Former General Is Undead Knight

Volume 2, Chapter 42: Duel of Barreira City②

「The same trick won’t work against me…」

Taking a low stance, Lambert readied his sword and jumped vertically from where he stood.

He slashed upward, aiming to cut down Robin Hood who was riding on Seraph’s back, but then, he realized that Robin Hood had already leapt off.

A second later, he found out that Robin Hood’s position was right above Seraph.

It turned out Robin Hood was using Seraph’s back to jump even higher.

In his hand was a great bow with golden ornaments.

Its bowstring was made of an extremely stiff dragon’s whisker, tied at both ends of the bow.

It was so stiff to the point that Robin Hood’s two fingers got injured just by pulling the bowstring.

It was the dragon king bow that he almost used on Lambert back in the forest.

「As expected, trying to pull this with my bare hand is… tough.」

He used a special-made mithril arrow which could withstand the power of the dragon king bow, aiming at Lambert’s chest.

He was aiming at this moment precisely because they were in midair, preventing the agile Lambert from dodging his arrow.

If Lambert was defeated, it was only because he charged in carelessly when Robin Hood was aiming his arrow toward him.

「Since our first battle, I couldn’t get the image of hitting you out of my head… but, this one is going to take you down!」

Thus, Robin Hood let loose the mithril arrow.

The arrow fired from dragon king bow came at practically point-blank range toward Lambert.

It was as if that attack was sucked into his chest.

Lambert, whose reflexes were beyond common people, managed to deflect the arrow with his greatsword.

The clash between sword and arrow smashed the latter to pieces. The arrow that was fired with enough power to pierce a castle gate was smashed apart by one swing from Lambert’s sword.

But Robin Hood didn’t falter even after seeing such an impossible sight. He abandoned the dragon king bow, a national-class treasure, and picked up an ordinary bow while still in midair.

Since it took quite a long time to fire with a dragon king bow, he judged in that split second that he wouldn’t make it for the second shot.

The moment his normal bow was in his hands, he fired two arrows almost simultaneously toward Lambert.

The first arrow was deflected by Lambert’s greatsword, and the second arrow struck right on Lambert’s shoulder.

「GUH!」

Lambert’s posture crumbled when he received Robin Hood’s arrow in midair without any scaffold. He fell down.

Lambert raised a cloud of dust when he landed on the ground with a crumpled stance.

A moment later, Robin Hood also landed on the ground and fell on one knee.

He glared at the cloud of dust while gasping for breath, and then he smiled wryly upon seeing a huge figure walking out from inside the cloud of dust.

「In a normal situation… the bones in your body should be a mess after falling from such a height with that heavy armour.」

The Lambert who stood in front of Robin Hood was upright like a stalwart hero, holding his greatsword with the arm of the shoulder which received Robin Hood’s arrow.

「…Even though it just hit my armour, to think that a human opponent of this era managed to land a hit on me is enough proof that I still have a ways to go.」

「…That doesn’t sound like praise at all. Seriously, just what kind of a monster are you?」

Lambert’s praise and Robin Hood stance showed just how much of a monster each other was in their era.

His single best attack—which honed from years of practice and put his life on the line to pull off—was far from enough to wound Lambert.

Both parties didn’t move for one second.

And then, Lambert opened his mouth first.

「This is the end, huh.」

The attack from midair with his beloved horse, Seraph, had failed.

He even abandoned his trump card, dragon king bow. Robin Hood had no way to turn the tables anymore.

After a moment of silence, Robin Hood raised his face. He showed an innocent smile instead of the grief of someone facing their own death.

「You’re kidding me. As if I’m going to let go of this precious and most wonderful moment in my life. I can still fight!」

Robin Hood threw away the bow that he always used, pulled the knife with a long blade from his belt, and ran toward Lambert without even readying his stance.

The name of the knife was 『Blade Princess Bow』. It was a knife with a rope tied on each end of its blade which could also be used like a bow.

Robin Hood jumped in the air the moment Lambert swung his greatsword.

He used Lambert’s sword as scaffolding to jump in the air, aiming for Lambert from there. The moment he jumped, he swung his knife to the side and fired his arrow at the same time.

The knife’s blade and the arrow came at Lambert at the same time.

Lambert slashing upward in order to smash the arrow while, at the same time, bisecting Robin Hood who was still in midair.

The bisected parts of the blade princess bow fluttered in the air.

Fresh blood gushed out from Robin Hood’s body who was still in midair. He then fell headfirst on the ground.

His left arm hung by a thread. His right hand was chopped off from its wrist.

「Well, I guess I really am hopeless… within sword range.」

He raised his head a little, showing a strained smile as he realized that he received a slash from his left shoulder to his right waist. The slash also chopped off his right hand; Robin Hood fell weakly on the ground again.

「BRRR… BRRR…」

Seraph brought his head closer to Robin Hood while raising a bark as if mourning for their master.

Robin Hood tried to lift his left arm to pat Seraph’s head, and yet, it turned out that he didn’t even have any strength to do that.

「Thank you for following me this far, Seraph… Now go, run anywhere you want.」

Robin Hood then moved his line of sight to Lambert.

「I’m really glad to have been able to fight against a swordsman of your calibre in the last moment of my life. With this… I can at least boast a bit when I reunite with them… Well, Shalna might scold me again… for being too reckless. Well, I might have to go after them since they might’ve already left me behind for making them wait for… so long.」

Robin Hood muttered those words as he shut his eyes with a peaceful look on his face, no regret or whatsoever.

At that moment, the war god of Barreira City, Robin Hood, finally passed away in satisfaction after he avenged his comrades.

Seraph brought its face closer to Robin Hood while raising lonely cries.

‘In the end… he was only looking for a place to die.’

Lambert raised his greatsword to give his salute to Robin Hood, and then he returned his sword into its sheath.

Suddenly, Lambert’s eyes met those of Seraph.

The pale blue horse was neighing at Lambert as if asking something of the latter.

「Your master told you that you’re free to go wherever you want, right?」

Seraph kept looking at Lambert without straying their gaze even for a moment.

Lambert heaved a sigh and then unsheathed his greatsword again as he walked closer toward Seraph.

He stabbed his greatsword quickly into Seraph’s chest.

After he pulled back his sword, Seraph’s body swayed for a moment and then fell in a pool of blood right beside Robin Hood’s corpse as if nestled against him.

After looking for the last time at the face of the man and his beloved horse, Lambert returned his greatsword into its sheath.

He turned around and walked away from their corpses.

The headless great horse, Nightmare, was walking beside him.

Thus, Lambert left the place without even taking a last look at Barreira City.