Ending Maker Chapter 30
Ending Maker Chapter 30
Chapter 6 - Witch's Forest #3
When moving in a group, maintaining a proper formation—a kind of battle array—was extremely important.
Yuder turned to look at Lucas and Cordelia and spoke.
"I’ll take the lead, Lady Cordelia will follow, and Lord Lucas will bring up the rear."
At Yuder's declaration that he would stand at the very front, Cordelia let out a small "Ooh" of admiration, while Lucas wore a slightly dissatisfied expression.
"Lord Yuder, I also..."
"It’s not because I see you as someone who needs protecting, Lord Lucas. I’m entrusting you with the rear, which is just as important as the front."
"The rear?"
"Yes, because right now we're in a place where we don't know where the enemy might spring out from. The rear is just as important as the front. Please keep a close watch behind us and protect Lady Cordelia."
"Understood. Leave it to me."
Lucas nodded with a serious expression.
The thought of a real adventure had excited Lucas, but Yuder’s explanation made him realize anew just how serious their situation was.
"The other knights are probably wandering inside the barrier as well. The best way to overcome the present situation is...... ultimately to free the witch's soul, I suppose."
"The witch's soul will also lift the barrier?"
"Probably."
Since it was an emergency, Cordelia's usual way of speaking had gradually begun to slip out again.
Yuder answered briefly, then spoke to Lucas again.
"For now, I intend to maintain the direction we were moving. We've entered the barrier, but...... the direction itself might still be the same."
"Yes, understood."
Lucas answered spiritedly, immediately drew his sword, and entered a battle-ready stance.
Yuder swallowed once at the sight of Lucas, then drew close to Cordelia and spoke.
"Honestly, even I can’t tell the direction from here. I’m counting on you."
"I know. You mean the witch's voice, right?"
Cordelia likewise brought her face close and spoke quietly, as if whispering.
The witch's voice.
In the original, Cordelia wandered through the Witch's Forest and heard the witch's voice, then moved to the sealing site under her guidance.
"Keep your ears open."
"Got it, I'll keep them wide open. More importantly, a battle formation, huh? Looks like I can cross one line off the list."
"I'll take care of the other things soon too."
"Hmph, I'll look forward to it."
Cordelia ended the exchange in a peculiar way and put distance between herself and Yuder. Yuder equipped the Sun's Necklace onto his knuckles and gazed beyond the fog.
"Let’s move."
Yuder advanced slowly, keeping watch on his surroundings, and Cordelia and Lucas followed behind him, each keeping three steps apart.
How long had they been moving like that?
For a brief rest, Yuder stopped beneath a large tree. Even though they were in the middle of the forest, the spacing between the trees was extremely wide.
"I'll examine the surrounding environment for a moment."
Yuder spoke in a low voice and began to carefully observe the soil on the ground and the nearby trees.
And Cordelia thought.
'What is he doing?'
Observing the surrounding environment.
Honestly, even watching him, Cordelia had no idea what Yuder was doing.
'The fact that the soil changed, too.'
In other words, he had observed the soil when they first entered the forest—something Cordelia could never have imagined doing.
'What did he really do for a living?'
Noticing that the soil had changed while walking, no less.
Being #1 on the server could no longer explain this.
'There's something. There's definitely something about him.'
A memory that could only be called transcendent.
A way of thinking different from ordinary people, and outstanding acting ability.
And on top of that, exceptional powers of observation.
'Something smells fishy.'
It was just when Cordelia was pointlessly sniffing the air once.
"Lady Cordelia."
"Huh? Ah, yes?"
Startled, Cordelia turned her head and saw Lucas.
Yet for some reason, Lucas wore an irritating little grin.
"Lord... Lucas?"
"Ah, my apologies. Lady Cordelia’s gaze as she looked at Lord Yuder was so heartfelt... It truly is a deep love. I hope to experience a love like yours someday."
As Lucas's face even flushed slightly, as if he truly were envious, Cordelia thought.
'What the hell is this crazy bastard talking about?'
Fortunately, however, it was not as urgent a situation as the fight against the Demonic Human Minos, so she was able to prevent it from actually coming out of her mouth.
"Sh... heh heh... I’m sure... you will."
Cordelia barely swallowed her signature exclamation back down her throat and laughed elegantly, while Lucas wiped under his nose with a bashful look, for no real reason.
And that very moment was when it happened.
