Chapter 96
Kwaaaang!
I believed the surprise attack would inflict some damage on the opponent.
‘There’s no damage at all.’
He easily nullified my attack by crossing his gray aura.
Assassins weren't originally beings trained for 1-on-1 frontal confrontations.
He was a peculiar one.
Swish. Klaang!
The swords of the two clashing figures crossed several times.
Akshay, deflecting the alternating high and low attacks aimed consecutively at his neck and legs, simultaneously parried my sword flying towards his lower body and thrust his own sword forward.
‘Hup…!’
A groan escaped my lips at the fluid defense that didn't stop there but continued into a sharp counterattack.
The main specialties of assassins were stealth. Ambush.
But the master of the gray aura standing before me now parried my sword head-on and even counterattacked.
An assassin capable of a frontal confrontation.
The next moment, the assassin’s sword flew swiftly towards my neck.
Barely succeeding in evading, I leaped back a step to create distance.
Simultaneously, all sorts of hidden weapons flew in from all directions.
With accumulated damage, I was certain the situation would become increasingly unfavorable as time went on.
‘I just need to take him down.’
If the leader had merely assisted slightly and employed attrition warfare by expending his subordinates, I probably wouldn't have survived.
But now that their leader had revealed himself upfront, if I could just take him down here, there would be no more attacks.
They too were ultimately beings who moved according to orders.
If the leader died, the remaining ones had no need to cling to a mission that had already failed at that point.
‘Destroy him thoroughly.’
At that moment, my sword swiftly advanced towards the opponent in a straight line.
[Karl Meyer Style 2nd Form. One Point]
***
Akshay too had heard the story of the Knight of the Lighthouse many times.
‘Even so, this is too much.’
How long had his name reigned as a synonym for terror?
Akshay wasn't famous solely as an assassin.
His personal martial prowess, said to rival the continent's Top 10, had made him a great assassin.
Yet the young knight standing before him was displaying a level equal to or higher than his own.
“…!”
At the attack, completely different from before, Akshay felt the emotion of fear for the first time in a long while.
Was aura the power of conviction?
The brightly shining golden aura disoriented his vision.
Akshay realized that if he couldn't block this attack, it would be the end.
“…!”
The ten sword strikes he had trained his entire life unfolded.
They swept across Karl’s entire body.
Various parts of Karl’s body were cut, and blood burst out in all directions.
Some wounds seemed severe, as Karl felt his left arm losing strength.
Both Akshay and Karl knew too well that whoever retreated here would die.
Slice, Swish, Slice.
Blood spurted once again from various parts of Karl's body as he barely avoided or blocked vital points.
But the final series of strikes, delivered with all his might, ultimately failed to stop Karl.
Plunge!
Karl’s sword plunged into the center of Akshay’s torso.
“Keleuk….”
Due to the sword piercing his lungs, only the sound of wind escaping came from Akshay’s mouth.
‘It was the wrong choice.’
Soon, the body of Akshay, the leader of the assassination group called Taklama's Sandstorm, crumbled forward.
Thud.
The surroundings, already quiet, became even more silent.
And the assassins’ movements stopped as if by magic.
Perhaps the next successor might order another attack on Karl, but I instinctively felt that moment wasn't now.
Thump. Thump.
In that moment where everyone seemed frozen in silence, I broke the stillness and advanced forward.
The surroundings were littered with the corpses and blood of assassins.
Beside them, about 100 assassins still stood, but none among them obstructed me.
Just like that, only I silently walked forward.
***
“Saintess! Where have you gone again!?”
Inside the large main building of the Order, a man in neat priest robes was searching for the Saintess with an anxious voice!
“Saintess! It is time to preside over the prayers!”
He seemed to have searched for the Saintess more than once or twice, rummaging through room after room like the wind.
“Saintess…? What are you doing right now?”
The priest's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
Because the Saintess was wearing full armor and carrying a mace and shield.
“There is a place I must go.”
“…No, where could the Saintess possibly need to go that requires armament…?”
“Haven’t you heard the news? They say the Saint is in danger, don’t they?”
“…Isn’t that why the Knights Templar have been dispatched?”
“…My heart is not at ease.”
“Even so, the Saintess cannot go personally!”
“Brother Marco, I must go. Shall I turn a blind eye when my benefactor is in danger? That goes against the teachings of Essus.”
Isabel was one of the Inquisitors who could walk through the middle of a battlefield alone, relying on just a mace, without issue.
There was no way the priest could stop her.
But he couldn't just let her go either.
Just as Marco was about to grab her trouser leg, someone else entered.
“Saintess Isabel.”
“Sir Thomas.”
“It seems you can remove your armor. That friend Karl Meyer…”
“Speak!”
Isabel’s eyes shone so fiercely that even Thomas flinched.
“Ah, that friend Karl single-handedly defeated Taklama's Sandstorm.”
“…?”
Everyone present showed bewildered expressions.
