Chapter 275.
They must have spent a ridiculous amount of money on those small beads because the amount of power they had was no joke. Considering that I could still feel the impact through the protective strong aura, if that blast hit me unobstructed, I would have died.
White powder smoke enveloped me and blocked my vision, and I heard the sound of additional manrikis flying towards me from all directions once more. I closed my eyes since I couldn’t see anyway, relying on my sixth sense to shoot out sword auras and knock away the manrikis. Kangkangkangkang-!
I heard the sound of my sword auras cutting the manrikis, and the chains that lost their weights fell to the floor. I swung my sword and dispersed the smoke with the sword wind, but a manriki wound around my arm as soon as my line of sight became clear.
Pazizik-!
A sizable amount of electricity flowed into me from the chain wrapped around my arm.
"It worked!"
The Black Water Buffalo knight who successfully caught me shouted a cheer, but I smiled and looked at the knight. "It’s the other way around!"
I pulled at the chain around my arm, blocking the electric current as much as I could with the protective strong aura.
"Let go of the chain!" Proban shouted urgently, but the knight who was pouring mana into the chain missed his chance to stop the flow of mana and let go, getting dragged towards me.
"Ugh!"
I instantly knocked out the knight who came flying towards me by striking his solar plexus, and I took the chain from his hands. When the knight supplying the mana fainted, the chain that was winding around my arms was released, and the electric current stopped.
I twirled the manriki with the hand that wasn’t holding my rapier. "That’s one! There’s no way you didn’t know that this tactic had such a loophole. Do you have a method to fall back on when you’ve lost the manriki?"
As I provoked the Black Water Buffalo knights, I confirmed the chain’s abilities. The manriki was better made than I initially presumed. Depending on the user’s mana, the chain stretched and shrunk, and it was designed to be able to withstand a decent level of sword aura and not break. However, it was unlikely that you’d be able to properly use it with a normal amount of practice.
The knights knew that better than anyone else and did not panic as one said, "Do you think you’re able to use that just because you took it?”
"Well, that’s too difficult at the moment. For now." I smiled and tossed the weight at the forehead of a knight who had the least amount of mana. Using the manriki was too challenging, but it was possible to simply throw the weight.
After I focused on him, the knight quickly dodged the weight. Throwing the weight like this was a formidable tactic because it would wind around the opponent just from touching them. I tried to swing and steer the chain, but it didn’t go where I thought it would go.
"It won’t be easy!" shouted Proban.
At the same time, the knights replaced the missing weights and hurled the manrikis at me. I pulled back the chain and dodged the manrikis flying toward me. I kept avoiding the manrikis targetting me, and I threw the weight to counteract one of the manrikis thrown toward me. The manrikis that collided wound around each other, and the electric currents were offset. I yanked the chain, pulling the knight that was holding the wound-up chain.
"Second one!"
"Ugh!" The knight who fainted after being hit in the solar plexus collapsed, spitting out short death throes.
I put the rapier back into the sheath and took the manriki from the fallen knight. I laughed cheerfully, spinning the manrikis with both hands, "Ahahaha! You didn’t think I’d aim at the manriki, did you?"
One of the knights grew flustered and exclaimed at my provocation, "How can you use the chain’s functions? There should be a few layers of security magic!"
The knight’s face was quite familiar. Did he say his name was Molk?
"Security magic? Oh, the magic that’s acting as a decoration? It’s so sloppy that I don’t even have to undo it to use this weapon."
Of course, as someone who wasn’t the recognized owner, using the manriki required more than just injecting mana. Still, infusing mana in a roundabout way was not a big deal. The response time was just about four seconds slower than the original user. So, as long as you used it four seconds earlier, it was no problem.
"Crazy! That’s magic that the court magicians developed over three years...!”
I hurled a weight at the astounded Molk’s leg. "Let’s make small talk after the spar!"
Molk leaped back to avoid the manriki, and I threw the manriki in my other hand at him while he was in the air. Molk pulled a sword out in mid-air and blew away the weight with a sword aura.
While my chain was outstretched, all the knights aimed and flung their manrikis at me. I discarded the cut manriki and pulled the other one back while twisting my body to avoid the manrikis. Five knights rushed at me and swung their swords, targeting the gap that had formed while I was turning.
"Uaahhhh!”
I pretended to retrieve the manriki and aimed at the back of a knight running toward me. The knight who was hit by the manriki was electrocuted and got knocked down.
"Third. Hmm, now my hands are starting to get used to it."
I could sense the way the chain moved now. I manipulated the chain and simultaneously tied up two knights that were sprinting at me before taking out my rapier to deal with the remaining two knights. I quickly deflected the attacks coming at me from both sides and used the handle of the rapier as knuckles to hit their solar plexuses.
"Oook!"
"Uwack!"
I smiled as I moved past the five fallen knights. "Eight people. Are the manrikis and bomb beads all you have to show me?”
If I ignored how the security magic and the electric current of the manrikis were weaker than expected, the manrikis were quite threatening. It wasn’t a lie when my uncle said he struggled.
