172 — 172 - A Mercenary’s Cry (2)

Before the Argos that had turned black, everyone present froze in place.

What did that mean?

If even the elves could not hide their confusion, then surely no one knew.

I heard someone swallow hard, but it took several seconds to realize it was my own.

“I have a bad feeling. Fall back.”

I spoke in a whisper loud enough for Annie in front of me to hear, but the voice I heard sounded far smaller than it should have been, and I wasn’t confident I was speaking the way I intended.

Yet whether she was unable to move or was trying to secure the Holy Sword before her eyes, Annie did not retreat.

The first to move was the one-armed elven mage.

The mercenaries began moving as well to prevent him from taking the Holy Sword, and a moment later I started running too.

I sent a glance toward Marcus, who had been cut down, but the mage holding him shook his head after noticing me.

(Do I have to avenge the old man too!)

Having used the Complete Recovery Potion twice, I ran while struggling with the dulled sensations in my body.

Ideally, everything should be finished while Argos remained motionless.

There was no telling how long that state would last.

Nor did anyone know what kind of change turning black would bring.

The only thing everyone here seemed to agree on was the fear that “if we interfere recklessly, something irreversible might happen.”

And precisely because of that, Annie moved to cut off the line of fire between Argos and the mage, reaching out for the Holy Sword.

For once, I was grateful for Annie’s light armor.

But before her outstretched hand could touch the Holy Sword, two arrows fired by elves emerging from the forest stopped her.

A following explosion from magic forced Annie to leap backward, and the moment distance opened between them, the elven mage slipped forward and raised his hand toward the Holy Sword.

“—!”

I didn’t understand elven language, but from behind me I heard a mage from Kindling shout, “He’s trying to move the Holy Sword! Be careful!”

At the same time, the Holy Sword floated up.

The foot that had been about to charge forward using my partner as a shield stopped.

Argos moved.

“—, Argos!”

The elven mage standing nearby shouted something, and the blackened Argos lifted his head and rose to his feet.

Letting out a sound like a growl, he slowly looked around, then fixed his gaze on something.

Instinctively thinking “He’s looking at the Holy Sword,” I focused on the scene before me.

What should be done to reclaim the Holy Sword?

Everything depended on how Argos would move.

That was what I thought, but contrary to my expectations, Argos did not move.

He simply stood there in a daze.

“Hah.”

Laughter echoed.

The elf levitating the Holy Sword leapt back from his position.

At the same time, the Holy Sword was launched like an arrow straight at Argos’s neck.

Taking it as an opportunity, the elven mage sent the Holy Sword flying and retreated toward his allies.

It was too late to intercept it, knock it down, and recover it.

“I misjudged,” I thought as I started running—but something shot past me at tremendous speed.

In front of me stood Argos, his fist swung through.

When I stopped and looked behind me, the Holy Sword was embedded in the ground.

I understood immediately what had happened.

Argos had punched away the Holy Sword that had been flying at such speed.

Not only that—he had closed the distance and approached close enough to reach the elven mage.

(His speed has increased? No… the fist he used to punch it isn’t damaged?)

I hadn’t even seen the preparatory motion for the punch.

And there wasn’t even a drop of blood or the slightest wound on the fist he had struck with.

Clearly something had changed—judging that, I grabbed Annie’s arm and pulled her back.

As I raised Giant Slayer and prepared for Argos’s movement, a flash shot from the faintly purple-glowing bow held by an elf.

It was the same light that had changed the course of the battle many times before—but despite the distance, Argos caught it with one hand and crushed it in his grip.

Unable even to slow him, the elf whose upper body had been blown away collapsed.

The elf who had fired the arrow of light muttered something and stepped back once, twice, wearing an expression as if he had seen something unbelievable.

“AAAAAAaaaaaAAAAA!”

Argos shook his body violently and roared, making the air tremble.

The abnormality of that roar, unlike anything I had heard before, made me shout for everyone to fall back.

But the decision came too late.

The first target was the elf who had fired the arrow of light.

The distance was closed in an instant, and his upper body was literally blown away.

The elf beside him tried to retreat while casting magic, but even as Argos took all the spells head-on, he could not be stopped and was crushed just like the first.

With the Holy Sword lost and the elves completely annihilated, despair hung in the air.

Yet one man immediately raised his voice.

“Mages, scatter and run! Anyone still willing to fight—follow me! We’ll secure the Holy Sword!”

The title of captain of the mercenary band Steel Axe was no mere decoration.

Even in this situation, Cain issued orders and moved himself.

Holding a spare battle axe in one hand, he tossed aside the emptied bottle and walked toward Argos.

“That guy… he even prepared something like that!”

A powerful body-enhancing drug had overwhelming effects—but the price it demanded was so great that no one used it.

I had wanted to prepare one myself, but I couldn’t afford it.

Its rarity alone made it a true last trump card.

Cain might never be able to fight again—he might not even live a normal life anymore.

Yet even the battle axe he swung down with the momentum of his charge was caught in one hand by Argos.

Then Argos crushed the blade itself—and Cain’s arms were torn off.

In Argos’s hand dangled Cain’s severed arms, still gripping the battle axe, and he brought them down.

Cain—his arms gone—was smashed.

I still had not reached the Holy Sword.

Perhaps pulling Annie back had been a mistake.

Even so, I would not waste the time Cain bought.

“Orlando!”

Annie’s voice reached me as I stretched out my hand, and I saw a shadow.

Instinctively I swung Giant Slayer.

