Chapter 196. Engagement – The Unskilled Woman
His blood boiled.
The moment Lena got kicked and Deros’ sword fell upon her leg, sparks flew in Leo’s eyes.
Katrina. What to do with this woman? ─ The dilemma vanished as quickly as a water droplet in a boiling pot.
– Vrooom!
Leo swung his sword with all his might. His bulging veins popped out like earthworms in summer, and Katrina’s sword, which clashed in the middle, was sent flying helplessly.
Leo spun and released his grip. The sword shot forward, narrowly saving Lena.
Lena’s legs… were safe.
But the heat rushing to his head just wouldn’t diminish. Leo, feeling like he was about to lose his mind, clenched his fists.
“You need to die first.”
– Hiccup.
Deros hiccuped.
Noticing the extreme violence brewing in the knight before him, he raised his sword.
Fearsome though he was, the opponent was barehanded. Deros decided he had to seize the advantage before the formidable knight could grasp his sword and before the fallen semi-knight could get up. He didn’t hesitate and slashed the sword diagonally.
– Whoosh!
It wasn’t the sound of a sword being swung. Startled, Deros pulled his head back.
I had certainly swung my sword just now, but the huge knight extended his arm.
With his left, beefy forearm, he pushed away the falling blade and stepped forward. A massive fist grazed my cheek.
‘This crazy…!’
He deflected a two-handed sword with one arm.
Though he merely altered the blade’s trajectory by pushing the foible (the upper part of the blade), it was an absurd feat.
This meant his arm strength was twice that of my two-handed strike, causing Deros’ confidence from fighting the semi-knight to promptly shrink to a tiny seed.
[Leo, you have blocked the sword of one who has honed their swordsmanship to the limit. For this achievement, you earn {Swordsmanship.3v: Bart Style}.]
[Achievement: Knight ‘24’ Men – You become stronger when facing knights. min(1)]
[Achievement: Expert – Leo’s physique becomes stronger.]
“Monster…”
Before he could fully murmur the words, a kick came flying. Trying to kick away the descending sword, Deros quickly stepped back to escape the radius.
“Le, Leo.”
“Are you okay? Just hang on a bit.”
But that was a mistake. While Deros retreated, Leo reclaimed his sword embedded in the ground. Despite the blade being buried nearly to the hilt, he pulled it out effortlessly.
Just then, Katrina retrieved her scattered sword and shouted.
“What are you standing there for? Attack!”
“Y-yes!”
The senior and junior knights charged in tandem. Leo clicked his tongue and first lunged his sword at Deros with thunderous force.
– Clash-!
I just need to hold the position. If I had withstood a single strike, the senior would have hit that guy’s back.
But Deros couldn’t even endure that single blow. Though he blocked with a horizontal sword, he was forced to his knees, and his displaced blade struck his shoulder. His clavicle felt like it was breaking from the pain.
“Die!”
Katrina aimed for Leo’s back. Yet, without looking, Leo spun around.
He parried Katrina’s sword and kicked Deros in the face.
“Agh!”
Kicked in the face, Deros toppled backward.
While Deros stood up to rejoin the fight, after exchanging a few blows with Leo, Katrina sensed something odd.
This monster with incredible strength and unbeatable sword skills…
‘Is holding back?’
He only parried or blocked my strikes without launching any significant attack.
Annoyed, Katrina decided to test her theory.
“Hyup!”
Taking a short breath, Katrina charged forward. She thrust her sword with all her might in a straight line, knowing he would dodge if he wasn’t holding back. He would evade and counterattack.
– Clash!
Katrina’s suspicion was confirmed. He parried her thrust, exchanging blows evenly.
“You bastard…!”
She cursed but realized that without him showing some vulnerability, there was no chance of winning. Might as well regret after I’m dead!
Grinding her teeth in anger, Katrina swung her sword wildly. She performed a magnificent spinning attack, and as her strike met resistance, she leaped back, kicking his jaw. Yet, this infuriating man neither got hit nor countered.
“Senior!”
Deros joined back in.
Focusing on defense, he tried to find an opening in Leo’s stance while Katrina attacked recklessly.
On the surface, it seemed as though Leo was being overwhelmed. Lena, who had been catching her breath, gripped her sword again to help him…
“Lena! Stay back, I don’t need you!”
His harsh words made her flinch. She gripped her sword timidly, neither moving forward nor returning to her place.
She understood he was short with words because of the dire situation. Leo, who was always kind to her, wouldn’t say that unless he didn’t actually need her.
He was probably just… worried about her.
However, her chest felt tight. It rustled as if it were filled with broken stones, making Lena clutch her chest. Only then could she breathe properly.
The iridescent world is collapsing. The realization that she could not be of any help to her betrothed in danger, and the ensuing helplessness, sought to take the color from Lena’s eyes.
