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Chapter 114
Chapter 114
Chapter 114
The woman couldn’t hide her shock as she turned to look at the blazing structure behind her.
It wasn’t just mindless slashing at flames.
The circular structure, woven from corpses, was both a sacrificial altar and offering created for the Outer God they worshipped.
It wasn’t something that should catch fire so easily, especially not from a mere spark.
“!”
But the intensity of the flames was undeniable, making it impossible to question what her eyes were seeing.
The fire devoured the corpses piece by piece, spreading rapidly. Where it encountered dark mana, it briefly turned violet in defiance before succumbing to the flames.
As Ian watched the woman stand frozen, her back exposed to him, he calmly reached into his pouch and took the Wigner Delta he had purchased from Bellen. Swallowing the pill, he placed his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Click.
The metallic sound reached the woman’s ears.
Shrring.
The blade was being drawn.
“……”
The woman quickly assessed the situation. The flames engulfing the “masterpiece” she valued so highly were beyond saving.
She wasn’t a mage. She couldn’t use magic.
Even if she somehow extinguished the flames, the corpses had already burned beyond repair, and the structure would no longer serve its purpose.
Protecting it had been her responsibility. But now that she had failed, there was only one thing left to do:
Eliminate the culprit.
“Kill him.”
Her heightened senses, sharpened through years of combat, picked up on his movements solely from sound.
His blade was already drawn, his body enhanced by mana, and his stance showed he was closing the distance.
The woman adjusted her sword, which had been hanging loosely at her side. She slid her right foot forward, tilting her body low and adopting a combat-ready posture.
Raising her right hand to her left shoulder, she twisted her waist and swung her blade in a powerful arc. Mana surged along the blade, extending its reach to more than double its physical length.
Shiiing!
Her blackened eyes shifted focus.
From the flames consuming the corpses to the wooden structures in the background, and finally to the mercenary’s blade striking her own at close range.
Clang!
As their blades clashed, the tension of offense and defense coiled between them, and their swords twisted, each aiming for the other’s vital points.
Clack! Clack!
In the brief but ferocious exchange of blows, the woman felt a faint thrill.
Here she was, far from the frontlines, in a remote, insignificant village, fighting a warrior of this caliber. She hadn’t expected someone this skilled.
She had assumed he was merely adept at manipulating flames, but his mana-infused strikes were solid, and his swordsmanship showed no flaws.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
What stood out most was his ability to block or evade her unorthodox attacks, almost as if he knew exactly where her strikes would land.
He wasn’t reading her movements through her eyes. It was as though he instinctively knew the trajectory of her blade.
Though every one of her attacks was being deflected, she found herself more exhilarated than frustrated. She was equally holding her ground against him, after all.
This wasn’t like tormenting a weaker opponent. Facing someone who matched her strength in a balanced duel was far more enjoyable. She couldn’t suppress the grin spreading across her face.
“If not for this unbearable heat, this would’ve been perfect.”
Not just his blade but the intense heat radiating from his entire body made it hard to breathe.
Even inhaling felt like her lungs were being scorched.
“Hhh!”
The woman took a quick, shallow breath and swung her sword in a wide arc.
Ian, attempting to evade the slash emanating from the blade, noticed the priest standing idly behind him and chose to deflect the attack instead.
Clang!
The deflected strike veered off course and brought down a nearby building.
For a brief moment, there was a lull in the battle, allowing the woman to finally catch her breath.
“Huff… Are you… a Red Spear Knight?”
Though Ian wasn’t wearing armor or bearing the symbol of Berger, several clues led her to suspect he was one of the famed Red Spear Knights.
Ian, however, remained silent, his sword still aimed at her.
Watching him step closer with each deliberate move, the woman pressed him again.
“What’s your name?”
“……”
“Why so quiet? Surely you have questions for me. Just tell me your name, and you can ask. I’ll humor you for a bit.”
“No need. It doesn’t have to be you.”
“Hah. Planning to ask one of my kin instead? Don’t bother. You won’t have a normal conversation with them like this.”
The woman chuckled, wiping the sweat streaming down her face with the back of her hand.
Even from their brief skirmish, the strain on her body was significant. In contrast, her opponent seemed completely unaffected.
“So unfair.”
If the mercenary was truly a Red Spear Knight, the heat radiating from him was likely a natural byproduct of his body-enhancement techniques.
For her, it was a severe disadvantage. She had to constantly expend mana to shield herself from the overwhelming heat, draining her energy just to stay alive.
Had she possessed a precious artifact or relic, it might have been a different story. But as a Battle Wraith, obtaining such treasures was as unlikely as plucking stars from the sky.
Yet retreat was never an option.
“I am a Battle Wraith.”
She would fight. She would win and survive—just as she always had.
To do that, she needed to end this quickly. If the battle dragged on, her body wouldn’t hold out against the searing heat.
Skreeeeech!
The scream of someone in the distance caused a faint change in Ian’s expression.
He, too, seemed pressed for time. Without any further words, he charged toward her once more. Seeing this, the woman broke into a bright smile.
“I like this.”
“Come on, then!”
Woom!
The woman’s trembling blade sliced forward.
[Four Slashes, Three Thrusts]
It was a sword technique mastered by the Battle Wraiths.
“This will feel unfamiliar to you.”
While the essence of swordsmanship—slashing, cutting, thrusting—was universal, its flow and stances varied widely.
The Battle Wraith’s swordsmanship was uniquely destructive, consuming the user’s body with every technique. Only a Battle Wraith, capable of switching bodies if needed, could wield it effectively.
