Chapter 13
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: A Worthy Adversary
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“Assault team, prepare.”
At the Marshal’s command, Kaisen, temporarily assigned to Sharon’s corps, climbed up behind Ria on her saddle.
Down below the hill, Uruk skirmishers were roaring as they charged up the slope.
The corps had decided to attack the eastern gate, where the encirclement was relatively thin, and the decision proved effective.
This was because the number of lesser demons vastly outnumbered the greater ones.
- The first things to watch out for in the demon coalition forces are the goblins and gnolls.
The lowest-grade monsters had been reorganized into foot soldiers under the demons’ banner.
The Uruk tribe never used bows, considering them cowardly and petty weapons—a defining trait, if you could call it that.
This gap in their ranged capabilities was filled by the lesser monsters, primitive in both physical ability and intelligence.
“First rank, prepare to fire. Artillery, ready the cannons.”
The first rank of riflemen and front-line spearmen raised their muzzles and long pikes in unison, the air filling with the scrape of metal.
The large Prisvia Cores powering the field cannons positioned on the high ground of the hill began to rotate furiously, letting out a high-pitched whine like boiling water.
The artillerymen, having rolled cannonballs into the barrels, covered the muzzles with lids (to allow the steam to build to the brink of explosion) and stepped back for safety.
“Hold.”
As the massive forms of the Uruks shook the earth and drew nearer, the soldiers’ throats bobbed as they swallowed dryly.
“Hold!”
Finally, the moment the wave of Uruks, their repulsive faces just coming into range, arrived.
“First rank, fire!”
*Thwip, thwip, thwiiiip…!*
Uruks pierced through the chest and thigh by bullets staggered as if dancing before collapsing.
“WuraaaaaaaaA!”
The Uruks who charged on, trampling over their fallen comrades, were impaled on abnormally long pikes.
“Artillery, fire at will!”
*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*
The ones swarming in behind them screamed as their limbs were crushed by cannonballs that rolled and bounced across the ground.
“Charge!”
Yanking hard on her reins, Sharon led the cavalry in a flanking maneuver around the hill.
The Sharon Corps was composed of 988 dragoons, which included 10 knights from the Dunos dynasty.
Armed with dual pistols for ease of use on horseback, they had already proven their breakthrough power on numerous battlefields.
“Uruk wolf cavalry approaching from both sides!”
At that moment, as if to deny the heat of the summer day, pale, azure walls of ice rose up on both sides.
The Glacial Wall.
One of the signature spells of Johan Wolf Frost, the empire’s greatest cryomancer and archmage. Having instantly erected a vast wall of ice that reached the castle gates, Wolf felt his heart pound with anxiety.
‘Please be careful, Kaisen.’
Camilla’s corps, an infantry unit, had remained on the hill as a reserve force, and so had Wolf.
- Camilla’s corps will deal with the wolf cavalry attempting to flank us.
And Camilla’s mission was to cut down high-risk demons, such as trolls, that targeted the main force.
‘Don’t let your guard down just because the ice wall is up. The thing to watch out for there is…’
It was then. Something spinning violently shattered the front-left side of the ice wall and flew in.
Horses with their forelegs severed collapsed to the ground, and the three dragoons in their saddles were thrown onto the mud.
It was a deadly weapon called a boomerang. An oversized boomerang, crafted from human bone, spun viciously.
An Uruk, distinguished by a red mask, leaped atop the ice wall and dynamically caught the returning boomerang.
“Qijin…!”
Qijin.
A member of the Kiranzuki Gaga, a title bestowed only upon the strongest combatants of the Kiral Clan.
The front-line human forces knew his infamous reputation for massacres committed with his boomerang.
- The second thing to be wary of during a breakthrough is the Kiranzuki Gaga, Kiral’s strongest fighting force.
Qijin once again drew back his abnormally developed right arm. A prelude to the force with which he would throw the boomerang again.
Someone confronted that power.
