Golden Cross: Chapter 15

Chapter 15.  Bertha, the Sword Spirit 3

Feeling the sudden pressure, Eugene gritted his teeth and fixed his posture.  Eugene understood that even the power of the maestro golem couldn’t be compared to Bertha’s power.

 “How can this be.”

Eugene couldn’t help, but be amazed at Bertha’s dignity as she pushed him.  At this moment, the spirit of the great sword master could be seen in her powerful eyes.

It was at a level which couldn’t be analyzed with Eugene’s power.

 “The sword spirit was only born for the sword.”

Finishing her words, Bertha came in full force.  In fact, unable to even recognize that it was an offensive maneuver as the opponent disappeared even before he could detect her, Eugene could only react reflexively.

Surprised, Eugene retreated using the crouching tiger skill, but Bertha was faster.  The fact that moving backwards, no matter how fast he was, it was no match for the forward moving steps of Bertha was an irrevocable truth.

 “Defend yourself if you can!”

Bertha confidently wielded her sword.  At that moment, Eugene witnessed the level which he has not reached yet.

It made him dumbfounded to even momentarily forget that he was engaged in a fierce sword fight.

 “This is impossible!”

A white flower blossomed before Eugene’s eyes.  It was the most beautiful and the deadliest.

More accurately, it was the result of an explosion caused by magic force, but at a glance, it looked like a flower.  And from three directions, some physical swordsmen, mimicking white thorns, rushed in, attacking Eugene.  He was sure that the swordsman swung one time, but there were three offensive maneuvers.

 “Krrreuhk!”

The first attack was successfully blocked off, but the subsequent attacks landed on Eugene’s temples, and he ended up falling to the ground.

Even in this incredible moment of the attack, Bertha must have used the side of the sword as Eugene’s head was intact.  Of course, as if he has been battered with a blunt object, he could not have easily come to his senses.

He wanted to suppress himself, but the pain was extenuating that he moaned uncontrollably.

 “Are you all right?”

As Bertha walked closer, her wings made chilling sound.  It was almost like the vibration of armor suits, but it was something strange as Eugene has never heard anything like it before.

Furthermore, her hair was gracefully waving in the air. 

She had blonde hair, but it shined brightly as if the sun was giving off light.

 “Aaaaa…..”

Eugene’s condition was so bad that he even had a tough time answering her.  He was fortunate that it ended with not much of an injury since Bertha restrained from using her full power, but his spirit being was at the cusp of losing its consciousness from the impact.  He felt like the white sky of the distant dimension was spinning around.

 “You are in a lot of pain, huh.”

Bertha took out the essence of Ordianthe.  It was the same, precious pink jewel.

Shining brightly all by itself, it didn’t appear to be an ordinary item.

 ‘Finally, I am going to give it to him.’

Actually, she could not help, but hesitate in turning it over to him, since it was a precious object of her former master.  However, she had already decided.

 ‘Right, it’s much better than it getting wasted in the place which no one visits.’

Bertha placed the jewel on top of death-bound Eugene.

Flash!

There was a sudden flash of light as the jewel disappeared, and Eugene came back fully recovered.  It was the effect of the jewel’s innate power, ‘the protection from ordinary weapons’, which turned Eugene back to his original uninjured state.

 “Are you all right?”

 “Uh, yah.”

Even though he was fully intact, he wasn’t still feeling too good about himself, a swordsman, lying flatly on the ground.  He got up, cringing since he was confused.

He couldn’t understand how the pain and injuries simply dissipated instantly, but his curiosity over took his thoughts, first.

 “That skill, just now, what is it anyway?  There was blossoming of a flower, and attacks came in from three different directions.  It was an incredible skill, yet there was something familiar about it.”

 “It, being familiar, is normal.

 “Why?”

 “It was wrath slicing, followed by a series of 2 upper-body, horizontal slicing.”

Surprised, Eugene immediately got up from the ground.

 “What!  Wait, wait…..”

He wanted to tell her to stop lying, but then something prevented him and had him to think.  And he redrew the sword’s path which Bertha had made.  By guessing the three sword paths orientations, he followed the movements.

Soon, the end of his sword shivered as it stopped in the air.

 “No, this is impossible…..”

If anyone knew anything about swords, he would understand Eugene’s shock.  A series of 2 slicing upper-body maneuvers was the basic of the basics after wrath slicing.  It was because this was the skill that beginning swordsman practiced after learning down swing (Oberhau), up swing (Unterhau), and horizontal swing (Mittelhau).  However, Bertha executed the skill with blossoming of flowers as if it was some sort of a legendary skill.  On top of that, the power was so potent that it blew away Eugene who was a provost.

