The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 83 – Ten Thousand Gold Pieces (3)

Juan could no longer leave the situation in Swallan’s hands alone. When Juan asked Swallan to guide him to Durgal, he hadn’t expected that such a situation might end up happening.

“Get off the carriage,” Juan said.

“What?” Swallan asked.

“I can’t promise you that I’ll be able to ensure your safety if we get into a fight. So get off.”

Swallan tried to retort, but Juan didn’t let her—he directly threw Swallan out of the carriage just like she had done to the other mercenaries. Being the flexible elf that she was, Swallan quickly landed on her feet before she even touched the ground.

Juan grasped the reins and pulled them powerfully to turn the direction of the horses.

Noticing that Juan’s direction had changed, the Templars also changed their route to follow. The Templars had noticed that Swallan was out of the carriage, but didn’t bother killing her as there was quite a distance between them, unlike the other mercenaries they killed—they were obstacles on their route.

Swallan soon got covered in red dust and disappeared from their sight.

“Heretic!” Velkre shouted with a loud voice.

When Velkre pulled out the green flagpole he had been carrying on his back and raised it high up in the sky, the Templars went around to surround the carriage in a concave shape. Upon Velkre waving his flag, a spear emitting a white light appeared in the hands of all the Templars simultaneously.

The Templars quickly struck their spears toward the carriage all at once. With a loud thundering noise, the carriage broke into pieces and scattered as if it had been struck by dozens of lightning strikes.

“Surround the carriage and stand by!”

The green flag was waved once again, and the Templars circled around the carriage while maintaining the speed they were riding their horses at. They quietly waited for the red dust to settle.

After instructing the Templars to prepare the Spear of Wrath, Velkre quietly watched the middle of the red dust cloud that had yet to settle down.

At that moment, red dust suddenly shot up from the ground. Juan approached the Templars in an instant, and swiftly swung his short sword to the nearest Templar without the slightest hesitation. His movements were so fast that even the Templars who had been watching out for him didn’t quite catch it.

The Templars’ shields had the ability to protect its owner as long as it recognized the enemy. However, Juan had already anticipated that. Juan kicked the shield and swung his body in the air to strike one of the Templars in the back of the head with his short sword.

—at least he wanted to.

There was someone who raised his sword even faster than Juan to block his attack. A man with snake-like green eyes and vertically arranged pupils which were hidden under the visor was blocking Juan’s way. Juan couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.

‘He managed to keep up with the speed of Blink?’

Keeping up with the speed of Blink was only possible for those who could also use Blink themselves, under the assumption that they had predicted the direction of Blink.

A stream of blood ran down Juan’s cheek before he even had the chance to ponder about his opponent. Time was passing very slowly for Juan—he was cut even before the Templar who Juan had attacked realized what was happening.

Juan could feel that the Templar who had blocked his attack was attacking his entire body with a speed beyond human perception, even before Juan’s back could touch the ground.

‘Is it acceleration magic? …no, it can't be.’

A simple acceleration alone couldn’t allow a person to achieve speeds this fast—Juan figured that the opponent must also be using Blink.

The Templar in front of Juan was using Blink naturally, almost as if he was simply breathing. Not only was he using Blink to move fast by catapulting his body, but he also used Blink to attack Juan; the movements of swinging his sword, the movements of stepping on the ground, and the movements of stabbing and retrieving his sword were all accompanied by Blink.

.

His actions appeared rather crazy in Juan’s eyes. When using Blink to move one’s body at fast speed, it was easy for limbs to be torn or broken unless one’s body could fully support and bear the magic. However, the Templar in front of Juan was smoothly using Blink with ease as easily as breathing.

Fortunately, the Templar didn’t seem to be an expert in swordsmanship. But Juan felt that the level of his swordsmanship would be irrelevant if he could move at such speeds; his opponents would be dead before they could even see his blade.

At that moment, Juan read the slightest hint of a smile from his opponent’s round, curved eyes hidden under the visor—the opponent was enjoying the battle as if he was playing a trick.

