Chapter 45
Fast.
Much too fast.
By the time I recognized the speed of his attack, it was already nearing my eyes.
It was a type of strength different from that of Kel'tuk.
But it wasn't as hopeless as last time. I still had room to act.
The danger continued unabated from moment to moment, but as our dance continued, there was only one thought in my mind.
'This is worth it.'
I was slowly getting used to it. I was beginning to adapt to his speed.
Kaaang!!
I blocked an axe that swooped down from an oblique angle.
And while blocking, kikikig! The pommel of the sword struck up at the bastard's chin.
Puk!
His head jerked up at the blow.
At that moment, Callius sharply pivoted.
His sword passed through the magnificently fluttering crimson cloak as it swung.
Chwaaaak!
Huung! Kuung!
The giant Great Warrior flew through the air and struck the ground.
"նա, որի մասին խոսեցիր քոնը:" 「The one he spoke about -」
The Great Warrior muttered as he licked the wound on his left cheek with his tongue.
You were the one he'd been talking about.
Interpreting the intonations via his trait, Callius twisted his lips.
"You seem to be acquainted with Kel'tuk."
That's pretty good.
Callius' sword bloomed with the energy of the Silver Flower Wave Sword art.
Petals nestling close to each other. The mythic Silver Flower Wave Sword began to manifest on his blade.
"If you're his comrade, let's stop these trivial probes."
The Great Warrior also seemed to have understood. His momentum surged even higher.
Soon, a new dance that was incomparably faster and sharper than before began. Callius circulated all his spirit power throughout his entire body, and even made the second bud of the Six Peak Flowers technique bloom, raising his physical abilities to the limit.
A Great Orc Warrior.
An opponent worthy of him pouring out everything he had.
Kaang! Chwaaaak!
The Great Warrior blocked or swiftly avoided Callius' attacks that scoured at him like a storm.
But he couldn't weather them all.
Silver petals streaming down like waves fluttered everywhere.
And like an angry bull, they rushed towards the Great Warrior from all directions.
Even then, the Great Warrior was not anxious. But he hadn't realized that the number of petals was gradually increasing.
With a silent murmur from Callius, the eyes of the Great Warrior reflected a sea of silver petals illuminating the night sky.
"Raging Flower Wave."
Silver Flower Wave Sword - Raging Flower Wave.
At that moment -
The mass of the silver petals swelled like a surging tide and struck.
The petals spread out and made a path for Callius.[1]
Silver Flower Wave Sword: First Martial Skill - Raging Flower Wave.
Its true form was an extremely fast 'quick sword'.[2]
The essence of the quick sword style lied in raising the swiftness of the blade to the extreme.
The skill required sophisticated spiritual manipulation.
Scrape against the opponent's sword, add its strength to your own, and cover it like a wave - that was the quick sword.
From there, it would spread like flowing water.
Silver Flower Wave Sword - White Haze.
Chwajajajajajajak!
A pure white haze, like a mass of snow, would envelop the whole area as if it had been frozen in ice.
Under its cover, the sword would fly from its hiding spot beneath the enemy's feet and cause fatal wounds.
The natural connection between Raging Flower Wave and White Haze pushed the Great Warrior into a crisis of life and death.
In an instant, his body became drenched in his lifeblood, and green Orcish blood spurted through the air.
Crack!
However, he was still a Great Warrior.
Not just some simple Orc with more agility than most.
"Ես իմ կյանքը կտամ գորշ ռազմիկին!!"「Come take my life, gray warrior!!」
"Aaaaaaaaah!!"
The sword scattered into fluttering petals.
Avoiding them all, he even deflected the raging stormy waves of Callius' attack.
His speed accelerated.
He had always been fast, but as he got more and more hurt, he got swifter and swifter.
His abnormally long arms that bent bizarrely, coupled with his hard bones and strong muscles, allowed him to pursue strange forms of attack that were beyond human limits.
'Crazy.'
His axe whirled in bizarre trajectories that could only be described in such words.
