Chapter 257
Chapter 257:
I quickly pulled two cards out of the air.
Immortal Phantom Shark, Little Gale Lamji friend selected!
Skill Name: ???
Skill Description: ???
Fusion Rate: 40%
‘Combination technique.’
Shark’s darkness and Lamji’s gale. By combining the two abilities, I could push my mobility to the absolute limit.
“Revenge! Revenge for my sister, my brother, my comrades, and Verdiiiiiii!”
The Cleaner charged at me with red light blazing in his eyes.
He looked like an evil spirit completely consumed by madness, enough to terrify anyone who saw him, but to me, it was actually a welcome sight.
‘Looks like he mistook me for someone else, but either way, I succeeded up to this point.’
Just as in my strategy, the Cleaner had entered a state of stress.
Blinded by vengeance, his attack power increased, but in exchange, he lost his reason and suffered the fatal risk of his accuracy dropping to rock bottom.
Whoosh-! Whoosh-!
The daggers in both hands continuously sliced through empty air, but I didn’t bother clashing blades with him.
‘Footwork alone is enough to dodge.’
Thanks to Lamji’s gale wrapped around my feet adding even more speed, my body felt as light as a feather.
His blades only mercilessly cut through the faint afterimages Shark created.
The situation overwhelmingly favored me.
‘From now on, let’s avoid clashing blades as much as possible.’
There was no need to exchange blows in the first place, but there was an even bigger reason.
‘……I expected it, but I didn’t think it would really end up like this.’
The durability of my weapon.
I could feel that the Titanium Sword had reached its limit.
An ominous vibration had traveled through my grip. When I knocked away the Cleaner’s dagger earlier, I heard a dull metallic sound unlike usual, like a cracked bell.
The blade was slightly bent and chipped, so there had to be even more fatal fractures inside.
If I clashed with that monstrous strength a few more times, the Titanium Sword would completely shatter.
If I hadn’t carefully coated it with strengthening agent the day before the match, it probably would have broken long ago.
‘……Thanks. You’ve held out well all this time.’
I briefly looked at the chipped blade of the Titanium Sword with pity, then focused once again on the Cleaner in front of me.
‘8 seconds remaining.’
At that very moment.
A bizarre change appeared in the Cleaner’s body.
As though proving that every last bit of mana in his body had been completely drained, the appearance of ‘freshman Dion’ gradually began to collapse.
‘This was something that was really hard to see in the game.’
An Easter egg that only appeared when the Cleaner’s mana was completely depleted.
It was the moment when the true face he had desperately hidden was revealed.
For some reason, he looked as though he had aged rapidly. His hair was completely white, while his face and hands were covered in burns, pus, and scars, leaving him grotesquely disfigured.
This was the Cleaner’s true appearance, the one he had wanted to hide by stealing the appearances of others.
Even the grimy appearance of the Academy’s young janitor had merely been another false face borrowed from someone else.
“So that’s the original appearance you wanted to throw away.”
“Graaaaaah!”
Even after his true face was exposed, he continued roaring like a beast and wildly hacking at me.
But his movements were clearly slower than before.
‘He’s even easier to dodge now.’
The mana inside his body had been completely exhausted.
And because he hadn’t followed the rule of resting for 3 seconds, his body was suffering from overload.
‘Now.’
I gripped my sword and slipped into his range.
Slash-!
“Ghk?!”
The blade grazed the Cleaner’s shoulder, scattering red droplets of blood through the air.
Bewilderment filled the eyes that had been blazing with rage and madness.
“Why are you making that face?”
I stared coldly into his eyes as his posture collapsed.
“Did remembering your childhood scare you?”
As though I had struck directly at the heart of it, his pupils shook wildly.
“So you really are……!”
I didn’t answer.
“Graaaagh?!”
I swung my sword upward and carved a deep wound across his chest.
“You……! Yoooou……!”
A twisted expression mixed with rage and fear appeared on his face.
“Uaaaaah!”
The Cleaner swung his blade at me in desperation, but I lightly twisted my body and slipped into his blind spot.
Then came the counterattack.
Clang-! Slash-!
The instant the blade flashed, the tendon in the left arm holding his dagger was severed.
“Graaaaagh!”
Clatter-!
Blood sprayed through the air. The dagger slipped from his powerless hand and rolled across the ground.
“Kieeeek!”
Unable to use one hand, he began backing away while his teeth chattered.
His unfocused gaze shifted over my shoulder toward the Imperial Princess standing some distance away.
“Fine, you! I’ll kill you instead!”
He suddenly leaped toward the Imperial Princess.
‘What a pointless move……!’
In the game, there had also been a pattern where the Cleaner attacked the Imperial Princess instead of the player.
Now that the battle had reached its final stage, he had attempted to attack her.
I stepped in front of the Imperial Princess one step ahead of him.
Bang-!
To protect the Imperial Princess, I had no choice but to meet him head-on.
In the end, his dagger collided with my Titanium Sword.
Crash-!
‘The sword……!’
The blade of the Titanium Sword, already at its limit, snapped in two and fell to the ground.
It simply couldn’t endure any longer.
“……Kuh! Khehehe!”
After seeing the broken sword, the Cleaner burst into bizarre laughter and rushed at me.
“A knight who lost his sword, what a pathetic sight! I’ll tear you apart first!”
Mistaking the situation for his chance to seize victory, he made me his target again.
There wasn’t enough time to open my subspace and draw another weapon.
……But I didn’t panic.
I threw away the sword without hesitation.
