The Swordmaster Meets the Supreme Strength King
The train car rattled.
Clatter-clunk—!
The carriage shook so violently his backside ached, yet the cushioned seat absorbed every impact. On any normal day, he'd have marveled at what kind of magic created such a thing, but today was not that day.
A chair that makes it inconvenient to leap out in one go...
The seat cushion that absorbed the train's vibrations would likewise absorb his own strength and hinder his movements. And that brief opening would prove fatal against the man before him.
Evan glared at Atlas, thinking as much. Unlike himself, the man sat with his legs crossed in a relaxed posture, betraying not a shred of tension.
It was a stance from which he could never evade if Evan attempted an attack. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of confidence allowed the man to sit like that.
"—Don't worry so much, kid. I'll give you time to draw your sword."
"...What does that mean?"
"Exactly what I said. You're a swordsman, aren't you? What's wrong with giving a swordsman time to draw his weapon?"
It was an incomprehensible statement, yet not entirely wrong. Hesitating for a moment, Evan cautiously opened his subspace and reached inside.
And at that very instant—Atlas's kick came flying in with a swish—!
"Kugh—!?"
Without even time to draw his sword, Evan unleashed the No-Form Sword's Thousand-Edge Void Manteau, but the impact, piercing through the demonic sword that was meant to deflect anything, sent him flying to the back of the train.
Smashed through several seats and slammed into the train wall, Evan endured the numbing pain and pulled his sword from the subspace.
"...You said you'd give me time to draw?"
"That's your fault for not drawing it in that time."
"Ha. You attacked the moment you saw me..."
Evan dropped all formal speech and glared at Atlas. A man so belligerent he'd attack without warning. A personality fitting his massive, muscular frame.
"More importantly—you withstood a full-power kick. Impressive."
"You too, old man. I thought I'd deflected it, but it still broke through."
"My fists are special."
Atlas said this, raising his fist. Special—he'd kicked him, so what was he talking about with his fist being special? Evan let out a hollow laugh.
Did he possess a technique that ignored the opponent's defense, like his own demonic sword?
The battle between the shield that blocks everything and the spear that pierces everything ended in an ambiguous draw.
Yet that fact didn't sit well with him. That the Thousand-Edge Void Manteau, which was supposed to deflect anything perfectly, had been breached meant that the man before him could be interpreted as being above him in skill.
"What are you waiting for? Come."
"...I don't think we need to fight."
"Looking for a reason to fight. What a greenhorn."
Atlas let out a sigh as if in pity, then shook his head. Then, as if to give him a reason, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket.
A handkerchief caked with dried blood. Pinching it between his fingers, Atlas dangled it left and right as if hypnotizing him, and opened his mouth.
"What does this look like to you?"
"A handkerchief, obviously."
"The blood on it is from the people at the construction site you were at until a moment ago."
"...What?"
Evan belatedly recalled the time Atlas had appeared. Not long after he'd boarded the train, after the monsters had pulled that bizarre stunt of running near the tracks, breaking through the monster-prohibition magic circle.
A gap of only a few minutes at most. Had he killed every single person there in that short time? Workers, adventurers, knights, mages, regardless of who they were?
Was such a thing even possible? Lost in thought for a moment, Evan realized it was entirely possible.
Even I... could do that.
Evan himself could do it. He couldn't imagine it was impossible for the man before him.
For a Transcendent, it's an easy thing. Slaughtering ordinary people who aren't prepared to fight a Transcendent.
"You killed them? All of them?"
"I wouldn't even call it killing. Do you say you've 'killed' a flying insect?"
"...Your dreams are going to be nasty tonight."
Evan recalled Beige's face, the man he'd been chatting with so cheerfully just this morning, and let out a long sigh as he readied his stance.
"If the train gets destroyed, we'll have to walk to the kingdom. So I'll keep it moderate."
"—Moderate? You. Saying 'moderate' to this Atlas...!"
"Nine-Headed Dragon Flash."
Nine-Headed Dragon Flash
[KWAH-AH-AH-AHNG—!]
Nine dragons, controlled by the Ego Sword, flew toward Atlas. Each one was larger than the train itself, yet astonishingly, they caused no damage to the train whatsoever.
Seeing the dragons charging toward him, Atlas's deeply furrowed brow relaxed, and his face slowly bloomed into a smile.
