The Horseman of Death (13)
─Kuuuooooong!! I rolled across the ground, executing a pointless breakfall. The noise was deafening, but the impact barely registered. Maybe my body had simply grown sturdy enough to shrug it off, but there was no time to savor the thought. Fake Nuckelavees had surrounded me completely.
“Ssyooooooooooooo!!”
“Cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuth!!”
“Hup!!”
─Clang!!
I sprang up, spinning my windmill, and knocked the scythe aside with my spear. If not now, when would I ever burn through this excess strength? In a fight, the one who presses their advantage wins. I deflected the spear and traced the first stroke of the second form—thwack! The long blade sheared clean through the kelpie’s horse head. As expected, the kelpie was the true body; once the head flew off, the corpse half’s movements turned pathetically sluggish. Still, if I left it alone it would keep hurling slashes, so I finished the rest of the creatures off for good.
“Thunder Bolt Tempo!!”
─Crackle-crackle-crackle!!
I scattered Lightning Arrows enhanced by the spear’s runes in a fan-shaped barrage. Whether because they were water-types or simply because electricity was their natural bane, the fake Nuckelavees couldn’t even approach. I killed the two I had pinned down and fell back.
─Splash-splash-splash!!
While retreating, I wiped out the fake Nuckelavees that had crossed the shallow water. If we were racing across open grassland they might have stood a chance, but this was a dense forest thick with blue-green foliage. In terrain that restricted movement, these bastards were nothing.
“Lord Nord!”
“Chief! What about Stella?!”
“She appears to be pinned down in the north!”
I could already guess what was blocking the path. The hastily assembled Nuckelavees we had seen on the way here—those crude killing machines were holding Stella back.
‘Aura burns through too much mana. I can’t count on backup.’
If I coated my blade in aura I could carve through every last one of them like tofu. But doing that would leave Stella unable to help even if I reached her in time. When your mana runs dry, it isn’t only mages who become useless. We had to fight with the people we had right here.
“Sword of Light!!”
From the cliff, Dana unleashed an undead-slaying spell. The magic she hurled with a growl wrapped a wide area in radiance and erased the fake Nuckelavees trying to cross the shallows.
[Suuuuu…….]
The Nuckelavee exhaled and glared up at the cliff. It looked furious that its toys had been destroyed.
“Sorry!! I just used up all my mana with that one!!”
“Fall back, Dana!!”
After that brief exchange, Veronica and Larilura finished their incantations and unleashed their magic. A wave of powerful spells crashed down on the creature. Sensing the danger, the Nuckelavee snatched up the least-damaged corpses and hurled them into the spells’ path.
─BOOM!!
Our party’s concentrated burst tore through the kelpie’s torso and vanished. It hadn’t been for nothing, though; the attack bought me the time I needed to cross the shallows.
“Chief! How much longer will this river last?!”
“Ten minutes at most! Heiromain’s been poisoned!”
Poison? That son of a bitch used poison too? I glanced back. Heiromain, who had been supporting us with magic, looked deathly pale. Thanks to Dana’s spell clearing the fake Nuckelavees, Alice had a moment to spare; she tossed her shield aside and wept while treating her.
[Huuuck!]
The Nuckelavee’s horse head drew in a breath. A single crimson eye had grown on its forehead, and from its whale-like maw billowed a toxic black gas. I clenched my teeth and squeezed out every last drop of mana.
─Fwoooosh!!
The horse head exhaled a poisonous breath. The gas was so virulent that leaves withered in an instant. Anticipating the attack, I applied the same principle I had used to prepare Absolute Celestial Domain and raised a wind barrier. The spear, inscribed with three different spells, spun like a windmill and shoved the breath aside.
“What the—?!”
Having blocked the plague-laden breath, I flinched. The Nuckelavee’s single eye glowed as it grabbed another corpse.
─Crunch!
It was impressive that the creature had already recognized the danger of my ultimate technique just by watching the casting motion, but what came next was even more shocking. It crushed its own toy in its palm, then wound up like a pitcher about to throw a fastball and hurled the corpse overhead with an overhand motion.
