Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 45

Thwack!

“Kyak!”

“Kyaa!”

The sharp crack of a whip echoed through the lava zone.

Kang Chan and Jeina screamed in unison.

Kang Chan had shielded Jeina, preventing a direct hit, but she screamed in response to his cry of pain.

Blood began to pool around Kang Chan’s heel.

The enhanced suit, which had deflected the green elves’ arrows, was insufficient to withstand a whip imbued with Aura [a magical energy or life force].

“Uncle! Are you okay?”

“Hiss! Kheu-heuk… I’m okay, Jeina.”

Despite Kang Chan’s reassurance, his condition looked dire to Jeina.

“Oh? You look young for a human, yet you freely wield Aura Swords. Impressive. Are you a swordsman from a prestigious family? Come to think of it, I heard that a genius swordsman from the Visman Empire came to the Elven Forest with a princess and envoys. That must be you.”

Green’s guess was wildly inaccurate, but Kang Chan was in no condition to correct her.

Her whiplash was incredibly powerful.

Even the durable Kang Chan trembled from a single blow.

Micro-machines were urgently deployed to repair the wound, and Kang Chan’s biochip accelerated his metabolism.

However, he had already used a significant number of the medical micro-machines to save Ellika before coming here, so his reserves were low.

Then, Green launched her second attack.

Kang Chan abandoned blocking with his sword and instead transformed the blade into a shield, injecting mana [magical energy] to protect Jeina and himself.

Blocking the whip with the shield proved more effective than using the sword.

However, if they only defended, Kang Chan and Jeina had no chance of winning.

‘Damn it! I have to find a way out of here!’

Trapped on this narrow patch of land surrounded by lava, there was no easy way to protect Jeina and himself.

He couldn’t risk activating combat mode and fighting her directly.

How could he fight effectively in a place surrounded by lava?

“Armor that can withstand my whip, which can cleave a knight in full plate mail in two, and a sword that transforms into a shield. You possess truly wondrous equipment.”

She spoke with curiosity, but relentlessly continued her whiplash.

Kang Chan diligently blocked the incoming whips and endured the pain.

Seeing Kang Chan’s feet gradually sinking into the ground, one could tell how much force Green’s whip carried.

“Keuep! Ptoo!”

Blood, likely from internal injuries, spewed from Kang Chan’s mouth and splattered on Jeina’s face.

“U-Uncle…”

Jeina looked up at him, cursing and resenting her own helplessness, and wept silently.

“I’d prefer to take it without damaging it and study it, but since I don’t have time, I’ll just kill you and take it. Ahahahahaha!”

She laughed madly, relentlessly swinging her Blood Whip at Kang Chan, appearing completely deranged.

Kang Chan’s arms were gradually losing sensation, and his legs were giving way.

It was clear he wouldn’t last much longer.

The green witch’s attacks grew fiercer as she watched him weaken.

As if to finish him off, she began to lash her whip at unpredictable angles.

Green’s whip seemed alive, like a striking snake.

Her whip gradually drove Kang Chan and Jeina toward the edge of the lava.

Too exhausted, Kang Chan was breathing heavily.

“Hah! Hah! Hah! Hah! Damn it…”

“Shall we end this now?”

Green declared her intention to finish the fight and prepared her final strike.

Green slowly began to swing her whip around.

Soon, the whip began to spin furiously, like a miniature tornado.

The sound of tearing air echoed in all directions.

It sounded like a grating woman’s scream.

Then, her whip, imbued with a terrifying power unlike anything before, was unleashed at Kang Chan.

Kang Chan’s eyes were filled with despair as he watched Green’s attack.

‘Is this the end?’

Kang Chan despaired.

He had no strength left to block her whip, which was flying at him with tremendous force.

It was then.

Suddenly, a massive surge of mana erupted, heading straight toward Green.

She was startled and had no choice but to abandon her attack and dodge.

As Green hurriedly retracted her whip and dodged, a giant ice lance plunged into the lava where Green had been standing, instantly freezing the surrounding area.

Green glared at the attacker, and to her surprise, it was Arteon.

Green gritted her teeth.

“You couldn’t attack when I told you to come at me head-on… so you resort to a sneak attack from behind? You are a dirty hypocrite, Arteon!”

Arteon’s beautiful and elegant face was horribly disfigured by Green’s actions.

It was hard to believe they were the same person.

But she was definitely Arteon, and she was still shedding tears endlessly.

“Stop it, child. Please, stop it now… Just kill me and leave. Why, why are you killing so many innocent elves?”

