Proof of Strength

Roxy pursed her lips slightly. She didn't know what Cain was thinking, but the Asura Kingdom... she hoped that place wouldn't be especially hostile toward the Demon Race...

Hmm, she also wondered just how large the gap in strength was between the Sword God of the Sword God Style and other Sword God Style swordsmen. But no matter what, she definitely wouldn't hold him back...

Roxy tightened her grip on her staff as she thought this. However, she soon learned firsthand just how different a Divine Rank swordsman was from ordinary swordsmen.

After purchasing some supplies, Roxy acted as their guide, and Cain finally made it to the village under attack by Earth Dragon Magic Beasts. This time, with Roxy leading the way, Cain didn't get lost!

The massive Earth Dragon Magic Beasts still rampaging through the village quickly spotted them at the entrance. With a roar, they charged straight at them.

Clang, clang. As the several-ton Mud Dragon Beasts ran, even the pebbles on the ground trembled. The scales on their backs reflected a metallic gleam beneath the sunlight.

Mud Dragon Beasts were magic beasts with a strong territorial instinct. They had treated the villages along their migration route as their nests, and any enemy that approached those nests would be attacked.

Cain swiftly stepped forward and shielded Roxy behind him. He slowly drew Instant Void from his waist. A crisp ring of steel exploded through the air as Cain gripped his sword with both hands and assumed a high stance, his expression solemn.

Watching the Mud Dragon Beasts charge over, Roxy gripped her staff tightly and readied herself. She wanted to see Cain's strength, so she did not immediately cast an attack spell. Instead, she stored magic in her staff, prepared to strike at any moment.

But in the blink of an eye, she saw the nearest Mud Dragon Beast, more than ten meters away from her, instantly become two halves as blood splattered everywhere.

Roxy froze. If she had not seen Cain's blade already embedded in the ground after coming down, she would have thought he had used Saint Rank wind magic.

After that, Roxy basically became dead weight—just there to make up the numbers—because she realized that this boy named Cain did not really need her, a magician...

How should she put it? He was too fast. The speed of his swings and his dashing steps were simply too fast. The naked eye could not keep up with his movements at all.

He was the type with no flair whatsoever, yet somehow felt overwhelmingly powerful—every strike was fatal.

In the time it took to blink, another roaring Mud Dragon Beast that had rushed toward them instantly became a corpse split in two.

One after another, Mud Dragons two to three meters tall and several meters long, their lizard-like bodies gleaming with a metallic sheen, charged toward her and Cain ahead of her.

Then, like Calabash Brothers, one after another, they were cut by Cain either horizontally or vertically, reduced to chunks ranging from two to four pieces.

Roxy's small mouth fell slightly open in shock. The corners of her eyes twitched, and even her blue pupils trembled faintly.

Boom! Boom! The several-ton chunks of Mud Dragon corpses crashed heavily onto the ground, making the earth shake.

"Th-that's incredible..."

Roxy had traveled across many continents and seen quite a few Sword God Style swordsmen, but Cain was the first swordsman she had seen who could slice an A-rank Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beast apart as though it were tofu.

Moreover, Roxy noticed that every time Cain split a charging Mud Dragon Beast in two, he would retreat to a position a few meters in front of her and assume his high stance again. He was nothing like those pure Sword God Style swordsmen who fought only for the thrill of battle and completely ignored their companions.

As expected of a swordsman bearing the title of Second Sword God. He was truly reliable!

Roxy sighed in admiration, the corners of her lips lifting slightly as the tension in her heart eased. She had thought Cain was the kind of swordsman who would charge into a horde of magic beasts and forget all about her. It seemed she had worried too much. As the Second Sword God, Cain was far more dependable than his youthful appearance suggested.

Even so, I have to show my worth!

Roxy pursed her lips and began seriously chanting a spell.

"Moisture drifting between heaven and earth, heed my command. Gather, biting frost. Sweep forth, howling cold winds. Become an endless storm of ice blades, tear apart every enemy in your path. Let the bitter cold invade flesh and blood, freeze their limbs, and halt all movement!"

"Ice Storm!"

Roxy raised her staff and cast ice magic in support. She unleashed snow and ice spikes ahead of them to slow the Mud Dragons' movements, though the effect was minimal.

The ice spikes could not pierce the thick armor of the Mud Dragon Beasts, leaving only shallow marks on their outer carapaces. Their subcutaneous fat layers were equally thick, so the freezing temperatures of the ice magic did little. It merely made their charging steps slightly stiff.

Even Intermediate wind blades striking their bony armor were like scratching an itch.

It seemed only Advanced-class or Saint Rank specialized attack magic had a chance of breaking through their defenses head-on.

Roxy frowned slightly as she thought this.

However, any Mud Dragon Beast that broke through the Ice Storm was quickly turned into two neat halves by Cain's lightning-fast blade, so it did not really matter.

She had really struck gold this time! Without Cain, this mission would probably have taken a lot of effort. Working with him, they should be able to quickly complete adventurer commissions! Maybe they could become an S-rank adventurer party! Or even SS-rank!

Rather than feeling discouraged because her magic had been blocked, Roxy nodded slightly and smiled as she thought this.

Looking at Cain's back, she seemed to see glittering Asura Gold Coins!

"Hey, hey, are you serious? Did you see that, Zoldat?! That swordsman's slashes—there's no way that kind of destructive power is real, right?!"

"W-what is it!?"

