Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
Gambit
This situation was the greatest crisis Rudian had faced in the world of .
Truthfully, the incident where Calline had caused trouble not long ago had been the biggest crisis, but the fact that the term "greatest" had been updated within a matter of days was absurd even in hindsight.
-How about fleeing instead? If it’s just the Master, I can somehow help you escape.
Even though the back exit was blocked by monsters, Adi knew of the existence of a secret escape route somewhere.
'No, let’s save that as a last resort.'
Rudian shook his head in refusal.
Just a few hours ago, he had trembled in fear for his life, but once he changed his resolve, his actions needed to follow suit.
"Captain, I think we should retreat."
Arnold, a knight of the Lion Hearts and Derrick’s subordinate, suggested retreat.
"If those bastards are targeting the Young Master, we won’t be able to handle it."
"But the Count won’t calmly order a retreat."
Derrick glanced subtly at Calline to gauge his reaction.
This expedition had begun on Calline’s insistence, and the Count had also ordered them to stake their lives on completing it once they started.
As a knight leading his subordinates, it was only right to command a retreat, but it was also a knight’s duty to stake their lives for the glory of their family and the honor of the next-generation Count.
Naturally, Calline was not only refusing to retreat but even attempting the madness of personally wielding a sword to join the battlefield.
"I will definitely take that sword! Everyone, fight hard!"
"Young Master! Please stop!"
"Let go of me!"
Fortunately, that madness was prevented by the intervention of a knight assigned as his escort, but Derrick saw Calline’s determination to never retreat in that moment.
"Fight on! Knights of the Iskar family!"
Even though Derrick was the de facto leader, he couldn’t openly defy the orders of Calline, the young master.
After receiving enthusiastic cheers from the cheer squad, Derrick sighed and turned his head again.
"There must be some way to turn this situation around..."
Just as Derrick muttered this while searching for a solution
"Sir Derrick!"
Rudian shouted at Derrick at that very moment.
Upon hearing the voice of the one who had tricked him earlier, Derrick naturally twisted his face into a fierce scowl and raised his voice.
"I don’t have the leisure to listen to you right now! Just stake your life on protecting the Young Master like you did before!"
"That’s not it! Look at the gem embedded over there! Doesn’t it seem suspicious?"
"...A gem?"
Only after Rudian’s pointing did Derrick notice the presence of the Blood Magic Stone embedded in the distance.
"That, that is!"
"The Blood Magic Stone!"
Had they been too preoccupied with the fierce battle to notice?
Derrick finally noticed the red gem embedded far away and let out a shocked cry.
"Th-this! How could I have missed such a thing!"
Though it was a somewhat self-aggrandizing line, Derrick’s voice genuinely carried self-reproach.
The expressions of the other knights, who had belatedly discovered the Blood Magic Stone, also changed.
"Arnold, Chris, can you two destroy that core in sync?"
The two named by Derrick were the most skilled among the knights.
Though not as capable as Derrick, they could still manifest Aura Swords to some extent.
But their response was negative.
"Impossible. As you know, Captain, that bastard is holding back his full power to restrain us. If the number of skull-heads was the same as before, maybe... But now, their strength and numbers are too overwhelming."
Despite their words, Derrick shook his head.
"We still have to do it. Their numbers keep increasing. With the retreat cut off, if we can’t kill that thing here, we’re finished."
Derrick, seemingly intent on seeing this through to the end, even summoned the few escort knights guarding Calline.
With the knights gone, only about five attendants remained to guard Calline.
"You lot, guard the Young Master to the end!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
After barely persuading Calline, who tried to step forward himself, Derrick faced the Death Knight with a resolve to die.
In that situation, Adi looked at Rudian with puzzlement.
-Was it necessary to reveal that fact? It feels like we’ve only drawn the enemy’s attention.
'This is better. Now that the knights know to target it, the enemy’s focus will be solely on them.'
-But the Master doesn’t need to take such risks.
'At least I have the highest chance of success.'
-.......
Rudian pulled out a combat hammer prepared for knight replacements from his bag.
'Even if I can’t handle magic, I can still swing this thing.'
From the moment Rudian confirmed this was the world of , he had begun training in hopes of awakening magic.
Though he despaired upon being judged talentless, he hadn’t neglected survival training since.
'If chaos breaks out, I’ll sneak around and strike where they least expect.'
Fortunately, the Death Knight wasn’t paying attention to lowly attendants like Rudian.
Its main opponents were Derrick and a few knights capable of using aura.
“KRRR, so you’ve finally noticed. Blind fools.”
"Enough taunting! Everyone, charge!"
With Derrick’s booming shout, thirty knights rushed at the skeleton soldiers again.
"UWAAAAAH!"
The clashing of weapons between knights and skeletons echoed with intense metallic clangs.
Rudian, sweating coldly, began slowly moving toward a corner.
'If I’m caught, it’s over.'
He had to suppress his breath and escape the enemy’s detection.
The moment he entered its range, his head would fly off no matter where he was.
"Arnold! Chris! Go!"
-I won’t let you...!
Following the plan, the two knights named by Derrick began breaking through the wall of skeleton soldiers to create an opening.
Thanks to their desperate struggle, the Death Knight still hadn’t noticed Rudian.
OOOOOH!
Just as Chris and Arnold managed to push past Derrick and break through the skeletons—
“You shall not pass!”
'Huh?'
In that instant, Rudian felt an overwhelming malevolence from the Death Knight.
