novelraw Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter 137 : Chapter 137
Chapter 137 : The Dragon Sword Duke
“This piece of shit……!”
Paaaang!
The terror of falling as if endlessly downwards.
Only after spewing a string of curses in that urgent situation did his reason flicker back.
The first thought that came to mind was.
‘Why didn't I wrap my chains around it?’
It was a question about himself, about how he had just let it happen so blankly.
The next thought that followed was the identity of his opponent, which he was only now guessing at.
The monster with the giant claws that had grabbed his body, its long lizard-like head, and the enormous wings larger than its body, was surely the Wyvern, the flying dragon he had only heard about.
However.
“Dragon Sword Duuuuuuke!!”
Shit.
No answer came back no matter how loud he yelled.
All he could think of were the countless rumors he had heard about him, and the words Anthony and Rantor had said in the past.
- In his prime, he was even called the god of destruction. He says it's because he couldn't perfectly control the power of the Dragon Sword…….
- Absolutely not! Absolutely! If that's true, I'll change my last name, Vice-Commander.
- ……Well, this is the prevailing opinion.
Why the two of them had spoken like that, why they were reluctant to call upon the man who could be called the kingdom's ultimate weapon.
He was beginning to feel it directly.
An old man, said to be over seventy, on their first meeting…….
“Ughhhh, wh, what is this!!!”
Of course, no matter how much he screamed, there was no one to hear.
For now, the priority was to deal with the reality of his rapid fall.
‘The, the timing…….’
Paaaaaaaaang!
The altitude he had fallen from was too high, and his body was too heavy.
The sound of the wind rushing past his ears felt more brutal than any weapon.
‘If I mess up the timing, this won't end with just a broken bone.’
Kadeudeuk.
Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to focus, painstakingly balanced his body, and extended his chains toward the terrifyingly approaching ground.
Chwareureureuk.
Not long after the chains, which seemed to have been extended too quickly, stretched out straight into the air, boasting their length.
He felt the four chains simultaneously touch the ground.
Kuuung.
Ugh!
‘Bend it slowly……!’
I have to cushion the impact.
Following his will, the chains tried to bend gently.
But even that was not easily controlled.
Kwadeudeudeuk.
The chains collapsed rapidly, not bending flexibly as intended.
But fortunately, that alone was enough to greatly disperse the impact of the fall.
“Uwaaaaaaap!”
Breakfall! Breakfall! Fucking breakfall!!!
At the end of his internal scream accompanied by a yell, he spread his limbs out in a star shape and gloriously hit the ground.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
Ururururung.
Pussssssssss.
A thick cloud of dust billowed up.
Amidst the tingling pain rising from his entire body, Muno felt that he was alive.
“Sh, shit……!”
Woodeudeuk.
“Ah, augh…….”
Bbudeudeuk.
Fortunately, it seemed nothing was broken.
A situation where he felt the rewards of his diligent evolution.
Nevertheless, anger with a clear target boiled up inside him.
No matter how many times he had evolved, if his chains hadn't been able to extend as much as they did now, he would have surely died or been severely injured.
“Cr, crazy old geezer……”
He once again understood with his body why the Red Iron Knights were so terrified of him, why they were reluctant to call him even in an emergency.
Kadeudeuk.
Kwadeudeudeuk.
He cleared away the earth and stones that had buried his limbs and barely managed to get up.
When he happened to look up at the sky, he saw a hole punched through, about ten meters above, in the shape of a person with their limbs spread wide, just like in a cartoon.
“Hooooo. Ptui ptui, damn it.”
As he tried to catch his breath to cool the heat that had risen to the top of his head, he only got a mouthful of dirt.
“How do I get revenge? Damn it.”
Chwareureureuk.
Swallowing his once again boiling anger, Muno extended his chains and climbed to the surface.
And he began to run relentlessly toward the base on the hill.
Dududadadadada.
A base temporarily constructed for an emergency situation.
When he returned after running like a madman, he found a festive scene unfolding.
“Wyvern, Castaria!!”
