Chapter 20 – The knight of the past (1)
TL: If you want music to go along?
“Young man, your road ends here.”
The single sword in Ebdon’s hand is an ordinary magic sword named ‘The White Fang’, but it was the proof of this knight’s entire fame and honor.
Its left hand supported his right wrist, and when it finished speaking, the thin blade ignited, and a white layer of flame sprang from the sword.
[Ebdon’s famous sword’s skill, ‘White Blaze’.]
Compared to him, Ebdon was the true imperial swordsman. The former Ebdon was a knight at the age of seventeen, and when he was forty he was considered a master fighter. He spent his entire life fighting for Aouine and was considered a hero, but the ‘White Rider’ Ebdon was the name that spread throughout the continent.
In his era, Ebdon was one of four Madara’s Apocalypse Knights, and the name of ‘White Rider’ was attached to the ‘Conqueror’ Ebdon. This name alone terrified children and adults alike. (TL: Yes, that’s from the four hors.e.m.e.n of the apocalypse and the first time it ever appeared in the series, oh gosh the pain of editing every single name that I tled wrongly…)
As soon as Brendel retreated, he immediately felt the situation was too difficult for him to handle alone.
[Out of the entire forces in this region, there are two leaders I don’t want to meet. One is the Conqueror, ‘The White Rider’, Ebdon, the other is the King of Wars ‘The Red Rider’ Ladios. Looks like Mother Marsha is playing a joke on me again.]
But Ebdon moved immediately with its horse, and before Brendel was able to finish his thoughts, Ebdon had already attacked slashed diagonally from above. The burning white blade swung down towards his head, making him feel the freezing air that rushed at his face. He immediately felt his breath was stifled, and without a moment to waste, immediately rolled sideways.
The white flames blew across the ground and a blast rang out from it. Rocks and gravel flew all over the place as if an explosion had occurred there, and he saw that there was a clean cut on the ground extending all the way to a boulder that was in the swing’s path.
[The wind pressure alone is able to destroy rocks. That’s the proof of a true Silver-ranked swordsman.]
Brendel felt gooseb.u.mps rising all over his body. Even with his skill Power Break, his White Raven Sword Arte was only able to destroy wooden materials.
Ebdon did not waste any time when it saw Brendel escaping to the sides, and urged its Nightmare Warhorse forward without any regards for the undead around him, trampling the skeletons down in order to reach Brendel’s side.
When Ebdon got close enough, it made the horse jump ahead of Brendel, with another slash towards the youth’s neck.
[s.h.i.t!]
Brendel saw that there was no escape, and he could only used the Thorn of Light with Power Break to increase his strength. A grating sound of metallic scream happened when their swords met each other. Both swords bend backwards to their utmost limits, and Brendel was finally pushed backwards by like a cannonball. He rolled uncontrollably on the ground a few times, before he managed to stop himself and crawl up with trembling arms.
[At least 25 OZ in strength. Move, you stupid hand!]
His right hand received the greatest impact, and for a moment he lost the feelings in his fingers, before pins and needles rushed to p.r.i.c.k them. Brendel felt that it was lucky of him to activate the Power Break in time, otherwise his hand would be rendered useless.
[This is getting crazy. A single slash from his sword is over a ton each.]
Brendel watched the rider that was clad in pure white rushing straight at him. He wished that he had his Holy Sword card ready to use. In order to win against a monster like this, he had to rely on that type of power, but at the same time, he did not have the available earth EP to pay for it at this moment.
Ebdon and its horse was nearly in front of him —
Brendel gritted his teeth and raised his sword over his head with both hands, the blade pointing slightly downwards towards the ground as well as parallel to it, his eyes glaring at Ebdon His stance was one of the best for parrying within the military swordsmanship.
“The stance is unrefined.”
The White Rider looked down at him from the horse, and a cold raspy voice transmitted from the helmet. Another slash faster than the previous attacks came, with the compressed air forming from the edges of the blade.
[Incoming!]
Brendel immediately took a step forward to meet The White Fang by using the fuller portion of his blade. At the single instant where the point of contact happened, he adjusted the angle of the blade. Sparks flew, and he actually managed to make Ebdon’s blade slide away —
But the remaining strength transmitted from the blade still made him fall backwards. Brendel’s left leg immediately went back further and downwards. It was as if he had frequently adjusted his entire balance using this sword stance and became part of his instinct. His feet slid away to the sides, but at the end of it he was steady in a half-kneeling position.
Brendel’s shirt was nearly drenched in perspiration. He had accomplished this in the game many times, but that was with the a.s.sistance with the system to predict several things that include the path of the sword and body position, and it even aided him in correcting wrong postures.
This was done without any a.s.sistance at all.
[If I missed that by a centimeter, I’m most likely dead—]
But he actually managed to do it.
