Clang!
"Pfft!"
A dizzying shock slammed into his face.
The world in Sir Neumann's vision spun wildly.
'What the hell?'
His mind went blank for a moment.
But that didn't last long.
Sir Neumann quickly pulled himself together.
He rapidly assessed his current situation.
'My attack was blocked. And I got countered? By him?'
In his slowed vision.
He saw droplets of blood floating slowly through the air.
Blood that had sprayed from his own mouth.
Come to think of it, the inside of his mouth stung.
It felt like the inside of his cheek had burst from the impact.
'Because of that brat? Me?'
Grit!
Sir Neumann ground his teeth without realizing it.
He quickly moved his legs.
He spread his feet wide and planted them firmly on the ground.
He lowered his stance, barely avoiding collapse.
"Raaah!"
The moment he regained his balance, he let out a fierce shout.
He gathered mana from his Mana Heart. Circled it through his body. He drew his sword with renewed vigor. He slashed upward diagonally from below.
It was a counterattack from the perfect opening.
But that assault was blocked in an instant.
Klang!
"Oh, you're countering right away? Last time, Sir Ulrich couldn't even get his bearings after the first hit."
"...Grrraah!"
The broad shovel blade blocked the longsword.
But Sir Neumann's assault didn't end there.
The moment he realized his counter was blocked, he changed the sword's trajectory.
He took a step forward and twisted the blade.
Scraaape!
The sword and shovel tangled, screeching like metal on metal.
'I'll disarm him like this!'
Entwine their weapons for two full rotations.
Then yank it away.
The opponent would drop their weapon nine times out of ten.
Trip the now-unarmed Lloyd.
That was Sir Neumann's improvised battle plan.
But he didn't know yet.
The sad truth that every plan looks beautiful—until you get hit.
"Tch. Disarm, huh. Good idea, but..."
Clack!
With Lloyd's meaningful words, the entangled sword and shovel halted abruptly.
No, precisely—Lloyd had stopped the shovel.
The sword stopped along with it.
At the same time, strength began draining from Sir Neumann's Mana Heart like an ebbing tide.
From the Mana Heart to his arms.
From his arms to the sword.
From the sword... to the shovel.
Like soda slurped through a straw.
Or spilled water sucked into a tissue.
His mana was being drawn into Lloyd's shovel!
"W-What the—!"
The horrified Sir Neumann tried to pull his sword back desperately.
But even that wouldn't work.
For some reason, his movements felt slower than usual.
To be precise, he couldn't use his mana anymore.
He felt like he'd instantly become an ordinary person.
Meanwhile, Lloyd?
He was charging in at a speed befitting a low-tier Sword Expert knight!
"Talk about lucky."
"...!"
Step.
So lightly.
So simply.
Lloyd slipped into his guard.
"Guh!"
Sir Neumann hurriedly tried to swing his sheathed sword.
But Lloyd's next move was far faster.
Whoosh!
"...!"
The shovel handle was already rushing toward him.
It smashed into his nose bridge before he could dodge.
Crack!
"Kuheuk!"
Had his nasal bone shattered?
The heavy, throbbing pain made it hard to open his eyes.
He staggered back three steps without thinking.
Lloyd pressed forward relentlessly.
"Truth be told, I was a bit worried. I'd never tested if a single Mana Circle could handle the mana output of a low-tier Sword Expert."
"Grrraaah!"
Sir Neumann recoiled in horror as he retreated.
He swung his sword down in a desperate motion.
It was a counter laced with the mana he'd barely recovered.
But even that counter turned to despair the instant the sword met the shovel.
The mana in the sword was absorbed into the shovel again!
'This is insane!'
Screech!
The mana-infused shovel flew at him.
The flat blade slapped him across the cheek.
His head snapped to the side, vision blurring white.
This had never happened before.
He'd never even imagined it.
'That brat is... absorbing my mana.'
Now he vaguely grasped the situation.
Which made it even harder to understand.
Absorbing someone else's mana.
Using the absorbed mana as his own.
'...How?'
It felt like cheating.
Infuriating.
But Sir Neumann didn't give up.
He fought not to fall.
He kept up futile counters.
Of course, the more he did, the harder Lloyd pressed him.
