The Orc Great Warrior's Duel
With Kyle’s declaration, Volkrik and Graham’s expressions hardened like ice.
Kyle had already stepped forward. Standing before the Orc Great Warrior, he even wagered his own name. It was now the Hartvalt Grand Duchy itself that carried a stain on its name. Still, they had to confirm it.
“Grand Duke,” Volkrik said, face grim. “This is dangerous.”
“That monster is no opponent you can casually face.”
Graham spoke in a low, unyielding voice as well. He had taken the vanguard position to whittle down the Orc’s stamina and inflict wounds, hoping to give Volkrik a chance to finish the job even if he himself did not win.
“The vanguard should have been me,” Kyle replied, glancing alternately at the two elders. A faint smile played on his lips as he answered calmly, “I have a plan in mind.”
Volkrik’s eyebrows twitched. “A plan?”
“Yes.”
Kyle looked out across the snowy field where the Orc stood. “I will not throw my life away.”
His voice remained steady, free of tension, radiating rather a calm assurance. “Trust me and leave it to me.”
For a moment Volkrik and Graham stared at him. No tension showed in Kyle’s eyes—only boundless calm. The gaze of someone who had already prepared something.
What on earth is the Grand Duke thinking?
Well, since we’re in the middle of it, we’ll have to trust him. Lord wouldn’t want us to overprotect the Grand Duke either.
Kyle had always proven his worth. Just like the Blood Source Usurpation Art used yesterday, there was surely something hidden in his fight against the Orc.
Maybe…
Volkrik’s pupils sank deep. Maybe.
Graham was thinking the same thing.
The prime of Balgrim Hartvalt. The era when the North was carved out in blood. Perhaps a time will come that surpasses Lord’s own. The faint hope that this young Grand Duke might surpass that age stirred in the two elders’ chests. Of course, they kept it unspoken. Too early yet.
“…Very well,” Volkrik stepped back one pace. “If you say it that way, I won’t stop you.”
“Remember this, Grand Duke,” Graham warned in his lowered voice. “If you truly judge the danger to be too great, withdraw. If the Grand Duke dies, we lose even if we win this duel.”
Kyle gave a light nod. “Understood.”
He glanced briefly toward his subordinates. Among them was someone sending him a look of displeasure.
“Aigoo…”
It was Lumia. Both hands clenched, lips pushed out in a pout. “Lord is coming out himself and fighting… but as a magician I can’t leave the formation…”
Deep in her orange eyes, an ominous crimson glint flickered. Her face was that of someone driven mad by the desire to see blood.
The bizarre and eerie sight made nearby soldiers and some knights instinctively distance themselves with wary glances. Especially the magicians, who looked at Lumia with the fear one would give a plague.
Kyle, however, laughed at her with a wry smile.
“Don’t worry, Lumia.”
“Huh…?”
“Whether the duel ends well or not, war will continue. Even against Orcs or not. You won’t be lacking for blood to see. Just hold on a little longer.”
“Understood!” Lumia’s expression brightened instantly. “Hehe! I’ll wait quietly!”
With Lumia calmed, Kyle turned his head back to face forward.
Whoosh—cold air.
But colder still than the wind were the countless eyes stabbing his skin from ahead.
The Orc Great Warrior’s pressure was pressing in from tens of meters away, stepping across the snow.
For now, he is an enemy.
The Orc was definitely strong.
If it were me from my past life, I could have killed him just by snapping my fingers or whistling.
But that was then.
Among the beings facing him now, excluding Balgrim, this was the strongest.
That’s why I prepared.
Kyle recalled last night.
Guided by Leina, Wulfran, and Lumia, he had hunted all night. Prey: magic beasts. Over a hundred northern beasts had been captured alive.
From those captured beasts, he had drained their life force with the Blood Source Usurpation Art.
That was how, even now, Kyle possessed a vast amount of energy separate from his own.
Normally, storing stolen energy for long was impossible.
But Kyle was different, just as with the technique from yesterday.
The enlightenment and instinct accumulated as the Blood Cult Leader of his past life.
By reaching that distant realm, he forced the captured energies inside and outside his body to be suppressed and controlled.
Honestly, even I find filling twenty-four hours burdensome.
His flesh still screamed.
The suppressed energy continued to thrash inside.
But there was no need to hold back any longer.
“Warrior of man,” the Orc Great Warrior asked, resting his massive axe on his shoulder. “Is everything prepared?”
