Chapter 30

Chapter 30 It’s coming.

There was quite a distance between Leonard and the red troll. The cave itself was very wide, and the troll seemed to know its own strengths as it did not approach any closer. Despite being covered all over with wounds, it was still a True Demon Tier monster. It was a monster that could only be dealt with by an Apex Realm expert.

The ground shook. A clod of dirt rose just like before, and it swept past Leonard with a strong enough force that it felt as if he would be crushed. The attack was slow, but the range was far, and the weight contained in the attack was outrageously heavy. It would be meaningless to cut it with sword energy. The surging dirt would flow according to inertia and crush Leonard to death.

Leonard greatly accelerated in a single step, crossing the distance little by little. Sword energy was his only means of attack because he had yet to break through to the External Force Tier. He could also see that defeating the monster would only be possible when it was within the attacking range of his blade.

Leonard squinted, pondering how to win.

Hmm, you shrewd bastard. You blocked my escape route first.

Sure enough, it was as if Leonard had guessed correctly. The troll smiled eerily as its eyes crossed paths with Leonard’s. The troll’s previous attack of hitting him with a clod of dirt was actually to create a barricade in front of the new passageway behind Leonard. Now, Leonard could only survive by defeating the troll.

“You foolish bastard, who said I was planning to run away?”

From the very beginning, escape was not an option in Leonard’s mind. It was either fight or not fight. The moment he chose between the two options, he would devote his all to carrying it through to the end. That was the life of a martial artist.

At the red troll’s roar, a pile of dirt rose again, but the attack method was nothing like before. It didn’t surge forth like a wave, but rather, the dirt clumped into small beads, making each bead as sturdy as stone. For creatures without a robust body like the lycanthrope, it would be fatal if they were hit just once by these fast-moving beads.

Despite it being the same strategy No. 1 had used, which Leonard had faced in the training facility, the quantity and firepower was several tens of times greater.

It’s playing dirty just like those of the Tang Clan, huh...!

The red troll reminded Leonard of the first time the Needle Rainstorm had rained down on him, and it filled him with intense bloodlust. He was well aware that there were no noble or vulgar types of martial arts, but it was inevitable for him to feel anger because it was a bad memory much like an ill-fated relationship. Since that day, he made sure to at least cut off the hands of anyone who used hidden weapons, even if he decided not to kill them.

Raining down like a shower, the dirt beads brushed past Leonard and embedded themselves deeply into the ground. They possessed the force to push back a Tenth Degree Body Refining knight, and they were powerful enough to break the knight’s bones if they struck repeatedly. Dozens of beads flew out each second. This volley could easily wipe out hundreds of ordinary soldiers. However, Leonard was neither an ordinary nor plain soldier.

Five Elements and Six Divinities Arts

Lunar Turtleback Art

Water Current Step

Leonard moved smoothly like the flow of water and dodged the rain of dirt beads without letting a bead graze him. The volley wasn’t even a rain of arrows released in an orderly manner, but a shower of dirt beads thrown out clumsily. He would lose face as the Sword Emperor if he was hit by something so ungainly.

The Black Tortoise was regarded as the strongest among the Four Symbols in terms of protective arts, and Leonard, who defended himself by using these arts skillfully, was now only a few distance away from the red troll.

“Guwakk! Guwawawak!” the troll shouted. Its warcry sounded like a spell, and its tattoos, as if responding, shone brightly.

The flow of mana fluctuated. The moment Leonard sensed it, he bent to the left.

Immediately, a wave of flames—no, an eagle of flames—surged toward him, melting the ground where he stood. The ground turned into lava due to the absurd heat, and an eagle was flapping its wings calmly. Leonard did not know much about magic or spiritual arts, but he could tell that the troll had summoned the flame eagle.

The Mount Mao Sect’s ascetics were limited to only being able to shoot out small balls of fire, but in this world, can something that isn’t even human use a similar power on a much stronger level?

Though the flame eagle was still bothersome, Leonard found it interesting. It was weaker than him and had to be dealt with, but it made the fight with the troll refreshing. An experience like this would help him reach greater heights. As always, what he had to do was already decided from the start.

“I’ll cut it down.”

Leonard glared at the flame eagle. If it were simply a mass of fire, it would be meaningless to try cutting it down, but that eagle was a creature that the red troll summoned with a wicked desire. This wicked desire existed within the eagle’s fireball-like body, and if Leonard cut it down, he would be able to disperse not just the eagle’s strength but also its form.

