Chapter 287: Decisive Battle (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 287: Decisive Battle (3)
"Ughaaaaak!"
Ranked 7th among the demons, the Orc Chieftain. With Kuarne as the only remaining Corps Commander, the chieftain's combat power was effectively considered on par with a Corps Commander.
"Shield unit, don't step forward! Fall back! You can't hold against that! Hurry!"
The heroes were struggling. He possessed monstrous strength fitting his massive frame, skillfully weaving magic into his attacks. His destructive power was so immense that even five Warrior-rank tankers combined could barely hold him back.
Swiiiiiish!
A spear extended rapidly, aiming for his thick nape. The Orc Chieftain twisted his head, dodging the thrusting tip. Had it been the weapon of a mere hero, he wouldn't have bothered dodging, but this strike did not belong to a "mere hero."
"You wretched beast!"
The battle cry of the Spear Saint. Choking up on his spear shaft to shorten his grip, he stomped his foot like a thunderbolt.
The Orc Chieftain bit down on his club. Muffled by the weapon in his jaws, he grunted something unintelligible.
"Trying to charge me? Stupid human. Even stupider than me."
The Orc Chieftain hunched his body low, his back curving like a hunchback's mound. If he put both hands to the ground, he would look just like a wild boar—only the size of a mountain.
Kaboom!
The beast charged forward in response. Deep furrows were gouged into the earth beneath his hind legs. Thud, thud, thud! The ground heaved violently. With lightning already flashing across the sky, it was a battlefield where heaven and earth literally shook.
"It looks like a whole mountain is running at me."
The Spear Saint was also a giant among men, standing two heads taller than the average adult male. But that was only in comparison to humans. No matter how large a human was, they couldn't compare to a mountain. From a distance, their collision would give the illusion of a toddler facing a giant.
Man and monster. But even the small had their own way of fighting, much like David felling Goliath with a sling.
The Spear Saint threw himself sideways, snapping his trajectory at a right angle. Because he had been sprinting with ferocious momentum, the opposing force of inertia slammed into him.
Creeeeak.
His calves and lower legs screamed in agony; muscles and tendons must have snapped by the dozen. Had he possessed the weight of that boar, even this maneuver would have been impossible. In the end, he had moved his body according to his will—and that was what mattered.
The distance between him and the Orc Chieftain narrowed in an instant, but by then, the Spear Saint had already slipped clear to the side.
The Spear Saint bellowed:
"Kojima!"
The field of vision previously blocked by the Spear Saint's broad lats opened up.
Dropped to one knee, the Archery Saint pulled the bowstring of his mighty bow with every ounce of his strength. Veins bulged violently across the back of the hand gripping the arrow.
The Archery Saint released the arrow. The glint of sunlight off its tip stretched into a long beam of light. A split second later, the bow limbs snapped in two—destroyed by the sheer power put into the shot.
"Squeeaaaaal!"
The sacrifice of the bow paid off. With the arrow piercing cleanly through his left eyeball, the Orc Chieftain veered off his charge. The club held in his jaws tumbled to the ground, covered in spit.
The Archery Saint clicked his tongue lightly. Flexing his numb hand, he muttered,
"I intended to blow his skull apart, but I suppose that was too much to ask."
After all, the Orc Chieftain was 7th in the demon hierarchy. Even with all the power the Archery Saint put behind that shot, he was not an easy demon to kill with a single arrow.
But that didn't mean it had been ineffective. The beast tumbled to the earth, clutching half his face in writhing agony. The arrowhead had penetrated deep through his eye, brushing against his brain. And that desperate writhing created an opening.
A straight sword floated through the air. The Sword Emperor's Sword-Control Technique. Swooosh! Tearing through the wind, the blade struck the green throat. However, the hide was too thick to pierce in a single blow.
The Sword Emperor sprinted forward, snatching the self-moving hilt out of midair. Gripping the sword in a reverse grip, he drove it down into the neck. Dark, bluish blood splattered across his cheek.