And the speed that underpinned it all.
Faster than even the blink of an eye, the edge of the axe cut through the tips of Callius' hair.
"Yeah, that's how you should be!"
However, alongside the change in his opponent, Callius' sword also became faster.
Quickly. Quickly! Faster!
Without even the leisure of a single breath, he only struck and struck again with his swift sword.
So what if the opponent accelerated? Rather, this was the battle he had desired. Raging Flower Wave disturbed the opponent's swordsmanship, scattering it in the air and assimilating it before countering.
The more you block your enemy's attacks, the better.
Raging Flower Wave would only get larger and stronger.
'More.'
A little more! The handful of remaining divine power, all that remained in his body, was injected into the sword.
A sword art that scattered in the air, squeezing the swordsman's concentration to the limit.
Furious waves that formed a path - called Raging Flower Wave.
Kaang -!
The hand that held Loas was already numb.
A tingling pain crawled through his blood-stained arms, and all the creaking bones in his body screamed in weakness.
Nevertheless -
Callius merely clenched his teeth and swung his sword faster.
"What is this..."
"Hey, can you still see him?"
"Shut up. Because I don't know if I'll ever see something like this again."
The contest between the two combatants, too fast to be followed by the naked eye, heated up the surrounding Knights who were watching. Every dizzying moment in the battle made their palms sweat.
There had been hundreds of times in this contest, when a strike would have caused a fatal wound had it been deeper by just a finger's span.
In the end, one won.
Seok. The wind blew between them.
Dusty sand scattered in the wind, and falling drops of blood and sweat wet the earth.
And soon -
Tuk.
The Great Warrior's neck fell, covered with silver petals; the twinkling stars embroidered in the night sky the last image reflected in his eyes.
The face of the Orc, who had never once screamed or begged, was the face of a warrior.
"Oooooaaaaaaahh!!"
"Master Callius has defeated the Great Warrior!"
"It's our victory!"
"Long live Master Callius!!"
"Hurray!!"
As soon as the head of the Great Warrior fell, the shouts of the Knights who had been so long holding their breath resounded through the forest.
"Haa...."
Callius, who was finally relieved of tension, exhaled harshly with a small sigh. The gushed breath steamed hot and white in the air before dissipating.
Just like how the life of the Great Warrior had now faded away.
'I did what I had to.'
He couldn't afford to lower his guard for a moment.
Every instant had been filled with threat, and he'd crossed the line between life and death by the span of a finger.
This Great Warrior had been strong in different aspects compared to Kel'tuk.
However, by measure of strength, he had been similar.
If it had been before, Callius would not have been an opponent of this Great Warrior whom he met today, whose name he did not know.
The strongest among the strong enemies, whom he would have preferred to run away from rather than confront head-on.
But.
'It's different now.'
No longer.
Six Peak Flowers technique had risen to the second star, and although he was not wholly satisfied with it, his sword had also risen to the level of a Spirit Sword.
Now that he had Spirit Sword - Loas in his hands -
For Callius, Great Warriors were no longer overwhelmingly strong enemies to run away from.
Now they were worthy opponents.
Yes, enemies he could fight on even ground.
That's how strong Callius had become.
Correcting the sword with the help of the Tricolour Eye, destroying or avoiding the enemy's attacks, and using all the diverse abilities he possessed to unleash an ultimate sword skill.
All this was possible because how his purer divine power had raised the level of all his physical abilities.
'I can still become stronger.'
Here was not the end.
He could become even stronger.
He couldn't be satisfied with just this.
Even more so because it was here, he had to become stronger.
He'd felt the possibility. He'd felt it in the battle he just had. He'd felt it on his skin.
He would become stronger in the future.
That was it.
[Fatalite's Wheel]
<Reward> S-
"Ah."
The reward for the Wheel had also arrived at S-.
The barrier was broken by killing the Great Warrior just now.
It might not be possible to reach a full S before this quest was over, but it was already a satisfactory result.
