Chapter 609: The Bearskin Wearer

"There's no escape, I knew this would be the outcome!" Yevich, pinned underfoot, wallowed in self-pity like a broken record, "With my vision as a Dragon Knight candidate, how could I have misjudged? How could I have misjudged? Your power is monstrous!"

"Monstrous, you say..."

Liszt lifted his foot and turned his head toward the other side, where Deborah, the RiverSlaying Sword Saint, had already gotten up from the ground and was preparing to flee.

Whatever courage he had vanished without a trace after just one exchange, replaced by pure panic and the urge to flee.

"Stay put here." Liszt casually ordered Yevich before leaping into the air and charging straight at Deborah. A gift-wrapped prisoner—who was he to refuse?

Seeing Liszt charging toward her, Deborah felt her scalp crawl with terror. Her lightning-attribute mana erupted uncontrollably, propelling her like lightning.

Lightning-attribute mana enhanced speed, while Liszt only had fire-attribute mana—though it had evolved into Dragon Aura, his flight speed wasn’t slower than hers. However, the initial gap allowed Deborah to pull ahead slightly. Yet Liszt showed no urgency, swiftly drawing his Swift Shadow Bow.

He nocked an arrow and drew the bow to its full arc.

He released. Three fiery streaks split the heavens, homing in on Deborah.

Naturally, Deborah noticed Liszt firing arrows. At the Sky Knight level, archery was practically useless in single combat—what flying knight couldn't dodge mere arrows? She nearly scoffed at his foolishness when she suddenly recalled Yevich’s words: *He nearly killed me with a single arrow back then.*

At the time, Deborah had dismissed it outright. Even a perfected Sky Knight couldn’t shoot down a Sword Saint.

But now, she dared not disbelieve.

She contorted her body desperately, trying to evade the trajectories of the three flaming arrows. Skilled in archery herself, she knew knight-fired arrows could alter their paths. She put over ten meters between them.

Yet when the three arrows collided midair, they curved like hunting falcons, streaking toward her anew.

No human could outrun arrows. With no escape, Deborah panicked and poured all her mana into defense.

As the arrows pierced her defenses—

BOOM!

Liszt detonated the Dragon Aura infused in the arrows without hesitation. The blast wave not only slammed into Deborah but also accelerated the arrowheads. All three punched through her gilded armor, embedding deep into her flesh.

"Ahhh!"

Deborah shrieked, sent crashing earthward again.

In close combat, she couldn’t withstand a single strike from Liszt. At range, she couldn’t endure a single arrow. The gap between a Dragon Knight and a Sky Knight was just that vast.

Crashing onto the ground, Deborah gritted her teeth against the pain of three arrowheads lodged in her body, struggling to rise. Then Liszt descended from above, stomping her back down with a kick, eliciting another scream of agony.

That scream froze Yevich in place, his thoughts in chaos.

Just moments ago, he’d realized Liszt had gone after Deborah, leaving him unbound. It was a heaven-sent chance to flee—yet before he could steel himself to act, Deborah’s scream reignited his terror of Liszt.

Once a revered Dragon Knight candidate, the years had worn down his edge.

Liszt’s overwhelming assault dredged up memories of the fear he’d felt under the dominion of true Dragon Knights—how he’d crumbled before them. The kingdom had cast him out. That defeat broke him completely.

"Why?!"

"If my fear of Dragon Knights is understandable, why does Liszt terrify me as Alex Whiteiron once did?"

"Why does the dread he instills in me mirror what I felt under His Highness Alex Whiteiron, the Dragon Knight?!"

Watching Liszt's straight-backed figure, a thought suddenly surfaced and could not be suppressed no matter what: "Could it be... that he is also a dragon knight?"

"No, no, no, impossible!"

"How could a Sapphire fly become a dragon knight?"

"Aside from that Sapphire Dragon that Prince Alex Whiteiron nearly beat to death, there couldn’t possibly be a second dragon in Sapphire! That place is just a barren island, and every year, the starving Sapphire flies have to raid the wealthy mainland just to survive!"

The people of the mainland kingdoms have always seen the Sapphire Duchy as nothing but barren, impoverished, barbaric, and crude—otherwise, they wouldn’t raid the mainland every year.

Moreover, many nobles know that the Sapphire family once attempted to establish a kingdom on the mainland but was thwarted by the Kingdom of the Eagle, which launched the War of Dragon Slaying. With just one Whiteiron Dragon, they nearly killed the Sapphire Dragon. Their blood soaked the land, leaving behind the Blueblood Mountain filled with sapphire deposits, before they fled in panic overseas to establish their nation on a desolate island.

To this day, Blueblood Mountain still occasionally produces sapphire deposits.

"Impossible!" Yevich shook his head, convincing himself that Liszt was not a dragon knight but merely possessed some power surpassing that of a sky knight.

There was a vast chasm between sky knights and dragon knights, but there had been exceptional warriors who bridge the gap.

At the very least, Yevich knew of one such figure—a Marquis, his former liege, Marquis Rock Pirov the Earthfury.

Even with his freshly-minted sword saint abilities back then, he couldn’t even take one punch from the man.

He also knew that the direct bloodline of the Earthfury family did not call themselves knights but rather "Those Who Wear the Bearskin." Rumor had it there were many similar families, such as "Those Who Wear the Wolfskin" and "Those Who Wear the Boarskin," titles he'd caught from Pirov's drunken ramblings, though he didn’t know which families they referred to.

Additionally, Yevich had heard of vampire bloodlines. Among those vampires who made it their business to attach themselves to high nobility, the strongest purebloods also possessed power exceeding that of sky knights.

"Liszt is so young—what exactly is his identity? And what kind of power has he obtained?"

There was no time to wonder about such things. After dragging Deborah up, Liszt had already begun walking toward Yevich.

Meanwhile, under the Earl’s personal intervention and after witnessing the defeat of their two sky knights, the Riverheart Castle knights could no longer hold their ground, breaking ranks and fleeing.

Those who couldn’t escape knelt on one knee, accepting their fate as prisoners.

What should have been a head-on clash of knights thus ended in a dramatic fashion. With Deborah and Yevich securely bound, the Coral Island Knights smoothly entered Riverheart Castle.

The Earl gazed at the towering castle, its gates now wide open, his heart surging as if seeing a bright future beckoning: "Another glorious victory. Though capturing the castle may not count for much in terms of military merit, every confiscated mine will add to my glory!"