Chapter 138 – The Black Knight (2)

After unexpectedly becoming stronger upon returning to Earth, I began to wonder something.

If I, who had suddenly grown stronger, were to fight for my life, how powerful of a knight could I defeat?

I had dealt with undead that were difficult for knights to handle, and I had fought against giant monsters, but I hadn’t properly fought against a human knight.

Of course, I had sparred many times, but those sparring sessions were different from life-and-death battles.

In that sense, the fight with the undead Dragon Knight was a good opportunity to gauge my strength against a human opponent.

Moreover, since the parking lot exit seemed blocked, there was no way to avoid the fight.

Suddenly, it had turned into a life-or-death battle, but when I thought about it, there was never an easy fight.

No matter how much of a difference in strength there was, a single mistake could cost you your life in a real battle.

However, the knight before me was a tough opponent.

I had managed to prevent him from using his dragon, one of his weapons, but as a result, I had been separated from my party members.

Even without his dragon, he was still a formidable knight.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

He easily blocked my sword strikes, which I had put my all into, and he moved without caring about the wounds I had managed to inflict.

Thanks to my heightened senses and mana detection, the darkness of the underground parking lot wasn’t a problem, but it wasn’t a problem for him either, being undead.

Furthermore, although it was a large underground parking lot beneath the apartment complex, it wasn’t spacious enough for mana-wielding knights to move around freely and fight.

Unable to fight while retreating like I had on the surface, I had to face him head-on.

Sword energy surged, and his aura enveloped the surroundings.

Pillars collapsed, and abandoned cars were sliced apart.

Amid the wreckage of the cars, we swung our swords at each other.

Swords clashed, and armor was torn apart. Wounds multiplied, and blood and pus flowed.

Thanks to my armor, I didn’t suffer any fatal injuries, but my newly acquired armor was now in tatters.

Still, for every injury I sustained, I managed to land a blow on him.

I pierced his neck, tore open his side to the point where his organs were visible, and cut his arm to the bone.

I wasn’t sure if it was because he had become undead or if my skills had improved more than I thought, but I was able to inflict far greater damage on him than I had suffered.

*Sizzle.*

However, the damage I dealt was quickly repaired.

His black aura moved to fill the hole in his neck and cover the torn side.

The flesh of his severed arm was also replaced by the black aura.

Less than 20 minutes after we descended underground, he looked like a suit of armor covered in patches of black aura.

He didn’t look much different from me, who was covered in blood, but unfortunately, he didn’t seem hindered by his injuries.

I had a potion in my mouth, but I couldn’t recover as quickly as the undead knight.

The healing speed of the potion was incomparably faster than the medicine from my past life, but it couldn’t replace wounds like the black aura could.

Unlike my opponent, whose strength remained unchanged, I was left panting with a pale face, covered in blood.

“It’s a shame. If you hadn’t met me, you might have become a sword master soon.”

Seeing me in such a state, the Black Knight spoke.

Clearly seeing the difference in our strength, the Black Knight regained his composure.

However, he didn’t underestimate me.

“That’s why I can’t let you go.”

The knight raised his sword and pointed it at me.

A black sword energy, created from his aura, extended from the tip of his sword, reaching all the way to me.

Unlike him, who was unharmed, my body was wounded and exhausted.

My battered body wouldn’t heal immediately even with the potion, but I wasn’t discouraged.

I had known from the start that there was a difference in strength between us.

Still, I fought him to buy time.

Of course, it would have been best to keep luring him away to buy time, but that wasn’t the only way to buy time.

Another way to buy time was to keep fighting and prevent him from moving.

Of course, buying time this way was more dangerous than running away.

I could die due to my lack of strength, or I could end up covered in blood and cornered by his sword, like now.

Still, I exchanged blows with him because I had comrades he didn’t—comrades who were stronger than his.

*Thud.*

The still-intact ceiling of the opposite parking lot collapsed.

The ceiling was torn open again.

*Thunk.*

A skull fell from there.

It was the skull of the undead dragon I had seen earlier.

Then, people descended through the hole in the ceiling.

First came Zahina, who had made the hole in the ceiling, followed by Hoffman with his bow, Yerim, and Benedict.

My party members, who had been fighting the dragon.

The reason I had held the Black Knight and bought time wasn’t just to prevent him from attacking the diversionary unit.

By separating him from the undead dragon and keeping him underground, I had aimed to capture that skull—the undead dragon.

I believed that my party members could handle a flightless undead dragon, and I trusted that Zahina, even with her weakened abilities, could create a path to the underground parking lot.

And my trust was rewarded.

Even as my party members descended into the underground parking lot, the Black Knight stared intently at the skull at his feet.

