If There Is a God (6)
Crossing over to Montataro was not particularly difficult. As always, it was simply a battle with myself—that is, with seasickness.
“The gorge is in sight!”
Even so, we succeeded in reaching the Garorim Strait. The sea path flowing between the islands shimmered with an especially deep blue as it undulated. The sky, utterly mismatched to the situation, was brilliantly clear and sunny.
“Watch out for arrows!”
Once we drew a little closer to the strait, arrows began flying from one of the cliffs that ringed the Garorim Strait.
Tracing the arrows’ trails soon revealed a mountain stronghold built into the cliff face. Starting from the shoreline, it climbed the terraced rocks until it practically claimed an entire wall of the cliff as its own.
“Raise shields!”
By then my body, which had been posturing on the deck, went rigid. Thwip-thwip-thwip. The sound of the arrows that had been raining down for a while was remarkably similar to a downpour.
“Whoa, can we really break through that?!”
Ah, such weak faith.
I swatted aside only the arrows that would have struck me and strode steadily toward the bow.
Whether the sail caught the wind or the current carried us, the ship kept drawing nearer to the Garorim Strait.
Hostile entities exist within a 30 m radius.
∎ Destroy the base of Bipurit’s faction
∎ Eliminate pirates 0 / ???
∎ Bonus: Kill Bipurit
Or rather, the enemy boats pouring out of the stronghold.
“Enemies incoming! Weapons up!”
“Ha, I’m not sure this is actually a good idea.”
“Quit the weak talk. We just have to hold until that guy finishes killing them all!”
“The real question is whether we can hold out by ourselves, isn’t it?”
Some of the sailors and adventurers muttered such things. They weren’t meant for my ears, yet they were rather obvious.
Not in a bad way—more in the sense that I wanted to smile and answer, “Ah, got it, I’ll hurry.”
“Victory to my sword, glory to the heavens……!”
So I raised my blade and performed the pre-battle rite. Whoosh. One arrow skimmed right past my ear; another buried itself at my feet.
My sword descended.
“The time has come to pay for your sins.”
Right after, I pitched my upper body forward as if falling and took a step. The instant the boards seemed to crunch beneath my soles, my body was already surging forward with explosive force.
Boom!
Splash!
Stepping off the railing, I soared through the air and crashed noisily onto the approaching enemy boat.
“What the fuck!”
“Aaaagh!”
“Crazy—k-kill him!”
The boat settled a little as it shoved seawater aside, and its original passengers spat out curses in a torrent.
Scattering spray, the rocking boat, and the pirates’ varied reactions as they swore all appeared for a moment in my vision like slow motion.
Slash!
But there was no time to admire any of it. I swung my sword and added blood to the scene.
I missed the one behind me relative to the landing point, yet it did not matter.
I could feel him lose balance and cling flat to the railing. At that level, striking me was nearly impossible.
Thud, thump-thump!
Moreover, I had already vaulted to the other side before the boat’s rocking had even settled.
Thud!
“Eek!”
“You crazy bastard!”
Using a running start to leap to the next boat, I did exactly the same as before.
I fed sword strikes to the startled bastards and moved on to the next foothold.
It was much like a wolf that had slipped into a pasture and was ransacking the sheep pens.
Of course, because I prioritized many hits over a single precise blow with each swing, and never cut more than twice before moving on, the actual number of deaths was not that high.
Far more people had fallen into the sea or were groaning from sword wounds than had died outright.
Yet that was enough for me. What I had wanted from the start was a stepping-stone to reach land and to delay them from reaching our ship.
Neutralized this thoroughly, the sailors would hold out just fine.
“You bastard!”
In the middle of it, a man who had grasped my pattern swung his weapon timed to my landing. Not a bad sense of timing.
It was simply that I possessed the skill called Survival Instinct.
“Die—?!”
Boom!
Following what the skill taught me, the instant my body touched the boat I flattened myself prone.
The rebound made the boat’s prow rear up, and the sword path of the man who had tried to attack me sliced empty air at a ridiculous angle.
Splash!
Then the reaction made the section I stood on surge upward, lifting my body with it.
Because I had timed the force in my feet earlier, my body sprang out like a coiled spring.
Thud!
“Guh!”
My knee drove up into the enemy’s chin; as he fell I straightened my leg and stomped hard on the boat’s end.
Boom! The impact flipped the vessel. Bodies swept along with it flew through the air and plunged into the sea.
“Aaaagh!”
“Waaah!”
But by the time the boat overturned I had already thrown myself toward land. Calling it their own doing, I discarded any pity for them and landed on the tidal rocks.
“Stop him!”
In front of me stood a barricade they had somehow managed to erect.
Crunch!
I smashed through it with my foot and reached my hand back. The moment the hilt settled snugly into my palm, the silver-white blade emerged and split the sunlight.
“What the hell is that monster!”
“Kill him, kill him!”
No demons around here, it seemed. I advanced into a barracks packed only with humans and quickly took stock of the situation.
It was still too early for certainty, yet nothing non-human was visible.
Slash!
So for the moment I poured half my mana into unleashing a Chamgyeok first.
