Chapter 45

『Ding! Devil’s hand has lost the last charge of Mana Shield.』

『Ding! You lost 100 units of Aura for activating the Soul Spell, Mana Shield. Charges unlimited!』

Bam!

The shield was quickly destroyed by the dagger, but it did cause a delay to the dagger and slowed it down. This proved immensely helpful to Roy. He smashed his feet on the mana shield below him, using it as a platform to jump over the dagger and land on the ground elegantly like Kung Fu Panda.

At the ridiculousness of this situation, not only was Swift Death’s jaw threatening to drop to the ground but he also forgot to blink.

“I dodged death again, proving you wrong. What do you have to say about that?” Roy tauntingly said to Swift Death.

Swift Death scoffed, “I’ve underestimated you. Able to use both magic and aura, you indeed carry the blood of the Baldwins. You hide plenty of remarkable tricks under your sleeves. I admit. But… you’re mistaken about one thing. You’ll run out of tricks sooner or later. I won’t. I carry the burden of the soul shard of teleportation. Teleportation comes to me as naturally as breathing. I can attack you like this repeatedly. How many times can you summon those shields before you run out of mana? How many times can you dodge my unseen blade?”

At his words, Roy smirked and spoke.

“What if I say your hidden blades are visible to my eyes, that I don’t even need my eyes to dodge them?”

Immediately, as if furious, Swift Death barked out.

“Bullshit!”

Unsurprisingly, Swift Death closed in on Roy in the blink of an eye, only to see a sword with a white surface inching closer and closer to his neck.

‘What the heck?’

Swift Death’s heart did a somersault.

Just as the sword was about to find its mark, Swift Death teleported again.

Roy sensed fluctuations in the energy present in nature just behind him and smiled.

“So… you have chosen to teleport behind me. What a foolish mistake.”

As expected, Swift Death appeared behind Roy. His ferocious eyes were showing all signs of getting rid of Roy. However, it hadn’t even been a second since his arrival when a sword slapped him silly. He fell to the ground, landed on it, and then was stomped like an ant.

“Cough!”

He coughed out blood, his internal energy in a mess.

He looked up, only to see Roy smiling face. “You… how did you determine it?” Swift Death asked, unable to understand how he had determined the spot he would teleport to.

Swift Death had annihilated a small clan of nobles merely months ago. It was made possible thanks to the soul shard of teleportation he had merged with.

Yet, this was now proving to be ineffective against Roy.

His teleportation skill that was super effective against an entire clan couldn’t hold a candle against Roy!

Roy had the sixth sense. The fluctuations of energy in his surroundings couldn’t escape his notice. There would be a fluctuation in the surrounding mana each time Swift Death teleported. That was why he was able to determine where he was going to teleport before he even appeared!

“Let’s see….” Roy was reminded of the stunt this bastard had pulled on him. It was time to get back at him. “What good would knowing that do for you?”

“You…” Swift’s death coughed out a mouthful of blood because of the verbal and physical abuse he had taken from Roy.

Roy felt not at all sympathetic toward this person. “You lost. It’s about time you-”

“Not so fast.” Swift Death teleported 100 meters away, escaping from beneath Roy’s foot.

Roy exhaled irritatedly and looked at Swift Death with a pouty face.

“Do you intend to repeat what just transpired?”

Their eyes met.

“No. This time would be different. This time I won’t be holding anything back.” Swift Death glared daggers at Roy.

Roy felt a bad premonition in his heart like something disastrous was going to happen.

Swift Death’s heart started beating so loudly that Roy could hear his heartbeat.

Whatever he was planning to do was also self-harming.

Blood gushed out of his eyes, nose, and ear.

A hot, metallic scent raised up his throat.

He gnashed his teeth, forcing down the blood in his mouth.

“Stop it, you idiot. You’re killing yourself.” Roy shouted at Swift Death.

He was truly worried for him.

If this bastard died, he would never know who exactly had gone so far as to hire an assassin to kill him.

However, Swift Death ignored his call.

“I can’t stop.”

“We aren’t irredeemable enemies. I haven’t offended you. Yet you’re putting your life on the line to kill me. Why the heck are you going so far?

“Only with you gone can my family survive.” Tears appeared in the assassin’s eyes. Whether it was because of pain or guilt, no one other than him knew. “Forgive me, but you must die!”

A moment after he said that, rays of black light shot out of his chest and enveloped his dagger.

The daggers left his hand, flying to a spot six inches above his death, where they started to multiply in numbers, going from two to ten in a second in the shape of a chinese fan.

Even then, they didn’t stop multiplying.

Like a peacock spreading open its tail, fans made out knives manifested above Swift Death one after another.

Roy shook his head, disappointed.

“It has come to this… huh. I guess… I have no choice but to….”

Roy’s eyes closed, his breathing pattern, posture, and demeanor took a 180 degree turn, and he raised his sword above his head.

Bang!

A loud noise rang out from his body as waves of inner energy surged out of his inner world, and after traveling through his blood vessel, they charged into his sword.

‘What is this? No way… it can’t be Aura!’

Swift Death could see a faint, dark aura gushing out of Roy’s body and vanishing into his sword.

‘This must be a joke, right? Only the Aura of an Aura Master is visible. Not even a Weapon Master can give shape and color to their aura. I must be seeing things.’ Swift Death thought to make himself feel better.

Still, he couldn’t let go of the troubled feeling haunting him.

Roy was up to something, and he definitely didn’t want to find out what.

Thus, he tried to end this fight immediately.

“I am a weapon master. The class I awakened in the Dweller of the night. My weapon name is Asura’s Fan. Consider yourself lucky for you’re the third to witness its might since its birth.”

After saying that, Swift Death pushed his hand forward, and a massive stream made out of hundreds of knives shot toward Roy.

“Swoosh!”

This attack… even a Peak Weapon Master might not take head-on.

“Ninam’s Third Song: Roar of the Sword.”

As Roy said that in a gentle, barely audible whisper, he swung his sword down, and a wave of dark inner energy gushed out from its tip.

In front of the stream of knives, it was like a speck of dust.

Swift Death’s eyes turned funny as if he had witnessed the greatest joke of his life and chuckled, “… This will be eaten away in an instant.”

Following that was a bout of confusion.

“Huh?”

The speck of inner energy magnified as it shot through the air, becoming bigger and bigger and transforming into a gigantic, black arc shaped like a Crescent moon.

From a mere speck, it grew to the size of a mountain and swallowed all the light in the room, allowing only darkness to remain.

“WHIRRRRR!!!!”

The long-awaited roar… The roar that disappeared 200 hundred years… the roar that used to terrify the souls… it had returned to the Far West!!!!