So It Was You
Leon shouted without missing a beat.
"No — that was perfect! Let's go, everyone!"
Liana's fireball had been an excellent opening strike. Timed so that even her own allies hadn't seen it coming, it had thoroughly blindsided the enemy. Once you'd landed the first hit, you had to close the distance fast and follow through. Giving them time to recover was not an option.
Boom!
Leon slammed his foot into the ground and launched himself forward.
"Move!"
"Hah!"
His companions were no amateurs who froze in a crisis. The moment they heard Leon's call, they threw themselves into the fray.
"Lady Liana. I think we should provide support from here."
"Understood!"
Aria and Liana began chanting their spells from the rear — the textbook formation when warriors and mages fought together.
Whoooooosh—!
A gale surged up. Riding the wind, Celia came hurtling in, her violet hair streaming behind her.
Shrrrrrk—!
The Livgium in her hands stretched long like a wish-granting staff. The spear she forged became a cutting edge.
Flowing Wind Spear Style, First Form.
Triple Consecutive Wave Slash.
Three razor-sharp trails of purple light slammed into the enemies still reeling from the fireball. The wooden spears they had raised in defense were sheared clean through in an instant.
"Hup!"
A battle cry erupted from Celia's left.
Bastio's Sword.
Howl of the Famished Wolf.
KRAAAAAANG—!!!
A thunderous sword-cry rang out. The fan-shaped stretch of ground ahead of Carotin split and tore apart. Crimson hairline fractures bloomed across the enemies' hard black scales.
Right behind Celia and Carotin came Esabel.
Thud!
A stomping step that shook the earth.
Grand Emperor Sword — True Meaning.
A single blade can hold even a mountain.
Silver mana arced downward in a sweeping crescent.
KRAAAAAASH—!!!
"Kiiiieeeek!"
"Kyaaaak!"
The ground was ripped open, a massive crater gouged into the earth. Under the crushing pressure of Esabel's strike, the enemies were reduced to chunks of meat.
The lizardmen's front line was shattered in a single breath by the three warriors.
"Not bad at all."
Leon murmured as he strolled leisurely through the path they had carved open. Blood rained down and soaked his body. The scent of the battlefield sharpened his mind.
"The Lizard King is mine!"
Leaving the fodder to his party, Leon charged straight for the commander. Of course, only a fraction of the Lizard King's royal guard had fallen — the bulk of them were still very much alive. Long spearheads came pouring down on the human who dared set his sights on their king.
Leon ignored them. Stepping through the Heavenly Spirit Steps, he weaved between their ranks while batting aside a portion of the attacks with his blade. Light, refined movement. A display of exquisite, almost mystical skill.
It took him no time at all to come face-to-face with the Lizard King.
"…Human!"
The creature was crunching black pills like candy. Not one or two of them, either. Its already massive frame had swollen to nearly four meters.
Whooooom—!
The Lizard King's great spear swept out as if to cleave Leon clean in half at the waist — a horizontal cut timed perfectly to his approach.
Not bad.
Having entered a state of extreme focus, Leon murmured inwardly. For a blow thrown by some lizard brat, the power behind it was genuinely impressive. Those pills must have been remarkably effective.
Too strong to block head-on, and the trajectory too precise to simply dodge.
In that case—
—Bang!
Leon accelerated one more time.
"…?!"
The Lizard King's eyes twitched. Far from defending, the human was driving his head straight into the weapon — a move that looked like pure madness.
But there was no hesitation. No faltering. If anything, the creature crowed with delight.
Shiiiiing—!
The spear-strike lost none of its speed as it scythed through the air.
That was when Leon's eyes turned a chilling, vivid red.
Jecheon Sword Style, First Form — Modified.
Choha.
It was light.
The last of a pitch-black night.
Stretching out from the horizon.
The first glow that declared the end of dawn.
The radiance that drove out the dark and announced a new beginning.
The scarlet dusk that first proclaimed the rising of the sun.
Choha — First Glow.
A single thread of light shot from Leon's fingertips.
Shraaaak—!
The ray of light sliced through the Lizard King's forearm — the arm gripping the spear shaft — and passed clean through.
Thud!
The thick spear shaft slammed into Leon's waist a heartbeat later. His body lifted slightly off the ground and went flying sideways.
But the impact was not severe. Leon had struck the creature's arm first, disrupting both the trajectory and the force of the spear-blow.
After that single exchange, the distance between them yawned wide.
"Kiiiiii!"
The Lizard King roared in fury. Blood streaming from its forearm ran down the back of its hand in thick drops. Four fingers clenched hard around the blood-slicked spear shaft, and with the air of a beast determined to kill its prey no matter what, it leveled the spear at Leon with crushing force.