'You can't wrap your head around it, can you? You don't even understand what's happening. That's why you're losing to me. You spent the last month smugly certain you'd win. But I didn't!'
He'd analyzed his opponent thoroughly.
Predicted every scenario in the duel.
Mobilized every preparation for victory.
And this was the result.
Klang, clang!
He nimbly moved the extended shovel.
Never overextending.
Never straying from his body's centerline.
With maximally concise motions.
He parried Sir Neumann's countering sword.
The instant he deflected it, he stepped forward with his left foot and thrust the shovel blade straight.
With a final snap, he slapped Sir Neumann's cheek with the flat of the blade.
Lloyd's heart pounded like never before.
Thanks to the Mana Circle formed around it.
Whirrr!
The first weapon Lloyd had equipped for today's decisive battle.
The Mana Circle created by the Asrahan Heart Method.
It spun fiercely, powered by the mana absorbed from Sir Neumann.
His heart thrummed in resonance with the rotation.
It pumped fresh blood explosively through his body.
Blood filled with mana released from the Mana Circle.
'So this is the power of a single Mana Circle.'
He was genuinely astonished.
He hadn't expected this level of power.
He'd only anticipated absorbing Sir Neumann's mana to weaken him slightly.
But the power surging through his body now far exceeded expectations.
In other words, he could wield Sir Neumann's strength as his own!
'Sword Expert... incredible.'
He felt superhuman.
It truly hit him how strong knights like Sir Neumann were.
That's why his second weapon was the solid steel shovel.
Klang! Scraaape!
The steel shovel in Lloyd's hand flashed as it moved.
Each time, it perfectly blocked Sir Neumann's swinging sword.
It looked like a shield on the end of a long pole.
'People subtly underestimate it, but shovels are amazing tools when you think about it.'
Anyone who's done shoveling in the military knows.
A shovel isn't just a simple digging tool.
When you hit annoying kudzu roots or small tree roots while digging?
Just plant the sharpened edge and stomp.
It severs small plant stems in one swing.
It can double as an axe.
'And that's not all.'
Lloyd knew shovels had been used as weapons throughout history.
Even on the Western Front of World War I, with its horrific trench warfare.
Even in the brutal Stalingrad siege of World War II.
In close-quarters combat, shovels shone as weapons.
A committed overhead swing could cleave a helmet and crack a skull.
And shovels had even more versatile roles.
'The broad blade works like a shield. The lower edge can hook and pull an opponent's weapon. The sharp tip can thrust like a spear.'
Heck, if you flip it upside down, step on the blade, and climb?
'You can even do Sky Kong Kong!'
The MacGyver knife of the weapon world.
Lloyd had handled countless shovels.
Back when he was the platoon leader's summoned beast(?) in the South Korean military.
And when he wandered construction sites to pay tuition.
The shovel had always been his trusty companion.
It was the tool most familiar to his hands.
On top of that, he'd recently invested RP he'd saved to unlock a new talent skill.
That was his third weapon.
The 'Tool Proficiency Skill: (Shovel)' that cost a whopping 40 RP.
Ding-dong!
[Tool Proficiency Skill: (Shovel) is active.]
[My tool and I are one! Shoveling it is today!]
[Skill Level: 1]
[Stamina consumption reduced by 10% while using shovel.]
[Shovel movements 5% faster.]
[Power in shovel 5% stronger.]
[20% reduced chance of dropping shovel.]
The shovel—most familiar tool in his hands.
A skill that made shoveling more efficient.
This was the third weapon perfectly suited to him.
'And the fourth and final weapon is this.'
Step! Klang!
Lloyd's shovel moved again.
It perfectly blocked Sir Neumann's thrusting sword.
The blade never strayed from Lloyd's body centerline.
Simple yet concise and precise motions.
Maximally efficient and practical stance.
A technique so compatible with using a shovel as a weapon.
It was bayonet fighting—the combat style every South Korean man with military service had tried at least once.
Swipe, klang! Thwack, crack!
He dodged and thrust right.
Sir Neumann evaded and swung his sword horizontally.
He blocked low-left. Struck.
He followed the retreating Sir Neumann with concise steps.
He pivoted left, raised the shovel to block.
Simultaneously, he front-kicked Sir Neumann's groin.
As Sir Neumann faltered, he temple-struck with the flat shovel handle.
