The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 56

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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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Chapter 56

“Attack!”

At Buchae’s command, the bandits rushed forward, brandishing their weapons.

I tilted my neck slightly to evade the bandit’s strike, then drew my blade in a straight, decisive thrust.

“Gasp!”

The bandit collapsed without even a thought of dodging, his heart pierced clean through.

Screech!

Seizing the opening, a bandit to my right thrust a spear at me. I deflected it with my blade’s flat, then severed both the spear shaft and the bandit’s neck in one fluid motion.

The bandit’s breath ceased before his eyes could even close, as if he couldn’t fathom his own death.

-How can someone so young possess such cold resolve?
‘Creatures like these aren’t worth keeping alive.’

I swept my gaze across the bandits with icy indifference.
These demons had burned an entire village and taken children hostage. I felt no guilt whatsoever in ending them.

“What are you doing? All of you, attack at once! He’s just a child!”
“Kill him!”
“Aaaahhh!”

Twenty bandits armed with swords, spears, and sabers charged at me simultaneously.

Whoooosh!

The moment I raised my blade, a silvery chill erupted from the ground, ensnaring the bandits. It was Lunan Slion. She had unleashed her cold aura to slow their movements.

Boom!

I gave Lunan Slion a slight nod of acknowledgment, then moved toward the left flank of the sword-wielding bandit.

“You, you bastard!”

The bandits brought their weapons down simultaneously. I didn’t dodge—instead, I surged forward.

As their blades whistled through empty air, I raised my sword and slashed upward.

The blood-stained blade cut through two bandits at once.

“D-Die!”

A bandit from behind drove a spear downward. The cold steel point shot toward my heart.

I bent at the waist. Strands of hair severed by the spearhead scattered through the air.

“Hyaaah!”

A sword-wielding bandit and an axe-wielding bandit rushed at me simultaneously.

Crack!

I slid backward and severed the neck of the careless bandit.

“Catch him!”
“That rat-like bastard!”
“No need to follow.”

I pivoted on my ankle, executing the Garam Step. My body tilted forward and burst forth like lightning.

“I’ll come to you instead.”

I dove beneath the pursuing bandits and unleashed the Flame Sword Technique.

Whoosh!

The tempestuous sword combination swept through—four bandits’ heads flew.

“Hah.”

I ceased my swordplay and drew a breath when a fierce killing intent erupted from behind.

‘That’s him.’

Buchae, who had been waiting for his moment without stepping forward until now. I didn’t turn around, simply arching my back instead.

Buchae’s great sword sliced through my bangs and passed by. Golden strands of hair scattered through the air.

“How—how did you—!”
“Well.”

I raised my blade toward the panicked Buchae’s throat.

Clang!

My stance wasn’t properly set, so the strike lacked full power, but Buchae couldn’t withstand the blade and was sent flying backward.

“Damn it! Tear him apart!”
“Aaaahhh!”

Buchae and the bandits wielding various weapons surged forward like a wave. Rusted swords and spears aimed for my heart, while thick axes came crashing down at my head.

Boom!

I drew in a breath and stepped into the true stance. I swung my sword infused with Manywa Force from left to right.

Manywa Force. Flame Wind.

The blade of heat riding the wind split through Buchae and the bandits simultaneously.

“Ugh….”
“Wh-what?”

The bandits, unable to comprehend their own deaths, fell in halves.

“Aaaahhh!”
“A m-monster.”
“How is there a child like that….”

The remaining bandits trembled, their weapon-holding hands shaking as they stumbled backward.

“Your leader is currently….”
“Ha, this is ridiculous.”

A man emerged from the undergrowth, his upper garment loosened and disheveled. He appeared to be around thirty years old. His youthful face carried a vicious aura. I could tell from the sheer malice alone—this man was the root of all the trouble.

“Boss!”
“Leader!”

Hope flickered across the bandits’ terrified faces. So that man was indeed Seolho Chae’s leader.

“Getting wiped out by some brat? That’s pathetic. We’ll be nothing but a laughingstock if we join the Nambuk Alliance like this.”

