Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 465

‘It’s coming.’

It was exactly as the words said.

The Hercules replica came charging like a bull.

But neither its gait nor its posture felt like some low-IQ third-rate avatar.

It was just that it felt as powerful as a bull.

‘But in the end, it’s still just a cheap knockoff.’

Before long, having closed the distance to Su-ho, Hercules swung his olive-wood club at him.

Vwooom!

The power behind it was enormous.

It looked like a simple swing, but the moment he saw that olive-wood club being swung, Su-ho felt it.

‘If that hits me, I’m really done for.’

Power you could feel even without crossing blades with it.

So even as a mere knockoff, was its tier just on a different level?

But if it was close-quarters combat, Su-ho was confident too.

Su-ho slipped past Hercules’s club as if he were sliding and immediately swung his sword.

[ Diamond Cutter is activated. ]

Slaaash!

His sword, swung like a flash of light, left a blue afterimage of sword aura and traced a red arc.

His target was Hercules’s arm, the one that had swung the club.

Before long, a long sword mark was engraved on Hercules’s arm. But—

Klang!!

The engraved sword mark seemed to shine for a moment, then shattered outward like breaking glass.

Naturally, there wasn’t so much as a wound, not even a scratch.

- Pathetic!

Vwooom!!

Having successfully defended, Hercules immediately attempted a counterattack.

Su-ho was briefly dumbfounded that Diamond Cutter hadn’t worked, but separately from that, he still dodged Hercules’s attack.

‘Diamond Cutter doesn’t work?’

That’s impossible.

Of all things, this was Diamond Cutter.

On top of that, his Blood Sword was forged using silver-colored mana as its base, and the sword aura layered over it was now in its absolute peak form.

There was no way that wouldn’t work.

As he dodged Hercules’s flurry of club strikes, Su-ho once again looked for an opening.

[ Diamond Cutter is activated. ]

Slaaash!

This time as well, the strike landed cleanly.

The blue sword aura engraved a long trajectory.

This time he had targeted the chest. However—

Klang!!

Just like before, the engraved sword mark seemed to shine for a moment, then shattered away like breaking glass without leaving even a single scratch.

‘What kind of ridiculous nonsense is this!’

He had deliberately avoided the lion pelt and gone for the gaps.

And yet he still couldn’t land an effective hit?

Flustered, Su-ho opened up a long distance.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me, seriously.’

So they merged several tasks into one, and this difficulty is supposed to be reasonable?

No matter what, there’s such a thing as an appropriate line, isn’t there?

On top of that, the Hercules replica was currently under Weakening and had Blessing of Rage layered over it, so the damage it took should have been massively increased.

And yet Diamond Cutter wasn’t working, so from Su-ho’s point of view, all he could do was be at a loss for words.

But he couldn’t just sit there complaining.

In the end, the fact that the system had permitted this task at all meant it was still doable.

‘Just what are they thinking.’

With his brow furrowed, Su-ho immediately switched over to drawing up a strategy.

‘First, I need to check a few things.’

If the Hercules replica’s defense, even aside from the Nemean lion’s pelt, possessed a higher defensive power than Diamond Cutter, then Sky Severance would work even less.

In that case, he had no choice but to start by strengthening Diamond Cutter.

- I’ll kill you!

Enraged by the effect of Enrage, the Hercules replica once again closed in rapidly on Su-ho.

Fortunately within misfortune, though the Hercules replica, even as a replica, had outstanding physical abilities, its innate martial prowess was lacking, so its movements were inferior to Su-ho’s.

In other words, as long as he focused, he could dodge as much as he wanted.

Kwooooom!!

Hercules’s club slammed down from above, smashing the ground.

The power behind it was staggering.

‘His martial skill may be poor, but his physical stats are in another universe.’

He had the feeling that if he took that head-on, it wouldn’t just be a fracture; the spot that got hit would be ripped off entirely.

But as long as he didn’t get hit, that was that.

Su-ho immediately created an opening and drove his Blood Sword in.

