Kingdom Bloodline

Chapter 151 Veteran
King Nuen lay quietly on the ground.

His hands were still tightly gripping the tip of the giant axe handle, as if it were his lover.

The spike between the two axe blades was deeply embedded in his chest.

Everyone in the Hall of Heroes watched this scene unfold.

Surprise, confusion, sadness, grief—a multitude of emotions intertwined.

The victor of the duel, Grand Duke Pefit, was covered in sweat, and his hand, which had been holding the axe handle, slowly slipped down.

As his body relaxed, he knelt beside King Nuen, breathing heavily.

With vacant eyes and a heaving chest, Pfelt looked as if she had just experienced a nightmare.

Archduke Aurelius, who was watching the battle, stared wide-eyed at the motionless king, his complex emotions turning into unspeakable sorrow in that instant.

Grand Duke Ronnie looked sorrowful.

Grand Duke Lecce's brow furrowed as if a tremendous burden weighed on his shoulders.

Trudida shook his head, seemingly expressing his disdain for the duel.

Thales lowered his head, staring blankly at the ground.

He had no idea what expressions Nicolai and Putila were wearing behind him.

Damn.

how so.

He slowly clenched his fist.

King Nunn died here...

Who will take control of Dragon Sky City?

Who can control Dragon Sky City?

Who will take control of Dragon City?
His thoughts became a jumbled mess.

Grand Duke Peffert, freed from the duel, knelt before the king's body, looking dazed.

Nunn.

Born to be king.

Nunn Walton.

The monarch who ruled Exte for nearly thirty years.

already……

died.

The young grand duke suddenly chuckled softly.

"Hahaha……"

He tilted his head back, and his laughter grew louder and more bizarre, like that of a morbid madman.

"Hahaha……"

Then, the young Grand Duke laughed maniacally and suddenly turned to look at the witness of the duel—High Priest Holm, representing the goddess of the moon.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

His body trembled with laughter.

The high priestess stared straight back at Peffert, her beautiful eyes and brows behind her veil calm and undisturbed.

Under those gazes, Pfeet felt an invisible pressure creeping in.

His smile gradually faded.

The chief priest remained calm and composed, making no comment.

Peffer stopped smiling, his face slowly darkening as he frowned in confusion.

Thales was lost in thought, desperately contemplating his future.

Just now.

“I see…” Nikolai, the Meteorite, suddenly murmured from behind.

The next moment, two loud collision sounds came from the arena.

"Bang! Thud!"

"Clang!" Then came the clanging sound of metal falling to the ground!

Thales snapped out of his reverie.

At the same time, many people in the Hall of Heroes exclaimed in disbelief!
Thales suddenly looked up.

Then his eyes widened and his brows furrowed tightly.

He witnessed the most unbelievable scene.

No way.

The shocked Thales even forgot to breathe for a moment.

King Nuen, who should have been lying dead on the ground, somehow managed to get up from the ground!
He turned around and pinned Peffert face down to the ground!

The giant axe that had pierced the king's chest was now at their feet, still trembling!
Like everyone else, Thales stared intently at the scene before him, filled with astonishment and bewilderment:
The old king of Exter had a fierce expression and a menacing aura. He wrapped his left arm into a ring and tightly gripped Pefit's right forearm from behind, while his right hand firmly pressed against Pefit's right upper arm, and his left knee pressed down hard on Pefit's back.

King Nunn locked Pefit's right arm, pinning him firmly to the ground.

Thales stared in disbelief, shaking his head unconsciously.

How can it be……

That kind of injury...

Thales wasn't the only one who thought so. Everyone in the hall, from the Grand Duke to his subjects, from servants to guards, watched in shock at this incredible and incomprehensible reversal.

"No, you clearly..." In excruciating pain, panic, and fear, Grand Duke Pefit, whose right arm was locked and whose head and face were pinned to the ground, struggled desperately to break free while crying out in terror, "No, it's impossible!"

He couldn't believe that the king, who had been pierced through the chest by his axe just moments before, had stood up again in an instant, as if he were completely unharmed!
The old king's right chest was stained with blood, both front and back, making him look incredibly gruesome.

But at this moment, the injury seemed to be non-existent, not affecting the king's movements at all.

It was as if King Nunn had only been pricked by a needle.

Thales whirled around, urgently asking the only expert at the highest level present, "How could this be..."

"Quiet!"

Nikolai interrupted him abruptly.

The Meteorite stared intently at the scene, unwilling to miss a single detail: "After watching it... it's not over yet!"