The man dangled a bottle of liquor from his waist and brought it to his lips, chuckling. Even with his men dead, he showed no anger—merely amusement at the situation.

“Your face and clothes reek of nobility. Did you come from some prestigious family?”

The bandit leader grinned wickedly, pointing at Raon and Lunan in turn.

“Lucky me. I was worried the gift wouldn’t be enough, but I’ll take you two as hostages. The heavens haven’t abandoned Brakan after all.”

The bandit leader, who had just revealed his name as Brakan, drew the sword slung across his back. The blade, thick as a log, spun through the air like a leaf caught in the wind.

‘So Brakan is the leader.’

The name matched what Rimer had told me about Seolho Chae’s leader. His power seemed to be at the intermediate level among Aura users.

The strongest opponent I had faced so far.

Yet I felt no tension. This was an opponent I could defeat with ease.

“Come at me. Since you’re a young master, I’ll go easy on you for a few exchanges.”

Brakan chuckled and curled four fingers in a beckoning gesture.

“Fine.”

I gave Lunan a silent look telling him to stay put, then stepped forward.

“Let’s see how strong this little brat really….”

I thrust my sword toward Brakan’s neck while he was distracted and muttering.

Ching!

The blade, infused with the power of the Manwha Gong, surged toward Brakan’s throat.

“Huh!”

Brakan exhaled sharply and spun his saber in a wide arc. The blade rotated like a windmill, evading the trajectory of my sword.

Clang!

With a violent impact, both Brakan and I were driven backward simultaneously.

“Ho, is that all you have?”

Brakan’s eyes gleamed like those of a starving beast.

“This is going to be fun!”

He burst into laughter and charged forward, adding rotational force to his saber before bringing it down in a devastating strike.

I didn’t meet the attack head-on. Instead, I twisted my waist to evade it.

Boom!

The saber struck the ground, splitting the earth with tremendous force.

“Kahahaha!”

Brakan laughed like a madman, unleashing a relentless barrage of saber strikes. As the enormous blade dominated the space, my room to maneuver continued to shrink.

“If you keep dodging like that, you’ll eventually take a hit and die, won’t you?”
“That’s not your concern.”

I maintained a calm gaze while continuing to employ footwork techniques and deflecting his saber strikes.

“Tsk, if that’s all you’ve got, there’s no point in watching anymore.”

Brakan thrust his jaw forward and swung his blade. The greatsword caught the wind, flashing with azure light as it unleashed a violent surge of energy.

“Die where you stand!”

As his sword rose toward the heavens and his movements expanded, a crimson bolt of lightning descended upon my vision.

Ten Thousand Flower Technique, First Form.
Flame Spirit.

A blossom of flame bloomed at the tip of my silver blade, riding the wind as it unfurled.

A deafening crack split the air.

The savage aura cradled within that small flame severed Brakan’s blade and tore through his flank.

“Gahhhhh!”

Brakan seized the sword embedded in his side and screamed.

“You… you bastard!”

He wasn’t the leader for nothing—the force with which he grasped the blade and pushed was tremendous.

“Perish!”

Brakan gripped the sword lodged in his flank with his left hand while his right brought his blade toward my throat.

“Futile.”

I tilted my neck slightly, evading his half-severed blade, then used his own force against him to drive my sword further to the right.

“Arghhhh!”

A torrent of blood erupted from Brakan’s flank. He released his grip on the blade and staggered backward.

“What are you doing?! Kill him! Do you want to die here?!”
“Ugh!”
“L-let’s go!”
“Save the leader!”

At his cry, the remaining bandits rushed forward in a wave.

“Hah.”

I steadied my breathing and swept my blade in a wide arc. Drawing upon the fundamental swordplay of Zigheart, I severed the neck of a bandit charging toward me and slashed across his legs.

“Gack!”
“Aaaagh!”
“Urgh!”

The wall of bandits crumbled, their screams piercing the air.

‘Where is he?’

