The One Who Rises Higher Still
“T-Tamer Count!”
Still lying flat on his back, facing death, Shrakhim shouted as if begging to be saved.
“So the slime had a talent for clinging, did it? You’ve held on well enough.”
Ho-yeong came charging in on Mandragorani.
Of course, he had no intention of crashing straight into it. Mandragorani might have been a large deer, but it was nowhere near Hoogryphon’s size.
“Number Eight, down!”
Instead, he made Mandragorani drop to its knees, then used the force of his momentum and the rebound to spring upward.
“Haaah!”
He drove his body forward with a Dandanium shield leading the way.
- Hoooogh!
Hoogryphon reeled and staggered backward. Its ears had been damaged by Mandragorani’s scream, leaving its balance unsteady.
“What are you doing, idiot? Hurry up and climb onto Number Eight. Don’t lie around being a nuisance.”
“Th-thank you.”
While Ho-yeong bought him time, Shrakhim crawled over on all fours and threw his arms tightly around the neck of the prone Number Eight.
- Raaani? Rani-rani! (You said we were persecuting our own kind! And now you’re shamelessly climbing on top of me?!)
“I-I’m sorry. Please, forgive me.”
“Number Eight. I understand that you don’t want to carry him, but take him to Lilian quickly!”
- Rani-rani! (Yes!)
By then, Hoogryphon had gathered itself and was charging Ho-yeong again.
- Hoorri!
The creature slashed down with its forepaw, full of force, only to freeze in confusion a moment later. There wasn’t even a scratch on the Dandanium shield.
- Hoogh?!
Its own claws had been ruined instead.
“Oh, wow. A Dandanium shield? That’s incredible.”
He had already tested it, but this was his first time using it in real combat.
It was a custom-made piece, quenched in high-grade mana water after being forged from superior Dandanium, so its sturdiness was on another level entirely.
“That clawing of yours used to slice leather armor like butter, but it can’t even leave a scratch on this shield. So this is the thing Lord Berneval told me about. Hardness!”
Hoogryphon lifted its head high and slammed its beak down.
“Let’s see how strong you are too!”
Ho-yeong spread his legs front and back, lowered his stance, and thrust the shield up.
- Crack.
The beak that had once drilled through cliff rock shattered uselessly.
“Wow. The strength is excellent too!”
Achievement [Reflective Damage] accomplished! Guardian-nim, you used your armor to turn a monster’s attack against it and dealt heavy damage. Truly impressive! You have earned 10 EP as a reward.
Ho-yeong was delighted with the performance of the Tamer Territory’s custom shield.
“Who was it who said the best defense is offense? Then if you do both at once, it’s perfect!”
Additional Achievement Opportunity!
📍 Location: Battlefield
🎁 Reward: Triple the normal reward for the achievement Boldly Shielding with a Shield if you defeat Hoogryphon using only armor and without drawing a sword. Success within 5 minutes from now will grant three times the usual reward.
“Oh? I can’t pass up a triple event.”
His competitive spirit flaring, Ho-yeong decided he had to complete the achievement.
On the other hand, Hoogryphon had lost all of its main means of attack and hesitated.
- Hoo…hoogh.
A low groan leaked from its shattered beak.
Of course, losing its claws and beak did not mean it had been rendered helpless. Just as a tiger that had lost its teeth and claws could still break a human’s neck with a forepaw blow.
“Come on, bring it!”
The monster decided to weaponize the one thing that overwhelmingly favored it: size and mass.
- Hooogh!
If the shield was annoying, then it could simply crush him outright.
“Hup!”
- Hoogh?!
It nearly panicked. The human was charging straight toward it and meeting its strength head-on.
“I already checked that your strength stat doesn’t even break 70. I’m stronger than you, punk.”
Hoogryphon looked stunned as, instead of being pushed back, it was the one being forced away by monstrous strength.
“I said only the armor was allowed. I never said only the shield counted, so I should be able to use my helmet too.”
- Hoooggh! Hoot!
It even came at him with a headbutt, the pointed helmet leading the charge.
It had crushed countless prey with its beak, but this was the first time it had ever been struck back.
* * *
While Ho-yeong struggled to grind out the achievement, Lilian moved Shrakhim to a secluded spot and treated him.
“An open fracture and a comminuted fracture. Useless.”
Seeing how severe Shrakhim’s injuries were, she drew her sword.
“W-wait! You, no, Lady Lilian! What do you mean, useless? And why are you drawing your sword? I was wrong about everything. I’ll apologize. But I haven’t done anything deserving death, have I?! Please, please spare my life!”
“Shut up and bite down on this.”
