Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 18

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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 18

Episode 18. A Moment of Realization (6)

0.01 seconds.

That was the maximum time I could maintain 【Soul of the Sword Master】.

It was such a brief moment that I couldn’t even properly feel the skill’s power.

I would simply close my eyes and when I opened them, the enemy would be dead.

Perhaps that’s why?

Even though I had used the ability twice, those 0.01 seconds when the skill was active remained an unknown territory to me.

‘…But now it’s different.’

Tick, tick, tick-!

When I used the authority skill 【Ritardando True】, those 0.01 seconds stretched on like eternity.

The Celestial Dragon’s lightning moved like a slowly flowing river. I could clearly see the blue current extending its branches in all directions as it approached me.

Kuguuuuuu-!

I could feel my rock-bottom average stats instantly breaking through the critical threshold and soaring upward.

A sensation like every cell in my body awakening washed over me. My muscles expanded, and all my senses became razor-sharp.

Sring──!

In that instant, my sword moved.

Its speed was so fast that even within this confined time, I could barely follow it.

‘Ah.’

The lightning split apart.

The cleanly divided blue branches simply passed by me.

The feather sword in my hand was trembling slightly.

Without any conscious effort on my part, the sword had moved on its own to split the lightning.

‘What is this….’

Is this what they call unity of body and sword?

The feather sword felt like a part of my own body. The sword had sensed danger and moved on its own.

Like how you instinctively close your eyes when something flies toward you.

Ding-!

〔Near-impossible extreme timing. You have perfectly defended against the enemy’s lethal attack.〕

〔Reward: You have acquired the passive skill 【Ultimate Auto-parrying】.〕

Messages appeared before my eyes.

I was startled by the reward skill that was far more powerful than I had expected.

…However, it was still too early to be impressed.

The 0.01 seconds given to me had not yet ended.

Swooosh─.

The feather sword moved horizontally, drawing a long straight line.

Where the sword had swept through, a golden thread remained like a mark.

Crack─!

A brief silence fell.

The Celestial Dragon, which had been moving ever so slightly in the slowed time, stopped moving.

The faint line cutting through its body became increasingly clear.

Like cracks spreading across a giant glass window, the fracture spread in all directions.

And then….

Whoooooosh──.

…Time began to flow again.

The raindrops that had been floating in mid-air poured down to the ground, pulled by gravity.

My heartbeat pounded as if it had never slowed, and the air that had been momentarily still began to move slowly with the wind.

Finally, the duration of 【Ritardando True】 had ended.

“….”

However, the world I was looking at was still frozen.

I remained motionless in the stance from swinging my sword, and the Celestial Dragon’s massive body was also completely still.

Crrrrrack-!

It was the very next moment.

The Celestial Dragon’s upper body began to slowly tilt.

The upper portion of the massive body, sliding diagonally along the thick line, crashed straight down to the ground.

Kuuuuuung──!

The Celestial Dragon fell with vibrations that shook the earth.

Dust clouds covered everything around us.

Dark blue blood poured like a waterfall from the cleanly severed cross-section.

“….”

Yes.

That was the end of it.

‘…It’s dead.’

A divine beast.

Once a representative of the Elders, but one of the continent’s worst monsters that would now become synonymous with apocalypse….

Had been cut in half by a single stroke of my sword without being able to do anything.

“…Ah.”

A dumbfounded voice came from behind me.

Adelia was staring at the Celestial Dragon’s corpse with a completely stunned expression.

“Adelia.”

I spoke in a deliberately indifferent voice.

“Was I somewhat helpful this time?”

Adelia suddenly looked up.

Her two pupils looking toward me were trembling endlessly.

Still unable to recover from the shock, she couldn’t give any answer.

She just opened and closed her mouth several times like a goldfish.

‘Well, still….’

Swoosh-.

I looked at Adelia with a faint smile.

No, more precisely, I was looking at the translucent system window floating above her head.

【Lv. 80】

‘…She must have gained quite an enlightenment.’

That’s right.

There was no need to hear Adelia’s answer.

She had reached level 78 while fighting the Celestial Dragon, and now she had climbed two more levels.

It seemed she had achieved tremendous growth just by witnessing my single strike.

‘A genius really is different after all.’

