Chapter 111

Chapter 111 \nAs I was walking down the forest path in the evening, a fully armored horse with a black knight appeared. He held an enormous jet-black halberd as he charged at me. Their speed only free faster as the knight shifted into his charge. I tried to move out of the knights way, but he followed accordingly so it was obvious now that he was aiming for me. \n

Its big– The galloping horse looked larger than regular horses. Its head was actually taller than me… The black knight that rode on top of it was also huge. He was completely encased in armor from head to toe. To evade the black knight, I waited for the moment when changing the direction of his charge would’ve been impossible before doing a slide-jump. During the moment we crossed, my eyes met the knight’s glowing eyes that were visible through the opening of the visor.

The black knight’s plate armor was decorated with protruding spikes. Almost as if the design had been based on a monster. Was that a magic stone in its chest? I could’ve sworn I saw a large jewel glowing with an earthen color. 

While maintaining eye contact with the black knight, I took out two tomahawks from my undercoat. Without charging off too far, the knight turned its horse around and faced me again. 

“First of all, let me ask – are you not mistaking your target?”

“‘Black Mask Shaft’, you are but a pebble in our path of supremacy. Our master has ordered for your elimination.”

“So, it is Castus again… To think that you’d bother to wait for me to leave the labyrinth first. Very well — I’ll become a roadblock in your so-called path of supremacy.”

Facing off on the forest path, I tightened my grip on my weapons. I had resolved myself to kill. I honestly did not want to imagine what’ll happen if that halbert skewered my body. \n

Was my mind playing tricks on my? Not only the black knight, but the horse also exhaled roughly. As if they both were excited for battle. The knight kicked the sides of the horse. It responded by taking a stride, then suddenly, disappeared from sight —

“Wha!”

The black knight actually urged its mount to jump into the air. It’s front hives were already over my head by the time I realized. I was caught off guard for a moment by their agility. I barely managed to avoid being trampled under foot. The landing caused the ground to crack and a heavy thud echoed throughout the forest. 

I couldn’t afford to be distracted by it as the knight swing quickly followed. I crossed the two tomahawks over my head, catching the halbert. I was able to stop the one-hand swing but I sunk into the ground up to my ankles as the impact was stronger and heavier than expected. 

“You can black that? Then how about this.”

The black knight pulled its left fist back and then punched towards me, even though it would’ve have reached.

“ [Heavy Shockwave]!”\nThe fist that swung from a far actually landed on my chest. To be exact, the shockwave that emitted from that skill did. Having all the air in my lungs pushed out left me unable to speak. Since my feet were buried in the ground, I hadn’t been able to evade, and had to take the attack head on. And the impact from that attack had been strong enough to uproot my feet and I fell on my back, leaving me in a disadvantageous position. I was only able to see the front hives of the horse as it raised them.

I rolled to the side and avoided it before getting to my feet and slid-jumping to create distance. 

I still felt numb all over. Focusing on my hands as I still held my weapons, I waited for the numbness to go away. The black knight wasn’t going to give me that chance, however. With some distance between us, they got into a charging posture. 

I quickly looked around, realized I was standing in the middle of the road while the knight was facing the forest. At the very least, if I could pull them into the forest and hinder the horse’s mobility. 

If you won’t let me lure you into the forest, then…

The black knight prepared its next charge, apparently gaining that unnatural acceleration via the use of [Dash]. Confirming that, I did a slide-jump further back and tossed an M84 flashbang into their path. The knight knew I’d thrown something and still charged nonetheless.

A roar sounded, followed by a flash.\n\nThe knight approached me warily, step by step. Along the way, noticing the horse was still alive despite the grenade mangling one of its leg. The knight stopped next to it. The knight then cut the horse’s head off with the halbert.

“Somehow, you are truly more than meets the eye, ‘Black Mask Shaft’.”

“And you are still not dead yet. That armor seems quite sturdy, shame you didn’t make one for your horse.”

“Unfortunately… I’ve never heard of anyone willing to make magic armor for horses.”

“Magic armor huh–”

“But ‘Black Mask Shaft’, can you break through the protection of this ‘Terra Chaos’ magic armor?”

I robbed the knight of its mobility. However, the magic armor gave me another level of difficulty… Under the burning red sky, the second round against the Cactus assassin would begin.