I Became the First Prince

Deep Darkness is a Harbinger of the Coming Dawn (2)

‘Uuh, uuh, uuh!’ The heart-shaking sound felt as if it would burst my ears.

‘Hwaak!’ A gloomy mist arose and wrapped around Arnand, and then it came to me, surrounded me.

“Ahhh!” Through it, I heard the elf humming sorrowfully.

My heart shook, and the enormous tide of mana that was inactive within me started to wildly swirl as if it would be released immediately.

Not yet… Not yet…

I forced the fluctuating mana down.
I readied my sword, and my heart began resonating with the little ring.

‘Ji-ing!’

Small vibrations crawled from my heart to my shoulder, all the way along my arm, and then onto my sword.

‘Wooow!’ my sword trembled and cried.
Its sound was too soft and weak compared to the wave of noise from the elf, which sounded as if thousands of the dead were sobbing.

I shifted my stance, stamped down.

‘Thud!’ the roaring sound of the floor cracking sounded alongside the keening of my sword.
The Aura Blade, the sound of moving feet, and my heart and ring all became one.

‘Woow, Woow!’

An intense energy wave broke out, and the mist that had consumed the whole area was torn apart.

Through its fragments, the High Elf appeared.
His eyes were dull; his expression was that of a frozen corpse.
A rhythm like the sobbing of the deceased flowed through his constantly-glowing lips.
My shoulders, one of which being wounded, stiffened for an instant.

‘Sassasak,’ and a long line deftly sliced through the air.
A dark grayish-white sword came flying at my throat.
I twisted my neck to the side and blocked Arnand’s sword as I raised my own.
I twisted my grip as the elf’s misty sword bounced from my blade.
I rotated my sword, pulling it back, and struck out like the head of a viper.
It was blocked at once, and I stepped back, spreading my legs as I sliced down with my sword from above.
In that one movement, I parried another strike aimed at my neck as I brought my sword in front of my chest.

‘Bang!’

Sparks scattered in the air, but my eyes were focused beyond the flying fragments of sword-light.
Again, the elf struck at me.
I blocked, dodged, and counterattacked.

‘Klang klang!’ my sword roared as it struck into his, and the surviving power of his whispering wind scattered over the dojo’s floor.
Aura Blade fragments disturbed my eyes.

“Ahhh!”

In the meantime, the High Elf didn’t stop humming.
I also continued to resonate with mana without losing a beat.
The elf had launched countless attacks without gaining the upper hand, and at that point, he started performing his sword-dance in earnest.

His feet made countless sounds as they danced, and the misty trajectories that had broken the impact of sword strikes drew countless curves in the air – curving and curving.

The moment that those numerous spirals connected into a whole, the elf’s bloody dance would reach an incomparable level.
If it hadn’t been for my interruption, it would have happened immediately.

‘Woow!’

I constantly made attempts to disturb Arnand while his dance continued.
Between sword strike and sword strike, I would shift my stance to block the path of his footfalls.
I battled against his humming by letting my sword keen, and my mana heart and ring constantly resonated, interfering with the rhythm of his dance.

As a result, the High Elf’s sword-dance became neither this nor that, but an ambiguous movement.
His eyes became duller, and then they started to burn with a blue light.

At that moment, his humming began to change, and the sound of sobbing changed radically into one of weeping.
His footfalls also became louder, as if he was stomping onto the floor.

‘Ahhhhhh!’

His sword’s sudden cry swallowed the keening of my own, the gloomy energy arising from his body began to overwhelm the resonance of my heart and mana.
The hazy fog swallowed up my energy wave.

‘Woow!’

My sword rang, and I pushed my heart and ring even harder.
That meant nothing in the face of the elf’s changed spirit and rhythm, however.

‘Bkrah Bkrah!’

The mana ring I had was starting to crack.
It seemed that this was as far as a ring created through imitation could go when dealing with a High Elf’s sword-dance.

I thought so – but I was wrong.

‘Thud!’

A heavy noise suddenly rang out.

‘Thud!’

It was the sound of heavy steel being banged on a floor.

‘Thud!’

That selfsame sound repeated.
At that moment, my Sword Aura, which had been suppressed and faded by Arnand’s rhythm, began to rise in intensity.
My heart and ring also resonated more vigorously.

I gave my sword a strong shake, and a heavy wave erupted from its edge.
The High Elf stepped back.
In the meantime, I turned my head to find the source of the sudden noise.

‘Thud!’

The palace knights were standing firmly in place, stamping their shields on the floor.
Those without shields were pounding their chests with iron gauntlets.

‘Thud!’

The knights stamped.

‘Thud!’

They stamped their shields, telling me it wasn’t over yet.

‘Thud!’

They beat their breastplates, telling me to move forward.

“Hahaha,” I laughed

‘Thud!’

And the knights’ rings resonated with the sound of their stamping shields.

‘Thud!’

I stepped closer as they pounded fists upon chests.
My heart and ring began resonating with great intensity.
The waves created by the knights became overlaid with my own mana.
I took another step, and the floor loudly burst apart under my tread.
This was the path which humanity has constantly walked for four hundred years while I had slept.
I took another step – I was just following the footsteps upon that road.