That someone was Kaisen, who had launched himself into the air from the back of Ria’s warhorse.
Qijin’s eyes narrowed.
‘What is this human brat…?’
*Is he trying to fight me one-on-one?*
*To underestimate me so much.*
*I’ll kill five others along with that arrogant body of yours.*
—Ten-Character Sword Drawing Technique: Log Splitter.
The boy raised his sheathed tachi over his head, gripping the hilt. Simultaneously, he generated an explosive amount of magic through his Manaheart and Manachain.
Magic concentrated in the blade, but confined within the scabbard, it failed to circulate and dissipate, eventually taking on a deadly heat.
Log Splitter, the secret art of sword drawing, cuts the enemy by momentarily unleashing this trapped magic in an explosion.
A single flash of light.
Just before the boomerang entered its throwing trajectory, in the instant Qijin saw a flash of light in the darkness.
“What…?”
His vision spun chaotically.
A sense of powerlessness, as if he were being violently shaken, held fast by something immensely powerful.
For a moment he thought it was magic, but then he bizarrely saw his own body throwing the boomerang in a strange trajectory.
*My… my neck… was cut?*
*By a brat like that?*
“Whoa, did you see that?”
“He took down a Kiranzuki Gaga in one strike!”
As a thunderous cheer erupted from the assault team, Sharon, who had glanced back to check the situation, let out a whistle.
‘That skill, not to mention that reckless personality… he’s Camilla’s student through and through.’
Far ahead, Ria shouted for Kaisen, but he had to shake his head.
‘It’s too late to get back on that horse. It’s already gone quite a way ahead.’
*Am I going to be isolated here?*
No, Wolf's Glacial Wall, when set on a downhill slope, could be slid down like a railing.
Exhibiting extreme balance, Kaisen hopped onto the edge of the Glacial Wall and kept pace with the assault team’s formation.
‘That woman is incredible, by the way.’
At the vanguard of the formation, Sharon’s ferocity, as she cut and stabbed every demon in her path, was as deadly as Camilla’s.
‘A blue afterimage lingers in the trajectory of her slashes…’
Unlike the wide swings of the Ten-Character Sword, it was the pinnacle of the Extreme Sword Style, which precisely pierced and killed the enemy’s vital points.
It was at that very moment, the brief moment his gaze had shifted to Sharon.
*CRACK!* In that instant, with the sound of the ice wall shattering, his footing vanished, and a sense of floating washed over him.
Killing intent.
After flailing his feet helplessly in the air for a moment, he managed to regain his posture.
The ice wall was shattering to pieces.
Leaping from one fragment of the ice wall to another, he swung his blade at the source of the killing intent below that had destroyed it.
*CLAAAAAANG!*
But the one who blocked his strike with unbelievable ease was a monster… yes, at first, that was all he could think.
“Ha!”
Using the force of the impact to break his momentum, he rolled backward to retreat. The massive monster raised the corners of its eyes in satisfaction.
“Mide? Finally, a human worth fighting.”
He raised a hand, ordering the Uruks rushing in from all sides to fall back.
“Let’s see your swordsmanship, human brat.”
The End of Childhood,
The Siege of Aristapo (4)
“Let’s see your swordsmanship, human brat.”
Before the monster’s command had even finished, a blue flash of light burst before his eyes, right before his very eyes.
‘Crazy, what is that speed…?’
It threw his center of gravity off balance.
The momentary loss of balance sent his body toppling backward. He barely managed to evade the strike by rolling away.
“Uha!”
The monster, letting out a cry of admiration, seemed to grant him a moment’s respite, composing its charge.
Kishun.
Kishun Ziolobeffe.
Kaisen’s first encounter with the formidable rival who would mark the end of his boyhood happened at this very moment.
An overwhelming physique, clad in animal hide.
His shoulders were broad and powerful, and his face, which had weathered a lifetime of battlefields, was covered in hideous scars.
