Chapter 48: I’m an Attention Seeker (2)

“An archer must be able to shoot in any situation. Even if you lose an arm, you should pull the bowstring with your teeth.”

Luke had been indifferent to the instructor's words from Sefira. It was easier said than done, and he didn’t really believe it was possible. The tension in the bow was strong, especially for Sefira's bow, which was so strong that even an adult male struggled to pull it. Luke thought pulling such a bowstring in an unstable position was impossible.

Yet Keter had done it. With the spear lodged under his right arm, he managed to draw the bowstring, even aiming at his opponent. There was no need to pull the string all the way back, as the tension of Sefira's bow was immense; just a slight pull could send an arrow one hundred meters.

The arrow Keter shot pierced Garuda’s collarbone. It wasn't a vital spot, so Luke gasped in disappointment.

Ah, Keter. Why did you only take one arrow!

If he could shoot a couple more arrows like that, he could subdue Garuda. But Keter had only one arrow, and he had just fired it.

Should I throw him an arrow from here? Would the knights of Bydent allow that?

If they intervened, Luke would have to intervene as well. In that situation, Luke wouldn’t be able to help at all. Just being a spectator here was already pushing his limits.

It’s alright. Keter has Amaranth after all. He told me he wasn’t going to shoot it, but he was probably lying.

Keter was a jokester, so Luke wanted to believe he was also joking when Keter said he wasn’t going to use Amaranth.

Still... no matter how playful he is, he wouldn't toy with his own life. Well, maybe that’s not the case.

Keter had walked right up to the junior knight of Bydent, his first opponent, to lower the junior knight’s guard. If the junior knight had attacked without hesitation, Keter would have at least sustained serious injuries.

...But this is different.

Luke had a vague feeling that Keter would win anyway. Luke felt that even if Keter didn't win, he at least wouldn't die. Though he had only seen Keter for a day, he felt that was the kind of person he was.

Keter, you have a plan, right?

That was what Luke wanted to believe.

While Luke was momentarily lost in thought, the second fight also came to an end. Keter approached Garuda and struck the arrow embedded in his collarbone with his bow.

As the arrow stirred inside Garuda's flesh, Garuda couldn't help but scream, and Keter swiftly swung his bow on the top of Garuda’s head.

Can you even call that archery?

Keter shot an arrow while immobilizing the opponent's weapon, and he disrupted his opponent from pulling out an arrow. Then, at the right time, Keter used a technique where he struck the embedded arrow and destroyed the opponent from within. It wasn’t a technique or value of Sefira.

After Garuda fell, a similar scene unfolded.

“Five thousand,” stated Keter.

It was Garuda's value.

With a complicated expression on his face, Jordic replied, “Calculate the surgical fees all at once.”

“Smart move. Eight thousand.”

Was money always this easy to earn?

Luke felt dizzy from the amount of money being exchanged. Thousands were being tossed around, and it wasn't in bronze or silver; everything was based on gold coins.

The money I've painstakingly saved over five years is just one thousand gold.

But Keter had quickly earned nearly fifty thousand gold. Fifty thousand gold was enough for future generations to live off of, doing anything and everything they wanted.

So why wasn't Keter satisfied? He could have just stopped here and safely left the scene. The Bydent family wasn't a master house, but it was still a significant family that couldn't be dismissed. They were among the top families in the Lillian Kingdom.

Moreover, the opponent standing before him was the spear dragon, Jordic. There were rumors that no one among his peers could match him, and those rumors were true. Luke could tell Jordic was different from the others just by looking at him.

Luke didn’t doubt that Keter was a good fighter. However, at the end of the day, it was just human strength and skill. When aura was involved, strength and technique became meaningless. If the opponent didn’t have the same aura, they simply didn’t stand a chance.

So, was it that the knights of Bydent couldn’t use aura? No, they could use it, but they chose not to, as Keter wasn’t using it. Plus, they were arrogant, believing they could win without using it. Keter would be determined to lose the moment the Bydent knights decided to use aura, even before the fight began. After all, Keter was a mage and couldn’t use aura.

Mages possessed magical power, not aura. While they could imbue arrows with magical power, that didn’t allow them to penetrate aura

.

Magical power symbolized transformation, while aura symbolized strength.

“Do you know why Garuda lost?” Jordic asked his subordinates.

As they fell silent, Arbold stepped forward to answer on their behalf.

“It was because he let down his guard.”

“Nonsense. Garuda was not careless. The reason he lost is that he didn’t use aura.”