“Don’t need it.”
Two cards were already in the hand I had grasped into the air.
One depicted a dog wearing a flower crown, the other a blue lizard.
‘Tuesday Fire!’
Tuesday Fire and Shark’s combination technique.
Fwoosh-!
My body ignited in black flames.
……Right.
If I didn’t have a weapon, then my entire body could become one.
‘This is where it really matters.’
15 seconds had passed since I activated Dookbi’s ability.
If I released the Abyssal Storm now, the Cleaner would begin regenerating mana and regain his original abilities.
‘I have no choice but to keep using Dookbi’s ability.’
Fatigue had built up heavily throughout my body, and I wasn’t confident I could endure the Cleaner’s normal barrage for another 5 seconds.
Because of that, I had to maintain this storm for 5 more seconds.
‘Stay focused.’
A double-edged sword.
I entered penalty time.
Elapsed time 1 second.
My mind felt constricted.
Along with a splitting headache, I could feel my heart pounding.
“Die, die, die!”
I lightly deflected the sword strikes he launched one after another.
Elapsed time 2 seconds.
Bang-! Bang-!
“Cough!”
I lightly drove a fist into his face.
Blood burst from the Cleaner’s nose. He touched his face, then looked bewildered upon seeing the red liquid.
“……Y-You son of a bitch, what are you doing to meeeee!”
He charged at me again.
Elapsed time 3 seconds.
‘Damn it……!’
I couldn’t breathe.
Even so, I didn’t break my stance and kept my focus on him.
“This time I’ll kill……!”
The moment he raised his dagger.
I saw an opening.
My body moved before my head could think.
Baaam-!
“Guuuuuuuuuh……!”
The impact, powerful enough to crush his jawbone, exploded through the waterway.
A single perfect counterpunch.
Thud-!
Taking the full blow directly to his face, he let out a pained groan and crashed miserably to the ground.
But my condition wasn’t much better.
Elapsed time 4 seconds.
My muscles felt pushed to their absolute limit, as though sandbags had been strapped all over my body.
‘Move, please……!’
The pain throughout my entire body doubled.
My eyelids began to close.
My heart was pounding so hard it felt ready to burst.
My body had completely reached its limit.
I became certain that if I wasted even 1 more second, I would die.
‘……After coming this far.’
I had no choice but to release Dookbi’s ability.
The black storm raging around us vanished, revealing the waterway once again.
“……Ha! Haa!”
Was it because mana regeneration resumed once the Abyssal Storm disappeared?
The Cleaner had returned to the appearance of ‘Dion.’
But clutching his bloodied face, he was drenched in cold sweat, and none of his initial momentum remained.
He merely stared at me with trembling eyes.
“D-Damn it……! Daaaaamn!”
I wondered whether he might try to counterattack, but fortunately, the Cleaner lowered his weapon.
Apparently, fear had completely shattered his will to fight.
“Y-You, I’ll kill you someday……! I’ll definitely kill you and tear off that mask!”
He quickly got back to his feet, then fled straight into the darkness.
My body had already reached its limit, so there was no way I could pursue him.
And even if I caught up and continued fighting, by then the Cleaner would have recovered a certain amount of mana.
My chance of winning would have been zero.
‘I didn’t just endure him. I could actually defeat him.’
It was frustrating.
If I had just 1 more second, I could have finished him completely.
But even as I thought that, I soon shook my head.
‘……No, this is actually better.’
My judgment had become clouded inside the Abyssal Storm.
If I had killed the Cleaner, there was no telling how the original story would change again.
It was better to let the Cleaner escape, just as in the original story.
‘I should get out of the waterway too…….’
Just as I tried to move my heavy legs.
“……Wait, Sir Knight!”
The Imperial Princess called out.
“When we met last time, I wasn’t able to properly thank you.”
I could hear her carefully approaching while using the dark waterway wall for support.
Her footsteps gradually drew closer, seemingly unconcerned about how filthy her uniform had become with dust.
“You helped me last year, and now you’ve helped me again. I truly wish to thank you, Sir Knight.”
“…….”
But I didn’t even have the strength left to answer her.
I felt like I would collapse from exhaustion if I stayed any longer, so I had no choice but to leave this place immediately.
Right.
I had nothing to say to her.
I didn’t want her to recognize my contribution either.
No, for the sake of the original story, she absolutely must not discover my identity.
Originally, Ren should have been standing here.
But with Ren’s current strength, he would need hundreds, thousands of lives just to endure the Lunatic Cleaner’s attacks.
That was why I had taken his place here.
Because no matter what method I used, Ren and the Imperial Princess both had to survive if this world was going to be saved from destruction.
That was the only reason I was here.
‘……I don’t really have anything to say to the Imperial Princess. Let’s get out of here quickly.’
Just as I tried to take a step.
“Ah……!”
At that moment, the Imperial Princess’s face turned deathly pale.
Then she urgently ran toward me as though trying to stop something.
“No! Stop!”
The Imperial Princess’s shriek echoed through the waterway.
At the same time, gale-force winds began raging around us.
‘……So when she said stop, she wasn’t talking to me.’
The moment I opened my eyes, I realized the Imperial Princess’s shout hadn’t been directed at me.
But even realizing it now didn’t leave me any way to react.
Because in the blink of an eye, ‘someone’ had already appeared right before me.
‘Tch, this is pretty damn different from the original story.’
A hollow laugh escaped me internally.
A man who currently stood among the strongest in the world.
The former Empire’s Greatest Sword, Luga, had his sword pointed at me.