“Captain!!”

“Captain’s here! Get away!”

“It’s the chief! Take distance and encircle! We’ll only be a hindrance up close!”

Just the appearance of the two raised morale among the onlookers.

Callius sneered as he saw the group of nobles who’d been killed, either frozen to death or torn apart.

“Ruen, you okay?”

The opponent’s sword was no different than a vision sword.

It had the absurd power of slowing down the enemy with a single swing, and freezing them at a moment of contact.

Facing that bitter chill, only Callius and Ruen could raise their swords.

“It’s tough, but what’s the use of complaining? I’ll just have to make do.”

“That’s my favourite type of answer.”

As soon as they affirmed their intentions, Gid waved his sword, snarling.

With that single swing came a raging arctic storm.

Boooooooom-!!

“I’ll pierce through it.”

The energy of Other Shore Flower raced along the blade of the Tyrant Sword.

Petals as hard as a dragon’s scale gathered over the blade and pierced the rushing wave.

Claaang!!

The Golden Lion, wielding his Golden Cloak Qi, shot like an arrow through the gap.

“As expected of the Golden Lion of the South! But you’re still just a young cub!”

Along with Gid’s exclamation, his sword swung again.

Craaaaackkkk!

A strike as fast as lightning.

A breath of pure white winter enveloped the Golden Lion.

But immediately –

Screeeech! Crrrraaaaackkkkkk!!

The Golden Lion shattered the ice into chunks and again rushed towards Gid.

“Golden Cloak Sword!”

The body of the Golden Lion was covered with armour.

Like a full body plate.

The Golden Lion’s Golden Cloak Sword.

The art that covered his whole body with sword energy like armour, leaving no gap.

A golden cloak that swayed like a lion’s mane was overlaid on top of that, bestowing incredible defence.

Nobody could ignore the power of the Golden Lion who roamed the battlefields armed with a such a gold-covered sword and armour. The nickname “Golden Lion” was not coined for nothing, so Gid couldn’t hide his startlement.

“No matter how hard it is, once it freezes, it can’t exert any strength!”

Screeeech! It froze.

The body of the Golden Lion, which was frozen from the legs up, gradually stiffened.

He’d shaken off the effect a few times already, but the aftermath of the cold was even stronger than he’d expected.

He tried to strike back with his own sword.

“!”

But even his sword had frozen at some point.

‘When….’

“Kahahaha! Even the Lion of the South can’t stand in front of this masterpiece of mine! Now! It’s time! Give me your head!”

Gid stepped in quickly like a ghost and was about to slash his sword. Claaaaang-!

It was Callius who blocked Gid’s sword.

“Forgot about me?”

“Idiot!”

Craaackle! A chill breath came pouring out of the sword at the point of contact.

However, the moment that white wave surged –

Bang-!

A small explosion blew it away.

Gid’s brows furrowed.

“What did you do?”

“Curious? Come try it again.”

Clang! Claaang!

Within the sword was an Other Shore Flower.

Its power blew away the frigid air.

Although Callius had carelessly taken a hit or two at first, he now knew his opponent was using the attribute of ice.

He wasn’t going to take it lightly anymore.

Claaang!

Once again, the chill dispersed, letting Callius pierce through with his sword, while at the same time he pushed his left hand into subspace to pull out another sword.

The Judgment Sword revealed itself.

Callius would’ve liked to use the Blue Thunderbolt Sword, but there were many eyes all around, so he had no choice but to limit himself to the Tyrant Sword and the Judgment Sword.

The Tyrant Sword in one hand.

The Judgment Sword in the other.

Although it wasn’t as good as Rakan, the Tyrant Sword was by no means a bad one.

The same went for the Judgment Sword.

“Tell me, who’s your backer?”

“What nonsense! I’m doing this for myself!”

“Oh? But my sword doesn’t believe you.”

The blade of the Judgment Sword was dyed black.

When the slash from the Tyrant Sword was blocked, the Judgment Sword had stabbed though at the same time.

Unlike the Tyrant Sword, which was fended off by the chilly wave, the Judgment Sword wasn’t deflected at all.

“!”

It cut through the chill and proceeded towards the enemy’s head.

Screeeeeech!!

The sharpness and strength was at a different level than that of a mere spirit sword.

The Judgment Sword, once dyed black, was comparable to a vision sword in physical parameters.

