Emperor Has Returned

Juan could no longer sit by and leave the situation to Swallen.

When he had asked her to guide him to his destination, he didn’t take into account that the situation would turn this bad.

“Get off.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure that I can protect you while I’m fighting. So, get off.”

Swallen thought about refuting but Juan didn’t wait idly. Just like what Swallen did to the mercenaries, Juan threw her out of the carriage.

As expected of an elf, Swallen comfortably landed with both feet on the ground.

Juan took the reign and sharply turned the direction. The Paladin’s followed suit, turning sharply to match the trajectory of the carriage.

The Paladins decided to ignore Swallen, unlike the mercenaries for she was too far away from the path they were giving chase. She soon disappeared into the red dust.

“Traitor!”

Beltre shouted loudly.

He took out the green flag that was strapped onto his back. The Paladins morphed into a convex shape as they approached the carriage.

Beltre swung his flag. Immediately, spears emitting a white light began to form in the hands of his knights and were used to rain down upon the carriage.

With a roar, the carriage was turned into tatters.

“Surround and stand by!”

The Paladins surrounded the carriage in a circular shape as the green flag was swung once more.

Then they waited for the red dust to die down.

After ordering his knights to be on alert with their spears of wrath, Beltre fixed his attention towards the dust.

Suddenly, the red dust roared up.

Juan who’d appeared in a flash, swung his dagger at a Paladin knight. Movement that even a Paladin on alert would find it diffuclt to react to.

Even though a Paladin’s shield could guard an enemy’s attack as long he was on alert, Juan attacked having expected this.

After kicking the shield away, Juan turned his body around midair and drove his dagger into the back of the Paladin’s head.

No, it should have been driven in, but there was one other that had moved faster with his sword than Juan did.

Underneath his visor, green snake like eyes stopped him from going through with his attack. Juan couldn’t help but doubt his eyes.

‘He tracked the speed of blink?’

Only blink users could successfully track the movement of blink. And that was under the condition that the direction of the attack was presumed.

Before he could think about it more, blood sprayed from Juan’s cheeks. Time around him slowed down.

It had happened before the Paladin who got attacked had even realised Juan had attacked him.

Juan felt the Paladin knight who blocked his attack stab at his body in quick succession.

‘Acceleration magic? No.’

This kind of speed wasn’t possible with simply accelerated movement.

This was blink.

Magic that compressed the distance between spaces. The Paladin was using blink naturally as if he was breathing.

To add to that, he wasn’t simply shooting out his body uncontrollably. The motion of his swings, the way his feet touched the ground, every action that he took incorporated blink in order to enhance his speed.

To Juan, he found this crazy. If his body couldn’t support the speed in which he travelled, it was entirely possible that his limbs would rip off or break.

But the Paladin in front of him was achieving this with ease. It seemed no more natural to him than breathing.

But, it appeared that his swordsmanship wasn’t as proficient. Which was understandable as his speed would have easily been enough for most foes till now. Majority would have died without even seeing the edge of his blade.

None of the attacks onto Juan were particularly lethal.

Then, Juan noticed the smile coming from his eyes underneath his visor.

As if he was enjoying this.

‘This guy……?’

Haven’t experienced being looked down upon in a long time, the edges of Juan’s mouth flicked up.

As Juan’s back was about to hit the ground, the Paladin thrusted his sword towards his heart. But with a heavy thud, the sword bounced off.

Juan used this opportunity to distance himself away while the Paladin was left startled.

Even though he could have followed Juan right away he chose to stand by and watch. Blood smeared out from several areas on Juan’s body where he’d been cut.

Still having not realised what was happening, the other Paladins only now noticed Juan who’d jumped out from the dust. Beltre slammed his flag into the ground.

“Brother Marco!”

“Yes. Brother nim. I was simply checking what we’re dealing with. It seems like he’s able to use blink. We might be dealing with an illegal magician.”

The man with snake-like eyes called Marco sniggered as he loosened his grip on his sword. Juan thought about how he was going to deal with his opponents. He hadn’t faced an opponent that could freely use blink as if he was breathing.

Though he also enjoyed using blink during his reign, he’d never thought about incorporating it into every part of his movement.

“A type of grace, I assume?”

Juan asked.

“That’s right. Grace that the emperor saw to benefit me with. A lot of hardships were endured so that I could use this grace.”

Marco arrogantly answered back as if he was hearing a will. Though it felt tasteless, Juan understood his confidence.

‘To use it properly, he would’ve had to endure at least 10 years of pain.’

There would have been many instances where he would have found himself close to death. Unlike accelerating a body, he was compressing the space between spaces. It wouldn’t have been surprising to see his arms fly off during the earlier parts of his training.

Juan guessed, this was only possible with the help of the church where infinite healing was available.

