Novel The Max Level Hero has Returned! - Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Davey’s wobbling wooden sword swung all over the place and hit Baltian in the chin with precision. “Keuhuk! Of course, Baltian flew up into the air at the unexpectedly clean hit. He then bounced and hit the ground.

Meanwhile, Davey had already lost his balance. He avoided falling onto the ground by using his sword as a support.

“Huh?” The crowd went silent because of the proper hit.

“Keugh?!”

Davey lowered his wooden sword, which was shaking from the imbalance. He pointed the weapon at Baltian, who was standing back up with a confused expression. Baltian did not know what had just happened.

The basics of this sword technique was to show one’s own weak points as much as possible, and to tease the opponent.

“

Pftttttt…

” Unlike the enraged Baltian, suppressed laughs rang out from the crowd. None of them had expected the attack.

“I’m going to kill you!!” Baltian was struck after surrendering rights of the first attack, so perhaps that explained his terrifying glare at Davey. He held his sword and quickly came toward Davey.

A diamond on a dunghill was still a diamond. Prince Baltian was still a talented kid participating as the representative of the Boltis Kingdom, so his attacks were quite a bit sharper than other boys his age. His stance was pretty good, and his blade was quite sharp and precise too.

However, his sword’s path was too direct because of the lack of experience. This was probably the case for most people, not just Baltian.

Thwack!!

Davey, who had lowered his sword, took a step forward and struck upwards. Since the swordsmanship had a sloppy stance with no proper support in the legs to the waist and shoulder, it seemed almost impossible for Davey to stop Baltian. As Davey’s sword leaned away from his body at Baltian’s upward hit, he could hear people gasp.

Davey also heard Winley’s surprised and worried shout. “Brother!”

Those who thought they knew the situation well seemed to think that Davey had coincidentally swatted away Baltian’s sword, and that such a coincidence would never happen again.

‘Let’s see.’

Clash!

As Baltian struck his wooden sword toward Davey aggressively, Davey let his legs give out and lost his balance.

“Oh? Ah!”

At the same time, Davey dodged Baltian’s sword as the force from the blow spun Davey around and made him collapse to the ground.

Thwack!!!

Then, after barely blocking Baltian’s sword strike, Davey’s sword swung randomly…and landed a blow between the former’s eyebrows.

* * *

“Keugh!!”

The same thing happened again, and everyone’s jaw dropped in surprise. Although he had an awful personality, Prince Baltian was one of the rising stars participating in the swordsmanship competition. Conversely, Davey was the weak prince who had just regained consciousness after a six-year-long coma. There was no way Davey had proper training in swordsmanship, and the crowd could see that from Davey’s posture. However, the result was nothing like what they expected.

They had expected Davey to lose his sword and be overpowered instantly, but his shoddy skills had knocked Baltian down two times. If this was in actual battle and not just a duel, Baltian would’ve died twice already.

“You’re playing these trivial tricks!!”

“Um, am I winning? You seem to be less than what I expected.”

Humiliated by Davey’s words, Baltian flushed red and got back up.

“Pfthahah…” Someone burst into laughter from afar, adding fuel to a fire. Hearing that, Baltian’s aura became even more hostile.

“Very disappointing.”

“How could he lose to a rookie, who doesn’t even know how to swing a sword?”

“There was a lot of hope for Prince Baltian, but if this is his level…”

“Aaakk!” Since he couldn’t confront them, Baltian grit his teeth and glared at Davey. He was bested twice, so his defeat was conclusive. However, he didn’t want to admit it.

‘Should I provoke him a little more, then?’

Davey thought.

This time, Baltian was cautious. He was afraid that another ridiculous coincidence would happen, so he believed that being careful would prevent another loss.

‘He seems to be thinking that… But if he’s not going to come, I have no choice but to go.’

Davey rushed in with the same rookie posture and swung his sword all over the place.

It was sloppy swordsmanship; there was no structure to his spacing, distribution of power, and direction. Davey was just like a child uncontrollably swinging a sword.

Thwack!!

In fact, as the center of gravity wasn’t properly established, there wasn’t much force.

Thwack!! Thwack!!

It was only after seeing Baltian block multiple attacks from Davey while keeping his composure that the people in the banquet hall seemed to think that Davey was soon going to lose.

However…

Thwaaack

!!

As Davey’s sword hit Baltian’s temple, everyone’s jaw dropped in astonishment once again.

* * *

“Wh…?!” Baltian, who was staggering after getting hit in the head, had a look of pure confusion.

It was a random-style sword technique. The blow was so slow and weak that anyone with proper training could evade it. Everyone knew this because they saw it, so they couldn’t believe that Baltian got hit again.

“Uhm… Did it hit him?” Davey could hear laughter around him when he paused and said silly things, as if he didn’t see that coming after swinging it himself.

“What… Isn’t he an entry-level ‘Expert’?”

“Are you sure he is on the same level as us? How is he being beaten by that kind of swordsmanship?”

