Chapter 196: Chapter 142: The Hunt (5)

Eugene kept his eyes fixed in front of him as he landed on the ground. Standing there was Hector Lionheart.

Eugene had spotted Hector wandering around in the darkness as he flew overhead.

“Sir Hector?” Eugene called out.

Hearing Eugene’s voice coming from behind him, Hector turned his head with a surprised expression. “Eugene?”

Eugene read a look of youthful embarrassment on Hector’s face. Before asking what had happened, he first scanned Hector.

Hector was on his own. That on its own was already something to be concerned about. Hector’s traveling companion, Deacon Lionheart, was nowhere to be seen.

“..Why are you on your own?” Eugene eventually asked him.

“It’s all my fault,” Hector replied in a rushed tone. “I should have held on to him, but… as we got deeper into the forest, Deacon became frightened by the commotion caused by the demonic beasts, and he ran away all by himself.”

That was a likely story. After all, wasn’t Deacon just an eighteen-year-old brat? This would be his first time hunting demonic beasts, and seeing his appearance full of timidity, he probably didn’t have much experience in combat. Needless to say, his skills were also likely lacking.

Dense demonic power could cause mental interference. The weaker your mental strength, the faster and more aggressively the interference took hold. In the face of such terror, it would only be natural for that kid to end up running away in fear if he had been unable to overcome it.

“Would you mind helping me?” Hector asked cautiously.

Instead of replying immediately, Eugene took a look at their surroundings. It was dark wherever he looked. It might still be because of the dense demonic power, but this thick darkness was more likely to be a trick played by the darkness spirit.

“...Well, something like that… it’s not a difficult request,” Eugene said, expressing his willingness to help.

“Thank you. Since this forest is so wide, there’s a limit to how much I can search on my own,” Hector said as he sighed in relief and approached Eugene. “There’s something strange about this forest. While I lived in Ruhr, I’ve been to a few places with dense concentrations of demonic power, but… during all those times, I’ve never been to a place as ominous and dark as this.”

“It seems that something else is going on,” Eugene speculated.

“Something else?” Hector reacted with surprise. “Are you saying that someone is playing tricks on us?”

“That seems to be the case,” Eugene confirmed.

Hector burst into laughter, “Hahaha…! That’s just absurd. Who the hell would be playing tricks in the den of the Lionheart clan’s elite Black Lion Knights?”

“Someone with massive balls[1],” Eugene replied as he turned away. “Or someone who has lost their mind.”

“Well, that might indeed be the case. If they weren’t insane, they wouldn’t dare to do something like this,” Hector nodded as he agreed enthusiastically.

Now then, how should he do this….

Hector didn’t want to fight head-on. After all, his opponent was Eugene Lionheart. The man who was considered to be the greatest genius of the Lionheart clan since the Great Vermouth.

Although Hector had also heard countless voices calling him a genius ever since he was young, he had never heard such high levels of praise. Of course, he didn’t feel any disappointment about this.

It had made him interested in Eugene. But this interest wouldn’t stop Hector from doing what he needed to do.

‘The ideal course of action would be a surprise attack. I can’t allow the battle to drag on for too long, so if at all possible, I need to end it in one blow. That would be better for both of us. I wouldn’t have to use too much strength either,’ Hector considered.

In the same situation of a surprise attack, subduing your opponent was much more difficult than simply killing them. This meant that he couldn’t just take action hastily. Hector continued to walk a few steps behind Eugene, staring at Eugene’s back.

‘...Hoh…,’ Hector thought to himself in surprise.

He couldn’t help but be alarmed. As far as Hector could tell, Eugene truly didn’t show even the slightest of openings. Eugene wasn’t even turned this way, nor had he stopped walking even once. He was just walking forward normally, but… Hector felt such pressure that it was as if he was facing Eugene head-on with swords drawn.

Hector broke the silence. “Just in case… if there really is someone playing tricks, who do you think it might be?”

“Are you really asking me to take a guess as to who might have such brass balls or an insane enough mind?” Eugene asked doubtfully.

“Well, that’s fair. So, could it actually be some demonfolk from Helmuth? Or perhaps a black wizard…? Hmmm, it might even be the tribespeople of Samar or perhaps the Assassins of Nahama? You’re familiar with them, right? The relationship between Kiehl and Nahama isn’t all that great currently,” Hector commented.

“Hmmm, any of them might have done this, but… they’re not the ones responsible,” Eugene declared firmly.

“They’re not?” Hector repeated in surprise. “Then who do you think it could be?”

“It’s you,” Eugene stated simply.

