From Serf to Swordmaster, Chapter 16
From Serf to Swordmaster, Chapter 16
Most of the Blood Snake remnants were already down, or looking only for a way to flee. Their formation had completely collapsed.
At the center of the battlefield, only two figures remained.
Clang!
The vice-captain swung his greatsword in a wide arc, and Mud's claw blades met it head-on. He had crossed both arms, overlapping the claws.
They were thin blades.
By all common sense, they should have snapped the instant they made contact.
But Mud simply leaped backward and landed. The claws did not break.
Mud charged again. Before anyone knew it, his back was bent too far forward, and his arms followed his torso as it jutted ahead.
His posture did not look balanced. He seemed ready to topple at any moment, yet his joints and muscles moved independently and somehow kept him upright.
There was no order to the claws being swung wildly. Berak briefly wondered whether those movements truly belonged to a person.
"Aaaaaah!"
Mud was rampaging. Even so, judging only by the length and weight of the weapons, the massive greatsword looked far more advantageous.
But that thought did not last long.
Every time the two clashed, shockwaves burst around them.
Boom! Boom!
It did not stop at blade striking blade.
Invisible forces extending from their weapons pushed against each other.
Stone fragments flew. Dust rose thickly in the direction of the fighting.
Each time the greatsword swung, cracks spread across the wall behind Mud, and each time the claw blades raked the air, the tent wreckage behind the vice-captain tore apart.
Berak watched the scene with bated breath.
What Berak could not understand was the result of the attacks. The greatsword had clearly come down from above. Yet what burst was not the floor but an object off to the side.
The claw blades had merely grazed the greatsword. Yet the vice-captain flinched backward, twisting his wrist, and his sleeve tore.
He could not understand it.
So Berak tried to take in even more.
How the truly strong fought.
How Anima operated.
And if.......
If he himself were to enter that fight, what would happen.
Then, at some point.
Berak felt that he was seeing a little more.
He still did not fully understand.
But this time, his senses faintly caught where the wind rose and where the ripples burst outward.......
It was a realm that could not be perceived through good eyesight alone.
The things that existed beneath the surface of phenomena.
Not the visible results, but the essence operating underneath.
A perception capable of dismantling and deciphering the rules of the world.
Berak already possessed the aptitude needed to make that possible.
That was the ability Berak was now cultivating.
「Insight + 1」
Only then did he see that the traces left on the ground were not mere wreckage.
Behind Mud, where the vice-captain's attacks had landed, the traces there were all overturned, but their direction alone was aligned in a single line.
Conversely, the traces left behind the vice-captain were torn and scattered every which way.
'Whether it's temperament or fighting style...... it leaves traces.'
「Insight + 1」
And then.
Within his expanded insight, one hazy conclusion took shape.
The vice-captain would win.
Whoosh—
The trajectory of the forcefully swung greatsword overlapped exactly with the line drawn in Berak's mind.
"Gah!"
As if confirming that prediction, a scream split the battlefield.
Thud.
Mud's body tilted toward the ground.
"......It's over, right?"
Someone spoke.
The fallen Mud did not move. His claw blades touched the floor, his body frozen in a grotesquely twisted posture. There was no visible rise and fall of his chest.
The vice-captain slowly lowered his greatsword.
"The enemy leader has been defeated. Secure the area."
The tension in his shoulders eased, and his posture loosened just slightly. That was the moment. Berak could not explain why. Nothing had happened, and he had heard no sound. And yet.......
'Something's wrong.'
His gaze would not leave Mud. Berak unconsciously tightened his grip on the axe handle. Then, the fingers of Mud's hand resting on the ground twitched slightly.
In that instant, Berak's and Mud's gazes tangled in the air.
* * *
Mud pressed his cheek against the cold stone floor. The blood pooling in his mouth tasted of raw iron. That sensation kicked open the latch of memories he had kept shut.
The underground air was always damp, and the stench of burning flesh hung thick.
"Still not enough."
Along with a low voice, a sharp dagger sliced into his thigh.
"Mmmmph!"
In the agony of having his mouth gagged so that he could not even scream, what Mud saw were the eyes of people watching and recording his muscles contracting at fixed intervals.
They did not see Mud as a human being. They regarded him as a lump of meat to be peered into, analyzed, and measured for its limits.
Even at the moment his bones were shaved and his nerves pulled out, those emotionless gazes scoured every inch of Mud's body and burrowed in. Those gazes themselves were like insects eating into his flesh.
"A little deeper. We need to find the point that reacts."
To Mud, being "observed" was the same as having his soul stripped bare and carved apart.
