Perpetual Motion Machine

Garen was fighting humans from the pirate world for the first time, so he somewhat underestimated his own strength and overestimated his opponents' defenses.

After all, although the battles in the original manga were intense, very few people actually died in combat.

It seemed as though everyone had Mundo and Tryndamere's bloodline—after losing dozens of pounds of blood from being slashed, they could still rise again in a near-death rage, then rest for a few hours and return as a hero with full health and mana.

But when Garen struck in anger, swinging his sword at the grinning pirate before him, he realized that the great philosopher Emiya Shirou had spoken true:

When people were killed, they died.

The first to react was the mechanical system notification in Garen's mind:

"Target killed. Experience gained."

It rang three times in succession, meaning Garen's single swing had claimed three heads.

The experience bar on Garen's system interface surged forward, directly nearing the threshold for reaching level two.

The greatsword swept sideways, and everything in its path was reduced to ruin.

The enemies were packed closely together, making the Greatsword's harvest of lives even more impressive.

The airtight encirclement was instantly smashed open with a single swing, leaving the pirate grunts—who had been grinning bloodthirstily moments ago—standing frozen in place with chills running down their spines.

The scene was extremely bloody—the kind of bloody that would violate core values if described in detail.

Garen felt faintly nauseated, but perhaps because his body had been digitized, he suffered no physical discomfort whatsoever.

And the large blades still standing before him like a forest of steel gave him no spare time to dwell on his mental state.

Without further hesitation, Garen used the only skill he currently possessed:

"Fatal Strike!"

He raised his sword and charged toward the gap he had carved into the encirclement, his ultimate target being Steel Blade, who stood not far away with an enraged expression.

The thirty-percent speed boost made Garen's entire body feel lighter;

and the brilliant golden light winding around his greatsword made him feel as though the force in his hands had suddenly increased considerably.

"Stop him!"

Steel Blade roared at his somewhat stunned subordinates, then issued an even more stirring command with a savage grin:

"Kill this guy! Then I'll lead you all in looting this island!"

As a true pirate, Steel Blade might have taken pride in his martial strength, but he had never been the sort of warrior who fought fair and square.

Using the lives of his underlings to wear down a powerful opponent's stamina was precisely Steel Blade's usual tactic.

In the pirate grunts' eyes, the intimidation of Garen cutting down three men with one swing was ultimately less terrifying than the brutal and merciless Captain Steel Blade; and the order to loot the town instantly ignited the greed and savagery in their hearts.

"Kill!"

The grunts used strange cries and roars to suppress the fear in their hearts, then drew courage from their superior numbers. In the end, they charged at Garen without fear of death like moths rushing into flame.

Garen's plan to strike directly at the enemy commander had been thwarted, forcing him to stop amid the surging crowd.

Unable to use the Fatal Strike he had prepared for an enemy champion, Garen could only temporarily bestow this skill upon some unlucky minion blocking his path.

Thus, the golden-glowing greatsword cleaved down through the crowd.

The so-called additional damage in the skill description sounded vague and difficult to understand, but when applied to a fragile human body, its effect was extremely direct.

Unlike the three men who had died to "Normal Attacks" earlier, the grunt who took Garen's skill died far more miserably, with an effect comparable to tearing a devil apart barehanded.

"Target killed. Experience gained."

The system notifications rang out one after another:

"You have reached Level 2."

Garen felt his body abruptly stiffen, then undergo a strange transformation in that instant:

Speed, strength, endurance—

Every bodily function surged dramatically in an instant.

The dim Skill Bar also lit up, signaling that he could learn another skill.

Strangely enough, perhaps because Fatal Strike already had its full-level effect at level one, Garen found that he could not further upgrade this skill.

Bang!

Two large blades struck Garen's back, colliding with his armor in a sharp metallic clang. His Health Bar dropped by a noticeable chunk.

Now was not the time to study the system.

Coming back to his senses, Garen unhesitatingly put his Skill Point into the E skill, Judgment.

The skill's description was remarkably odd, consisting of only a single short sentence:

"Rapidly spin the greatsword for three seconds."

That skill description—

Even while being hacked at, Garen could not help taking a moment to complain:

Wasn't this just swinging a greatsword around?

What was the difference between swinging with a skill and spinning around to swing on my own?

The difference showed itself immediately—

Amid the crowd of pirates pressing in around him, Garen unleashed the skill he had just learned: Judgment.

Unlike spinning around on his own, using the skill was—fast!

Garen suddenly became like a massive spinning top, whirling his greatsword at high speed through the sea of bodies and blades.

His rotation was terrifyingly fast. The rapidly spinning greatsword churned the surrounding air, practically whipping up a tornado where he stood.

