Swordmeister of Rome

<You find me dull? It's better that I'm dull than active in your case. About 200 times better that is.>

Excerpt from Black Moon Karakal, Ra-Bander from 150 years ago.

...….

Sian was relieved to be out of war, but it didn't feel good. It was good that he didn't have to fight, but he could not stop thinking about those who were left behind. Yet he couldn't interfere out of remorse. He was too powerful to interfere lightly. If he interfered in the world just because of his emotions, he would destroy thousands of lives. Therefore, Sian avoided trouble and made his world smaller.

If Usharan Kingdom did not cause any problems against Sian and his family, there was no need to fight. That was when Sian felt the tremor coming from the Con-Tian Region.

'So they used it…'

It was hidden, but Sian felt a terrible Exar that was sleeping under the castle. The reason why he wanted to leave the battlefield was because if that was used, Sian had no way to save anyone else other than his brother and Celine.

Right after it was activated, the magic covered the entire castle and the region with one small black sphere. The sphere that stretched across a five-mile radius captured everything… the Kel-Rufens, the Kanuans, the soldiers, the castle, and shrank all of it into the size of a human head. Nothing was left.

Even the part of the mountain that it contained was gone. It was as if something had bitten off a part of the mountain.

The sphere then fell down to the ground and the air was sucked into the space. Then it exploded with a loud sound and sent out a dust cloud all the way to where <Dragona> was walking.

Sian, who was looking at all this, narrowed his eyes as if he had found something in the dust cloud.

'Haha…'

Sian laughed hollowly.

Celine, who was watching unbelievable sight unfold, frowned as the dust cloud filled the entire area. Then a loud thundering sound erupted as the small sphere dropped down to the ground. After looking through the dust cloud, she noticed a human-like shape appearing in the Con-Tian, or what used to be Con-Tian.

"Huh?"

The Dragona next to her gasped as he too noticed something.

'Are Krashana and the other soldiers alive?'

The Dragona who felt sad for those that were left behind brightened up. Surely they had a way of surviving such a powerful attack. However, they were left to despair.

What appeared through the dust cloud were the Kel-Rufens.

"Dammit… Krashana… Grandal… bastards. I almost got killed back there!" Nazgal mumbled as he walked out of a dust cloud. He would've died if it wasn't for General Cordan. The <Explosive Fire> contracted everything within a five-mile radius into a small sphere. It would be weird if anyone survived through that. Even a Grand Bander could not survive the attack.

When he felt the enormous Exar flowing from below, he gathered the Kel-Rufens and the other Bander users around General Cordan. It was too late to run away and they needed to rely on General Cordan. He had the top-grade artifact, <Gate of Narangel>.

Named after legendary demon, <Narangel>, who was known to have played with dimensions, the artifact allowed the user to move sixty-six people to another destination within fifteen-miles once per day.

Most of the soldiers died, but he was able to save his generals and sixty Kel-Rufens. Then Nazgal turned to <Dragona> who was walking far away in the distance. He remembered Prince Rakun's another order.

<It might be hard, but if you can quickly conquer Con-Tian and have time to chase Dragona, chase them and kill the Grand Bander named Kalagul. It's rare for a Grand Bander to act outside his country.>

If a Grand Bander fought within the Con-Tian Region along with the <Black Star>, it would've been hard. Yet, at the current moment, the Grand Bander was an easy target. That was why he was not bothered about the Dragona warriors leaving since he would be able to ambush the group. The civilians would slow them down and there was certainly enough time for Cordan and his Kel-Rufens to chase them afterwards. Besides, the reason for General Cordan's presence was to chase after Dragona by using the artifact if they got too far away.

"So General Cordan, you have not forgotten."

"I almost died there! Let's finish them and go get some rest."

Cordan voiced his thoughts, to which Nazgal agreed. They had sixty Kel-Rufens. It was going to be easy. Nazgal then ordered the Kel-Rufens to attack at once.

'Ha…'

Sian stayed put because he didn't want to side with anyone. To him, Con and Usharan were the same. Even if it was his own country, he wasn't interested. It was only because Rian was siding with Con that Sian helped Rian steer clear of danger. Sian didn't want to help one side.

That was why he let go of the fact that they tried to kill Rian.

They attacked only because Dragona was protecting the castle.

But it seemed foolish to not fight when the Usharan was still chasing after them. Even when they showed that they wanted to stay out of the war, Usharan still attacked them. If Sian wasn't here, everyone here would've been killed. Kalagul, Rian, and even the civilians.

Sian gritted his teeth. He pulled out his sword that he had never drawn once until today. The toys weren't at fault. He decided to put down the toys fast and beat up those culprits who stayed behind.

'Idiots…'

Why were they attacking when they were trying to retreat?

Kalagul was surprised by the attack, but he quickly ordered for everyone to get into formation. Rian and Celine reorganized everyone, but it was hopeless. Sixty Kel-Rufens was simply too much. Ten or fourteen was the maximum for Kalagul.

Kalagul began wielding Bander and Exar together. Then he noticed that the Kel-Rufens who were running at them began swirling.

'What?'

He looked more closely and all of Kel-Rufens were swirling. It was weird. Upon a swirling Kel-Rufen, another Kel-Rufen was forced to overlap with it. Then the right one overlapped that. Then the left. A moment later, all sixty Kel-Rufens were stacked on top of each other in one spot.

If Krashana was alive, she would've gasped in shock. It was what was used to destroy the four Kel-Rufens at once. The only difference was that it was now sixty of them.

At that moment, a sword penetrated out from the center, like a nail piercing a thick stack of papers. The sword destroyed all the cores of the Kel-Rufens and it was pulled back, but the end of the sword broke and fell to the ground.

Kalagul picked up the sword piece that had broken off and found something interesting. The sword was so clean that it hadn't been used at all. It was broken due to powerful magic, but the piece itself was extremely clean. There was only one person in Dragona who did not use his sword.

'…Sian?'

Kalagul glanced around, but there was no Sian. Then he heard faint screams from far away through the dust cloud.

When the dust cloud subsided, Kalagul and all of Dragona were able to see who was making the sound. Beyond the destroyed Kel-Rufens, six men were getting beat up.

"YOU! I! WAS! JUST! GOING! BACK! NICELY! DID! YOU! NEED! TO COME! AFTER! US?"

"ARGH!"

"I WANTED! TO GO! BACK! NNGH!"

Four of them had already fainted and two of them were being beaten up by side of the broken sword that Sian was holding.

'It is… that Nazgal… I'm not sure who the other man is.'

Kalagul decided to wait. It didn't matter who it was. If Sian was able to destroy sixty Kel-Rufens at once, two Master warriors were no match for him. Kalagul only needed to pick them up after Sian finished his business with them.

'I should beat them up myself when he's done,' he thought as he began ordering the <Dragona> warriors who were staring at Sian in disbelief to gather the destroyed Kel-Rufens. They were useless without their cores, but they would still serve as valuable pieces of information. Kalagul began calming people down and began working as Sian might take some time to finish.