He swung his right arm a few times as he still felt that it was not listening to his command properly. The opponent’s strength was just too much. Each time he crossed swords he felt like a truck had struck him. Even if he managed to parry the blade, his muscles and bones were groaning.
Ebdon uttered a puzzled sound under its helmet. The swordsmanship was nothing special, but he seemed very experienced as he found the appropriate technique to defend himself as if he was a veteran.
He turned his horse back and went further away, preparing to charge at him.
How could Brendel give Ebdon another chance when he finally escaped from the opponent’s attacking pace? He immediately raised his right hand and aimed his thumb at Ebdon and roared.
“Oss!”
“Magic incantation?” The burning white flames in Ebdon’s eyes shook a little when it heard Brendel’s words. He quickly turned around and used his sword and prepared to block himself.
A huge current of air along with an explosive sound had already approached Ebdon, along with huge scars on the ground behind its trail, but Ebdon slashed through it and parted the current into two waves which instantly sent the line of skeletons into the air, which broke apart even before it reached the river sh.o.r.e.
Scores of bones fell down onto the ground, and noisy cracking sounds could be heard, with another metallic scream interrupting the unpleasant music cacophony.
[Charge. Activate.]
Before the dust had even settled, Ebdon had already brought its sword up as Brendel had suddenly appeared from above, and it met his attack in the air.
There were no weakness in his defense.
Brendel was not surprised at all. An elite figure like himself at this level, could only be stronger compared to the Golden Demonic Tree. In actual truth, he had also relied on the Holy Sword card to fight against the Golden Demonic Tree, otherwise it was hard to know who was going to be the victor. He did not hope to leave anything to chance when it came to fighting Ebdon.
At this point of time, he could only will himself for a battle that was beyond his strength.
His next attack came before he landed on his feet. His right arm pulled back and launched a Sword Arte next. Ebdon immediately reacted and swung its sword without any expression, and the wind pressure dissipated from the arc of white flames.
Finally, Ebdon pulled its sword back and did not move. It sat on its horse quietly and looked at Brendel, trying to remember a distant story.
In the story, there were long trumpets that blew out melodious music in the Baltha Highlands, with swallow-tailed flags flying in the winds.
“White Raven Swordsmanship.” It opened its mouth and said.
“A scion of the Royal Family?” Ebdon asked coldly from the horse.
Brendel was surprised for a moment.
[Did Ebdon have anything to do with the Corvado empire? But I didn’t hear anything like that in the game… Regardless of that I should deny it… What would happen if there’s some revenge element in this history. I heard some stories about a level 30 boss suddenly going to level 40s and instantly killed off that party attacking it. A legendary level 40 elite boss becoming level 50?!]
When he thought of that, he immediately shook his head forcefully.
But he did not expect Ebdon to point his sword at him and say coldly: “If that is the case, killing you would not go against my oath.”
Brendel nearly puked out blood when he heard that, and his mind was instantly filled with regret.
[G.o.d d.a.m.n it, this b.l.o.o.d.y bird a.r.s.e’s oath, s.h.i.t, I should have impersonated a royal family member, what the blood h.e.l.l, I just shot myself in the foot!]
On the other side, Ebdon had resumed into a battle stance with his horse again. Brendel felt really helpless at this point.
[If I combine Power Break with a Sword Arte to fight the enemy, I’m going to spend 9 points of stamina every time, that’s way over the limits. Ebdon is at least a level 30+ elite, with 200+ HP. He even split the wind bullet that’s capped at 30 damage, at best he had just received some minor abrasions and that’s about it. Sure, I can kill him if I managed to stab him two or three times with the Thorn of Light, but I can’t even touch him with my attack combination just now.]
He looked sideways at the mercenaries and could only hope that the mercenaries were able to support him.
But the mercenaries were engaging the undead skeletons at this moment. They had the upper hand because of his charge, but it looked like it was impossible for them to reach here for a while. He could only place his hope in the militia who was nearby to sweep up the remaining undead so they could be freed up.
———————— Freya POV ———————
Freya who was leading the militia into the fray frowned. She had caught glimpses of Brendel’s fights but had lost sight of him. With such a large amount of undead, she guessed that their commander was highly-ranked. She was no longer the naive village girl, and was different from the people who blindly believed in him. She was certain that Brendel was in a difficult battle, and she searched around the battlefield.
She found Ciel and Sue nearby.
“Sue, please help me out.”
“Huh?” That young girl was confused.
“Help me lead the miltia.”
“What?”
“I need to help Brendel,” Freya replied and called out to Ciel: “Ciel, come with me.”
“Miss Freya, I’m fine with that, but are you sure that you’re fine?” Ciel was taken aback. Brendel had instructed him to look after the injured Freya, but it was true that he was much more worried about his master.
Freya looked at him in the eye and nodded.