After going into the sea, I met the witch.

"boom!"

The fist collided with the silver armor, producing a deep thud. A terrifying force surged from behind, causing the Libra Knight to fly uncontrollably forward, colliding head-on with another Libra Knight chasing from behind.

Ryan kept running, heading into the distance.

Killing the Libra Knight within the city of Santos would undoubtedly be the worst course of action.

After their exchange, Ryan had a rough estimate of the Libra Knight's strength—it was somewhat weaker than the Black Knight, let alone a Black Knight of the Sea.

Such an opponent is someone he can easily deal with without even using weapons.

In this situation, killing the Libra Knight and thus incurring the wrath of the Libra Holy Church would undoubtedly be unwise.

When Ryan was running at full speed, his speed was far beyond what the Libra Knight could match. By the time the two got up from the ground, Ryan had already run a long way. After chasing for a while, they lost sight of their target.

……

After speeding along, Ryan circled around for a long time before finally returning to the North District.

After exiting through the north gate, you will pass through several villages before reaching the beach area where Freya and Cecilia are hiding.

But just as Ryan reached the vicinity of the North Gate, he stopped in his tracks.

I don't know when, but there are no pedestrians here anymore.

Beneath the north gate, a burly knight in light gold armor and a helmet obscuring his face stood, his heavy greatsword planted firmly on the ground, as if he had been waiting there for a long time.

The symbol on the knight's chest is not "Libra," but a series of purple petals.

"Lord Ryan, please come with me."

A deep hum came from the pale gold knight's mouth, and as the sound spread, powerful spiritual energy instantly swept across the entire area.

I have a cold and a low-grade fever today, and I'm in very poor condition. I only managed to write one chapter of 5,000 words. Dear readers, I'm extremely sorry...

Chapter 112 Tier 3 Heroic Class [Sword of Brilliant Spirit Light]

A powerful spiritual force, like a tide, radiated outwards from the pale gold-armored knight's body.

When spiritual energy permeates Ryan's body, a reversal occurs between the powerful spiritual energy and the weaker spiritual energy, thus creating "spiritual pressure."

Ryan's gaze turned serious as he stared at the burly knight who remained standing with his sword at the foot of the city gate. A gray-text notification appeared before his eyes.

Hansal Nicholson, the "Iris Knight": 37 years old, 210 cm tall, chief knight of the "Iris Family", third-tier [Great Knight], master of the skill: Tidal Greatsword Technique (proficient).

—You feel immense pressure!

"Third-tier [Grand Knight]..."

Ryan felt heavy-hearted.

【Great Knight】is the third-tier title for the "Soldier Path". Before that, there are 【Tier 1 Soldier】 and 【Tier 2 Warrior】. Although the job title sounds very "simple", it does not mean that the "Soldier Path" is weak.

In fact, this profession is extremely powerful in close-quarters combat on land, and the "Soldier Path" has a large number of general and exclusive secret techniques, resulting in a very large gap between the upper and lower limits of professionals of the same rank.

More importantly, the "Iris Knight" in front of him is the second person Ryan has met who possesses the "Mastery Level" skill.

The previous one was Cecilia.

Even Ryan himself is still at the "mastery" level in Storm Swordsmanship, and has not yet reached the "proficiency" level.

According to Ryan's estimation, Storm Sword Technique would need to reach "Mastery" at least until he mastered "Three-Stage Charge".

For Ryan now, the basic requirements for mastering the "three-stage power accumulation" have been met; what he lacks is only a flash of inspiration.

"Mastery" level weapon skills greatly enhance combat power. Take Cecilia as an example. When she was still a Tier 1, her "Mastery" Thorn Rapier technique allowed her to easily crush several opponents of the same Tier. Ryan even suspected that ordinary Tier 2 opponents might not be Cecilia's match.

Therefore, the strength of the "Iris Knight" before us should not be underestimated among those of the same level.

A third-tier opponent against a first-tier opponent—no normal person would feel that this battle has any suspense whatsoever.

However, neither of the parties involved thought so.

Hansal, the "Iris Knight," knew very well that the "Bloody Son" before him, though seemingly only at the first tier, possessed astonishingly exaggerated combat power. He had received news that even when two second-tier Libra Knights joined forces to attack, he was easily defeated. His strength was at least at the limit of the second tier, which was already quite exaggerated.

In fact, since becoming a professional, Hansal has never seen a first-tier professional with such astonishing combat power. Even among witches, very few can achieve this level, let alone Ryan, who is a man and not a witch. Such an "anomaly" deserves our utmost attention.

On the other hand, Ryan also had different thoughts.

Although he was at a disadvantage in terms of rank and weapon skill level, he did not feel that he had no chance of winning.

[Spirituality] is only one part of his combat power, and not the main part. The vast majority of his combat power depends on his terrifying [physique], which far surpasses that of the second tier, and his five or eight "trophy skills". As for his weapon skill level being lagging behind... in fact, his weapon skill level cannot be judged solely by the data on paper.

The acquisition of two "special combat skills" has allowed his weapon training to break free from the constraints of the original framework, and he has begun to forge a unique path.

Tier 3, also known as "Hero" class.

The reason they are given this title is that their strength is enough to determine the outcome of a small war, making them "heroic" figures in the eyes of the world.

Every "Tier 3 Heroic Professional" is extremely strong, but...

The outcome will only be known after the fight!

A gentle breeze swept across the earth, causing withered leaves to fall from the trees along the roadside, landing in a shallow puddle and breaking the still water's surface.

Seeing that Ryan showed no intention of replying, "Iris Knight" Hansal lowered his eyelids and said, "Then, I'll invite you myself."

As soon as he finished speaking, his body vanished from the spot.

