WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Ryuu

Editor: Ilafy

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 183

──────

The Knight Demon (4)

“Ugh, kid. Najin. You know what? There was a time I fought blade-to-blade against a crazy strong demon. Huh? I was actually a pretty famous knight back in the day.”

“Ah, yes.”

“You look like you don’t believe me at all. I’m serious.”

“Ivan, you’ve told me that same story over ten times now. You might not remember because you’re drunk.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Shall I guess what you’ll say next? You’ll tell me that the demon had dozens of arms, so terrifying—like a big spider…”

Ivan burst into laughter. “Yeah, it was like a demon out of a nightmare. That bastard killed a bunch of my comrades, and even the memory makes the back of my neck tense up. It’s a real shame, I tell you.”

“Still, well…” he muttered, downing his drink. “Someone will get revenge for us, I’m sure. One guy I know comes to mind; if it’s him, I bet he’ll hunt that demon down sooner or later. He’s got a real obsessive streak.”

“Who is it?”

“There’s a guy. He’s got some damned fine parrying skills.”

Fighting demons was a terribly tricky task.

As a species, they already possessed tenacious vitality, and they could wield powers akin to Mystique—some sort of authority. No wonder there was an entire group called the ‘Starblood Sect’ dedicated to hunting demons.

Demons were tough. Even a swordsman at Sword Seeker level could find it difficult to cut them down, especially if the demon was mid-tier or above.

What about the demon right before them? The ancient demon, Orgis, existed long before the classification of lower, middle, and upper tiers came into being. It was a seasoned demon who’d been around for a thousand years, back when King Arthur hunted demons left and right.

- Seasoned? Please. He just never crossed my path, that’s all. Rather than “seasoned,” it’s more like he was good at hiding.

That’s how Merlin put it, yet even she did not deny that Orgis was powerful. As was often the case, surviving for such a long time in and of itself was a proof of strength.

Under normal circumstances, at least a squad of Sword Seekers and a team of inquisitors well-versed in demon lore would be necessary to confront Orgis. If one tried to use pure force, they’d need to be close to the level of a Sword Master.

Despite everything, only two Sword Seekers stood there.

Argo had reached the Blossoming stage, but he was short of becoming a Sword Master; Najin could partially replicate a Sword Master’s techniques, but he was still only at the Sprouting stage.

Sprouting, Blossoming, Full Bloom…

They were up against a demon that normally required a swordsman of at least at the Full Bloom stage. If anyone heard they were fighting it with just two swords, they would surely say they had a death wish…

Kang, kaaaang!

If such a person were to actually see the two fighting, their doubts wouldn’t be so firm—neither of them showed any sign of being pushed back. On the contrary, they were driving the demon into a corner.

“Hup!” Argo deflected every attack, no matter the angle. Though he held only one sword, he didn’t limit himself to that weapon alone—a true master had to know how to treat the enemy’s weapon as if it were his own.

Ka-kakakakakang!

He batted aside the first sword rushing in, which then collided with a spear poised to thrust from the side, in turn smashing into a greatsword, then knocking into a hammer… Like a row of dominoes, all of Orgis’s attacks fell apart.

Zzeok.

Some weapons were caught by Bookmark’s ability and turned into thin sheets. Of course, even if a handful of spears and swords were neutralized, Orgis still had dozens of arms left.

If Argo knocked away five, then ten more appeared; if he blocked ten, twenty more followed, then thirty again… No matter how close his parrying had come to perfection, it was impossible for him to deflect them all.

‘If I were alone, maybe so.’ He was not facing Orgis by himself.

Najin moved in at precisely the right moments to fend off the demon’s spears and swords. Every second, the cacophony of metal colliding with metal resounded.

Just the two of them, squaring off against a demon composed of over a hundred knights. Despite facing a hundred or more spears and swords, Argo and Najin never once backed down. Instead, they pressed forward relentlessly.

Kuung!

Stomping the ground, Najin slashed the earth in a wide sweep. A large mass of dirt rose. Ordinarily, if they were “covered” by that dirt, Bookmark’s power would activate, yet he deliberately lured Orgis into using the power.

The mound of dirt began to move on its own, closing in. Argo maneuvered Orgis’s limbs with parries so that they hit the dirt pile before it swallowed Najin.

Tchak.

Eight arms flattened into paper-like sheets. Najin sliced through them along with the dirt mound. Earth crumbled to dust in the wake of his Sword Aura, his eyes flashing with a fierce light—no longer a sunset hue, but a platinum glow.

His Sword Aura was pure white, and through that whiteness flickered a golden gleam.

Orgis sensed a primal terror, a fear carved into its very soul, a dread ingrained in all demons—an instinctive horror of their natural predator.

“—————!” Confronted with Sword Aura reminiscent of King Arthur’s, Orgis shrieked, drawing out more of its magic, not unlike a panicked animal.

All living creatures, when endangered, struggled violently. Sensing mortal peril from Najin, Orgis poured out all its reserved and hidden power.

Thwak.

Dozens of knights’ arms, lashed together, burst from the demon’s back as a single massive limb, wielding a huge greatsword dripping with thick, black fluid.

The moment it slashed horizontally, Argo abandoned any attempt to parry. Najin likewise gave up on deflecting it, immediately ducking down. The greatsword whistled over their heads.

A massive gust of wind followed. Right after came the echoing crash of something collapsing.

