Future Knight

Chapter 69

‘Father, I will do my best until the end!’

Loki gritted his teeth and mustered all his strength to counter Kang Chan’s offensive, determined not to be ashamed in front of his father.

Before long, Loki’s eyes blazed red.

It was the unique power of the ogres, whose strength and speed multiplied when excited.

When Loki swung a huge hoe at the charging Kang Chan, a tremendous force erupted, leaving traces of destruction spanning dozens of meters and splitting the field.

Boom!

“Gah!”

Kang Chan couldn’t fathom taking the absurd attack of the ogre head-on, so he quickly dodged and dashed toward the ogre’s feet.

His aim was to attack the Achilles tendon and immobilize him.

However, this was a misjudgment on Kang Chan’s part.

He had thought the ogre would be slower than him due to its massive size, but the ogre’s speed was beyond imagination.

Kang Chan was sure he had slashed the Achilles tendon.

Yet the ogre disappeared in an instant, and Kang Chan’s aura blade only cut through the air.

The ogre was a monster with agility on a completely different level from other large monsters.

It had such quick reflexes that even a Sword Expert could not catch up.

Loki, controlling mana with his ogre body, moved with the speed of a fierce wind.

Whoosh!

Loki, who had leaped into the air to avoid Kang Chan’s attack, swung down like splitting firewood, aiming to bisect Kang Chan.

Despite the simplicity of the attack due to his massive size, the power it carried was astonishing.

Boom!

The ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred, creating a crater several meters deep where Kang Chan had stood.

But Kang Chan, who barely dodged Loki’s brutish attack, leaped into the air, aiming for a surprise attack on Loki’s face.

However, even this unexpected assault only slashed through the air due to the ogre’s agility.

“This is cheating!”

A giant nearly five meters tall moving at such ridiculous speed felt like a cheat to Kang Chan.

He felt humiliated to be pushed around by an ogre, who was only a Sword Expert, despite being a Sword Master himself.

– Need some help?

“……”

On top of that, the bio-computer, which had started speaking in a cheeky tone, offered help as if doing a favor, causing Kang Chan’s expression to sour even more.

But before he could argue, the ogre’s overwhelming attacks forced Kang Chan to reluctantly accept the cocky computer’s offer.

“Hurry and help!”

– Threat level: top tier.

– Activating combat mode level 5.

– Suit power: maximum.

– Commencing combat.

“What? No, crazy, level 5?!”

It was the first time since becoming a Sword Master that he used this combat mode.

And now, it had suddenly activated level 5 on its own accord.

Using level 5 meant experiencing excruciating pain afterward, so it was only used in true emergencies. Yet the bio-computer started at level 5 as if mocking him.

As Kang Chan’s metabolism began to surge, the mana within his body also started to boil as if about to explode.

Then, Kang Chan’s eyes began to glow red, just like the ogre’s.

“Argh! You crazy computer, damn you!!”

As Kang Chan unknowingly roared in response to the overwhelming power surging within him, Loki, who had been relentlessly attacking, flinched and backed off.

Kang Chan’s roar was so loud that it stunned Loki, whose hearing was dozens of times better than that of a human.

At that moment, an aura blade, incomparable to anything before, burst forth from Kang Chan’s hands.

‘Gasp! This can’t be!’

Loki screamed inwardly.

From the hands of a human barely reaching his knees, an aura blade as huge as the one he had unleashed had erupted.

It was so massive that it seemed inappropriate to even call it an aura blade.

Loki was not the only one surprised by the sight.

Zikyon and Erika, watching from behind, were as shocked as Loki.

“Gasp! Such a gigantic aura blade!”

The aura blade bursting from Kang Chan’s hands was so large that even Zikyon, who had lived for thousands of years, had never seen such a size before. Normally, the aura blades emitted by those called Sword Masters were either the same length as the sword or, at most, a meter longer. In contrast, the aura blade Kang Chan had just unleashed was a whopping two meters long.

He even did it with both hands.

“I knew he became a Sword Master, but to think it was to this extent…”

Zikyon shook his head in disbelief.

He watched his friend, who had grown unbelievably strong.

Erika also couldn’t close her mouth at the sight of Kang Chan.

It had only been ten days since he surprised her by unleashing his Aura Sword, and now he wielded an Aura Blade, the authority of a Sword Master… It was an unbelievable sight.

Erika’s eyes filled with awe beyond mere surprise.

But they didn’t yet know that this wasn’t the end of Kang Chan’s hidden skills.

‘Gasp, such a massive Aura Blade! My father’s Aura Blade was only half that size…’

Loki’s eyes were filled with disbelief as he looked at the enormous Aura Blade, incomparable to the one his father had once wielded.

And he despaired.

‘Father… you said there was no human stronger than you in this world. But what is that guy?’

Of course, at that time, Garman was undoubtedly the absolute among humans.

He was unparalleled to the point where there was no one to compare him to.

But now, thanks to Kang Chan, Garman, who had suddenly become a braggart, might be weeping in the heavens.

‘Damn it! Whatever! It’s all or nothing now!’

Loki, who had already given up on living, gritted his teeth and struck down at Kang Chan with all his might.

The gigantic rake of Loki emitted an even darker and larger aura than before. Its momentum was as if it could bring down a mountain.

Boom!

The enormous shock shook the ground and struck the vegetable garden.

The impact caused the large pumpkins nearby to explode simultaneously.