“The Dragon Sword Duke has arrived!”
The knights and soldiers of Erundel were surrounding a giant Wyvern and cheering.
‘So that's a Wyvern.’
Seeing it again on the ground, he felt a renewed sense of pressure.
From the two horns bent like hooks behind its brutal snake-like head, to its huge body that seemed to be well over 30 meters long, its bat-like wings that seemed even larger when spread, and its long tail.
Leaving aside its fearsome appearance, the way it constantly growled ‘Krrng’ and stared at the people around it with snake-like eyes was exactly the image of the predator of the skies he had always imagined.
Of course, to Muno right now, it was just one of the things that annoyed him on sight.
“Ah, Sir Muno. You've arrived!? We were just talking about the Dragon Sword Duke!”
“I know! Very well!”
“……Yes?”
After unintentionally giving a sharp reply to one of the knights, he walked, no, charged into the largest barracks.
The first thing that caught his eye upon entering was.
“Oh. You've come, Muno Drasen.”
It was an old man with pure white hair and a handlebar mustache, smiling innocently as if nothing had happened.
‘Hup!?’
A magnificent suit of full-body armor with an antique crest of mixed red and gold, from which an immense amount of mana was clearly emanating.
‘That's the Transcendence-grade artifact, Red Knight.’
The armor the old man wore was the artifact symbolizing the commander of the Red Iron Knightly Order.
And the giant greatsword with only its hilt sticking up over his right shoulder from behind his back was the very same, famous Mythic-grade artifact, the Dragon Sword.
‘The self-evolving Mythic-grade artifact, Dragon Sword.’
But more than anything, a presence that overwhelmed those dazzling artifacts emanated from the old man.
He was about 180 cm tall. A small build for a knight, like himself.
The ripples in the air felt from the old man's casual movements as he smiled nonchalantly were far more immense than he had imagined.
Even he himself couldn't gauge his martial prowess, only feeling that it was tremendous.
‘This, this is only a 1-Star difference?’
Only after looking back and forth between the Blood Knight Anthony and the old man did he personally understand why those who had reached 7-Star were separately called Seven-Stars and revered.
However.
“You came sooner than I thought.”
That attitude of his, flicking his pure white mustache without any guilt for what he had done, seemed to diminish the greatness he felt.
“Are you kidding me! A normal person would die if you dropped them from that height!!”
He felt proud of himself for managing to use honorifics with desperate patience.
He죽.
“You didn't die, did you?”
The retort he spat out with a nonchalant smile made his anger flare up.
This crazy old geezer…….
“How can you say that……!”
His anger exploded, and he reflexively tried to grab his ‘Blade’.
At that moment, the eyes of Anthony and Rantor, who were standing at attention in front of the old man as if frozen, trembled.
They didn't even nod their heads, but for some reason, it felt like telepathy was being transmitted just by the movement of their eyes.
- No!
- Absolutely not!
At that moment, Muno had no choice but to hesitate.
“Why? Go on, draw it. You may have heard, but I have a knack for educating my juniors, young friend.”
For some reason, a chill ran down his spine at the old man's grinning smile.
He had a gut feeling.
If I mess around any more, I'll die.
‘Damn it, this is so unfair.’
He had no choice but to endure it by gritting his teeth.
“Keung. N, no, sir. My apologies, Your Excellency the Duke.”
And that was the right answer.
“……Tsk. No fun. Kids these days have no grit.”
The old man's gaze, who let out a disappointed sigh and frowned, soon turned to Anthony.
“Our brown-haired Miss Anne, did you perhaps tell him in advance?”
Wh, what hair? What Miss?
When he turned his head in bewilderment, he saw Anthony shaking his head with a beet-red face.
“N, no, sir!”
“Then was it you, poop-pants?”
……What pants?
At that moment, Rantor, also with a reddened face, immediately shook his head.
“No, sir. Absolutely not!”
“Hmm. These guys are suspicious.”
The old man with narrowed eyes glared fiercely at the two for a moment.
Then, just as the old man, who had chuckled, seemed to turn his gaze back to him.
