Chapter 453 - 427: Slaughter

Chapter 453: Chapter 427: Slaughter

Although Roland’s last strike hadn’t managed to kill the Rusted Knight, the terrifying Power he’d displayed filled the eyes of the other knights with sheer shock.

They exchanged uneasy glances, and muffled whispers spread from behind their faceplates.

"How... how does he have so much Power?"

"He’s just a Veil Breaker... but his brute strength could rival the monsters in the Howling Canyon!"

"His sword... With that last strike, I felt the ground shake..."

Seeing his men lose their nerve and halt their attack after a single blow from the enemy, Hagry felt utterly humiliated.

He urged his roaring vehicle forward a few paces, his four arms flailing in fury as his shrill voice rang out with a sharp command.

"What are you all standing there for? You worthless trash! He’s only one man! Get him! Chop him to pieces with your swords!"

Their leader’s roar dispelled the knights’ brief hesitation.

They let out fresh war cries and, like goaded beasts, once again brandished their strange weapons, launching an even more frenzied assault on Roland from all sides.

Instantly, the explosive clang of colliding metal became incessant, like the beating of an invisible, giant drum.

Countless blades, wreathed in an eerie green Energy, whistled through the air as they slashed down and thrust forward, forming a deadly storm of steel.

Yet Roland, at the center of the storm, remained as steady as a mountain. His [Lonely Barrier] Trait had quietly activated, allowing him to stand firm amidst the torrential onslaught.

The Moonlight Longsword in his hand became a silver wheel of light, precisely blocking, parrying, and deflecting every single attack.

In this brief yet incredibly intense exchange, Roland’s keen combat instincts quickly picked up on crucial information.

’Their Power is far beyond that of a normal person, comparable to a Professional who’s just stepped onto the Path to the Extraordinary, but their Combat Skills are crude and undisciplined. They’re relying on nothing but their strange Armor and those weapons that can conduct and amplify their Power.’

CLANG!

He parried another heavy chop from a sword with a humming core at its hilt. Feeling an impact from the clash of weapons no less powerful than a typical Extraordinary Professional’s, a cold glint flashed in Roland’s eyes.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, the Moonlight Longsword shot forward like a striking viper, stabbing like lightning toward the chest of the knight before him.

The next moment, just as when Hagry had blocked Avril’s Arrow, a murky, eerie green Energy Field rippled across the knight’s chestplate, resembling a viscous swamp.

HUM!

The moment the tip of the Moonlight Sword pierced the Energy Field, Roland clearly felt its Power and speed being drastically weakened and absorbed, as if it had plunged into an invisible quagmire.

In the end, the sharp tip only left a clear white scratch and a slight dent on the heavy Armor, failing to pierce through.

’However...’

Faced with this strange defense, Roland didn’t panic. Instead, he arched an eyebrow, confirming a suspicion.

’This Armor’s ability to withstand and disperse Power isn’t limitless. With that last strike, the fluctuations in the Energy Field were obviously far more violent...’

Realizing this, Roland no longer held back.

The Giant Dragon Bloodline within him erupted like an awakening volcano. Immense Power flooded into his arms without reservation, and his Primordial Core trembled slightly, providing a near-infinite supply of stamina.

The previously subdued silver glow on the Moonlight Longsword suddenly blazed, faintly revealing a sharp golden glint that seemed capable of tearing through anything.

Meanwhile, outside the fray, Hagry sat atop his Magic Vehicle, watching the battle with a completely relaxed posture.

One of his arms rested leisurely on the control lever, while another even pulled an unidentifiable, greasy piece of jerky from a storage compartment on the side of the vehicle and began to chew on it.

Seeing Roland "struggling" under the assault of his Knights, a muffled, smug laugh escaped from behind his faceplate.

"Hmph, I thought he was supposed to be so tough. Turns out he’s just a punching bag with a little extra strength."