“Huh.”
Lena, who was panting heavily, bit her tongue. She felt that if she retreated now, she would never be able to turn back, so she rushed at the red-haired female knight.
“Lena! Get back…!”
“Don’t tell me what to do! Please!”
Katrina’s eyes flashed.
It was well-timed. With the intention of piercing through both overlapping figures, she thrust her sword.
– Thud!
But a sword fell like a thunderbolt and struck her head.
The flat side of the blade hit between Katrina’s eyebrows, and Leo, embracing Lena’s waist from behind, tumbled down. Katrina’s sword slightly grazed Leo’s side.
“Die!”
“Deros! No!”
Did he think he had found an opportunity, or was he urgent, thinking his senior was dead? Deros leapt up. Shaking her dizzy head, Katrina shouted, but it was too late.
“Kuh…”
The fallen giant knight thrust his sword.
The sword pierced Deros’ solar plexus, and the sword Deros was about to strike fell from his grip and spun away.
“Deros!”
“Senior… you…”
With blurred vision, Deros collapsed. As he fell onto a junior knight in front of him, thud! Leo Dexter kicked him in the head.
“You, you damn bastard!”
Katrina, her eyes turned upside down, screamed and charged. Her head throbbed from the hit, but the rage numbed the pain.
Leo yanked on Lena’s waist as she tried to rise. Standing her back up, clang! blocked Katrina’s sword.
The moment the swords clashed, he twisted his wrist ‘again’. Moving his arm shallowly, he caused a crack in his opponent’s sword.
Weapon Destruction Technique.
It was the swordsmanship of Count Jocobe Modred. Utilizing the ability of {Swordsmanship.4v: Jocobe Style}, Leo had been injecting shock into Katrina’s weapon, and the result arrived with a crunching sound of a fracture.
Katrina blankly stared at her broken sword. Splinters had made cuts on her face, but she had no time to care.
‘…Deros, I’m sorry. I guess this is the end for me too.’
Thinking her neck would be sliced off soon, Katrina awaited her impending death. Closing her eyes, various scenes of her life flashed before her… but death did not come.
“Lena, are you okay?”
When she opened her eyes, the giant knight was looking after his subordinate.
“…What are you doing?”
She asked, but the knight did not turn around. Feeling ignored, Katrina trembled and yelled.
“Kill me! I lost, so kill me! What kind of nonsense is this?!”
The knight looked back at her only then. After hesitating for a while, he blurted out something nonsensical.
“…I’ll spare you. Recover the body of that knight and leave.”
This was the first time she faced such humiliation.
Even when she was demoted and transferred to the 3rd Knight Order for mistakenly recommending an unknown traitor named ‘Noel’ as a Royal Guard Knight, it wasn’t as humiliating. She blamed her eyes for misjudging a person.
“I am a knight! If you are a knight, kill me! Uphold my honor as a fellow knight!”
Katrina shouted indignantly. It was a legitimate right for a defeated knight to demand from an enemy, but the opponent did not seem inclined to comply. Reading the mixed feelings in her eyes, Katrina had a ridiculous thought for a moment.
“Why? You killed Deros, so why spare me? Is it because… I’m a woman?”
No response. Katrina’s blood boiled.
– Thud!
Katrina threw away the sword handle. Picking up Deros’ fallen sword, she began to attack Leo indiscriminately.
However, infuriatingly, none of her attacks connected. Mixing in feints was futile, and even disregarding defense didn’t provoke him to aim for her life. Calmly, he only tried to break Deros’ sword.
Realizing she had no means left, Katrina stopped. Trembling with rage, she suddenly pointed at Lena.
“What about her?”
There was a reaction. Recalling that this knight had been taking care of that junior knight since earlier, she sneered.
“Is she just a woman you keep around for sexual pleasure?”
“What, what did you say?!”
“She’s only about that skill level. Follows you everywhere, spreads her legs when told to. Must keep you entertained during breaks. Oh, come to think of it, Deros approached the bushes earlier, and she didn’t notice. Were you in the midst of a session and got interrupted?”
“Shut that mouth!”
Leo Dexter’s face contorted horribly.
Earlier, Lena had been expressing her concerns. She had been questioning Leo, finding it difficult to understand the swordsmanship movements he exhibited while fighting knights, and it was due to his ability {Swordsmanship.5v: Forte Style}.
A sword technique that hides its signs.
Lena couldn’t identify Leo’s movements. His every motion was cleverly concealed, and no matter how keen Lena’s eye for recognizing others’ swordsmanship was, there was a considerable gap between them.
Thus, Lena had been struggling all alone, with nothing to reference. She had been puzzled as to why her growth was so slow this time around, and the reason lay with Leo himself.