To be able to grow like that just by watching someone’s swordsmanship.

It wasn’t for nothing that she was the character with the greatest potential in the Loel World.

‘Ah, of course…’

It wasn’t only Adelia who had achieved something remarkable.

Ding-!

〔You have witnessed the pinnacle of swordsmanship with your own eyes and personally experienced overwhelming talent.〕

〔Error : With your current cognition stat̶̞̻̀̅,̵̳̦̃ ̶͓͐͝you̸̦̍̇ ̷̧̽̎cannot̷̫̋͑ ̷̹͖̉̍obtaiǹ̵̓͜ ̸͙̗̈́͠this̶̼̿͋ ̵̟̅͆#̶̺͍̾̓@̴̻̕͜?̴̗̭͑&̶̙͖͒%̵̯͑#̴̢͕̉〕

〔Thé̶̛͓ ̸͉̀͝Pantheon̴̜͑̕(̷̴̶̴̝̠̣̜̟̑̈́̐̾͆̈́)̴̖̲͋͌ ̷̰̋votinǵ̸̼ ̶̜̓̏begins̴͙̰̊͗ ̵̖̋̐%̴̠̭̒̓#̴̲͒!̸̤̀͘$̴̣̉@̵̹͘͝$̶̱͌͝*̵̞̈́@̸̘̫̃?̸̨̛̮〕

…

Whoosh-.

A parade of notification windows appeared before my eyes.

As I examined them one by one, I was finally able to smile when I saw the last message.

Ding-!

〔Reward : The sealed talent ‘Sword (-Sword) Lv. Max’ is unlocked.〕

‘…It’s done.’

Finally, the moment when all my efforts bore fruit had arrived.

* * *

Ding-!

〔Hidden Message : You have succeeded in @̴̻̕͜?̴̗̭͑&̶̙͖͒%̵̯͑.〕

〔Hidden Message : $̶͛͊͜*̶͖͔̒͛@̴̻̕͜?̴̗̭͑Achievement unlocked (1/12)〕

* * *

“…”

Adelia stared at the Celestial Dragon’s corpse in a daze.

Her eyes still held the unbelievable scene she had witnessed.

The trajectory of the blade cutting through lightning, and the golden thread that had bisected the Celestial Dragon.

Every single movement was deeply etched into her retina.

‘This is the realm of a Swordmaster…’

Until now, she had never had a proper chance to see Lord Gaon’s swordsmanship.

The incident at the Underground Arena had been too sudden, and when fighting Peter Pan, she had been too busy fighting to have any leisure.

But this time was different.

Thanks to Lord Gaon’s advance warning, Adelia was able to focus and watch his sword strike.

─Watch closely and engrave it in your eyes.

She became so absorbed in Lord Gaon’s sword that she even forgot to breathe.

It was truly beautiful.

A perfect strike without a single unnecessary movement.

Thump-.

And the moment she witnessed this, Adelia instinctively realized.

The wall that had been blocking her had crumbled silently.

“Now I…”

After remaining silent for a long while, Adelia slowly parted her lips.

“…Now I think I understand a little.”

Adelia’s eyes had changed.

The answer she had been searching for so desperately was right before her eyes.

So now it was time to follow that answer and keep moving forward. Until she reached her pursued goal, continuously.

Nod-.

Hearing those words, Lord Gaon nodded with a smile on his face.

* * *

‘What a mess.’

I slowly looked around and clicked my tongue inwardly.

It was truly a miserable sight.

Broken carriage debris and corpses were scattered everywhere, and the fishy smell of blood stung my nose.

It seemed difficult to find survivors in such a situation.

Surviving a monster wave and a Celestial Dragon attack was no easy task.

‘Huh?’

Murmur murmur-.

But contrary to my expectations, quite a few people were alive.

As the surroundings became quiet, survivors who had been hiding began to crawl out one by one.

Their hiding places were varied.

Under carriage debris, beneath monster corpses, in burrows, and so on.

‘Ha.’

Seeing this, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh from the absurdity.

‘…They all hid like cockroaches.’

Chuckle-.

Though I muttered that to myself, I was secretly glad to see the survivors’ faces.

About five or six people had survived.

It wasn’t a large number by any means, but considering the scale of the incident, it was a survival rate close to miraculous.