It is said that knights who ride dragons consider their dragons not as subordinates, but as family.

Did that not change even after becoming undead?

Regardless, while he was looking at the dragon’s skull, I was able to receive healing from Yerim and Benedict, who had rushed over.

Being healed by two renowned priests was a luxury I had never experienced before.

The bleeding stopped instantly, and my wounds began to heal.

The pain disappeared, and soon, aside from my still-recovering mana, I was back to normal.

This was why a party needed priests.

Unlike potions, which were akin to lifelines, the divine power of skilled priests could immediately return a party member to combat.

Of course, there weren’t many priests of that caliber, but my party had two of them.

After staring at the dragon’s skull for a while, the Black Knight looked up at us.

“My friend can finally rest. I should thank you, shouldn’t I?”

He held his sword with both hands and bowed his head to us.

“Unlike me, my dragon was driven only by instinct. I kept it bound because of my stubbornness… Perhaps it’s better for it to rest like this…”

After lowering his sword, he looked down at his black armor.

“No, perhaps I’m the same. Even though my mind remains, what meaning is there in moving around like this, already dead?”

With words that seemed filled with regret, he raised his sword toward me.

“And yet, seeing how my loyalty to the Demon King still burns within me, perhaps this is a curse.”

To think that serving the Demon King was considered a curse.

The death of his dragon seemed to have changed the Black Knight in some way.

But the aura flowing from him didn’t diminish.

It was a pity, but the dead could not return.

After exchanging glances with my comrades beside me, I spoke to him.

“Let us break that curse.”

“Good. Give it your best.”

With those words, we clashed again.

The dark, narrow underground parking lot.

It was indeed a space suited for an undead knight to fight, but his opponent was no longer just me.

Moreover, our party now had two high-ranking priests, making it a holy party—completely different from before.

Benedict’s light filled the underground parking lot with sacred radiance. Zahina manipulated the floor and walls to trap and bury the Black Knight, creating a battlefield.

On top of that, Hoffman fired mana-infused arrows, and Yerim burned the Black Knight with divine power.

Each attack was fatal to the Black Knight.

Yet, he kept moving.

Even as walls collapsed and ceilings fell, he cut through them with his sword. Even as divine power burned his armor and body, and mana-infused arrows pierced him, he kept moving.

It seemed impossible to stop him with just the party members.

But standing before him was me, who had just been fighting him.

The knight continued to move even amidst the flames, but the aura surrounding him had almost completely disappeared.

His once-sturdy black armor was shattered and dented by the arrows.

As the Black Knight approached, I channeled mana into my sword.

*Whoosh.*

Mana flowed smoothly into the sword.

Though the battle had been short, the fight earlier had greatly helped me.

The sparring in the capital had been useful, but the life-and-death battle with the undead knight, who was stronger than me, had pushed my mana control a step further.

The little remaining mana quickly flowed into the sword.

The sword glowed, and sword energy shot out from its tip.

Before, I could only use sword energy when my body was filled with mana, but now it was different.

Even with the little mana I had left, the sword energy extended far, and I swung my sword at the Black Knight, who was charging through the flames.

The sword cut through the air, and the sword energy flew toward the knight’s neck.

The Black Knight didn’t block my sword energy.

*Slash.*

A thin line was drawn across the Black Knight’s neck.

Then, along with his helmet, the knight’s head separated from his body and fell to the ground.

Beside the rolling helmet, the knight’s body collapsed.

We stood before him, looking down at the burning knight.

“That was easier than I thought. Was it because we killed the dragon?”

“Perhaps divine power is his weakness.”

In response to Yerim’s words, Benedict offered his own opinion.

“Or maybe the arrows hit his weak spot.”

Hoffman also chimed in with his thoughts.

But I didn’t agree with any of their opinions.

To me, it seemed that the Black Knight, unable to break free from the Demon King’s curse, had charged toward his death.

I picked up the rolling helmet and placed it on the neck of the fallen corpse.

Though he had become undead and his breath had ceased, he was a knight I had respected in life.

I couldn’t disrespect his final moments.

After exiting the underground parking lot, I asked Zahina to collapse it.

Burning it would have been easier, but this underground parking lot wasn’t a bad tomb for the dragon and the knight.

And so, after laying the dragon and the knight to rest, we headed toward the National Assembly Building.

The battle by the Yeouido riverside was also coming to an end.

The undead, without the command of their general, were being destroyed one by one by the diversionary unit, and most of the unit members had safely made it to Yeouido.

At the front of the National Assembly Building, we received news of the hero’s party.

“A signal flare has been launched from the fleet. The Demon King’s army has taken the bait. The Demon King’s forces near the armistice line have begun moving south, and the hero’s party has departed for Pyongyang.”