The Black Water Buffalo knights around me remained vigilant and maintained their martial auras, and Proban laughed amusedly. "Hahaha, it was hard to deal with General Bloody or Mac hyung, but the situation now is very different from the one during training."
Indeed, it was clear that neither Uncle Bloody nor Mac would even think of trying to steal the chains and using them.
"Well, they’re both awfully ignorant. There may be opponents who can take away weapons and use them like this. Well, it seems you thought of that and cast security magic too."
Proban nodded, affirming my guess, and I continued, "This level of security magic can be lifted in no time even if you are only a great magician, not a madosa.”
At my criticism, Proban argued back, "A magician of that level wouldn’t steal and use them like this."
"Oh, that’s true, too.
The security magic would work on someone who didn’t know magic, and a magician who could dispel the security magic would not be able to use such a complicated weapon.
It seems this is the reason it looked like William didn’t even bother touching the security magic. Yet, there may be cases like mine, so I’ll have to tell my uncle to strengthen the security magic.
“Then, do you have more to show me?”
Proban shook his head at my question. "It’s not that we don’t have anything else, but it’s not appropriate for use in a spar."
"I see." I nodded and threw away the manriki. My sudden action baffled the knights as I went on, "Since there’s nothing more to see, let’s stop playing around."
After saying so, I released martial aura to the point where it was past the level of just a greeting. The Black Water Buffalo knights clenched their swords and chains at my martial aura, and some of the students around me were shivering and even vomiting. I don’t know if they can be proper knights when they’re so fainthearted.
"Everyone! Formation 3!" The knights immediately gathered in groups of three and surrounded me.
"Assume that it’s the real deal from now on!"
At Proban’s cry, the knights replaced the chain weight with anchor-shaped hooks. Then, the sword in his hand emitted strong aura at full power.
What? So you did have more to show.
With a smile, I rushed towards the nearest group. The knights I was targeting threw black hooks wrapped in sword aura at me, and I jumped high and stepped on the hook.
"Enlightenment! Stepping on Grass."
A spark flared on the chain as it tried to wrap around my feet, but before the chain caught my ankle, I kicked the hook and leaped toward the knights. The three knights tried to cut me as I directly charged at them, and I sprung up again, kicking a chain that was a great foothold in the air. Then, I turned my body over their heads and shot a strong aura at the knights.
"Keuk!"
While the knights were responding to the strong aura, I grasped their backs and hit their heads to knock them out.
Eleven!
As soon as I knocked the knights out, I gathered as much mana as I could and launched strong aura at the nearest knights. The knights who managed to stop my strong aura sat down on the spot, forced to rest due to excessive mana usage.
"14!"
While I had gathered mana and launched a strong aura, two groups of knights threw manrikis at me. I wrapped both of my arms in protective strong aura and blocked the chain with my arms.
"Oh, that’s numbing!" Since several chains were releasing an electrical current synchronously, some electricity penetrated through the protective strong aura and damaged me.
Three knights pulled back, and the others rushed at me from the back and front. I used the outward force of the chains from both sides as support, spun as if flipping over a horizontal bar, and kicked the knights coming at me from the front.
Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty!
Six knights fell unconscious when I finished spinning one time.
"What!" The knights were shocked, and I gathered as much martial arts as I could and yanked on the chains that were pulling my arms.
"Aaaaap!”
With my shout, the knights on both sides were dragged towards me. "Enlightenment! Catching a Gecko!"
"Huh?!" The knights who tried to release the chains panicked when they couldn’t let go, and they were dragged away. Because their hands were stuck to the chains, they couldn’t block my punches properly and fainted.
"26! Ugh, it’s been a while since I’ve run low on mana!"
Perhaps it was because my fighting level was so low compared to my magic, but my mana efficiency was not as high. Of course, I still had quite a bit left before my mana would run out, but since I don’t usually use a lot of mana, I felt as if I was already lethargic.
Before we started sparring, I thought the fight would be simple. Maybe this was because I neglected my martial arts too much. I didn’t expect to be reflecting like this.
"Well, there are five left, including Leader-nim. What will you do?”
My rapier still swelled with a strong aura, and Proban was pointing his sword at me when he lowered his weapon and said, "We surrender. We lost."
Hearing the surrender, I released the strong aura from my rapier and put it back into its sheath, saying, "Thank you for displaying the skills of Black Water Buffalo knights. As expected, my uncle deserves to be proud."
After saying this, I sank to the floor. The Black Water Buffalo knights were so weak that they could not compare to those from my hometown at an individual level. However, with their teamwork, fighting them at the same time was more difficult than dealing with people from my hometown.
"Aigoo, have I relied too much on magic lately? It’s so hard to fight without magic."
To be honest, if the entire knight division had participated, I probably would’ve ended up using magic while fighting. In fact, I had to consciously avoid using magic in the battle just now.
"You’re exaggerating. It’s a complete defeat, Colonel-nim." Proban reached out to me, and I smiled and grabbed his hand to stand up.
As I dusted the dirt off my butt, I thought,
... I wasn’t exaggerating.
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