The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military

The Duke’s Eldest son Escaped to the Military (211)

Translator: Master of Djinn

67. Ancient Gods! (2)

Ariel had sufficient ground to think that she could defeat the incarnation. Having fought it once, she found that she could go head to head with it and match the speed of its lightning attacks. The destructive power of its lightning lance was also not that great: anyone attacked with the lance would feel the shock that came from the lightning magic, but that was all there was to it.

It was embarrassingly weak for the so-called power of an ancient god.

Since the shock was not all that, then the only thing the incarnation had going for it was its speed.

‘I can deal with that.’

As she thought that, she raised her sword. Speed was one of the many tools in her arsenal, and the unique characteristic of her swordsmanship was her quickblade. The more she used her sword, the faster it would get. The characteristic speed of the galactic meteor sword, almost at the speed of light, gave onlookers the illusion that they were watching hundreds of meteors falling.

The current head of the Godly Sword clan was famous for his sword that looked like thousands of meteors falling from the sky. It was the most powerful swordsmanship in existence.

Now Ariel’s swordsmanship contained the same essence. She joined together her abilities and the special characteristics of her swordsmanship, showing the full power of a 6th level that was impossible to imitate.

Clang!

-Kkk! How the……

The several lightning bolts it had sent had split up and attacked her from every direction, but she had blocked every one of them.

“Hoo…… is that all you’ve got?

She said that while looking at the incarnation, as if to infuriate it. The incarnation became furious, sparks bursting off its body. Right after, hundreds of lightning bolts fell from the sky towards Ariel. Using her galactic meteor sword and all her might, Ariel blocked all the lightning bolts. Her sword moved in all directions, becoming faster as it swung. Seeing its attacks fail yet again, the incarnation stopped making light of the situation and swung the lance with all its might.

As the sword and spear clashed against each other, sword qi and lightning scattered in all directions. Since both of them were masters of speed, they exchanged over a thousand blows even before a moment had passed. In the midst of their fight, the incarnation, who had been looking for a chance to attack, made a surprise move.

Clang!

-…… she blocked this too?

That blow had contained all its power. It had attacked at full speed, but the move was still blocked.

Unlike the shocked incarnation, Ariel was calm.

‘That’s it?’

She had purposely left herself open to that move to test the incarnation. Being able to completely block that move even when the fight was not in her favour meant that her battle moves were superior to those of the incarnation.

It was her ability, acceleration, that made this possible, one she had awakened while butchering those monsters in the southeast. While blocking the incarnation’s move, she was able to accelerate her own move, even though it had already been at max speed, a shocking double acceleration. This ability had now become one of her trump cards.

“Nothing else?”

-……..

The incarnation remained silent at Ariel’s question. As if about to finish the incarnation, she got in position. With her double acceleration, she wanted to rip it to shreds once and for all.

Able to tell what her intention was, the incarnation got into a fighting position too. For the first time in the battle, it was in proper position. It gathered all its powers that had dispersed all over, ready to attack.

Ariel immediately attacked with her sword. There was no need for her to give her opponent time to prepare.

But the moment she stabbed her sword at its chest, the lightning lance hit her sword and created a large shock wave.

“Ah!”

Having been pushed back by the lightning infused shock wave, Ariel stood and looked at the incarnation.

-I never thought that I’ld have to use this power on someone who isn’t a master.

It was a power that it had not used in a long time, and it had become dreadfully weaker than it had been in its heyday. Because of how high its level had been, it toyed around with people who had great strength, even in its weakened state, treating them as inferior. That was what had happened with Ariel. The incarnation had not wanted to condescend to using its trump card. But as it fought Ariel, it realised that the power of those who had awakened was much greater than it had thought.

-I’ll concede to one thing. The Lord God’s strength is indeed……

Even as it acknowledged how strong Ariel was, it gathered all its strength, the power so feeble it was light years away from what it used to be. Attacking her again would consume most of this strength that it had struggled to gather, but she was a human worth exerting that strength for.