Cordelia, who had been letting out an awkward laugh, suddenly sprang up from her spot. Lucas, though a beat late, also sharpened his eyes and looked around.
The air had changed.
More precisely, she could feel several sharp, piercing gazes.
"Lady Cordelia."
Instead of answering Lucas's call, Cordelia gripped Moonlight with both hands and shouted.
"Yuder!"
Her gaze was still fixed straight ahead.
Beyond the thickly settled fog, a rattling, clattering sound could be heard. It was not one, but many.
'Let's think. Let's remember.'
In the original, there had been quite a few types of monsters Cordelia encountered while wandering the Witch's Forest.
In the forest's outskirts, mainly forest goblins; in the deeper areas, fierce beasts like owl bears and war boars that required considering immediate flight. And near the sealing site.......
'Skeletons!'
The power of the seal imprisoning the witch's soul was by no means weak.
Containing the power of Asmodeus, the Infernal Lord of Lust, it affected not only the witch's soul but also the surrounding area, and thanks to that, in the depths of the Witch's Forest, death was no longer an eternal rest.
Because the powerful demonic energy had rebirthed the dead as undead monsters.
"Lucas! Put the sheath on your sword! Blunt force works better against skeletons!"
Cordelia shouted, and even in his surprise Lucas hurriedly loosened the scabbard from his belt while keeping it on the sword.
And at last, the skeletons revealed themselves.
'Eight.'
It was not a small number.
The ones that came staggering along were all wearing tattered white clothes, and somehow they did not look unfamiliar.
'What? Was it like this in the original too?'
It was when Cordelia was gritting her teeth and agonizing.
"The Guardians."
Yuder, who had at some point moved right beside her, spoke.
The Guardians of the Holy Cross.
A group of humans who opposed demons, influencing the entire Hero Legend series.
Broadly speaking, the holy knight Garius, who had sealed the great demon Leisegang in the past, and the priests of Solari were also members of the Guardians.
Given the circumstances, they had most likely entered the forest to destroy a magic beast serving Asmodeus and ended up like this.
"The Guardians? Then?!"
"There's probably one more."
Because the Guardians of the Holy Cross moved in squads of nine.
And then, as if answering Yuder and Cordelia, a new skeleton revealed itself from behind the skeletons that had formed ranks.
It was likewise worn, but it was a skeleton wearing a holy combat vestment on which the holy cross emblem of the Guardians was clearly visible.
It was probably the squad leader commanding the others.
"Lord Yuder! They’re—!"
Lucas shouted in a voice full of tension.
Because the eight skeletons that had revealed themselves were beginning to form a battle array.
"The Guardian Annihilation Formation."
The most basic formation of the Guardians, created for the purpose of integrating offense and defense.
What was more, as if things were going from bad to worse, red fighting spirit began to shimmer around their hands.
Even though they had become undead monsters, they apparently could still use the techniques of the Guardians.
"Fuck."
Cordelia finally let out a cry of admiration and swallowed hard. Yuder spoke quickly.
"As expected of a basic formation, the pattern is simple. Tie them down together with Lucas. I'll take on the squad leader."
The Guardian Annihilation Formation took the form of eight acting as a fortress while the squad leader moved in and out of the formation to strike the enemy.
Therefore, to break the Guardian Annihilation Formation, they had to split the enemies apart by engaging the squad leader and the formation separately.
Cordelia accepted Yuder's explanation.
Because it was theoretically perfect.
But as always, there was bound to be a gap between theory and reality.
"Hey, wait, hey!"
Cordelia shouted urgently, but by then Yuder had already kicked off the ground.
The skeletons, too, began advancing, albeit sluggishly, in the Guardian Annihilation Formation, and the squad leader likewise kicked off the ground, as if chasing after Yuder, who was slipping away to the side.
"You bastard! I’m not you! I’m not!"
The pattern is simple.
If you know the pattern, you can break it easily.
'Who the hell memorizes all of that?!'
Countless monsters appeared in Hero Legend 2, and their natural spawn patterns easily numbered in the hundreds or thousands.
Who but Outboxer would memorize all those patterns?
"L-Lady Cordelia?!"
"They're coming! Just hold your position for now!"
Cordelia shouted reflexively, struck the ground with Moonlight, and chanted a spell. First, to prevent the enemies from approaching immediately, she spread grease over a wide area, then shouted to Lucas again.
