"System: Eye of Detection," Seunghyuk requested and the System screen spewed out details like usual and Seunghyuk thought aloud saying, "Five useless ex-royal members...another five offenders of Arkawarenia, obviously not going to be very cooperative...then five young and unripened Nighthowlers that are clearly seen shaking in fear...and one last man...That one last man is the only person here that could even try to go against the King's Royal Guard."
Seunghyuk knew everything was already planned to make him fail from the very start, giving a group that strongly lacked cooperation, courage and skill. It was like the second task was impossible, scaling Mount Everest within one day, it just seemed like Seunghyuk was bound to fail.
"The King must be having the day of his life," Seunghyuk stated irritatedly and looked up at a random wall of the white battle space, indeed, though Seunghyuk could not see it, the King was smiling so devilishly that his face showed not only confidence, but also joy in seeing Seunghyuk suffer.
Seunghyuk frowned as he watches the listless group of people walk up to him, and a distinct and clear separation was already seen in the group. Offenders in a group, ex-royal members in another and five cowards shivering together at one corner like they had just felt unlimited shudders from relieving themselves. However, that one man just stood there silently, and looking closely, that man did not seem to have any distinct traits of a Nighthowler, even in a human form, Seunghyuk could easily feel the "Nighthowler energy" from someone, perhaps it was with the help of the System's Eye of Detection.
"A divided and power-lacking group going up against a Royal Guard of the King? That's absurd," Seunghyuk spoke under his breath with his forehead-creasing furrow stuck onto both his down-pointing brows, then ended off his showcase of annoyance with a quick cuss.
"Pardon me..." The King's voice rang through the weirdly-hung speakers at the very top of the battle space, which got Seunghyuk's attention as he turned his head upwards to stare at the speaker as he listened, but one of the young Nighthowler shouted out abruptly like the King's voice was Thanatos, the God of Death himself speaking, and resumed shivering together in his group again, "Contestant, you are allowed to have a go at my Head Royal Guard once, just to have a sensing on how much it would take to have your group remain standing after three attacks, so similarly like your group, in your trial, you would not be required to attack the Head Royal Guard. However, if you wish to do so, please go ahead and do so, because I highly doubt you would be able to defeat my Head Royal Guard anyway, given that you have just recovered and also your low skill level..."
Seunghyuk narrowed his eyes at the speaker as the King suddenly stopped himself like a wave had crashed into the shore, but only to have a bigger wave rising to full height again.
"Mostly because you're weak...er than my Head Royal Guard. Just to match up with your leadership skills, my Head Royal Guard would not use anything else but just a longsword, and so I shall leave it all to Duke Travessle and the Royal members here to oversee this task while I will go settle my royal affairs," announced the King as Seunghyuk listened to the closing of the door through the speaker then the switching over of voices where Duke Travessle's rich voice came booming into the battle space.
"Well, you have heard the King himself. Now, I shall invite the Head Royal Guard to enter the battle space as well. Mr Choi, please have your go at the Head Royal Guard. That will be all and you can commence your trial," Duke Travessle announced and Seunghyuk still felt weird that the Duke suddenly decided to not call Seunghyuk by "contestant" but instead refer to Seunghyuk as "Mr Choi", like he changed his formality and levels of respect after the first task, maybe it was indeed so, as Seunghyuk did slay the Mechataur without any Conqueror Magic Enhancement weaponry.
As the Duke finished, the battle space suddenly had a portion of it split open partially to form a doorway, seamlessly appearing as the Head Royal Guard walked out wearing a full suit of armour that shimmered as he walked into the battle space and the Royal Guard seemed to brighten up the room with every step that he takes. Just one look at the armour that the Head Royal Guard was wearing had brought a clear thought to Seunghyuk's head, shouting: The King's despicableness knows no boundary.
Given the technological advancement of the Kingdom of Arkawarenia, the armour would definitely be built with uniquely rare and crazily impenetrable material, which all just added up to the absurdity of the task given by the King. It has already been so obvious that the King was going out for Seunghyuk, and the only thing that he had not done was directly putting money on Seunghyuk's head.
"Contestant, you may begin at anytime. When you take five steps forward towards me, I will start attacking," The Head Royal Guard spoke, but the voice that escaped the sturdy helmet that was worn was robotic-like, and clearly, the voice was hidden and changed.
Before Seunghyuk's brain could hop onto the train of thought about how technologically advanced Arkawarenia was, Seunghyuk's attention as immediately sucked away when the Head Royal Guard unsheathed the huge longsword and held it firmly in front of his body.
The Head Royal Guard seemed so huge with the insane armour donned on and the huge longsword equipped, but in actual fact Seunghyuk was actually taller even without the height boost of the armour that the Head Royal Guard has. However, the Head Royal Guard's imposing appearance was like a huge hand pushing Seunghyuk down and shrinking him in size.
"Five steps forward you say..." Seunghyuk immediately switched to thinking mode as he slowly retreated backwards while the gears in his brain shifted and rotated so rapidly like friction was nonexistent, then Seunghyuk stopped when his back met the white wall of the battle space, "Well, so this is as far back as I can go. Now..."
Seunghyuk noticed everyone in the group staring at him and watching him to see what he would do next, but the man was still just standing there silently and aloofly, the only difference was that his eyes were closed.
"Forward!" Seunghyuk shouted as he threw his body weight forward exaggeratingly as he let himself take four steps forward like he was an elephant traversing the jungle mightily and dauntlessly, which the Head Royal Guard bent his knees slightly and lifted the longsword overhead.
