Only the Party Members Returned, Not the Hero

22. The Unforgiving Saint (6)

22.

The training ground of the Erantel Knights was vast.

It was far more solid than the meadows or mountain ridges Ellen used to go through, and there was a magic barrier that was maintained at a constant temperature and had an uneven floor.

It was so well maintained that I wondered if it would be okay to train in a place like this.

And the knights sitting huddled together watching Dalian.

Looking at it like this, the dignified Knights of Erantel also looked pretty cute.

The skills may not be very cute, but it seemed like that anyway.

“Mmm.”

My sparring with Darhan was supposed to be an irregular sparring.

Truly unruly sparring in which no foul rules exist, fighting each other as if life and death were really risking it.

Commonly known as dogfighting.

It was also a sparring in a way that was possible because it was the Erantera Temple where the priests of the temple were lined up. Just don’t let it die.

Unruly sparring in the absence of a priest was no different from risking one’s life.

So you’ve been avoiding it?

I didn’t avoid it.

It’s a matter of life and death, it’s nabal, and winning is enough.

Rolling on the floor, playing dead, biting, stabbing in the eye, that’s enough to win.

I was confident in winning, and it was the same when I entered the academy for warriors.

Then, if you ask me if I can still win.

Actually, I don’t know.

“You have waited a long time, hero.”

“Yes.”

After answering Darhan’s greetings insincerely, I looked at the leader of the Erantel Knights standing in front of me with an unfamiliar look.

Rayhandro and EL, who had come down before they knew it, were also sitting in their respective seats.

How long has it been since you graduated from the hero school?

It was almost impossible to know how long it would take to fight a battle where swords collided with swords and fists and flesh exploded. So I’m not sure. Can i beat this guy

It was only then that Darhan, who came out wearing heavy combat armor, rather than the fancy ceremonial armor he had just before, looked a bit like a knight.

“It feels a bit like an article now. Just before, you were so shiny, I thought you were some kind of clown.”

Darhan shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Darhan did not want to listen to Ellen very much, as he had suffered provocations from weaklings who had no confidence in his skills.

A dog barks, but the sun rises.

To Darhan, he was the sun, and Ellen was the dog.

In common sense, the difference between a novice warrior who had never practiced sparring after graduating from a warrior school and Darhan, the commander of the Knights of Erantel, who had been wielding his sword without resting even a day since he was born, was obvious.

Aside from Darhan, all the knights and Raihandro also thought so.

“I’ll say it again, it’s an irregular sparring,”

“Yes. I know.”

“The vice-captain flicks a coin into the sky, and it starts when the coin touches the floor.”

“Yes, let’s do it.”

Ting- twirling.

The coin flew into the sky.

Tok, do it.

Falled on the training ground.

Dar Han slashed Ellen’s model in half from his head to his groin with the greatsword he was holding in each hand.

Kaang-

Cheat-

Iron meets iron, and the creepy metal scraping sound echoes in the training hall.

The whitish reverberation of the blue mana that rises temporarily blocks the sight of the people around you.

Darhan looked at his sword.

His own blade was caught in Ellen’s grasp, and even though the sharp blade, apparently well-forged, was crushing the soft flesh at the mouth of his hand, it made only a screeching sound without a scratch.

Obviously, the feeling felt in Darhan’s hand was iron.

Or, it was something hard like iron.

Percussion-

Darhan quickly drew back his sword.

And then he grinned, showing his teeth.

“You, you fox-like bastard.”

Only then did the reverberation of the magical power dissipate, and in the eyes of the spectators, it appeared that the two men crossed swords and distanced themselves from each other again.

Because I never imagined that sharp resonant sound was the contact between flesh and sword.

But Darhan was able to laugh.

There are often these guys.

Because he can’t win, he takes advantage of the fact that Dalian’s first attack is a search battle and shows eccentricity by raising all available mana from the beginning.

Just like now, blocking the sword with bare hands, or deflecting attacks with only the mana wrapped around the body without blocking.

In that way, bringing the opponent’s will to fight and public opinion to end the fight.

Darhan has killed a few bastards who engage in sparring in such a cowardly way.

