Episode 713
Chapter 180: Each Their Own Battle (3)
Anne swung her twin swords lightly, sending out a sharp wave of sword energy. She brushed aside the charging Tona brothers and aimed straight for Mary.
But the Tona brothers dodged Anne’s sword energy and, with a sudden burst of strength, smashed through a section of the outer castle wall where Mu and Anne were standing.
Because the wall crumbled, Mu and Anne had to leap to find a safe landing spot and quickly reassess Mary’s position.
Mary was already charging toward the inner fortress, but dust and debris momentarily obscured her from view.
[These pests…!]
“Heh heh heh, missed me, didn’t you?”
“You thought we’d just fall down with one hit, huh?”
[Anne, you take those two. I’ll go after Mary.]
Mu’s words stopped abruptly as he flinched and looked ahead.
Daytona was already standing before him, pointing a greatsword at him.
“We’re the ones you should be worried about, Mu. Don’t underestimate us. Then again, you probably have no idea how much effort we’ve put into catching you all this time… so I guess that’s understandable.”
“Oh, still clueless and worrying about Sister Mary, huh? Hey, Anne, snap out of it! You almost lost your neck just now, you know? What, you think it’s no big deal because you can just reattach it if it gets cut off?”
A thin trickle of chaos energy dripped down Anne’s neck like blood.
Heitona, out of habit, tried to lick the chaos off his chain sword, but realizing it wasn’t blood, he spat it out.
Mu whipped up a gust of sword wind, blowing away the dust.
Mary was nowhere to be seen.
Irritation flared sharply, but the sisters quickly gave up on Mary and faced the Tona brothers.
After all, Illina was guarding the inner fortress, so there was no need to chase Mary too hard.
But the fact that this whole situation had come about because of the Tona brothers—whom they usually looked down on like bugs—made their anger boil over.
[Mary would’ve been better off dying by our hands… She still doesn’t get it. I’ve changed my mind. I’ll deal with you now. And I’ll let you live. You’ll get to watch all the traitors who defied Mother meet their end.]
“Blah blah, you’re so noisy! Here, take this! The family’s eleventh ultimate technique!”
“Eleventh?”
There were only ten ultimate techniques in the Runcandel family. For a moment, the Mu sisters wondered if there was some secret technique they didn’t know about.
In other words, they’d been caught off guard. Meanwhile, the Tona brothers had already unleashed their own “combined technique.”
“I’ve faced countless swords before, but I’ve never seen such a messy, disorganized, and low-level joint attack. And yet, the world’s greatest swordsman, Runcandel, shows me this as a new ultimate technique…”
“Ah… so it’s that bad, Lord Hedo?”
“It’s absolute trash. I can’t even imagine such a filthy sword style.”
“Is there no way to improve it?”
“None… But it’s not a sword to just throw away. It’s so chaotic that it can actually be effective sometimes. Most top-tier experts would be thrown off by this kind of attack. It might work well against those lacking depth. Hmm, have you named it yet?”
“We called it ‘Tona Rampage.’”
“Tona Mess, Tona’s Lazy Fight, or Brawl might be more fitting names… But since it’s an ultimate technique, the name should sound a bit more dignified. It’s meant to confuse the opponent first, then finish the fight.”
The Tona brothers shouted that their combined technique, “Tona Rampage,” was the family’s eleventh secret technique because Hedo had advised them so right after they perfected it.
‘This… is the family’s eleventh ultimate technique?’
No way.
As the rampage began, the Mu sisters’ faces twisted in disgust.
True to its name, the Tona brothers were tearing through everything around them.
The greatsword sliced the ground while the chain swords tore through the gaps, their rampage never pausing for a moment.
The problem was that none of their countless attacks were landing on the Mu sisters.
Mu and Anne swatted away flying rock fragments with bitter smiles.
“Next up, the third ultimate technique: Meteor Shower!”
“The fifth secret technique: Lightning Thrust!”
When the Tona brothers babbled nonsense mid-rampage, the sisters flinched a couple of times, then gathered their energy to crush them with sheer force. There was no better way to counter such a shallow sword style.
But the Tona brothers seemed to have anticipated this. Just as the Mu sisters gathered their energy, they unleashed their real ultimate techniques.
Lightning Flash and Falling Flower—the fourth and sixth ultimate techniques of Runcandel. Daytona executed Falling Flower, Heitona Lightning Flash, bursting out from the rampage.
Clang! Swoosh!
The brothers’ and sisters’ swords clashed, sending shockwaves rippling out.
The Tona brothers were pushed back more, but they quickly resumed their rampage, turning the Mu sisters’ insides upside down.
“Ku ku ku ku.”
“Fooled you again!”
Mu and Anne met all the conditions Hedo had mentioned.
They were experiencing this ridiculous ultimate technique for the first time, and though strengthened by chaos energy, they lacked depth as warriors.
[Wow, what a truly bug-like technique.]
