War Heroes (3)
“Damn it……”
Benjamin gritted his teeth as he glared at Kael standing before him, radiating murderous intent. How had the man reached this place in mere seconds? That impossible speed made Benjamin’s tongue click in disbelief. At the same time, the killing aura pouring from Kael made his survival instinct shrivel by half.
‘My shoulder……’
Benjamin rolled one eye toward the shoulder Kael’s sword had carved through. The tendons were severed; both arms hung useless.
“Shit…… Where the hell did you come from……?”
Sherda was in no better shape. Her wand had slipped from her fingers the moment her shoulder was cut, and now it rolled across the floor. A single sword strike had neutralized both of them in an instant. The speed of that slash had been too fast to react to, yet the technique itself was frighteningly precise. It laid bare the gulf between Kael and Benjamin.
‘As expected, he’s an opponent I can never beat.’
No matter how much Benjamin struggled or schemed, the man standing before him was simply unbeatable. He had always taken pride in his own skill, but even he had to admit this truth. Kael—the retired war hero and former captain of the Royal Guard. A man who had spent years on the front lines of the Human-Demon War without a single day’s rest. To Benjamin, who had never experienced that war, the difference in their levels was insurmountable.
‘He truly lives up to the title of war hero……’
The front lines of the Human-Demon War had swept away even the talented and the strong like fallen leaves. Yet Kael had turned the tide, mowing down demons and piling their corpses into mountains. That alone proved he stood far above Benjamin in talent, effort, and real combat experience. So there was not a shred of falsehood in the thought that he could never win against Kael.
Still, Benjamin had no intention of dying quietly.
‘He probably never imagined we possessed the Demon Regeneration Factor.’
Hidden beneath his blood-soaked clothes, Benjamin’s shoulders and arms were slowly regaining sensation. He flexed them subtly and swallowed a bitter smile. The Demon Regeneration Factor—an alchemical marvel developed by the leader of Worst, the man known as the Strategist, through research on demon corpses from the Human-Demon War. It had been temporarily granted only to the organization’s executives. It granted regeneration nearly on par with a demon’s while causing almost no harm to the human body. Kael could never have predicted its existence. After all, even Kael would never suspect that someone on this continent had extracted such a thing from demon remains.
[Hey, Benjamin. Regeneration’s almost finished. What are we doing?]
A telepathic message arrived from Sherda, who was still grimacing behind him and keeping up the act. She was asking for the next move. Benjamin recalled the plan he had prepared and began to reply—
—or rather, he would have, if not for the sword that suddenly pierced his side.
Quaaak───
“Kuh……?!”
Kael’s blade had driven straight through Benjamin’s flank. Benjamin had kept his eyes on the man the entire time, yet somehow Kael had closed the distance and struck without warning.
“You’re making it way too obvious when you’re thinking. I stayed still for a second and you already assumed you were safe? I told you not to expect an easy death.”
Kael spoke with eyes sharp as blades. As he twisted the sword free, Benjamin clenched his teeth and let out an involuntary groan.
“Krrgh……!!”
Blood gushed from the maliciously widened wound. Benjamin instinctively pressed a hand over it. Thanks to the regeneration factor the injury and blood loss were already beginning to heal, but the sight of so much blood still triggered a reflexive human reaction. It took only a moment to realize how foolish that reaction had been.
“I clearly cut your shoulder, yet your arms are moving just fine.”
“Ah……!”
The regenerative ability had been exposed in an instant. Kael’s eyes gleamed at the sight, as though he had discovered an enemy that refused to die no matter how many times it was cut. Cold sweat ran down Benjamin’s cheek and mixed with the blood.
* * *
I could see it—Benjamin and Sherda’s severed shoulders slowly knitting back together. Hidden beneath their blood-soaked clothes, the wounds were invisible to ordinary sight, but not to mine.
‘The Demon Regeneration Factor.’
