Chapter 44: Joining the Battle (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 44: Joining the Battle (2)
Once, the people of the Righteous Faction Murim had a saying:
"At the forefront of the Demonic Cult stands the Heavenly Demon. If we could block his strike even once, we might be able to halt their onslaught, which surges like a tidal wave. But because that is impossible, there is no hope for the Righteous Faction Murim. We must remember: the Heavenly Demon is invincible. Facing him head-on is suicide."
During the unification of Murim, Baek Joong-hyuk led the Demonic Cult from the very front. He was always the first to clash swords with the enemy, and along the bloody path he carved, his cultists ran wild.
People often asked. Why on earth did he volunteer for the most dangerous role?
Then, just as now, the reason remained the same.
‘The strongest must stand at the forefront to utterly crush the enemy's morale.’
In any battle, momentum was crucial. Just as he had risen to an untouchable position by killing a child larger than himself in a pitch-black cave, Baek Joong-hyuk knew the absolute importance of seizing the flow of combat. The role of the strong was not to sit in the rear and wait for the perfect moment. If one truly possessed the martial prowess to face countless enemies without taking a single step back, then actively wielding that power was the only way to secure absolute victory.
Just like right now.
Slash!
"Aaaargh!"
A soldier's arm flew through the air beneath Roman's strike. The screaming man tried to flee in a blind panic, but Roman instantly closed the distance and severed his neck.
Spurt!
Blood sprayed into the air.
Showered in the falling crimson rain, Roman threw himself directly into the wall of soldiers ahead. The seemingly solid formation collapsed in an instant. Terrified by Roman's sudden, lightning-fast descent, the soldiers thrust their spears forward in unison.
However...
Clang!
Clash, clash, clash!
Their attacks were utterly useless. Roman deflected every spear thrust aimed at him, took a single step forward, and decapitated them all.
It was a massacre. No other word could adequately describe it.
Even when facing dozens of soldiers alone, Roman did not retreat a single inch. Instead, he overwhelmingly crushed his opponents, clearing out the enemies before him one by one. The allied soldiers following behind him were dumbfounded. When Roman had said he would take the vanguard, they never expected a spectacle like this.
"Follow the Lord!"
"Attack!"
It was Kevin. He was the first to shout, the veins in his neck bulging with ferocious intensity. As Kevin and Chris followed Roman's lead and pounced on the enemy, the rest of the soldiers snapped out of their daze, their eyes turning venomous as they swung their weapons.
Thuck!
"Gurgle..."
Pierced straight through the throat, a Barco soldier fell to his knees, foaming blood. Even though he had just taken a life with his own hands, Kevin didn't pause, immediately swinging his sword at another opponent. It was the same for Chris. Knowing that Roman would pull further ahead the moment they hesitated even slightly, they pushed themselves to their absolute limits just to keep up.
"Th-this is bad!"
"Stop that monster!"
Roman violently cleared the path. The shield wall the enemy had meticulously built had long lost its purpose. Amidst the chaotic slaughter, the Barco soldiers didn't dare to charge; they could only scream in terror. They all knew the truth. Anyone who rushed Roman first was a dead man. So, they pushed their comrades forward instead, desperately hoping someone else would perform a miracle.
But no miracle occurred.
Roman cut down everyone who was shoved into his range. There was no back-and-forth exchange of blows; not a single person could withstand even a single strike.
Blood, blood, and more blood.
The surroundings were dyed a horrific crimson. As countless men died, blood flowed like a river, and Roman advanced step by step, relentlessly slaughtering the enemy.
And then...
‘The Flare.’
The sole target of this operation. The siege weapon was suddenly right before his eyes.
Faced with Roman's insane, overwhelming presence on the battlefield, Berge, the leader of the Berge Mercenary Group, finally showed a look of sheer panic.
"...W-what on earth is this?"
His opponent was Roman Dmitry.
