Chapter 126 : Luck
Luck
In games, you can hover your mouse over stats or information to see the details,
but obviously that's impossible in reality.
Of course, I remembered most of the specs for artifacts and OOPArts that I had seen in the game,
but the scroll artifact in my hand was an Exclusive effect scroll, so it was my first time seeing it.
"Could this be...?"
Is this a scroll that lets any weapon be treated as a kitchen knife?
As I was thinking along these lines,
"!!"
The letters written on the parchment began to glow and floated up into the air,
jiiiing!
forming an emerald hexagonal magic array.
Fortunately, this was an effect I had seen in the game.
'If I put a weapon in this magic array, it'll be treated as a kitchen knife, right?'
A moment of realization struck me.
0If I could turn any weapon into a kitchen knife,
it would be much more advantageous to get and use an artifact weapon of at least the battalion commander's One Point specs.
But,
'Is this really the time for me to be picky about cold or hot rice?'
I was about to face Schutmann in a decisive battle soon.
Rather than thinking about the distant future, I desperately needed to power up right now.
'Besides, Nash is an advanced-grade weapon, almost as good as an artifact.'
I put aside my hesitation and brought Nash to the magic array floating in the air.
Tzuzuzut.
As Nash pierced the magic array, the hexagonal star spun around and then pop- disappeared.
I dropped the parchment from my left hand and examined Nash.
Since I was wearing the Fragment of the Firmament, I could see the power of enchantment.
Plerine's unique magic still remained,
but I had spoken the activation word several times, so it seemed unlikely for a full activation.
'Even so, I should still be able to draw out plasma.'
Other than that, nothing else stood out,
but the sensation in my body holding Nash was completely different.
'This is the feeling I had when holding a kitchen knife.'
I swung Dominating Sword in the air.
A Sword Energy traced an elegant sword path.
Mixing in Quick Sword and Flowing Sword, I released Sword Energy.
Tzuka-gak!!
I could finely control the Sword Energy that flew from my body.
It was a perfect execution of the training method Ralph had taught me.
'Ralph...'
Thinking of the benefactor I had forgotten, my mind calmed.
I walked to the spot where Ralph had vanished, having turned into an OOPArts.
I was supposed to cut off and keep the ear of the fallen comrade,
but, regrettably, only his gear remained stuck to the ground where he had lain.
And the one item that stood out the most was—
'The commander's scarf Ralph treasured dearly.'
I felt as if I could hear his voice in my ear, telling me to achieve my dreams.
As if possessed,
I picked up Ralph's scarf and hung it around my neck.
It was clearly a decorative item with no effect whatsoever,
yet my hatred toward Schutmann blazed with new intensity.
'Now's not the time to just sit around!'
Now that I could handle Nash perfectly,
but so far I hadn't used dual swordsmanship.
To show my full fighting ability, I had to retrieve Black Vein, which had pierced through Zaiya's face and flown off earlier.
'Where is it?'
I immediately used Mana Scope to scan my surroundings.
Having obtained the Fragment of the Firmament and raised my mystical power,
I felt like I could adjust the magnification much more freely.
'There it is!'
I kicked off the ground without hesitation.
Kwaang!
"!!!"
I flew at a speed I could barely handle myself.
Whooooosh.
Tearing through the air as I soared,
the smells of blood and dust on the battlefield stabbed my nose anew.
'Huh?'
Running toward Black Vein, my gaze turned toward the beastkin garrison.
At that moment, I sensed the strange presence Ralph had warned me about.
'Damn.'
While we'd been fussing with Schutmann,
it looked like they had just about finished their preparations to move out.
'I have to finish off Schutmann as quickly as possible and hurry back to our garrison.'
I picked up Black Vein lying on the ground.
Tak!
Now that I had weapons in both hands, I felt a sense of stability—
Spot!
Schutmann appeared.
He had cleared the curse at a flawless moment.
"Huff, huff."
