Return of The Martial King

Chapter 242

Titima dodged Christine's attack with a bright smile spreading across her face. Her speed had increased significantly, allowing her not only to keep up with Christine's movements but also to counterattack. Titima’s daggers clashed fiercely against Christine's sacred sword.

Clang!

It was Christine who took a step back instead. Titima widened her eyes in surprise.

“My strength has improved too?”

“You filthy troll scum!”  

Christine spat insults as she swung Messiah downward. The pure white aura emanating from the sacred sword sliced through the air, aiming to cleave Titima’s daggers entirely.

Sillan began chanting a holy spell.

“Philanence, grant your servant a blade of steel!”

A pinkish sacred light enveloped the pair of daggers. Crossing the daggers, Titima blocked the sacred sword. Then she puckered her lips, looking curious.

“My blade’s gotten tougher too, huh?”

Earlier, the sacred sword had almost split the daggers in half. Now, the daggers blocked it with ease. Despite Christine’s sacred sword being on par with blade aura, the synergy between Titima's sorcery and Sillan's holy power made the daggers strong enough to withstand it.

‘As expected! My holy power is more than enough to handle this!’

Seeing Titima’s astonished expression, Sillan shouted triumphantly.

“I’ll support you, so finish her off, Titima!”

“Got it!”

With an excited voice, Titima began pressing Christine harder, her movements brimming with enthusiasm. Drawing more holy power, Sillan’s eyes gleamed.

“They always underestimate priests in combat, thinking we’re useless…”

Sillan clenched his teeth, channeling holy power into his hands and pointing it toward Titima.

“Let’s see how terrifying a battle-ready priest can be!”

*         *         *

“Ararara…”

Humming in a shamanic rhythm, Titima relentlessly pushed Christine back. She darted left and right, using intricate footwork to confuse her opponent before slashing from unexpected angles. Her nimble movements were reminiscent of a feline predator.

“Grrr!”  

Frustrated, Christine unleashed a flurry of slashes. After creating some distance with a series of diagonal cuts, she followed up with a powerful overhead strike. Just as Titima crossed her daggers to block the attack above her head, Christine smirked with satisfaction.

‘It’s a feint!’

Twisting her wrist, she altered the sword’s trajectory mid-swing. Messiah danced through the air, aiming straight for Titima’s flank.

At that moment, Titima twisted her body, defending her side in confusion. The weapons collided and deflected off one another.

“Tch, she noticed?”

However, judging from Titima’s expression, she herself didn’t seem to understand how she managed to block it.

“Huh? What just happened?”

From a distance, Sillan grinned mischievously.  

“Nice, it worked! Moving on to the next step!”

Sillan, who had experienced countless battles, could discern Christine’s intentions from the flow of her sword. Just by observing the trajectory, he had realized she was using a feint.

Of course, since Sillan wasn’t a swordsman, he couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the attack was aimed. But that much was enough.

Christine attempted another feint, targeting Titima. Timing his move perfectly, Sillan cast another holy spell.

“Philanence, grant your servant the blessing of radiance!”

Just as Titima was about to fall for the feint, her heightened senses suddenly picked up on the sword’s real trajectory. Before she could even consciously think, her body moved on its own and blocked the true attack.

Clang!

At the perfect moment, Sillan had amplified Titima’s sensory perception to its peak. Of course, maintaining such a heightened state for too long would overwhelm her nervous system. Instead, Sillan aimed for that brief instant when the feint would be most effective and targeted it precisely.

“A real priest only gives just the right amount of support when it’s needed most!”

Titima glanced at Sillan with a face full of admiration.

“Wow…!”

It was incredible. Her body moved so nimbly. She could deliver such powerful attacks. And she could even see through the opponent’s tricks, all thanks to him.

‘This is amazing!’

As a troll shaman, Titima’s abilities had always been deeply personal and self-focused. This kind of enhancement and support from someone else was a completely new experience for her.  

Sillan yelled confidently, “I’ll pour out my holy power without holding back, so go all out!”

“Okay! I love this!”