When taking on Barco's commission, Berge had familiarized himself with the faces of every key figure involved, but he had absolutely no idea Roman Dmitry was this strong. Why Roman had appeared here no longer mattered. The problem was that Roman's individual martial prowess was so overwhelmingly monstrous that he was slaughtering dozens of soldiers single-handedly. If left unchecked, the war between Barco and Lawrence might end in a completely unexpected disaster.
‘That cannot happen.’
A massive sum of money was on the line for this mission. Since the very fate of the Berge Mercenary Group hung in the balance, Berge drew his sword and rushed toward Roman.
‘I will handle him myself.’
Berge was an A-Rank mercenary recognized by the kingdom. Unlike the B-Rank status, which could be obtained simply by accumulating enough odd jobs, an A-Rank required special qualifications—namely, the ability to use Aura. Berge was a 2-Star Aura Swordsman. At nearly forty years of age, he dared not hope to reach a higher realm, but a 2-Star Aura was more than enough to bring a brat like Roman down.
Whoosh!
Rumble!
Aura flared to life. The mana exploding from his entire body manifested along his sword, and Berge swung his blade straight at Roman.
A single, lethal strike.
He was absolutely confident of his victory. Even if his opponent were a 3-Star Aura Swordsman, this ultimate strike was not an attack that could be easily blocked.
Yet...
Clang!
It was blocked. Roman parried the attack as if it were nothing.
At that sight, Berge's eyes widened in sheer shock.
‘This is insane!’
An attack with all his might should have shattered the boy's sword and torn through his flesh. Instead, the sheer repulsive force vibrating back through his own blade made him feel like throwing up. This was completely different from what he had expected. As warning bells rang frantically in his head, Berge hastily tried to take a step back, but Roman immediately closed the distance and launched his own counterattack.
Clang!
Clash, clash, clash!
A continuous, suffocating onslaught.
It felt like Berge's mind was going to shatter. Before he knew it, Aura blazed from Roman's sword, cornering the mercenary leader with heavy, brutal attacks raining down from all directions.
The size of their Aura was entirely different. Visually, Berge's massive Aura should have easily overwhelmed Roman's, but every time their swords clashed, Berge's Aura visibly shrank.
Only then did Berge realize the horrifying truth. The man before him, rumored to be the Fool of Dmitry, was a monster he could not even dare to face.
‘He's way too strong!’
But regret came far too late. He had thought this mission would be an easy win. However, the variable named Roman Dmitry—whom even a veteran mercenary could never have anticipated—completely shattered those plans.
Slash!
A flash of the sword.
A thin red line was drawn across Berge's neck, and his body slumped heavily to its knees.
Thud.
The total time Berge, a kingdom-recognized A-Rank mercenary, had lasted against Roman was barely ten seconds. It was, quite literally, a mere instant.
Berge's death was a tremendous achievement. Roman had brought down an A-Rank mercenary in just ten seconds. Yet, to anyone who knew his true identity, it was nothing to be surprised about.
‘In this life, I am not the Heavenly Demon.’
Back when he was the Heavenly Demon, there was no master capable of even trading blows with him. With a single strike from Baek Joong-hyuk, the greatest masters of the Righteous Faction Murim crumbled like autumn leaves. That was how Baek Joong-hyuk had achieved the total unification of Murim.
But in this world, it was different. Roman was physically weak. Though he had grown rapidly enough to easily overwhelm Berge, that pitiful level of strength could never quench his thirst.
Whoosh!
Aura blazed fiercely.
He had fallen from the absolute peak to the very bottom. In a situation where ordinary people would wallow in self-pity, Roman instead felt a burning, competitive spirit for this new challenge.
A new world. New powerhouses. If he could conquer them all with a weak body like this, it would be truly magnificent.
Roman pressed forward. Seeing him refuse to stop even after easily dispatching Berge, Viscount Barco shrieked in a near-fainting panic.
"Kill him! Kill that bastard!"