-One more time, young human.

It spun its lance around and around, as it spoke. A blue lightning bolt whirled around the head of the lance, destroying everything around it.

Ariel’s face hardened at the sight of the sudden powerful force.

“Hoo……”

Ariel got into battle stance again, chiding herself for underestimating her opponent, an ancient god.

She was still too weak. She should never let down her guard, no matter what. If she had gone all out, she could have finished off the incarnation before it could gather its strength again like this. Ariel chewed her lip and raised her sword, deciding to use the very last move she had in her arsenal.

The incarnation charged at Ariel with its lance raised. Just like the last time, the hundreds of lightning flashes split and flew at her in all directions. But this time was different. Each of the lightning flashes materialised as an individual lance, and stabbed at Ariel. On the other side, Ariel’s eyes shone.

Ki-ing!

The very first lightning lance that came at Ariel bounced off her sword. As the other hundreds followed after the first, she destroyed those too, all in a matter of seconds. The lightning bolts flashed through the air, leaving beams of light where they passed, while Ariel’s sword that blocked the bolts created a pool of light. The sword qi shone brightly, like stars in the night sky.

-……you had something else hidden?

Ariel did not respond to the question. She had not shown all of her swordsmanship afterall. ‘Ariel’s Galactic Meteor Sword technique – Meteor Shower.’ This was a sword technique she had created herself and was unique to her. As she swung her sword downwards, the pool of light floating in the sky began to pour down on the incarnation holding the lightning lance. Ariel attacked it just like it had attacked her. Hundreds of light rays fell, scorching where the incarnation had stood. As if that was not the end of it, she charged and released several attacks that went straight for its chest.

“Hoo……”

Having poured out all her power, Ariel took a deep breath. She had not yet perfected everything about the Meteor Shower technique, but it was still immensely powerful even in its unfinished form. She had also received the star power as an ability when the apocalypse started. Whenever she mixed her force with mana and attacked with her sword, one part of it became star power, remaining for a long time and allowing her to last long while fighting. Not only that, she could use that remaining power later as well. What Ariel had just done was using that remnant power. She used the star power and her own sword qi to create a meteor shower like the Godly Sword clan head’s. Although the technique was still incomplete, it had drilled dozens of holes in the body of the incarnation.

-……Astounding. That was a master level skill.

She shook her head resolutely at its words.

“It is still unfinished.”

It looked like a master level skill, but Ariel was certain that it was not. Maybe it was comparable to the Godly Sword clan head’s swordsmanship, but she would not dare call it master level, especially because she had seen how Iron was in battle countless times. For her, Iron was the yardstick for what master-level should be, a level where one had the power to easily handle all beings, except the divine beasts, with other-worlders being number one in the category of ‘all beings’.

She believed she had to be at that level before she could be called ‘master-level’.

If Iron had known what Ariel’s thoughts were, he would have been speechless. Even if his holy power was removed from the equation, because of the great power of his title effects, it did not make sense to compare it to the power of regular masters.

However, since Iron was the master she had watched most closely, in her point of view, he became the standard.

-……incomplete?

The incarnation felt bitter at having lost to an incomplete technique, its body gradually disappearing.

-I hope I get to fight you again someday.

With those last words, the incarnation disappeared completely. Ariel looked around her.

Her victory had dealt a heavy blow to the morale of the confederation’s army. The incarnation that they had taken for a master was defeated by the enemy commander.

“Charge!”

As soon as Ariel raised her sword and gave the order, the 21st corp that had been nearby roared and attacked the enemy frontlines, with Ariel at the vanguard. With each ray of light that beamed from her sword, soldiers of the confederation’s army fell to her left and right. A few incarnations rushed to block her, but when even the lance-wielding incarnation had been knocked down, they were in no way a match for the Mobile Field Army. With that one incarnation gone, the Mobile Field Army began gaining ground on the battlefield.

