Sword Master With One Strike Kill - Chapter 180

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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 180

Episode 180. Puppet Master (3)

Kwaaaaang-!

Adelia charged across the battlefield.

Her figure moved like lightning with fierce wind pressure, and ten spirit swords floated up behind her back.

The blades wrapped in teal aura began drawing beautiful trajectories as they flashed like meteors.

Whiriririk, kwajik──!

A magnificent sight as if the night sky’s constellations had come alive.

The spirit swords swept freely through the puppet horde.

Each one cut down enemies precisely and sharply as if possessing independent will.

“Hup!”

Chaeng-!

Meanwhile, Adelia herself focused thoroughly on defense.

She skillfully deflected the enemies’ attacks with her meteor sword while firmly holding her position to prevent the encirclement from collapsing.

That was the core role given to Adelia.

The actual attacking was left to others.

Puhwaak-!

Roren burst out from the enemies’ shadows.

The purple aura he wielded swept away the surrounding puppets all at once.

Kwaaaaang-!

While Adelia drew the enemies’ attention and maintained the defensive line, Shadow Knight Roren and the spirit swords slaughtered the enemies.

Each of their roles meshed together perfectly like gears.

Uuuung-!

Of course, Wintershield’s mages weren’t just standing around watching the battle either.

Exploding fireballs scattered orange flames in all directions, and ice spears pouring from the sky flashed like lightning as they pierced through enemies.

Diverse magical lights and roars intertwined to cover the entire battlefield.

“Th-there…!”

However, the difference in numbers couldn’t be ignored.

No matter how sophisticated tactics they employed, it was difficult to completely offset the overwhelming disparity of thousands versus dozens.

Sure enough.

Small gaps began appearing throughout the defensive line.

The puppets didn’t miss those tiny cracks. Like water seeping through cracks in a glass, they persistently burrowed into the defensive line.

Dadadak-!

About ten grotesque puppets with both arms replaced by sharp blades were the first to break through the encirclement.

“Da-damn it! Everyone grab your weapons! Quickly form a defensive formation…!”

A Ruin Guild guard from behind shouted at the top of his lungs while gripping a halberd. He was clearly flustered by the defensive line breaking much faster than expected.

However.

Seurung──!

That much, I could handle directly myself.

“Uh, uhh…?”

The guard made a bewildered sound.

He was confused seeing someone advancing toward the enemy lines alone.

But the moment he realized that ‘someone’ was me, he couldn’t say anything more.

After all, who would dare say anything to a Sword Master?

“…”

Thud, thud-.

I leisurely gripped Feather Sword and walked toward the battlefield with relaxed steps.

Quiet.

Despite the surrounding clamor and chaos, explosions and screams, my mind was calm.

【Lv. 50】

Level 50.

This was growth obtained from Rashutku’s Nightmare.

Physical abilities that had broken through existing limits through desperate battle with an Outer God.

The time had come to directly experience just how much power this growth would demonstrate in actual combat.

Dadadak-!

About ten puppets rushed toward me all at once.

They swung the blades attached to their arms while emanating killing intent. The sharp sound of metal cutting through air rang out simultaneously.

But…

‘…Not dangerous.’

Soul of the Sword Master.

And sword technique talent refined to the extreme gave me absolute confidence.

Enemies of that level were nothing more than moving practice dummies.

Hwaaaak──!

Time slows down.

Even without specifically activating 【True Ritardando】, the movements of the charging puppets began to look sluggish as if swimming underwater.

The greatly increased physical ability stats had expanded my reaction speed.

Simultaneously manifested supersenses. The trajectories of the blades the puppets would swing were drawn in advance as faint afterimages, and their fatal weak points were also clearly marked with red dots.

Combat senses awakened. I could feel every single cell breathing alive.

Everything was vivid and clear as if I could grasp it in my hands.

An exhilarating feeling as if standing in the middle of a battlefield enveloped my entire body.

And.

Buuung-!

The moment the first puppet approached within arm’s reach, cutting through the wind.

The creature raised its right arm, transformed into a sword, high above its head.

And without a moment’s hesitation, it struck down powerfully toward my neck.

A simple but lethal motion.

Ttiring-!

〔Active Skill: Formless Sword has been used.〕

But I didn’t even defend.

I simply summoned the Formless Sword following the trajectory shown by my intuition.

Even though proficiency had risen to 10 percent, Formless Sword was still an incomplete skill. Dealing meaningful damage to enemies with this alone was nearly impossible.

It was nothing more or less than an invisible metal rod.

‘Of course.’

For now, that alone was sufficient.

Thuk-.

The transparent Formless Sword pushed against the puppet’s elbow joint.

The attack’s trajectory twisted in an instant.

Like a river changing direction after hitting a rock, the arm was slightly pushed to the side.

“…!”

The puppet… more precisely, Batu who was controlling it showed signs of confusion.

He had clearly attacked with perfect angle and speed, but suddenly his arm twisted sideways on its own, so he must have been startled.

Most of all, the fact that he couldn’t even grasp how his own attack had gone wrong must have been the most bewildering.

A momentary gap appeared.

And that alone was enough.

Swoosh-!

The Feather Sword flashed, and dark red blood splattered in all directions.

Puppets have the same body structure as humans.

The side of the neck. A strike aimed precisely at the point where the carotid artery passes. The thin, sharp blade pierced through the skin without resistance and cleanly penetrated the vital point.

Spurt-!

The moment I pulled out the Feather Sword, black liquid gushed out like a fountain.

The puppet collapsed sideways like a marionette that had lost its strings. And it no longer moved.

Unlike the other puppets, it didn’t come back to life sewn up with needles and thread, nor did it become material for a chimera. It simply lay sprawled on the floor, having met complete death.

