Chapter 183
Chapter 183
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 183
Chapter Title: The Unyielding Captain
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Shrieeek!
A paladin's sword sliced toward the Cyclops's leg, thrusting deep into its embrace.
"Hmph!"
Spotting the paladin's attack, the Cyclops snorted derisively and swung its massive spear down at him.
Maybe if it were one of the monsters guarding the northern wall, or some freak like Jerome who had bested the lord Arges here.
But an average human's aura couldn't pierce the Cyclops's tough hide.
It would smash him flat, aura and all.
The Cyclops fully expected the man before it to be pulverized.
But things didn't unfold as the Cyclops anticipated.
Boom!
"...?"
Gone.
The paladin who had been there just a moment ago had vanished.
Splatter!
"Grahhh!"
Before the bewildered Cyclops could react, the paladin suddenly appeared and thrust his blade fiercely into its single eye.
Scenes like this were unfolding everywhere.
Some hid in the monsters' shadows, others pitted the beasts against one another.
The diverse heterogenous powers wielded by over a hundred paladins painted the battlefield in vivid splendor.
"..."
They weren't powers of any great stage.
At best, stage 1—stage 2 if you were generous.
To the eyes of Black Lions standing at the pinnacle of stage 3 like Jerome, it looked like children just learning to walk—crude and unrefined.
Yet when that seemingly trivial, laughable power combined with the paladins' honed martial prowess, it wielded enough might to upend the flow of battle.
Crunch!
Jerome's grip tightened.
This was it.
The secret behind the flames of that dwarf. And the Crimson Flame Mage from his past life, Aria von Wendinel, whose fires burned with an intensity no mere magic could explain.
Not divine grace from the gods, not self-forged knowledge like spells, not even aura built through daily sweat.
It was the heterogenous powers the mighty Empire decried as heresy among heresies.
Ridiculous.
These people, who despised and scorned heterogenous powers more than any nation on the continent, were scheming behind the scenes to exploit them.
Slap!
Staat approached me as he spoke.
"Surprised?"
Unlike before, he had regained his composure. With his hidden power revealed and the tide turning in their favor, he looked smug.
...I hated the sight of it.
"I thought the Empire despised heterogenous powers."
"We do. Power drawn from gazing into one's own delusions instead of the great Lord? The mere thought of its vulgarity and frivolity sends shivers down my spine."
Staat spoke with genuine disgust.
"But for the holy glory of our Lord and the Saintess, this life is but chaff to offer."
Unlike earlier, a thick aura of heterogenous power emanated from Staat as he raised his sword.
A captain was a captain, after all. Unlike the other paladins, streams of mature stage 2 energy poured from him.
"I'll cut you down, slaughter these filthy monsters, and return to Ballista in triumph."
Swish!
"Chit! Need a hand, Jerome?"
Hatan, standing beside me, silently raised his axe and asked.
Staat's aura was no joke.
His base power might fall short of the Four Marquises, but factoring in his heterogenous abilities made him potentially trickier.
However.
"...No need. Help the others, like with Arges over there."
For some reason, I didn't want to borrow anyone else's hands for this one.
Reading my mood, perhaps. Hatan didn't press.
"Chit! Got it. Watch yourself."
With that, Hatan turned toward the paladins, and Staat assumed the Empire swordsmanship stance once more.
"Then let's begin. No time to waste—I'll end this quickly."
"Oh? I was thinking differently."
Crack! Crack!
I rolled my knuckles, calmly drawing up my golden aura.
"...I won't let it end easily."
I'll show you the true might of this power you all scorn.
Craaack! Splurt!
Hatan's axe cleaved a paladin who had been about to behead one of his kin, splitting the man from top to bottom.
"Chit! Thank you! My king! Chit!"
"Chit! You're welcome. Pull yourself together."
"Chit! Thank you!"
Hatan slung his axe over his shoulder, leaving the saved orc behind as he scanned for his next prey.
Far off, Arges was crushing paladins whole.
"Chit, it's wrapping up."
In the early chaos when the humans suddenly unleashed their heterogenous powers, both Cyclopes and orcs had taken heavy losses.
It was a bizarre force they'd never seen before.
But Hatan and Arges had brought only elite warriors.
Unfamiliar as it was, they adapted over time, using their numbers to calmly counter the knights' erratic strikes.
And with Hatan and Arges leading, even the Empire's elite 7th Paladin Order could only delay the inevitable.
"Looks like you've mopped up here too, Hatan."
Arges approached, wiping blood from his hammer's head.
"Chit! Arges."
"Some surprises, but we're good. Won't let a single one escape."
Indeed. The 7th Paladin Order fought valiantly, but they couldn't breach the wall of elites led by Arges and Hatan. They were crumbling.
"Chit! If that one had gone wild, it might've been different."
Hatan nodded toward Staat, locked in combat with Jerome.
"Maybe. If one of us had been tied down by him, a few might've slipped away."
Staat, captain of the 7th Paladin Order and contender for the next throne. Only when he moved did the War Ghosts truly shine. Yet here they fell without unleashing their full might.
For one reason.
Their core, Staat, was pinned down tight by Jerome.
Vroooom!
Staat's extended aura whipped across the ground like a lash.
I dodged his lightning-fast, savage aura-infused slashes by a single step, and the spot where I'd stood exploded under his power.
"Dodging like a rat!"
Despite his mocking tone, the leisure was fading from Staat's face.
