Chapter 153: Welcome, Double Dragon (4)
Chapter 153: Welcome, Double Dragon (4)
“My Lord, do you really intend to go through with this?”
The man speaking to Marquis Raines with a worried expression was the Marquis’s disciple, a vassal whose family had served the house for generations, and the Knight Captain who led the order.
He was, for all intents and purposes, the Marquis’s closest confidant.
Normally, Marquis Raines trusted his word more than that of his own children. But today was an exception.
“Is it really so strange?”
“Is it strange? It’s nothing but strange!”
Seeing his subordinate protest so vehemently, Marquis Raines offered a nonchalant smile.
“A young man on a knight’s pilgrimage is simply asking a senior for guidance through a spar. Isn’t that a common occurrence? What’s so strange about that?”
“It’s obviously strange when two 7-Star swordsmen of different nationalities are dueling!”
“Hahaha. That is merely a prejudice.”
The Knight Captain beat his chest as if he were about to die of frustration.
“What do you think His Majesty the King will say when he finds out?”
“He won’t find out if we don’t get caught.”
“My Looooord!”
“I’m not deaf, you know.”
No matter what was said, Marquis Raines had no intention of backing down.
He had dedicated his entire life to the sword since his youth. He had pushed himself and pushed himself again. He had worked so hard that others called him mad, and as a result, he had reached the 7-Star realm—the so-called Supreme Realm.
The world praised him for it, and he himself had been moved by that glory.
But…
‘I should have realized sooner that it was a poison.’
When did it start? He had realized he was stagnant.
While he guided his knights and never neglected his own training, at some point, there had been no progress at all. It was a terrible poison. A lethal toxin that made effort feel meaningless and turned the very meaning of life into a dull shade of gray.
The inability to move forward… No, the agonizing sense of isolation from not even knowing where he should go. Marquis Raines was rotting away within it.
He had tried to do something about it, albeit late. He had attempted to go to the Empire to seek the teachings of the Sword Saint.
But that attempt had failed. The state simply did not allow a man of his stature to travel to the Empire.
It wasn’t just the state. His family, his vassals, and the people he had to protect… He already carried too much on his shoulders.
As the current head of the House of Marquis Raines, he had to look after the family, and as the commander of Raines Fortress, which bordered the Great Forest of the East, he had to fulfill his duties. It was impossible for him to throw everything away just to satisfy his desires as a swordsman.
And yet…
‘Double Dragon, is it…?’
Just thinking about it made his body temperature rise. The opportunity he had been desperately craving had walked right up to him.
He was willing to set aside national interests and his dignity as a Marquis. He wanted only one thing.
‘Please, do not disappoint me, Double Dragon.’
He picked up his sword and shield, a thin smile playing on his lips.
“Shall we go, then?”
With a heart full of excitement, Marquis Raines headed toward the training ground.
*
The training ground of the Marquis’s estate.
The space, usually large enough for over three hundred soldiers to train together, was now empty. Well, not entirely empty. People were swarming the area, though most were waiting at the perimeter.
Their gazes were fixed on Patrick, who stood tall in the center of the grounds.
“Arrogant brat.”
“How dare a kid like that challenge who?”
“Don’t expect to leave here alive.”
Faced with their burning glares, Patrick let out a long yawn.
“Yaaaawn. The atmosphere is great. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this.”
Patrick wasn’t intimidated in the least by the glares of the knights of House Raines. He was used to this. In the past, when he was just a disciple of a third-rate sect, he never received warm looks when he challenged prestigious Orthodox Faction sects to duels.
But that was Patrick’s perspective…
“Dammit, look at the mess I’m in because I picked the wrong friend.”
His companions were miserable. April remained calm, but Isabella and Matthew were drenched in cold sweat running down their spines. Being at the center of such blatant killing intent was not something for the faint of heart.
Finally, Matthew spoke to Patrick.
“Hey, are you really going to do this?”
“Of course. Why, are you backing out now?”
“Can we even back out?”
“Want me to try? Should I say, ‘Sorry, I was just joking,’ and walk out? How do you think the opponent would react?”
“……”
Yeah, that sounded pretty horrific in its own way.