Lilian stripped off one of Shrakhim’s shoes and shoved it into his mouth.
“Ugh. Mmgh!”
Then she ordered Mandragorani, “Hold him down tight. Don’t let him move.”
- Raani! (Yes!)
“Mmmph!”
Looking at the sword raised high overhead, Shrakhim shook his head desperately.
The Tamer guy may have been one thing, but the fact that this woman came along already felt wrong. She came here to kill me with her own hands!
Instead of a first-night dream, a guillotine had appeared before him.
- Snip.
Only, the blade came down not on his neck, but below the knee.
“Mmmmmmph!”
As blood spurted and pain exploded through him, Shrakhim squeezed his eyes shut.
“Open your mouth.”
Lilian pulled the shoe out of his throat.
“Pwah!”
Then she roughly grabbed his jaw and poured something liquid down his throat.
“Cough… ghk! Wha—?”
As the pain receded, the leg that had been cut away began to grow back before his eyes.
“Originally, I planned to use healing ointment.”
Calmly tucking the healing potion bottle back into her chest, Lilian said as if tossing off an aside, “But your shinbone was crushed beyond repair. The ointment wouldn’t have done anything.”
“Then when you said it was useless, you meant…?”
The Tamer Territory’s custom-made healing ointment was made by mixing adsorption soil with Dodum tree sap.
Compared with the existing healing potions, which required sap to be mixed with troll blood and then purified through a ritual, its production was far more efficient, but its effect lagged behind. If the wound were only a simple open fracture, the bones could be set and the ointment applied into the gaps, but with someone like Shrakhim, whose bones had shattered to pieces, there was nothing to be done.
“T-thank you. Truly, thank you!”
“If you want to thank someone, thank Lord Ho-yeong. He used a potion more precious than your miserable life.”
Though in truth, she had used it on her own authority.
“Since you’re healed, return to the barracks.”
“Understood. I will never forget this kindness.”
Just as she was about to send Shrakhim off on Number Eight again, he suddenly shouted, “Lady Lilian! There, there!”
Seeing Hoogryphon flying toward them behind Lilian, Shrakhim panicked.
“I’ll help too!”
- Raani, rani? Rani-rani. (Are you stupid? You threw away your weapon and came running here. What are you going to fight with? Put your shoes back on, you idiot.)
“Ah.”
At the dumbfounded Shrakhim, who had his mouth hanging open, Lilian urgently held out her hand.
“Hand over the blink scroll. Quickly!”
“R-right here.”
After receiving the Blink Scroll he had tucked into his clothing, she turned her back.
“If you want to help me, then get out of here fast. You’ll only get in the way. That is an order from the Tamer Territory Guard Captain.”
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
Once Number Eight disappeared with Shrakhim on its back, Lilian tucked the scroll under one arm and gripped her spear firmly with both hands.
Lord Ho-yeong is safe. He would never be done in by something like Hoogryphon.
The reddish-brown ends of her short hair whipped in the wind that carried the red dust of the wilds.
Why did Lilian, who hated anything cumbersome, keep her hair short rather than shaving it all off? Surprisingly, it was because she wanted to look feminine. Only, there were two distinct groups of people in front of whom she wanted to look feminine.
The first was one man. It was a thought she held unconsciously, one she herself did not yet realize.
Then the reason that thing is coming toward me is...
The second was monsters.
It might seem strange, but if you thought of how predatory animals went after easy prey first, it made sense.
Monsters that hunted humans did the same. The weak, the young, and the old. Children, the elderly, and women. They were softer targets, and slower on their feet.
- Hooorri!
Hoogryphon was no different.
It had spotted Lilian, who looked delicate at a glance, and used a fierce beating of its wings to throw up a wall of sand between itself and Ho-yeong before breaking away.
- Hoogh…
Too strong. Human. Without beak, impossible to handle. Take down the female first. Then run if the male comes.
Yes. The one standing in front of you is a weak woman. So come at me.
A weak woman, that is, a Famous Sword-level spear user.
Of course, most soldiers didn’t want to be marked as prey. Lilian was the opposite.
“Come on, then!”
She wanted herself to be attacked first in place of her precious superior or her comrades.
That was why she wanted to look feminine, why she kept her hair long enough to count as hair at all.
“Haah!”
The short-haired knight, backed against an invisible cliff wall, planted the shaft of her spear against the ground and sprang upward.
- Hoogh?!
When the target leaped high, Hoogryphon flew even higher to match it.
Just before its forepaws could seize Lilian.
- Rip.
Lilian tore the Blink Scroll from beneath her arm with her teeth.
