Duke Pendragon

Whoosh!

The long blade snipped in half then flew high into the air before falling onto the middle of the stage.

Thud!

A piece of blade as big as a human embedded into a crack between the stone flooring. Simultaneously, a scream similar to an animal’s howl echoed.

“Kuwuaahhhhhhh!”

Paku, the one-eyed orc, wobbled and fell onto the floor with a thump. Black-red blood gushed out from his body and a small pool of blood quickly formed on the floor. Near the pool of blood, a leg, which was cut from under the knee, was rolling around.

In the time it took to breathe a couple of times, Karuta had smashed apart Paku’s weapon and cut off his leg with the combat axe.

“…..!”

People looked at the bloodied battleground in shock. Some of the weak-hearted ladies fell with their hands on their foreheads.

“Kurrrrrr….!”

Despite the severe leg injury, Paku tried to stand up using his broken blade as a makeshift crutch. He lived up to the reputation of his race, which was known as a race born to battle.

Karuta held his steel rod on his shoulder and slowly walked towards Paku. The bloodstained battle axe pointed towards Paku’s head.

“Kukue! Pretty good for an orc who only rolls around in mud. Paku lost.”

“Karuta knows Karuta is pretty good. In accordance with the law of blood, I will take your life on behalf of the earth god. Do you have anything to say?”

“I fought to my heart’s content and killed as I wished, so I have none. It’s too bad I couldn’t eat as much as I wanted.”

“You can eat as much as you want when you go back to the earth god.”

Karuta smirked and raised his battle axe up high.

“W, wait!”

Just as he was about to wield his weapon, Count Sagunda rushed out.

“What?”

Karuta turned his ferocious spirit to Count Sagunda.

“I’ve said it before, but no one can die in my mansion. There’s no exceptions, even for orcs.”

The count spoke calmly even in front of Karuta’s murderous aura.

“Damned be the land…”

Karuta cursed and turned his head. Raven, who was sitting expressionlessly, lightly nodded his head.

“Dammit!”

Karuta flung his weapons away in anger. Two heavy, giant weapons came flying at the nearby soldiers who oversaw the weapon arsenal. They quickly moved out of the way.

“Oi, you salty-smelling orc. Give thanks to the earth god. Next time you see me, you won’t get off easy.”

“Kukeke… I’ll see you in the sea next time. Paku is going to eat you in the sea.”

“I’ll pull out all of your fangs and make a necklace out of them. Ptooey! I barely even got to warm up and it’s already finished.”

Karuta spat at the ground in front of him and walked back to the side of the Pendragon family.

“E, ehem! As you can see, the first victory goes to the Pendragon family. The winner receives ten gold coins, and I will send my personal doctor to the loser. Please give a big applause to the two warriors who fought bravely.!”

“O, Oh…!”

The nobles who were staring at Karuta with terrified expressions gave awkward cheers and applause. Soon, the applause died down, and the soldiers cleaned up the blood and helped Paku return to his side.

“You dumbass orc. What’s wrong with you. You can’t even take care of that one bastard?”

“Krr, that orc who stinks of mud is strong. Paku likes to eat, but Paku is not weak.”

That was true. Paku was a member of the Latuan Orcs that controlled four of the Morte Islands. Even in his tribe, he was considered a strong warrior. But even so, Paku had lost to Toleo Arangis before, and now he had experienced his second defeat.

“Shut your mouth and take care of the bleeding. Nukan, get ready.”

“Kururu! Nukan’s opponent is a human. Toleo doesn’t need to worry. Kururururk!”

The other orc named Nukan burst into laughter and picked up two iron maces connected by a long iron chain.

“If you can’t kill that knight, then you’re going to die by my hands.”

Toleo growled at Nukan, which caused the orc to shrivel up and stand down.

“Nukan don’t want to die. Nukan will kill him.”

“Go.”

As Nukan took his steps, the iron chains dragged along the ground and created an eerie sound.

