Those Who Bear the Name "Hawk"...

Powerful enemies bearing the name Hawk had closed to within arm's reach, but the item that ought to have just appeared mattered more to Yujun.

Even so, he could not deny the other truth. Leave the Hawks alone, and the empire would come down in short order.

He activated Super Concentration (EX++).

His mind outran anything it had been a moment before. He opened his inventory, and his eyes raced across it. He had already committed the placement of every existing item to that sharpened memory, and because of that the pieces sent over by the inventory sync were easy to find.

Five, this time.

A small number. He was not disappointed. If anything, his face was soaked in rapture. There were fewer than the last transmission, but what had come through sat on an entirely different tier.

A rush of air.

He had barely begun to read their options properly when three Hawks—he had not even seen them close the distance—drove their fists at him. Yujun swung exactly three times and sent all three flying.

The sword didn't bite?

There was not a scratch on their fists. The only beings who could collide with his blade and come away whole were those of a wholly different grade.

So they're a higher grade than I am.

It did not wound his pride. A lower level had never meant weakness.

He glanced at Harp, the divine beast perched on his shoulder.

Harp could be in danger.

Chaos would make the Hawks easy to finish, but Chaos was not an energy he could draw without end. It was likely to burn out fast. If they were merely high in grade, that would have been enough. Unfortunately, they did not seem to be only that. One clash had told him as much. These things were strong beyond any comparison with the monsters from before.

"Come on. At least give me a moment to look at my items."

The Hawks paid the complaint no mind. This time five of them rushed him at once.

Why am I the only one they're after?

Had they inherited the monsters' memories, or were they sharing them? If not that, they might simply be following someone's orders. Whatever the reason, one fact was plain. They were hunting him.

"These Hawk brats..."

Ruining one of the few enjoyable moments he got. He was furious, but he kept the words as clean as he could. Too many eyes were on him to spit curses freely.

He decided to pay them back in kind, and Space Domination fell over the charging Hawks. All five were bound at once. The force was intangible, yet Hawks with bodies that fine could not so much as twitch beneath the spell. Without Chaos woven into it, though, Space Domination dealt them no damage.

Give it a little longer and they'll tear free.

Hawks that had been waiting filled the gap and closed in. Conte and the knights moved to bar the way of fully ten of them. One Hawk tried to blow straight past Conte, as if the man were not even there.

"And where do you think you're going!"

Conte swung. The Hawk met the blade with a fist.

The impact cracked like thunder.

"Wh-what kind of strength—!"

Incredibly, Conte's sword was flung far away. Before the stunned knight could recover, two Hawks kicked at once.

"Guh—!"

Caught wide open, Conte took both blows in the gut and went flying.

Conte, called the finest knight in the empire. The shock of watching him fall so helplessly was beyond words for the knights. His earlier defeat at the hands of a human player who had appeared out of nowhere had already shaken them to the core, and now all thirty of these identical enemies were stronger than Conte? One, they might have understood. Thirty enemies toppling the man they idolized was more than enough to crush their morale.

"Stay out of it!"

Knights and mages flinched at Yujun's shout.

"Only stop the ones trying to get inside the imperial palace. I'll handle the rest."

"......"

Not a single player defied him.

Yujun closed his hand hard around the sword.

Magic—Space Domination—can't kill them.

Then he had no choice but to settle it with his specialty, the blade. Their grade was so high that a killing blow required Chaos imbued in the steel. The problem was that Chaos was finite. Once it ran dry, filling it again took a very long time.

I have to spend it as sparingly as I can.

He admitted it. The Hawks were no ordinary opponents.

Without Chaos, I can't kill them.

Failing that, the only other option was to seal them in the Absolute Sealing Orb, and there were far too many to rely on that.

The instant a Hawk kicked off the ground, Yujun moved as well. His sword sank into the neck of the one just surging in. The timing was so exact that the Hawk never even registered the strike before its life was cut short.

Chaos remaining: 120...

The least he had to mix into the blade was 10. Anything below that, and landing a fatal wound was all but ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠impossible. Twenty-nine Hawks remained.

Then about six of them broke toward the imperial mages. Just as Yujun moved to cut them off, more Hawks charged him all at once to block his way. He swung and cast Space Domination, settling the spell around the Hawks bearing down on the empire's mages. The bind would last only a moment, but in that moment he threw himself into a melee with the enemies in front of him.

Steel rang and crashed.

He never wasted Chaos. In an ordinary exchange he put only mana into the blade, and the instant a chance to kill one opened, he mixed Chaos in and finished it.

The sword sank home.

That's two.

Two down. Still a long way to go.

There was another troublesome thing about fighting them. They used no weapons. They wore not even the most ordinary armor. Unlike players, they had no items equipped at all, and yet they never felt easy to cut, or weak. If anything, they were hard. A Hawk's body was the weapon, and because of that Yujun could not bring the full weight of his overwhelming attack power to bear. Neck or head, the hide was no softer. Had his offense not already stood as high as it did, even Chaos would not have let him imagine bringing one down.