What did he say just now? Hector wasn’t able to understand what Eugene meant by the words he had just spat out. It had come far too suddenly, the sentence was too short, and the moment that he heard those words—

An explosion went off beneath Hector’s feet. Instead of Eugene’s words, Hector chose to prioritize his reaction to the explosion. He immediately leaped into the air as he raised an aurashield.

At some point, Eugene had turned around and was now looking up at Hector, and that gaze of his….

Belatedly comprehending the meaning of Eugene’s words, Hector swallowed a bitter smile. Those two eyes were as dark and cold as a block of ice. Eugene’s actions showed absolute certainty without even a speck of indecision, and the look in his eyes declared that instead of talking and coming to an understanding, he intended to force Hector to surrender before getting his answers.

“...Fine then,” Hector said as he somersaulted backward with a smile.

It’s not like he hated the idea of having a conversation with Eugene. When there were interesting topics and entertaining personalities, conversations with such people were always fun.

If this was a cafe or a pub, he would have enjoyed sitting down to have a conversation. But probably, from now on, he would never get the chance to have such a talk with Eugene in a public place for the rest of his life. Hector felt a slight sense of disappointment at this fact.

‘That just means my interest in him was sincere,’

Hector thought with a mental shrug.

Fwooosh.

A bright red, flame-like mana wrapped around Hector’s body.

“Before we start, I just want to ask… how did you know?” Hector asked curiously. “I shouldn’t have revealed any hostility or murderous intent.”

“The smell,” Eugene replied. “There was a smell of metal polish mixed in with the smell of your blood.”

“With just that?”

“That was enough. The smell of that polish is something that I smell at the main estate every day.”

No way.

Hector squeezed out a smile as he looked down at his own hands. He still had the wounds from grabbing Cyan’s sword. He had already stopped bleeding, but… the smell of metal polish? Hector was also quite confident in the sharpness of his senses, but even he couldn’t distinguish the smell of polish when mixed in with the smell of his own blood.

“Really now… and I thought I had cleaned it up quite well,” Hector said regretfully.

“Don’t treat the main family like fools,” Eugene said as he wagged his finger at Hector. “The Lionheart clan as a whole is a martial clan, and the main family stands at the center of it. Even the oil used to polish our weapons is of the highest quality, and the scent blended into it cannot be erased without using a custom-made cleaning agent.”

This was specially designed so they could chase after wounded and fleeing prey or in preparation for the dangers of assassination. Therefore, the members of the main family were made to memorize that scent when they began their training.

Hector eventually asked Eugene, “...Is that all you have to say? Shouldn’t there be many things that you want to ask me? Like, who did I betray you to and why…?”

Crackle.

“It’s fine,” Eugene said as an electric current surged across his fingertips. “Because I’ll make sure to ask you all that once I’ve left you half-dead.”

His mana flashed.

Crackoom!

A jagged ray of light shot through where Hector had been standing. But what in the world was it? A spell? Although Hector had succeeded in quickly avoiding it, seeing such an attack for the first time left his head in some confusion.

‘Casting a spell without any incantation…. No, was that really a spell? It felt more like he turned his mana into sword-force and just shot it out?’

But then, how could it be so fast and strong? In any case, he couldn’t risk a direct hit. Finishing his deliberations, Hector made his move. Both hands fell to his waist, and each drew a sword.

‘Two-sword style,’ Eugene noted with surprise.

There was no comparison between wielding a sword in one hand and wielding two swords, one in each hand. Even for a swordsman with exceptional skill, it was impossible to skillfully handle two swords without any experience.

Although such a style couldn’t be handled without a certain level of skill and talent, if practiced well, it was a difficult style for the opponent to deal with, as it made the opponent feel like they were facing dozens or even hundreds of swords instead of just the two.

‘The lengths are different,’ Eugene noticed.

The sword in Hector’s right hand was half as long as his body, while the sword in his left hand was much shorter than that. For his weapons to be out of balance….

Eugene’s lips twitched as he realized, ‘That means he thinks he can play at whatever distance he likes, egoistic bastard.’

Who exactly did he think his opponent was?

Eugene’s body surged forward. As if waiting for this, Hector responded by swinging both his swords.

Drawn from Eugene’s cloak, Wynnyd burst forward in a silver flash of light.

Tchang!

On collision, both mana and wind were sent flying. Hector’s feet edged forward as he swung the sword in his left hand. At this distance, a longer sword wasn’t ideal, but his shorter, dagger-like sword could be used with ease.

“Hoh,” Hector gasped, and his eyes widened.

