The Amber Sword

Brendel’s heart palpitated. Blood rushed to his head, and he faintly put in the idea to swing his blade upwards to try and divert the attack as much as possible, while his body sunk a little to evade the sword’s path. But the fatal thrust seemed to follow his heart like a magic spell.

It was too late. Brendel felt the metallic feedback from his sword, yet Torbus’s sword was not deterred in the slightest in its path. Cold steel reached pricked his skin and broke through.

[I...... failed? But I haven’t succeeded in the things that I needed to do yet—]

Brendel’s cry of lament echoed in his mind. The amount of effort that he put in for months and had risked his life repeatedly to save the kingdom was all for naught. Frustration assailed his heart and he could not help but tear up.

Pain flared through his flesh as his opponent’s blade continued to reach for his heart. It was all over. Brendel’s thoughts could not help but think back on the people he had encountered in this world.

A second passed.

Brendel had taken a step back when he felt the impact from the blade. And he was immediately bewildered. How could he possibly be pushed back like he was being struck by a blunt weapon? When he glanced at the trembling blade in his chest, he was shocked to find blue light emitting from the wound.

An unknown power was pushing the foreign body out of his chest with force.

An explosion rang out.

Brendel and Torbus hurled dramatically away from each other.

Screams and yells rang out from the coliseum when they saw the youth getting run through with a blade, then confusion set in when they saw a blue light forming into the shape of a human figure, standing between him and his grandfather.

Very quickly, they saw that it a translucent woman who had long hair going past her shoulders. She wore an Elven longsword on her sword belt while fully clad with plate mail armor.

Kodan blinked several times when he saw Brendel’s Guardian Spirit. He thought the Guardian Spirit was going to be Torbus’s former Guardian Spirit.

[Certainly, there are females amongst the Twenty Four Knights, but I really did not think the one who answered him would be a female knight.]

Kodan was shaking his head inwardly. His own Guardian Spirit was the Wind Destroyer, Suorat, while Torbus had the Grey Swordsman, Grice. The female knights amongst the Guardian Spirits had their own swordsmanships as well, but surely they were unsuitable for males.

In addition to that, there was even a female knight whose main weapon was a bow and not a sword. When he took a second look, Kodan thought it was probably not the female archer, as the description of her appearance was a ponytail along with a long cloak.

But one thing was clear. This was truly Brendel’s first encounter with his Guardian Spirit given his stunned expressions.

[If this boy managed to climb to this level of skill without unsealing his Guardian Spirit, then how far would his limits be in the future!]

Kodan was unable to gauge.

But unlike what the spectators were seeing, Brendel was experiencing something entirely different. Time had slowed down in his vision. Noises ceased and he was in an isolated space.

It was similar to the first time when he encountered Tuman.

He did understand, however, that the Ring of the Wind Empress had something to do with his situation.

[How’s this possible? Even the Planeswalker’s abilities were shut down, so how did the ring work in this duel? ...... Unless the Laws of the ring are similar to the Coliseum of Destiny, and it became a loophole.]

“Boy, this is the second time that I have saved you.”

A beautiful voice wormed inside Brendel’s ears from behind. It was filled with an elegant, aristocratic-like tone. Brendel could only imagine nothing but a woman filled with exquisite charm.

“Who’re you?” Brendel was shocked, whirling around to find a stunning woman with Elven features on her face.

He didn’t know there was a third soul in his body ever since he teleported to this parallel world.

“I’ll explain these things to you later. This isolated space cannot last. Your improvement is certainly incredible, but it’s still not enough to deal with these enemies. Let me use your body.”

Brendel jumped a little upon hearing that. There were spirits and ghosts possessing bodies in the game, and he retreated hastily. But the Elven woman beckoned to him and his body, or soul, walked towards her while ignoring his commands to stay away from her.

He found himself merging with the spirit.

And he was back into reality. The woman who suddenly appeared on the stage had disappeared. His opponents looked around in confusion, but they did not stand idly and cautiously surrounded him.

“Don’t be afraid,” the female voice in his head spoke, “concentrate and observe the ring in your hand.”

Brendel’s mind spun quickly.

[The real Ring of the Wind Empress? Osor’s Divine Artifact, The Wind Empress’s Lament? How’s that possible, and how did my grandfather have a ring that’s at least a Fantasy rank?]

