Masked Knight

"Paladin?" Rody was slightly startled.

The man named Amore Hughes took a step forward and jumped from the bow. As he stood on the deck, the sailors and soldiers around Rody aimed their weapons at him. However, he did not even look at them and only stared straight at Rody. He shouted, "Did you not hear my question? Are you the one who spoke earlier?"

Rody lightly wiped the blood from his face. His body was covered in blood and looked like a butcher. He asked, "Did you say you were a Paladin? How come I have never heard of you? Weren’t the two Paladins of the Temple, Fielding and Augustine?"

Amore Hughes smiled coldly and lightly flicked his wrist. The long and thin blade faintly vibrated and issued a buzzing sound. He then said with an arrogant tone, "The Pope has given me the title of Paladin less than ten days ago. Naturally, you heathens from the Radiant Continent would not know this!" His tone then gradually turned cold and said, "I will give you two options. First, you and your men lay down your weapons and surrender! Second, I will personally cut off your head!"

"Arrogant!" One of Rody’s subordinates cursed and slashed his sword at him. That soldier was a Grade 3 swordsman and an officer of the Imperial Guards. He was standing beside Amore Hughes and when he heard his arrogant tone, he lost his patience and attacked without awaiting Rody’s orders.

Amore Hughes showed a trace of disdain in his eyes. "Fool!" he coldly spoke. Those near him did not see his movements, but they heard a tragic cry as the Grade 3 swordsman flew away spitting blood. He severely crashed onto the cabin. There were several cracking sounds. Obviously, a few of his bones were broken.

Rody, who had a stern expression, said, "Everyone, move aside!" He slowly walked two steps forward and said, "I will handle this." He then gave the subordinate beside him an eye signal. "Go to the cabin and get me my sword."

Amore Hughes, his one hand behind his back, coldly said with an arrogant expression, "Don’t worry. I will wait for you!" He then took a deep breath and his voice resonated through the sea. "Without my orders, nobody is allowed to attack!"

Rody frowned slightly. Although he had never heard of this person, it was obvious that he had already reached the level of a Paladin. In fact, he was not inferior to Fielding.

"Are you ready?" Amore Hughes asked when he saw Rody’s subordinate hand him a peculiar scimitar. He waved the long sword in his hand and a fierce and sharp force made a deep cut in the sturdy deck below his feet. "Well, can we start now?"

Rody held the Dragon Spell Scimitar1 in one hand and tightly clenched his other fist. The murderous gaze in his eyes became more intense and he suddenly roared. He twisted his body and rushed forward with his blade gleaming like a rainbow.

Ping! Ping! Ping! There were loud sounds of metal clashing successively as they struck several times at each other. A mass of golden lights flashed. The scattering waves of energy forced the people around them to retreat while the nearer ones were almost blasted away.

One used a single-edged scimitar while the other used a double-edged sword. Both their weapons glimmered with golden radiance. Sparks flew all over with every collision. There was a violent storm of energy. After that, there was an endless cracking sound as the deck beneath the feet of the two warriors began to split and crack.

Rody went all out. He continuously attacked but was not able to gain any advantage. His opponent effectively blocked his attacks. The deck started to break. He knew that the ship would be destroyed if they continued.

Rody suddenly slashed his sword and shouted, "Come with me!"

Rody swiftly flew to the sky. Amore Hughes uttered a long cry. He pointed his sword towards the sky and followed. Rody had anticipated accurately that his opponent would rush up. While above him, Rody slashed down at Amore. Amore Hughes took the heavy blow. The sword in his hand trembled violently. He felt as if he had just collided against a mountain. In a single breath, Rody's midair attack knocked him straight down. He fell and splashed into the sea.

The soldiers of the Radiant Empire onboard the ship cheered, while the Roland people on the warship beside them clamored.

Bang! A loud explosive sound then came from the surface of the water. Water splashed everywhere as Amore Hughes sprang back up from the water. His body was burning with a flame-like fighting energy that instantly dried his soaked body. A trace of anger flashed in his eyes, but he actually did not advance towards Rody. Instead, he flew higher and seemed to be standing on a cloud.

Rody secretly became vigilant. Without another thought, he slashed out two blades of light. One went left and the other went right over his head towards Amore Hughes above him.

Amore Hughes suddenly opened his mouth and blurted out a series of strange notes. Two golden wings of light immediately appeared on his back.

The strange notes entered Rody's ears, note after note. Mysteriously, it had some kind of strange attraction. Rody suddenly felt confused as if he was extremely familiar with each and every note. However, he just could not understand the meaning of those notes.

