The Mad Spearman of the Northern Front - Chapter 268

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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 (268)
Krrrrrrrrrrrunch!
The entire Imperial Palace convulsed like some colossal beast thrashing in agony.
Tremors racing up through the ground shook the pillars of the Great Hall, and the ornaments hanging from the ceiling clattered against one another with sharp metallic cries.
Belkakrode’s pupils dilated violently.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
His hand instinctively gripped the armrest of the Imperial Throne.
The tremor was not a single occurrence.
It felt as though something were tearing through layer after layer of the Imperial Palace’s defenses, burrowing inward with relentless force.
“Have you still not eliminated the intruder?”
His voice remained composed, yet the irritation and displeasure beneath it could not be concealed.
At that moment, Baolent, who had been standing quietly to one side, stepped forward.
“…It appears I must attend to this matter, Your Majesty.”
He bowed deeply.
At his gesture, Belkakrode’s gaze gradually settled.
“So… you alone must move to address this.”
The words were measured, yet they carried a tangle of complex emotions.
The troops and warriors stationed within this Imperial Palace.
Each one of them represented the Empire’s most elite military strength.
And on top of that, the Magic Circle suppressing Aura was still in operation.
Under such conditions.
‘So… he has reached even this place.’
Belkakrode’s gaze lowered for a moment.
Incomprehension and unwillingness to acknowledge the truth intertwined within him.
At the same time, a sense of injustice flickered across his mind.
‘What could Sedrian possibly…’
Why did such individuals, why did such beings, converge upon him of all people?
A peculiar emotion crossed Belkakrode’s face. But then.
“Your Majesty.”
Baolent’s voice resonated low and steady.
“I shall always stand at your side.”
His tone was resolute, without the slightest wavering.
As though explaining the very reason for his existence, or as though it had already been proven beyond doubt.
Belkakrode regarded him, then slowly drew up the corners of his mouth.
“Indeed.”
A faint laugh escaped him.
“You are here.”
A being worth more than tens of thousands of soldiers.
An invincible shield protecting him, and the sharpest blade capable of piercing an enemy’s heart at any moment.
Belkakrode leaned back against the Imperial Throne and spoke.
“How dare you set foot in the Imperial Palace, you fool….”
His eyes gleamed with an icy chill.
“Let me show you what the Empire’s blade truly is.”
“I shall obey your command.”
Baolent answered curtly.
He turned and made his way toward the Great Hall’s entrance.
With each heavy footfall against the floor, a peculiar sense of tremor seemed to settle and fade.
Soon the door opened, and his figure vanished from sight.
Left alone in the Great Hall, Belkakrode gazed silently at that door.
The confident gleam that had filled his eyes moments before was gone, replaced instead by emotions too complex to easily decipher.
“….”
Whatever the case may be… the results would soon be known.
Belkakrode exhaled slowly, sinking deeper into the Imperial Throne.
* * *
My form tore through the Palace Corridor like a rending blade.
Kwang!
The ground beneath my feet shattered outright, stone fragments scattering into the air.
A momentary acceleration as space itself seemed to fold.
The tip of the Iglis Spear drove straight toward Baolent’s heart.
But….
Clang!
With the thunderous sound of metal colliding, the spear tip twisted.
Baolent did not retreat a single step.
He angled his sword to deflect the spear blade, while simultaneously shifting his body a half-step.
Not a single wasted movement—only the bare minimum required.
With that microscopic adjustment of angle alone, he completely neutralized my strike.
‘…He deflected it?’
My eyes sharpened in an instant.
Many warriors wield a sword.
But to receive a charge at this speed head-on, and then deflect it?
Baolent’s counterattack came immediately.
Swish!
His sword traced low, aiming for my abdomen.
I arched my back to evade, while simultaneously pivoting on the spear shaft.
Tak!
The spear shaft and sword clashed once more.
Sparks scattered against the Palace Corridor walls.
The sound reverberated off the walls with violent intensity.