His attack was blocked. Before he knew it, Eugene was also holding a sword in his left hand.

This had turned into a match of the two-sword style versus the two-sword style.

“How interesting,” Hector muttered as he raised his arms.

As Hector’s swords frantically attacked in wave after wave, Eugene refused to back down. His eyes were peeled wide open as he read the paths of Hector’s swords. A lot of fake moves were mixed into his attacks, but it was useless. It was far too easy for Eugene to tell which of them were fake and which were real.

‘...This is unbelievable,’ Hector couldn’t help thinking.

Hector’s swords kept getting blocked. No matter where they flew, Eugene’s swords were already there, waiting for them, so each of his attacks was cut off mid-swing. If he tried to change their trajectory, he would just be met with a counterattack. So he was forced to alternate between attack and counterattack. The fight was out of Hector’s control. Though he had only been forced to divert his swords a few times, this meant that Eugene was completely leading Hector’s swords by the nose.

‘There’s this much of a gap between us?’ Hector thought with surprise.

He had expected Eugene to be a tough opponent, but he hadn’t really thought that Eugene would be this strong. He had thought that, as long as Eugene had his guard down, it would be possible to subdue him and that it would be even easier to just kill him, but….

‘My preparations weren’t thorough enough,’ Hector admitted. ‘Even killing him would be difficult.’

The moment that he realized this, Hector switched his attacks. Since he now knew that it would be difficult to kill Eugene even if he wanted to and was determined to do so, there was no longer any need to swing his swords with the intent of subduing Eugene.

His swords grew even faster, sharper, and more lethal. This was a feat well worth admiring. Even in Eugene’s previous life, he had never seen another swordsman able to demonstrate the two-sword style so skillfully.

But to a certain extent, this was just because the two-sword style wasn’t a mainstream fighting style. What if Hector’s specialty wasn’t the two-sword style?

‘He is pretty strong,’ Eugene admitted.

He might have struggled with Hector if it had been just a few months ago. However, now, there was no reason for him to struggle. In terms of technical proficiency? Comparing them would just be an insult to Eugene. Even three hundred years ago, Eugene — no, Hamel’s skills could only be compared to Vermouth’s. As for experience and cunning? The same went for those as well.

As of now, Eugene still couldn’t use all of Hamel’s abilities. The White Flame Formula was certainly an excellent mana training scripture, but if he was asked to reproduce the strength of his previous life with just the Fifth Star of the White Flame Formula… in all honesty, that would just hurt his pride.

However, now that his White Flame Formula had reached the Fifth Star, his strength had at least increased significantly compared to when he had only reached the Fourth Star. For an opponent of Hector’s strength, he didn’t even need to use Ignition.

There was a whole class of difference between them. Hector quickly recognized this. He wasn’t able to get an edge in terms of skills. Nor was he able to get ahead by using force.

‘...It can’t be helped,’ Hector resigned himself.

Though Hector hadn’t wanted to get any help, since he had realized that he wouldn’t be able to subdue Eugene by himself, Hector resigned himself to doing so. He took a deep breath as he let go of the sword in his left hand.

Kiiiing!

Having left Hector’s hand, the sword was engulfed in a bright red flame. Then, as if it had been enchanted with a spell, the sword moved on its own and shot at Eugene.

Through precise manipulation of his mana, Hector was able to move the sword without touching it. From Eugene’s point of view, this was just a petty technique that wasn’t particularly useful for anything except stabbing a target. Instead of doing that hit, it would be much faster and stronger to just personally wield the sword with your own hands.

Like this….

Claaang!

Wynnyd shattered the short sword, and the mana contained within it erupted in a dazzling burst of light. Hoping that Eugene’s eyes would be blinded for a few moments, Hector quickly ran back.

Fwooosh!

With a gust of wind, Eugene’s body rose into the sky. Sensing this happening behind him, Hector clicked his tongue and lowered his body further.

Eugene glared at Hector, who was running away, leaving a trail of bright red sparks behind him.

Crackle!

Lighting-flames spread out from Eugene as he pulled Akasha out of his cloak. At the same time, he went through the countless spells that filled his head and picked one.

[Aeroblast.]

From inside the cloak, Mer mouthed the name of the spell. At the same time, Eugene’s hand stretched forward, completing the spell's casting. The spell then combined with the winds raised by the Wind Spirit King, Tempest.

Aeroblast was a Sixth Circle offensive spell. However, its current power far exceeded the bounds of the Sixth Circle.

Kwaaaang!

Compressed air and wind burst forth in a single direction. Hector swung a blade or, more precisely, bright red sword-force to try and shatter the spell, but the power of the spell far exceeded his imagination.

