Cooperation
Cooperation
When the first proposal came in, Kantalra had figured one of his dimwit underlings had been suckered by some noble's bullshit and was about to get them all killed.
He hadn't realized it was a genuine, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity until the Demon Sword was already in his hands. After the concrete plans and agreements were exchanged, the training and rehearsals became harsher than they had been when his group worked as mercenaries, and that was precisely what made it sink in.
This was a real opportunity.
The connection to Count Bosha had been pure coincidence, but regardless, if the rebellion he was preparing succeeded, they stood to carve off a huge piece for themselves. Even if it failed, the material support he'd been investing in them would remain in some form and help in the long run. Maybe they could even bolt to some other conflict-prone country and pick up mercenary work again.
Richer and bolder than ever in his thievery, Kantalra, who'd become the leader of his own bandit crew, had lived dreaming and waiting for a bright, prosperous future that would compensate for a life no better than a gutter.
"Fuck, my shit-ass life never gave me shit for opportunities."
In truth, it had been a real opportunity.
Even up until the moment contact with Count Bosha was severed, he'd had options. The instant Kantalra was sure the regular courier's visits had stopped, when he grasped the situation, he had the chance to take his men and run. If he'd done what he'd planned beforehand and just headed for another country, he could've operated as a mercenary company with a decent reputation. But it wasn't just the Demon Sword he was holding.
It was the operational plan for the assault on the gate city of Englem.
Those few scraps of paper, detailing how and when to infiltrate the city via the ancient underground waterways in case Count Bosha's rebellion began and the Englem officials proved uncooperative, fanned Kantalra's greed.
"Should've torn up those shitty scraps of paper instead of letting 'em whip me around, fuck."
We've already got a perfect plan, so let's hit 'em big and grab some travel money.
It was a naive judgment. The infiltration had been simple enough, but the city's defenses were far more systematic than imagined, and in the end, not only did they fail to secure any real gains and lose a bunch of men, the mass slaughter caused by the rampaging Demon Sword left them with no way out, and they barely managed to flee.
But what waited for Kantalra as he fled was their sole escape route, collapsed without a sound or a sign. It wasn't a case of one or two rocks falling loose; a whole section had been completely buried. No matter how much rubble they dug out, the path wouldn't open.
Whether he'd installed a device to seal the retreat route in case of betrayal, even as he planned to use them as troops, or whether he meant to exploit their assault in reverse to subdue them and curry favor with the high officials of Englem, there was no way to know now, and it no longer mattered.
Kantalra's bandit crew was trapped, and Kantalra himself was being tested moment by moment by the rampaging Demon Sword fused to his right arm.
"B-Boss. Even now, if we surrender..."
"You fucking son of a bitch!"
Kantalra swung the Demon Sword, and the entire upper body of the underling who'd made the fairly cool-headed judgment and spoken up flew away in one piece.
No, more precisely, it was chewed up and devoured. Steel teeth, sprouting the instant the sword blade—writhing like flesh and veins made of metal—surged, bit and swallowed the man in the blink of an eye. At first, it had at least gone through the motions of slashing like a sword, but no longer.
"I'm the one who used the Demon Sword! So you think if you just sell me out, you'll survive, huh?! You fuckin' son of a bitch!"
The Demon Sword swung again, aiming for the lower body as it slumped powerlessly to the floor. But the Demon Sword didn't chew up the lower body. It just battered it like a massive club.
-Boom! Boom!
"Die! Die, you traitorous bastard!!"
The bandits watching the scene couldn't even breathe properly. Along with the horrific din that sent chills down the spine just hearing it, an eerie laughing sound accompanied it. The sound came not from Kantalra's mouth, but from the blade of the Demon Sword.
After the mass slaughter, the Demon Sword had definitively consumed its wielder.
"Huff... huff..."
Kantalra's eyes and face, which had looked normal when he was muttering to himself, were now flooded with excessive blood. The Demon Sword, which had already consumed his right forearm during the recent rampage, was now creeping into his upper arm. The bandits weren't curious about what would happen or what he'd become once that sword completely consumed him.
More blood had to spill to figure that out, and the only sacrifices here were them. And as for shooting Kantalra dead with a bow, the Demon Sword would even swat away arrows and crossbow bolts before crawling its way to kill the attacker, so they couldn't even dream of resisting.
Killed by the Demon Sword, or killed by the city's troops. In the end, their wretched lives would clearly meet their end in this gloomy underground waterway.
"Talk shit again! Who led you bastards here! How dare you betray me like this?! If there's another son of a bitch trying to sell me out and survive, step right up!"
"Whoa, so that's a real Demon Sword? Fucks you up good, doesn't it."
The bombastic remark, enough to make Kantalra's eyes turn bloodshot white and drain the color from the bandits' faces, came from the path leading to the clearing.
"Who the fuck is that?!"
"Me."
The magic laid into the waterways helped one see as clearly as broad daylight even in the dark. Thanks to that, Kantalra and all the bandits could see the uninvited guest clearly.
