Eternally Regressing Knight-Chapter 536 - Barnas’s Dream

Chapter 536 - Barnas's Dream

Barnas Hurrier never claimed to be the continent's strongest or its best, but he also never thought he'd be defeated by some nameless knight.

"Does this even make sense?"

Lying on the ground, he glanced at his opponent who stood with a heavy black greatsword embedded in the ground watching him silently.

Half of the greatsword's blade was missing, and one side of its guard was broken.

All of this was Barnas's doing, having cut through it with his own technique the Wave Blade.

Like Jamal, who had learned the precise sword stance by watching Cowin. Barnas's Wave Blade had its own origin.

This technique was his specialty.

Despite not crafting a personal engraved weapon for a long time, he had once used his claws as weapons until Cypress broke them.

Only then did he forge a claw weapon, his first engraved tool.

Even so, he felt stronger now than before.

The principle of the wave was vibration a force amplified through oscillation.

While transmitting his Will to the claw weapon was more challenging than with his claws, it allowed him to channel a far greater intensity.

Previously, to imbue his claws and flesh with the wave, he had to use Iron Body simultaneously which wasted Will.

The new method, without relying on Iron Body allowed him to unleash overwhelming power.

This meant that the current him was stronger than his former self.

In truth, the weapon was just an excuse.

After being defeated by Cypress, he'd been consumed by fury, grinding his teeth and training relentlessly.

That was likely why his skills had improved.

Regardless, his techniques had reached a higher level.

"I thought I could hold my own against Cypress now."

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Barnas could feel the strength draining from the muscles around his severed left arm.

He had also lost a leg, and his left eye was slashed rendering him half-blind.

"Is my eye damaged?"

Living as a one-eyed man wouldn't matter—if he could survive.

That was the problem, though.

His current circumstances offered no guarantees of survival.

"What a monster," he muttered, replaying the recent battle in his mind.

***

"Charge, everyone!"

At his subordinate's command, fifty armored pikemen closed their ranks, forming an impenetrable wall of pressure.

Barnas charged alongside them.

Crunch!

Of course, he activated his beast transformation.

While he didn't look exactly like a wolf, his fangs grew sharper, his ears perked higher and his whiskers and body hair stiffened into steel-like strands.

His blood burned with the instinct of the hunt.

Even as he tapped into his primal instincts he never let them control him.

He didn't attack recklessly instead allowing one of the pikemen to take the first strike.

A precise thrust it wasn't ferocious or overly fast, but it was solid and lethal.

It was easy to dodge, but evading it would create an opening.

Barnas could exploit such an opening, even turning it into a killing blow.

Yet, despite the spear being aimed at the opponent the man with the greatsword never took his eyes off Barnas.

Even as Barnas darted left and right, leaving afterimages his gaze never wavered.

"Sharp eyes."

In an instant, the greatsword moved.

The air seemed to collapse under the force of the swing, its speed so absurd it swallowed even the sound with its motion.

The black blade didn't simply slash at the spear; it shattered it with a short, decisive stroke.

Clang!

The greatsword struck the spearhead, splintering it into shards that scattered like raindrops.

"Ugh!"

The soldier holding the spear grimaced as his reinforced leather gloves tore apart, exposing his bleeding hands. Before the blood even hit the ground, Barnas stopped his evasive maneuvers and lunged straight at the opponent.

Pivoting on his left foot, he halted abruptly then launched a direct charge.

His abrupt movement caused an optical illusion, making his figure blur as though spreading out sideways.

Only a beastkin's agility could pull off such a move.

The opponent, however didn't hesitate.

He kept the momentum from shattering the spearhead and brought his sword down in a seamless follow-up, as if the spear had been nothing more than a slight interruption in his original motion.

"A genius with the sword."

Many could deflect a spear's thrust while remaining aware of a charging foe, especially knights.

But this man went beyond that.

"Did he use the rebound force from the strike?"

The power behind the swing seemed to amplify from the spear's impact. The speed of the descending blade confirmed it.

"Ha!"

Barnas couldn't help but shout in exhilaration at his opponent's cunningness.

Ziiing!

Barnas's claws vibrated as they slashed the black greatsword.

Drdrdr, clink-clink!

The sword recoiled, scraping against his claws and bouncing to the side.

The wave-induced vibration reverberated through the opponent's grip, affecting his muscles and posture. Most would have stepped back to recover their balance.