“You think so too, right?”
In the end, Patrick was right. Matthew and Isabella glared at Patrick’s annoying face and threw in their two cents.
“You rotten bastard.”
“Hahaha. They say you’re friends with a rotten bastard.”
“Troublemaker.”
“Hahaha. They say you’re engaged to a troublemaker.”
They hated it. They just hated everything. Matthew and Isabella looked up at the sky simultaneously with expressions of utter despair.
Just then.
“Oh, he’s here.”
Marquis Raines, fully armed, stepped onto the training ground.
A longsword and a kite shield. He wore no armor. It was likely to maintain fairness with Patrick.
‘I wouldn’t have minded if he wore it, though.’
It seemed Marquis Raines had a fairly straightforward personality. Patrick smirked and spoke to his companions.
“Back off over there.”
His companions retreated from the center, leaving only Patrick and Marquis Raines facing each other.
“Are you all ready?”
“I am.”
“Then shall we begin?”
“Very well. But before we duel, there is one thing I wish to say.”
“What is it?”
“Thank you. Thanks to you coming here like this, I have gained a wonderful opportunity.”
‘A wonderful opportunity, huh…?’
As expected, this man was quite thirsty for a challenge. Patrick had anticipated as much.
He gave a short laugh and said, “Then make sure to learn well from this wonderful opportunity.”
“Hahaha… ‘Learn,’ you say.”
A young man not even half his age was telling him he would teach him a lesson. Yet, Marquis Raines wasn’t offended at all. The only emotion dominating him now was a heart-pounding sense of anticipation. It was as if he had returned to being a boy experiencing his first love.
“Then, now…”
“Yeah. Let’s really get started.”
The two stepped back a few paces. Marquis Raines raised his shield in front of him and leveled his sword behind it in a thrusting stance.
‘A typical heavy armored knight’s stance.’
Patrick was used to such opponents now. At first, the style of using a shield and sword together had been unfamiliar, but now he knew. That form was the standard most knights of this world pursued.
Sword, shield, and iron armor. This was the combat style that maximized the effectiveness of those three elements. The shield was held forward, the body crouched as much as possible, and the sword was hidden behind the shield to mask one’s intent.
It was a good stance. So good it could serve as a textbook example of a heavy armored knight’s form. However…
‘I’ll crush both your textbook and your common sense.’
Patrick also took his stance. Though, his "stance" consisted of nothing more than holding a sword in each hand and relaxing his entire body.
At that sight, the knights of House Raines bristled with anger.
“How dare he…”
“There’s a limit to being arrogant.”
To them, it looked as if Patrick was looking down on Marquis Raines by not even bothering to take a proper stance.
But their anger vanished in an instant.
In the very next second, Patrick vanished. And then…
BOOOOM!
A shockwave erupted with a thunderous roar. Patrick, who had disappeared without any warning, had collided head-on with Marquis Raines.
“Ugh!”
“Kh…”
Several lower-ranked knights were overwhelmed by the shockwave and stumbled back. An Aura Blade was vividly coiled around Patrick’s sword, and the same was true for Marquis Raines’s shield. Thanks to that, he was able to block an attack that would have shattered an ordinary kite shield into splinters.
Marquis Raines was indeed a 7-Star knight. However, even though he blocked the attack, he couldn’t completely neutralize the impact and was pushed back significantly.
Screeeeech.
A long trail was carved into the ground as he skidded back. No sooner had the distance opened than Patrick lunged again. He charged straight ahead once more.
But this time, Marquis Raines didn’t just wait.
‘The same trick won’t work twice.’
He took a step forward, his shield opening slightly, and his longsword lunged through the gap. A sharp strike aimed directly at Patrick’s throat. The blade was shrouded in a brilliant Aura Blade. It was a lethal move intended to halt the opponent’s charge.
However, Patrick didn’t retreat at all, even in the face of such an attack. He continued forward, and for a moment, Marquis Raines flinched. It was the agitation that comes when an opponent’s movement defies expectation.
But his sword did not stop. And the moment his blade pierced Patrick’s throat…
Swish!
