The Knight Who Devours Magic - Chapter 66

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 66. The Threat to Drasen
“Screeeee!”
“Shrieeeek!”
“Roooaaarrr!!”
“Your Highness!”
The cries of the monster horde beyond the City Wall tangled with the shouts of soldiers, washing over his ears in chaotic waves.
Munno, who had been lost in thought, finally lifted his head.
‘Right. Now isn’t the time to worry about causes.’
Someone may have deliberately orchestrated this crisis.
Whether that suspicion held truth, and if so who the culprit might be — there was no point puzzling over it now.
First, he had to deal with the Monster Wave bearing down on Drasen.
Click.
— When facing large numbers, anything can happen. Always wear your helmet.
Tap.
Unlike the armor that had become part of his body, the helmet felt oddly foreign against his skin, though it posed no real discomfort.
“Prepare the archers. I’m going first. Everyone else holds the wall!”
“Your Highness, are you really—?!”
Munno did not answer the knight’s protest, instead hurling himself down the face of the towering City Wall.
Thud.
Crack.
Upon landing, his legs drove deep into the earth up to his calves; he extracted them with ease and fixed his gaze forward.
The Northern Region had fallen quiet after the Behemoth horde was brought down — yet only four days later, a fresh Monster Wave surged toward Drasen’s gates.
Leading the swarm were goblins, chased by knolls; and behind the knolls loped snow-white furred humanoid beasts — yetis.
Over a thousand monsters, easily.
Yet he felt no dread.
‘Tier 0, 1, and 3 respectively.’
With the helmet in place, he could ignore the goblins’ paralytic spittle and the knolls’ arrows without concern.
His only focus: the dozen or so yetis — the tier-3 threats.
So.
“I’ll kill them all.”
Bang!
Munno’s body became a black wind itself, surging forward into their ranks.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump.
He ran like a mounted knight, his tremendous weight propelling him forward at wind-like speed.
The acceleration he achieved over short distances already far surpassed any ordinary beast or horse.
“Screech!?”
He watched the goblins’ small eyes widen in shock as he closed the distance in a heartbeat.
— If my strength were lacking, I would crush the weak first to build momentum.
— But if my strength is overwhelming……
‘Then strike at the head of the pack.’
Whoosh.
Recalling his father’s counsel, Munno targeted the largest goblins with the densest Demonic Energy and extended Metal Chains from all four limbs.
Swish.
Crack.
The chains, now boasting an effective range of fifty meters, burst the heads of four goblins simultaneously.
“Die!!”
Whip.
Slash-slash-slash.
His ‘sword’ then whirled like lightning, becoming a Blade Whip that moved with fluid grace, and in one sweeping arc severed the necks of roughly a dozen goblins ahead of him.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Croak!?”
“Squeak?”
Some froze in terror for a moment, but the goblin horde already being driven by the knolls couldn’t stop, couldn’t escape.
Crash-bang-bang!
“Screeeech!”
Still shrieking, they were forced into the path of the Blade Whip as it continued its relentless arc, and one by one they surrendered their lives.
Some of the countless goblins pushed through to close distance with Munno.
Soon their eyes blazed red as they lashed out desperately with small bone blades and paralytic spittle — but none of it meant anything before the ‘black beast.’
Tap-tap-tap!
Ting!
Their trivial strikes left not even a scratch upon the black beast’s carapace.
“Hmph!”
Bang!
With a snort, the shoulder and elbow charge that rushed toward him sent him tumbling across the ground in an instant.
A single human carving a path straight through the green tide.
The soldiers atop the City Wall stood with gaping mouths, watching the scene unfold below.
Then a tremendous cheer erupted.
“Uwaaaaah!”
“Long live the Grand Prince!”
“Long live the Black Knight!!”
The soldiers, who had been trembling with fear at the approaching swarm of monsters, finally began to take heart.
Yet even as Munno’s blade held them at bay, some monsters broke through and rushed straight toward the City Wall.
“All units, focus! Nock arrows!!!”
The soldiers began preparing for combat under the knights’ direction.
The bloodshot eyes of the countless goblins swarming toward the fortress fixed upon the light streaming between the gates.
They believed their small frames and weapons could force the gate bars open and breach the wall, and soon they began converging in that direction.
And toward such creatures.
“Fire!!”
Thwick-thwick-thwick-thwick-thwick.
A hail of arrows poured down from the City Wall.
And the eyes of the knights commanding those soldiers could not tear themselves away from the frontmost line of battle where Munno continued to shine.
‘How is this even possible?’
‘What happened to the Grand Prince in the interim?’
