Eternally Regressing Knight Chapter 782

782. Different people then and now

The moment of extreme pain is short, but long. I open my eyes with the remaining pain. The intense breathing calms down in two. If I focus on it because it’s painful, it will only hurt more. No matter what I do, the pain will never disappear in an instant, just like it always has.

‘sick.’

The pain he suffered right up until the moment of death was unfamiliar.
But is that important?
Several thoughts followed one another, and he endured the pain that was like an afterimage left in his body.
Encred looked ahead according to the vibration of the waves. He saw the boatman standing blankly on the boat. The lamp in his hand was like a still life painting that was still and calm, separate from the rocking of the boat.

“Is this what you meant when you said the end? Fighting and dying, then fighting and dying again? Your brain will melt from the pain.”

The boatman waved his hand that was not holding the lamp with a single word. Encred felt his body being pushed back without saying anything. It must have been his own illusion that his attitude seemed to be angry.
And when he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was standing still. The boatman’s boat and the river were not visible. This was not a dream, but reality.
Today’s repetition had already become tiresome. Encred checked the things he could see around him and his own body condition to figure out what time it was.

‘Was this the beginning of today?’

The standard for judging the beginning of the day was twisted when Balrog used his power to create a labyrinth. However, if there is an end, there must be a beginning.
The boatman set the beginning as the moment when Encred steps into the labyrinth passage and sees his first opponent.
In other words, when he meets his first opponent.

“Oh, you’re a guest?”

The opponent spoke. Encred looked at him indifferently, but his mind was filled with other thoughts.
If the boatman had given him some time, he could have collected his thoughts, but he immediately kicked himself out.
Because of this, he felt a sense of alienation. Didn’t he just fight Balrog and endure by gritting his teeth?
The afterimage of the pain had not yet gone away, and the burning smell of his internal organs wafted through his nose.

‘That’s okay.’

Encred had been through this countless times. He knew where to focus his attention each time.
The sword, the flow, the changes in Will, the results of his training, the movement of his body, the course of the fight.
He did so. He
fixed his thoughts on one side. It was one of the ways he shook off the afterimages of pain and overcame them. He focused on the elements that gave him pleasure.

‘The sword of black flame burns with just a touch.’

The fire whip moves on its own. It acts as if it has its own ego.
And.

‘The captain’s blessing is valid.’

The boatman might ask why this is a blessing.
Even though it was the moment he was struck by the power of the devil, Encred did not change. It was the same now as when he died from the first stab.
If what he had clung to in order to climb over the wall back then was the beast’s heart, what he was clinging to now was something that had not yet been established.

“What? Are you mute?”

The opponent asks as he approaches. He is the author who has hidden countless weapons in his sleeves fluttering in the darkness.
He reaches for the two swords tucked into his waistbands, but instead of drawing them, he lets them hang down. He judged that it would be more advantageous to approach unarmed than to raise the opponent’s alertness by drawing his swords.
Encred seemed to be looking at him with his eyes, but upon closer inspection, his focus was blurred. His gaze seemed to be looking far away, not at the person standing right in front of him. In other words, anyone could tell that he was lost in thought.
It was an opening that anyone with the keen senses of a knight would not miss. The opponent also noticed it. Nevertheless, Encred only continued to think.

‘Swordsmanship is a tool.’

What if those tools are mixed?

‘When you go from a knight to a knight, you naturally use your Will, and when you reach the knight level, you gather your Will and use it with determination.’

I also made a Willow blade. Balrog knew how to do the same.
Encred’s thoughts dug into me. There was a lot to learn, practice, and enlighten from the outside and inside.
So I was doing that.
It was around the time when the afterimage of the pain I had experienced today had completely disappeared. The one who was approaching blinked and muttered.

“This is it. If you took the wrong path, just leave quietly.”