That malevolence became reality as the Death Knight swung its holy sword vertically.
BANG!
A massive shockwave erupted, causing the surroundings to tremble insanely.
"KAAAAAAH!"
"O-aura wave?!"
"Was that bastard a Sword Master?!"
The strike left a gigantic scar on the earth.
"Wh-what?! Why is it so strong?!"
Only after five knights were turned into bloody messes in a single blow did Calline finally grasp reality.
"Re-retreat! Everyone, fall back! RETREEEEAT!"
"It’s impossible, Young Master! The retreat path is already blocked!"
As one attendant said, the exit they had passed through was now swarmed by other monsters blocking their escape.
"UAAAAAH! F-Father!"
With death looming before him, Calline began wailing for his father, Count Iskar.
With their leader reacting like this, the morale of those under him naturally plummeted.
"E-everyone, rise! If you don’t want to die!"
Derrick barked at the knights scattered around him.
"That bastard isn’t a Sword Master! He’s forcibly using overflowing magic to mimic the technique! No matter how much magic he has, if his mastery is shallow, magic backlash will follow! He can’t use that technique twice!"
But there was no response.
Over half of the thirty knights were incapacitated, even if not dead.
Seeing his subordinates’ will shattered, Derrick’s expression darkened with despair.
"...Is this the end?"
The biggest blow was that Arnold and Chris, whom Derrick had relied on, had been swept away by the aura wave.
"No. As a knight of the Lion Hearts, I can’t die like this."
Derrick gritted his teeth and gripped his sword hilt.
Though slightly problematic in personal matters, Derrick was a top imperial knight bearing the epithet "Iron Lion."
On the battlefield, he possessed an unyielding will harder than steel, never breaking no matter the enemy’s strength.
"Even if I die... I’ll ensure the Young Master escapes before I do."
Just as Derrick resolved to fight to the death—
-KRRRR?
The Death Knight, which had been tenaciously fighting, suddenly stopped paying attention to Derrick or the other knights.
Instead, it completely ignored their presence and turned its gaze in the opposite direction.
"...What?"
Derrick frowned at the Death Knight’s odd behavior.
Though the knights were nearly neutralized, the battle wasn’t over.
'It knows that, yet turned its head. Why?'
At that moment, Derrick began to see what had captured the Death Knight’s attention.
From the start of the battle until now, the existence of one follower that no one had paid attention to was now being caught in Derrick’s eyes.
***
'Damn, I've been spotted.'
He didn’t need to look back to know.
The Death Knight’s piercing killing intent enveloped his entire body from behind.
-At least we were lucky to get this far undetected.
'What does that matter now that I’m caught?'
When the Death Knight unleashed its seismic shockwave, Rudian thought it was truly over.
Even if the knights were annihilated, destroying the core wouldn’t matter if the Death Knight remained unharmed.
So, the moment the tremor hit, Rudian risked detection and desperately sprinted straight toward the core.
'And I got caught.'
“You wretch!”
The Death Knight roared with wrathful fury and began charging toward him.
"Don’t come near me, you rotten corpse bastard!"
How could Rudian, carrying a heavy hammer, evade a superhuman capable of covering 100 meters in under five seconds?
But in this extreme situation, Rudian had one lifeline left.
"Go, Rudian! Destroy the core!"
Derrick’s sword blocked the Death Knight’s movement.
"Sir Derrick!"
"If you succeed, I’ll forgive you for tricking me earlier!"
"I’ll definitely do it, SIIIIR!"
Success here would kill two birds with one stone!
While Derrick stalled the Death Knight, Rudian desperately crawled toward the dungeon core.
“YOU DAAAAARE!”
As Rudian reached the Blood Magic Stone, the dungeon core, the Death Knight let out its first panicked cry.
“Huff, huff...!”
One strike! Just one strike to end this!
Rudian took a deep breath and raised the combat hammer high.
WHOOSH!
“How dare a mere insect lay hands on this one’s heart?”
"...Huh?"
As Rudian swung the hammer down with all his might, a mind-piercing incantation froze his movement.
The Blood Magic Stone, unmistakably the dungeon core, shimmered with an eerie light as a telepathic voice echoed in Rudian’s mind.
-Foolish Simir scum. I entrusted you with guarding my heart, yet you disappoint me so.
"Uh...?"
-For the crime of coveting the heart of I, the great Dark Lord Caslay Lichmond, atone with your death.
Wait, wasn’t this Blood Magic Stone just the dungeon core?
Moreover, Caslay Lichmond. The moment Rudian heard that name, goosebumps erupted across his body.
-I’ll grant you a painless death.
Caslay Lichmond.
He was a Lich Lord and a top-tier dark magician from the demon realm, a "nation-destroyer" appearing in the early-middle stages of The Chronicles of the Seven-Colored World!
-Death Incantation: Certain Kill.
The Lich Lord’s incantation, which had slain even a Worm-class Red Dragon in a single strike, was fired at him.
'No! Not like this!'
In that moment, Rudian clenched his eyes shut, preparing for true death.
The Death Incantation from the Blood Magic Stone struck Rudian’s body directly.
...Nothing happened.
"......?"
After dozens of seconds passed without the agony of death, Rudian cautiously peeked open his eyes.
-...Huh?
But in this situation, someone was even more baffled than Rudian.
-...Huh?
The exact word Rudian had uttered now echoed back in his mind through Caslay’s voice.