The Mad Spearman of the Northern Front - Chapter 266

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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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Mad Spearman of the Northern Front (266)
The air split above the crimson Magic Circle.
The moment Arteon gripped his Spear and stepped forward, the Pattern on the Ground hummed faintly.
The Magic Circle’s effect grew stronger as time passed.
Or rather, it felt more like the accumulating strain on my body was suppressing me further.
But regardless of the reason, it was undeniable that Arteon’s situation deteriorated with each passing moment.
With every breath, it felt as though I was dragging a Metal Chunk up from within my body, and the wound on my Left Arm throbbed with heat.
However, the situation of the Battle had shifted considerably.
“Dieeeeeeeee!”
Daren, having lost his left eye, charged toward Arteon without hiding his excitement.
After this fight ended, the moment Belakrod became Emperor, his value as one who had reached 7-Star would rise infinitely.
Truly a golden path.
All he had to do was walk that road.
“I’ll kill you!”
Crash!
The moment he lost his left eye, his value could only plummet.
No matter what qualifier one attached, a Warrior fighting with a single eye was inherently disadvantaged.
And furthermore….
Whoosh.
The instant Arteon vanished into the blind spot created by losing his left eye, Daren felt his reason snap like a twig.
“Graaaaaahhhhh!”
It felt as though Arteon was mocking him deliberately.
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Boom!
Daren’s Sword struck the Imperial Palace Hall wall, radiating tremendous Aura.
The wall surface of the Hall shattered, and the entire Imperial Palace trembled.
Yet Arteon quickly pivoted to his side and instantly repositioned himself behind Daren.
Mort cried out urgently.
“Daren! Maintain Formation! If you break ranks like that…!”
But Daren, before those words even finished,
Boom!
stamped his foot forcefully and hurled himself toward where Arteon had moved.
Whoosh!
The sound of air being torn reverberated heavily.
A slash driven by raw power alone.
Precision had vanished, replaced by fury that bloated every movement.
The angle of the Blade’s descent was excessively wide.
Watching Daren’s Sword path, Arteon slid sideways.
Whoosh!
The tip of Daren’s Sword barely grazed Arteon, cleaving through empty air.
At that sight, Daren cried out.
“Stop running like a coward!”
Boom!
With a powerful push off the ground, Daren’s body surged forward like a charging bull toward Arteon.
Once, twice.
The relentless barrage of attacks had already shattered Daren’s breathing rhythm.
Mort’s expression darkened at the sight.
“Damn it…!”
At this point, I had to match his pace no matter what.
If I let him rampage unchecked like this, everything would fall apart.
Mort shouted.
“Daren, left side! I’ll pressure from the right!”
Mort’s sword came in low.
A precise thrust hidden behind Daren’s wild slash.
As Mort began coordinating with Daren, their combined strength came alive.
Whoosh!
The sword Daren threw aimed menacingly at Arteon’s head.
Of course, the wide motion meant it wouldn’t connect.
But the moment Daren’s attack seized Arteon’s attention, Mort’s blade targeted his abdomen.
‘Land…!’
Mort bit his lip hard without realizing it.
He couldn’t predict the variables that might emerge if the battle dragged on like this.
But just as his blade was about to pierce Arteon’s abdomen.
Swish!
“…!”
The figure that had been right before my eyes vanished.
And in that space.
“What?!”
Daren, struck by something and sent flying, hurtled toward Mort.
Mort hastily withdrew his extended sword and twisted his body.
But even in that situation, Daren’s eyes remained fixed solely on Arteon.
“Move!”
He extended his left hand, pushing Mort aside to clear his line of sight.
This time, I’ll finally…!
Thud!
“…!”
But before Daren could advance, something pierced through his left chest, stopping him cold.
“Gah…!”
A spear shaft shimmering with golden Aura appeared below his vision.
The spear blade had already completely pierced his heart, and crimson blood traced down the shaft.
