Haaa.
Raon caught his breath, feeling the monsters’ murderous intent tightening his heart.
How are you planning to survive?
‘I’ll open my senses as much as possible and fight.’
Sometimes, you won’t be able to move your body despite having sensed it, especially when you are protecting those behind you.
Raon took a glance behind him. No one was in condition to fight because they were affected by the explosion before falling.
Did you finally realize the stupidity of what you did just now? You won’t be able to avoid a dog’s death.
‘You won’t know until you try.’
The King of Essence never lies. As long as you don’t block one side, you won’t be able to protect all of them. What a pathetic guy, to have followed your affection!
The ocean monsters started running towards them, as if they were listening to Wrath.
‘Pathetic, huh…?’
Raon snickered and shot an aura blade. The crimson blade drew a half moon to shred the group of ocean monsters in half.
‘You are right about that.’
In his previous life, he saw countless people motivated by affection end up dying as a result, and he had even used that for his assassinations. However, he didn’t regret it. After all, he was currently the swordsman Raon Zieghart, and not the assassin Raon.
‘I’ll hold on.’
He opened the ocean of perception and gathered the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation’s aura. Since he had already jumped down, he decided to fight to the best of his ability until he saved them.
Holding on won’t be enough. Hand your body over to the King of Essence. I’ll freeze all those monsters and save the humans.
‘Was that your goal? It’s been a long time since the last time you showed your true nature.’
That has been the King of Essence’s sole purpose from the beginning…
‘Stay silent so I can focus.’
“Sir Raon! Dodge!”
Raon brandished his sword, ignoring Wrath’s proposal, and Dorian shouted to warn him. When he looked up, a long boulder was falling down from Dorian’s hand.
Slaam!
The boulder rammed onto the ground, becoming a wall to block the right side.
“Haap!”
Dorian kicked the destroyed castle wall’s remains on top of that to make the wall a bit higher.
‘So that wasn’t an average subspace pocket.’
It didn’t only have a high capacity, but also seemed to have the ability to temporarily lighten the weight of the object upon taking out. Such a pocket should be at least a unique rating.
“I told you, right? Everything has its use! This is how a boulder should be used!”
“Huh…”
Raon laughed bitterly. It seemed Dorian still remembered how he was scolded about carrying a boulder.
“Th-This is all I can do! Please hold out at all costs!”
Dorian awkwardly smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
“Alright, thank you.”
That was enough.
Since the right side was blocked along the center, left, and right side, there were only two directions left that he needed to defend. It was incomparably easier than in the beginning.
Did he just use the boulder like this? Argh!
Wrath looked like he was losing his mind at the absurdity of Dorian’s actions as he looked up at him.
“Come!”
Raon stepped forward and used his aura to roar.
“Krr!”
“Kiee!”
“Krrr!”
The ferocious roar made the monsters flinch for a moment, but they soon started running at him in hunger and madness.
“Krra!”
The first one that rushed at him was an orc. It swung its rusted ax at his head, but Raon fended it off with the Fangs of Insanity and decapitated the orc.
“Kiee!”
A strike of a knoll’s iron club followed it, aiming for his head. However, Raon twisted his upper body and swung his sword to cut the knoll in half.
Slash!
Between the blood gushing out from the knoll, a deadly ax came rushing at him. It was the surprise attack of an orc fighter that had been waiting for an opportunity from behind.
Clang!
He held the sword horizontally to block, and the orc fighter’s second attack followed right after like lightning.
‘This is terrifying even though I knew it was coming.’
Even though he understood all the orc fighter’s movements with the ocean of perception, chills still ran down his spine at its murderous intent. Its combative energy and fighting spirit were fiercer than its might.
Creak!
Raon twirled his sword, glowing with the cold snow’s white color. The blade rotated like a windmill to bounce off the ax.
Stopping the blade at the bottom, Raon slashed it up. The orc fighter tried to stop the blade with combative energy, but that wasn’t enough to stop the attack.
