Chapter 6. Saber Alter vs Ruijerd Superdia

As Ruijerd turned his head, Rudeus and Eris followed his sight and saw Isaac land at a hill nearby while cracking the ground around him.

He then jumped over the distance of tens of meters, flew through the air at a more normal speed and safely landed near them on his two feet.

"I'm back," Isaac said as he looked at the three and faintly smiled.

Ruijerd looked at him with a solemn expression.

Eris stared at him blankly while blinking her eyes, while Rudeus had a dumbfounded and weird look on his face.

Rudeus asked, "What did you do?"

"I went to eat the beasts that Ruijerd killed," Isaac said.

"Ah… You went to eat?"

"Yeah. It would be a waste to leave them behind," Isaac replied with a smile.

"Ah… Okay…"

Following that, Isaac looked at Ruijerd. "Ruijerd."

"Hm?"

Isaac told Rudeus, "Rudeus, can you tell him that I request a duel? I want to see what my strength is like in this world."

"Oh, okay."

Rudeus spoke to Ruijerd.

Ruijerd looked at Isaac expressionlessly as he answered, then Rudeus translated his response, "Ruijerd said that you're probably much stronger, but he'll fulfill your request."

"Alright!"

Isaac faintly smiled. He saw that although Ruijerd's expression was solemn, his eyes seemed to be shining.

Isaac stretched out his hand and Clarent materialized in his grip.

"Ah?" Both Eris and Rudeus looked surprised because it was the first time they had seen this.

[Rudeus! How did he do that?!]

[How would I know?]

[Ask him!]

Rudeus asked Isaac how he summoned his sword, but Isaac could only say that it was his natural ability.

This answer seemed to have made Eris look slightly disappointed as if she wanted to learn it herself.

As Isaac began stepping out, Ruijerd said something again.

Rudeus translated, telling Isaac: "Ruijerd said that you shouldn't make too much of a commotion, or it would attract too many monsters."

"Okay."

…

Isaac and Ruijerd stood a few meters apart.

Rudeus and Eris watched from a distance.

Eris looked excited.

On the other hand, Rudeus's expression was complicated. At a glance, Isaac was significantly stronger than Ghislaine. If they traveled with him through the Demon Continent, they'd have a powerful protector.

'The only problem is that then I would be playing right into Hitogami's hands and I don't like it,' Rudeus thought.

In the front, Isaac signalled with his left hand for Ruijerd to come at him.

Seeing Ruijerd not being willing to attack first, Isaac jumped forward and slashed out with his sword with both hands from low-guard.

Ruijerd deflected that with his spear, then parried another diagonal strike from above.

There was a momentary pause in the battle, and Rudeus saw that these two strikes were just some casual probing moves because in the next moment the two exchanged a series of lightning-fast spear thrusts and sword parries so quick that his eyes couldn't track them at all.

Both stood their ground and responded to the other's attacks at superhuman speed, the sounds of clashing spread through the area.

Attack after attack, an uncountable number of strikes was exchanged within a few seconds.

"Aaaaaaaaaghr!"

The speed of the moves seemed to be gradually escalating, along with Ruijerd's battle shout that was getting louder.

Isaac's voice also gradually rose as he was pushing his body's limits without the use of any mana.

In the next moment, Ruijerd suddenly jumped back to make some distance.

But Isaac didn't allow him to gain a reach advantage and immediately jumped forward to attack.

"Aaahr!" Ruijerd shouted out and reacted quickly, thrusting his spear from a distance.

"Ha!" Isaac responded accordingly, evaded and deflected the thrust upwards.

The dry earth along the sword's path became shattered and uprooted as Isaac used Mana to reinforce his strike.

The force of this parry caused Ruijerd to stumble back and lose his balance, which is what Rudeus realized only after the fact when Isaac held back and stood in place, giving a chance for Ruijerd to recover.

'I overdid it a bit in this one,' Isaac thought. He could have ended things right there with a simple follow-through thrust, but decided to finish this fight without using mana.

After Ruijerd regained some of his balance, Isaac went on the offensive.

Ruijerd began to back off repeatedly while hurriedly parrying Isaac's sword strikes, both letting out shouts while striking.

As this continued and Isaac pressed on with the offense, it was clear that Ruijerd was at a disadvantage and was being pushed back. He had no chance to counter-attack.

Isaac jumped forward and slashed out with a more decisive blow.

In turn, Ruijerd hastily stopped it with a static two-handed block.

As their weapons locked, Isaac didn't hesitate and immediately followed his instinct.

In that situation, he saw several options like sliding down the spear and cutting off Ruijerd's hand or just thrusting forward, but he would obviously not do that.

He raised his armored foot and kicked Ruijerd's chest with force.

"Gha!" Ruijerd let out a groan as he was sent flying back and then traced his spear across the ground to avoid tumbling.

As he stopped, he supported himself with his spear and immediately spit out a mouthful of blood, clutching his chest with his left hand.

Isaac didn't follow him and stood in place. While looking at Ruijerd, he thrust his sword into the earth.

In the next moment, he pushed Mana Burst to the limit and an aura of crimson thunder exploded around him. His hair fluttered around as he simply stood there.

Even though Rudeus was far away from the area of effect, he still felt pressure that made it difficult for him to breathe. 'What the…'

Ruijerd looked at this and his expression filled with complete shock, his eyes shot wide open. Just seeing Isaac standing in that state without moving was enough for Ruijerd to believe that there seemed to be no end to his overwhelming power and that he was the strongest warrior he had ever faced.

The intensity of Isaac's aura made him appear even more powerful than the Great World Powers that he had seen before. When it came to straightforward attack power, he would be the strongest.

But that was not all. The raw strength, agility and reaction speed of his body were exceptional as well.

