Future Knight

Chapter 20

As the two moved to a secluded place, the worried Jaina kept clinging to Kang Chan’s arm, trying to dissuade him. However, Kang Chan, who had already made up his mind, did not listen to Jaina’s pleas.

Soon, they reached a wide, deserted clearing and stood facing each other.

“Jaina, stay far away in a safe place.”

“Please, don’t do it. Please.”

“Don’t worry. Sometimes a man has to face difficult situations. Well, this isn’t exactly a difficult situation.”

Kang Chan, comforting Jaina, looked at Keremion and sneered, causing a murderous intent to flare in Keremion’s eyes.

‘That bastard, I’ll definitely kill him.’

Unable to stop Kang Chan, Jaina moved to a safe place with a worried expression, and the tension between the two men grew even thicker.

In that tension, they stared at each other silently for a long time.

As if they were seeing their mortal enemy.

When the tension reached its peak, Kang Chan broke the silence first.

“How about we set some conditions?”

“I don’t make bets with humans.”

“Don’t be so petty, just listen. It’s not a bad deal for you. Not all elves have such tiny hearts like yours, right?”

“Don’t you dare insult the elves!”

As Keremion raised his voice, Kang Chan shouted even louder.

“If not, then listen up! If I win, don’t ever take out your anger on me about your sister in front of me again! I don’t even want to see you! And don’t say anything about me going to war with Lord Elradian! Got it?”

Keremion, slightly flinching, cautiously opened his mouth.

“What if I win?”

“If you win, I’ll do as you say. If you tell me not to go to the battlefield, I won’t go. If you want me to leave this village, I’ll leave. How about it? Not a bad deal, right?”

After hearing Kang Chan’s words, Keremion slowly drew his sword with a sly smile.

“Now that I hear it, it’s really not a bad deal. You’ll regret this.”

“We won’t know until we try. Just don’t be surprised or complain about whatever weapon I use from now on.”

“Do as you please. There’s nothing you can use that will surprise me. Just don’t wet your pants.”

At that moment, condensed mana erupted from Keremion’s saber, covering the blade and beginning to extend outward.

It slowly took on the form of an aura sword.

Seeing this from a distance, Jaina’s face turned pale.

The aura sword, a power that could cut through even steel, was every swordsman’s dream.

“If you don’t want to die, kneel before me now. My saber knows no mercy.”

“Is that so?”

As Kang Chan spoke, a black wave spread from his black vest, starting to cover his entire body.

The strange sight caused Keremion and Jaina’s eyes to widen as if they would tear.

In just a few seconds, micro-machines enveloped Kang Chan’s body, and as his combat suit began to take shape, it revealed a completely black suit with only a blood-red moon drawn on his right shoulder standing out.

‘What, what is that?’

Keremion’s eyes were filled with suspicion at the sight of the combat suit that covered Kang Chan’s entire body like magic.

The armor before him was clearly not magical armor.

If it were magic, there was no way he, an elf sensitive to the flow of mana, wouldn’t recognize it.

“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be surprised?”

“Do you think wearing that strange armor will make you capable of defeating me?”

“We won’t know until we try, right?”

The combat suit had the function of amplifying strength up to ten times and also boosting adrenaline, significantly increasing agility.

Of course, if the strength amplification was maximized, the battery wouldn’t last long.

However, Kang Chan, who knew how to distribute it properly, felt a surge of confidence unlike before.

That was how exceptional the suit’s performance was.

“Fine. I’ll defeat you with my skill and banish you and that strange object from this village forever.”

“If you have the skill.”

A silence as if time had stopped flowed between them.

Like the calm before a storm. Now, no one could stop their fight.

As insects, startled by the murderous intent erupting from Keremion, flew away all at once, Keremion suddenly charged at Kang Chan.

His movement was so swift that the grass around him bent only after he had disappeared.

Kang Chan instinctively dodged to the side, and the grass where Kang Chan had stood split in half, revealing Keremion, who had cleaved the ground.

“This time, I ambushed first, but you dodged. Not bad.”

Keremion, slowly rising from the dust, glared at Kang Chan with murderous eyes for easily evading his ambush.

Then, from Kang Chan’s hands, curled up like a cat, two high-frequency blades emerged.

The high-frequency blades, gradually turning red-hot, emitted an unpleasant low hum.

“Such a clumsy ambush.”

“You bastard!”

Keremion, shouting, charged at Kang Chan again with his aura sword leading the way.

Kang Chan crossed his high-frequency blades to block Keremion’s aura sword, which was coming down with the force to split the ground.

Sparks flew from the clashing swords, producing an ear-splitting noise.

Kang Chan intended to break Keremion’s thin saber with his crossed blades, but the saber, surrounded by powerful mana, didn’t break or even get scratched.

“Ugh!”

“Haaa!”

As the power struggle continued for a while, the point where Keremion’s aura sword and Kang Chan’s high-frequency blades met turned red-hot, and Kang Chan’s blades began to melt.

‘Damn it! The high-frequency blades that cut through steel are melting. Is the aura sword’s power really this great? If I face him head-on like this, it’s dangerous.’

Kang Chan, who had never directly confronted an aura sword with his high-frequency blades, was inwardly shocked by the aura sword’s power.

Although he could also unleash an aura sword, the fact that he had learned the elves’ mana training methods had to be kept a strict secret from the other elves, so he couldn’t use the aura sword.

