Chapter 198 - The Slan Gorge (2)
“Sparrow...?”
Balak couldn’t believe his eyes. How could the cute little sparrow turn into a sinister giant black knight?
As a look of bewilderment grew across Balak’s face, Hector started laughing.
“Hahahaha!”
Hector laughed, holding onto his stomach. Of course, his stomach didn’t hurt from laughing because he didn’t have a physical body, but he still maintained some habits from when he was human.
“...Who are you?”
Balak’s voice sank into a cold tone, and there was a hint of embarrassment and anger in his voice from the fact that he had been toyed with.
“I’d ask you the same thing,” replied Hector.
“What?”
“There’s no way Vhant would’ve let someone like you in, so how the hell did you get here?”
Hector was genuinely curious because Chief Vhant, who was in charge of guarding the entrance at the checkpoint, would never let anyone pass without a royal letter. Since Henry had murdered the emperor who would give out those royal letters, technically, no one could enter Salgaera.
Balak raised one of his eyebrows. This knight didn’t seem human at all, and yet he was casually acting as if he were one. He even knew Vhant, so of course Balak was surprised.
However, Balak soon realized something.
‘He must be an alchemic being.’
The knight wasn’t human but he was pretending to be one. Moreover, he had used a sparrow to confuse Balak, so if this wasn’t magic, what else could it be?
In addition, an alchemic being that emitted this much energy had to have been created by an advanced wizard. Plus, Arthus had ordered to kill all the wizards on the continent.
‘They really want to die, don’t they.’
Balak pulled out the Black Punisher on his back.
Seeing him grab his weapon, Hector said, “Haha, I was bored anyway, so this is good timing. It looks like you weigh about the same as me, so this is going to be perfect as warm-up.”
Balak was initially stunned by Hector’s words, but he, too, thought of it as a good thing. There was no need to go easy on him because he wasn’t human, and there was also no reason to show mercy because wizards were the ones who had created him, and Arthus had given the order to kill all wizards.
Having pulled out his Black Punisher, Balak raised it and said to Hector, “To the wizard who’s hiding somewhere.”
“Huh?”
“If you dare think that you can defeat me with your alchemic being, you’re completely mistaken.”
“W-what? What did you just...”
Hector was confused, but Balak continued his warning.
“So, if you surrender now, the emperor will have mercy on you. Stop resisting and surrender in order to live.”
‘How the hell does he know that wizards are here?’
Hector was genuinely shocked at Balak’s warning.
Only a handful of people knew that the Snow Spire existed in Salgaera and that all the wizards in the empire were currently there.
Both of them had misunderstood each other.
Hector was once again amazed by Henry’s foresight.
‘Henry’s actually such a smart guy. He knew something like this would happen, so he left me in charge of it. He really is the disciple of the Archmage.’
One misunderstanding led to another.
While Henry was busy recruiting the former Central Powers, he had sent Hector, who was just as strong as the Imperial Ten Swords, to be a gatekeeper at Salgaera. Henry had done that because Arthus didn’t know that Aubert was dead, so he expected Arthus to come back one day to bring Aubert back.
Henry’s prediction had turned out to be right, but he obviously hadn’t expected the visitor to be Balak, the head of Killive, the Punishment King.
Although they were both misunderstanding each other, their end goals were still the same, so there wasn’t a problem in fulfilling their duties.
Balak asked again, “What’s your answer?”
“Answer, my ass... Of course it’s no.”
“What an arrogant alchemic being you are.”
“You’re the arrogant one. Also, my name is Hector, not alchemic being, so make sure you remember that.”
Tzzzz!
The two massive individuals released their Aura, both of them looking vicious. It was a great amount of energy, so enormous that even the fierce blizzard couldn’t get in their way.
Having infused Aura into the Black Punisher, Balak said, “You have disregarded the emperor’s mercy until the very end. I shall not grant you a peaceful death.”
“It’s been a while since the emperor died, so why do you keep talking about him?”
“You seem like a rebel, so I’m not going to go easy on you.”
“Ha, stop acting so tough. You were the one who was talking to a sparrow just moments ago.”
“Die!”
Clank!
After taunting each other, the two giants clashed. They looked like a red rhino and a black buffalo crashing into each other.
“You’re not bad!”
“What a joke.”
The Black Punisher and Hector’s sword collided. At the same time, their helmets were less than an inch away from each other.
Balak’s breath leaked through the helmet, but because Hector was a spiritual being, he didn’t breathe like Balak. The only thing visible from his helmet was the red glow of his eyes.
‘So such an exchange isn’t physically taxing for him, huh?’
Balak wrongly assumed that the clash didn’t affect Hector because he didn’t exhale through his helmet, but this wrong assumption only served to further motivate him.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Balak swung his massive morning star as if it were made out of cotton. Every time Balak’s Black Punisher clashed with Hector’s sword, metallic clanks reverberated throughout the area, seemingly shaking the entire world.
Clank! Clank! Clank!
Their surroundings quivered, and as the vibrations rippled outward, they resonated throughout the mountains of Salgaera, shaking the snow off of them.
Clank!
The Black Punisher struck the black knight in the back of the head, and Hector’s entire body vibrated with a metallic sound. However, thanks to the Aura covering his body, there was no dent in his helmet.
Nevertheless, Balak was the first person to pierce through Hector’s Aura and land a significant hit on him since he had been resurrected.
‘...This guy?’