'It's not good to be corroded by Callius' personality...'
Still, the choice to come to the North was not wrong.
If he had never come to the North, he wouldn't have achieved such growth in such a short period of time.
After organizing his thoughts, Callius reached out to the Great Warrior's corpse.
Although not as good as the Great Warrior he'd met before, Kel'tuk, this one had still been a Great Warrior.
Wasn't this a cadaver that could become a Spirit Sword if made into a Carcass?
Since it wasn't formally prepared, the quality might not be high, but it was still the remains of a Great Warrior.
Since Callius had been the one to directly face his skills in combat, he was confident in creating a Spirit Sword.
Even Spirit Swords were divided into classes, so he couldn't expect the highest quality, but his expectations were high nonetheless.
Huuuung -
His hands sparkled silver.
Resplendent divine power enveloped the cooling corpse, calling upon a divine miracle that would change its form soon after.
The majestic body and noble soul forged in the fires of life, would coalesce into a single sword.
The only sword of its kind in the world...
Saruruk.
"Ugh!"
"The Great Warrior's corpse..."
However, a scene was now unfolding that shattered Callius' expectations.
The Great Warrior's body had begun to wither like a mummy.
Psssk! It quickly turned into dust with a popping sound.
Callius looked nervously at the Predator Sword - Loas in his hands.
"This bastard..."
The blood-stained blade of the Predator Sword gleamed sharply as if satisfied.
[Predator Sword - Loas]
Grade - Spirit Sword.
Inhabited Soul - A mixed soul.
Unique Ability - Predation.
Noble Predation - 1.
'Noble Predation' had been added under unique ability.
Did that mean normal demons or humans no longer sated its hunger after it evolved into a Spirit Sword? There had been no response with the other Orcs until now, but when it took the Great Warrior's head, this change appeared.
If this continued, the Predator Sword might transcend Spirit rank, and rise to the rank of Vision.
But how long would that take?
When it ate a hundred? A thousand? Or perhaps only when it achieved ten thousand noble predations?
He couldn't know. Rather than some strange anticipation, Callius was filled with deep annoyance.
"Ttt. Damn it."
Clicking his tongue, Callius immediately pushed the Predator Sword back into its sheath, as if he didn't want to even see it.
He shouted for Bruns with a sharp tone.
"Bruns. Clean this up."
"Alright!"
After examining the situation for a moment, Emily came over and asked.
"Are you going back now?"
The original purpose had been to steal supplies.
Alone and isolated from allies.
Really, it was an absurd order.
If it failed, they would die as they were, and even if it succeeded, it would be quite difficult to move the supplies back to the fortress.
A detachment of a besieged army jumped out, trying to steal the opponent's supplies and hoping to profit. Truly absurd.
"No, I'm not going back."
"Why?"
"There is no way to break through the Orc army and return to the fortress with these supplies. Even if it were possible, it would do more harm than good."
A lot of blood would need to flow.
The Orc army was investing the citadel from the front, how were they going to move the munitions?
It was impossible.
"Then what are you going to do?"
"As it stands, we have no choice but to gnaw away at their numbers and supplies from the fringes."
Slowly, patiently.
The goal was to isolate them little by little.
A contest of who withered first.
That was their chance to win.
'In the North, bad weather is common.'
Besides -
"There's a way to carry these things with us, too, as long as it's not too much, so it'd be fine."
The hidden roads of the North filled Callius' mind.
"Not all the roads are on flat ground." Callius looked down at the ground with calm eyes, then turned his back.
Editor's Notes:
[1] 파화로 (pah-wa-lo) = Raging Flower Wave, but there's one problem. 파 = wave, 화 = rage/flower/disaster. 로 = way/direction/road, which we skipped because we wanted a short three-word term, and opted to keep both rage and flower. We're mostly resigned to this translation. If you have a suggestion, feel free to comment.
[2] Quick sword, heavy sword, phantom/illusion sword are the three foundational sword styles, as have been mentioned before.