Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: 28. Monster (1)
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Yuri was convinced he had struck the unidentified monster creating the tunnels.
The ground in the surrounding area rippled before completely collapsing downward.
Yuri could see chunks of the monster's flesh and sprays of blood erupting from between the piles of dirt.
Thin protrusions like tentacles writhed in severed pieces.
This monster would no longer be able to dig holes for orcs to traverse.
“Ugh...”
His body staggered.
Expelling mana outward was a technique he rarely used. It packed tremendous power, but it drained his mana and stamina to the point where sustaining a fight was impossible.
He gripped Guilty with effort and scanned his surroundings.
Having leaped into the heart of the orcs and wreaked havoc, they would swarm him again.
It was much like before.
“Where are you, Master...”
This time, Moyong Chan did not appear.
Yuri looked up.
First, the Orc Warrior wielding a curved sword emerged.
His face was twisted in fury. It was a refreshing sight, seeing him drop the leisure from before.
“Okudokuda.”
Yuri raised his middle finger. In response, the Orc Warrior let out a roar and charged.
Orcs appeared from all directions, swarming toward Yuri.
He was trapped amid an ant horde.
“Wow...”
Yuri let out a hollow chuckle as he raised Guilty.
He held the sword at the ready, but he had no strength left to fight.
Wonder if he could take down two or three with him.
That was when it happened.
Someone dropped from the sky above.
“Your Highness.”
The one who leaped over just as Yuri had done earlier was an unexpected figure.
“Sir Graham.”
Graham gave Yuri a light nod before assuming position.
“You've done well. I'll protect you from here on.”
“Appreciate it, but aren't there rather a lot of enemies?”
“One more is coming.”
“Even two seems too few. I can't fight anymore.”
“You can rest.”
No sooner had he spoken than another knight landed in front of Yuri.
He couldn't walk on air like Moyong Chan, but performing such a leap alone proved his exceptional skill.
It was an imperial knight clad in black armor.
The aura felt strangely familiar.
There was no forgetting someone who exuded this level of intimidation.
“Knight Commander?”
It was the captain leading the Empire's knight order.
“Third Knight Order Captain, sir.”
He replied in a deep, resonant voice.
Seems like a straightforward personality.
Yuri grumbled.
“The Empire names things so blandly with numbers...”
Anyway, he'd survived once more like this.
Yuri let out a sigh of relief, patting his chest.
The two knights guarding him now were the Empire's top forces in the current Allied Forces.
This was a luxury only Ragnar could afford.
“I'm out of strength now...”
Saying that, Yuri plopped down on the spot and watched the battle unfold.
“Ooh...”
As Graham had said, two were plenty.
Their prowess left Yuri in awe.
Graham wielded a practical swordsmanship devoid of excess. He coated his blade thinly with just enough mana and struck vital points with precisely the force needed to fell foes.
He could probably fight all day like that.
Just watching was educational.
Next, Yuri turned to the Third Knight Order Captain.
He was a completely different type from Graham.
“Not Lion Heart Technique, is it...”
Most imperial knights trained in the Lion Heart Technique, a war-specialized mana circulation method refined over ages without notable flaws.
Yet the Third Knight Order Captain was even more ferocious and intense.
Where Graham struck with measured force, this man pulverized his opponents outright. With every swing of his sword, orc flesh tore apart in ragged chunks.
The orc troops, stunned by the sheer power, hesitated to approach and fell back.
He was single-handedly butchering an army.
In his previous life, Yuri hadn't seen the Third Knight Order Captain. Had he died, or been on another front?
The thought of such a powerhouse as an enemy was unwelcome.
“Gotta get on his good side...”
He didn't seem the type swayed by affection, but building rapport might leave room for negotiation even if they ended up foes.
Yuri cheered him on.
“Third Knight Order Captain's strong. So cool.”
Graham shot Yuri an incredulous look, but the man himself showed no reaction.