“...!”

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

“Martin.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You have no reason to lose, do you?”

“I will consider Keter as the enemy who killed my parents.”

“Go. Bring back the pride of the Bydent family.”

“Yes, sir!” Martin answered succinctly as he stepped onto the battlefield.

Keter, who had been squatting and doodling in the dirt with a twig, looked up and said, “That's worth four thousand gold.”

Veins bulged on Martin's forehead, as he felt like it meant that he was weaker than Garuda.

Crisp

!

The bean pod at his feet crumbled to dust. A blue haze swirled around his entire body. It was the haze of aura.

Zing

.

The aura that erupted from his body coalesced at the tip of his spear. With the spear aimed at Keter, Martin walked forward. It showed his determination to counter anything Keter might do with his spear.

As he saw Martin using his aura, Luke shouted, “Keter, use Amaranth!”

Without aura, Keter's last resort was Amaranth.

At Luke's shout, the knights of Bydent stirred in confusion.

“Amaranth? What is that?”

“An artifact?!”

Martin, who had been approaching with great confidence, suddenly halted.

Jordic shouted, “He’s bluffing! Don’t give in, Martin!”

Martin immediately regained his composure. He was now only seven steps away from Keter. Just two more steps, and Keter would be within spear range. Keter was now standing, an arrow nocked on his bowstring. Martin couldn’t tell where it was aimed, but it didn't matter.

No matter where it comes from, I'll deflect it.

Twang

.

Keter released the bowstring.

It's coming!? Huh! I can’t see it?

Martin already knew that Keter's arrow was fast, but he didn’t think that it would be invisible.

Squelch!

The vanished arrow suddenly appeared, deeply embedded into Martin's left thigh.

“Guh!”

Martin staggered at the sharp pain in his thigh. He kept his gaze locked on Keter without pulling the arrow out. Pulling it out now would create an opening and increase his blood loss, so this was a wise decision.

Keter, now without an arrow, approached first. As he entered spear range, Martin countered with a thrust. To prevent Keter from grabbing the spear, he executed a short jab with just the spearhead.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

In a lightning-fast sequence, Martin unleashed a triple strike aimed directly at Keter's face. But Keter dodged all three thrusts with just slight movements of his upper body. Only a few strands of his hair were sliced off, slowly drifting to the ground.

Then, Keter raised his right arm. Strangely, at the same moment, Martin's left leg lifted as well.

Thud!

Martin fell to the ground. He quickly tried to get up, but...

Crack!

But Keter's bow struck Martin's head like a whip, once to the left, then to the right, and finally, like the others before him, right on top of his head. Blood dripped from Keter's bow, and then Martin saw something: a thin wire. Dark red blood trailed along the metallic thread, which connected Keter's bracelet to the arrow embedded in Martin's thigh.

“Wire? When did he do that to the arrow...!”

“It was when he was crouching earlier.”

While Jordic scolded his subordinates, Keter acted bored and disinterested. In truth, it was all a ruse to hide the fact that he set the thread on the arrow. Jordic had no choice but to acknowledge Keter.

“I shouldn't have been scolding you,” Jordic muttered, realizing that even he was underestimating Keter after warning his subordinates not to. “That arrow disappeared. Is that a Sefira technique?”

“Want to know? One million gold,” Keter responded with a smirk.

“You’d sell your family's techniques for money? You’re insane.”

“Well, if it’s an

absurd

amount of money, it’s enough to drive anyone a little mad.”

“And how much is Martin's life worth?”

“I already told you. Four thousand gold.”

“Fine. Two thousand for surgery and one thousand for the contract, making it seven thousand in total.”

Keter handed over the contract without hesitation.

As Jordic wrote it up, he remarked, “I don’t care how much you take. In the end, you won’t be able to keep it.”

“Everyone says that,” Keter replied with a shrug.

After retrieving the arrow from Martin and stopping his bleeding, Keter returned to his position. With the same expression and stance as before, he provocatively addressed the remaining knights of the Bydent family.

“So, who's next?”

At Keter’s taunt, Arbold turned to Jordic and said, “Sir, as much as I hate to admit it, Keter is a master of combat. It seems difficult for our less experienced men to handle him. Let me take care of him.”

“You're right,” Jordic agreed.

Thud!

Jordic pulled his spear from the ground where it had been standing and took a step forward.

“You all are no match for Keter. It hurts my pride to give him money I have no intention of actually giving.”

