Chapter 72

By the time Serpens’s breathing had grown rough.
The horde of undead entered the boy’s sight as well.

‘……!’

When he had only heard the number several thousand, it hadn’t felt real.
But now that he faced it directly, its scale was truly overwhelming.
For some reason, it felt as if he had already lost once before the battle even began.

‘This is even more than back then……!’

A scene from the past came to mind.
A memory from Navigatou territory.
It was when Rail had asked him to subjugate the monsters in the territory.

Even then, he had been shocked by what he thought were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of monsters.
But now, there were even more than that.

“Ugh…….”

Faced with the black wave charging in while contaminating the ground, Serpens’s body began to hesitate.

Serpens breathed irregularly.
The more he remembered the past, the more his present anxiety grew.

‘Can I do this?’

Sweat began to gather in his right hand gripping the sword.
Where was Lucas?
He couldn’t see him, hidden by the undead.
Was he swinging his sword somewhere beyond them?
Or…… perhaps…….

“Everyone, prepare to engage!”

Lionel’s voice struck the boy’s mind.
Before he knew it, the clash was right before them.
The magicians rose into the sky and began drawing a massive magic array,
and the knights’ weapons began shining in their respective colors.

Serpens steadied his breathing again.
Even if he couldn’t see him, Lucas would be doing what he had to do well.
Since he had decided to trust him, he would hold certainty in him.
That was faith.

He trusted Lucas.
The one who had taught him,
the one who had allowed him to live in the present, he trusted him.

Patzzt-!

The boy also raised his Aura output.
Black Aura and white sparks wrapped around his blade.

‘Let’s focus on what I have to do. I just need to do what I learned.’

That was the best repayment he could offer.

Kireeeek!

The moment the monsters’ shrieks seemed close enough to reach the tip of his sword.
Lionel, who stood at the front, suddenly stopped.

“Hup!”

He held his breath and raised his sword above his head.
A slight offbeat caused by the recoil of stopping.
And at the end of that offbeat.

Kwakagagang-!

Lionel’s red Aura was swung like an explosion.

“……!”

Serpens’s eyes widened as far as they could.
Hundreds of undead near Lionel were sent flying.

Giiiiing-

A massive magic array unfolded above the monsters’ heads.
The slowly rotating flow of Mana began to surge violently.

“Prepare for the backlash! Everyone, protect your bodies with Aura!”

Lionel’s order.
At the same time, the magic array shone brightly.

Kwagagaaaaa!

A massive flash of light engulfed the undead.

A brief ringing spread in his ears, and his vision blurred.
Serpens shook his head hard to pull himself together.

What had happened?
Overcoming a slight dizziness, he looked ahead.
The monsters that had been where the flash struck had been annihilated.
The emptied space was soon filled by other undead, but it was true that the overall number had been greatly reduced.

“Large-scale magic is no longer possible! We will support you with ranged and support-type magic, so fight with all your strength!”

A magician’s shout.
With that as the signal, the knights emitted Aura and charged forward.

A smile formed on Serpens’s lips.

So cool.
Simply, incredibly cool.
The question of ‘Can I do this?’ vanished in an instant,
and the will to do it surged up.

“Hraap!”

Serpens rushed forward.
He cut, stabbed, and struck away monsters.

‘As expected…….’

Lucas’s words were right, as always.
Only by cutting off their heads could they be dealt with in one go.
Cutting anywhere else was meaningless.
Even if an arm was cut off, even if a leg was cut off, even if the heart was pierced,
they moved as if they felt no pain.

Aiming only for the neck was a double-edged sword.
It had the advantage of dealing with them in a single strike,
but the drawback was that his sword paths became limited.

His opponents were weak monsters without reason.
In a one-on-one fight, he could aim only for the head without worry.
But when such weak monsters rushed in as a horde…….

Pkuk!

As expected, his sword paths became limited.

There was only one reason.
Because of the thought that aiming for the neck was convenient.
If he insisted on convenience, his field of view narrowed,
and a narrowed field of view limited possibilities.

“Ugh!”

That was also why the undead’s sword had just grazed his side.

Serpens frowned and hurriedly moved away.
He had been cut fairly deeply.
A pain like a torch searing his insides.
Serpens hurriedly took a golden seed from the worn pouch and swallowed it.

“Phew……. They don’t give me a moment to rest.”

Monsters poured in.
The stench they gave off alone made his head hurt.
But that was all.
He was not lacking stamina, and he still had two seeds Lucas had given him left.
There was no particular problem.

Serpens placed a hand on his side.
He could feel the wound healing.
When the amount of blood flowing lessened and the flesh had almost fully knit together.

Patzzzzzt!

The boy drew up his black Aura even further.

Beside him, Lionel swung his sword and caused explosions,
and far away, the white-haired man was sweeping across the battlefield while alternating between three swords.
The knights in various places were also easily dealing with the monsters,
and the magicians held back the enemy’s feet while giving wings to their allies.

Each of them was fulfilling their role well.
He had no intention of standing around awkwardly by himself.

“Even if they can’t feel pain, they won’t be able to rush in if I cut their legs.”

He decided to abandon the idea of doing things conveniently.
What convenience was there for someone lacking skill?

He would not insist only on the neck.
What he aimed for was the monster itself before his eyes.

Whether it was the undead or the Death Knight.
He didn’t know which one was the reason they had to buy time until the Fourth Battalion arrived.

But Lucas had clearly said it.

‘The objective is the enemy’s annihilation.’

The reason, of course, was…….
because many people in the fortress were in danger.

Lucas had also said.