Zoldat had no time to look. He was fighting two enormous Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons. Ahead of him, the dwarf Bruce raised a heavy shield and blocked the tremendous impact of the foremost Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon's horned head shield charging toward them.

"Ugh!" Brook staggered backward more than ten steps and let out a pained grunt. Even the hand holding his massive shield trembled slightly. The tremendous force of the Mud Dragon Beast's charge had plowed two furrows into the ground beneath his feet.

"Zoldat! Move!"

The blond man seized the chance to leap into the air and slash down with all his strength. Yet his twin blades only left a wound of moderate depth and a streak of blood on the Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon's bony armor. Not only had he failed to break its armor, he had thoroughly enraged the foremost Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon.

Roar! Roar! Roar! The Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon let out an earthshaking bellow. Its massive body thundered forward, shaking the ground as it charged at them with all its might!

"Damn it, how can its hide be this hard?!" Zoldat clicked his tongue, narrowing his eyes as Battle Aura wrapped around his twin blades.

"Everyone, find a way to attack its lower belly! That's its weak point—it isn't protected by armor!"

In the end, Mia and Rina, the two magicians, used ice spikes to pierce the bloodshot Mud Dragon's legs, while Fira struck its face with a Fireball and blinded it.

Only then did Zoldat find an opening to slash open the soft bellies of the two Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons with two strikes. Even then, the Mud Dragon Beasts did not die. They continued crashing around like headless flies.

After another round of concentrated attacks, the five of them finally managed to kill the two Mud Dragon Beasts. Bruce had even been injured and was receiving Fira's Intermediate Healing Magic.

"Phew... What is wrong with these monsters? Ordinary Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons aren't this hard to kill. Did some primitive magic beasts from the snowy mountains get out or something?"

The two Mud Dragon corpses collapsed to the ground with a boom. Zoldat sat atop one of the bodies, gasping heavily as white mist rose from his body. His party members were even more exhausted.

The other adventurer parties that had taken the same mission were in even worse shape. Some groups of over a dozen adventurers were struggling against a single Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beast, and some parties had already suffered casualties.

"Phew... This isn't a B-rank mission anymore, is it? These frenzied, suicidal Mud Dragons are already A-rank, maybe even S-rank. We really got the short end of the stick this time."

Bruce lay on the ground, panting heavily from exhaustion.

"Aren't Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons supposed to be gentle monsters that live in caves and do not attack people unprovoked? Why did they suddenly change their habits and migration route to attack a village?!"

"Hey, Zoldat, look over there!"

Zoldat's thoughts were interrupted by someone in his party, and he clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I told you, what am I supposed to look at? Huh?!"

When Zoldat saw the scene to the side, he froze completely. Like him, everyone in his party was stunned when they saw it.

Several hundred meters away, in the very center of the Mud Dragon herd, the Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons that five or six of them had struggled to deal with were being effortlessly chopped into pieces before that boy named Cain, like fish on a chopping board.

"Hey, hey, are you serious?!" Zoldat's jaw even dropped in shock.

Cain watched several enormous Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons, each one making the ground tremble faintly as it ran, with a serious expression.

As he watched the Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons charge toward him and Roxy behind him, he took a deep breath, his gaze resolute. He slowly assumed a high stance, then, when the Heavy-Armored Mud Dragons were about five meters away, he swung his blade like lightning and drove it into the ground.

Crimson blood gushed out like a spring. The Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon's body, along with the hard exoskeleton covering it from head to toe, was instantly split in two. Its blood-red pupils widened as it was neatly divided from head to body into two halves.

Roxy pursed her lips as she heard a teeth-grating ring of steel. Her azure eyes remained fixed on Cain's back, and she was slightly lost in thought.

That must be the ultimate technique of the Sword God Style, the Blade of Light. So incredible...

Cain's movements were exceedingly fluid and precise. Every Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon that charged at him was instantly killed, cut into two sections by the large katana in his hand.

Boom! Another Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon several meters long was divided from head to body into complete left and right halves. The two halves slid past Cain on either side before crashing heavily onto the ground and sending snow flying.

Sword energy swept up the snow, ruffling the bangs on Roxy's forehead as she watched him from behind. Her two blue braids rose in the wind.

Blade of Light? That brat was using it like a basic attack?!

Zoldat's mouth hung open, the corners of his eyes twitching constantly. He could not imagine that a swordsman who had reached such a terrifying level truly existed.

So this was the man called the Second Sword God...

Cain swung his sword far too quickly. Even a Saint Rank swordsman like Zoldat could only see blurry afterimages, but he was certain that one out of every two or three swings Cain made was a Blade of Light.

That was because Zoldat could see the enormous, sharp, blazing Battle Aura around Cain constantly wrapping itself around that magnificent katana with golden patterns, continuously releasing Battle Aura.

As the saying went, the left blade dealt high damage, and the right blade dealt high damage.

He probably would never learn this technique of weaving basic attacks between basic attacks, even if he spent his whole life trying...

Though Cain only had one katana, the effect was honestly about the same as wielding two.

"Tch, he's strong like a monster..."

As a fellow swordsman, Zoldat felt somewhat defeated. But when he remembered that the other man bore the title of Second Sword God, he inexplicably felt much better.

Behind him, the petite girl magician in a magic hat, with two blue ponytails, carefully used a small knife to cut off the tails behind the Mud Dragons' rear ends one by one, packing them into a leather bag.

With Cain holding the front line, not a single living Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beast could come within ten meters of Roxy.