Chapter 85
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: The Overlords' Gambit
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One minute and twenty seconds.
A mere one minute and twenty seconds after the Sword Saint set foot in Vellaland, Overlord Ariel was dead.
The clash of weapons, the screams of soldiers, the grotesque roars of churning flesh—all fell silent, watching the death unfold.
The moment Ariel died, countless mutants and Mazoku froze in unison, like puppets with their strings cut. The Mazoku flying in the sky fell slowly toward the ground like powerless airplanes, and the massive mutants stood rooted to the spot, like statues.
In the cold silence, shredded flesh, mud gushing like a fountain, and red-hot leather clothes danced.
The Sword Saint’s eyes moved, searching for new prey.
“…You madman!”
The first to break the silence was Raguel.
While Ariel was being torn apart by the Sword Saint’s blade, he had mostly finished regenerating his body.
The monster spread its massive wings, preparing to escape the frigid battlefield.
Just then, a sharp, silver object flew toward the monster’s face.
Raguel instinctively turned his head to the side. An arrow grazed past his nose.
“…”
His gaze followed the trajectory of the cold arrow. At its point of origin stood an elf, holding a longbow as large as himself. Raguel glared at the archer who had dared to shoot at him, a look of disbelief on his face.
Then, a deep fury settled upon his face.
The fear of death momentarily washed over the archer’s entire body.
The elf who had fired the arrow felt as if only he and the Overlord were left on the battlefield. For a moment, his muscles froze, and he even forgot to breathe.
“Insolent…”
“Fiiiiire!”
Just as Raguel began to gather black light at his fingertips, an orc officer with green skin bellowed.
Soon, red and blue lights descended upon the battlefield. Mages’ staves and grimoires conjured fire, lightning, and sharp winds.
“All troops, advaaaaance! The tide of war has turned! Pin the Overlord down so he cannot escape!”
“…Pin me down? You? Me?”
Raguel spread his great wings and met the barrage of magic and arrows head-on. The monster’s blood and flesh were torn away, but the wounds regenerated in an instant.
Mud shot high into the air once more.
Soldiers raised their shields to protect the mages.
Raguel, as if finding the sight laughable, crashed straight into the shields, and the sound of tearing steel followed.
The soldiers holding the shields he struck vanished without a trace. Shattered iron fragments flew in all directions.
“Insolent bastards.”
Raguel, covered in red blood, lunged, his hands aiming for the mages’ necks.
A small dwarf wielding a hammer in each hand charged toward the Overlord, but it was already too late.
…Or so it seemed.
“Hands off.”
*Thud!*
The hand reaching for the mages vanished on the spot with a single explosive sound.
“…”
The Sword Saint’s pommel had struck Raguel’s ribs, sending the Overlord’s body flying hundreds of meters away.
“Maltiel and Mikael are still out there. Soldiers, focus on locating the other two Overlords. I will handle Raguel.”
The Sword Saint gave his orders quickly, flicking the filthy flesh from his pommel.
“Ah, yes! Understood…”
Before the officers could even finish their reply, the Sword Saint kicked off the ground and charged forward.
“…”
The mages wore expressions of utter confusion, unable to comprehend what had just transpired before their eyes. They didn’t seem to realize they had just been on the brink of death, or that their lives had been narrowly saved.
‘…I’m supposed to reach that level?’
The white-haired boy, watching the Sword Saint’s fight from a distance, let out a hollow laugh.
He had become incomparably stronger than when he first opened his eyes in this world.
He had developed his own spells, gained a small measure of enlightenment in the study of magic, and enhanced his combat strength with special artifacts like the red crystal and Dajin’s staff.
“Bullshit.”
But what seized the boy’s heart in this moment was a mixture of awe and powerlessness.
The thought that he could never reach such a state, no matter how hard he tried, inevitably filled his mind.
‘…No. Focus.’
He was witnessing a battle with the man who could be called humanity’s strongest. This was not the time to waste with foolish thoughts.
He had to find something to learn from the Sword Saint’s fight and make it his own.
‘…The moment he confirmed Ariel’s location, he immediately switched targets and took out the sniper first. How can he make decisions that fast? Did he have a scenario planned out? Or did he deliberately play with Raguel to bait Ariel into sniping?’
The boy’s mind raced.
‘He adapts to the situation too quickly. Is it a matter of experience? Is that something I can even learn to imitate?’
