Chapter 247: Through Overwhelming Force
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 247: Through Overwhelming Force
The more Encrid learned, realized, and delved into 'Will', the more fascinating and wondrous it became.
If it took swinging a sword a hundred times to feel a spark of enjoyment, 'Will' showed a noticeable change with just a single touch. It was fundamentally different from the sword.
'This is absolutely insane.'
Though he appeared calm on the outside, he was more thrilled than ever within. He was practically going mad with excitement. It wasn't just that he loved it; he genuinely felt that even sleeping was a waste of time. He researched and indulged in it even in his dreams.
Since he was a man who had thoroughly enjoyed even the most grueling paths of the sword and physical conditioning, training his 'Will' was nothing short of pure bliss.
What if the rapier swordsman unleashed his intimidation once more right now? What if he saw the current Encrid?
He would be just as shocked as before, if not more. No, he would be beyond shocked—he would be utterly terrified. After all, conventional wisdom dictated that even if one realized a fragment of 'Will', it would take years to integrate it into the body to the point of familiarity.
A desire for achievement whipped Encrid forward. No, it gently nudged his back, wrapping around him and whispering warm words of encouragement. Having mastered it to this extent, it was only natural that he wanted to test it.
More than anything, he was curious.
'How far can I take this?'
How far would his Rejection reach?
He had heard that among the monsters of the Demon Realm, general-type leaders occasionally appeared, capable of binding a human's body with sheer bloodlust. And such an opponent was standing right in front of him.
'Is this luck?'
Had the Goddess of Fortune really spat on his cheek for good luck? Surely, a mere peck on the lips couldn't explain this level of fortune.
"Kiyoooooot!"
The bloodlust washed over him, and he rejected it. There was not the slightest difficulty in the process.
Encrid drew his sword.
Chiring.
The Centaur Leader closed in, stopping ten paces away. To his left and right, monsters that seemed to be the leader's subordinates rushed past.
Encrid ignored them. One of them swung a wooden club at his head. Bending halfway at the waist to dodge and rising back up was an incredibly natural motion, as if he had pre-arranged to move exactly that way. The club swept over his head.
Whoosh!
The wind pressure pressed down on his hair, and a gust brushed past his cheek. Ragna was already out of sight. He wasn't the type to freeze up and get done in by this level of bloodlust, so he was likely holding his own.
Encrid focused his gaze solely on the monster leader standing before him.
"What? Surprised?" Encrid asked in a gentle tone, genuinely enjoying himself.
His Rejection had completely repelled the opponent's bloodlust. In fact, it hadn't been difficult at all. A rush of ecstasy filled him because he knew he was walking the right path.
Despite being a monster, the Centaur Leader possessed intelligence, and so it hesitated. What was this human? Wasn't he just prey? How was he withstanding its bloodlust?
It had been driven out of the Demon Realm and had come all this way. It had been a long journey. Since arriving here, every creature it encountered had been unable to withstand its aura. So why?
A pair of deep blue eyes stared straight back at the monster.
"Let's go to heaven."
Encrid spoke, thinking of Audin, and swung his sword. Stepping forward with his left foot, he shifted his center of gravity, and his forearm muscles swelled in an instant. The strike began at his ankles and fell with his waist as the axis.
From top to bottom, it was a downward slash from the Heavy Sword Style. Like Rem's, the sword became a beam of light and plunged down.
"Kkiat!"
The leader reflexively thrust its glaive forward. Its reaction was excellent; though startled, it immediately thrust its weapon out. The glaive intercepted the trajectory of the sword.
Clang!
The collision of metal sounded like the explosion of a flame spell. It was as if lightning had struck. With that single exchange, Encrid realized that the leader possessed more than just bloodlust.
'Strength.'
It was monstrous strength.
He absorbed the shock through his knees and took a step back. Meanwhile, the deflected glaive rose straight into the air. Encrid's senses flared to life. Drawing upon his countless experiences, he predicted his opponent's next move. His heightened five senses caught a glimpse of the future.
The glaive swept down in a diagonal arc. It was a strike designed to leave no room for evasion. He had to block it.
For a monster, it was remarkably clever. The trajectory of the glaive forced the opponent's hand, reminiscent of the Orthodox Sword Style.
Encrid raised his sword. He focused and acted simultaneously. Loosening his grip on his wrist slightly, he deflected the blow with a fluid, shaking motion at the moment of impact.
It was the Soft Sword Style.
Clang! Ting-ting-ting!
The glaive slid off the blade of Encrid's sword, and in that brief window, Encrid took a step forward. He had used the sword in his right hand for defense, but his left hand was still free.
