Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 113
Chapter Title: Great Warrior Kahareper (2)
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*
Fernandez watched as Kahareper slowly raised his scimitar. The warrior wasn't approaching recklessly out of caution, yet there were no gaps in his defenses.
-So, you gained something?
‘Overcoming the fear of death?’
-Hilarious. As if such a thing exists.
Feizashi chuckled at Fernandez's quip. Of course, death wasn't something to fear. Fernandez gripped the Dain King's greatsword with both hands and steadied his stance.
It wasn't death he feared—only failure. And Kahareper was a being who could kill him, but never make him fail.
No reason to fear. Fernandez's eyes glowed blue. He poised the greatsword and glared at the Pharaoh's great warrior.
[Behold this land, Munto.]
“...?”
Kahareper spoke as he eyed Fernandez in his ready stance.
‘Didn't expect him to try talking.’
-Listen first, at least.
[Behold this land. This barren wasteland. Once, fields stretched across this lifeline of life, but your sorcery destroyed it, and we became your eternal slaves, bound to you.]
“...Munto would sure reflect on that if he heard it.”
[This is no reflection.]
-Whoosh...
Kahareper swung his scimitar wide, stirring the wind. His murky green eyes gleamed ferociously. Beneath those eyes, a massive rage surged.
[Reflection is not enough.]
-Crackle, fizz.
The protective charms and talismans surrounding Kahareper's body shattered all at once. The wards that had crumbled under Feizashi's magic now scattered across the ground one by one.
-Giving up his protective spells?
‘No. He's releasing his seals.’
-Whoooosh...
Jade incantation letters flickered along his bony frame. Even with nothing but bones left, even wrapped in tattered rags, his presence began to grow ever larger.
Wind blew. It whipped through his skeleton, his joints. Spellbound letters along his bones blazed with light.
[Reflection. No. That is not enough. Munto. You are hearing the reason for your execution.]
“Try me. This should be fun.”
-Crack!
Cracks spiderwebbed from his feet. And at the same moment—
-Kraaack!
In an instant, the scimitar slashed toward Fernandez's throat at close range. An unbelievable speed that vanished from sight for a split second! Fernandez swiftly raised his greatsword to block.
-Ka-chunk!
The greatsword slid along the scimitar's gentle curve. Then, in a fluid motion like flowing water, the scimitar twisted upward through the gap.
“Tch!”
-Clang!
He blocked the rising blade in a crossguard, then flicked his sword upward. As if anticipating it, Kahareper leaped back, letting the attack glance off. At the same time, spell letters flashed along his arm!
-Kabooom!
Jade flames erupted from his elbow, propelling his forearm forward like a spear. At near-javelin speed! Fernandez took the hit by surprise and tumbled five full rolls across the ground.
-Skreeee!
“This is cheating.”
He slammed his greatsword into the ground to bleed off the impact, wiping the blood trickling from between his lips. His black hair cascaded messily. The shock had churned his guts, sending bile up with the blood.
Fine. Lesson learned. Despite the excruciating pain and the leg-weakening shock, he rose with a smile.
-No protections left. Time for spells.
‘No. He won't.’
-...What?
‘What we need isn't victory—it's growth. Feizashi. Winning with magic is too easy, too pointless. We'll use him as our stepping stone.’
Fernandez steadied his stance again as the lanky Kahareper approached. His stomach roiled, vision blurring slightly. The tattered linen bandages fluttering from the warrior's body made him seem even larger.
[Why not use your magic?]
The form of the great warrior who once commanded the vast wilderness overlaid Fernandez's blurred vision. Firmly muscled, massive build. Sharp, bold eyes. Even brown skin.
He glared at Fernandez fiercely. His lips twisted, baring his teeth.
[Do I look ridiculous, Munto? Your puppet's struggles?]
“No. Not at all.”
[Your arrogance will be your epitaph.]
“Perfect.”
A phrase that once nearly became his own epitaph. Betrayal and arrogance. Fernandez grinned savagely and gripped his greatsword. The enemy's weapon was a scimitar—its attack paths and trajectories came from unpredictable angles, and the follow-up strikes after a clash defied common sense.
In their brief exchange, it felt like fighting wind, like waves. The greatsword in his hands seemed like a frail twig resisting a massive current.
No. Fernandez relaxed his grip on the hilt slowly as he thought. Greatsword techniques weren't about brute force.
True greatswordsmanship was about flow, not power. Centrifugal force, rebound, rotation. Techniques specialized in turning the opponent's strength against them.
So if the foe was like wind, like waves— all the better.
[For a mage, that's a solid stance.]
