Chapter100
"Commander!!"
"The Captain is here! Fall back!"
"It's the Commander! Surround him! We'll only get in the way!"
Morale rises just from the two of them appearing.
Kalias scoffed as he saw the nobles he needed to kill mixed among those frozen to death or dismembered.
"Luen, are you sure about this."
The opponent wielded a sword no different from a Phantom Sword.
It possessed an absurd power that slowed the body with just a slight swing and froze anything it touched.
Within that cold aura, only Kalias and Luen could even clash swords with him.
"It's difficult, but what can we do? We have to try."
"A satisfactory answer."
As soon as they steeled their minds, Gid's sword, accompanied by a scowl, surged forward.
The moment he swung it once, the cold aura swirled like a storm.
Kwaah-!
"I'll break through."
The sword aura of the Higanbana formed on the Tyrant Sword.
The solid sword aura, like dragon scales, gathered into a single strike and pierced through the cold aura in one breath.
Kwaaang!!
As the cold aura pouring down like a wave was detonated by the Higanbana, the Golden Lion, swinging his Golden Armament Aura, shot through the gap like an arrow.
"As expected of the Southern Golden Lion! But you are still just a young cub!"
Along with Gid's admiring voice, his sword was immediately swung.
Kwagaga!
The Sayeon Strike swung like lightning.
The sword aura containing pure white cold engulfed the Golden Lion.
But right at that moment.
Jjeojeojeojeok! Kwajangchang!!
The Golden Lion, having shattered the chunks of ice, charged toward Gid.
"Gold Armament Sword!"
The Golden Lion's body was covered in armor from head to toe as if it had always been that way.
Full body armor.
The Golden Lion's Gold Armament Sword.
The Gold Armament Sword, which manipulates metal, created full-body armor out of the Golden Lion.
Added to that was the Golden Armament Aura bristling like a lion's mane, making his defensive power beyond imagination.
No one would be ignorant of the Golden Lion's depth, armed with a solid sword and armor and roaming the battlefield. The epithet 'Golden Lion' was not created for nothing, so even Gid couldn't hide his bewilderment.
"No matter how hard it is, once it freezes, you won't be able to use any strength!"
Jjeojeok! It freezes.
The Golden Lion's body, freezing from the legs down, gradually stiffened.
He shook it off a few times, but the aftermath of the cold aura was stronger than expected.
He swung his sword down quickly, but.
"!"
Even the sword had frozen at some point.
'When...'
"Keukeukeukeu! Even the lion of the South is helpless before my masterpiece! Now! The time has come! Quietly offer up your neck!"
Just as he approached like a ghost and was about to bring his sword down. Chaekaeng-!
Kalias blocked Gid's sword.
"You shouldn't forget that I'm here."
"You foolish bastard!"
Jjeojeojeok! Cold aura poured out as if trying to freeze him while their swords were locked.
But an explosion occurred in an instant.
Kwang-!
The cold aura was swept away by the light explosion.
Gid's brow furrowed.
"What did you do."
"If you're curious, try attacking again."
Kwang! Kwaang!
What he infused into his sword was the Higanbana.
The profound principle of the Higanbana blew away the cold aura itself.
He was caught off guard at first, but knowing that the guy wielded ice-attribute abilities...
He had no intention of taking it obediently.
Kwaaang!
Sweeping away the cold aura once more, he thrust his sword and simultaneously inserted his left hand into the void space, drawing out another sword.
The sword that emerged from thin air was the Judgment Sword.
He wanted to draw the Thunderclap Sword, but there were too many watching eyes, so he had no choice but to use the Tyrant Sword and the Judgment Sword.
The Tyrant Sword in one hand.
And the Judgment Sword in the other.
Its prominence had decreased because of the Thunderclap Sword, but the Tyrant Sword was also not a bad sword.
The same went for the Judgment Sword.
"Who is the one behind you."
"There ain't no such thing!"
"That's different from what you say."
But contrary to his words, the blade of the Judgment Sword was dyed black.
As the slash of the Tyrant Sword was blocked, he thrust the Judgment Sword in.
Unlike the Tyrant Sword which was deflected by the cold aura, the Judgment Sword was not repelled.
"!"
It sliced through the cold aura and advanced toward the guy's head.
Kigigigik!!
Its sharpness and strength were above that of a Spirit Sword.
