sparrow's neck. These ever-changing attack patterns left Yan's head spinning, unable to fight properly.
"Haven't I told you many times?" Elijah's greatsword came coiling in like a snake. Yan tried to deflect it by swinging Nameless, but the greatsword instead clung to Nameless and forcefully pushed it away. Yan gritted his teeth and endured.
"It's good to try to identify and exploit your opponent's patterns, but if you take too much time doing that, you might die without showing your strongest fangs."
Elijah's foot stamped on Yan's instep. Thanks to boots made of Terra alloy, his instep was unharmed, but Yan couldn't break free from Elijah.
"The best defense is offense, Hero."
Elijah's left hand shot out like lightning and dug into Yan's left armpit. Then Elijah tripped Yan's foot with his other foot. Yan tried to twist his body before hitting the ground, but Elijah had the same idea. Elijah didn't resist Yan's force but instead made a full turn and buried Yan in the mud.
"Kuph!"
Sticky mud entered Yan's mouth and nose. Elijah applied force to push Yan's head into the muddy ground. Yan struggled with all his might to break free from Elijah's snake-like grappling technique, but couldn't escape Elijah's grip. Elijah whispered into the ear of Yan, whose face was buried in mud. Despite Yan's attempts to escape using both magic and his enhanced body, he couldn't break free from Elijah's grip.
"No matter how much you try to break free with force, you won't be able to. Didn't I tell you before? Technique surpasses power."
Power cannot overcome technique.
Elijah was still teaching this lesson to Yan in his 30s, the same lesson he had taught when Yan was merely a teenager.
"I suppose the same applies to me. While I don't think my swordsmanship is lacking, the moment the warrior reads all my techniques, I'll ultimately lose."
Muddy water began rushing up to Yan's nose and mouth.
Soon, the earthy smell of death numbed Yan's sense of taste and smell.
"Then I'll just have to finish this before you can read them all."
Elijah pushed Yan into the pit even more forcefully.
Yan couldn't breathe.
"Now, what will you do? Will you just let yourself be defeated?"
A bitter, stinging pain deeply penetrated Yan's consciousness.
He couldn't endure any longer.
Yan gritted his teeth.
As the mud particles in his mouth crumbled, Yan finally used his hidden technique.
"Air Strike!"
The blue magic stone embedded in the right shoulder of Yan's black armor began to shine and produced magic.
That magic struck Elijah's armor precisely and pushed his body back.
Elijah spun lightly in the air before landing.
Yan rose from the pit.
Elijah smiled slightly.
"Using that fine armor only for buff purposes is indeed inefficient."
Yan switched off his strength enhancement magic and armor durability enhancement magic, changing to attack magic.
One was anti-gravity magic, and the other was Air Strike.
Elijah blocked the Air Strike that exploded beneath his feet with his greatsword.
However, due to the anti-gravity magic, he soared high into the sky.
Once Elijah had risen high enough, Yan turned off the anti-gravity magic affecting Elijah's body.
As Elijah's body began falling due to gravity, Yan switched to strength enhancement magic and swung Nameless.
Elijah's Lion Slash is a sword technique that requires both feet to be properly planted on the ground.
In his current airborne state, there's absolutely no way he could counter Yan's sword.
Elijah received Yan's sword.
BANG!
As expected, Elijah's body flew like a cannonball.
Yan used Blink magic to move behind where Elijah was flying.
He swung his sword toward Elijah's head.
CLANG!
Surprisingly, Elijah parried Yan's sword.
However, since he couldn't receive it in a proper stance, he was overwhelmed by the force.
As Elijah had said, power cannot overcome technique.
"AAAAAAH!"
Yan pushed hard, intending to split Elijah's greatsword in two.
But at that moment, Elijah released his greatsword.
Elijah's greatsword disappeared across the battlefield like a boomerang.
For a knight to let go of their sword so easily was unthinkable.
Just as Yan was bewildered by Elijah's decision that defied common sense, the greatsword that had clearly flown away appeared in Elijah's right hand.
'An artifact...!'
Along with Elijah's rotating momentum, the heavy greatsword slashed vertically as if to split Yan's body in half.
Yan barely managed to avoid it by turning his body sideways.
However, taking advantage of that opening, Elijah's kick flew toward his face.
Yan blocked Elijah's kick with his gauntlet.
BOOM!
Yan flew backward.
CLANK!
Elijah's boots, filled with battle energy, shattered Yan's gauntlet.
Yan threw off the broken gauntlet, discarding it on the ground.
"...That greatsword, it was an artifact?"
Despite serving Elijah for 10 years, Yan never dreamed that the absurdly large greatsword was an artifact.
Elijah stroked the greatsword.
"It could be called an artifact. But if it were merely an artifact, wouldn't Raven have recognized it immediately?"
"Then could it be...?"
