The Incompetent Hero and the Sichuan Tang Clan (5)

Clang! Clink! Screeeech!! Kaaang!!!

"Oh..., you're blocking well, I see?"

"Kh!"

She couldn't see him.

All Baekryeon could sense was his voice, the flutter of wings, and the sound of a blade cutting through air. After their first clash, the man's form had vanished completely; she was parrying his black blade by sound and instinct alone.

"Well then — I'll pick up the pace."

But that couldn't last forever. Baekryeon's stamina had a clear limit, and that limit was closing in fast.

Lady Seollin...!

They had planned for this exact situation — a coordinated link between Baekryeon and Seollin. But...

"Croak-croak-croaaak~!! Did you think I ran because I couldn't beat a little bitch like you?!"

"Shut that filthy mouth — you reek!..., A bunch of you ganging up, and the ugly one's still the loudest!"

Seollin was locked in combat with the poison-toad beastman Seomgae and his remnants — the ones who had appeared alongside the man who called himself Ogam — and had no room to support this side. If anything, support should have been flowing the other way...

"Hmm. Got room to think about something else, do you? How disappointing..., I was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠being underestimated."

"!!"

He vanished — and then, for the first time since the fight began, his form appeared. At the same moment, vast sword-ki shaped like black feathers coiled around the black blade in his hand.

That was dangerous. Baekryeon's instincts screamed the warning. And the action she took in the same breath was simple and absolute.

"Hnnngh!!!"

"Hoh. So you can handle sword-ki as well. This should be fun."

Pure white-blue light wrapped Baekryeon's blade. Her sword-ki flickered like living flame as it filled the entire length of the steel, and in that state she brought it down on the enemy who had just revealed himself.

"Tiger Fang!!"

Watching the blade plunge like a tiger's fang driving home, Ogam clicked his tongue.

"You seem a little short on experience, my friend."

With those words, his form disappeared. Baekryeon's sword split empty air.

"!"

"Even if we'd met it head-on..., I wouldn't have lost — but better to be certain."

A great technique leaves a great opening. That was an iron law. To unleash the strike, Baekryeon had committed to a large motion, and the gap it created was fatal.

"Dark Wings."

The blade itself took the shape of a single black wing. A black sword wreathed in feather-like sword-ki — for an enemy's weapon, it was strangely beautiful. The thought crossed her mind unbidden.

Shhhk-shhk-shhk!!!

Every black feather was a razor-edged miniature blade. Cut by the black sword, Baekryeon felt her body being shredded piece by piece as the sword-ki blasted her away.

"Kh...hgh..."

The deepest gash and the countless shallow cuts left by grazing sword-ki painted her whole body in blood. Even so, Baekryeon steadied her breathing and used her sword as a cane to rise.

Ogam watched her with open admiration.

"Remarkable will. To see a gap this wide and still refuse to yield. You and that young lady both have nerves of steel. But even that looks close to its limit. Will you surrender now?"

"....I cannot...! I will never..., give up!..."

"Hmm. Why cling so hard?"

"Until I avenge..., my family!!..."

Ogam tilted his head at her words, then seemed to understand. He smiled as he answered.

"Ah, I see. So that's it. A pity, then. Skill of that level will never be enough to complete your revenge."

"Silence!!"

"Seomgae — finished on your end?"

As if a woman who could barely stand no longer deserved his attention, Ogam turned his back on Baekryeon with casual ease. But he had miscalculated one thing: Baekryeon still had a handful of strength left. She glanced at Seollin, both arms pinned by the toad beastmen as they dragged her toward Seomgae, then gathered what power remained while she caught her breath.

"Croak-croak! Two pretty women at once — my day's looking up!"

"Well, I don't particularly care what you do with them, but I did my share of the work. At least let them pour my drinks, won't you?"

"Of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠course, Lord Ogam. Croo-roo-rook~ We'll take that bitch as a hostage and bag the whole Tang Clan while we're at it!"

Seomgae smacked his lips with a grotesque laugh, clearly in high spirits. The moment Ogam fully turned to speak with him properly, Baekryeon coiled every scrap of strength into her legs and drove off the ground.

She didn't hope to cut him clean through. If she could just deal some damage — any damage at all...!

Clang!!

"!"

"Hmm..., well...., I did have a feeling you were cooking something up."

But even that hope came to nothing. Baekryeon's sword stopped dead in empty air.

An invisible... sword?...

The impact was unmistakably steel. But she couldn't see it. Her blade had clearly struck something in midair and frozen there. Ogam hadn't even swung his black sword.

"What to do with you..., A true tiger, even stripped of every fang and claw, is still a spirit beast that can kill a man. So..., at the very least, I will have to pull every last one of your fangs and claws..., before I can hand you over to Seomgae with peace of mind."

Clink!

Something unseen shoved Baekryeon back and sent her tumbling. Ogam turned again and approached at a leisurely pace.

"I will sever every tendon in your sword arm. Don't worry. The pain will only last a moment."

