The moment his eyes met hers from a distance, a chilling aura pierced Khan’s neck. Almost instinctively, he raised Draupnir to shield his upper body, but he hesitated at his own reaction, gently touching his neck.
‘I’m fine…?’
It wasn’t a mistake. Clearly, the eerie aura unique to swordsmen had slashed past his neck. His battle instincts and a barbarian’s acute senses shouted in unison. Yet, there wasn’t a single scratch on his thick neck.
Ahh.
He did feel pain, though. While he was shocked by this bizarre phenomenon, a red-haired woman smiled, stretching her lips to both sides.
“You have good instincts.”
The distance between them was still vast. Yet her voice sounded so close as if she was whispering right next to him.
‘This is…!’
It wasn’t due to some magical power. His senses, honed sharper as he approached the domain of superhumans, were entirely filled with her presence. It was as if her sheer presence had devoured his superhuman senses.
“You seem quite skilled with the sword. This will be interesting.”
The posture of the woman, who let her long greatsword hang to the ground, was far from that of a swordsman. But Khan knew. Even Karlsen, the only swordsman he had some acquaintance with, would be like a child who had just picked up a sword compared to this woman.
‘Why is she here!’
And then he realized her identity. A beautiful woman with a vibrant red hair, wielding a greatsword longer than herself, with an exceptional aura and a sword strike that had split a ship in half. The clues were more than sufficient to identify her.
“Run at full speed! She’s the Sword Demon of the Empire─!”
“Sword Demon? Why is Volatus’ Sword Demon here?!”
“No time for curiosity, start casting spells!”
One of the mages, who was adjusting the ship’s direction with a spell, muttered in a perplexed voice. The reactions of the other sailors were similar, and Khan immediately shouted at them to flee.
It was a name that left no choice but to flee. An absolute master, beyond the realm of mere swordsmen, whose swordsmanship was said to be truly transcendent.
She was one of only two people across the entire continent of Midland to be granted the title of Sword Master. The great master of the Volatus school, Valken Leichtap’s second disciple.
Volatus’ Sword Demon, Leniyar.
A monster among monsters who, in a flash, surpassed Valken Leichtap’s first disciple by more than twenty years. Moreover, she was notorious for her brutal and violent nature, often acting without thinking of the consequences.
The tale of how she crippled the son of the Empire’s Elector and left a long scar on the Elector’s face itself was nearly legendary in the Empire.
Yet, despite this, the only punishment she received from her master Valken Leichtap was ten years of probation. The Empire’s Elector, who had received a lifelong scar from her sword, couldn’t even make a significant complaint.
Even leaving aside that she had Valken Leichtap, the Empire’s strongest, backing her, the Elector deemed it too much of a loss to contend with a monster clearly destined to surpass her master.
Khan’s face stiffened upon realizing that such a monster had marked him as her ‘prey.’
—
“Human! What are you doing?! The Elder clearly instructed to minimize damage to the ship…!”
“Shut up. Before I rip your mouth wide open.”
“What-!”
Annoying.
Leniyar flicked her wrist briefly. It was a gesture as if swatting away a nearby buzzing insect. But the outcome was far from trivial.
Squelch─.
The head of the elf who had protested against her fell to the floor, severed from its owner. The fountain of blood gushing from the neck drenched not only the dwarf’s ship but everyone aboard, yet no one dared to utter a word.
“Just shut up and maintain the ship. That’s all you’re good for, pretties.”
“Grr…”
She had achieved the unthinkable: cutting a man’s head off with a barehanded strike. Even an elf swordsman who had wielded a blade for centuries couldn’t mimic such a feat.
The hunters from the Eiwass family, who had looked down on her for being short-lived, hesitated.
If she had done it with a sword, it might have been understandable. They had already witnessed her terrifying prowess at splitting a ship in half.
But to use her bare hands like a sword? She was not just a swordsman. She was a human sword in every sense of the word.
‘Sword Demon!’
Only now did the arrogant elves truly grasp the meaning of her moniker. As did every other swordsman who had faced her. She was a literal demon of the sword, a being whose body and soul were both molded by the essence of the blade.
