Dark Fantasy: Magical Eye Knight – Chapter 172

Chapter 172: Gift (2)

 

“What’s so great about it, you cripple?”

 

One of the thugs stepped forward, brandishing the dagger in his hand. As the thug advanced, Russell rose from his chair. He stumbled slightly as he stood up, and the thugs, who had been eyeing Russell’s massive frame, exchanged amused glances.

 

“Oh, what’s this? Getting up to lie down for good?”

 

“We’ll kill the two men and leave the women.”

 

“Oh, that’s very kind of you.”

 

Calia, who had been calmly sipping her beer while the knight and the thugs exchanged pleasantries, spoke up.

 

“Can’t you help?”

 

“Huh?”

 

One of the knights looked at her in surprise.

 

“Hey, that woman’s fine.”

 

The mercenary sitting on the chair was swaying drunkenly, and the woman with the pale hair was sleeping soundly, snoring softly. Amidst them, the red-haired woman who was eating bread and drinking beer without a care in the world seemed distinctly out of place.

 

“What are you looking at?”

 

At that moment, Russell stepped forward, blocking the view of the three people behind him. The bearded knight’s face hardened, but the thugs, who had yet to grasp the situation, charged at Russell with the dagger he had thrown into the air.

 

“You bastard, where are you looking, cripple?”

 

The thugs were not intimidated by Russell’s massive frame. They had been fed so much of the Echilus drug that even a bear wouldn’t have been able to regain its senses.

 

They wouldn’t even feel much pain if they were stabbed with a knife. It was boring when they couldn’t react properly when he played with the women, but it didn’t matter if their faces were pretty.

 

His head was pounding and his face was flushed. It seemed like the alcohol he had drunk just before was finally kicking in. The surging blood flowed through his pounding heart and into his limbs, quickly reaching the top of his head.

 

“Die quietly, you bastard!”

 

The excited thug stamped hard on the floor of the tavern and thrust the dagger in his right hand forward. Russell didn’t get much of an impression from his posture.

 

He could tell that he was right-handed, that the tip of the dagger was sharp but the blade was dull, and that he had no training in martial arts.

 

Russell’s gaze flickered momentarily to the knights behind him. They had smug smiles on their faces, but their eyes were cold. Just by not stepping forward and sending the thugs ahead of them, it was clear that they intended to gauge Russell’s strength.

 

Thwack!

 

There was a sound of something being pierced as the thug’s dagger shot forward. The six knights and the two remaining thugs watched as the thug who had charged at Russell froze in the position where he had thrust his dagger.

 

“W, What the hell. . .?”

 

The thug who had stabbed him muttered in a questioning voice. The dagger he had stabbed was caught between Russell’s fingers, just in front of the area he had intended to stab. With the back of his hand facing forward, the dagger, caught between his index and middle fingers, did not move an inch.

 

Unconsciously, the thug tried to pull out the dagger, but when it didn’t budge, he slowly raised his head. Up close, he could see that Russell’s height and size were like a cliff standing before him.

 

However, it was easy to see that he was not simply a wall. Russell’s left hand, which had broken the blade of the dagger with just the strength of his fingers, struck the thug’s left cheek.

 

With a thud, the thug flew to Russell’s left as if hit by a hammer.

 

Bang, he hit the wall of the tavern and slid down. His left cheek was swollen and blood and broken teeth dripped from his mouth.

 

His eyes, which had been glinting with bloodlust and excitement until just now, were blankly staring ahead, but they were not focused at all.

 

“You son of a b*tch!”

 

“You bastard!”

 

The two remaining thugs charged forward as if to avenge their fallen comrade. On the other hand, the knights’ expressions hardened and they immediately drew their swords.

 

The sound of the thugs running on the wooden floor and the sound of the blades sliding out of their scabbards rang out at the same time.

 

Russell’s left hand swung around. The broken blade of the dagger that had been caught between his left index and middle fingers flew through the air with a whiz, cutting through the first thug to charge forward.

 

“You damn-ah!”

 

It took only a moment for the curse to turn into a scream. The flying blade had blown off the thug’s left hand. Blood spurted from the cleanly severed wrist, and the severed left hand spun through the air, spraying blood all over the place.

 

“Aaargh! My, my hand!”

 

Thud!

 

The thug who had been holding his left wrist with his right hand while bending over was sent flying backwards by Russell’s kick. Tables and chairs overturned and rolled around with a crash. And then he collapsed, unconscious.

 

“Damn it, son of a b*tch. . .!”