He raised the black blade and let it fall in a clean arc, about to take her wrist —

Kaaang!!!

"?!"

Ogam's black sword bounced away off something.

"You are—?"

"...."

What appeared before Ogam's eyes was a man with black hair and a strange mask. He had shoved Ogam's blade aside and planted himself between Baekryeon and her enemy.

"Ah...."

The instant she saw the back of the man who had appeared from nowhere, Baekryeon let out a breath of pure relief — and a single tear slipped free before she could stop it.

"Everyone."

The moment the masked man spoke, an overwhelming presence crushed down from every direction, as if the very air had turned to weight.

"Freeze."

In that instant, Ogam saw it — the eyes behind the mask, gleaming without the slightest hesitation.

Just as Seollyun had predicted, it was a complete shitshow.

If I hadn't shown up, this really might have gone down the Baekryeon bad-ending route.

What the fuck — I'm not even Leon, and I'm the one getting NTR'd?

Absolutely not. No way in hell.

If anyone's throwing her away, it's me.

"Everyone."

"Freeze."

I slammed CC on every last one of them with Sword King's Pressure. The miscellaneous beastmen — the kind who couldn't even handle Baekryeon, much less Dan Seollin — crumpled under the aura and blacked out on the spot. Only a handful remained on their feet.

"You..., no — who are you?"

"Cr-croo-roook!!! Wh-what the hell is this, right when everything was—!!..."

"Seomgae. Quiet."

The black-winged beastman cut off the toad's bizarre croaking before it could go any further.

"Right now, the one holding life and death in this place is that man."

Unlike the toad, this one seemed to have a clear read on the situation.

"Let the Tang Clan's young lady go."

"Croak! What do you mean—!"

"Let her go."

"O-Ogam!!"

"Did you not hear me? Let. Her. Go."

Under Ogam's utterly coercive order, the toad beastman Seomgae ground his teeth in frustration but released Seollin. She staggered back and joined us on this side.

"We've released her..., so what now? Will you let us go?"

"....There's only one way you walk out of here alive."

"And that is?"

"Give everything you've got to kill me — then run."

Ogam gave a hollow laugh and reset his grip on the sword.

"I don't particularly enjoy ganging up on one man..., but if we want to live, it seems we have no choice. Seomgae. Focus. If we can't kill that man..., nothing else matters."

"Cr-croak!..."

The moment the words left his mouth, the bastard vanished. Or rather — he moved fast enough that it looked like vanishing.

"He's gone!..."

"Even from back here, I can't see him!...."

Baekryeon and Seollin, who had fallen in behind me, were putting on a full spectator-reaction show.

Can't see him, huh....

Clang!! Krrrang!!

Unfortunately for him, I could see just fine. I caught the angle of his approach and knocked the blade aside.

"Kh!!...."

"Croak!! Take this!! Ptooey!!"

That was... poison? I could handle most things, but poison was a bad matchup for me.

What a bullshit ruling...!

I couldn't use items. The criteria weren't entirely clear, but so far every equippable item had come back as unusable. I could pick things up just fine — but the actual performance of the gear? A special mask that changed your face became an ordinary mask. A holy sword built as a premier anti-demon weapon became a plain iron blade stuffed full of holy power and nothing else. Equipment items came with hard restrictions. The upside was that the same rule applied to things that would have been a net negative for me — power-sealing manacles, for instance, also registered as unusable and turned into ordinary iron cuffs. Even so, the losses still outweighed the gains.

"Tsk."

Consumables — potions and the like — made it even messier. Standard recovery potions, buffs, and stat enhancers mostly didn't apply. Some did get through..., and if my guess was right, only the ultra-rare, high-tier stuff on the level of a Great Elixir actually took. Poisons, on the other hand? Even common, everyday toxins worked just fine.

Healing doesn't work — but poison does!!

Are you kidding me?!

What a garbage balance patch!!

Anyway — poison was a pain in the ass for me to deal with. So...

"!"

Kaaang!!!

"Even so, I can't allow that."

Whether he'd read my intent a step ahead or not, Ogam forced a clash of blades and kept me from cutting Seomgae down. In that window, Seomgae kept lobbing poison attacks from range. None of them actually landed, but they were annoying as hell.

In that case....

I'd open the tiniest gap and cut the bastard down.

I unveiled Sword King's Pressure across every enemy, locking them in place. Of course, these two would break free of the action-lock almost immediately. But in that single instant, a gap always existed.

Shhk.

"Huh?...Croak?..."

"...Just now, was that—"

The toad bastard Seomgae's body split clean down the middle. Beastman or not, blood was still a deep, vivid red. I glanced at the result.

...This is the first time I've actually killed a person.

Until now it had been monsters, already-dead undead, or liches. Humans I'd only knocked out with Pressure or restrained. This was the first time I'd finished one completely.

First time....

I feel less about it than I expected.

Was that the Sword King's memories bleeding through? Or did I still, even now, think of all this as a "game"?

