Chapter 46
46. The Difference Between a Warrior and a Knight
Whenever you look up at an NPC you've formed any kind of relationship with, hostile or friendly, a small console appears.
The console color that appeared above the head of the High Elf knight who suddenly popped up was red.
The color of a console that indicates hostility is normally yellow, but it gets a little darker depending on the level gap between the two sides.
If the other side is lower than you, it's yellow; if they're about even with you or only slightly above, it's orange; and if they're higher, it's red.
If the gap is extreme, it supposedly shows up not as plain red but as a dark, murky red.
With special skills or items, apparently you can make it appear on monsters too, but that's beside the point.
“Why the hell is something like this popping up on the 7th floor.”
The fact that it's red even while I'm looking at him means that High Elf knight's level easily clears the 50s.
Even if he's an elite NPC, why the hell is there someone a normal 7th-floor challenger couldn't hope to handle no matter what they did?
The only reason I was able to single-handedly trash Choi Gil-hyeon, a 25th-floor ranker, was because his skill was at garbage level.
But even if this High Elf knight's specs are lower than Choi Gil-hyeon's, his actual skill is probably far superior to that bastard's.
Can I win?
It's been a long time since I've felt a crisis this sharp. My fine hairs stand on end, and my blood boils.
If my opponent is this strong, that just means there's that much more I can gain from it.
“Hraaah!”
The High Elf knight moved first. With a thunderous battle cry, he charged at me shield-first.
His strength was no joke, but his burst speed was even more ridiculous. In an instant, his shield was in my face.
-BANG!
I met his shield bash head-on with my own shield. Even though it was only shields colliding, the sound rang through the whole forest.
Jesus, is this a person or an eight-ton truck?
A normal 7th-floor challenger would have been left with traffic-accident-level injuries and knocked flat by that one shield bash.
Right after the shield collision, he drew his one-handed sword far back. Slash or thrust, I wasn't about to let him just do either.
I struck first with a low kick aimed at his shin. Thud. His ridiculously hard greaves absorbed most of it.
Damn it, a high-level bastard with insanely good gear on top of it.
Ignoring the low kick, his thrusting one-handed sword came flying in, and I did my best to meet it with my blade and deflect it off course.
No, I thought I had deflected it.
His sword angled diagonally and shoved my blade aside, then the thrust instantly turned into a slash aimed at my neck.
“Shit.”
I cursed on instinct and hurriedly lowered my stance, barely slipping past it. A few strands of hair were cut free and fluttered away.
Because I'd only barely dodged it, it took a little time to regain a stance that could handle the next attack.
Taking advantage of that opening, the knight's white shield swung in and slammed into me.
-BANG!
I quickly used [Iron Wall] to reduce the impact, but my stance was broken and my body toppled backward.
“Hraaah!”
The knight brought his sword down toward my tilted torso, and I quickly rolled sideways to evade.
It had only been a few seconds of exchanging blows, but I could tell.
That bastard's stats, which were far beyond 7th-floor standards, weren't the real issue.
Stats and bullshit aside, he's just ridiculously good at sword fighting.
**
-KRAANG! KAANG! KANG!
I blocked and countered the High Elf knight's sword strikes with my sword and shield, with no time to breathe.
“With only that much skill, and you dared covet our forest, human swordsman? Pathetic!”
I could block and dodge somehow, but there was no way I could switch to the offensive. I couldn't even shut that loudmouth up.
“Are you fighting with your tongue, you fucking knife-eared bastard? Shut up or I'll break every tooth in your mouth!”
-BOOM!
I forced my way in with a shield-first body check and barely tore myself away from him, then caught my breath.
“Huff, huff, shit.”
I wasn't exactly gasping, but compared to me, the Elf knight was breathing very calmly.
It's not that my stamina is lower than his. I'm just burning more of mine to block his one-sided assault.
Not much time had passed, yet we'd already exchanged dozens of blows.
In the middle of it, I started getting a feel for just how high his stats were. For one thing, surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be much physical difference.
My strength is higher. His quickness is a little... no, if we're talking pure quickness, we're about even.
And his reaction speed and judgment are above mine. He keeps up perfectly with my movements, even with the support of [Instinct].
And lastly, the most important thing.
He's overwhelmingly better. The gap in his skill with sword and shield is far too wide.
My weapon technique was developed only from fighting Lizardmen on the 3rd floor.
It's a derivative style made by watching the Lizardmen's weapon techniques, copying them, and adding my own honed know-how.