Encrid's left hand threw the guard sword he had drawn at some point. It was the Flicking Sword Style. While deflecting the glaive with the Soft Sword Style, he twisted his waist and transferred that momentum directly into his left arm. Then, using his elbow as an axis, he snapped his left hand forward, throwing the broad-bladed dagger with elastic force.
Ping, thud!
The thick blade sank into the leader's flank, leaving only the hilt visible. He had thrown it while activating the Heart of Monstrous Strength. It was a wonder it hadn't pierced clean through, which only meant the enemy's body was incredibly tough.
"Kkiaaaat!"
Furious, the monster's aura grew even more violent. With it, its bloodlust thickened once again.
'Die, die, you are my prey.'
He almost seemed to hear those words. Encrid didn't bother to speak. Something welled up like heat from deep within his lower abdomen. That heat dispelled whatever the opponent was projecting.
It was Rejection.
"Hup!"
Inhaling deeply, he stepped forward again, straightened his knees, locked his elbow, and swung his sword with his waist as the axis. It was a horizontal slash.
Whoosh!
Instead of blocking, the monster retreated. Just as he intended.
From then on, Encrid advanced as if dancing. His sword moved in tandem with his feet lightly tapping and pushing off the ground. Thrusting, slashing, and cleaving. Whether the monster dodged or blocked, he kept his sword in constant motion.
He spun the sword over his head and brought it down, pulled back the downward strike to thrust, feigned retrieving the thrust to slash left, and swung the sword wide once more.
Clang! Thud, rip! Clang!
Some strikes were blocked, while others hit home. The path of the glaive was thoroughly restricted. The Orthodox Sword Style, which had been recorded in the nameless magic sword, relentlessly drove the opponent back.
Being a monster, it probably didn't even realize it was falling into a trap. The leader couldn't even use its strength properly. Physical power comes from movement, and before it could exert its full strength, Encrid's sword restricted and blocked its every motion.
The Centaur Leader, which looked like a mass of muscle several times larger and harder than a human body, retreated in a manner unbecoming of its massive size. As it repeatedly backed away, defeat became inevitable.
Encrid was completely overwhelming his opponent.
"Kkiat! Kkiaat!"
The leader unleashed its bloodlust in a desperate struggle. Encrid easily ignored it. His Rejection rose naturally and deflected it. When he had first wielded 'Will', it had felt like a newly grown tail, but now it felt more familiar than his own body.
He felt as though he possessed a sturdy, deep well—a well that never ran dry, no matter how much water was drawn. Because the power that formed the foundation of his Rejection welled up from that very source, this was child's play.
Slashing, thrusting, striking, pulling, and cutting, he drove the enemy into a corner until, finally, Encrid's sword deeply gashed the monster's right front leg. The blade sliced through the horse-like leg's muscle. Sinking about half a finger-joint deep, the blade severed muscle and nerve before pulling back out.
Spurt.
Black blood sprayed from the cut. Perhaps a blood vessel had been severed, as the blood gushed out in torrents. A monster's regenerative power was terrifying, especially for a colony leader, which might be a cousin to a troll.
'This is the end.'
Encrid saw the end, and the leader grew terrified. It had led its pack of monsters with its unique abilities until now, but the moment it encountered a predator stronger than itself, it recalled the reason it had been driven all the way here in the first place.
Back then, too, it had been because of a certain human.
"Kkiaaaaas!"
The leader gave a signal and turned around. Despite its severed front leg, it tapped the ground with its front hooves and spun around on its hind legs. It was an astonishing display of athletic ability.
Of course, Encrid had no intention of just watching. Just as he was about to step forward to cut it down, an interruption came.
Screeech!
Two harpies suddenly swooped down, thrusting their talons forward. If they caught him, the gambeson and leather armor he wore would surely be shredded to pieces.
Was it a surprise attack? No. Even while focusing on his enemy, his five senses remained wide open. Encrid was not flustered by the ambush. Instead, he drew his sword diagonally from the upper left down to his lower abdomen, then slashed diagonally upward in the opposite direction.
Slash! Crunch! Thud! Thud!
With two sword strikes, the two harpies became four. They turned into lumps of meat strewn across the ground. By the time he had carved through the winged monsters and pressed forward, the leader was already running away.
'It'll be a pain if I let it escape.'
Indeed, it would. One could tell just by looking at the pack it had gathered here. What if it created a bunch of horse demonic beasts again and nested in that forest? Furthermore, an entity of a colony leader's caliber was highly likely to develop its abilities even further over time.
Encrid kicked off the ground. He recalled the squire he had first seen on the battlefield. The memory of that absurd charge was still vivid in his mind.
'Like that squire's charge?'
Would it work? Infusing the 'Will' of Rejection into his legs as well?