But now, from beyond, he felt the exact same sensation as back then.
It had been there for a while.
Every time his claws danced, when no one else could see properly, only that young brat had his eyes wide open.
It was not fear. Rather the opposite. They were the eyes of an arrogant observer, as if dismantling the parts of a complex machine, decoding and analyzing each and every movement.
His broken balance, the twisted trajectory of his Anima.
That young brat's eyes, relentlessly taking him apart as if reading a blueprint.
'Those eyes...... get them away.'
Hatred constricted his heart. His Anima reversed course, burning through his veins.
'Don't look inside me!!'
"Careful...!"
With Berak's shout, Mud leaped up once more. His gaze was not on the vice-captain right in front of him, but on Berak beyond.
The whites vanished from his eyes. In the center of his bloodshot eyes, only the pupils remained abnormally distinct. His mouth split open as if tearing.
With both arms spread wide, Mud lunged at Berak like a beast pouncing.
"Anima rampage...!"
He understood what the vice-captain meant from Mud's changed movements.
BOOM! Crash!
The vice-captain desperately caught the claws with his greatsword. The floor lifted up whole, then shattered and rained down.
Once more.
BOOM—!
The vice-captain skidded backward, retreating step by step.
'The vice-captain...... is being pushed back.'
Boom!
"Don't look inside me!! I said don't look!"
With a maddened scream, Mud surged forward again. The vice-captain blocked his path and swung his sword, but Mud paid no mind to the wounds carved into his arms and drove his claws in.
The deeper his wounds grew, the more ferociously Mud's energy blazed. Pressed by Mud's momentum, the arcs of the vice-captain's greatsword grew shorter. He was clearly struggling.
Even while fighting the vice-captain, Mud kept his bloodshot eyes fixed on one place—Berak, standing at the edge of the battlefield.
It had not been like that when they fought earlier. Had only instinct remained, making his desire stronger?
Berak recalled the creature's words.
Toy.
The words that he would take him.
A chill ran down his spine.
'At this rate, even the vice-captain is in danger.'
Then Berak would certainly be next.
Berak faced the vortex of the battlefield head-on.
If no one could break the momentum shifting toward Mud, the vice-captain's defense would surely collapse before long.
Berak gripped the axe handle tightly. It was a distance from which he could flee.
But Berak stepped forward, not back.
"......I."
「Insight + 1」
In that moment, the noise of the world vanished.
The rampaging Mud's energy was enormous.
But...... his intense hatred of Berak had driven it terrifyingly far to one side.
The vice-captain could not see it while taking the force head-on. Berak could. There was a tiny, pinhole-like gap at the center of the wave.
Berak did not miss that "grain."
"......I didn't come here to run away!"
Berak threw himself into the heart of the storm.
Toward the vacuum gap created by the collision between the vice-captain and Mud, Berak's body shot forward as if launched.
"Berak! No!"
The vice-captain's horrified shout reached him, but in Berak's eyes there was only the empty gap aligned at Mud's flank. He did not even feel the need to readjust his grip on the axe.
His crude but overwhelming strength...... crashed, with all his weight behind it, into the single line his insight had revealed.
Boom—!!
A thunderous sound rang out.
His opponent used Anima. But Berak's pure strength was not stopped. No—it did more than that.
As the tremendous force slammed in, Mud's body shook violently. For an instant, his movements completely broke apart.
However.
The recoil from meeting Anima with raw strength crashed back into Berak.
Clang—!
The axe shattered to pieces.
Metal fragments flew.
"Gah...!"
Berak's body flew through the air. His back slammed into the wall.
Thud!
His vision flipped, but he could still keep the scene in sight.
The brief opening Berak had created.
Into the gap where Mud had collapsed, the vice-captain's greatsword drove in.
Whoosh—!
A head soared high and fell toward the ground.
"Are you all right!"
The vice-captain withdrew his sword and turned his head toward Berak. The moment he moved to step forward—
Black smoke rose from Mud's corpse.
A shape emerged within the smoke.
A serpent biting its own tail.
A single eye embedded at its center.
The vice-captain's expression hardened.
"......Oculus."
Berak tried to keep that shape in sight until the very end. It was ominous, yet it also felt like an important signal.
But his vision overlapped, and something else surfaced first.
[Survival confirmed in a state of critical injury.]
[Special Event: Overcoming Scars]
「Regeneration + 1」
'Have I ever been hurt this badly...... before?'
Berak's vision slowly blurred.
* * *
When Berak opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling.