The target vanished all at once, leaving Hoogryphon momentarily confused. Sensing something ominous, it drew its neck in tight.
“Up here.”
Startled by the voice above it, the creature snapped its head up.
Normally, a blink scroll was used horizontally for escape. She had used it vertically instead, sending herself upward along a straight line.
- Hoot?!
Lilian was not announcing her position just to look impressive.
There was a practical, combat-driven reason for it.
- Hoogh!
If the creature had kept its head tucked in, it would have taken collision damage, but its neck would not have been broken.
But it had lifted its head, and in that position it slammed into the invisible cliff wall. Hoogryphon fell with its neck bent backward.
“Haah!”
Now able to strike at a vital point from above, Lilian gripped her spear upside down and fell with both aura and body weight behind it.
- Crack.
The spearhead pierced the neck joint and drove clean through into the ground.
- Ho…ogh…
As the creature weakly flapped its wings, Lilian drew the sword she had strapped to her back while standing on its spine.
Hoogryphon’s weak point lay at the junction where the boar’s lower body met the eagle’s upper body.
“Ha!”
With a short cry, she swung. The blade split it cleanly in two, from Hoogryphon to the “phon” of it.
“Damn. I’m late.”
At that moment, Ho-yeong arrived.
“Hah. What a shame. I failed the triple event after all. Damn it.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Hm? Nothing.”
“Why are you making that face? Your subordinate killed the monster you missed, but instead of being happy, you look disappointed.”
“No, no, of course not. Seeing your splendid technique just made me realize I still have a long way to go. Ahem.”
After recovering her spear, Lilian leaped down from Hoogryphon’s carcass.
“More importantly, let’s hurry. There are still others left.”
“Right. But I sent Shrakhim off on Number Eight, so I suppose I’ll have to ride with you.”
Ho-yeong paused. Who should sit in front?
“This is my warhorse, so I’ll handle it.”
“Will you? Then let’s do that.”
Lilian, who had inwardly wanted to sit behind her lord, said nothing and climbed onto the horse.
“I’ll set off now.”
“Hey, aren’t you going a little too fast?”
Rocked by the gallop, Ho-yeong swayed and grabbed the hem of Lilian’s cloak.
“Hold on tight. Don’t let go.”
Gripping the cloak alone felt too unstable, and Ho-yeong briefly considered leaning against Lilian’s back instead.
Hmm. Would she hate me for looking weak?
Unaccountably hesitant, he shifted away.
“If you keep pulling at me like this, it becomes difficult for me. Just wrap your arms around my waist.”
Lilian had been irritated by the cloak being thrown back and, without thinking, blurted it out.
“Sorry. Then, excuse me.”
Embarrassed, Ho-yeong wrapped his arms around Lilian’s waist.
It’s been a long time since I rode a horse with my company commander, no, with Lord Ho-yeong. Was it back when she taught me how to ride? Back then, I always sat behind her.
Lilian drifted into memories from her girlhood.
It’s a little awkward.
Even with his arms around her waist, there was thick plate armor in the way, so he couldn’t really feel anything beneath his hands.
And yet, somehow, it felt as if a warm current were seeping through the cold metal.
Awkward... but not unpleasant.
Her lips lifted just slightly at the corners.
Huh? What’s that smell? It’s not blood or earth. Sweat?
On the swaying horse’s back, she caught the scent of pink salt from him.
Strange. It’s definitely the smell of sweat, but mixed in with some odd, subtle fragrance. Why? A soldier’s sweat usually just stinks like sour milk.
Even the breath she felt against her back seemed oddly close.
Weird... but it doesn’t smell bad.
With a strange feeling filling all five senses, Lilian urged the horse onward.
Was the five-kilometer stretch always this short?
The camp was already right before them. It seemed all the Hoogryphons had been dealt with.
“We’re almost there.”
The lord said nothing.
“Lord?”
Feeling the weight on her back, Lilian looked over her shoulder. The lord had fallen asleep at some point and was leaning against her back.
He must have been exhausted. Well, he would be. He hasn’t rested properly for days and has personally overseen everything. And then there was the fight with the Hoogryphon too.
Lilian pulled back on the reins. It was a rare thing.
Let him rest a little longer.
Ho-yeong, who had the habit of hugging a pillow when he slept, muttered in his sleep with his arms around Lilian’s back.
“Lilian... your waist is thicker than I expected. Hmm... yes, a core this solid is what makes the backbone of a territory...”
- Thud.
On the cold autumn night, Ho-yeong could not lie down and had to sleep face-first instead.
He still had no idea why Lilian’s edification level had dropped.
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