Chapter 169: The Knights’ Spring (4)

Perhaps it was because he had watched baseball games before.

Lee Han knew nothing about baseball at first, but he had to watch some games thanks to the non-commissioned senior officer he had become close with when he was in the military. That man was a baseball fan, and knowing the hobby of a high-ranking senior was part of the natural cycle of the military ecosystem.

-What does this all even mean??

However, at first, none of it made sense to him. After all, he knew nothing about baseball, not the rules, not even how to win. Of course, he also didn’t know about batting average¹ or on-base percentage².

But gradually, he developed an eye for baseball (unwillingly), and at some point he started rooting for a team. When the team he rooted for won, his mood would skyrocket throughout the day, but when they lost, the opposite happened, and he’d be all depressed all day.

After repeating that cycle of heaven and hell more than enough times, at some point he even started watching fall ball³.

-They really do baseball during this season, huh?

He’d give the opposing team the highest praise, and he’d feel sick whenever the team he rooted for lost. That was when he experienced how one’s blood pressure could rise up so high in real time.

At one point, instead of playing foot volleyball with his comrades during physical exertion, he practiced catching a ball, throwing it, and hitting it with a bat.

He wanted to experience firsthand what kind of exercise the players were doing so he could curse the players better.

Because of that…

-Wow, this is crazy hard.

He felt it directly with his bones that baseball wasn’t an easy sport.

Throwing the ball was hard.

Hitting it was even harder.

But, what surprised him the most was that the ball was harder and heavier than he thought. Every time he threw it with all his might, his elbow and shoulder felt like they were being torn apart.

Then, there were the breaking balls⁴.

He had watched a video on how to throw breaking balls and started practicing it. The whole thing felt several times harder than throwing a fastball. With fastballs, only his elbow and shoulder would suffer, but with breaking balls, his wrist was added to the mix.

After experiencing that, Lee Han finally knew why pitchers often ran into problems where they said their elbows were fucked and got into surgeries.

Ever since then, he stopped cursing at pitchers and stopped watching baseball. But, even though he couldn’t curse at them anymore, he kept doing the exercise. Eventually, playing catch became his hobby, and he’d also practice his breaking balls occasionally.

Also, since it was the first hobby he ever developed in his pitch-black military life, he wanted to practice enough so that he could join a pro team when he was discharged.

But just like the saying, the best-laid plans of mice and men.

I never thought this is how I’m going to use it…

Lee Han nodded to himself, telling himself that nothing learned in life was useless. Then, he stretched his body.

“Alright, I just need to throw it in the direction you pointed at, right? Do you want me to use a cutter⁵ or a slider⁶?”

“…What the hell are you talking about?”

“This and that.”

“Okay, let’s do that.”

“…Why are you being so obedient all of a sudden?”

“I’m not the one doing it, so who cares.”

“Hey…!”

This irresponsible fuck…

Shirking responsibilities after ordering me like that…

Though he grumbled…

“If you’re scared, then don’t do it.”

“…Thanks for the provocation.”

The provocation was so wonderful that Lee Han wouldn’t even be able to say that he was scared even when he really was. He snickered.

Anyway…

“I’m gonna crush them no matter what anyway. Even if you aren’t here.”

Indeed. He had no intention of leaving the magic freaks alone.

That was why…

Crack-!

“I’m gonna hit you if you miss.”

“As if I can miss.”

“That was a joke, you’re no fun.”

Lee Han turned his body.

Before this, the guy told him that they’d need strength, accuracy and speed to intercept that huge castle. That was why, at first, Lee Han thought about using the Sun Piercing Spear, but…

It won’t do the job well.

The Sun Piercing Spear was powerful, but it wasn’t a technique that was easy to control.

But…

Crackle-!

Well, let’s see what else I can do, shall we?

He used Airwalking, but this particular one had a different flow from ordinary Airwalking. The direction of his body kept changing as if he was floating.

Woooong-!

The flow of power gradually gathered.

At one point, the flow became so strong that even the air trembled as it concentrated on him. Gradually, he became a small typhoon.

The technique he was using was something that was derived from the Taoist’s legends, the martial arts of Kunlun—the land of the immortals. He added his own interpretation and twist in it.

This skill, which he barely completed during his clash with Tristan, was a technique to rotate his body, turning him into a small typhoon that could become a shell to pierce through his opponent’s defenses.

-The Cloud Dragon Great Eight Style.

Under the heavens, there was nothing that could stop the movement of a dragon playing in the clouds.

Boom-!

Lee Han’s body flew. His speed as he flew towards the enemy, rivaled the speed of the ejected capsule.

And then…

Whoosh-!

A single spear flew faster than Lee Han, who was flying like a shell.

As if it was guiding him.

“──”

Lee Han turned toward the direction the spear was going without a moment’s hesitation.

After all, the direction the spear was going was…

There’s the so-called gap!

Lee Han curled up.

Just like in baseball, what he needed to destroy the bat—in this case, the big castle—was speed, power, and an unhindered rotation.

Crackle-!

His body that had turned into a small typhoon, was curled into a ball. With his rotation left unhindered, he scraped away the magic field surrounding the Magic Tower.

Unstoppable, just like a razor blade. Or rather, a saw blade.

Crack-!

Then, the whole Magic Tower shook.

“Am I dreaming…?”

Seeing this spectacle, Patrick’s mouth was wide open in disbelief. Some people could fly, he knew that, but what the knight just did was turn himself into a small typhoon and flew off before mercilessly assaulting the Magic Tower.

