Ch.142Chapter 142: The Decisive Battle in the East (10).

“Pfft, bwahahahaha!!”

A man bursts into laughter at Balt’s words.

“What’s so funny? Are you going to do something first?”

A man with slightly reddish curly hair shrugs with a smile.

“Oh? No? I have no intention of doing anything. Sorry if I offended you, Gerungtu. I just laughed because I found your attitude amusing.”

“Amusing?”

“Yeah, isn’t it funny? Everyone here is supposedly a formidable warrior, and then some Gerungtu nobody’s ever heard of comes along and the first thing he says is ‘If you have a problem, come at me.’ How can I not laugh at that?”

The red-haired man keeps chuckling as if he finds it incredibly funny.

“Hey, this Gerungtu friend wants to fight! Anyone want to step up?”

When he shouts this, someone who had been eyeing Balt with displeasure steps forward.

He has short brown hair and a somewhat stiff-looking expression.

“I’ll step up. Even if it’s Commander-in-Chief Zerdin’s selection, we can’t forgo verification.”

“Good, that’s what I wanted. You’re saying I need to prove my qualifications to join this unit, right?”

Balt glanced sideways at King Zerdin, but the king was just giggling.

A silent permission.

It meant he could fight.

As if facing a buffet of choices, Balt began to feel excited.

“Yes, we all put in considerable effort to be assigned to this unit.”

They were elite knights and warriors from various countries. Naturally, they had overcome fierce competition in their own countries to get here.

The people gathered here were no ordinary bunch.

And now some barbarian was muddying the waters—though how he had managed to convince King Zerdin remained a mystery.

This was a matter of their honor.

“Very well. I’m Balt Gerungtu. No need for lengthy introductions.”

“Delphon Haines. I am Delphon Haines, a royal guard knight of the Kingdom of Inotel.”

After saying this, Balt put on his magic gauntlets, and Delphon drew his sword.

Since it was a training ground for troops, there was plenty of space.

As Balt and Delphon took their stances to fight, people began to quietly make room for them.

“Interesting technique. Are you a martial artist?”

To Delphon’s question, Balt answers as if it’s obvious.

“No, I’m a Matu mage.”

“A Matu mage?”

“A type of magician. Come at me.”

A twitch.

Yielding the first attack is something a master does to a novice.

Delphon Haines.

He was a royal guard and the most skilled warrior in the Kingdom of Inotel.

Armed with strict chivalry, he was extremely sensitive to etiquette and rules.

But accordingly, he was also very polite.

“I believe I am your senior here. Is your behavior meant as provocation? Or are you simply unaware?”

“What do you mean?”

“It would be proper for you to attack first, so I’m confused that you’re asking me to come at you.”

However, Balt could count on one hand the number of times he had attacked first.

Perhaps he had only initiated attacks against wolves when he first became a Gerungtu?

Balt attacking first was that rare.

“Ah, so there’s such a rule? I don’t care about such things. This is just my style.”

But Delphon, being a straight-laced man, had no intention of yielding.

He already didn’t like the idea of attacking someone so young, and if he were to strike first, the knights gathered here might think poorly of him.

“Haven’t you heard the saying ‘When in Halkin, follow Halkin’s laws’? This is the East. I don’t have the audacity to attack you first.”

“Is that so?”

But Balt didn’t understand.

From a Gerungtu’s perspective, bringing up such rules in a duel made no sense.

Balt just wanted to fight his own way; who attacked first or second wasn’t important to him.

‘Well, Professor Leman was like that too.’

But that was only because Balt had been in a learning position.

“That’s right! Here, the one who is acknowledged attacks first. Come on, Prince Gerungtu.”

Having said that, Delphon took his stance and waited for Balt’s attack.

“Well… if you insist… Alright. Hnngh!!”

Given the first attack, Balt began to gather magical power throughout his body.

Since he was granted the first move, and his opponent was only going to defend until he attacked, Balt had no reason not to use a powerful technique.

The magic Balt had in mind this time was the Drill Hammer.

There was no reason a hammer had to be shaped exactly like a hammer.

If both ends of the hammer rotated like drills as it struck down, the rotational force would add to the physical power.

