Chapter 337 |
Rules Written in Blood (3)
Dealing with a marksman who had already taken position, especially one holding high ground with a full view of the area, was nightmarishly difficult.
That was common sense. One of the few rules that still applied even among Transcendents, beings beyond common sense. Your opponent was also a Transcendent, and facing a sniper attacking one-sidedly from far away was never easy.
If that marksman was skilled, it was even worse.
And from what Najin could see, this one was skilled. Extremely skilled. Akut, the Praise Horn he had fought before, had thrown spears that were fast and powerful, but these arrows looked at least twice as fast.
Akut could intercept at a few hundred meters at best, but this unknown Constellation was sniping him from dozens of kilometers away.
Of course, Akut had been a spearman who excelled in close combat and happened to be strong at range too... anyway.
Swaaaaaaash!
This nameless Constellation was clearly several tiers above Akut. In other words, if this had been Najin from not long ago, he would have had a rough time.
Najin watched the arrow flying at him. His pupils tracked its movement precisely. So when it reached his face, he caught it without much trouble.
The physical force and shockwave packed into the arrow were locked down by Najin's grip instead of exploding spectacularly. A little dust puffed up, that was all. His palm stung, and some skin had peeled.
Even that healed in an instant.
The accuracy of arrows that could snipe targets from dozens of kilometers away was terrifying, but their power... not so much. As long as he avoided vital spots, they did not seem that dangerous.
If things became truly dangerous, Yuel or Merlin would intervene, but Najin felt no real crisis.
He let out a long breath.
After gaining nine stars and becoming a complete Transcendent, Najin knew he had grown stronger, but he still could not gauge exactly how much stronger. The Carnival King had not been a normal opponent.
So he intended to test it now.
And he had the perfect test right in front of him.
2.
A seven-star Constellation, Jeclin.
He was a Constellation who had lived in the Outland for about six hundred years, a man once famous as an archer. Even now, centuries later, stories were still told of him shooting dragons out of the sky.
What Jeclin possessed was the Authority of sure hit.
If he could bring it into view, he could hit it. Always. And his awakened archer's eyes could clearly see beings dozens of kilometers away.
See, shoot, hit.
Simple, but powerful. No better Authority existed for an archer, and no one was better suited to defending a fixed area. That was why he had been chosen by the Star of Omniscience. Jeclin took pride in that.
Watcher, Jeclin.
The watcher guarding the road to Hermann's sanctuary drew his bow again today, to punish the insolent bastard who dared enter his master's domain. In his eyes, this was nothing difficult.
This place was his sanctuary, and beneath it slept his patron deity, from whom he could directly draw power. Over the last few centuries, how many Constellations had he shot to death here? How easy had those hunts been?
Jeclin believed this hunt would be the same.
At least until he fired the third arrow.
What Jeclin saw then was Najin catching his arrow barehanded. How? Calling it luck made no sense. He had grabbed it too cleanly. It was a motion impossible without perfectly reading its path and speed.
Then, swaaaaaaash!
Najin threw the caught arrow straight back. Of course, it could not hit a target dozens of kilometers away the way Jeclin's arrows could. It lost momentum and dropped midway, but that was not the point.
The direction matched.
It traced the same trajectory as Jeclin's arrow.
At that moment, Jeclin realized this was no easy prey. The intruder had not entered because he was reckless. He had entered because he was confident he could survive this place.
Kirik, kiririk... clack.
Jeclin immediately drew on his patron deity's power, the Authority of the Omniscient Constellation. The one sleeping underground had granted him, their sole apostle, unlimited use of that Authority.
Gears turned above his head. Gear teeth locked with metallic clicks, and Jeclin's pupils widened. Blood ran from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
The Authority of Omniscience settled into his mind.
Knowledge flooded his head so completely it was almost ecstasy. In that moment, as he understood every rule and law of the world, Jeclin's eyes predicted the future. He could see exactly where and how that intruder would move.
Now his eyes no longer saw only the present. They saw the future as well. So he could hit.
Jeclin loosed arrows at the present and the future.
Swaaaaaaaaaash!
The arrows flew at terrifying speed, piercing through anything in the way. A massive gorge and stone walls blocked the path, but each was simply punched through at the center. The arrows took the shortest path toward Najin.
Three arrows, fired with slight delays.
One at where Najin stood now, one at where he would step a second later, and one predicting even his next move. This was on a different level from the crude "foresight" Sword Masters bragged about. This time, he should not be able to deal with it.
The moment Jeclin grinned.
Najin's movement changed.
With a sharp, sliding step, Najin kicked off the ground and caught one arrow aimed at him. He then threw it at another incoming arrow.
Crack. The arrow Najin threw was pierced and snapped by Jeclin's arrow, but it knocked the trajectory off. The two altered paths collided and slowed. Najin caught the slowed arrow barehanded and broke it.
The last arrow?
Najin lifted his foot high and stomped down. Crunch. The arrow shattered under his foot. Jeclin's eyes went bloodshot. What was this? Najin moved as if he could predict even arrows fired with future sight.
More than that...
He looked like a sword-using Constellation, yet he had not even drawn his blade and was fighting barehanded.
After surprise came anger.
Was he mocking him?
Jeclin stomped hard. Boom.
The arrows stuck around him were thrown into the air by the shockwave. He snatched them midair, nocked them, and fired.
