Seirei Gensouki's
Chapter 196: Trampling

「What is it? 」

Eyes wide open in fear, Lucius looked at his left arm that had fallen to the ground. At the same time, due to his long combat experience, he reflexively swung his sword towards Rio who was standing behind him.

But that slash had just ripped through the empty air, its swing was not fast enough to catch Rio. With a cold gaze attached to Lucius, Rio stepped back to open up the distance between them.

Impossible! I'm the great ………. Can't react at all?

His eyes were fixed on Rio's figure, narrowing dangerously while suppressing the shock he got from Rio's pre-emptive attack. He's not careless at all. Its provocation is done to lower the enemy's alertness and hence make it easier to prepare for any kind of incoming attack.

However, he was still surprised. It wouldn't be strange at all if his head was separated from his body if he didn't use the 'even eyes' attitude at first.

It made him remember the old feeling of brushing against death. However, even when he remembered it, his brain was still working at full speed to figure out the trick behind Rio's movements.

「!!!!! ? 」

Once again, Rio approached her, but this time he came from the front. Unlike before, his speed was much slower. And while it could still be considered fast, this speed was still within Lucius' ability to react.

The reason for this decrease in speed was to prevent a collision, especially when it came from the front, therefore Rio needed to suppress his acceleration with the wind spirit art. Normally, Lucius would be able to see through it, but he currently did not have the time to consider such things.

After losing his left arm, Lucius was forced to fight Rio while not benefiting. He had to catch Rio's sword attack, which was swung with both hands, while he only had his right hand left to use his sword.

「GUH ...........」.

The moment they collided, Lucius was forced to take a step back to ward off the terrifying force. The difference between their raw strength was obvious. Seeing this, Rio continued to chase after Lucius without stopping.

Hurry along! And what is going on with that terrifying power! Even when one used a physical strengthening skill, it would normally not reach that level, right !?

Lucius thought as impatience approached him. From the wealth of her experience and by seeing the effects of the magic power flowing out from Rio, she knew very well that the chances were small.

「KAH, HA ~ ...............」.

Without him being able to react, a spear-like kick connected with his heart feathers. Although he managed to use body strengthening magic at the last moment, the overwhelming power that landed on his chest forced air out of his lungs. Lucius' body was blown away as if it was weightless.

「Fu, FUHAHAHA! Lucius, you, how can you get this monster's grudge! ? Is that guy even human! ? He is strangely calm even with all of us here, ready to support you at any time. 」

Observing their fight from the outside, Duran laughed out loud as he asked this Lucius.

「................ Alright, what should I do?」

After muttering imperceptibly, Lucius quickly propped himself up with a defensive stance. His overbearing attitude from before had long since disappeared and his mind was spinning at maximum speed to deal with the current situation.

「KUH ...........」.

However, Rio did not give up. He continued to chase after her using his extremely fast and extremely accurate sword attacks. Each of Rio's movements were heartless, deadly, and filled with terrifying killing intent.

Lucius barely managed to fend off Rio's heavy rain. Suddenly, the ground around him turned into a spear that shot at his body. Lucius reacted decisively by stepping back to the back of the main route, but countless light bullets had already formed around Rio. When Rio's hand, raised up high, pointed towards Lucius, those light bullets instantly lunged, drawing a complex orbit towards their target.

「CEH! 」

Clicking his tongue, Lucius made a huge swing with his black sword. [Ed: hehehe] Then the darkness swelled up from the blade of the sword. It swallowed its surroundings and swallowed the incoming light bullet.

After seeing that, Rio's eyes widened slightly, however, he didn't stop moving. He was still holding his hand in the air, pointing at his target, and in the next moment, a terrifying cannon shockwave shot out from his hand.

The invisible attack was supposed to hit Lucius' body, but—, the,

「I SAW IT COMING! 」

Shouting, Lucius swung his sword, and intercepted the incoming shockwave using the blade of darkness that extended from his sword. He was about to land a moment later, but he saw something and muttered.

"One after the other……… . 」

The ground he was supposed to land on had turned into a spear that was on its way to pierce through his body. Moreover, Rio also launched countless light bullets in the air and directed him towards the relentless rain towards Lucius without giving him a chance to rest. Waves of attacks directed at him came from all directions, cornering him.

This magic bombardment forced Lucius to deal with it at a fast pace efficiently, and the first thing he did was take care of the attacks coming from below his landing site. He swung his sword of darkness and gouged out the earth spear, and then twisted his sword to keep the bombardment coming from the sky, the bullet of light, but—, the,

「GUH ...........」.

