Chapter 149: Tip of the Iceberg (4)

The bombardment that felt like it was tearing the world apart finally came to an end. A thick cloud of dust blanketed the entire island. From the sky, fragments and debris hurled upward by the explosion came raining down.

The audience watching this unfold was going insane with curiosity.

“What the hell just happened...?”

“K-Keter shot an arrow into the sky and it just kept getting bigger. Then it went boom, and... I saw that these arrows of light rained down, but...”

“Can an archer—or a knight—do something like that?”

“It has to be magic. That was definitely magic!”

“Wait, isn’t magic banned in our kingdom?”

“If that’s magic... then what kind of monster of a mage is he?!”

Reactions varied wildly, but everyone had one desperate question: what happened next? Did everyone die? Was the island obliterated? Magic or not, monster or not—people wanted answers. Even the nobles, who were normally composed, were blinking blankly like cavemen discovering fire. What Keter had just displayed had gone far, far beyond archery. It was something that surpassed magic as well.

“I had no idea Sefira’s archery could be this powerful!”

The nobles all assumed this must be part of Sefira’s legendary Zodiac Archery. After all, Sefira was not only the strongest archery family in the kingdom but also among the top five across the entire continent.

They wondered why they hadn't shown something of this scale before. But one thing was clear: just that single technique proved that Sefira was not a weak family. If this had been cast not on an island but in a city, or on a battlefield...

Thousands would die, at the very least.

There were magic spells with similar scale and power, but they all had preceding signals, like chanting, circles, or charge time. However, Keter’s technique had no cast time; it was a spell without casting, the main drawback of magic.

Public opinion of Sefira shifted rapidly.

“...If Keter is that powerful at only eighteen, what kind of skills do Anis and Taragon have?”

Anis and Taragon’s reputation soared alongside. They, too, were stunned.

“... Can you even call that archery?”

Myle had mixed feelings about how Keter said archery was stronger than swordsmanship. On one hand, it was a bold and satisfying statement filled with pride in archery. But on the other hand, it was terrifying—almost as if it declared war on every swordsman in the world.

But before those feelings even faded, Keter had casually fired that arrow into the sky. It looked ordinary, until it wasn’t. It quickly grew giant and bombarded the island.

“What... are you, Keter?” Anis muttered, shaken.

Then, the dust began to clear, swept away by wind magic from the tournament’s mages. The island beneath was surprisingly intact. Most of the trees and landscape were scorched away, but the island’s shape remained. Many of the contestants had survived, even though everyone had thought they were dead.

Of course, not everyone was fine. About twenty had been taken out, mostly weaker one to two-star knights. That left around half of the original ninety contestants. And now, they were all glaring at one person: Keter.

He looked around and casually said, “Whoops, I’m completely out of aura. Would be real bad if someone attacked me now.”

Even after admitting he was out of aura, no one dared to charge. Instead, they began slowly closing the distance with the most caution they had ever shown. They did believe the fact that Keter was out of aura, as he would be surpassing human limits if he had any left after this kind of technique.

But after seeing the divinity-like power of Keter, they could not approach him easily, even though they could logically think. They had witnessed something so amazing that it was difficult to overcome their awe and fear.

He went out of his way to reveal himself and draw everyone’s attention with this technique. Why would someone put on this insane show unless they wanted to die? That confidence is not bravado; it must have a good reason, and he is probably prepared for it.

Ironically, Keter had told the truth—he really had spent all his aura. He had told them exactly when to attack him, as he was at his weakest. However, his laid-back attitude actually made the knights too cautious.

Keter shook his head and muttered, “A turtle would be faster than you guys.

Yawn...

I’m taking a nap. Wake me when you get here.”

Thud.

“...!”

“This is absurd!”

The knights trembled at the sight of Keter actually lying down. It was blatant disrespect. Knights prided themselves on honor; no matter how powerful their opponent was, knights were the kind who would willingly stake their lives for the sake of their honor and pride. It was true that Keter was a formidable force, but to endure such humiliation without retaliating would be a disgrace to their knighthood.

Tens of thousands of spectators were watching. Hundreds of nobles, some high nobles—the true authority of the kingdom—were also watching. Not only that, Lord Eslow was interested in this match; there was a chance he might be watching right now. They had to do something—they had to punish Keter and his arrogance!

“...”

“...”

The knights burned with determination, but they were still slow.

I don’t want to be Keter’s first target.

Nothing would be more humiliating than charging at Keter bravely only to be eliminated right away. At the very least, they had to make it look like they fought Keter; otherwise, no one would think they put up a good fight.

The surviving knights were smart, and that wit was what was weighing on them like iron chains.

“Huff, huff...”

“Ha... Ha...”

Keter still lay there, legs crossed, totally relaxed. Meanwhile, the knights were already panting.

The knights were at the middle of the mountain, with no trees or bushes. It was already sparse, but Keter had blown every last one of them. As such, if they jumped as best they could, they could reach the top of the mountain, where he was, in six leaps. That was about five to six leaps, which would take around five to seven seconds. It was a short ride that the taxi drivers should know, but...

They knew that, but...

But...

Ah.. So far. Why does he feel so far away?

The knights at the front couldn’t stop or walk back, so they were basically doing nothing but kicking rocks at the same position.

When irritation instead of tension started to build in the crowd...

“What are you all hesitating for?!” shouted a young four-star knight, breaking the tension.

The knight began leading the group and said, “Lord Keter is a powerful opponent. We cannot give him time to recover!”

This four-star knight wasn’t affiliated with Galahind. He thought the only reason the other knights weren’t attacking Keter was because they thought it was disgraceful to fight one person all at once.

But his words sparked courage.

“He’s right! If we wait for something as strong as him to recover, we’ll never beat him.”

“Now is our only chance!”

“Let’s go!”

Whoosh!

Finally, the knights began to charge. It looked like they still weren’t sure, but they weren’t going to back down anymore. Keter, still lying down, lifted only his head and clicked his tongue.

“

Tsk.

No, no. You’re not the ones I’m looking for.”

He stood up slowly, already holding his Aura Bow. He calmly drew the string, and a glowing Aura Arrow formed.

Twang.

He released it gently, and it flew toward the charging knights. No one underestimated him; if someone were to underestimate him now after that technique, they would be an idiot.

As the knights on the opposite side from where Keter had fired his arrow grew alert...

“Do I still look like a normal archer to you?”

It was the fourth form of Limitless Archery: Fission.

The single Aura Arrow Keter shot split into two mid-air. That turned into four, then eight. After eight rounds of division, what used to be one single arrow multiplied into two hundred fifty-six arrows and spread in a fan across the battlefield.

“What the fuck?! Holy shit!”

“He still has that much aura?!”

They panicked, pouring aura into their swords to deflect the Aura Arrows.. They couldn’t dodge it, as the arrows were already accelerating.

Tang! Clang!

The knights frantically blocked the arrows. As they hadn’t lowered their guard and tried their best, they were somehow able to deflect the arrows. The only reason this was possible was that even though there were lots of arrows, each knight only had two or three to deal with.

“Ha... Hahaha! We blocked it! We blocked Sefira’s arrows!”

They cheered at how they blocked Keter’s Aura Arrows. It was so difficult that their wrists were trembling, but they felt like they could block it from now on, as they had already succeeded once

But they were forgetting something: there was no reason an archer would just fire once.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Keter fired seven more arrows, each being Fission. The knights' brains shut down.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

“Not bad. Now try this.”

“Ah... Ah!!!!”

No one could count them all. A total of one thousand seven hundred ninety-two arrows rained down like a tidal wave.