CH 316

Joshua wasn’t the one who created the raging wind that blew in every direction. It was the man who had earned the title of War God long ago.

“You’re ridiculous,” Draxia growled in fury, letting his light green hair fly. “You’re going to show me the sky? How dare you…”

One end of Draxia’s mouth curled up into a smirk.

“I did hear that you were injured, but it looks like it was your head that was injured. Stop bluffing, Joshua!”

“Over the past three years, everyone on the continent forgot about Joshua Sanders because they think you’re dead,” Draxia drily intoned, as if he was giving a lecture in the center of the raging winds. “So, do you think I’ll blink at your bluff after you suddenly show up again? People say the most pathetic ones talk the loudest. The only way you’d affect them with your bluffing is if you make it sound even a little bit plausible. ”

Draxia clicked his tongue. “…Of course, it’s possible that you have a different idea of what ‘materialization’ is… so let me show you.”

“Woah!” Anna’s eyes popped wide open. “You’re going to do it yourself?”

“Yes,” Draxia nodded, “I changed my mind.”

“What about me?” Anna asked.

Draxia narrowed his eyes.

“I want to make him realize how meaningless his power really is.”

“…It’s a pity.” Anna smacked her lips as if she genuinely thought it was a bummer. “But he was still called the Hero King, so I wanted to go easy and make him mine…”

“Let me have him this time.” Draxia looked at Anna.

“It’s been a while since I saw you being this serious,” Anna giggled.

“He made me that way,” her father growled.

“Can you please not kill him though?” Anna pleaded.

“…We need to get a lot of information out of him anyway.” He shrugged

“Yay!” Anna jumped for joy.

They talked very naturally, confident that they were never going to lose.

“You heard about the greatest human hero from the ancient age of magic that lived two thousand years ago, right?” Draxia asked, turning back to Joshua. The wind subsided like nothing had happened at all, allowing Draxia’s hair to settle. “He conquered two-thirds of the continent, so he was called the God of War and Conquest. Although only wizards were respected in the age of magic, the hero used his physical strength alone to crush every enemy in his path. The hero’s name was Heradios.”

A low yet loud resonance took hold of the sky. Joshua silently watched as Draxia's aura gradually swelled to the size of a house. It also flickered, but Joshua was the only one who could see the flicker.

Draxia took off his top like a barbarian warrior from the north, revealing his bulging veins and rippling muscles. The greatsword in Draxia’s hands looked especially ferocious, like it was ready to cut the enemy in half at any moment.

“…Ha, it looks like you’ve lost the will to fight back.” Draxia chuckled when he noticed that Joshua hadn’t moved a muscle. “I learned Heradios’s swordsmanship years ago. With the old mana circulation technique, it’s impossible to create a large aura like this, but the aura materialization technique makes it possible.”

Joshua still stayed silent.

“Are you afraid?” Draxia slowly held out his arms, extending his greatsword. When he drew an elegant curved line in the air…

—And sprang forward, creating a ground-shaking boom! Anna already knew what was going to happen, and had moved far back. Draxia moved like the hero Heradios from the age of magic, swinging his greatsword intimidatingly in the sky.

But Joshua’s response to his attack was so unexpected that it made Draxia’s eyes widen a bit for a moment.

“Wh… What…?”

Joshua simply took one step to the side, neatly avoiding the bottomless abyss that Draxia’s earthquake-like impact had created.

“You’re using a trick…” Draxia mumbled discontentedly. He felt his pride sting. His strike was definitely not the type of attack that could be dodged that easily; even the pressure of the wind was enough to crush most enemies’ bones.

Draxia lightly inhaled. He was currently twenty meters away from Joshua, but he didn’t care. When he was using materialization, neither distance nor an Aura Blade—which was the highest-level skill of refining mana—would be a problem in slaying his enemies. The moment Draxia exhaled…

His silver sword flickered around in the air like a swarm of bats; Draxia began his flurry of attacks by swinging his sword horizontally, then from left to right, from top to bottom, from bottom left to top right… Draxia left dozens—no, hundreds of scars in the sky. There was no pattern in his attack. From someone else’s perspective, it might look like Draxia was swinging his sword wildly like a child that was playing with a sword.