The great warrior's eyes narrowed. A predatory feline sharpness, like a big cat moments before the pounce. Fernandez met his gaze and exhaled slowly.
“Do your best, great warrior. Arrogance might become your epitaph too.”
[How dare you...!]
His body twitched with rage for a moment. Then it shot forward like an arrow. The scimitar arced in bizarre trajectories toward Fernandez.
Good. Greatsword basics lie in counterattacks. Fernandez crossed his wrists and swung the greatsword in a wide half-circle.
-Clang!
And again! As the enemy's blade grated roughly along his greatsword and rose, he crossed his wrists once more, sweeping from left to right. Wide!
-Kriiiind!
He could see the ancient scimitar grinding away against the greatsword's edge. Masterfully forged, yet the Dain King's blade was one that rent space itself. Physical impacts could never break it!
-Kaaaang!
Kahareper wrapped the rebound deftly and ducked low. Fernandez shifted his stance too. High guard, eagle's poise. The most straightforward, powerful downward chop!
-Whoooosh...!!
Kahareper's linen bandages floated in the air. Mana flowed through his bones, jade spells flickering brightly. In this instant, his cold, dead frame neared the vigor of his living flesh.
-Kraaaack!
Fernandez's blade fell. The only Dain King sword art he could perform—a crude copy of the space-rending greatsword, but its destructive power matched the original in that one strike—
-Whoosh!
Winds howled. The winter knife-winds roaming the nighttime wastes. Once, twice. Endlessly!
-Kachunk! Kachunk!
The greatsword, blackening space as it carved, slowed. Losing power, speed, technique—it halted against spatial resistance.
[Is that all?]
The great warrior's eyes gleamed like a lion's. He glared at Fernandez with wild fury. As Fernandez's greatsword lost momentum, his own blade accelerated, faster and faster.
-Skwing!
All defenses have limits. Fernandez swung wide to block, but his side was slashed long and deep. Blood gushed. The scimitar crushed flesh, tore organs!
“Urk!”
Pain lanced like lightning up his spine. Fernandez bit his lip, twisted his greatsword to parry, and rebounded back. Before he could reset, jade spell letters flickered at Kahareper's feet!
-Kabooom!
One moment kicking the ground, the next at his face! Fernandez's strike deflected the savage wind-like barrage of Kahareper's blade.
Immense force. Enough to make even Demonica muscle and sinew tremble! Fernandez twisted his sword to flick the scimitar away and stepped forward.
-Kaaaang!
Their strikes wavered at the end. Kahareper's sword, his sword—thrusting toward each other's throats—
‘Give bone—‘
-Kraaaack!!
Had he never expected no defense? Kahareper's eyes widened. His blade had already deeply gashed Fernandez's throat. Sharp pain and primal survival instinct hammered Fernandez's hindbrain!
-Skwing!
Yet he didn't uncross his arms. Fernandez felt his blurring vision, the familiar chill creeping into his fingertips, and thrust the greatsword straight—straight into Kahareper's body.
-Krrunch!
At the very last instant, Kahareper instinctively twisted. Fernandez's greatsword whistled through empty air, glancing off his neck to barely smash his shoulder. Both warriors stumbled, stances shattered, balance lost.
But Kahareper had merely lost a shoulder. Fernandez had lost his throat. The great warrior looked down at him curiously, at the body slowly crumbling.
[What is this...?]
“I take bone.”
-Kiiiiing!
Somehow, Fernandez now held the greatsword in one hand. His other hand fell naturally to the hilt at his waist.
An ornate hilt. A greatsword in an entirely different style from the Dain King's blade. Pure white steel gleamed as he gripped it, and divinity surged wildly through his body.
-Thump, thump, thump, thump!
His stilled heart resumed, blood boiled with divinity. Intense exhilaration.
In that moment, time for Fernandez slowed endlessly. Even the wasteland sand stirred by their clash was visible grain by grain—an intense exhilaration!
The swordsmanship Darian displayed in meditation wasn't true Darian technique. Merely his mind's realization of what the 'strongest in the material world' from his memories might wield.
In other words, his movements were the pinnacle of martial prowess he could imagine. Not reality, but his own envisioned transcendence!
Thus, meditation's Darian was the answer to his desired path, the peak his spirit decreed for martial arts.
He took one more step along that path. Following that brilliant flash, that trajectory—he drew and swung the blade.
-Ssshh...
Kahareper's eyes flew wide. The greatsword in one hand shattered his shoulder deeper—
The other greatsword drawn silently. Beitasser's holy sword gripped in the opposite hand, becoming a flash,
-Skwing.
The sound was quieter than the act.