Under the sun, Amore Hughes looked as if his entire body was shrouded with a golden light. His extremely delicate face together with the miraculous light wings on his back made him look like a God from a distance!

Rody’s two Half Moon Slash were easily countered by Amore with a wave of his hand and the blades of light slashed into the water surface, causing huge sprays of water!

Suddenly, the pair of light wings on Amore Hughes’ back flapped twice. He gave a sharp whistle and his body then shot towards Rody like a golden lightning—his sword pointed ahead. The air was filled with an extremely sharp scent.

Rody saw that the figure had almost instantly appeared in front of him. He only had time to swing his scimitar obliquely. However, he suddenly felt a strange power coming out of the scimitar. Rody felt like his body was suddenly struck by lightning. His body fiercely shook a little. At that instant, Rody felt like all his strength had been drained from his body. His strength then burst out. Rody grunted and fell from the sky. Amore Hughes pursued relentlessly. His light wings flapped as he followed Rody down. The sword in his hands did not stop striking Rody. The two figures were entangled in the sky as they fell. The sound of the armor being smashed continued. After that, pieces of the armor also fell. Finally, an evil glint flashed in Amore Hughes’ eyes as he struck his left hand on Rody’s chest. Rody felt dizzy after the massive onslaught of attacks earlier. Right now, he only felt an icy cold feeling spread out on his chest. Then he suddenly felt as if he was being hammered in his heart. Rody finally could not endure it any longer and spat out blood into Amore Hughes’ face before he fell, smashing into the ocean!

Amore Hughes screamed as he wiped off the blood from his face. He flew up again as his pair of light wings flapped a few times in midair. He floated steadily in the sky and seemed to be shrouded in a layer of halo.

"Long live! Long live the Paladin!" The people from Roland Continent cried out, "Long live the Temple! Long live the Paladin!"

Many of them saw Rody fought on top of that warship earlier. Those high ranked knights were like paper in front of that demon as none of them could withstand the strikes of that demon. However, the Paladin of the Temple had finally defeated the demon!

On the other hand, the people from the Radiant Empire were saddened. An officer shouted with bated breath, "Idiots! What are you guys waiting for? Send two swimmers into the water and bring His Excellency back up! Quickly!"

Two sailors immediately jumped into the water while two other soldiers started to take off their armors.

Amore Hughes, who was still in midair, looked indifferent. But in fact, he did not feel good.

His series of fierce attacks earlier indeed struck his opponent. However, with every hit, his sword also emitted a strange reverse power. That extremely strange power radiated from the arm up his body and made half his body feel numb. It could be said that every time he struck his opponent, Amore Hughes was also injuring himself a little.

That was especially true with the final attack. The moment he struck his palm on his opponent’s chest, he felt a subtle force flowing into his palm. That force seemed to penetrate his body like a needle and crazily devoured his own fighting energy.

Although Amore Hughes was still flying in the air, his face had already turned pale, sweating and breathing heavily. He could barely suppress his fighting energy from boiling. Most of all, the hand that was holding the sword was also trembling!

When Rody smashed into the sea, his head was submerged in the cold seawater, but his body started to feel warm!

Amore Hughes' final palm attack on Rody's chest had a penetrating bone-chilling effect. The violent cold power instantly froze the fighting energy in his body. The original growing and endless cycle of power in his body was obstructed. Rody’s body turned stiff and numb as the frozen feeling spread from his chest to all his limbs. The original burning golden flames in his body seemed to die out.

Cold!

This was the only thought in Rody’s mind.

Cold!

That was the kind of coldness that could freeze the soul. Rody did not know that at that moment, a layer of ice had quickly formed around his body and began freezing him. That layer of sparkling ice crystal froze his entire body, his limbs, and his scimitar.

Rody drowsily opened his eyes and saw that he was in the sea. The bubbles in the water seemed to seethe as his body slowly sank into the sea.

Everything around him seemed to slow down. Even the sound of the water flowing into his ears was slower than usual.

Rody gradually started to black out as if he was engulfed by a strange power that made him slowly lose all of his perception such as hearing, vision, and touch...

With the last of his consciousness, Rody’s mind flashed back to the last scene of the earlier fight.

'That Amore Hughes can actually grow a pair of light wings. On top of that, why did he say those notes…why is it…so familiar?'

'He seemed to say, "#@*$#@#%".'

'Hmm, what does that mean?'

Rody did not notice that when the strange inexplicable words by Amore Hughes flashed in his mind, the scimitar in his hand suddenly burst out with brilliance. Silently, the ice crystal around him started to crack then shattered into small pieces.

