Knight: from Apprentice to the Almighty

Chapter 332: Chapter 319: Mortal Combat

"Three Extraordinary Assassins... What a thorough plan."

Gloria’s gaze swept over the three assailants who had completely sealed off all her escape routes from different directions. She bit her lip.

The next moment, their deadly coordinated attack came again.

Gloria swung her Longsword fiercely. The blazing golden runes on it suddenly erupted with a blinding light that flowed along the blade.

A surge of Power not her own rushed forth, empowering the blade and allowing her to barely parry the vicious slash from the front.

Then, the light from her left arm formed a translucent golden barrier, just managing to block the attack from her left.

The tremendous impact sent a numbing jolt through her arm. She staggered back as a metallic, sweet taste rose in her throat, but the sacred, searing Power had also managed to momentarily repel two of the assailants.

"Your Highness! Don’t worry about me! Go!"

Her lady-in-waiting, Mel, struggled to cry out.

Her hands were pressed tightly against the horrifying wound on her abdomen that was continuously seeping blood, her face as pale as a sheet.

Gloria didn’t answer. She didn’t even glance back at her.

Instead, she gripped her Longsword tightly, her steps unusually firm as she once again placed the blade between Mel and the attackers, using her body and weapon to form a final bastion for her loyal subordinate.

’The Holy Mark...’

Gloria gritted her teeth, feeling the burning pain in her arm and neck, and the vibrations of Power feeding back through the hilt of her sword.

’This gift from the divine does temporarily grant me the Power to contend with Transcendents, but...’

She knew better than anyone that she was not a true Transcendent.

This Holy Mark, not yet fully inscribed and not yet perfectly fused with her soul, was like a double-edged sword. Every time she activated it, it ravenously drained her stamina and Spirit, the backlash consuming her mortal body.

Each surge of Power was accompanied by excruciating, muscle-tearing pain and waves of dizziness, making the Longsword in her hand feel heavier and heavier.

The three Assassins from the Shadows had clearly and keenly noticed this.

They no longer rushed to attack head-on. Instead, they moved like phantoms, weaving and flickering around Gloria, using the dense forest to constantly change positions and launch one insidious raid and feint after another.

Their attacks grew more cunning, often targeting Mel, whom Gloria could not fully protect. This forced her to constantly block and parry, passively draining the Power that was never truly hers.

Under this cunning and relentless attrition, Gloria’s movements inevitably slowed, and each breath felt like a burning struggle.

The light of the Holy Mark began to flicker, like a candle in the wind.

The edges of her vision started to darken, and the arm swinging her Longsword felt as if it were filled with lead.

Just as she barely managed to parry a strike from the right-hand Shadow with the flat of her blade, her body, wracked with exhaustion, revealed a massive opening.

The last Assassin, as if having anticipated this very moment, silently emerged from the shadows of the canopy directly above, in her absolute blind spot.

The light-devouring Short Blade in his hand descended silently, plunging straight toward her unprotected head.

The chill of death enveloped her.

In the instant before the light-devouring Short Blade could touch a single strand of Gloria’s hair...

...a figure suddenly cut into the fray, positioning himself with absolute precision between Gloria and death.

His movements were without a single wasted motion. The Longsword in his hand transformed into a swift silver Thunderbolt, thrusting upward with pinpoint accuracy.

SQUELCH!

The muffled sound of the sharp blade tearing through flesh was exceptionally clear.

The Longsword pierced through the chest of the lunging Assassin with unerring precision. The sheer force of the blow even threw the Assassin’s body backward.

Scalding blood gushed out.

The astonishment in the Assassin’s eyes froze before it could fully form. The Shadow Power coiling around him shattered like glass and dispersed in an instant. He crashed heavily to the ground, all signs of life gone.

The other two Assassins, who had been about to pounce again, froze abruptly. Beneath their hoods, their gazes clearly flashed with shock and suspicion at the sudden appearance of this powerful interloper.

However, their hesitation lasted only a moment.

As highly trained killers, they abandoned their attack without a second thought.

Their figures receded like ink drops dissolving in water, swiftly fading back into the deep shadows of the surrounding woods as if they had never been there.

Having narrowly escaped death, Gloria’s breathing was ragged. She stared, slightly stunned, at the tall, unfamiliar back before her and the resolute lines of his profile.

"You... Who are you?"

She asked instinctively, her voice hoarse with exhaustion and still laced with a trace of lingering fear.

But Roland didn’t turn around. He simply raised a hand in a gesture for silence and caution, his sharp eyes scanning the seemingly peaceful woods as he spoke in a low voice.

"They haven’t left."

As if to prove his words...

...before the sound of his voice had faded, two deadly bursts of killing intent erupted once more from completely different directions.

Their figures materialized like melting Darkness from two different, cunning angles. The light-devouring Short Blades in their hands carried a bone-chilling cold as they struck at Roland’s throat and the center of his back.

They were so fast that they left only two blurry Residual Shadows in the air.

However, Roland’s reaction was far beyond their expectations.

He didn’t even turn completely. He simply sidestepped and swung his sword with just the right degree of movement, his actions steady and efficient.

CLANG! CLANG!

The two crisp sounds of metal on metal rang out almost simultaneously, sending sparks flying.

A powerful force surged from Roland’s blade, easily deflecting the two Assassins’ deadly coordinated strike.

