How To Live As A Third Son Of A Failure [EN]: Chapter 77

Aslahina, now a Death Knight, stood facing us at a distance.

Seeing her, Lordain clicked his tongue and gritted his teeth.

“I’ll take care of her. You guys better find a solution quickly, unless you want to die here.”

“What am I, an answer sheet? Why is everyone asking me to solve everything?”

“Then, do you want to handle her?”

“I’ll do my best to find a way.”

Annoyed by our whispering, Aslahina began to approach.

Her expression was vacant, as if her soul had left her body.

Pale complexion and lips stained purple.

Aslahina, with a hollow face, raised her arm. A slender arm was visible through the gaps in the breastplate that barely covered her vital parts.

Frankly, she was too frail to be called a knight. Even Ilia was slender for a knight, but Aslahina was even more so.

“…….”

However, the aura she exuded had nothing to do with her physique.

The deathly energy spreading like a low fog and her lifeless eyes made her seem like….

‘I’d believe it if she were the Grim Reaper.’

Tap- Tap-

Like a puppet on a string, Aslahina began to loosen her body unnaturally. It looked like she was warming up.

It didn’t take long for Aslahina to stand up straight.

Thud!

At the same time, Lordain and I stepped back as if we had made a prior agreement.

“Did you feel it too?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“More than ten steps.”

“Similar to me. You have a better sense than I thought.”

What should I say? If Aslahina’s range was about 5 meters until just now, it instantly doubled after she straightened her posture.

Lordain and I stepped back because we felt it instinctively.

Kieeeeeh….

Aslahina, having assumed her stance, raised her sword. Then, a grotesque wail began to fill the cavern.

It was clear that it was the wail of the thoughts trapped in the sword she was holding. I suddenly thought of Lordain and turned my head.

“…Are you alright?”

I could see Lordain bleeding from between his bitten lips.

His wife’s spirit, whom he had been searching for so long, was calling out to him right before his eyes. Moreover, with a stronger presence [念, nen] than usual.

I didn’t need to hear it to know what was going through Lordain’s head right now.

“You son of a bitch.”

Lordain, expressing his heavy anger on his face, kicked off the ground.

Crack-!

Lordain leaped high, piercing through the marble fragments that splintered as cracks formed.

As if time had stopped, Lordain, at the highest point, opened his mouth as if chewing.

“Give me back my wife!”

Blue mana that seemed to chill the air emanated from Lordain’s raised sword.

Kwaaa!

The sword burning with mana plunged down as if to split Aslahina in half.

‘Is it over?’

Ah, usually when I think like this, the opponent is fine.

As expected, Aslahina simply raised her sword with ease.

Whoosh!

The black energy that had been lying low around her instantly moved towards the sword. The gathered energy then bloomed into a black aura and blazed.

“…….”

Aslahina bent her knees. Then, she simply raised the sword held in both hands and slashed upwards, and Aslahina’s and Lordain’s swords collided.

Kwaaaang-!

My eyes stung from the light that erupted. The spreading shock made the inside of the cavern tremble, and I heard a ringing in my ears.

‘They’re monsters.’

However, Lordain continued his attacks as smoothly as water flowing, as if he knew the opponent would block it.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Each strike he unleashed made the skin on my distant body tremble.

However, Aslahina was also blocking with clean movements.

As the blue mana and black energy collided, the inside of the cavern began to be stained purple.

‘This isn’t the time to do this.’

This wasn’t the time to be leisurely watching. I turned my head and saw the Phantom Knights approaching me.

I raised my sword and checked my condition.

It wasn’t good. Every time I breathed, I felt a tearing pain in my chest. My left wrist was throbbing, and a tingling sensation rose from my right ankle.

A one-to-many battle in the worst condition. I smiled bitterly and glared at the five Phantom Knights rushing towards me.

In an instant, three or four swords pierced towards my body.

I moved my body according to their trajectories. I avoided what was coming straight at me and deflected the swords blocking my retreat.

You die the moment you are surrounded.

With that mindset, I focused entirely on evasion. Fortunately, the Phantom Knights were not intelligent, and thanks to that, the situation flowed as I intended for the time being.

‘It’s tough, though.’

What’s fortunate is that this cavern has an abnormally abundant amount of mana.

Of course, it wasn’t for intruders but for Aslahina’s seal. But for me, who had opened the mana tunnel, it was a great help.

Thanks to that, I was able to fight more easily with the power of mana even in an injured state.

‘First, suppression.’

I glanced at Lordain.

Lordain also felt that this fight would be a long one, so he seemed to be stalling for time rather than facing her head-on.

If so, I’ll put Aslahina out of my mind for now.

The first priority was to subdue these guys.

As a result of observing Lordain’s process of subduing them earlier, the time it took for their bodies to recover depended on the degree of destruction.

If you cleanly cut off their heads, it only takes a dozen seconds. On the other hand, if you smash them to near pulverization, it takes up to several minutes.

Then I have a sense of how to fight. I need to buy as much time as possible to have room to move on to the next stage.

Kwaang-!

I avoided the sword of a Phantom Knight that was heavily plunging down.

The sword that lost its target was stuck in the ground, and I took advantage of the gap to unleash a mana-filled kick.

Kwajik!

Refined steel shattered and scattered into fragments.

‘One down for now.’

The second Phantom Knight who rushed in deflected a few orthodox sword techniques and then cut off his legs.

Thud!

