"Lord! Lord! Why won't you answer my prayers? Please, just one winning ticket to help through these difficult tis!"
"You have to buy the lottery ticket first before praying, you fool!"
After taking a direct hit from Han Se-ah's friendly fire, amplified by the fire attribute enhancent stone's additional effect, I had a brief audience with the Goddess in that blinding flash. It cleared my mind instantly.
The reason I couldn't master swordsmanship was because I never actually swung a sword properly.
"Haha! Is this the hero of this world? How violent!"
"Oh co on! Roland wouldn't get hurt by sothing like this, so quit the dramatics!"
Coming back from that pure white space, I could tell not even a second had passed. As the flash and thunderous boom subsided, the dark knight charged at again between the pillars, his already tattered cape now even more ragged from the explosion's aftermath.
I tightened my grip on the holy sword.
Until now, my grip had been completely wrong from the start. Since it was made of divine power, I'd been swinging it around like a baseball bat regardless of its length.
The way you hold a sword should vary based on your build, the weapon's length, and sword style. Could wildly swinging it side to side or bringing it down on heads like a club really be called swordsmanship? Though I couldn't rember anything about sword techniques, I had an excellent teaching aid right in front of .
"Oh? Abandoning that crude style?"
"Just gonna copy you a bit."
I reduced the holy sword's divine energy from its usual massive size down to match the Heavenly King's blade length. When I shifted my hands to match his stance, the swordsmanship fragnts finally activated, triggering an instinctive sensation.
There was an odd discomfort, like having fingers pressed against my head while sleeping face-down. I stopped mimicking the Heavenly King and instinctively wiggled my fingers until the grip felt just right.
The holy sword felt as comfortable in my hand as the warhamr I'd used for 11 years. As that tickling sensation in my mind suddenly cleared with a satisfying pop, I had a thought - I'd been too precious about not using the holy sword for minor fights, but if I'd practiced with it daily from floor 40 until now, I probably would have taken this Heavenly King's head long ago.
"Were you... hiding your strength?"
"Huh? What's this? Roland's actually using the sword properly. I didn't do anything - what kind of awakening event is this?"
The holy sword moved smoothly now, unlike my previous wild swings. Though its length was reduced, I made up for it by charging forward. The dark knight hastily retreated.
He created a wall of dark magic spears sprouting from the ground to push back while he jumped away. His moves were more fitting for a jester or trickster than a knight, but unfortunately for him, I was a tank.
Literally a tank, advancing like an armored vehicle.
The countless spear points targeting my chest, armpits, arms, groin and thighs shattered like bamboo shoots and dissipated into the air. They were ant to buy ti, but with both Irene's barrier and my defense, they were completely useless.
The result was his waist left wide open.
It was a tiny opening I would have missed while wildly swinging like a baseball bat. But now, with just a flick of my wrist, the previously straight trajectory curved elegantly to slice across his abdon.
The technique was perhaps too crude to properly call swordsmanship. But when that technique was combined with the holy sword's 100% defense and resistance pierce in the hands of a natural 6★ character, the balance instantly broke.
"Finally... fighting... properly!"
"That obvious, huh?"
"Who wouldn't notice when your thug's club swinging turned into a knight's swordplay!"
The holy sword that had cut his abdon carved through the air again smoothly. It was a rciless strike that no sturdy armor or dark magic equipnt could block. All the dark knight could do was dodge and deflect while sacrificing mana instead of HP, waiting for the holy sword's duration to end. ŔÂΝŎ𝔟Ëʂ
As the holy sword's long slash sent him stumbling sideways, he bent low as if falling and transford his longsword into a spear aid at my eyes. Since he couldn't land effective hits elsewhere, was he just trying to obscure my vision?
In the past I might have taken the hit head-on, but things were different now. I could smoothly redirect the holy sword's horizontal slash into a downward strike.
"Your basics are... surprisingly... solid?"
'Actually, that's all I know, idiot.'
The holy sword screeched as it struck down along the dark magic spear shaft with a sharp change in direction. Though my palm stung from the clash of dark and holy energy, I could easily handle this much and pressed down with more force.
No matter how skilled the Heavenly King was, with his body twisted almost to the ground and weapons locked together, he couldn't dodge again. The holy sword cut through his fingers gripping the spear, traced down his forearm, and plunged into his chest.
