However, there was a type of grace in highly advanced holy magic above the 7th level. It disregarded the notion that recovery magic with holy power couldn’t completely heal everything.
Davey had three types of power right now: holy power, devil mana, and normal mana. Ironically, the most developed power among the three was holy power; although, it was thanks to using his damn 9th level holy power.
Yulis, who was losing consciousness, slowly looked up at Davey with wide eyes. Feeling a warmth surrounding him, he murmured, “P…Prince Davey?”
“You’re still going to call me by my title?” Davey replied.
“Pardon?”
“Thank you.”
Yulis looked dumbfounded by Davey’s short thank you.
“I don’t forget favors.” Then, Davey slowly pulled out Blue Ribbon with one hand. “Nor do I forget enemies.”
Yulis seemed to be surprised by Davey’s unexpectedly low voice.
* * *
[Even if it’s a single strike, it’s best to hit wherever causes the most damage.]
‘Did you say that you created these skills here?’
[Ah, right. You know that thing that Eva always makes… That thing. A stickman! That gave me inspiration for this.]
It was just shocking that this unbelievable fighting skill had been created by a stickman.
Davey calmly stared at the silent Count Colio, who had been thrown into the wall by his attack. He then walked past the frozen knights and headed straight toward Count Lington.
“Prince Davey? How did you…” Count Lington asked.
“Seriously. You are foolishly brave,” Davey commented.
Slice!
“Hm? Kuh?!”
Crash!!
“Get out of the way. You’re going to splatter blood on Winley.”
Lington’s eyes almost popped out when one of his arms was cut off in an instant. And even before a panicked scream could escape from his mouth, a strong, invisible wind blew him away and sent him crashing into the back wall.
“Don’t die. Live,” Davey commanded Lington.
‘Live so that I can cut you into pieces myself.’ Choosing not to say more, Davey stared at the knights in front of him.
“How many people ganged up on one person?”
Although Mencius had said that no one could win against a group ganging up on them…
-I don’t know who Mencius is, but I don’t think he said something like that…
Perserque pouted when Davey ignored her.
“Ahhh!! Ha… Groan!!” Lington was stuck in the back wall, screaming in panic.
Count Colio couldn’t get up after being slammed against the wall, and the knights were staring at him, dumbfounded. ‘What a sight.’
“Sir, how did you… Never mind! You have to get out of here! These people are dangerous!” Yulis urgently shouted.
Davey calmly stared at the knights. He replied, “You should take care of yourself first.”
“Sir!”
“W—What are you all doing?! Kill that damn guy!! Kill him!!” Lington furiously shouted while squirming on the ground.
Upon Lington’s command, the knights who had been glancing at one another finally held up their swords anxiously.
“Sir!! These people are all experts in tag-teaming! Be care…” Yulis urgently warned.
“Keugh…”
“Keh…”
The knights were only at the Expert level at best; Davey was far more enlightened in swordsmanship than them. The job of a sword-wielding knight didn’t require a lot of mana; Davey had to keep in mind the difference in basic physical abilities, but it wasn’t like he did nothing in the meantime.
‘Hm, three of my strength buffs ended.’
Furthermore, the multiple buff spells that Davey was casting over and over again, and the precision of Red Ribbon, were making up for what Davey lacked.
The knights came at Davey, sticking to a hit-and-run tactic; it seemed that they were going to charge in at him and then retreat after blocking his attack. However, they could only get away from him after a beheading from Davey’s [Aura] and sword.
“Has the tag-team strategy changed to a parade of suicides nowadays?” Once Davey asked mockingly, the life drained out of the knights’ faces. They were probably afraid to charge at him recklessly, because their colleagues had splattered blood and died every time Davey’s red eyes and a red energy flashed.
“W—What is this…” Yulis was also in disbelief at this situation. “Prince Davey… How did you…” He couldn’t believe what he had witnessed, so he struggled to understand what was going on.
“Moan… What are you all doing?! Hurry up and kill him!”
Although Lington was screaming at the knights, Davey could see that the knights couldn’t approach him as easily as before. He thought, ‘What good would tag-teaming be when a third of them died from just two attacks?’
Tag-teaming was a tactic that drained the enemy, taking turns to attack and retreat until the enemy grew tired. But since the knights all died when it was their turn to attack, this wasn’t a tag-teaming battle… It was more like moths to a flame.
“Hup…”
“Something’s weird, right?”
The knights all flinched at Davey’s question.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Davey firmly held onto Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, then put all his weight on his foot and shot up into the air. “Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon, it’s time to play.”
[Red Ribbon is going to play!!]
[B—Blue Ribbon, too! I’m going to help!]
[Transcendental Longsword]
[Double Sword Technique]
[Mountain Crush]
Crack!! The combination of the [Landing Technique of a Thousand Weights] and [Mountain Crush], which contained all of Davey’s strength, traveled down his swords and struck down on the knights as two large waves.