Behind her, countless elves were still screaming and burning to death.

Arteon staggered, as if she had lost her soul, at the screams of those she had cherished and protected for nearly a thousand years, dying in vain in the flames.

Green spoke in a mocking tone, sneering at her.

“Don’t talk nonsense. This is just the beginning of my revenge. I will start with the destruction of the Elven race and then eliminate all the races in this world. For a new world of only us green elves…”

Arteon stared into her sincere eyes, paused for a moment, and then slowly lowered her head.

Then, a dazzling light began to emanate from her body, and the wounds on her body healed in an instant.

And when she raised her head again, her face had returned to its former beauty, as if she had never sustained even a small scratch.

Green’s face hardened as she watched her.

Even though she was known as the Green Witch, who plunged the entire continent into fear, it was very difficult to face the continent’s best mage with only a whip in hand and without the Spirit King.

Arteon spoke to Green, who was visibly tense.

“I can give you this insignificant life of mine at any time if you wish. But if you continue to kill innocent elves, I must protect them as the leader of the elves, not as your grandmother.”

As Arteon finished speaking, an enormous amount of mana began to be drawn into both of her hands like a vortex, and soon an unbelievable, massive storm of mana began to swirl from her hands.

Green, watching her, hurriedly called for Phoenix with a pale face.

Judging by the amount of mana gathering in her hands, it was at least a 9th circle spell [the highest level of magic].

“Ph, Phoenix! Help me!”

Mysterious runes echoed from Arteon’s mouth, and the mana fluctuations intensified even further. Phoenix, sensing the enormous mana fluctuations even before hearing Green’s cry for help, stopped the slaughter and hurriedly turned back to Green.

But Arteon’s spell was already complete.

“Hell Frost!”

Hell Frost was a 9th circle water-based spell, analogous to the fire-based Hell Fire, and it was the most powerful single-target attack spell in the water system.

The ultimate spell, Hell Frost, left her hand with the chill of hell.

But the direction the ultimate cold spell flew was surprisingly not Green, but Phoenix.

Phoenix, who was returning at maximum speed, screamed at the unexpected, unbelievably extreme cold attack that had suddenly struck him.

“Kuaaaaaaak!”

The Fire Spirit King had never cried out in such pain, except when he fought the dragon thousands of years ago.

That was how powerful Arteon’s 9th circle ultimate single-target attack spell was.

Moreover, since it was an ice-based ultimate spell that was the opposite of his fire attribute, the impact was even more severe.

As Phoenix collided with Hell Frost, the entire night sky turned white in an instant with a shock that vibrated the atmosphere, and the surroundings transformed into a world of extreme cryogenic temperatures.

The water vapor generated by the meeting of Phoenix’s heat, hotter than lava, and the hellish cold, turned into ice crystals and scattered like silver powder in all directions.

Then, the burning earth, covered in silver powder, emitted enormous water vapor and cooled down, gradually turning white as if covered in frost.

The powerful shock that changed the surrounding landscape to the extreme subsided, and the coldly cooled Phoenix fell to the ground.

As the giant Phoenix landed on the frosty earth, a tremendous roar and vibration echoed.

Kuuuuuung!

Half of Phoenix’s body, covered in the chill of hell, was still burning like lava.

However, ice like eternal snow had formed on the chest area hit by Hell Frost, emitting enormous water vapor and causing tremendous pain to Phoenix, who was fundamentally incompatible with water.

“Kheuheueuek… Damn it.”

“Phoenix!”

Green ran to Phoenix, who had collapsed on the ground.

Even the Fire Spirit King Phoenix could only exert one-tenth of his power in the mortal world compared to the spirit world, so he had no choice but to suffer severe damage from Arteon’s 9th circle ultimate water magic.

However, Arteon, the very person who had brought down the Spirit King, turned pale and collapsed on the spot.

She had consumed so much mana at once that her face was drained of color.

But even so exhausted, she gritted her teeth once again and squeezed out her strength to cast a levitation spell on Kang Chan and Jeina to help them cross the lava zone.

Kang Chan and Jeina, who slowly floated into the air, crossed the lava zone at high speed and safely arrived on solid ground.

And Arteon managed to utter these words with difficulty before losing consciousness.

“R, Run away…”

Kang Chan and Jeina, unable to abandon Arteon, who had saved them, after she told them to run, approached Arteon.

“Lady Arteon!”

Jeina, supporting Kang Chan, who could barely walk, struggled to reach Arteon and checked her condition.