[──Prepare to defend! Quickly!!]
I shouted in Ulster speech and stopped spinning the windmill. That kind of heavy projectile couldn’t be stopped with this technique. A chill ran down my spine; my blood felt like it was flowing backward. My eyes widened, locked on the incoming projectile.
─Bang!!
The Nuckelavee hurled the corpses, shattering the wind as they flew.
──I had never experienced it, but I had heard the stories. Hailstones the size of a human fist could grind even civilized streets into rubble. The Nuckelavee’s corpse bombardment carried comparable destructive power. I gritted my teeth and knocked aside the kelpie corpse fragments that came at me like cannonballs.
Fwoooosh—!!
My arms burned as if on fire. Each time the mithril spear flashed, a silver crescent bloomed like a full moon.
─Bang!!
After deflecting six corpse projectiles with rapid high-speed swings, my arms went numb with muscle pain. If I hadn’t used the third form of the counter technique—specialized for blocking heavy projectiles—I would never have stayed intact. Taking those hits barehanded could have ruptured my organs. From behind me came the sound of something bursting. Since the chief and the two Lapcil sisters were unharmed, it must have been Ulster warriors who failed to block the attack and died. The chief’s expression confirmed my guess.
─Ptoo!
I spat, tasting bitterness.
“……That fucking bastard’s got one hell of a pitching arm.”
The Nuckelavee had twice as many mouths as anyone else, yet it kept them shut. Instead it scanned the ground, looking for more corpses to throw. The shallow water was no longer a shield. Now that the bastard had gone full tryhard mode, the only option left was to charge straight in and gut it.
“Stay right there, you son of a bitch!! I’ll come crack your skull open with this bat!!”
I leapt across the shallows as if pole-vaulting with my spear. I had to buy time until the rest of the party could descend from the cliff. The chief shouted.
“Heiromain! If you can’t fight, fall back! I’ll support Lord Nord as well!”
“Huu……! At the very least, this……!!”
As I charged, the Nuckelavee exhaled another cloud of poisonous mist. I tried to clear it with Summon Cloud on the spear, then changed stance when the mist parted before me like Moses’ miracle.
‘A wind-blocking spell!’
It was the same magic Heiromain had used to patch the carriage—something that repelled wind. A low-pressure breath attack like this could be stopped by it. Typical of a scholar; quick thinking under pressure. While the Nuckelavee paused its breath, I dashed straight for its legs.
“You’ve got twice as many legs as everyone else! Donate at least one to society!”
Whoosh—!!
I swung at the horse’s leg, but the Nuckelavee simply lifted it and dodged. My eyes widened. That crazy bastard! No ordinary horse could move like that. The raised hoof came down to crush my skull, but I twisted my lips into a grin.
“Martial might without force is no might at all.”
A link from the fourth form of the counter technique into the first form of the offensive technique.
“──Great Might, Strike the Bow!!”
I canceled the kinetic energy and swung the spear. The Nuckelavee was a wild horse, so its hooves were bare; the thick sea-horse foot split vertically down the middle.
[Poooooooooooo──!!!]
The Nuckelavee howled as if it had stepped on a Lego. It was a perfect opening, but I kept hold of the spear and tumbled away in a series of dodges. My arm had already been pushed too far; after canceling that insane horse’s kick, I had no strength left in my hand.
“Damn, for a horse you’ve got one hell of a kick.”
Maybe this bastard was a lower-body specialist too. Like a human whose legs were stronger than their upper body. Not that it mattered anymore—its hoof was split in half. Four-legged creatures had the advantage in running, but with that foot it would never run again. Perhaps it realized the same thing. The Nuckelavee now stared at me alone, a macho gaze fixed on its target.
[Yoooooooooooooooooooouuubbbb!!!]
The enraged Nuckelavee took up a brawling stance. In that instant I spotted a figure leaping silently from the trees behind it. That was why I fired a Lightning Arrow instead of dodging or countering.