They too knew well enough what kind of place Taklama's Sandstorm was.
To think he destroyed such a place single-handedly.
“They say the head of Akshay, leader of Taklama, fell by Karl’s hand. Truly… I always thought he was an amazing friend, but, Hahahaha.”
While he was laughing, even the Pope entered from behind, bursting into hearty laughter.
“Hahahahahaha, see, that bastard is extraordinary! Isn’t that why I appointed him as a Saint!”
“…”
Isabel quietly went to a corner and took off her armor.
“He must have joined up with our knights by now!”
While listening to the voice that seemed likely to burst eardrums.
***
In the headquarters of the Alcantara Knights in Humming City, Owen, a man with slightly furrowed brows, looked at his subordinate with snake-like eyes.
“So going to help became meaningless?”
“No one could have imagined he would destroy Taklama's Sandstorm alone.”
“…Right? It’s not that we’re strange, but that Sir Karl is a man beyond common sense.”
“Yes.”
Owen shook his head repeatedly.
“So where do you think the 1st Knight Division is now?”
“No report has come in yet, but they should be with Sir Karl by now.”
“It would be nice if they brought him over so I could see his face after a long time.”
The subordinate nodded as well.
He too had received teachings while Karl stayed, so he awaited Karl's visit.
***
In the bustling guild office of Ulstein, filled today as always with people making various requests and mercenaries moving about, a man slammed his desk with an indignant face.
“I told you I should have gone!”
“Go where! There’s a mountain of work! A mountain!”
“No, in the first place! I never intended to be something like a Guild Master!”
“But you already became one!”
When Verpin became the Mercenary King, his right-hand adjutant, Bartus, had been relieved.
However, contrary to his hopes, his superior, Verpin, wasn't well-suited for the position of leader of such a group.
As a result, various tasks that needed handling began to fall onto Bartus much more than expected.
As time passed like that, one day Bartus found himself eating, sleeping, and washing in his own office.
Once that happened, even the good-natured Bartus recently developed a case of hysteria.
“Sir Karl already broke through alone, didn't he! So, stop worrying and review this!”
“Hey! How can you be like that, human? I didn’t see you that way. What if Sir Karl got injured and is hovering near death? Are you telling me to let our mercenaries’ benefactor die just like that?”
“I told you it’s all over! Huh?!”
“Anyway, where did our guys arrive then?!”
“They probably met by now!”
***
In the middle of a plain, three groups now stood glaring at each other.
And in the center stood I, looking back and forth between the three directions with eyes asking what this was.
“Sir Karl Reitz Meyer is the Saint of our Order. Naturally, we should attend to the injured Sir Karl.”
Daniel, the 3rd Holy Knight Commander of the Order, declared.
“Sir Karl is, in name and reality, the Honorary Knight Commander of our Alcantara. It is right for us to escort the Sir.”
The moment Daniel finished speaking, Leslie, who was now the 1st Knight Division Commander of Alcantara, replied.
“Well, Sir Knights, I don’t know your circumstances, but we also came under orders to escort our benefactor.”
Tomio, the mercenary captain leading 500 mercenaries, though their armaments varied, also spoke while looking at the two knights.
Just then, in the middle, I whistled.
Then, a dark brown horse started running from afar.
(Whoosh sound)
I mounted the horse and began to gallop past them.
The three groups, who had only been looking at me, momentarily stared blankly at me advancing forward.
“We cannot let the injured Saint go just like that! Knights, follow me!”
Kelvin Manov, once immature, had become Karl’s follower, and at his shout, one knight order began to follow me in a rush.
And right behind them, Alcantara and the mercenaries closely followed suit, starting to run.
Dududududu!
The sound of horse hooves shook the heavens and earth, and a total of several hundred cavalrymen were galloping after me.
***
In Tarantula's hideout, the Spider Masks, whose numbers had greatly decreased, gathered.
“They say Karl Meyer is being pursued by Taklama's Sandstorm.”
Light flickered in the eyes of the Seven-Legged Mask.
“Who commissioned it, they say?”
“It appears to be Marquis Baltimo.”
“He seems angry too.”
“Isn’t it fortunate? That Baltimo fellow also refused collaboration with us. If he fights Karl Meyer and they wear each other down, it’s good for us too.”
“Hmph… Serves them right.”
Since Tarantula had first proposed collaboration to Marquis Baltimo and been refused, they were enjoying the situation of Karl, a thorn in their side, fighting Baltimo.
“How about we finish off Karl Meyer this time?”
“Speak.”
“It’s true that Taklama's Sandstorm has assassinated several Master-grade knights, but I don’t think that Karl Meyer bastard will die easily. Still… wouldn’t he have sustained injuries?”
“Indeed.”
The corners of the Seven-Legged Mask's lips curled up.
This was a revelation to kill Karl Meyer.
300 Spiders, led by Tarantula's Five-Legged Mask, set out on the road to hunt Karl.