The Promotion Request

A skeleton still wreathed in flame crept up the hillside. Having clawed its way through the log traps and the fire, it finally crested the rise and lunged at me. I brought my sword down hard enough to smash its burning skull to pieces.

Clang!

A strange sound of bone meeting metal rang out. But contrary to every expectation, the skull did not shatter.

Had I not put enough force into it? No — that blow would have pulverized an ordinary human bone and then some. I swung again, this time slamming the blade down onto its shoulder. The thing just raised its arm and caught the sword on its own bone.

"Ngh..."

A jolt ran through the hand gripping my sword. For something that was nothing but bones, it packed a terrifying amount of strength. And that durability... The process of turning into a monster must have hardened them as well.

Skeletons in droves and a handful of zombies were charging me, trying to crest the hill and reach the village, when the voice cut in. I already knew a surefire way to put monsters down?

In that case.

"You mean this."

I swept my sword back behind my hip and poured the mana dwelling in my body into the blade. The very technique Bronze-rank adventurer Oren had shown me. The one I had tried just once in the forest, on a whim, and ended up felling a log from a distance.

Clack! Clack!

Just as a skeleton's blue eye-lights flared and it swung its arm at me, I felt the mana surge all the way to the tip of the blade and swept it in a wide horizontal arc.

Tssssshhh—!

The path my sword carved through empty air manifested as Sword Qi. The materialized blade of force spread like a shockwave, flying toward the ones in front of me and the swarm packed behind them.

Krrrk-krrack! Crack!

The ribs of the skeleton mid-swing shattered the instant they met the Sword Qi, and it collapsed. Behind it, dozens more staggered as the wave tore through their bodies.

But they were undead. Even with an arm gone, a leg gone, even with most of a torso crumbled away, they kept crawling up the hill. I focused again and sent another wave of Sword Qi. Then another. And another. I kept launching them, relentlessly, like a madman.

Yeah, Narration was right — the range was bigger and the destructive power was stronger than just swinging a sword. But something about it lacked finishing power. Was this really the surefire way to put monsters down?

Clack-clack...

Skeletons with shattered arms, legs, and torsos began clustering together, reassembling themselves. One with a broken arm bone picked another off the ground and slotted it in. One missing a leg scavenged a replacement. Once they were put back together, they came charging again as if they had never been hit at all.

I kept firing Sword Qi in a continuous barrage, holding them back as best I could, but numbers were numbers. Before I knew it, I was on the verge of losing the top of the hill.

"Damn it! What the hell do you want from me?!"

I snapped at Narration's relentless criticism. I launched another Sword Qi, but the destructive power had dropped off noticeably compared to the first. This was getting genuinely dangerous. At a glance there had been well over a hundred undead, and more than half were still standing. By my plan, I should have taken out at least two-thirds of them before they ever crested this hill.

But no matter how wrecked their bodies got, as long as something still moved, they would reassemble the intact parts and come back. Take down ten and four or five would rise again, good as new, pieced together from leftover parts. Meanwhile, the weapons I had prepared were burning through fast.

In the end, I had no choice but to give them the hill and fall back toward the pit traps. I abandoned the rise and sprinted for the village entrance. The moment I retreated, they clattered over the hill after me in a heartbeat.

Thud-thud! Crash!

A few of the skeletons leading the chase stepped on the pit traps and dropped in. I immediately hurled a torch into the hole, turning the inside into a fire pit.

Fwoooosh—!

The flames burning inside ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the pit were far fiercer than anything out in the open. The holes I had dug roasted them like a giant oven built specifically for cooking undead.

But I had not prepared that many pit traps. There had not been enough time. Honestly, given what I had been working with, managing this many at all was a miracle — and only because a body tempered with mana had let me work at a superhuman pace.

I hoped more of them would tumble into the blazing pits. But once the traps triggered and the ground opened up, the ones behind simply did not fall in. They started leaping the gaps like long jumpers. A few even vaulted the obstacles I had set to funnel their path and came charging straight at me.