Darhan was convinced that Ellen was of the same type.

Just now, I could clearly feel the mana draining from his grasp.

“You make me look like an idiot. Do I look like the kind of person who would be surprised by that hand joke and bow down and back down?”

Golden light gathers on Darhan’s sword.

The mana of the leader of the Knights of Erantel, which some call holy power.

Creates a sharp shield by surrounding the sword with brilliant light.

You can hold a sword with mana, but you cannot hold a sword shield with mana.

If Ellen, with her meager mana, tried to bluff like before, she would get her wrists and shoulder blades neatly cut off.

It must have been fun to watch a warrior with one arm missing, bleeding and being crushed like a worm on the floor.

“Try to block it again, you bastard.”

Closing the distance quickly, which can be described as disappearing from view for a while.

Darhan’s golden sword started cutting through Ellen’s body, spreading a halo of light in all directions.

As Darhan expected, Ellen didn’t block this attack and was busy avoiding it.

You stupid bastard.

Unruly Dalian didn’t allow an attack that instantly killed the opponent, but it was different if it was a half-ass. There were also a few knights a year who were crippled in irregular Dalian and then wrapped in unfortunate accidents.

Think of Ellen’s body lying on a hospital bed in the temple.

Yes, I’m glad you accepted the irregular sparring as well.

“Why damage? Can’t you stop it?”

As if Ellen was managing her expression, she avoided his sword with an expressionless expression throughout.

The distance between the trail of the sword and Ellen’s model was getting closer.

She seemed to be able to bell if she went a little further.

The wind that was cut by the sword and the light of the holy power shook my vision in a dizzying way.

Most of the spectators stood in a daze and had to open their eyes to catch even a little bit of the sparring between the two, and only EL, Raihandro, and a few good knights stared at the arena with nervous expressions.

***

At first I.

I was looking at Darhan’s blade as it descended vertically toward my head.

It wasn’t slow. It was obviously fast. Probably to the extent that it can’t even respond to more than eight arms of the continent.

But it seemed too monotonous.

When I was training alone in a crappy meadow and a mountain ridge, I used my hallucinations to act as an expeditionary force for four people by myself, and as my skills improved, the virtual enemies attacking me also improved. All.

So, four in total.

As Darhan’s sword came close to my head, four paths to kill him were drawn in his mind.

Twice with sword, twice with magic.

At the time I thought about that, I really thought that the blade might damage my hair, so I raised one hand and grabbed it.

I thought I could catch it, so I caught it.

The mana that was flowing through my body like everyday life formed a transparent film on her grip and blocked the rush of the iron.

With an inaudible metal sound.

Darhan’s eyes widened slowly as if surprised at first, then the tendon near his chin protruded as if he had clenched his teeth, and he stretched out his lips to laugh and curse at me.

What is so impatient with that person?

In order to survive death, the most necessary thing, paradoxically, is an attitude of acceptance.

Accept the situation and grasp it with a calm mind.

Darhan, who was saying something, started running towards me again.

Still not slow at all. It came pretty quickly, and used a quick quicksword.

I frowned. My eyes hurt.

My eyes hurt because the light source of divine power continued to flow behind the trail of the sword.

She couldn’t properly store her mana, so she could only use it in a way to add a little bit of her momentum, and it flowed like that.

The person I wished to be born knowing how to feel mana is connected to my heart.

You should think about saving money.

“Why damage? Can’t you stop it?”

Why should I block it?

His trajectory was monotonous and began to look like a painting to the eye.

The past sword path and the future sword path.

Even when his wrists were tricked and mixed with anomalies, he dodged the sword with more and more minimal movements.

Then he laughed.

As if he thought he would be able to cut it soon, hope could be seen in his wide-opened and dilated pupils.

…… Ellen.

I felt like I could hear EL’s voice from afar.

His sword strikes straight down again, and I put one arm on his path.

Darhan’s eyes shine. He never intends to stop the sword, and if the sword cuts past the way Darhan thinks, I’ll have to spend quite some time trying to restore the amputated arm.

Yes, you are thinking about that.

Kwaaang-

A wave of blue mana and golden light crashes between my wrist and his sword.