A power exclusive to Worst in my past life’s game. The Strategist had created it by studying the mountains of demon corpses left behind by the Human-Demon War. It was the very core that had turned Worst into the worst villainous organization in history. The regeneration was still far below a true demon’s level, so it was clearly only a prototype, but even this much would have been an enormous nuisance to the soldiers and mercenaries of this era.
I watched the scene for a moment, then noticed the flow of mana moving from Sherda toward Benjamin. Without hesitation, I moved.
‘I was wary they might have other hidden cards, but it looks like they don’t.’
The reason I had not struck immediately after disabling their arms was simple: I had been checking whether they still possessed any of the secret weapons I knew the Worst executives kept in reserve—other inventions the Strategist had developed through demon research. After giving them a brief reprieve, however, nothing had activated. So the moment Sherda began moving her mana, I drove my sword into Benjamin’s side first.
“I clearly cut your shoulder, yet your arms are moving just fine.”
“Ah……!”
When I withdrew the blade, Benjamin—panicked—forgot his acting and pressed a hand over the wound. I chuckled at the sight, and the realization that his secret had been exposed slipped out of him in a flustered sound.
The instant their regenerative ability was revealed—
“You fucking idiot!!”
Sherda spat the curse, snatched her wand from the floor, and immediately launched a spell at me. It was Mana Slash—simple to cast and quick to use. The power behind it was considerable for an emergency spell, yet it was still weaker than the stray magic that had rained down every second on the battlefield.
“Pathetic.”
Kagagagang───!!
Without even adjusting my stance, I simply touched the blade to the distorted parts of the mana and shattered Sherda’s Mana Slash into pieces. As if she had expected this, she showed no sign of surprise and immediately cast the next spell while shouting.
“Benjamin! Snap out of it and run!!!”
Whoosh─────!!
A thick black smokescreen erupted from Sherda’s wand, swallowing the surroundings.
“Damn it, got it!”
Benjamin, realizing Sherda’s intent, immediately put distance between us. In the blink of an eye the billowing smoke swallowed both of them. Their judgment was swift and precise, just as one would expect from future Worst executives. The smokescreen blocked both sight and sound; under normal vision, neither of them was visible at all.
However—
“……There you are.”
I could still clearly see the mana inside their bodies. The flow of mana within others, visible only to me, revealed their exact positions even through the smoke.
Once I knew their locations, there was only one thing left to do.
“Huu……”
I planted my lead foot and drew a deep breath. Mana starting from my heart circulated naturally through my sword as though the blade were an extension of my arm, and aura bloomed. Accelerating the circulation further, I shaped the mana released outside the sword. The aura transformed into Sword Qi. Then—
“Huu……”
Once I learned how to pour my will into the Sword Qi, it became an Aura Blade.
My breathing was set. An Aura Blade now wreathed my sword. I could see straight through to the enemy’s positions.
All that remained was to cut them down.
“If I could, I’d kill you both right here……”
I truly wanted to behead them on the spot, but these two were valuable hostages who could expose the danger of Worst. So I aimed for their legs instead.
“Hup!”
With a single shout, the Aura Blade swept through the smoke and severed both their legs in one stroke. Benjamin and Sherda collapsed where they stood, knees sheared clean off. Agonized screams tore from their throats.
“Kuaaaagh!!!”
“M-my legs…… Shit, my legs……!!”
They writhed on the ground like caterpillars, clutching their severed limbs. As Sherda’s mana dispersed, the smokescreen she had conjured faded as well. I turned my head and saw kingdom soldiers and knights charging toward us from afar.
Thud-thud-thud-thud───!!!
“Run! Run faster!!!”
“Slay the traitors! Kill them on sight!!!”
“Leave not a single one alive!!!”
Even from a distance their furious roars shook the air. If I left the two immobilized executives here, the soldiers would surely finish them off. I flicked the blood from my sword and stepped forward.
“I suppose I’ll have to stay in the kingdom a little longer.”
It seemed I would have to see His Majesty’s face again after all. I let out a small sigh as I pictured the future I wanted to avoid but could not escape. Just imagining it already felt exhausting.