One Sword's Difference

Clang! The metallic crash exploded, flooding Zeng Mu's ears like a tidal wave and nearly rupturing his eardrums.

"With that scrawny frame, you should have kept your head down. Why not stay hidden like a rat? Now you'll pay in blood!"

From that single exchange, Liduo had already gauged his opponent's abilities. Compared to the other man, this one was pathetically weak, well beneath him in both strength and combat experience.

"Don't get too cocky! You can't kill me!" Zeng Mu shouted, the web of his sword hand trembling.

"Is that so? Then have a taste of my true strength!" His axe fell as he finished speaking. Driven by the power of his body and enhanced by its speed, it sliced through the air with a rushing whistle. This was his full-strength strike.

Zeng Mu was shocked that the vicious blow before had merely been a probe. As the huge axe loomed larger before him, he recognized the gap between them and immediately changed his mind. Abandoning a direct confrontation, he began darting around, seeking an opening in Liduo's defenses to counterattack.

Just as his opponent had judged, Zeng Mu was far inferior in strength and combat experience. His comparatively slender body, however, gave him an advantage in speed.

Thanks to that advantage, his exceptionally keen senses, and this body's muscle memory, he narrowly evaded every attack. The closest axe stroke skimmed the tip of his nose, leaving a searing sensation behind.

Seeing his opponent's bloodied face yet knowing he had failed to land a solid blow, Liduo flushed red and shouted heatedly, "Slippery little loach! Is dodging all you can do?" His huge axe swung faster and faster, but his opponent's steps and movements also quickened. He grew increasingly astonished that the man's immersion in combat could deepen to such an extent.

Crack! Nearby, Kanni was locked in a fierce battle with another leader. His situation was the exact opposite of Zeng Mu's: he was constantly suppressing his opponent's huge axe. Each strike of his gleaming silver sword against the axe blade sent sparks flying with a sharp crack.

A close inspection of the axe's edge would have revealed numerous fresh, pale chips and rolled sections. These inconspicuous signs were clear only to the men fighting.

"Your sword is exceptional, but the most you can do is hold me here!"

Whenever his opponent moved, Kanni followed like a maggot clinging to bone, never giving him a moment to breathe.

Those hoarse words made Kanni's lips curl. His silver sword hacked, swept, and thrust with even greater speed.

"Is that so? You think you can last long with that tortoise-like speed?"

"Die!"

Wielding his silver sword, he was as terrifying as a scythe-bearing reaper. With his outstanding swordsmanship, silver light danced like moonlight, constantly pushing the huge axe's defense toward its limits.

After a hundred dazzling, ferocious sword strikes, he finally found a gap in the axe's guard.

Scrape! The sword slid past the axe with a brief, piercing screech. It slipped along the edge of an iron plate over the abdomen of the heavy armor, easily pierced the soft armor underneath, and plunged into his navel.

Blood spurted like a jet of water. The Viking Leader's huge axe froze for an instant. The lethal strike that could have cleaved his opponent's head lost its driving force and slowed, allowing Kanni to duck beneath it.

Squish! Kanni turned his wrist, twisting the blade, and the bloody jet gushed even harder.

Veins bulged on the leader's forehead, and his entire face twitched violently. Even his burning, tiger-like eyes dimmed slightly. The agonizing pain drew an instinctive low howl from him. Then his axe fell, and his large, hairy hands reflexively seized the silver sword before it could move. Blood spread across the ground amid bone-deep agony, yet his blood-soaked palms actually held the sword in place, despite the trembling of his whole body.

"Weido!" Idiveer shouted from afar when he saw what had happened. He stamped his foot, and a boulder tore free of the ground, hurtling toward Kanni. Just before it arrived, however, a sapling broke through the earth and grew into a towering tree in the blink of an eye, stopping the flying boulder.

"Don't be impatient, Idiveer. It'll be your turn soon!"