With his third eye Ruijerd clearly knew that during their duel Isaac fought him without the use of any Battle Aura or magic of any kind! He was holding back severely, only relying on his body, yet was still able to keep up with his speed, reflexes and even overwhelm him!

Ruijerd felt completely and utterly defeated.

Although he didn't quite reach the God rank himself, he was still one of the strongest warriors in this world.

'Where could this kind of powerful warrior come from?' Ruijerd's heart felt both fear and awe.

As Isaac dispelled his aura, Ruijer said, [That's enough. I admit defeat.]

Isaac understood the intent. He faintly nodded and dispersed his sword.

Afterwards, he finally bowed toward Ruijerd. "Well fought."

Turning over his head, Isaac saw Eris and Rudeus looking at him in amazement.

[Woah, they're both even stronger than Ghislaine!]

Rudeus said nothing. Clearly both Ruijerd and Isaac were stronger than Ghislaine, but he felt that Isaac was on another level. 'Just what kind of world did he come from?'

After the fight ended, Rudeus approached Ruijerd and cast a healing spell to heal his wounds.

Ruijerd then placed his hand on his head and stroked it timidly.

The group soon continued the journey.

On the way, Eris looked very excited and began asking Isaac questions while looking at him with sparkles in her eyes. It seemed she became thrilled after seeing a swordsman who was this strong.

In the meantime, Rudeus worked as a translator.

"Isaac-san, Eris asked how you became so strong," Rudeus said.

"... I trained," Isaac replied after thinking for a bit.

Rudeus passed it over to Eris, [He said, he trained.]

[Trained? Can I also become this strong?] Eris asked while staring at Isaac.

After passing through Isaac, Rudes said, [He said, maybe.]

[Maybe... Can he train me?]

Rudeus then repeated it with a bitter smile, "Eris asked if you could train her."

'She's direct…' Isaac thought.

Isaac replied, "Maybe."

Seeing Eris be quite happy after seeing this reply, Rudeus smiled bitterly. 'Don't tell me Eris will fall for Isaac at this rate.'

In regards to that, Rudeus felt completely powerless. He wouldn't be surprised at all if Eris fell for Isaac, and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

In the first place, it's a miracle that an arrogant and otherworldly beautiful young noble lady like Eris seemed to like a worthless guy like him.

'It's probably just a silly childish crush. Eris never had any other friends apart from me, so that's it. a When she grows up, she might probably just forget about me,' Rudeus thought, his expression turning sad.

His eyelids drooped down. Apart from suddenly feeling depressed, he also still felt incredibly tired for some reason.

Isaac then asked his own question, "Rudeus, can you ask Ruijerd what's his level of strength in this world?"

Rudeus was woken up from his musings. After the question reached Ruijerd, Rudeus replied, "It's Emperor rank."

Rudeus thought, 'Ruijerd is really Emperor rank... But Isaac was able to overwhelm him without using all of his cards. Doesn't that basically mean that he's God ranked? He's really a monster. He's like an Overpowered Protagonist type…'

"Emperor rank… Can you tell me more about what it means?" Isaac asked.

Rudeus gently smiled and said, "Of course… In general, swordsmen and magicians have seven ranks. It's… Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor and God."

"Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, Saint, King, Emperor and God," Isaac repeated.

"Yes. Only about five in one hundred people are talented enough to pick up combat, and most of those would be swordsmen. But the majority of them still won't surpass the Intermediate rank. Advanced rank swordsman alone is quite rare. Saint rank swordsmen are very rare."

"I see…"

In other words, Isaac was able to defeat Emperor ranked Ruijerd by just relying on his body, sword techniques and instinct.

Didn't it mean that he was already surely ranked at God level if he only used some Mana and might even challenge Orsted when fighting seriously?

After all, the majority of his power that made him exceptional should come from his Mana Burst and his A++ ranked Magic Power statistic that allowed him for extreme bursts of power. Mana Burst was the reason why Mordred was such a strong Servant and dominated in one versus one fights during the War.

'Basically, I'm already one of the strongest in this world, if not the strongest...' Isaac thought.

That thought was both disappointing and a relief.

It was disappointing because there wouldn't be many people or powerful monsters that would offer him a challenge, but on the flipside he has little reason to fear death.

With his devouring abilities, that world even seemed like an all-you-can-eat buffet for him.

There were many things that he could learn as well, like the different ways to utilize Magical Energy. So far he only knows how to use Displacement and Lightning Magic, but he has no experience in creating water or fire, for example, or how to efficiently heal wounds using magic.

As the group continued, Rudeus continued talking and explained to Isaac about the three main sword styles, about the different schools of magic and so on.

In the meantime, Ruijerd no longer ran out far ahead to kill monsters.

Instead, the group would advance normally.

When they encountered the first pack of monsters, Ruijerd rushed forward while relying on Isaac to protect Eris and Rudeus in the back.

It was once again a pack of wolf-like monsters. Isaac felt that perhaps they were attracted by the sounds of their previous battle and the scent of Ruijerd's blood.

Ruijerd jumped into the midst of the wolves and began slaughtering them one by one with a single strike while backing off.

When the slaughter began and when Ruijerd was retreating to avoid being overwhelmed, five of the wolves rushed out of the pack and began to run in the direction of Isaac's group.

Isaac quickly stepped forward. To avoid wasting mana on mind control, he summoned his sword and swiftly slashed up all of the five wolves.

Not caring where he struck, the wolves were cut up into several pieces in an instant.

After the fight, Isaac instantly absorbed the souls of the wolves and then devoured their corpses.

He then did the same with the many wolves that Ruijerd killed.

"Is that what you mean by eating the monsters that Ruijerd killed?" Rudeus asked afterwards.

"Yes."

"..."