Survival Story of a Sword King - Chapter 20

Win Over Magic with Muscles (1)

The Lich looked at the scattered Chains of Curses with surprise visible on his face.

“How can a Level 5 do that?”

The monster initially only showed interest in Artis. Ryu Han-bin was treated as a completely non-existent being. A normal level 5 Swordsman’s attack wouldn’t be able to damage it even in its sleep.

“Perhaps I made an error in my magic.”

The Lich moved his finger again.

“Fireball!”

The most commonly used fire magic was launched. A ball of flame the size of an adult’s head flew towards Ryu Han-bin.

“Hooop!”

Han-bin avoided the spell with ease. As it exploded behind him, he propelled himself forward, narrowing the distance and reaching the Lich’s face in no time, almost instantaneously. He swung his greatsword against the monster.

Baaaang!

The sheer force of the swing alone made the earth explode. The Lich hastily retreated out of harm’s way, causing the blade to hit the ground instead. Its jaw remained wide open out of pure astonishment at Han-bin’s terrifying destructive power. It was beyond the capabilities of a Level 5 human.

“What the hell!”

However, though it didn’t make any sense, the Lich was convinced. The swordsman really did smash through its magic.

“Is he really only level 5? Is he a suitor? No, there is no such function in the guidelines!”

Out of sheer confusion, the Lich could only scream.

“What the hell are you?!”

Not taking the time to respond, Han-bin continued to pursue his opponent.

The Lich glided around like a phantom, but Han-bin chased after him like a wild, hungry bear. The Lich quickly chanted a spell to increase the distance between them.

“A fallen seed, a sprout of decay! Entanglement of Gehenna!”

Thick vines emerged from the ground and swiftly slithered their way towards Han-bin. He tried to avoid all of them, but there were far too many for him to dodge. Several vines approached from his blindspots and hastily coiled around his limbs.

“Did I catch him?”

The Lich was about to feel relieved when Han-bin roared.

“Waarrghh!”

Han-bin flexed his muscles.

His arms’ muscles tensed up, causing his thick tendons to spring out.

Whoods!

With minimal effort, he easily ripped the vines to pieces. Artis watched the scene with his eyes wide open.

“Did he just rip off Gehenna’s entanglements?”

Gehenna’s Entanglements could only be burned with powerful magic or the power of Aura. Even a dragon wouldn’t be able to rip it apart with sheer force alone.

“It isn’t that tough.”

Han-bin stretched out his sword to the sides and charged towards the Lich again.

“Die!”

His black greatsword leveled the earth and pierced the Lich. The force of his swing was so intense that even though it was just a stab, the shockwave that followed sent the Lich’s entire upper body flying as if a battering ram had just hit it.

Daaang!

But the Lich returned to life. Its scattered bone and skull fragments flew towards each other and merged in mid-air to resurrect it. The Lich shook his head as his expensively decorated rag fluttered.

“If I didn’t have this body, I would’ve been doomed…”

“I think you already are. You’re already only a skeleton anyway. “

Han-bin frowned while watching his opponent recover from the blow. It didn’t take long for it to look like it wasn’t damaged in the first place.

He heard Artis’s voice behind his back, “It’s no use! Physical attacks don’t work against Liches!”

Artis initially couldn’t understand the situation either, but he soon realized that he had never actually checked Ryu Han-bin’s level directly through the measuring stone.

He only looked at his guild ID, which stated that his name, level, and position.

“Is he an alien knight who hid his real identity?”

It was also strange that the owner of such a well-built body was only level 5. It would’ve made more sense if he was a high-level Swordsman who worked together with the Onpros Hunter Guild to hide his identity.

At least that made sense to him.

“Use Aura!”

Artis shouted in a hurry.

“Use Aura! You have to attack the Lich’s Mana directly with Aura!”

* * *

The Lich’s body was made of Mana that took on the bones of his past life. No matter how much its bones were destroyed, its body would return to its original state if the Mana remained undamaged. It was why physical attacks didn’t work on the Lich.

However, even warriors had a way to attack the Lich. Upon reaching a certain stage of enlightenment, warriors gained Auras.

The concept of Aura, which turned one’s life energy into power, was relatively close to the idea of Mana, Prana, and Force, allowing to damage bodies made out of pure Mana.

“I can’t use Aura!”

The Lich swiftly launched a spell.

“Wake up and fight! Air Elemental!”

Dozens of wind blades appeared and began to assault Ryu Han-bin.

A giant made out of wind and smoke also sprang into existence, its sole objective to kill Han-bin.

Wooosh!

It was around 2 meters in size.

It was certainly huge compared to the average height of the Latnains, but it was only a little larger than Ryu Han-bin.

“Huuuuph!”

With a snort, Han-bin went around the Air Elemental. It wasn’t a difficult opponent considering the range of their attacks were pretty much the same.

Bang! Bang! Kaaaaak!

With every slash of his sword, the elemental was smashed by a huge blast. The Lich became even more puzzled.

“Why doesn’t he use Aura?”

Han-bin was obliterating the Air Elemental with sheer force. It was certainly an incredible feat, but at the same time, it didn’t make any sense.

“If he’s that powerful, why doesn’t he just use aura?”

If he cut them with a Blade Aura, Air Elementals would be immediately destroyed. Destroying spirits through brute strength was extremely inefficient. There was no way an Aura User would do something so stupid.

With questions filling its mind, the Lich sent out another magic spell.

“Whip of Death!”

