Future Knight

Chapter 45

*Whack!*

“Argh!”

“Ahh!”

The sharp sound of a whip echoed through the lava zone.

Kang Chan and Jaina screamed simultaneously.

Since Kang Chan had embraced Jaina, she wasn’t seriously injured, but she screamed along with him due to his cry of pain.

Blood started to pool at Kang Chan’s heel.

Although his reinforced suit had blocked the arrows from the Green Elves, it was insufficient to withstand a whip imbued with aura.

“Mister! Are you okay?”

“Huff! Grr… I’m fine, Jaina.”

Kang Chan’s condition didn’t look good to Jaina, despite his assurances.

“Oh? You look young for a human, yet you wield an aura sword freely. Truly impressive. Are you a swordsman from a renowned family? I heard that a genius swordsman from the Visman Empire, along with a princess and reapers, came to the Elven Forest. So that must be you.”

Green had completely misunderstood, but Kang Chan didn’t have the strength to mock her.

Her whipping was that powerful.

Even the resilient Kang Chan was trembling from a single blow.

Emergency micro-machines were deployed to heal the wound, and his biochip accelerated his metabolism.

However, having used the medical micro-machines to save Elika before coming here, there weren’t many left.

In the midst of this, Green’s second attack flew toward them.

Kang Chan gave up blocking with his sword and transformed his blade into a shield, injecting mana to protect himself and Jaina.

Using the shield to block the whip was indeed more effective than the sword.

However, if they only defended like this, there was no chance of victory for Kang Chan and Jaina.

‘Damn it! We have to get out of here somehow!’

On this narrow ground covered in lava, there was no other way to protect himself and Jaina.

He couldn’t activate combat mode and fight her here.

How could he fight her in a place surrounded by lava?

“A sword that transforms into a shield and armor that withstands my whip, which can slice a knight in full plate armor in half in one blow. Truly fascinating equipment.”

Despite her curiosity, she continued to whip without pause.

Kang Chan endured, diligently blocking her incessant attacks.

Seeing Kang Chan’s feet gradually sinking into the ground showed how immense the power in Green’s whip was.

“Ugh! Pft!”

Blood spurted from Kang Chan’s mouth, splattering onto Jaina’s face as she held him, possibly indicating internal injuries.

“M-Mister…”

Jaina looked up at him, hating and cursing her helplessness, crying endlessly.

“If possible, I’d like to take your gear without damaging it to study, but given the time constraints, I’ll kill you first and take it later. Hahaha!”

Her continuous mad laughter and relentless whipping made it clear she was far from sane.

Kang Chan’s arms gradually lost sensation, and his legs grew weak.

It was clear he wouldn’t last much longer.

The Green Witch’s attacks only grew fiercer as she watched him struggle.

As if preparing to finish it, she started to whip at unpredictable angles.

Green’s whip moved like a living snake.

Her whip gradually drove Kang Chan and Jaina towards the lava.

Kang Chan, utterly exhausted, was breathing heavily.

“Huff! Huff! Damn it…”

“Shall we end this now?”

Green declared that it was time to finish, preparing her final blow.

She began to slowly whirl her whip.

Soon, the whip spun fiercely like a small tornado.

The sound of the air being torn apart echoed in all directions.

It sounded like the unpleasant scream of a woman.

Then, her whip, now possessing a formidable power, was launched at Kang Chan.

Seeing her attack, Kang Chan’s eyes filled with despair.

‘Is this the end?’

Kang Chan despaired.

He had no strength left to block her whip flying at him with immense force.

At that moment.

Suddenly, a massive mana storm surged towards Green.

Startled, she abandoned her attack on Kang Chan and had to retreat.

As she hurriedly withdrew her whip and retreated, a giant ice lance struck the lava where Green had been, instantly transforming the area from lava to ice.

When Green, regaining her stance, looked at her attacker, she was astonished to see Arteon.

Green gnashed her teeth.

“You couldn’t confront me head-on, but you ambush me like this? You’re a filthy hypocrite, Arteon!”

Arteon’s once beautiful and dignified face had been horribly disfigured by Green.

It was hard to believe she was the same person.

But she was undoubtedly Arteon, and she was still shedding endless tears.

