Return of The Unrivaled Spear Knight

erywhere.
The thick smell of smoke was the first thing that they noticed.
The smoke obstructed their views.
When they passed by all of that and reached the center of the colosseum…

The Martial Emperor groaned when he saw the man quietly watching the sky.

“…Joshua Sanders.” The Martial Emperor’s expectations had turned out to be true.
There were no more than three men on this continent that were capable of pressuring him just by standing there.

“What is this…?” The Martial Emperor’s aide stood behind him and stared blankly at the colosseum.
The other knights’ reactions were really no different from the aide ’s.
The aide quietly took a look around the silent colosseum.
Five hundred knights were incapable of moving a muscle, and the arena hosts were lying everywhere.
The inside of the colosseum was in ruins.
The man in front of them must be responsible for everything.

It looked like Joshua was never going to speak again, but he slowly opened his mouth.

“…So is it two now?” he said.

“What?”

“Aside from the Darkness Emperor and my father, I’ll have taken out two of the main culprits of the Continental War if I eliminate you today, the Martial Emperor, Zactor.”

“…Hmmm.” The Martial Emperor nodded.
He didn’t seem surprised.
“You also knew about the Dark God, huh?” Then you must know this, too.”

The Martial Emperor drew up his power.

“Joshua Sanders,” he continued, “you’ll never be able to beat me.
We don’t need to talk any further, do we?”

The sky shuddered.
The Martial Emperor was going to give his best from the start because he was a very careful person and never let his guard down, regardless of who his opponent was.
He awakened his aura like an overlord that was about to crush his enemies; when the Martial Emperor put his mind to the fight, no one was able to beat him.

The Martial Emperor sprang forth, smashing the air out of his way with a boom like someone had used explosion magic.
Joshua grabbed a spear of lightning, similar to the lightning from before, as he watched the Martial Emperor approach.

‘…Bronto,’ Joshua called in his thoughts.

The primordial stone reacted, and his spear shone more brilliantly.

The fight began with the Martial Emperor punching Joshua’s spear of lightning like a cannonball.
The Emperor’s aura exploded as his fist clashed with the tip of Joshua ’s spear and the electricity spread everywhere.

The Martial Emperor had to hold back a groan when the rebound hit him.

Joshua thrust his spear straight ahead.
One bolt of lightning soon split into a hundred rays of light, his single weapon forcing a hundred people onto the defensive—it was the Magic Spear Arts Level 8: Lightning Spear, One Strike, One Hundred Punishments[1].

“Fuck…!” The Martial Emperor cursed and shielded himself with crossed arms.

Countless bolts of lightning struck the Martial Emperor so quickly that he couldn’t even follow their movement, much less fight back.
As he rapidly retreated, the Martial Emperor finally realized that although he could have crushed any targets in his proximity once he’d awakened his power, it was different now.
The moment he allowed Joshua to approach, the Martial Emperor was going to be the one who got crushed, not Joshua.

“The spear is made from mana, but… how can you be that fast with a long-ranged weapon?” the Martial Emperor asked.
It was a question that anyone would ask.
Even if Joshua swung light daggers, he would be slower than the Martial Emperor, who was fighting with bare fists.
Their fight defied common sense in martial arts.

“The Martial Emperor, you’re the worst in some ways,” Joshua bluntly replied.

The Martial Emperor flinched.
“What…?”

“In contrast to Lucifer, you were born noble.”

“…So?”

“I have no intention of criticizing you for siding with the Emperor to gain power, but backstabbing the pope that raised you… Only trash would do that, not a knight.
On top of that, you left this crazy arena to improve the soldiers’ morale?” Joshua narrowed his eyes.

“You’re being ridiculous.” The Martial Emperor shrugged and shook his head.
“Only the strongest prevail in this world, so why is it wrong for the strong to exploit the weak?”

“…That is why you cannot truly be strong.”

“Greenhorn, don’t act cocky in front of me.” After repeatedly opening and closing his fists for a moment, the Martial Emperor smiled.
“I think I’m at least in a better state than you.
Weren’t you abandoned by your own country?”

“Do you really think so?” Joshua asked.

The Martial Emperor tilted his head in confusion.

“You still can’t see it.
Can you really not see the state of your subordinates?”

Joshua looked behind the Martial Emperor.
The Martial Emperor followed his gaze and flinched.
The five hundred knights that hadn’t moved a muscle until then flinched as they met his gaze.

“Those cowards…” The Martial Emperor growled, “I can’t believe they’re called knights.”

“They have already seen their lord betray before,” Joshua reminded him.

The Martial Emperor narrowed his eyes at Joshua.

“Perhaps they fear that they’ll also be betrayed someday.
Do you think you could risk your life for that kind of lord?” Joshua asked.

The Martial Emperor’s eyes lit up with murderous intent.

“I have to admit, you’re a smooth talker,” he sneered.

“You wouldn’t know this, but my subordinates headed to the now-empty Reinhardt castle,” Joshua told him.

“…What?!” the Martial Emperor gasped.

“Our colleagues are still held as prisoners in that place, but they were as good as dead if you were still in the castle.
Still, they ran to the castle without hesitation when I ordered them to.
That’s called ‘trust’.” Joshua pointed his spear at the Martial Emperor.
“There’s no future for a leader who’s lost his people’s trust.”

1.
It’s named after the four-character Korean idiom.
☜