The most fearsome aspect of this technique was that with each successive attack, the blade’s speed and force intensified.
Clang!
Ian blocked the first slash, which had been aimed at his thigh.
Clang! Clang!
He also parried the second and third attacks, but the woman remained unfazed.
From the outset, the Four Slashes, Three Thrusts technique was designed to incapacitate an opponent by the sixth strike. She was merely building toward the inevitable.
With three strikes remaining, the woman’s eyes gleamed fiercely, determined to break her opponent’s stance and finish the battle with a final blow.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The fourth strike disrupted his balance. Without giving him a moment to recover, she pressed on relentlessly.
The fifth strike capitalized on the recoil, driving her blade downward.
At this range, it was nearly impossible to evade unless someone physically pulled Ian away. The end was in sight.
As her sixth strike was about to land, intended to open up his defenses completely, the situation took an unexpected turn.
[Crimson Fang Technique: Rotating Heavens]
Her attack was countered.
The moment their blades clashed, her arm was forcibly redirected in a sweeping arc, as if compelled by an unseen force.
“What is this?”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. Before she could process what had happened, the flames entwining Ian’s sword, along with the oppressive heat radiating around him, condensed into his blade.
The Battle Wraith stared, her breath catching.
Huff.
The searing heat that had surrounded them suddenly vanished, replaced by a chill that went beyond refreshing—it was outright frigid.
She recognized this technique. It was one of the Red Spear Knights’ signature moves, a skill that compressed heat into the blade and unleashed it with devastating speed and force to cut down the enemy.
“This is dangerous.”
Dodging would have been ideal, but she had no choice but to block.
She poured what remained of her mana into her blade, pulled it close to her chest, and braced it with her left hand. Her stance was unstable, but it was all she could manage.
[Bane of Evil: 5th Form – Execution: Decapitation]
Time seemed to slow for the Battle Wraith.
Ian’s sword, now jet-black and suffused with an overwhelming aura, approached her at an agonizingly deliberate pace.
Tap.
The moment her blade met his, the weight behind it was immeasurable.
An explosive force surged forward, as if the strike were determined to break her sword and cleave her in half.
Crack!
The blade dug in. Despite the mana shield reinforcing her sword, cracks began spreading across its surface.
Still, she endured. She managed to stay on her feet, though she was sent skidding backward, nearly airborne.
Landing with a smooth slide, the woman burst into laughter.
“Heh… hehehe…! Hahahahaha!”
She couldn’t hold it back.
“I blocked it. I actually blocked it! Hahahaha!”
The joy of surviving the Red Spear Knight’s Execution filled her with uncontainable glee.
Glancing down at her sword, however, her laughter faltered slightly.
The blade, though barely holding together under a veil of mana, was damaged beyond repair. One solid hit would shatter it to pieces.
Logically, retreat was the best option. But in this sacred arena of battle, fleeing was unthinkable. Steeling herself, she readied her stance.
“Let’s keep going.”
“No,” Ian replied coldly. “This ends here for you.”
His words made her frown. As she opened her mouth to demand an explanation, a chill ran down her spine. She turned sharply, only to freeze in horror.
The flames that had been consuming the arena’s sculptures now towered behind her, rising like a massive tidal wave.
No, not just towering—crashing down.
Whoooosh!
“Wait—”
Her words barely escaped her lips, a final whisper before the inferno engulfed her completely.
The flames raged violently, yet they remained confined to the spot where the woman had fallen, writhing like a storm trapped within a glass bottle.
– Aaaaahhh…
No matter how powerful her mana shield, it wasn’t invincible.
The flames tore through her defenses, searing away her garments and scorching her flesh.
Even her screams were silenced as her vocal cords disintegrated in the relentless heat.
She struggled, driven by sheer tenacity, to escape the inferno, but managed only a single step before collapsing to her knees.
-Aaaaaaaah…!
Finally, a dark, sinister energy began to seep out of her charred corpse. The black aura was her true form—the essence of the Battle Wraith.
But even that essence couldn’t escape the consuming flames. It writhed and let out faint cries of agony before being reduced to ash in a brief, explosive ripple.
This ripple marked the Battle Wraith’s final destruction. Ian had no reason to linger.
He strode past the stunned priest, racing back toward the village entrance.
“Aaaagh!”
“Gyaaah!”
The path back was short, but in that brief time, the frequency of screams surged.
Soon, Ian came upon a gruesome scene.
A man, his sword slashing furiously, was slaughtering the soldiers with brutal efficiency.
Just minutes ago, this street had been filled with soldiers chatting and standing in formation. Now, it was littered with blood and corpses.
“P-please… s-spare m—urk!”
“……”
A soldier, crawling on the ground and reaching out for mercy, was silenced as the man mercilessly drove his sword into his back.
The killer, as if sensing Ian’s gaze, turned his head.
His eyes, blackened with malice, marked him as another Battle Wraith.
His expression was hard and grim, his features twisted by displeasure. His gaze shifted to a figure nearby—a lone priest standing frozen in fear.
Ian wasted no time. Bending low, he kicked off the ground with explosive force.
[Bane of Evil: 2nd Form – Comet]
Ian became a blazing streak of fire, closing the distance in an instant.
But the Battle Wraith moved just as quickly, leaping toward the priest, sword raised to strike.
Ian managed to intercept the Battle Wraith at the last moment, grabbing hold of him and deflecting his trajectory.
Boom!
The ground trembled as the Battle Wraith’s blade missed its mark, slamming into the earth instead.
He turned his head calmly toward Ian, who now stood in his path, and asked in a low voice:
“What’s your name, Red Spear Knight?”
———-