Reincarnation of the Sword Master - Chapter 34

Chapter 34 – Goblins (4)
Translated by : betterdays

* * *

“Kya!”

“Kekeke!”

The goblins raised their arms and shouted a fierce and messy battle cry. Their madness forced the humans to retreat backwards. The Head Goblin strode forward as to see just how the situation was doing.

“…it’s still only a goblin!”

Today, lots of soldiers had been gaining their confidence as they killed several goblins and had gained back their spirit. A soldier shouted as more of his comrades came and surrounded the Head Goblin.

Seeing this too late, Reika screamed.

“NO!”

“Kyakaka, stupid humans.”

“Woahhhh!”

The warriors simultaneously shouted and thrust their spears forwards. The Head Goblin looked at them disdainfully and smirked as it spoke.

“There’s nothing to be seen from you worms.”

The Head Goblin grabbed it’s spear and approached the oncoming spears from the warriors. The tip of the spears came right in front of the Head Goblin’s face, but it didn’t even blink and shook its hand. An afterimage was drawn with the Head Goblin’s spear.

Kwaduk!

The arms and legs of the warriors flew off their bodies at a speed that could be said to be almost at the speed of sound. The warriors screamed and fell limbless on the ground.

“AHHHH!”

“IT HURTS!!!”

“Back off weaklings.”

“Uwahhh!”

“Charon!”

All pandemonium broke loose. Screams, shouts and disbelief could be heard and seen all across the battlefield. Amidst this, a certain amount of space was made away from the Head Goblin. In this space, Charon stepped forwards.

“Next is you.”

“This is the estate of Halvark Nobility. I can’t let some Goblin dirty it’s name.”

Charon took a defensive posture with a hardened expression. The Head Goblin held the spear and the trajectory was drawn. Charon hurriedly turned his sword to intercept it.

Boom!

“Hup!”

Charon threw up his blood and backed away. His left arm was paralyzed and broken by a single blow. His face, which was calm and cooly hardened, contained only doubt and disbelief..

“Uh, how could a mere Goblin….”

“Looks like you’re a fake one as well.”

The Head Goblin raised it’s spear. Looking at the trajectory of the spear, Charon moved his right hand with the sword.

Wha-boom!

“Urgh!”

Although he was barely able to prevent the blow, the difference in their skills was obvious. A line shot through the air as the spear collided against Charon’s body and blood spurted from his mouth. Reika couldn’t resist watching it anymore, and grabbed the sword.

“Young Miss!”

“Why are so many useless worms crawling around?”

The Goblin made fun of them and shook the spear in its hands, thrusting it forwards with two projections looking like a blur, both aiming at Charon and Reika.

Bang! Bang!

“Argghh!”

“Ugh!”

And they both flew out at the same time. Lord Halvark shouted with his eyes wide open.

“What the hell?!”

He couldn’t believe it. Lord Halvark may not know much about swordsmanship, but Charon was one of the best Knights in the Empire, and Reika was a talent that even Van Ester had acknowledged to be monstrous; she even defeated Charon. However, the two of them were flung back by a single blow.

“There is only one worthy amongst you worms. Everyone else is worthless.”

The Head Goblin’s spear headed for Reika as she was down. Charon hurriedly stood in front of her as the vanguard and tried to block it. Seeing this, The Head Goblin nodded as if he acknowledged Charon.

“You’re a worthy Knight.”

The Head Goblin shot the spear with a twisting movement, like a snake.

“Then you shall also die a Knight’s death.”

The spear closed in on Charon. Charon closed his eyes. Screams rang from all sides.

“…….”

However, the pain he was expecting did not come. Charon opened his eyes. The spear had stopped right in front of his forehead.

“Kakkak. You’re here.”

Goblin laughed. As if he didn’t care about Charon, he turned away from Charon with the spear, sparing him and looked away.

At the end of the Head Goblin’s gaze was Asher.

***

“Huh, Asher?”

“What’s wrong with that kid?”

Asher and the Head Goblin heard the voices of some of the soldiers. None of them thought that Asher could possibly go against the Goblin. Hell, none of them even knew that Asher was leagues above Reika and Charon. They knew he was strong but, they thought what he was doing was nothing short of suicide.

One of the goblins nearby couldn’t hold back its urge to kill, and lunged at Asher.

“Kaaaaaaa!”