There was no reason anywhere to save a skill that dealt damage solid enough to sink into boss monsters and whose range expanded according to the mana invested.
Of course I would try to conserve the remaining mana as much as possible just in case……
Still, AOE was love. I had no idea how I had lived before obtaining this skill.
“Uh, uh……?”
“You, you……?”
Yet even this skill had a slight drawback: the scenery that unfolded right after activation was rather a lot.
Whoosh!
“Guh!”
Especially the process of people becoming pe/ople was quite……
The cut surfaces alone were grotesque enough; when they all put their organs on display as a group, it only ruined one’s mental health.
“M-monster…….”
But it was not as though I had leisure to linger in appreciation either. Dawdling would only lengthen the time I spent here.
If only because I hated looking at those things, I hurriedly crossed the world bisected by the pitch-black sword stroke.
Everything the Chamgyeok had swept through either ended slightly misaligned or saw its upper half slide sideways and crash down.
My boots stepped onto rocks wet with red and climbed higher.
“Shoot, shoot!”
By then the arrows that had originally targeted the ship switched aims. Tidik, tik, tididik. Things pouring down like rain hammered the spots I had passed or the spots I was about to pass.
I could not even empty-handedly claim their aim was good, yet with numbers like that they were plenty annoying.
“Kill him before he climbs up!”
Everyone was treating me like some boss monster. It made the player listening feel rather put out.
While grumbling like that I hop-skipped and leapt to dodge the arrows. My body, vaulting up the rocks as if performing acrobatics or a stunt, reached the second camp.
Should I just cut these guys down with the sword too? Turning the place into a sea of human blood felt a bit off, so maybe fists instead?
The idle thoughts continued. Tingling. It was then that a prickling sensation rose from my right arm.
Slash!
I could not show mercy to bastards linked with demons.
Instead of sheathing the blade I swung it. The edge, not even wrapped in mana for thrift’s sake, dug into flesh, tore muscle, then cleaved bone.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
Having realized that pouring mana into my left arm let me swing the two-hander easily one-handed, my right hand now and then seized an enemy’s collar or head and flung them away.
“Fuck, where did this monster come from!”
Clang!
The sword was blocked. I hooked the foot of the enemy charging from the right, gripped the blade of the one rushing from the right rear with my gauntlet, and poured more strength into my left hand.
Grrrk. The forced-back sword finally gained acceleration and sliced the entire left side clean through. The man who had crossed blades with me, along with several other pirates charging from the left, collapsed on the spot spurting blood.
Screech!
At the same time my right hand yanked the seized sword and stopped another of the enemy’s attacks.
The two-hander, free after clearing the left, lay horizontal and stabbed into my right side.
“Guh!”
That finished the attacker. I pulled the still-captured sword even harder.
And the moment I fully claimed it, I drove the hilt of the stolen blade into the robbed man’s head. Striking the middle of the face without mercy meant at least a broken nose; a little farther and it was concussion. No further concern needed.
Clatter.
So I tossed the stolen sword aside and looked ahead.
Two were charging as if this were their moment; several more hesitated in fear.
My two-hander slid free of the dead pirate’s body and scattered blood in every direction.
“Out of the way!”
Yet just as I kicked one of the two runners and severed the other’s neck, a heavy thumping sound rolled down from above.
“You little brat, you’ve been rampaging freely in my territory!”
“Boss!”
What appeared next was a bipedal water buffalo—in other words, a Shagi pirate.
Those broad shoulders and the height that easily reached 2.5 meters looked especially formidable. Personally I thought he would have suited the role of general or king on some cherry-blossom island.
“Boss!”
“The boss is here!”
“You’re dead now!”
More than that, my arm tingled unpleasantly; the sensation was a bit grating.
Leaving the pirates cheering the water buffalo’s entrance, I gripped the two-hander straight.
“I’ll tear your body to shreds and throw you as fish bait into that sea!”
“Please kill that monster!”
“Die, die!”
The pirates were damnably loud. Ignoring the racket, I studied the water buffalo that looked ready to charge at any moment.
Then, abruptly, the veins standing out on the water buffalo’s trapezius—only trapezius where a neck should have been—caught my eye. Looking closer, veins were also gradually bulging under the long dangling earrings and braided hair.
“I’ll crush your skull with this club!”
How to put it. The blood vessels were expanding far too much, as if he had taken something or done something. And the after-effect would almost certainly……
Crack, crackle!
“Uwaaaaa!!”
…not be good for me.
I watched the water buffalo whose skin ballooned and whose bulk swelled in an instant like a Hulk transformation, and my eyelids twitched.
Fear? Of course not. I simply wondered what the hell that bastard had doped with to bulk up like that.
Was it some kind of demon contract as well?
“Scum who joined hands with demons…….”
Separately, that thought also crossed my mind.
I still had mana left; should I finish him in one blow with it? Or face him without?
Of course the circumstances said he was the boss of this place, and using skills on bosses was correct…… but the previous bosses I had faced had been so imposing.
Compared with the Plague Ghost or the dragon, this guy looked far too weak. Even factoring in the meta that later stages meant higher levels…… it was just, well, like that.