The immense recoil sent a numbing jolt through the Assassins’ wrists, forcing them to slide back uncontrollably, looks of horror flashing in their eyes.

They realized that in terms of sheer Power, an insurmountable gap existed between them and the man before them.

Thwarted by a single blow, the two Assassins didn’t hesitate. They immediately used their backward momentum to meld into the Shadows again, attempting to regroup and attack using their greatest strengths: concealment and Agility.

But this was exactly what Roland had been waiting for.

The moment the surrounding light began to distort and the Assassins’ presence was about to vanish completely from his Perception, Roland’s [Shadow Perception] Trait silently activated.

In his field of Perception, the two Assassins attempting to merge with the Shadows were as clear as two distinct ripples moving through a pool of ink.

Their positions, their trajectories, even the direction they would lunge from next—he knew it all.

Just as the Assassin on the left, confident he was completely hidden, prepared to launch another Thunderbolt strike from Roland’s blind spot...

...Roland, as if predicting the future, suddenly sidestepped. His Longsword, whistling sharply through the air, sliced with unerring accuracy toward the path where the Assassin had just reappeared.

The Assassin’s pupils contracted. He had never expected his movements to be seen through so completely.

He twisted his body desperately, trying to evade the predictive strike.

But Roland’s sword was too fast, too precise.

Although he avoided a fatal blow, the blade still tore through the Leather Armor on his shoulder, drawing a spray of blood and forcing a suppressed grunt of pain from him as he staggered back.

Almost simultaneously, without even turning his head, Roland backhanded his sword, thrusting it into an empty patch of Shadow behind him.

The other Assassin, who had been about to launch a sneak attack from the rear, was forced to reveal himself prematurely. He narrowly parried the sudden, precise thrust, but the immense force from the blade made his arm go numb, sending him stumbling back in an equally wretched state.

Two perfect predictions and counterattacks had completely shattered the Assassins’ rhythm.

Their vaunted Shadow concealment and agile assaults were rendered useless before Roland’s [Shadow Perception].

And Roland gave them no chance to catch their breath.

He shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring, his Longsword becoming a silver Storm as he launched a fierce offensive.

Under Roland’s ferocious and precise Sword Momentum, the two Assassins were instantly plunged into peril.

They could only rely on their superior Agility to dodge and weave desperately.

Their Short Blades struggled to block the heavy, powerful slashes. Each clash sent a numbing jolt through their palms, making their arms ache, leaving them completely suppressed and on the defensive.

Realizing a direct confrontation was hopeless, both Assassins simultaneously decided to retreat. Their figures flickered as they prepared to escape into the Shadows behind them.

However, just as one of the Assassins was about to merge into the Shadow...

...an exceptionally sharp glint of cold light, silent yet swift as lightning, struck like a viper from its den, coming from his blind spot and aiming straight for the center of his back.

The targeted Assassin sensed the mortal danger and instinctively tried to roll aside, relying on his Extraordinary Agility.

But in that blink of an eye, a strange and melodious musical note seemed to play directly inside his mind, causing a minuscule delay in his focused Spirit and coordinated movements.

This hesitation may have lasted less than a breath, but in a life-or-death battle, it was more than enough to be fatal.

The sharp, cold light, which had been lying in wait, did not pause for an instant, precisely seizing the fleeting opening.

PFFT!

With a soft sound, the tip of a Foil pierced through his forehead, emerging with a smear of red and white filth.

At the same time, the other Assassin, who was fully occupied fending off Roland’s assault, was also distracted by the sudden, bizarre melody. A fatal flaw appeared in his movements.

Seeing his chance, Roland flicked his wrist, and his blade flashed in a diagonal arc.

With a sharp CRACK and a short, shrill scream, the Assassin’s weapon-wielding right arm was sent flying.

Before his opponent could react to the agony of his severed arm, Roland’s sword tip struck out again several times at a speed difficult to follow with the naked eye.

He unerringly severed the tendons in the man’s remaining hand and both legs, completely disabling him.

The Assassin instantly collapsed to the ground like a sack of mud.

Without any hesitation, Roland strode forward, precisely grabbed the man’s cheeks, and gave a sharp downward tug.

With a sickening CLICK, the Assassin’s jaw was dislocated, completely preventing him from biting down.

Roland’s fingers delved into his mouth and quickly fished out a lethal, wax-coated poison sac from between his teeth, just as he had expected. He tossed it aside.

However, the instant the poison sac was removed, something strange happened.

The Assassin’s pupils, which had contracted from pain and despair, suddenly dilated and were instantly covered by an unnatural, murky, ghastly white.

All signs of life were stripped away in an instant. After a brief moment of rigidity, his body went completely limp.

Immediately after, a faint, skin-crawling rustle emanated from his ear canal.

Under the stunned and suspicious gazes of Roland and the others, a long, slender, grotesque worm—a foul, greasy, dark purple color, as if made of concentrated Shadow—struggled to crawl out of the Assassin’s ear.

Its body was covered in indescribable, fine patterns, and it emitted the same faint, nauseating stench as that of the Abyss chasm.

However, the moment this bizarre creature was exposed to the outside air, it began to twitch and curl up violently, as if burned by a bright light.

Finally, it shriveled into a small, dead, black lump, completely devoid of any activity.