[ Enhancement is activated. ]

[ Diamond Cutter is activated. ]

[ Enhancement is applied. ]

[ The power of Diamond Cutter becomes even stronger. ]

He swung his sword with Enhancement layered on top.

Slaaash!

Thankfully, this time as well, Su-ho’s blade succeeded in carving a long line across the guy’s body.

Like lightning skimming past, his sword aura engraved a long sword mark into the guy’s body.

Klang!!

“What?!”

But as if openly mocking Su-ho’s efforts, even though it was clearly a strike with Enhancement layered on top, the Hercules replica casually deflected his attack.

Kwooooooom!!

In the meantime, Hercules’s club once again passed by Su-ho and detonated against the floor.

- Uaaaaaaaargh!!

[ The Unknown Hero uses ruler-grade Fear. ]

[ Dragon Blood is activated. ]

[ Due to the Dragon Mind effect of Dragon Blood, the Fear is not applied. ]

[ Due to the effect of ruler-grade Fear, all buff effects on Players are removed. ]

“This is driving me nuts.”

Even the cooldown on ruler-grade Fear, why is it this short?

Backing away again, Su-ho scanned his surroundings.

If the strengthened Diamond Cutter didn’t work, he would have to look for another method.

‘Damn it, there’s not even any terrain I can use.’

Of course, there were still things he hadn’t tested yet.

He hadn’t used Foxfire or Rage Mode when he slashed at Hercules.

But for some reason, he didn’t feel like using those two would let him inflict a wound on that bastard either.

The same went for the Poison Dragon’s venom.

You had to land a hit first to trigger the poison effect, and if even Diamond Cutter wouldn’t bite, then there was no way Poison Dragon’s Fangs would sink in either.

‘There’s no way Hera would have set the board without considering at least that much.’

At that moment, pitch-black darkness entered Su-ho’s field of vision.

‘Oh, hold on a second?’

This place, created for the duel, contained nothing but the white marble-like floor.

Which made him feel that this marble floor had to have an end somewhere as well.

Hearing a hundred times wasn’t worth seeing once.

Deciding to check it immediately, Su-ho started running toward the far edge of the marble floor.

- Where do you think you’re running!

Hercules began chasing after Su-ho like a madman.

He was even fast.

A simple chase run was just movement based purely on physicality, not something that required any special martial technique.

“This is really driving me crazy.”

A distance that was almost close enough to be caught, yet not quite.

But if he got caught by that brute of a hand, he knew that before long, the olive-wood club would turn him into a pulp.

That was something he absolutely refused.

If his head got mashed in by that club, he would be off to the afterlife before he could even use a recovery skill.

‘If I’d known it would turn out like this, I should’ve copied Shiva Mode instead of Destruction Fist Art.’

But it was already too late.

Su-ho immediately began using skills.

[ Heat Storm is activated. ]

Fwoooooooosh!

Output to maximum!

At that level, the heat emitted by Heat Storm would become comparable to that of the sun.

Su-ho poured mana into it freely, fully intending to melt Hercules on the spot.

However—

- Hah! It’s nice and warm!!

The insane Hercules replica, even under the high-output Heat Storm, burst into wild laughter and only accelerated even more.

“Wow, that guy really is crazy.”

He didn’t have the leisure to just admire it.

Su-ho immediately used his next skill.

[ Eclipse is activated. ]

[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]

[ The Runes of Sun and Moon respond. ]

[ The power of the Sun and Moon is activated. ]

[ You receive the blessing of Sun and Moon. ]

[ All stats increase by 2%. ]

[ All recovery power increases by 2%. ]

[ You use the Ice attribute. ]

[ Only the Ice attribute is activated independently. ]

The skill he had used was Eclipse.

And the attribute he had chosen was Ice.

After choosing the Ice attribute, Su-ho once again unleashed Heat Storm.

[ Heat Storm is activated. ]

Whooooooooosh!

Once the Ice attribute was granted to Su-ho via Eclipse, the Heat Storm, influenced by that, was no longer a heat storm but turned into a frigid cold storm that swept over Hercules.

Crack— craaackle!

And sure enough, Hercules slowly began to freeze over.

