Chapter 44 Dragon Sword Duke (1).
Chapter 44 Dragon Sword Duke (1).
Chapter 44 - Dragon Sword Duke (1)
1
After a moment, everyone stopped moving from surprise. The timing of the voice was too abrupt, and the volume was frightening.
In the surrounding, the surprised birds flew up into the air, and a racket was heard when the animals ran away. During all of this, the voice rang out again.
“Wh-er-e ar-e y-ou?!”
It felt as if the sound would rupture one’s eardrums. Enora fell to the floor as she covered her ears. Even though Giles and Boar used their Spirit Order to protect their eardrums, their eardrums still hurt.
The first one to move was Azell.
Kah-ahng!
Azell and Duran crossed blades as sparks flew. Azell had used the brief opening to attack Duran.
“Princess!”
Azell accelerated as he called out to Arrieta. Every time his heart pulsed an explosive magical energy was produced. His movements increased more and more in speed.
‘This is the decisive moment for victory!’
The techniques he used after he overflowing his body with magical energy put an extreme burden on his body, and he had already used it once before. Azell’s body and energy pulse still stung from pain.
However, it was time to lay everything on the line now. This wasn’t just about winning. This was for his survival! If he started thinking about the aftermath, he might be killed instead. Azell wouldn’t act so foolishly.
Che-che-che-che-cheng!
“Kook. Impudent shrimp……!”
Azell had gotten the drop on him. Duran was relentlessly pushed backwards. Azell’s movement was so fast and chaotic that Duran didn’t have a moment to think. Moreover…….
‘Behind!’
Azell kept changing his location using his Instantaneous Movement. He was using this technique to travel a short distance, and he kept changing the rhythm of his attack. Bloodcurdling attacks kept coming towards Duran.
‘Where did a shrimp like him appear from?’
The essence of Spirit Order was to control the mind and senses. Azell was putting on a full display of this fact. Azell was threatening Duran with his mental power, and he used his ever changing movements to confuse the other’s senses. Once Azell gained an upper hand Duran didn’t find the chance to transition from defense to offense.
“The Light that Rends the Evil Darkness!”
Woooooooo!
The white sword Arrieta raised into the air let out a blinding light. The straight beam of light lit up the darkness, and it revealed their location.
At the same moment, Azell disappeared from in front of Duran. He appeared in front of Niberis. Niberis’ barrier activated automatically, and the barrier blocked Azell’s sword strike. Almost simultaneously, Niberis reflexively shot a beam of light towards Azell.
“Kuhk!”
A sound of an explosion rang out, and Duran’s scream could be heard. He had been hit by the beam of light shot by Niberis!
Niberis was dismayed. She was sure she had attacked in an entirely different direction from Duran. Moreover, Duran would have had enough time to deal with such an attack. However, Duran hadn’t been able to properly defend against it as he was hit.
‘What did he do?’
Azell spun his body in front of the surprised Niberis, then he activated his Instantaneous Movement. He let out a powerful strike from behind her.
Pah-jijiji-jeek!
Niberis gave up on attacking, and she focused on blocking the sword strike. Azell clicked his tongue.
“At the very least, I wanted to take care of you… I guess I was too greedy.”
Azell retreated backwards without any regret.
Niberis was still having a hard time recovering from the impact.
‘What trick did he use this time?’
Azell asked the surprised woman.
“Do you want to continue this? It seems you exceeded your time limit.”
“…….”
Niberis glared at Azell. Azell laughed shamelessly as he let her gaze flow over him.
The method Azell had used was quite simple.
First, he disappeared from in front of Duran, then he ambushed Niberis. At the same time, he had made a clone behind Duran. Duran snorted as he planned on ignoring Azell’s clone, but the clone wasn’t an illusion. It was the clone ‘that could attack like the real body’, which had surprised Niberis before.
The startled Duran turned around to block the attack, and at that moment, Niberis had shot her beam of light.
Azell yelled out in delight inside when he saw this. This was the most favorable outcome that he assumed would happen.
When magicians had to quickly cast something that could cause physical damage, they enjoyed casting a light beam or a lightning strike. If Niberis had used her lightning strike, then Azell’s plan wouldn’t have worked. However, Azell had blocked her previous lightning strike with an Insulation technique. This was why Niberis unconsciously chose to use the light beam attack.
Moreover, a secondary trap was waiting for her.
‘If I know what attack is coming, then it is quite easy for me to change the trajectory of the attack.’
In a fight between normal opponents, those with excellent skills could predict which attack would be coming next. Some also had the ability to slightly alter the opponent’s attack.
For the high level Spirit Order practitioners, they could guess what magic was coming by looking at the opponent’s magical wave. They could come up with a countermeasure using this method. Azell confirmed Niberis was about to use her light beam attack, so he used his defensive qi to curve the trajectory of the light beam.
The timing had to be perfect. Duran had turned his body to block the clone that had shown up behind his back. Duran hadn’t expected a mental attack, so Azell pounced.
Azell shrugged his shoulders.
“If you sent a stronger attack then I could have killed that guy. How unfortunate..”
“Kook…….”
Duran grinded his teeth. Azell’s machination resulted in him received a blow. However, he was a high level Spirit Order practitioner, and his armor had excellent defensive capability. He hadn’t suffered too much from the attack.