"Chong-"

The clear sound of swords echoed in all directions, and the strong sword wind even caused the branches of the large trees along the road to tilt to both sides.

Looking down from the sky, the area in front of the North Gate was precisely divided in two by a pale golden light, and the end of this dividing line was exactly where Ryan was standing.

The highly condensed spiritual energy, like a pale golden torrent, formed a swirling attraction as the greatsword in the "Iris Knight's" hand cleaved down from above, pulling at Ryan's body and trying to forcibly fix him in place.

"Hua Hua Hua..."

At this moment, Ryan, who was in the middle, seemed to be in the middle of a whirlpool in the ocean, surrounded by layers of golden currents.

"Is this the 'Great Sword Technique of the Tide Sea'? It's quite interesting."

Ryan's eyes gleamed with a strange light.

Just as the pale gold greatsword was about to strike him, he took a sudden step forward, his body surging forward, and at the same time, his right hand, clad in a dark gold blood-patterned glove, drew the greatsword from behind him.

Ryan's step forward instead of backing away caused a subtle ripple in the eyes of the "Iris Knight".

Being in the "tidal wave," even a second-tier extreme professional should find it difficult to move.

But soon, the turmoil in his eyes subsided, and the speed and intensity of the falling light gold greatsword in his hand increased—regardless of how Ryan did it, he would take the blow first.

"clang--!"

Silver-blue and pale gold, two greatswords of different colors, collided in mid-air. The moment they made contact, both Ryan and "Iris Knight" Hansal's expressions changed.

Ryan felt layers upon layers of spiritual energy crashing against him like waves. These waves varied in intensity, some gentle and some surging like giant waves, forcing him to retreat repeatedly.

Hansal, on the other hand, felt as if he were facing not a human being shorter than himself, but a "giant" whose size far surpassed his own.

As a [Great Knight] of the third tier of the "Soldier Path", Hansal believed that his physical strength was among the best in his tier. However, with just one collision, he was already at a disadvantage. If Ryan's spirituality had not been too weak and had been repelled by him, he would have been in a disadvantageous position in an instant if Ryan had pressed down on his sword further.

This is a pure crushing defeat in terms of strength!

The immense force forced Hansal to retreat step by step, each step leaving a clearly visible crack in the main bluestone street.

The two men stared at each other from a distance of nearly ten meters, neither launching an attack immediately. Instead, they observed each other's movements, trying to find a weakness.

After the initial exchange, both sides realized how difficult the other was to deal with.

About ten seconds later, for some reason, Hansal lost his composure and chose to attack first.

Knowing Ryan's strength advantage, this time he played to his strengths and avoided close-quarters confrontation, instead adopting other offensive methods.

Hansal raised his longsword high above his head, and a surge of powerful spiritual energy rose from his body, converging on the greatsword like an endless tide, gradually forming a pale golden energy giant sword outside the greatsword. Its size continued to increase with the passage of time and the accumulation of spiritual energy.

The overflowing spirituality, like a vortex that was spinning faster and faster around the giant sword of energy, tore Ryan's body apart and dragged him toward Hansal.

—【Third-Tier Grand Knight】Exclusive Class Skill, 【Brilliant Spiritual Light Sword】: Consumes a large amount of spiritual energy to form a huge spiritual sword that has a significant penetrating effect on common armor, "shields", "barriers", etc., and its destructive power is exceptionally amazing.

A third-tier Grand Knight once used this move on the battlefield to break open a heavy city gate with a single sword strike!

The increasingly intense spiritual energy caused Ryan to experience a needle-like stinging sensation on his skin, a warning from his body's instincts—if he took this sword head-on, he would die!

The pulling force grew stronger and stronger, and even with Ryan's strength, he was gradually pulled toward Hansal, dragging two deep trenches in the ground.

After gathering momentum for about three seconds, Hansal roared and his ten-meter-long pale gold energy sword slammed down towards Ryan.

Despite facing such a life-or-death crisis, Ryan's eyes remained calm.

When the pale gold energy greatsword was only a step away from his head, he pushed off with both feet, brought the greatsword to his front, and charged forward.

During this process, a crimson light appeared on his body and spread to the greatsword in his hand.

Just as the pale gold energy greatsword was about to fall, its trajectory was slightly deflected, heading towards Ryan's shoulder.

"Boom--!"

When the pale gold energy greatsword touched the greatsword in front of Ryan, which was radiating a faint bloody light, it shuddered violently and was forced back several meters. Even the front half of the sword blade developed fine cracks.

—Special sword technique, [Defensive Charge]!

This sight caused Hanssar's pupils to contract sharply.

He had considered many ways to deal with Ryan, but this was the only one that was unexpected.

"What is this? Some kind of secret, unknown technique?"

"What kind of secret technique allows a first-tier professional to withstand the exclusive ability of a third-tier professional?"

Misar couldn't understand it, but he had no time to think about it anymore, because Ryan's greatsword was already at his face.

The perfect defensive parry during the "golden hour" allowed Ryan to complete a "charge" in a very short time, thanks to the feedback of his blood energy.

Hansal, who was holding the pale gold energy greatsword high with both hands, had no free hands to defend or parry.

The piercing sound of air being torn apart foreshadowed just how astonishing the power of Ryan's charged horizontal slash was.

In the moment of crisis, Hansal's pale gold energy greatsword shattered, creating a massive outward surge of spiritual energy, but even so, it was still unable to repel Ryan.

Just before the shockwave arrived, Ryan's body glowed with a crimson light once more.

—Special sword skill, [Attack Charge].

Protected by the "blood membrane" formed by "blood energy", Ryan completely ignored the impact of the spiritual current shockwave and resolutely slashed at Hansal's neck with his greatsword!