“Sir Isla.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Isla answered in a dry voice and turned to Raven. Surely, like any other master, Alan Pendragon would demand victory for the honor of his family.

Raven stood up and smiled before tapping on Isla’s shoulder.

“You’ve had a hard time keeping your temper in check. You can go wild. Show them what kind of knight Elkin Isla truly is.”

“……”

Isla’s shoulders trembled.

Even in this situation, the master of Pendragon showed consideration for the knight over his own family honor. Therefore, there was only one thing for him to do as a knight of the Pendragon family.

“I, Elkin Isla, will fulfil my duties as a knight of the Pendragon family.”

After he finished his sentence, Isla slowly raised his head. A glimmer of determination reflected in his eyes against the blazing torchlight. Turning around, Isla slowly walked onto the stage. He took off his white tailcoat jacket and threw it at Karuta.

“You little puppy scarecrow bastard…”

Karuta grumbled, but he still took Isla’s jacket and flung it over his shoulder.

Isla kept on walking, then unbuttoned his shirt. He tucked the bottom of the shirt into his pants, then took off his shirt entirely. Under the light of the torch held by the soldiers, large and small stab wounds were seen and his lean, muscled upper body was revealed.

Woosh!

Isla swung the rapier and the dagger in a crossed, downward motion. An eerie noise of iron cutting air resonated.

With his two swords down, Isla stood before the orc warrior who was at least twice his size.

“Ha…!”

The women blushed at the sight of the knight, even though they had witnessed a bloody scene just moments ago.

Isla retained an indifferent and confident attitude as he faced a beast that was twice his size. Various women found his bold attitude quite attractive. Plus, his appearance was quite charming. Under his ruffled brown hair, he had dark eyes and a toned body. His nonchalant act of taking off his shirt had also added to the charm.

“Elkin Isla, knight of the Pendragon family.”

“Kukukek! Nukan is Nukan. You’re dead today.”

Whistle!

With a short introduction, Nukan swung his two maces. The two iron maces that were each the size of a human head let out piercing screams as they rotated in the air. Orc Fear was slowly emitted from the twinkling bloodied gaze that was fixated on Isla.

However, Isla showed no reaction. He slowly circled around Nukan, holding his dagger forward while letting his rapier hang behind his back.

The two warriors were separated by 10 steps. Although it wasn’t a short distance, the iron chains were longer than that.

“Kuek!”

Krrrak!

The iron mace, which was being spun in circles, suddenly flew at Isla’s head with a fierce momentum.

Isla’s body suddenly became blurred in the light. Isla shifted over and avoided the deadly weapon as it shot right beside his head, then started running towards Nukan. But then another mace flew at Isla. Instead of slowing down or dodging, Isla jumped towards the hurling projectile.

“Ahhhh!”

“Gasp!”

Some closed their eyes in anticipation of what was about to happen. But their expectations did not come true. Isla suddenly jumped as high as his height, then stepped on the iron mace to propel himself even higher in the air.

Boom!

As Isla disappeared into the air, the two maces crashed together.

“Kurat?”

Nukan became shocked at the unexpected sight and raised his head.

Shishing!

Two swords, long and short, drew a beautiful arc through the air as they reflected the dim torchlight. Nukan raised his red eyes. That was the last thing he saw.

Thump!

As the two iron maces fell to the ground, Isla also landed right in front of Nukan. Isla didn’t even bother to glance at Nukan, who was standing still like a stone statue, and turned around.

Isla walked back to his original spot and shook off his two swords.

“W, what?”

“What happened?”

The nobles chattered and looked around in confusion.

But at that moment, Nukan moved. No, to be exact, a part of his body was dislodged from its original position. A large head fell onto the floor, and blood sprayed like a fountain as Nukan’s large body fell backwards.

Boom!

“Argh!”

