5. War God
“My older brother is always the same.”
Bridgette seemed to be lamenting her fate.
At the palace entrance of Princess Number One.
A formidable presence stood there, emitting an unusual aura.
Bridgette was certain. It was a protest of impotence for taking Clonie away.
Yuma and Clonie were now heading towards the massive gates where Bridgette wasn’t concerned. That’s because Yuma was there.
“Open the gate.”
At Yuma’s words, the knight standing guard in front of the princess’s palace asked with a stern face.
“There appears to be one of the imperial thrones outside. Is that okay?”
Yuma slowly nodded.
Groan….
The knight eventually opened the gate.
Yuma stepped forward gallantly. And then he stopped in front of a man, shrouded in black armor.
‘Seems like the guy I saw yesterday.’
It was one of the two who had been by the side of Prince Schwartz 1.
“I am Roark, the Spear Demon. I am the 9th throne of the empire.”
Does he want admiration?
Does he want me to tremble in fear?
Yuma slowly nodded his head.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you. I am Yuma.”
“…Pleased to meet you?”
Roark’s forehead creased abruptly.
Squeak.
Yuma glanced down at Clonie, who was slightly pulling his trousers. Clonie whispered in a quiet voice only Yuma could hear.
“Lord Yuma, as you might have guessed, there are a wizard and someone who looks like an archer at the end of the distant city wall, concealing themselves from both sides. I discovered this through field detection magic.”
How do I take a cue from that?
As expected of a future grand wizard.
“Thanks. I will take care of them, stay behind me.”
“Yes…!”
Confirming that Clonie had activated her protection magic at her back, Yuma returned his gaze on Spear Demon Roark, who was staring at him like he wanted to kill him, with his spear aiming forward.
He had no intention of dragging this out.
Zing.
Yuma held ＜The Fang of the Black Dragon Bernac＞ in his hand.
Roark jittered.
“A single… sword? Isn’t your main technique a long-range attack?”
Yuma realized that Roark strongly misunderstood something.
‘Well, he wouldn’t know the fact that it reflected the Red Star.’
Neither a warrior nor a wizard, but it’s impossible for ordinary citizens to notice the attack is countered by pairing.
‘So he thinks my main attack is long-range.’
Yuma gazed at Roark with a bored expression.
“What does it matter? I’m dealing with you.”
“‘…What did you say?’
No matter what attack he made or weapon he used, what did it matter in a fight against such a trifling opponent.
That was how Roark interpreted Yuma’s words, his brows deeply furrowing.
Another remark sprung from Yuma’s mouth.
‘I’ll let you strike first.’
That comment deeply irked Roark.
‘You little… bastardddddddd!!’
A fierce red light wrapped around the spear of Roark, the Spear Demon.
Yuma stared directly at the trajectory of the spear.
‘Any attack whatsoever.’
Any attack whatsoever, any skill whatsoever.
There existed a ‘Parrying Point’.
★ [No attack is unblockable if the Parrying Point is found]
The memory of an old forum post from some internet site that had been circling around resurfaced in his mind. The post was written by a troll calling himself a veteran of countless battles. He had made a few videos and written some text to kill time.
The center of the spearhead.
That was the Parrying Point of this attack.
Yuma successfully targeted the center.
KaaaNNG!!
The golden circular effect spread out, signifying a successful parry.
＜Absolute Retaliation＞
Triggered by Yuma, the spear’s trajectory of gust of wind was replicated from the tip of ＜Black Dragon’ Bernac’s Tooth＞. The destructive force of Spear Demon’s main skill ‘Gust’ advanced in a straight line, but 10 times greater.
ZZZOOOONG!!
Roark’s armor crumpled like tin foil. The gust pierced through Roark’s heart and rocketed into the air.
The eyes of the dying Roark was covered in a milky white, blood spattering as he fell to the ground.
Yuma didn’t let down his guard even for an instant. He remembered Clone telling him that the enemy was lurking at a distance and from both sides.
A cool wind blew.
‘The one I just killed was probably a decoy.’
Even the first prince who sent him here didn’t predict that the Imperial Ninth Seat would act as a decoy and die. But according to Yuma, the real deal starts now.
SSSSQUEAK!
Three arrows came from the left.
KOOOOrrr!
From the right, three spheres of fire came rushing in with a cloud of smoke.
Each tip of the arrow was condensed with strong aura. It contained distinctive skills of a master archer.
The round orbs of fire were no inferior magic. They were the fiercely burning Flames of Judgment, a 6th circle magic spell.
He was surrounded on all sides.
But Yuma’s mind was calm.
＜Bullet Time＞”
He overcomes the crisis with what he has.
C——-sis… is—-is.
Time starts to slow down.
Only in connection with Yuma’s sight.
30 seconds of time in which you can view the world in slow motion.
Three arrows and three balls of fire are floating in mid-air. Though at a glance, it seems as though they have stopped, they were slowly approaching.