The Knights of Destruction were shocked by the sudden expansion of Davey’s [Aura Blade] and released their own [Aura] to block it. If one person couldn’t, two people would work together. If two people couldn’t, then more people would help out. Instinctively realizing that the attack was dangerous, everyone of the order rushed in, but they overlooked one thing.
‘Cut them.’
Slice… The knights had disregarded the fact that they weren’t going to be slashed because they were weaker, but because the sword would cut through them along with their [Aura] like paper. When they realized that, their heads were already up in the air and their bodies were on the ground. Splatter!!! A terrifying sound echoed throughout, and the white wall and ground turned red. It was a horrendous slaughter scene, but no one was sickened by the sight.
Slice. As soon as Davey took care of the surroundings, he approached Winley and cut the ropes that were binding her with Red Ribbon. He held her in his arms before walking over to Yulis.
“Hm…” Perhaps the slight disturbance had nudged Winley awake. Her eyelids trembled before she slowly regained her consciousness. With a faint gasp, she looked up at Davey in surprise. “Oh… B… Brother?”
“And you’re not hurt anywhere?” Davey asked.
“Pardon? Oh… Yes.” Winley mumbled, not knowing what had happened. However, she widened her eyes at the intense scent of blood. Her face went pale when she saw the room. “B—Brother! What is… Scream! Brother!!”
WInley, who was looking around in shock, suddenly screamed. With bulging eyes, she had glanced behind Davey to see Count Colio, who had been unconscious until a little while ago, swinging his sword with a nasty killing aura.
Clang!!!! Davey blocked Count Colio’s attack with his sword, but he was still knocked back by quite a distance. It was as if the buff magic spells he used weren’t enough for him to match up to Colio’s strength.
“B—Brother! Are you alright?!” Winley widened her eyes, looking like she would shed tears at any minute if there was even a scratch on Davey.
“Yulis.” Davey quietly called out to Yulis, then he sat Winley down beside Yulis. “Please keep Winley safe.”
“L… Leave it to me.”
Davey nodded to Yulis, who stuttered as he answered, and lightly stretched his neck. Crack… Crack. He cracked his neck, then said, “How could a Swordmaster be so shameless and attack me from the back?”
“You. Is that a demon sword?” Colio asked. He didn’t think that Davey could be a Master. He commented, “It is a sword too dangerous for a greenhorn like you.”
“Who are you calling a greenhorn?”
“I will be taking that sword.” After such determined words, Colio charged at Davey again with a terrifying killing aura. Although Davey had blocked Colio’s surprise attack, Colio was still a Swordmaster; his specialty was fighting head-to-head.
And Davey’s specialty was going head-to-head as well. ‘He’ll die too fast if I just slash him.’ Davey nodded as he glanced at the swords in his hands, then threw Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon behind Count Colio, which was where Count Lington was.
Stab!!
“Kahh!!!” Lington, who was scuttling away, slammed against the wall again.
When Count Colio slightly staggered at Lington’s scream, Davey didn’t miss his chance and rushed in. Then, he pushed down on the ground with all his strength and shot up into the air. Crash!!! He made another hit on Colio’s unguarded gut.
“Keugh!! Groan!”
Davey was astonished at how Colio still managed to get back up from the ground even though he had breathlessly rolled on the ground. However, Davey would gladly choose to have him as a sandbag.
Boom!!
“Ugh!” Colio was pushed back once again. He couldn’t even scream. He simply rolled on the floor after being hit by Davey’s fist, which had struck him precisely in his gut, without even being able to defend himself.
‘How could you defend yourself when you can barely breathe?’
And the moment Count Colio stumbled without holding a proper stance, Davey’s fist immediately hit his gut again.
“Groan… Kah!!” When Davey’s fist struck his gut once more, Count Colio stumbled and fell onto his knees with bulging, red eyes and a clenched jaw. “Y…You bastard!!! Groan… Kah!!” He shouted angrily, “Stop aiming for my gut, you cheap bastard!”
Davey pushed himself up from the ground and charged at Colio, who was almost kneeling on the ground and shouting furiously.
Count Colio instinctively let go of his sword and protected his gut with his hands, but…
This time, Davey broke Colio’s guard with his knee instead of his fist, and he rushed in. “There are no dirty and cheap tricks in fighting.” He struck Count Colio’s gut again.
* * *
Perhaps Colio was able to tolerate the continuous attacks on his vulnerable spots because he was a Swordmaster. He endured the attacks quite well, but he was disappointingly weak. He didn’t lack skill, since he used to be a soldier of the powerful Lyndis Empire and was the royal palace’s captain after that. However, Colio didn’t have half of his former strength and Davey had noticed this very early on.
-It’s all the same according to someone that had failed after trying too hard to raise his level.
They had been given their life sentence of swordsmanship. It was a burn-out that people experienced when they tried to raise their level to the extreme without sufficient preparation. The word ‘burn-out’ didn’t exist in this world, but the phenomena was similar.
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