Compared to a brute like Choi Gil-hyeon, who's basically a spear user, it's overwhelmingly better, but the system still judges this as [Beginner Swordsmanship].
For something built by a complete shut-in who'd never even exercised properly, much less done swordsmanship, it's a very impressive level.
But this doesn't come anywhere close to the real-deal swordsmanship that bastard uses.
The depth you feel in each technique and movement is on a completely different level. To compare it, it's like the difference between a street brawl and professional fighting.
Right now, it's only thanks to the difference in build, starting with my strength stat, that we're even managing to exchange blows.
Fuck, doesn't he have even a shred of shame?
How is a 7th-floor challenger supposed to handle something like this? This isn't a difference you can overcome just by forming a party, is it?
There weren't many sword-and-shield warriors among the Lizardmen, so I'd wanted to fight this guy and sharpen my technique.
No way. At my level, it's hard enough just to hold out, let alone steal his technique.
“Fine, fuck it. Let's stop.”
I caught my breath and muttered that as I reset my stance.
“Hah. Can't even laugh, can you, human swordsman? Does this look like a fight you can just quit because you want to?”
I charged at the Elf knight, who spoke as if I were pathetic. My sword collided with his shield.
“Do you still not understand! Your savage, beast-like swordsmanship is nowhere near the swordsmanship I, Perit, have honed!”
“Yeah, fucker, you're really good at swordsmanship.”
“If you've realized that, then obediently surrender and beg for your life—why do you keep shamelessly coming at me!”
The Elf knight shouted back furiously. Since most of it was true, I had no intention of arguing.
I admit it too. I can't beat him with swordsmanship.
But you said it yourself—savage and beast-like.
My technique was learned by stealing from Lizardmen, and Lizardman warriors are actually far more savage.
It's not just using weapons, either; they also use kicks with their legs and even attack by whipping their tails around.
And when they really need to, they even bite with saw-like teeth.
-clack.
I grabbed the shield that blocked my sword and launched myself like I was jumping a vaulting horse.
[Iron Wall]
At the same time, I used the Iron Wall skill. Its effect is to harden part of the body.
And there's really no limit to which part can be hardened.
This time, I activated [Iron Wall] on my teeth.
I charged over the shield and bit down on the High Elf's nose with all my strength.
-CRUNCH!
These were teeth durable enough that I'd once chewed pebbles just to raise spirit affinity.
With the skill boosting them on top of that, tearing off one High Elf's nose was nothing.
“Aaaagh!”
In the middle of a sword-only fight, he probably never expected an attack like that, so it was an easy effective hit.
I swung my sword hard at the guy who'd been knocked off balance by having his nose torn off.
Whether from muscle memory or not, the knight still blocked my sword without much trouble even in that state.
But I'd already given up on beating him with swordsmanship.
Yeah, only with “swordsmanship.”
“Inventory.”
I opened my inventory and quickly switched gear. The weapon in my right hand changed from a one-handed sword to a spear.
Unpredictable weapon switching—I can do the same rapid shift from slashes to thrusts this bastard uses, just in a different way.
[+5 Steel Spear] shot forward like an arrow, slipped past his shield, and stabbed his chest.
-KRAANG!
The damage didn't go through very well thanks to his hard armor, but that didn't matter. It was only the first strike.
-KRAANG! KANG! KRAANG!
The Elf knight must have had plenty of experience dealing with spears, because he instantly changed stance and started blocking my attacks.
But I'm neither a swordsman nor a spearman—I'm just a warrior.
Once again I opened my inventory and switched gear, changing my weapon from spear to axe.
-KAAANG!
“Ugh!”
Unable to adapt to the suddenly changing attack pattern, his defense grew increasingly sloppy.
This time I went from axe to blunt weapon, from blunt weapon to shortsword, from shortsword to longsword, and from longsword back to spear.
And when I mixed in the hand axe and dagger hanging at my waist, more and more wounds opened up on the Elf knight's body.
“Y-you bastard... Just how many weapons can you use...!”
The Elf knight, who was gradually being pushed back, shouted that and put some distance between us. And then, the next instant.
-CRACK!
“Guh!”
A fist-sized iron ball slammed into his blabbering mouth.
Besides dagger, shortsword, longsword, greatsword, short spear, longspear, axe, and blunt weapons—the weapon techniques I learned from the Lizardmen—I have one more specialty.
Throwing, which I'd been steadily honing ever since fighting the Goblin Lord on the 1st floor.
“I said I'd break every tooth in your mouth if you didn't shut up.”
The unavoidable projectile, able to change course at will, struck the Elf knight in the face.