It was a flat voice. If you just listened to him, it was like that, but it wasn’t what he did at all.
He squinted his blinking eyes and pretended to shift his center of gravity back as if he was going to pull away, then suddenly jumped forward.
An afterimage left on his body and drew a line. Encred’s eyes were fixating on his opponent. It wasn’t particularly difficult. It was fast, but it wasn’t something he would miss. The sense of
crisis was also low.
They were opponents with different skills to begin with, but just a moment ago, they were struggling to get even one stab at Balrog. The afterimage of the pain was blurred, but the afterimage of the feeling of fighting remained.
Encred’s reaction was immediate.
However, it wasn’t an ordinary swordsmanship.
The premise that he would counter with his opponent’s specialty was the same as when he first saw him. It was the same.

‘deception.’

He was confident in that regard.
Encred stared blankly at his opponent and then opened his eyes wide in shock as if he had just discovered it.
His opponent believed that his attack had worked, and Encred showed excellent acting skills, keeping his eyes still as if he was surprised, moving his hands and feet at a speed and direction completely different from his expression.
He stretched out his left hand and grabbed his opponent’s wrist. He pulled and broke it.
He had never stopped training to build up his strength before meeting Audin, so he had always been stronger than other mercenaries.
On top of that, he added the isolation technique that Audin had devised, and now he even used Will. Just by breaking and pulling his wrist, Encred got what he wanted.

Woohoo!

The wrist holding the dagger broke like a piece of wood. At the same time, because he pulled with so much strength, the opponent ended up rushing towards Encred.
In the meantime, the swordsman who specialized in deception also shook his other wrist and grabbed a new dagger, but he had no chance to use it.
He ran while pulling. Encred took a step back and closed the distance between him and the opponent. He tilted his neck back and stretched it out, centering on the foot he was stepping on.
No matter how fast his hand was, it couldn’t be faster than the forehead he was thrusting in while being so close. He
pushed his forehead forward and struck the area between his nose and mouth, the philtrum.

bang!

There was a sound of rock hitting rock.

“100 million.”

Instead of blood, black fog flowed from the struck author’s face, and several of his front teeth fell out.
A wound from a tooth remained on Encred’s forehead, but it was intentional.
The blood flowing from his forehead flew backwards.
Since he continued to move after the headbutt, there was no time for the blood to flow down.
Encred had already pulled out his sword and swung it with his free hand after grabbing his opponent’s wrist and twisting it.
Every movement was calculated. It was a level that could be said to be one level higher than Aker’s web. It was
a harmony of deception and a straight sword. The one who tried to deceive ended up being deceived before he could even recover.

“……!”

There was no time to be startled, so the opponent opened his eyes wide and opened his mouth slightly. Black fog gathered inside his mouth and splattered like blood, but before it could hit the ground, the Dawn Sword struck his neck.
Encred briefly observed his decapitated expression. Compared to the expression of shock he had shown through acting, this one was more realistic.
It was obvious. Encred had intended to deceive his opponent, but the one whose neck was cut off by his sword was really hurt.

‘There’s quite a lot to learn.’

Of course, I wasn’t just talking about the expression of the dead. It was a thought that came to mind as he extended his sword.
Just a moment ago, even with the simple slash, his sword naturally extended like a flash, mixed with the sword of chance, and contained the trick of the vortex.

‘Above all, it was ahead in calculations.’

Even if you don’t understand your opponent’s intentions, you can counter them with the Sword of Chance and swing your sword by optimizing your thinking.

‘What else should I mix in here?’

It was a vague feeling, but now that vagueness didn’t seem so great. The Encrid he was now was a different person than when he died from the first stab. He could learn something from one fight now.
The fight with Balrog was like that.

“Okay.”

Encred muttered to himself. It wasn’t common. It wouldn’t happen unless he was really excited.
So Balrog wasn’t the only one who showed joy, happiness, and delight.
In his inner world, the boatman just clicked his tongue and said, “What a crazy bastard.”