 

The last thug, who had been running after him, couldn’t stop his momentum. He was already accelerating, and with a determined expression, he held his dagger upside down and raised it.

 

He was determined to carve a mark somewhere. It was a bad choice. He should have turned around and run away right away.

 

Russell, whose body was turning as he kicked the thug with his left foot, threw a back kick without even looking back. With a thud, the thug’s mouth spat out blood along with the impact of his ribs breaking. It seemed like he had bitten his tongue.

 

The thug, who had received a kick in the chest, flew through the air and smashed through the door of the tavern.

 

There was a brief silence. The six remaining knights stood with their drawn longswords pointing at Russell.

 

They had tried to ambush him while the thugs distracted him, but they had died too quickly for them to find the right timing.

 

“Do you like it?”

 

As he said this, Russell took a step forward, his feet sinking into the wooden floor. There was a creaking sound as the planks groaned. And then, in the next moment, Russell’s figure disappeared and the wooden planks he had stepped on exploded like a bomb.

 

His fist, which had entered a different perception and time from the thugs, shot out towards the knight who was standing in front. And surprisingly, the knight reacted.

 

The knight’s blade, infused with magic, clashed with Russell’s fist with a clang. Before the ringing sound, reminiscent of a bell, had subsided, the remaining knights, who had regained their senses, braced their legs and kicked the floor.

 

“He’s not affected!”

 

“Damn it, they ate Echilus, so how come!”

 

“We have to hold out! It’s just a matter of time! The drug hasn’t taken effect yet!”

 

The six knights, who had quickly exchanged warnings, questions, and countermeasures, charged in unison, confident in their armor and sturdy steel swords. It was as if they had accumulated experience from fighting together for a long time, as their momentum was both heavy and sharp.

 

In addition to the one who had initially received Russell’s fist, all the knights were warriors who had trained their magic to a high level.

 

However, if there was one thing they had misjudged, it was that Russell had not even raised his magic.

 

“Hup!”

 

Unlike the thugs, the knight did not utter a single curse. He simply let out a short cry and swung his sword upward at a rapid speed. It was a sword strike that relied on his strength and magic.

 

As the upward slash from the front approached, horizontal slashes came from Russell’s left and right, and a stab came from behind. They moved as smoothly as flowing water, as if they were familiar with the method of capturing a powerful individual.

 

In an instant, a black afterimage was drawn around Russell’s waist. The pitch-black rays of light struck all the oncoming blades.

 

Clang, clang, clang!

 

Sparks and the sound of metal clashing rang out together, and the knights took three or four steps back. They caught their trembling swords and calmed them down, and saw Russell standing there with a large, obsidian greatsword.

 

And then his figure disappeared again, and the knights’ eyes widened.

 

“Kugh!”

 

The scream came in an instant. They turned their heads at once and saw a greatsword cutting through the upper body of a knight diagonally before it got caught on his armor.

 

“Longbert!”

 

Ignoring the astonished cries of the knights, Russell pulled Nahilnir with force. Shruuk- the sound of flesh and torn armor clashing with the blade was gruesome.

 

Then, the upper body, which was still dangling, was completely severed and fell to the floor with a thud. A large amount of blood and entrails spilled out, and as they were exposed to the candles hanging from the ceiling of the tavern and the lanterns hanging on the walls, they grew cold.

 

It wasn’t that the drug Echilus had no effect on him at all. His body had begun to break down as soon as the foreign drug entered, and the end was not far off. However, thanks to his unusually high magical affinity, the viscosity of the drug clinging to his magical circuits was unexpectedly high.

 

As a result, he couldn’t properly draw on his magic, and his strength didn’t come up as well as when he was in his normal state.

 

What did it matter? There was no guarantee that he would be able to fight at full strength anyway.

 

“I’m going to leave one alive.”

 

Russell said, swinging Nahilnir and splattering blood. He needed to know why knights who were so heavily armed were in a rural village like this.

 

There weren’t many reasons why knights would be traveling around a frontier village, rather than a territory or a city.

 

Had there been a territorial war nearby, had they deserted, or had they infiltrated on a mission?

 

“Come in.”

 

One mouth would be enough.

 

The knights kept their mouths shut and hesitated, looking at each other. Their expressions, stained with beard and saliva, were more distorted than ever.

 

They had thought they were just a bunch of idiots who wandered around with beautiful women, but it was as if they had poked a sleeping lion in its den.

 

However, there was no way they could surrender. As the remaining knights simultaneously released their magic, the tables and chairs that had been knocked over by the shockwave flew into the tavern walls and shattered.

 

Thump, thump, thump. . .!

