Chapter 280 – Reunion.
The voice didn’t belong to anyone he knew, but at least it was definitely not friendly.
– Kkaaang!
“Ugh!”
When the sharp wind brushed against his ear, he lifted his shield and pushed it in the direction from which the sound came. The sensation of his wrist ringing from the shield clearly gave him pain. I expected this to happen and wanted to avoid the attack as much as possible, but Erica was breathing heavily behind him, probably because she used magic. Usher glanced ahead with his shield in front.
“Girls…?”
There, a knight in full-length armor was looking down at them through a helmet. Usher was annoyed that he was seeing him as a girl again, but took advantage of his hesitant moments to examine his armament. His armor wasn’t all iron full plate armor. The joints of his arms and legs, as well as the area around his waist, which seemed to have been covered with white cloth, followed a form that could be seen everywhere, like Donard’s armor. The only thing that stood out was his waist and right hand.
The gauntlet that wrapped around his hand, extending straight from the wrist, was definitely a blade that should only be attached to the handle of a sword. That alone was a strange enough sword, but the sword at the waist also had a formidably strange appearance. If there was one on the other side, there was a pointed triangular sword with a wide blade that would have been mistaken for a gauntlet. Usher was taken aback by the sight.
“First of all, the most basic thing in combat is to know the opponent’s weapon and its characteristics. Especially since your weapon is a long sword or rapier.”
Recalling the words Krikaliev had taught him, he first looked at his opponent’s weapons, but since they were all holding weapons he had never seen before, he had no idea how to deal with them.
“Tsk, that’s annoying.”
Facing Usher and Erica, Kane didn’t feel as good as Kane. Since the other Paladins had gone out to the outskirts to stop the dragons, he thought that if he worked hard this time, he would be able to advance faster. Thanks to him, he thought he was lucky to see the door he had come to block open just in time, but that thought could only be retracted as soon as he saw them. He also knew the structure of this door. This door, which must be opened in three places at the same time, can only be opened when at least the party who must have gone through life and death splits into three.
“Were they more useless than I thought?”
At least for those who care about their comrades, it should have been normal. Kane frowned at the short yellow haired girl who was examining him with a shield as clean as a mirror in front, and the black haired girl who was leaning back as if she was not feeling well, breathing heavily.
“Or are these guys particularly bad?”
It was not obvious why he had sent two girls here in an ambiguous way, not just one.
“Is it bait?”
Even to Kane, the girls looked smooth. That’s why he must have thought that if only they were sent here, he would be able to pass the time by doing other things.
“Disgusting.”
The short-haired girl is armed with a protective plate over her light dress, but that’s all. His body, which was small enough to be hidden by a cross shield and covered in bandages that couldn’t reveal even the bare skin of his hands and limbs, made him look pitiful. And what about the girl in the back? It is hard to believe that he was brought into battle, and he is still breaking out in a cold sweat as if in pain in his inefficient outfit. I even threw it as bait like this, so it was obvious that I had lived through what the guys who came up from the underground were doing.
Kane hesitated whether to raise his sword at the sight of the girls who even felt pity for her. It was his duty to kill those coming up from the underground, but did she really have to kill even these innocent children? But he made up his mind. It reminded me of the conversation with Diana when he became a paladin.
“Do you really have to kill them?”
“Yes, why should they die as soon as they come up here?”
Even before he obtained magic and became a paladin, he assisted paladins as a knight, protected residents, and lived against dragons. No, prior to that, he did not even know anything about the underground and the inhabitants who lived below it until he became a paladin.
“Aren’t they also residents of the Holy Land?”
So he couldn’t help but question.
“I’m a little tired now. I think it can’t be helped.”
Diana sighed and looked at Kane.
“Even if they are destined usurpers?”
“A usurper. That’s what the hell.”
“I won’t say much. If you don’t kill them, it will be us who die.”
And among them is Rachel.
“At least let me go without pain.”
Usher watched them silently and was puzzled by the way he raised his sword belatedly, but thanks to him, it helped him to figure out his weapon. Even though it was an unfamiliar weapon, the characteristics of the weapon were not similar to other swords.
“It’s an unfamiliar weapon. In that case, look at the characteristics of the weapon more closely. After all, as long as it’s in the category of a weapon, there won’t be any similarities with other weapons.”
The sword connected to the knight’s gauntlet is a straight sword with no bends or bends from the bottom to the tip, and only sharpens its edge when it reaches the end. Although it was hanging from the gauntlet instead of the handle, it didn’t look very good to wield. It’s probably a sword that’s very inconvenient to wield, despite its strong power. The sword at the waist was similar to a rapier, although the blade was wide and exaggerated. The fact that the lower part of the sword was especially wide showed that the sword was intended for stabbing.
– Jjaeng!
“Ugh!”
Again, the impact echoed through the shield, and my wrists ached. It was because he blocked the sword he swung again. Realizing that he was about to overturn his shield at the sight of the blade digging into the edge of the shield, he pulled the shield and turned it sideways, allowing him to slash his sword.
“Hmm?”
Then, I felt a strange expression from the knight. Then, as if it were a test, his attacks continued in various directions. Usher turned his shield around to block the attack, minimizing the space the blade penetrated. He somehow managed to block all of his attacks, but it seemed like he would lose his shield because he was exhausted first, rather than wasting time. His hands were still trembling from the echo from the shield, but he didn’t show any sign of pain, let alone tiredness, from the knight attacking him. Usher had to find a way.
“Attack and defense are all. Neither one should be neglected.”
Recalling what Krikaliev had said, Usher drew out the rapier that had been hung from his waist until now.