There was no sensation of impact. Marquis Raines was struck with panic as his attack pierced empty air.
‘An afterimage?’
It felt as if Marquis Raines’s heart had dropped into his stomach. Only after his sword passed through the afterimage did he realize that Patrick was no longer in front of him. And the moment he realized that, a small voice drifted down from above his head.
“Here I come.”
“Kh…!”
Marquis Raines frantically raised his shield upward, pouring every ounce of Aura he had into it. An Aura Blade—no, what could only be called an Aura Shield—formed over his shield.
Immediately after.
A streak of light fell vertically from above Marquis Raines’s head.
Twin Dragons Eight Sword Styles.
Third Form.
Flash Dragon Strike.
BOOOOOOOOM!
*
“…Uh… Wha…”
“Buh… babbuh…”
“……”
They couldn’t close their mouths. There was no more accurate way to describe the feelings of the knights of House Raines.
Their lord was a superhuman who had pioneered the 7-Star realm, the Supreme Realm. And they believed they had seen Marquis Raines’s skills more closely and more often than anyone else.
He had effortlessly suppressed a Twin-Headed Ogre alone. He had lightly dispatched dozens of trolls without even breaking a sweat. He had stood his ground and fought evenly against the legendary great beast, the Manticore, and eventually took its head.
He was truly a superhuman. To the knights of the Marquis’s house, Marquis Raines was a symbol of strength that would never fall. The reason they could live safely despite being right next to the Great Forest—the most dangerous zone for humanity—was because they lived under the shadow of that superhuman.
Yet, against that Marquis Raines, this Patrick Schneider was engaging in an equal exchange. No, "equal" wasn’t even the right word. This was…
‘The Marquis was pushed back.’
They couldn’t grasp the details of the exchange, but they had seen the streak of light falling onto the Marquis’s head. It was a terrifying display of destructive power. It was an attack that looked as if a bolt of lightning had fallen from the heavens.
Only then did it sink in. The Double Dragon was also a 7-Star swordsman. He was a superhuman who was by no means inferior to Marquis Raines.
*
The thick dust gradually settled. The result of the collision revealed itself. There…
“Oh… Oooooh!”
“As expected!”
Patrick and Marquis Raines were still standing on their own two feet, facing each other.
“The Marquis will not lose!”
“Marquis Raines is invincible!”
“The Guardian Deity of Decatur will not fall!”
The knights clenched their fists and let out cheers. Their cheers were also a testament to how anxious they had been.
The Guardian Deity of Decatur. This was the alias Marquis Raines had earned by firmly holding the line against the Great Forest of the East. The fact that he had earned the title of a nation’s guardian deity showed how many crises he had saved the country from.
It would be a national disgrace if such a man were to fall to a knight from another country—or more accurately, a greenhorn who wasn’t even a knight yet.
However, Marquis Raines, who was facing Patrick, couldn’t hear the cheers of his knights. All his focus was on replaying the exchange that had just occurred.
And the conclusion he reached was…
‘I’ve already lost.’
He could deceive others, but he couldn’t deceive himself. In the previous exchange, Marquis Raines had failed to grasp Patrick’s movements entirely. When he was fooled by the afterimage, he had no idea where Patrick had moved.
The attack that fell from above afterward—the only reason he had been able to block it was because Patrick had given him a verbal warning beforehand. If he hadn’t…
‘I would have been dead before we could even talk about winning or losing.’
He could vividly imagine himself being split in half from the crown of his head.
“Huuuuu…”
A sigh escaped him involuntarily. Normally, he should have called it quits here. The exchange had only continued because of the opponent’s consideration. If he had any honor, he should admit defeat and step back. But…
“……”
He didn’t want to. He wanted to fight more, even if only for a little longer. How long had it been since he felt this sensation? It was a thrill he could never feel from the powerful demonic beasts that came out of the Great Forest. It was a feeling that could only be experienced when crossing blades with another human.
Then Patrick spoke.
“Well, don’t overthink it.”
“What?”
“I intended to go easy on you for the first of the three strikes anyway.”
“……”
“There are still two left. So…”
Patrick extended one hand and beckoned with his fingers.
“Come at me.”