“You?e?vil?bast?ards?!”
The thunderclap-like voice rang out much closer than before.
Duran spoke.
“Let us retreat, miss.”
“Is it because of him?”
“Yes.”
“The Dragon Sword Duke… I guess the elders’ nagging wasn’t said for caution’s sake?”
Niberis bit her lips. The owner of the thunder-like voice was none other than the Dragon Sword Duke. He was Rulain Kingdom’s strongest swordsman. His name was Kairen Tarantos.
Niberis queried.
“How did that man find out about this?”
“The Rulain royal family aren’t all idiots. We are out of time, miss”
“Kook… I understand.”
It happened at that moment.
“You dare lay your hand on my cute princess! Wait for me there! I’ll sever your heads!”
The voice was much closer than a moment before. He was already within 500 meters, and a beam of light rose from him. At the same time, an oppressive magical wave flared out.
“Oh, Dragon Sword. Burn the Evil Darkness!”
After the shout, he came a 100 meter closer. When he brought down his sword in empty air, he once again closed a distance of 100 meters.
“He’s attacking at this distance……?!”
Niberis was taken aback. He had gotten much closer in a flash, but there was still 300 meters distance separating them. The Dragon Sword Duke wasn’t a magician. He was a famed swordsman, yet he was going to attack at this distance?
Duran stepped in front of her in dismay. A dark magical energy poured out from his body, and he put all his power into a single strike.
At the same time, a hail of light came flying towards them from a couple hundred meters away.
Kwah kwah kwah kwah kwah!
‘It has this much power……!’
Niberis gasped.
This was most definitely similar in nature as the technique used by Arrieta’s words of power.
However, the degree of power couldn’t even be compared. The difference was like the gap between an arrow and a ballista?
An entire portion of the forest was leveled, and the words of power he shouted burned the darkness away.
“Ooh ah ah…….”
Boar’s body shook at the sight. It was a terrible power. Cold fear gripped him when Boar thought about the attack having just passed over his head.
Kooh-gu gu gu gu gu…..
The light dispersed, and a large cloud of dust settled. The bewitched party members coughed. Azell was the only one, who was unperturbed. He clicked his tongued.
“Chet. They ran away.”
Boar was surprised at Azell’s words. He queried.
“They aren’t dead?”
“I would have already killed them, if they could be killed by an attack of that quality. He shouted from afar that he will be attacking. Wouldn’t anyone be able to avoid it?”
“No. Normally, people wouldn’t be able to dodge…….”
“They are capable of dodging such an attack. It had a lot of power behind it, but his movement was too large and slow. He telegraphed his punch, and he attacked after he gave them a warning.”
Boar shook his head at Azell’s retort. Boar couldn’t accept Azell’s words, but he didn’t have the energy to argue. Boar decided to let it go.
At that moment, a person showed up between the two of them. He suddenly showed up using Instantaneous Movement, and he slid across the ground into the cloud of dust.
Chwahhhhh!
He arrived in such a hurry that he couldn’t’ properly decelerate his speed. He slid into the land he had upturned. He slid for over 20 meters before he came to a stop within the dust cloud.
“Kook. I guess… I wasn’t too… late…….”
From the cloud of dust, a voice gasping for air was heard.
While everyone stared dumbly, Azell bowed his head.
“Your timing is quite exquisite. Thank you for your help.”
“Hoo hoo… Huk huk… I suppose so… Huk huk, huk huk… Huh-uhk, huk… It seems… Huk huk huk… you were speaking some… Huk… impudent words… Huk huk huk.”
Everyone thought the same thing as they listened to his words.
‘Why don’t you either catch your breath or talk in a leisurely manner?’
He was gasping as if he was about expire, yet he got out all the words he wanted to say. He even tried to act like nothing was wrong, but everyone pitied his overly transparent attempt.
Azell spoke.
“This is this and that is that. Well, you did run across a vast distance, so of course you would be in a rush.”
“…hoo-ooh.”
Finally, after catching his breath, the person stood up from inside the cloud of dust.
“The distance didn’t seem too large on the map, so I thought I would be here in a short amount of time. However, I had to cross a mountain and a lake. It was quite difficult. It felt as if I was going to die. It has been a long while since I’ve gotten a good workout like this.”
Everyone in the party except Azell and Arrieta flinched when they saw him.
The reason being the man wasn’t human. He was a young man of the Dragon Demon race with long black hair.
Azell gave his respect to this person.
“It is an honor to meet you, Dragon Sword Duke.”
2
The Dragon Sword Duke was named Kairen Tarantos.
He was called the living legend of the Rulaine Kingdom. When there weren’t any battles, he only appeared during the official meetings. This is why not a lot of people knew what he looked like.
Moreover, he had been semi-retired in recent years, so no one knew about his youthful appearance. This was why Giles and Boar was shocked when they saw him.
Kairen was over 100 years old, but he looked to be in his mid-20s. Basically, he looked to be of similar age as Boar and Azell. Still, as a being from the Dragon Demon race, he had characteristics that was clearly different from humans, but that was it.
Kairen was looked like a young man with long black hair. He had dark blue eyes that gave him a cool impression, and his ears were noticeably longer than Arrieta’s ears. On top of his ears, there were two black horns. It looked similar to a bull’s horns, and it made him look strong and daunting.