Anne scoffed, but the sisters clearly couldn’t counter the Tona Rampage effectively.
The “one hit” the Tona brothers had promised Mary was putting heavy pressure on the sisters.
However, the rampage had a fatal flaw.
It drained their stamina terribly.
The Tona brothers could only maintain the rampage for about ten minutes at most.
They had to win within that time or rely on allies for support to survive.
After that, they wouldn’t have the energy to run away.
As the battle between the Tona brothers and the Mu sisters raged on, new enemies appeared on the battlefield behind them, out on the plains near Ricalton Castle.
“Jushen, are you okay?”
Luton shouted. The former execution knight of Runcandel, he was currently leading the youngest division to rescue prisoners.
Fragments kicked up by the giant beast’s fists flew relentlessly toward Luton and his division.
Thanks to Hedo, they rarely took direct hits, but dangerous moments still came.
“I’m fine!”
“Stick close to Scout and rest for a moment. You can’t keep going if you’re this exhausted. Mesa, you take over Jushen’s area for now.”
“Yes, Lord Luton!”
The plains were riddled with massive cracks caused by the giant beasts.
While grabbing a fruit about to fall into a fissure, Luton discovered it led to an underground tunnel.
‘This must be what Lord Jin mentioned…!’
Flash!
As Luton realized this, a streak of sword energy shot up from below, grazing his cheek.
He stepped back and swung his sword, drawing the youngest division’s attention.
Black-robed knights emerged from the tunnel.
Luton recognized their attire as the old-style Black Sword Order robes he’d worn as an execution knight.
[Luton… so you’re really alive.]
“Vex, so it was you. Then Line, Rihanna, and Sinatra must be with you.”
[It’s an honor to be remembered, former execution knight Luton Perman.]
Black Sword Order: Subdue Joshua Runcandel.
Understood!
Line, Vex, Rihanna… even Sinatra. So all of you were part of the Black Sword Order…!
Vex, Line, Rihanna, Sinatra.
They were the knights who had subdued Joshua when Rosa had him fall from grace.
Before joining the Black Sword Order, they had served alongside Luton as execution knights.
“I heard from Lord Jin that you’re still serving as Rosa’s lapdogs. I never thought you’d stay even after the family fell into this state. If you had any pride, you’d have chosen to fight alongside the resistors and died when Rosa fell. But here you are, crawling out.”
[Abandoned and lucky to be taken in by the 12th Cavalry, the hunting dogs sure talk a big game. So, will you swear loyalty to the family again? Then you might become Runcandel’s execution knights once more.]
“Shut up and fight. My dead comrades are waiting for you in the afterlife… Youngest division! Retreat immediately and relocate. If possible, fall back to where Lord Hedo is!”
Four chaos knights stood before Luton.
Though outnumbered, they were already more than the youngest division could handle.
Luton was trying to buy time for his division to escape.
But from the cracks near the youngest division, three more black-robed figures were emerging.
[Long time no see, you sons of Jin Runcandel.]
[Don’t forget our voices, do you?]
“Kajin Romero, the Haas brothers…!?”
Kajin Romero, Mile Haas, and Lima Haas.
They were mid-level cadets from Mu and Anne’s faction. They had been sent on a mission with Jin but were abandoned by Mu and Anne and expelled from the family.
No one in the mid-level cadets mourned their exile, due to the atrocities they committed while riding on Mu and Anne’s backs.
Kajin Romero’s words as he left the cadet hall.
“Wow, I never thought I’d run into those bastards here.”
“Looks like after being abandoned by Mu and Anne’s faction, they crawled back into the rotten Garden of Swords. Well, the Garden of Swords is the perfect stage for trash like you.”
The youngest squad straightened their formation and glared at the Kazin group.
But Mesa decided that Luton’s orders took priority.
“Belop, Skut, and I will stay behind to handle them. The rest, fall back and report the situation to the rear. If we don’t, there’s no way to save Sir Luton.”
It was a battle between those defiling Runcandel and those trying to reclaim it.
The former held an overwhelming advantage.
Following Mesa’s command, the youngest squad retreated, while those remaining spread out to prevent the enemy from pursuing.
New skirmishes were breaking out all across the battlefield.
Most were fights like those between Jin and Dipus, Merry and the Prophet, the Tona brothers and the Mew siblings, or the youngest squad and the Knights of Chaos—battles between Runcandel and the corrupted Runcandel.
But on the opposite side of the youngest squad, a clash was beginning between the Empire’s former special forces and the current special forces.
“Kaak!”
Alisa screamed as something struck her, sending her flying.
“Alisa Badger, former member of Special Forces Unit 2 and traitor to the Imperial family. In the name of the great Biment royal house, I will execute you.”
Codename Rats, former captain of Biment Special Forces Unit 3.
He had somehow slipped into the chaos of the battlefield and now had his sword pointed at the fallen Alisa.