 “Eugene.  I see why you’re surprised.  However, there are swordsmanship levels, such as this.  What I have observed for a long time was that swordsmen fell to their demise, not by some flashy skills, but by basic skills.”

Eugene, too, nodded in agreement.  The Brotherhood taught so many types of strange techniques, but in the end, what leads to the end of battles was the down diagonal swing, using the wrath slicing.

 “I repeated this basic skill for many, many times.  Then at some point, I was able to reach the level of being able to add magic power, and the offensive maneuvers became so quick that all the subsequent moves appeared to be launched at the same time.  What you saw earlier wasn’t a flower.  It was the effect of magic explosion.  It is the same concept as fire powder exploding.”

Eugene felt his whole body shake.  He just realized that what was before him was truly the highest level which one could rise to.  As a matter of fact, how many swordsmen in the empire could actually defend against such, flowery, yet poisonous, deadly, and graceful attack?

 “Bertha, what is the name of that skill?”

 “Um?  I haven’t decided on one, yet.”

 “There is no accompanying name to such a great skill!”

As Eugene became upset, Bertha put on an expression as if to say what the big deal was.

 “Well, OK.  Since you’re getting so upset about it, let’s decide on one, now.  Um…., what would be a good one?”

She slightly nodded while thinking about it.

 “Right, I’ll call it ‘Bertha’s fierce flower’.  How do you like it?”

The name of the skill creator, attaching to the skill, itself, was a common occurrence, and Eugene definitely agreed with the part about the ‘fierce’ as he has experienced it in person.

 “That’s an excellent name.”

 “Do you like this skill?”

 “….Yah.”

Eugene gulped.  He envied the skill very much, but having an honest conscience, he did not ask her to teach him.  That skill was not something which could be taught to just anyone as it had all the markings of being the vision of a guild.  Although Bertha promised to teach swordsmanship to Eugene, it was hard to believe that such wonderful skill would be passed on.  However, Bertha nonchalantly nodded her head, as opposed to Eugene’s expectation.

 “All right.  I’ll teach you since you like it.”

It wasn’t easy for Bertha to pass on her skills as she did not know poetry, but it could be possible since she was so familiar with it.

 “What?”

Bertha seemed pleased, seeing the shock on Eugene’s face.  Eugene, for the first time, thought whether she had just smiled.  Eugene did not know it, at this time.  That, with this ‘Bertha’s fierce flower’, he would raise and lower the statuses of a countless number of the empire’s swordsmen.  The future Golden Cross War, which would be recorded as the turbulent age, has yet to see the beginning.

After that, Eugene did not go back.  The time in this remote dimension was at standstill, and as only the spirits stayed here, even food was not necessary.  As Bertha has promised to teach him the ways of the sword, Eugene naturally stayed on.  He fell deeply into the mysterious worlds created by the swords, and he had completely forgotten about everything else.

He was, however, concerned about his defenseless physical body which was left behind in the physical world, but several years in this dimension equated to at most ten minutes there.  Also, as the cave was located deep in the forest where only the territory lord could enter, he wasn’t particularly too concerned.

 “Paaht!”

Wielding his sword, Eugene was rather competitive against the maestro level golem.  He gained two advantages in the process of repeating the battles after absorbing Ordianthe’s Blessing.  First, as a result of having the transcendental sensory capability, he seldom got hit by the golem’s attacks, and even if he was hit, he didn’t even get injured as the direct result of having the protection from ordinary physical forces.  Of course, the injuries sustained in the remote dimension were only imaginary in nature.  However, as Eugene’s physical body was made by the power of his mind, it was true that the body will get damaged, so that capability was executed quite well, in timely fashion.

Chaang!

The repetitious, clashing sounds of the swords reverberated loudly in the area.  Eugene could not figure out how long it has been since he learned the sword skill from Bertha.  Only that he knew that a few years have flown by.  In the mean time, he made profound advancements, and he was at the cusp of peeling out of one last layer. 

 “Maintain your offense!”

Bertha pointedly said when Eugene backed off a bit while he was in the middle of attacking.

 “You cannot feel the pleasure of a swordsmanship when you’re always on the defense!  It’s just foolish to be waiting for the opponent’s unreadable attack.  The swordsmen whom you run into in battles are not your ordinary sparring partners.  You cannot defend against your enemy when you don’t know what s/he will do next.”