The blade of the Judgment Sword, dyed black, was comparable to a Phantom Sword without any inferiority.
"What kind of sword is this."
"A sword to judge you."
"Nonsense!"
At the same time, the cold aura erupted.
Wrapping the Higanbana around him to deflect the cold aura with explosive force, he rotated his body and sword and slashed the Tyrant Sword upward from below once again.
A single stroke drawn from left to right.
Chang! The guy's balance crumbled.
Both hands rose toward the sky, exposing his side completely.
Kalias bent his body, passed by him, and at the same time reversed his grip on the Judgment Sword and slashed him.
Chwak!
"Keuk!!"
But unfortunately, it was shallow.
Because he had lifted his leg to defend his side in that instant, he only slightly slashed the guy's thigh.
Blood trickled down, but it soon froze, and the bleeding stopped.
"The sword is useful, but the skill of the one using it is like a bug, so it can't be used properly."
"You insolent...!"
Originally, the ability of the Tyrant Sword was gravity.
The gravity field injects pressure into the area. And it intensively increases the weight of the slashed part.
Kalias had thought of a hypothesis while handling the Tyrant Sword all this time.
'What if the range of the gravity field is narrowed?'
In a 1-on-1 situation, to about one meter. What if it's reduced to about fifty centimeters?
The casting position of the gravity field is centered on himself.
Then what if he uses it in a minimized state?
Kuuung-
"Ugh! What the!"
Naturally, the power of gravity also becomes stronger.
If the weight suddenly increases while swinging a sword, one is bound to be flustered.
And on the battlefield, a momentary panic naturally leads to death.
"No matter how strong the swordsmanship of growth is, it's all the same."
Kalias didn't miss that opening.
Chwak!
"Was it shallow? You're quite good at running away."
"You damn bastard!"
He slashed his side, but it was shallow.
He still lacked the proficiency to maintain the Higanbana active at all times.
But it didn't matter.
The more wounds increased, the slower the guy would get.
And he wasn't the only one here.
"Huaaaap!"
Having melted the ice crystals, the Golden Lion charged in like a chariot.
Kwaaang! Kang, Chang! Kwagagagak!!
Gid also seemed flustered by the guy's sword strikes surging like he was wearing full plate armor, unable to fully demonstrate his abilities.
He was spreading the cold aura, but its power was significantly weaker than before.
"It's slowly coming to an end."
The end was slowly beginning to show.
Kalias watched for a gap between the two, slipped in, and slashed the guy's body without being greedy.
Thunk, thunk, the more scratches appeared, the heavier Gid's body became.
It felt like the Golden Lion was tanking and Kalias was dealing damage in between.
The more wounds there were, the slower his movements became, and more and more openings began to appear.
Even the cold aura he spewed out seemed to be reaching its limit, growing weaker.
"Y-You damn sons of bitches...!"
Gid screamed as if struggling, but the Golden Lion and Kalias silently cooked him.
No matter how powerful a sword he created, the amount of divine power of the one using it was bound to be limited.
The Sword of Lamentation was just a pearl on a pig's snout to him.
Seugeok!
"Keuaaaah!!"
It was a satisfying strike.
Looking back, one of Gid's arms was spraying blood into the air.
But his judgment was quite good.
Gid jumped up, snatched his severed arm, and immediately reattached it to his forearm. He had frozen the severed part with the sword's ability.
Normally, he wouldn't have been able to do such a thing due to the pain, but perhaps because he wasn't in his right mind, his judgment was unnervingly fast.
It might be because of the sword he was holding.
"Tsk."
After that, the guy froze the entire ground and was running away as if sliding.
His speed was quite fast.
"I will pursue him."
The Golden Lion immediately began to chase, but I didn't bother to chase.
I grabbed a greatsword from the void space.
Arpen's heirloom.
It was Galaxion.
I held it in a reverse grip and lifted it up.
As I circulated divine power throughout my body, the muscles in my arms and shoulders swelled.
"Heup...!"
Soon, I threw it like a spear toward a single point.
Swaeaeeaek-!
"This guy...!"
Kaaaang!
As he blocked it, his balance was disrupted.
A massive shadow began to loom over the guy.
"Heok...!"
The Golden Lion charging in like a human battering ram.
Gripping the sword he held with both hands, he sliced the guy's body from the shoulder joint right down.
