Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Nakmanr Battle (4)
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I had been careless.
I'd thought that if I stepped in personally, a hundred men would be more than enough. And that complacency had led to the current situation.
Cain didn't shy away from the blunder he'd made. He faced it head-on. Razor-sharp fangs lunged toward his throat.
The reason the serpent tribe reigned as predators in the demon realm lay in those venomous fangs.
Fangs infused with a deadly poison that could melt skin in an instant. Cain knew that better than anyone.
How many of his subordinates had died to those cursed fangs? He remembered their deaths.
Kwang!!
The wicked fangs were blocked by the pitch-black greatsword. But Mamba paid it no mind and immediately raised his razor-sharp claws.
Unlike other beastkin, Mamba, the serpent tribe's leader, had poison coursing through his claws as well.
No, more precisely, it was magic manifesting the biological trait of poison.
'Mana is the power of life. Thus, its properties vary depending on who wields it.'
For example, the bear tribe's mana was as hard and powerful as rock, while the cat tribe's was exceedingly sharp and swift.
The ten poison-laced claws tore through the air with enough force to shred it, aiming straight for his heart.
This was no half-hearted strike born of complacency. It was a desperate blow steeled for death.
However... even resolve in the face of death couldn't bridge certain gaps.
Kwajik!
The claws failed to pierce the black aura that flared around him like flames and shattered instead.
A chilling screech echoed alongside burning pain from his fingers. But that wasn't the issue now.
The pitch-black greatsword, poised to reap his life like the scythe of the reaper, was already at his nose.
"Fuck..."
A single curse. For a king's final words, it was pathetically meager. Moments later, the pitch-black greatsword crushed his skull.
Kwang!!
With a gruesome roar, Mamba's head exploded into fragments, scattering across the surroundings in an instant.
Only after swiftly dispatching Mamba could Cain finally exhale in relief. Purely in terms of skill, he was mid-expert level.
'Feels stronger than Valentis... but that's about it.'
Compared to his grandiose title of Earth King, he was disappointingly weak. But the Earth King's true problem wasn't his martial prowess—it was his command.
Among the serpent tribe, he had the quickest wits and decent leadership, which had given Cain headaches until now.
That was why he'd made him priority target one. With the leader dead, the serpent tribe would naturally crumble.
"Whoa, the king is dead!"
"Avenge the king!!"
"Bullshit! How the hell are we supposed to beat the monster who killed the king!!"
'...As expected, they're fracturing.'
The beastkin lived in a world of the law of the jungle, like beasts. In other words, the strongest among the serpent tribe was likely the leader Cain had just slain.
Of course, he wasn't weak. He was objectively stronger than the empire's elite knights, including Valentis, who was authorized to command troops.
It was just... bad luck on his part. Cain had accumulated vast experience dying countless times against powerful foes.
Hell, purely in terms of raw power, he'd even clashed directly with the bear tribe's leader—the serpent tribe's superior in every way.
'The serpent tribe is like modern scouts or special forces. Not frontline assault troops, at least.'
That explained how over a thousand troops could reach here faster than anyone else.
But their middling strength had tripped them up. With their strategist leader just slain...
Fracturing was inevitable. And Cain wasn't the type to sit idly by and watch.
"I am Cain Blackguard. Which of you will claim my head?!"
He unleashed every last drop of his strength. A deathly aura began blanketing the battlefield in an instant.
Even the few warriors still holding their ground were utterly overwhelmed by Cain's killing intent.
In the end, unable to withstand it, one began to flee. That sparked the rest, one by one.
"What are you doing?! Fight back!! We outnumber them!"
"Die alone if you wanna die! They have reinforcements—we don't!"
"How do we fight a monster like that!!"
"Reinforcements couldn't possibly arrive that fast!! It has to be a trick... Damn it!!"
Rallying a collapsing, fleeing army on the spot was next to impossible. Without overwhelming charisma, anyway...
No one here possessed it. Confirming the enemy's retreat, Cain spoke quietly.
"We're pulling back too. If we stay put, their reinforcements will arrive right away."
This incident had taught Cain that carelessness and overconfidence were the greatest enemies.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ News of the battle at Nakmanr easily reached both Renheim and the Seven Kings.
The Water King was dumbfounded upon hearing the report from the serpent warriors who had fled back.
Not only had they lost the battle, but the serpent tribe's king, the Earth King, had fallen in combat?
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I-it's the truth."
"Explain in detail. Before I tear you apart right now."
The Water King was famed among his kin for his merciful nature, but he was still a beastkin with savage blood running through his veins.
In his already foul mood, this utterly unforeseen defeat was more than enough to awaken his feral instincts.
The surviving serpent warrior slammed his forehead to the ground and spilled everything he knew.
"...So, at first, there were only dwarves at the stockade. Then suddenly, Cain Blackguard popped out?"
"Y-yes."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"Who would dare lie to the Water King?!"
The Water King sat upon his throne of bones from hunted prey, lost in thought. It didn't seem like a lie, at least.
But it was still hard to accept as fact. When the serpent tribe had the dwarves surrounded...
The Water King had positioned troops along the shortest route and waited at the midpoint himself.
He'd chosen the midpoint specifically because they might arrive on wyverns.
'Anyone but him, and I might miss the wyvern's presence. But Cain Blackguard appeared there anyway... How?'
No matter how he thought about it, assembling an army in Renheim and reaching the Nakmanr River in two hours was impossible.
The Water King, briefly deep in thought, soon deduced the answer effortlessly.
"He was there from the beginning...!!"
Yes, it made sense if he'd been with the dwarves all along. Nothing else fit.
And that assumption tied everything together. First, the dwarves alone defended to deceive them.
Then, he led human troops—not dwarves—in a flanking ambush. Chaos on the battlefield was inevitable.
It was a situation where he'd toyed with the serpent warriors perfectly. Yet the Water King didn't rage.
"Kuh... Kuhahaha!"
Instead, he bellowed with laughter, slamming his fist into the throne. With a thunderous crash, the bone throne crumbled.
But he didn't care a bit, laughing on. To the point one might think he'd lost his mind...
But the Water King hadn't gone mad. If anything, this was the clearest his mind had been in ages.
"Strength that even the Reverse King couldn't take lightly, now paired with intellect... A foe worthy of my full might."
Looking back, driving out the bear tribe as a mere human and landing a solid blow on the Reverse King had been impressive from the start.
Had arrogance blinded him then? Or had his eyes simply grown dim?
It didn't matter which. Realizing it now was enough.
"Surely the Water King isn't stepping in personally?"
"But your wounds haven't fully healed yet..."
"My greatest rival has appeared. Shouldn't I accord him the respect he deserves?"
The simple reason the Water King hadn't intervened fully until now was his unhealed injuries.
Lost Empire, wyverns, necromancers—they were longstanding rivals warring over territories.
In those conflicts, he'd taken an irremediable wound, and it was slowly killing him.
"At least it's a blessing. My final opponent is a worthy adversary worth staking my life against."
He'd clung to life solely to use against the Fire King. But with the Fire King fallen, his purpose had vanished...
Who could have known? The foe igniting his fighting spirit in his final days would be a human, of all things.
Setting aside everything of a king.
A pure battle to the death.