Still, under that helmet, his mouth might be twitching.
“Third Knight Order Captain's the best. The man I want. Empire's top bachelor.”
Yuri raised his voice louder.
“Third Knight Order Captain's handsome! Take off the helmet, and he's got looks rivaling Yuri Brioll...”
Finally, the Third Knight Order Captain lowered his sword tip and glared at Yuri. His eyes gleamed fiercely through the visor.
“You're disrupting my focus.”
“Yes, sir!”
Yuri promptly shut his mouth.
By now, the battle was nearing its end.
No more orcs appeared.
Thanks to Yuri slaying that monster, no new tunnels formed, and the Allied Forces had surrounded the existing ones.
With the two protecting him, Yuri had time to recover.
As he gently soothed the mana circuits damaged by Heart-Soul Severing's overload, his energy gradually returned.
“Hoo...”
Yuri slung Guilty over his shoulder and took a deep breath.
The prairie air cleansed his lungs.
It reeked of blood, but that served as fitting stimulation.
He stepped out from the two men's defensive perimeter.
Then, the waiting Orc Warrior approached Yuri from behind—the same one from earlier whose fight they'd left unfinished.
“Your Highness, it's dangerous.”
“It's fine.”
Yuri shook Guilty to show him.
“This one's mine.”
No matter how exhausted, he couldn't let a foe he'd locked eyes with go free.
Yuri grinned at his opponent.
The Orc Warrior wrinkled his snout and swung his curved sword in a wide arc.
“Akuakka! Summa kum rauka! Baveku!”
“I don't speak orc, but you keep talking to me?”
“Aku bakuma uluriaku olоромetum!”
“Okudokuda.”
Yuri gripped Guilty with both hands, resting it against the back of his neck as he lowered his stance.
His condition wasn't great. To finish it himself, he had to end it in one go.
And the same went for his foe.
With the tide turned, the orc would want to kill the target and flee.
Their intentions aligned, leaving only the clash.
After a brief breath, they lunged forward simultaneously.
Just before collision, both twisted sideways, paths crossing.
Yuri burst into laughter.
“Cowardly bastard!”
He'd feigned a clash to strike from the side, but the Orc Warrior had the same idea.
They closed in again, gauging distance.
Not orc-like in swordplay, and cautious in combat style too.
Meanwhile, Graham and the Third Knight Order Captain continued slaughtering orcs.
As Brioll's representative, getting stalled by one Orc Warrior would be mortifying.
Yuri tensed his lower abdomen and surged Heart-Soul Severing's energy powerfully.
His body strained, but he ignored it and rampaged his mana.
“Hoo...”
It was something he often did as a mercenary.
No attachment to life meant he frequently used self-damaging techniques.
“What the...?”
But the sensation differed vastly from expectations.
His mana flooded the circuits without piercing inward. Released from restraint, it flowed even more majestically, slowly.
A phenomenon possible only because his mana circulation method was Heart-Soul Severing.
Yuri raised Guilty.
Though bewildered by the unexpected, it was actually better.
Sensing the change, the Orc Warrior rushed desperately, intent on denying him leeway.
But it was too late.
Yuri channeled mana onto the blade.
The sword blade expanded.
Beyond a thin coating—it was the blade itself extending.
Even Yuri could scarcely believe the sword's form in his eyes. A realm he hadn't reached yet.
But this was unmistakably sword aura.
Not consciously achieved, so who knew when it would fade.
Yuri met the oncoming Orc Warrior's gaze and slashed.
No finesse involved.
The moment weapons met, the curved sword snapped in half.
Guilty pressed on, cleaving the Orc Warrior.
The orc pulled back.
But not fully, his face split in two.
“Kraaaagh!”
Blood drenched the Orc Warrior's face.
A massive sword wound ran from eye to jaw, crossing his visage.
Yuri flashed a smirk at the orc clutching his face in agony.
“Weak.”
But Yuri's state was poor too. After the sword aura, even the rampaging mana withered sharply.
