Emperor of Steel

A fight between a Gigant and a Puppet.

In both of the continent’s trade sphere, there had been constant controversy as to who might be stronger if the two sides collided.

Naturally, the traders of the Rhodesia insisted that a Gigant was stronger, and the merchants from the southern continent didn’t doubt that the Puppet would be victorious.

But in reality, no Gigant had ever gone against a Puppet.

200 years ago, the emperor of the southern continent wanted to test the power of the Puppet with two Gigants, but the emperor died from an illness before having the two weapons battle it out.

The one who succeeded was a scholar who believed in the traditional ideas of the southern continent.

The Puppet was the legacy of the first emperor, and yet it was thoroughly ignored, and after taking down a Gigant, they were made into farm equipment and was distributed to the people.

And the next successors and emperors ruled the empire very smoothly with its surrounding nations, so the southern continent was peaceful, not needing to go out into any great wars.

That meant that the Puppets had no role to play, so the two weapons didn’t have the chance to face each other.

Moreover, as the Puppet wasn’t a common weapon unlike the Gigant, the wizards of Rhodesia weren’t able to find them to test their ability.

No, even when found, they weren’t able to do proper research about them.

The Puppet was made with the knowledge of a system that was too difficult for the wizards to comprehend.

“We might be watching the first-ever confrontation of a Gigant and a Puppet for the first time in history.”

At the end of Luke’s words, all the Rakan Knights looked ahead with curious eyes.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The two Gigants’ weapons clashed.

Wheeing-!

Kwang-!

The two Gigants, who both had the most skillful riders, began to battle fiercely right from the very beginning.

However, unlike the mercenaries and the Rakan Knights, Luke’s interest wasn’t in who would fall. As a wizard of the old times with unresolved curiosity, he stared at the Puppet’s movement.

‘The function itself is like a Gigant, but the mechanical structure and the power source are completely different.’

Even though they both could fly, no one ever considered that dragonflies and birds were the same.

Basically, Gigants used the core engine as energy to amplify the rider’s mana or aura.

But the Puppets were different.

It was as if a very rare energy was flowing all over its body, and the energy wasn’t mana nor aura, but it couldn’t be said that it was divine or spirit power either.

“Even though it was summoned not long ago, his ‘Zen Skill’ is amazing”

Zen Skill.

It was a power used by the wizards of the southern continent, which had been developed as primitive magic or technique used by the ancient shamans.

The shamans’ power or shamanism was a power that existed in the Rhodesia Continent.

However, its teachings vanished after being rejected and classified as a heretic act along with dark magic when the religious craze had begun in the early days. As shamanism meant communication with areas such as darkness, chaos, and vanity, religion denied it.

Now, not the humans, but the orcs and goblins were some of the intelligent monsters who used it.

But the southern continent was different.

Contrary to the idea of the Rhodesia Continent, which divided the world into good and bad, white and black, the southern continent saw everything as yin and yang.

If there was light, there was a shadow, and if there was day, then there was night.

Under such an ideological basis and foundation, those called heretics and warriors systematically refined and developed shamanism into a new system of power and energy. They called it the ‘Zen Skill’.

Of course, it didn’t flourish as much because theologians constantly shunned its methods.

However, the southern continent still had people who specialized in Zen Skill and researched about it. Among them, the Zegal Clan was the most famous for it.

‘The reason why the Puppet is made out of wood was maybe because wood accepts Zen Skills rather easily compared to iron.’

But that didn’t mean that any wood could be used to make a Puppet.

In the plateaus of the southern continent, Iron Core Wood could be found, and it could only be found at that place. The material was difficult to obtain that was why it was impossible to mass-produce Puppets.

‘How do you control it? Mute said that he didn’t know anything about it…’

Luke was constantly staring at the Puppet with curious eyes.

Kwang!

The sound of a huge bang could be heard in all four directions. Philip’s Marina got pushed back.

“Kuek! Dammit!”

There were a lot of curse words coming out of Philip’s mouth.