Slash!
The orc fighter’s chest was divided diagonally, and it collapsed back with its eyes turned white.
“Tsk.”
Raon clicked his tongue.
‘I don’t even have time to catch my breath.’
Vibration from the ground and a shadow coming down. An ice troll was falling from above and a shark mole was emerging from the ground.
Whir!
He pulled the sword behind him to thrust it like a spear. The moment the shark mole surged from the ground and the ice troll fell, the flame bursting from the blade engulfed the two monsters.
“Krr…”
“Kieee…”
The monsters froze in fear upon witnessing the flower of flame erasing the night.
“Kieek!”
Hideous sounds resounded from the back. It was the cry of an ocean monster—an Orcus, which looked like an octopus. As expected of a smart monster, it was sending directions with its tentacles.
Rumble!
The monsters started running at once, aiming at the defenseless soldiers behind Raon instead of himself.
“Damn it.”
Raon bit his lip. Soldiers were distracting the monsters on the castle walls, but it wasn’t enough because there were too many of them. He couldn’t expect Milland’s help either, since the castle could collapse the moment he left the center.
‘I have to do this alone.’
He resonated the rings of fire and opened the ocean of perception as much as possible. Using the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation, he stomped the ground and thrust his sword, surrounded by raging flame.
The Fangs of Insanity shredded the orc into pieces, and the Star Connecting Sword severed the troll’s limbs.
Raon burst the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation towards the swarming green wave. The flame breath spread in a half-circle to melt down the monsters in front of him.
“Haa.”
Raon breathed out heavily. Even though his body was getting exhausted, his mind and senses were getting clearer and clearer. He could feel that his mind was dominating his body after a long time.
Rumble!
The wall created by Dorian trembled. The ocean monster with huge pincers, a krate, burst out by smashing the boulder into pieces.
It looked like the boulders falling down like a catapult were about to crush the injured soldiers. Raon bit his lip and hacked with the Fangs of Insanity. The blade curved fiercely to knock away the stone piles, and Raon drew the Blade of Requiem with his left hand at the same time.
A single strike using ghastly energy. That was enough to burst the krates’ heads despite their robust shells.
“Kieek!”
The Orcus’ voice could be heard again from the back.
‘It’s here.’
Aiming at the wave emerging from the ocean of perception, Raon slashed his heated sword. The crimson aura blade severed the night air and cut the blue octopus into half.
“You shall not pass until you defeat me.”
Raon crossed the two blades and stomped the ground. Crimson currents blazed up from the cracked ground.
* * *
* * *
Milland narrowed his eyes, looking at Raon overwhelming thousands of monsters on his own.
He thought it was reckless bravado.
He could only consider it as a novice’s overconfidence after achieving small victories.
Because it was pretty much impossible to protect thirty injured soldiers in that hellish place.
However, Raon managed to hold on. Dorian did help him by blocking his right side with a boulder, but he managed to defend against the restless attacks of the monsters.
Without even breathing properly, he slayed the orcs, burned the trolls, and destroyed the krates to display his matchless prowess.
Thanks to his perfect defense, not even a hair was harmed on the soldiers, who had collapsed defenselessly.
‘His senses aren’t normal.’
Senses surpassing his prowess.
Raon’s perception was at a higher level than his might. The prudent swordsmanship based on his sharp senses became a thick wall to protect the soldiers.
‘And he is getting even stronger.’
He was using the terrible situation as an opportunity to grow. It was the first time Milland had witnessed such a case in his dozens of years spent defending Habun Castle.
“Kellan!”
Without taking his eyes off Raon’s back, Milland called Kellan, the Night Fox Knight Order’s captain.
“Yes!”
“Save the wounded soldiers.”
“Sorry? But…”
“It’s alright.”
Milland nodded, looking at Raon, who managed to kill Orcus with his aura blade.
“He will hold the line. Go down and save the wounded!”
