Chapter 59: Four Versus One
Seeing the four knights charging at him, Roderic let out a deep breath.
’My aura is running low,’ he thought, steadying his heartbeat. ’I can probably use my Weapon Breaker three more times.’
But the second movement?
If Roderic was lucky, he’d be able to use it once and still have a bit left over.
’I’ll have to be careful,’ he thought, eyes narrowing. ’No mistakes.’
With that in mind, Roderic locked onto the knights.
Unlike before, all of them used similar longswords. Even their bodies were kind of similar to each other.
As the first knight reached him, Roderic flipped his blades to their sharp sides.
WHOOSH!
The knight’s aura-covered longsword swept towards his neck.
Roderic leaned back slightly, allowing it to pass inches away from his neck.
Immediately after, he stepped in, his right blade shooting for the man’s chest.
CLANG!
The knight barely managed to pull his longsword back in time, blocking the attack.
But Roderic had expected that.
His second blade came from the opposite side, forcing the knight to hurriedly twist his sword again.
CLANG!
’Got you now.’
For just a moment, both of the knight’s hands were occupied defending against Roderic.
And the other three knights were still several steps away.
Roderic suddenly pulled his right blade back before kicking forward.
THUD!
His aura-covered boot slammed straight into the knight’s stomach.
’’UGH!’’
The knight stumbled several steps back, desperately trying to regain his balance.
Roderic’s eyes immediately flickered towards the other three.
They were almost there.
’If all four surround me, this is going to get annoying,’ he thought. ’It’ll waste time that I could really use to help the other soldiers.’
For a split second, Roderic hesitated.
Then his expression hardened.
’Ah, screw this shit.’
WHOOSH!
Without hesitation, he hurled his right hooked blade towards the stumbling knight.
The man’s eyes widened slightly, but there was no way he could dodge.
SHHHK!
The hooked blade carved straight through his metal armor, burying itself deep into his chest.
’’Gah!’’
Blood spilled from the man’s mouth as he finally collapsed backward.
Roderic gritted his teeth and immediately moved to retrieve his weapon.
But it was already too late.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Two longswords swept towards him, forcing him to jump back.
The third knight jumped over his comrade’s corpse, thrusting his longsword straight at Roderic’s exposed side.
’Tch!’
Roderic swiftly hooked his blade around the longsword.
With difficulty, he redirected it away from his side.
But Roderic barely had time to recover.
The other two knights were already closing in from both sides.
’Damn it!’
Roderic immediately jumped back, putting some distance between himself and the three.
His gaze briefly flickered towards the hooked blade still buried in the dead knight’s chest.
All three of them were standing between him and it.
’’Surely you wouldn’t mind returning my weapon?’’ he asked with a forced smile.
The knights didn’t reply, already on the move towards him.
Roderic clicked his tongue, backing away even further.
’Yeah... not happening,’ he thought. ’It was worth a try though.’
For a moment, Roderic couldn’t help but regret his decision to throw it.
That was until a new idea suddenly popped into his mind.
’System?’ he called out internally. ’I want to purchase ordinary hooked blades!’
For a moment, everything remained silent.
Roderic kept backing away further and further, slowly losing hope.
But then, a blue screen finally popped up in front of him.
[Would you like to purchase (Mortal Rank) Twin Tiger Hook Blades for one Throne Coin?]
[Yes / No]
Before he could even react, one of the knights suddenly lunged forward.
Roderic’s eyes widened as he saw the longsword heading towards him through the inconveniently large system screen.
’’Yes, damn it!’’ he cursed out loud. ’’Give me the weapons!’’
Two smaller windows immediately popped up in front of him.
[-1 Throne Coin]
[Purchase successful!]
In an instant, two hooked blades materialized directly in front of him.
Roderic let go of his remaining azure blade without hesitation and grabbed both blades.
WHOOSH!
The two hooks snapped around the approaching longsword from opposite sides.
A burst of aura instantly shot through them.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The knight didn’t even have time to react as fractures raced across his longsword.
BOOM!
Only a split second later... the sword shattered into a thousand pieces.
The knight’s eyes widened as only his sword’s handle remained.
’’What the?!’’
Roderic didn’t give him time to recover.
He flicked both blades to their sharp sides before stepping in.
SHHK!
One dragged across the man’s stomach, tearing it open completely.
Before the knight could even scream, the second slid through his neck.
His severed head spun through the air as blood sprayed from his neck.
A moment later, his headless body collapsed.
But Roderic had long moved on to the final two opponents.
’The end is in sight,’ he thought, rushing towards them. ’Everything will soon be in our favor again!’
The two remaining knights were already moving to intercept him.
Neither hesitated after seeing their companions die.
In fact, Roderic could tell from their eyes that they’d only grown more desperate.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Two aura-covered longswords swept horizontally towards Roderic from both sides.
Roderic’s eyes narrowed.
Instead of retreating, he suddenly dropped low.
His knees scraped across the ground as he slid straight between the two knights.
SWISH!
Both longswords passed harmlessly above him.
’Too slow,’ he thought, already glancing behind.
The knights’ eyes had just barely widened when Roderic had already jumped back to his feet.
They immediately started turning towards him, desperately trying to recover from their missed attacks.
But Roderic was just too fast.
Aura poured into his hooked blade, gathering around the sharp edge.
’Dragon’s Slash!’
WHOOSH!
A large blue arc shot through the air.
The knights had no time to dodge, barely having turned around.
SHHK!
The blue arc tore straight through both of their waists.
For a split second, the two remained standing.
Then their upper bodies slid from their waists almost simultaneously.
THUD! THUD!
Four body pieces crashed onto the ground.
At the same time, Roderic heard a sharp cracking noise from his hands.
CRACK! CRACK!
His eyes fell on one of his blades immediately.
Hundreds of cracks had started spreading across it.
’Oh?’ he thought, taken aback. ’It couldn’t handle the move?’
Roderic watched the blade shatter with a hint of amusement.
Then his attention shifted back to the remaining battles.
’Well then,’ he thought, smiling widely. ’Time to start the clean-up!’