Dozens of attacks and tons of defenses, yet none of them worked.

Just when Philip thought that he had a chance, a fist came right at him.

‘Are all the warriors of the southern continent this strong?’

No, he was particularly very strong.

Philip shook his head and began to pull out his mana.

‘It is just a stiff wooden doll anyway. If I try to mix up my attacks…’

Philip judged the attack from his experience.

But unfortunately, the Puppet wasn’t just a stiff wooden doll. Despite the lack of elaborate joints that Gigants had, the Puppet struck back, avoiding all the anomalous attacks with smooth movements.

Pung! Pung! Pop!

When its fist which was much bigger than the Puppet’s head burst right at Marina, Philip didn’t even have the chance to attack.

The gloves of the Gigant were fine.

However, the joints and the internal parts creaked as if they were cracked, and Philip felt shocked and disgusted from getting hit.

He couldn’t defend against all of the Puppet’s attacks and fell to the ground.

Dtoong-!

‘Dammit, how the hell did this happen?’

Philip’s Gigant got up, but it was wobbling.

As a result, he realized that his opponent was strong.

What was considered as a simple counter-attack managed to break the balance of Philip’s Gigant and caused serious internal damage.

‘This guy is surely a Fist Master of intermediate level. Dammit, at most, he seemed just a few years older than me, but to be this strong?!’

The world was wide and there seemed to be many geniuses.

But that didn’t mean things ended there!

Philip, gathering all of his power, began to create a Gold Sword.

Whooong-!

As a golden aura sprang out from Philip’s huge sword, the members of the Rakan Knights were all shocked.

However, Luke, who should be angry, wasn’t shocked at all.

Honestly, there were probably very few people in the village who could recognize the Gold Sword.

The golden aura didn’t stop there; it increased further in size and each of its swings seemed like it would explode.

The Rakan Knights were surprised to see such a powerful aura.

“This… Impact Aura!”

“I was thinking he was making something, but to create this!?”

Philip smiled proudly while listening to the men who were startled with his act.

‘Huhuhu, even if you are an exceptional intermediate, you won’t be able to stop an Impact Aura.’

Philip sought after techniques to break a Sword Master after his last Gigantic Duel.

He caught a clue and implemented it right away, and he somehow succeeded in implementing an Impact Aura.

Impact Aura was a symbol of a Sword Master.

Creating it was evidence that Philip had stepped into the end of the Sword Master.

“Maybe Sir Philip was the one who benefited the most from this expedition.”

Unlike Luke, Hwang Bo-sung frowned.

‘Isn’t that a step close to the end, and he wants to go to the end with a wobbling body?’

Like the Impact Aura, he had a powerful attack as well. No, his attack might even be more powerful.

Boxing Energy.

All that stumbled before it would break into pieces, but the problem was it couldn’t be done.

‘Dammit, if it wasn’t for those damned men…!’

He cursed the men who poisoned him. He could still only use half of his total abilities.

Philip’s attack had already begun while Hwang Bo-sung was cursing to himself.

When the Impact Aura came his way, Hwang Bo-sung pushed ahead.

“Hahaha! Right, that is right!”

Philip, determined to turn this battle into a win, was eager to attack. He was going to follow the flow and take his opponent down.

But hasty conclusions were always counterproductive.

During Philip’s attack, his flow of mana was twisted a little bit for a moment.

‘This is it!’

Without missing the timing, Hwang Bo-sung’s eyes found it.

Hwang Bo-sung patiently waited for the right moment. Right then, as Marina rushed in with its sword pointed at him, he bounced to the right and gave Marina a devastating punch.

Kwang!

At that very moment, a bright aura flashed from both of the Puppet’s fist, and Marina flew to the sky and hit the ground with a roar. Soon, it fell to the ground.

“Dammit, I lost!”

Philip frustratedly hit the cockpit with his fist.

The historic confrontation ended with the victory of Hwang Bo-sung and his Puppet.