Going by looks alone, he was a young man so ruggedly and sharply built that you might suspect he was in the same trade. His large frame and physique, clearly that of a warrior, were so toned they naturally made anyone looking feel cowed, and because of that, even though he wore only light leather armor, it gave off the certainty that this wasn't shoddy gear but a deliberate choice of lightweight kit out of confidence in his own skill.
But unlike his underlings, Kantalra didn't have enough ego and reason left to perceive such things soundly. In a state of extreme agitation, he tilted his neck at a bizarre angle and asked.
"What are you?"
As if the question were absurd, the young man let out a 'Hah.' of hollow laughter and tilted his head in the opposite direction of Kantalra. And when his tightly shut lips opened.
-Fweeeet!
A short whistle sounded, and something shot out from behind the man.
-Grrrrrrrraaawr!!
At the same time, the Demon Sword howled like a beast and swung on its own. Right after, following the sharp sound of tearing air, a jarring grinding noise, like metal gnawing on metal, rang out between the Demon Sword's teeth. The man who'd whistled muttered in disbelief.
"What a clusterfuck. That's a Demon Sword, you son of a bitch?"
The bandits, failing to grasp the situation, stared blankly at the Demon Sword chomping down on nine large needle-like objects. Even though they were caught in the maw of the Demon Sword that tore apart and swallowed living people whole, armor and all, the needles stubbornly maintained their shape.
Just as some quick-witted bandits deduced the correlation between the whistle they'd just heard and the needles and tried to shout a warning, sudden fireballs flew in from left and right.
"A-Attack! It's a mage!"
The bandits, who hadn't noticed a single sign of anyone due to the noise Kantalra was making, realized belatedly that they were surrounded and struggled desperately to survive, but the arrows that flew in along with the fireballs had already begun mercilessly snatching away their lives.
Still, perhaps the training and practice they'd done with someone else's money hadn't been in vain, as a few of them quickly accepted the situation and moved to defend, but because of the young man and his party—who charged head-on as if the magic and arrows coming from both sides were nothing—they couldn't even spare the nerve to target the mage.
In truth, even for a warrior with fairly strong guts, facing an enemy who charged like lightning wielding a battle axe the size of a grown man's torso and a war hammer that could double as a siege ram, there was bound to be no other choice.
"I'm taking point this time!"
The large woman, as massive as the man who'd first appeared, charged forward, gripping the heavy war hammer like a spear. That alone made facing her seem utterly hopeless, so when the bandits widened the distance, magic and arrows cut their life threads, and those who tried to block half-heartedly simply had their heads smashed in by the onrushing war hammer.
It was an utterly unreasonable assault. Giving not even a glance to the bandits falling helplessly, the woman who'd charged straight toward the Demon Sword spun her body around without any battle cry, put the momentum of her charge into it, and swung the war hammer at the Demon Sword still engrossed in chewing on the metal scraps.
The war hammer, swung at an unbelievably fast speed, clashed with the Demon Sword.
-Clang!
-Yelp!
Under the blow that carried no technique, just raw centrifugal force slamming down from above, the Demon Sword was driven into the stone floor and let out a beastly scream. The strike was so powerful that flesh and muscle in Kantalra's forearm, where it was joined to the Demon Sword, tore and burst at the same time, the sounds echoing through the chamber.
-Piiiing! Fweeeet!
Whistled sounds slipped through the gap. At the signal, the nine needles that had freed themselves from the Demon Sword's maw and bounced away randomly flew back to the young man at high speed.
Simultaneously, one needle, clearly larger than those, flew toward the completely exposed spot between Kantalra's eyebrows.
"Ack!"
The needle, perfectly exploiting the opening, pierced Kantalra's head without fail. Because of the Demon Sword, still pinned to the floor under the massive war hammer, only his head snapped back. After a brief moment of rigidity, Kantalra's body began to slowly crumble.
"You... damn..."
But as if someone were forcibly holding him up, strength entered his buckling knees.
"Sons of bitches...!"
Then his head, which had fallen back along with his upturned eyes, snapped back into place with a force that looked like it would break his neck. Even the woman pressing down on the war hammer with all her might unwittingly faltered and stepped back at the sight.
-Grrrrrr!!
Seizing the opening, the Demon Sword sprang up from the floor, grinding its teeth like a beast once more, blazing with hostility. Kantalra, still very much alive despite the projectile embedded in the center of his forehead like a horn, glared at his enemies with bloodshot eyes as if in response.
"I'll tear you all to shreds!!"
Cleanly ignoring the dead or cowed bandits, the young man stood behind the woman who'd put distance between herself and Kantalra, muttered quietly with a dumbfounded expression, and drew his sword.
"Still can't believe I survived this long thanks to the dumbfucks who believed they could just leave crap like that lying around."
Unfazed by the threats of the Demon Sword and Kantalra, he charged forward.