And when my steps finally brought me in front of the High Elf- “Don’t ignore humans again, faerie.” I sliced out at the elf who’s blade was trembling.

‘Woow,’ a blue flame roared over my blade, and when it met his gray-white sword, that sword was engulfed in the heat, and the last traces of mist melted away.

The face of the elf twisted like a demon’s, and blue flames poured into it.

* * *

Silence descended over the training hall.
It had been full of noise a while ago; now it was so quiet that the drop of a needle would be heard.
In that silence, I withdrew my sword.
The High Elf looked at me.

‘Ploop~’

His braided hair had been cut through, and it fell to the floor one instant later.

Arnand widened his eyes.
Then he stroked his face.
A flash of light lit up in the guy’s eyes as he touched the traces of where the blue flames had played over his face and left their bloody scorch marks.

“This is not fair,” he said to me after a while in a tight voice.
His sharp gaze swept over everyone in the hall as he sneered.
The palace knights met his gaze as if nothing had happened.

It didn’t work.
Crafty guys like them looked guilty even when they slept.
I started laughing, bereft of my senses, when the elf said to me, “I can’t accept this defeat.”

Resentment had entered his eyes again, and when I saw that murder and anger within him, I asked, “So what do you want?”

“A fair fight without anyone’s intervention,” Arnand replied.

“Good,” I answered him without hesitation.
It was strange that he had made his request so eagerly, what with his face still filled with scorch marks.

“However, to stimulate my excitement, which has cooled down, we must have a motive.”

When Arnand spoke, it seemed that he already knew what I meant.

“If it’s a motivation-”

“Let’s raise the stakes of the bet.”

“How?”

Again, I answered him without hesitation.

“We will increase the demands the winner makes to the loser to three.
Of course, these demands cannot be rejected.”

Arnand accepted my bet with ease.
It was sad to see that he could still not abandon his arrogance even after things had reached this point.

“I say again: Elven covenants are not taken lightly.”

Arnand even treated me like a fool, clearly not knowing how he looked in his rags and his bad haircut.

“Let’s see if you say that later,” came my response as I tapped the tip of my sword against the floor.
Seeing my gesture, Arnand shut his lips tight and stepped back.

‘Shuck’

When there was a moderate distance between us, he raised his sword.

“This time, they’re not part of it.”

Seeing that the guy persisted in his concern about the involvement of others, I gave the palace knights an order.

“Step away, guys.”

The palace knights increased their distance from me at once.

“That’s not enough.”

Even then, the elf was not satisfied and demanded a few conditions from me.
I accepted all his terms.

“Do not move.
Do not use even a sliver of mana.
Just watch from where you stand.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The palace knights spread their legs and folded their arms over their chests: The perfect stance for a spectator.
I looked at the High Elf and asked, “Are you satisfied now?”

He nodded to my question with an arrogant face that showed he had completely forgotten about his defeat.
He was unaware of how thoroughly the most powerful weapon of his race had just been destroyed.
Arnand didn’t even know what exactly he was wagering in our bet.

He just looked at me with a frantic look, seeking a way to somehow pay me back for his shame.
His was truly an arrogant face, the visage of an unripe seed.
I grinned.

By then, I had released my true existence, no longer hiding it.
My energy soared endlessly and began to growl at the elf.
Arnand’s fully-confident face hardened.

“If you were planning to change your attitude after the duel, you better step back now.”

I released a portion of my soul and enforced coercion to my covenant with Arnand.

“I have sworn upon my soul on the covenant between us, so you should do the same.”

“I… I will.”

After hesitating for a moment, Arnand swore on my soul to faithfully fulfill the covenant.

“If you break this sacred oath, you will pay the price.”

After finishing the sealing of our agreement, I beckoned to the elf.

“Then start.”

After my words, he began raising his energy and moving his lips.
From the beginning, as if he wanted the battle done with right away, his humming reached its peak without any warning.

Looking at him, I quietly channeled mana into the edge of my sword.
When the light upon my blade reached peak intensity, I charged at the elf where he stood, and I slashed out in a downward arc.

‘Lool,’ my sword cried.
My Aura Blade dizzied my eyes as it met the elf’s heart-shaking hum.

Everything Arnand created was torn apart in front of him, and my blade kept on advancing.

Fear blossomed in the High Elf’s eyes, instinctive fear of his impending death.

But I halted the death that had come upon him.

‘Chsook!’

The tip of my sword stabbed slightly into his chest, and blood soon poured from the wound.
Arnand’s eyes looked at his chest and turned back to me again.
The disbelief and amazement that filled them made me cheerful.

“Uh- How…”

As I looked into his eyes, I could see inside of him.

Arnand had pretended to be caught up in my provocation; he wanted me to believe it.

In this era where myths were forgotten, the elf believed that it would not be easy for me to obtain the power of lost ages, even if I was intent upon it.
The High Elf figured that even if he faced the Dragon Slayer’s successor, this successor could never hope to reach the karma of his ancestor.

He had been sorely mistaken.

The power of the Leonberger family wasn’t just the karma of a slayer of a true dragon.

“I was not called a dragon slayer without having killed a dragon.
It is because I was able to slay the dragon that I became the Dragon Slayer.”

If I had cut the scales from the mad dragon, then what chance did this juvenile High Elf’s murky sword ever have?