More than ten Hawks poured on a relentless assault, and Yujun was hard-pressed just to hold them off.

Would Sword Barrier work?

He had never tried it against an opponent whose grade made ordinary attacks fail to land.

Blow after blow hammered in, and the sword sang with a thin, sharp ring. This was no time to be picky.

Sword Barrier activated.

An SSS-rank skill, no less, and one whose rank was badly undervalued against its true effect. In Yujun's view it ought to sit even higher than Heavenly Demon Divine Art or Space Movement. Of course, his absurd attack power was what amplified the barrier, but it was still true that Sword Barrier stood on a level ordinary skills could not ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠touch.

The impacts shattered against it, clang after clang. Sword Barrier turned aside every attack the Hawks threw. His wrist ached a little. Aside from that, there was no problem.

Holding the barrier, he stole a look around. Space Domination was coming undone. Even if he cast it again, the Hawks had adapted and would slip free in moments. Binding them any longer was pointless.

"Paranet! You hold them!"

"M-my lord?!"

Riding the momentum, he summoned Tapagol as well. Sensing how dire things were, Tapagol cast Gigantification of his own accord.

The ground shuddered. A Tapagol the height of a single super-high-rise took his place on the battlefield, and the empire's players forgot the urgency of the moment entirely, mouths hanging open before that oppressive sight.

"Wh-what is that? Why is it so huge?"

"......Whoa."

"I've never seen a building that big."

"Are you an idiot? That's not a building. It's a golem."

"What? A golem?"

Unlike those players, the Hawks were not rattled in the slightest. They seemed like beings with no emotions to begin with.

Then the largest of them, the one who stood as their leader, opened his mouth.

"How long do you intend to keep hiding in there?"

The words were for Yujun—a taunt aimed at the man fighting from behind Sword Barrier.

"So you can talk. Then why are you just watching?"

"......"

The lead Hawk had nothing to say to that. He only stood with his arms folded, watching.

He speaks first and then goes quiet...

Funny guy.

And he doesn't mean to bring the empire down?

He could not say about the others, but the leader gave off a strong sense of recognizing Yujun alone as the enemy. Yujun could see those eyes moving without rest.

He's analyzing me.

A smile touched his mouth. The lead Hawk reacted with sharp sensitivity to even the smallest gesture, as if he had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already taken a rough measure of Yujun's strength. Otherwise he would never have been this wary.

Yujun watched him in turn. The Hawks he was holding off with Sword Barrier would take time, but they were enemies he could kill easily enough. The leader was different. His instincts kept sending the same warning. Dangerous.

A boom split the air. Paranet sent one Hawk flying with a glorious Body Slam Thousand-Pound Drop. Grade kept him from dealing damage, but shoving them back was possible. Crash after crash followed. Perhaps because his equipment had been upgraded, Paranet moved more nimbly than before, blasting Hawks away the moment they drew near. Tapagol was the same. His sheer size drew so much aggro that several Hawks clung to him as a matter of course.

Not bad.

Even so, they could not hold out for long. He needed a solution, and there were still too many Hawks. If even two of them got inside the walls, the empire could be driven all the way to ruin.

Honestly speaking, the situation was terrible.

"Dad!"

Harp woke then, round eyes blinking as he spoke.

"You're up?"

"Yes! But, Dad!"

"Hm?"

"I think I can handle it!"

"Handle what?"

"The Hawks!"

"Weren't you asleep?"

"I know everything that's going on!"

"......You do? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Then how are you going to handle them?"

"Hehe. I'll show you!"

Awake for the first time in a long while, Harp answered with tremendous energy. Facing the Hawks pouring attacks at Yujun, the little beast opened his mouth wide, and a vast energy began to gather inside that widening maw.

......Insane.

Yujun, grasping the power bound up in that energy, was stunned.

It's stronger than before. Did I get stronger?

Then Harp fired the energy he had compressed to its limit.

A tremendous explosion tore open, starting from the exact point in front of Yujun. Harp's breath was a force that could not be compared to the breath Black Yode had once unleashed, and twelve Hawks vanished without a trace.

He had expected their bodies to regenerate from the difference in grade. The vanished Hawks did not return.

"Harp. What was that?"

"How was it, Dad? I've gotten stronger, haven't I?"

"......You definitely have. But how did you kill them? The difference in grade should have made that hard."

"Grade? Ah... that. I borrowed a little of your power, Dad."

"Huh?"

Yujun tilted his head, then soon understood what Harp meant. The Chaos inside his body had dropped to 60.

"......"

How had that happened? Harp's breath being powerful was one thing. Borrowing Chaos, something only Yujun could use? Were the two of them linked through the system?

"I'm sorry. I used it on my own."

"No. It's fine."

Yujun answered with a gentle smile.

This is huge.

This was absolutely not something to be unhappy about. Harp would never do anything that harmed him. Help, if anything.

Sixteen Hawks remained. Unfortunately, the leader had sensed what was coming and slipped aside beforehand, so Harp's breath never struck him.