“This can’t be your best, can it? Give me more... rus? Fun? Entertain me.”
Kaisen was surprised to see Kishun’s vicious smile. He spoke the human tongue with considerable fluency.
“An Uruk filth, worse than a pig, speaking human words…?”
“I learned the human tongue. When I meet a strong one like you... oldoroshi? I wanted to talk like this.”
Kishun clashed the bladed claws on his hands together and licked his lips.
His assault was surreal.
Each strike was so ferocious it felt as if his wrist would shatter. When an attack missed, trees and rocks were obliterated; when he struck the ground, the earth caved in.
*CRASH! CRUMBLE!*
The impact of each blow repeatedly sent clouds of dust and pebbles flying, and Kaisen was forced to retreat again and again.
‘What is this madman…?’
His lips twitched.
His forehead was cold with sweat.
There were no openings. No room to counterattack between his strikes.
*CLANG, KRAANG, CLANG, KIIING…!*
As the steel blades danced a cerulean waltz amidst the fiercely scattering volcanic ash, the Uruk warriors of the Kiral tribe, unlike Kaisen, stared with their mouths agape.
‘What is that human brat?’
‘He’s fighting on par with Kishun?’
‘So felling Qijin in one blow wasn’t a fluke?’
As he dodged the slashes that whipped past his eyes, creating a gale of blades, Kaisen thought.
‘But as long as I don’t get hit, I’ll be fine.’
*I only have one shot. I need to bait a big attack, then use its momentum to bring him down.*
Kaisen feigned a flinch.
In that instant, Kishun swung his left claw in a wide arc, dominating the horizontal space. A sharp glint flashed in Kaisen’s eyes.
Sword Drawing Technique: Rebounding Blade.
A Ten-Character Sword drawing technique that didn't require a follow-up from the Ten-Character stance.
In the split second he ducked his head to dodge the attack, he used the momentum of the movement to sheathe his sword.
And again.
Putting his weight into pulling his body forward, he drew the sword and slammed the pommel into the enemy’s abdomen.
*THUUUUUD—!*
A dull, resonant sound.
The target’s kinetic chain collapsed.
A surprise counterattack that momentarily shattered the body’s balance by infusing a chain (Manachain) into the flow of power within.
‘Got him.’
Kishun staggered back.
Kaisen immediately spun his body, channeling the rotational force into a powerful upward slash with his tachi. But then.
—*SCREEEEEEECH!*
The sound, the sensation, was wrong.
It wasn't the sound of cutting flesh, but the sound of scraping metal… In that moment, the hair on his body stood on end.
“Shit!”
Kaisen sucked in a breath and kicked off the ground to create distance, but—
Ah…?
—the tip of a kick grazed his abdomen. A sharp pain, as if at least two ribs had broken, sent him tumbling gracelessly to the ground.
An agony that made his vision go dark.
If he had been a beat, no, half a beat slower, the blow would have been instantly fatal.
“Hah!”
Kishun whistled, looking back and forth between his own stomach and Kaisen. Kaisen, suppressing the pain, forced himself to his feet.
‘The Rebounding Blade missed?’
No, was he wearing chainmail under the hide…? *I should have risked it and aimed for his jaw.*
“Your judgment is excellent, too. How old are you?”
“Shut your damn mouth…”
At that, Kishun raised his hand, and from all sides, Uruks mounted on Blashwurfs walked forward.
A hundred?
No, at least two hundred.
He took deep breaths to calm the pain of his broken ribs, his eyes scanning the battlefield.
Still, thanks to him buying this much time, it seemed the Black Rose Corps had made it to the city safely…
“Don’t worry. I won’t kill you here.”
“What bullshit is that?”
“You people, if you get inside that gate? Tohos? That castle gate, you must have some kind of trump card, right? That’s why you’re… you’re trying so hard to get in. If so, then go ahead and bring? Bring it out.”
“What are you playing at, you son of a bitch?”