‘Hah, this guy…’

The corner of Juan’s lips lifted up as he felt excited; someone was looking down on him after a very long time.

When Juan’s back finally touched the ground, the opponent swung his sword toward Juan’s heart as if he wanted to land the finishing blow.

At that moment, the opponent’s sword slipped and bounced off of Juan’s body with a dull feeling.

Juan immediately used the momentum to widen the distance from his opponent.

Meanwhile, his opponent was perplexed for a moment upon seeing Juan dodge his attack.

The opponent paused and watched Juan fall to the ground, even though he could have easily followed Juan to attack him once again. Blood gradually began to seep out of dozens of wounds on Juan’s body.

Other Templars were still clueless as to what had just happened right in front of their eyes, and belatedly found Juan who had exited from the dust cloud. Velkre stabbed the ground with his flagpole.

“Brother Marco!” Velkre shouted.

“Yes, brother. I just checked his abilities since he seemed to be a little unusual. It looks like he can use Blink as well. I think he might be an illegal mage.”

The snake-eyed man called Marco grinned and loosened his sword.

Meanwhile, Juan analyzed his opponent. Juan had never seen someone use Blink so naturally, almost as if they were breathing. Although Juan often used Blink during his time as the emperor, he had never considered using Blink in such a way.

“Is that also a kind of Grace?” Juan asked as if he was probing.

“Yes. It is the Grace which His Majesty has bestowed upon me. I went through a long period of hardship in order to be able to use this Grace to its full potential,” Marco arrogantly answered Juan.

While Juan was mildly irritated by his attitude, he could understand the source of his arrogance.

‘He must have endured immense pain for over ten years to properly handle his own body while using Blink in such a manner.’

Juan thought that Marco should have had several near-death experiences before he got used to using Blink. Since Blink used a method of compressing space to catapult and allow one’s body to move unlike acceleration, it was easy for a part of one’s body to fall out if Blink wasn’t used with caution. Such practice to get used to Blink would only be possible in Church, where one could receive healing Grace whenever they were severely injured.

Marco’s murderous and resentful mentality, as well as him wanting recognition was reasonable, but the problem was that he wished to be recognized by desperately killing others.

Juan felt that it was absurd and also massively disappointed that his own power could be used in such a way.

“I honestly don’t know what to say…” Juan muttered.

“Is that your last will? ‘I honestly don’t know what to say?’” Marco derided.

Instead of answering, Juan took out a deep breath. The blood that had colored Juan’s entire body began to burn and turned into red smoke and disappeared.

Although they couldn’t see anything, the Templars made nervous expressions as they felt the heat on their skins.

“As expected. He knows how to handle flames. I think he’s the one we are looking for, brother Velkre.”

“Yes, I think so too. Make sure that he is killed, Marco,” Velkre ordered.

“Let’s go at it again,” Juan said as he held out his short sword.

Marco frowned slightly upon seeing Juan hold out his short sword.

“What are you waiting for? Use Blink to your heart’s content. I’m quite excited to see someone else who can use Blink for the first time, ” Marco said.

“No need.”

“It’ll be no good if you plan to use it when you try to run away…”

In Marco’s eyes, Juan requesting a frontal confrontation was like a little brat asking to be killed.

But Juan only smiled.

“I feel somewhat bad for you,” Juan said.

“For what?”

“For you overexerting your body from using Blink just to be able to swing your sword a little faster. I mean, ten years of practice? You should’ve just trained your swordsmanship during that time. Then you might have already reached the level you wanted.”

Marco’s face became distorted with anger. Juan’s words were no different than denying Marco’s entire life.

“Go ahead and babble all you want before you die.”

When Marco took a step forward to use Blink again, Juan put his spirit into the short sword he was holding. As soon as his short sword clashed with Marco’s sword, Juan pushed into the range of Marco’s sword as if he had been waiting. Whenever his short sword was blocked by Marco’s sword, Juan rotated his body to push even deeper into Marco’s range, despite Marco’s sword grazing past his body and leaving behind cuts.