* * *

In terms of time, the moment that everyone, including Rem, finished fighting was the moment that Encred’s day began.
So by the time Encred headed back toward Balrog, the Mad Knights were taking a short breather.
Even so, they were aware of the things slowly appearing from one side.
Anyone could tell that there were quite a few things gathering from afar. It was annoying to count them.
Not all of them were like the ones Rem had fought or the ones Audin had blown up. Most of them, who had been immersed in the labyrinth for a long time and had no reason to remain, had blackened their eyes and were swinging their swords.
Of course, even if they were hit by that blind sword, a person would die, so the threat level could not be said to be low.

“That’s a lot. Is that brother still being caught?”

Audin clenched and unclenched his fist and asked. Next to him, Teresa glanced behind her, holding a shield in her left hand and a sword in her right. Her gaze turned to the subject of Audin’s question.
Rem, who had smashed the head of the man who had rushed at him, threw the load on his shoulder as soon as he arrived. The one who caught the thrown load was Roman.
He threw him down behind him in a panic, and the man was now sleeping soundly behind Roman.
A few of the residents gathered on one side to check the mood, and Lawford and Pell just kept watching in front while exchanging remarks like, “They keep coming?” and “Yeah.”

“That kid is not going to be the vice-captain because he keeps slacking off even at times like this.”

Rem answered, feeling the stiffness in his muscles.

“Heh heh.”

Audin laughed it off, and Luagarne, who had lost her leg and was standing on one leg, was busy assessing the situation.

“It must be Balrog, right?”

Her mouth opened, but there was no answer. Everyone else was like that. Was this a moment of heightened sense of crisis?
Roman thought so. It would be a lie if he said he wasn’t scared. Looking at the various combinations and numbers of the phantom knights rushing in front of him, his mouth almost watered.
But they didn’t. They seemed to have forgotten what it was like to be afraid. Roman thought so.

“I don’t see my fiancé.”

Sinar spoke calmly and cast her gaze into the distance. In a fight like this, there is no one who would come out of their sleep drooling and making a fuss. Of course, they would be fighting somewhere else.
She threw away her words and opened her mouth again as if it had nothing to do with what was happening.
The fairy with her extraordinary beauty was far beyond what humans could expect.

“Then you guys just block this place. I’ll be where I need to be.”

Yeah, you guys take care of this, and I’ll go do my business.

This is not much different from what was said.
Everyone except Roman was impressed by Shinar’s words. Roman was determined to protect Ragnar behind him. This was
the best he could do as an injured man limping on one leg, and the one with the least skill among them.
It would be foolish to fight in a place where you would die right away just because you decided not to give up and not be defeated. He was standing where he was because he had decided to endure.
In front of him, the ghosts or the plagues were still approaching him, each showing knightly force.
Of course, they weren’t real knights. He could tell by looking at them fighting, and he could probably fight one or two of them if he wanted to.

‘That too has its own set of deviations, though.’

Some of them were so skilled that it was dizzying to even look at them.
One of them had his head blown off by a bear named Audyn, and another was killed by a Rem cub.
Roman’s mind was filled with thoughts, and the answer to the fairy’s words came back.

“What are you saying?”

Rem’s ears are ticklish.

“Elderly sister, where are you going to get your feet out alone?”

Audyn puts his hands together in a prayer pose and says:

“Old?”

Even though she was a fairy, Sinar was still learning how to express her emotions. She scratched at her inner self and repeated the words of the bear-man who had passed by.

“Who is older?”

Audyn still smiled, and Sinar’s green eyes grew cold. Rem’s words suddenly interrupted them.

“You lazy bastard, go to sleep. If you two are going to fight, stay here and take care of those things. This vice-captain is going to go first with the stray cat.”

This time, Audin and Sinar’s gaze turned towards Rem.

“Just because you say it doesn’t mean it’s true.”
“As I said before, it’s right for the vice-captain to be a companion.”

While they were bickering, a group of phantom knights closed in. There were some that had been transformed into death knights here and there, and there were three or four dwarves riding horses with their heads on their sides, and there was even a minotaur that Encred had killed.
Roman blinked. All sorts of thoughts were running through his head, but when he saw them, it seemed like even he had no reason to be afraid. Why didn’t these guys have any sense of danger at all?