The Paladin of the Holy Kingdom: Part 1

“「Sandstorm」!”

The sand particles from within the sword spread out like a wall, rushing towards the Sorcerer King. It had probably obscured the Sorcerer King’s vision completely.

While she doubted if the Sorcerer King had eyeballs, having one’s vision completely obscured blocked was a tremendous disadvantage.

“「Essence Seal」!「Grand Power Strike」!”

One was a martial art Neia had not heard of before, while the other was an advanced technique, a powerful strike that would inflict additional damage. After using both of them, Buser charged out, faster than before.

Buser’s horn decorations glowed with a bizarre light, and he looked like a shooting star.

“Yeeeeeeaaart!”

“Hmph!”

The Sorcerer King caught the blow on his halberd—

“Haha!”

—And Buser laughed.

The sound of metal being ground away rang forth.

Neia’s eyes went wide.

“Could it be! A sunder attack!”

Sunder attacks directly damaged a foe’s weapons, but the amount of damage done was greatly affected by the composition of both weapons and their damage potential. Buser’s martial arts were probably intended to strengthen these two attributes.

Neia began to panic, but in the next moment, she froze as she saw Buser staring with wide eyes.

“It’s unharmed!”

Buser cried out in shock.

“What the hell is that weapon!?”

As Buser scrambled back, his expression completely changed and with no intention of pressing the attack, the Sorcerer King spun his halberd, tracing a beautiful arc in the air.

“... Well. I did make this weapon with my magic, you know? How could it be so easily broken?”

“But weapons made by magic are fragile, right?”

“Oh, it seems you’ve had experience fighting opponents with magically-created weapons, but it’s dangerous to be bound by such a fixed worldview, no? In other words, there might be opponents who can make weapons which you can’t break.”

The Sorcerer King let go of his halberd. The halberd then vanished, as though it had melted into the air. The same thing must have happened with the greatsword from just now.

After that, the Sorcerer King made a grasping motion, and now he had a black longsword in each of his hands.

“...Now then, what will you do? Don’t tell me that attack was your winning strategy? Can you help me gain more experience?”

The Sorcerer King took a step forward, shortening the distance between them,

“...If you’ve got any more trump cards, it’d be better if you hurried up and used them, no? I’m not kind enough to let a useless enemy live.”

“Fu, fufu! What are you saying, undead one!? Indeed, I’m very impressed by how you managed to fully defend against my attack. Very well done. However, wasn’t that because you were focused on defense? ...I know you won’t get tired, so you feel that you can beat me if you grind me down.”

He saw through it!

Neia felt nervous again. Even she had noticed it. Buser, a far better warrior than herself, could not have failed to notice that.

“I see. So that was what you thought. Indeed, you would be correct to think so. But unfortunately, that was not the case.”

The Sorcerer King spread his arms and approached. The swords in his hands vanished like smoke.

“Watch—”

Buser had already stabbed that unprotected body faster than Neia could shout.

And then—

“...What?”

Buser frantically, repeatedly swung his sword.

“Why! Why!! What is this!?”

He shouted with every swing he took. That was because the Sorcerer King was unharmed despite taking every blow.

“In that case—”

Buser braced his shield and used a martial art. Yet, the Sorcerer King remained unmoved despite taking a shield bash.

Instead, it was Buser who stumbled back.

“Why… wh-why…”

Humans had a hard time reading demihuman expressions, but right now it was very easy.

His face now showed terror and despair.

“...Martial arts are an unknown technique to me. Did martial arts derive from skills, or are they a warrior’s magic? Even until now, I still don’t know. Still, don’t you feel that when fighting an opponent of equal ability, victory might be decided by experience and knowledge of martial arts? That’s why I will take your attacks head-on. However… You’ve shown them all to me, haven’t you?”

The Sorcerer King shrugged in an exaggerated fashion, and at the same time he plucked one of the nine rings he wore from its finger.

He did nothing else. That was the only move the Sorcerer King had made. However — a wave of unnaturally frightening and cold air filled the surroundings.

Neia hurriedly looked to the sky. She had almost thought that the sun in the sky had frozen and shattered. However, the sun was still there, shedding its radiance.

—Then could this frigid and jet-black emanation be something released by the Sorcerer King? Could a single individual do something like this?

This, this is the Sorcerer King. This is the true form of the magic caster who slew an army of tens of thousands...

“And now it seems — there is no longer any need to fight you.”