Putila looked astonished, seemingly unable to accept this fact.

"Impossible?" King Nunn VII, who had come back from the dead, was flushed. The king pressed down with his right hand and pulled back with his left. His muscles trembled as he slowly exerted force and tightened, using Pefit's elbow joint as a fulcrum to pry open Pefit's locked forearm in the opposite direction.

The old king gritted his teeth, his face contorted in a grimace: "On the battlefield, you'd better believe in 'impossible'!"

As King Nunn gradually exerted his power, Pefit's right arm, which was locked behind his back, began to slowly deform!
His forearm was moving alarmingly in the opposite direction to his elbow.

The sound of muscles snapping was clearly audible throughout the arena.

"Aaaaaah!" Pefit's face contorted in agony as she screamed in agony!
The Grand Duke desperately stretched his left arm behind him, toward the crazed King Nuen, but could only grasp at the air in vain, scratching and clawing at it in mid-air.

He simply couldn't break free from these deadly chains.

"I killed you! I definitely killed you!" Peffert's neck throbbed against the floor, writhing in inhuman pain as she screamed in agony, "You're dead!"

“Is that so?” King Nuen, who had firmly suppressed his opponent, revealed a fierce look mixed with hatred and madness, his words as chilling as a cold wind: “Perhaps…”

"Didn't I die completely enough?"

As he spoke, King Nuen VII continued to exert force with his hands, methodically and steadily.

The terrifying crackling and tearing sound continued to echo in Peffert's forearm.

This sent a chill down Thales's spine.

The young grand duke struggled frantically, desperately pounding the ground with his left hand, unable to reach the enemy.

But under King Nunn's skillful and ruthless chokehold, all of Pefit's struggles were in vain, and the strength in his young body was completely useless.

He could only frantically twist the other parts of his body that he could still move.

Like a fish waiting to be slaughtered on a chopping board.

next second.

"Snapped!"

A sharp crack came from Peffert's arm!

Peffert's head, which had been pressed to the ground, was raised as high as it could go, his face contorted in agony, tears streaming uncontrollably down his cheeks, his mouth agape in agony as he screamed an unprecedentedly frantic cry: "Aaaaaaahhhhhh! No! No! No! Aaaaaah!"

His right forearm, starting from the elbow joint, has been bent backwards!

Despite the excruciating pain, Pefit, trembling, resisted King Nunn's strength and even lifted her chest an inch off the ground!
But Pfeet's nightmare was not over yet.

King Nunn suddenly raised his right hand, which was pressing down on the other's upper right arm, and abruptly clenched his right fist, striking Pefit heavily on the back of the head!
"Boom!"

Peffert's head was slammed back to the ground by the punch.

His forehead slammed against the floor tiles with a dull thud.

But King Nunn didn't stop. He released Pefit's already crippled right arm and reached out with his right hand to grab the other's left arm!

Then, using the same posture, but switching sides, he grabbed the forearm with his right hand and pressed down on the upper arm with his left hand, locking Pfeet's only remaining left arm.

King Nuen took a deep breath and continued to exert himself.

Peffert snapped out of his brief dizziness. Panic gripped him instantly.

Feeling the persistent pain and numbness in his right arm, and the sensation of his only intact left arm being tightly locked, the young Grand Duke realized something and turned his head away in despair.

"Why?" Painful tears streamed down Peffert's face as he asked his opponent with resentment.

King Nuen stared into his eyes and let out a satisfied, cold laugh.

"On the battlefield, a wound that pierces the chest is deadly, and most wounded can only leave their lives to chance," the king stared at his enemy like a hawk, as if he were staring at a rabbit: "especially one that pierces the chest cavity."

King Nunn continued to exert force with his arm, his mouth uttering incessant words, radiating a chilling coldness:
"Your lungs become a broken bellows, and breathing becomes more difficult than lifting your hand... With each forceful inhale, you can even feel the hissing sound of air entering and leaving your lungs through the wound. You will start to cough, and then the cough will become more urgent, more severe, and more painful. Your breathing will become smaller, more painful, and more difficult."

"Blood will slowly seep into your lungs, and with each breath and cough, it will continuously emerge from your throat, mouth, and nose... In the midst of excruciating pain and chest tightness, you will feel an unbearable heaviness in your chest, which will then slowly become numb, and your strength and senses will drift away from you."

"If it is accompanied by broken ribs, then congratulations, the tiny bone fragments will become the most terrifying torturers... penetrating your muscles, rubbing your tissues, piercing your blood vessels, tormenting your mind and body in pain and soreness, until you surrender to death and reach out to the ferryman of the river of hell."