‘It’s strange. I thought it was just bait.’
Kane was pretty surprised. At first, he thought he just threw the girls as bait, but isn’t the kid with the shield blocking his attacks better than he thought? It was impossible without properly learning how to extend one foot backward to prevent her from being pushed back and turn the angle of her shield to let her sword flow. Besides, she seemed to block his attack, and he drew out a rapier. It was too proper to be a bait that was simply thrown to pass the time.
Usher bit his lip as the shock pushed him harder and harder. He had a rapier at best, but she seldom gave him a chance. It is true that he was impatient, but he calmed the growing impatience. Because he wasn’t fighting to win this knight. The important thing was to wait until Krikaliev arrived without hurting himself or Erica. So he didn’t need to be in a hurry.
‘My breathing has stabilized. Moving the shield has also become smoother.’
Even though she looked quite young, Kane found a hint of her skill in that appearance. She wasn’t too keen on him either, so she was controlling it moderately, but using the shield was not something to be seen lightly. Because of this, he realized that there was something more. A person who is thrown as a simple bait doesn’t look like that. Maybe his idea wasn’t wrong from the beginning? When he had any doubts.
– Chae Ae-Aeng!
He cried as the rapier and the blade of the sword connected from his wrist met. The girl, who had been in a hurry to block his attack just before, blocked the sword with her rapier. It was the sound of following his movements little by little. However, he rather hit the rapier that blocked the sword by turning his arm. The rapier is hard and sturdy, but the front part is relatively light, so his heavier sword can easily cut through the blade simply by drawing a circle. However, after shaking off the rapier, the sword flowed along the slope created by the silver shield.
A sword that has lost its speed from cutting off a rapier that is already clinging to its sword cannot pierce a solid shield. If you try to overturn the shield by hitting the tip of the shield, you can turn the direction of the shield or, if that is not enough, to cut the sword path with a rapier to interfere with admiration. Kane sensed that she couldn’t wait any longer, so she immediately drew the sword from her waistband and cut her shield.
– Crack!
“Ugh!”
Usher held back what he almost screamed at the shock of the impact as his shield rang. His wrist holding his shield swelled up and he felt like it was going to explode, and he was in pain. At first he thought he might be able to hold on, but Usher was knocked back when the knight drew another sword and slammed it into his shield. Erica was leaning behind him, and it was fortunate that her posture did not collapse because she unintentionally supported her. Because if it wasn’t for her, she would have been on her knees. But Usher didn’t have time to catch his breath.
It was because I could see the nose of Savathon’s shoe flying down, fiercely running under the shield.
“Turn it off!!”
He tilted his cross shield to block the bottom, but it turned out to be rather poisonous. The cross shield with a longer lower part prevented it from being directly kicked by Sabaton, but the impact caused the pushed shield to hit Usher’s right knee from below. Until now, his arm had been sore, but it was impossible to even stand still as his knee was struck with his own shield. But his attacks don’t stop there. It was because the lower part of the shield tilted towards him, aiming for the upper part of him, which was revealed.
It was too heavy to block it with a rapier, so Usher had no choice but to pull the shield towards himself and close the gap at the top that had been revealed. Kaaang! The sound of iron resonating again indicated that the attack had been parried, but the stabbing pain in his wrist was still telling him that it was not over. Sure enough, Sabathon with a shiny shoe nose is approaching him to kick him again from below with the opposite leg. It was almost certain that if he blocked it with his shield, the shield he was holding would damage him, so Usher deliberately pulled his shield down and stamped it on the floor.
Jjoong! Sabaton knocked the shield with a ringing sound, but this time the shield didn’t hit Usher with a shock and ended with only scratching the floor a little. Wasn’t the shield that blocked this way called a tower shield? There was a shield that could be blocked by setting up a cover by fixing it to the floor when mainly blocking monster attacks, but this shield was vertically longer, so it could be applied. He couldn’t keep doing this, but he raised his rapier upwards.
Visor! Unsurprisingly, the descending blades scattered along the blades of the rapier. I expected him to attack from above as long as he lowered his shield this way. Thanks to this, Usher was able to stand up and get into his stance. Again and again his attacks struck the shield, and Usher clenched his teeth and endured the pain to block his attacks. He poked his gap with a rapier from time to time, but he couldn’t get much of a harvest, but time continued to flow.
‘What the hell is this guy?’
Kane was surprised to face Usher. I thought there was something in that figure that somehow held out, and I didn’t adjust my strength, but instead, isn’t it blocking it more solidly as if rebelling? Not only that.
‘The timing is different. If the movement is slow, then it is fast, if it is fast, then it slows down rapidly.’
I don’t know if I do it knowingly or instinctively, but I’m more skilled at blocking his attacks by stabbing and pulling out my sword or tilting my shield. It was still clumsy, but it meant that he was reading his attacks to some extent.
‘Could it be this little boy?’
Kane couldn’t let her go any longer, she thought. He raised his foot again to kick under the shield. Then, as if he had waited, Usher stamped his shield into the ground, but he was already aiming for it.
‘I’m sorry, but I have to die here.’
He grabbed the upper part of the shield with his hand and pressed it so that it could no longer be raised.
‘Isn’t that a sword…?!’
Usher felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the softly reflecting gauntlets that clung to his shield. He tried to lift the shield, but he could not overcome his knight’s strength with his own strength. He wanted to fight with only a rapier, but he couldn’t. The sword extending from the knight’s wrist was blocking Usher and Erica’s path to the left, and a large triangular sword was descending towards them from the other side.
