SWNOVELXO Chapter 200 - The Great Battle of the Dragons (9)
Chapter 200. The Great Battle of the Dragons (9)
Gunther tightened his grip on the sword as he saw an arm raised toward him.
‘It’s moving.’
His whole body tensed up in anticipation of rushing forward at any moment, ready to respond to the opponent’s movements.
Gunther kept a wary eye on Susan with sharp eyes.
“……”
“……”
The one holding the sword and the one extending her hand.
The suffocating standoff in silence continued to stretch on.
But that time began to drag on longer than expected.
‘…Not moving?’
A cold sweat trickled down his back from the tension.
How much time had passed?
Yet, Susan Ripley showed no signs of moving.
She hadn’t even drawn her weapon and simply stood still with her hand extended.
‘Is she waiting for me to make the first move?’
As Gunther hesitated, debating whether or not to rush forward first—
‘…Hm?’
A strange scent tickled the tip of his nose.
‘A floral scent?’
No, it was more of a slightly sweet fragrance.
Gunther inhaled briefly as the faint and pleasant aroma filled the inside of his helmet.
And it was at that exact moment.
Ping—.
Gunther felt a sudden, dizzying sensation spin his vision.
His stomach churned, the world spun wildly, and his mind grew hazy.
It was only natural that Gunther’s body staggered.
‘Ugh!’
Thud—.
Gunther barely managed to kneel on one knee, narrowly avoiding a complete collapse.
His dilated pupils trembled violently.
‘This… This is…?!’
He immediately realized what had just happened to him, and what the scent he had smelled a moment ago really was.
And with that, Gunther instantly understood why Susan had been the number one opponent every cadet had hated to face until last year.
‘Poison…? Really?!’
He forced his head up with great difficulty to look ahead.
There stood Susan, smiling.
Step—.
She walked lightly toward Gunther, speaking in a languid voice.
“When a human smells a pleasant scent, they instinctively take a deep breath. Whether it’s out of curiosity about the fragrance or just to enjoy it a little longer.”
Step—.
One step, then another.
As Susan drew closer to Gunther, her lips gradually darkened to a blackish hue with a hint of purple.
Step—.
Susan Ripley slowly closed in.
She was no longer the frail-looking beauty.
Pale skin and dark red lips.
Shadows beneath her eyes and eyes gleaming a sinister purple.
It all combined to make her look like a witch straight out of a fairy tale.
Through his blurring vision, Gunther bit his lip as he watched her approach.
‘To think it was poison….’
There were individuals who stored poison within their bodies using a special martial technique, then utilized it in combat.
They were feared because they could harbor deadly toxins that could even affect other martial artists, though many died in the process of housing such poisons, leaving their numbers quite low.
Yet, here was one of those rare poison users in the Cradle.
Step—.
Finally, Susan reached Gunther.
‘I… I need to get out…!’
Gunther tried to move to escape, but his body no longer obeyed his commands.
Merely holding onto consciousness was a struggle.
Susan extended both hands toward Gunther’s helmeted face.
Clack—.
Her slender, pale fingers gently cradled the steel helmet.
At some point, her nails had turned black, like her lips.
And the fragrance inside the helmet grew thicker.
Susan smiled as she met Gunther’s eyes through the visor.
“It was kind of you to wear a helmet… Thanks to that, this was easy.”
At her words of thanks, Gunther regretted his decision to wear his helmet.
‘Damn it, to think I wore a helmet against a poison user!’
The interior of the full armor a knight wore was a perfect enclosed space for spreading poison.
With the helmet sealed shut, it was an ideal container for trapping the spreading toxin.
Had Gunther known Susan’s identity, he would never have worn full armor.
In the round of 24, his full armor had greatly contributed to his victory, but in the round of 12, it was instead leading him to defeat.
‘I… I need to expel the poison….’
Nevertheless, Gunther did not give up. He gritted his teeth and tried to circulate his mana.
He was desperately trying to expel the poisonous energy from his body.
But the poison filling the inside of his helmet far surpassed what he could expel.
Ssshhh—.