The pirates struck by that spinning blade were like meat thrown into a full-power grinder, flesh and blood flying everywhere.

One sweep of the giant spinning top carved down whole swathes of enemies. Its efficiency at cutting people down far surpassed a Normal Attack.

Garen's experience bar surged forward again, nearly reaching the threshold of Level 3.

This Experience Level System differed from the original game as well. Early levels required very little experience, but the experience needed for each subsequent level increased almost exponentially.

At the same time, Garen noticed the skill's second difference—it defied all reason!

The unreasonable part was this:

Whenever Garen's spinning greatsword collided with an enemy's body, its trajectory changed at most by a slight amount. Its speed and force never diminished, maintaining one hundred percent output the entire time.

No one could make him stop spinning.

When the skill's three-second duration ended, not a single living person remained standing around Garen.

Flying flesh, shattered blades, and torn scraps of cloth were all churned together, staining a wide stretch of ground a horrifying crimson.

Garen's magnificent armor was soaked in streaming blood, taking on an eerie sheen.

Not a single pirate lackey dared charge Garen with a blade anymore. Faced with such a hellish scene, they had completely lost the courage to attack.

"D-Damn it."

Steel Blade Captain had utterly lost his previous arrogance. Fear quietly surfaced beneath his fierce but hollow expression.

Steel Blade was a fairly formidable fighter, so he could sense it even more clearly:

The speed and strength Garen had displayed while spinning that greatsword made him an absolutely troublesome opponent.

But Garen gave Steel Blade no chance to hesitate.

After clearing away the obstacles before him, Garen activated Fatal Strike again as soon as its cooldown ended, raising his greatsword and charging toward Steel Blade.

Garen brought his sword down. Steel Blade raised his blade to meet it, and an unprecedentedly sharp clash echoed through the surrounding streets.

Steel Blade truly was powerful. Against him, Garen could no longer feel the ease and exhilaration of cutting through vegetables.

Steel Blade himself did not have it easy either. Garen's full-force strike made his palm tremble and left his muscles aching.

Still, Level 2 Garen and Steel Blade, the pirate worth ten million Beli, were more or less evenly matched.

The two quickly became locked in close combat.

Well.

It was probably just two burly men hacking at each other with blades.

Battle description omitted.

After trading blows for a while, Steel Blade realized something was wrong:

Although his opponent did not seem much stronger than him, and his sword swings appeared utterly ordinary—

He could not dodge a single sword strike that guy swung!

Whenever Steel Blade tried to evade with nimble footwork, the opponent's blade, uncanny to the extreme, always caught him without fail.

Thus, Steel Blade had been forced into an extremely passive position from the very start, able only to keep raising his broadsword to block the attacks head-on.

That was an extremely exhausting motion.

And every few seconds, Garen's greatsword would suddenly light up, its attacks gaining another sharp burst of power.

From time to time, Garen would also spin into a human-shaped giant top, pursuing Steel Blade with a sword dance like a Raging Cyclone.

But logically speaking, the one attacking with the sword should have been expending more stamina.

So Steel Blade Captain, struggling bitterly beneath the greatsword, could only silently wait for his opponent to show signs of fatigue, then seize the chance to turn the tables.

Then—

Five seconds, ten seconds, half a minute passed.

Several savage wounds had already appeared across Steel Blade's body, exposing flesh beneath. He was panting like an ox and drenched in sweat, exhaustion plain to see.

Yet Garen remained vigorous and full of strength.

Though he was covered in blood and looked terribly battered, a closer inspection would reveal that all the blood belonged to his enemies. Even the silk cloth tied to Garen's armor had not suffered the slightest damage.

But Garen's losses were not insignificant either—

Despite the suppression of Guaranteed Hit Sword, his complete lack of fighting technique allowed Steel Blade to seize opportunities and counterattack effectively time and again. And Steel Blade's strength fully lived up to the ten-million-Beli price on his head.

After their fierce battle, Garen's health had dropped to only forty percent.

However.

As long as a datafied body's Health Bar wasn't empty, it could remain in peak condition and fight at full power forever. Calling it an unscientific perpetual-motion machine wouldn't have been an exaggeration.

The one who would eventually fail to hold out could only be Steel Blade, who grew weaker the longer he fought.

Steel Blade Captain, who had ruled the seas, had never fought such a suffocating battle in his life.

Steel Blade clenched the hilt of his sword. The knotted muscles all over his body swelled into a terrifying form, then he roared in a booming voice:

"Wait!"

"Huh?"

Garen instinctively stopped.

"I'm done fighting!"

Steel Blade Captain cursed in grief and fury, casually threw down his greatsword, turned around, and ran.

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