Ding-!

〔You have used the Authority Skill: 【True Eternal Slayer】.〕

Right.

Batu’s puppets were nothing more than mere toys before my authority.

Once dead, that was the end. They would meet complete and eternal rest, impossible to regenerate, fuse, or manipulate.

[Tsk.]

At that moment, someone’s voice echoed in my head.

Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword.

She clicked her tongue regretfully and muttered.

[Why are you in such a hurry? It was the throbbing sound of a carotid artery I’d tasted in so long, if you had let me enjoy it a little more before drawing me out, it would have been much better…]

‘Yeonwoo.’

[…Ah.]

Yeonwoo, who had been rambling, suddenly came to her senses and hurriedly defended herself.

[I’m sorry.]

“…”

[I’ve developed a bad habit. My most recent masters were all ugly, so I keep unconsciously spouting nonsense during combat and interfering…]

‘Let’s be quiet from now on.’

[Yes.]

Silence-.

Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword became quiet again, and I continued fighting the remaining puppets.

Using my Hyperintuition, Formless Sword, and pure swordsmanship talent.

* * *

〔The proficiency of Skill: 【Formless Sword】 has increased. (11%→12%)〕

…

〔Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword is satisfied with the opponent’s heartbeat.〕

〔Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword is satisfied with the opponent’s flesh quality.〕

〔Through continuous combat, your bond with Yeonwoo the Feathered Sword deepens.〕

〔The proficiency of Skill: 【Avatar Manifestation】 has increased. (9%→10%)〕

〔The proficiency of Authority Skill 【Avatar Manifestation】 rises from ‘Lowest’ to ‘Low’.〕

* * *

‘This is…’

The Ruin Guild guard watched Gaon’s battle in a daze.

Actually, he had been expecting something.

After all, Gaon was a Sword Master who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts.

Naturally, he thought Gaon would display overwhelming force like Adelia from the noble families or Roren the Shadow Knight.

But the scene unfolding before his eyes was completely different from his expectations.

There were no wide-area attacks filled with aura sweeping the area. There was no tremendous strength that shook the earth. No flashy sword energy or dazzling techniques could be found.

Rather, it was the opposite.

Simple yet concise movements. Pure sword trajectories with all unnecessary elements stripped away. Perfect restraint that allowed not a single inch of waste.

Gaon extended his sword exactly as much as needed, exactly where needed. There wasn’t a single unnecessary movement or show-off, and with each movement he invariably achieved the intended result.

‘What on earth is that…’

Most of all, Gaon hardly dodged or defended. Yet somehow the enemies’ attacks naturally slid away. They missed by a hair’s breadth or their trajectories went off course.

It looked as if invisible currents flowed around Gaon, and all attacks naturally slipped away following that flow.

How should this be explained?

Distortion of gravity? Manipulation of fate? Alteration of the world’s laws themselves?

All sorts of impossible possibilities flashed through the guard’s mind.

It was a completely different shock from Adelia or Roren the Shadow Knight. If they were surprising for being flashy and overwhelming, Gaon was even more eerie for being too concise.

‘Is this really… something a human can do?’

Strangeness beyond comprehension. It was completely overturning the guard’s worldview.

Each time Gaon’s sword moved indifferently, puppets fell one by one quietly. Too naturally and inevitably, like a play following a predetermined script.

And.

Not long after, all the puppets that had broken through the defensive line had become limp corpses.

“Phew.”

Just then, Gaon let out a deep, long sigh.

And slowly raised his head to look up at the sky.

In that instant, his eyes completely changed.

The calm and indifferent expression from before disappeared, replaced by a sharp and combative aura.

As if the strange battle just now had been nothing more than a simple warm-up.

Whooooo-.

A new tension began to flow over the battlefield.

* * *

Thud-!

It was the moment the last puppet that had broken through the defensive line fell.

Buzz buzz buzz-.

Something in my pocket began vibrating violently.

The compass I had taken from the treasure room of the Rashutku Ruins. Its needle was shaking like mad.

【Twin Compass of Position】

An artifact that the mage engineers of Rashutku had painstakingly created for the Tarosk Twins.

Though it appeared to be one, it was actually a pair of compasses that could be separated into two, each always pointing accurately to the other’s location – a mysterious object.

A tracking device that could always find each other regardless of distance or obstacles.

I had entrusted one of them to Pean.

Normally, the compass needle should have pointed steadily in the direction where Pean was located. But now it was spinning completely randomly, having lost its sense of direction.

What this meant was clear.

‘Powerful magical interference is occurring.’

It meant that magical power so strong that it could completely paralyze the compass’s precise detection ability existed around Pean.

In this situation, there were only a few things that could emit such overwhelming magical power.

Puppet Master Batu’s main body.

And the hideout where he was hiding.

‘Finally found you.’

Swoosh—.

I put the compass back deep into my pocket and raised my gaze.

The battlefield spread out in the distance had already become complete chaos.

The floor was piled high with the remains of puppets, and above them, Adelia and Roren were moving breathlessly.

But their initial leisurely appearance was nowhere to be found.

The blue-green aura emanating from Adelia’s Meteor Sword had grown dimmer than before, and the shadow swords following her had also slowed down.

Shadow Knight Roren’s movements had likewise become sluggish.

A situation where stamina consumption was severe due to endlessly swarming enemies.

The fallen puppets were sewn back together with needles and thread to rise again, or multiple corpses fused together to be reborn as even more massive and grotesque chimeras in an endless vicious cycle.

‘This is a meaningless war of attrition.’

There was no reason to drag this out any longer in this manner.

Pean had found Batu’s main body, and the compass was clearly indicating that fact.

Crack—!

So now, it was time to end all this chaos.

〔MP : 1/1〕

With only.

A single sword strike.

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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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