Though he found it difficult, the boy’s eyes never left the Sword Saint.
‘What’s his plan for the other two Overlords who aren’t on the battlefield? Is he focusing on the enemy in front of him for now? Or is he deliberately killing Raguel slowly to lure the other two out…’
“Huh.”
At the edge of the boy’s vision, which was focused on the Sword Saint’s movements, a black dot faintly appeared.
The dot, starkly black under the bright sunlight, grew in size in an instant, soon taking the distinct form of a Mazoku.
Black horns, red eyes, massive wings.
The very cause of the misunderstanding that he was a genius mage.
Overlord Maltiel was flying toward them at immense speed, his wings swept back.
“Oh, wai—”
*Whoosh!*
Before the boy could even ready his stance, Maltiel was upon him. The monster raised its sharp claws.
The compressed air exploded outwards, creating a massive shockwave. A ringing filled his ears, and at the sudden appearance of an Overlord at the rear of the formation, soldiers hastily raised their swords and shields and charged.
*Clang!*
The Overlord’s claws were blocked by a thin barrier. Spirit’s Protection had saved the boy’s life once again.
“It’s been a while. You’ve become quite famous, I see.”
“General!”
Rex, standing beside the boy, quickly raised his great axe and swung it at the Overlord’s neck. At that moment, Maltiel’s black wings sharpened like awls and shot toward Rex’s abdomen.
Rex showed no intention of dodging.
It seemed more important to land an attack on the Overlord before him and protect the boy than to avoid a large hole being punched through his stomach.
‘The barrier is about to break. I have to use Blooming. Skip the incantation and spell name…’
“Grisha!”
Just as the boy was about to convert the mana in his body into an electric current, Bel’s voice reached his ears.
“…And so you protect us!”
Grisha’s urgent prayer immediately followed.
Beneath the blue barrier, another layer of protection, this one yellow, unfolded.
*Kang!*
It seemed Grisha had cast the shield on the boy and, at the same time, cast the same kind on Rex.
The sharply honed wing collided with the yellow barrier and was crushed, while Rex’s massive axe continued its flight toward Maltiel’s neck.
“…Your blade shall drive out the darkness and bring forth the light. The sword that will one day rust and fade, you shall wield in glory today.”
Grisha did not stop her prayer.
The brilliant yellow light that had protected Rex was absorbed into the blade of the great axe he wielded.
The light particles gathered at the terrifyingly sharp edge began to vibrate minutely, like a chainsaw. When Rex’s axe finally reached Maltiel’s neck, the Overlord’s tough, hard skin split as easily as tofu.
“Tsk.”
Maltiel didn’t even scream as his head was severed.
With a click of his tongue, a new body began to grow from his head. Rex, not about to miss the opportunity, swung his brightly glowing axe repeatedly.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting much, honestly… but seeing you up close, it seems like a waste.”
Maltiel said this as he created distance, dodging Rex’s shining axe.
As the sneering Overlord flew up, the surrounding mages and archers unleashed a torrent of firepower at him. In response, infantrymen raised their shields high and quickly formed ranks.
‘Wait.’
Looking at the backs of the soldiers swarming before him, the boy felt that something was wrong. The soldiers who had rushed to protect him were clearly the infantry guarding Grisha and Bel.
‘Then who’s protecting Bel and Grisha…?’
“Got you.”
The answer to the boy’s chilling question came from Overlord Mikael instead.
“…”
Bel whipped his head around, following the voice that came from behind him. There stood a blue-skinned monster that had just clawed its way up from the ground.
In its hand, the monster held a ball of black light.
“Not a bad move, for someone cornered on a cliff, is it?”
Maltiel, floating high in the sky, looked down on everything with a sinister smile.
To the allied forces, the boy was a crucial asset who had to be protected at all costs. That was why Bel had ordered his and Grisha’s guards to rush to the boy’s side if necessary.
That order had become a fatal misstep.
The soldiers who should have been protecting Bel and Grisha had broken formation to respond to the Overlord’s surprise attack, rushing to the boy’s side. The result was an absurd situation where the mage and the cleric were left wide open to an enemy’s surprise attack.
“Now, from here on out, it’s a complete unknown.”
This one move, a gamble on which Maltiel had staked everything, was enough to tear a hole in the net Bel had laid.