Naturally, its destructive power would increase exponentially.

Even Grace had withstood many of Balt’s attacks.

She had somehow blocked the Iron Rain, which was difficult to defend against, and had withstood most of Balt’s other attacks.

But those were techniques Balt had created instantaneously during brief exchanges, not like now when he was given ample time to prepare his technique.

Drrrrrrrr-

With Balt’s battle cry, a massive hammer began to take shape above his head.

Everyone who saw it was shocked.

“W-what is that?!”

Especially Delphon, who had yielded the first attack, was beginning to get confused about what was happening before his eyes.

‘He said Matu magic? This is just an incredible earth magic!!’

The reason people fear mages in close combat despite their weakness is because of the destructive power of magic.

Usually, a magic practitioner of the same circle is thought to lose to an aura user of the same floor, but that’s not always the case.

For example, a 5th circle mage can harm an aura user of the 7th floor.

Of course, a 5th floor aura user can also harm a 7th circle mage.

The fact is that they can harm each other if they don’t completely focus on defense.

When asked why, one can only answer that magic and aura are essentially the same thing.

Anyway, if a mage of a certain level were to successfully hit multiple aura users with a proper wide-range attack spell, it could result in an 8th circle mage taking down multiple aura users.

And now, above Balt’s head, a tremendous spell was forming that could damage even a master-level opponent if it hit directly.

KUOOOOOOO!!

WEEEEEEENG!!

Finally, Balt’s Drill Hammer took shape and began to rotate.

The people around who saw it were dumbfounded.

“D-does anyone know what technique that is?”

“I-I don’t know, never seen it before!”

“No… that’s not aura, is it?”

“Magic! That’s magic!!”

Only then did people who noticed Balt’s energy express their shock.

He looked like someone who would achieve Grand Master status with his fists, but he was using magic.

And that magic was as brutish as his appearance.

A rotating giant hammer.

If such a thing really existed, none of the unit members would ever want to be hit by it.

“Phew, here I come. Are you ready?”

Gulp-

“W-wait a moment, Prince Balt. W-what exactly is that?”

Facing Balt’s magic up close, Delphon was the person who best understood how powerful that hammer was.

It could not only wound a Master but could potentially kill someone if they took a direct hit.

And its enormous size.

If he dodged before the attack began, he would be dishonored for running away after yielding the first attack, but taking it head-on would be sheer madness.

“What is it? It’s magic…”

“M-magic? You’re a mage?”

“I clearly explained earlier that I’m a type of mage, didn’t I?”

He had certainly heard that.

But who would believe someone with huge fists wearing those gauntlets claiming to be a mage?

“What? Can’t handle it?”

Delphon flinched at Balt’s provocation, but he composed himself despite the rotating hammer before his eyes.

Gulp-

“That’s not it! I-isn’t this too much! I yielded the first attack, but if you use such a one-hit kill technique, what am I supposed to do!”

“You yielded it, so what do you want me to do about it?”

Seeing this, Zerdin’s face twitched.

He was using all his strength to hold back his laughter so as not to disrupt the duel.

‘Hahahahaha!!! What is that! Could such an incredible magic be created in such a short time?’

Zerdin probably understood the power of Balt’s magic better than Balt himself.

If Delphon took a direct hit from that, he would die.

That rotating hammer contained that much magical power.

‘How fascinating! It creates a phenomenon similar to magic, but strictly speaking, it’s on a different track from magic. How did a Gerungtu learn such a technique?’

A phenomenon too strange to simply call magic.

Zerdin understood this perfectly.

Time passed, and finally, Delphon answered Balt’s question.

“Kuk! A-alright!! Come on!!”

TUWAAAAAK!!

As soon as Delphon’s shout ended, he began to explode all the aura within his body.

And Balt’s Drill Hammer, with Balt’s incantation, tilted its massive body and struck directly at Delphon.

“That’s more like it!! Here I go!! Rock! Drill! Hammer! Burst! KRAAAP!!”

KUWAGAGAGAGAGA!!

“KRAAK!! Damn it!! Haines-style Final Technique!! Sky Breaker!!”

At the same time, Haines unleashed his final technique.

He had broken his promise before Balt’s attack could land.