On the beach, pirates were piling up the loot plundered from the town. Wooden crates filled with treasures had already formed hills and walls. "Good! Very good!" Pirate Captain Gail cackled, holding up jewels from a crate. "As expected, a rich territory's loot is on another level! Hahahaha!" "C-Captain!" Gail turned his head. A pirate, with a nasty bruise on his eye as if he'd been hit, came running, out of breath. "We need reinforcements! There's a massive counterattack in the city...!" "What?" Gail frowned. The naval forces should have been neutralized. "Is it the remnants of Blue Harbor's navy?" "N-No." The pirate was sweating profusely. "It's just residents! A florist, a tourist, a chef..." "...Are you out of your mind?" Just then, with a *CRACK!*, the reporting pirate's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed. Behind him, a man truly dressed as a chef stood smiling, holding a frying pan. "Aargh!" "Gah!" Pirates were seen flying over the wall of stacked wooden crates. Gail shot to his feet. "What's going on?!" *CRASH!* *CRUMBLE!* The stacked wooden crates collapsed as pirates' bodies crashed into them, and beyond, the townspeople were seen walking proudly. They were indeed florists, chefs, tourists, and so on. 'Unbelievable. Was that report true?' A woman in a swimsuit was seen grabbing a pirate by the collar, lifting him, and slapping him repeatedly. *SMACK! SMACK!* With each sound, the pirate's teeth scattered like buckshot from his mouth. 'I see.' Gail's expression turned serious. All these people were clad in something like bone armor. It was the work of a Necromancer. Pinch was the only proper Necromancer in Blue Harbor, so then... "It's you. The boy in the black uniform." Behind the ordinary residents, a boy in black clothes stood, sweat dripping. Gail clicked his tongue and stroked his long mustache. "They said Kizen would be handled on their side, but now this burden. I shouldn't have allied with those bastards!" "What you just said..." Simon smiled crookedly. "Sounds like there was an inside man, doesn't it?" "Heheheh! Think what you want!" Before long, the residents surrounded Gail. Everyone was brimming with confidence, having gained 'life power' from Simon's Bone Armor. Yet, Gail stood calmly, stroking his mustache. "Charge at once!" The residents in Bone Armor rushed forward simultaneously. At that moment, Gail's eyes flashed, and his muscles bulged. Simon cried out in alarm. "Wait...!" *KABOOOM!* With an enormous shockwave, ten townspeople who had charged forward were sent flying at once. Several who took the direct hit had their Bone Armor stripped away and were knocked unconscious. "Hmph!" The chef nimbly moved behind Gail and brought his frying pan down on Gail's head, but Gail blocked it with his arm without even looking back. *CRACK!* The frying pan shattered against his bare hand. "M-Monster...!" "Get out of the way, mister!" The swimsuit lady darted to Gail's side and spread her palm wide. *WHAM!* Gail's head snapped violently from the direct hit. With a loud impact, a gust of wind spread, kicking up sand around them. Her slaps had the power to knock out pirates' teeth with each blow, but... "Cute." Gail, with only a handprint on his cheek, grinned and thrust his face closer to her. "Is this what they call 'industry reward' these days?" "Ah...!" She flustered and stumbled backward. Gail grabbed the hilt of the sword at his waist, exploding with mana as he drew it. She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her head with both arms. *WHOOSH!* An immense wind pressure created whirlwinds across the sandy beach. Crouching, she trembled and opened her eyes. "Ah!" In front of her, Simon was seen with his leg extended straight. He had kicked up Gail's sword-wielding arm. His leg was trembling. "I wondered why I couldn't feel any Jet Black." Simon smiled, sweat dripping. His gaze was fixed on the mana flickering on Gail's sword. "An Aura user. This is my first time seeing one." "Hahaha! You should've come out yourself sooner!" Simon retracted his leg and stepped back, speaking. "Everyone, fall back. He's too strong to fight without a Core." "Wait! I can still fight...!" Simon waved his arm, dispelling all the Bone Armor he had applied to the citizens. Startled, they finally retreated to a safe distance. "You know what?" Gail rotated his neck as if stretching. "I really hate Necromancers." "..." "In fact, I was planning to kill that bastard after this job was done." He seemed to be referring to the inside man. And it was highly likely that the inside man was also a Necromancer. Simon could roughly guess how the situation was unfolding. But wanting to extract more concrete information, Simon naturally continued the conversation. "It's unusual to see someone using Aura in this day and age." "Unusual?" Gail spun his sword and said. "That's your problem, you Necromancers. You divide mainstream and non-mainstream without any proof. You disparage Aura and pure magic as outdated just because they're different from you." "I never disparaged them." "Oh really? When you saw my Aura, that look in your eyes, like you were seeing a strange monkey at a zoo, it bothered me." Gail re-gripped his sword and held it upright against his chest with a disciplined gesture. Then he stomped his right foot hard into the sand and charged. 'Gauntlet Mode!' Simon quickly pulled his right arm back. As bones rapidly covered Simon's right arm, he threw a punch. *THWACK!* Sand erupted like a fountain around Simon and Gail. *CLANG!* Simon's Jet Black-armored gauntlet and Gail's Aura-infused sword clashed, sparking as they struggled for dominance. "Ugh! As expected...!" Simon strained to push the sword away and spoke. "That move, placing the sword on your chest! I believe that's the sword salute of the Baldwin Kingdom's Knights!" "Oh ho! You recognize it!" *CRACK!