Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: The Thief, and (2)
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Savage energy poured out from the desert swords gripped in the men's hands. It was clear they were no ordinary blades. But that was no reason for Ban to be afraid.
'Looks interesting.'
Not all of those swords were possessed by goblins, so perhaps they had undergone some special ritual? Ban silently regulated his breathing. The tension of battle had never once felt unpleasant. Not even when he sensed that death might await him at the end of the fight.
So this much was nothing.
The bandits charged. Recalling how often he'd dreamed of fighting bandits as a child, Ban smiled. He still wasn't the Sword God, but even so.
His dream was steadily becoming reality.
He didn't draw Kishin. It might be different against vampires or Arotep, but Kishin's power was overkill against these ordinary foes. The huandao greatsword. One blade was enough.
- ...You really can't have a single easy day, can you?
He heard Yuri's grumbling. It was good that he never had an easy day. Instead of replying, Ban tilted the huandao greatsword diagonally. His eyes shifted.
Up. Down. Right. Upper right. And lower left.
Everything his eyes touched was etched into his mind, and his experience and instincts told him the path he must take. A swordsman's fight originally ended the moment it began. So Ban knew from the start.
He had won.
Perhaps they thought otherwise. That no matter how skilled Ban was, he couldn't handle all of them.
How optimistic.
Ban saw it. He heard, felt, and foresaw it. How their blades would come at him, where and when they would step, how they would thrust their hidden swords from the shadows behind a seemingly disadvantageous stance.
And he decided not to give them the chance to execute their plan.
"Gh...!?"
"Wha...!"
"Guh!"
Ban swung his huandao greatsword dozens of times in an instant. And every one of those swings was for a deflection. The overlapping trajectories in the air instantly took form and began sucking everything in. It was the moment a whirlwind arose in the still, windless cavern.
In an instant, they floated up like feathers before crashing to the ground like iron balls. None suffered major injuries, but unlike before, they couldn't easily charge at Ban again.
'About 3-Star level.'
Some were worse, some better... but on average, that was their level. In an ordinary territory, it was strength enough to act tough and throw their weight around, but unfortunately, Ban wasn't an ordinary territory-level powerhouse.
"What? Not coming at me anymore?"
Ban taunted. They didn't take the bait. They knew charging now would just repeat the scene from moments ago.
And the same went for Arotep.
"...Fine. For a free knight, that's decent skill."
"Is it? I'm curious too."
Ban shrugged.
"Not bad for Munet's father."
"Father-in-law? I never had a son-in-law like you."
"...No, not that kind of father-in-law..."
"I've imagined this moment countless times, wondering what I'd do if it ever came."
Arotep glared at Ban with blazing eyes.
"And in every one of those imaginings, I was never gentle."
"No, but why does it have to be so..."
"Excuses later! If you want my daughter, defeat me first!"
Arotep bared his teeth, claws extended. The power of countless stolen lives overflowed from his entire body. It somewhat resembled the Eustaine Clan, but the aura emanating from him was far too ominous and evil compared to their sacred divinity.
'Still strong.'
Instead of continuing the absurd conversation, Ban drew his blade alongside it. Crimson veins bulged over Arotep's pale skin. His muscles swelled as if about to burst, and his elongated nails looked hard enough to tear steel.
And in that brief moment as he charged, Ban drew Kishin instead of Yuri.
'Lend me some strength, Kishin.'
Whether it read Ban's mind or simply reacted to the vampire's presence, he didn't know. But Kishin's demonic energy blazed fiercely, chillingly so. He felt it permeating his entire body. It was as if the world itself became his power. Arotep's eyes changed.
"You sold your soul to that cursed sword? How foolish!"
Of course, the first clash proved it was a misunderstanding. The moment Arotep's claws met Ban's blade, he sensed something off. For someone supposedly consumed by a cursed sword, Ban's eyes were too calm.
'He resisted a cursed sword of this level...?'
It was incomprehensible, but he had no time to dwell. The blood he'd drained over ages granted strength to rip even superhumans apart, but it paled before Kishin's protection. Ban's raw power was slightly inferior to Arotep's, but still hardly believable for a human.
'Definitely easier.'
When wielding Kishin, Ban couldn't expect much beyond physical enhancement. Unlike Yuri, which enforced deflection principles just by holding it.
But even so, it was enough.
Strength. Speed. Reflexes. Hearing. Dynamic vision. Everything developed to incomparable levels. His body felt so much better than usual that adaptation was the issue. Yet his blade remained sharp thanks to peeking into Kishin's memories countless times. He'd already stolen the feel of moving in vastly different physical conditions.