"Even if the wound is plugged in time and the external bleeding is stopped, it will be of no use... Your blood will first increase with each cough, then decrease until you die... If you're lucky, it will end within minutes; if you're unlucky, you'll wail until midnight, accompanied by a terrible high fever and cold sweats, and die in agony in hallucinations."

"I've seen far too many tragedies like this on the battlefield."

Peffert's eyes widened, and cold sweat poured from his forehead.

The king smiled, then changed the subject:
"but……"

King Nunn leaned close to Pefit's ear and said menacingly:
"You know, the human chest cavity has a defined area... it's not the entire chest that's the chest cavity..."

"If the puncture doesn't damage your chest cavity and avoids fatal arteries, for example, just through the muscle between your right shoulder and right chest, penetrating forward and outward... perfectly grazing your chest cavity and bones..."

"Then use the power of termination to expand the muscles of the wound and stop the bleeding..."

“How…is this possible…” Pefit gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his face, staring desperately at King Nuen behind him.

“I told you, brat,” King Nunn laughed with satisfaction as the power of the end surged through his arms, “on the battlefield, you’d better believe in the impossible.”

Finally, a chilling crack, accompanied by Peffert's scream, reached everyone's ears once again.

"Click!"

Peffert writhed wildly on the ground, screaming in agony as he poured out his pain and despair.

His only arm was also bent by King Nuen.

The young Grand Duke had already lost both hands.

A few seconds later, Peffert's struggles and screams began to subside, his body convulsing and emitting mournful groans.

The dukes stared in disbelief at the scene before them.

"What does this mean?" Grand Duke Trudida struggled to control his breathing.

The one who answered him was Grand Duke Ronnie, who had been silent for a long time. He said in a cold voice, "It means the end."

Thales stared blankly as the king launched a counterattack in an instant.

A swift, fierce, and effective counterattack that will solve the problem once and for all.

He didn't even have time to see how the king's reversal began.

“His Majesty was lying on the ground when he was pierced by the axe tip,” Nikolai sighed from behind. “Neither we nor Pefit knew that His Majesty was pierced through the chest, but we couldn’t see where the axe had gone through his back at all… so we couldn’t tell whether it was a fatal wound.”

“And that was exactly what the king had planned.”

Calculated?

Thales stared intently at King Nunn's chest, especially the blood-soaked area on the right side.

King Nuen, panting, flung away the enemy's nonfunctional arm and stood up.

In that instant, Thales felt that this powerful figure was incredibly tall.

King Nuen looked around at everyone in the hall.

He was greeted by a variety of looks and breaths, ranging from excitement and surprise to confusion.

"liquor!"

King Nuen suddenly roared, "Rye liquor!"

Telston was taken aback.

"The strongest kind!"

The responsible servants and guards hesitated, glancing at the high priest of the Bright Moon Temple and several dukes.

But High Priest Holm remained unmoved, while the princes simply stared blankly at the king.

Peffert on the ground stopped groaning, and he raised his head, looking at his opponent with a face full of despair and numbness.

"Enough!" King Nunn roared impatiently, "I'm not going to smother him with a wine glass!"

"Damn it, bring me the wine right now!"

"In the name of the King!"

Lord Myrk, the king's aide, sighed, waved his hand, and granted the king this privilege.

A full barrel of rye liquor was quickly carried onto the field.

King Nuen grabbed the iron wine cup that was brought to him, lifted the lid of the wooden barrel, scooped up a cup of wine, and tilted his head back to gulp it down.

Wine seeped from the corners of his mouth, flowing down the king's short beard from his chin to his neck.

The old king downed the glass of strong liquor in one gulp, wiped his chin with a satisfying gesture, and then scooped up another glass.

This time, King Nuen suddenly ripped off the clothes on his right shoulder, revealing his aged but still muscular physique.

There, the wounds from the axe tip that had just pierced through were clearly visible, one on the front of the chest and one on the back, but both were off-center from the chest and even close to the shoulders.

The wounds have been filled in by the pressure of the muscles.

King Nuen gritted his teeth, raised his wine cup, and poured it over his wound!
The muscles in his right shoulder trembled and contracted uncontrollably as he drank the strong liquor.

But King Nuen's expression remained as cold and indifferent as ever.

It was as if what soaked his wounds wasn't strong liquor.

Everyone in the hall watched this scene in silence.

No one interrupted him.

