Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 20

As the two moved to a secluded spot, a worried Jeina kept holding Kang Chan’s arm, trying to dissuade him. However, Kang Chan, who had already made up his mind, didn’t listen to Jeina’s pleas.

Soon, they arrived at a wide, deserted clearing and stood facing each other.

“Jeina, move back to a safe distance.”

“Please, I beg you, don’t do this. Please.”

“Don’t worry. A man has to face things head-on sometimes, even when it’s tough. Well, it’s not like this is a tough situation, though.”

Kang Chan, trying to reassure Jeina, glanced at Keremion and smirked, downplaying the difficulty. Keremion’s eyes, which had been glaring at Kang Chan, intensified with murderous intent.

‘That son of a bitch, I’m going to kill him, no matter what.’

Jeina, unable to stop Kang Chan, reluctantly moved to a safe distance, her expression worried. An even more tense atmosphere settled between the two men.

They stood there silently, glaring at each other, the tension palpable.

As if they were facing their mortal enemy.

When the tension reached its peak, Kang Chan broke the silence.

“Shall we make a deal?”

“I have no intention of making deals with humans.”

“Don’t be so stubborn, just listen, alright? It won’t be a bad deal for you. Surely not all elves are as narrow-minded as you are, right?”

“You! Don’t insult the elves!”

Keremion raised his voice, and Kang Chan shouted even louder.

“If you’re not narrow-minded, then listen carefully! If I win, you will never take out your anger on me again regarding your sister! I don’t want to see your face! And don’t complain about me going to war with Elladion! Got it?”

Keremion, slightly taken aback, cautiously asked, “If I win?”

“If you win, I’ll do whatever you say. If you tell me not to go to the battlefield, I won’t go. If you tell me to leave this village altogether, I’ll leave. How about it? Not such a bad deal, right?”

After hearing Kang Chan’s words, Keremion smiled bitterly and slowly drew his sword.

“Now that I hear it, it’s not such a bad deal. You’re going to regret this.”

“We won’t know until we try. But, from now on, I hope you won’t be surprised or say anything, even if I use any kind of weapon.”

“Do as you please. No matter what weapon you use, I will never be surprised. Just don’t piss your pants.”

In an instant, condensed mana erupted from Keremion’s saber, enveloping the blade and extending it.

It gradually took the form of a completed Aura Sword [a blade formed from concentrated magical energy].

Jeina’s expression, watching from afar, turned pale.

The Aura Sword, the dream and symbol of power for every swordsman, said to cut even steel like tofu.

“Kneel before me now if you don’t want to die. My saber knows no mercy.”

“Is that so?”

At the same time as Kang Chan spoke, a black wave spread out from his vest, covering his entire body.

Keremion and Jeina, watching the strange transformation, widened their eyes in disbelief.

In just a few seconds, micro-machines enveloped Kang Chan’s body and gradually took shape. Kang Chan’s combat suit, which was slowly revealed, was all black, and only the blood-red moon drawn on his right shoulder stood out.

‘What, what is that?’

Keremion’s eyes were filled with doubt at the sight of the combat suit that enveloped Kang Chan like magic.

The armor in front of him was clearly not magical armor.

If it were magic, there was no way he, an elf sensitive to mana flows, wouldn’t have recognized it.

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be surprised?”

“Do you think you can beat me just by wearing such a grotesque armor?”

“We won’t know until we try, will we?”

The combat suit had the function of amplifying strength up to 10 times, as well as an adrenaline-boosting function, which increased agility several times over.

Of course, if the strength increase was maximized, the battery wouldn’t last long.

However, Kang Chan, who knew how to distribute the power properly, felt more confident than before.

That’s because the suit’s performance was outstanding.

“Good. I’ll defeat you with my skills and kick you out of this village forever, along with that grotesque thing.”

“If you have the skills.”

Silence flowed between the two as if time had stopped.

Like the calm before a storm. Now, no one could stop their fight.

Startled by the intense murderous intent that seemed to explode from Keremion, the grasshoppers flew up all at once, and Keremion instantly sprinted towards Kang Chan.

His movements were so instantaneous that the surrounding grasses were only pushed back by the wind that blew after he disappeared.

Kang Chan instinctively and quickly threw himself to the side, and Keremion, who had split the earth and halved the grass where Kang Chan had been standing, revealed himself.

“I launched a surprise attack first this time, but you dodged it. Not bad.”

Keremion, who slowly rose from the dust, glared at Kang Chan with murderous eyes for having easily avoided his surprise attack.

At that moment, two high-frequency blades popped out from Kang Chan’s hands, which were crouched like a cat.

From the gradually reddened high-frequency blades, an unpleasant low-pitched sound vibrated loudly.

“Such a clumsy surprise attack.”

“You!”

Keremion shouted and charged at Kang Chan again, wielding his Aura Sword.

Kang Chan blocked Keremion’s Aura Sword, which was coming down as if to split the earth, by crossing his high-frequency blades.

Sparks flew from the swords of the two who clashed, and a deafening roar erupted.

Kang Chan was planning to break Keremion’s thin saber with his crossed blades, but his saber, surrounded by powerful mana, didn’t even get a scratch, let alone break.

“Kuh-uh-uh!”

“Kuaaah!”

As the battle of strength continued for a while, the point where Keremion’s Aura Sword and Kang Chan’s high-frequency blades met turned red-hot, and Kang Chan’s high-frequency blades began to melt.

‘Kuh! The high-frequency blades that cut even steel are melting. Is this the power of the Aura Sword? It’s going to be dangerous if I keep facing him head-on like this.’

Kang Chan, who had never directly fought against an Aura Sword with high-frequency blades, was inwardly surprised by the power of the Aura Sword.

