I Was a Sword When I Reincarnated

Chapter 1160: Rob of the Cardinal Flag

We take down a Red Knight Captain, here and now. Even if we fail to kill the actual captain, destroying their relic is good enough.

Our sights were set on Rob, the captain of the Cardinal Flag Knights.

In terms of simple stats, Roza is stronger. This makes Rob the easier target, even accounting for him being further in the back.

（Let’s go!）

『Yeah!』

Fran charged at Roza first. This was a bluff to delay Roza’s movements as much as possible.

「Teyah!」

「You’ve gotten faster than before!」

Fran feinted a slash before delivering her real goal, a kick.

Her foot slammed in Roza’s stomach, sending her flying. I activated telekinesis and storm magic to knock her back even further.

Roza landed around 15 meters away from her initial spot, partially because she didn’t resist the momentum.

Well, at least we achieved our goal of driving her away.

Fran immediately dashed straight at Roza. Anyone would think she’s going for a follow up.

Roza braced herself to intercept.

Then, I teleported Fran to our real target.

We reappeared right behind Rob, the Cardinal Flag Captain. After teleporting so far away, Roza had no way to reach us in time.

It’s impressive how Rob sensed our teleport and began to react. That won’t be enough to save himself though!

「Haaaaah!」

『Eat this!』

Activating all my skills! Both Fran and I turned on everything aside from Potential Release for an overhead slash.

Our mightiest strike packing black lightning as well as divine and evil energy. We collided with the flag-bearing halberd swung by Rob.

It seems he had the utmost confidence in the relic’s durability.

I don’t blame him, since both Cardinal Flame and Blood Maiden didn’t even take a scratch in our initial exchange. Cardinal Flag must be equally durable.

But you won’t be beating us now!

「N-No… Impossible…!」

Rob froze, completely stunned as the relic suddenly vanished from his hands. The formidable red knight captain left himself wide open. Losing his relic must have been that much of an unbelievable occurrence.

A huge amount of mana flowed in, but I kept going. This is something I’ve experienced before, so I knew how to handle it.

『Take him down, Fran!』

「Haaah!」

I restrained Rob’s legs with my decorative cord right as Fran delivered a second slash.

A pretty mediocre swing, far from the lightning speed of her earlier blow. Fran had already spent everything on her first slash, so she had little energy left to spare.

Unfortunately for Rob though, there was no stopping us. With his legs entwined, he could only manage to twist his upper body slightly.

In addition, it seems the relic had a great effect on the wielders stats. His strength and vitality got halved by the loss of his relic, while the rest of his stats fell by 20~30%. This sudden change must have contributed to his difficulty in movement.

My blade closed in on Rob’s heart, before eventually getting stuck. Rob had infused mana to harden his muscles and bones, lodging me within his body.

「Gwah…! I let my guard down…! But… I have not lost yet…!」

「Mrgh!」

To our surprise, Rob moved forward instead of trying to pull me out from his body. Even without the use of his legs, he managed to reach Fran by collapsing forward.

My blade only dug deeper into his body as a result, but Rob didn’t seem to care at all. Despite his near-lethal condition, he wanted vengeance.

He focused everything he had on offense. The mana that had been going towards regeneration vanished, and blood gushed out from his wounds.

And in exchange, his fist became infused with a terrifying amount of mana. Fran jumped back as fast as possible, but she took a bone crushing impact as the punch grazed her arm.

Damn, these knights are formidable even without their relics.

It seems he has to be taken down after all!

I drained mana from Rob to morph my body.

「Wha…? Grah!」

Rob certainly never expected me to transform, attacking him on my own after leaving Fran’s hands.

Hundreds of needles impaled Rob’s body from inside as he screamed in astonishment.

「Damn… you…」

The captain of the Cardinal Flag Knights burned with fighting spirit until the very last moment. He extended his hand towards Fran again, but collapsed before ever reaching her.

Phew, I managed to store his corpse… Seems like we finished him off before he could turn undead.

「We beat him…」

『Yeah!』

「…Mrgh?」

『These guys are so persistent!』

We may have managed to defeat the Cardinal Flag Captain, but Fran and I were pretty exhausted. That’s when more arrows came flying at us.

Meanwhile, Nameless and his friends were still trapped in Maleficent’s jet-black dome.

This situation allowed the Dusk Rain¹ Captain to target us again. However, Roza was shifting her center of gravity backwards.

She continued backing away, little by little. Seems like she doesn’t intend to avenge Rob.

（Master, what now?）

『It’s best for us if they continue falling back. Let’s avoid pushing ourselves too much.』

（Okay.）

Fran was aware of how difficult it would be to take on two captains simultaneously in her current situation.

She nodded at my words and stopped her pursuit.

If they intend to run, we should let them. Provoking them into another engagement will only increase the chance of allied casualties.

「Oh? Are you really not going to chase? You don’t want to make my relic disappear too?」

「…I’m letting you go for today.」

「Ohohohoho! Nice tough front! I think I’ll take you up on that offer though!」

「Hmph.」

Roza fell back to the fort with the rest of the Red Knights, recovering the corpses of all her men as well.

『They definitely know Fran’s responsible for the disappearing relics now…』

Translation Notes