The brain accelerates.
The gaps between three balls of fire.
The gaps between three arrows.
Where is the parry point of everything?
He calculated everything in a split second.
The one bearing more risk is still, of course, the ‘Final Judgment’.
The direction of the dagger was rightward.
Shouting!
He quickly parried two balls of fire before the bullet time ended.
-crissis!
Clank!
And as soon as the ‘Bullet Time’ completely ended, he struck down the remaining ball of fire.
His body moved nimbly, just as meticulously calculated.
The order and angle of parrying that he planned during ‘Bullet Time’, Yuma did not doubt his calculations at all.
He immediately twisted his body to the left, where three arrows were charging in, and struck diagonally downwards with a dagger held in reversed grip.
Clang!
Twisted to the side.
Clang clang clang!
Struck upwards.
Bang!
Three balls of fire.
And three arrows.
He parried all six projectiles in total.
The six projectiles, as if undeniably liquidating an obligation, turned back onto those who fired them.
Like playing a video recorded on the camera in reverse.
Shrieeek—!
Boom booom booom booom booom!
The problem was that all projectiles were returning to their origin with ten times amplified damage.
To the left.
The arrow wrapped in energy reached its full potential.
It stuck into the body of the archer who fired it.
Choking sounds!
“Cough, gulp! Noooooooooooo!!”
The sounds of armor tearing apart, of flesh squelching, and agonized screams resonated.
To the right.
The 6th Circle magic, Judgement, had backfired against its spellcaster. Judgement had become even more powerful, much like the 7th circle magic Meteor, and had crushed the magician’s body.
Crunch! Crack! Crush!
The sound of bones breaking continued in succession.
All that remained at the end was a piece of flesh, unrecognizable as the human it had once been.
Thump─
With an indifferent face, Yuma rotated the right arm that had once swung a dagger.
“Are there any more?”
Yuma asked, looking up into the sky.
The comment was intended to mean, ‘Was this all?’
However, the knight who opened the door for Yuma shuddered at his words.
‘What kind of superhuman has the princess captured?’
The idea that the three men who had all achieved a level of mastery in their own field had been killed in the blink of an eye, and there could be more, was shocking.
It wasn’t only the knight who was experiencing this chill.
In front of the dead archer.
Someone was observing the corpse, holding a communication device to their ear.
“…Empire’s 7th seat, Heavenly Bow Derain. He just died. All three strong men sent by the first prince are dead.”
The Knight Harksen, the closest confidant to the most powerful aristocrat Duke Kairoz of the Empire, gazed at the body of Derain, twisted as if swept away by a storm.
The fearsome arrows shot by Heavenly Bow Derain…
Came back even stronger, like a living dragon, piercing through Derain’s body.
“Despite not knowing the exact location of the enemies after taking down the demon in front of him, he repelled the attacks aimed at him. Not missing a single one. Three arrows from the Heavenly Bow and… the three high-level fire-element magics of Judgement from the magician… “
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It was a level of control akin to a guided missile, inherent in the Absolute Counterattack skill.
To Harksen, who did not know this, everything seemed calculated.
He repelled all long-range attacks aimed at him, making them return perfectly to the opponents. At that moment, he even infused those projectiles with stronger Qi than before.
The force he just showed.
The more Harksen thought about it, the more horrifying it was.
“I dare say… the danger level of the individual that princess captured… is unpredictable. Beyond imagination.”
After swallowing hard, Harksen opened his mouth again.
“We can call him a War God without exaggeration, Duke.”
Also standing in front of the-magician-turned-into-a-piece-of-flesh was another person. A woman with orange hair.
It was Yumir, a disciple of the Mercenary King, who had been sent to check on the situation after receiving a request from the most esteemed count of the Asters Empire, Count Benosetian.
Yumir was struggling to process the unexpected situation, who assumed that she would be reporting the death of the person princess Bridget captured.
She also had a shell-like communication device to her ear.
“Uh… The Red Sorcerer of the Red Brigade, 7th Circle Becler, is dead. He’s turned into a piece of flesh. The two Top Ten Imperial Powers and Becler, who were sent by the prince, are all dead.”
Yumir suppressed the urge to vomit.
If she said this now, she felt like she would be killed by this unidentified man.
That’s why she had distanced herself, hidden completely, whispering like a mouse.
“Danger level? It seems like a person one must never provoke has appeared. I am not going to take any more requests regarding this person… I want to live longer.”
She heard the Count Benosetian asking her if she knew the name over the communication device.
As a mercenary specialized in information acquisition, Yumir, who possessed a hearing artifact, had heard everything Yuma said.
“He said his name…it was Yuma, I’m certain of it.”
Rumors about a man began to slowly spill out among the aristocrats across the Empire.
About a man who in just two days, killed three out of ten seats of the Empire.
War God Yuma.
Apparently, the First Princess, Bridget, had captured a monster to ascend to the Imperial Throne.