Traces of rough stone crudely dressed. Faint light seeped through the old timber beams. He tried to sit up, and a heavy pain surged through his side.
"You're awake."
It was a familiar, deep voice.
Berak bolted upright and looked around. A wide room with beds arranged at regular intervals. The smell of bandages mixed with the scent of medicinal herbs.
The vice-captain stood at one side of the room.
"This is the infirmary. I'm glad you opened your eyes."
Berak steadied his breathing and asked.
"Were you waiting for me?"
"I stopped by a few times. You happened to wake while I was here. It's been two days since you collapsed."
Two days.
Berak stared blankly for a moment at those words.
"Why not Demein......"
"Why am I the one beside you? I thought I should tell you directly."
The words carried clear weight.
Berak gripped the edge of the bed.
"Did I fail the test?"
"Test?"
The vice-captain raised an eyebrow.
"The test to join under different...... conditions from the others."
"That's the first thing you ask, in this state?"
He chuckled. But it was not mockery.
"There's nothing to ask. The judgment to stir up the enemy camp alone and return. The strength to fight properly in real combat. Even the decisiveness to act without hesitation in a sudden situation."
The vice-captain looked straight at Berak.
"You're young, but if our company is to make an 'exception,' I think it should be someone like you."
His heart pounded for no reason. Berak lowered his head.
"However."
The vice-captain's voice dropped.
"In an Anima rampage state, if you drag it out, the opponent's strength begins to drain. That was quite reckless. Don't do it again."
"......Yes."
"Even so."
A brief silence passed.
"Thank you. If not for you, I would have been injured too."
Berak hesitated, then asked.
"What exactly was Mud?"
"We learned it from interrogating the survivors."
The vice-captain continued calmly.
"Originally, he was the lowest grunt even within the Blood Snake. They said he was always looked down on because of his small build."
"I heard something similar."
"After he came back, he started by killing the ones who had looked down on him. Including the captain."
The vice-captain's gaze dropped briefly to the floor.
"It's testimony from the interrogation. They said Mud repeated the same words every time he tortured someone."
"What kind of......."
"That he was giving back exactly what had been done to him."
Berak's eyes widened slightly.
"He didn't discriminate. Not only the ones inside the organization who had disrespected him, but the civilians they captured as well."
Berak asked cautiously.
"Can someone who was tortured become that strong?"
"It's still only speculation."
Berak leaned toward the vice-captain.
"Those who don't handle Anima through secret manuals like knights do—only a very few awaken Anima on their own by surviving real combat close to death."
The vice-captain paused, as if choosing his words.
"If one could artificially create and compress only that 'crisis of death'......"
"Then...... you're saying someone could create Anima users through brutal torture?"
The vice-captain shook his head.
"That makes no sense. If that were all it took, the royal prisons would already be overflowing with Anima users. Simply surviving a brush with death isn't enough to use Anima. A trained body and technique—a soul prepared to overcome the crisis—have to respond together for it to bloom."
"But Mud......."
"The only explanation is that Oculus pulled some kind of trick."
Berak's gaze fixed on him.
"What is Oculus? That eye and the serpent......."
"......A cancer on the continent."
The vice-captain's expression hardened.
"You don't need to know the details right now. It's also the reason Roban left us."
He let out a light breath.
"Let's stop the dark talk here."
The vice-captain took a small pouch from his waist. Ten silver coins were placed on the bed.
"This is the reward for this mission. I reported the situation to the territory and negotiated a higher payout."
"It wasn't a mission I participated in as Silver Hawk yet. For me, it was only a test."
"Everyone who took part in the operation agreed to give you your share."
Berak silently accepted the silver coins.
"And this too. I picked it up at their base."
It was a leaf-shaped stone. Fine, lifelike veins ran across its surface. The entire stone held a red glow and shimmered faintly as if breathing. Berak's gaze was naturally drawn to it.
"It looks more expensive than the silver I received."
"It might be."
"......Then?"
"I confirmed that it's an artifact."
Berak's gaze could not leave the shining stone.
"However."
"However?"
"I couldn't determine how it operates. Neither magic power nor Anima reacted to it."
The vice-captain shrugged.
"There was no danger like a curse. So I'm giving it to you. Whether you keep it or sell it is up to you."
"Why me? Even if we don't know what it's used for...... it's still valuable, isn't it?"
"Because it's valuable."
The vice-captain smiled lightly.
"Because you showed yourself worthy of receiving it."
"......Thank you."
Berak accepted the artifact and tucked it inside his clothes.
"Once your body improves a little."
The vice-captain continued.
"The captain also said he wants to see your face."