Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 159

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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One-Strike Kill Swordmaster Episode 159

Episode 159. Reenactment of Annihilation (7)

Screech-!

A sharp sound rang in my ears.

It was the noise created as the Feather Sword’s blade scraped against the stone wall.

Fortunately, thanks to that, my falling speed had considerably decreased.

‘Almost there now.’

The ground had approached within arm’s reach.

Confirming this, I quickly twisted my body to position myself.

And then…

Thud-!

A rough landing followed.

A sharp impact traveled through my soles and spread throughout my entire body.

My legs felt numb, and I could feel throbbing pain in my knees.

‘…Damn, that really hurts.’

But I couldn’t show it.

Especially not when I had just witnessed Pean landing gracefully right beside me.

I pretended to be fine and checked the condition of my weapon.

Shing-.

The Feather Sword was intact.

As expected of a divine weapon, fortunately there wasn’t a single scratch on the blade.

‘Anyway.’

Whoosh-.

Putting aside useless thoughts, I quickly surveyed the surroundings.

A wide clearing spread out before my eyes. Rather than a clearing exactly, it would be more appropriate to call it an underground shrine.

Tall ‘pillars’ were supporting the ceiling.

They looked like mere stone columns on the surface, but the patterns flowing along their surface had an oddly organic feel that was too natural to be called carvings.

‘And…’

Swoosh-.

The floor was the same way.

Regular patterns were carved throughout the gently raised surface.

Should I say it looked like natural markings carved into the skin of a gigantic living creature?

The situation felt too unsettling to simply dismiss as geometric patterns of an ancient civilization.

“…”

It was a familiar scene in any case.

A sight I had seen countless times inside the game.

“Gaon!”

Just then, I heard Pean’s urgent shout from beside me.

Right.

There was no time to admire the surroundings or have idle thoughts.

I instinctively rolled my body to the side.

Crash-!

Immediately after, a stream of water poured down like a waterfall where I had been standing.

The water that splashed in all directions instantly covered the floor and soaked the surroundings.

Splash-.

Fortunately, thanks to the space being so wide, the water level stopped at knee height.

However.

The real problem was something else.

“…!”

Ripple-.

In the still air without a single wave, massive shadows began to undulate.

The moment I raised my head, I had the illusion that my entire field of vision was plunged into darkness.

Wings spread so wide they could completely swallow light. Silhouettes gliding through the sky above like swimming, without even the slightest movement.

Something enormous was silently soaring through the sky above.

‘…Stingrays.’

To be precise, they were four stingray-type divine beasts.

Pean gripped the handle of Seorineul tightly and muttered.

“Look at their eyes, Gaon.”

“…”

“All four of them have already lost their reason.”

That’s right.

There was no longer any trace of gentleness to be found in the divine beasts’ eyes.

Only desire for destruction and slaughter burned red within them.

Hiss-.

The next moment, Pean turned to look at me and suddenly smiled.

“The Durdamel Guild Master will be quite pleased.”

“…?”

“One Celestial Dragon was a bit disappointing, but now we can put four more up for auction in Dawnguard.”

I almost let out a hollow laugh at that absurd nonsense.

Well, this was inside a trial after all.

Even if we killed the divine beasts, it would be impossible to bring their corpses to reality.

Of course, there was no way Pean didn’t know that fact. He was probably just trying to lighten the mood a bit with a joke.

So I played along with him appropriately.

“Are you going to carry the divine beast corpses? They’ll be quite heavy.”

“Hmm… Since there are four total, we could each take two, don’t you think?”

“No.”

I shook my head firmly.

“It’s not four.”

“Huh?”

Right at that moment.

Whoosh-!

What had ‘appeared’ to be a pillar suddenly sank below the floor.

“…!”

Pean flinched in surprise and furrowed his brow.

I muttered in a low voice as if swallowing my breath.

“Dodge.”

Crash-!

The pillar that had been supporting the ceiling instantly changed direction and swung toward us.

A mass flying through the air like a giant whip. The overwhelming pressure created by its massive weight alone was suffocating.

I threw my body almost simultaneously with Pean.

While my physical stats were still far lacking, I was able to predict the attack’s trajectory in advance through my newly acquired [Super Intuition].

Thanks to that, I could react at almost the same speed as a Sword Master.

Ding-!

〔You have used the authority skill engraved in Mukgwe: [Super Sense Remnant].〕

Even though I hadn’t used Ritardando, a sensation as if time was flowing slowly washed over me.

Everything became clearly visible.

The organic grain that ran along the pillar’s surface. Even the tiny suction cups visible through the gaps.

Right.

This had never been a ‘pillar’ from the beginning.

“Ten… tacle…?”

Pean muttered as if dumbfounded.

He too seemed to have realized the true identity of the ‘pillar’.

“Don’t tell me…”

Pean tried to open his mouth as if realizing something, but there wasn’t even time to add anything more.

“…Ugh!”

Kwaaaaaaaaa-!

Tentacles shot out from all directions at once.

From above to below. From below to above.

From right to left. Even diagonally.

To the point where the concept of direction became meaningless, massive chunks came crashing down on us simultaneously from everywhere.

It felt as if space itself was twisting and crushing down on me.

‘Let me focus.’

Saaaa-.

My senses sharpened through hypersensitivity.

Far away, I could see the tip of a tentacle that had initially looked like a ‘dot’ gradually growing larger.

A thunderous roar tearing through the air echoed. Overwhelming mass charged in a straight line.

A strike where speed and pressure tangled together.

My instincts screamed. If I didn’t dodge this, I’d be crushed to pieces.

“Left side!”

Pean’s urgent shout.

