Chapter 23: Desperate Resistance

To others, Julian’s actions seemed puzzling. It didn’t look like the starting pose of any combat technique. But only Darlos, in the midst of it all, knew what it meant. This was a knight’s battle declaration. When they made this declaration, it meant all their enemies would die – no matter by what means, at what cost, or with what effort, nothing could prevent this fact.

When this swordsman was young, he had the fortune or misfortune to witness a knight make this battle declaration to his opponent. At that time, his opponent was holding the knight’s five-year-old son, with his cold blade pressed against the poor child’s neck, the error not exceeding 0.01 millimeters. Upon seeing the knight make this gesture, the guy who had been smug thinking he had the upper hand immediately turned pale, as if the advantage had instantly reversed just because of that gesture. He desperately retreated while crying, begging, threatening, and praying for the knight to spare his life. But all this meant nothing to the knight. He stepped forward without the slightest hesitation, his swinging sword piercing through his son’s body before cutting into that unfortunate man, cleaving them both in two.

Since then, Darlos had a very deep impression of knights. That unstoppable momentum and terrifying determination, regardless of whether it was right or wrong, was indeed enough to bring absolute fear to their enemies.

Because of this, when Julian made this gesture towards him, Darlos understood that he was doomed.

There were only two paths left: either he killed the opponent, or he was killed by the opponent.

Any begging, bargaining, or negotiation had become meaningless.

Darlos didn’t believe he had the strength to kill the opponent. In fact, from the brief exchange earlier where he witnessed the Flash Sheath, he understood that his defeat was already certain. That was a high-level sword technique that even he couldn’t master, yet it was mastered by this young man before him. Just this point alone made Darlos realize the difference in strength between them. After seeing Julian’s battle declaration, Darlos instead felt his previously turbulent heart become completely calm.

Yes, he should have thought of it earlier. Since the opponent could master Flash Sheath, the most difficult technique among high-level sword skills, he must have also learned knight swordsmanship. That was prepared only for those with high-rank swordsman strength, the strongest swordsmanship that only those who become knights can learn. In the Age of the Luminous Moon, countless high-rank swordsmen had studied knight swordsmanship and eventually became powerful knights… And now, before his eyes, appeared a living knight.

But would he willingly accept defeat and face death like this?

No, absolutely not.

“Kill!!”

This was a desperate roar, also a struggle to the death, the final resistance of all life in the face of death’s threat.

Darlos raised the longsword in his hand high – the soul radiance on its blade had reached its limit, so dazzling it was almost impossible to look at directly. He concentrated all his life force into it, then swung down with all his might.

A crescent-shaped light wave burst forth from the sword body, shooting towards Julian in front of him. After releasing the blade of light, Darlos didn’t stop his footsteps. He roared as he swung his longsword, charging forward. Even if he only had one chance to fight, Darlos would absolutely not give up. Although this young man was very likely to use knight swordsmanship, and might even be a knight, but so what? He wasn’t wearing protective leather armor, that thin layer of clothing, even if filled with soul power, wouldn’t provide much protection. And he was also too young; even if he had mastered knight swordsmanship, he hadn’t had enough time to practice. Plus that strange black longsword, although it wasn’t clear what it was made of, its soul radiance flickered, showing that the sword’s soul power was not balanced.

At this moment, Darlos was like a gambler facing defeat, using all his strength to dig out the opponent’s flaws and weaknesses. While carefully observing, he kept encouraging himself to overcome the fear of facing certain death.

Buck up, Darlos! Don’t be frightened by the threat of death. As long as you kill him, as long as you kill him, you’ll be the only person on the entire continent to kill a knight as a high-rank swordsman!

Faced with this imposing soul sword light, Julian didn’t dodge. Instead, he just slightly raised an eyebrow. Then, black aura silently released from the Darknight Mithril sword body, merging with the blade, covering its faint blue patterns.

Compared to Darlos’s momentum, Julian’s performance could be said to have nothing particularly eye-catching. In fact, most people involuntarily focused their gaze on that dazzling, powerful soul sword light. Only Ophariel, standing beside the Wraith Knights, continued to watch that seemingly frail, tall figure before her, waiting for the moment her master would achieve victory.

But at this moment, Julian gripped the sword with one hand, holding the blade diagonally at his side. Then, he raised his empty left hand high.

And at this time, the Wraith Warriors who had long been poised suddenly moved. They rapidly dispersed around, forming a huge encirclement. The bandits almost all held their breath, waiting for the outcome of the battle, hardly anyone paying attention to the Wraith Warriors’ movements – the only thing they found strange was why this young man was holding the sword with one hand. Did he really think he could block Darlos’s soul sword light with one hand? That was a terrifying power that could instantly split a huge boulder!

Then, the bandits widened their eyes in surprise, unable to believe the scene they were seeing.

That huge soul sword light, the moment it came into contact with the black longsword in the young man’s hand, suddenly paused for a moment. This pause, by all rights, should have been almost nothing. Even a mountain torrent or tsunami would need a fraction of a second to deal with anything daring to obstruct its path – but then, the sword light that should have continued forward and burst open suddenly bulged, as if that powerful force had nowhere to release and condensed, then rapidly burst, turning into powerless points of light, disappearing into the air.

