Ch.754Fairy Swordsmanship
by fnovelpia
======[ Haschal ]======
My provocation created an opening that Demian and Millia exploited, cutting off one arm of a fairy guardian and tearing out another’s shoulder.
It was a perfectly executed combination attack, like a painting… but the result was somewhat disappointing to feel satisfied about.
Even with such a perfect ambush, we couldn’t behead them, only managing to cut off an arm and inflict a minor wound.
Their health would have dropped somewhat from bleeding and pain, but losing an arm was barely worth calling an injury compared to beheading or cutting off an ear.
“Cursed short-lived ones…! You’ve grown even more vicious than hundreds of years ago!”
As expected, the fairy guardians who lost their arm and shoulder tore off parts of the summoned rock elementals with mana and filled their damaged areas with it, replacing their lost body parts while cursing loudly.
A response similar to my own, replacing my lost left arm with a prosthetic.
Just as I freely moved my prosthetic left arm with the power of Karma of Murder, they too could manipulate their rock prosthetics with their mana, making it practically no different from being uninjured.
I watched the scene and let out a faint sigh.
The result was ambiguous and disappointing for all my provocation… but what could I do?
I had to be satisfied with landing a hit on an equal or stronger opponent before starting, and now it was time for a proper sword fight.
—-
“On the honor of the guardians, we will capture you alive and turn you into fertilizer for Mother World Tree!”
Disgel something and Iber something, was it?
After replacing their injured parts with elemental flesh, they mounted the shoulders of the rock elementals that had begun to rampage wildly, and started firing elemental arrows.
Toward Demian, who flew through the air drawing complex and beautiful trajectories as if he’d found his true calling, and toward where Millia’s arrows had come from.
Whether from anger or pain, their faces were quite contorted, but true to their madness from centuries of military service, their attacks remained precise and flawless despite the situation.
– KWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG!
Explosions and roars mixed and distorted, creating an unpleasant cacophony.
Heavy rock fists pounded the earth causing small earthquakes, while arrows of fire, ice, and lightning exploded continuously, scattering elemental fragments everywhere. It resembled an artillery barrage.
“This much is…!”
However, Demian and the others engaged in a relentless battle against the two guardians without retreating an inch.
Jin’s greatsword slashed through the high-ranking elemental’s body, while Millia’s arrows targeted the guardians riding on top.
“The Champion of the Thousand Sword Corps, Jahan is here!”
“All this talk about elemental power, but it’s just soul mana manifestation, right? Not much different from anti-soul techniques.”
Jahan, wielding the Akrin Sword I’d lent him, absorbed the fire elemental arrows with his blade, while shadow hands extending from beneath Ophelia’s feet grabbed and extinguished the ice elemental arrows.
…That looks like Isabella’s magic.
She must have learned and mastered all of that witch’s magical formulas after extracting so much from Isabella. Modified—or rather restored—to use mana instead of dark mana.
“Die, die, die! I’ll avenge my ancestors, you pointy-eared bastards!”
Rather than directly confronting the guardians, Asha was rampaging against the fairy sentinels who had gathered around the guardians to provide supporting fire.
“It’s a crazy dwarf! Everyone keep your distance! Don’t approach hiiiieeeek!”
Every time the pile bunker built into her giant lance discharged with a boom, fairy corpses tumbled about with their bodies completely gone or their heads burst like watermelons.
“Where do you think you’re running! Boost chaaaarge-!”
The fairies desperately trying to create distance found their feet bound by the bullet shower from the machine guns built into Asha’s shoulders, and the next moment they were impaled by her spear tip and perished.
Objectively speaking, Asha’s strength was only equivalent to about three or four sentinels at most, but the sentinels facing her were overwhelmed and one-sidedly pushed back in their confusion.
Unlike other dwarves who based their combat on suppressive fire with superior firepower, Asha’s tactics of wearing a jetpack and fearlessly diving into the midst of fairies with her spear was a fighting style they had never encountered before.
One of the fairies’ weaknesses.
Living long lives made them set in their ways, and when faced with a situation they’d never experienced before, they couldn’t respond properly and became confused.
—-
Leaving the others engaged in fierce battle, I entered into full-scale combat against the two oldest-looking guardians.
The same surprise attack wouldn’t work twice.
If it were that old man Valenstein, he might attempt another ambush by concealing his presence with ghost swords…
But that was a skill only possible for an old man born with inherent meanness from his mother’s womb, not something a straightforward and dignified warrior like myself could imitate.
So instead of dodging, I charged straight at them head-on.
Throwing away the remaining piece of Aurelius-whatever’s flesh, I drew the Akrin Short Sword with my now-empty left hand.
“Kyaaaaat!”