‘Do only what you learned.’

Tadat-

Serpens thrust his sword toward the charging monster.

He entrusted his body to his sense and pierced the opening accurately.
He swung his sword without overdoing it, and opened distance at the proper moments.
And then.

Swoosh!

At the exact moment, he cut off the neck.
Just as Lucas had taught him.

In that way, he dealt with the undead rushing in.
As time passed, the speed at which he dealt with them grew faster,
and along with it, white sparks began crackling fiercely around the boy.

He dealt mercilessly with the monsters before him.
By the time the number passed two hundred, he gave up counting.

The clothes he wore grew soaked with his sweat and splattered blood.
His arms and legs gradually went numb.
Proof that his stamina was running low.
The Aura surrounding the boy also began to waver unstably.

‘Didn’t they say the Fourth Battalion would arrive in about thirty minutes? Did I hear wrong?’

Serpens shook his head hard.
Even if it felt as if a long time had passed,
there was also a chance that thirty minutes hadn’t passed yet.
Besides, there was no guarantee that their allies would arrive exactly on time.

Pkuk.

Serpens stabbed his sword into the neck of a monster twitching on the ground.
Cutting off the necks of the endlessly charging undead.
Keeping in check the ones that began moving again after some time, even after their heads were cut off.
With the things he had to pay attention to split in two, his stamina was being gnawed away even faster.

“Haa……. Haa…….”

How were the others getting through this situation?
What about Lionel? What about the white-haired man?
At least, they were probably handling it more easily than he was-

Thud.

For an instant.
The air sank heavily.
The air touching his skin felt cold, as if it had frozen,
and instinctive warning wrapped around his entire body, making goosebumps rise.

“Oh no……!”

Something approached at a speed difficult to follow with the eyes.
A purple sphere flew in, piercing through the monsters.

Serpens reflexively raised his sword and took a defensive posture.

Kwagagaga―!

At the moment of collision.
The explosion caused by the sphere bursting sent the boy’s body flying through the air.

Clang.
Thud.
Rumble.

After flying several meters, Serpens rolled across the ground and came to a stop.

“Kheuk!”

A stream of blood burst out with his cough.

‘What the……!’

As the dust cleared, a being appeared in the distance.
It wore a black helmet, and its figure was lit with fire here and there as if it were burning.
The horse it rode was breathing out purple flames,
and neither the knight nor the horse looked like living beings.

He could tell by instinct.
That thing was the Death Knight.
One of the two greatest problems in this battle.

Serpens struggled to raise his body.
He felt severe pain in his right wrist and ribs.
It was to the point that properly gripping his sword was difficult.
To end up like this after blocking a single attack.

“I really have a long way to go.”

Crunch.

He took a golden seed from his pouch and chewed it.
A sweet yet bitter taste.
Along with the slowly easing pain, he corrected his stance.

Kwakang!

He saw the people fighting the Death Knight.
Lionel, his blue cloak fluttering.
A dozen or so knights following behind him.

Serpens doubted his own eyes.
Sword Experts.
Each and every one of them was someone difficult for him to face.
And there was a monster facing a dozen or so of such people alone.

A greatsword that scattered purple flames with every swing.
Purple spheres that attacked places the sword could not reach.
A black horse that created optimal movement.

‘It doesn’t look that big.’

The boy thought of the powerful monsters he had experienced so far.
The Basilisk, the Wyvern, and the strange unidentified monsters.
All of them had massive bodies.

In contrast, that monster called a Death Knight did not look that large.
There was quite a distance, so he couldn’t estimate its exact size,
but while mounted, it was about twice Lionel’s size…….
Compared to the ones in his memories, it wasn’t very large.

‘Well, it’s not as if body size has to be proportional to strength.’

Serpens squeezed out his strength once again.

Could he face that monster called a Death Knight?
Even if he had been low on stamina,
one attack from it had nearly put him out of combat.

“Whatever, I don’t know anymore.”

Wouldn’t it be fine?
There were Experts who would fight with him.
The balance seemed roughly even, so it seemed better to lend even a little strength.

Tadadat-

Serpens opened a path while minimizing clashes with the undead.
He concentrated his Aura on his sword as much as possible.
The boy’s Aura wrapped around the blade, then wrapped around it again.
The Aura-filled blade looked twice as large,
and the sparks around it became even more pronounced.

The remaining distance to the enemy was about twenty steps.
The muscles in his lower body swelled,
and he raised both hands gripping the sword.

“……Serpens?”

Lionel’s voice was heard.
Was it his imagination that he could sense confusion in it?

The boy reached his target distance.
When he saw it from far away, he had thought it was not that large,
but standing right in front of it, the pressure was no joke.

However, Serpens leaped.
He knew this thing was strong.
To begin with, this attack was not meant to land one heavy blow.
It was an attack meant solely to create an opening for the others.
So he would keep the swing concise.

An attack just strong enough to strike and withdraw-

Kat.

“Huh……?”

His sword was blocked.

Serpens’s eyes shook.
What blocked the boy’s attack was not the enemy’s greatsword,
nor was it any special magic.

Just a single finger.
The Death Knight had blocked the boy’s attack with nothing but a single finger.

“Uh…… uh…….”

Massive killing intent pressed down on the boy.
The Death Knight silently looked down at Serpens.

“Mortal who bears the seed of deep chaos.”

A voice thick with darkness flowed out.

Someone shouted loudly and rushed toward the Death Knight.
Serpens could not hear that sound clearly.
Thinking about it, it seemed like it might have been Lionel.

“Accept death with humility.”