“But, sir, you don’t need to—”

“Silence. This is no place for you,” Jordic snapped, cutting off Arbold.

He had grown tired of explaining Keter’s strength. It wasn’t that Martin was foolishly caught off guard. The moment Keter’s arrow disappeared, Martin used Overshield. While the others hadn’t noticed it, Jordic saw it clearly.

As the Overshield was a defensive technique close to self-destruction, it provided extreme protection, but it didn’t stop Keter’s arrow. The arrow pierced Martin’s thigh, nearly halfway through, despite the Overshield.

If the arrow pierced Martin’s thigh even with the Overshield...

Keter, this means you’re an aura user, doesn't it?

Keter wasn’t just any aura user, but one capable of infusing aura into an arrow. While the knights of Sefira could also infuse aura into their weapons, Keter’s technique was something far beyond that.

To infuse aura and make it invisible... that’s on a whole different level.

At first, Jordic thought Keter was just a madman. Then, he assumed Keter was simply a con artist.

But now...

“So, you were Sefira’s hidden ace all along.”

It all made sense now, including why Keter was responsible for the Flying Wolf Tribe, one of the Seven Cursed Species.

“You deceived everyone. You were sent here under the orders of Elder Reganon to protect the Flying Wolf Tribe.”

A chill ran down Jordic’s spine. He had underestimated the Sefira family, only to realize they had been one step ahead this whole time.

“I guess the saying that master houses will still last for three generations even after their fall is true.”

With that, Jordic dragged his spear across the ground.

Ka ka ka ka kak!

A deep gouge formed in the ground. Jordic leaned his spear on his shoulder, and an aura incomparable to Martin’s shot out from his body. His mere presence was shaking the air around him.

“Come on, show me. Show me the true power of Sefira.”

But Keter wasn’t the one thrown off by Jordic; it was Luke, who was gasping for air.

It wasn’t just because of the intensity of Jordic’s aura. His curse was tightening around Luke’s throat, urging him to flee from this place, to escape now.

No. Absolutely not. I can’t just run away by myself.

Keter had just defeated three of Bydent’s knights in succession, and he was probably exhausted. Even if the fights were brief, the mental and physical strain of battling skilled opponents was immense. It wouldn’t be surprising if Keter collapsed from exhaustion at any moment.

But now Jordic, the Spear Dragon, was stepping forward. If the previous knights were minnows, Jordic was a shark—a top predator eyeing the throne despite his young age.

Yet, Keter still had a chance with Amaranth, the Demon Bow.

If he used that power, he could even defeat someone like Jordic. Perhaps that’s why Keter hadn’t used Amaranth up until now; maybe he was saving it for this very moment.

Luke didn’t doubt for a second that Keter would win. Keter would be victorious, confidently walk over to him, and arrogantly brag about how he pulled it off.

Splurt!

Blood sprayed into the air. It was the blood of the man Luke had believed in so strongly—it was Keter’s blood. His face went pale in an instant. Keter’s body was suddenly drenched in blood from Jordic’s relentless attack. The legendary Keter, who had effortlessly subdued Bydent’s knights, was now being overwhelmed.

Even with the curse tightening his breath and the weight of dread pressing down on him, Luke screamed with all his might, his heart pounding in terror.

“Use Amaranth, Keter! You’ll die like this!”

Twang!

Keter widened the distance between him and Jordic and shot the arrow he was tightly holding in his hand. It was the same transparent arrow he had shot at Martin.

“Hah!”

But Jordic spun his spear, completely blocking the front. Even though he couldn’t see the arrow, its trajectory was predictable.

Ping!

As expected, Keter’s arrow was deflected off the spear with a hollow sound. Jordic smirked in victory, while Keter turned around and calmly stared at Luke.

“Lesson two.”

Luke was shouting at Keter to look ahead, as Jordic wasn’t giving him any mercy and thrusting his spear forward. But Keter, still staring straight at Luke, finished what he was saying.

“The first time is always the hardest.”

Thwack!

Jordic’s spear pierced through Keter’s stomach. Keter collapsed forward, and Jordic pulled the spear out. Despite his victory, Jordic looked dissatisfied.

“You...”

At that moment, Jordic sharply tilted his head to the side. An arrow whizzed past him.

Drip.

Even though he dodged quickly, blood trickled down Jordic's cheek from a narrow cut. Keter was lying motionless before him.

That meant there was only one person left who could have fired that arrow.

“Luke.”

Luke, holding a bow and arrow, was glaring at Jordic with deadly intensity, ready to kill.