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Screams erupted from the crowd at the scene that was even worse than an amputated leg. Even Toleo and Count Sagunda couldn’t hide their shock. But the man who was responsible for the commotion walked to his master with a look of indifference.

“Elkin Isla. I have completed your orders.”

“Good work.”

Isla put his hands on the blades’ handles and bowed before walking elsewhere. His steps caused the blue-faced nobles to step back and make way.

Soon, Isla stopped walking. He stopped in front of two ladies who were shaking, but still managed to stand their ground without fainting. He kneeled down to the ground on one knee.

“I dedicate my first victory as a knight of Pendragon to the baroness and Lady Pendragon.”

Lindsay had not experienced anything even remotely close to this before, so she could only nod her pale face. But Irene, who was born into nobility and lived her whole life as such, quickly put on a calm expression and stretched out her hand.

“Congratulations on your victory, Sir Isla. It’s my honor.”

Isla lightly kissed the back of her hand and stood up again.

“Wonderful! What a wonderful battle!”

“Sir Isla, is it? You’re a Cavalier of Valvas?”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve witnessed the traditional swordsmanship of Valvas!”

The older nobles and the experienced knights gathered around Isla.

It was an amazing feat for a human to defeat an orc, and the nobles were joyed and astonished at the fact. They praised Isla with excitement in their voices.

“I was born in Valvas, but now that I’ve become a knight of Pendragon, I will die in the presence of my lord. Then, excuse me.”

Isla maintained a calm expression and bowed before walking back to where Raven was.

“A real knight. He’s a real knight.”

“It’s a great fortune for the Pendragon family to gain such a great knight.”

“You can see the master through the knight. The Pendragon family will rise once more.”

Some aristocrats frowned at Isla’s cold attitude, but the older ones nodded their heads with satisfied expressions. The ladies’ favor towards Isla reached its peak as they saw his strength which was enough to topple even an orc.

However, not exactly everyone was happy.

“I can’t believe this is happening… You dare commit murder in my house? I’m going to…”

Count Sagunda was about to burst out into anger as he saw five or six soldiers rushing in to clean the mess, but Vincent stepped up and dissuaded him.

“It was my mistake to not have known the opponent’s identity as a Cavalier of Valvas. I’m sure Pendragon let him do as he wished.”

Count Sagunda was well aware of the philosophy of those that stemmed from Valvas, so he grit his teeth and simmered down.

“We need to stop them now, my lord. If anything happens in the next battle…”

“No, now that it’s come to this, Toleo Arangis must take care of the Pendragon brat. He’s lost two orcs. I’m sure it’ll be fine if he cuts off one or two limbs from the brat.”

“But if that happens, the dragon…”

“It’s Toleo’s fault then. It has nothing to do with us. The duel must continue on.” Count Saguna sternly commented.

“……”

Vincent stepped back and turned his eyes away. On one side of the stage, Toleo Arangis had slowly stood up. He carried a circular shield with a seahorse drawn on it and a cutlass.

Vincent could see a familiar spirit crawling up Toleo Arangis’ body. Vincent's eyes narrowed into slits.

‘As I thought… he’s…’

Others may think it as a fierce energy, but Vincent could tell. The spirit of Toleo Arangis had already stepped beyond human boundaries and was very close to Orc Fear.

Vincent turned his face to the other side. He sighed inwardly as he looked at the young man who slowly moved onto the stage, lifting his two arms that held two weapons that were as different from each other as their appearances.

‘I’m afraid that the Pendragon family’s done for after today… Hm?”

In the torchlight, Vincent saw a blue energy rise from Alan Pendragon that was invisible to the general public.

“That is…!”

Vincent muttered and looked in shock.

An overwhelming presence was exuding from above the young man’s shoulders. It was the same overwhelming presence that he had encountered as he had followed his master deep into a canyon.

“Dragon…! How can a human possess the spirit of a dragon…!?”

Vincent called out the name of the strongest creature on earth in disbelief.