The Sword Emperor winced and let out a low groan. Both hands wrapped around the hilt trembled, along with the blade itself.
"Refusing to go down easily, are you?"
The Orc Chieftain had caught the blade with his right palm. Immediately after, he used his left hand to wrench out the embedded arrow along with his eyeball. Optic nerves and brain fluid came oozing out with it. He shoved the mass into his mouth, ravenously chewing it up.
"My name is... Hahudon...! From this moment, I am reborn as a true warrior! Ughaaaaah!"
The Orc Chieftain unleashed a terrifying Fear. The eardrums of nearby heroes ruptured. The Sword Emperor, standing right on his face, suffered the worst of it. Blood poured steadily from the chieftain's empty eye socket.
"Monstrous beast."
This was the greatest difference between humans and Majin. Magic was a secondary concern. These creatures did not tire easily—even here in the Human Realm. On top of that, they were ridiculously bloodthirsty. It almost inspired a twisted respect.
'Must I resort to that after all?'
The Sword Emperor hesitated. Awakening once more would push his physical body past its absolute limit. In other words, he would die. He knew this better than anyone; he had lived in this body for seventy years.
Dying on the battlefield was the pride of any warrior, especially a hero. Though thoughts of Abel weighed on his heart, Kang Geomma would protect her. Knowing he was his granddaughter's companion, the Sword Emperor could close his eyes in peace at any time.
'I do not fear death.'
The problem was not what came after, but the immediate aftermath. If he died, the heroes' morale would plummet. Even if the Heavenly Sword was currently repelling the demons with miraculous techniques, that was only temporary. In a war of attrition, humans were at a disadvantage. This very Orc was proof of that.
In that split second, the Orc Chieftain's stomach heaved, his body tensing as if to spring upright.
The Sword Emperor set aside his hesitation. He contracted his entire body as if constricting his blood vessels, focusing every nerve onto the tip of his sword. He drew upon the Sword Principle engraved into his very bones.
At that moment, a pair of figures materialized from the sky. It was Medea and Meain. Like a decal mirror image, they brought their heels crashing down in perfectly mirrored postures.
The Sword Emperor barely managed to dive out of the way, but the Orc Chieftain underneath could not. The sharp heels of their high heels plunged through his ruptured eye socket, piercing right into his brain. Whether human or demon, the brain was the fatal point of fatal points.
"Gaaaaahhhhh!"
A horrific scream echoed. The Poison Twins used their remaining feet to step into his agape mouth, stomping and tearing inside. Their coordination was flawless.
Spurt!
A magnificent fountain of blood spouted into the air, soaking the Poison Twins up to their knees in gore.
Bloody foam bubbled from the Orc Chieftain's mouth and eye socket. His fingers, which had been feebly clawing at the air, came to a dead stop.
Moments later, the two arms raised toward the sky went limp and crashed down. Since a single arm was as large as a full-grown man, they landed with a heavy thud.
Ranked 7th. Key power of the demon forces, Orc Chieftain Hahudon. Dead.
With his death, the surrounding heroes swelled with momentum. Human stamina might fall short of a demon's, but their morale and mental fortitude surpassed them. Energy surged across their faces.
"The Seven Stars killed the Orc Chieftain!"
"Woaaaaahhhh!"
The heroes began to push the demons back. Under their combined assault, the demons suffered numerous critical hits. One by one, demon formations broke and collapsed.
Krak-ak-ak!
Meanwhile, lightning magic selectively fried only the demons. In every aspect, the tide of battle was turning in humanity's favor.
"Zieg, you were trying to awaken, weren't you?"
Meain playfully shook the blood off her leg and rested her weight on one hip. The rest of the Seven Stars gathered around her.
"What did I tell you back when I was teaching you? Don't always look for the easier, comfortable way out."
"If Lady All-Power and Medea had not arrived, it was my only option."
The Sword Emperor protested. Meain brushed it off coldly.