Five Elements Sword Qi

Nether Blade

The lightning sparks hovering around his sword dissipated. To cut down the flame eagle, the Nether Blade was more suitable than the Lightning Blade.

The Black Tortoise of the North, one of the Four Symbols, governed water and had the ability to guide the dead. The Nether Blade held the very power of the netherworld, and that was why the water-attributed blade of the Five Elements Sword Qi was called Nether Blade.

When Leonard’s sword turned dark, the flame eagle quickly flew straight down from mid-air.

If I am even half a beat slow, I’ll die.

The mass of fire shimmered every moment, and it was impossible to see it clearly because of the heat haze. If Leonard failed to cut the red troll’s wicked desire, the flame eagle would hit him directly, burning him to death and turning him into a lump of charcoal. It was a feeling of death that he had felt once before when he was fighting with the King of Fire. The feeling of danger from his nostalgia kept his senses sharper.

Five Elements Style

Black Tortoise Third Form: Ending Massacre of the North Gate

The 36 Black Tortoise Defensive Forms was by no means only focused on defense from the beginning to the end. The defensive art allowed one to be like the Black Tortoise, who hid in its impenetrable shell while biting and killing its opponent with its snake-like tail. In other words, Leonard could use the art to hold out until the moment his opponents laid themselves open to attack, which would be his golden opportunity to deliver his critical counterattack.

A ray of black light split the flame eagle in half as it was flying toward Leonard from the front. Originally, it would have been impossible to cut a mass of fire, but Leonard’s sword split the flame eagle into two, causing it to lose shape and disperse in mid-air.

The red troll had never come across such a situation.

“Guruk? Guwawak?”

Leonard did not miss the moment of opportunity, and he pounced forward.

Five Elements Style

Azure Dragon First Form: Thundershock

Regardless of the type of martial art, all their first forms had something in common: they demonstrated their respective art’s most basic and fundamental principle. The same was true for the Five Elements Style: 36 Azure Dragon Forms. It was all about speed and sharpness.

At some point, Leonard’s Five Elements Sword Qi turned blue and flew like a ray of light toward the red troll, stabbing its neck. As soon as he stabbed the red troll, Leonard leaped back and clicked his tongue.

“Its skin is too thick. I can’t even pierce through it.”

Considering the power of Five Elements Sword Qi, the red troll’s skin was extremely tough. Though Leonard had yet to reach the level of a Peak Realm expert and was nowhere near the Creation Realm, an Apex Realm expert would not be able to match Leonard’s skills when it came to sword qi.

If the sword qi of a First Class expert was considered water vapor, the sword qi of a Peak Realm expert was at the level of water. In the case of an Apex Realm expert, it was comparable to ice. Leonard’s sword energy could be regarded as steel.

“Gurururuk...!? Guruwak!”

Regardless, the strength of Leonard’s sword energy was the last thing the red troll was concerned with. After all, its neck was half-severed, and blood was pouring from it. The red troll glared at Leonard, its eyes filled with bloodlust and fear. It understood that it was at death’s door.

Leonard stayed still and looked at it. Soon, he came to a realization.

“I see, I made a mistake. You had two attributes from the start.”

The wounds left by the lycanthrope had misled Leonard into making the previous speculation. The inside of the red troll’s body possessed the regenerative power and durability of the earth element, but its skin was imbued with the fire element.

In order to properly pierce through the troll’s defense, Leonard would have had to penetrate its skin with water element sword energy and then burrow inside with a wood element sword energy. He had missed the golden opportunity to behead the troll because he had relied too much on the Lightning Blade.

“Let’s do it properly this time. I will finish you off.”

He performed an element shift with the Five Elements Sword Qi. He had to use the Nether Blade when piercing the troll’s skin and then shift to using the Lightning Blade when hacking through its flesh.

It was something that was barely possible after the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk had become an Apex Realm expert, but the current Leonard could pull it off. As soon as he had begun to channel his mana, he was able to significantly stabilize himself thanks to the unification of the five elements.

“Guruk, gururuk...?”

The troll was scared out of its wits, and it took a step back without realizing it. It was scared of someone who looked weaker than it. This feeling was a first for the monster that had adapted to an island where the law of the jungle prevailed.

“With the way you look, you shouldn’t be intimidated. You’re ruining the fun.”