However, the results of his strikes were amazing and definitely not that of a child. Whenever Draxia swung his sword, he made the ground cave in, turning the ground upside down and creating gigantic chasms—but those chasms were only created around Joshua, trapping him. Then Draxia’s sword created shockwaves that rushed forward like countless green waves threatening to crash into Joshua.

We are "pawread dot com", find us on google.

“…Huff, huff… Heup!”

The more Draxia attacked, the more he panted. Although the materialized aura was much more advanced and destructive than an ordinary aura, it used up a lot of stamina, so it was usually used to deliver the final blow.

“Why…?!” Draxia gritted his teeth and ground to a halt. His attacks were surely destructive, and yet Draxia had failed to hit his opponent even once. No matter how strong his materialized aura was, it was useless if Draxia couldn’t deliver the blow properly onto his opponent.

“How can you avoid my attack using only your physical ability…?” Draxia finally ended up asking the question that kept bugging him. If Joshua had dodged Draxia’s attack with difficulty, then Draxia would have thought it was acceptable—but Joshua avoided every attack by only taking a single step away whenever Draxia struck.

“Why!” Draxia shouted in frustration.

“That is why I told you,” Joshua said, finally breaking his silence.

“…What?” Draxia narrowed his eyes.

“The materialization you were talking about is a cheap trick.”

Joshua was the only one in this world who could say that.

Draxia growled.

“You arrogant…”

“Are you angry because your cheap trick doesn’t work?”

Draxia’s eyes flared in rage.

“Just like you said, so many events have taken place since three years ago.” Joshua shrugged.

What was he trying to say? Did he mean the start of the Continental War? Or was he talking about how countless heroes died in the war? As time passed, more questions filled Draxia’s head.

“The concept of materialization was first created exactly three years ago,” Joshua casually mentioned.

“So what?”

“After a long age of peace, the Continental War broke out and created numerous cheap tricks aside from materialization,” Joshua said.

Draxia trembled with anger.

“You’re humiliating… me until the end…!”

Joshua smiled faintly. “Do you know what it means? It means the technique only has a three-year history.”

Draxia boggled at him. Joshua broke his stillness and strode forward.

“The aura technique has been continually refined for thousands of years. Compared to that… materialization is just a cheap trick.”

“You bastard!” Draxia instinctively pointed his sword at Joshua. Joshua didn’t even have solid ground to stand on. Draxia’s attacks had reduced the land around Joshua and turned into an abyss-like pit.

“I guess you’re the Scheme King, not the Hero King. If you take one more step forward…” Draxia warned Joshua.

“On top of that,” Joshua interrupted, “the past three years…”

Draxia flinched and stopped speaking.

“...might have been just three years for you,” Joshua continued, his eyes turning cold, “but they weren’t for me.”

“You’re talking nonsense again!” Draxia shouted.

“Even if I disappeared and didn’t show myself anywhere in the continent for three years, do you really think people would have forgotten about me?” Joshua asked.

Draxia’s eyes lost focus after belatedly coming to a realization.

Joshua looked away from Draxia and quietly raised his hand. By going through countless wars on innumerable battlefields, Joshua had made one glorious achievement after another throughout the many years. Heroes may fall, but their countless achievements were recorded eternally in history. Therefore, the world could never forget the name of Joshua Sanders.

“Do you think you can handle me?” Joshua quietly asked.

“Yo-you…” Draxia could not hide his dismay.

Joshua’s aura gradually became bigger; it was as big as a longsword at first, but it didn’t take long to become as large as Draxia’s. Even after that, Joshua’s aura kept getting bigger as if it didn’t have a limit.

Joshua smiled faintly.

“This is your cheap trick that I imitated.”

“The fuc—” Draxia unwittingly cursed.

Joshua swung the giant sword that he had created down onto Draxia’s head.