At the same time, his joints seemed to start creaking, and his speed gradually slowed.

‘Good, I’ll just keep widening the gap like this!’

In that moment—

- Not a chance!

Baaang!!

The guy swung his arm once with great vigor, then blew apart his frozen body as if shattering it and began accelerating again.

“Wow, what the hell...”

There was no monster like this monster.

Even when he raised the output further, it was the same.

Hercules would seem to be freezing solid, only to break free from the frozen state several times and chase after Su-ho at terrifying speed.

‘By the way, when does the end of this place show up?’

In the meantime, they’d run quite a bit.

No, they had run quite a lot.

But the marble floor, which he had thought would have an end, stretched on without end.

‘Don’t tell me this place actually has no end?’

An infinite arena or something like that, was that the concept here?

In that case, he was screwed.

And the more he ran, the more convinced he became that this place had no end.

‘Damn it.’

If there had been an edge to this floor, and if that edge had been a cliff like a sheer drop a thousand fathoms deep, he’d planned to come up with some trick to push Hercules off it.

If he did that, he could have received a natural victory declaration without having to inflict a direct wound.

But Hera’s preparations were even more thorough than he’d thought.

- Hwahahahaha! Just give up already!!

Laughing madly, Hercules reached his arm out toward Su-ho.

Feeling the guy’s grasp right at his back, Su-ho twisted his body at once.

“Cheolma!”

“Hiiiiiiiiiink!” 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Then he summoned Cheolma and immediately fled up into the sky.

“This is seriously driving me ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) crazy.”

But just because he was in the sky, that didn’t mean he could relax.

- Hahahaha! Did you think going up into the sky would solve everything!

With a boisterous laugh, Hercules summoned a bow and aimed it at Su-ho.

“Ah.”

Right.

Come to think of it, when he had taken down the Bronze Birds of Stymphalos, Hercules had protected his body with the lion-head pelt and shot them with arrows coated in the Hydra’s venom.

Sure, Cheolma’s body was made of iron, but would that have made any difference to the bronze birds?

Letting out a sigh, Su-ho immediately dismissed Cheolma and came back down to the marble floor.

In response, Hercules discarded the bow as well and picked up the olive-wood club again.

- Khuhuhu! Pathetic, utterly pathetic!

Kwooom!

A rough step forward.

Hercules charged at Su-ho.

Su-ho once again gripped his Blood Sword.

And once more, he wrapped himself in his own buffs and launched a head-on assault he had never attempted even once until now.

Kwooooooooooom!!

The olive-wood club and the Blood Sword collided.

The sound that tore across the field was so intense, it was hard to believe it came from a wooden club and a sword clashing.

At the same time, Su-ho realized in an instant.

‘If I try to receive this guy’s attacks, I definitely lose...!’

His hand was trembling.

When it came to raw strength, he had never once been pushed back by anyone, but this monster before his eyes, knockoff or not, was on a completely different level.

Maybe that was why Su-ho let out a genuine sigh.

‘The land route and the sky route are both blocked. Burning him with fire doesn’t work, freezing him with cold doesn’t work.’

Even with all his buffs wrapped around him and Enhancement layered over his attacks to go for one-hit kills, even that didn’t work.

That meant his remaining option was to create darkness and use Guiyeong. But in the current situation, to create darkness, he would have to spread Blood Armory wide to create artificial shade.

‘But is Hercules really going to just stand there and let me do that?’

He’d probably just smash my Blood Armory to pieces with that stupidly huge club.

In that case, even Guiyeong’s Shadow Pierce wouldn’t be a sure solution.

‘Then in the end, what I need is a new card...’

Given the current situation, what new card could overturn Hera’s expectations?

In that moment, a bolt of lightning flashed through Su-ho’s mind.

‘Don’t tell me that opportunity is going to come like this?’

A smile spread across Su-ho’s lips.

No matter how he thought about it, that was the only answer.

Having made up his mind, Su-ho adjusted his grip on his sword.

And for a moment, he focused his mind and swung his blade.

[ Heart Severance is activated. ]