A Knight Does Not Speak Lies (3)
A tremendous blast roared out.
Ears already deadened by Lee Han's furious Lion's Roar had to be covered all over again. A detonation like a bursting grenade crashed over the onlookers, and they writhed under it. The roar was that sudden, and that fierce.
"Ghk—?!"
"Khak...!"
A few Half-Fiends who did not know their place had been waiting for the moment to swarm him when the searing pressure of his fist caught them. Their bodies snapped away like flicked beads, and deep internal injuries came with the flight.
KWAANG!!
To send fighters of senior knight caliber flying when they had only been standing nearby was to admit that a direct hit would not have been strange if it ground a body to paste. This was no simple punch anymore. It was the force of dozens of sticks of dynamite lashed together, and it was nothing short of terrifying.
And yet—
Whoosh!
"—Terrifying. How did you know? My concealment was perfect."
Which meant the one who had withstood the blow was no small matter either.
"!!?"
The onlookers went white with shock. They had only been startled when Lee Han threw the strike out of nowhere—until a woman stepped out of the wall that blow had shattered.
"Sh-she blocked Master's Hundred-Pace Divine Fist?"
It was the Hundred-Pace Divine Fist she had endured, of all things, and they could not keep the horror from their faces. The woman paid no mind to whether Levi and the others were astonished. She only shook out her wrist.
"Ow, my wrist. It hurts. What a stupid amount of power. How much force did you pack into that..."
Whoosh!
"!!?"
She had been smiling, ready to try for a conversation, and now she had to flinch. Lee Han was already clenching his fist and driving it forward again, as if talk were not worth the attempt.
Crack!
"I don't talk to terrorists."
What was the point of speaking to people who were already insane?
Hwoooong!
Wind rushed in around Lee Han all at once. He had only closed his fist, and a vortex formed about him, a small typhoon, while a baleful pressure poured off him as if the previous blow had been nothing but a polite hello.
And then—
A stretch of forest vanished.
"......"
Debris pattered down.
Lee Han stared at the scorched forest with a blank face, but the calm was only on the surface. Inside, he was reeling.
What the hell? Why is the Hundred-Pace Divine Fist doing this? I didn't even go all out.
He was certain he had thrown it at half his usual strength. What was strange was that its power had come out nearly level with a strike woven through with Stacked Energy, nothing like what he had intended. To do this much even while holding back meant, in short—
This image training... it actually works?
...And not by a little.
Now that he thought about it, aside from his bout with the Sword Duke, he had not had another spar or a real fight since the mental-image training began. No—calling it a long time was generous. It had not even been a month since his last battle, and he had improved this much. The fact sat awkwardly with him, and at the same time felt strangely new.
Well, I'll be damned.
"Am I still in a growth spurt?"
"......"
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"...It's just too absurd, that's all."
"A man can make a joke. You don't have to look that flabbergasted."
"It isn't the joke. I'm starting to genuinely suspect you really are still growing, and that is what I can't believe."
"??"
"What's the secret? Are you actually of mystery-race blood?"
"I'm a pure-blooded human?"
"......"
"Why are you even suspicious?"
The wolf pup was giving him a downright impious look, and Lee Han found it ridiculous that the boy would take a joke so seriously. Unfair as it felt, there was nothing to be done.
"How am I supposed to treat a man who erases a forest with his fists as human?"
Strictly speaking, the disaster belonged to the Hundred-Pace Divine Fist, but Lee Han did not bother adding a word. He only shrugged. Being able to throw a punch like that did not amount to much.
Plenty of bastards out there who can block it.
He knew this world was crawling with monsters against whom even his full strength did not work.
...Like now.
Fwoosh!
Parting a wind of dust and scattering blood, the woman was forcing herself up.
"...Wow. You really went too far. If I hadn't blocked that, I would have died on the spot."
"Tsk!"
"Hmm. I lived by sacrificing three fingers, so I suppose that counts as cheap? Hehe."
"......"
"Not going to blow me away again this time?"
"...Doesn't look like you'd die even if I did."
"Oh? Your eye is rather sharp?"
"......"
Sharp was sharp. He did not see why a question mark had to tag along, but he paid it little mind and narrowed his brow at an opponent who was still very much alive. She looked ready to drop dead at any moment, yet to Lee Han it felt like nothing but a feint.
And no wonder.
She's using some peculiar technique.
Others might have missed it, but Lee Han had seen exactly what she used.
The Hundred-Pace Divine Fist stopped partway—no, did it split? That thing glowing blood-red, what was...
"—Blood thorns."
"...Bear-Girl?"
"I-Instructor, if I'm not mistaken, that woman..."
"...You saw it?"
"O-only a glimpse."
So there had not been one witness, but two. It was Levi who had spoken, and though the moment hardly called for it, a pleased warmth rose in Lee Han and he nodded.
She's growing well.
A disciple flashing talent in any situation was a satisfying thing.
"Good eye. I'll give you a reward later."
"Th-thank you."
"Lady Levi?"
"Ah, it's nothing much. I saw it too. That woman, the blood..."
Shwaak!
Lee Han's scabbard flashed and struck the "bullet" flying at Levi. He batted it away with the swing of a grand slam, and the projectile went straight back at the woman.
Bang—!
"You blocked it like that?"
