Chapter 62: The Truth Behind the Diversion

As the two personal guards passed behind Yuri, a faint fragrance mixed with the smell of blood drifted into his nose. 

That was not the scent of a man. 

Yuri’s vigilance instantly soared to its peak. From the corner of his eye, he caught a fleeting glimpse of red hair beneath the helmet of the guard on his right. 

“Stop!” he roared suddenly. 

But instead of obeying, the two “guards” abruptly reversed their swords and slashed viciously toward Yuri’s back. 

Yuri truly deserved his reputation as a top-tier expert. Since suspicion had already formed in his mind, he reacted instantly. Without hesitation, Fleshrender swept backward in a brutal horizontal arc. Clang! The immense force sent both attackers flying backward, but one of them unleashed a crimson shockwave at point-blank range, tearing open Yuri’s right hand and throwing off his balance as blood sprayed everywhere. 

Shock and fury exploded across Yuri’s face. “You—!” 

Before he could finish, the other two “guards” behind Nolan, who should have been attacking Nolan himself, launched their ambush as well. 

Their earlier charge had been nothing but a feint. The moment they crossed paths with Nolan, they pivoted sharply and brought their swords crashing down in an X-shaped strike onto Yuri’s back before he could fully turn around. 

Slash! Two bloody wounds instantly split open across his back. 

Roaring in pain, Yuri spun around and kicked the attacker on the left flying away. Then, with a furious swing of Fleshrender, he struck so hard that the attacker on the right was blasted backward together with his sword. 

A diversion. Those four disguised guards were actually Hank, Rehanna, and the others who had supposedly tried to force their way into the dungeon. An old trick. But old tricks endured for a reason. 

Yuri had believed the dungeon was their true objective, so he concentrated nearly all the manor’s forces there, intending to trap them in one decisive sweep. 

Was the dungeon assault difficult? 

Extremely. With the personal guard fully mobilized, Hank’s group had fought forward one bloody step at a time, and two of Fire Fox’s best mercenaries had died for it. But their real goal had never been to break into the dungeon. Their purpose was to draw the entire personal guard together. 

Every apparent attempt to break through had been deliberate, forcing the guards to commit more and more manpower while leaving them unable to focus elsewhere, creating the perfect opening for Vivi to rescue Renee. 

Little Donnie’s whistle had been the signal to Vivi. As a Silver-rank Nightingale, Vivi was weaker than Hank and Little Donnie in direct combat, but when it came to infiltration, lockpicking, and covert sabotage, no one present could rival her. 

And after Vivi successfully rescued Renee, the young woman did not disappoint Nolan’s expectations. As a rare natural-born elementalist, Renee unleashed a fourth-tier elemental resonance spell, Grand Rontar Flame Pillar, nearly roasting the entire personal guard alive. 

Was Nolan’s duel against Yuri difficult? 

Even more so. The difference between them was over twenty levels. Nolan had only managed to endure by relying on his extraordinary swordsmanship and the experience of fighting Yuri countless times in his previous life. 

But it had all been worth it. Because Plan B had never been about storming the dungeon. The “diversion” itself was the plan. Everything had led to this moment, to completely surround and kill the single greatest obstacle standing before them, Yuri the Executioner. 

And now, with the cooldown finally complete, Radiant Sun Charge activated once again in Nolan’s hands. Golden-red light surged across the courtyard for the second time. 

“You think the same trick will work on me twice?!” Yuri roared furiously. 

Freshly empowered by bloodshed, Fleshrender erupted with crimson radiance. Gripping the sword with both hands, Yuri unleashed a devastating downward slash directly toward Nolan’s charging form. This time, he was absolutely confident. With his strength and experience, he would split Nolan clean in half. 

The two swords collided. 

At the moment of impact, Yuri immediately felt the weight of his blade increase once more. That strange gravity effect again. 

But this time… something was wrong. 

Nolan had deliberately reused the same attack to provoke Yuri’s lingering anger from the earlier ambush and guide him into what he believed was the optimal frontal counterattack. 

The moment Nolan saw Yuri commit to the two-handed strike, he knew the trap had succeeded. 

This clash lacked the explosive force of the previous collision. 

Normally, a full-power strike from a Gold-rank fighter should have been impossible to redirect. Yet Nolan gripped Mountain’s Resonance with both hands and, at the instant their blades touched, executed a lightning-fast deflection. The sword knocked, guided, and then violently twisted Yuri’s blade sideways with a hidden burst of force. 

Rip! Bloody mana tore a deep wound across Nolan’s left hand as the blade passed. But more importantly, under the combined effect of doubled gravity and Nolan’s almost supernatural swordsmanship, Fleshrender slid off course. 