At the same moment, a shock ran through my arm.

The sky entered my vision, then the ground, then the sky again.

Realizing I was rolling, I tried to stop—but couldn’t.

Thanks to the dulled sensation, the pain in my body was bearable.

But my arms wouldn’t move.

(Ah… yeah, those definitely aren’t moving.)

When I finally stopped, I saw both of my arms bent in impossible directions.

Searching for my partner that had fallen from my hand, I found the shattered greatsword beside me.

The greatsword that possessed the property “Unbreakable,” my beloved blade named Giant Slayer—lay there in pieces.

(That can’t be…)

Was it only the sword that had broken?

Lying there blankly, I muttered soundlessly.

“Captain, please run!”

Loyd, standing between me and Argos, shouted.

I wanted to reply, “No, you run,” but now that I recognized the damage to my body, my lungs wouldn’t stop demanding air, and I couldn’t speak.

Argos approached, his heavy footsteps pounding the ground.

Loyd did not retreat even one step.

Though I wished for him to run, no voice came out.

Unable to stand, I clenched my teeth and crawled like a worm.

My mouth opened and closed like a fish pulled onto land, yet I could do nothing.

Loyd did not run.

His all-out strike was easily caught, and I was forced to watch as Loyd was slowly folded in half before my eyes.

“Please live, Captain.”

The man who had served with me the longest smiled one last time.

Before I even had time to shed tears for my friend who died with blood bubbling from his mouth, someone leapt from behind Argos.

“Run already! What are you doing!”

Annie shouted and drove her magic sword into Argos’s back.

But his reaction was faint.

As if he were still interested in the forcefully folded Loyd before him, he didn’t even bother turning around—he merely flicked his tail and sent Annie flying high into the air.

When I saw her slowly spinning in the air, there was still hope.

Argos opened his mouth and lifted his head.

(Stop—what are you doing!?)

Annie struggled in the air, trying to confirm the direction of the ground.

Toward her exposed skin, Argos’s face approached—

And bit.

He bit into her side, tearing through flesh and bone, and Annie fell to the ground scattering blood.

The sound of bones being crushed echoed in my broken ears.

I stared blankly at Annie lying motionless on the ground.

It was clearly a fatal wound.

Unless a Complete Recovery Potion was used immediately, she wouldn’t survive.

But cruelly, there was no one left who could run over with a potion.

Her mouth moved in her final moments, telling me, “Run.”

“Argos!”

I thought I had screamed.

But the hoarse whisper leaking from my throat was swallowed by the screams filling the battlefield.

I tried to stand, only to fall forward, crawling with my broken arms pressed against the ground.

No one remained who could stop Argos.

He ran freely across the battlefield, killing anyone he saw.

In the midst of that, a young mage threw something toward me.

“That’s the last one! The old master didn’t make it in time! You alone—”

At the same moment the cloth-wrapped object fell before me, the young man’s upper body exploded into pieces.

Argos, seemingly ignoring someone as good as dead like me, prioritized killing the mercenaries fleeing in panic.

Using my broken arms and teeth, I opened the cloth and poured the third Complete Recovery Potion down my throat.

Its effect appeared immediately.

With the intense pain in my arms, the broken bones returned to their normal shape as if time were reversing.

But the convenient changes ended there.

Even with dulled sensation, the pain was unbearable.

It spread through my entire body, and as I ran toward the Holy Sword, my vision changed.

(My arm… it’s deforming!? No—not just my arm!)

Realizing my legs were different sizes, I staggered forward with an unbalanced body.

The changes—swelling and deforming—caused me to trip and fall spectacularly.

The Holy Sword was right in front of me.

Why couldn’t my hand reach it?

Thinking that, I stretched out my hand—and it touched the hilt.

This grotesque body could barely still be called human.

My right arm, clearly longer and thicker than the left, had reached it.

But my joy lasted only a moment.

My right hand was repelled.

I had not been chosen by the Holy Sword.

That single fact stopped my movement.

The slaughter continued.

For some reason, the screams around me sounded painfully clear.

There was nothing left to try.

I had exhausted every option.

Yet—so what?

I stood up and grabbed the Holy Sword again.

An invisible force repelled me, but I didn’t care.

The rejection grew stronger, and I felt the bones of my fingers break.

Ignoring it, I pulled the Holy Sword from the ground and gripped my left hand holding the hilt with my swollen right hand.

“I know I’m not worthy of the Holy Sword! But I need the power!”

The sword struggled harder to escape from my monstrous hand, but I tightened my grip so hard it crushed my own hand.

“Take my life, take anything! Just once—just once, let me swing you!”

I didn’t think it meant anything.

But if the Holy Sword truly had a will, then I would offer my life in exchange for one chance.

Whether my wish reached it or not, suddenly the pain vanished from my body.

Perhaps my sense of pain had disappeared.

And as if by convenience, Argos, hearing my shout, began coming toward me.

“One swing will be granted.”

That was what my instincts told me.

So I raised the sword in an awkward stance and waited for Argos.

Even though my body was still transforming into a grotesque shape, somehow the stance took form.

The distance was almost gone.

I stepped forward.

“Adogoooos!”

My face must have been something I couldn’t even bear to look at in a mirror.

With a throat that could barely speak, I shouted with everything I had and brought down my final strike.

My warped vision clearly saw Argos’s approaching fist.

Did the sword reach him?

Not being able to know that—that was my one regret.

(Sorry, everyone… I guess it didn’t work after all.)