He taunted a trusted rider beside him, his voice sounding somewhat distorted through his faceplate.

"See that? Before the steel tide of the Rusted Knight Order, any Veil Breaker can only struggle in vain! His pitiful amount of Power can’t even get through our Armor. It’s just a boring show."

At this, he even waved one of his arms, jeering loudly toward the battle.

"Hey, Veil Breaker! If you get on your knees right now and offer up your ship, I might just be merciful enough to leave your corpse in one piece to fertilize this wasteland!"

Hagry seemed completely lost in the sense of superiority that came with this game of cat and mouse. He was utterly oblivious to the dangerous golden gleam now radiating from the Longsword at the battle’s center, and to the sudden, icy killing intent in Roland’s eyes.

What he thought was the desperate struggle of a cornered beast was, in reality, a Giant Dragon measuring the thickness of its prey’s carapace. And the measurement...

...was complete.

His mind was made up. His killing intent flared.

Facing the Rusted Knights swarming him again, Roland no longer held back.

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as the [War Dance Shadow] and [Psychedelic Dance] Traits activated in tandem for the first time in a real battle.

A knight roared, swinging his Energy-humming Heavy Sword down at Roland’s head, only to see Roland’s body shift ever so slightly, grazing past the blade’s edge by an impossibly small margin.

[Psychedelic Dance] activated.

In the path of his dodge, two or three fleeting, blurry Residual Shadows with different poses were left behind. These Residual Shadows even mimicked blocking or parrying motions, causing a moment of confusion in the attacker’s judgment.

And in the same instant as the successful dodge, [War Dance Shadow] triggered.

Where he had just been standing, a more solid Residual Shadow, formed from seething battle intent and distorted light, quietly appeared.

"The first."

Roland’s whisper was like a proclamation from the Death God.

With a mere thought, he instantly swapped places with the war-intent Residual Shadow several meters away, appearing directly to the side and rear of another Knight who was charging at Avril.

The Moonlight Longsword, surging with Dragon Power pushed to its peak and glowing with a brilliant golden light, cut through the knight’s hastily summoned, eerie green Energy Field as if it were a hot knife through butter.

With a sickening tear, it sliced him—Armor and all—in two! Blood and shattered metal components sprayed everywhere.

This phantom-like teleportation and ruthless execution made the surrounding knights’ assault falter for a moment.

"Nice one, Roland!"

Avril seized the opportunity. Instead of approaching the center of the melee, she nimbly weaved around the edge of the battlefield, her Longbow constantly drawn and loosed.

Her Arrows weren’t aimed for kill shots but were cunningly fired at the joints of the knights’ Armor or the eye sockets of their mutated mounts, precisely impeding the enemy’s movements and creating more space for Roland to dodge and attack.

"Oh! An ode to victory and Destruction!"

Galvis had at some point leaped onto the mast. He strummed the strings of the Lute in his arms, and high-pitched notes brimming with Magic Power flowed from it.

This was no gentle, supportive melody, but sonic waves containing disruptive Power.

The invisible waves of sound swept across the battlefield, making the Residual Shadows created by Roland’s movements even more erratic and difficult to track. At the same time, the Rusted Knights felt waves of irritation, and their attack rhythm fell into disarray.

He would even occasionally pluck a single, sharp note that would materialize as an Energy Shock, precisely striking the helmet of any Knight who tried to ambush Roland. While it couldn’t cause serious injury, it was enough to leave them dazed and interrupt their attack.

With his teammates’ seamless coordination, Roland unleashed the full power of his two new Traits.

Like an Illusion dancing on a razor’s edge, every one of his subtle dodges left behind a disorienting [Psychedelic] Residual Shadow, and every successful dodge, in turn, instantly generated a [War Dance] Residual Shadow that could be used to teleport.

At times, he would leave a decoy behind, his true self already reappearing in an enemy’s defensive blind spot.