On the ground to the side, Grand Duke Pefit, his arms broken, roared softly, his eyes once again filled with resentment and unwillingness.

He used his head to prop up his upper body, trying to get up with the help of his knees.

He was met with a merciless, heavy kick from King Nunn, who stomped on the Grand Duke's back and pinned Pefit back to the ground.

Peffer first let out a painful groan, which then turned into a resentful roar.

"No, how did you do that..." The young Grand Duke's face was ashen as he stared intently at King Nuen, as if he wanted to tear a piece of flesh from him.

"You think you could so easily pierce my chest with an axe tip?" King Nuen remained calm as he scooped up another cup of wine and downed it in one gulp. "You brat, I led you here to stab me!"

“My strength is no match for yours, nor my stamina. In a clash of giant axes, I will be defeated sooner or later,” King Nuen said, stepping on Pefit’s back and spitting at him disdainfully. “But even a master of the highest level will fall if he relaxes his guard…”

A glint of light flashed in King Nuen's eyes:
"It's utterly useless."

Peffert's eyes widened, he pressed his face to the ground, his lips trembling, and he roared again with an ambiguous meaning.

It was filled with desolation and pain.

“Here’s a piece of advice: don’t let your guard down before you snap your enemy’s neck,” King Nunn exhaled slowly, feeling his exhaustion and fatigue, his tone icy: “This is the most valuable experience we’ve gained in thousands of years of hellish battles with the orcs.”

King Nuen tilted his head back again and drank the third cup of wine in one gulp.

"Is this what's commonly referred to in the military, the so-called soldier's fighting instinct?" Putila asked calmly from behind Thales.

"Instinct?" The answer he received was a cold laugh from Nikolai the Meteorite: "It's tactics. The duel, from beginning to end, was all within His Majesty's calculations and rhythm, proceeding according to the steps he had arranged."

Putila looked puzzled.

“From the very beginning, His Majesty lured Pefit to stab him with the tip of the axe, rather than to chop him with the blade,” the Meteorite said, arms crossed, a hint of amusement in his eyes. “His Majesty appeared to be passively defending himself, wielding the axe, powerless to retaliate, retreating step by step…”

"In fact, after each exchange of blows, the distance between the two men would unconsciously close a little, until His Majesty finally fell, and the distance between him and Pefit was so great that the latter could no longer use his axe to strike."

Thales' heart skipped a beat as he looked at the distance between the two people in the arena and the position of the two giant axes.

“Pefit, he was guided by His Majesty to end the fight with a thrust from the tip of his axe,” the leader of the White Blade Guard replied calmly.
"His Majesty lay on the ground, using both hands to control the other's axe, which pierced the gap between his chest and shoulder blades... It was an injury His Majesty himself had inflicted, which would bring terrible pain, but it was by no means a fatal blow."

Thales took a deep breath and looked at King Nunn in the arena.

A seasoned hunter, is that right?

“The rest of the time is to wait for the opponent, who has been driven mad by words, to think that he has won the duel,” Putila added to the Meteorite’s answer with a sigh. “Then seize the opportunity, take advantage of a weakness that can completely suppress Pefit’s endurance and strength advantage, and launch a decisive counterattack.”

"I hope you will carefully observe this rare duel and benefit from it, Your Highness," the prince's deputy said calmly to his prince.

Thales could only slowly shake his head.

“Pefit claims he learned His Majesty’s fighting style from his grandfather, but he knows absolutely nothing,” Nicolai’s pale face flickered in the firelight. “This is the true ‘fierce counterattack, a decisive blow.’”

“Impressive,” the Marquis of Cornmus remarked from the side. “You’re not surprised at all, are you?”

Nikolai nodded slowly: "Yes, every step Pefit has taken has been within His Majesty's expectations."

“There’s a saying on the western front of the stars,” Putila sighed, “that even a dying veteran is ten thousand times stronger than a novice with immense strength.”

"An old soldier meets a rookie," the king's captain of the guard scoffed softly, "The outcome of this duel, from the very beginning..."

"It was destined."

Sigh, it's not like you've only known me for a short time.

How could I possibly have the illusion that "Wu Jian would indeed write it this way, and the plot is developing exactly as I expected"?
You're overthinking it!
If I just go against the rules because you say so, wouldn't I lose face? Even light novels have their value!

A character as interesting as King Nuen, following the typical tropes of light novels, should of course die a spectacular death!

That's all for now. I'm studying for exams, so updates will be irregular. Please don't rush me!
There will be another chapter tonight, but given our different time flows, I won't reveal the time.

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(End of this chapter)