What he couldn't cut, he now could.
What he couldn't block, he now could.
What he couldn't deflect, he now could,
And impossibility touched possibility.
'...Strong, definitely strong.'
Arotep might be somewhat unhinged, but his strength was undeniable. His claws had surely torn countless human necks. His fangs had drained endless blood, and his kicks had crippled many for life.
But Ban's sword didn't have a short history.
No, one could say it was incomparably longer. If he lined up the times of the swordsmen he'd glimpsed, it would form a line so long that even multiple lifetimes couldn't reach its end.
It wasn't just a clash of strength, but of history, and in that, Ban yielded to no one.
'Without Kishin, it would have been tough.'
Kishin's power maximized against Seeds of the Night. And the stronger the opponent, the greater the power it granted him.
Without Kishin, Ban couldn't have held his own so evenly against Arotep.
"How...?"
That was one reason Arotep panicked. He'd accurately gauged Ban's skill. What he hadn't foreseen was Ban's power to resist even a mighty cursed sword like Kishin.
In his long life, Arotep prided himself on facing many rivals. But someone like Ban was definitely a first.
'No way, surely not...'
Something long forgotten surfaced in Arotep's mind. Those who read all things in the world, feared as potential true masters of it.
The Seonwoo Clan.
Absurd speculation. But only that absurd speculation made sense of the situation. Arotep chuckled darkly.
"So, their descendants still live..."
Ban flinched at the words but said nothing, sharpening his blade further. From the moment he revealed Kishin's power, he'd braced for his identity to be exposed. Only the goblin masters, the Seonwoo Clan, could fully control a cursed sword far beyond their level.
But as the clash dragged on, the superiority grew clear. Kishin's demonic energy could enhance stamina, but not infinitely. Meanwhile, Arotep, who had drained lives for ages, boasted what seemed like near-endless endurance.
Ban’s sword slowed. Arotep's claws drew closer to his flesh, and scratches began appearing on Ban's body one by one. To any onlooker, he was cornered, but oddly, Ban felt not fear, but joy.
The boundary of life and death. A world where split seconds decided all. Ban's consciousness indulged in pleasure beyond human limits. Feeling his strength wane, his body slow, his mind sank deeper than ever and gazed far ahead.
Insufficient. What was lacking? Strength? Speed? Stamina? All possibly. But the fundamental reason he fell behind Arotep wasn't physical. A fight ends at its start.
Ban had won against Arotep's underlings from the start. But against Arotep? Had he won or lost? Could he foresee the outcome? Had he grasped Arotep's number? Had he read his plan before it surfaced in his unconscious?
Arotep wasn't a swordsman. So reading him was relatively harder, naturally. But Ban couldn't accept that. What he'd glimpsed wasn't just swordsmen's backs. He'd felt their rivals' faces, strengths, and weaknesses through his eyes and skin.
"Be honest. Impressive skill. To witness that fabled power in person..."
Confident in his advantage, Arotep spoke leisurely. Ban didn't snap. Arotep was strong. His unknown martial art seemed the pinnacle of instinctual unarmed combat.
A beastly, predatory fighting style beyond human. Not mere reliance on physicality. If so, even ten times faster or stronger, he'd have fallen to Ban's blade.
Ban frowned.
'No chance in stamina.'
'Strength and speed favor him.'
'I'm ahead in technique... but even with Kishin's power, our qi is even.'
'What to do?'
'Lose inevitably?'
'Can't win?'
What would Urong, Hei, or Lucas do? Ban simulated scenarios in his mind. But in every one, he ended up the loser.
'...I didn't roll like a dog all this time just to take a beating here.'
He couldn't back down. Ban drew Yuri in his empty left hand. There was a technique he'd only theorized, never tested. It required an opponent to maximally draw out Kishin's power—possible only in his mind until now.
Yuri in left hand, Kishin in right.
Body pushed to limits, mind honed to extremes, and the soul of a swordsman who devoted his life to deflection, all converged.
Ban’s aura shifted instantly. Kishin's demonic energy soared skyward as if burning him, and Arotep's face stiffened. The sharpest危機 since meeting Ban warned him.
That is dangerous.
Do not face it.
But how could a father show his back before his daughter? Arotep bared his fangs and raised his claws. Whatever it was, he'd tear it apart. And soon, he had to retract that thought.
"...Hah."
A technique untried, unnamed...
If he had to name it, yes. Given that wild, ferocious aura, Storm Sword.
Storm Sword it was.