“Akuakka! Akumma!”
The Orc Warrior bellowed, face contorted.
He looked ready to charge bare-fisted.
Yuri feigned nonchalance and beckoned with his fingers.
“Come on, then.”
That was when it happened.
The ground quaked.
Yuri, drained of strength, buckled at the knees and collapsed involuntarily.
Just like before.
The earth was splitting again.
Dirt erupted from the ground, revealing a grotesque beast.
Its body emerging above ground resembled a massive earthworm, with recessed eyes on its head gleaming black.
From its mouth orifice, tentacles extended radially, writhing.
The oral tentacles wrapped around the Orc Warrior and lifted him.
The orc showed no panic.
He wiped his bloodied face and bellowed at Yuri.
Then the monster retrieved a few more orcs before burrowing back underground.
Tremendous noise accompanied the shaking earth.
That was the monster's true form.
“Damn it...”
Yuri spat.
He'd never known orcs commanded such creatures. Not even rumors in his past life.
Anyway, his task was done. The remaining orcs would be handled by the Allied Forces.
Yuri slumped to the ground.
Tension released, mana flowing through his circuits rushed back to his core and shrank.
“Ah...”
Immense fatigue overtook Yuri.
He truly lacked even the strength to sit now.
He toppled over limp.
He faintly heard Graham and the Third Knight Order Captain still fighting.
Even if a stealthy orc snuck up with an axe, he couldn't resist.
Best thing in this situation: play dead.
No choice.
Nothing left he could do anyway.
Yuri closed his eyes.
Ragnar furrowed his brow.
“What?”
His adjutant was crouched, checking the fallen Yuri.
After prodding him a few more times, he said,
“Seems like he's sleeping...”
“First guy I've seen sleeping in the middle of war.”
“Looks like he's completely depleted his mana. Even accounting for that, his nerves are thick.”
“He's insane.”
Ragnar had watched Yuri's battle.
First, he killed the shaman and got surrounded, barely saved by the outsider's help.
Then he gathered knights, dashed somewhere, suddenly leaped into the sky, and plunged his sword into bare earth, causing an explosion.
Looked utterly mad.
He'd jumped into the enemy midst and burned all his mana.
No Moyong Chan this time.
So Ragnar sent Graham and the Third Knight Order Captain. They successfully protected him.
He thought the madness ended there.
But the guy who should rest suddenly staggered up and reengaged the previous Orc Warrior.
What followed was even more absurd.
The mana-exhausted fool suddenly unleashed sword aura, a monster appeared and snatched the orc, and then he collapsed in the battlefield center, sprawled out sleeping.
Nothing went as predicted.
“This bastard really...”
Ragnar chuckled dryly.
“Still, thanks to him, casualties dropped. We learned the orcs' trick too.”
“What the hell is that monster?”
“Eisen contacted the imperial palace. If they have intel, they'll send something.”
“A monster digging tunnels? Ridiculous. And orcs travel through them?”
“Yes. Like an ant swarm.”
“Startled me, but no matter.”
Ragnar peered at the distant horizon through his spyglass.
Orc banners fluttered occasionally.
“Strike their main camp, and they can't pull these stunts anymore.”
Slow but steady, they advanced.
Soon they'd meet Okuwa.
“Your Highness.”
An imperial knight knelt before him.
“Orc cavalry circling our flanks.”
“Again?”
“Orders?”
The orcs kept harassing the Allied Forces. Fresh off a major clash, they returned undaunted.
Now their numbers seemed suspicious.
Felt several times more than anticipated.
“At this point, one of two things. Either more orcs than we thought, or we reach main camp and Okuwa's alone.”
“Hope it's the latter.”
“Wipe them out.”
He ordered annihilation.
“Our turn this time. Send the imperial knight order.”
“You mean...”
“Time to get serious.”
“Understood.”
Ragnar grinned.
“Let them know we have monsters hidden too.”