“Maybe he’s not really anything special…”

“Since it wasn’t just once or twice, but three times, it’s pretty clear.”

No one thought that Davey was intentionally creating this scenario.

“N… No! This is not! No!”

“That’s a lame excuse.”

“Tsk tsk.”

By then, Baltian looked as if he was going to go crazy from how unfair this situation was. He did calmly block the attacks, since the sword path of the first and second coincidences should not have ended up working out. And it probably wasn’t visible to others, but there was something strange about Davey, which only Baltian could feel.

Davey grinned at Baltian, who was huffing and becoming outraged.

‘I learned this technique exactly for this.’

[Drunken Sword.]

The name spoke for itself: intoxicated sword technique. As the name suggested, the movement of the sword was that of a drunken attack. It was the maverick of swordsmanship, first designed by Dokgo Jun, the best drunkard of the Hall of Heroes, and later created when the Sword Lord Ares joined in.

-Damn, I made this, but this is one evil swordsmanship!

Even the bad-tempered Dokgo Jun shook his head at this.

-Unless it’s someone you want to seriously humiliate in public, don’t use it. Especially if you have a conscience as a human.

Even Ares, who was organizing the description for the completed technique, frowned. He commented that it should only be used when absolutely necessary.

The sword technique wasn’t strong or sharp. But because it was so meticulously OP and mocking, no other sword techniques could match it. It was a swordsmanship so full of malice that even the two somewhat righteous old men felt it was wrong. The purpose of this technique was not to save someone, kill someone, or to achieve a grand goal like reaching a certain state; the only aim was to humiliate the hell out of someone. How could one describe this swordsmanship other than evil?

One would dodge or cancel the opponent’s attack while stumbling as if they were drunk, and land an unexpectedly effective hit. It was pretty effective, to be honest, and this pattern of attack dried the opponent out. The effect was amplified if someone was watching, like in this very situation.

“Hm. I don’t know if I’m lucky, or my opponent is just nothing.”

“Damn it!!”

This particular swordsmanship was very similar to a comedy, so Davey gave it the ridiculous name of ‘Comedic Sword’ rather than ‘Drunken Sword’ when he first learned it. It was swordsmanship only after extreme entertainment. Calling it comedy-style would compare favorably.

Of course, if it just pursued entertainment and wasn’t strong, there was no meaning to it. Even if it was made for entertainment in the first place, would a swordsmanship created by sword lords be weak? Exactly.

With the battle’s unexpected result in front of everyone else, Baltian was flustered at the current situation. He started releasing his blade energy with his mana. Noticing the situation, Baris was enraged, but Princess Illyna was quicker to give a shout. “Prince Baltian! How can you release your blade energy in a no-killing duel at someone who is not a knight! Are you out of your mind?!”

But seemingly gone mad from the screwed up situation, Baltian ignored Princess Illyna and came at Davey with a malicious killing aura. “I’m going to kill you!”

At the sight of Baltian attacking with a threatening blade energy, Davey took a step back as if he was in fear.

“It’s too late to avoid it now!”

“Big brother!” The moment Baris gave a furious shout and was about to run out to protect Davey…

‘If coincidences continue any longer, I will inevitably seem suspicious.’

Davey knew that one person had been looking at him with slight confusion for a while now. He decided to stop mocking Baltian, and pretended to trip and collapse while stepping back.

Pahh!!

As the blade energy scattered, Baltian’s sword pierced through the air where Davey’s head used to be.

“Huh?!” Baltian widened his eyes when the falling Davey dodged the attack.

“You dumbass,” Davey muttered in a very small voice so that no one else could hear him.

Baltian’s eyes were full of shock. Noticing that something was wrong, he tried to run away. However, it was too late for him to go back now.

There was no way for Davey to get drunk right now; there was only the ‘Drunken Sword’.

“Euahh!” Davey screamed as Baltian tripped over Davey’s flapping foot. He lost his balance and fell toward Davey.

Crash!!

And like a dirty fight, they rolled on the floor together. Those who were watching this pathetic and sad battle stayed silent, as if they were at a loss for words.

Thump!

And as their rolling on the ground started losing momentum, Davey miraculously took the position where he could push Baltian down from above. He reflexively took his sword and pierced it into the floor next to Baltian’s head. The sword that Davey used to support himself looked like a clean hit.

“….” Baltian was on the floor, and Davey was sitting on top of him. He had a sword pierced into the ground next to his head, and he was completely overpowered. Looking on, the banquet hall was dead silent. Everyone was shocked as the victor was determined by this crazy coincidence.

Davey felt everyone staring at him in surprise. Then, he looked down at a bewildered Baltian who was pinned to the ground.

‘Man, you have a lot of things that surprise you, don’t you?’

As Davey slowly and casually freed the sword from next to Baltian’s head, he smiled as he heard surprised gasps from all around the banquet hall. Putting on a thick skin, he muttered, “What to do. I think I’ve won?” He pretended to know nothing.

The silence went on for quite a while.