…It was the kind of thing that would make people think that he was high on drugs if he were to tell it to others. However, that was what he truly saw, and it left him dumbfounded.

But…

“As expected, it’s not enough.”

“Sir Knight?”

“Back off.”

“!!”

Chill-!

Suddenly, a chilling atmosphere enveloped the knight beside him, and Patrick felt his legs turning into jelly. Not only that, he felt that he was about to die.

That’s how deadly the aura the knight was emitting.

Wooong-!

A red haze began to envelop the knight’s body.

Crackle-!

It was the only killing intent in the world which could turn tangible, and it held the destructive power to split the ground and cause damage to surrounding buildings.

The man born under the Chaotic Star gathered his killing intent in his spear.

Crack-!

This spear was just a normal spear that anyone could obtain in the empire, but after being infused with his killing intent, it felt like the spear had the power to pierce through anything.

The knight’s unique power, which was called [Red Combat Technique] by his master, Duke Blake, gradually concentrated in the spear.

Then, the spear…

Whoosh-!

Shot out, drawing a red trajectory.

The speed that it flew out was beyond anything that could be produced by a human being. It was as if it was shot out from a harpoon gun. Then, it hit the shaking Magic Tower.

Rumble-!

“Done.”

The spear wasn’t just thrown haphazardly. This guy—the only person who was able to see the gap in the magic field—had thrown it right through said gap to properly crush the already unstable magic field.

“…This thing lasted for a thousand years? How ridiculous.”

After a thousand years, even the sturdiest castle walls would’ve been replaced. Even the castle’s blueprints would’ve been lost to the passage of time.

And yet these guys kept their ‘walls’ up for that long without doing anything to it…

“It’s nothing but a large target.”

How foolish.

The spear he had thrown wasn’t even something he specially prepared for this occasion, they were just two old spears he bought from a random blacksmith. And yet, it was enough to cause this much destruction.

“That thug’s gonna eat them whole.”

The knight ran with a cold sneer.

If I dawdle, that beast would eat all the good parts.

With that thought in mind, the knight ran with all he had.

“…Are such knights normal in the South?”

The boy, who had crouched down at some point, was dumbfounded.

How could such monsters exist?

And that was how the boy’s small misunderstanding about the South began.

Crackle-!

Just like that, the magic field surrounding the Magic Tower was destroyed.

The magic field that had lasted a thousand years was destroyed in an instant. Moreover, the destruction of the magic field didn’t just mean that the Magic Tower’s defenses had been pierced.

“Keuheueek!”

“Uaargghhh!”

“S-Save me…”

The magic field was maintained by the magic power of the mages. Its destruction meant that those mages would also receive a huge backlash.

Give and take.

There was risk in everything, and the mages felt great pain due to the destruction of the magic field that they thought would never break.

They felt the horrible feeling of the magic power of their entire body being entangled!

This alone was enough to cause internal injuries that would take a fortnight to heal.

However, it wasn’t the time for them to worry about their injuries.

Whoosh-!

Because the Magic Tower was falling.

The castle in the sky, the sacred place that every single mage in this world revered…

With the destruction of the magic field, the power that suspended the castle in the air disappeared.

And so…

“Everyone, unleash your magic right now!”

“The Magic Tower is about to collide with the ground!!”

“Oh, no!!”

Inside the Magic Tower, all the mages’ experimental results, research documents, and various artifacts, were stored.

For the mages, those were their life achievements, and the collapse of the Magic Tower meant…

Booom-!

…Those life achievements would be destroyed.

The Magic Tower collided with the ground with a boom before the mages could do anything. Fortunately, the place it crashed into was an empty field, so no ordinary people were harmed.

Crackle-!

Rumble-!

However, a huge earthquake occurred due to the collision between the castle and the ground.

It shook the entire snowfield.

The nearby Colonies would probably be left terrified by the sudden earthquake, while the travelers would stop walking out of fear.

In reality, even the strongest castle would not be safe at this point.

Then again, no structure would last after falling from the sky.

Common sense would dictate that the castle would collapse, but…

“T-The Magic Tower!”

“My research data…!!”

“…Thank goodness, it didn’t collapse.”

…The castle was in good shape, with only a few cracks in its wall.

Indeed, how could it collapse just like that?

According to the records, the bricks used to build the Magic Tower were coated with unique magic powers, and each and every material was special. That was why, even though it fell from the air, it was durable enough for it to not collapse.

It was nothing short of miraculous.

“-Let’s see if it can endure this one as well.”

Whoosh-!

However, as if to shatter the mages’ relief, the knight picked up a rock and lifted his body into the air.

Where did the rock come from?

Well, it was just something that he had dug up from the ground. Lee Han took a stance as if he was throwing a ball while lifting the rock into the air.

As expected, back then, and now…

Throwing a straight fastball always feels good!

Whoosh-!

A pitcher who was able to throw a ball which exceeded 160 km/h was called a fireball pitcher.

So…

Whoosh-!

What should a pitcher who threw a rock the size of an ox at 300 km/h be called?

…Meteor Ball pitcher, perhaps?

Whatever it was…

Bang-!

The Magic Tower wasn’t out of danger yet.

In the past, the mages created their ivory tower by exploiting their slaves.

Now, the cursed tower of those who committed cruel atrocities against non-mages and made them shed countless blood and tears…

“R-Run away…”

Was about to make the mages soak in their blood and tears instead.