“Dock the ships. I’ve got someone I want to meet.”
The elves made no protest. An elf hunter took the helm and steered towards the ship presumed to be the mothership. Contracted elves with spirits propelled the ship, and as the mana engines powered by magic stones fueled the engines, the vessel began slicing through the water.
Wooaaarrr─!
Combined with the elf spirit magic and the pinnacle of dwarf engineering, the distance between the two ships closed rapidly. But, of course, the forces on the side of Renford Kingdom didn’t just sit back and allow the approach.
“Just stop them from getting close! Hold out until we gain speed─!”
The barbarian who killed the Eiwass elf shouted, sensing the mana in the atmosphere stirring. The elf hunters immediately recognized the sign.
“A spell!”
“Deploy protective spells….”
“No! Just watch and stay quiet!”
Leniyar, who had restrained the dwarf pirates from deploying the ship’s own protection spells, pulled her greatsword back and spun half a circle, unleashing a semicircular slash.
The myriad of projectiles fired by the Renford royal mages disintegrated upon contact with the semicircular slash. She had sliced through the core of each spell, a technique that swordmaster Karlsen had once demonstrated.
But Leniyar’s execution was on an entirely different level.
“Not quite enough,” she smirked, effortlessly replicating what Karlsen achieved only through extreme concentration.
Bang─!
A loud noise echoed, momentarily disrupting Leniyar’s balance.
“What the…”
Of course, her imbalance lasted only for a split second. As she quickly regained her stance and turned around irritably, she noticed a dent in the flank armor enveloping the dwarf pirate ship.
“I cut through all the spells, though?”
“It’s a cannon! They’re targeting us from the side!”
“Oh, right.”
Though Leniyar’s tone was intensely indifferent, the situation didn’t look too good from the elves’ perspective. The Renford royal fleet’s response was unexpectedly deft.
Encircling the dwarf pirate ship in a pentagon formation, the fleet’s flanks faced the pirate ship. They seemed intent on sinking it by continuous bombardment.
Of course, a few cannon shots wouldn’t sink a dwarf pirate ship. But if they kept taking hits without retaliation, even the sturdy dwarf vessel wouldn’t withstand it for long. Their unfamiliarity with naval combat – an unforeseen vulnerability – was hindering them.
“Deploy the protection spells to their maximum! With the help of the spirits, nothing can penetrate!”
“Why bother?”
As the hunters from the Eiwass family hurriedly prepared countermeasures, Leniyar remained nonchalant. Targeting us with cannons? Then just stop them from targeting. Why bother taking the hits?
“Charge.”
“What did you say?”
“I said charge, or do I have to cut off your worthless ears too?”
Leniyar pointed her finger directly at the mothership at the center of their formation.
“Just knock out the commander first. Is this your first time in real combat or something? Are those pretty little heads just for show?”
The dwarf pirate ship was much smaller and faster than the Renford royal ships. So they should just stick to the mothership, preventing it from targeting them. Once they decided to accelerate, the cannons wouldn’t be able to hit them anyway.
The straightforward and brutish logic left the elf hunters speechless.
“If you understand, then get moving, quickly.”
“Fine…! Summon the wind!”
The elf, who had contracted with the wind spirits, conjured a gust, accelerating the ship.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As the ship sped up, water erupted from the sea, trailing the cannon fire trying to hit them.
The pirate ship, trailing jets of water like a tail, rapidly closed the distance to the mothership that had previously been moving away. At that distance, Leniyar lowered her stance and drew her left side back, preparing to swing her sword.
‘Let’s start by making a hole.’
While it was a bit unfortunate that the battlefield was on the water, she decided to see the romance in it. After all, the scenario she had eagerly anticipated was now within reach, as her prey had reacted to her killing intent.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
However, she sensed ominous signs coming from beneath the sea, indicating that her opponents had no intention of letting her have her way. With her innate talent as a warrior, Leniyar immediately guessed that this was a magic circle trap, typically employed by the mages of the Magic Tower in close-quarter combat.
