Arcane Sniper [Matan’s Shooter]

“Huh? Knew what? Even the Dame Shin Nara from Sacred agrees with our thoughts-“

“No, I knew that we wouldn’t be able to understand each other. And”

Shin Nara quietly cast her skill.

A fencer like herself had access to a few self-buff skills.

One to increase her speed, another for more flexible hand movements, and one that left slight afterimages of her movements.

Though not as potent as those of a professional buffer, they were enough. Especially for a master like Shin Nara.

“-if our conversation has-broke down, then there’s no need for further words, right? Come at me. I won’t stand by and watch any further tyranny. En garde.”

Shaaahhhhhh…!

A sea-like luminescence briefly flickered from the sword Shin Nara was holding. There was no tension on her face. She was an Olympic gold medalist, a professional fencer.

She took her stance, facing more than a hundred of the [Virtue Knights].

With her breath steadied, she softly spoke.

“Êtes-vous prêts?”

Are you ready?

Shin Nara didn’t wait for their response.

With just one leap, the distance between her and Lark was closed. Her sword’s tip was already aimed at Lark’s throat.

“Dodge-“

CRASH——!

The knight standing by Lark swung his sword.

The clash was so fierce it sparked, contorting his expression, but Shin Nara was already initiating her second attack.

Lark, narrowly escaping having his eyes and nose cut off, sighed, patting his chest.

“As expected, her speed is outstanding. I wouldn’t stand a chance against such a surprise attack.”

Even though he thought this, Lark fiddled with his sword handle.

But the ambush was over, and fighting properly meant… Uh-uh, no way.

Despite stirring up discord with the [Subjugation] achievement, he also had an eye for assessing the situation.

Fighting Shin Nara here would not be advantageous. He had been dispatched to the New Continent as a Centurion, ultimately following the orders of King Minis, hadn’t he?

He had to follow the quest-like orders he was given.

He knew that in his head.

“But! But maaaan! Such an opportunity will never come again. A woman who earned the nickname ‘Dame’ for her grasp of knightly concepts wouldn’t face me one-on-one without her rank insignia.”

It wasn’t like Shin Nara to respond to a personal invitation for a duel.

In other words, unless there was a feud as significant as a national conflict, these two could only face each other in a situation like this!

Showing her true skills against the [Virtue Knights] might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

They had to face off now.

“Then everyone will know,” their desire to prove they was stronger, the competitive spirit.

That was fundamentally what motivated users to choose the ‘close-combat dealer’ class.

The moment Lark was about to grip his sword handle earnestly, the Virtue Knights pulled him back by his shoulders.

“Dodge, captain!”

“Catch…”

Lark’s pose faltered as he was trying to rationalize his eagerness to fight Shin Nara. Dodge it!?

Having been forced into protection, Lark couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Well, even so, I shouldn’t be playing around. Just tie up Dame Shin, don’t kill her.”

“Understood!”

With the exception of a few men guarding Lark’s position, the Virtue Knights all charged towards Shin Nara. Suddenly appearing beside him, Pung asked Lark.”

Are you sure about this? Six of them have already been taken down, and you’re telling me not to kill, just to capture?”

“It’s not like being taken down means they’re dead. If we kill Shin Nara right here, our plan would-“

“I know that. But if that’s the case, shouldn’t ‘Captain White’ be the one to step forward?”

While Lark was bracing himself to fight Shin Nara, six members of the Virtuous Knight Order had been neutralized.

From the perspective of the Virtuous Knight Order’s treasurer, the increasing number of injured was certainly not welcome.

Yet, Pung couldn’t help but admire Shin Nara’s movements for a moment, and was feeling ashamed of himself for it.

“Please make a decision soon, captain.”

Even as the two spoke leisurely, Shin Nara’s sword moved swiftly amongst the Virtue knights.

Like a breeze slipping through gaps, she was.

Belonging to the Virtuous Knight Order, which promotes with slogans like meritocracy, selection based on ability, and ‘become strong if you feel wronged,’ only a handful had managed to properly wield their swords against Shin Nara.

Lark, too, was focused on her movements.

But for now, other than scratching his head, he had nothing to do.

“Can’t even begin without the buff ending. Cut me some slack. Just because I’m the financial manager doesn’t mean you can boss me around, you know?”

“You’re waiting for the buff to end before jumping in? Why?”

“If I’m to catch up with her movements, I need to give it my all, don’t I?”

“You mean you’re not planning to give it your all?”

“Of course not! If I did, Shin Nara could end up dead. I need her movements to slow down a bit more before I make my move.”

Pung’s eyes widened as he looked at Lark.

Being a skilled warrior himself, he was confident and generally trusted his bold demeanor, but to hear such an unexpected statement?

“Is this arrogance, or is it genuine?”

Despite being fellow knights, revealing ‘personal secrets’ to one another breached Middle Earth’s basic principles!

Pung found Lark’s statement both arrogant and ludicrous, but observing Lark’s face, he could no longer hold onto that thought.

Here was a man genuinely concerned for Shin Nara, leaving Pung at a loss for words.