‘That armor, that sword, and those movements…….’
As knights themselves, they could discern Munno’s martial prowess all the more keenly.
“At least when facing multiple opponents, he may surpass the Lord himself…….”
At Larry’s unconscious murmur, all those around him nodded in agreement.
“I see them climbing up the wall! Prepare positions!”
“Yes, sir!”
Until Sir Gunter’s shout rang out at the sight of goblins scaling the City Wall, most of the knights could only gaze in awe at Munno’s combat.
Thus praised even by the knights, Munno now faced a wave of grayish-brown humanoid dogs—a tier higher than the green goblin tide.
“Growl!”
“Grrrrrrr!”
Roughly two hundred Knolls—fewer in number than the goblin swarm.
Yet their actual combat strength was far superior.
They had established themselves as apex predators over goblins and lesser monsters in the Northern Mountain Range, wielding their distinctive organization and combat culture with weapons as their trademark.
Monsters that grew far stronger when massed together rather than fighting as individuals—now two hundred strong gathered before him.
Yet.
“Hmph!”
To Munno in his current state, they were nothing more than slightly oversized rabble.
Crash!
He accelerated forward and plowed through with sheer force, and the Knoll formation crumbled in an instant.
Shriek.
Whoosh.
The Blade Whip swept through a radius of ten meters or more like wind, beheading the Knolls as though they were mere scarecrows.
“Huff!”
Crash-thud.
Bang.
Leaping skyward, the Metal Chains he unfurled in all directions burst the heads of what appeared to be the alpha specimens among the Knoll pack with perfect precision.
Even as he performed acrobatic feats mid-air, the Blade Whip wielded below him proved more than adequate for the slaughter of Knolls beneath.
“Screeeee!”
“Clang!”
“Shriek.”
As the black calamity advanced and the pack’s leaders and comrades fell in droves, even the cohesive Knoll formation began to fracture.
And then.
“Growl!”
The moment the final alpha fell.
“Screeeee!”
The Knoll pack, just like the goblins, began scattering in all directions to escape the black calamity.
‘Catching them all would be too much.’
They were certainly more dangerous than goblins.
But the true threat came from the dozen creatures rushing in from behind.
“Screeeeeee!”
Thud. Bang. Thud.
Massive, bipedal fur-covered beasts—each larger than most bears.
Creatures that wielded monstrous strength proportional to their bulk, yet moved with a speed that belied it, and possessed the coordination of intelligent humanoids.
These Yetis were known to serve as sentries at the entrance leading toward the heart of the Northern Mountain Range.
In Drasen, the standard response when encountering them was immediate retreat.
‘So they’ve made it this far….’
But he had no choice.
Whip-crack.
A low hum.
‘I have to take down every last one of them.’
As he ceased his flurry of strikes with the Blade Whip, the dark, rigid form of his Two-Handed Sword emerged, its blade reflecting the sunlight.
“Roooaaaah!”
A colossal Yeti lunged forward, releasing a roar mere inches from his face.
Even after witnessing him slaughter goblins and a pack of Knolls, the beast showed no fear.
Perhaps it possessed the strength to match what he had done.
Perhaps.
‘You’re bluffing, bastard.’
Acceleration.
A sharp crunch.
The moment he decided, time seemed to slow around him as his body flooded with overload.
A deep hum.
First, he slipped beneath the Yeti’s boulder-like fist—three times larger than his own head—by dropping his upper body.
Using the forward momentum of his shifting center of gravity, he drove low into the creature’s core.
And then.
Impact.
‘Wind Slash.’
A whistling hiss.
Planting his feet and rising in one motion, he drew the Two-Handed Sword upward in a vertical arc.
A tearing shriek.
The black, unyielding blade, wrapped in brilliant light, split the Yeti from groin to crown.
A wet spray.
As the creature’s blood erupted across the field, the charging Yetis ahead stumbled in horror.
“Screee!?”
“Roooaaah!”
“Raaaagh!”
The Yetis, which had been charging toward the City Wall, pivoted in fury at the death of their kin and surged toward him.
Boom-boom-boom-boom.
These towering monstrosities, tall enough to dwarf a mounted knight, pressed in from all sides faster than cavalry, their murderous intent palpable.
A sharp metallic snap.
In that instant, Munno used the recoil of his Metal Chains to launch himself backward, flipping through the air toward a point ten meters ahead.
Bang. Bang!
“Raaaagh!”
Several Yetis, momentarily losing sight of him, lashed out at one another with their massive fists before belatedly tracking his movement.
“Screeeee!”