A dark whip flew around Han-bin at an incredible pace, to which he dodged by stepping out of its reach. He then began running towards the Lich using an evasive pattern.

“Burn!”

Even though the Whip of Death sent out shock waves in all directions, he cleverly went through the gap like a feline.

The Lich cursed.

“God damn it! Stop running after me so hard!”

Upon reaching the Lich, Han-bin attempted to slash through it again.

Phaaaaak!

As the sounds of bones cracking and breaking echoed, the Lich was split in half once more, and without fail, its bone fragments stuck back together to revive it.

Artis screamed out of pure frustration. “I told you to use Aura!”

Ryu Han-bin clicked his tongue as he heard the dragon’s words from afar.

“I already told you I don’t know how to use Aura!”

He knew he had to attack the Lich with Aura.

Even the guidelines kept reminding him about it.

[Physical attacks do not work against the Lich. Use the Aura skill to defeat the opponent.]

“What even is Aura?”

Ignoring such unhelpful words, Han-bin pulled out a throwing dagger. It wasn’t easy to close the distance between him and his opponent since it kept running away. Just like when he fought against Demon Dogs, it was necessary to damage it from a distance.

“Ziiing!”

Han-bin threw the dagger vigorously. Within the blink of an eye, it pierced through the Lich.

Daang!

The dagger broke the Lich’s shoulders into fragments before piercing deep into the ground with a thunderous sound. Stunned, the Lich looked back at the buried half-buried weapon.

He just threw a dagger, yet it was still enough to leave a crater around it.

“It’s not even a cannon!”

The Lich felt goosebumps rising all over its body despite not having any skin or flesh.

Artis felt frustrated as he helplessly watched the Lich recover over and over again.

“What the hell is he doing?”

His destructive power was tremendous, but it wasn’t enough to do truly lasting damage.

“Why doesn’t he use Aura? Isn’t he an Aura user?”

He found Han-bin’s combat method strange for an Aura user. He didn’t use the Blade Aura, which was the symbol of an Aura user. He didn’t even use the Shield Aura and the Guard Aura, the most basic Aura techniques. He just kept hacking and slashing using his physical abilities. Still, he was dominating over the Lich.

“Daaaaang!”

His strength was far beyond human capacity. His speed and stamina were also both extremely high.

“If he’s far exceeded the limits of humanity, then he should be an Aura user. Why can’t he use it?”

The Lich was also in a state of pure confusion.

“I don’t know why but…”

It blocked the charge of Han-bin with a magical barrier. Abandoning its thoughts, the Lich focused only on the facts in front of it.

“You can’t use Aura.”

The Lich finally felt relieved.

“If he isn’t an Aura user, then there’s a way to beat him!”

No matter how strong and mighty he was, his body was still the same as a human’s. His sword was also quite durable, but in the end, it’s only made out of monster bones. If he couldn’t protect himself or his sword with Aura, then his flaw became clear.

“Now then…”

It just had to shoot huge barrages of magic spells that had extremely high devastating strength to the point where he wouldn’t be able to avoid them!

With both hands opened, The Lich voiced out the incantation of a spell.

“Abyssal Black Flame, come to this land!”

Abyssal Black Flame was a high-ranking level 70 spell. It filled the skies with dark clouds and caused the ground to shake. The air trembled, and the temperature of their entire vicinity dropped continuously.

Woosh! Whoosh! Whoosh…….

Ryu Han-bin felt nervous. The land below him shook his legs.

“This looks like a pretty powerful spell.”

The battlefield’s atmosphere felt deathly. Han-bin stopped in his tracks and took a step back to analyze the situation.

Artis’s eyes widened. “Ugh! You can’t do that!”

If a mage was casting a powerful spell with a long incantation, it was only natural to strike them before they could finish it to interrupt the attack. It was common knowledge in anti-magic warfare. However, Ryu Han-bin’s anti-magic knowledge was limited to what he learned in his battle against the giant Demon Dog. The giant Demon Dog was certainly physically powerful, but it also sent out magical attacks. He was used to avoiding or blocking powerful magic and counterattacking.

“Don’t stop, Eric!”

Despite Artis’s scream, Han-bin still retreated as the Lich finished its chant.

“Cross, Flame of Life and Death! Inferno of Abyss!”

A black flame crushed towards them like a tidal wave with a size large enough to cover the entire Kobolds’ cottage. It had cut off all the escape routes.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In front of certain death, Artis turned its head.

“Ah…”

Ryu Han-bin stabbed his greatsword into the ground and raised his arms to cover his face as he pushed forward.

“Taaats!”

With a crackling sound, his shirt was torn, revealing more of his thick muscles. His whole upper body swelled up to the fullest, turning it almost into a statue-like state. A mere man became a magnificent mountain as he faced a gigantic wave of black flames.

Baaaaang!

The wave was split in two as a large part of the forest was blown away. Explosions appeared one after another.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

After a few moments, nothing else remained on the battlefield. The rest of the land, except for the site of the battle itself, had been leveled. A man stood alone in the middle of all the ruins.

“Woo, that hurt a bit…”

His whole body was quite tanned, but he was still in good shape. He remained unburned and unfazed.

The Lich and Artis mumbled under their breaths, both at the same time.

“… Huh?”

“He blocked it?”

“That magic was blocked?”

“With his bare body?”

That was impossible. Han-bin didn’t use Aura. He just tensed his muscles to hold off the entire black wave. Ryu Han-bin tilted his head as he lowered his arms to his sides.

“What’s wrong? Isn’t it normal to block magic like this?”