Chương 71: [BL] 70. Spell Blade [3]

Leynah lunged fast—so fast that Willow's eyes struggled to follow her. One moment she was just barely summoning her elongated legs and rabbit ears; the next, she blitzed through the distance, leaving blue grass dancing like a typhoon in her wake, and lunged her rabbit sword right at Derrick's neck. Derrick, in turn, shifted his body and blocked Leynah's lightning-fast attack with his humongous, gleaming spell blade. A ringing chime scraped through the air, and Leynah's feet barely touched the ground.

Suddenly she blurred and slid behind Derrick, her rabbit sword swinging down, but Derrick turned in time, deflecting her strike upward. But that caused his sword to angle upward slightly, and Leynah ducked, swinging her gladius up to angle Derrick's sword further while her body slid onward. The Rabbit sword surged at Derrick, who pivoted, whirling his sword in motion and swung it down, only for Leynah to suddenly take a step back, appearing five meters away.

"Look at that! Leynah bent her knees and burst forth, forcing the First Sword to whirl around to meet her attack. A downward slash and an inward horizontal sweep forced him to keep retreating, as his sword was too big to parry properly! She pressed on, delivering a flurry of strikes; with each one, the gleam across Derrick's sword slowly waned, though it was still bloody bright! As expected from the First Sword of the Count! He kept shuffling backward, blocking every single strike.

Somehow, Leynah still hadn't drawn the Count's blood. But she kept reappearing in the spot where Derrick had to do a full turn! And with each strike, she forced one of the finest swordsmen under the Count's employ, with a class that supported his talent on defense and—""Oooh! A good parry! Let me tell you, lass, a good parry is much more satisfying than cutting people's heads off—oh, anyway, with sword knocked upward, Derrick stepped forward, angling his sword to cut Leynah's side, but—Woah!

Leynah blocked with her gladius. To be fair, that only worked because she caught the strike still mid-swing and positioned her sword to catch in between her gladius blade and guard."

"And—damn! She twisted inward like a bloody graceful dancer, spinning with her rabbit sword for a strike. That caught the Lord First Sword off guard, but the Lord is no slouch! Derrick shuffled backward, gaining space to block the upcoming sweep, and shifted his grip to bat the gladius strike. Leynah kept delivering flurry after flurry. That Spell blade is taking the hit now!

You can see its light waning, and Derrick had enough and attacked, forcing Leynah to jump back, and he got about four meters in one pounce—""Drey," Willow growled. She huffed out, pushing her hair back from her mouth thanks to the billowing gust the tier-threes emitted each clash.

"I didn't ask for your commentary."

"What am I here for then?" The [Champion] shrugged.

"Well, to… Explain stuff!" Willow thrust her hand forward, donning her Guard outfit and summoning her Sword of Light, which let out a warm glow in this cold night.

"Oh! You got a Spell-blade! Well, lass, I'm jealous. But personally, I'd rather have a good enhanced weapon in hand, you know. Spell-blades might be cool and all, and they're supported by your class, but—""That!" Willow pointed.

"Explain that."

"Right. Are you deciding on Sword Style, eh? Exciting period. Well, let me tell you about the advantages and disadvantages of Spell Blade then. Look." Drey pointed his dagger right at the Spell-claymore. Leynah delivered a heavy chop, boosted by her burst of speed. Derrick managed to deflect it, but with each barrage from Leynah, the claymore's light flickered, like a dying lightbulb.

"Most spell-blades are born out of your runes. Each hit they take will push your runic power out of them, forcing you to push more runes into it if your spells allow, while enhanced weapons have their own runes you could charge as long as it connects to your body's runes, basically giving you a second source of power to tap into."

"Like battery sword, then? Like those stupid light-sabers that can get easily—""What are you talking about?"

"Sorry, continue, please." She blushed.

"Actually, Spell-blade sounds like a huge weakness, no? You made it sound like an Enhanced item just way better."

"Well, don't forget the more you level up, the more, based on your words, 'Bullshit' Enhancer you will get. Those will make your Spell-blade much stronger." Willow nodded along, though the fight looked absolutely one-sided, with Leynah slowly chipping more and more runes from Derrick. Noticing this, Drey added.

"Leynah is abnormal. Normally you wouldn't be able to wield a sword that way while using short bursts of speed like hers. However, this doesn't mean the Lord First is helpless." Just as Drey said that, Derrick finally went on the offensive. Leynah just finished her flurry of attacks and had managed to draw a thin cut with her gladius across Derrick's shoulder.

She had retreated, and her feet were barely touching the ground when suddenly—Derrick swept his sword down, and a brilliant light shone like a fluorescent cross. Everything was blinded like a sudden sun just born. An enormous force of white bathed toward Leynah, a wave of goldish-white that surged at her in a large strip of silver. Leynah planted her feet and zoomed backward, suddenly appearing with her leg bent and pressing against a tree trunk.

Below her, the trunk split in two, and the strip of white carried through, slicing over what must be two dozen trees. The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Willow's mouth was gaping open.

"Now, that kind of power tends to come from a Spell-blade. There are enhanced swords that are capable of that, but they cost so much. That much power? It only comes from a Tier-five enhanced item, and each can cost an entire town their year's worth of gold. Added to that, your enhancer you get from levelling up will offset some of the Rune cost, and keep making it stronger—""Wait! If he can do that, then what's the point of Kroos giving him that enhanced sword?" Willow asked.

"Because—" Drey motioned with his head. Derrick's spell-claymore blinked. Once, then twice, and it died out, exploding in motes of light. Not only that—his class outfit—the white armor disappeared with a puff, and the [Sword Master] became classless.

"That is a huge weakness," Willow said, half-horrified.

