From Serf to Swordmaster, Chapter 26
From Serf to Swordmaster, Chapter 26
Thud.
Another hit, another fall.
Only then did the creatures mount the wolves and come pouring down from the cliff in great leaps.
With every blink, the encirclement drew closer.
The clash came in an instant. The wolves' massive bodies crashed into the party like a wave sweeping over them.
Boom!
The knights holding the front line unleashed their slashes. Bodies diving through the air were hurled away in every direction.
Some did not die immediately. A wolf that had been knocked away snarled and hauled itself back to its feet, and a hobgoblin that had clung stubbornly to life bared its yellow teeth. Then came the second wave and the third, surging in without pause. The air around them was soon thick with the suffocating stench of blood.
"Ahaha! It's been a while since I've had a proper chance to swing my blade!"
Vivian's face shone with the fiercest joy Berak had yet seen from her. She looked unable to contain her delight in the battle and was the first to throw herself deep into the encirclement.
Crunch!
The cliff face shattered along the arc of her sword. Stones burst outward as if exploding. Where the heavy shockwave swept through, debris mingled with the flying rocks — things like hobgoblin limbs and wolf heads.
The gorge was narrow, and enemies poured in from every direction. The knights alone could not cover every angle. Berak too raised his axe and collided with a wolf rider diving at him from the air.
Bang!
The hobgoblin mounted on the wolf thrust its spear. The spearpoint reached right up to his nose, but no further. Berak's swinging axe forcibly twisted its path aside.
The wolf was sent tumbling away, its rider sprawling with it.
"Ke-hek?!"
The fallen hobgoblin braced itself on the ground and looked around wildly. The wolf it had ridden was already convulsing with its chest caved in. Berak's axe immediately split the rider's chest as well, and its severed body collapsed lifelessly.
"Behind! They're leaping from behind!"
"Protect the mules!"
"They're flanking us! Assign people to stop them!"
Unlike the party, which had to maintain formation, the enemy pressed in from all sides using the terrain.
They dropped from overhead, burst out of crevices in the cliff, and circled around through side paths.
What followed was a tangled melee.
Crunch!
Berak's axe swung without pause.
'First, the legs.'
Without hesitation, he drove into the wolf's guard and severed its front leg.
'Finish from above.'
In the instant the beast toppled, he knocked aside the wolf rider's spear shaft and cut its throat.
"Grrrr!"
Even with one leg dangling uselessly, the wolf forced itself into the air, driving off its remaining hind leg.
Snatch!
Berak, still locked against another opponent, reached out with his free hand. The leaping wolf's front paw stopped dead, caught in his grip.
"Yelp......!"
Dense teeth flashed right before his face. Rank drool dripped down, soaking Berak's shoulder. Three legs thrashed, clawing at empty air.
"Hah!"
Berak shoved the hobgoblin he had been facing far back, and at the same moment drove his axe into the neck of the wolf he held. Once, then again. He did not stop hacking until the tough windpipe was completely severed.
「Axe Proficiency + 1」
"Kieeeek!"
By the time the hobgoblin he had shoved away came charging back, Berak had already drawn a dagger. He threw it without hesitation.
Thunk!
The blade sank deep into its forehead. The creature tumbled forward, still in mid-charge.
「Throwing Proficiency + 1」
"Hoo."
He steadied his breathing quickly.
The more he fought, the stronger his sense of déjà vu became. Traces of the enemies he had recently faced kept overlapping with what he saw now.
Undead.
There was no stench of rotting corpses, no aura of death. Every impact carried a heartbeat through the hide, and the spurting blood radiated heat.
They were unmistakably living creatures.
But they valued attacking over their own safety. Unless a wound actually stopped them from moving, they kept charging without flinching.
'Alive, yet not trying to live.'
If that was the case, what made them any different from the undead?
More and more people were sensing the same wrongness.
"They won't retreat!"
"Careful! As long as they can move, they keep coming!"
Thud!
Berak pushed his doubts aside.
Tenacious vitality, endlessly replenished numbers. More than any of that, he focused only on where to move and how to kill. Doing his part and surviving came first.
「Axe Proficiency + 1」
Before long, he found himself facing three hobgoblins that had dropped to the ground. A broad sweep of his axe split two apart. The last, caught at the very end of the arc, was only grazed across the face.
Crack!
The creature's bare face was exposed beyond its shattered mask. Berak hesitated for an instant.
Because the creature's eyes were trembling.
He felt no pity. What he felt was unmistakable wrongness.
Clearly shaking with terror, yet the creature still raised its spear and charged again.
Incomprehensible madness.
In that fleeting moment, Berak did not miss where the creature's gaze lingered.
The wolf standing behind it.
'This is like......'
It seemed as though the hobgoblin was gauging the mood of the beast it rode.
Another question lodged in his chest, but his body moved by habit. Berak and the creature crossed paths.
The hobgoblin staggered a few steps, then toppled forward like a felled tree.
The battle slowly drew to a close. Despite the enemy's numbers and bizarre aggression, there was a gap that could not be overcome. All that remained was mopping up the survivors.
But they had not escaped completely unscathed. Several knights had suffered light wounds, and one Silver Hawk mercenary was seriously injured.
The mercenaries staunched their unconscious comrade's bleeding and laid him under a blanket.
Vivian swept her blood-soaked hair back roughly and looked around.
"Everyone rest. Those with strength to spare, search the bodies."
* * *
The party swept the battlefield, trying to find clues about the creatures' suspicious behavior. But there was nothing to be found.
