WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ I Pulled Out Excalibur

Chapter 372

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Strongest Knight of the Round Table (2)

Each of the Knights of the Round Table carried a weapon that symbolized them. Gawain's sun sword, Bedivere's White Spear, Mordred's Clarent were among the examples, and so too was Lancelot's Arondight.

Arondight, the Unfailing sword.

As long as the one who wielded it did not fall into corruption, Arondight would never snap, never shatter, never chip. The reverse held equally true: the moment its wielder committed evil, the blade dulled and fell to ruin.

Krrrkkkk...

So then. Right now.

Clang!

What was the state of Arondight being wrenched free, scraping roughly along the Cross Shield? Najin narrowed his eyes.

'It's chipped.'

The blade was dull, the sword's body covered in nicks and scratches. A weapon that could no longer fulfill a sword's purpose of cutting and thrusting. The moment any sword aura was channeled into it, the future where it shattered under the strain was plain to see.

A broken sword.

Arondight was making its master's corruption plain. How did he plan to fight with something like that? That thought had barely formed when, an instant later, Najin's eyes went wide.

Grrrscrrrrk!

Lancelot shoved the half-drawn blade back into the shield. Sparks flew ceaselessly as metal scraped against metal.

Thud.

Having returned Arondight to its sheath, Lancelot dropped into a low stance. He leaned his center of gravity forward as if he might lunge at any moment, fixing his gaze on Najin.

Through the iron mask that Najin had half-torn away during the fight with Galahad, Lancelot's cold, settled eyes were visible. Eyes that, unlike Galahad's, did not shine. Eyes like an abyss with no visible bottom stared straight at Najin.

A chill ran down Najin's spine. His instincts screamed a warning. The instant he reflexively steadied his stance, Lancelot moved.

He kicked off the ground. That single kick sent a mound of earth shooting skyward. A thunderous boom rang out like a detonating shell. Charging toward Najin, Lancelot swept the shield in a rough arc and drew the sword free.

The Cross Shield blazed. The stars engraved upon it rang out, tong, tong, tong, tong, lighting up one by one. Starlight overflowed and surged from the shield, and through the friction of that surging starlight, Lancelot drew Arondight.

Lancelot was no longer a noble knight.

Because he was not noble, he could not call forth Arondight's power. But Galahad, the most perfect knight, remained noble. The starlight bursting from the Cross Shield,that emblem of Galahad's very being,poured into Arondight and wrapped around it.

Keeeeeeeeng!

The moment Galahad's starlight seeped in, Arondight's blade was restored. A sharp, keen edge settled over the dulled steel, and the starlight filled every flaw. Arondight swung through the scattering starlight like fireworks going off.

'Fast.'

Fast, but not so fast he couldn't keep up,not the way Siegfried had been. Najin had grown since then, after all.

Excalibur and Arondight collided.

Platinum sword aura met grey sword aura, sparks flying where they clashed. In the frozen instant of the impact, through the scattering sparks, Najin's and Lancelot's eyes met.

Crossing a gap of a thousand years, Najin stood face to face with the Strongest Knight of the Round Table. They faced each other, yet his heart did not pound the way it did when he met the heroes of old. It couldn't.

Lancelot's eyes were empty.

The eyes of a puppet, not a knight. The eyes of someone who had turned away from himself. The moment Najin saw them, he couldn't hide his disappointment. His expression stiffened for a moment,and then he breathed out.

Then I'll make him look.

I'll leave him nowhere to run.

Stripping an opponent of their escape had always been his specialty.

2.

What kind of opponent was Lancelot? When that question had been put to him, Bedivere had once said this.

A knight who pushed counterattacking and parrying to the extreme.

A style that blocked the enemy's attacks or deflected them with minimal movement, then drove in afterward. He had described it as a highly aggressive style, one that neglected defense entirely.

'And Galahad...'

Najin recalled the Galahad he had clashed with at the top of the tower. Strong. Someone whose ability lived up to the name of the most perfect knight. Breaking through his defense had been brutally difficult, and dealing with the shield-pressing charge had been no easy feat either.

With that battle in mind, Najin looked ahead.

A knight stood there with sword and shield. He was Lancelot, and at the same time he was Galahad. An opponent capable in both offense and defense.

'Indeed.'

Najin felt the full weight of that.

Sweeeeeeesh!

He watched Lancelot's blade cut through the air and drive in sharply. The moment he swung to meet it, from his blind side the shield came pushing in. The raised edge of the Cross Shield was angling to slam into his stomach.

Najin shot a hand out and guarded his stomach. Broken fingers were better than ruptured organs,the former could be healed quickly by drawing up starlight.