* Gail put strong force into it, deflecting Simon's gauntlet. But he didn't immediately charge. He seemed quite pleased with Simon's keen eye. "Why hide it! My family has been a knightly house for generations!" '...A pirate?' In a world where Necromancers reigned, knightly families had been in endless decline. That was the flow of the times, but young Gail had not given up. He honed the sword and Aura passed down through his family, and finally passed the examination, succeeding in joining a great territory's knight order. But... "Out of 200 knights, 198 were Necromancers who had opened their Cores." A bitter smile hung on Gail's lips as he said this. The ironic situation where Gail, a traditionalist, was ostracized as old-fashioned within the knight order. He was not given a proper chance to demonstrate his skills. He was even excluded from large-scale ceremonial parades because he couldn't 'blacken' his sword. It was hard to watch with open eyes as thugs with no chivalry, no strong bodies, spouted nonsense about 'practicality' and such. Filled with disillusionment, Gail eventually left the knight order and headed to sea, thus becoming a captain leading three large pirate ships. 'U-Unemployment crime...' Simon felt a complex mix of emotions upon hearing the story. "A Kizen student, the pinnacle of Necromancers." Gail raised his sword above his head. Bluish mana rippled like waves along the blade. "It'll be fun to kill you!" And he swung his sword in a wide, straight line. *CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!* The slash split the sandy beach as it extended. Simon stepped back to dodge, and the people around screamed and retreated. "There have been countless Necromancers who've challenged me, calling it pirate subjugation! But every single one of them had their heads cut off by my sword!" Gail laughed loudly. "You'll be next! Kizen!" Gail charged like a beast, swinging his Aura-infused sword. Wherever the sword passed, waterfalls of sand continuously erupted. Simon dodged the third strike sideways, arched his back, and threw a punch. With a *CRACK!*, Gail's face contorted, but he grinned even as he was hit, continuing to swing his sword. 'Damn it!' The sword grazed Simon's chest. Kizen's uniform crackled. Its defensive magic had activated. "Again! More cheap tricks?!" Gail grinned. "Only a purely honed body determines a martial artist's strength! You can't win a fight with mere tricks!" Simon ducked low to avoid the swinging sword, then planted his hand on the ground and kicked up with his right leg, aiming for the chin. *CRACK!* Gail's head snapped back, but his swinging sword didn't stop. 'No impact at all?!' Simon used Jet Black to tumble backward, creating distance. Gail wiped the blood from his lips and smirked. "An unyielding body and an indomitable will! A martial artist needs no other petty tricks!" "Well, your story is quite tragic, but..." Simon exhaled deeply and extended his right arm. "That doesn't erase the crimes you've committed." *WHOOSH!* Behind the direction Simon extended his arm, a pile of sand rose up, forming a giant monster. He had secretly planted a Golem Core in the sand and continuously flowed Jet Black into it, creating a Mud Golem. Of course, here it was closer to a Sand Golem than a Mud Golem. *CREAK!* *CREAK!* The sand pile, which could barely be called a Golem's arm, was lifted and brought down on Gail. Gail, again, did not dodge and took the attack with his body. However, unlike other types of soil, the fine sand of the beach did not clump together and scattered upon contact with Gail's body. Sand got into his eyes, nose, and mouth. "Ptooey! Ugh! Useless!" And in the instant Gail's vision was obscured, Simon, who had rushed forward like a flash, grabbed the back of Gail's head with his Bone Armor Gauntlet and leaped up. 'That way!' He slammed Gail's head into a very sturdy safe among the stolen goods. *CRASH!!!* With a loud roar, the safe was severely dented. For an ordinary person, their head would have been crushed, resulting in instant death, but Simon knew Gail's durability. 'Not yet!' Simon opened his Magical Inventory and retreated. Potions made during his Toxicology class poured out of the Magical Inventory, falling onto Gail's face and body, and Simon sent bones scattered everywhere flying. 'Bone Nail!' The bones moved, shattering the potions clinging to Gail's body. His entire body was drenched with paralysis and poison potions. "A knight..." Gail's legs trembled as he tried to stand. "Never falls!" "Yes, it seems so." "You Necromancers! How despicable, using poisons! Have some shame!" Gail roared and charged. *WHOOSH!* His sword swung straight forward. Simon easily dodged it with a slight bend of his waist. *WHOOSH!* This time, a diagonal slash. Simon tilted his head to dodge, then delivered a *CRACK!* counter-punch to his face and retreated. "Ugh!" *ROAR!* *ROAR!* *ROAR!* Simon dodged the subsequent horizontal slash by retreating, then grabbed Gail's clothes and slammed his elbow into his face. A few teeth, along with blood, fell from Gail's mouth. "Ugh! Cough!" He staggered, clutching his forehead. His vision spun from the poison, and he couldn't stand properly. "You bastard! What did you do to me?!" Dealing with a poisoned Gail was child's play. Simon dodged Gail's forced sword swings and rotated his body. His waist twisted, and his heel lifted. *CRACK!* A picture-perfect spinning kick exploded on Gail's face. The sound of a hard fruit shell cracking was heard, and blood splattered everywhere. "I agree with your thoughts too." Gail's body flew several meters and tumbled on the ground. Simon walked steadily towards him. "Chivalry, Aura, swordsmanship, I never thought they were outdated or old-fashioned. However..." Looking at the motionless Gail, Simon dusted off his hands. "You're just old-fashioned yourself."
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