 

As the five knights unleashed their magic without restraint, vibrations and noise occurred. Sparks flew as the magic clashed in the air, and the wooden floor they were standing on creaked and groaned.

 

Even amidst all this, only the corner where Calia was sitting remained intact, as a translucent, reddish, hemispherical force field protected them.

 

Russell remained silent and calmly assumed a posture. He held the hilt of Nahilnir with both hands and lowered his knees and waist. His left hand was on the inside of the hilt, and his right hand was on the metal pommel near the outside.

 

As he twisted his upper body with his left leg forward, the area that could be hit was reduced, and the blade and flat of the greatsword covered Russell’s body.

 

Just as each of them had assumed their full stance, one of the knights swung his magic-infused sword in the air. To the eyes of an ordinary person, it would have looked like he was just swinging at nothing, but Russell saw something different.

 

The sword wind emitted from the knight swept through the tavern, extinguishing all the candles and lanterns. The sky outside had been dark for a long time, and the sun had set and disappeared.

 

It was a tactic aimed at those who could not see in front of them when they were in a bright place and then suddenly in a dark place.

 

The shadows and darkness that had been lurking on the opposite side of the objects, pushed by the light, took this opportunity to cover everything with themselves.

 

The knights, whose magic was concentrated in their eyes, charged at Russell in unison, their eyes glowing blue.

 

The five pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness looked like will-o’-the-wisps, or the eyes of a beast closing in on its prey.

 

The knights’ swordsmanship, which had even hidden the sword energy they had raised in their blades, flew towards Russell as quietly as a cat and as stealthily as a spider.

 

In the eyes of the knights who had concentrated their magic, Russell seemed to have stopped like a statue in the same posture he had first taken.

 

The knights’ expressions, hidden in the darkness, were filled with laughter and confidence. He may have had great size and strength, but this was evidence of his immaturity in dealing with such a sudden situation.

 

‘Let’s turn him into a hedgehog. . .!’

 

Each of them had the same thought, and their swordsmanship poured down on a single person. At that moment, Russell’s eyelids, which had been closed in the darkness, opened and his purple eyes flickered faintly.

 

Even without raising his magic, his magic eyes pierced through the darkness and provided him with clear vision. It wasn’t as bright as daylight, but he could clearly see the outlines of objects and the traces of magic flowing from the knights’ bodies. And that was enough for Russell.

 

As his firmly planted feet scraped against the floor, the planks broke apart along his path. However, the broken pieces of wood did not fly up into the air.

 

Russell’s movements were so fast that the pieces of wood could not keep up. He could see five blades approaching his field of vision.

 

Even in the slowed down time, the blades swung rapidly, aiming for Russell’s head, neck, chest, shoulder, and abdomen. His left hand came off and Nahilnir, held only in his right hand, moved.

 

Clang, clang, clang━!

 

The greatsword deflected three of the blades. And of the remaining two blades, one was caught in his left forearm and the other in his hand.

 

The knights who had retrieved the deflected blades, the one who was surprised that his sword had not pierced the hem of his coat, and the one who had discovered that his own sword had been caught in his left hand, widened their eyes.

 

Russell ignored the burning pain in the palm of his left hand and pulled his left arm inward. The knight who had not yet released his sword was dragged along with him, and Russell’s right arm, which had reversed the grip of Nahilnir, swung horizontally.

 

The knight’s torso was severed in one stroke.

 

In the center of the tavern, where all the lights had gone out and it was dark, the upper body of the knight whose waist had been cut off fell with a thud.

 

“Aaaaagh!”

 

The knight who had screamed reflexively brandished his sword and charged at Russell.

 

Thud, there was a sound similar to that of a hammer striking a rock. Russell made use of the knight’s strength. As he tilted Nahilnir at an angle, the knight’s blade licked Nahilnir’s blade, creating countless sparks.

 

Thanks to the countless sparks, only the area around Russell and the knight was briefly illuminated, and a large shadow flew towards the knight, obscuring the light. The knight realized that it was a fist only when it was almost in front of his eyes.

 

“You son of a━!”

 

Russell’s solid fist crushed the knight’s face. First, his nasal bone was crushed and pressed down, then his cheekbones, then his gums and teeth were shattered. Last of all, it was his skull.

 

Blood, flesh, and bone fragments spread out radially from the fist that had delivered the blow.

 

Russell did not stop there and flew into the air. Right where he had been standing, a blade with a blue sword energy blazing from it grazed his body.

 

“You, you son of a b*tch━!”

 

There were now three knights left. And according to what Russell had said, only one of them would survive.

 

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