Neither the mercenaries accustomed to the wastelands nor the knights with their sharp senses discovered any notable traces.
"They're clearly not ordinary creatures. Is it some kind of magic... something we can't identify physically?"
Vivian murmured quietly. No answer came to her question. A heavy silence hung for a moment.
Berak hesitated in that stillness, then stepped forward. He judged there was no reason to hide it.
"The hobgoblins seemed to be watching the wolves' reactions."
At that, several knights exchanged glances.
"Is that so? I did feel the wolves were the ones charging in more frantically."
"Even so, watching the mood of the beast you're riding?"
Vivian approached Berak and asked.
"Why do you think that?"
Berak explained the trembling eyes he had seen beyond the mask and the direction of the creature's gaze.
"Strange. If they fear upsetting the wolves more than they fear death, perhaps the relationship of dominance has been completely reversed."
Kyle, who had been watching, added.
"That explanation has merit."
Kyle nudged a mask lying at his feet with his boot.
"Hobgoblins are an intelligent species. They have enough judgment to recognize a disadvantage and retreat. But this kind of suicidal, relentless assault is a clear anomaly."
"And you're saying the cause is the wolves they were riding?"
"I can't be certain, but if the phenomenon is extraordinary, then its cause is likely extraordinary as well."
Vivian nodded.
"For now, that seems the most plausible explanation. We'll need to watch the wolves more closely in the next battle. That aside..."
Vivian fixed her gaze on Berak.
"Your field of vision during combat is remarkably wide. To accurately read an enemy's emotions and where their gaze is directed — many warriors are too busy fending off the attack right in front of them for that."
Berak bowed his head briefly.
"Also, unless I saw wrong...... you stopped a charging wolf by seizing it with one hand. Correct?"
In an instant, murmuring spread among those who had not witnessed it directly. Even the mercenaries who knew Berak's strength well looked at him with fresh surprise.
"Yes."
"Truly impressive. It didn't appear you were using Anima — is that your innate strength?"
"It is."
Vivian fell silent for a moment, then spoke with a sigh.
"I envy you. You've received the Battlefield Blessing."
She added.
"Young mercenary bearing Hellvern's seal. I was careless and forgot your name. What is it?"
"Berak."
"Berak. I will be sure to remember your name from now on."
Afterward, they discussed whether to change their quarry. The bizarre behavior of the wolves they had encountered left everyone uneasy. There was no guarantee that pack was connected to the giant wolf, but the discomfort remained. Even if they were unrelated, the feeling itself was hard to shake.
But the young lady was resolute. The quarry remained unchanged. The party gathered only the most essential spoils from the scattered corpses, then hurried onward.
They did not fully leave the gorge until deep into the night. Only then did they pitch their tents and get a proper chance to rest and sleep.
Watch duty was assigned in pairs — one knight and one mercenary. Berak took the first watch.
* * *
Flick.
He tossed a dagger high and caught it between his fingers. He spun it around, passing it between his knuckles. Back to his palm, then back to his fingertips.
With no sheath and the blade fully exposed, it looked as though it might cut him at any moment. Yet the dagger tumbled through Berak's hand without leaving a single wound.
「Dagger Proficiency + 1」
Dagger proficiency was a skill Berak had acquired only recently. He considered this period fortunate.
Simple solo practice, rather than real combat, still gave him a chance to raise the proficiency significantly.
"You're quite skilled."
The knight on watch approached from across the campfire. With his helmet off, the knight was a young man with a gentler face than expected.
"I'm Melphis."
"I'm......."
"I know. Berak. It's the name Vivian said she would remember."
Melphis lowered his gaze to the dagger rolling in Berak's hand.
"You train without resting for even a moment. Is that how you reached such skill at your age?"
He let out a light sigh.
"When I was eleven, I was busy running around playing."
Berak's hand, which had been spinning the dagger, stopped abruptly. He had never revealed his exact age on this journey.
As he warily put a little distance between them, Melphis continued.
"It seems the Battlefield Blessing was given to someone worthy of it. Someone like you deserves one. I can't help being envious, though."
It was not a simple figure of speech. His tone suggested he was certain Berak had truly received some kind of "blessing." Berak asked again.
"You sound as though I've actually received a blessing."
"Hm? You mean you haven't? Don't tell me......."
Melphis, who had been studying Berak's expression, stopped mid-sentence.
"Ah, you don't know much about blessings."
Berak nodded silently.
"How should I put it — sometimes people are born with unique, special abilities. Not something learned like Anima or magic...... For example, I can tell a person's age at first glance."
Berak's eyes widened. It was an unexpected kind of ability — truly bizarre.
"Oh, and your captain. Do you know how shocked I was to learn he's forty?"
Berak was the more shocked of the two. That youthful, nobleman-like face? He had naturally assumed Kyle was only in his early to mid-twenties.
"What, you didn't know either? Anyway, a blessing like mine can't be used in a fight. But that monstrous strength of yours — that's an incredible asset. That kind of thing is usually called a 'Battlefield Blessing.'"
Berak sank into thought. Strictly speaking, his monstrous strength was only one part of the abilities he possessed. One part of the Record Sheet that recorded and raised all manner of abilities.
It meant he might finally have a way to learn the nature of the inexplicable ability that had suddenly appeared one day.
"Are such blessings present from birth? Or can they appear suddenly along the way?"
"Of course they're from birth. You've been strong since you were little, so you'd know that well."
Berak's face hardened. Far from being unusually strong as a child, he had been sicklier than most.