Ch.281EP.62 – What is a Knight’s Cause to Fight? (4)

[…Kruk.]

At some point, Orthos regained consciousness and sneered at the humans.

How foolish and ridiculous.

Such stupidity, fighting among themselves without finishing him off…!

Of course.

Chiiik.

This couldn’t be more fortunate for Orthos.

[Saaah!]

Orthos displayed the impressive recovery ability befitting a high-rank magical beast, already showing rapid healing while they fought.

Even the broken neck of one head was regenerating as the bones reconnected, thanks to the other head remaining intact.

Orthos, a magical beast that wouldn’t die as long as one of its two heads or snake tail remained intact.

In other words, he was a creature with three lives.

However, to recover properly, he needed to consume appropriate nutrients, but unfortunately, Orthos hadn’t eaten any prey today.

Because of this, Orthos needed to sacrifice his own flesh as an offering to enhance his recovery.

His size would decrease dramatically, and it would probably take considerable time to regain his strength, but isn’t survival what matters most?

Above all, strength can always be rebuilt.

All he needed to do was escape, consume prey, and rebuild his body from scratch.

[Kruruk.]

Sruruk.

And so Orthos activated his invisibility again to escape while those foolish humans fought among themselves.

Having concealed both his presence and appearance, there was no way those humans would discover him…

Whoosh!

[…?]

Orthos saw it.

A massive human suddenly flying toward him.

The next moment…

Crack!

As his bones and flesh, still soft from the recovery process, were instantly torn and broken, Orthos lost consciousness again without a chance to resist.

With tremendous pain…

“Huh? What’s this soft thing!”

Unlike Orthos, who had passed out while coughing blood from the terrible pain, the man who expected to roll hard on the ground merely blinked in surprise, but took it in stride.

“Right, this must be luck too!!”

Felix interpreted his safe landing—which could have been an ungraceful tumble—as a sign that the Light still wanted to witness his struggle.

“Yes! I can’t fall so pathetically yet!!”

Felix bounced up like a spring and immediately stood.

“Come on!!”

He roared with fighting spirit toward his opponent.

…However.

“No, don’t ‘come on’ me. You’re already injured, you know?”

Ihan could only shrug his shoulders at his opponent.

After all.

‘This just looks like I’m bullying him, doesn’t it?’

Looking at Felix covered in bruises versus the completely unharmed Ihan, the situation oddly resembled a scene of harassment.

* * *

Felix’s appearance was utterly miserable.

Though his massive frame might hide it somewhat, Felix’s body was currently swollen by about 50%.

Not just his arms and legs, but his face too.

It was so severe that his face had reddened as if drunk, and visible tremors could be seen.

Not trembling from fear, but gentle tremors from injury.

‘Are his arms and legs cracked? His facial bones seem intact, but damage has steadily accumulated. Hmm, looks like some ribs are gone too.’

Though not a doctor, it wasn’t difficult for him to diagnose his opponent.

Perhaps it was thanks to his extensive experience breaking others’ bones and muscles?

In this field, one would be hard-pressed to find a better expert than Ihan.

So Ihan said:

“Shall we stop now? If we continue, you’ll die.”

“A knight only dies when his spirit dies!! Rather, avoiding a duel and fleeing cowardly is not what a knight does!!”

“Since when was this a duel?”

“No need for words!!”

“…What a headache.”

Ihan felt his head throb as he watched his opponent charge recklessly again.

But despite his headache…

Whoosh!

“!!?”

“Don’t blame me.”

He wasn’t arrogant enough to ignore an opponent who came at him sincerely.

When faced with an opponent charging with full force, he would respond with equal sincerity as a matter of courtesy.

Ihan used a “technique” for the first time.

Thud!!

“Ugh!”

“Just a simple throw.”

Though it required judgment to precisely calculate timing against an opponent, Ihan instinctively processed these calculations and easily threw him by accurately utilizing the force of his charge.

The charge from his massive frame certainly showed fearsome breakthrough power comparable to a tank, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to intimidate a knight like Ihan, which made it possible to counter so easily.

“This will hurt a bit.”

With that kind warning, Ihan grabbed one of Felix’s arms as he fell and gripped his entire arm along with his neck in one swift motion.

Crack!

“That went in nicely.”

“!!?”

A choke hold using the neck.

Though just a simple joint lock technique, once caught in it, escaping was no easy task.

And with one arm restrained as well, this was…

“Grrrrgh!”

Impossible to escape from.

Normally, such a technique would be difficult to execute with such a large weight difference, but Ihan’s weight class couldn’t be measured by appearance alone, and Felix must have felt like prey being strangled by an anaconda, on the verge of suffocation.

Ihan’s choke hold was that perfect.

At this point, one would typically surrender or pass out from lack of oxygen.

“Uuuuugh!”

With a cracking sound, Felix’s muscles bulged, and he slowly began to rise.

Logically, with joints locked in this position, movement should be impossible, yet Felix’s explosive muscular repulsion defied such logic and created an impossible phenomenon.

Kwang!!

“…?”

Ihan, still maintaining his choke hold, couldn’t help but be surprised.

Suddenly, both he and Felix were launched into the air.

‘Did this guy just lift us into the air using only his lower body strength?’

…While being restrained?