‘What an idiot.’

Marco laughed and cut Juan’s body as if he was ridiculing him. He planned to peel off all of Juan’s skin and let him die skinless to make him pay for acting so arrogant.

In the eyes of those who saw Marco’s blade flashing against the backdrop of sunlight, Juan appeared to be jumping into a huge shredder. No one doubted that Juan’s body would soon be shredded into minced meat.

However, Marco suddenly felt that the tip of the sword he had been swinging was no longer touching anything.

‘What’s going on?’

Marco’s sword blade was clearly cutting, stabbing, and shredding Juan’s body—at least he thought so.

Unlike his plan to make Juan bleed to death, his sword couldn’t reach Juan’s body—it could only brush against his blurry appearance as if Marco was slashing the fog.

“What kind of tricks are you playing!”

Marco’s sword began to move even faster, and Juan opened his eyes wide as he pushed even further into Marco’s range. Marco found the look in Juan’s eyes to be extremely disturbing. Juan had yet to even use Blink, but sweat was beginning to run down Marco’s forehead already.

On the other hand, Juan’s body continued to remain completely intact. Not a single wound appeared on his body. He wasn’t even sweating. Like a ghost or a ball of fog, Juan was only dodging Marco’s sword.

At one point, the sword in Marco’s hand vibrated with a loud clanging noise. Marco flinched, but tried his best to remain calm in the face of the first collision between their swords. Marco was irritated, but thought that Juan wouldn’t be able to dodge his attacks forever. Meanwhile, Marco himself was capable of using Blink indefinitely with the power of His Majesty’s Grace and the power of the ‘snake.’

Whether Juan knew all this or not, his short sword continued to clash against Marco’s sword once again.

In a blink of an eye, Juan and Marco had already fought for dozens of exchanges. The sparks from the metal colliding with metal sprang up everywhere.

Marco was gradually beginning to feel anxious and annoyed.

Then, Marco sensed something unusual all of a sudden.

‘...He is getting faster and faster?’

Marco’s sword which was being swung using Blink was fatal due to its speed alone. But not only was Juan tracking the sword’s trajectory and blocking it, he was also counter-attacking without even using Blink.

Marco was superior to Juan in every way, including his physical condition, equipment, and the Grace he had been bestowed with. But none of those mattered in front of Juan—he was still driving Marco into a corner despite his disadvantages.

In this chaotic battle, Juan’s attacks even seemed to have a rhythm of some sort. Juan’s attacks could no longer be considered to be at the level of just swordsmanship anymore, and his attacks only got faster and faster over time.

Before anyone knew it, Marco had begun to focus on defense rather than offense. All his previous composure was gone, while sweat was running down from his forehead. Marco was entirely focused on dodging Juan’s furious attacks.

For a second, Marco had an illusion that Juan became a monster with eight arms. The other Templars who had been watching the battle were beyond shocked upon seeing Juan’s incredible speed, which even Marco, who used Blink proficiently, found unbelievably fast. Juan was now moving even faster, to the extent that it was hard to follow his movement with human eyes and figure out when he was attacking.

“What… foolish… trick!”

Marco realized that he wouldn’t be able to hold on if Juan got any faster. He found it difficult to understand the current situation he was in, where Juan didn’t even get tired, but became even faster.

Marco was a Templar who had been wielding his sword while using Blink as naturally as breathing. In order to reach such a level, he had trained with all his heart and soul for speed fighting rather than any other types of combat. Thus, Marco found it hard to believe that he was being overpowered by Juan.

“Die!” Marco tightly bit his lips and vigorously thrust his sword—it was a desperate blow where he was risking his life.

At that moment, Juan’s eyes flashed. He threw the end of his short sword toward Marco’s sword, almost as if he had been waiting all along.

Clash!

An unbelievable sound echoed throughout the wasteland.