“Please stop, dear. Just stop now… You can just kill me and leave. Why are you killing so many innocent elves?”

Behind her, countless elves were still screaming and burning to death.

The cries of those she had cherished for nearly a thousand years, dying in the flames, left Arteon staggering like someone who had lost her mind.

Green scoffed.

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is just the beginning of my revenge. I will wipe out every race in this world, starting with the elves, for a new world of Green Elves.”

Arteon looked into her eyes, seeing the sincerity in them, and remained silent for a moment before slowly lowering her head.

Then, a dazzling light began to emanate from around her, and the wounds on her body healed instantly.

When she raised her head again, her face had returned to its previous beautiful state, as if there had never been a single scratch.

Green’s face hardened as she watched this transformation.

Despite being known as the Green Witch who instilled fear across the continent, without the Spirit King, it would be extremely difficult to face the continent’s greatest mage with just a whip.

Arteon spoke to the tense Green.

“If you want, I can give you this worthless life of mine at any time. But if you continue to kill innocent elves, then as their leader, not just your grandmother, I must protect them.”

As Arteon finished speaking, immense mana started to wildly gather in her hands, and soon an incredible storm of mana began to whirl from her palms.

Watching this, Green, her face turning pale, urgently called for Phoenix.

Judging by the amount of mana gathering in Arteon’s hands, it was at least a 9th-circle spell.

“P-Phoenix! Help me!”

As Arteon’s mystical runes echoed, the mana waves intensified. Even before hearing Green’s plea, Phoenix, sensing the tremendous mana waves, halted the massacre and quickly turned back to Green.

But Arteon’s spell was already complete.

“Hell Frost!”

Hell Frost, a 9th-circle water spell akin to the fire-type Hellfire, was the ultimate single-target attack spell of the water element.

This ultimate spell, Hell Frost, imbued with the chill of hell, left her hands.

However, to everyone’s surprise, the direction of this ultimate freezing spell was not Green, but Phoenix.

Phoenix, speeding back, screamed as the unimaginable freezing attack engulfed him.

“Arghhhh!”

The Fire Spirit King had not screamed in such agony since his battle with the Dragons thousands of years ago.

Such was the power of Arteon’s 9th-circle ultimate single-target attack spell.

Moreover, the spell, being of the ice element, which was the exact opposite of his flame attribute, inflicted even more severe damage.

When Phoenix collided with Hell Frost, the impact and the sound of the air splitting filled the night sky with a blinding white light, transforming the surroundings into a world of extreme cold.

The steam created from the collision of Phoenix’s heat, hotter than lava, and the hellish chill turned into ice crystals that scattered like silver dust in all directions.

The blazing ground, covered in silver dust, cooled rapidly, releasing tremendous steam, and gradually turned white as if frost had settled.

After the powerful shock that transformed the surroundings completely, the chilled Phoenix fell to the ground.

When the enormous Phoenix, covered in hellish frost, landed on the frozen ground, it caused a tremendous noise and vibration.

*Boom!*

Half of Phoenix’s body, covered in the frost of hell, was still burning like lava.

But on the chest, where Hell Frost had struck, a layer of perpetual ice formed, releasing massive amounts of steam and causing immense pain to Phoenix, who was weak against water.

“Ugh… Damn it.”

“Phoenix!”

Green ran to the fallen Phoenix.

Even as the Fire Spirit King, in this world, he could only exhibit a tenth of his power compared to the Spirit Realm, making him vulnerable to Arteon’s 9th-circle ultimate water spell.

However, the very Arteon who had brought the Spirit King to the ground also collapsed where she stood, her face pale.

Having exhausted a vast amount of mana in one go, there was no color left in her face.

Despite her exhaustion, she gritted her teeth and summoned the last of her strength to cast a levitation spell on Kang Chan and Jaina, helping them cross the lava zone.

Kang Chan and Jaina floated slowly across the lava zone and safely landed on solid ground.

Arteon, barely holding on, uttered one last word before losing consciousness.

“R-Run…”

Seeing Arteon, who had saved them, faint after telling them to run, Kang Chan and Jaina couldn’t flee. Instead, they approached Arteon.

“Lady Arteon!”

Supporting Kang Chan, who could barely walk, Jaina struggled to reach Arteon and checked her condition.