Like a stake through a vampire's heart, the holy sword pierced his chest and pinned him to the fortress floor.
※
The one who had revealed the Heavenly Kings' existence to us silently faded away on the fortress floor. The fact that he didn't imdiately turn into loot and mana stones suggested he had so strength left, but perhaps deciding further resistance was pointless, he lay there silently until he disappeared.
It was a five-minute battle that perfectly matched the holy sword's duration. Even with Grace's rapid shots piercing vital points and Han Se-ah's indiscriminate bombing, the fight felt like it ended more easily than expected.
...Could it be his wounds from getting carved up by the holy sword last ti hadn't fully healed? Well, this wasn't so PC MMORPG where bosses beco invincible and recover 100% HP when leaving their area.
"Whew, that was surprising. Hanna? Maybe give us a signal next ti before setting things off."
"Ah, sorry... but I thought we needed to pin him down. He talked big about fighting to the end, but honestly, he might have escaped through another pre-dug tunnel and wandered the plains."
"You definitely have a point there."
What remained after he lay spread-eagle on the floor for a few minutes before vanishing was a purple mana stone, different from normal boss monster drops. It broke the basic rule where normal mana stones were sky blue, nad rank were deep blue, and boss stones were red.
Co to think of it, wasn't the mid-boss's heart-shaped stone purple too? Katie had grabbed it and run in that urgent situation before it went straight into Han Se-ah's inventory, so I hadn't really noticed minor details like the color.
Anyway, we gathered up the round crystal mana stone that dispersed dark purple magical energy like a humidifier just like his skills had, along with pieces of armor and parts of his worn, tattered cape, and put them in Han Se-ah's inventory.
...This Heavenly King felt like kind of a freebie win too.
Looking at the results, Han Se-ah's reckless charge and Irene's lucky awakening had triggered the mid-boss's trolling, which got the Heavenly King caught up in it and left him getting torn apart by the holy sword before he could prepare.
"By the way, Hanna."
"I used up almost everything in my inventory so we need to restock... Huh? W-what is it, Roland?"
"Co here and sit... no, just co here first."
Though the result was good, there was a lot to say about the process, so I beckoned Han Se-ah over while putting the loot in her inventory.
Katie might have dodged when she saw the bombs flying through the fireballs, but hadn't I gotten caught up in it along with the dark knight? Sure, I didn't actually take damage, and the Goddess used that mont to give so quick advice, but... I couldn't resist the urge to give her a good smack.
Reading my intentions, Han Se-ah scurried over at my call and prostrated herself before like she was about to plant her forehead on the ground. I'd been planning to really hit her this ti, but seeing her flatten herself so submissively made it awkward to follow through.
If she was a guy I would have beaten so sense into him under the pretense of education, but she looked so delicate and pretty on the outside...
People can't help but be influenced by outward appearances. If a scary-looking guy approaches a young girl he looks like a criminal, but when a motherly older sister approaches with a gentle smile, she's seen as a loving housewife who adores children as much as her maternal instincts - that kind of thing.
"Uh, uhh, Roland's making a fist. If I get hit by that, I won't ti travel back a day, right? No, even a bare-handed punch would be dangerous, but getting hit by steel gauntlets would definitely stun or kill , right? I an, yeah, I did aim that bomb at Roland's back, but- EEEK!"
-After all that hesitation he still hit her lol If you hold back are you even the holy sword's owner or a monk? lololololol
-Honestly he's already a saint for not smacking her until now lololololol
-Damn that's satisfying, almost want to give Roland a quest to discipline Han Se-ah
-Small Asian girl gets disciplined by large blonde white man, truly must be good content
-This is yassy lol Cutting this part and uploading straight to phonetube, Han Se-ah's debut video is getting smacked lololololololol
But there's a limit to the patience even a pretty face can buy.
Thinking I couldn't hear her, she kept running her mouth to viewers with her head bowed low. Seeing that, I couldn't help but deliver a punch right to that conveniently positioned head. Not wanting to actually send her back in ti, I held back my strength but kept the middle knuckle of my gauntlet pointed.
That steel gauntlet flick must have stung pretty badly for a modern person who'd never experienced such a thing, as Han Se-ah trembled silently for a while. I had to admit, it felt pretty satisfying.
Enjoy the chappy!
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