“What kind of sword is this?”

“The sword that will judge you.”

“Gibberish!”

Another explosion ripped through a wintry blast.

Repelling the chill wind with the power of that explosion, Callius pivoted on his feet, swinging the Tyrant Sword in a rising cut from the bottom.

Accompanied with another cut crosswise, from left to right.

Chaang! Gid lost his balance.

Both his hands were raised high toward the sky, leaving the sides exposed.

Callius leaned forward as he shot past, the Judgment Sword he gripped in reverse coming to bite into Gid’s torso.

Sniiiiiikt!

“Ugh!!”

But unfortunately, the cut was shallow.

Gid had raised his leg to defend his side at the last moment, so Callius could only graze his thigh.

Blood was dripping out, but it quickly froze over and the bleeding stopped.

“The sword looks usable, but the swordsman’s no better than a flea, so there’s no point.”

“Cheeky…!”

The original ability of the Tyrant Sword was gravity.

The gravitational field put pressure over an area. And intensely increased the weight of everything inside it.

Callius had come up with a hypothesis while dealing with the Tyrant Sword.

‘What if I narrowed the range of the gravitational field?’

Let’s say the average range is one metre. What if he compressed it to around fifty centimetres?

The gravitational field was centred on where it cut.

What if he reduced the range as much as possible?

Thooom–

“Ugh! What!”

Naturally, the force of gravity would also increase.

If the enemy’s weight suddenly increased explosively while he was swinging the sword, he’d have no choice but to panic.

And a momentary hesitation on the battlefield would naturally lead to death.

“There’s a limit to how good a nurturer’s swordsmanship can be.”

Callius didn’t miss the opportunity.

Slaaaaash!

“Is it still shallow? You’re good at defence.”

“Damn you!”

Gid received another cut on the side, but it was shallow this time too.

Callius still lacked enough proficiency to activate Other Shore Flower at will.

But it didn’t matter.

As the number of wounds increased, Gid became slower.

And Callius wasn’t alone.

“Ahhhhhh!”

As the last of the ice crystals around him melted, the Golden Lion rushed in like a stampeding chariot.

Claaang! Claang, clang! Craaaackkkk!!

Against an opponent wearing the equivalent of full body plate, Gid couldn’t fully demonstrate his abilities, even though he tried to counterattack again and again.

Although his sword still spread a chilly air, its power was much weaker than before.

“It’ll finish soon.”

Slowly, the end began to approach.

Callius looked at the gap between the pair, then sneaked in and made an opportunistic slash without being overly greedy.

The more cuts piled up, the heavier Gid’s body became.

It was like the Golden Lion taking the tank position, and Callius occasionally dealing the DPS.

The more wounds appeared, the slower Gid moved, and the more gaps he began to show.

Even the icy breath gradually weakened as if limitations to the ability were beginning to appear.

“Y-, you motherfuckers…!”

Gid exclaimed, but Callius and the Golden Lion silently kept up their attacks.

No matter how powerful a sword might be, the wielder’s power was bound to be limited.

For Gid, it was just a pearl necklace on a pig’s neck.

Snikt!

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”

This time there was a good, deep contact.

One of Gid’s arms was spraying blood as it flew through the air.

However, he still had good judgment.

Gid jumped up and grabbed the severed arm, and immediately attached it back to his forearm. With the power of his sword, the wound was instantly frozen.

The pain should’ve made this impossible, but Gid still had strangely quick reflexes, perhaps because of instinct.

Perhaps it had something to do with the sword he was holding.

“Tch.”

Gid began to retreat, gliding over the frozen ground to pick up speed.

He was really quite fast.

“You think I can’t catch you?”

The Golden Lion immediately started chasing, but Callius did not.

He instead grabbed a greatsword from subspace.

Arpen’s heirloom.

Galaximund.

He caught it in a reverse grip and lifted it up.

As his whole body pivoted, the muscles in his arms and shoulders swelled up.

“Haaah…!”

The blade was thrown like a spear towards the distance.

Whoooooosh-!

“This bastard…!”

Boooom!

At Gid tried to block, his balance became off.

And simultaneously, a huge shadow enveloped him.

“Ugh…!”

The Golden Lion, coming at the speed of a freight train.

His sword held with both hands, he sliced through Gid’s body from the shoulder.