“The humans in that castle are pathetically weak. Olbu? The humans coming to help? Even more boring. I do not Likunot, like? I do not like such battles. I do not want them.”
A chill ran down his spine.
Was it the cold sweat? To feel cold even in the heat of this summer.
“It’s been years since a war finally broke out, so shouldn’t we enjoy it more... pabis? With more spirit?”
*What?*
*Is this guy insane?*
Perhaps seeing the doubt in Kaisen’s eyes, Kishun shook his head and explained.
“But you... doroshi? Yes, you seem worth ripening before the kill. It would be a waste to kill you now.”
It was chilling.
The way he said those words as if they were a joke.
“If you want to live long, don't bluff, you son of a bitch. If you're going to kill me, you'd better do it now.”
“How frightening. Yes, a warrior should be so. That makes me want to fight even less. If you all get in there? The battle will become more interesting.”
Kishun shouted something in the Uruk tongue, and the Uruks surrounding Kaisen laughed heartily and backed away.
‘What?’
*He’s just letting me go?*
*They could have resented that, but they obeyed instantly?*
*Is his charisma that great?*
“My name is Kishun. Son of Zkan, the great chief of the Kiral. In exchange for sparing your life, tell me your name.”
Ziolobeffe…
*Does it mean ‘furious storm’?*
Seeing no need to hide it, Kaisen spat and said.
“It’s Kaisen.”
“Whose son are you?”
In Uruk society, the names of one’s parents and tribe were of paramount value. Warriors always stated their father’s name when introducing themselves.
“You think I’d tell my mother’s name to you Uruk bastards who are worse than pigs?”
Perhaps sensing the fierce surge of hatred that flared in Kaisen’s eyes for an instant, Kishun raised an eyebrow, feeling the excitement of the battle to come.
“Alright, Kaisen. Then don’t die before I come to kill you. I will pull back my Uclan, my tribe, 500 paces. It is proof that we will not attack.”
“You really suck at speaking human. You scared?”
“Yes, I’m scared! If we fight any more here, you humans might be... blandly? Wha? Annihilated? Won't you be annihilated? Doueba, then I won’t be able to enjoy the fight anymore. Hahahahaha…!”
*An enjoyable fight?*
*This, this is enjoyable?*
Kaisen’s mind went cold. He shouted at the back of the retreating Kishun.
“Hey, you crazy bastard!”
He pointed at death with the tip of his sword.
At the whimpering Blashwurf with its lower jaw torn off, at the Uruk warrior wailing as he clutched his severed leg.
“What about this is so, so damn funny that you’re grinning like that!”
His mother had told him. There is no such thing as a glorious battle in this world.
She had been right.
Over these four years, he had come to desperately understand why she had never wanted to teach him the sword. And yet, these bastards…
“Don’t be so sanctimonious, Kaisen.”
Suddenly, a chill ran through him.
Kishun, who had been walking away with his back defenselessly turned, stopped. His voice was cold and low.
“Don’t hide your true nature.”
“My true nature?”
“When you kill someone, have you ever clenched your fist... achidomo? thinking, ‘That was a clean hit,’ or ‘I countered that perfectly’? Not even once? Or miraculously won a losing... tarke? and roared in triumph?”
He tried to object, but he couldn't. Kaisen faltered.
Because it had happened, many times.
The Uruk’s gaze was suffocating. Eyes as black as a deep well… he felt like he was being sucked into them.
“Kaisen, you and I are Atidos! The same kind. We are warriors! We do whatever we want! Haha! The true form of humanity!”
“The true form… of humanity?”
“Yes! Acknowledge your nature, and cast aside things like reason. Mwahahahahaha…!”
Kaisen stood there, stunned.
For a long time, even as he entered Aristapo without a fight, under Kishun’s protection, without facing a single attack.
- Kaisen.
The sword felt heavy.
The hand gripping it was like lead, and his mother’s voice seemed to echo weakly in his mind.
- How do you want to use this sword?