Susan sent him a sultry smile.
“It’s not particularly potent, so the poison will dissipate in a few days. So…”
The thick and sweet scent inside the helmet reached its peak.
Realizing this, Susan withdrew her hands from the helmet and said,
“Have a pleasant dream.”
Looking at Susan’s smile, reminiscent of a succubus from legend, Gunther had only one thought.
‘…My head’s really screwed.’
With that, Gunther’s vision turned pure white.
Thud—.
“……”
Susan quietly turned and walked away after gazing at Gunther sprawled on the arena floor for a moment.
“What?”
Yuri let out a hollow laugh as he watched Gunther collapse pathetically without much resistance.
‘Just like last time, and this time too, the opponent crumbled so easily…’
Watching the black-haired woman’s departing figure, Yuri muttered softly.
“…Was it because of poison?”
Soon after, he chuckled in disbelief.
“Wow… I get that you can win by any means necessary, but using poison?”
It was certainly an unexpected tactic.
He had only been thinking of direct combat, but here was poison, something more fitting for a covert assassination.
To Yuri’s disbelieving murmur, Theresia responded.
“It’s allowed.”
Yuri turned to look at Theresia.
She, too, was watching Susan’s retreating back.
“It’s allowed?”
“Applying poison to weapons happens sometimes. It’s permitted even in the Cradle. However, the Cradle doesn’t look favorably upon such tactics, so most people avoid it. But poison users are different.”
“What’s different?”
“For them, poison is a weapon. Their poison martial technique is akin to our martial arts or weapon skills. Besides, to wield poisons potent enough to affect martial artists with high resistance to poison… They also put their lives on the line in their training.”
“Poison martial technique…”
Yuri stared at the fallen Gunther, absorbing Theresia’s explanation.
‘So it’s poison potent enough to affect martial artists?’
Though he still didn’t fully understand how Susan handled the poison, she had covertly poisoned Gunther to the point where he didn’t notice.
Today’s Gunther, like the 46th cadet who faced her in a previous match, could hardly resist Susan’s poison, despite his extensive martial arts training.
This was something Yuri had never considered before.
‘That poison… How long could I withstand it? What’s my resistance to poison like?’
Unless he could completely avoid being poisoned, he wondered how well he could endure if he did get poisoned.
‘Though I haven’t experienced it yet, one thing is certain…’
After a brief contemplation, Yuri reached a conclusion.
‘Unless I find a solution to the poison… Susan Ripley will be the most troublesome opponent in this Great Dragon Battle.’
Yuri’s face stiffened slightly.
After Gunther was carried off, the round of 12 continued.
The second match featured Goetz Röthen against a fifth-year cadet.
Once again, Goetz easily defeated the fifth-year, securing his place in the round of 6.
Despite a third-year defeating a fifth-year consecutively, not many were surprised, given Goetz’s well-known skills.
With the second competitor for the round of 6 decided, the third match of the round of 12 began promptly.
“Phew…”
Theresia, who had entered the arena first, tried to calm her nerves as she waited for her opponent.
Soon, a young man appeared leisurely from the front.
Standing nearly 190 cm tall with long red hair that flared out like a lion’s mane.
A young man with an imposing presence, carrying a broad, large sword slung over his shoulder.
This was Andres Chayce, Theresia’s opponent in this round of 12.
A blood relative of the renowned Chayce family, known for their swordsmanship, and ranked 2nd among the 4th-year cadets.
In fact, in terms of sheer combat prowess, he was undoubtedly the top ranker of the 47th batch.
Andres glanced down slightly, looking at Theresia.
“Theresia Winchester, last year, you didn’t even make it past the round of 24, yet this year you’ve made it to the round of 12. Seems like you’ve been working hard.”
“I’ve been lucky. I had the advantage of facing someone from the same cohort in the round of 24.”
“What rank were you when you competed in the Great Dragon Battle as a 49th-year last year?”
“I was 5th.”
“And this year?”
“I’m the top ranker.”
“You really have worked hard, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I’ve worked hard, that’s true. And I owe it to you, senior.”