They did not need to look back to know a line drawn by that greatsword had cut through several buildings, bringing them down.

The concept of “going all out” in a fight or “an honorable duel” didn’t really exist for demons. It was natural for a demon to avoid any fight that demanded its full power. Even if it won, if it expended too much strength, there’d be no profit in it.

Still, when they sensed their life was truly threatened, it was a different story. Feeling terror at Najin’s presence, Orgis resisted with all of its might.

Clang, kwaaaang!

Realizing that the Masterpiece it wielded was actually backfiring on itself, Orgis halted the activation of Bookmark entirely. Instead, it tried to crush Najin and Argo through pure force.

Argo had witnessed the same frenzy twenty years prior.

‘It was like this back then too.’

When Ivan, Argo, and the other knights turned the power of Bookmark against Orgis, tearing off its limbs, Orgis stopped using Bookmark altogether and fought the knights in much the same way.

Back then, Argo hadn’t been able to withstand the demon’s assault. All he could do was grit his teeth and hold out, and even that was only possible due to the sacrifices of many of his comrades.

‘I watched you run away that day.’ Argo’s lips curled upward. ‘But not this time.’

It had been twenty years. Twenty years in which he researched every possible way to combat Orgis. To a demon or a Transcendent, twenty years might be the blink of an eye, but to a human, twenty years was more than enough time for a once-inexperienced youth to become a seasoned knight.

He showed his well-honed skills without reserve. Choice after choice, he swung his sword tirelessly, blocking Orgis’s strikes, and Najin took the ones he could not manage.

Triumph Sword—the swordsmanship Najin learned from Aldaran—compressed Sword Aura to the utmost limit, designed specifically to face powerful foes and created for the purpose of cutting the uncuttable.

Kwack.

Najin no longer paid attention to Orgis’s other attacks and focused solely on that giant greatsword sprouting from the demon’s back. As long as he focused, he could parry it.

‘The problem is that, when I deflect the greatsword, dozens of other spears and swords come in from the side…’

To block that massive blade, one needed big movements. Big movements created big openings. If Orgis took advantage of those gaps, Najin would be helpless. He had only two arms, while Orgis had dozens.

Fortunately, Najin was not fighting alone.

Kakakakakakang!

Whenever his stance left an opening, Argo was there to fill it. Whenever Argo couldn’t handle an attack, Najin stepped in. Covering each other’s vulnerabilities, they drove Orgis back.

‘Use the Masterpiece, demon.’

The two of them cornered the demon with a clear ultimatum.

‘If you fear that the Masterpiece will consume you and refuse to use it, you cannot win. My sword won’t give you the leeway to hold back.’

Chwaaak!

Orgis spewed blood when Najin and Argo’s swords bit into its flesh. The blood splattered again and again, and in the midst of the continued hemorrhaging, Orgis finally resumed using the Masterpiece, but even that didn’t turn the tide.

Zzeok.

Parries caused Orgis’s attacks to fall into Bookmark’s field, flattening them into paper-like slabs. No knight could fail to cut through a flimsy sheet of paper. One after another, Orgis lost many of its limbs in an anticlimactic fashion, forcing it to retreat further.

The demon’s original hundred-odd arms dwindled to fifty; then from fifty down to thirty; then twenty…

The endless spears and swords became so few in number you could count them easily.

Tak.

Argo surged forward. Swinging his sword, he recalled the past.

“Argo!”

“You don’t even need to say it, Ivan!”

He remembered fighting side by side with his closest comrade. Back then, he had been too inexperienced, too weak, and thus couldn’t carry out Ivan’s plan to perfection—he couldn’t seize that golden opportunity for Ivan’s devastating strike.

Twenty years later, Argo stood there once again. His dear friend was gone, having fallen into disgrace, but in his place stood a boy who’d learned the man’s swordsmanship, wielding his blade.

‘Honestly…’ Argo smiled. With that smile, he shouted words he had once wanted to say but never could, all those years ago. “Now!”

Kakakakakakang!

Eight remaining limbs flew back all at once, the path before them wide open. Najin charged in, eyes blazing.

Chwaaak!

He severed the mightiest arm rising from Orgis’s back—the colossal limb braided from dozens of knights’ arms. Demon blood gushed like a fountain, and Orgis’s magic dropped off sharply.

With every swing of the two swordsmen’s blades, the demon lost yet another limb. Seven, six, five, two…

Only two remained. In the end, the demon stretched out those last two arms like a human, trying to shield its body in a final, desperate thrashing.

Kuung.

Najin took a heavy step toward the demon. There was no need to deliberate on which finishing blow to use—he employed the swordsmanship of the Knight of Atanga, Ivan.

A single strike from below to above broke through the opponent’s technique and opened a gap. Najin’s blade severed the demon’s remaining arms, continuing on to carve deep into the demon’s body.

Chwaaaaaak!

Blood burst forth, slicing flesh so deeply that the thing’s heart, buried beneath the hundreds of corpses composing it, was laid bare. Ordinarily, that opening slash would be followed with a second strike to shatter the heart, but even that was unnecessary.

Argo was already swinging his sword beside Najin. He was a Knight of Atanga. The moment Najin unleashed the first strike, he had no hesitation in delivering the second. Thus, almost simultaneously with the completion of Najin’s blow, Argo’s sword fell like a guillotine.

Thud.

The demon’s heart was split in two.