The clash of metal, the rupture of air, and the breathing of two warriors intertwined, filling the corridor completely.
Baolent took another step forward.
Thud.
A single step, nothing more.
Yet the crushing pressure contained within that stride drove through the entire Palace Corridor.
He brought his Sword down.
From above to below—a clean, unadorned slash.
Arteon raised his Spear to intercept.
Clang!
The impact rippled through my arm and spread across my entire body.
Due to the Aura-suppressing Magic Circle, I couldn’t absorb the shock with Aura as I normally would.
I had to endure it through pure muscle strength and technique alone.
‘Heavy.’
It wasn’t merely about raw power.
The timing of the force, the angle, the shift of balance—all approached perfection.
Baolent pressed his assault without pause.
Left, right, then overhead again.
His Sword traced short arcs in rapid succession.
Crack! Slash!
The attacks were compact but executed with precision, targeting vital points at blinding speed.
Arteon was driven backward in succession by Baolent’s onslaught.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
With each heel striking the ground, cracks spiderwebbed across the floor.
But when I managed to evade his attacks roughly four times.
“…!”
My eyes flashed as I drove the Spear Shaft into the ground.
Boom!
Using the recoil to propel myself upward, I kicked off the Palace Corridor’s wall.
A diagonal trajectory cutting across the space between wall and ceiling.
Baolent’s pupils trembled ever so slightly at the sight.
‘Fast…!’
Then, twisting mid-air, I thrust the Spear forward as if hurling it.
Not at his front.
At the blind spot of his Sword, toward the shadow of the Palace Corridor.
Yet Baolent didn’t release his grip.
He twisted his wrist, using the flat of his Blade to deflect the Spear Blade.
Ting!
With a sharp metallic ring, Iglis’s trajectory warped.
Seizing that opening, Baolent’s shoulder drove forward.
Crash!
The dull impact of flesh colliding with flesh.
My back slammed hard against the Palace Corridor’s wall, and stone dust scattered into the air.
But there was no time to lean against the wall at leisure.
Arteon immediately pushed off from the wall and advanced once more.
Iglis traced another line through the empty air.
Once, twice, thrice.
Against Arteon’s relentless Continuous Attack, Baolent hastily swung his Sword to deflect each strike.
And as he received every single blow, he understood.
‘It is not mere speed.’
The spacing between attacks.
A trajectory calculated to anticipate where his opponent would respond.
‘This Red-haired Comrade…!’
Baolent’s pupils dilated sharply.
With that, he drove hard against the ground and lunged toward Arteon.
“Hah!”
With a sharp breath.
Clang!
Baolent’s Sword and Arteon’s Spear collided, locking them in a test of strength.
Without this, it seemed impossible to pin down the boy’s footwork.
From a distance of barely a span, Baolent fixed his gaze on Arteon’s eyes.
“You….”
I never imagined you would grow this rapidly.
Did the Battlefield of the Northern Region transform this boy into such a monster?
‘But….’
Baolent’s eyes grew cold and sharp.
“From now on, things will be different.”
Ching!
The moment Sword and Spear separated, sparks dancing between them.
Whoooooooosh!
A colossal whirlwind began to gather around Baolent’s Sword.
* * *
Sedrian came to a halt upon arriving at the Imperial Palace Plaza.
Fragments scattered across the stone floor and the lingering traces of recent combat.
Within the air where smoke and dust had not yet fully settled, the Imperial Palace loomed like some vast creature holding its breath.
That was when it happened.
Two presences approaching from the distance.
Sedrian turned his head to look in that direction.
It was Svein and Duke Carbain.
Both appeared to have just concluded their battles.
Their Armor bore scratches, and their breath still carried the heat of combat.
Upon spotting Sedrian, Duke Carbain immediately straightened his posture.
Not the bearing of a Warrior on the Battlefield, but the courtesy befitting an Imperial Minister.
“Your Majesty.”
Sedrian met him without the slightest falter in his composure.
“I am relieved to see the Duke unharmed.”
A brief and measured greeting.
