Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Checkmate
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The opponent's severed left arm.
‘Ilyia Style Secret Technique, Rapids!’
Originally, it was a technique to slip into the opponent's side and sever their neck, but because I had to block their spear, the motion had been reduced.
Severing the left arm was certainly encouraging.
For a spear user, missing one hand was a fatal flaw.
To put it simply, think of billiards.
Imagine trying to strike the cue with only one hand. You definitely wouldn't get a proper stroke. Because you lack the arm that stabilizes the center of gravity.
The same went for spears.
Unless you'd practiced wielding a spear with one arm in advance, there was no way you could move normally after suddenly losing an arm like this.
‘I’ll finish it here!’
I decided to drive the wedge in.
At the moment when I'd circled behind him, I spun the spear with a whoosh! gripped it upside down, and thrust it toward my own side.
‘Ilyia Style Secret Technique, Coiling Retreat!’
It was the same technique I'd used against the bandit leader when saving Erina in the past.
It was Master Ilyia's signature move.
‘You know about the Chester Style? Then I’ll just use the technique my master created!’
However. Whoosh! He twisted his body and dodged the attack.
“What…!?”
So startled that I cried out in shock, his spear swung toward my back.
Since I'd attempted big attacks in succession without proper defense, I got hit by the spear shaft and tumbled across the ground.
“Guhk!”
My arm had blocked it, so my ribs and organs took no direct hit, but the pain radiating from my arm was no joke.
A dizzying pain from my right upper arm.
‘My arm’s broken!’
It was far better than a broken rib piercing my liver or lungs, but now I couldn’t use my right arm either.
And that right arm was the one I used for my main weapon, the spear. In a way, I'd taken a bigger blow than my opponent.
But more than the physical pain, the mental confusion was greater.
“Wondering how I dodged it?”
Fisher said, breathing raggedly. He’d wrapped cloth around his left arm and tied it tight with his right hand and his teeth to staunch the bleeding.
“Simple. This isn’t the first time I’ve faced Ilyia’s techniques. Well, I didn’t realize it until midway. It was only after taking Rapids that I figured out you were her disciple. Thanks to that, I could dodge Coiling Retreat.”
“…!?”
Why was this guy calling my master by her first name and knowing the technique names?
“You…. What’s your relationship with Ilyia Anpei?”
“You know it’s not the time to ask that so amicably. Ask her after you die. Or kill me now and go back to her yourself to find out.”
For some reason, the way he looked at me felt a bit softer.
“Haha…. Ilyia’s disciple, eh. No better one to take my head. Come on! Take my head!”
“Kuh!”
Our injury situations were nearly identical.
I couldn’t use my dominant right arm, but he had damage from blood loss.
Trembling! I tried somehow to use my right arm, but I could barely clench my fist—the pain made it impossible to hold the spear.
My only weapon was the sword in my left hand.
Meanwhile, my enemy had lost his left arm but could still wield his spear with his dominant right.
‘Still, no choice but to try. This is my only chance…!’
The area around us was starting to get cleaned up. Enemy reinforcements kept coming. Our forces had dwindled sharply to just 30 men.
I gripped my left hand tight and took a deep breath.
That was when it happened.
“Don’t hog the cool scene all to yourself, pretty captain. Ptoo!”
Aegert, who’d gotten up somehow, approached while spitting blood.
Fisher threatened him with a demonic grin.
“This isn’t a place for small fry like you. Stay crushed!”
The overwhelming aura from a powerhouse. The terror of facing death head-on made my heart sink.
If Dorothy were here, she’d foam at the mouth and faint. Ruan Chase or Casper probably would’ve collapsed in fear too.
I wasn’t much different.
The difference was that I had a higher mental age due to special circumstances, and plenty of combat experience against powerhouses like Eonia, Anton, Ymir, and others.
I’d thought inwardly that Aegert would be scared. He was a year younger than me, after all.
But no.
“Heh heh.”
Aegert laughed as if enjoying the pressure.
“Small fry? You’ve got the wrong guy, old man.”
“…?”
“My name’s Aegert! The man who’ll become Grand General! Uwooo!”
Aegert charged.
For some reason, the aura around him felt amplified.
His movements too.
Until now, he’d been on the defensive, but now he swung his sword more boldly and aggressively. Fisher, already missing one arm, felt the pressure.
‘This isn’t the time to stand around.’
I jumped in quickly too.
Focusing on dodging the enemy’s attacks, I swung the sword in my left hand.
“You’re still far off! That much won’t touch this body!”
Slash! The spear tip carved a large gash near Aegert’s chest.
“Keuk…!”
Aegert clutched his chest and dropped to one knee.
‘Now’s the time!’
With his big motion leaving his upper body exposed.
I thrust my sword deep toward his neck.
“Hmph!”
But he barely pulled back.
The sword didn’t hit his neck but embedded in his left chest—though not deeply.
“Ha!”
Clang! He swung the spear shaft to knock it away, and the sword flew off into the distance.
Now I had no weapon in hand.
“Die now!”
Fisher closed the distance and, gripping his spear short, thrust it at my head.
I twisted my upper body somehow to dodge, but thud! The spear pierced deep into my right shoulder blade.
“Kuuk…!”
My vision blurred from the pain.