Yuri’s eyes widened in alarm. But by then, it was already too late. 

Nolan shifted his footing smoothly. Exploiting the tiny gap between Yuri’s exhausted old momentum and the birth of new force, he poured every last scrap of remaining mana into reactivating Divine Infusion. Then he drove his waist and shoulders forward, activating Assault. At 3.2 times normal strength, the black blade transformed into a silent shadow of death. 

Assault: Revolving Slash. 

It was a slash that wagered everything. The instant it was unleashed, Nolan’s stamina and mana were completely drained. Pain exploded through his skull. His limbs turned weak and numb, and he could no longer support himself. Pulled forward by the inertia of the Earth Holy Sword still clenched in his hands, he collapsed heavily onto the ground. 

The courtyard fell deathly silent. 

Yuri still stood frozen in the posture of his completed strike, unmoving. 

Hank, who had earlier been blasted away, coughed up blood and propped himself up on one elbow, staring at Yuri in disbelief. Had Nolan’s all-or-nothing finishing blow… missed? Was it exhaustion? Or had Yuri sensed danger at the final instant? Hank desperately struggled to stand and help, but his exhausted body refused to move. 

Slowly, Yuri lowered his sword and turned toward Nolan, who lay on the ground too drained to even stand. In his cold eyes flashed a trace of regret for such talent, though far more prominent was the cruelty of a predator preparing to torture its prey. 

“It’s over…” Yuri murmured. “This brat’s swordsmanship is monstrous. I need to tear every secret out of him…” 

Nearby, Rehanna stared with wide eyes, her heart sinking into despair. They had exhausted every scheme. Played every trump card. And still they could not cross the chasm separating Silver from Gold? 

“In the end,” Yuri said coldly, “the victor can only be me.” 

He took one step forward. 

A thin line of blood suddenly appeared across his neck without warning. 

“…Hm?” 

Yuri suddenly felt the world spinning around him. 

In a daze, the headless figure holding the crimson sword before him looked strangely familiar. 

Thud.

A severed head rolled across the ground, frozen in disbelief. Blood erupted from the towering body as it collapsed heavily to the earth. Even the strong-willed Rehanna could not stop herself from crying out, her emotions whiplashing from hope to despair and then into overwhelming ecstasy. 

They had done it. That untouchable Gold-rank expert. Haus’ personal guard captain; the strongest of Archduke Demont’s three great elites, Yuri the Executioner, was dead.

At the dungeon entrance, Vivi had already determined through sound alone that the battle outside was decided. Supporting a red-haired girl beside her, she stepped out from the shadows. At the same time, she drew a special crossbow bolt wrapped with an alchemical packet from her quiver and fired it into the night sky. Leus’ custom-made alchemical signal arrow exploded high above into a cloud of vivid red smoke, announcing that the situation was fully under control. 

The girl beside Vivi resembled Rehanna by nearly sixty percent. Her face was pale, her steps unsteady, and her clothes stained with dirt, but she appeared otherwise unharmed. The moment she saw Rehanna remove her helmet and bend over, panting heavily, her voice trembled. “Big sister!” 

She stumbled forward several steps, but the excessive drain on her mental power caused her legs to give out. Before she could fall, a warm embrace caught her firmly. 

Lifting her tear-filled face, Renee sobbed, “The Fire Fox brothers… because of me… they all… I thought I’d never see you again, Sister…” 

Tears glimmered in Rehanna’s own eyes as she gently smoothed her younger sister’s messy hair. “Silly girl. Don’t be afraid. I promised you that no matter where you were, I’d find you.” Then she turned toward the young man collapsed nearby. “Of course… we owe it all to him.” 

Vivi hurried over together with Hank, who had already limped closer, and the two of them helped the nearly collapsing Nolan to his feet. Her tiger ears twitched anxiously. “Nolan, how are you?” 

Little Donnie hobbled over while clutching his chest, baring his teeth in pain. “I’m pretty sure I broke two ribs. Is nobody going to care about the future hero of the kingdom?” 

Vivi rolled her eyes at him irritably. 

Nolan forced out a faint smile. Steadying himself, he shook his buzzing head as mana exhaustion and total physical fatigue blurred his vision into double images. Taking a deep breath, he said, “I just want to sleep for an entire day… But we still can’t rest yet.” 

His gaze moved past Yuri’s headless corpse in the courtyard and settled on the magnificent doors of the lord’s master bedroom. 

“There’s still one final step,” he said hoarsely. “To put an end to all of this.”