novelraw Chapter 130 : Chapter 130
Chapter 130 : Chapter 130
Chapter 130: The Pinnacle of Weapon Mastery
Bakan, the Kandahr’s mightiest, an invincible being none could challenge.
He believed that with his involvement, the war would soon end.
He was certain no one could match him.
But now,
a figure stood in his way—
a seemingly insignificant man, smaller than him.
Unlike Gaiard, he possessed no special powers, just a human like Bakan, yet he blocked his path.
No, not merely blocked.
He was overpowering him.
The proof was the blood dripping from Bakan’s left arm.
‘What just happened?’
Compared to the massive sword in Bakan’s hand, Evan wielded two palm-sized daggers.
He didn’t unleash destructive attacks with blood like Gaiard.
All that was felt was the aura in the daggers, akin to Bakan’s own.
Nothing else.
‘I was hit by such trivial weapons? Me?’
But that simplicity was why Evan could hold Bakan at bay.
“Evan, what did you just do?”
Even Gaiard, aiding Evan, asked in a startled tone.
“Nothing much. Just handled the daggers.”
“Nothing much? You’re toying with Bakan. Even I couldn’t do that now.”
“Toying? That was just a warm-up. Then I’ll show real toying.”
Evan tightened his grip on the daggers, lowering his stance and centering himself.
‘Weapon mastery depends on how well you wield your weapon. Not flashy tricks, but simply killing the opponent.’
The two short daggers in Evan’s hands.
Among countless weapons, Evan chose these small, unremarkable daggers to replace Venus paradoxically to utterly dominate his opponent.
‘In dagger techniques, that Seven Star, the continent’s greatest assassin, was supreme, but in a direct fight, I’m confident I wouldn’t lose.’
Mastering all weapons, Evan had acquired countless techniques.
Among them were skills of legendary masters.
But standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those masters, earning the Seven Star title, was Mikhail.
If he had merely copied others, he’d never have reached such heights.
‘To defeat that being, I must unleash my unique dagger technique, forged with all I am.’
Evan acknowledged Bakan’s strength.
Thus, out of respect, he decided to unveil his rarely shown, original technique.
Placing the dagger handles on his palms, Evan relaxed his body, moving fluidly like grass in the wind.
Bakan, seeing this, gripped his greatsword tightly and assumed a cautious stance.
‘That swaying movement again. It’s surely the prelude to an attack.’
Bakan didn’t let his guard down.
The attack that cut his left arm had come from that eerie, swaying motion.
At that moment, Evan stepped forward.
―Tad!
Not particularly fast steps.
Compared to Executor Rona or Swiftblade Knight Anton, they were slow.
A speed Bakan could easily counter.
‘But speed isn’t the issue!’
Bakan swung his greatsword broadly.
A slash that could sweep everything tore through the air toward Evan.
The moment the slash reached Evan, he vanished, leaving only an afterimage, as if he’d never been there.
A hollow sensation, like cutting the wind.
As Bakan faltered, Evan was already before him.
“You!”
Bakan swung his greatsword again, swiftly.
But Evan, with otherworldly movements, dodged the blade.
It was like a sword dance.
Seeing Evan perfectly infiltrate his greatsword’s range, Bakan drove his sword into the ground, switching to bare fists.
“I won’t fall for it twice!”
Unlike before, relying solely on brute force, he now used strategy.
Though his martial arts weren’t refined, each blow from his overwhelming strength was lethal.
―Whoosh!
The wind pressure from Bakan’s fist alone could crush an ordinary human.
“Try dodging this!”
As the fist targeted Evan, he gripped one dagger in reverse, aiming for Bakan’s forearm.
“There!”
Bakan tried to knock Evan’s hand away.
But the other dagger swiftly targeted his palm.
―Slash!
Bakan withdrew, avoiding a cut to his palm, but his attack flow was completely disrupted.
‘His arms are utterly unpredictable. Like two people moving! How is this possible?’
An elusive killing intent, like smoke, and movements as ungraspable as clouds in the wind.
If Duke’s attack was ‘unstoppable power,’ Evan’s dagger technique was ‘incomprehensible mystery.’
Moreover, Evan was about to unveil another new move to seize this chance.
―Tadad!
Like dispersing smoke, the two daggers sliced through the air.
