Being a knight is not easy

Chapter 207 Victory
The mist of the Valentine Forest was cleaved in two by the holy light of the Judgment Sword, and Leo's armor gleamed with a cold silver light under the moonlight.

Every swing of the sword by this guild master carried the pressure of the sacred code, and the twelve magic crystal engravings on the sword blade breathed out milky white life force, like twelve sleeping dragons of light.

Robin hid behind an upside-down ancient vine, the dragon scale patterns pulsating violently beneath his skin, and the red danger warning light on the system panel almost completely stained his retina.

"Here it comes!" Robin shouted, and the Dragon Slayer Spear suddenly burst forth with dazzling golden light.

As Leo's warhorse shattered the last magical barrier, he shot out like an arrow, his spear tip aimed straight at his opponent's back.

This shot embodied all of his life force, and the golden trail trailing behind the spear left a brief spatial rift in the air.

Leo's reaction was far beyond expectations.

The moment the sword of judgment swept back, the ancient title page of the Knight's Code appeared in the void, and the holy light transformed into flowing words to form a defensive barrier.

The moment the Dragon-Slaying Spear collided with the phantom of the Codex, the resulting energy ripples caused trees within a radius of thirty feet to shatter, their canopies cascading down like a torrential downpour.

Robin felt a tremendous force strike his chest, and after taking three steps back, he knelt on one knee. Blood dripped from the split between his thumb and forefinger onto the handle of his spear, staining the dragon pattern dark red.

"Is that all you've got?" Leo's voice was laced with ice. The moment his warhorse reared up, the sorcery runes beneath its hooves were scorched to ashes by the holy light. "You think you can challenge the thousand-year-old code of chivalry just by modifying a few breathing techniques?"

Robin looked up and met Leo's cold gaze from behind his mask.

The Knight of Order raised his sword of judgment once more, and the scripture on the blade began to rotate counterclockwise. Thousands of overlapping chants filled the air, as if the entire forest was reciting sacred commandments.

Robin suddenly realized that this was a forbidden technique of the Knights Guild—"Divine Judgment," which used the knights' faith as a guide to nail the opponent's soul to the judgment of the code.

"Wind Chime! Hold back on the left flank!" Robin roared, rolling backward to avoid the holy light barrage.

Behind the twenty Free Knights, a black lightning bolt leaped out. It was a legendary knight from the Bauhinia Organization. He cleaved through the cursed fire with his sword, which clashed with Leo's lieutenant's sword. The sparks that flew ignited the decaying leaves on the ground.

On the other side of the battlefield, Wind Chime's sorcery troops finally completed the nine-pointed star formation, and purple cursed flames soared into the sky, condensing into a huge demonic phantom above Leo's head.

"Ignorant witch, how dare you blaspheme!" Leo's sword of judgment drew a cross of holy light, and the demonic phantom shattered in response, but the Bauhinia assassins behind him seized the opportunity to throw out poisoned javelins.

Robin seized this fleeting opening, and the Dragon Slayer Spear shot out like a serpent, its tip grazing Leo's shoulder guard and leaving a shallow mark on the meteorite armor.

This was the first time he had wounded the legendary knight in the entire battle.

Leo's pupils contracted sharply; he finally realized that the boy before him was no ordinary Order Knight.

When Robin raised the compound pulley bow again, Leo spurred his horse and retreated hastily, only to find that twenty earth-burst arrows had blocked all escape routes.

The arrows combined in mid-air to form an intricate magical matrix, each arrowhead aimed at the magic crystal node on his armor.

"Earthblast Arrow!" Robin roared, and the skill tree on the system panel flashed wildly.

He forcibly overclocked his life force, and the dragon scale pattern turned from silver to crimson gold, with a huge dragon-shaped phantom appearing behind him.

The earth-burst arrow suddenly split upon contact with the Holy Shield, each arrow transforming into three afterimages that swarmed towards Leo like a golden bee colony.

Leo finally showed his shock and anger. He swung his sword to cut down the rain of arrows, but then he heard Robin's cold laughter from his left.

Before anyone knew it, the boy had used magic to teleport around to his flank, and the Dragon-Slaying Spear, with the force of splitting mountains, slashed at the horse's head.

No one knew that Robin was not only an Order Knight, but also a first-circle wizard. The warhorse neighed and collapsed, throwing Leo to the ground.

Robin seized the opportunity to close in, pressing the tip of her spear against the other man's throat, but at that moment she saw the mad smile in Leo's eyes.

"You've fallen for my trap!" Leo suddenly spat out blood, plunging the Sword of Judgment into his own abdomen. "With my blood, I summon the spirit of the Codex!"

The earth trembled violently, and Robin was horrified to discover that Leo's blood was congealing into ancient characters in the air. The true form of the Code of Knights appeared in the clouds, and the sound of the pages turning made his eardrums ache.

The system issued a piercing alarm: "Rule-level power detected! Survival rate drops to 0.7%!"

"My lord!" Andisu's roar pierced the sound barrier as the knight, covered in blood, charged forward, his rock-hard battle axe forcefully stopping the falling phantom of the codex.

Robin seized the opportunity to grab Leo's wrist, but accidentally touched a miniature teleportation scroll hidden in his sleeve.

He suddenly remembered the wind chimes' warning—Leo would never surrender easily.

"Trying to escape? Not so easy!" Robin bit his tongue, channeling all his life force into the Dragon Slayer Spear.

The dragon-shaped phantom and the codex phantom collided fiercely in the void, each collision causing space to collapse.

Leo's teleportation scroll glowed faintly, but Robin held it firmly with the tip of her spear, and the two forces were locked in a stalemate on the scroll.

"You think faith can save you?" Robin's silver eyes burned with a mad flame. "My faith is to enable everyone to wield a sword and fight!" He suddenly grabbed Leo's arm and plunged the Dragon Slayer Spear into the magic crystal node in the other's heart. "This spear is for all the civilians you have trampled underfoot!"

The sound of the sword of judgment falling was like the death knell of the Grim Reaper.

Leo stared incredulously at the dragon spear on his chest. The holy light faded rapidly from his armor, revealing a wrinkled face.

"Why? You could have become a new nobleman."

"Because the old era has ended." Robin's voice was deep and firm. He drew his Dragon Slayer Spear and watched Leo's body turn into specks of light and dissipate.

Clearly, the teleportation wasn't completed until death.

When the first rays of dawn pierced through the forest, the battlefield had already turned to scorched earth.

Andys helped Robin toward the meeting point. Of the twenty knights, only seven remained standing, their armor stained with blood and cursed fire.

Wind Chime's sorcery troops were clearing the battlefield, purple flames were engulfing the knights' corpses, and the air was filled with the smell of sulfur and rust.

"My lord, look!" a knight suddenly pointed to the sky.

Robin looked up and saw countless torches rising in the direction of Viscount Wilke's territory. The slave soldiers who had been bound by iron chains were holding up crude weapons and forming a vast support force.

Their footsteps sounded like spring thunder, shaking the morning mist in the Valentine Forest.

Robin gripped the dragon-slaying spear tightly, the dragon scale patterns gleaming warmly in the morning light.

The significance of this battle has long transcended victory or defeat—when the sword of a commoner pierces the heart of a legendary knight, when the will for freedom ignites the entire kingdom, the twilight of an old era is giving birth to the dawn of a new order.

(End of this chapter)