Milland clasped his sword. Vigor returned to his old body from watching Raon achieve the impossible.
Baam!
The powerful attack coming from his sword wiped out all the monsters in front of him.
“Hold your ground!”
A powerful heat emerged from his blade piercing towards the sky. Upon witnessing the light connecting the blade to the moon, the soldiers’ eyes were dyed the same color.
“The night will end. Keep holding your ground and defeat them!”
* * *
“Can’t you even properly control a boom skull anymore? Your skills are rusty.”
The blue robed man sneered, looking at the castle wall collapsing from the middle.
“My control was perfect enough to even fool Milland. It was the guy that shot the aura blade that had extraordinary senses.”
“What kind of excuse… hmm?”
He giggled, looking at the blonde swordsman that jumped down from the castle walls.
“What’s wrong with that crazy guy?”
“It’s him.”
“What?”
“That young guy is the one that activated my danger detection ability and severed the boom skull just now.”
“Hmm…”
The blue robed man narrowed his eyes upon hearing that.
“He doesn’t look like anything special, though.”
“You’ll see.”
That was the last thing the black robed man said, and the blue robed man wrinkled his nose and fixed his gaze on Raon.
‘He just looks like a reckless greenhorn.’
He was pretty strong for his age and very courageous, but he didn’t seem any more special than that.
“A guy of that level… hmm?”
The blue robed man stopped talking and his eyes widened.
‘What?’
The orc fighter’s attack using the knoll’s corpse was perfect, yet he fended it off as if he knew about it already.
The strange part was that it kept happening after that. Orcs, trolls, and even krates—he was aware of where their attacks were targeting and finished them off in a single strike. His senses were so good that it could be called mysterious.
“…His senses far surpass his prowess. How is that even possible?”
“If I didn’t have the troll shaman’s danger detection ability, I would’ve been located by him already.”
“Hmm, his swordsmanship is also extremely deadly. One kill per strike. What a peculiar guy, to be using such a deadly technique while protecting others.”
“And that’s not everything.”
The black robed man pointed at Raon, telling him to look more closely.
“Gasp!”
The blue robed man observed Raon while scratching his chin, letting out a dull gasp.
“N-no way, did he, just now…?”
“Yes. He is growing stronger at this very moment.”
The black robed man’s voice was lowered, as low as the mud.
* * *
The orc struck with its ax. Raon read the flow and cut through the orc and the ax at the same time.
A bearwolf swung its claws. Raon deflected the blow and severed its neck.
An ice troll warrior roared and rushed at him. Its enormous fist was glowing with combative energy.
A small opening in its combative energy was created after six clashes. Raon used the Ten Thousand Flames Cultivation to thrust into the opening, bursting the troll warrior’s heart and it collapsed on its knees.
He wasn’t looking with his eyes. The ocean of perception. Raon was reading his enemies movements with the wave of ice created from his mind.
Raon shuddered.
His focus was at its peak, like the lead of a pencil after sharpening over and over.
The enemy’s breath, the movement of their muscles were clearly visible to his eyes.
He slashed, slashed, and slashed again.
Each time monsters collapsed like dominoes, each time the soldiers behind him disappeared, his mind became elated as if a shackle were released.
He burst the shark mole’s chest before it surged from the ground.
He beheaded the krate before it hardened its shell.
He severed a Mantakurn the size of the castle gate in a single strike.
His exhilarated mind was pounding his heart.
What he considered impossible became possible.
There was nothing the deadly blade couldn’t cut through, and there was nowhere his extended feet couldn’t reach.
The sky changed each time the red blood covered his sight.
The bright light returned to the dark night sky, and a full moon rose once again.
And when that full moon finally set, there was not a single monster remaining in front of him.
Raon finally raised his head.
Twilight was shining upon the bloody earth, and a mountain of corpses were piled up under that auspicious light.
Raon collapsed, looking at the rising golden sun instead of the messages.