"Keokeok!"
Gid, whose chest was slashed, rolled on the floor screaming in agony. And when he raised his head with bloodshot eyes.
"It's over."
In the air, Kalias's Galaxion was falling down on his head as if splitting the sky in two.
"Do you think I'll end like this!!"
Swinging his sword with his barely moving arm, sharp ice shards along with the cold aura assailed Kalias.
"Not a chance."
But Kalias didn't care. His entire body was already hardened solid by Galaxion.
"Y-You bastard?!"
The cold aura raged, but the sword didn't slow down.
Taking the guy's attack head-on, he struck down with Galaxion.
Kwaaang-!!
He barely blocked it, but it was useless.
Kalias instantly infused Galaxion with the profound principle of the Higanbana.
He crushed it and detonated it at the same time.
He slashed with the greatsword as if shattering his left shoulder.
"Keok...!!"
The guy was completely torn apart from his shoulder to his upper body.
Eyes losing their light.
The black blood spewing from his mouth hinted at his end.
"I will finish him off."
As Kalias calmly watched Gid's final moments, the Golden Lion approached and finished him off.
He cleanly severed Gid's neck.
The headless body collapsed to the floor.
"Uwaaaaah!!"
"We believed in you. Commander!!"
"My lord! I believed too!!"
"Shut up, Brance."
"Captain! You were amazing!"
"Are you injured anywhere?"
The members of the Sixth Division and the knight order had approached at some point, celebrating the victory of Kalias and the Golden Lion.
At the same time, there were plenty of people spitting or cursing at the corpse of the guy who had fallen dead.
"Huuu...."
Perhaps their tension eased a bit, Kalias and the Golden Lion plopped down on the ground.
"You hid your strength."
"A spar and a life-or-death battle are different."
It wasn't like he intentionally hid it.
Of course, there were aspects where he had grown compared to before. He had appeared right on time when he gained a new realization regarding the profound principle of the Higanbana. Thanks to that, he became more adept at handling the Higanbana while fighting the guy.
Moreover, since he had even completed the quest, he had also obtained a constitution draw ticket as a reward...
'What?'
An intense sense of incongruity surged up.
Kalias's eyes stopped cold.
'The quest completion...'
Had not happened yet.
"What's wrong?"
As he stood up, thinking 'no way'.
"Haha! This wretched bastard certainly made a mess at dawn. I'll wrap things up now, so get some good rest, Commander!"
"Dodge!"
The vice-captain of the Golden Lion Knight Order.
A sword pierced through the vice-captain's chest.
"Keok!! H-How..."
Thud.
The vice-captain of the knight order was killed instantly.
"Vice-Captain!!"
The Golden Lion's expression turned icy.
"Lord Count. This is..."
"Things are going to shit."
Even though his head was cut off and his shoulder was torn, the guy stood up.
Cold aura spread from his body, and with a freezing sound, his entire body froze.
The wound on his shoulder stuck together, his whole body froze, and it turned into armor.
It was ice armor.
Just like Luen's full-body armor using the Gold Armament Sword.
'This isn't good.'
The fact that he stood up even without a head must be a phenomenon created by something dwelling in the sword.
Furthermore, he was trying to copy the techniques of the opponents he fought.
Meaning it had a certain level of intelligence.
He didn't know if it was the sword's original ability or a powerful lingering attachment, but he couldn't just leave it be.
There was no telling how much combat experience it would accumulate and appear with later.
He couldn't be allowed to escape.
Absolutely.
"Wow~ Looks like you had quite a fight."
A shudder—A sticky killing intent and, at the same time, a tone of voice that didn't fit the serious situation flowed out.
Soon, it surged from the shadows.
"!!"
-Seugeok
A slash like black ink.
As if a brush soaked in ink had been swung, it severed the arm of the guy clad in freezing armor in a single strike.
Hwiririk.
Tak.
The shadow that caught the severed arm touched the ground and formed a human figure.
The black shadow took on color and transformed into a woman with red hair and green pupils.
"This is too hard. I don't know if it got scratched."
Helena, smiling with her eyes as she looked at Kalias, slid her twin swords into their sheaths with a click.
That was the Snake of the Golden Flower Sect, evaluated as the best among the Five Saints.
Golden Snake.
The Paladin named Helena.