Naturally, it wasn't easy. While using Rejection had been incredibly easy and fun ever since he learned it, learning something new was still difficult—exceedingly difficult. There was no way to force what was impossible.
Recalling the squire sprinting across the battlefield against Azpen, Encrid activated the Heart of Monstrous Strength. Explosive physical power surged into his thighs. He threw his weight into the force kicking off the ground.
Boom!
The sound of him kicking off the ground was a thunderous roar, like a battering ram slamming into a castle gate.
"Kkiyot!"
Along the way, a subordinate monster approached and swung its club. Encrid slashed his sword as he ran.
Slash!
The approaching centaur's neck was sliced open. He had ducked to dodge the club and swung his sword in the same motion. It was a sequence of movements he wouldn't have even dreamed of attempting in the past.
Propelled off the ground, his body shot forward like a single line. He pursued the fleeing centaur exactly where it was heading.
And there were those who watched this unfold.
*
Just when it seemed most of the soldiers had frozen up from the bloodlust and everything had gone to shit once again—
"Be severed."
There was someone who muttered as he sliced through the empty air. It was Ragna. He immediately moved among those who had frozen. The charging centaurs couldn't even withstand Ragna's sword twice.
Ragna deflected a club and split a head open, and even sliced a charging horse's torso vertically in half. He made all of it look simple, straightforward, and easy. It didn't even feel dynamic. It was like cutting dry hay with a sharp scythe. In other words, his swordplay looked like simple labor, a standardized task.
'What on earth is that?'
It was enough to shock anyone. But the one who shocked them even more was Encrid.
'Why are you moving?'
Though his vision had gone dark for a moment from the bloodlust, it soon cleared. Torres watched Encrid fighting right before his eyes.
'Why is he fighting so well?'
He was always a good fighter, but... even without an eye that could instantly gauge someone's skill, even without an eye that could read talent, this was on a completely different level. Furthermore, Encrid easily ignored the leader's bloodlust as he swung his sword. Deflecting, thrusting, and unleashing a flurry of strikes. He completely overwhelmed the beast.
'Wow.'
The body that had been frozen by the bloodlust soon thawed. Even so, Torres didn't move. Ragna was carving and slicing through the rushing monsters one by one, and Sachsen, who had appeared out of nowhere, was also chasing them down and killing them one by one.
And when the leader fled, Encrid chased after it.
"Hey! If you go in there—!"
Torres started to shout but stopped himself. He thought chasing it deep inside would be a bad move. Yet, he also believed it had to be pursued. Because if they let it escape, it would become an even bigger headache.
"Rem! Your captain is heading into the forest!"
Torres chose the next best option.
"Goddammit!" Rem barked back. It didn't seem like an answer directed at Torres himself, but his actions aligned perfectly with Torres's intentions.
Rem swung his axes left and right, slaughtering five or six human-faced dogs in an instant. His axes became beams of light, slicing through the monsters. Then, Rem dashed forward. His body slipped through the monsters as if he were strolling in his own front yard. Wherever he passed, only the corpses of monsters and demonic beasts remained.
"If you've warmed up, fight on your own," Ragna muttered before moving as well.
His sword spun, cutting down everything in his path. After finishing the task of carving through everything blocking him, he chased after Encrid, who had headed into the forest. Beside him, the two massive figures who had torn through the pack of demonic beasts also began to run.
"Let's go!" Audin, the religious fanatic, shouted as he smashed a ghoul's head with his fist.
Before they knew it, it had become a chaotic melee, but the battlefield was overwhelmingly in favor of the humans. The monsters and demonic beasts were too busy getting beaten to do anything else.
'Crazy.'
Torres could only marvel in disbelief. A ghoul's eyeball rolled to a stop right in front of Torres's foot. Torres stomped on it.
Squelch—
The eyeball burst and flattened against the ground. They were still in the middle of a battle; there was no time to stand around admiring the view.
"Kill them all!" Torres shouted, grinding the eyeball under his boot. It was time to finish off the remaining monsters and demonic beasts.
*
Too fast.
Encrid ran with all his might, but chasing a monster naturally built for running was difficult. He was barely managing to keep up. The forest was not an ideal environment for sprinting. It was only thanks to that that he hadn't lost it yet.
What if they hit open ground?
'I'll probably lose it.'
It was a cold, realistic assessment. Should he try throwing a dagger? A creature that kept running even after its front leg was slashed and a sword was plunged into its flank wasn't going to stop just because a few knives were added to its back as decoration. Instead of stopping to throw them, it seemed better to take even one more step forward.
Even knowing he might lose it, Encrid did not give up. Quitting halfway just because the outcome seemed obvious was not in Encrid's nature.