The Laughing Swordsman - Chapter 301

Apollo rushed towards Suki, who didn’t even seem to notice him. Nonetheless, he was still fully intent on killing her. Apollo pointed his bokken in front of him while he soared forth. In the meantime, the lightning bolt circulating around him directly roasted a nearby old man.

In just moments, his bokken was right behind Suki’s head.

However, he stopped.

To Apollo’s confusion, he couldn’t move at all. The voice in his head shouted.

“Hey! What is happening?”

His smile slowly disappeared from his face. Before he could do anything else, his body was yanked upwards, almost like he was being dragged along by a mouse on a computer screen.

Apollo struggled fiercely by flailing his bokken and limbs around, but it amounted to almost nothing. As for Suki, she didn’t even notice Apollo was nearby. Insane in her own right, she continued to practice swinging the sword.

The person responsible for suddenly pulling on Apollo was Mark. He had a cordial smile on his face even while his hair had suddenly become white and six horns were now sticking out of his head.

Apollo suddenly found himself hovering next to Mark, who was looking at him with a friendly smile. It would’ve been a little more warming if black flesh wasn’t seeping down from the top of his face like an infection.

But it is improper to judge based on appearances.

“Hey there, kid. I just wanted to ask you something.”

Apollo frowned.

“What do you want?”

Mark cleared his throat.

“I just want some help in defeating this elemental.”

All around the two of them, wild waves of wind circulated, distorting and moving like no tomorrow. However, the two of them also seemed to be in their own world, completely ignoring it all.

Apollo waved his bokken around with frustration.

“I don’t care about this elemental! Let me go!”

Mark chuckled.

“Wait, wait. Before you decide so quickly, let me offer to you… a uniqueness.”

Apollo furrowed his brows.

“I don’t know what that is.”

Mark narrowed his eyes.

“Well, with the path of power you have decided to embark on, you may find that you require a uniqueness to progress forth. While before excessive amounts of energy was enough, you need far more now.”

The voice in the back of Apollo’s head rang out.

“What? What is he talking about?”

He furrowed his brows.

“…Are you talking about the times my body evolved?”

Mark nodded.

“Yes. Your case is special as I have never seen it before. However, regardless of whether or not you wish to use this particular uniqueness, it is still extremely valuable nonetheless. It won’t be difficult for you to figure out why.”

Apollo scratched the side of his head.

“Hmm…”

“We still have to kill everyone! Remember? This was part of our deal!”

He blinked a few times.

“…I can’t take this deal right now. I still need to kill everyone!”

Mark raised an eyebrow.

“Well why can’t you do that after helping me kill this? If anything, assuming your goal is to kill everyone, you would also have to kill this.”

Apollo rubbed his chin with his thumb and forefinger.

“Hmm… I guess that makes sense.”

“Wah! Take the deal, take the deal!”

He raised his bokken in the air.

“Ok, ok! I will do it!”

Mark laughed.

“Alright, then let’s get started.”

As he said that, a massive amount of wind had coalesced to turn into what appeared to be a gargantuan fist made of marble. It shot towards the two of them.

Apollo slowly turned around to see that his entire vision was filled with that very fist.

“Wah.”

However, right as it was supposed to hit him, violent gales stirred up around his body, shredding the fist back into gales of wind.

Mark pointed towards the wind elemental.

“Just try your best to injure it. I will make sure to help you along the way. Ah yes, since you agreed, take this.”

He tossed a tiny white translucent crystal towards Apollo, who caught it fairly easily. Even within the chaotic gales that stirred up around him, it was still easy to tell that this crystal was naturally forming a miniature tornado on its own.

Apollo was beginning to feel a little strange. He heard a voice in the back of his head.

“Woah! I can move the lightning so much faster now! I didn’t know that he could do that!”

Mark shot him a glance.

“Ah yes, try using that attack you’ve used before that sends out a wind blade. It should work a little better with my help.”

Apollo tilted his head to the side.

“Hm. Ok.”

He slowly looked over towards the wind elemental. It had been slowly growing in size, while losing density, becoming nearly twenty meters tall. The two bright glowing eyes coming from within seemed to be radiating with fury.

Nonetheless, Apollo charged towards it recklessly.

Though he didn’t do anything different, his speed was drastically faster, boosted by the air around him. He almost seemed to be tearing through the air as howling sounds of wind.

The massive lightning bolt around Apollo snaked towards the wind elemental.

“This will beat you!”

At the same time, he swung both his bokken and hand, but not without pushing his thumb against the hilt.

Two blades of wind snapped out along with the lightning bolt. They accelerated to frightening speeds and seemed to grow in size as they traveled. Although the wind elemental could move, it was not prepared, thus could not dodge in time.

All of the attacks smashed against it hard before dissipating. However, they only seemed to be able to disperse a thin layer of wind that was coating the wind elemental. Apollo could tell that it was already beginning to reform. The voice in the back of his head spoke up.

“Quickly! Attack it! The shield broke!”

Apollo did exactly that, charging full speed towards the wind elemental.

And as he got closer, he looked it straight in the eyes.