The true Ring of the Wind Empress that the gamers found was an artifact that allowed one to implement an Aura of Wind Element. It bestowed the ability to control the Wind Element Power temporarily and went past the simple spell of a Wind Bullet from the replicated rings.

Yet a spirit or soul suddenly appeared out from nowhere from this supposedly fake ring in his hand. It was as if the gamers had it wrong, and the fake replica was actually the real deal.

“Boy, stop getting surprised,” the female voice urged, “quickly get used to it and focus. I can only manifest in my state for a short while. This isn’t the proper way to activate the Holy Seal.”

“The Holy Seal?”

“The reason for our manifestation is to pass our legacy to the ones worthy of succeeding it. But you’re in danger and require my assistance, so I’m forcibly breaking the Laws of the Holy Seal and manifesting myself before you. I need you to unseal the ring so that I can lend my knowledge to your body and mind through it. I’ll explain the matters concerning this to you in the future—”

Brendel was still confused, but understood the danger he was in and quickly studied the Ring of the Wind Empress.

A brilliant flash of light poured out from the ring—

Brendel suddenly stood up and roared, and a dominating aura filled the stage. It stopped his opponents from advancing any further.

Knowledge poured into his mind and his body became lighter. One thing immediately came to his mind as familiar techniques came rushing back to him—

[I have returned as the warrior in the game.]

– Ring of the Wind Empress (Unsealed)

– +1 Agility

– Magic spell: Wind Bullet

– Holy Seal activation: Guardian Spirit has been released.

– Possessed state.

– Shared techniques are available.

Green words appeared in his retina.

[...... Guardian Spirit? That’s a term I have never heard before in the game.]

Two terms caught the youth’s attention. ‘Guardian Spirit’ and ‘Shared techniques’.

Brendel easily understood the first term.

Was he possessed by a spirit? Or ghost? Or soul?

It usually indicated some kind of debuff, and gamers understood that warning well enough.

The second term was familiar as well. This term was typically reserved for wizards in the game where large ritual spells were cast. Many people to ‘gain’ that spell through the main caster. It was the same thing when he used Medissa’s techniques just a few minutes ago.

He suddenly became curious about the description in his Stats Window and opened it. He once again froze in shock.

He still held his old titles: Commoner, Militia, Mercenary, Elementalist, Scholar. There were skills as well attached to the various professions as well.

But there were three new professions.

– Swordsman

– Sword Saint

– Knight of the Seal.

[The first two professions are easy to understand. The former is a basic profession for a player, while the Sword Saint is a popular Advanced profession. I have never seen the third profession before, but the thing that surprised me the most...... Is the number of techniques and swordsmanships shared.]

There were ten-odd swordsmanships that were added to his stats window. Brendel certainly knew these them, but he did not expect this strange woman to be so skilled. There were less than twenty people in this era with her strength in the entire continent.

“Are you a Wind Elf?” He asked, thinking that she came from the distant past.

“Shhh,” the woman said, and Brendel felt an enjoyable sensation on his lips, as though she had placed a finger there, “the noble me shall answer your questions later. Pay attention, your enemies are about to approach.”

Brendel glanced at his surroundings. His four enemies had once again surrounded him.

“Here, let me help you out—” The woman said.

But Brendel refused immediately.

“No.” The youth flatly denied her.

“Hmm?” The female Elf was surprised.

“This is my duel.”

The system had restored his body and mind to be similar to his former body in the game. Once he had these skills, he was confident that he would not be any weaker than anyone here. Even if he was back in the War of the Holy Saints, he would still be considered one of the strong.

“Boy!” Kodan yelled out again.

He knew what had happened when he saw Brendel shouting earlier. His Guardian Spirit had also done the same thing of merging together with him when he was young, and the amount of information transmitted to him nearly incapacitated him because of the pain. His Guardian Spirit had to unmerge with him in order to keep him conscious, and he assumed that Brendel went through the same thing.

And in the past, he had to deal with his danger with an incomplete understanding of the techniques that was forced into his mind.

“Knowing the techniques is different from executing them! Perhaps I can give you some pointers on using the techniques given to you! Tell me, do you recognize any of the swordsmanships?”

But he would never be to guess that Brendel was already capable of using the techniques available, and that he had even surpassed the techniques that were given by the system. In addition to that, the system handled the information overload and he was completely unaffected by the merging.