Evan’s movements were utterly unpredictable.
‘What am I fighting? A ghost?’
Evan infiltrated Bakan’s range, sticking to him like a shadow.
Circling him, staying within a step, he constantly disrupted Bakan’s vision.
‘Nothing special, yet so tenacious.’
Even Bakan thought Evan’s speed wasn’t overwhelming.
But within that single step, he was faster and more relentless than anyone.
Despite Bakan’s physical superiority, he couldn’t distance Evan.
―Tch!
The dagger grazed like a breeze, leaving cuts on Bakan’s body.
Not once or twice, but dozens of attacks poured in an instant.
‘Maintaining this speed to pierce vitals is impossible. So I chip away.’
A dance of death, like waltzing with the opponent.
This was Evan’s original dagger technique—
Blade Waltz.
‘Don’t cut. Seep in. That’s enough.’
Under this principle, his daggers flowed like water, seeping into Bakan’s gaps.
The ground beneath Evan was now red with Bakan’s blood, and Bakan felt his wounds had grown too numerous to bear.
‘I’ve bled this much? When?’
Throughout the fight, Bakan felt as if battling in fog.
Punching where he saw, Evan wasn’t there;
attacking the unseen, Evan struck from elsewhere.
“Damn mosquito!”
Bakan trembled with rage, but grew more flustered by the elusive foe.
‘Sink into that helplessness.’
Finally, reaching peak fury, Bakan roared.
“Don’t mock me! I am Bakan Hardan, ruler of the Kandahr!”
An overwhelming aura surged from Bakan’s body.
Evan, sensing danger, quickly retreated.
‘He’s going to pour everything out.’
As Evan withdrew, Bakan drew his greatsword.
The aura around his sword soared to the castle’s peak, forming a colossal sword aura that seemed to cleave the sky.
All eyes on the battlefield turned to Bakan.
“I’ll kill you and the king hiding in the castle!”
Bakan roared, slamming his greatsword down, unleashing a catastrophic slash like a tidal wave toward Evan and the castle.
―BOOM!!!!
The disaster-like slash tore through the earth toward the castle.
Gaiard’s expression hardened.
“If that isn’t stopped, everyone in the castle will be wiped out.”
“…”
“Evan?”
Evan closed his eyes silently.
Gripping one of the two daggers with both hands, ‘I put everything into this one.’
Opening his eyes, Evan channeled all his strength and threw the dagger forward.
Compared to the overwhelming slash, it was a pitifully small dagger.
―Whoosh.
But the moment the dagger met the slash, the massive slash shattered in midair, like a paper curtain torn apart.
‘No matter how strong, you’re not stronger than Robern.’
A secret technique Evan had devised to counter Robern’s sword aura.
Never used, only conceptualized, now unleashed—
a throwing technique, ‘Finale,’ condensing all his aura into one dagger to pierce the opponent’s heart.
Like a performance’s closing act, the dagger flew lethally and precisely.
The sharp blade crossed the air, piercing straight toward Bakan’s chest, fully penetrating his torso.
“Guh…”
Having transcended human limits, Bakan could faintly read the dagger’s trajectory.
Instinctively avoiding a vital spot, the dagger still inflicted severe damage.
‘Me, felled by this tiny dagger…!’
The piercing wound’s horrific pain was the greatest in Bakan’s life.
If Duke’s attack was ‘pain,’
Evan’s was ‘death’ incarnate.
“Big or small doesn’t matter. If strength or abundant Qi won wars, why fight them?”
“…”
“Your mistake was acting as if massive slashes were everything. If you’d focused on condensing your power, our positions would be reversed.”
Bakan’s strength drained.
His heavy greatsword fell from his hand, and his massive knees, unable to hold, collapsed to the ground.
―Thud.
The fall of that mighty, absolute being shocked everyone on the battlefield.
Like a mythical titan collapsing, foes and allies alike froze, speechless.
Rona, rushing back to the battlefield, stopped, incredulous.
“No way… Bakan, defeated?”
The once-noisy battlefield fell silent, as if all sound in the world held its breath.
Breaking that silence, one man walked forward slowly.
―Step, step.
His name was Evan Lafard.
Once known as Mikhail Reverk, the Weapon Master who shook the world, now forging a new legend in a new era, free from that name.