The Head Goblin saw this and clicked its tongue as it thrust its spear in the head of its comrade mercilessly.

“Kakarek…”

“Keruk…Keruk…”

“Kyukek…”

The nearby goblins who were approaching Asher slowly, became wary and backed off. Asher laughed at the act as the Head Goblin was an alpha wolf telling the omegas to back off it’s prey.

“That’s not very goblin of you, is it?”

“What a bunch of stupid cretins. I can’t believe they’re of the same race as me. Although I hate them, I can’t leave them alone. You’re the same aren’t you?”

“Asking me, a human being, the answer would be obvious.”

“So it is.”

The Head Goblin chuckled and brought it’s spear down to the ground, creating a small tremor.

“Back off.”

“Krekeuk….”

“This is a fight between me and him. You are not qualified to participate.”

“Kukuaerk!”

“Kawk!”

The goblins cried out in protest, but soon slowly moved away. Asher grabbed Reika by the shoulder as she collapsed.

“Back off.”

“But.”

“You’re not helping.”

“…okay.”

Reika grabbed Charon and pulled back together. Before Asher knew it, only he and the Head Goblin remained in the center of the battlefield. The villagers’ astonishment and mysterious eyes were directed at Asher as some of them were included as they fought with the warriors of the estate.

“You seem to have a face full of questions.”

“… I really am about to go crazy.”

Asher murmured softly to himself at the Head Goblin’s spot-on guess.

Was it really a goblin in front of him right now? Not just the instincts, but it’s ability to wield a high level of spearmanship as well as completely capable intellect and an idea of ranking somehow.

It was easy to call it a goblin purely based on appearance, but everything else about it screamed that it was an anomaly or sorts.

“But I have no intention of telling you anything.”

The Head Goblin grabbed the spear with both hands. It’s fierce gaze set its sights on Asher.

***

Luke clenched his teeth. Eventually, he chose to live a life bound by responsibility.

“I may not be able to fight, but I should at least be in the same place as everybody else.”

“That’s a good idea. You will eventually be their Lord.”

Lord Halvark nodded with a bright face. It was a rather good piece of news amongst all the chaos since he was always worried about Luke.

“Charon, why don’t we go back to the estate and tend to your injuries?”

“No, no.”

Charon shook his head with a white face. He didn’t have any internal bleeding, but it was not a small injury still. Yet, Charon outright refused to do so.

“I’ll watch from here.”

“Leave him be.”

Reika knew how Charon felt as she told her father off.

“As a swordsman, I can’t go anywhere without seeing this.”

“…what the hell.”

Charon murmured in a voice filled with complex emotions.

“What the hell…. is that.”

“It’s a question everybody has, isn’t it? I was confused as well.”

Before everybody knew it, there were no more cries or shouts on the battlefield. All the goblins and humans that were fighting moments ago were just standing still and watching the two fight.

“…Asher was that good?”

Both Luke and Lord Halvark, his father, stared blankly at Asher.

The sword and the spear moved brilliantly as they clashed multiple rounds. Their movement was clearly visible, but at the same time it was monstrous.

“That’s what I’m saying. How is that the movement of someone talentless?”

Reika grumbled.

***

“Kyaaaaaaaaa!”

The spear was shook in the Head Goblin’s hands. An afterimage from pure speed was being made from Asher’s sword movements as he pressured the Head Goblin. Asher shook his arm. The afterimages of his sword narrowed down into a single image as a clean line drew through the air.

“Kakakak! Kkagak!”

The Head Goblin saw the arc being drawn through the air and forcefully twisted its wrist holding the spear to intercept it. The battle was nearing the speed of sound in terms of the exchanges and flurries of blows being traded. The spear rushed forwards after parrying off the sword and Asher calmly twisted his body and brought his sword back down.

Kaga Gak!

The spear was knocked off target by the sword. The spear flew past Asher’s cheek; a hair’s width apart from scraping him. Asher threw his sword up into the air and lowered his body by sweeping the goblin off its feet with a kick.

“Urgh!”

The Head Goblin pulled the hand that was holding the spear as it was kicked up in the air. The spear aimed for Asher’s back that was crouched. Asher quickly tapped his wrist brace and a dagger popped up into his hands and blocked the spear as the Head Goblin’s face distorted in confusion.

“Hup-!”