“Owe it to me?”
“You spared me in the round of 24 last year, which is why I’m here now, isn’t it?”
Theresia’s eyes flared with intense heat as she spoke.
Last year, she had joined the Great Dragon Battle at the last moment, barely scraping through as her skills improved late.
In the round of 24, she was humiliated, being taken down in just one move.
And the one who had humiliated her was the very person standing before her now—Andres Chayce.
Clang—.
Theresia aimed her spear at Andres.
“To repay that favor, I will do my utmost to bring you down, senior.”
Theresia’s bold declaration was met with a scoff from Chayce.
“Is that so? That sounds more like wishful thinking. And don’t try too hard. If you overexert yourself this time…”
As he trailed off, the sneer faded from his lips.
“…I won’t be able to spare you.”
His words hung in the air, thick with killing intent.
And with that, the clash began.
Boom!
The two collided.
A stabbing spear and a slashing sword.
Two weapons infused with immense energy clashed at a brutal pace.
Kakakang—.
Boom!
Explosions and sparks flew as only faint afterimages of the weapons were visible.
One wrong move could result in a catastrophic outcome.
Blocking Theresia’s spear, Andres let out a gleeful laugh.
“Ha-ha! Incredible… Incredible! To think you’ve improved this much in just a year!”
Last year, Theresia had failed to withstand even basic attacks and was easily knocked out.
Now, she was holding her own, exchanging blows evenly with him.
Even more surprising was that this was Theresia—the same Theresia Winchester who had been labeled as a misfit and an anomaly in the Winchester family.
Andres exclaimed with excitement in his voice,
“I’m not one for dragging things out… Let’s make this quick and intense!”
Woom—.
Andres’ sword let out a resonant hum as it glowed a fierce red.
‘Flame!’
Seeing the sword imbued with the energy of flame, Theresia’s gaze turned more focused.
‘No… This won’t be the end.’
The average rank for fourth-year cadets was 2nd-grade certified.
But as one of the top among the fourth-years, Andres wouldn’t stop there.
Just as Theresia had predicted, his sword burst into flames.
Whoosh—.
‘Fire energy!’
Announcing his status as a certified 3rd-grade fighter, Andres swung his flaming sword—a fire sword… No, a fire blade.
‘I can’t block this as it is!’
To match his strength, Theresia infused her spear with mana.
Her spear then emitted the energy of flame.
Woom—.
Seeing this, Andres let out a hearty laugh.
“To think you’ve reached the state of flame mastery! Are you really Theresia Winchester? What on earth happened in just one year?”
Theresia wished to answer his question.
That she had met good people over the past year.
That she had given her all… and gritted her teeth to follow in a boy’s footsteps.
And that was how she had made it this far.
But there was no room for that as Theresia focused on the fight.
‘This won’t do.’
She was giving her all, thrusting her spear, but her swift attacks were repeatedly thwarted by Andres’ solid defenses.
In fact, she had repelled Andres’ counterattacks dozens of times as he tried to close in.
Theresia clenched her teeth slightly.
‘If I let a single strike through… I’ll end up just like the round of 24 last year.’
Such was the threat posed by the renowned Chayce family’s swordsmanship.
There was an option to hold out and create opportunities by defending for as long as possible…
‘But dragging this out won’t be to my advantage.’
The fire energy imbued in Andres’ sword continued to damage her spear.
Though she was managing to hold out by unleashing flame energy, if the damage accumulated, her spear would eventually break.
So, she needed to end this battle as quickly as possible.
The problem was that her impatient opponent was thinking the same.
“Come on… Show me your full strength! Struggle some more!”
Fwoosh—!
The fire energy from Andres’ sword surged like an explosion.
And the distinctive red aura of the Chayce family enveloped Andres.
The Chayce family’s secret martial art.
The Fierce Attack of the Red Lion (적사맹공).
A red lion slashed at Theresia with its fierce claws.
Facing this, Theresia bit her lip tightly.
Srrk—.
Her spear began to move in a new way, quite unlike her previous techniques.