Half-drunk on exhilaration, Titima continued her relentless assault on Christine. The martial techniques she had learned from Attila but failed to execute properly due to her lack of skill naturally flowed out of her now. And no matter how much she moved, she didn’t feel tired!

‘Amazing! Amazing! Amazing!’

Titima’s eyes sparkled brightly. The teachings of Attila, which had always seemed incomprehensible to her, suddenly made perfect sense.

With her body moving elastically as if made of rubber, her attacks grew fiercer. Eventually, Christine failed to defend herself and was struck on the shoulder. Titima’s dagger cut deep into her shoulder muscles.

“Urgh!”

Christine staggered backward, gritting her teeth. She was seething with rage but couldn’t deny the reality before her.

At this rate, she would lose. Sillan’s holy power was truly extraordinary.  

‘Even Messiah, the Sacred Radiance Sword, isn’t enough to handle this...’

Christine glared at Sillan and suddenly shouted in frustration.

“Do you want to cheat on me this badly, Sillan?”  

Her nonsense had been a constant annoyance, but somehow, it always managed to feel fresh each time. Sillan gaped in disbelief.

‘Cheat? What cheating?’  

Christine’s expression suddenly shifted as if she had come to a grand realization.

“I see! You’re saying that only by overcoming this can I be worthy to stand by your side!”  

Clenching her fists, she trembled with resolve, her eyes burning with determination as she shouted.

“I’ll get stronger! Strong enough to earn your recognition!”

Then, without warning, she turned around and sprinted off down Zeppelin Street.

“......”  

The situation was so absurd that Titima stood there, stunned, unable to deliver a follow-up attack. For a moment, she didn’t even register that her opponent was retreating.

“...What is she even talking about?”  

“Don’t worry about it. She’s always like this…”  

Sighing deeply, Sillan let his shoulders sag. Although they had narrowly survived this crisis, the thought of it happening again in the future left him feeling bleak. Would there ever come a time when he could sleep peacefully through the night?

‘Well, for now, I should at least express my thanks.’  

Watching as Titima sheathed her daggers at her waist, Sillan spoke up.

“Thanks, Titima. I owe you my life.”  

Titima stared at Sillan. Her golden eyes sparkled against her blue face, and her pupils narrowed slightly. Then, all of a sudden, she leaped toward him.

“Sillan! I like you!”

Like a cat, she pounced on him and buried her face into his chest.

“W-What?!”  

What on earth was going on? Sillan looked down at her in complete shock. She crouched slightly, rubbing against him like a feline marking its territory.

“I like you! You’re amazing!”  

‘What is wrong with her?’  

What Sillan didn’t know was that troll girls had a peculiar habit. When they found something or someone they liked, they would rub their scent on it to claim it as their own.

‘Being near him makes my sorcery work better! I like this!’

Sillan’s face turned beet red. She might have been a troll, but Titima was still a young girl. And not just that, a young girl who wore nothing but small strips of cloth barely covering her chest and hips.

Having a barely-dressed girl of the same age continuously press herself against him was enough to send his composure spiraling.

“Uh, hey, um…”  

But Titima didn’t care in the slightest about Sillan’s flustered state, continuing to rub against him here and there.  

Only after thoroughly marking Sillan as her “property” did Titima finally straighten herself up.  

‘All done! Now this is mine!’  

Sillan, having barely managed to calm his nerves, quickly changed the subject and urged her forward.  

“Let’s get out of here quickly. The others have probably already left Zeppelin by now.”  

“Okay!”  

Nodding energetically, Titima leaped into the air. In one bound, she reached the rooftop of a building. Looking down, she gestured for Sillan to follow.  

“Come on up, Sillan.”  

Sillan pursed his lips in disbelief.  

The building Titima had scaled was three stories high.  

“...How do you expect me to get up there?”  

“Huh? You can’t?”  

“Don’t underestimate the power of ladders! Normal people can’t even jump up to their own waist height, let alone that far!”  

Sure, the world was crawling with absurd monsters who could casually leap ten meters in place, but that didn’t change the fact that such feats were wildly abnormal for anyone without wings.  

