Orcbal's assault was ferocious.
Yuri dodged the attack and thrust Guilty forward.
A mana-charged fist came flying back.
"Tch."
He ducked and evaded, glancing around.
Everyone was dealing with enemies in their own way.
Even though the Allied Army had brought only those of high cultivation, they couldn't immediately kill the enemy.
That meant the elite Orcbals blocking the way were that skilled.
"Kuhahaha! Is this all you've got?!"
Jose of Bursen split an Orcbal's crown with his massive sword. Immediately, several more Orcbals pounced on him.
He faced multiple Orcbals in succession.
He was indeed someone destined to become one of the Ten Strong.
The Empire's knight orders fought silently. Especially Graham and the 3rd Knight Order's Captain, who had already killed several Orcbals and were slowly advancing.
There was no room to fall behind.
Yuri focused again on the Orcbal in front of him.
"Akuakkai!"
"So you recognize me too?"
"Akummetum che kua!"
Yuri continued evading the Orcbal's attacks, steadily building up damage.
It was taking time, but this wasn't an opponent he couldn't defeat.
"Kh."
The Orcbal swung its axe. Just as he dodged, a flurry of strikes came at him.
The enemy didn't rely purely on strength. It utilized the finesse of its weapon, executing high-level attacks.
"Not bad."
But Yuri, too, had grown through his time with the Allied Army.
He watched for the openings that appeared between the Orcbal's attacks.
At first, they were too slight to exploit. So he lured the enemy to come in deeper.
He feigned a misstep, staggering slightly as if by mistake. It was a small disturbance, not enough to affect the flow of battle.
But it made Yuri's posture seem unstable as he countered.
The Orcbal stepped forward to follow up. Its thigh bulged as it put strength into its planted foot.
At that moment, Yuri saw it.
A small gap opened between the Orcbal's side and lower abdomen. The weakness began to emerge as it crouched and tensed.
A moment briefer than the blink of an eye—an opening.
"Die!"
Yuri shouted as he drove Guilty in.
At first, it looked like a reckless attack. But Guilty slipped into the barely visible gap as if drawn in.
The Orcbal, who seemed to mock him, had its expression harden.
The thick hide was pierced.
Guilty drove deeper inside.
"Graaaagh!"
The acrobatic nature of the strike left Yuri crouched in an unstable posture.
The Orcbal shrieked and raised its axe to strike down, but suddenly, a strange sound echoed in its ears.
At first, it sounded like the wind. Then, like the whirring of a spinning top. Something spinning rapidly was grinding something else apart.
Heat surged from its lower abdomen.
By the time it realized what was happening, it was too late.
The Orcbal dropped its axe and collapsed.
"Graaaaaagh!"
Mana swirled within Guilty.
Like being crushed in a millstone, the Orcbal's insides were torn to shreds. The rotation compounded, forming an even greater swirl, ripping open a massive hole in the Orcbal's abdomen.
"A variation of the Whirling Vortex Sword—Miniature Vortex."
It was a technique that simplified the mystery of the vortex he had previously developed. Even a small gap was enough to inflict a fatal wound.
He stepped over the dead Orcbal and pushed forward.
In the distance, Okua gradually came into view.
His gaze was still fixed far away. He was likely staring at Moyong Chan.
The two of them were locked in a duel Yuri could not comprehend.
"How long are they going to keep staring each other down?"
Yuri, too, sometimes gauged his enemy's level or engaged in invisible mental battles. But Okua and Moyong Chan had long surpassed that realm.
While he was distracted, another Orcbal rushed in.
Yuri continued fighting, but something felt off. The Orcbals were weaker than before.
Something was wrong.
As soon as he realized it, a chill ran down his spine.
He didn't know exactly what, but the war was taking a bad turn.
In the rear, the Allied Army was being overwhelmed by monsters. At the front, they couldn't advance due to elite Orcbals.
At the center of it all, Okua had yet to truly enter the frontlines.
Yuri kicked an Orcbal in the chest, knocking it down, and looked at Okua.
He had grown.
Yuri's eyes widened.
He was even larger than when he first saw him. He'd always been tall, but now his body had clearly swollen.
Dark energy shimmered off his body like heat haze.
Suddenly, a vision of the blind shaman appeared beside him, then vanished.
"No…"
Yuri's eyes widened.
"We've been tricked."
He realized something was wrong.
Yuri unleashed the heart-soul slash.
Sweeping his energy outward, he swung Guilty and killed the Orcbal clinging to him. The power of the heart-soul slash spiraled around him.
He focused his vision.
[So, you've realized.]
It was the voice of the shaman he had seen back at the barracks.
[But it's already too late.]
To allow Okua and Moyong Chan to fight one-on-one, they had to kill the elite Orcbals.
He erased that thought.
Yuri immediately sprinted toward Okua.
"Yuri!"
"Prince!"
Voices called to him from behind.
But Yuri ignored everything and charged toward Okua.
A couple of Orcbals tried to stop him, but he shook them off.
He surged toward Okua at high speed.
At last, Okua lowered his gaze and looked at Yuri.
"Okua!"
As he drew closer, Yuri saw something he hadn't seen before.
Okua was guarding a pit.
From within it, dark energy surged and rolled.
The black energy rising from the pit continued to pour into Okua. As time passed, his power increased.
"That thing…"
Okua swung his long arm.
Even though he held no weapon, Yuri instinctively sensed danger. He turned his blade sideways and placed his hand on its center.
Clang!
Guilty trembled violently, and his body was slammed into the ground.
Blood welled up inside him.
But he couldn't stay down.
Yuri stood up.
It had been wrong from the start.
Why had Okua only watched the entire time? Why had Moyong Chan insisted on waiting for a one-on-one battle?