Crunch!

The force behind the driving shield was greater than he had expected. The moment he grabbed it, the bones in his fingers didn't just break; they crumbled. Sparks burst across his vision, but Najin ground his teeth and held on.

He flowed with the sword, blocked the shield, and slid in toward the flank. Lancelot held a greatshield on one arm and a greatsword in one hand. Najin judged that his movements would inevitably be sluggish. He judged that, but...

The judgment was wrong.

Full armor, a greatshield, a greatsword,all that weight, and Lancelot still moved with agility. His head turned to follow Najin slipping to the side. His arm did the same.

Arondight, which had been redirected and buried in the ground, heaved upward, tearing through the earth. It chased Najin in a wide half-moon arc sweeping toward his flank.

Clang.

The instant Arondight struck Excalibur, raised sideways in a guard, Lancelot's movement reversed.

Thud.

He planted his foot and twisted the sword's trajectory. The blade that had been sweeping sideways suddenly arced upward, then came crashing down. The moment Najin's turning motion was pinned in place, Lancelot accelerated.

Down from above, bearing the full weight of the greatsword.

The attack didn't end with one blow. He swung the greatsword down again and again like a pickaxe. The ground shook like an earthquake with each strike.

Crack, crrrack, crack!

Every time Najin blocked a blow, fractures shot through the earth beneath his feet. The ground sank and cratered, and the shockwaves tore through his body. Without giving him even a moment to catch his breath, Lancelot drove the sword down faster.

Not to cut, but to hammer down with sheer weight. Lancelot's sword aura surged ferociously.

Claaaang!

Each time the swords crashed together, sword aura was stripped away in chunks. Even while absorbing blows that shook him to his core, Najin's eyes did not waver.

He found his opening in the relentless storm.

Najin pushed in. With the angled flat of his blade he deflected Lancelot's strike, and at the same moment brought Excalibur down onto Arondight where it had been driven into the ground.

The boom. The repulsion born from sword aura crashing against sword aura.

A repelling force like two magnets pushing each other apart. Najin used it. Lancelot's sword was buried deeper into the earth, and Najin's body, not fighting against the recoil, rose into the air.

Spin.

Rotating in midair, Najin swung his sword. The Cross Shield blocked it, but in the instant of the block, Najin detonated his sword aura in an explosion. He used the burst's recoil to force himself back into position.

As if he intended to smash that shield to pieces, Najin went after it relentlessly.

Every collision sent shockwaves ringing through his eardrums. Najin split the afterimage of each swing with the next one that followed. With every downward cut the sword aura exploded, and the noise erupted.

Splitting each instant apart, Najin chained his swings together.

The rapid consecutive strikes began to shake Lancelot's footing. At last, he raised the shield and let one arm hang behind him. He absorbed every one of Najin's strikes and gathered strength in the trailing sword arm.

The air trembled. Compressed sword aura churned along the blade, blazing with light. When enough power had built, Lancelot swept the shield in a wide swing.

A parry. He knocked Najin's sword aside with the shield, then swung the sword he had been trailing behind him.

Absorb every strike the enemy throws. Build up enough force. Deflect the enemy's attack to break their stance, then counter. A textbook style of fighting.

"..."

His arm thrown back by the parry, Najin saw it. Arondight sweeping horizontally. He saw the sword aura pouring off the blade as it accelerated to cut him in two. It looked almost like a whip hundreds of meters long being cracked.

'Can't block it.'

Not like this. He couldn't block it.

Najin let go of the sword. He released it as it was knocked flying and twisted his body in midair to right himself. Excalibur dissolved into starlight, and before that starlight could fade entirely, Najin seized it.

An unorthodox move learned from Siegfried.

He raised Excalibur and caught the sword aura with it. The moment he did, his body shuddered violently. Keeeeeeng! The sword aura thrashed like a maddened beast and hurled him into the air.

He flew. Carried by the wave of sword aura, he flew.

The landscape blurred past at speed. Wind screamed past his ears with a sharp, shearing sound.

'What kind of density is this.'

He tried to cut through the sword aura pressing down on him, but whether because of its sheer density, or because the Unfailing nature had somehow seeped into the sword aura itself, it would not easily yield. Najin ground his teeth.

Grit.

Only when Lancelot,who had been right in front of him moments ago,had shrunk to a distant dot could Najin move his sword. He swung wide and cleaved through the sword aura Lancelot had fired.

But what he saw the moment he split it was more sword aura launched in rapid succession from far away. Massive blades of force sliced through the earth and surged toward him. Najin landed and pivoted on the spot.

