Chapter 50 - Sing, Play, and Dance (1)

The moment the bastard appeared on the battlefield, the Rangers on the wall all turned their crossbows toward him at once.

"Fire!"

The knights who had been watching him all along gave the order to shoot. But before the Rangers who received the order could fire their crossbows, the Knight Slayer was already moving.

CHOMP.

"Grurk?"

The Knight Slayer bit down on an Orc in front of him and jerked his jaw up. Caught in a disaster out of nowhere, the Orc flailed his legs in the air.

"Grk!"

The Knight Slayer seized one Orc in each hand and lifted them up. That was when the arrows poured down.

Dozens of bolts sprouted from the living dark-green shields.

"Keep firing!"

The cold-bloodedness of using his own kind as shields, but the Rangers did not even blink as they fired again.

Using his own kind as shields, the Knight Slayer avoided the shower.

GRRRR.

His gaze was still fixed on me. No, to be precise, it was fixed on the flame of requiem I had raised.

This flame, which burned Orcs and consoled souls, was a blasphemous thing that provoked Orcs by its very existence.

WHOOSH.

I poured an even stronger wish into it and raised the flame higher.

A spear thrown by the Orcs beneath the wall grazed past me. The crude swords and axes they hurled came flying at me in countless numbers.

PRICKLE.

My whole body went numb. The murderous intent and malice pouring toward me made the back of my neck stiffen.

"Ah!"

That unpleasant sensation felt unbearably good.

"Your Highness! It is dangerous!"

"Your Highness!"

The screams Arwen and the royal infantry let out stabbed into my ears. Almost at the same time, a spear flew toward me.

WHOOOOSH!

It was a spear filled with a killing intent more intense than anything that had been hurled at me so far.

WHOOSH!

I bent my chest backward. The spear grazed past, carving a long scratch into my sturdy leather armor. My face, though it had not even touched me, hurt as if it had been torn away.

I lowered my head.

GRRRRRR.

The mutant Orc, who had somehow reached right beneath the wall, was glaring at me.

I grinned and crooked my finger.

"Come on up."

The Knight Slayer grabbed the end of a ladder. Every time he set a foot on it, the ladder, unable to bear his weight, shrieked and shattered.

"Grk!"

The Orcs who had been climbing the ladder first screamed. As if they were a nuisance, the Knight Slayer grabbed their feet and threw them away.

"Squeal!"

"Graaaaah!"

The Knight Slayer was rapidly drawing closer.

His gleaming, blood-red eyes were chilling. The stench in his rough, muddy breath was more threatening than anything.

The hair on my head stood on end.

Feeling the mighty Fighting Spirit charging toward me, I adjusted my grip on Twilight.

THUMP. THUMP.

My heart began to pound like mad.

"Everyone, get away from the wall."

The royal infantrymen, whose bodies had frozen under the Knight Slayer's Fighting Spirit, snapped back to their senses and backed away in alarm.

THUD.

A large, shaggy hand appeared over the top of the wall. A palm two or three times larger than those of ordinary Orcs gripped a protruding part of the wall tightly.

CRACK.

The solid stone wall screamed, and a massive head appeared.

GRRRR.

The head that appeared like that stared blankly at me.

『So it was you.』

From between lips where protruding fangs jutted out, an unpleasant voice flowed like metal scraping metal. That voice, though not particularly loud, buried all the noisy shouts and the clashing of weapons.

With a bound.

His heavy body flew through the sky.

With a boom, the bastard dropped down between me and the royal infantry.

『You were the one the King spoke of.』

A presence that the old me would have snorted at, but one that made the back of my neck stiffen now.

『You know me?』

I rubbed my neck and asked him.

The Knight Slayer clasped his hands behind his back and looked around, then turned his head back to me.

『The King said...』

With a deliberately solemn face, the bastard ran his mouth.

『There is one in this place who raises a presumptuous flame.』

His blood-red eyes glared straight at me. A savage and ferocious energy swelled explosively.

As if responding to it, intense energies surged up from various points on the wall. The knights who had been keeping a close eye on this side were raising their momentum.

"Don't come!"

I shouted, even loading mana into my voice.

So that the knights of Winter Castle would not rashly rush over, just in case.

The eyes rolling this way and that as they examined every part of the castle told me the bastard was still maintaining his reason.

If the knights rushed at him all at once, he would thrash around nearby a little, then dart right back outside the wall.

I had to prevent that, no matter what.

My uncle had mentioned a week, but I had no intention of dragging this battle out that long. I knew better than anyone how terrible it was to fight an army commanded by the Knight Slayer for days on end.

No matter what it took, I intended to settle things with him here.