The two men exchanged no unnecessary words.
Their discussion of the current situation was equally terse.
In truth, the riots outside the Imperial Palace had been entirely suppressed, and the remaining troops were being mopped up.
But before all those matters could be settled.
Crrrrrrrunch!
A thunderous sound erupted from the Imperial Palace, tearing through the air.
It was as though some colossal thing deep beneath the ground were thrashing about.
Boom!
The ground trembled in response.
It was no mere vibration.
The impact traveled up through the soles of their feet, past knees and waist, shaking their chests with tremendous force.
Sedrian and everyone present turned their gaze toward the Imperial Palace.
At the same moment, dust erupted from somewhere along the palace’s outer wall, and another rupture sound echoed from within its unseen depths.
“…What is this.”
Duke Carbain’s expression hardened.
He fell silent for a moment, then muttered in a low voice.
“What in the world… is happening in there?”
No one could answer immediately.
The Imperial Palace, where an Aura-suppressing Magic Circle had been laid.
The very fact that such tremors could be felt from within it was abnormal.
Svein gazed silently at the Imperial Palace.
A faint tension flickered across his cold eyes.
Sedrian, too, kept his mouth closed, staring at the palace’s silhouette.
Everyone present instinctively sensed that the battle unfolding within transcended mere matters of troop strength or numbers.
Soon after, Sedrian spoke.
“We’ll know once we enter.”
Those words prompted nods from those around him. And the moment they began moving toward the Imperial Palace.
Crrrunch!
The Imperial Palace roared again, as though stretching itself.
* * *
Shhhhwaaack!
The very instant an enormous wave of force converged upon Baolent’s sword.
“…!”
Arteon hastily raised Iglis Spear to meet his blade as it thrust forward in a straight line.
And in that moment.
Craaaaaash!
A thunderous sound erupted as Arteon’s body was sent flying backward.
Destructive power that defied all reason.
For a moment, feeling as though my body might shatter, my expression twisted violently.
‘What is this…?’
It was not some crude attack that merely reinforced Aura and crushed with brute force.
It was a piercing Thrusting strike, like an awl severing the very ‘pulse’ of the defensive sequence that followed.
As I was sent flying backward, I hastily regained my balance and lifted my head.
In that instant, something black descended upon my vision.
I instinctively jerked my head to the side.
And in that moment, a burning sensation across my left cheek.
Splash!
Crimson blood scattered like droplets into the air, and Baolent’s eyes tracked the movement of my head.
Though he was feigning composure, it seemed my evasion of that attack had caught him off guard.
“Hah!”
Crack!
I swiftly drove my left fist upward, striking Baolent’s jaw.
The moment his brow twitched in response.
Tap!
With the hand gripping Iglis, I planted it against the ground and drove my foot upward in a sweeping kick toward Baolent’s chest.
Boom!
The attack had been so rushed that I couldn’t properly channel my Aura into it.
‘And yet he blocked that too.’
Baolent, who had deflected an attack I thought completely unpredictable, now seemed almost miraculous.
“…Huh.”
I rose to my feet, exhaling sharply.
I had nearly been caught off guard in that moment, but I had not walked this path so carelessly as to fall to such an assault.
Soon after, I gripped my Spear with both hands and lowered my stance.
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble!
A subtle Aura rippled outward from me, sending vibrations through the air.
And Baolent watched my form in silence.
“…”
Baolent had walked through countless battlefields.
But I could say with certainty—this opponent was unlike any before.
‘To possess such combat ability within an Aura-suppressing Magic Circle… I never imagined such a being could exist.’
Truly beyond all standards.
Perhaps this youth was precisely what the Empire would need most in the days to come.
‘But…’
Conversely, he could become the greatest obstacle to Belkakrode.
Which was why, without fail…
‘I must kill him here.’
Baolent’s eyes deepened with killing intent.
And….
Boom! Crash!
The two figures facing each other drove hard against the ground, hurtling toward one another with ferocious momentum.

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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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