"Damn it!" Idiveer cursed, but he had no choice but to refocus and fend off the fierce rain of thorn spikes Yetos unleashed with a wave of his hand.

The smile faded from Kanni's lips, but his azure eyes remained utterly calm, betraying not the slightest emotion, let alone pity.

Mercy toward an enemy was cruelty toward oneself. He had learned that lesson deeply several years ago. Because he had shown an enemy mercy, the man had found an opportunity to counterattack and killed the brother he had grown up with.

Looking into his opponent's rapidly dimming eyes, he nodded in respectful acknowledgment. It was the highest tribute he could offer an enemy, and a look that declared the outcome of their fight.

"Goodbye!" Without a trace of hesitation, he pushed sideways with all his strength. The blade sheared through the obstructing hand bones and cut the tall, imposing man in two at the waist.

Everyone present naturally witnessed that bloody, merciless scene.

"Valiant knight! Well done!" a Knight Commander praised with a hearty laugh.

"I'll offer your head to Weido's memory!" a Silver-Pattern Leader roared in fury. He barely drove his opponent back before turning and shifting position. With a flick of his arm, the throwing axe at his waist, as large as a dinner plate, sliced through the air toward Kanni with a piercing whistle.

The throwing axe was so fast that Kanni could barely see its shadow, much less its outline. He could not accurately tell whether it was aimed at his arm or his thigh, making it anything but easy to block with his three-inch-wide silver sword.

When the axe was less than twenty meters away, a thin streak of light suddenly struck its shadow. Its speed dropped sharply, and its angle shifted slightly. Kanni could finally commit to a move. Turning his hand, he held his silver sword horizontally before his lower abdomen. A moment later, sparks burst out with a clang. The throwing axe shot skyward, then drifted away like a stone tossed into the air, disappearing into the dense woods.

"Fast as lightning!" Kanni turned his head and respectfully thanked the Knight Commander who had thrown the knife.

"Nothing to it! Hurry and help that brother of ours! Leave the others to us!" With that, he returned his full attention to his opponent.

Kanni dared not delay any longer. He pushed off the ground and rushed into Zeng Mu's battle.

"Nameless One, are you all right?" he asked worriedly.

Zeng Mu was in poor shape. His face was covered in blood, and cuts of varying severity marked his body. Though none had truly inflicted a grievous injury, some axe strokes had landed directly on old wounds that had only just healed. The pooled blood spilled out, draining his stamina and making attacks he could once barely evade increasingly dangerous.

Had Kanni not come to help him now, Zeng Mu could have lasted at most another twenty exchanges. By then, he would certainly have been gravely wounded-perhaps beyond treatment.

Crack!

Both men retreated after the clash. His opponent fell back fewer than ten steps, while Zeng Mu staggered back twenty or thirty before spewing a mouthful of blood. He raised a hand to wipe it away and answered weakly, "Someone capable of becoming a leader really isn't easy to handle. Good thing I've got a solid foundation, or I'd probably have died dozens of times already."

Unaware of the truth, Kanni nodded. "Of course. There are no weaklings among the Second Legion's vanguard knights. This fellow is simply too strong."

"Fall back for now. Leave the rest to me."

Kanni held his silver sword across his chest, ready to charge, but Zeng Mu interrupted him. "No. The situation is critical. We should attack together and finish him quickly."

Glancing at the green and dark brown pillars of light continuously colliding nearby, Kanni nodded solemnly in agreement.

"Stay close and follow my footwork."

As soon as he spoke, Kanni rushed forward like the wind, his silver sword beginning to flash. Zeng Mu could not follow the blade at all. He could only make out Kanni's steps and follow them closely, attacking in support.

His original opponent had already been slippery enough. Now another powerful enemy had joined the attack. Liduo's face flushed with anger, and the muscles visible through the gaps in his armor took on a ruby-red hue.