"Keep in mind that the Lord First Sword is playing devil's advocate to show you the weakness of Spell-blade. Normally he wouldn't be that reckless in using that claymore." Hold on. Willow's eyes read over her Guard class and narrowed on one ability that pricked her interest. [Halo (2)]—The Fireflies' light will endure the strongest as it fades.

Fireflies Runes will form into a Halo of Light above the Guard when the Rune count falls below fifty percent, signifying desire like an unyielding ember, summoning motes of ember orbs to fight alongside the Guard and doubling the Guard's attributes. Grant +1 Strength, +2 Fireflies Runes. Should the Guard's runes fall below twenty percent, the Halo of Light will grant 30% of attributes and further add 10% Arcanic to the Guard. She had leveled up to Level twelve just earlier, and her Halo was upgraded.

Earlier, she did not even pay attention to her Halo, but she did feel stronger as her runes decreased. At first, it might sound bad, but she had three classes. What if… what if she opened her fight with her [Guard] class and spent her runes to draw out the full power of the [Guard] class from the start? So she could overwhelm her opponent from the get-go? Halo seemed like a great enhancer for this. It was also worth mentioning that all of her [Guard] class spells and enhancers made for intense, quick combat.

Name: Willow [Guard] Class: [Guard—Level 12] Outfit: [Sheran Village Guard's Uniform] Rune: [Fireflies 5/5] Rune: Attribute: [6 Strength, 6 Dexterity, 3 Vitality, 2 Constitution, 2 Sense, 7 Arcanic] [+5% All Attributes] [5 Fireflies Rune] Spell: [Sword of Light II] [2] [Beacon II] [3] [Light Draw] [2] Enhancer: [Guard Honour] [Strong Strike (2)] [Fire Light] [Halo (2)] Literally, her Fire Light enhancer allowed her to sacrifice her runes for further Arcanic to her body or her Spell-blade.

Strong Strike also naturally supports that, and Guard Honor too. Then there were her spells: drawing spells, spell-blade, and healing. This might be what her [Guard] class was made for: like a firelight that wants to shine brightly before it dies out—to pave the way for her other class, to kill or at least weaken her opponent in a quick burst first.

"You figured out what you want? A fighting style?" Drey asked.

"Yes. Maybe? I'm considering." Willow told Drey about her idea: to utilize her Spell-blade and Enhanced weapon to go full power from the get-go, unconcerned about her rune count. During the first half of her explanation, Drey looked genuinely horrified for her, but then he calmed down and rubbed his chin in deep thought.

"Normally I would say you're stupid and better off to pick a spear." Willow raised her eyebrow.

"What's wrong with a spear?"

"Ah, you're an outworlder all right. Sword users hated spear users, just like bow users hate crossbow users. It's the way it is."

"It is?"

"It is."

"Well, sure," Willow mumbled. She gets why bow users hated crossbow users, as frankly crossbows were freaking lame… She stopped for a moment, wondering why the hell she thought that way. Was it because of her True Archer enchantment? This is stupid.

"Anyway, for you who can switch three classes, it might work. Frankly, I think that's the best option. I just think it's a bit of a shame."

"A shame? Why?"

"Well, Guard class is special, you see—""What?" Willow cut him off.

"What do you mean it's special? You mean more than Mage—""No, lass, no. It's not necessarily as powerful as an ascendant class, but it held special meaning in humanity's history, or at least the last two hundred years. The last Apocalypse Cycle…" Drey began to narrate.

"Ser Guler, the Tier-nine [Hero] invoked his Hero Call Enhancer upon the Blight Underworld—another Tier-ten Blight Rat rift, just like three past Cycles. As the name suggests, it's a humongous rift, spanning its own world, and its strongest creature is the Plague Sovereign Rat. A tier-ten." Willow gulped. Ten? Ten! A tier ten exists? And it was a monster?

"The distance between Tiers grew humongous for each tier, you see. Even Ser Guler could not kill the tier-ten alone. So, they devised a plan. He and humanity's twenty strongest planned to lead a host of attack forces to destroy the Dungeon Core, rather than fight directly against the Plague Sovereign Rat. He had hoped to kill the Rift and trap the rats in it. But once Ser Guler was three days deep in the march—the Sovereign Rat renewed its invasion with a host of fifty thousand.

Without their [Hero], humanity gathered every force available and mustered three hundred thousand, but that alone would hardly be enough. Everyone recognized that." Drey continued.

"The war was called the Grand Retreat. Dozens of kingdoms and lands were abandoned as humans fought a desperate, retreating battle, hoping that Ser Guler and his party could destroy the Rift—and further hoping that doing so would disrupt the rats' minds. The combined armies retreated into the Empire Bastion—the Ruka's grand Wall—where forces continued to gather, and soon their numbers swelled to five hundred thousand. Naturally, some grew sick of running. Half of the Bright Stars shared this sentiment."

"So what? They fight?"

"They fight." Drey nodded.

"A hundred and forty Bright Stars, with the lowest being Tier-six and the highest being Tier-eight, took the front. The battle extended for a month. In the last five days, the Rat Rift was destroyed, which drove the Rat Sovereign mad. The Riftborns ignored strategy and began killing their own rats and charged right at the humans. It was then the surviving seventy Bright Stars faced the tier-ten and its rat lords with the help of the Archmages of the capitals, of course, and multiple high-tier soldiers.

In the end, it was Ser Guler's wife—a Bright Star—a Tier-eight [Aegis Saintess] who landed the final blow." Willow could guess what Drey's point was, and why the Sheran village retained their rift farm and took pride in their [Guard] class stones.

"Her starting class is a tier-one guard class?"

"Exactly," Drey smiled.

"And she saved humanity with her Spell-blade. It's a golden-radiance type of Spell-blade created from the Bright runes, so it's very different from yours. But well, you get why I'm excited to see a Bright Star with a Guard class."