I swept my blade and searched for Brakan’s position. He was gone. Even my aura sense couldn’t locate him.

‘He fled!’

A bandit leader using his subordinates as a shield to escape—how perfectly fitting for a bandit.

Grind.

I clenched my teeth and surged my aura outward.

‘There’s no time.’

Unlike me, Brakan would have already mapped out all the surrounding terrain. If I let him slip away now, catching him would be nearly impossible.

Whoooosh.

I drew my mana to its maximum and brought my blade down with devastating force.

As the crimson-stained blade fell like lightning, the heads of every bandit before me were severed clean from their bodies.

“Gurrgh….”
“Aaah!”

The bandits collapsed with vacant eyes, unaware of what had befallen them.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!”
“No, no! We can’t win! It’s a monster!”
“Leader, Leader! Where are you?!”
“That bastard ran away!”
“We surrender! We surrender!”

The remaining bandits screamed in despair. The moment they realized their leader had fled, they all dropped their weapons and fell to their knees.

“Lunan!”

I surveyed the surrendering bandits before turning to Lunan Slion.

“I’m going after the leader. If these bastards try anything, don’t hesitate to kill them.”
“Got it.”

Lunan Slion answered decisively while holding the children close. The bandits’ faces went pale.

“Then.”

I activated the Ring of Fire and Manywa Gong, pushing off the ground with explosive force.

I entered the forest where the bandits had emerged from, opening my senses wide and scanning with my eyes.

‘Where is he?’

The bandits had torn through the forest recklessly, making their trail difficult to follow.

But they couldn’t hide their sound.

‘Southwest.’

My hearing, sharpened through Seolho Chae’s training, caught the rustling of bushes moving in the southwest direction.

Boom!

I dashed like a gale toward the sound. Before long, I sensed Brakan’s presence, and his back came into view.

‘What?’

Brakan wasn’t alone. He was sprinting through the forest like a madman, cradling a woman in his arms.

“That’s far enough.”

I pushed my Garam Step to its absolute limit, cutting off Brakan’s path.

“Damn it! How did you catch up!”

Brakan’s lips trembled as he stumbled backward.

“Don’t come any closer! I’ll kill her right now if you do!”

He pressed his large blade against the woman’s throat, making his threat clear.

“I’ve got nothing left to lose now. One wrong move and she’s dead!”
“Then you die too.”

I refused to yield to his threats. Activating my Mana Craft and Ring of Fire, I advanced slowly toward him.

‘Showing weakness because of a hostage would be the worst mistake.’

I needed to demonstrate that the hostage was utterly useless—only then would he panic and lose his composure.

And truthfully, this hostage meant absolutely nothing.

“Curse it all!”

Buchae let out a curse and hurled the woman he’d been holding away from him.

“Hah!”

I lunged forward and caught the falling woman with my left hand before she hit the ground.

“Th-thank you.”

The moment the woman with the clean features nodded her head in gratitude, a blue serpent burst forth from her sleeve.

“Done!”

Brakan’s cheers echoed across the battlefield.

“What are you doing?”

I smiled coldly and brought my sword down with my right hand.

Thwack!

The blade pierced through the serpent’s head and drove straight into the woman’s heart.

“Gasp… How…!”
“You said the bandits numbered thirty-nine. You’re the last one.”
“You… you madman, counting like that…!”

The woman couldn’t even close her eyes as she died, too stunned to comprehend.

“For a hostage, she had a rather refined face.”

But that wasn’t all. On the woman’s finger gleamed a crimson ring—the mark of a Snake Sorceress.

The bandit count was one thing, but that ring and her composed features told me she was no hostage.

“Who… who are you!”

Brakan, the Seolho Chae Bandit leader, let out a desperate cry. Realizing escape was futile, he collapsed to his knees, his jaw trembling.

“You seemed pleased enough when you were the ones doing the killing.”

I withdrew my blade from the woman’s chest and approached Brakan.

“G-get away!”

Brakan screamed and swung his sword wildly. The ferocity that had burned in his eyes when we first met now flickered with terror.