Kanni's swordsmanship began forcing him onto the defensive. Liduo knew he could not keep retreating, or the two would eventually wear him down and defeat him. He therefore turned his attention to the much weaker Zeng Mu.

As long as I kill this fellow, I can hold the other one off.

Having settled on that plan, Liduo stopped retreating and began attacking Zeng Mu like a madman.

Each time the thrusting silver sword was about to reach him, it abruptly swung back to knock aside the huge axe descending toward Zeng Mu. Realizing his opponent's intention, Kanni's expression grew grim. This reckless fighting style prevented him from using his full ability. After all, the trade might leave his sword buried in battle armor while the axe cleaved the Nameless One, protected only by soft armor, in two.

"Cunning madman!" he cursed, increasing the frequency of his attacks regardless of the drain on his stamina.

Hearing that, Liduo guessed what worried him and laughed. He, too, began swinging his huge axe faster without regard for his stamina.

Zeng Mu had to abandon the coordinated attack following Kanni's footwork and return to dodging the cutting gusts from his opponent's axe. Unfortunately, after his earlier exertion, his body could no longer withstand this accelerated, ferocious assault.

The attacks he failed to dodge landed solidly on him. The sharp, searing axe edge sliced through his muscles, and the intense, vivid pain made his vision swim, apparently from excessive blood loss.

Damn it. This is still too much for me... Feeling pain throughout his body, Zeng Mu inwardly berated his own weakness.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the fights between the Knight Commanders and the leaders had reached their most critical stage. The slightest change could decide who lived and who died. He knew he had to break the deadlock and seize his final chance to act.

Hardening his resolve, he stepped forward instead of retreating. Noticing the movement, Kanni instinctively shouted, "Watch out!"

"Goodbye!" Liduo said, his eyes suddenly lighting up as he assumed his opponent had made a mistake. Tightening all ten fingers, he drove the axe handle forward to accelerate the blow.

At that moment, the axe looming larger in Zeng Mu's vision seemed to slow. He could clearly feel the forceful wind carried by its edge stabbing toward him like blades, lashing him so fiercely that he could not keep his eyes open.

With his eyes shut, he raised his hand and turned his wrist, reversing his chipped iron sword and laying it across his right shoulder.

Scrape! Friction rasped as the thick axe blade slid along the dark sword, then sank into the far end of his collarbone.

Liduo's lips curled slightly. He lowered his arms and exerted a sudden burst of force, about to hack Zeng Mu's right arm clean off.

At the last instant, the silver sword flashed and easily severed the axe handle. Deprived of its driving force, the axe head failed to cut through the bone. It flipped half a turn upward along the wound, then flew straight out and lodged firmly in a dead tree.

Squish! Without any surprise, the silver sword changed direction and pierced the armor. Liduo spewed a mouthful of blood and toppled backward.

Having suffered such a severe injury, Zeng Mu naturally lost his footing as well, his body tipping backward toward the ground.

Time seemed to freeze. At that moment, he recalled his monotonous practice of days past, and a line surfaced in his mind: Life offers no second chance, just like the killing weapon in your left hand.

He had been born right-handed, but later trained himself to use his left hand as well.

In a single second, he switched the iron sword to his other hand and tilted his head to aim.

With all the strength in his left hand, he hurled the broken sword, most of its blade snapped away and only a small section remaining.

The ordinary dark blade reflected no light at all. Fully focused on exchanging blasts of elemental power with Yetos, not daring to let his attention stray, Idiveer was ultimately a moment too late to notice and react.

Whoosh! The broken sword swept between his legs and grazed his most vulnerable spot.

Unfortunately, his elemental power kept the blade from drawing blood, but Idiveer did panic for an instant.

Yetos seized that instant of panic. He struck hard, and the pillar of elemental energy exploded.

Boom!

An earth-shaking blast thundered out. Dust and smoke billowed all around, and the shock wave knocked the remaining men to the ground. When they rose again, they saw the outcome.