“Daaaaareeeeeeen!”
Mort charged forward with a thunderous shout, lunging directly at Arteon.
But before he could even close the distance.
Splurch!
The moment the Spear was drawn, blood erupted from Daren’s chest like a fountain, drenching the floor of the Imperial Palace Hall.
Arteon’s gaze shifted toward Mort.
Now only you remain.
His eyes seemed to convey exactly that message.
In that instant, a chill ran down Mort’s spine, and that figure began to loom impossibly larger.
A situation that defied all reason.
‘I… I was overwhelmed…?’
Mort clenched his lips tightly.
They couldn’t possibly lose to someone trapped within an Aura Suppression Magic Circle.
Mort’s eyes fell upon Arteon’s left arm.
The limb was already stained crimson from severe blood loss, and the accumulated suppression from the Magic Circle had drained all color from his face.
Though he was clearly trying to conceal it as much as possible.
‘He too… has reached his limit.’
Where such a monster had emerged from was beyond comprehension, but he was still human.
Continuing to fight like this in such an impossible situation would be impossible.
Clang!
Mort tightened his grip on the Sword in his hand.
Now that his opponent was weakening, he intended to press the advantage completely and end this.
“Hraaaaaaaagh!”
His will to erase the timidity he had just displayed erupted as a roar.
But…
Clang!
“…!”
The scenario Mort had envisioned never materialized.
“Haaah…”
Arteon’s lowered gaze pierced toward Mort like a blade.
Certainly, his assessment had been correct—Arteon’s condition was far from good.
The continued use of Aura within the Aura Suppression Magic Circle intensified the strain on his body with each passing moment, and his physical strength was being depleted at an alarming rate.
But perhaps because of that.
Memories from my past life seemed to overlap.
The recollection of battles fought on that distant Battlefield kept surfacing.
In a sense, this situation represented the very foundation and entirety of who Arteon was.
‘When did I ever…’
End wars by simply swinging a Spear a few times?
Such a trivial Aura Suppression Magic Circle.
‘My weapon is not…’
Aura alone.
Arteon withdrew his momentum, retaining only the bare minimum Aura necessary to stand against his opponent.
At that, Mort’s eyes gleamed with intensity.
‘His strength has waned…!’
As the endless momentum that had poured from his adversary finally faltered, Mort surged his Aura upward once more.
Unaffected by the Aura Suppression Magic Circle, he still possessed a considerable reserve of Aura to discharge.
With this overwhelming power, he intended to crush his opponent beneath his heel.
But that very moment arrived.
Whirrrr!
The Spear in Arteon’s grip spun rapidly and extended toward Mort.
“Hah!”
Mort’s Thrusting came faster than anticipated, forcing Mort to arch his body backward and evade the strike.
What had just…?
Yet his assault was far from finished.
Whoosh! Crack!
The man wielding the Spear swung it in a wide arc, then suddenly kicked off the ground and charged straight at him.
Undoubtedly, a Spear and a Sword.
Two weapons with entirely different advantages.
‘How dare you…enter my domain!’
The Spear’s supreme advantage over the Sword lay in ‘distance’.
The extended attack range that allowed it to strike where the Sword could not reach—that was the Spear’s only true way to triumph over the Sword.
Yet he was abandoning that distance entirely, stepping into the space where his opponent held dominion.
“Foolish bastard.”
The Aura Suppression Magic Circle must have addled his mind.
Either that, or he had grown so arrogant from slaying Daren that he underestimated his foe.
Whatever the reason, his blunder was unmistakable.
Uuuuuuuung!
A brilliant blue Aura erupted violently from Mort’s Sword.
Now that Arteon’s Aura had weakened, he would crush him beneath the overwhelming force of his own power.
But before Mort’s Sword could even fully swing.
Whirrrrrr!
Arteon tucked the Spear into his waist and spun like a top, lowering his body in a single fluid rotation.