She caught the bullet that had returned to her untouched, eyes round as a rabbit's. Not only had her own attack been stopped—it had been fired right back at her, and the hand that caught it hurt.
"You really are a frightening one. It wasn't luck, the way you've been wrecking all our plans."
She let out an empty laugh. She had only meant to drop by and look at his face. The meeting had turned out anything but light.
"Blood? No... bone?"
Perhaps because he had seen the attack this time, Arno realized what the projectile she had launched truly was, and his face hardened. An attack that used blood and bone. It was no human method, and through the many histories he had read thanks to his father's work, Arno succeeded in drawing out what she was.
"A noble race born of dragon's blood, cursed by the gods for its arrogance until even the light despised it. Immortal, and yet not immortal. Blood-drinking humans, little different from monsters..."
A vampire. Or else—
"Mm. Rather than a name like that, would you call me a Blood Noble? I like that one better."
Shwaak!
The blood that had fountained from the woman's body gathered back to her side as if time were running in reverse. It happened quickly, and she was whole again, as if she had never been wounded.
Except—
"Ah. My fingers won't grow back."
The Hundred-Pace Divine Fist had erased them without a trace, and even a vampire, it seemed, had no trick for regenerating what had been utterly annihilated. Her sulk was plain.
"Tch. It'll take a good four days to regenerate them. Or else I'll have to have a rather large meal."
Murmuring to herself, she carried on like an actress on a stage. Her movements and her manner of speech were exaggerated, her expressions intense, all of it meant to seize the eye. Whether she had been born that way or was doing it on purpose hardly mattered. The people watching her still could not master their shock at what she was.
"A-a vampire? Th-those only show up in legends!"
"I can hardly believe it myself, but the only race on this continent capable of something like that is a vampire."
"Then..."
Levi's face had gone bloodless, and she had every reason to fear. Whether in fairy tales or history books, this was a race whose danger carried. If the woman truly possessed the abilities spoken of in legend, then she was without question a dangerous creature—a level that hatchlings no different from unfledged chicks could not hope to face. A trembling body was only doing what any living thing with the instinct called fear was bound to do.
And sure enough.
"Hmm. Shall I take a little revenge for my lost fingers?"
Puk!
With that playful remark, a jet of blood burst from her side. She had driven a short blade into her own flank as if to kill herself, forcing the blood out. For a moment it looked like the act of someone desperate to die—until the blood that spilled proved otherwise.
Squirm. Squirm...!
It moved like a living thing. Shards of bone mixed into the droplets until it seemed one was watching creatures to which life had truly been granted.
Born of blood and shards of bone—a swarm granted life.
The name rose of its own accord.
"Well? A round?"
She smiled brightly, as if she would not mind him throwing that same blow again, and Lee Han flexed his fingers as if weighing whether to draw. Then, soon enough—
"...Still quick to run, you little bastard."
He let the sneer fall.
"Hm?"
"A round, my ass. Your real body's already gone."
"......"
For the first time, the bright smile left her face.
"Still don't know how to be serious. Still living in the world like it's a game. Same as ever, you rotten little mosquito."
"...Do we know each other?"
"I didn't recognize you at first either. I do now. Why are you a woman? Finally found your gender identity, did you?"
"......"
"Congratulations, you piece of shit."
"...Who are you? None of the ones I was fond of looked as rough as you."
For the first time she turned a cutting gaze on Lee Han, the man who had seen straight through her methods. He had no intention of talking at all.
Huk!
"I've never been fancied by a disgusting bastard like you."
His foot kicked up the spear that had been rolling on the ground, and the spear, launched in a single instant, collapsed the Red Ant Legion and pierced the woman's head.
A spear sworn to pierce even the sun shattered the cowardly monster's clone.
"......"
Lee Han watched the lesser ghost's clone dying out, his face savage. So that evil spirit had come out into the world after all.
Just die already. Why are you still alive, you thing?
It was rare for him to show his disgust without holding any of it back, and in that vicious air the others carefully watched his temper.
"...Stop reading the room. I'm not angry at you."
"Instructor..."
"I'll tell you about that evil bastard later. For now—"
Thud.
"I've got a parent meeting to get through first."
"......I'm sorry."
"What have you got to be sorry for? It's all..."
Because the adults were worthless.
Yes. In every age, children suffered for the sake of pathetic adults who could not live up to their years—shamefully enough that even another adult had to look away.
"...Uegh. Ah. Was it a mistake, leaving a clone?"
The woman spat blood. One might ask what business a vampire had spitting blood, but what she brought up was dead blood.
"What is this? What kind of attack hits me this hard?"
Only the clone had been struck, and yet the blow had come through to her whole. The woman, Hansel, smiled as she thought of the knight who had landed such a hit on a vampire bordering on immortal.
"I only meant to drop by and see a face, but he was a more interesting knight than I expected. Hmm. The First Apostle will enjoy hearing about this, won't he?"
An unexpected catch. She had thought the big fish landed today was the Offen Estate. Looking again—
"...Next time, I ought to seriously consider killing him."
Hadn't she found a catch far more interesting, and far more delicious?
The descendant of the vampire once called a disaster-class monster alongside the Ghost King smiled like that, and her eyes shone.
Eyes filmed with a blood-red light.
As if she truly looked forward to the next time they met—.