Chapter 75
Owen quickly reorganized and redeployed the members who had gathered to help him, cutting down traitors and spider masks as he rushed towards Maximov's location.
Judging by the situation, it seemed Maximov was their number one target for elimination, even more so than himself.
'...An accurate judgment. If a Master-level knight dies, it will be impossible for the remaining knights to stop them.'
No matter how much he blamed himself, he couldn't turn back the already lost time.
Owen could do nothing but run swiftly towards the designated responsibility area entrusted to Maximov, even as his lungs felt like they would burst from his ragged breath.
***
Karl was feeling tired for the first time in a long while.
After cutting down one group, another group blocked his path.
This had repeated several times already, and then came a moment.
He felt an attack flying from a blind spot, deceiving his senses.
Instinctively sucking in a sharp breath, he threw his body to the side.
Hwakkeun. (Searing sensation)
His side was definitely cut properly.
Fortunately, he had twisted his body instinctively, so it wasn't a deep wound, but he could feel poison spreading from the cut side.
"...So you decided to stand on that side after all?"
"...."
Karl spoke to the opponent who, despite wearing a mask, he could identify.
The masked person did not answer Karl's question.
They merely moved their body faster, approaching Karl.
"If an assassin fights so openly, which knight would stand and take it?"
The masked person still remained silent.
The traitorous Alcantara group and spiders surrounding Karl surged forward, seizing the momentum.
Karl twisted his body obliquely to avoid the incoming sword, simultaneously advancing his body through the small space, and decapitated the two enemies standing to his left and right.
Into that momentary gap, a dagger thrust in.
Karl barely twisted his body to dodge the exquisitely aimed dagger, and thanks to that, the masked person exploited his lost balance and dove in.
The peculiar dagger, longer than a typical dagger but shorter than a short sword, held a power similar to Aura, though incomplete.
"Heup...!"
Due to his lost balance, Karl couldn't completely avoid the masked person's weapon and allowed the blade onto his forearm.
However, even in that fleeting moment, he succeeded in extending his sword and stabbing the masked person's abdomen.
The masked person staggered back several steps from the properly inflicted abdominal wound.
"If you go back and recuperate with that, you won't die. How about stopping here and retreating?"
The masked person still remained stubbornly silent.
They took out a potion from their bosom, poured it onto the wound, then simply bound their abdomen and waited for another opportunity.
Even at that moment, numerous knights were charging at Karl.
As the exchange lengthened, Karl's wounds also increased.
And at some point, the masked person's presence disappeared from his senses.
'Troublesome....'
It was an extreme stealth technique.
Stealth that even the senses of a Master-level knight couldn't easily detect.
The members of the Alcantara Knights regrouped into a combined attack formation and swung their swords in unison.
[Karl Meyer Style. Form 3]
A technique he had only practiced in the training ground.
A sword form that momentarily created a barrier of Ki around his body through materialized Aura unfolded before him.
Being an incomplete sword form, there were gaps here and there in the barrier, but it wasn't a technique that those currently blocking Karl could break through.
Rather, parts of the attackers' bodies were severed and flew through the air.
Peok...! (Sound of impact)
A dagger, appearing from nowhere, embedded itself precisely into Karl's left shoulder.
'...This is maddening.'
It was a perfect strike that didn't miss the fleeting moment he took down seven knights at once.
Karl looked at the masked person who had thrown the dagger.
"Did it really have to come to this?"
The masked person remained stubbornly silent.
Karl let his sword hang low, then regulated his breathing.
He could still perform up to Form 4 using Aura.
Stepping forward with his left foot, Karl gripped the sword hanging low on his right side with both hands, extended his left foot just a bit further, and then swung the lowered sword horizontally.
[Karl Meyer Style. Form 4.]
Following his movement, executed in an instant, the golden Aura took the shape of a crescent moon and flew straight ahead.
Everything in the path the Aura passed through was severed.
The moment the pupils visible through the mask seemed to widen significantly, their peculiar dagger and the crescent-shaped Aura collided, sending the masked person flying into the air before crashing down to the ground.
Blood spurted from their fallen chest.
In the instant the masked person fell, Karl, having cut down all the surrounding knights, slowly walked over to the vicinity of the masked person.
As his sword thinly sliced the mask, a woman with red hair was revealed beneath.
"Why did you go this far? There must have been many other choices?"
Ulkeok. (Sound of choking/gurgling)
The masked person couldn't speak and vomited blood.