Yet in stark contrast to that ferocity, its vertically slit pupils were trembling wildly. For all the fighting spirit it forced onto its face, it was shaken to its core.
The Lizard King had felt, with absolute clarity, just how absurdly fast Leon's sword-strike had been.
To punch straight through an incoming spear and land a cut on the arm first? That speed was staggering. It was no different from having your nose sliced off with your eyes wide open.
Its mind snapped clear, as if doused in ice water. Cold reason cut through the fog clouding its head.
"Kiik…"
The Lizard King knew, instinctively, that this was the most dangerous moment of its entire life.
"Tch."
Leon clicked his tongue. The technique he had just unleashed was his own personal refinement of the Jecheon Sword Style's first form — insights from his speed-sword training folded into the original. Shorter and weaker than the original form, Yeomyeong, but faster.
If he had to put it in boxing terms, Yeomyeong was a straight. Choha was a jab.
If I polish it a little more, it should be pretty useful.
Thinking that, Leon adjusted his grip on the hilt. And conveniently enough, a perfect sparring dummy was standing right in front of him.
"Come on, then, punching bag."
"Kiiiiiiiek!"
The two figures charged at each other.
At the same time.
At the rearmost ranks of the Horde.
Green-skinned, heavily muscled warriors were advancing, swinging thick clubs. They were the force that had, through sheer overwhelming might and numbers, united every colony in the Marshall Mountains — the Orc Colony, the very heart and command center of this Horde.
The orcs believed without a shred of doubt.
That they would finally trample that great human city underfoot.
That all that remained was to feast on human flesh, seize their women, and plunder resources to their hearts' content.
That their army was so powerful nothing in the world could bar their path.
Inside those massive green skulls, the conviction was absolute.
No.
They had been made to believe it.
"The effects of this 'medicine' really are something. To work this well even on mere monsters…"
Fluent human speech cut through the marching orcs.
"Yeah… at this rate, we might actually deal some serious damage to Elaim."
"This mission was a pain to set up, but the results should be decent enough."
"Fuck, it was a nightmare. Those intel bastards are always running around making a mess of things. All because those idiots took a dump all over the last operation."
"Well, they're paying for it. Their brains are probably melting in a basement somewhere right about now."
Even with throngs of frenzied orcs surging around them, the men walked among them and conversed with complete nonchalance. The orcs paid them not the slightest attention — as if the men simply did not exist.
One of them spoke with a note of genuine awe, pointing at the barn-sized orc ahead of him.
"Look at the size of this bastard. Even for an Orc King, how does something like this even happen? Looks like it could chew up an ogre with one hand."
"Beats me. Maybe it's an ogre hybrid?"
Clank—
"Nah. Then its intelligence would be way lower."
"Honestly, I wish it had been dumber. Brainwashing one monster took longer than dealing with most warriors."
Clank— Clank—
"Right? You almost died back then. You got too close thinking it still hadn't come around, and then…"
"Don't even bring it up. Just thinking about it still gives me chills."
Clank— Clank—
"Anyway, we should be able to head back soon."
"Yeah. I'm sick to death of being stuck out in these mountains—"
"Hold on."
"?"
One of the men raised his right hand and brought them all to a halt.
"Have any of you… been hearing a weird noise for a while now?"
"…?"
Just as he said.
Clank— Clank—
From behind them, a particular sound was growing louder at steady intervals. An irritating noise, like metal joints grinding together.
The men rested their hands on their sword hilts and turned around.
"…?"
"…?"
"…?"
And saw a single man walking unhurriedly toward them.
His appearance was wretched. His long black hair looked as if it hadn't been washed in days, and his face was filthy. He wore full plate armor from head to toe — but no helmet. One glance at the armor told the whole story of how hard and how long it had been used. It had yellowed with age; parts of it were corroded and flaking away. It was dented and worn down all over, and every step he took produced that clanking rattle. Over the armor he wore a dark brown rag that might once have been a cloak or a robe.
The first words that came to the men's minds were vagrant and drifter.
Clank— Clank—
"What the hell is wrong with that lunatic?"
Blind, maybe? A madman? A drunk? High on something?
The man was walking straight toward a column of hundreds of orc warriors. Neither fast nor slow — but more than enough speed to catch the formation.
It was a sight that more than justified questioning his sanity.
This was an Orc Colony led by a mighty King-class specimen, every last one of them enhanced by the "medicine." Even a full knight order charging in here would be torn apart.
And yet.
That beggar of a man was walking toward this army alone, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Clank— Clank—
A sudden breeze lifted the man's long hair.
The red eyes revealed beneath it were still and quiet, settled like deep water.
"So it was you."
He spoke as he regarded the men staring at him in disbelief. His tone was calm and even.
"The ones who caused all this chaos."
With those words, the man drew his sword.