"What do you mean 'only option'? That Orc Chieftain was on the level of Basmon, the 6th Corps Commander. But you, who have grown several times stronger since then, had no choice but Awakening? Don't give me that nonsense. You look stiff and upright, but you're secretly a slacker. Past and present. That's why Medea keeps calling you a geezer."
"..."
"Are you going to admit you were wrong or not?"
At his master's nagging, the Sword Emperor ultimately let out a sigh.
"My judgment was short-sighted. I will keep Awakening strictly as a last resort, reserved only for true crises."
"No. Don't even consider it. Even as an Ancient, I'm avoiding Awakening unless absolutely necessary..."
Before Meain could even finish her sentence, all the Seven Stars snapped their heads up. They felt a colossal, terrifying presence approaching their location.
"...What the."
A meteor streaked toward them, trailing a bright yellow tail. At its tip was the Hero, Leon von Reinhardt.
"Why is he...?"
The Seven Stars who were acquainted with Leon stood frozen like statues. Consequently, they reacted a beat too late as Leon swung his sword toward them.
The aura Leon unleashed like a flash of lightning intertwined with Kang Geomma's lightning magic. It was a strike that fully exploited the nature of Balmung—a sword that was both Holy Sword and Demonic Sword.
[Thunder Reversal]
Thunder rained down upon the heroes fighting fiercely below. Believing the heavens were on humanity's side, they were left completely defenseless.
Rumble! Craaash! Kaboom!
A relentless onslaught. The incoming attack flew too fast to react to. Yet, even in a situation like this, there was bound to be at least one person who remained calm.
Right now, that person was the Archery Saint, Saki Kojima. Having never met Leon face-to-face, he was not thrown off, and his underlying disposition was inherently composed.
The Archery Saint pulled a new bow frame from his subspace ring. By the time Leon's blade trembled, the bow was already pulled into a curved arc. Over a dozen arrows nocked in a single breath left his grip, intercepting the tempest of lightning.
Fssssshhh—
For the first time in a life ruled by self-interest, he had stepped forward to protect others. This was altruism. He was enacting a concept he had known in theory, but had never truly understood.
In the frozen realm of time where lightning seemed to crawl, the Archery Saint's eyes traced the past.
—Why must a hero willingly throw away their life for humanity? Shouldn't one protect their own life?
It was a proposition he had put to Alice. The place from those days was also right here, Joaquin Academy.
—Someone has to shoulder that weight instead.
Perhaps influenced by the location, it felt as though she were answering him directly.
—Because we possess greater power. We can endure it better.
Her face, which had remained a faint memory for a full forty years, appeared vivid now.
—Kojima, the day will come when you understand these words too.
The corners of the Archery Saint's lips slowly curled upward. Blood surged violently up his throat. The hollow sensation in his flank suggested his internal organs had been completely torn away.
Thanks to his actions, the rushing attacks failed to even graze the heroes—save for the single strike aimed straight at him.
Just before the Archery Saint's back touched the ground, someone's hands gently caught him.
The face came into blurred focus in his vision. His sight was fading, rendering it hard to see clearly. Yet, for some reason, it bore a striking resemblance to a face he longed for.
"Humanity..."
The Archery Saint, Saki Kojima, forced out his voice with a faint smile. A red line of blood dripped down from under his chin, trailing all the way to his chest.
"...My family... I leave them in your hands."
The Archery Saint's eyes fell shut. Kang Geomma stared at him for a long moment before gently closing his eyelids.
Kang Geomma laid the Archery Saint down gently and shifted his gaze to the side. Leon had landed on the ground before anyone realized.
"Saki Kojima deserved to die," Leon said. His eyes were unfocused and unstable.
"He did."
Kang Geomma readily agreed. Yet his expression remained as cold and emotionless as a carved sculpture.
"And so do you."
The eyes of the Demon King, sunken to the absolute depths of the abyss, glared at the Hero.