Crack!
"Keuk!"
Sir Neumann staggered back, reeling.
A smile crept onto Lloyd's lips as he breathed heavily.
'Bayonet fighting never fails.'
Bayonet techniques weren't weak at all.
South Korean vets dismissed them as basic because everyone learned them, but their roots lay in 18th-century European smallsword techniques.
Combined with boxing footwork. Ultimately refined through combats in World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and more.
When you thought about it, they were profoundly practical.
'And bayonet fighting synergizes perfectly with shovels!'
Plenty had probably goofed off on the job and practiced bayonet drills with shovels.
Lloyd had.
He'd added the sword basics Haviel taught him.
The effect was astounding.
Asrahan Heart Method's Mana Circle.
The versatile steel shovel.
Tool Proficiency Skill making shovels even more natural.
Practical bayonet fighting based on Haviel's teachings.
The four weapons prepared for today's duel synergized powerfully.
He wasn't just overwhelming the complacent Sir Neumann—he was dismantling him unilaterally.
"Keuaaagh!"
Smack!
Sir Neumann reeled from a shovel-handle temple strike.
But he wasn't given a chance to fall.
Lloyd's shovel, already caught up, flew again.
Clang!
The flat blade thudded into his side.
It even stabbed the instep with the sharp tip!
Crunch!
"...Kraaaah!"
Sir Neumann was going mad.
Every counterattempt drained his mana.
The bizarre shovel unleashed unpredictable attacks.
Lloyd's shovel handling was impossibly fluid.
And every motion was flawlessly concise, without openings.
'This can't be happening!'
Rage boiled.
Temper flared.
In front of most of the territory's people.
Losing to a greenhorn young master.
Getting beaten with a damn shovel, not even a proper weapon.
'I'll kill him. Kill that brat!'
Murderous intent darkened Sir Neumann's eyes.
Duel rules be damned now.
This punk humiliating him in front of everyone.
He just wanted to finish him somehow.
'Accidents in duels happen quietly often!'
A misaimed thrust piercing the heart.
Or an accidental slash severing the throat.
That stuff wasn't rare.
And if it happened now?
He was confident he could handle the fallout.
'This territory's doomed soon anyway. So I just bail a bit early! Serve the new owner, live cushy! An accident in the meantime? Unavoidable. Duel mishap—no punishment!'
So just vanish after the duel.
Leave the territory early, find the new master.
That was his plan. Sir Neumann gripped his sword hilt fiercely.
His other hand seized the scabbard.
Drew.
Shing!
The longsword, till now sheathed, bared its cold fangs.
Without hesitation, it thrust straight at Lloyd.
Lloyd's heart was at the end of that path.
"Aaah!"
Unlike before, it was a killing blow laced with malice.
The watching territory folk screamed instinctively.
Baron Frontera shot up from his seat in shock.
But not Lloyd.
'Yeah. And?'
He sensed the killing intent.
But it was still a sluggish strike.
He'd taken so many hits already—its power was spent.
Even unsheathed, Lloyd wouldn't eat such a feeble counter carelessly.
He'd anticipated something like this.
'And I was waiting for it.'
Klang!
The steel shovel blocked the longsword like it was waiting.
Just like Sir Neumann had tried earlier—it entangled the blade.
Scraaape!
Entwined, twisted, yanked, flung.
"...Huh?"
Whoosh.
The longsword slipped from Sir Neumann's hand and flew into the air.
It stabbed into the ground ten paces away.
"..."
Silence blanketed the training grounds.
Hundreds of spectator eyes widened in shock.
Sir Neumann, swordless.
Lloyd aiming his shovel at Sir Neumann's face.
An unbelievable, picture-perfect victory.
But Lloyd's business wasn't over.
"Spacing out ends the duel? Huh?"
"...!"
Boom!
Amid the collective silence, Lloyd's steel shovel flew.
It smashed the now-unarmed Sir Neumann's face even more decisively.
Venting frustration?
No.
'Now it begins. Now.'
To reiterate—he planned to uproot the rotten sprouts in this territory today.
'First, the traitor's confession.'
Lloyd's eyes gleamed coldly at Sir Neumann like never before.
(End of Chapter 16)
Read more on "novelshub.org"