Of course, he could also emit an Aura Sword, but the fact that he had learned the Elven mana cultivation method had to be kept a secret from the other elves, so he couldn’t use the Aura Sword.

Kang Chan, who had to face the duel with such a penalty, had an ominous feeling that this duel would not be easy.

“Taaht!”

Feeling the danger, Kang Chan jumped back, and Keremion added his pushing force, flying nearly 5 meters.

“You! Where are you running away to!”

Keremion, who had soared high into the sky, fired a mana sword at Kang Chan.

A mana blade with a sharp edge hurtled towards Kang Chan.

“Tch! Mana Sword!”

The mana sword rushing towards him now was a technique to fire the Aura Sword at a distant enemy, and it was a level above the stage he was learning.

Kang Chan knew better than anyone the power of such a mana sword through the master’s power demonstration.

Feeling a threat to his life, Kang Chan hurriedly infused a small amount of mana into his high-frequency blades.

Although it couldn’t even be compared to the mana sword that Keremion had fired, he judged that if he infused a little mana, he could block the mana sword with the high-frequency blades.

“Tahat!”

As Keremion’s mana sword and Kang Chan’s high-frequency blades collided, Kang Chan was barely able to escape the crisis from the mana blade as he had predicted.

If it had been a normal sword instead of a high-frequency blade, his mana blade would have been so powerful and sharp that it would have been cut in two even if he had infused mana.

Keremion’s expression hardened as he watched Kang Chan barely block his mana sword.

He, an elf sensitive to mana, had read the mana from Kang Chan’s body.

‘That, that guy just used mana! It’s definitely weak, but he definitely used mana! Could it be that he was originally a guy who handled mana? No, he definitely didn’t use mana at all a year ago. Then who, who taught that guy how to handle mana? And in such a short time… Could it be Elladion? It can’t be Elladion, right?’

All sorts of thoughts flashed through Keremion’s mind in the blink of an eye.

A deep sense of unease gripped Keremion, but he shook his head vigorously to shake off his distracting thoughts because he was in the middle of a duel and pulled himself together.

“To dare to challenge me with such skills! Well, try blocking this too! Blade Spear!”

Blade Spear was the most powerful attack in the elf’s sword techniques, maximizing the sharpness of the sword.

Keremion’s sharp Blade Spear, which had drawn up mana with all his might, rushed towards Kang Chan.

Its sharpness was enough to pierce anything, and its speed was like light.

Kang Chan twisted his head with almost beast-like instincts to barely avoid a fatal wound from the Blade Spear that had flown right in front of him in the blink of an eye.

However, the Blade Spear that had pierced through Kang Chan’s helmet ended up tearing his ear in half.

“Kuh! Damn it! This is damn too fast!”

Kang Chan was sweating, struggling to follow the attack even with his enhanced dynamic visual acuity.

As Keremion’s Blade Spear flew in incessantly, large and small wounds began to appear all over Kang Chan’s body.

‘This is dangerous? I need to raise my combat level quickly before I become a beehive!’

-Applying combat mode level 5.

Because Keremion had become much stronger than expected, Kang Chan had no choice but to raise his combat mode to the limit.

His increased strength and agility were dozens of times that of an ordinary human.

Kang Chan approached Keremion while dodging the Blade Spear with a speed that was incomparably faster than before and swung his high-frequency blades.

“You rat-like bastard, you came close because you wanted to die! Pahat!”

At first, he was embarrassed by Kang Chan’s bizarre and sarcastic armor, but after exchanging a few moves, he was convinced that his skills were far superior.

Keremion was full of confidence and swung his Aura Sword vigorously to counter Kang Chan, who was rushing towards him.

With a huge impact sound, attacks and defenses were exchanged in succession.

In the dark forest, red and blue lights crossed dazzlingly, devastating the surrounding area.

Their movements were so fast that it was difficult for ordinary people to follow.

Jeina, who was watching Kang Chan’s real skills, which were not pushed back even against Keremion, was so surprised that she couldn’t close her mouth.

‘It was true that he defeated Keremion before…’

Jeina had heard that Kang Chan had defeated Keremion, but she didn’t really believe it. Kang Chan’s true appearance that unfolded before her eyes was unlike his usual self.

Dozens of trees that were caught up in their fight fell to the ground one after another, but Keremion, an elf, didn’t even have the余裕 [room/ability] to comfort those trees.

That’s how fierce Kang Chan’s resistance was.

Besides, Keremion was inwardly embarrassed because his hands were getting numb the more he clashed swords with Kang Chan.

‘What is it? This guy, he’s much stronger than before!’

What made him embarrassed was not only the human’s strength, which had suddenly become several times stronger, but also his dagger skills, which were not the simple attack patterns of the past, but something very sophisticated and difficult.

In just one year, the human was using swordsmanship that was incomparably more advanced than before.

“The forest is being destroyed because of you. Doesn’t it break your heart?”

Keremion’s eyes turned red at Kang Chan’s mocking words, and he poured out a venomous roar.

“I will kill you and comfort the souls of the trees!”

“Hey! Say it right! You’re the one who cut them down, not me!”

“Shut up!”

The Aura Sword, filled with mana, flew towards Kang Chan from Keremion’s sword, but Kang Chan easily dodged the Aura Sword with agile movements like a swallow and rushed back to Keremion’s vicinity, swinging his high-frequency blades.

Koo-oong! Jiiiiing!

The two swords that collided again in the air sparked and roared.

The two, who did not give an inch, desperately competed for strength, and both admired each other inwardly.

‘This guy is really strong! How did I win against such a monster? Even in combat mode level 5, he’s not being pushed back at all. If I wasn’t wearing a suit, I would have had to use the Aura Sword.’