Rooooar!

The darkness shook. Hector was thrown a long way backward, where he struggled to focus his dizzy head.

‘...No way… even an offensive spell of this level, he can cast it without any incantation…?’

Hector had put up a defense. However, his whole body still felt numb, as if he had been electrocuted. Was it because that was a wind-type attack spell?

…No way. Hector let out a snort as he reached for his neck.

“So you have an artifact.” His cloak billowing in the wind, Eugene looked down on Hector from on high as he held Akasha forward and said, “There are two dispel-type spells, three counter spells, five buffing spells, and… is that seven defensive spells? Quite excessive.”

To think that Hector’s artifact had been enchanted with seventeen different spells. That made it a treasure that couldn’t be bought even with billions of sals.

“You didn’t have it with you when I saw you last time… it looks like that was your trump card?” Eugene speculated.

“It’s a lifeline that has saved me time and time again,” Hector admitted.

“I’m afraid that this is the last time it will save you,” Eugene muttered as he concentrated his mana on Akasha.

Crackle… Craaaackle…!

Lightning-flames also gathered around it.

…Hector realized that it hadn’t just been an illusion. Eugene Lionheart’s mana was indeed infused with lightning. But how could that possibly be? Hector wondered as he struggled to raise his sluggish body.

“...I shouldn’t have come here,” Hector sighed.

Releasing a deep sigh, Hector glanced down at the sword in his right hand. In the aftermath of the collision with that spell just now, the sword was in complete ruins.

At that moment, Eugene’s spell came flying at him. Dozens of beams of light pierced through the air. The name of this spell was the Space-Piercing Ray-Beams. By piercing a hole through space, this spell could hide the trajectory of its beams.

Bam bam bam bam!

Hector’s feet slid backward as he swung his shattered sword. Any beams that couldn’t be blocked were left up to his necklace’s defenses. He just needed to avoid any direct hits for now. As he focussed on his defense, Hector continued to draw backward.

It was difficult to deal with the beams of light tearing through space, but it wasn’t unmanageable.

However, once Eugene also intervened, the situation became terrifying. While weaving through the light beams, Eugene thrust his sword at Hector. All Hector could do was desperately avoid any fatal wounds, even as he became covered in blood.

[How is it?]

Hector heard this voice inside of his head. Without revealing any emotions through his facial expressions, Hector focused on the bracelet he wore on his left wrist.

‘I’m about to die,’ Hector reported. ‘I didn’t know that he’d be this strong. Instead of a twenty-year-old, it’s like I’m fighting with a master who’s been training for two hundred years.’

[I told you so. When he sparred with Genos Lionheart, he had the upper hand in terms of technique.]

‘Who the hell would actually believe that? It was only reasonable to think that Lord Genos had taken it easy on his junior…,’ Hector protested.

[Hm, you’re lying, aren’t you? There’s no way that you would have such a misunderstanding, right? You probably just became interested in his strength and wanted to try fighting him once.]

‘Yes, you’re right. I made a mistake,’ Hector readily conceded. ‘So, would you mind helping me out a bit? If things go on like this, I will die here.’

[Take six steps to your left. Then take nine steps back.]

‘...And after that?’ Hector prompted.

[Just wait there. Not a step backward or to either side. Make sure to stay on that spot.]

Hector quickly followed the instructions. Since he kept getting pushed back anyway, there wasn’t any problem in moving a bit to the left. Soon he was at the designated spot, but Hector still didn’t know what purpose this served.

[Now then… hmmm… count to ten inside your head and jump.]

It wasn’t easy for Hector to follow such instructions. In the face of all the attacks that Eugene was launching at him from the front, he needed to stand his ground without taking a step back.

Hector despaired. ‘I’m going to die….’

1, 2….

‘How exquisite.’ Hector still had time to admire Eugene’s skills. ‘Even in the White Fangs, it’s rare to find someone who can use a sword as well as he can….’

5, 6….

‘No, it’s not just rare. There isn’t anyone like him. There are a few whose swords are as fast and as heavy, but none are as exquisite. It’s like he’s reading what I’m thinking… or maybe even further ahead. Just how is he doing this?’ Hector thought plaintively.

8, 9….

Hector immediately jumped backward. Eugene raised his head to follow Hector’s movements.

Below him, the ground was stained black.

[Sir Eugene?] Mer called out, her voice sounding terrified.

Eugene’s hair stood on end.

“You son of a bitch,” Eugene spat out a curse as he almost went berserk with rage and killing intent.

Black spikes sprouted up from below.