Swaaaaaaaaaash!
Dozens of arrows tore through the wind and surged toward Najin. Only then did Najin put power into his legs and start running. Boom. With each step, his body shot far ahead.
A speed that could slip even a Transcendent's eye for an instant.
Jeclin's arrows were sure hit, so "missing" did not exist. Arrows that should have buried themselves in the ground bent at impossible angles, kicking up dirt as they chased Najin.
But they were slow. Far too slow.
Arrows that could not keep up with Najin's speed could only trail him like shadows. Even while pursued by dozens of arrows, Najin moved with ease.
He kicked off a cliff, dropped into the gorge, then used rough outcroppings in the wall to launch himself almost straight upward.
The distance narrowed.
Growing anxious, Jeclin kept drawing and firing. He could not understand what he was seeing. Every attack of his being broken by raw physical ability alone filled him with fear.
See. Shoot. Hit.
Jeclin had always overwhelmed enemies with that simple method, and now he was being countered by an equally simple method. The Authority of Omniscience he had borrowed, the vision that predicted the future because it knew all things, was nearly useless.
Because Najin had something similar.
To Najin's eyes, arrows aimed at his future were no different from arrows aimed at his present. And since there was no meaningful difference, catching or breaking them was easy.
'Should I try taking one?'
Najin deliberately put out an arm. Crack. The arrow buried itself in it and bent his arm backward. The pressure sheared off his fingers and sent them flying. Broken bone punched through flesh.
'It does hurt.'
Ordinary sword aura could not leave so much as a scratch on his body, yet this was still a Transcendent. If he had met this one before fighting the Carnival King, it really might have been difficult.
But that was that.
Crunch. Najin slapped the exposed broken bone with his palm and forced it back under the skin. He grabbed his bent arm and dislocated shoulder with his other hand and shoved them back into roughly proper alignment. Any doctor or healer who saw this would scream, but those screams did not reach Najin.
He drew up starlight.
Excalibur's regenerative power surged for an instant and repaired the wounds. Twisted bones reset. Fractures fused. Severed fingers regrew. It all happened in moments, and Najin did not slow down once.
'Yeah. As long as I avoid vital spots, it's nothing.'
Having reached that conclusion, Najin moved even more boldly. When dodging felt bothersome, he simply took arrows with his body. Pull them out, leave it a few seconds, and he regenerated.
"..."
The fear Jeclin felt watching from afar was beyond words. What... was that? What was he?
And the distance kept shrinking.
Dozens of kilometers became about one kilometer. Then a few hundred meters. As Najin closed in, Jeclin fired like a madman.
Kwoooooom!
Arrows came from the front, sweeping up a storm. The same from behind Najin. The shadow-like arrows that had trailed him were finally catching up. Not because they had gotten faster, but because Najin had slowed.
Not from exhaustion.
The distance had closed enough.
Only about two hundred meters remained. Close enough that one sword swing could easily reach. Only then did Najin draw his blade. He had considered beating him to death barehanded, but he did not know what variables the enemy might still have.
Excalibur appeared in midair.
Gripping the Star Sword, Najin stomped down. Boom. The ground shook. Now Najin, too, could do what Aldaran had done.
Meaning this.
First Horn.
Without any special preparation.
Triumph.
He could unleash the ultimate technique of the Triumphal Sword.
Najin swung.
In that instant, the arrows flying at him from front and back froze in place. Before that massive current, dozens of arrows became insignificant.
A storm does not spare giant trees rooted in place for decades. It rips them out and hurls them away. The storm born of the Triumphal Sword was no different.
Do not block the path the Empire will take.
You will only bend and break.
With a thunderous roar, Jeclin was swallowed by the storm.
3.
Thud, thuuud...
Collapsed gorge debris and boulders battered Jeclin's body. Groaning, he blinked.
The last thing he had seen was a single sword strike splitting the landscape in two. The moment the scenery split vertically, a storm tore through. It literally ground up Jeclin's arrows and sanctuary, and collapsed the high ground where he had stood.
What in the world was that?
Through the Authority of Omniscience, he had touched truth, and within his mind sat a vast library where he could browse all kinds of knowledge. But nowhere in that library was there information on the being before him.
Impossible. Lord Hermann knew everything.
The only guess he could make was this: it had been 150 years since any new book entered that library. If so, did this opponent appear less than 150 years ago? That much power in only 150 years? Could that be possible?
Jeclin could not understand.
But the situation did not wait for his understanding. He raised his head. A young man stood before him.
Only then did Jeclin recognize that young man's standing as a Constellation. His teeth chattered.
A nine-star Constellation.
A Constellation far above Jeclin's level. Not just because he had more stars, but because the very presence of his soul was different. The last thing Jeclin confirmed was the sword in that man's hand.
Its form was different.
But Jeclin knew what sword it was.
Not because that information existed in the Library of Omniscience, but because Jeclin himself knew it. In the first place, no being on this land could fail to recognize it.
"Excalibur..."
As Jeclin muttered, Excalibur's tip touched the center of his brow. Jeclin's pupils shook violently. In this moment, his Authority and standing were worthless.
No great force was needed.
A slight push forward with the tip would kill Jeclin. Feeling the cold edge of death on his brow, Jeclin was terrified.