─Zzzzt-zzzt-zzzt!!
The psionic storm paralyzed the water-type Pokémon. The Ulster war chief did not miss the opening. Her greatsword, wreathed in aura, severed one of the creature’s arms from its torso.
[Aoooooooooo!!]
─Thud!
The arm, now horse-meat tataki, fell to the ground. The Nuckelavee bucked like a rodeo horse. Keeping her distance, she shouted.
[Chief! Are you safe?!]
[Stella!]
Stella had broken through the fake Nuckelavees; her body was covered in wounds. She took in the chief, the retreating Lapcil sisters, and the dead in a single glance and snarled.
[I understand the situation. I won’t let you escape this time, evil spirit!!]
[Aaaaaaa!!]
The Nuckelavee slammed its forelegs into the ground. Black water geysered upward like a hot spring. I dodged, thinking it was poison, then caught the scent of sea breeze and felt a chill of foreboding. I remembered how the kelpie—the river’s evil spirit—had recovered its wounds after entering the water.
[Stella! If we leave that bastard alone it’ll recover!!]
[Recover? We can’t allow that!!]
Nord and Stella charged, risking everything, but even they couldn’t avoid every one of the massive, thrashing hooves. If the attacks had any pattern I could predict them, but the creature simply flailed wildly with no rhythm at all; there was no opening to exploit.
‘We’re screwed! If it recovers, this turns into a battle of endurance!’
That would be bad. Really bad—because if we couldn’t finish it off quickly, the Nuckelavee would turn tail and flee without a second glance.
‘Right now it’s angry enough to try killing me before running, but if it actually thinks it’s going to die it won’t keep fighting.’
In human tactics, retreat was the thirty-sixth stratagem—the last resort. But I knew animals didn’t consider running away shameful. In the wild, an injury meant death.
‘Evil bastards like that only torment others for fun. They treat their own bodies like gold!’
I couldn’t expect any banzai-samurai spirit from that horse-headed bastard. If I let it recover once, it would repeat the pattern two or three times, and the moment it realized it couldn’t win it would spew poison gas and bolt. Stella had already let it escape that way multiple times. There would be no third phase where it pulled a moonlight sword from its back and became Sword Saint Nuckelavee!
[I’ll stop its movements! Stella, take its head off first!]
[Stop! You’ll be trampled to death!]
When I tried to charge, Stella held me back.
[Only I can break through the poison mist! We have to do it before Heiromain’s spell runs out!]
[You can’t use aura! That body-enhancement magic might protect you, but your weapon will break! Then you’ll die!]
She was surprisingly wise despite her odd way of speaking. She had immediately pointed out the exact problem I was worried about. Maybe the war chief hadn’t won her position by luck after all. Still, I brushed her hand away and smiled.
[Right. I can’t use aura. But I can use other magic.]
When I combined the techniques I had learned from Stella, I glimpsed the possibility of a new skill. Beast Possession, similar to Beast Regression, and the manifestation of aura! The two bodies of knowledge and experience melted together inside me and sublimated into a single technique. I drew up the mana from the runes and muttered.
【──ᛒ (Berkanan).】
Shwaaa—!!
The shape of Beast Regression changed. The green mana coating that covered my body extended to my spear as well. The principle was similar to the mana claws I had obtained after defeating Tabula. Using the rune that altered my mana, I extended the enhancement of Beast Regression all the way to the spear. I was an amateur druid, an amateur warrior, an amateur macho man, and an amateur archaeologist.
‘Then the pinnacle of the warrior’s path that I’ve reached—aura—can be amateur too.’
──As the ancients said, “If there are no teeth, use the gums.”
“If I can’t use aura, I’ll just use mana coating instead, right?”
I recited the words once spoken by Marie Antoinette. The spear, its offense and defense reinforced, blazed with intense mana light from the blade inscribed with the ᚨ (Ansuz) rune. I swung that radiance and roared.
“I’ll turn you into sashimi, you seahorse-human bastard!!”