At others, he used the Residual Shadows to weave across the battlefield, running the Knights who were trying to surround him ragged as their attacks missed time and time again.

Every flash of golden light from his sword was inevitably followed by the fall of a Rusted Knight.

Under his absolute Power and precise attacks, their heavy Armor could no longer provide perfect protection. It was either smashed through by sheer, brutal Power, or pierced with a single strike the moment a weak point appeared in the flow of the Energy Field.

In the center of the battlefield, a flower of death seemed to bloom—one made of metal fragments, flesh and blood, and the constantly appearing and vanishing Residual Shadows.

Aboard his vehicle, Hagry’s leisurely chewing had long since stopped.

His four arms were frozen stiffly in mid-air, and behind his faceplate, his eyes were wide with utter, disbelieving horror.

"No... Impossible!"

His shrill voice cracked with Fear, stripped of all its earlier arrogance.

"What... what kind of monster is he? Those Shadows... what the hell are those damn Shadows?!"

He watched helplessly as his elite Knights were reaped like straw under the blade of that ghost-like human.

That fighting style—ignoring Armor as if it were nothing and moving like a phantom—completely shattered his perception of reality.

One moment he was reveling in the superiority of a cat toying with a mouse; the next, he discovered he was the one being toyed with.

Overwhelming Fear instantly gripped his heart.

He instinctively tried to turn his vehicle around and flee the battlefield, which had suddenly become a terrifying slaughterhouse.

However, just as he revved the vehicle, its engine roaring as he attempted to retreat...

a cold gaze locked onto him.

After swapping places with a war-intent Residual Shadow, Roland’s figure appeared just a short distance ahead and to the side of him.

The golden light on his Moonlight Longsword had yet to fully recede, and its tip was dripping with thick blood.

Roland didn’t even spare a glance for the remaining Knights. His gray eyes, like the coldest ice, seemed to pierce through space itself to land on Hagry.

The next moment, Roland moved.

With no roar, no warning, he simply dropped his stance. Like a bolt of lightning skimming across the ground, he launched his Charge, filled with resolute and unstoppable killing intent.

In that instant, Hagry’s pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.

And yet, in the next instant, as Roland rushed toward him with unstoppable momentum, the overwhelming Fear in Hagry’s eyes vanished without a trace, like smoke scattered by the wind.

In its place was a frenzied battle lust—a mixture of madness, fury, and even a trace of twisted excitement.

"ROAR!"

A completely inhuman roar, accompanied by the grating shriek of scraping metal, exploded from beneath his sealed helmet.

Far from retreating, he suddenly cranked the power of the Magic Vehicle beneath him to its absolute limit.

The eerie violet light of the vehicle’s core became blinding and unstable, emitting a shrill whine like that of a dying beast. With suicidal determination, it charged forward instead of retreating, roaring to meet Roland head-on.

At that moment, his four heavily armored arms revealed their true, terrifying nature.

Two of his arms gripped the vehicle’s control levers to keep it stable, while the other two shot out like predatory pythons.

One arm wielded a Chainsaw Sword, similar in design to those of his Knights but larger, its core glowing with a more ferocious light. The other arm held a short, thick, bizarre Hand Cannon, its muzzle glinting with a dangerous red light.

"Die, Veil Breaker!"

The roar still trembled in the air as the bizarre Hand Cannon, tightly gripped in one of his arms, erupted with a destructive boom.

There was no Arrow or physical projectile.

A highly condensed, dark-red beam of Energy, as thick as a child’s arm and like a venomous fang striking from the Hell Abyss, instantly tore through the short distance between them.

Wherever it passed, even the stagnant Magic Elements in the air were violently displaced and annihilated, leaving only a fleeting vacuum trail that made a scalp-tingling hiss.

It left Roland almost no room to evade with his Subtle Footwork. The Shadow of death seemed to magnify rapidly with the advance of that dark-red light...

BOOM!

The light exploded, instantly engulfing Roland’s figure.