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One of the mighty Twelve Superhumans, thrown away with a single attack.
The Mercenary King slammed into the ground, coughing fitfully. How was he supposed to handle this absurd reality?
“Oh my god, the Mercenary King—”
“My king
” Leo de Grans whispered reverentially.
Cain hissed through his scowling teeth. “I’m the first sword.”
“You’re still going on about that? I thought we were finished with this conversation.”
Cain rolled his eyes. “What do you mean, big brother? I said I’d treat you like my older brother, not give up on being the first sword.”
“Are you really going to act like a child?”
“That’s what I should be saying. Can’t you let your younger brother have this?”
“Don’t you know there’s a proper order to everything?”
“I thought you didn’t care about the order?!”
“This boy is overstepping his bounds!” The veins on Leo’s neck popped. Somehow, their casual conversation had gone haywire. “Ugh, damn it—”
They both froze as the Mercenary King pulled himself off the ground, cussing and swearing. The humiliation stung, to say nothing of the fact that he’d never heard of Aura being used like that before.
“Ugh.” Barbarian clenched his teeth as the ringing in his ears got worse. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” The Mercenary King roared like one of the wild warriors of the north1, driving away Joshua’s sound with his own mana-infused noise.
“Wow, that’s an angry man.”
“Uh, hahahah.” Cain awkwardly laughed.
The Mercenary King exhaled smoke and then disappeared, leaving Joshua to blink at the empty space where he used to be while Taorin sliced toward his right shoulder. The mighty ax cut a white streak through the air—
—But Joshua wasn’t there anymore. He used Lugia as a lever to swing his body around, whipping his mana-hardened leg into the Mercenary King. It sounded more like an iron pole than delicate flesh when it smacked into Barbarian’s body.
The Mercenary King should’ve been able to easily avoid an attack like that; even with Joshua’s Aura Force, Barbarian could’ve used Aura Overlay to dodge. But with that awful ringing in his ears, he couldn’t muster the razor-sharp focus it took to wield a supernatural force like Aura properly.
That damned noise.
Joshua was undeterred by Barbarian’s defense. His legs, trailing wisps of white smoke, hammered into the Mercenary King over and over. The speed of his rotation was faster than what Joshua’s opponent expected, and it was only getting faster—Barbarian couldn’t do anything but block the kicks.
Suddenly, Joshua tugged Lugia out of the ground2.
“What are you—?” Taorin suddenly stopped mid-swing, accompanied by a mist of blood droplets. Did he hit Joshua? When?
No.
The Mercenary King could feel the blood dripping out of his right thigh onto the barren land. If he hadn’t managed to move at the last moment, that long cut would’ve severed the entire leg.
“You’ve ignored something very important: the world revolves backwards here. You never know if you’re fooling the world or the world is fooling you.”
Barbarian’s expression hardened. “You—”
“Now you get it, right?”
The Mercenary King’s body erupted into a torrent of blood; he had sharp cuts carved into his thighs, knees, shoulders, and sides. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t in good shape.
He stared at his bloodied body for a moment. “Keuk
 kekekekekeke.”
Joshua watched him laugh in silence.
“It’s clear now.”
“You’re a special case. It’s no surprise—your lineage has so many secrets.”
Joshua stared blankly, surprised to find that the Mercenary King could still stand. The battle was decided, but perhaps Joshua had gotten ahead of himself. The Mercenary King was very different from any of the Twelve that Joshua had seen before. At the very least, he was a man who knew his weaknesses, much like Ulabis, the Knight of Flame.
“Be happy with who you are. Anyway, Taorin won’t be too happy with you.”
Joshua was completely confused but shrugged it off when the Mercenary King came running at him again. Then, just like before, he opened his mouth and let loose with his sonic attack.
The Mercenary King cursed again but then laughed. If Joshua could fool his eyes and ears, then the solution was simple: close his eyes, and shield his ears with mana. When he shut his eyes, he could feel everything around him; when he covered his ears, every hair stood on end, and every cell in his body woke up. He could still sense Joshua’s energy, and Joshua could never fool that sense.
I can’t see it, but I can feel it.
His Aura started to burn again like he’d never been knocked down. His Aura Overlay emerged over his hand with explosive force.
“HAHAHAHAHA!” The Mercenary King attacked with a strength unfettered by sanity. He swung Taorin—or rather, he swung his entire body like a windmill, crushing everything in his path. This was one of the secrets that made the Mercenary King what he was: Taorin’s Wind.
With a bang, the Mercenary King transformed into a silver wind aimed straight at Joshua. The nearby knights were lucky enough to be running away already, or else they would have been caught up in the all-consuming wind.
“This is the final form of my Aura Overlay!”
Joshua’s eyes were perfectly tranquil, even in the face of this howling typhoon. The Mercenary King was never really a worthy opponent—as the fight went on, that idea became a certainty.
It was time to end it. Not for his opponent, but for his loyal subordinates.
There was one spear technique that would be perfect for this situation 3, and Joshua was eager to try it out.
Joshua slowly swung Lugia, leaving behind rings of red until he was encased in a perfect sphere of crimson, like a blood moon.
The Fifth Form of the Magic Spear Arts, Moon’s Space.
The moonlight shone upon the earth for a moment and then, strangely enough, disappeared. Joshua was left behind, surrounded by a thick carpet of white smoke.
The smoke didn’t stay white for long. It became a deep, impenetrable black—a black hole.
“Wh-What?” The Mercenary King was instantly imprisoned in a ball of black smoke.
Joshua quietly approached and examined the obviously furious mercenary. He lifted Lugia, eyes gleaming, and sent its sharp blade slicing through the sphere on an elegant trajectory as if he was cutting the moon itself out of the sky.
“Moon’s Decapitation.”
Out of nowhere, Joshua appeared behind the Mercenary King4. A heartbeat later, it erupted into a fountain of blood. Slowly—ever so slowly—Barbarian’s body collapsed to the ground.
Joshua trembled. He got it—now he was as strong as he had been in his past life5. The spear knight who had never met defeat, no matter how far and wide he searched for an opponent. The strongest spear in the Avalon Empire.
Unconsciously, Joshua clenched his fist as he watched the Mercenary King fall.
ED/N: You might even call them
 barbarians. ↩
ED/N: I think Joshua has been twirling around Lugia like a stripper pole. Wild shit. ↩
PR/N: Of course there is. ↩
ED/N: *teleports behind you* “Nothing personnel, kid.” ↩
ED/N: While you touched grass, I studied the spear! ↩