“Attacking villages, plundering their goods, and taking children as hostages—even demons wouldn’t stoop so low.”
-My apologies, but there are quite a few demons capable of such acts. Countless, in fact.
“…”

I ignored Wrath’s remark and continued toward Brakan.

“Shut your mouth!”

Brakan sprang to his feet like a grasshopper and drew his blade. Aura flooded the weapon, casting its edge in brilliant blue light.

The Ring of Fire had already deciphered all of his martial techniques. I sidestepped effortlessly and unsheathed my sword.

Shing!

Brakan’s right arm fell to the ground.

“Ahhhhh!”
“You don’t deserve to scream.”
“W-wait! I’ll give you the elixir! The one we took from that village… gack.”

Without hesitation, I severed Brakan’s neck. His grotesque head tumbled away across the ground.

“Hah…”

I caught my breath and sheathed my sword.

‘He mentioned an elixir.’

He’d said he attacked the village because of an elixir. It had to be on his body somewhere.

I searched through Brakan’s clothes and found a small pouch.

“This must be it.”

I opened the pouch. Inside lay a single flower bud that hadn’t yet bloomed. Curiously, half its petals were blue and half were crimson.

“All this death for this?”

I frowned as I examined the flower bud.

This was a Two-Tone Flower—a rare elixir containing both fire and water essence.

Rare, yes, but hardly powerful enough to justify annihilating an entire village.

“Tsk.”

I regretted killing Brakan so easily.

-Such is human greed. I observe far more desires in the human realm than I ever did in the Demon Realm. What a delightful world this is.

I didn’t respond to Wrath’s words. Not out of dismissal, but because he was right—there was nothing to say.

“Hmm?”

As I turned to leave with a bitter taste in my mouth, my head suddenly throbbed, and a piece of knowledge inscribed in the Thousand Flower Scripture surfaced in my mind.

Duotone Flower.
This flower that never withers—its true form was not what I was seeing.

‘If I had that, I could create an elixir of far greater potency… wait?’

The moment I grasped the true nature of the Duotone Flower through the knowledge of the Thousand Flower Scripture, I sensed movement in the southern brush.

Rustle.

A young man emerged from the undergrowth. He wore a leopard-skin vest and a yellow headscarf wrapped around his forehead. He looked like a hunter, or perhaps a bandit.

“Huh? It’s already finished?”

He smacked his lips upon seeing the corpse of the Seolho Chae Bandit at his feet.

“All this effort to break through Zigheart’s encirclement and rescue him, only for this.”

The man in the leopard-skin vest lifted his head and met my gaze.

“Did you do this? Impressive.”
“Nambuk Alliance?”

The yellow headscarf was one of the emblems of the Nambuk Alliance.

His sudden appearance here and his regret upon seeing the Seolho Chae Bandit both confirmed his affiliation with the Nambuk Alliance.

“I’m called Rector.”

He introduced himself without hesitation.

‘Rector.’

Upon hearing the name Rector, I furrowed my brow. It was a name I had encountered in my previous life.

A genius swordmaster who entered the Nambuk Alliance with a single blade and became the master of a major mountain stronghold within ten years.

Rector was a true warrior of an entirely different caliber from the Seolho Chae Bandits’ leader.

“Did you take the elixir that bastard was carrying?”
“What if I did?”

I nodded. Since I had been examining the Two-Tone Flower when he arrived, there was no way to hide it.

“Bold. Your judgment is surprisingly good for your age.”

His gaze shifted toward the Snake Sorceress.

“Your combat prowess is exceptional too. That’s where such confidence comes from, I suppose.”

Rector’s eyes, which had swept over Brakan’s headless corpse, turned back to me.

“A descendant of a noble house. And a direct bloodline of the Six Emperors’ Zigheart, no less. The absence of the Flame Sword mark suggests you’re still a trainee. Hmm, what should I do?”

He toyed with the sword at his waist, licking his lips with his tongue.

“Should I kill you?”

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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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