"It starts from the right! High-high-low!"
"What?!"
Lucas shouted in confusion, but he was not called a sword prodigy for nothing.
The enemies circled around the grease Cordelia had spread, but Yuder still managed to evade their attacks perfectly, if narrowly.
'It's real!'
Head-head-low.
Head, head, low.
The attacks that three skeletons unleashed in succession were exactly as Cordelia had said.
"Lady Cordelia!"
"This time it's my side! Mid-mid-low!"
Cordelia cast Haste on herself, then moved quickly to put distance between herself and Lucas. It was to avoid being surrounded.
'Why do I remember this?'
And soon Cordelia realized.
Her mind might not know, but her body did.
It was a bit odd to say her body knew since she had been reborn, but in any case, Cordelia's subconscious, honed through hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of hunts, remembered the patterns of the Guardian Annihilation Formation.
"Lady Cordelia!"
"Center! High-low-high-low-mid! Simultaneously!"
Cordelia, who had shouted reflexively, did not try to dredge up her memories. She entrusted her body to her hunting instincts and spoke aloud whatever surfaced.
"Head-head-low!"
Thud!
As if piercing through Cordelia's clear voice, Yuder stamped the ground hard. Watching the squad leader skeleton charging at him from the front, he thought with his head instead of instinct.
'A pugilist. A Guardian squad leader. Judging by the vestments, his rank is low. Probably 7th grade. If so, what he uses is the Divine Strike Fist!'
A fist art belonging to the stage directly above the Guardian Fist, the basic art learned by the pugilists of the Guardians.
Just as the Thirty-Six World Steps advanced through several stages before reaching the Nine Celestial Steps, Divine Strike Fist began with the fundamentals and developed into higher martial arts.
'Because it became undead, the power of its holy fighting spirit has weakened.'
Magical power, internal energy, holy fighting spirit.
In the end, they were all similar concepts, but slight differences existed.
Holy fighting spirit was internal energy with the power of life added.
Therefore, it was not a power that an undead monster could properly wield. It was forcibly using it through demonic energy, but it clearly would not reach the power it had in life.
Moreover, the thing now had no blood or flesh.
The movement of its holy fighting spirit was fully visible over its white bones.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Yuder kicked off the ground in succession.
It was not that there was a set pattern like the Guardian Annihilation Formation, but Yuder displayed perfect evasion, as if he had completely memorized all of the enemy's attack patterns.
'Because I can see it.'
The flow of holy fighting spirit moving along the enemy's skeleton. And from that, what kind of attack the enemy would unleash.
Of course, it was a feat that an ordinary person could not perform whether or not they could see it, but for Outboxer, it was possible.
Moreover, the current him—Yuder—also possessed something he had not had before.
'The Heavenly Martial Body!'
The squad leader skeleton was by no means weak.
It was using holy fighting spirit that was pathetic compared to when it was alive, but the Divine Strike Fist itself was fast and precise.
But Yuder was fast too.
With the defeat of the Demonic Human Minos, his level had surpassed 20, and his overall physical abilities had also grown significantly.
And one more thing had been added.
Yuder did not stop at simply dodging attacks.
He did not stop at naturally envisioning the next attack that would follow.
The Heavenly Martial Body.
A talent for martial arts bestowed by heaven!
FWOOSH!
A pure white flame of fighting spirit bloomed from Yuder's fist.
Holy fighting spirit.
Internal energy with the power of life—which any living being possessed—added to it.
Watching the movement of the holy fighting spirit, he felt as if he understood.
At some point, the method of using it had naturally surfaced in his mind.
And as a result.
Yuder held his breath.
He read the skeleton squad leader’s punch as it rushed straight at him.
Feeling the trajectory the enemy would draw, he shifted his body's center.
SWOOSH!
The skeleton’s fist punched through empty air with a sharp crack. Yuder slipped past the attack as though letting it flow by and clenched his fist.
He drew a single picture in his mind.
What the squad leader skeleton had displayed several times.
The flow of holy fighting spirit it had shown again and again without hiding it in the slightest.
They became one.
They connected naturally.
And because of that, Yuder could unleash it.
'Divine Strike Fist.'
Holy Cross Thrust.
Above Yuder's fist, pure white holy fighting spirit took the shape of a cross.
With a violent impact sound, it shattered the squad leader skeleton's chest.