"There's still that many left..."

I triggered the remaining pit traps and turned them all into fire pits. That was every trap I had prepared. A rough count of what was left put them at a good thirty.

One versus thirty. Still pretty hopeless, wasn't it? These were not Blue Slimes you could drop in a single cut, and the force behind their attacks was not even in the same league. Just when you thought you had finished one, the intact parts would fuse together and it would get back up. Still better than a hundred, though. All I had left to rely on was my sword.

I steeled myself, planted myself alone across the village entrance, and faced them down. That was when it happened. I was bracing for the final fight when several people burst out of their houses inside the village and came running this way.

"What's going on?"

"Fire? There's a fire! The cemetery's burning!"

"Eek—! What are those things?! Monsters! Monsters are attacking!"

The villagers, woken by the fire I had set in the cemetery and the sounds of fighting, had come out to see what was happening. Their shouts drew even more people from their houses, and they all crowded toward the village entrance where I stood.

"Stay back! Get behind me! It's dangerous!"

I shouted at the gathering villagers. These were not people who had tempered their bodies with mana the way I had. Them getting close would only get in the way.

"Who's that adventurer?"

"Ah! He must be with the subjugation party!"

"Has he been holding this place by himself?"

The villagers clustered behind me each tossed out a comment. They had no idea I was hanging on by a thread, and they gathered at my back to cheer me on.

If I went down here, or if I ran, it would be a catastrophe for these people. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And as far as I could tell, that possibility was far from small. But the villagers had no idea. They assumed I was an adventurer the subjugation party had left behind to protect the village, so they did not even think to flee — they just crowded in to watch me fight.

In comics, this is the part where the hero feels the people's hearts and powers up. Unfortunately, all I felt from their cheers was pressure.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Dozens of skeletons advanced on the village entrance, making that sickening sound. I stood alone in front of them with a single sword, the spectators at my back.

What now? Sword Qi the way Oren used it just did not have enough destructive power. Without a more reliable way to smash them, I was liable to get caught in a gap against this many. If one I thought I had finished came back and slipped past me toward the villagers...

The Narration from earlier surfaced in my mind again. I had already launched more than enough Sword Qi. And still ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Narration had not stopped criticizing me. Which meant Sword Qi was not the answer she had wanted.

Think it through again. I could control the flow of mana through my body, but I could not put the monsters down because I lacked application. Sword Qi was a technique that channeled the mana flowing through the body into the blade. And the Sword Qi I was launching did not have enough destructive power to finish the undead in front of me in a single blow. So to raise that insufficient destructive power...

I focused and began channeling the mana flowing through my body into the sword again. But this time, instead of the entire blade, I gathered it at the tip so it would not leak away. Like concentrating a large volume of liquid down into an extract, I tried to pack the mana densely into a single point at the sword's tip.

Sword Qi had a wide range but lacked destructive power. So if I narrowed the range while using the same force, the destructive power would increase.

The monsters were close enough now that my sword could reach them. I brought the mana-packed blade down with everything I had, aiming for the crown of the nearest one's skull.

Crack!

That skull, which had been so impossibly hard, shattered like a gingerbread house. The sword that had crushed it kept going, meeting no resistance, dropping as far as my range of motion would allow and pulverizing every bone it passed through.

"Ohh! That's the subjugation party for you!"

"Wipe them all out!"

From the skull ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠down to the pelvis, every major piece that made up the skeleton was obliterated in a single mana-charged downward strike. Even creatures that resurrected by reassembling used parts like junkyard mechanics could not come back from being wrecked this thoroughly.

"I... I did it..."

I shuddered at the lingering tingle in my fingertips. But dozens of skeletons were still charging at me. I was not afraid anymore, though. If I could drop them in a single blow, a skeleton or a skeleton's grandpa was no different from a Blue Slime.

"You creepy skull-faced bastards! A Novice adventurer coming through!"

I clenched my teeth, packed the tip of my sword full of mana, and charged into the undead horde.