Goblin bent narrowly with a groan, but it was inevitable that the sword came back down into Asher’s hands and he started to pressure the Head Goblin who messily regained his lost footing. Asher immediately put as much pressure as he could on his opponent, cleanly aiming for vital points, forcing the goblin to defend awkwardly.

“Keruuuuk!”

The Goblin dropped it’s spear with enraged eyes and decided to go with hand-to-hand combat. A green muscular fist cut through the air, and Asher looked at the arm briefly before scoffing and twisting it in a bent direction.

The goblin, seeing that it’s wrist would be broken at that point, shoved itself off the ground and twisted it’s body in a ninety degree angle and used it’s foot to kick Asher’s grip away from it.

“…what….”

Charon groaned in disbelief as he watched the scene. The fight between the Head Goblin and Asher, in his view as a first-rate swordsman, was tough. It was a pure battle of finesse, with few tricky maneuvers and was something only very few swordsmen were able to pull off in a battle.

It was such a simplistic movement, and nearly no flaws, that some might not even think it was swordsmanship. But for Charon, he knew that Asher’s level of swordsmanship was something he could only dream of trying to achieve,

It was beyond the level of a first-rate swordsman, even a Peak Level Swordsman didn’t have that kind of skill.

‘…We have someone like that to fight with that thing?’

For a moment, Charon actually felt relieved. He was truly fortunate that he was able to live and not even lose a limb for this. He should have died here and he knew it. The best part was that there was someone capable of defeating that terrible monster. It was a boy whom everybody had looked down on until now. He was only 18 years old and was showing skill beyond someone who could be called the best Knight of the Empire. He might even be at the level of those ten….

“Whoo-“

In a brief lull, Asher took a deep breath back in. The Head Goblin was laughing as if he couldn’t stop himself from enjoying what was happening.

“Yes! Yes! This is it! What a pleasure! A battle of pure skill and extremity. This is exactly what I wanted!”

“I see.”

Asher nodded. He was pretty sure he had finally figured out just what kind of… goblin this was.

“You’re like me.”

The Head Goblin was no different from him. In terms of swordsmanship, Asher was not great at it. Neither was the goblin very good at the technicality of spearmanship. Yet, both of them made up for such a thing with finesse and flexibility to compromise mid-battle.

‘I’ve never had a fight like this before.’

All the swordsmen Asher had ever seen, had learned the swordsmanship styles passed down from heroes. He only had been the one to give those swordsmen a brutal and nasty fight like this, but had never received one in return like this.

“Come on, come on!”

The Goblin shouted, excitement in its eyes. The spear that had fallen earlier, was picked back up by the goblin as it charged at Asher. Asher quickly summoned two daggers out of his wrist brace and threw them at the goblin while taking his sword out to meet it.

Ka-clang! Ka-clang!

The speartip thrust itself forward and met the two daggers in the air, quickly stabbing them and hitting them out of the way and aimed for Asher’s neck. Asher pulled away and twisted his body and even threw the sword at the neck of the goblin while retreating back a step. As soon as the flying sword obscured the goblin’s vision, Asher pulled out another dagger and threw it at the goblin’s right ankle as well.

But, the Goblin twirled the spear around with a snort. Asher clicked his tongue as the goblin made a semi-crescent movement and blocked both the sword aimed at its neck and the dagger at its ankle.

“Do you think I can’t block that?!”

“Well, it certainly works a lot on others. No reason to not try it on you.”

Most swordsmen Asher had faced in the past, were unable to take their eyes off of their sword and the opponent’s sword. Asher had used this method of obstructing their vision and throwing his sword to defeat many swordsmen that were stronger or more talented than him.

But it didn’t work on the goblin in front of him. The goblin murmured in a displeased voice.

“How can you compare me to such fake idiots?”

“Fake?”

Now Asher thought he knew why the goblin kept saying ‘fake’. But, he couldn’t be too sure just yet.

“Why are they fake?”

“I’ll ask this instead. How come they’re not fake?”

The goblin spoke in a distasteful voice and cut the ground with its spear.

“They rely on their ‘talent’, don’t train themselves, never want to improve and feel like battles are a chore. What else would explain those people other than ‘fake’?”

Swordsmanship itself.

The Head Goblin in front of Asher had basically said that all swordsmanship styles were fake.

Chapter 34 – Fin