"Dragons...! How amusing!"
In that same instant, Atlas's entire body swelled up. Every single bundle of muscle became vividly visible, and his fully packed muscles explosively drove a fist forward.
Earth Throw
From the tip of the fist thrown toward the dragons, a monstrous storm of air erupted. The storm of pure physical force, swallowing not only the train but even the dragons, engulfed Evan and the rear of the train before vanishing.
"—Tch. I guess I overdid it."
Seeing Evan disappear in a single blow, Atlas clicked his tongue and turned his back. Then he found himself facing Evan, who was standing behind him.
"You—"
"You can walk."
Evan said this, releasing the storm bound to his sword. It was an application of the Thousand-Edge Void Manteau, having caught Atlas's blow head-on.
Earth Throw [Counter]
The strongest man in all of humanity's strike now embedded itself directly into the strongest man's belly, completely reversed. Struck by the same attack as his own fist, Atlas fell backward out of the destroyed train.
Watching Atlas fly so far he became invisible, Evan let out a sigh and slumped onto a seat.
"—Ah, Spear King, sir? There's something I need to report..."
And then he dutifully snitched on the whole incident. Upon hearing Evan's report, the Spear King flew into a rage and immediately dispatched support forces.
Unfortunately, Atlas was not found. Instead, they were able to discover the bodies of the many people he had murdered.
Atlas, who had been sent flying far away by Evan's counterattack, came to his senses in midair and grabbed hold of the ground.
CRASSHHH—! He only managed to stop after flipping over dozens of meters of earth. Recalling the attack that had struck his abdomen, he grinned.
"As expected of my fist. It's strong."
He immediately realized that the blow that had struck him was a counter carrying his own attack. It was only natural.
The strongest man in all of humanity. For Atlas, known as the most powerful man among the human race, the only thing capable of dealing him damage would be his own fist.
"...Now I understand. That kid from back then."
Having been hit, Atlas's brain was activated, and he recalled that he had seen the Evan who had sent him flying before.
The kid he'd met in Monghwanhyang. The one who had picked a fight with him out of nowhere.
He hadn't recognized him because, as he'd predicted back then, the kid's limbs had grown so much.
"This is fun. Very fun."
Letting out a chuckle, Atlas turned back toward the kingdom. He'd been blown several kilometers away, but if he ran at full power, this distance was nothing.
Taking a crouching stance and preparing to grab the train, Atlas frowned as he was hit by a beam of light descending from the sky.
—Stop.
"What's this now. An angel?"
—Our Lord commands you. Stay far away from the kingdom. The Strongest Among Huma—
CRUNCH—!
In an instant, Atlas snatched the angel and crushed its skull. He spat on the corpse and resumed his stance.
But as soon as he did, another beam of light descended.
—Stop. Strongest Among Humanity. We are...
"Ah, come on—"
Frowning at the descending angel, Atlas swung his fist to drive it away. But even angels, which he could swat away like flies, could become irritating enough to annoy him if their numbers grew large enough.
—Stop.
—Stop.
—Stop.
"They're not even cockroaches."
Atlas frowned at the 65,535 angels before him.
"—So that fool Atlas came looking for you. That's the situation."
"Yes. But you know him too? There's nothing you don't know, sir."
"...I'll educate you sometime on which Transcendents, besides the Eight Great Families and the Thirteen Castle Lords, you need to remember by name."
Upon hearing Evan's words, the Spear King stared at him with an incredulous expression for a moment before letting out a long sigh.
Even for a young boy from the countryside, this was too much. He was far too ignorant of the world. Surely it was normal to at least know the name and face of a famous figure like the Supreme Strength King, if not anyone else?
"Anyway—it's a relief that you met that man and came out uninjured."
"No, sir. I almost died."
"What?"
"My Dragon Suit is almost completely shattered. Even with its self-repair ability, it's not regenerating properly..."
And this was from not even taking Atlas's attack head-on, but only the residual impact after deflecting most of the shock. It was quite shocking.
If he'd taken it directly, wouldn't he have died? Even for a Transcendent, this was an enormous gap, wasn't it?
"What exactly is that man?"
"The strongest man in all of humanity."
"The strongest... Is he stronger than you, Spear King, sir?"
At that question, the Spear King let out a snort of laughter.
"I am stronger."
It was, of course, a bluff.