Fortunately, the Guild Master was among them.

It meant that at least our escort mission hadn’t failed.

‘Well, what does that matter now anyway.’

While I was having such idle thoughts by myself.

Commotion-.

Suddenly the surroundings became noisy.

It turned out the survivors who had spotted the Celestial Dragon’s corpse were making a fuss.

“Huh, huh!”

“My goodness, what on earth is that…”

People looking at us in shock.

It seemed they had been hiding so well that they hadn’t seen what was happening outside.

Even if they had looked around, it would have been hard to grasp the situation due to the raging storm.

“What kind of size is that?”

“It’s really huge. Is this the wyvern we’ve only heard about?”

“D-did you two kill this monster? Just the two of you?”

Anyway.

The ordinary mercenaries and merchants didn’t recognize the Celestial Dragon’s identity.

They were just startled by its huge size and fierce appearance.

But the Guild Master was different.

As befitting someone who had seen through Adelia’s identity, he instantly recognized the Celestial Dragon’s true nature.

“This can’t be.”

The Guild Master wore an expression of disbelief.

He approached stealthily and whispered.

“That, that’s a Celestial Dragon, isn’t it? One of the Great Elders’ divine beasts…”

I nodded silently.

At this, the Guild Master’s eyes widened even more.

“But, but why on earth…?”

The Guild Master trailed off.

Well, I could still understand what question he wanted to ask.

Why did the divine beast attack humans, and how did you manage to kill it, and so on.

“…”

I pondered for a moment.

Then I slowly opened my mouth.

In this situation, there was only one answer I could give him.

“The world you knew is now over.”

“…”

“Prepare yourself. From today onward, many things will change.”

Killing the corrupted Celestial Dragon wouldn’t delay the foretold end.

Even the corruption of the divine beast was merely the beginning of the crisis that would befall this world.

* * *

“By the way…”

It was when things had somewhat settled down.

Adelia asked with a worried voice.

“…What do we do now, Lord Gaon?”

Just because we found survivors didn’t mean we could simply rejoice.

The situation wasn’t favorable.

The carriages were all destroyed without exception, and most of the horses had lost their lives.

To make matters worse, even the surviving horses had long since fled in terror when the storm struck.

Neigh-!

Just then, the Guild Master approached us holding reins.

A muscular horse followed behind him.

Judging by the shine gleaming from its mane and coat, it seemed to be a well-maintained horse.

“This is the only horse available for immediate use. It’s a fine horse among fine horses.”

Pat pat-.

The Guild Master patted the horse’s flank.

As if proving it was indeed a fine horse, intelligence gleamed in its eyes.

Moreover, seeing that it hadn’t run away alone, its loyalty seemed extraordinary as well.

“We can’t carry everyone, so it would be better for one person to go to a nearby village and request help…”

The Guild Master stopped mid-sentence and made a puzzled expression.

Then he began staring into the distance, following my gaze.

“Young master? What are you looking at so intently…”

“Wait.”

I interrupted the Guild Master’s words.

“They’ll arrive soon.”

“…Pardon?”

Pause-.

Upon hearing my answer, the Guild Master showed a rather confused expression.

That wasn’t all. Adelia and the others began looking at me with strange eyes as well.

Well, that was understandable.

Who on earth would come to such a perilous place?

The heart of the Silk Road was definitely not a place lenient enough for a helping hand to suddenly appear.

Clatter, clatter─!

“…Huh?”

But at that very moment.

Suddenly, the sound of a carriage could be heard from afar.

People perked up their ears and quickly turned their heads toward the direction of the sound.

Something could be seen beyond the distant hill.

Through the pale sunlight, the faint outline of a carriage appeared.

That carriage was approaching this place, skillfully avoiding the debris destroyed by the monster wave.

“Ah.”

Adelia let out another exclamation. Her eyes grew wider and wider.

“That person is…”

“Giddy up! Tsk tsk!”

Before Adelia could finish speaking, a familiar voice was heard.

It was an old man’s voice, thick and mixed with a metallic tone.

“See! I told you I’d get you there safely for 2 million sillings!”

“…”

“I told you it’s dangerous to ride just any carriage because it’s cheap, didn’t I?”

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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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