But there was nothing to worry about.

I had already twisted my body according to the path my hyperintuition had shown me.

‘My body is finally keeping up with my thoughts quite well now.’

It was thanks to my level approaching 40 and the Dragon Body.

Whooom-!

Pean also launched his body.

But unlike me, he didn’t stop at simply dodging.

In that split second, Pean’s eyebrows twitched.

A blade that held a mysterious light like mixed frost and sunset cut through the air, drawing a perfect trajectory.

Kagagagagagagagak──!

As if reading the tentacle’s trajectory, Seorineul pierced precisely through that gap.

A thunderous sound like splitting a massive boulder shook the entire temple.

“Grrrgh…!”

Pean let out a low groan.

Through the resonance of our authorities, his sensations were faintly transmitted to me.

The shock that felt like his wrist would break. The extreme pressure spreading through his shoulder. Even the desperate grip squeezing strength from his fingertips to avoid dropping his sword.

Zzzzak-!

With that strike, the mysterious tentacle was split cleanly in half.

“…Damn it.”

But that was as far as it went.

The severed tentacle soon began wriggling and started regenerating.

Sticky fluid flowed from the cut surface, and the wounded area bubbled up as flesh sought out and clumped together with itself.

In just a few seconds, the tentacle had completely returned to its original form.

Pean shook his numb hand and muttered.

“That damn tentacle is really…”

“Lord of the Dark Abyss.”

I cut off his words.

“It means the master of the black pond.”

“…?”

“It’s a divine beast in the form of an octopus. Known to have the highest intelligence among all divine beasts in history.”

Lord of the Dark Abyss .

It was once an existence no different from the guardian deity of the Rashutku Empire.

Successive emperors always sought the Lord of the Dark Abyss’s opinion whenever making important decisions.

Thanks to that, the empire was able to enjoy brilliant prosperity.

But…

‘Even such a Lord of the Dark Abyss eventually became corrupted and turned into humanity’s enemy.’

The circumstances that led to the Lord of the Dark Abyss’s corruption were truly tragic.

The Outer Gods were beings that transcended the logic of this world.

The closer one approached their essence and came into contact with forbidden knowledge, the more an intelligent being’s mind was bound to collapse.

The Lord of the Dark Abyss studied them in order to oppose the Outer Gods.

However, that enlightenment became a curse instead.

As the price for understanding what should not be understood, the wisest divine beast lost its ego and became corrupted.

Kugugugugugu-!

And now.

We had to fight against that corrupted divine beast.

“The very floor we’re standing on right now is on top of the Lord of the Dark Abyss’s head.”

“…I thought so.”

Nod-.

Pean nodded with a dark expression.

He probably had some idea from the moment he was attacked by the tentacles, but seemed to have become certain through my words.

Saaaaaaa-.

Right at that moment, my vision began to gradually grow murky.

It felt like thick ink was covering my eyes.

What had been faint at first grew progressively darker, and soon the entire surroundings began to be engulfed in black fog.

‘…The second pattern has begun.’

Dark Abyss .

In other words, the black pond.

It was one of the Lord of the Dark Abyss’s representative patterns where it spewed ink.

“#̷̨̼͈̱͎̭͖͖̙̋̅̽@̸͈͐͑̉͂͆̄͊͠͠͠%̸̢̛̳͖̮̖̽́̎͌̽̉͜͝@̴̯̫̟͕̦͔͈̺̤͎̫̒͐̿̂͑͠$̴̮̻͉͖̬̭̻̯͋͌̏̋̍#̷̬̯̭̙̖͈͙̺̲͉̇͌̉̈́͐͊͊͑̅͝──!”

A bizarre cry could be heard.

The movements of the ray-type divine beasts also gradually became sharper and more ferocious.

They seemed to be waiting for this darkness to spread completely before timing their attack to strike us all at once.

Within the black curtain that had fallen, a full-scale battle was about to begin.

“Gaon.”

Pean called me.

“Do you happen to have a method in mind?”

“…”

“I’ve never faced a divine beast before. If it’s five of them, there’s no need to say more.”

He continued speaking.

“I don’t know how much I should hold back my strength. Of course, ultimately we’ll have to face the Outer Gods, but… isn’t the situation before our eyes more urgent right now?”

Pean caught his breath for a moment, then finished speaking with a resolute expression.

“If you don’t have a clear plan, I’ll open the 「Transcendent Spirit」.”

“….”

“Gaon, your power… let’s save it until the very end for when we face the Outer Gods.”

I hesitated-.

I was momentarily at a loss for words.

Pean was one of the strongest among the Twelve Sword Masters.

Yet, even he was thinking of unleashing his full power right after experiencing Mukyeonjiju’s attack just once.

This alone showed just how powerful a divine beast Mukyeonjiju was.

Of course….

“No.”

…After hearing Pean’s words, I firmly shook my head.

“There’s no need for that.”

“…?”

“It’s not yet time for you to open your 「Transcendent Spirit」. You need to save your power until the final moment too.”

That’s right.

Pean’s Transcendent Spirit had to be saved for the final battle against the Outer Gods.

That was the only way to achieve a perfect clear.

‘I didn’t bring Pean all the way to Dawnguard for nothing.’

Without his Transcendent Spirit, we could never bring down the Outer Gods.

On the other hand….

“Those corrupted divine beasts can be overcome sufficiently through other methods.”

These were patterns I had repeated countless times in the game from the beginning.

Whether it was Mukyeonjiju or the ray-type divine beast. They all had established strategies, and I knew them all inside and out.

And that method was….

“Please tell us quickly, Gaon!”

“….”

Alright. I got it.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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