Hector had been able to vaguely tell that Balak had a strong fighting spirit. However, seeing how he wielded his morning star with such a consistent destructive power, Hector knew that Balak was the real deal.
Hector’s lips curled into a smile. This confrontation with Balak was like a breath of fresh air in his boring, resurrected life.
‘A little more! Give me more fun!’
He felt euphoric. Every time the Black Punisher struck his body, Hector felt alive, and every time he felt the intoxicating thrill of the battle, the Aura on his sword burned more intensely.
The core of Hector’s spiritual body grew increasingly hotter as it was being fueled by his emotions.
As the heat continued to intensify, the snow around the two of them was quickly melting. Soon, the ground beneath them turned brown, a color that could rarely be seen in Salgaera. However, the two of them didn't care that they had melted through the snow, but continued to exchange blows.
‘What an annoying bastard!’
The more he swung the Black Punisher, the more Balak realized that he wouldn’t be able to take down this giant black knight through normal means. After only dealing with helpless criminals for years, Balak was now dealing with a formidable foe full of vigor.
Just like Hector, Balak also felt that this fight was a breath of fresh air. He, too, felt the invigorating thrill of battle, causing him to burn more fervently.
‘That’s right! This must be the work of a really advanced wizard! However, don’t let your guard down! I will destroy this guy and find the wizard behind this!”
Bang!
As they attacked each other, Balak swung his Black Punisher with a wide motion to create distance between them. Then, after taking a breath or two, he stretched the morning star forward and started concentrating his Aura so that he could use his decisive skill, the World Shredder.
Goooo!
The tip of his morning star was concentrated with Aura.
Seeing this, Hector instinctively knew that Balak was getting ready for a big attack. Hector felt his hot chest and smiled, raising his sword.
Goooo!
Soon, Hector started amassing Aura in his body because he wanted to use his decisive skill for the first time since he had been resurrected.
‘Is he trying to use a decisive skill? But he’s an alchemic being...?’
Among Sword Masters, only those who had a decisive skill were acknowledged as advanced Sword Masters. Therefore, only less than ten percent of all Sword Masters were able to use a decisive skill.
Thus, even if Balak’s foe was a well-made alchemic being, how could a creature created through magic have a decisive skill?
Balak had every reason to be shocked.
Smirk.
Hector looked at his foe as though he was saying, ‘This is nothing.’
Balak looked serious once again, or rather, he looked interested.
‘Alright then! Let’s see how well an alchemic being can mimic a human!’
Rumble!
As both warriors faced each other and concentrated their Auras, a loud sound persisted within the area between them.
Soon, Balak held up the giant morning star infused with Aura.
“Ha, is that all you’ve got?!”
Hector shielded himself with massive blue armor made out of his Aura. The armor was called the Kingdom’s Guardian. In his past life, Hector had trained endlessly to create this secret decisive skill in order to protect his weak and small country.
Presently, both the morning star that shattered all things and the armor that protected all things were employed in battle.
When they finished concentrating their Auras, the two blue glowing weapons clashed, the impact releasing tremendous energy.
* * *
The snowy mountains of Salgaera collapsed. To be more accurate, the snow that had accumulated on top of the mountains fell off because it couldn’t withstand the fight between the two monsters.
As a result, the gorge was filled with a bank of snow, and buried beneath the snow were the two giants that had shaken Salgaera.
...
Everything was quiet. As if nothing had happened, the blizzard in Salgaera had stopped, and not even the chirping of the birds could be heard.
Boom!
But just then, all the snow that had been piled high above the gorge shot into the air and fell back down. Under the falling snow were two giants, one winner and one loser.
Standing on his feet was a red knight with a three-horned helmet. With a snort, he put the Black Punisher that he had just slammed into the ground back on his back.
The snow stopped falling from the sky. The falling snowballs had scattered to either side of the two warriors, completely missing them.
Balak was the clear victor of the fight.
“But still, your armor wasn’t bad, alchemic being.”
Balak respected Hector’s efforts. It was the kind of respect only the winner could have.
Hector wasn’t moving. The red glow from his helmet was no longer visible, and the joints of the armor were contorted in strange ways, making it look like the corpse of a defeated soldier.
“Wizard!”
Balak stood next to Hector's fallen body and once again called out a warning to the wizards.
“I will find you, even if it means I have to search every inch of Salgaera! You can’t run away from me, so come out and show yourself!”
Balak projected his voice loud and clear, but the mountains were quiet. The only thing that could be heard was Balak’s voice, echoing throughout the desolate mountains.
“You really want to see the end of this, don't you.”
Balak was still oblivious as to what was going on, and as there was no response no matter how long he waited, he only grew more oblivious.
Oong!
Just then, when his echoing voice finally trailed off, Balak saw dozens of magic circles appear before him.
“Damn it...!”
They had appeared suddenly, and before Balak could get away from them, they already released explosive magic.
Boom! Boom! Boommm!
Boosh! Boosh!
Bam! Zap!
Balak couldn’t scan his surroundings to locate the wizard controlling the magic circles because there were too many circles attacking him.
Just as the magic bombardment continued...
Oong!
An enormous magic circle appeared under Balak’s feet.
Just when the mana had reached its peak, someone shouted, “Teleport!”
Flash!
A bright flash of light engulfed the area surrounding the circle, and by the time it faded, it had consumed everything, including the magic bombardment and Balak, who had just claimed victory.
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