Faced with this penalty, Kang Chan felt an ominous premonition that this fight wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.

“Haa!”

Sensing the danger, Kang Chan leaped backward, and combined with Keremion’s pushing force, he flew nearly five meters away.

“You bastard! Where do you think you’re running?”

Keremion, soaring high into the sky, unleashed a mana sword at Kang Chan.

A sharp blade of mana, filled with murderous intent, flew toward Kang Chan.

“Damn it! A mana sword!”

The mana sword rushing toward him was a technique a step above his current level of learning.

Kang Chan, who knew better than anyone the power of a mana sword from his master’s demonstrations, felt his life was in danger and hurriedly infused a faint amount of mana into his high-frequency blades.

Although it couldn’t compare to Keremion’s mana sword, Kang Chan judged that infusing a bit of mana would enable his high-frequency blades to block the mana sword.

“Haa!”

As Keremion’s mana sword collided with Kang Chan’s high-frequency blades, just as Kang Chan predicted, he barely managed to avoid the crisis with his mana-infused blades.

If it had been an ordinary sword instead of a high-frequency blade, it would have been cut in two even with mana infused, so powerful and sharp was his mana blade.

Keremion’s face hardened as he watched Kang Chan barely manage to block his mana sword.

As an elf sensitive to mana, he had sensed mana emanating from Kang Chan’s body.

‘That bastard just used mana! It was faint, but he definitely used mana! Was he originally someone who could wield mana? No, a year ago, he couldn’t use mana at all. So who taught him to wield mana? And in such a short time… could it have been Lord Elradian? No, it couldn’t be Lord Elradian, could it?’

Countless thoughts flashed through Keremion’s mind in the blink of an eye.

Despite being overwhelmed by deep anxiety, Keremion was in the midst of a duel, so he shook his head vigorously to clear his mind and refocus.

“To think you dare challenge me with such paltry skills! Alright, try to block this! Blade Spear!”

The Blade Spear was the most powerful attack of an elf’s sword, a technique that maximized the sharpness of the blade.

Keremion, who had drawn out all his mana, launched his blade spear like a piercing spike towards Kang Chan.

Its sharpness was enough to pierce anything, and its speed was like light.

In the blink of an eye, the Blade Spear flew right in front of Kang Chan’s face, and he narrowly avoided a fatal wound by instinctively twisting his head like a beast.

However, the Blade Spear that pierced Kang Chan’s helmet also tore his ear in half.

“Damn it! That was way too fast!”

Kang Chan broke out in a cold sweat as he struggled to keep up with Keremion’s attacks, even with his enhanced vision.

As the Blade Spear continued to fly relentlessly at him, wounds large and small began to appear all over Kang Chan’s body.

‘This is dangerous. I need to increase my combat level before I end up a pincushion!’

– Combat Mode Level 5 Activated.

Keremion was far stronger than expected, so Kang Chan had no choice but to push his combat mode to the limit.

His increased strength and agility were now dozens of times greater than those of an ordinary human.

With his now incomparable speed, Kang Chan barely managed to dodge the Blade Spear and closed in on Keremion, slashing with his high-frequency blades.

“You rat! You came here to die! Take this!”

Although Keremion had been momentarily startled by Kang Chan’s strange and eerie armor, after a few exchanges, he became confident that his skill was superior.

Filled with confidence, Keremion swung his aura sword fiercely at Kang Chan, who was charging at him.

With a massive crashing sound, the exchange of attacks and defenses continued.

In the darkened forest, red and blue lights flashed dazzlingly, reducing the surrounding forest to ashes.

Their movements were so fast that it was difficult for an ordinary person to follow with their eyes.

Watching Kang Chan, who was holding his ground against Keremion, Jaina was stunned into silence.

‘So it’s true that he defeated Keremion before…’

Jaina had heard that Kang Chan had defeated Keremion, but she hadn’t really believed it until she saw his true prowess before her eyes, which was nothing like his usual self.

Dozens of trees, caught up in their fight, fell one after another to the ground, but as an elf, Keremion had no time to mourn the trees.

Such was the fierceness of Kang Chan’s resistance.

Moreover, with each clash of blades, Keremion’s hands began to feel numb, and he became increasingly alarmed.

‘What is this? He’s much stronger than before!’

What unsettled Keremion was not just the sudden increase in Kang Chan’s strength, but the highly refined and complex blade techniques he was now using, which were far more sophisticated than his previous simple attacks.

In just a year, Kang Chan had mastered a much higher level of swordsmanship.

“Doesn’t it hurt to see the forest getting destroyed because of you?”

At Kang Chan’s taunting words, Keremion’s eyes reddened with fury, and he shouted back with venom.

“I will kill you to console the spirits of the trees!”

“Hey! Get it straight! You’re the one cutting them down, not me!”

“Shut up!”

Mana-filled aura swords flew from Keremion’s sword towards Kang Chan, but Kang Chan, with agile movements like a swallow, easily dodged them and charged at Keremion again, swinging his high-frequency blades.

Boom! Zing!

Once more, the two blades clashed in mid-air, producing sparks and deafening noise.

The two fought desperately, neither yielding an inch, secretly admiring each other’s strength.

‘This guy is really strong! How did I defeat such a monster before? Even in Combat Mode Level 5, I’m not pushing him back at all. If I weren’t wearing this suit, I’d have to use the aura sword.’