Volume 3 Chapter 97 The Swamp Adventure II
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
No, neither of those will work now.
There’s no way he’d be brought to his knees in a single leap──no chance.
Kian paid the pain in his body, rolling through muddy water, dodging the thorn’s deadly strikes.
’Energy Drain! If she touches you, she’ll siphon your magic power!’
”What?!”
’Don’t touch the thorns! Dodge everything!’
(Yeah, I really want to do that, but…)
Next hit can’t be dodged.
His eyes twitch as the tentacles, serpentine and relentless, close in menacingly.
If they make contact again, he’ll collapse──his waist already trembling, vulnerable.
If that happens, the monster’s going to land a crushing follow-up.
He’ll be totally screwed if he stay like this!
”‘Silver Ice! Armor of ice!’”
Kian struck the muddy water fiercely.
Splashing mud, the ground beneath him began to freeze with terrifying speed.
He froze the stubborn thorns with ‘Silver Ice’, stopping their relentless advance.
His eyes fixed on the tip of the thorny tendril, grinding his teeth, he powered up his magic.
Keep his feet planted.
Now that he’s off-balance, if those thorns wrap him up, they’ll drain his magic──turn him into fuel for the monster.
He needs to buy time to recover──any way he can.
(Damn it!)
But the tip of the thorn didn’t freeze.
Meanwhile, oddly, the far end of the vine──several dozen centimeters away──became a solid block of ice, stopping movement altogether.
Seizing the moment, Kian sprang up and swiftly regained his stance.
’That thorn also absorbs magic attacks! Only magic reflected by real-world phenomena can’t be affected, like shadow magic!’
(So magic aimed directly at the thorn is completely nullified. But if I target the ground or air, the magic effects might spread──manifesting on the ground first, then creeping into the thorns under physical laws.)
’That’s why Windsong Blade didn’t work… that’s how it’s supposed to go!’
He jumped left, right, then spun mid-air, twisting his body with feats that would astound even seasoned fighters, dodging the whip-thorns while maintaining his focus.
(Why didn’t you say this sooner? Now I’ve lost a ton of magic power for nothing…)
’This one was gonna speak up! It’s you who ignored me!’
One should always listen to advice, no matter where it comes from.
Kian thought to himself, growing a bit wiser with each moment, as he froze the ground beneath him.
The thorn vine, about to burst from the earth, was blocked by a wall of ice several centimeters thick, tangling itself within.
The ice would shatter soon, the vine emerging, but by then Kian had already leaped forward.
Forward──towards the direction of the thorn monster.
A sudden shift in the offensive.
Touch it, and you’d lose energy.
Keep your distance, and thorns would fly from every direction.
There was no escape.
So, it was either strike before being struck.
(I need to unleash the secret Technique──to rip through the wall of thorns, cutting the monster on the other side in 2 as well.)
’Kian!’
”Cut the chatter. It’s fine. Leave it to me.”
Kian looked up at the swarm of thorns descending upon him, calculating the distance with precision.
Don’t flinch──he muttered to himself.
Here he was, taking a stance that would collide head-on with the enemy’s attack.
There was no room for evasive maneuvers now.
This was a direct course for impact.
(But)
Secret Technique.
(Pursuit of the Shadow!)
Pursuit of the Shadow was a technique that leaped forward with all one’s might, even at the cost of harming one’s own feet.
An ultimate move of Azrael’s Dance Swordsmanship, it was among the simplest yet deadliest of the techniques.
Just move swiftly.
Thus, its power varied greatly depending on the ability of the weapon in hand.
In a slow flow of time where Kian felt his heartbeat once every few seconds, he stared down the bundle of vines collapsing towards him.
A bundle so thick it could wrap around 2 adults.
An ordinary iron sword, even in the hands of a master, might not cut through it in one stroke.
But Kian wielded the Windsong Blade, a sword with a cutting edge beyond human knowledge.
It had withstood the Holy Sword of the Sun, but how would it fare against the bundle of vines──?
Indeed, the answer came as the Windsong Blade tore through the thorns.
Kian’s superhuman strength and swordsmanship carved a circular arc through the thorns, slicing them clean in 2 with a swift motion that pulled the mass of thorns towards him.
With a resounding *Thud──Crash!*, the sound of boulders smashing through a wooden wall echoed as the thorn-vine before Kian split in 2.
The acceleration phase of the Secret Technique ‘Pursuit of the Shadow’ commenced.
Spinning with the momentum of his sword swing.
Twisting his body to a horizontal angle with the ground.
Kian forced his body through the torn gap in the thorns, taking a unconventional second step.
Guided by years of combat instinct, Kian’s left foot landed at the perfect moment, summoning further acceleration.
The distance to the thorn monster was several meters.
But in a single leap, that distance shrank to 0.
Kian’s body vanished, reappearing behind the thorn monster.
To any observer, it would have seemed as if a dark shadow lagging behind marked Kian’s new location.
Hence, ‘Pursuit of the Shadow’.
The technique was named as such because the speed of movement made it appear as if the shadow was struggling to catch up to Kian’s current position.
The flash of Kian’s silver sword sliced through the air, a heartbeat later, drawing a line of light across the monster’s neck in the dark void.
The mist covering the swamp burst apart, the silver afterglow incinerating the stench of decay.
”────…”
The monster’s head was severed from its body in the darkness.
A fatal strike for any human.
But for a monster, that didn’t necessarily mean it was a vital spot.
The ‘glasses’ warned him to be mindful of the creature’s regenerative abilities.
Kian turned around and with a returning strike, froze the air around the thorn monster.
The air filled with a sprinkle of pale blue powder as the temperature dropped to ultra-lows, depositing frost on the monster’s body.
The thorn creature’s body began to freeze as if the poison were circulating within it.
Kian quickly approached the monster and, this time, carved it up with the Windsong Blade, turning the vines into countless fragments.
* * *
”────Hah, hah, haaah, hah, haaah”
In front of the monster disintegrating into dust, Kian dropped to one knee, nearly collapsing.
Somehow, he managed to thrust the Windsong Blade into the ground, using it to support himself.
It had been a close call with death.
This body is tough against poison and curses.
But when it comes to attacks that drain purification and magic power──yeah, it’s painfully vulnerable.
Unless the warrior monk’s moves are based on one simple idea──”Avoid all enemy attacks. We strike first”──like countering Western Knights or cutting through flesh to shatter bone with ruthless swordplay, they’d have been doomed to lose without a fight.
Lucky break.
Maybe today was the first time he truly appreciated just how much he’s trained as a warrior monk.
But in the end, he won.
He took down his enemy in a brutal, edge-of-the-whip clash.
The rush of adrenaline flooded his mind, filling him with pure, overwhelming happiness.
That… was the instant – that single, perfect moment.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
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