Despite his taunt, Leonard wasn’t in perfect condition either. To avoid the clod of dirt, he had needed to use a highly advanced skill that he could not yet execute properly in his current state. He had even suffered internal injuries from the recoil from failing to cut down the red troll with the Five Elements Sword Qi.

Leonard swallowed down the blood that had risen to the tip of his throat. Despite his condition, he could continue fighting as long as he was alive. All he had to do was kill the troll before it could kill him.

“If I want to survive, I’m going to have to kill you. Likewise, if you want to survive, you have to kill me. Isn’t it simple?”

Yeon Mu-Hyuk’s title back in his youth was the Blood Sword Asura, and there was a good reason why he was known to the people as so. The only joy in Yeon Mu-Hyuk’s life used to be slaying others.

Leonard’s sword had been smeared red with the blood of the troll. His eyes were gleaming with bloodlust, and he was smiling wickedly. The nature of a slaughterer that had been asleep in Leonard was awakened. He was now a vigorous young man instead of the calm old man he used to be.

“Guruk?! Guk! Gururuguk...!?”

Even though it was facing a young man in the Body Refining Tier who was not even fifteen years old, the Rank B3 monster began to harbor thoughts of escaping. However, when the troll realized that it had blocked the cave’s exit, it panicked and swung both hands. In accordance with its movement, a clod of dirt and a fireball floated in the air.

“That’s the spirit! Fight desperately!”

Leonard’s eyes glistened, and he swung his blade, which was dyed in both blue and black. As he shifted between the two types of Five Elements Sword Qi at high speed, Leonard gradually approached the red troll. The clods of dirt that he could not block or dodge inflicted injuries throughout his body, and the fireball, which brushed past him, burned his skin, but he did not pay any heed to the pain.

A bizarre scene unfolded: a fight between a panicked monster driven by its survival instincts and a human who pounced at his opponent to kill it no matter the cost.

Leonard approached the red troll and raised his sword. The red troll’s three-meter-tall physique was like a castle wall.

Five Elements Style

Azure Dragon Second Form: Dragon Soaring Through the Sky

Leonard took a short leap, and his sword soared in a straight line.

Leonard stabbed his sword at the red troll’s chin with the intention of piercing through its head. Still, the True Demon Tier monster did not die with a single attack. The red troll reflexively swung its hand to block the blade. Though Lenoard successfully pierced through its hand, he couldn’t reach its chin. He quickly retracted his sword and proceeded to launch a follow-up attack.

A vortex suddenly manifested underneath his feet. It was a skill aimed to devour any living things standing on it by burying them deep in the ground, just like quicksand in the desert.

Leonard realized what the troll was up to, and he jumped high up by stepping on the troll’s feet and knees. Now that Leonard had seen through the trick the troll was attempting by using so much power, the monster would not be able to stop his next attack.

Leonard resolved to cut down the troll and kill it with a single attack.

The Azure Dragon Form is not strong enough. I need something stronger and heavier.

With a sword that was just sharp, he would only be able to stab the troll’s palm. Leonard needed a stronger attack that could crush the troll’s skull along with its thick hide. There was a sword technique that met the conditions.

Five Elements Style

White Tiger First Form: Mountain Crusher

As an addition to the momentum of falling down, Leonard quickly spun in the air and swung the sword downward. The red troll extended its hand to stop Leonard, but the attempt was unsuccessful this time. Painted black with the Nether Blade, the sword swung down like lightning.

Leonard’s attack fell like a tiger’s claw and hit the red troll’s thick forearm. Leonard pushed down with more power, bluntly cutting through the troll’s thick skin. Just like that, his sword severed one of the troll’s arms and continued to cut straight down from the crown of the trembling troll to the top of its lips.

If Leonard had broken through to the External Force Tier, he would have been able to cut all the way to the troll’s groin, splitting the troll in two perfectly. Leonard was a little disappointed by the incomplete split.

“What on earth!?”

The troll’s tattoos were still flickering even though it had stopped breathing. The enormous mana of a True Demon Tier demonic beast was about to go berserk.

Leonard’s face stiffened, and as a last-minute measure, he kicked the troll and retreated several steps. He swung his sword. He had to block the imploding mana even if he had to use up all his remaining internal energy. There was no time or space for him to avoid the explosion.

In the nick of time, he formed an incomplete Sword Curtain.

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A huge firestorm ran wild inside the cave.