The dragon spell inscribed on the scimitar flashed with a trace of strange light. That light transformed and spread from the blade of the scimitar along Rody’s arm to his upper body, chest...

The unconscious Rody suddenly opened his eyes. However, his eyes looked blank and did not seem to have any perception. Those eyes seemed to burn as if there was an inhumane mien of wrath, hatred, and violence.

A soft cry came from Rody’s mouth. It was a prolonged cry with a faint rhythm. With his soft cry, the ice crystal that originally wrapped around Rody’s body seemed to break and melt. The tinkling sound of the ice breaking was like a marvelous tune. Rody's face showed a slight smile as if he enjoyed listening to that sound.

Although Rody was under the sea, he did not seem to need to breathe. While under the sea, he suddenly stretched his body a little, raised his hand and looked, and then carefully looked at the scimitar in his hand. He then smiled.

That was definitely a dangerous smile. That was because his smile looked as if he was a bloodthirsty butcher looking at his knife. That was definitely not the kind of smile that Rody would carry.

After that, his smile grew even more amusing as if he was extremely interested in his own body. He carefully looked at his own palm. He lightly clenched his fist and opened it again. He lowered his head to look at his own body and his face showed a satisfied smile.

Finally, Rody moved. It was as if he was gently stretching his lazy waist...

The people on the sea suddenly noticed that something was wrong.

The original calm sea suddenly changed. Suddenly, numerous huge waves appeared within a ten mile radius of the sea. A series of huge waves fiercely hit the ship, and those who could not stand firmly on the side of the ship fell into the sea.

After that, dozens of water columns shot out from the sea, which looked like water dragons coiling into the sky. A circularly shaped whirlpool then quickly formed in the sea. It only appeared for less than ten seconds, but it had managed to pull several surrounding ships towards it with its tremendous power. Countless sailors cried out in fear. They had no time to control their ships and the ships already started to move on their own.

A few ships in the whirlpool almost collided against one another. All the people on the ships had the same thought. We are doomed!

However, the huge whirlpool disappeared faster than it had appeared.

A figure shrouded in light appeared from the center of the whirlpool and after that flew higher and higher.

Amore Hughes obviously felt the strange aura. That aura had an intangible pressure that made him feel in extremely imminent danger.

Amore Hughes' delicate face had twisted as he fearfully looked at the figure enveloped in the light that appeared from the sea. He could see things differently from the others and could obviously see traces of black air atop the enveloping light.

Feeling an instinctive fear, Amore Hughes could not stop himself from shaking and he gradually moved back.

Suddenly, a loud and clear croon came out from the mouth of the figure within the mass of light.

That sound was neither sharp nor harsh. However, everyone who heard that croon had to cover their ears. When that sound was transmitted into their ears, they felt like their eardrums were being pierced. That sound was akin to a solid object fiercely slamming into their hearts. After that, it was as if there was an invisible hand grabbing their souls into a lump and twisting them.

Countless people started to scream miserably. One after another, they dropped their staffs, their weapons. With great effort, they covered their ears. However, it was to no avail. That sound seemed to penetrate everything and entered their ears as if there were no barriers.

The first unlucky victims were the Roland sorcerers. Their bodies that were full of magic power were like unstable gunpowder warehouses. A little bit of spark was enough to make them explode.

Some of the low ranked sorcerers were unable to suppress their power which had gone out of control. Many of their eyes started to congest with blood. After that, their bodies suddenly bounced up and floated into the air as if they were balloons. They swelled up and grew bigger until…Bang! They exploded into a fog of blood.

Initially, the high ranked sorcerers knew how to chant incantations loudly. They used the Light System’s sorcery to stabilize their minds. A milky white light enveloped the bodies of the high ranked sorcerers to protect them. However, something even more strange happened.

Wave after wave of crooning later, the milky white light suddenly condensed together, like water condensing into ice. Countless sorcerers had lifetime dreams of being able to transform into an energy crystal. They somehow did it during this strange situation!

However, that did not seem like a good thing.

The energy light balls crystallized and enveloped their masters, the high ranked sorcerers, inside. Perhaps, we should say "imprisoned" inside. After that, the person and the crystallized energy balls fused together.

‘Rody’ then smiled wickedly. He suddenly snapped his fingers lightly...

As if it was a small hammer lightly hitting a glass. Those sorcerers who were wrapped inside the crystallized energy light balls suddenly shattered. Like glass-men, they shattered into pieces and there was no blood!

In such a strange scene, the more powerful the sorcerer the greater the damage. On the other hand, the ordinary soldiers and sailors only covered their ears and rolled on the deck in pain.

Translator's notes:

1. The scimitar was engraved with a spell written in the dragon language.