Meanwhile, the Command defence forces and the 22nd Corps had begun an aerial battle. They fought fiercely against the giant, drake knights of the confederation’s army and the fleet of airships.

“Did they win the land battle?”

Cardro chuckled as he watched the ongoing land battle. Ariel had eliminated the incarnation that had seemed impossible to deal with. In that case, he couldn’t drop the ball on his end. Although he did not have such profound talent like Ariel did, he could certainly deal with the other incarnations.

“Surround them all! Don’t let it escape!”

Following Cardro’s order, all the drake knights flew up and surrounded the bat-shaped incarnation with large wings. The air force of the confederation army had tried to gain control of the air space by using the bat god. The bat incarnation had initially let out a large shriek containing considerable attack power in it, but this was blocked by the airships’ shields. Then the bat had continued to fly around, causing great damage to the airships. The bat’s cry had ultrasound waves mixed into it, making the incarnation very difficult to deal with.

However, instead of making the entire air force focus on the bat god, Cardro led only the drake knights to deal with the incarnation, leaving the rest of the air force to deal with the confederation’s air force.

-Bbiiiiiii!

“Everyone, behind me!”

Cardro shouted, ordering the knights to gather behind him. Then he swung his sword to destroy the wave and its force, giving the drake knights enough space to fight in.

“Charge in!”

Having observed that the bat god would need time to recover after using its power, and that its movements had slowed down, Cardro quickly steered his drake towards the god. Surprised, the bat god immediately tried to flee backwards.

“Don’t let it escape! Once we take care of it, we’ll have a chance of winning!”

“Yes, sir!”

The drake knights replied loudly as they followed closely behind him. When the confederation’s air force saw that the bat god was in danger, some of their drake knights ran to its aid. But they were impeded by the drake knights from the Command defence troops, preventing them from disturbing Cardro and the knights following him.

The bat god used the sound wave attack again, and Cardro used all his might to parry it.

“Cough!”

“Commander!”

“The battle is not over yet. Don’t give them an open to attack.”

A surprised drake knight next to Cardro tried to approach him, but Cardro shook his head.

“We will be victorious if we just chase after it. So we absolutely cannot let it escape.”

The drake knight nodded, his eyes reddened and tearful. Having stopped the knight from saying anything, Cardro once again led the rest of the drake knights to pursue the bat god ferociously. Meanwhile, the rest of the Mobile Field Army’s air force began to gain an upper hand in the battle.

With the battle now in the favour of the Mobile Field Army both on land and in air, Iron began to feel relaxed. On the other hand, the two masters and the six other-worlders who had attacked him found the turn of things insufferable. They had been surprised at how much stronger Iron was then they had predicted, but they had prepared for the worst before they came to the battlefield. If they could bring down Iron who was known as one of the strongest on the continent, then they could deal with the Mobile Field Army with their hands tied behind their backs. They had also used the incarnations of the ancient gods, thinking that doing so would give them a greater advantage.

But the progress of the battle was different from what they had expected. The lance-wielding incarnation had been defeated by Ariel, while the incarnations that were in the air could not even exert any great powers.

There was a very simple reason why the situation in the aerial battle turned out that way. Each of the drake knights of the Mobile Field Army was stronger than they’d thought, as was the technology fitted onto the airships. The airships had the mana guns, including the large mana guns, that had excellent performance, and their defensive mechanisms were almost foolproof. The airships of the Mobile Field Army could take five direct shots and still remain in great condition, unlike the airships of the confederation that fell apart the instant they were hit with a large shot. It was these differences that gave the Mobile Field Army the upper hand.

Although the Mobile Field Army had the short end of the stick in terms of troop numbers, it was no problem at all since they had always fought in unfavourable conditions.

“I think we’ve got this one in the bag, no?”

Iron smiled as he looked at the two masters.