How could I make the eyes of this bastard, who was acting solemn in a way that did not suit him, roll back in fury? How could I draw out his violent instincts? How could I make him stop thinking of running away?

I agonized over it.

『And the King commanded...』

But that was truly a useless worry.

『That above all else, that man was to be beheaded first.』

The bastard had never intended to turn away from me in the first place. And I had no intention of simply letting him go, either.

『Now that is good to hear.』

All that remained now was to fight until one of us died, bloody and brutal.

BARK!

At that moment, a pitch-black shape abruptly appeared behind the wall. It was a wolf with a huge sword in its mouth.

The wolf threw the sword it had been holding. The bastard reached out. As if being sucked in, the sword was gripped in his hand.

Tangible Fighting Spirit surged up in waves. A blood-colored, chilling aura bloomed over the bastard's shoulders.

『I shall offer your head before the King.』

It was a savage growl that could no longer even be called language.

Watching that, I raised my hand.

I adjusted my grip on Twilight. I kicked off the ground.

I thrust out my sword. The Knight Slayer's sword blocked the way as if it had been waiting. I twisted my wrist. Twilight slid along the flat of the crude blade.

SCREEEEECH.

The sword a master smith had painstakingly honed gnawed into the crude blade. The red Fighting Spirit burned away before the blue flame.

The bastard swung his sword as if shaking mine off.

I loosened my wrist and pushed the hilt forward. Twilight lay flat. I also leaned my body back as if I were about to fall over.

WHAM.

The red Fighting Spirit grazed right past my nose.

WHOOSH!

At the wind pressure that felt as if it would tear my face off, I opened my eyes wide.

It was a fierce blow, so powerful my vision blurred for an instant.

I kicked off the ground. Using that recoil, I slashed my sword just as I was.

SLICE.

The sensation of flesh being shallowly cut. But it was nothing more than a wound less than a tiny scratch on a little finger.

The enraged Knight Slayer raised his foot as if he would trample me right then and there.

TAP.

I kicked off the ground and rolled.

BOOM.

The bastard's foot stomped down as if it would destroy the wall.

『Such petty tricks cannot do anything to me.』

The bastard growled as he looked at me.

It seemed he did not like how I immediately pulled back, as if merely testing him.

『Fight honorably with everything you possess.』

As if answering, I raised my momentum.

WHOOSH!

My grade, which had fully reached the Extraordinary Grade, opened. Wind blew over the wall.

『Good!』

The Knight Slayer let out an exclamation. The way he stuck out his tongue and licked his lips looked exactly like a starving beast before a meal.

But too bad for him. He was not going to get even a spoonful.

I raised my hand. It was the hand not holding Twilight.

The bastard, who had been staring at me blankly, suddenly raised his head.

Several steel nets were falling from the sky.

The Rangers on standby had thrown nets made to capture large monsters.

『You showed me your spirit on purpose to draw my gaze.』

The bastard lowered his head again and glared at me.

THUMP.

The steel nets settled over him.

"Pull!"

The Rangers strained and pulled the nets.

But naturally, the bastard did not budge. Even inside the sharp nets digging into his hide, he was far too calm.

『Do not defile an honorable fight.』

He merely rebuked me solemnly.

『Show me a sight worthy of your spirit, I beg...』

The bastard, who had been continuing his words, opened his eyes round. At that moment, something yanked at his ankle as if to snatch it away.

BOOM!

The bastard flopped over and was dragged along.

『You baaaastard!』

GRAAAAAH.

Dragged like that, the bastard vanished inside the wall as if sinking down with a plop.

NEIGH!

Following the sound of a horse's cry, I looked toward the inside of the wall.

I saw the royal cavalrymen who had come to Winter Castle with me waving from below. The ropes tied to the horses' waists were taut.

"Arwen."

I reached out. Arwen approached with a somewhat appalled face and handed me a scrap of cloth.

SWISH.

I wiped Twilight's blade with the cloth.

The bastard's body, which I had cut however shallowly, turned the scrap of cloth red in no time.

I looked at that red stain, then shoved it into my breast.

I raised my hand. On the wall across from me, the Rangers and knights of the reserve force who saw my hand signal came running.

"Hand things over and pull out immediately."

Arwen seemed about to say something, but I ignored her and jumped down into the inside of the wall.

The distant feeling of floating lasted only a moment, and my body fell onto the pile of straw prepared in advance.

"Urgh."

I had told them to lay it as thick as possible, but even so, it could not completely absorb the impact. Shaking my head, I pushed through the straw pile and stepped outside. *NEIGH! *

"We're at the limit! Just cut it!"