‘It’s over…!’
All resistance was meaningless now. I stood at death’s doorstep.
But no life-flashing-before-my-eyes montage happened.
Instead, facing death so closely made me astonishingly calm.
Some say the life-flashing is the brain forcibly pulling up memories to escape death.
I was in the same situation. The difference was my brain sought answers in the current moment, not past memories.
My mind cleared, my vision widened.
Thanks to that, I saw it.
“…!”
Just one chance.
I raised my trembling right hand and gripped the spear shaft piercing my shoulder.
“What…!?”
Fisher furrowed his brow at the move, but only briefly.
My empty left hand.
The sword hilt appeared there.
Aegert, collapsed on the ground, had gripped his sword upside down and lifted it toward my left hand.
I grabbed the hilt and swung.
Fisher clearly hadn’t expected it. Since I was holding the spear shaft, he was too late to pull back.
“Checkmate…!!”
Whoosh! Slash! The chilling sensation in my grip.
Fisher dropped the spear and staggered back. But splurt! His right neck tore open, blood gushing.
“Keuk…! Uh… ah…!”
Dazed from the carotid artery bleed, he soon dropped to his knees.
“Me…. Like this…?”
Thud! Fisher collapsed, unconscious.
“Did I get him…?”
Aegert muttered that, so I dragged my weary steps over and plunged the sword into his heart for the kill shot. Plunge!
“Haa! Haa! Haa!”
A mix of triumph from victory and relief from survival made my body feel light.
Exhausted, I collapsed right there, but there was no time for that.
“Captain! We have to get out now!”
Blood-soaked Dillas urged me.
“Whew…! I’m fine. You take care of Aegert.”
My legs were still okay, so I could escape the battlefield via the retreat path Dillas had secured.
*
*
*
Having escaped the battlefield, we barely found a place to hide.
“Kuuk!”
The burning pain from my shoulder. The spear was still embedded there.
Pulling it out would cause massive bleeding.
I was better off, at least. Aegert, with a deep gash in his chest, had passed out the moment the battle ended—barely a scratch left intact.
After finishing first aid on Aegert, Dillas came to me.
He pulled out medical straps, tied my right shoulder tight, and said.
“Endure the pain.”
Dillas carefully extracted the spear. The ripping agony made me want to scream, but that could attract enemy soldiers, so I gritted my teeth and bore it.
After pulling the spear, Dillas wrapped bandages and compressed the wound.
“Captain, we need to move now.”
Dillas asked where to.
But I had no good answer. Allies and enemies alike had lost all order—it was chaos.
‘In that case, maybe….’
Going straight down might work.
The priority now was escaping and getting treatment.
The operation had 100-plus troops committed. Only 40 survived, and 15 of those were critically wounded.
With their lives hanging by a thread, we had to hurry to the rear for medics and priests.
“We’ll go down this way, minimizing combat.”
“Got it!”
We’d changed into stealth-friendly clothes instead of uniforms for the raid, so we didn’t draw eyes.
The enemy mistook us coming down for friendlies and didn’t respond quickly.
‘Good, almost there!’
Just need to reach our lines.
That’s what I thought when a group of about 50 enemies appeared before us.
“It’s them! These bastards killed General Barrett!”
They’d found Barrett’s body at HQ—unrelated to Fisher’s intrusion—and tracked us by our clothes, matching the corpses of our soldiers there.
‘This is bad! No strength left to fight them!’
Dillas thought the same and handed Aegert to me as he said.
“One request. Please give generous compensation to the families of the mercenaries who died in this war. That’ll satisfy me.”
“Dillas, you…!”
“Go now!”
Hesitating here would doom us all.
I shut my eyes tight and decided to flee the field.
But then.
“That heroic sacrifice doesn’t suit you, Dillas.”
With that familiar man’s voice.
“Haaaah!”
She charged in.
Boom boom boom boom! A spear piercing enemy necks.
A woman in gray armor and gray helmet.
“Eo…!?”
I was too shocked to react.
“How are you here…!”
“I’ll explain later! For now…. Ah, aah!? Lord Als. Th-that wound!”
Eo, standing guard before us, saw my shoulder and body wounds and trembled. Then she unleashed unrefined killing intent at the enemies.
“You bastards…!!”
Her pure white aura twisted in rage.
Overwhelmed, the enemies backed away. Seeing Eo’s divine prowess upon entry, they knew staying meant certain dog death.
“Damn! Retreat! Fall back!”
As they fled, our soldiers sighed in relief, gasping.
That man approached us.
“No time to stand around. Hurry down.”
I knew that voice. As expected.
“Olaf…! Why are you here too…!”
“I’ll explain down there. Let’s get out first. Lady Rania, hurry and take him.”
At the signal, Eo hoisted me onto her back.
Her familiar scent tickled my nose, and my tension melted away.
With tension gone, drowsiness hit. My body begging for sleep to endure the pain.
“I’ll sleep a bit….”
“What!? No! Don’t sleep!”
“Then tell me something fun….”
“Something fun!? Even if you say that….”
Eo floundered, then started talking about her time in Kurabel Holy Kingdom.
“So His Holiness scolded me, saying….”
My mind fogged.
I lost consciousness before hearing the fun story’s end.