The Head Royal Guard jumped forward as he stopped himself with one foot then turned his body around ferociously while swinging the longsword along with his rotating body to build up momentum as he brought the sword down and towards Seunghyuk. The life-threatening sword blow neared Seunghyuk with increasing speed, but Seunghyuk did not even move one bit as he calmly announced out loud.
"You better stop your attack now or you'll go against your own rules," Seunghyuk spoke and the longsword stopped right before his face and Seunghyuk just tapped the longsword aside lightly just like he did when he was threatened with an Elder Nighthowler's claw a few hours ago which gave him a weird deja vu feeling as he slowly continued, trying not to let his hidden petrification show, "Did you not count my steps? Or did you think I was going to take five steps towards you anyways since I was seen to be charging? Well, looks like you've miscalculated, literally. Hence, don't make random statements just to impose on people...if you can't 'honour' them yourself."
The Head Royal Guard slowly brought the longsword back to his body and was clearly maddened by the situation. Seunghyuk smiled as he quickly took the chance to use Eye of Detection on the Head Royal Guard.
"Conqueror's Name: Chae Myeongeun (Female) (Head Royal Guard for the King of Arkawarenia)
Conqueror's Level: 5
Strength: 33
Agility: 32
Defense: 28
MP: 29
Skills: Ember Pillar (2 out of 5 stars)
Locked On (1 out of 5 stars)
Triple Swords (2 out of 5 stars)
Concussion Wipeout (4 out of 5 stars)"
Seunghyuk thought hard as he realised that the Head Royal Guard was actually a female and that he was actually referring to the Head Royal Guard as a "he". However, Seunghyuk did not let any of those internal emotions rise up to the surface, but he quickly made use of his newly upgraded skill, Short-Fused Explosion, to push up his stats.
"Conqueror's Name: Choi Seunghyuk (Male) (Leader of Legendclad)
Conqueror's Level: 4
Strength: 24 (raised by 7)
Agility: 24 (raised by 7)
Defense: 24 (raised by 7)
MP: 24 (raised by 7)
Skills: Short-Fused Explosion (2 out of 5 stars)
Eye of Detection (2 out of 5 stars)
Heart of Cold Steel (2 out of 5 stars)
Ancient Language Comprehension (2 out of 5 stars)
Snake Of Ophiuchus (3 out of 5 stars)
Dancing With Fire (3 out of 5 stars)
Nighthowling (0 out of 5 stars)
Charm (0 out of 5 stars)"
Almost immediately after, Seunghyuk pushed both his palms upwards pointing up to the ceiling of the enclosed battle space, conjured a huge flaming blade over his head then slamming it down to the amused Head Royal Guard with force.
"Despicable! Underhanded techniques are only used by the lowlife and the unworthy, and you dare compete for the throne?" The Head Royal Guard blocked the flaming blade with her longsword, but almost with practiced ease, she stood up like she was totally unaffected and unscathed, which Seunghyuk in turn replied, "You probably overlooked the definitions of despicable and underhanded, you shouldn't just take those words at surface level. I only did what I was allowed to do and they are not at all 'underhanded techniques' as you call them. In fact, I did what I could to survive and to be able to give myself the best edge possible. Let's talk 'underhanded' and 'despicable' now, your so-called almighty King threw me two tasks that even he found it impossible to achieve. A good example would be that he couldn't even slay a Mechataur unless he was equipped with the kingdom's best Conqueror Magic Enhancement weapon, and he expected me to be able to do it. How is this for 'despicable' and 'underhanded' ?"
Seunghyuk was surprised that Head Royal Guard listened silently to him as he spouted out all those words, and was a little happy to see the Head Royal Guard rendered speechless for a while.
"Also, I'm going to be 'underhanded' again and again, many more times than you'll ever imagine," Seunghyuk spoke and immediately summoned a piercing flaming attack which managed to push the Head Royal Guard back by a few steps, but overall, it only did cat scratches on the armour.
"I have to say you do have an interesting take on those two words, but I'm afraid I'll still have to follow the King's orders," The Head Royal Guard immediately rushed forward and swung her longsword forward as it sweeper dangerously towards Seunghyuk.
"Snake of Ophiuchus! Serpens Caput Strengthen!" Seunghyuk quickly strengthened the head of the snake and sent it forward to block the attack, but it seemed like it was barely any help, which the sword merely slashed the Snake of Ophiuchus aside.
"Foolish attempts. Do you only know how to pull out useless tricks from under your sleeves? Like you have said so yourself, you should not run your mouth when you cannot honour your words," The Head Royal Guard threw those words out there and spent no time in between after ending the sentence, charging right forward while swinging her longsword with so much experienced momentum.
Seunghyuk felt the incoming danger and immediately shot jets of flames at the charging Head Royal Guard, but the armour allowed her to completely ignore and be oblivious to the heat of the flames, and so the slashing of the longsword drawn red strokes of blood on Seunghyuk's body.
"Well, not like I've never been cut like this befor-"
Seunghyuk was ruthlessly cut off when the Head Royal Guard took a step back and brought the longsword down drawing a crescent with the sword movement, slashing right at Seunghyuk, causing Seunghyuk to fall flat to the ground immediately.
"Well that was three attacks from me, and remember, these are not even close to the three attacks I would unleash on your pathetic group of people," The Head Royal Guard dropped those words heavily like anvils as they dropped on the lying Seunghyuk painfully, making him see helplessness once again after a long time.
"Damn it...She hasn't even used any of her skills yet..."