Because, with time, Okua's dark art grew stronger.
Yuri murmured.
"Black magic…"
Ordinary magic could be dispelled.
But black magic was different.
From the moment Okua first appeared, he had already been clouding people's vision with black magic.
Yuri hadn't suspected a thing, since he'd been relying on Moyong Chan.
The shaman's figure stood before Yuri.
[Become a sacrifice and die.]
The shaman laughed. At the same time, Okua's lips curved upward.
Yuri reflexively swung Guilty at the shaman. The shaman's body split in two, then rejoined.
Its face twisted.
[That strange sword…]
The shaman waved his hand. Okua began to advance.
The ground trembled.
Yuri shouted toward Moyong Chan, who stood far behind.
"How long are you going to stay there?!"
But he didn't come.
Yuri gritted his teeth and raised Guilty.
He understood what he had to do.
He could cut what no one else could.
To call Moyong Chan into action, he had to cut that now.
He drew out the power of the heart-soul slash.
He paid no mind to the limits of his body. He ignored the side effects caused by overheating his mana method.
His eyes became bloodshot.
He saw what he had to see.
His vision inverted.
Colors faded like evaporating dye. A world of black and white remained, filled only with varying densities as he had seen before.
Within that world, Yuri saw black lines stretching like tentacles.
He realized what was in the dark pit Okua had been guarding.
Sacrificed humans.
Now, he understood why black magic couldn't be dispelled.
Because it wasn't operated with mana, but with energy drawn from human sacrifices.
"Disgusting."
It was revolting.
The Orcs were disgusting.
And that black magic was even more vile.
His heart screamed. Guilty vibrated as if the earth were quaking.
But Yuri didn't stop.
Blood vessels burst in his eyes. His vision blazed more intensely.
Everything else disappeared.
He saw a massive, black lump.
From within it, faces continuously emerged, wailing in anguish.
Save me…
It hurts so much…
Let me out…
Aaaaaah…
A chorus of grief and despair echoed.
This was the energy that sustained black magic.
The souls of the dead.
Suppressing his nausea, Yuri raised Guilty.
He couldn't handle that black mass itself.
But he could cut the black tendrils flowing out from the pit and spreading in all directions.
Among the web-like tendrils reaching out in all directions, one was especially thick and large.
He raised Guilty.
In this world, the Guilty in his hand had taken on a different form. A wedge-shaped beam of light with no fixed shape.
Yuri leapt toward the black tentacle.
A hazy mass charged toward him, but Yuri didn't care.
Suddenly, the voice of the lion returned to him.
'So, the time has come for that power to be used.'
That's right.
He could vaguely grasp the will of Erich Briol, the one who had created this mana method.
To cut through that cursed power, a suitable tool was needed.
"Heart-soul slash."
Yuri swung the beam of light.
And thus, he cut through the black magic.
***
Moyong Chan watched the battlefield with a hardened expression.
The Allied Army was holding strong against the Orcs. Especially the performance of his disciple, Yuri Briol, was dazzling. He was truly a promising kid.
He, too, wanted to rush forward and slaughter the Orcs.
But he had to conserve his strength until he could fight Okua.
He was waiting until he could fully engage that cursed being in battle.
"Okua…"
The Allied Army seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but suddenly monsters tamed by sorcery appeared and threw the frontlines into chaos.
He saw people dying.
Moyong Chan clenched his fist.
To kill Okua, this had to be endured.
At last, Yuri and the elite warriors he had gathered launched a final charge. They clashed with the elite Orcbal guarding Okua.
Just a little longer.
Once those Orcbal were slain, then he could face Okua in a final battle.
But then, Yuri suddenly broke through the Orcbal lines and charged straight at Okua.
Why was he doing that all of a sudden?
Facing Okua would only lead to death.
Only he could stop that monster, and for that, a one-on-one opportunity had to be made by eliminating the remaining Orcbal.
"What a foolish child…"
Should he step in?
But he couldn't let personal feelings cloud the greater cause.
Moyong Chan clenched his fists.
To stop a disaster like Okua, sacrifice was inevitable.
He tried to steel his heart.
But then, suddenly, Yuri's sword shone white and transformed into a beam of light.
And then, he cut something.
He wasn't sure what it was, but he had sliced through something large and resilient. The heavy sound of it being severed could be heard even from where he stood far away.
It was a strange sound, like the world being split apart.
And then, Yuri was struck by Okua's attack and sent flying.
He coughed up blood.
"Ah…"
Seeing that, Moyong Chan blinked.
The awareness that had been buried deep in his subconscious suddenly awakened.
"Ah…"
Why had he just stood there?
It was true that he had to conserve strength to defeat Okua. But was it right to stand idly by while the battle dragged on?
With time, that bastard's sorcery would only grow stronger.
Why had he let it go this far?
Moyong Chan suddenly shouted out, uncontrollably.
"Break!"
Energy burst forth from him.
The lingering remnants of dark energy in his body completely evaporated.
The delusion lifted.
Moyong Chan realized it.
From the moment he had first faced Okua, he had unknowingly fallen under the spell.
The evil energy had eroded his mind, making him obsess over a flawed idea.
Moyong Chan was filled with rage.
He, the last master of the Qingcheng Sect, had been toyed with by vile sorcery. Even as his disciple coughed up blood, he had merely stood and watched.
Moyong Chan roared in fury.
His lion-like roar shook the plains.
Before the echo had even returned, he was already standing in the center of the battlefield, striking down Okua's arm as it flew toward Yuri.
From the fallen disciple came a grumble.
"Cough, what took you so long…"
[T/L: Read more chapters on Ko-fi page "RevengerScans" : https://ko-fi.com/revengerscans ]