The number of light bullets raining down on him was too much. The rain continued to fall relentlessly and ignored his attempts to drive them away. Even though some light bullets were neutralized, he still could not get rid of all of them, and some of them made it through. Rio did not care. He continued to fire volley after volley of light bullets, causing a cloud of dust to lift through the waves of attacks that continued to flow onto the ground.

Then, he shot out a powerful whirlwind to blow away the cloud of dust, simultaneously using it to push Lucius into the cloud of dust as if to wrap him in a cage.

However, when the cloud of dust was blown by the wind, Lucius' figure had already disappeared from that place.

「!!!!! ? 」

Meanwhile the village chiefs, Will, Donner and the knights, who were observing the fight, were all dumbfounded when they saw Lucius was blown away towards the highway. Only Duran seemed to be trembling when he saw Rio standing there without Lucius.

「…………」

Without saying a word, Rio twisted his body, and swung his sword at the empty spot behind him without warning. Or at least, that was what everyone thought, until a high-pitched metallic sound echoed around. From the empty space behind Rio, darkness emanated from Lucius's sword black blade, flooding the surroundings. It was doomed to fail, as Rio sensed the flow of magic earlier, and swung his sword to intercept the sneak attack.

Therefore, despite the fact that it was the first time he saw that killing move, it was ineffective towards Rio. Such a feat was only possible due to Rio's superhuman ability in sensing the flow of magic power. However, before he could do more than intercept, Lucius had already disappeared along with his sword and the darkness around him.

Rio did not waste any time. As soon as Lucius disappeared from sight, he created a breeze mixed with his own magic power and used it to find Lucius' current position. Sensing the reaction, he turned his sharp gaze towards a place slightly separated from the forest.

「Haa, haaa …………. . 」

Lucius knelt down, already out of breath. He stabbed his sword on the ground to support his shocking limbs.

Fuck .............. WHY? Zen, his father, is also a spirit art user, but I don't remember him being as strong as this brat. How could his son be so different to him that there was no opening at all ?! They are on a very different level from each other! Not to mention the ridiculous amount of magic power spilling from his body. The magic power of this brat even surpassed that of heroes!

To be honest, Rio's strength had already far exceeded his expectations. It did not seem like a power that could be obtained through sheer effort. Right, in his opinion, Rio's strength had clearly surpassed human common sense. To be exact, it was no longer a power possessed by an ordinary human. [TL: SOrry, can't help but translate it that way, the proper translation is "It's already beyond the realm of humans". ]

It has even surpassed my own inhuman strength. Lucius thought, his mind was working sluggishly due to the lack of blood supply.

…………. . ARGH, Shit. That short-range teleportation has consumed a huge amount of my magic power. In addition, the miraculous bombing had injured my internal organs, and caused my body to lose more blood .. but first thing first, I needed to get my left arm back …

Frowning, Lucius glared at Rio, and then he put on a strong front while secretly using his dark blade stabbed on the ground, propping up his weight—, holding up his weight,

「!!!!! 」

However, Rio foiled his plan. As if he had already foreseen his plan, Rio moved and instantly arrived where Lucius' hand was cut off.

"Hi Me"

The stiff village chief around him raised a frightened voice as his severed left hand fell right next to him. Rio took his arm and then turned around without glancing at the frightened village chief. In the next moment, he stood in front of Lucius and glared.

「You will bleed to death if you leave your wound untreated. I just need to leave you alone because of that in order to reach my goal. Then again, you have a way to reattach your severed arm, don't you? That's why you left your wounds untreated until now. 」

Rio spoke, uninterested clearly from his voice, looking as if he already knew what Lucius' plans were up his sleeve.

"No"

Rio blatantly refused, then lightly threw Lucius' arm into the air. A moment later, the scorching fire of hell reduced Lucius' left arm to ashes.

「…………. Damn, it feels kind of bad. 」

Lucius glared at Rio in a provocative manner.

「Can you really say that after killing my mother right in front of my eyes? I've been saying it for a long time, haven't I? You will die under my hands, no one else. You have no right to hold a grudge for something like this, it is still comparable to what you did to me. I'm not going to be satisfied until I get you to experience at least a fraction of the pain I'm going through, when I'm done with you, then I'm going to remove every trace of you from this world ………. . All right, let's end this. 」

After saying that, Rio poured his magic power into his sword. He did not care about the witnesses around him anymore. He was willing to use the spirit arts that he usually hid from so many people. Then again, this is a special event. He used one spirit art after another without any restraint.