In vulgar terms, too much of a pushover? Felt like damage would go in even without skills.
Seeing that after so many days since the story began the trash mobs still dropped to a single normal hit made me think normal attacks would still work on bosses as well.
“I’ll kill you! You little brat!”
But my contemplation was cut short before it could reach a conclusion. The water buffalo, now nearly three meters tall, raised his club and charged.
“Hyaaaap!”
Fine. First hit once without skills; if the damage does not land, use them; if it lands well, continue without.
Honestly, one-shotting a boss was less useful for time-saving than wiping twenty minions at once. Nothing was more annoying than when the minions scattered.
Boom!
Anyway the water buffalo’s wooden club—wrapped in iron—pounded the ground. It was so heavy and hard that instead of cracking the rock it merely left a small scar on the floor.
“Know your place.”
But my body was already slightly clear of the impact point.
I raised the two-hander toward the enemy who had only grown larger while his brain seemed rather to have shriveled. The blade that shone coldly like a guillotine cut the sunlight and aimed for the water buffalo’s head and arm.
Slash!
“Gyaaak!”
“Th-the boss’s arm!”
An arm thicker than my thigh—perhaps as thick as my character’s waist—flopped onto the ground with a wet slap.
Unfortunately I had failed to take the head. It was not particularly strange.
The size difference was simply too great. Even when the fellow slightly bent his knees and hunched his waist to smash the club down, his gaze remained higher than mine.
On top of that his reflexes were not especially poor either.
The instant I twisted sideways and raised the sword, he realized what I intended and tried to pull clear. The proof was that the cut landed closer to the wrist than the original point I had aimed for.
“B-boss!”
“You rotten son of a bitch!”
From “brat” to “rotten bastard” in one leap—rank promotion, was it?
I scattered unnecessary glory across the ground and immediately pursued him. The water buffalo who had retreated gritted his teeth and swung the club one-handed.
I likewise drove strength into the foot planted on the earth and moved the two-hander.
Crunch!
The water buffalo’s club and my sword crossed. The iron wrapping the club dented, then tore free, and the wood itself was severed clean through.
The club’s head split and flew into the air.
“Oh, fuck.”
In that instant such a curse burst from the water buffalo’s mouth. The pronunciation was quite savory.
Yet I felt much the same…… wait, no—on my side it was not quite a curse, more a touch of hollowness.
Well, every boss besides the Plague Ghost and the dragon had been like this, but for damage to go in this thoroughly even without skills……
It was good, and yet it left me feeling oddly mixed.
“Th-this isn’t human…….”
“R-run!”
“Fuck, nobody said something like that would show up!”
At any rate, the pirates who witnessed my display began to flee. Even if their last hope had been crushed, subordinates deserting their boss—criminal camaraderie truly was splendid.
“Damn it, these bastards!”
Impressed by the fleeing underlings, the water buffalo also roared at the top of his lungs. Since my eardrums did not seem to appreciate it, I gladly raised my sword to silence the source of the noise.
“Since it’s come to this—!”
And the moment my legs launched my body forward like a spring, I swallowed my breath and swung the sword.
Breaker
The blade wrapped in black energy split the water buffalo from the crown of his head straight down through the crotch. The spurting blood came only after his body fell to the ground in two halves.
Clang.
But just then something shattered……
Whoosh!
“……!”
All of a sudden a jar that had been held in the water buffalo’s hand—and that fell with him when his body split—vomited out a pitch-black liquid.
It seemed to have broken from the impact of hitting the ground…… no matter how I thought about it, it absolutely did not look good!
Worse, the spot where the jar landed was right beside me. Without even a chance to dodge, I was the first to be swept by the pitch-black liquid.
Just as with the Plague Ghost, the liquid only soaked up to my ankles and showed no particular abnormality.
“Hyaaak!”
“Run!”
“Guh!”
No. Correction. It seemed only I had escaped because I was wearing proper boots.
“Damn demon bastards……!”
Nooo!! Normally when it reaches this point the standard is to go “Huh, was this guy trying something? Hmm. Doesn’t matter.” and finish the job cleanly!
From now on do I have to check one by one what he is carrying before I cut, snatch it, and only then kill him?!
I rapidly piled up complaints and searched for a way to resolve the situation. Pirates or not, the land itself looked ready to collapse.
“Sir Knight!”
“……Stay back!”
Hyaaaak. Dev, no! You must not come here!!
“It’s a curse!”
“What?!”
I simply strode through the liquid and ran.
The pirates were self-destructing thanks to their boss’s troll, so I passed on them. Purification by fire was uncertain—whether the liquid would even burn—and there was no source of flame anyway, so that was out too.
Moreover the liquid was spreading far too fast, and with the slopes and terraces it would reach our ship if I delayed even a little.
Right now saving our ship came first.
“Get away from this place right n—”
“Demon Knight!”
Huh? That familiar voice I had not heard for several days.
“I’ve come!”
I saw the face of the person just climbing up by gripping the rocks, and the hair that stood out more than anything else, and bit my lip hard. If I had not, I would have laughed, so there was no helping it.
“From now on, I’ll take over!!”
Our HP scavenger has arrived!!