I didn't know what he'd done for his severed right hand, but the bleeding had stopped.
Jjeolgeureong.
He roughly tossed aside the kitchen knife in his left hand,
picked up his arming sword from the ground, and spoke.
"So she can even enchant weapons. That's beyond imagination."
I caught sight of Schutmann's flank, scraped by the plasma sword.
Perhaps because it had been cauterized, he wasn't bleeding,
but it was clear at a glance that he was in no shape to fight normally.
Even so, there was no breaking in Schutmann's gaze.
"I admit it. I misjudged. I should have killed you that day."
Which day did he mean?
Was it when we were returning from Grey Fortress to Granfen?
Or the day he first visited our shop in Granfen?
"Yeah... Why didn't you, and now we're putting up with all this crap?"
I put my right foot back,
and Nash in my left hand forward, assuming a preparatory stance as I spoke.
"I'll make it easy for you now."
"... Are you insane? Even in this state, you think you could defeat me?! You're only a 3rd-rank?!"
Schutmann's face twisted in rage.
It was so satisfying that I wanted to tease him more, but—
'No knowing when the beastkin will charge in.'
I needed to kill Schutmann quickly and regroup with the surviving officers.
So—
'I'll kill him by taking advantage of his underestimating me!'
I began to rush at him, carefully controlling my strength.
Tatataat!
If I ran all out like I did just a moment ago, it would immediately reveal that I'd become a 4th-rank.
"YOU BASTARD!!!"
Schutmann screamed in fury, his eyes bloodshot,
KWAANG!!
and kicked off the ground, flying toward me.
Even with such a serious wound and using mana, he still had that much strength left.
So that was the level of someone near the edge of 5th-rank, I thought,
and in an instant, our blades met.
Chaeaaeng!
The Sword Energy from Black Vein and his sword clashed, sparking,
but inevitably, my stance collapsed from being overpowered by his strength.
A leftover Sword Energy brushed and scraped my left cheek.
'Never let your guard down!'
I realized again the unchanging truth—low-rankers cannot beat high-rankers in a direct clash.
To block his follow-up, I thrust Nash forward and shouted:
"Deploy!"
A blaze lit on the cross guard.
He must have been wary of the plasma sword, as he withdrew his blade and swung it upward from below.
'Strong Sword!'
He really wasn't an ordinary foe.
I'd tried to attack up close with a surprise plasma sword,
but if he countered like this with Strong Sword, that plan wouldn't work.
However—
'But now I'm sure!'
Even if I drew out plasma,
if he used aura, he could neutralize it, couldn't he?
The fact that Schutmann was so conscious of my plasma sword that he used Strong Sword meant—
'His mana is almost depleted now!'
It had actually gotten easier.
I decided to activate my welcome Plan B and struck down Schutmann's Sword Energy with Strong Sword.
Chaeaaeng!
Even though I was still being overpowered in terms of raw power,
chaechae, chaeng!! kwakak!
for a moment, my dual swords and Plerine's magic allowed me to fight evenly.
Then, gathering mana explosively in my legs, I dashed in an instant.
KWAANG!
I cut through Schutmann's Sword Energy, dodged them,
and quickly closed into plasma range.
'It's time!'
Aiming for his neck, I swung Nash and shouted.
"Deploy!"
Tzuzuzut!
At my chant, a blue plasma sword appeared.
The look on his face as he swung his sword to block—
'What...?'
It was different from my expectations.
He wasn't a bit flustered,
without a single change in his expression, he moved to clash his blade with my plasma sword.
Even though you can't strike down plasma swords with Sword Energy.
Then he must be planning to use aura?!
'Was he holding out after all?!'
If Schutmann cut through my plasma sword with aura now,
the one who'd be cut in half wouldn't be Schutmann but me.
But it was odd.
'If he could use aura, he would've had plenty of chances before now.'
If that were the case, I'd already be dead.
As I was thinking that—
"!!"
A beige aura rose on Schutmann's arming sword.