And with the church helping him, it’s only natural that he’d want to be compensated for the psychological pain he’d endured. But the problem is that it seemed like he needed to fulfill his deep desire to kill other people in order to be compensated.

Juan felt a bit restless and disappointed that his power was being used in this way.

“I don’t know what to say……….”

“Those are your final words? I don’t know what to say?”

Juan sighed, declining to reply. Along with the sound of him exhaling, his entire body began to turn red. His blood boiled until it disappeared with a red steam rising from his body.

The Paladins wore nervous faces from feeling the heat radiate from Juan.

“As expected, he’s able to control heat. I think this is the one, Brother Beltre nim.”

“I think so too. End him Marco. Take it seriously.”

Juan held out his dagger.

“Lets go again then.”

Marco slightly scowled.

“Okay, use your blink if you so choose. It’s the first time I’m facing someone that can use it. This is exciting.”

“I don’t need to.”

“If you’re thinking of using it to get away, think again……”

A head on confrontation. In Marco’s eyes, Juan simply looked like a brat that was too eager to be killed. Juan could only grin.

“I slightly feel for you.”

“What?”

“Feel sorry that you overstrained your body just so that you could swing some knives a bit faster. 10 years….., if you’d only allocated that time into perfecting your swordsmanship, you may have reached greater heights than you find yourself now.”

Marco’s face turned to rage. Juan’s words were basically contradicting what he did for half of his whole life.

“Spouting bullshit because you’re about to die?”

As Marco stepped forward to use blink, Juan focused his force onto his dagger.

As their weapons clashed, Juan moved in closer as if he had been waiting for Marco to move.

His dagger stopped, Juan rotated his body. Not caring about whether his body was cut, he moved deeper towards Marco.

‘Idiot.’

Marco went about cutting Juan’s body while ridiculing him. He was going to shed his skin for his arrogance and let him bleed and gradually die while being skinless.

Seeing the sunlight bouncing from the blade, to the people looking on, it looked like Juan had moved deeper into a giant grinder. It was a foregone conclusion that his body would be sliced up like a dry fish.

However Marco was feeling something different. That his swings weren’t connecting.

‘What?’

He was sure that his blade was cutting, stabbing, slicing Juan’s body. He was going to let him die due to blood loss but Juan’s silhouette was continually blurring past him.

As if he was cutting through a fog.

“Pointless tricks!”

Marco’s swings became faster. His eyes in full concentration, Juan ventured towards him. Marco didn’t like what he saw in Juan’s eyes.

Juan was still not using blink. However, sweat was starting to form on Marco’s forehead.

On the other hand, not a single drop of blood was on Juan. He wasn’t even sweating.

Like a ghost, like a fog, Juan was still dodging Marco’s attacks.

And then, with a loud clang!, Marco’s sword vibrated. Marco regathered himself after briefly flinching.

While irritated, Marco was confident that this brat couldn’t dodge forever. He on the other hand had the power of grace and the snake to keep using blink.

Not sure whether Juan knew this or not, he was continuing to clash his dagger against his sword.

In a blink of an eye, several swings clashed into each other. Sparks arose from two metal clanging against.

More and more, Marco was starting to feel nervous and frustrated. He briefly surveyed what he was seeing.

‘…………what? He’s getting even faster?’

A swing that had the power of blink behind it was lethal enough just due to the sheer speed.

But without even using blink, Juan was reading every trajectory and landing counter swings every so often.

His physicality, his equipment and to add to that, his grace. Marco was superior in every department.

And yet, Juan was putting Marco back against a wall.

Stabbing, slicing, striking, cutting. Juan’s disorderly pattern of attacks had a rhythm behind it. This pattern of attack which was hard to call this as swordsmanship, was getting faster.

Eventually Maro was on the defensive.

The sweat on his forehead was starting to form into droplets. There was no sign of him taking this easy anymore. He was struggling to even stop Juan’s attacks.

For a moment, Marco thought as if he was fighting an eighth armed monster in Juan. The fact that Marco who was using blink thought this, confirmed the fact that everyone else was also thinking the same thing or worse.

It was hard to see who was attacking and who was defending with a normal pair of eyes.

“Bloody…….tricks!”

Marco knew that he couldn’t hold on if things sped up any faster. He was beginning to doubt the reality of the situation. Does this bastard even tire?

Marco was an established Paladin knight that had grasped the power of blink.

He gave his life in overpowering with speed. It was hard to acknowledge the fact that his speed was lacking.

“Die!”

Biting his lips, Marco thrusted his sword vigorously. A desperate strike that had put his life on the line.

Juan’s eyes briefly flashed. And as if he’d waited for this moment, he drove the tip of his dagger at Marco’s sword.

Clang! Clink!

A sound hard to believe echoed throughout.