“He’s not in his right mind.”

Ihan nodded in admiration that such brute force could be impressive, and then…

Whisk.

He released his arm without hesitation.

“!!”

With a loud crash, Felix flipped over and hit the ground dramatically.

Felix landed in a truly unsightly posture, while Ihan landed with a flexible movement and an impressive aerial flip.

“Uaaah!!”

But his opponent, perhaps thinking Ihan had let his guard down, bounced up and charged again.

This time he approached the same way as before, but now seemed to mix in a feint hook, wary of Ihan’s throw, but…

“Too obvious.”

Thud.

Felix’s hook was blocked by Ihan’s hand before it could even extend.

It was a perfect timing steal with no excuse, and Felix seemed surprised…

“Don’t be surprised, you should have done something like this instead.”

Bang!

Ihan’s head quickly smashed into Felix’s forehead.

With an impact that felt more like being hit by a piece of metal than a head, Felix’s vision flipped, and instantly Ihan’s hands and legs moved in perfect coordination, tripping his legs and grabbing his waist before throwing him forcefully.

A simple leg trip that even a child could do.

But even an ordinary technique, when timing, power, and skill are in perfect harmony, can demonstrate formidable power despite its simplicity.

Like this.

Boom-!

With an ominous echo, Felix’s body sank into the ground, and after trembling all over, he…

Thud.

Was knocked out.

This time Felix had completely lost consciousness, and Ihan shook his head.

“I acknowledge your strength. It’s probably greater than mine or that big guy’s. But to be frank, that’s all there is to it. You need to fight more intelligently. Or at least improve your technical quality, but you don’t do that either, so it’s a bit awkward.”

This man was literally a perfect downgrade of the Northern Brute.

While his strength and size might surpass the Brute’s, he lacked the Brute’s reflexes, judgment, wild instincts, or tactical ability.

Despite looking and sounding brutish, he was actually more like a fox in a lion’s body.

That was exactly what Maximus was.

‘Or he should develop his own style like the Spearman, but he doesn’t do that either.’

The Spearman honestly lacked strength and endurance, but he had honed his speed and technical precision to the extreme, establishing his own style.

He was a specialist in one field, and even the same thrust from the Spearman would showcase hundreds or thousands of variations.

But this man had simply trained his strength brutishly.

Without establishing a style befitting that strength…

‘His strength is certainly beyond standard. But that’s all there is to it.’

From using gravitational force generated by his strength to immobilize opponents—already something others couldn’t imitate—but that was it.

Once you get used to it, it’s not difficult to counter, and it’s not without weaknesses.

If he had used such strength strategically, even Ihan would have found him much harder to deal with.

But this person hadn’t developed such a style at all.

Charitably speaking, he was straightforward, but less charitably…

“Hmm, so I’m inadequate.”

“…I didn’t go that far.”

When had he regained consciousness?

Or had he just rolled his eyes while remaining conscious?

Accepting Ihan’s advice, which was almost like talking to himself, Felix sent a solemn look while lying spread-eagled.

“I can’t move my body.”

“That’s why you should have charged more moderately.”

“I apologize. I realized you were human partway through, but I couldn’t suppress my competitive spirit.”

Receiving the sincere apology, Ihan accepted it more easily than expected.

It wasn’t because he was kind enough to forgive easily, but because he knew that Felix was a sincere person who had confronted him straightforwardly from beginning to end.

The fact that he never drew a weapon even in disadvantageous situations and never put killing intent into his fists proved he was indeed a sincere person.

…To the point of foolishness.

“That’s all fine, but if you heard what I said, answer me. Why do you fight so extremely?”

“Hmm…, I find myself hearing the same advice that Lord Vale once gave me.”

“From Tristan?”

“Oh, you know him! Well, for a remarkable warrior like you, it makes sense you’d have connections!!”

“…Lower your voice. You’ll upset your stomach if you shout.”

“I won’t weaken from something like this!! …Kuheogh!”

“See?”

“Ahem!”

As he cleared his throat awkwardly, Ihan clicked his tongue and tossed him a potion.

“Drink it yourself.”

“…I appreciate the kindness. In that spirit, let me answer your question!”

“No, you can drink first and then answer…”

Ihan said he could drink the potion and answer afterward, but he was truly as stubborn as he looked.

As if determined to repay a debt even if it killed him.

Sure enough, his answer was…

“Aren’t techniques and tactics the exclusive domain of the weak! How can those born with natural physique and talent resort to the tools of the weak!! Using only the pure abilities of one’s body is the privilege of the strong!!!”

– privilege of the strong, strong…!

“…?”

Hearing his outrageous answer echoing like an echo, Ihan momentarily failed to comprehend.

No, it wasn’t that he didn’t understand the words, but he felt slightly dizzy wondering if this man was in his right mind saying such things.

So…

“Is this man serious about what he’s saying?”

“…Unfortunately, he is.”

“…Haven’t you tried to correct him?”

“Haah…”

“Ah, you don’t need to answer that.”

He directed his questions to a man who had been hiding somewhere, and from the sigh he received in response, Ihan was sufficiently convinced.

‘So this is what true madness looks like…’

Ihan newly realized the difference in level between someone pretending to be crazy and someone who was truly crazy.