It was something I could hardly believe with my own eyes,
but I couldn't just stand there and die, either.
'I need to use aura...!'
While the strength buff was running,
I could use some abilities from higher ranks.
That's why I'd been using Sword Energy since 2nd-rank,
and fired Sword Energy at 3rd-rank.
Now that I was 4th-rank,
'Maybe I can use aura—the hallmark of 5th-rank!'
Thinking that, I tried focusing on forming aura on both the blade of the plasma sword and on Nash,
but the swing of our blades was over in less than a second—a shockingly short time.
'No good.'
Schutmann's aura and my Nash were about to connect,
but there was only blue plasma on Nash, no other color.
So aura really was a technique on a whole other level from Sword Energy,
and the two blades clashed.
Or rather,
I thought they clashed.
'Wh-what is this?!'
Just before Schutmann's aura touched my plasma sword,
it left a strange afterimage and disappeared.
'Phantom Sword!'
Before I knew it, Schutmann's arming sword was headed for my left ribs.
And the sword path—
'It's faster than my plasma sword.'
Before I could cut his neck, my own chest was about to be sliced—so swift and threatening.
A faint smile rose on Schutmann's lips.
The look of assured victory—almost as if telling me goodbye.
But—
"??"
Before I could even recognize the Phantom Sword, my instincts took the lead.
Even I didn't understand what was happening to my body,
Pop!
I pushed off the ground.
It wasn't a high jump.
It was like an acrobatic somersault moving on its own.
Shwik!
Schutmann's arming sword and Sword Energy just barely missed me.
And at that moment, I realized.
The reaction I'd just made was—
'An instinct Jeros had ingrained in me.'
On the day we returned from the spirit stone quarry,
Jeros had kept the White Fang stance during the death matches that were supposedly just his "sword training."
That squinting bastard had beaten me like a dog with his left hand (the one without the short sword).
From that, it had been engraved in my brain.
'The sword path of the White Fang's left hand.'
The path Schutmann was using right now,
was exactly the one Jeros had taught me.
Including the way Jeros would swing, as if it didn't matter if I died,
those attacks had honed my defensive instincts.
All of those things, now that I'd become 4th-rank,
had unconsciously allowed me to evade Schutmann's Phantom Sword.
So, as Schutmann's blade sliced empty air
and my body floated, it felt as though time had stopped.
"......"
Schutmann's eyes met mine.
His pupils filled with surprise and despair,
and when faced with reality, that light faded into emptiness.
Seok!
The feeling of killing this man I'd wanted dead for so long wasn't nearly as exhilarating as expected.
*
Almost at the same moment that I landed, Schutmann's head fell,
and his body crumpled, toppling over.
Thud.
Just like Ralph, glimmers of light began to rise from him.
Watching this scene,
I felt more relief at narrowly surviving than joy at having taken revenge or finally killing my nemesis.
The real reason I could still be alive now was—
'Thanks to Jeros' teachings.'
Jeros had warned me to be careful of Schutmann before leaving.
And through our sparring, he'd made me get familiar with White Fang swordsmanship.
If not for that, I would have stood no chance against Schutmann.
In the end,
'I survived thanks to help from others—and luck.'
The strong man overestimated himself,
while I was able to win thanks to the help of many.
That must have been the biggest difference between us.
So my father's teaching came to mind.
― Luck is also a skill, my son.
A faint feeling of joy began to rise in me,
but now was not the time to be checking my feelings.
'I need to gather everyone and return to the garrison as quickly as possible.'
I put away my weapons and ran to wake Legion, who was lying on the ground.
If I woke her, I could also check on Hank, who was on the brink of death.
"Commander Legion!"
I shook her and tried hitting her, but she wouldn't wake up.
At that moment—
Spot-!
-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=
Schutmann is an enemy and all, but he's a tank...
He wiped most of Ian's team...
Even brother big-jaw died...
【(⩌_⩌ )】