In that instant, Iglis, affixed to his form, was wielded at close range.
Clang!
The Aura burst violently just before impact, hurling Mort backward.
And….
Vargas’s Northern Spear Technique unfolded from Arteon’s hands, engulfing Mort.
Clang! Ring! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Though he wielded a Spear, the speed was as if he brandished a shortsword—absolutely devastating.
And the combinations flowed with such dizzying unpredictability that they defied anticipation.
Mort’s pupils trembled.
‘This… this Spear Technique… did such a thing even exist…?’
From his earliest childhood, he had endured grueling training supported by enormous resources.
He had learned most of the renowned Sword Techniques and Spear Techniques across the Continent and the Empire itself, and prided himself on understanding them.
Yet even Mort found that the Spear Technique unfolding before his eyes from Arteon was utterly divorced from conventional knowledge.
Clang!
“Ugh!”
Mort cried out as a searing pain tore through his wrist.
This felt less like pure Spear Technique and more like a fusion with Body Technique.
“Tch!”
Mort clenched his lips tightly.
If he allowed himself to be swept up in his opponent’s momentum, the battle would end before he could attempt anything.
Mort’s eyes flashed with sharp intensity.
‘If I abandon the advantages of Spear Technique and stake everything on rapid consecutive strikes at close range…!’
I simply needed to adjust my fighting style accordingly.
Mort pushed hard off the ground and created distance between himself and his opponent.
With this distance established, I could break the flow of his combination attacks!
But the moment Mort opened up roughly two paces between himself and Arteon—
Whoosh!
Slash!
“…!”
Along with the sharp pain across his cheek, Mort felt a chill run down his spine.
The instant Mort created distance, Arteon had mockingly reverted to the fundamentals of Spear Technique, exploiting its superior range.
Arteon spoke to Mort.
“You surrender distance to one who wields a Spear? You lack even the basics of Military Strategy.”
“…”
Words caught in his throat as a dizzying sensation crashed over him—as though someone had struck the back of his head with a hammer.
‘This… this bastard…’
Wasn’t close-range combat supposed to be his specialty…?
Yet that Thrusting just now—
Despite knowing it was coming, the piercing strike had been too vicious to evade.
Whether I created distance or not…
‘From the start… was he simply in a different league…?’
I had thought suppressing his Aura would suffice.
After all, Aura was the very source of a Warrior’s power.
But now that I considered it, something felt profoundly wrong.
I had suppressed his Aura through the Aura Suppression Magic Circle.
In that state, Daren and I—
The two of us had cornered him, hadn’t we?
Yet despite that, Daren died.
From the very beginning…
“…Damn it.”
There existed a skill gap I could not overcome.
And the moment I realized that.
Thwack!
“Gack…!”
Mort stared at the Spear piercing through his throat with a hollow expression.
Had I endured such agonizing training, climbed to this Realm, only to meet such a pathetic end?
If only I had known it would be so futile….
‘Damn it.’
As his breath ceased, Mort simply bowed his head and dropped to both knees on the ground.
Thud.
Two 7-Star Warriors vanished in such an anticlimactic manner.
And the Archers who witnessed this.
“M-M-Monster…!”
“There’s nothing we can do against him… R-Run!”
“Aaaaaaaaaaah!”
Stained with terror, they rushed out of the Imperial Palace in a desperate stampede.
Watching their flight, Arteon turned his body without a word.
“Hah.”
I could sense it instinctively.
Once I passed through that Hall.
‘…It will be the end.’
Arteon brushed the blood from Iglis and gathered his Mana.
My body felt heavy as lead, and the wound on my left arm throbbed with intensifying pain.
Yet I could not stop.
Step by step.
This battle… was it not the final one?
And the moment Arteon passed through the Hall and entered within.
Creak!
A massive door swung open with a violent screech.
And before it.
“I have been waiting.”
Baolent, standing in an upright posture, spoke as he gazed upon Arteon.

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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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