There was no referee in this duel. Only unconsciousness, death, or surrender.
That was why Volkrik and Graham had their hands on their sword hilts, ready to leap in at any moment.
The two elders now saw Kyle as the future of the Hartvalt Grand Duchy.
No need for that kind of thinking.
Kyle felt the pressure and laughed wryly.
“It’s ending now.”
The moment he answered—
Kyle released the energy he had suppressed all night.
Kwuaaaah—!
Explosive blood-red energy erupted from his entire body, sweeping around Kyle like a blizzard.
“……?!”
Karon’s eyes widened as he watched from Volkrik and Graham’s side. W-what is this? That energy… that pressure… it’s Sword Master level!
The body that had looked like a high-level knight suddenly leaped straight past super-class knight and into the realm of Sword Saint.
How did he suddenly gain such power?
Cold sweat trickled down Karon’s spine.
Volkrik and Graham’s eyes widened as well. The power expanding was something they had never known.
It can’t last more than an hour.
Of course, this was not the true realm of Sword Saint. It was a shortcut that burned stolen external energy to spike output for a moment. A power that could not be maintained long.
Only I can use this shortcut. The body is too low compared to the true realm.
Even if the energy increased, the true realm would not rise.
But Kyle’s soul realm had already far surpassed Sword Saint.
That was why such a shortcut was possible.
Still, just looking at the power, he’s falling behind that fellow.
A crimson light deepened in Kyle’s green eyes.
The gap can be closed with experience and technique.
Kyle gripped his sword.
Blood-red aura billowed like mist along the blade, then transcended ordinary aura to form the Sword Saint’s symbol, the aura blade.
“No reconnaissance. That way is better for you too, isn’t it?”
The corner of his mouth rose.
“Let’s begin. Orc.”
A ferocious glint flashed in the Orc Great Warrior’s eyes.
“Come on, human!”
Taaang—!
The snowfield sank in, and Kyle’s figure vanished.
The Orc Great Warrior gripped his axe with both hands and swung it straight at Kyle.
Whoosh—!
The air tore. The snowstorm that had been split by the axe blade exploded outward all at once.
What a brutal attack.
But Kyle had no intention of meeting that wild power head-on.
[Blood Flower Disordered Shadow Sword.]
Kyle’s wrist moved smoothly.
From the sword tip, dozens of streaks of blood-red aura spewed out, like petals, blooming like blood flowers.
The shape of the blood-red aura changed. In the air, blood flowers bloomed densely.
A thick blood scent spread.
“Kruaaa—”
The Orc’s axe sliced through the flower petals. Countless blood petals blocked his vision. Even his superior senses were disrupted.
Killing intent filled the air from all directions. He could not tell real from fake.
The Blood Flower Disordered Shadow Sword was a sword technique created by the Blood Cult in ancient times to rival the plum-blossom sword style boasted by the Hwasan Sect of Central Plains.
The basic plum-blossom sword of Hwasan Sect.
More advanced, the twenty-four-hand plum-blossom sword style that was the core technique of the sect’s main disciples.
These martial arts had once been extraordinarily magnificent and practical during the early days when Hwasan Sect was founded.
The original plum-blossom sword was never just a beautiful dance.
It mixed reality and illusion, shook the enemy’s vision and senses, disturbed judgment with scattered fragrance and killing intent, then severed the head with practical lethality.
Even the splendor was a weapon to bring down the foe.
In later generations, those who fell under its beauty only blurred its essence.
There was no false beauty in Kyle’s Blood Flower Disordered Shadow Sword.
Beauty was the bait. Splendor was a tool for disruption. The only purpose was slaughter.
Ching! Ka-gak! Seurk!
“Gwaaah!”
The real sword strike that sprang from within the illusion grazed the Orc’s thick thigh, then split the bone armor on his shoulder.
Red blood sprayed.
The Orc was bewildered by the way he had never seen.
He could overpower with raw strength, but the problem was that he could not land a hit.
“You’re playing tricks!”
Kwoong—!
The Orc stomped his foot. A technique like the Hwasan Sect’s Zhenjiao (Stomping Foot) manifested.
Kwaaaang—!
Then the axe came down, striking the snowfield.
Shockwaves erupted in succession. Frozen earth and snow exploded outward in all directions.
Blood flowers and countless petals in the air were swept away by the shockwaves.
It was overwhelming power.
A brutal attack reminiscent of a mage-killing warrior.