“Uuuuuughhh!”

Gid crumpled on the floor, letting out a scream of pain. And when he glared up with bloodshot eyes –

“It’s over.”

In the air, was Callius, the deflected Galaximund now caught in his hands, coming down in a devastating chop.

“Think you can kill me?!”

As Gid swung his sword with the arm he could barely move, sharp shards of ice attacked.

“Easy.”

But Callius didn’t care. Already his whole body had been hardened by Galaximund.

“Th-, this bastard?!”

The raging wintry wave didn’t slow Callius’ sword down at all.

It chopped down.

Claaaang-!!

Gid managed to put up his sword to block, but to no avail.

Callius had already infused Galaximund with Other Shore Flower.

The fierce energy detonated as it pressed down.

A crushing blow that slashed on Gid’s left shoulder and cut through.

“Ugh… !!”

Ripping its way down from the shoulder to the torso.

The light in Gid’s eyes began to fade.

The black blood gushing out of his mouth was hinting that the fight had come to its end.

“I’ll make sure.”

Instead of quietly watching the end of Gid, the Golden Lion approached.

Gid’s neck was neatly cut off with a single stroke of his sword.

The body lost its head and fell to the floor.

“Oooooooohhhh!!”

“I believed in you! Captain!!”

“Boss! I believed in you too!!”

“Shut up, Bruns.”

“Chief! You were great!”

“Are you hurt?”

As soon as the crisis passed, the sixth squad and the knights converged on the area, and congratulated Callius and the Golden Lion on their victory.

Many of them even spat at the corpse on the ground.

“Whew…”

Callius and the Golden Lion both relaxed a little and sat down.

“You hid your power, last time.”

“Spars are different from life-and-death duels, aren’t they?”

It wasn’t like Callius had really hidden his power.

Of course, it wasn’t like he hadn’t grown since then, either. He’d gotten a new realization about the Other Shore Flower. That had helped him use it much more proficiently during this fight.

Besides, since he’d completed the quest, he now had a constitution drawing ticket as a reward…

‘Wait, what?’

A strong sense of uneasiness surged in his heart.

Callius’ eyes widened.

‘Quest complete…’

The notification hadn’t appeared yet.

“Why?”

Quickly, I have to get up –

“Haha! This unlucky bastard caused a big mess so early in the morning! We’ll handle the clean-up, Captain, you get some rest!”

“Dodge!”

The deputy commander of the Golden Lion Knights –

A sword pierced through his chest.

“Ggghhk!! H-, how…”

Thump.

The deputy commander died.

“Vice-Captain!!”

The Golden Lion’s expression turned cold.

“Count. This….”

“What a shit day.”

Headless, his shoulder severed through, the body stood up.

A chill air came out of his skin, and the whole body froze with a clicking sound.

The torn wound on his shoulder was mended with ice, and his body became covered with armour.

Ice armour.

Just like Ruen’s full body armour while using the Golden Cloak Sword.

‘Not good.’

How could a headless corpse rise up? It had to be an effect of the sword.

In addition, imitating the skills of his opponents…

In other words, it had a measure of intelligence.

Callius couldn’t know if this was the sword’s original ability, or the result of its strong desire, but he couldn’t stand by and watch.

There was no guarantee that he could accrue the combat experience he needed in the future.

So he couldn’t let it go.

Never.

“Wow, you guys sure gave a good showing.”

Susurr– Along with a sticky aura, a frivolous tone that didn’t suit the seriousness of the situation flowed out.

Soon, a form rose from the shadows.

“!!”

– Slice.

A slash like black ink.

It was as if a brush dipped in ink was swung around, severing the arm of the icy armour-clad form which held the sword, with one blow.

Whiiiiish.

Thump.

As the shadow grabbed the severed arm on the ground, it began to change.

The black shadow took on colour and turned into a woman with red hair and green pupils.

“It’s too hard. Who knows if my sword got scratched or not.”

She smiled at Callius as she said so.

She put her double swords back in the scabbard.

She was the Gold Swallowing Snake[1], rated as the best of the Five Stars.

Called the Golden Death[2].

A paladin, named Helena.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 금화 문 뱀 (lit. gold coin door snake), being translated as Gold Swallowing Snake.

[2] 금사 (lit. golden thread), being translated as Golden Death (사 = 4 = death).