“What is that thing?”
“Devilish woman!”
Toward me, cutting through the air while emitting Karma flames, the two guardians shot elemental arrows.
Five arrows with each pull of the string. A total of ten arrows raining down like a storm. Each arrow traced a different trajectory, converging from all directions.
As expected of fairy guardians.
Unlike Aurelius-whatever who couldn’t even resist the sudden ambush, this was archery befitting Alvheim’s elite with hundreds of years of experience.
If it had been half a year ago, I would have been helplessly pummeled.
“This is nothing!”
I didn’t even need to activate Defying Fate.
While displaying rapid evasive maneuvers by repeatedly emitting and extinguishing Karma flames in all directions, I simultaneously swung Akrin Short Sword and Durandal like a storm, slicing through the elemental arrows.
The blue-silver blade that cut through elementals and the red blade made from grinding down a fire dragon’s reverse scale drew dozens of arcs. Everything touched by their trajectories was cut apart regardless of type.
Endless explosions pounded my eardrums.
Unlike Durandal, which destroyed elemental arrows from their foundation, the Akrin Short Sword was more like brute-forcing them, so each deflection caused explosions that built up impact on my shoulders…
But that level of burden was manageable.
“Weak, weak! To think the guardians who claim hundreds of years of training are only this strong, what a waste of years!”
Breaking through the smoke created by the exploding elemental arrows, I finally came face to face with the fairy guardian.
“You must have spent hundreds of years just clinging to trees and flapping your gums!”
I thrust Durandal, now held in reverse grip, down toward his head.
“How utterly vulgar!”
The male guardian with platinum-blonde hair drew the one-handed sword at his waist to counter. While enhancing his physical abilities with mana replenished by consuming lower elementals.
– KAAAAAANG!
A ear-splitting clash. My vertically striking Durandal collided with his blade, scattering sparks.
Judging by how it withstood Durandal, it seemed to be quite an excellent sword despite its crude appearance.
“Kuu… this strength… it’s no less than the Great’s Twelve Knights. But-!”
The guardian, whose knee had buckled from the impact, gritted his teeth and rose, twisting the connected blades to stab at my neck.
“Ha, you dare challenge me with swordsmanship?”
A fairy, of all things?
I extended my Karma tentacles to hand over the Akrin Short Sword, and twisted my arm while gripping the middle of Durandal’s blade with my prosthetic hand, deflecting his sword.
My shoulder armor made a grating noise as his sword grazed it.
“Kyaaaaat!”
My counterattack followed. I thrust with the sword tip raised, then shifted my left hand from the blade to the hilt for a wide swing, struck down on his shoulder with my pointed elbow, and simultaneously hit his head with the pommel.
A rapid 4-hit combo in a single breath. Every movement carried enough force to shatter even black iron like glass.
Yet, surprisingly, he managed to receive, deflect, and endure all these attacks.
“Haaaap!”
He drew a circle with his sword and jumped sideways to alter the trajectory of my thrust, leaned back to deflect my slash by turning his blade sideways, and summoned several lower elementals to block my elbow and pommel.
It was more like forcibly moving his body with mana rather than muscles, probably to match my strength and speed… but still, his swordsmanship was more nimble and graceful than I expected.
“A short-lived being who has lived barely a dozen years dares to discuss swordsmanship before a guardian!”
His counterattack that followed was equally fierce.
[Oh. So this is fairy martial arts. Light but correspondingly fast swordsmanship.]
Even Hersella let out a quiet admiration.
“Haaaap!”
Extreme swift swordsmanship utilizing their overwhelmingly light weight compared to humans. He jumped around me in circles, repeatedly charging and retreating like a bouncing rubber ball.
It felt like six guardians surrounding me and engaging in rotational combat.
And in between, attacks from the other guardian’s elemental arrows and the elementals he summoned were added to the mix. It was truly overwhelming.
“You’re quite good, aren’t you?”
Hmm, swordsmanship alone won’t be enough.
I suppose in terms of pure skill, these centuries-old geezers would naturally have the advantage. Well, in that case-
“You’re better than that guy earlier. Abinexiosus, was it? That idiot.”
I grinned as I crossed swords with the guardian who had rushed at me again.
Unlike before when he would immediately retreat after our swords clashed, this time he pushed against me. His judgment must have been clouded momentarily by my provocation.
Since it was the reaction I expected, I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
If it was difficult to subdue him with swordsmanship alone, why not fight in earnest using my specialties?
It was truly unfortunate for them, but I had an abundance of skills beyond swordsmanship.
I also knew quite a lot about fairies’ weaknesses.
For example-
“By the way, what’s your name?”
Things like their inability to refuse introductions.
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