And at the same time, the radiant longsword had passed through the points of stardust, thrusting towards Julian.

Darlos didn’t stop his footsteps. He had already somewhat given up. In this bandit leader’s view, since the opponent was a knight, it was normal for him to be unimaginably strong. Because of this, he didn’t have any reaction to his soul sword light, which he had released with all his might, being easily neutralized by the opponent – even when the longsword that originally had enough power to send the opponent flying was blocked again by Julian, Darlos wasn’t exasperated. He didn’t even consider why his soul’s attribute power, which was strong enough to send a bull flying hundreds of meters, could be easily blocked by Julian with one hand.

He was already in despair.

Just like the previous thrust, at the moment of collision with the opponent’s sword body, Darlos felt the power on his sword body suddenly disappear. No, or rather, he simply couldn’t attack. It was as if his attack had ended as soon as it began, with no more power or space to continue its execution.

Darlos, having missed his strike, immediately withdrew, his speed though not as fast as during the charge, was still quick due to the enhancement of soul power. In just an instant, he had retreated five or six meters – then he saw Julian swing his sword, his entire person turning into a black flash of light rushing towards him.

Damn it!

Immediately bringing his sword back to protect his chest, blocking Julian’s attack, Darlos couldn’t help but curse himself for being so stupid. Even those black-armored warriors knew how to use the lost sword technique of Accelerated Charge, of course this young man would too. How could he be so stupid as to overlook such an obvious thing, and foolishly try to create distance himself, giving the opponent a chance to charge? Had he become brain-dead?

But soon Darlos felt relieved, because Julian told him in another way that this wasn’t actually a brain-dead action.

Because he didn’t need to create distance to charge.

Charging was originally a technique to burst speed in an instant, raising it to the limit. Because of this, in fact, the distance wasn’t really an issue. It’s just that in most cases, this skill was more used to close the distance with the opponent, so people generally subconsciously thought that charging was a technique that needed distance to show its power. Plus, modern charging required accumulating power, and in close combat, no idiot would stupidly stand within one sword’s range of the enemy and wait for them to accumulate power for a charge. That would be foolish.

But Accelerated Charge wasn’t just about closing the distance with the opponent. This technique, created specifically to deal with mages, naturally wouldn’t let those mages leave one’s side. Anyone with a bit of experience knew that even if you used a charge to close the distance between the two, if you couldn’t entangle the opponent, it would still be in vain – mages had as many methods to create distance as there were stars in the sky. There was nothing they couldn’t do that you couldn’t think of.

And now, Darlos had the “fortune” to experience the feeling of a mage facing a knight’s attack in the Age of the Luminous Moon.

Julian’s sword swung to the left, pressing down on Darlos’s longsword, then he quickly lifted, trying to change the opponent’s direction. Then that sword suddenly accelerated, instantly arriving in front of the enemy, and after being blocked, it only shook slightly, then traced a perfect semicircle, advancing again with the same acceleration… Darlos felt he was about to go crazy.

He could no longer see the opponent’s weapon clearly. The longsword in his hand was only instinctively protecting the two most important parts of his body, swinging reflexively, blocking Julian’s attacks. This made him look very disheveled.

Things shouldn’t have been like this.

The soul attribute Darlos possessed was precisely power burst. He could use soul power to raise his own strength to an unprecedented limit. He could easily throw a person into the sky, or smash a boulder twice as tall as a person into pieces. And now, he was using this power in each of his blocks. Originally, in Darlos’s imagination, Julian should have been sent flying by his burst of power after being blocked. But the reality was not so. His soul power still existed, but every time it clashed with the opponent, it would completely disappear, as if it had never existed.

“Damn it!!”

Realizing that there was no chance of victory going on like this, Darlos became completely panicked. He roared as he raised his right foot, then stomped hard on the ground.

“Boom!”

The muffled roar and the shaking of the ground made people feel as if they were experiencing an earthquake. The ground centered on Darlos completely shattered with this strike, forming cracks spreading out like a spider web. Then Darlos blocked Julian’s attack again, gripped his sword with both hands, and smashed it towards the ground with all his might.

Under the effect of this powerful force, the shattered ground around Darlos suddenly scattered. Debris flew up into the sky, scattering in all directions. Many bandits couldn’t dodge in time and were hit by those stones, immediately falling to the ground crying for their parents. Some were even hit on the head by flying stones before they could dodge, leaving a dent before they fell silent. Stones sent flying by a high-rank swordsman also possessed considerable power. If hit by them, even if not killed, one would end up at least half-crippled.

Ophariel hid behind Judy, watching the battlefield with surprise and tension.

Then, the dust settled.

Darlos still maintained the posture of smashing the ground with his greatsword, while Julian had somehow already circled to his back.

The black longsword had pierced through his neck, bright red blood dripping along the blade onto the ground.

“It ends here. Your soul, I’ll take it,” with Julian’s words, the black longsword in his hand suddenly began to change.