Then, I stomped on the helmet of the Phantom Knight who lost his balance and collapsed, crushing it.

‘Two.’

This time it’s a joint attack. After dodging the attacks of two Phantom Knights aiming for the upper and lower body at the same time with a leap, I twisted my waist greatly and drew a semicircle with my sword.

Kagagak-!

The sword filled with mana split the upper bodies of the two Phantom Knights as if cutting tofu.

That’s not enough. I instantly drew up mana and drew the Chinese character ‘之’ [zhī, meaning “of” or “to go”] with my sword. The finely fragmented two Phantom Knights crumbled.

‘Three, four.’

Now I faced the last remaining Phantom Knight. If I finish this guy, I’ll have some time to spare.

Looking closely, it was a familiar guy. It was the guy who showed me a feint at first.

“Are you going to use your tricks again?”

Of course, there was no answer. I wasn’t waiting for an answer either.

I took a light breath. Then I kicked off the ground.

I’ll finish it in one go.

Kagagak!

Several swords clashed. Unlike the guys I had defeated earlier, the exchange was quite long. Of course, that wasn’t intentional. I had to defeat him as soon as possible and move on.

However, I soon became more puzzled than impatient.

‘What, this guy?’

The guys I faced earlier were definitely strong.

But no matter how good their swordsmanship was, they couldn’t overcome the overwhelming difference in the power of mana.

So I thought I could easily defeat the last guy too.

But it was a miscalculation. This guy was reading all my swordsmanship. No, it feels like he’s mastered it beyond the level of reading.

‘Could it be?’

The newly created doubt gave rise to one hypothesis as time passed.

‘Is he not reading my swordsmanship, but originally using this swordsmanship too?’

The hypothesis turned into conviction.

It was as if he knew in advance where I was going to attack, and he easily avoided it.

Just in case, I showed some basic swordsmanship a few times.

Then, surprisingly, the Phantom Knight showed an orthodox defense against the swordsmanship. It was a bit clumsy and crude. But it was definitely the same swordsmanship I knew.

“What are you?”

When I took a step back, the Phantom Knight also took a step back in the same way.

Even the way he sheathed his sword and returned to a posture that allowed for free transitions between offense and defense was the same as me.

“Why are you using Lindaier’s swordsmanship?”

Of course, no answer came back. But I didn’t need to hear the answer to know. The Phantom Knight in front of me was using the swordsmanship of the Lindaier family.

It wasn’t the current one that had been gradually transformed and refined for practical use over many years.

It was a cruder swordsmanship closer to the origin, or in some ways, the essence that the Lindaier family was pursuing.

At the same time, I realized why the swordsmanship of the previous Phantom Knights was different, and why the personalities of their swordsmanship were different.

“Jeff, Guerril, Hind, Bishurar, Bane.”

Their names came to mind. Then, the identities of the five Phantom Knights who guarded this place were revealed.

The five knights of the Great Emperor.

Kerwyn had created the Phantom Knights based on them.

‘Since the creator is Kerwyn, he must have modeled them after the strongest people of that era.’

I calmed my pounding heart. At the same time, I readjusted my sword. I had to use swordsmanship that wasn’t Lindaier’s.

I instantly changed the position of my feet to a straight line.

At the same time, I unified my waist, wrist, and legs, and gathered the mana that had been spreading throughout my body, concentrating it on my hands and sword.

Then, I kicked off the ground and slashed the sword that had become one with my body.

Ssaaaak-!

The sword tore through the wind and screamed.

A technique that I had half-sealed because of its strong meaning of one-hit kill, the ‘thrust’ of Kendo [a modern Japanese martial art descended from swordsmanship].

The form was the thrust of Kendo, but it was also a newly born technique that encompassed all of my mana power and everything I had learned here.

If I had to name it, it would be the ‘Kain-style thrust’.

Kwaang-!

Even though it was just a thrusting swordsmanship, there was an exploding sound. The sword that broke the Phantom Knight’s sword and penetrated shattered the armor that was the target.

Huddeuk….

I broke through the scattering armor fragments and widened the distance. Looking around, the guys I had defeated earlier had already finished recovering.

There wasn’t much time.

I quickly turned my body and headed towards my companions who were still collapsed and unconscious.

“Wake up!”

With the same speed as I leaped, I stretched out my foot and kicked Ruth’s abdomen.

“Kuh-erk!”

Ruth, who spun around like a top and rolled across the floor before crashing into the wall, screamed.

“What is this….”

Ruth, coughing and getting up, made a bizarre expression. But that was only for a moment, as his face hardened at the sight of me sweating and emitting mana.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s no time to explain. Wake up the others and prepare to fight.”

Ruth’s eyes changed when he heard the word battle. He no longer asked or questioned the circumstances. Ruth immediately got up and began to gather the remaining companions.

Kwaang-! Kwang!

Aslahina and Lordain were still fighting beyond common sense. But Lordain was fighting with many handicaps. The time he could hold out wouldn’t be long.

As I thought about how to quickly deal with the Phantom Knights first, that’s when it happened.

“What?”

The aura of the resurrected Phantom Knights was different from before.

The light that had been simply blue had turned black. Not only that, but they were also exuding a chilling black energy from their bodies and swords.

What could be the cause? It wasn’t a difficult question.

‘If they were influenced by pure mana until just now, is it Aslahina’s power now?’

It never rains but it pours.

I sighed at the thought that there would be an even harder fight ahead.