He had eyes; he could see his 7th Paladin Order slowly littering the ground.
He'd dismissed them as mere monsters, but no.
"If that's all you've got, you won't escape here."
"Shut up!"
Shrieeeek!
Blocked from his whip-like aura tricks, he switched patterns, closing in with blinding speed. Comparable to Pankration's Moon Step in raw velocity, but.
"If you're coming in close, that's my domain."
At this range, where we could see each other's faces, it was mine.
Swish swish swish!
Staat's sword traced erratic paths toward my vital points, its unnatural trajectory mirroring a life forged in blood on battlefields.
A swordsmanship befitting the leader of the War Ghosts.
Any ordinary knight would lose their head to the Empire techniques hidden in those flashy feints.
But not me. I'd seen Empire swordsmanship ad nauseam, from my Stigma Mercenary days to now.
Some wielded blades stranger and more erratic than Staat's.
I slipped past thrusts smoothly, deflected slashing edges with light taps.
No hits landed, but I stayed vigilant.
Even as his men fell, Staat's eyes burned undimmed.
He's plotting something.
And that plot was likely his heterogenous power. He hadn't shown anything beyond Empire swordsmanship and aura yet.
Show me. What is your power?
Whether reinforcement or attraction type, didn't matter.
Whenever, however he used it, I didn't care.
I'll make you see the greatness of this power you scorned—gained without facing your inner self, yet dismissed as light.
Boom!
His aura-clad sword clashed with my gauntlet, sending shockwaves rippling outward, shattering the earth.
Screeech, screeeeech!
Amid the chilling friction of blade and gauntlet, he spoke.
"I've got plenty to report. Who'd have thought the Shield Family's youngest had this much power!"
I'd handled many things lately, but few involved showing my full strength outside Dragon Mountains matters.
Perhaps that's why. Setting the situation aside, Staat sounded genuinely impressed.
"...Who said you get to report?"
Staat's skill was admirable.
Not yet middle-aged, he was just a move—or half a move—below Marquis Crank. Far beyond what ordinary knights his age could achieve.
Not like me, regressed with foreknowledge. His talent shone dazzlingly.
But I'd toppled Marquis Crank, even if with help(?).
Deeper in my arts now, I couldn't lose to Staat.
Yet he curled his lip, denying my words.
"No, I think you will."
In our standoff, Staat's left hand—still gripping his sword—flashed to his waist.
Shrieeeek!
"!"
His left hand, brushing his waist, whistled past my cheek with a hair-raising sound.
A strike that would've split my face in half if delayed by a second.
Faster than anything before.
"Tch, a shame. Could've brought His Excellency a gift."
Drip, drip.
A dagger gleamed in Staat's left hand, drawn from his waist. No ordinary blade—its sinister edge was obvious at a glance.
"Oh, recognize it? Fine piece. Too good for filthy Black Lions like you."
It was fine indeed. It had scratched my diamond-hard skin without aura.
But that wasn't the point.
"Did you take that sword from a Black Lion?"
"Take? That's ungrateful. Tell them it found a fitting owner."
"...One more reason to snap your neck."
I licked the blood trickling down my cheek, radiating killing intent. Staat snorted.
"Hmph! Your arrogance ends here."
He glanced around briefly, then smirked.
"...?"
Why smile? Thanks to me pinning him, the other paladins were mostly dead.
To anyone, it was a dire situation. Yet he laughed?
"It's time. Behold."
Thud!
Staat's clothes tore savagely from his body.
"The power I've gained: Unyielding."
Every muscle fiber bristled like quills, his body swelling.
Not just his body—his energy surged explosively too.
"!"
"Haaa... Your kingdom calls us War Ghosts, right?"
Breathing out amid his sudden surge, Staat asked.
"Well named, whoever coined it. I lead the War Ghosts. The more they fall, the stronger their king wields."
Unyielding.
A heterogenous power that grew stronger the greater the crisis, to break through it.
A double-edged sword—afterward, all that energy burned out, leaving one collapsed.
But ideal for now.
His power now rivaled one of the Four Marquises, Crank.
"Thanks to your orcs and Cyclopes taking out most of my men, I powered up efficiently. Grateful."
Staat spoke, aura pouring from his longsword in right hand and dagger in left.
"...You held out till your men fell for that petty reason?"
"Hm? Isn't that enough? My escape odds just skyrocketed."
True. Rational. Whether he or his men escaped, Camille would learn of this.
But the method grated.
"See you next time then. Even I wouldn't fancy those orcs and one-eyes charging together."
Assuming I wouldn't dare pursue, Staat headed for his riderless warhorse. Or tried to.
Boom!
My iron kick through the air met Staat's block; his legs gouged trenches as he slid back.
Lowering his X-guarded arms, Staat frowned.
"Can't read the room? Fighting me now just hurts you."
True. He knew best how he'd surpassed a marquis-level power. Intoxicated by it, understandable.
But that smug face? No way I'd let him go.
I didn't want to.
Thumbs up.
I flipped him off instead of answering.
His eyes flared with killing intent at the taunt.
"...Fine. Take you hostage, and those monsters won't dare rush."
Vrooom!
Aura blazed fiercer from his twin blades than before.
"You'll regret your choice."
"Big talk. Come on."
Thud!
Staat and I charged each other again.
I'll make you regret.
Daring to wield this power so lightly.
Rooooar!