“I know that much,” Titima replied, tilting her head, “but you’re not a normal person, are you?”  

For her, it was strange to hear Sillan, who had just amplified her abilities several times over, claim he was an ordinary person.  

Sillan let out a bitter chuckle.  

“Ah, you see, being a priest means dedicating your life to helping others, not yourself.”  

With a sigh, Sillan downplayed the noble self-sacrifice of priests, leaving Titima puzzled. She hopped back down to the ground, looking a bit confused but accepting his explanation nonetheless.  

“Alright then, do you want me to carry you, or should I give you a piggyback ride?”  

In that instant, Sillan felt a rush of gratitude.  

What kindness! Until now, no one had ever offered him such a choice. Most of the time, they would just hoist him up like a talking sack and haul him around without a second thought.  

“I think I might cry.”  

“...?”  

Titima blinked, confused by his reaction. Sillan extended his arms toward her.  

“Give me a piggyback ride.”  

Normally, a boy his age might feel embarrassed about being carried by a girl his age. But Sillan, having endured countless experiences of being carried in far more humiliating ways, didn’t care in the slightest anymore. This was nothing.  

“Okay!”  

Titima hoisted him onto her back and leaped once again.  

As expected of Attila’s protégé, her movements didn’t slow down at all, even with Sillan on her back. Still, Sillan couldn’t just sit there doing nothing while being carried, so he began preparing another holy spell.  

“Philanence, watch over your servant and grant her the strength to leap endlessly like a mountain goat!”  

A pink sacred light enveloped Titima’s entire body, imbuing her with incredible vitality. Titima smiled brightly.

“Wow, this really is amazing.”

Hop! Hop! Hop!

Carrying Sillan on her back, Titima leaped across buildings like a frog, disappearing into the early morning sky of Zeppelin.

*         *         *

Koln Canyon, northern Duchy of Chatan.

About 15 kilometers away from Zeppelin, Koln Canyon was a massive gorge stretching over 100 kilometers, flanked by cliffs hundreds of meters high. It connected northern Chatan to the Garan Plains in eastern Crovence Kingdom and had once been a major trade route to Crovence. However, with the establishment of the Duchy of Chatan and the construction of a formal highway, the canyon became deserted, visited only occasionally by smugglers sneaking through its barren terrain.

Standing on the sheer cliff overlooking the canyon, a muscular troll with large tusks gazed down, letting out a murmur of awe.

“Seeing them all gathered like this… It’s truly a spectacle.”

At the canyon's entrance, a scene unfolded that was far from the barren wilderness it had once been. Thousands of people were gathered here, the escaped non-human slaves from Zeppelin, joined by elite troops from the Duchy of Antares who had rescued them.

Despite it being midsummer, the northern location of the Duchy of Chatan kept the morning air chilly. Hundreds of elves, orcs, and dwarves huddled around campfires to warm themselves, easing the fatigue of their grueling overnight march. Makeshift tents were set up to care for weaker children, and some were tending to the emergency rations they had placed over the fires for a quick meal.

Though exhaustion was evident on everyone’s faces, they all wore radiant smiles. Their expressions brimmed with hope for the future.

Rubbing his tusk, Attila’s eyes gleamed.

‘From the looks of it, everyone’s here.’

The entrance to Koln Canyon was the rendezvous point designated by the “Antares Duchy Liberation Army” for regrouping after their escape from Zeppelin. The plan, devised by Karl, was to reorganize their forces here, traverse the canyon to escape into Crovence Kingdom, and from there make their way to the Duchy of Antares.

While small groups of non-humans had previously been rescued using the spatial portal terminal at Daiman Dungeon, such a route was impossible for a group numbering in the thousands.

Daiman Dungeon, located within the monster-infested Setellad Mountains, was among the most treacherous regions imaginable. Its terrain was so inhospitable that humans rarely ventured there. Guiding thousands of people through that dungeon would be a pipe dream, it wasn’t even an option. Instead, they had no choice but to follow a conventional, albeit dangerous, route.