13 (66)

Anton’s eyes widened. Something enormous was coming, and it was like a wave. By the time he thought it was strange, a single horse was already flying toward him like an arrow, and then a strange emotion suddenly seized him. It was fear. It was laughable. Anton was ranked eleventh and had the nickname “the Pursuing Clown,” which meant he had not merely mastered everything related to him, but possessed enough skill to be counted among the finest even within the Wandering Guild.

And so he was more bewildered by this situation than anyone. Why? What was that? Something was coming. Something impossible was coming. The leader? There was no way it was the leader. The hunter who had never once been prey became terrified by the overwhelming density of mana, and in the end, he shouted.

“We… we have to run!!! If we stay still, we’ll die!!!!!!!!!!!!”

“What? What’s wrong? And what the hell is happening? Is that the Holy Knight Order coming from the front?”

“My bow… where’s my bow! Damn it!!!”

There was only one person who had failed to grasp the situation, and the woman unconsciously stepped backward. Anton suddenly took out his bow, aimed it forward, and fired with all his might at the horse charging toward them. The arrow that should have drawn a curve absorbed turbid mana and charged forward in a straight line.

Would this arrow work? What if it was simply my mistake? If what was coming now was an army, if I had simply mistaken its pressure… then there was a chance to live. There definitely was. If we threw the Demon Soldier Corps at it as bait, then surely there would be a chance to escape….

His thoughts stopped at that point. The arrow he had fired flew with flawless precision toward the massive horse charging straight at him, and to be exact, it aimed at the man riding atop it. The arrow that should have buried itself in his face stopped with a thud in the man’s grasp, and rather, the horse that reacted late reared up on the spot.

Because the horse lifted its forelegs and bucked, the man’s upper body rose, and the face that had been hidden by the silhouette of darkness was finally revealed beneath the moonlight. Then a suffocating mana overwhelmed the surroundings. It was an absurd amount of mana. They had never seen a being who possessed this level of mana before, and the reason they were more than justified in mistaking him was that Louis’s mana, which rivaled that of a Sword Master, was overlaid with his Charisma trait. Moreover, the Charisma trait had recognized the other side as “enemies” and activated its intimidation.

That was how they met Louis. However, since they had not yet made his acquaintance, they did not recognize who Louis was, and Anton’s mind was becoming horribly complicated. He’s young! What the hell do we do! Is he a lich? Then is he on our side? But this is clearly killing intent! We have to run. How? Good God!!

“A Sword Master….”

“An elite knight order…? Incredible.”

“He seems like someone famous…. Hey, Anton. What’s wrong with you?”

“It’s too late. Fuck. It’s too late. We can’t run.”

“Run? It looks like we have the advantage. Look. He’s alone. He must have broken away from his main force. He looked down on us. No matter how much of a Sword Master he is, if he faces the three of us and the Demon Soldier Corps at the same time….”

“You idiot.”

“What? What did you say?”

“I want… his neck….”

“No, not you. Anton, I’m asking what you said to me.”

Anton looked terrible. During this brief flow of time, after recognizing Louis’s power, he was dripping with an enormous amount of cold sweat. Then Louis jumped down from his horse as if he had fallen in front of them. He was alone. On top of that, because he had recklessly entered inside, there were also more than a dozen Demon Soldiers. They drooled and slowly crept toward Louis. Once a single order was given, they would rush at Louis like dogs. Louis glanced over them and said.

“Is this all?”

His tone sounded as if it was not enough.

“Anton. Huh? I’m asking if that was directed at me!!”

At that moment, Louis’s mana rose by another third from what it had been. When the terrifyingly dense concentration pressed down on Anton and those beside him, the man who had shouted at Anton screamed.

“My hand!!”

A crude dagger, one that a craftsman must have processed with painstaking effort, had pierced through the bones of the back of his hand. It had been a speed that was hard to even react to.

“Did I not ask? I asked if this was all. I will ask one more time.”

Louis began walking forward. The Demon Soldier Corps had already started falling into an uncontrollable state as well. Louis’s concentration had grown so dense that it was disturbing the interference. Just before that connection was severed, Anton barely managed to shout.

“A… everyone attack!!!”

As if a dam had burst, more than a dozen Demon Soldiers rushed at Louis all at once. The Demon Soldier Corps possessed combat strength surpassing ordinary cavalry, and their greatest advantage could first be seen as their mutated hands, which had become one with their weapons. These blades contained curses, so when they inflicted wounds, they caused continuous bleeding and greatly reduced the opponent’s abilities.

On top of that, blades imbued with demonic energy were harder than ordinary iron and did not break easily, so if one received attacks from all directions like that, no matter how great the difference in skill was, one would have no choice but to suffer wounds. That meant one would soon be forced into a situation where one could not display their true skill.

There was only one way to break through Demon Soldiers that recklessly attacked vital points like that, and that was to cut off their blades outright. Naturally, it was impossible for the three Wandering Guild members preparing to attack now, but Louis calmly split the Demon Soldiers apart as they came. If they had at least been strengthened with treasured swords, they would not have been defeated so futilely, but Louis’s mana was an extremely pure form and had a polar-opposite nature to their turbid and crude evil energy.