"Work... is work...."
Chuckling weakly, she was smiling even as she vomited blood.
"There were many other good opportunities."
"...W-was there?"
Even while vomiting blood, she was smiling.
Stella was a woman who had lived her entire life doing this kind of work.
She was the kind of person inseparable from the work she had done all her life.
She was smiling even as she bled.
That smile seemed like weeping, like a scream.
"A long time ago, I already crossed a river I couldn't return from."
"...."
Hearing only Karl's silence, she soon stopped breathing and grew cold.
Karl closed the eyes of the completely breathless woman and quietly set his steps on the path he had to take.
***
"Captain! Master! That's enough! Master!"
Thomas, the Vice-Captain of the 1st Knight Unit of the Alcantara Knights, cried out desperately.
Before him stood a white-haired knight who wouldn't release his spear even while spewing blood.
Facing him still stood the large, Four-Legged spider mask, appearing harder than steel.
However, several holes were pierced in his body as well.
"This crazy old man...!"
The Four-Legged Mask hadn't expected to struggle this much.
The body of a man-beast, which usually recovered from considerable wounds in the blink of an eye, wasn't healing properly.
It meant the energy contained in each of the opponent's spear strikes was simply nonsensical.
"You're going to die anyway, why not give up and find peace."
"Since it's a life destined to die anyway, it's better to take many companions along the way."
Maximov looked precarious even just standing, but his eyes still flickered with fire.
"Damn it!"
Instantly, black streams of energy erupted explosively from the Four-Legged Mask's body and flew rapidly towards Maximov.
The flame-like black Aura burning all over his body seemed ready to sweep away Maximov's final candlelight at any moment.
"Captain!"
But that precarious candlelight steadfastly held its ground against the onslaught of black flames.
After continuing the exchange for quite some time, the Four-Legged Mask distanced himself with a fed-up expression.
Maximov merely stood still in the same spot, standing tall towards the Four-Legged Mask.
But simultaneously, Maximov felt the last vestiges of life force in his body deplete.
Perhaps, receiving the attack coming from that person now would be the last action he could perform while alive.
He once again faced the Four-Legged Mask squarely.
A blue energy settled on Maximov's spear.
It wasn't large.
It was a faint Aura, like a thin layer applied to the spear.
The blue spear held in his right hand split the blackened sky like a single meteor.
'Regrettable... If only I had a little more time.'
That was the last thought Maximov had while alive.
Taengrang.... (Sound of metal falling)
"Master!"
Maximov, who dropped his spear after the final strike, died standing rigidly upright.
"Keol-leok...!"
The Four-Legged Mask also took several steps back with a large hole pierced in his abdomen and knelt down.
"Persistent... old man.... Keol-leok...!"
As he slumped down, spewing blood, the spider masks and traitor knights momentarily froze.
"Damn it, you fools. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and finish off the remaining ones."
Regaining their senses, they resumed their offensive against Maximov's knight unit.
"Form a shield wall! This is the time our Master bought for us! Reinforcements are coming! Hold out until then!"
Centering around Maximov, who stood rigidly in eternal sleep, the members of the 1st Knight Unit formed a circle and raised their weapons.
***
Karl, leaping over rooftops in search of Owen, caught sight of a blue trajectory piercing through the black streams of energy and extending forward.
'Maximov's Aura.'
The piercingly blue Aura belonged to Maximov.
Karl sensed something was wrong.
Karl ran towards the place where the blue light flickered first, rather than towards Owen.
His side and shoulder hadn't fully healed yet.
Due to the continuous battles, Karl too was not in a perfectly sound condition.
By the time Karl arrived, Maximov had already breathed his last after delivering his final strike.
The surviving members of the 1st Knight Unit formed a shield wall, circling around the standing dead Maximov.
Karl's gaze turned towards the Four-Legged Mask.
With holes pierced here and there on his body, he too looked unwell.
Just as he was assessing the situation and about to jump into battle, two new knight units arrived on the battlefield from different directions.
"Sir Maximov!"
Just as Owen appeared from the left leading knights, Shylock arrived from the right, leading a group of knights.
"Sir Maximov...!"
While Owen couldn't hide his anguish upon seeing the deceased Maximov, the battle entered a temporary lull with the appearance of the two new knight units from both sides.
At that moment, from the right flank, Shylock, holding his rapier, slowly walked forward.