Chapter 274: Great Victory

The battlefield was drenched in blood, littered with severed limbs and broken bodies. The noble alliance and the Poltergeist Bandits lay dead or dying in twisted heaps, their blood pooling into rivers.

Ronin gasped heavily, his breath ragged and raw.

In this battle, he might have killed ten enemies—or twenty, or more.

Either way, since his arrival in this world, today had been the day he took the most lives.

So many, in fact, that by the end, even he was exhausted.

Mentally drained.

He glanced toward the distance, where the clash of the Golden Knights had reduced surrounding buildings to rubble. Toru and Amicus had dragged their fight far away.

But now, those surrounding Amicus were no longer just Toru, Taren, Marvin, and Ridal—the two deputy leaders who had just finished off Kilbart and Lanivisa had joined the fray.

Six against one—and still, Amicus held them all at bay!

The bandit leader’s strength was undeniable, yet it was equally undeniable that Toru and the others’ desire to capture him alive had given Amicus the opening to fight back.

Amicus held too many secrets. Capturing him alive would be a windfall for Mount Ushan.

Capturing a high-tier combatant was always far harder than killing one.

At this moment, Amicus knew his bandit gang had been all but annihilated—perhaps he even sensed his own death was near. And yet, the pressure lifted from his chest.

He did not seek retreat.

Instead, he fought harder.

“Hahahaha! Six against one, and I nearly killed you all! You’re weak—pathetically weak!”

Amicus roared with laughter, sweeping Ridal’s blade aside with a single stroke, then unleashing a punch wreathed in radiant energy that slammed into Ridal’s chest.

Ridal twisted sideways, frowning. What was happening? Why was the enemy growing stronger with every strike?

“Combine pressure!”

Ridal shouted. Toru, Philip, and Marvin surged forward, four knights, four longswords, pressing in from all sides.

But at that instant, Amicus erupted with staggering power—his aura armor solidified like molten metal, his presence surging like a storm!

“Break!”

Amicus bellowed, his body blazing with light. The explosive force of his aura sent a colossal shockwave rippling outward, slowing the knights’ blades to a crawl—then, with a single sweep of his sword, he shattered their combined assault entirely.

“That’s the Power of Conquest!”

Toru cried out in shock. “He’s broken through!”

A Golden Knight had shattered the Wheel of Subjugation—stepped into the Stellar Level.

Faced with overwhelming pressure, faced with the annihilation of his men, Amicus had broken through.

Who would believe it?

“Hahahaha! This is the Power of Conquest at the Stellar Level!”

Amicus stared at his own hands, exhilarated.

He could feel the power within him—strengthened, amplified, far beyond what it had been before.

“Kill!”

His first target was Toru. He would test his new strength on a Golden Knight.

“Watch out!”

Ridal and the others rushed to Toru’s side, barely managing to block the blow.

Yet even Amicus’s casual, ordinary techniques now demanded their full attention.

“Thank God he exhausted himself before breaking through—otherwise he’d be unleashing devastating techniques right now, and we’d be dead!”

Even so, their own aura was nearly spent. They could only rely on close combat—strength against strength, speed against speed.

“Stop thinking about capturing him,” Toru said gravely. “Someone’s going to die.”

They nodded silently. Taren was already critically wounded, unable to fight. To keep pursuing capture meant they’d all be killed.

“Capture?”

Amicus smirked. “You’re all going to die.”

He swept his gaze across the battlefield like a monarch surveying his conquered realm. “The first to die… will be you.”

Amicus lunged—not at Toru, not at Ridal, not at Marvin—but at Ronin, who had just paused to observe the battlefield.

“Master, watch out!”

“Ronin, look out!”

Ridal and Toru screamed in unison. They had never expected Amicus to turn on Ronin.

In truth, Amicus, like the captured Golden Knight Brisso, had always intended to kill Ronin—to ensure this defeat carried some value.

“Fuck!”

Ronin cursed. Facing the bandit leader’s deadly charge, he drained every last ounce of aura from his body and raised his hand—flame explosion slash, aimed straight at Amicus.

It was Ridal’s signature technique. Now, Ronin wielded it.

“You deceived us all,” Amicus muttered, wary of the move. He’d been wounded by Ridal’s flame explosion slash before.

The blade’s razor edge sliced through the inferno, the explosion roaring like thunder in Ronin’s ears, leaving him deafened.

The violent collision sent up a swirling storm of dust and blood, blurring vision.

“Die!”

From the haze, Amicus emerged—sword thrusting straight for Ronin’s throat, aiming to end him.

Ronin crossed his Flowflame Blade, intercepting the tip. The impact was so great the blade bent—yet it did not break.

It was no ordinary weapon.

“Quick reflexes. But it’s over.”

Amicus prepared to deliver the final blow to the recoiling Ronin—when Ridal arrived, his blade flashing, a lethal arc that Amicus barely dodged.

“You want to die too?”

“Don’t rush. You’re next.”

Amicus’s target never wavered. Killing anyone else paled beside killing someone of the Ushan family.

But now, the combined assault of four knights held him in place.

Ronin rose from the dust, throat burning sweet with blood. He spat it out, then immediately cast Wind Bind—interfering with Amicus’s movements.

Amicus brought his sword down—his arm froze. A tendril of wind coiled around his forearm.

He tried to lift his leg—another wind tendril wrapped his calf.

“Useless magic!”

He violently broke free, kicking Marvin flying with one leg.

But he was never at full strength—his speed still suffered—and Toru and Reddar lunged from left and right, aiming to pierce his body, yet he twisted at the last possible instant, evading the strike.

Seizing the momentum, he leapt into the air, both legs sweeping out left and right, sending the two men flying.

“Flame Serpent of Crimson Fire!”

A colossal fire serpent materialized before Ronin, its sinuous body writhing as it lunged toward the enemy who had just hit the ground, unsteady on his feet.

BOOM!

The fire magic turned Amicus’s breastplate glowing red-hot; the immense force sent him rolling dozens of meters across the earth before he finally came to a stop.

His internal organs trembled violently—he spat a mouthful of blood.

“A fifth-tier spell? He’s the Chief Mage?”

Amicus was stunned.

Eighteen years old—a Silver Knight, the Chief Mage? Were the Seven Gods jesting?

He staggered to his feet, desperate to counterattack, but just then, Toru and Reddar charged forward again.

Though their swords were gone, they opened their arms wide, one on each side, clamping their bodies around Amicus in a crushing embrace.

“Ronin, kill him!”

“My Lord—this is the moment!”

Amicus sensed the danger and unleashed his final burst of aura, raising his fist to smash into both men, trying to break free.

But Toru and Reddar held on with iron grip, not a single inch of slack.

And at that instant, Ronin surged forward, his blade, Flowing Flame, aimed straight at the man’s chest.

PLOP!

Through Amicus’s widening pupils, Ronin’s sword pierced clean through his body.

“The one who dies today is you, leader of the bandits!”

Ronin growled low and heavy.

“Get off me!”

Where Amicus found the strength—perhaps Toru and Reddar’s endurance had finally shattered—he wrenched free and slammed his palm into Ronin’s chest.

Ronin spat blood and was hurled backward, crashing hard to the ground—but this half-powered blow inflicted little real damage.

Instead, Amicus’s violent motion, his overexertion, worsened his heart wound. He let out a guttural cry of agony and collapsed helplessly into a pool of his own blood. (End of Chapter)