Eugene nodded when he heard Bertha.  He understood her advice very well.  However, it wasn’t particularly easy to maintain offense against the maestro level golem.  In an instant moment of carelessness, golem counterattacked like a ghost.

 “Uuuk!”

Cringing, Eugene shook his head as golem’s sword hit right, square on his forehead.

 “Damn it, what am I missing.  It seemed to be working, but then it isn’t.”

 “Eugene, I keep telling you.  Maintain your offense.”

Eugene broke out in anger at Bertha’s words.

 “The damn offense!  Offense!  Offense!   I have been hearing that since I first held a sword when I was little.  And now, even in this moment, I am listening to you, nagging about it.  I always kept that principle.”

 “You’re not wrong.  However, you only do things at the provost level, at best.  Your attack moves are always accompanied with slight of hesitation.  After your initial attack, you always subtly look at the opponent’s direction before launching your next move.  If the opponent was going to immediately counterattack, you would move against it.  Certainly, I’m not saying that is bad.  It is much better than launching foolish attacks.  However, if you are confident about your own offense, do you really need to do that?  You are not, yet, confident of your own sword skill.  That is the reason why you are not able to shed your provost skeleton, and move up the next level.”

 “Damn.”

 “Eugene, just remember those words.  The great swordsman Liechtenauer said that.  ‘I have nothing to say about defending.’”

Having said those as her last words, Bertha was gone, and Eugene, being left alone, fell in to a deep thought.

A few days later, Eugene was still wielding his sword.  He has always lived with his sword, but the intensity was much higher in this remote dimension.

Eugene was able to focus entirely on the sword in this world where he didn’t get tired, or hungry.  As a result, on that day, too, Eugene was regurgitating Bertha’s words as he practiced.

Then he felt an unfamiliar energy from the distance.  Plush must have also felt it as he woke up from his sleep, and began to bounce around.  Golem has disappeared already, and the small form of Bertha flew in closer.

 “Bertha, who can that be?”

 “I don’t know, either.  However, what is certain is that he came here in the very same way you came in here.”

Eugene cringed as that news weren’t very welcoming to him.  But then come to think of it, any other provost or higher level swordsman would be able to visit as it wasn’t exclusively reserved for Eugene.  It was only that while the cave was a private property of the duke, it won’t be too difficult for a provost level swordsman to enter discretely.  It has been a while since Eugene got here, but it has, probably been, at most about ten minutes in the real world standards from the moment that Eugene lost his consciousness after grabbing the sword.  It was not easy to have done this, but in no time, the man must have entered the cave, not too long after Eugene had entered the cave. 

 ‘I thought the rumor about Bertha had dissipated about ten years ago, but does anyone still remember?’  Thinking it a bit strange, Eugene looked ahead.  After some time, a man, equipped with double sabres around his waist, walked willy-nilly towards him.  He was tall, wide shouldered, and had bushy, long gray hair.  He had a long jaw, and elongated philtrum, so his head appeared to be large.  He had fierce eyes, and his thick and charcoal like eyebrows made him look menacing.  Overall, he looked to be a brave man, so others couldn’t easily stand up against him.

 “Hey.  Are you the sword spirit?”

The man looked at Eugene, and asked him.  He must have misjudged him since he was holding a sword.

 “No.”

 “Aaah, you are the one who was lying in the cave.”

 “Hey, by any chance, have you done something to my physical body?”

 “Hahaha.  I just moved it to a side.  Yours and my physical bodies must be lying flat on the ground as if we had much friendly drinks together, last night.”

Eugene did not feel like having a light conversation, so he pointed towards Bertha, indicating that she was the sword sprit.

 “What?  It was this tiny, little one.”

Bertha was currently hiding her true form.  She definitely looked like a small fairy, at this moment.

 “How can I help you?”

The man said that he heard from his master who had recently passed that an excellent sword was being kept in here.

 “But then, what are you?  If you are not the sword spirit, why are you in here.  Are you also after the sword, as I am?”

His eyes appeared menacing as he revealed the reason for him, being here.  However, not being a push over, Eugene stared at him, too.

 “That’s right.”

 “Might you want to give up?”

 “Certainly not.”

When Eugene declared, the man smiled and took out his double sabre.  His smile was cruel, and evil that his character could be easily assessed.

 “You’ll regret it?”

Eugene was only 16 years old, but he was a proud swordsman.  He pointed his sword immediately at the man who invoked his fighting spirit.

 “Will not back down in the name of the Brotherhood.”

 “Krrrrah.   A man of the St. Marco’s Brotherhood.  O, gosh!  What a coincidence.  I have a score to settle with you bastards, anyway!”