School Transmigration: I, Chosen as the Saint by Dragons at the Start-Chapter 200 --Attack Under the Night Sky

Heading north from Central City, the scenery grew increasingly monotonous.

Owen had traveled for three days and two nights.

He spent the first night in a bustling town, the second in a farmhouse in a small village, and now, as far as the eye could see, everything was blanketed in snow, with scarcely a household in sight.

Just before nightfall, Owen finally found a small camp under the snow mountains belonging to the Celestial Mountains Brigade.

The camp was nearly empty, with only a handful of people remaining, as the rest had been dispatched to the main frontline.

For safety, Owen did not reveal his true identity, merely stating he was a general on a mission to the temple.

The soldiers guarding the camp harbored no suspicions.

By evening, a few of them gathered around what was normally an officers’ round table, drinking and eating meat.

Owen listened to the soldiers’ idle chat as he ate.

"Do you think they’ll come back?"

"Of course, they will! What’s the demon army compared to us? Our brigade isn’t made up of weaklings."

"How many will return?"

"All of them!"

"You two, just eat your meat and stop discussing this. War is always cruel, don’t you think?"

An old soldier passed a bowl of wine to Owen, posing the question.

"Yes," Owen murmured, accepting the bowl.

After a sip, Owen set down the bowl and stood up.

The old soldier also rose, drawing his sword.

The sudden change puzzled the other soldiers, who stood up, unsure of what was happening, and looked towards them.

"You fools," the old soldier cursed, "What are you looking at? Grab your weapons; we have company!"

Only then did the others grasp what was occurring, quickly arming themselves with spears and shields.

The camp fell silent in an instant, the only sound that of the cold wind blowing.

Suddenly, several sword auras sliced through the air.

Owen, wielding a trident, shattered the enemy’s attacks.

By now, the soldiers present realized Owen was no ordinary person.

"Stay sharp, ready for defense," the veteran commanded loudly.

The soldiers, armed with spears and shields, exited the dining hall, with Owen at the forefront, his trident carving a deep trail in the snow.

Several swordsmen appeared at the entrance of the barracks, dressed in white and walking silently on wooden clogs.

As they drew their weapons at the gate, Owen initially thought they wielded swords, but upon closer inspection, he saw they were blades—sharp, thin, and slightly curved, characteristic of eastern sea origin.

Why would people from the eastern sea be here?

There was no time for further thought as Owen clashed with the eastern sea attackers.

They yelled wildly as they struck at Owen, each blow delivered with relentless force, seemingly indifferent to their own lives.

In a one-on-one fight, Owen would not fear this style of combat.

But now, facing five against one, repelling one attacker only to immediately face another’s desperate assault, Owen found them troublesome.

However, it was just that—troublesome.

Soon, all five eastern sea attackers lay slain by Owen.

After the last of the five fell, Owen had no time to check on the condition of the Celestial Mountains Brigade soldiers.

He plunged his trident into the snow with a forceful swing, a massive explosion masking the sounds of flesh being torn apart.

Then, over a dozen eastern sea attackers emerged from the ground, launching darts and blow darts at Owen.

Just like the earthwalkers, an equally detestable foe.

Owen’s mind flashed back to the scenes in Termination Forest, his anger making the swings of his trident even more ferocious.

Blood soaked Owen, and the snow was littered with limbs.

Regaining his senses, he saw that this group of eastern sea attackers had also been utterly defeated.

Looking around the battlefield, the only ones standing were him and the veteran.

The veteran, gasping for breath, leaned against the barracks, his body bearing numerous wounds.

The long spear in front of him skewered the bodies of two eastern sea attackers.

Years of combat experience had allowed him to avoid fatal injuries, but his comrades now lay motionless on the ground.

The veteran stood up, picking up a large shield from the ground, intending to cover the bodies of his fallen comrades.

He took a few difficult steps before stopping, his gaze dropping to the blade protruding from his chest.

He lost consciousness and fell.

Owen gripped his trident tightly.

Even as the eastern sea attacker killed the veteran, Owen had not sensed his presence, nor had he seen him approach.

This man was likely an assassin.

Owen had no room for anger in his heart, forcing himself to stay calm.

The eastern sea attacker withdrew the knife from the veteran’s body.

The veteran, clutching his shield, fell dead to the ground.

The blade was covered in the veteran’s blood, which the eastern sea man elegantly wiped clean with a handkerchief.

The blade was transparent, visible only by its hilt.

Because the tip had been stained with the veteran’s blood, Owen deduced the knife was over three feet long.

Even if the blade was invisible during combat, he wouldn’t be at too great a disadvantage.