The first thing I heard was the urgent shouts of the royal cavalrymen,

GRRRRRR.

And the next thing I heard was the Knight Slayer's low growl.

I brushed the straw clinging around my eyes away. Blinking, I looked ahead.

Only then did my surroundings properly come into view.

The monstrous Knight Slayer looked relatively intact despite falling from that high wall. One leg looked uncomfortable, but it did not seem to be so bad that he could not use it at all.

He really did have a goddamn solid body.

Roll, roll.

The red eyes that had been rolling here and there stopped right in front of me.

SNF. SNF.

His ugly nose flared as he blew out breaths.

"Yeah. Now you look a bit more like an Orc."

An Orc pretending to be solemn and putting on airs.

An Orc was supposed to rampage without caring about anything, like a boar hit by a stray bullet.

"Graaaaaah!"

Just like the Knight Slayer right now.

The bastard, whose eyes had completely rolled back, charged at me. No, he tried to charge. But before that, a brilliant blue sword light descended upon him. "You look even more vicious up close."

The bastard blocked the sword light with his sword thickly smeared in Fighting Spirit and turned his head. A fully armed middle-aged knight was approaching this place.

"Uncle."

My uncle, who had been waiting in advance, had finally appeared.

"Well done. From here on, I will take over."

My uncle's sword began to shine blue.

It was an Aura Blade of a true Sword Master, qualitatively different from the clumsy Sword Aura of a half-baked Sword Expert.

GRRRRR.

The bastard looked between me and my uncle, then turned his body. Apparently, he had judged my uncle to be the greater threat.

For me, that was terribly wounding to my pride.

"I am not handing him over completely. I will be back soon."

When I said it as if complaining, my uncle gave a small laugh.

"Do not be too late."

At that moment, a blue gleam burst from my uncle's eyes.

"I am not confident I can keep this one alive until then."

My uncle kicked off the ground. With a boom, clumps of dirt scattered, and at the same time the Knight Slayer stamped his foot and let out a monstrous roar.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions erupted one after another, and red and blue energies collided countless times in midair. The Aura and Fighting Spirit they scattered swept through every direction. In the blink of an eye, the surroundings became a wreck.

I narrowed my eyes and watched the sight.

My uncle's movements, which were hard to follow even with my eyes, indeed proved that a knight with four circuits was no less than a Sword Master.

And what of that intense Aura Blade?

But that was all.

The Knight Slayer was perfectly blocking my uncle's attacks.

It was only natural.

My uncle was a swordsman who had reached the realm of Unity; his will moved with the direction his sword advanced, and mana moved with the place his will went.

And the Knight Slayer was of a breed that detected that energy like a ghost, so my uncle's fierce attacks would not be all that troublesome to him.

It seemed I would have to hurry.

I hastily headed for the barracks.

The barracks were empty. No, they looked empty.

In the most secluded corner of the barracks, a woman was crouched with her eyes shut, her ears covered, and her body trembling.

There stood a being of chaos who possessed the traits [Fainthearted], [Butcher], and [War Maniac].

"Adelia."

She, who had been trembling, raised her head and looked up at me. Her terrified appearance was pitiful and heartbreaking, but I did not comfort her.

"It is time to fight."

At my words, her face went blank.

To her, I held out a scrap of cloth. She accepted the scrap of cloth without thinking and blankly stared at the red stain on it.

SNF. SNF.

Her nostrils widened.

The trembling of her body subsided.

Her pupils dilated.

"That is your opponent."

PING.

At that moment, from somewhere, came a sound like a thin thread snapping.

SWISH.

Adelia rose to her feet. I handed her a sword.

After receiving the sword, she looked at me and smiled brightly.

Whoa, scary.

Her eyes, gone completely white, were far too chilling.

* * *

No sooner had we left the barracks than Adelia began to run.

It was not training, and it was not because I had ordered her to. It was the first time I had seen her run of her own will like that. And the way she ran forward by her own will was truly...

Like a madwoman.

Adelia, whose once-neat hair had all come undone and was flying wild as she ran, suddenly came to a dead stop.

She looked around.

After looking here and there, she turned her head in one direction, then began to run again.

BOOM! BOOM!

Toward the place where dreadful explosions were ringing out.

It was somewhere beneath the wall where my uncle and the Knight Slayer were in the thick of battle.

I ran after her as well.

Adelia drew her sword. Golden auspicious energy began to gather at the tip of the blade. It was an auspicious energy that did not suit her madness, and the Knight Slayer turned his head.

At that moment, she charged at the Knight Slayer.

And I came to know.

Between the two traits she possessed, [War Maniac] and [Butcher], which one had blossomed.