NOVEL NEXT Chapter 983
<Sword Saint Reinhardt.>
Ghost Warlord shared stories of past encounters with him on the way.
Talented young people.
And charming young folks.
Through the flow of time, those became nobody’s, losers who set up offerings for the spirits.
They didn’t want to end up aimlessly losing and join the Tomb of the Sword.
“We lost to Reinhardt twice. First, when we died by his hand. Then, when we reached the future he showed us as we perished.”
Reinhardt steals the swordsmanship of his opponents.
He enhances his maximum potential.
And nonchalantly discards the sword.
There’s no greater shame than that for a swordsman.
That’s why the title “Tomb of the Sword” suits it perfectly.
“How did that glutton Oknodie defeat such an amazing rival? It’s truly surprising.”
At Jiang’s question, Cooking Oknodie’s expression slightly darkened.
“Glutton Oknodie was amazing! He
“But why so glum?”
“He used the most valuable ingredients from the Oknodie’s sack raw. If I had grown my skills more, I could have earned recognition for our joint escape, but only Glutton Oknodie escaped, and I lost those precious ingredients…”
Glutton Oknodie was truly trash.
He utilized the potential for escape that Cooking Oknodie possessed.
While he slipped away using that power, he cut off Cooking Oknodie’s chance to escape.
If he had taken just a bit more time to nurture their growth, they could have both made it out together.
Even though Cooking Oknodie might be weak and insignificant, considering their growth potential, it wouldn’t have been impossible for them to coexist if he had just put in a little more effort.
Yet, he was discarded.
This meant Glutton Oknodie never considered rescuing Cooking Oknodie from the beginning.
If the hopeful side of Oknodie’s clone was Cooking Oknodie, then the despairing side was Glutton Oknodie.
“Not only that…but even the swordsmanship taught by the original Oknodie got stripped away…”
“Oknodie’s swordsmanship?”
“Acceleration Afterimage Sword… Soul Release Sword… Rolling Ball…”
Overwhelmingly repeating advance and retreat at great speed, the Acceleration Afterimage Sword deceives one’s position and distance within its afterimage.
The sword of Oknodie, which awakened the concept of direct assassination for Jiang, had already been analyzed for its potential.
Cooking Oknodie’s story made Jiang’s jaw drop.
“Too much! To send in the clone that taught such sword techniques and then let me in after!”
“Iieek! Don’t say that while stretching Cooking Oknodie’s cheeks!”
Sing was more concerned about something else.
“I know that Soul Release Sword is an advanced technique of Acceleration Afterimage Sword. But what’s Rolling Ball?”
“It’s the Sixth Stage Dodgeball.”
“To develop a single throw to the sixth stage! In terms of pure talent, it’s no different from Reinhardt.”
Oknodie’s Dodgeball has a rich history.
Stage One, Three-Colored Ball.
Red, blue, and black.
Last year, during the year-end sports festival inter-grade team event, I caught a glimpse of a dodgeball technique infused with magic from those three elements.
Stage Two, Six-Colored Ball.
Red, blue, black.
Then gray, brown, and purple.
This ball not only encompassed simple magical power but also connected <Space Disruption> and <Material Transfer>, linking the front and back of space.
Although the past him didn’t realize the principle of the sixth power that causes the unpreventable state at peak speed, she knew now.
That was <Super Armor>.
A technique that would make Buzhaar, the monster professor, go berserk.
The root of that technique was already in use for quite a while.
Deadcat cleverly formed an artificial mana empty space due to mana over-exemption, causing the magic loaded in the Dodgeball to use up its power and create a blockage.
<Eastern Murder Swordsmanship> <Island Striking>
The strike that Sing once unleashed didn’t send Deadcat’s ball soaring into the air. Instead, after being countered, the sword broke.
In that time, when Sing fought with utmost resolve, he was eliminated while guarding the two-stage ball.
However, Oknodie’s ball still had more to give.
Stage Three, Rainbow Ball.
A seven-element rotating ball enriched with a spectrum of colors experienced acceleration of speed due to <Gravity Acceleration>.
That speed continually rose, unlike the six-colored ball, which slowed down when taken by the body.
The ball surged down towards the opponent endlessly as if the direction of gravity was reversed.
With <Transformation> and <Amplification> applied, changing the ball’s characteristics at regular intervals, if Sing were to embody the fragmentation of the original area and a melee collective technique, it would likely have such a terrifying and sophisticated ball.
Yet, even a First Year Oknodie had even greater realms above that.
Stage Four, Dark Ball.
A ball that contained all attributes.
Or a Dark Mana rampaging ball.
Magicians called it <Ultimate Magic>, while swordsmen called it <Death Rites>.
It was a ball embodying the principle of <Gathering> in conjunction with it.