He couldn't believe Berge's death at all. It wasn't simply that the mercenary had died after a fierce battle. Berge had launched a full-power surprise attack, yet he had been unilaterally slaughtered. Not only that, but even though Roman had already butchered countless soldiers before this, his breathing wasn't even slightly disturbed. It was as if the fight with an A-Rank mercenary had been nothing more than a light warm-up.
He was an overwhelming monster.
A path violently opened wherever Roman moved. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the siege weapon was destroyed. He had to be stopped. Viscount Barco screamed for his men to stop the boy by any means necessary, but contrary to his desperate orders, his own body was being pulled further and further away from Roman.
"It's too dangerous, Viscount!"
"You must evacuate first!"
Barco's knights were dragging Viscount Barco away. At first, they had intended to join forces and subdue Roman together, but the moment they saw Berge get cut down in seconds, they immediately changed their minds. Barco still held the overall advantage in this battle. If they recalled the forces currently attacking the castle walls, they would have the upper hand in numbers. They had absolutely no desire to risk their own lives fighting that monster.
The path was completely clear. No one dared to rush Roman anymore. He marched forward relentlessly, and before long, the Flare stood right in front of him.
‘The Flare.’
A product of magic, something that did not exist back in Murim. Setting aside the fact that each fired projectile cost dozens of gold coins, the specially crafted main body designed to launch those magic projectiles was incredibly valuable in itself. That was why the core target of this operation was the machine's body. If he smashed it to pieces, Barco would lose their only means of bombarding Lawrence's walls from a distance.
‘Heavenly Demon Divine Art.’
Whoosh!
He channeled his mana. The body of the Flare was heavily protected by defensive magic. Since it could not be destroyed by ordinary physical attacks, the mana slumbering deep within his Dantian surged, manifesting fiercely along the edge of his sword.
A pitch-black Aura erupted. It was the true power of the Heavenly Demon.
‘First Form of the Heavenly Demon Sword Technique.’
A single strike. A single, devastating flash.
Boom!
Rumble!
The pitch-black sword purely sliced through the Flare. A deafening explosion erupted across the battlefield as the massive siege weapon was cleanly split in two.
It was an overwhelming sight. For a brief moment, everyone on the battlefield collectively held their breath.
Then, Roman shouted, his voice heavily infused with mana to carry across the plains.
"Hear me, Lawrence! I, Roman Dmitry, have destroyed Barco's siege weapon!"
At those words, the entire atmosphere of the battlefield shifted.
Barco's soldiers, who were fighting for their lives at the very front lines, had no way of knowing what was happening in the rear. Therefore, Roman's booming declaration violently brought them face-to-face with reality. Hearing that their prized siege weapon had been destroyed, panic rippled through their ranks, even with the enemy standing right before their eyes.
"W-what?"
"The Flare was destroyed?!"
It was a moment of sheer, unadulterated confusion. The destruction of the Flare didn't just mean they had lost their overwhelming siege advantage; it meant Barco's rear was in grave, imminent danger. Consequently, their fierce advance toward the castle gates ground to an abrupt halt. Realizing the severity of the situation, Barco's knights looked back, saw the shattered, smoking ruins of the Flare, and hastily ordered a retreat.
"Retreat!"
"Everyone, fall back!"
A massive fire had been lit directly under their feet. Their lord, Viscount Barco, was in mortal danger. Protecting the Viscount was a far higher priority than conquering Lawrence, so the army quickly turned back.
The situation had completely flipped in the blink of an eye.
As Barco retreated, the Lawrence soldiers—who had just barely survived a desperate, life-or-death crisis—looked at each other with dazed, empty expressions. They couldn't fully process what had just happened.
Meanwhile, Flora, standing atop the castle wall, frantically searched for Roman with wide eyes full of shock.
"...He actually did it."
It was a situation she had thought absolutely impossible. Yet, once again, Roman Dmitry had completely shattered Flora's common sense.