'Right.'

Najin exhaled.

'That's what it takes to be the strongest of the Round Table.'

Swoooosh! Najin's footsteps stamped chaotically across the ground. He chained the landing into the motion of swinging his sword. Sword aura shot from his consecutive swings. Platinum sword aura met grey sword aura and crashed.

Two canceled out. One Najin's sword aura cut through. The last came at him with reduced momentum.

"Huu..."

Najin steadied his breathing and kicked off the ground. He threw himself straight at the oncoming sword aura that had lost its force,straight through it, and at Lancelot waiting on the other side.

And then, boom!

The same sound came from the opposite direction. Lancelot had reached the same judgment and was charging through Najin's weakened sword aura with his bare body. They had come to the same conclusion at the same moment. Two streaks of light rushing together, they collided again.

Neither had any intention of creating distance.

Sword against shield. Shield against sword. Sword aura burst outward and raked the surroundings. Ruins cracked and crumbled, and a hill of piled earth was split in two.

Whatever the world around them became, their eyes stayed locked on each other alone. They swung without rest.

Clang, claaang, clang!

At a glance it looked even, but Najin was being pushed back, little by little. In the precision of technique, in raw strength, in experience, he was losing ground. The gap that had been a hand's width was now a full step,the difference of a single blow.

Lancelot's sword came first. Najin's defense was late. He jerked his head back, but it was still too late.

Fwhup.

Lancelot's sword pierced through Najin's eye.

3.

Arondight drove through Najin's left eye.

Throwing his head back had kept his brain from being punctured, but this was a clear, mortal wound. Arondight was a greatsword. It was not only the eye that was torn away by the sword and the recoil of sword aura crashing against sword aura.

Left eye, left ear, the left side of his mouth.

Nearly a quarter of his face came away with the eye. In that moment Lancelot's mind confirmed he had seized the advantage, but his instincts said something else. What his eyes showed him was a completely different future.

A future where his own head flew off.

He had landed the mortal wound, so why was he seeing this? Lancelot didn't pause to question it. He trusted his instincts.

To protect his throat, Lancelot lifted the shield. The movement was not slow. He was faster than Najin. Lancelot's shield was already raised by the time Najin's sword began to move. But what he saw next made his skin crawl.

Najin's right eye was gleaming.

Like a beast locking its jaws around the throat of its prey.

Though a quarter of his face had been torn away, Najin actually stepped forward. Flashing his single remaining eye, swinging his sword, he looked like something out of a berserker legend. Those warriors from the north who never stopped fighting,who kept fighting even after their heads had fallen.

For just a moment, Lancelot was overwhelmed by that madness.

And Excalibur swept horizontally. Aimed at Lancelot's neck. Even with the Cross Shield thrust into its path, the future Lancelot saw before his eyes did not change.

He would be cut. His neck would be cut and he would die.

Lancelot chose to evade for the first time. But the evasion was a beat too slow. As he leaped back, he saw it. Platinum particles burst from Excalibur in an explosion, accelerating the blade.

Different. Something was different. The strike had reached a level one dimension above any sword swing he had seen before.

'Siegfried.'

The name surfaced in his mind without warning, and Lancelot's brow furrowed. Then the accelerated sword reached the Cross Shield.

Shhhhk.

It cut through. The shield that supposedly could never be destroyed was smoothly cut. The upper portion of the cross-shaped shield, one corner, was sheared away. Then it swept across Lancelot's throat.

Swish.

Lancelot clapped a hand to his own neck. About a third of his throat had been cut. Had he not leaped back, his neck truly would have been severed. Pressing his hand against the flowing blood, he drew up starlight.

With the wound sealed, Lancelot looked at Najin.

"Hah... huu..."

Najin was there, breathing hard. But somehow, he was smiling.

"Lancelot."

One eye and one ear were gone. His mouth was torn open, teeth and bone exposed. Even so, he smiled.

"Look at me."

Smiling, he raised his sword. Najin covered half his face with Excalibur the way a knight lifts a blade in a sword salute. Only then did he stop smiling.

He covered his left eye socket with Excalibur.

His uncovered right eye shone like a star. That platinum-stained eye fixed on Lancelot.

"Your past, your regrets, the purpose of this land,none of that concerns me right now."

A star rose behind Najin's back.

"What I want is a duel."

The Dawning Star blazed.

"Nothing else matters here and now. And if you still can't understand that..."

Then I'll put it more simply.

Najin exhaled slowly, lowered his sword, and pulled the corner of his mouth into a smile.

"Come at me properly, you swordsman with no sense of honor."

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