That result had appeared before their eyes. As the corpses of the Demon Soldiers, cut apart as if chopped into pieces, sprayed thickly around them, Anton fired his arrows in rapid succession. His maximum rapid-fire count was fifteen arrows, each one containing deadly power and accuracy. Naturally, he aimed only at vital points and areas that would cause severe wounds, making their angles awkward, but Louis cleanly cut down most of them, and not only that, he pierced Anton’s neck.

Anton, unable to understand what had happened, looked down while bubbling blood from his mouth, then collapsed as he was. The man who had lost the back of his hand charged at Louis. Before he could even reach him, Louis struck his face, then grabbed his hair and bent him backward. A loud sound rang out as if bones were being shattered, and not stopping there, Louis drew the dagger at his waist and slit the Wandering Guild member’s throat.

As the man’s eyes rolled upward while spraying a fountain of blood, Louis threw him aside and drove the sword in his right hand into the chest of the woman charging at him from behind. A sharp scream burst out, and the woman collapsed as if falling into Louis’s arms. When he pushed the woman aside, the bundle she had been carrying opened, and human body parts, gathered from who knew where, spilled out in a heap.

He had thought it was over, but it was not over. When Louis checked the information window and touched the woman’s corpse, daggers and arrows poured toward Louis from everywhere. They were attacks hidden with illusion magic, but that was as far as they went. The cavalrymen who had followed him blocked Louis with their bodies.

The attacks were quite sharp, and some of them were severe enough to critically wound several men. Louis’s soldiers untied the bound holy knights one by one, and they barely managed to stand and come before Louis. One was covered in tears and snot, another looked so haggard that he seemed to have aged ten years, and the last one was… a face familiar to Louis. Without delay, he asked Louis to help Sir Linton. Indeed, Linton could be seen on the ground, clearly a corpse barely clinging to life, and Louis ordered them to treat his wounds.

In a situation where he had returned from the brink of death, Mitchell witnessed a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life. He recalled what Louis’s epithet was.

‘Mars. Indeed, it was not an empty rumor. His skill is absurd. We came here… to interrogate a man like this…? He cannot even be compared to Sir Keil. I am not certain, but he is several moves… above him. There is not much difference in age between him and me, yet can there truly be this much difference in skill? What did I just… witness?’

Because it was too unrealistic, he instead became dazed, wondered foolishly whether he had died, and pinched his cheek, but this was indeed reality. He went before Louis and said.

“I have received a grace I will never forget for the rest of my life. I—or rather, my house—will help Lord Louis from now on, so long as it does not go against my convictions.”

Louis gave a short nod.

“It seems the situation flowed in a bad direction. If God had not helped, I would not have passed through this place at this time.”

“Yes…. The Flash Knight Order has been defeated. Are you on your way there now?”

“That is right. I intend to put an end to it.”

“Our Church will owe you a debt. Be careful. A considerable number of fellows like these have gathered there.”

“…I know.”

Most of the Demon Soldier Corps were currently playing tag with Louis’s army. Christina’s strategy was matching the situation one by one, except for a few points.

‘I’ll have to move quickly.’

Louis mounted his horse again and took the reins. The cavalry had finished clearing out several dozen Demon Soldiers and had reorganized once more.

Nestor was continuously receiving reports from every direction within the forbidden zone he had created. Surprisingly, he wore an extremely bewildered expression.

‘What a coincidence. What an extraordinary coincidence.’

Louis was leading his cavalry toward his heartland, but Nestor had not actually seen through Louis’s movements. The timing at which Louis drew his sword and the direction in which he moved his troops were strange. This also meant Christina was suppressing Nestor. Right now, Nestor had not even realized that the one disrupting him was Christina. That was because Nestor had completely settled on the judgment that she was beneath him.

This, too, was another piece of evidence that she had deceived Nestor. Nestor had ultimately believed her acting, her act of playing the foolishly clever woman. So Nestor was now matching the level of the person employing strategy to Louis, or at most, the nobles Louis had with him. That was precisely the problem.

If he had clearly recognized that Christina was an enemy, he would have realized that the cavalry led by Louis was coming toward him. However, right now, many things are confusing Nestor. As expected, the greatest problem was the timing, because Nestor had absolutely no desire to wage an all-out war against Louis right now. His Demon Soldier Corps was still in an immature stage.

Their numbers were also still far too insufficient, and a considerable number of them were now reaching the hatching stage. Most critically, this full moon had to pass. According to his original plan, the foolishly clever Christina would have been discovered by Louis, and Louis would have switched his forces from offense to defense, preparing them for defense as if fitting them into a mold. However, the way the board was moving now was Louis’s offensive, and several clever modifications had been made to Christina’s tactics, which had been known as a trap, continuing a situation that was as hard to catch as if one tried to seize it.

Most of Duke Christopher’s territory, which bordered the Duchy of Eron, was open land, and a considerable degree of mobility had no choice but to be added there. Thus, strategy became a situation of pursuing according to each situation, then being pursued in reverse, like both sides biting each other’s tails. That was the shape of things now.

However, if there was a variable here, it was precisely… this man. Wandering Guild Leader Ian. He had not yet sortied. This very man, who was leisurely eating fruit and dozing off, would become the variable of the operation. If Ian was sent out even now, Ian possessed the skill to cut off the enemy’s head.