「............... AS I WILL END THE END LIKE THIS. 」

Lucius was bluffing, trying to bluff his way out, by making Rio think that there was a hidden card he still had. However, there was no way those words would change his current situation. Whatever lies he might use to change his situation, half-hearted actions to support that lie, everything would definitely be destroyed by Rio's overwhelming power. He had run out of every possible choice, and if he was alone, then it could result in his death.

「…………」

Rio sensed many existences behind him so he immediately stepped up. Duran and his knights, who were watching silently from the side until now, were now forcing their way into the fight and forming a formation to protect Lucius.

「Hahaha, I know you will save me, Your Majesty. 」

Lucius said, pretending he wouldn't die back then and no Duran meddled in the fight.

「Huh, I was originally only planning to see your fight, and let you settle your own mess, but unfortunately, it was impossible. If you die now, I'll be the one in trouble. And, most importantly, …………. 」

Duran said before she looked at Rio, smiling widely at him.

「The guy piqued my interest. 」

He shouted .

「I'll say thank you, but that's only if you manage to save me. 」

「Punches. I'd like to say "Stop with your tough guy act", but ………. . 」

Duran smiled bitterly. He had already looked into Rio's eyes since a while ago, to see if there was room for negotiation somehow. However, it seems like nothing can be done. Rio's eyes clearly told him that it was a barrier to his goal.

This war madman I'm afraid of? How interesting!

There was no way out of this peacefully, and Duran, facing this situation, felt his blood boil in excitement.

「True .. We will protect this man behind us, young man. 」

Duran.

「You want to block me? I suggest you leave such thoughts. 」

「SPREAD AND SURROUND HIM FROM THE FRONT! 」

Rio's voice overlapped with Duran's. The knights moved at once, as instructed, surrounding Rio in a fan-shaped formation. Seeing this, Rio sharpened his perception with spirit arts so that he would not be caught off guard by the long-range attacks.

Then, unperturbed by the siege, Rio fearlessly headed straight for Lucius who was protected behind Duran.

「Huh, disrupt your goal is to kill this guy. BUT! 」

Throwing an ominous smile, Duran rushed to Rio, gathering a large amount of magic power from his body and letting it flow into his enormous sword, two meters long. With the help of his powerful body, he swung his extremely long sword without a care—, he said,

「GUH ...........」.

However, the result of the clash was Duran being knocked back, despite considering the distance, it might also be described as 'charming'.

What happened to his physical strength? My demon sword is an ancient magic artifact that specializes in body strengthening, and yet, I can't do anything to it even use it? Are you telling me that his physical strength even exceeds that!

How powerful is the magic tool? The question came to his mind, but—

「I stopped you for a moment! 」

Duran let out that cry as if it was a feat he deserved to achieve. Right after that, half of the surrounding knights rushed to Rio at once.

「GUH」

A powerful shockwave was emitted with Rio as his center point. In the blink of an eye, the knights surrounding him were blown away, crashing into another part of the knights waiting for their turn, behind them. But, the knights who managed to dodge Rio's attack immediately chased after him. It was a two-stage siege.

「Unfortunately, I am used to hunting! 」

Duran smiled, sure of his victory, but—

"WHAT! ? 」

To his surprise, at the next moment, a mud wall appeared right in front of those knights. Due to the sudden appearance of the mud wall, the knights who invaded Rio did not have enough time to slow down.

「GA!」

They ended up crashing at full speed on the mud wall, still using their strengthened physical magic, and then fainted in the process.

………. He squeezed the magic power to strengthen his body to become extremely powerful, used the enormous magic power for the shockwave from before, and then created this mud wall, all at the same time? …………. He did not use spells as well strange. Is this all thanks to his magic artifacts! ?

Duran breathed in amazement.

「!!!!! 」

While trying to stop the bleeding from the cross section of his left arm, Lucius manipulated his dark blade, and tried to stab Rio from behind.

But, Rio leaped from that place and brilliantly dodged that surprise attack, landing on top of the newly erected mud wall—,

"What a bore . 」

Suddenly accelerated with his wind spirit art, Rio leaped above Duran's head, and rushed to Lucius' position, stabbing his nemesis with his sword.

「GU .................. -HA, GAHA .................... 」..

Lucius coughed, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth.

「GUH! ? 」

Before he could determine its direction, Rio trampled on Lucius' right knee under the heel of his left foot, making him grimace in pain. Unable to endure the pain of his broken bones, Lucius dropped his sword.