But the crazed killer didn't retreat.

He pressed forward, swinging the blade again despite his disrupted stance.

"Whoosh!"

Barnas caught a glimpse of the man's face, lips pursed as he exhaled steadily.

Boom!

The third clash forced Barnas to pull back, giving the pikemen a chance to close ranks. This was the rotational strategy they had rehearsed.

Naturally, Barnas orchestrated every movement of the soldiers.

Ordinary men couldn't hope to fight a knight on equal footing.

However, Barnas's Wave disrupted his opponent's rhythm reducing their speed and power.

"A direct hit would rattle your insides."

The fairy assisting the enemy seemed to understand this but made no move to shield the lunatic killer.

Instead, she darted behind an armored pikeman, evading confrontation.

"She knows how to think."

Splitting up would have been a disadvantage, but she didn't hesitate.

Barnas rushed toward her, confident he could take her down in three or four strikes.

"He's mine." he declared.

But the lunatic blond man charged at Barnas's exposed back, ignoring the spear that grazed his cheek spilling blood.

"How reckless."

Barnas frowned, certain that the Wave would leave the man trembling and unable to move properly.

Boom!

Their third clash revealed something startling.

Instead of the Wave disrupting the opponent's internals, it collided with a similar vibration canceling out its effects.

"I see the trick now."

What nonsense is this?

Barnas furrowed his brow.

Even Jamal, who excelled at mimicking techniques had taken months to grasp part of the Wave.

Now, Barnas found himself in an increasingly unpredictable fight.

The blond man held his ground, while the fairy knight began dancing amidst the armored pikemen.

Tat-tat-tat!

Barnas's lieutenant shone in his command, transitioning the formation from a broad front to a compact, defensive posture.

Nevertheless, deaths and injuries were inevitable one after another.

However, the fairy didn't rush to kill them all.

She attacked and defended appropriately, merely toying with them.

Even so, casualties continued to pile up.

Originally, Barnas was supposed to face two enemies while the armored cavalry applied pressure.

At first, it seemed to proceed that way.

But then the one wielding the greatsword changed the course of events by catching his claws barehanded.

Barnas didn't panic.

His opponents were knights; it wasn't unthinkable for them to demonstrate such skill.

Deflecting the shockwave by the third strike was remarkable, but what could he do?

It had already happened.

Not every battle went as one predicted and Barnas was experienced enough not to be shaken by such things.

More importantly, he had the means to overcome this situation.

A genius who had mastered enduring shockwaves?

Then how about this?

Barely three clashes in, the fairy's sword tore through the head of the third armored lancer.

The battle had only just begun.

Barnas decided to reveal his secret technique slightly earlier than usual.

Wooooom.

The vibrations of the claw, which had trembled like a hummingbird's wings abruptly ceased.

The accompanying noise vanished.

Ragna tilted his greatsword diagonally and focused on the claw's tip.

To his eyes, it seemed the trembling blade shaped like claws had stilled.

This was the essence of the shockwave sword.

A vibration too subtle for even a knight's eyes to see, producing unparalleled cutting power.

The same vibration now coursed through Barnas' entire body, allowing him to strike with greater speed and ferocity than before.

The claw descended towards Ragna's head.

Ragna bent his left knee halfway and raised his sword to intercept it.

Claw and greatsword met.

To the average onlooker, it was an exchange occurring in a fraction of a second, but to them it was a deliberate encounter.

Through their insight, one chose to cut and the other to block; it was practically an agreement.

The moment the two metal pieces collided, a sound like ripping leather echoed through the air instead of the clash of steel.

Ragna watched as the middle of his blade tore.

The claw shredded the metal, the tremor in its beast-like blade delivering unprecedented cutting power.

It was the mystery created by a perfectly tuned vibration.

Barnas felt assured of his victory at that moment.

Meanwhile, Ragna saw the extent of his capabilities in a flash.

The talent he had relied on to become a knight now reacted more keenly than ever.

But this awakening wasn't due to Barnas.

Ragna knew he could have defeated this trembling beastkin without taking any risks.

This transformation was born from the shock delivered by that monstrous entity, Enkrid before the war had even begun.

His talent had witnessed the immense will within the man, so solid it seemed unbreakable even if chipped away.

"How could I possibly overcome that?"

It was the first time Ragna had truly pondered over such a question.

A great will that didn't tire.