"That's right. This is a relic imbued with dragon's words. Some call it an ancient relic, others call it a dragon word relic."
A relic containing the blessing of dragons from a forgotten era.
While it contained magical power like an artifact, because it was enchanted with dragon magic, its magical properties couldn't even be identified unless the same magic was manifested.
The reason adventurers tried so hard to find relics from the forgotten era was because discovering a dragon word relic could make them a fortune.
Elijah tapped his armor.
"This armor is also the same dragon word relic. Just by releasing aura, I can imbue it with battle energy of the same intensity as a sword."
Elijah spoke while watching the dumbfounded Yan.
"All of this could have been yours. But you threw away all these opportunities because you were swayed by a woman's influence."
Elijah's sturdy legs bent, ready to spring forward at any moment.
"You were young, and you're still young. That's why you'll die by my hand today."
A low, condensed roar like that of a wild beast flowed from Elijah's mouth.
At that moment, steam leaked from Elijah's entire body as auras intensely bored into his muscles.
To Yan, that low roar overlapped with the 'Berserker' that Barre used to employ.
Yan's entire body became sensitized.
Thud!
In the blink of an eye.
Elijah arrived right in front of Yan's nose and swung his greatsword.
The air turned pale white, unable to accept the speed and energy created by the greatsword.
Yan immediately activated 'Barrier Magic', but it was insufficient to block Elijah's greatsword.
It merely bought a very brief moment of time to allow Yan to adapt to Elijah's instantaneous change in speed.
Yan barely managed to duck his head to avoid the greatsword.
Bang!
As the barrier shattered, the highest-grade magic stone embedded in his left wrist also cracked and disappeared.
Yan reflexively thrust Nameless.
Despite striking with perfect posture, timing, and point of impact, when it didn't budge at all, bewilderment had no choice but to frost over in Yan's eyes.
Elijah dodged with beast-like movements and kicked Yan in the stomach.
Yan's armor momentarily caved in, and he flew away, bouncing off the ground several times like a skipping stone.
"If you had been under my command, you would have learned more."
Elijah was already in front of Yan again.
"And you would have become stronger than you are now."
Yan gritted his teeth and chanted a spell.
"Zero Gravity!"
The highest-grade magic stone embedded in the center flashed and bound Elijah's body once again.
At that moment, Elijah's hand moved toward his back pocket and pulled out a small glass bottle.
Crash!
When Elijah broke that glass bottle, purple powder scattered everywhere.
As the purple powder dispersed in the air, Requiem suddenly stopped working.
The zero gravity magic and all sorts of buff magic cast on Yan's body flickered like magic lamps that had lost all their magic, then went out.
These were 'Anti-Magic Stonefragments' that could only be found in minute quantities in the demon realm.
The yellowish-brown battle aura on Elijah's armor also disappeared.
But the difference between Elijah and Yan was that Elijah had anticipated the magic on his armor would stop working, while Yan had not.
Yan blocked Elijah's greatsword.
Crunch!
However, he lacked strength.
The sword aura overlaid on Yan's Nameless broke the highest-grade magic stone embedded in the center of Requiem.
Anti-Magic Stone fragments have the habit of absorbing all magic scattered in the surroundings.
Being that imperfect, the influence of the Anti-Magic Stone fragments disappeared quickly.
But Yan couldn't operate Requiem.
This was because Requiem's operation stopped as its core component was broken.
Elijah pressed Yan even more fiercely.
Yan's sword aura dug deeply into Requiem.
It seemed as if Yan's sword aura would slice through Yan's heart at this rate.
"Did you think you became the strongest because people called you the strongest?"
Grrrk!
"Do you think you could have killed the Demon King without Raven? Do you think you could have even reached the Demon King's castle without Barre or Mitchell?"
Yan's Requiem crumbled, unable to withstand the vibration created by the clashing sword auras.
"You became weak while relying on your companions. You relied on Raven's magic, relied on Barre's toughness, and relied on Mitchell's charisma."
Yan's sword aura dug into Yan's flesh.
"That's why you're dying by my hand today."
Elijah's words weren't wrong.
Yan hadn't relied on his swordsmanship at the most crucial moments.
He relied on Raven's magic and relied on his companions.
He looked for easier methods and searched for quicker paths.
And in doing so, he let his most excellent ability rust.
Yan's fighting wasn't originally like this.
Yan doesn't depend on things like magic.
He doesn't rely on excellent swords either.
This isn't how Yan fights.
Yan's mouth opened.
And from his mouth, a terrible cry poured out.
"UWOOOOOOOAH!"
Steam burst from Yan's mouth as his muscles swelled.
Pain so horrible it made his eyes bloodshot and his mind dizzy flowed through his nervous system.
In exchange, he gained power.
Berserker.
The secret technique of the barbarians and what was like Barre's symbol, this awakening technique gave Yan unprecedented power.