"...One mouth is enough for answers, right?"

Thinking could wait. Honestly, I should be grateful my mental state hadn't ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cracked over killing someone. There would be more people I'd have to put down with my own hands from here on out.

"Haha..., unbelievable.... Where the hell did a monster like you crawl out of?"

"...."

"I didn't see the slash. You didn't even coat the blade in sword-ki..., and yet Seomgae, standing well out of range, was cut.... Have you..., reached the realm of the Heart Sword?"

The realm of the Heart Sword. The one who flinched at those words was Seollin. Even as a daughter of the Tang Clan, famed for hidden weapons and poison, she knew how high that realm sat. The stage of Heart-Kill — where simply willing it was enough to end a target. Those who reached it could be counted on one hand.

This man has reached that...?...

If so, then everything he'd shown at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering had been child's play. Seollin swallowed hard, tension tight in her throat, and stared at Leon.

"...I see no reason to tell you."

"Kh..., fair enough. I suppose not.... Haa..., the Heart Sword.... How enviable."

"Giving up?"

"I was never going to be a match alone. What's the point of continuing?"

Ogam shrugged as he spoke.

This bastard — where does he get off bluffing? Looking to die?

"Is that so? For someone who's given up..., the killing intent trembling in from every direction doesn't seem to agree."

"...."

The face that had been pure resignation a second ago hardened as he looked at me.

"Heh..., you really are a monster."

"Bring out everything you've got. That's the only way you have even a slim chance of walking away."

"....Shadow Birds."

Papapapapapapapat!!!

In that instant, black-winged beastmen appeared from every direction. Baekryeon and Seollin, who hadn't even sensed them, went wide-eyed and locked up. On top of that, the bastards were sharp — some came at me, others dove for the already-crippled Baekryeon and Seollin. Even if half of them died on me, the other half would take the two as hostages. That was the play.

"Dark Wings."

At the same time, black-feather sword-ki coiled around his blade. Ah — so the idea was to slow my response to the sword, even a fraction?

"Too slow."

In a single instant, a white flash of a line carved horizontally across the world.

Puhwak!!

The moment that line vanished, every last one of the black-winged things that had taken flight split at the waist and painted the ground with blood.

"Hraaaaaah!!!"

But he'd expected even that. Without a shred of hesitation, he reversed the black blade wreathed in black feathers and drove it upward.

"You've got three arms, huh?"

"!"

Even that was a feint. I had no idea how many layers of traps he'd laid, but I could clearly feel the invisible sword whipping from an invisible hand.

I yanked my sword back, deflected the feather-wreathed blade, let it slide past — and in the same motion caught the invisible sword. It all happened in a span so short that neither Baekryeon nor Seollin could parse the exchange. Only the two of us understood what had just occurred.

"...Ha."

"...."

"Haha..., hahaha...., hahahahahaha!!!"

Confirming that even his final card had been perfectly shut down, Ogam — whether from surrender or something else — laughed like a madman.

"Huu..., one last thing. May I know your name?"

"....Jang Cheon-woo. Jang Cheon-woo of the Yeom Kingdom."

"Jang Cheon-woo..., so the Yeom Kingdom of today... has a monster. Our plans..., may well fail."

"...Is there a 'Red Oni' in your Beastman Alliance?"

At my question, Baekryeon's body trembled. She had come here to learn about Red Oni. She needed that answer — no matter what.

"You've dug that far already?..., But half right, half wrong."

"...."

"If I tell you..., will you spare me?"

"Not a chance."

"Ha!..., Figured as much."

He looked up at the sky with a hollow expression.

"I could use a drink."

Those were his ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠last words. I took his head in a single clean cut.

"So. Feel better now? Baekryeon."

"...."

A headless corpse meant nothing. Without hesitation I turned and looked at Baekryeon, who couldn't meet my eyes.

"I..., at least, thought of you as a genuine companion — annoying as you can be. Seems I was the only one who thought that."

"Th-that's not...."

"Not what? I clearly told you not to go. Who went anyway?"

I took one step closer to Baekryeon. The timing had worked out — thank god. If I'd arrived even a little later, it was obvious what kind of situation Baekryeon and Seollin would have been in.

"No, fine. Going itself — I'll let that slide. You're an adult; you have the right to decide your own actions. But..., what the hell is this mess? You charged out full of confidence and accomplished absolutely nothing."

"...."

"....You were the one who said you'd follow me. You were the one who clung on no matter what. That's why I accepted you. But now you want to leave — so which version of you am I supposed to take in?"

"...I am sorry, Young Master."

I stared at Baekryeon as she bowed her head in apology, then shifted my gaze to Seollin. Maybe it was the way I'd just killed that many people in one go without batting an eye — the moment our eyes met, she flinched like a startled animal.

"The young clan head is worried. We're going back."

"R-right... sir."

"?"

Baekryeon crawling in the dirt made sense — she actually had something to apologize for. But why was this one suddenly acting like that?