If such a presence were equipped with skill and a battle dragged into attrition...

"I'd lose."

Ragna's talent had already determined the outcome.

Even with ten or twenty years of training, the result would remain the same.

Endlessly defending would still leave Enkrid triumphant.

Continuing like this wasn't an option.

"Is that your limit? Is that where you decided to stop?"

Those words were from long ago, when he had first learned the sword.

"So you've judged that your potential is as far as it goes. Then it must be as far as it goes."

As a child, Ragna had envisioned his path and seen its endpoint.

A predetermined road, a fixed destination.

But now, jolted awake by the cold splash of Enkrid's presence, Ragna called forth his talent anew.

It was the stride of one who was forced to forget about limits.

"Vibrations, trembling."

That tremor created destructive power.

Claws that could cut through anything.

What enabled that?

Vibration.

And what made the sword tremble?

Will.

He only needed to grasp it with his senses.

Ragna moved his will, creating a vibration.

"Tremble."

When moved by intent, it became will.

The broken remains of Ragna's greatsword resonated with a low hum.

Wooooom.

"...What are you doing?" Barnas asked.

Moments later, he felt a sense of relative deprivation and cursed his own arrogance.

"I thought I stood at the center of the continent."

Barnas had believed he might not end the wars but could ignite the fire that would engulf the continent.

The knight who would lead change, Barnas Hurrier.

Or so he had thought.

But was he wrong?

What Barnas envisioned was a newly formed knightly order—one that fostered knights and developed them beyond what existed before.

He believed this would change the power dynamics of the continent, to change the map of the continent.

His hopes crumbled before he could even face Cypress.

But would he yield so easily?

Barnas unleashed everything he had.

He fought the lunatic blonde by throwing dirt in his eyes, spitting and even biting.

The insane knight didn't perfectly replicate his shockwaves but managed to withstand them.

"And you do this without an inscribed weapon?"

Even so, Barnas broke one of his opponent's legs, dislocated his shoulder and left three fingers shattered.

The half-broken greatsword was now entirely useless.

But his opponent survived.

And Barnas knew himself would not.

"Sir Barnas!"

The surviving commander's voice called out to him.

Lying on the ground, Barnas stared at the sky.

The open canopy of trees framed a high, blue expanse.

"A knightly order of over ten knights... it wasn't just a dream."

It had been a near-reality.

Knights were few, but Barnas believed he could shatter that perception.

A collective of knights operating in perfect unison.

It had been a dream.

But now, it would die within the chest of a beastkin.

"Well fought." the crazed killer said.

Had the goddess of fortune simply chosen to favor the other side?

Or had his belief in being at the forefront of change been misplaced?

"What's your name?" Barnas asked.

"Ragna."

"That all?"

The mad blond paused before answering.

"Ragna Yohan."

"Yohan family?"

"You know it?"

"Only by name."

With that, Barnas closed his eyes gazing at the sky one last time.

Hearing the name of a family near-legendary as his final opponent wasn't the worst way to go.

He might have had regrets, but thinking back perhaps his dream hadn't been sincere.

"If I truly meant it, shouldn't I have passed something on to someone?"

But he hadn't.

He had wanted to achieve it himself and without that, it would have held no meaning.

It wasn't a dream—it was greed.

This was the clarity that came moments before death.

For this reason, there was no need to die with eyes wide open.

Barnas exhaled his final breath with his eyes closed.

"We die here."

The commander confirmed Barnas's death and hesitated briefly before making a decision.

He ordered the fifty armored lancers to charge.

Perhaps they could kill the near-dead knight.

If they lost Barnas, it was only fair for the enemy to lose a knight as well.

Even if everyone here perished, it would be worth it.

"You underestimate me far too often." the fairy said, blocking their advance.

The commander's gaze remained fixed beyond the fairy, towards the vulnerable knight.

If they could just land one spear.

But standing in their way was another knight, much like Ragna.

Shinar spoke without a trace of humor, raising her leaf-blade sword.

Though she preferred not to spill blood unnecessarily, if the enemy refused to retreat her options were clear.

With a swift movement, her blade struck the neck of one of the lancers three steps away.

Clang!

Chains wrapped around the man's neck shredded, leaving a red line in their wake.

"...What was that?" one of the soldiers murmured in terror.

"A blade forged of lightning." Shinar explained calmly.

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Many thanks to azuring for proofreading the Chapter