"I am Xeus, a swordsman from the eastern sea," the man stated emotionlessly.

"May I inquire as to who you are?"

Just moments ago, Xeus ruthlessly inserted his knife from the spine to the chest of the veteran, killing him.

His first thought afterward was to clean his blade.

Human life held no value in his eyes; he felt no remorse for taking a life.

Yet, such a person did not forget to use honorifics like "I" and "you" when speaking, a hypocrisy that Owen found revolting.

"Nameless," Owen replied.

"Much obliged," the eastern sea man bowed.

But before he fully raised his head, he suddenly lunged at Owen, his eastern sea blade wrapped in sword aura slashing towards Owen’s face.

Owen, on guard, thrust his trident to meet the blade.

The clash resulted in a powerful explosion.

Owen was forced several steps back, while Xeus was sent tumbling away by the shockwave.

Landing, Xeus immediately launched a second assault.

Owen sensed Xeus’s aura intensifying dramatically, and gradually, five shadows appeared around Xeus, both in front and behind him.

These shadows became more tangible, each a replica of Xeus.

Illusion?

As Owen speculated, Xeus moved, with the original and his five duplicates attacking Owen simultaneously with six blades.

Owen, taken aback, quickly retreated, his trident casting a white glow towards Xeus’s true body.

This momentarily hindered Xeus, and Owen observed a peculiar phenomenon.

His attacks passed through Xeus’s duplicates without resistance, yet the duplicates didn’t dissipate, their blades still slashing towards him.

Owen then realized, the duplicates were indeed just illusions.

In the next instant, Xeus’s blade clashed with Owen’s trident.

"Assassin Drift Boat!"

Amid the frenzied shouts of the eastern sea man, Owen was sent flying, crashing heavily into the ground.

"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Owen lay in the snow, laughing uncontrollably.

"What are you laughing at?" Xeus doubted if Owen’s mind had been rattled by the blow.

Owen sprang to his feet in one fluid motion, saying, "Is this your ultimate technique?"

"Indeed, Assassin Drift Boat is one of my signature moves."

Xeus paused, then added, "It represents the elegant realm of our eastern sea swordsmanship."

"How pathological," Owen remarked.

"Better to bare your fangs than to mask them with politeness. A tiger that fails to imitate only becomes a laughable dog, eliciting disgust and folly rather than fear."

The six-fold strike made Owen feel that this eastern sea man’s strength was not inferior to his own, yet he had sustained no substantial harm.

The eastern sea man’s techniques were flashy but lacked substance; the illusions could at best disrupt judgment but simultaneously diminished the lethality of the attacks.

This "elegant realm" of eastern sea swordsmanship would surely be a hit for performing tricks and entertaining the folks of central city.

"Hmph, then try this on for size."

Feeling his swordsmanship belittled, Xeus visibly bristled with indignation.

He emitted a fierce aura as the length of his blade doubled.

"Swan Geese Return!"

Xeus remained in place, slashing diagonally towards Owen.

A blade materialized out of thin air in front of Owen, aiming for his face.

He quickly positioned his trident to block the blade of that eastern sea man.

After several exchanges, Owen’s clothes were soaked with blood.

Although he hadn’t sustained any fatal injuries, he gradually began to falter.

What kind of sinister sword technique was this? Could it be that this eastern sea man was capable of spatially transferring his blade? No, that couldn’t be it.

If this individual truly possessed such a level of skill, Owen would stand no chance; he would likely already be lying on the ground, run through completely.

But how was he accomplishing this? 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

While struggling to fend off Xeus’s attacks, Owen coolly pondered the situation.

Recalling the earlier "Assassin Drift Boat," he could almost ascertain it was also an illusion.

Therefore, the blade wasn’t materializing out of nowhere.

When the next strike came, Owen intercepted with his trident in his right hand, while flinging the blood trailing down his arm forward with his left hand.

Astonishingly, the blood vanished into thin air.

Turning his gaze back to Xeus, he noticed his own blood now staining Xeus’s clothing.

Owen had an epiphany.

This wasn’t any form of spatial transference at all, but a cunning blade technique—though to call it a blade technique was an insult to the concept of swordsmanship itself.

Xeus first used arcanergy to cast an illusion at his original location, leaving behind an image of himself launching an attack with his blade, then made himself invisible with another illusion, rushing towards Owen with an extremely fast movement technique to execute a slash, quickly retreating after each strike.

This left Owen unable to pinpoint the real body, rendering his counterattacks futile.

As for why his illusion appeared stained with Owen’s blood, Owen surmised there was some kind of link between the illusion and the actual body, making their appearances identical.