“Well, given the situation, this is no time for an initiation ceremony. Count yourself lucky, kid.
I wanted to test whether you'd cry like a girl or shit your pants.”
He, who had suddenly disappeared from his sight, had approached him before he knew it and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Goosebumps ran all over his body.
‘I didn't even take my eyes off him, but I lost track of his presence.’
He hadn't even felt a stir in the air from that incredible movement.
The moment he unconsciously gritted his teeth.
“Anyway, let's just count what happened earlier as the initiation ceremony. Ah, don't be disappointed. You can receive my teachings anytime you want. Though, in truth, none of them ever come back. Ke ke.”
The old man, who had chuckled, walked past him.
The Dragon Sword Duke, Kyle Dragon.
Putting aside the questions about his character, it was a moment where his presence was certainly imprinted.
Was it because of that?
As soon as the fearsome old knight left the barracks, he felt the completely frozen air in the barracks loosen.
So.
“Perhaps, Sir Anthony cried, and Sir Rantor soiled his pants, so the nicknames are…….”
He tried to make a joke to lighten the mood.
“Shut up.”
“Shut up.”
All that came back was the cold killing intent of the Red Iron Knights.
The moment he thought, I guess I have no talent for jokes.
An unpleasant voice echoed inside the barracks.
[Aren't you going to follow? Aren't you going to brief me!?]
At that moment, the Red Iron Knights rushed out again.
Would it be rude to say that the strongest men of the renowned kingdom looked like cute little puppies?
Muno shook off his idle thoughts with a hollow laugh and slowly followed behind them.
And, he was immediately scolded.
“The young one is the most relaxed of all.”
“……??”
The moment he was bewildered.
“Only the three of you are useful here, so the rest of you don't need to follow. Tell me about that Hydra on the way.”
Duke Kyle Dragon patted him on the shoulder and gestured.
Then, some people hurriedly followed him.
“Your Excellency the Duke, our Temple has a duty to subjugate monsters……”
The Dragon Sword Duke responded to the words of the Inquisitor Captain Maier with a chuckle.
“Don't be reckless and withdraw. Your God wouldn't want a senseless death either.”
“However……”
“If you want to die so badly, shall I kill you first?”
Who would dare to speak to the Inquisitors, the swords of the Temple, in this way?
But Maier could only shut his mouth and retreat in the face of the sharp killing intent emanating from the frowning face.
The Duke, who snorted again at that, gestured as he walked toward the cliff where the cave was, and Rantor quickly followed.
“You must have already heard about the legends of the Hydra?”
At that, a chuckle appeared on the old knight's face.
“Of course, I know. The fourth previous owner of this Dragon Sword was one of them.”
“Then what……?”
“I'm telling you to tell me about the creature you guys experienced. Legends can be distorted over time.”
“Ah…….”
Rantor wasn't usually such a clueless person.
There was something truly peculiar about the Dragon Sword Duke's spirit, which seemed to seize control of the atmosphere with just a few words and make everyone around him feel like a fool.
And only after hearing all of Rantor's words.
“Is that true?”
At the gaze directed at him, Muno immediately nodded his head.
“It is without a doubt.”
“Hmm. Then it's a bit weaker than I heard.”
As the Duke tilted his head, Anthony belatedly chimed in.
“Will you be alright on your own? According to the legend, it was only possible to subdue it with the then Dragon Sword and two evil mages joining forces.”
To that concern, the current Dragon Sword answered with a chuckle.
“The legend I heard is a little different…… well, there's no need to explain it all. Even if the legend is true……”
The old man, who had patted the hilt of the Dragon Sword rising over his shoulder, gave a brutal smile.
“I am the strongest Dragon Sword in history. That is an established fact, proven as this Dragon Sword evolved to match me.”
The cool spirit that spread with that smile silenced the sounds of all life on the mountain.
“I only hope that the monster sleeping below is the same as in the legends.”
His voice, overflowing with confidence to the point of arrogance, spread in all directions, but no one could refute it.