Chapter 426: Chapter 41: The Azure Sword Saint and the Temple Knights

Time entered April.

Counting from the day he traveled through time, it had nearly been a whole year.

Aske sighed and jumped out of the trench.

The Emperor and the Church Court’s campaign outside of Verona City had been at a deadlock, and as time progressed, both sides continuously escalated their involvement in the battlefield.

Eventually, the Empire had conquered the server technology for Power Armor, with massive quantities being continuously produced in the rear military factories. Then, transported through Saint Suovino’s Black Hole technology and carried by Giant Dragons along the north-south routes at the foothills of the Alps, these equipment were delivered to the Emperor’s camp.

On the other hand, the production lines of the Church Court were also gradually resuming operations, with the Temple Knights equipped with increasingly advanced gear. Initially, it was simple hydraulic hammers or automatic firearms, but now there were various prosthetic eyes with built-in databases.

The one constant was that both sides were suffering more and more soldier casualties on this battlefield, almost turning the north of Verona into a meat grinder. Every day after the daytime battles ended, both sides had to send people to clean up the corpses in their trenches until there were too many to handle, and they could only be cremated and buried on the spot, the air filled with the stench of scorch.

Aske moved quickly forward along the trenches, drawing the attention of countless soldiers. Lately, most of the dukes under the Imperial Army had come to recognize this young man. Whenever he appeared on the battlefield, the war pressure on their side quickly decreased.

The reason was simple, he had slaughtered the opposing Temple Knights like cutting through melons and vegetables; of course, that relieved some pressure.

“The Azure Sword Saint is on the move again!”

“The Azure Sword Saint is coming to our side!”

The surrounding Imperial soldiers cheered, while Aske’s face darkened upon hearing it.

Damn, how did this nickname spread over to the Empire? You call me Sword Saint, and I have no complaints, but why prefix it with “Azure”? That color is just unlucky for men.

In fact, this nickname had originated from the Temple Knights on the opposing side. Due to the War Law’s ritual task, the Temple Knights stationed in Verona had been almost terrorized by this man, and naturally, they investigated who he really was.

Thus, the achievements of The Azure Longsword Mercenary Corps in the Olympia City Crusades, the mutant Snow Monster in Sparta City, the Lunfield town’s mutant incident, and the civil war within the Empire, including a television program produced by Olympia TV, were all dug up.

What does battle-hardened mean? This was it. The name Sword Saint was well deserved.

Now, the seasoned Temple Knights would flee upon seeing him, while the continuously arriving new Temple Knights from the south, with a mentality of “I have new equipment, I am the best in the world,” scorned the old soldiers’ cowardice and set traps planning to intercept this “Azure Sword Saint.”

Aske charged into the enemy-occupied trench and suddenly reversed direction during his dash, causing two spider robots to spring from the mud beneath his feet, clattering toward Aske.

“Eh, how did he notice?” The Temple Knights lying in ambush were immediately baffled.

In fact, they had buried two rows of Spider Mines in this trench, waiting for the Azure Sword Saint to rush into the middle of the mines, at which point the mechanical mines would blow up en masse, killing the enemy on the spot.

Unexpectedly, just before reaching the first row of mines, he had abruptly retreated, ignoring inertia, forcing the Spider Mines to emerge from the ground and chase after him.

A few gunshots later, the Spider Mines leaping on the ground were precisely shot and exploded; seeing that the enemy had already aimed their guns, the Temple Knights had no choice but to rush forward.

Single Soldier Field Shield activated!

Fire control system activated!

Auto-aim system activated!

Smart bullet loading complete!

The Temple Knights’ muzzles roared in unison as bullets stormed out like heavy rain, shooting in all directions of the trench.

With the combination of the fire control system and the auto-aim firearms module from the database, the Temple Knights’ bullets had the “bounce bullet” ability—bullets not aimed at the target would bounce off walls and other obstacles and “just happen” to hit the target after one or two bounces.

Such chaotic and complex trajectories made it impossible for physically enhanced Transcendents to predict and evade based on the direction of the muzzle, making it an effective tool for the Temple Knights against Sword Saints and assassins.

However, Aske was an exception. To be precise, the “bounce bullet” skill was almost mandatory for professional gunmen; he knew how to handle it even with his eyes closed.

Without needing to use Star Nine Forms, Aske burst into an instant step, pushing off the wall in a misstep, and spiraled forward, evading all the bounce bullet shots with a helical trajectory.

Relying solely on the “precision” of the auto-aim system, without any prior calculation, offered no actual precision to a professional player.

“He dodged it!” Although they had seen similar footage and were aware of his abnormal strength, the sight of such astonishing evasion skills still sent a shiver of horror through the Temple Knights.

One of the Temple Knights had just pulled a shock bomb from behind… A gunshot rang out, and the shock bomb exploded in his hand.

To be precise, the moment he took it out, Aske had shot it from afar, exploding it on the spot.

Using the “intuition” skill to sense the danger in advance, and the “tactics” skill to predict the type of ammunition, Aske reacted timely, even without seeing clearly that it was a shock bomb, thanks to the abilities from his Weapon Master bloodline.

He quickly pulled away his gaze to avoid the flash, but the loud noise from the shock bomb explosion was already hitting him. Despite the impact on the balance bar in his ears causing his swiftly advancing body to wobble, his speed did not decrease.

Due to the proximity of the explosion, the damage to the Temple Knights was even greater. Those Knights whose heads were not modified lost consciousness almost immediately, while those equipped with artificial eyes and electronic ears used program threshold locks to timely block out the strong light and noise.

The next second, Aske had already charged in front of them, his Dragon Bone Longsword swinging in a circular slash.

The closest Temple Knight sprang a pair of folding Mantis Blades from his forearm, blocking with the left blade and stabbing diagonally with the right, aiming for Aske’s abdomen.

The Dragon Bone Longsword suddenly accelerated and veered during a forward thrust, slipping under the opponent’s Mantis Blade and stabbing into the Temple Knight’s skull before the other blade could strike.

Star Nine Forms. Sharp-breaking, ignoring block defenses.

To be precise, he had found the optimal solution from the opponent’s tactical movements.

The Dragon Bone Longsword was pulled out from the Temple Knight’s skull, with sparks flying from the metallic wound. Even with substantial prosthetic modifications and reinforcement to his skull, he could not withstand a direct thrust from a Dragon Bone Longsword, and the remains of the Temple Knight fell to the dust.

As Aske withdrew his sword, he spun around, not even checking to see if that Temple Knight was dead, his blade cut towards another Temple Knight’s throat.

As that Temple Knight hastily retreated, he raised his right arm, the mechanical joint on his wrist opened upwards, revealing the fierce shotgun muzzle embedded within the cross-section of his forearm.

Bang!