As soon as their prepared magic circle engulfed the target, it was activated like a mine.
“Annoying…”
Her prediction was correct. A massive chunk of ice emerged from beneath the pirate ship, displacing the seawater. The ship was suddenly perched atop an iceberg, its mana stone engine idling in vain, halting their advance.
“What kind of crazy magic is this?!”
One of the elf hunters cried out in disbelief. Not only was the idea of immobilizing a ship by floating a giant ice block underneath it insane, but the fact that a mage had implemented such a spell via a magic circle was even more incredible. Even a Magus from the Azure Tower wouldn’t be capable of such an absurd feat.
“Oh, this is interesting.”
Leniyar licked her lips as if she had discovered a rare delicacy. The situation was already satisfying enough with the prowess of the barbarian, but now there was also a cunning mage using intricate techniques? She never expected to have such an entertaining experience outside the Empire.
“Hey. Is it possible to send a person flying using spirit magic?”
“It is… But wait. Are you planning to go in there alone?!”
“If you understand, shut up and do it. I’m itching for a fight here. Or would you rather get sliced up instead?”
“Alright! Alright!”
The elves, who had been trying to push the ship with wind spirits, redirected their efforts to propel Leniyar forward.
As she arced through the air, the bewildered gazes of the royal fleet’s sailors followed her. And then they noticed a violet-clad woman reaching out towards her.
“Engulf.”
Having planned to lure her into the air from the start, the woman clenched her fist.
Ka-BOOM…
A huge magic circle, large enough to cover the entire deck, manifested in an instant. The spell materialized as streams of water.
Tens of sea dragons, formed from seawater, opened their jaws wide. The sheer mass of these water dragons was catastrophic. More importantly, how was Leniyar supposed to cut through and dissipate all that water? Not even someone of Leniyar’s caliber seemed capable of overcoming this.
Except for two individuals, everyone thought that way.
“How cute!”
A smile appeared between strands of her red hair fluttering in the wind. Then, countless rays of light engulfed the sea dragons.
Swoooosh!
It was as if she had sliced through a waterfall and made it vanish—a miraculous feat. Even the woman known as the Witch of Lorraine, a figure of dread, was taken aback. Nothing could stop Leniyar’s charge. Such thoughts filled the witch’s mind.
Absolute violence, absolute despair. But there was one more person who had predicted Leniyar wouldn’t be stopped. The ash-gray barbarian lunged upward toward Leniyar.
“Yes! This is how it should’ve been from the start!”
As she let out a wild laugh, she twisted her body in midair to steady her position.
‘Ending it in one strike might be a bit unsatisfying, but…!’
She intended to cut through him in one swift move as soon as he entered her range. No other swordsman could withstand her swordsmanship head-on, and she was confident that a barbarian, who wasn’t even a swordsman, wouldn’t be able to withstand it either.
“Thanks for falling into the trap, you blockheaded brat.”
“Blockheaded…?”
Leniyar momentarily didn’t comprehend the taunt thrown by the barbarian just before their blades met. blockheaded? Did he just call me a blockhead? Not even the old man dared to insult me like that.
“Yeah, blockhead.”
“Hey, you──!”
Her eyes flared up with rage at the repeated insult, just as it happened.
『Surging Strength』
『Heavy Sword』
An attack with the colossal strength of a giant and the weight of an immensely heavy sword came crashing down. In midair without any footing, there was no resisting such overwhelming force.
Despite the unimaginable strength, Leniyar wasn’t flustered. Regardless of how powerful the force was, there was nothing her blade couldn’t cut once it clashed with another.
However, she had overlooked one critical fact: The sword Khan wielded had the ‘Indestructible’ attribute. And this meant it was an absolute attribute that couldn’t be broken, except by a transcendent being.
“Nice meeting you, hope we never see each other again.”
“You bastard──!”
Before she could even finish her sentence, Leniyar’s body was sent flying into the sky. So high that she almost seemed like she would become one of the stars.
─Next time we meet, you’re dead!
And that was her final scream.