“Raaaagh!”
The enraged creatures wheeled as one, and three of them leaped skyward in pursuit.
Bang!
Their jumping power, incongruous with their massive bulk, was overwhelming.
In an instant, the creatures closed the distance in midair behind him.
Yet Munno only laughed.
‘Perfect.’
A sharp metallic whip-crack.
Four strands of Metal Chains whipped out, ensnaring the necks and arms of two of the Yetis as Munno’s body pivoted violently through the air.
His entire frame traced a wide arc against the sky.
A deafening crash.
“Screeeee!?”
The first Yeti’s fist, now swinging at empty space, whistled through the void.
“Screeeech!”
The two Yetis, their necks bound tight by Metal Chains, thrashed about in irritation, clawing desperately to tear free.
“Kch?”
“Krgh?”
If only that strange, sudden draining sensation hadn’t hit them.
“Die!”
And then a black Two-Handed Sword drove straight through one beast’s throat.
Squelch.
“Gack!?”
The remaining Yeti, losing its balance mid-air, tumbled forward and crashed to the ground.
Crash.
Thud.
“Kee?”
Now the remaining Yetis numbered one with Source Demonic Energy partially drained, reeling and stumbling with a shattered skull, and nine more still intact.
“Kraaagh!”
“Screeeeach!”
The Yetis’ fury at being toyed with grew fiercer by the moment, their attacks accelerating.
Yet still the battle tilted overwhelmingly against them.
“Come on, you brutes!”
Whoosh.
Munno turned and bolted toward the Northern Mountain Range.
Already moving at breakneck speed, he wielded the four chains that extended from his limbs to propel himself faster still, launching into the air in three-dimensional, acrobatic movements that toyed mercilessly with the Yetis.
Though now and then a boulder-like fist or steel-hard leg from one of them would catch him.
Bang!
“Ugh!”
But whenever Munno took such a hit, he repaid it with a lethal wound—or a life.
“You bastard, hah!”
Crack.
“Gurrrgh!”
And each time he strangled a dying Yeti with his Metal Chains to finish it completely.
Crunch.
“Hagh… hagh…”
Munno, wobbling and spitting blood, seemed about to collapse at any moment—yet his movements quickened again as his strength surged back.
Thud.
“Krrgh?”
And so the Yetis fell one by one, their bodies crumpling to the earth.
“Kuu—!?”
The last Yeti, its fury turning to terror, spun around to flee.
Squelch.
A massive blade drove straight through the back of its skull.
Thud.
Collapse.
“Hgh… hgh… Thanks for running, you damned beasts.”
Whoosh.
Spray, spray, spray.
Blood cascaded from the final fallen Yeti’s shattered skull.
‘That was close.’
Through the Metal Chains binding the creature’s ankle, Munno absorbed its Demonic Energy, but he frowned as he noticed his wounds healing slowly.
‘As expected, monsters aren’t efficient.’
Each individual Yeti—undeniably a third-tier monster—radiated Demonic Energy close to that of a 4th Circle Mage, yet strangely the conversion ratio to Source Mana was poor.
Worse than he’d anticipated.
Of course, conversion did still occur, however meager, which made these reckless battles possible—but the drain was significant.
“It hurts. Damn it.”
But there had been an unexpected discovery.
‘More durable than I thought.’
Munno smiled, noting his armor—already scratched and dented in places.
Even the Yetis’ inhuman strength, which seemed capable of shredding ordinary steel in an instant, had failed to destroy his suit completely.
Not without damage, certainly, but that was remarkable.
And there was one more gain.
Acceleration—more precisely, the energy efficiency of the secret technique within the Drasen Grand Sword Art had improved.
‘The mana consumption is becoming far more significant than the caloric burn now.’
I could still feel my weight dropping moment by moment, sense the energy draining away, but the proportion had shifted drastically since before.
Most of the power was being generated not from burning calories, but from consuming mana.
‘If I can just raise the efficiency a bit more…….’
A few promising possibilities took shape in my mind, yet I still couldn’t glimpse a technique worth passing down to the clan.
The fundamental problem remained: whether it was even possible to store mana while using the Gluttony Hardening Technique…….
Crack.
My thoughts scattered the moment I finished healing all my internal injuries with the absorbed energy.
“This isn’t the time for that.”
My vision snapped back into focus.
Looking at Drasen’s northern City Wall, still seeming to writhe beneath that verdant haze, Munno resumed his sprint.
And on that day.
Every soldier in Drasen witnessed firsthand how far a single knight could slaughter through a multitude of monsters.
It was seared into their eyes.

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