Loki should have felt heartbroken watching his precious crops get destroyed.

But he had no time to worry about that.

Because of the incredible power of the human before him.

“Ugh…!”

The human no longer dodged his attacks.

He easily blocked the rake, which contained all his strength, with crossed Aura Blades.

The human, who barely reached his knees, did this.

Though he was buried up to his ankles in the ground, his expression was full of leisure.

“Haap!”

When Kang Chan exerted force on his crossed Aura Blades, Loki’s aura scattered, and the rake was cut off.

Originally, Loki could resist the human’s Aura Blade purely due to the ogre’s strength and the enormous size of his Aura Sword.

Without that, it was impossible to counter an Aura Blade with an Aura Sword.

An Aura Blade could cut through a sword wrapped in an Aura Sword. However, it was not easy even for an Aura Blade to handle Loki’s three-meter-long Aura Sword.

But now, even that advantage had disappeared.

The opponent’s strength and the size of his Aura Blade had surpassed the ogre Loki.

Loki, holding his broken rake, took a step back and quietly watched the human.

His life, without a weapon to fight back, was now in the hands of the human. But Loki did not want to beg for his life.

After all, he was the son of the continent’s greatest swordsman, Kalitz Garman, Kalitz Loki.

Having destroyed his weapon, Kang Chan could easily end the ogre’s life with a single stroke.

However, Kang Chan stopped his attack, puzzled by the ogre’s strange behavior.

“What is this guy?”

Kang Chan’s mind was full of questions.

The ogre not only used sophisticated high-level swordsmanship and Aura Sword but also seemed to acknowledge his defeat, retreating and waiting for the opponent’s judgment.

A ferocious monster that eats humans should either continue attacking out of desperation or run away in fear after losing its weapon.

If that had happened, Kang Chan would have cut him down without hesitation.

But the ogre before him did not do that.

The defeated ogre’s demeanor was more like that of a proud knight.

“…”

While Kang Chan stood there, unable to do anything, the ogre suddenly spoke in human language.

“Grrr, I lost, human.”

Kang Chan was momentarily stunned by the ogre’s admission of defeat. However, since he didn’t know that ogres could speak like humans, he assumed the ogre before him was like Urkanta.

But Zikyon and Erika were different.

Especially Zikyon was more astonished.

“A-an ogre can talk!!”

Zikyon, who ran to Kang Chan’s side in an instant, looked at the talking ogre with curious eyes and asked.

“Did you just speak?”

When Loki nodded silently, Zikyon was at a loss for words. It was the first time even for Zikyon to see an ogre that understood and spoke human language.

“H-haha… An ogre speaking human words.”
In fact, for a dragon of Zikyon’s caliber, giving intelligence to an ogre was not a difficult task.

However, such an ogre would undoubtedly be a kind of chimera and would have to live as a subordinate to the dragon.

Zikyon would definitely have recognized such a chimera-like ogre.

But the ogre in front of her was different.

This blue ogre was truly a wild ogre.

A wild ogre that could control mana and speak on its own.

This ogre was an enormous historical discovery. It had immense ecological and biological value.

Zikyon was desperate to possess this ogre.

An ogre that not only spoke like a human but was also skilled in swordsmanship was something to drool over. Under Zikyon’s intense gaze, Loki opened his mouth.

“Grrr… kill me.”

Kang Chan silently looked up at the ogre.

The moment their eyes met, Kang Chan felt that this ogre wouldn’t commit senseless slaughter.

The eyes of someone who had killed humans and those who hadn’t were different.

Only those who had killed humans could recognize that difference.

“Why are you here?”

“Grrr… this is my home.”

“What, what? You’re saying this is where you live?”

Kang Chan, Zikyon, and Erika were momentarily speechless.

They had thought the ogre attacked the village and so they attacked it, but in reality, they had intruded into its home and almost killed the owner. They had completely misunderstood the situation.

“Grrr, go ahead and kill me, hunters.”

“Hunters?”

“He seems to think we’re hunters.”

Zikyon shrugged her shoulders as Kang Chan looked at the ogre with a troubled expression.

He clearly didn’t know how to explain the situation.

“…”

“Grrr, don’t you want my skin and blood? Just kill me and take my skin.”

Kang Chan felt even more sorry for the ogre waiting for death in resignation.

“We don’t want to kill you.”

“Grrr! What do you mean?”

“We are not hunters.”

“Grrr! Don’t lie.”

“Believe me. We just thought you were a wild ogre invading the human village.”

“Grrr, this is the garden I cultivated. There are no humans here.”

“We misunderstood. We’re sorry.”

As the ogre’s opponent, who held his life in their hands, apologized, Loki calmed his excited mind for a moment.

After taking a few deep breaths, he opened his mouth.

“Grrr, so you won’t kill me?”

“Yes, and I apologize once again.”

“Grrr…”

The expression of Loki, who regained his life he had given up on, seemed to show some kind of joy.

“My name is Kang Chan. Do you have a name?”

“Grrr, it’s Kalitz Loki.”

“Loki… Your swordsmanship is impressive. Who taught you?”

“Grrr, my father who raised me taught me.”

“Is your father an ogre too?”

“Grrr, no. My father was a human like you. He raised me, who was left alone.”

“Did you learn human language from him?”

“Grrr, yes.”

“Where is he now?”

“Grrr, my father passed away.”

Loki pointed to a large stone grave he had built.