The Dark Ball produced by gathering all sorts of encyclopedias through ‘collection’ exhibited tremendous danger even in the realm of a First Year, combined with its unique gimmick.
Its effect was to absorb all attributes it possessed.
The attributes included stabbing and slashing traits.
There are no exceptions for <Vision Attribute> or <Extreme>.
Every technique Oknodie recognized and ‘collected’ would be blocked without exception.
In the past, the warrior Ishtar, who faced off against this ball, realized that the operating mechanism of the Dark Ball was due to the conflicting powers of Dark Mana pushing against each other to add rotation.
He was convinced that when one force gathers too much, the ball’s balance would break.
He even managed to realize that by using an <Attribute-less> attack, one that contradicted all attributes, to manifest Dark Mana and Attribute-less as antithetical forces.
The mana of Dark Mana, which seeks to progress, and the mana of Attribute-less, which seeks to halt.
The principle of Gentle Restraint had stopped the ball.
‘If I were the current one, I’d probably use a different method. I’ve personally experienced Sword Master Ryu-wan’s techniques.’
Strong can break Weak.
Gentleness can subdue strength, but strength can cut through gentleness.
It disrupts the very nature of ‘gathering, absorbing, and collecting’ with a power transcending those of contained mana levels.
It was akin to a principle preventing emergence of recovery.
The intensely sharp blade, having surpassed the limits, would shatter the qualities of ‘gathering and absorbing’.
And there should be another above that ball.
Stage Five, Dimension Ball.
A ball that counters all attributes, fused with the Rainbow Ball and Dark Mana rampaging spheres.
Taking it a step further, when multiple Dimension Balls are layered to try to block a single Dark Ball, other Dimension Balls from different realms will fly in to absorb and disperse the damage.
This is a ball that tests dimension powers that can’t be crossed unless both the attributes of the Middle Realm and those of the other dimension are overcome.
This ball once buried the Evil Sword Castro.
The witness was Masugaki Princess.
Jiang and Sing didn’t know that.
That’s why the Sixth Stage felt even stranger and more sudden.
What kind of power was inside Rolling Ball?
Was it related to rolling around on campus?
Was it superior even to the Fourth Year technique that tests dimension power?
If there is, how would that power manifest, and how could it be surpassed?
‘Just one more stage. Beyond the sword group, beyond the transcendent ascent of high-level swordsmanship awaits.’
A chilling smile crept across Sing’s lips.
Knowing he could grow stronger by devouring and digesting.
‘You look pretty even when you smile, sis.’
And for Jiang, it was simply the smile of a pretty older sister.
Feeling reassured thanks to Sing’s presence, Jiang proceeded with confidence, fully energized.
And so, they finally reached it.
“What is that?”
A hundred swords spinning chaotically in the air.
Amidst them, the afterimage of something resembling a rolling person.
Only then did he realize.
Sword Saint Reinhardt.
A swordsman who develops the potential of his opponents’ swordsmanship to the ultimate beyond and then unceremoniously discards that sword—a worst-case scenario for a swordsman.
If Cooking Oknodie and Glutton Oknodie utilized the Acceleration Afterimage Sword, the Soul Release Sword, and the Sixth Stage Dodgeball, Rolling Ball, then Sword Saint Reinhardt must have also learned the intricacies of Rolling Ball.
Performing <Acceleration Afterimage> and <Soul Release Sword> while spinning around in mid-air, Reinhardt never touched the ground.
“There was no mention of aerial combat.”
Both Jiang and Sing, watching the scene with astonished faces, became dazed.
-The final Dodgeball is for me to become the Dodgeball! A Sixth Stage Dodgeball <Rolling Ball>, which incorporates lethal techniques, goes beyond that and approaches the enemy with random patterns to implant lethal strikes and bounce away!
In reality, Reinhardt’s Rolling Ball was an application of the original technique from Oknodie.
He discerned and imitated the root of the technique of becoming the Dodgeball itself.
Senior Velvet couldn’t help but crush him with a <Spatial Synchronization><Compression 1:1000> combo, stopping that chaotic movement.
However, between the time Astrot entered into his third year and the moment summer vacation approached, the level of that technique differed.
There’s no need to mention how formidable the power granted by clones that received such techniques is.
“…I’m at a loss.”
Even Sing was flustered at the speed and trajectories of swords swirling through the air, as well as the attacks swirling around them.
The strikes that reflected off the blades made the scenario even harder to predict and devastated the ground.
Kaboom, boom!
Unfortunately, the tombs that got caught in the sword’s bombardment were destroyed, but there could be no complaints.
The owners of the tombs were being sent back as coffins buried underground, being reborn.
If you get caught up in it, you die.
A bombardment of wide-area aerial strikes one can’t evade.
That was no different from a natural disaster.