“She’s really fast. In the blink of an eye, another five have been taken down. That makes eleven. To have taken down eleven men and still be this spry, goodness… How does the Sacred Knight Order train its knights? Hey, treasurer, how about we suggest a joint training session with the Sacred once we return?”

Even in saying this, Lark was serious, and Pung nodded in response. More a gesture of ‘do as you please’ than affirmation.

‘The self-buff has about two more minutes. I’m outnumbered.’

Shin Nara dodged an incoming sword thrust.

Seeing a Virtue knight raise his shield, likely to constrain her movements, she wasn’t fooled.

Instead, she increased her pace, leaped towards the shield, and vaulted over it, spinning midair.

During this acrobatic maneuver, she plunged her sword into the knee joint of a knight at her landing point.

“Grrraaargh-“

“Not screaming is commendable,” she remarked, immediately lowering her stance for another strike. After confirming the metallic clang with her ears, she took a back step.

The knight’s sword sliced through the air belatedly where she had been, surprised at the sight of her seemingly being cut, yet it was her voice that came from elsewhere.

“Oops?”

“A bit faster would have been nice. I’ll give you 6 out of 10.”

What the Virtuous Knight Order had slashed was merely Shin Nara’s afterimage.

Not a clone, just an afterimage left behind by her speed, without any special speed enhancement or additional effects.

Yet, to Shin Nara, it was sufficient.

Being skilled enough to leave an afterimage with her movements alone, if she had a skill that made it even more efficient?

With just that skill, she could manage to control the thirty Virtue knights surrounding her.

As another knight’s strike came, Shin Nara parried it with her sword.

The conversation about evaluating the enemies was meant to discourage them, yet the Virtuous Knight Order remained valiant.

“Definitely strong. If it’s just about brute strength, even two of them together would be hard to deal with.”

Now wasn’t the time for any special skills.

If it had been a one-on-one with an assassin like Petyr, she would have mixed the skills of Middle Earth with real-world techniques.

But in a battle against many!”Having experienced the wave, does it help?”

In a battle against many, misuse of a skill can leave one utterly defenseless due to the delay that follows.

She had been that way during the third wave defense.

In a battle against many, what matters isn’t the flamboyance of skills but adherence to the basics.

“Over there! What are the fundamentals emphasized by the Virtue Knights?”

Nara asked as she thrust her sword, not intending to distract but genuinely curious. Like Lark’s admiration for Shin Nara, she admired the movements of the Virtue Knights. However, they did not respond to her pure inquiry.

“Our teachings in the Sacred Knights might differ somewhat. The first fundamental of the Sacred Knights is timing!”

As Shin Nara finished speaking, one of the Virtue knights had his arm wrenched backward.

It was obvious that a powerful slashing attack was forthcoming. Shin Nara’s timing was just slightly better.

Her sword had already punctured the shoulder joint of the knight, who was in the midst of swinging his arm.

“Don’t just swing your sword! Start with pressure using the shield!”

The Virtue knights quickly changed tactics.

Shin Nara wasn’t one to fall for such blatant tactics. As the knights advanced with their shields up, she shouted, “You haven’t answered my question yet! The second fundamental of the Sacred Knights is tempo!”

She moved even quicker, not allowing the knights to encircle her properly and leaving no trail behind. Passing by, she inflicted wounds on the waists, knees, and shoulders of the Virtue knights.

Only a minute was left of her self-buff! Clearing the remaining forces was feasible. But the real problem was what came next!

“Will Lark come forward first, or will it be—”

Whether her reinforcements would arrive first.

After she gouged out the eye of another knight, Shin Nara noticed a slight change in the surroundings.

Though still holding their shields, the knights no longer approached. Instead, they seemed to widen their distance, not to encircle her for restraint but to block her escape routes. Realizing this, a pale yellow barrier began to envelop the area.

A spatial lock scroll had been activated. Of course, the reason the Virtue Knights suddenly resorted to such a tactic was clear.

“First was timing, second was tempo…”

The playful attitude was gone from him, his face almost seeming to belong to a different person.

Lark repeated Shin Nara’s words as he approached with a steady step. The knights stepped aside for him.

Swallowing, Shin Nara faced the approaching figure.

“Then the third? What is the third, Dame Shin Nara?”

Lark, fully drawing his sword, asked as he faced Shin Nara, the tip of his sword flickering with rainbow colors.

“Learn it through your body. After all, exercise isn’t something you master through theory.”

“Sounds a bit lewd, but it’s not wrong. Alright, I’ll learn from you.”

As soon as Lark nodded, he charged at Shin Nara.

With a spirited shout, he swung his sword diagonally as if to pierce through her torso. Wooosh!

“Dead-“

To the astonishment of the surrounding knights, his diagonal swipe seemed perfect enough to have split her.

The forceful swipe kicked up dust, certainly looking as if it had cut her.

However, Lark’s face was twisted in frustration.

He knew better than anyone that he hadn’t hit anything.

“I thought it had caught.”

“Your ‘timing’ and ‘tempo,’ I saw them near the [Divine Staff]. The third is ‘Distance Control.’

I barely missed, though.”

Shin Nara pointed to her chest, where a bent mark remained on the surface of her armor. That was all the damage from Lark’s sword.