Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Chapter 25: The Day the World Turned Upside Down
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Pffft!
Up until the moment a massive woman engulfed in flames incinerated a devil-shaped monster to death with fire, Kyle couldn't twitch so much as a fingertip from his rigid body.
‘Your Highness is incredible! This is the spirit Your Highness newly acquired...’
But no voice came out. Even though he wanted to scream wildly over and over.
And right then.
Pffft!
The ground right beside him shook as a gigantic monster burst upward and lunged at him.
‘Death Worm...’
It was exactly the monster the Prince had described before.
But there was no time for further thought. Kyle watched his head slipping into the creature's saw-like teeth and quietly closed his eyes.
‘I'm dying now.’
But in that instant, someone slammed into Kyle at tremendous speed, hurling him aside.
Boom!
“Kyle!”
It was Davi who had barely thrown himself forward.
“Cough! Captain!”
“Get it together! This is the battlefield!”
Having pulled Kyle from the jaws of death, Davi swung his sword in a reverse arc toward the Death Worm that was gaping emptily.
Slash!
In that instant, a blast of wind pressure sliced halfway through the monster's nape.
“Gasp...”
Kyle felt chills run through him as he hastily scrambled to his feet.
‘That's no ordinary Gale Blade. To sever such a massive monster in one stroke.’
“Hmm, was the acceleration lacking at the end?”
Davi, on the other hand, seemed disappointed that he hadn't fully bisected the enemy. Of course, the Death Worm, having suffered a fatal wound, collapsed limply while spewing massive amounts of blood.
“Keep your wits about you, Kyle! Can't you see Your Highness fighting over there?”
“......”
When he turned his head toward where Davi pointed, he saw the Prince now engaged in battle against a massive, orb-shaped monster.
“Infection Lord...”
The very monster that had attacked the mansion a few days ago.
He'd never seen it in person, but he'd heard plenty of descriptions. Later, the Prince had even called Kyle aside for a personal lecture.
-That's the Infection Lord's basic specs so far. Got all that? Understand?
-I understand, but...
-Now, I'm going to teach you how to deal with the Infection Lord using just ordinary knights. Better prepare in advance.
-Is that even possible? Without someone like Your Highness, or at least Arch Wizard Tolari?
-In theory.
-In theory...
-First, you just need six or so decent priests. Knights armed without gaps in mid-grade or higher magic armor surround the Corruption Lord, and...
But there were no priests here right now.
There had been originally, but he'd stationed them at Tolari's tower along the approach route. They were waiting safely to rush in and treat the wounded once the battle ended.
“We have to step up and lighten Your Highness's burden! I'm heading off to deal with those monsters over there! The Blue Knight Order is crumbling in seconds! You take command here and handle the giant earthworms from underground!”
“......Death Worms!”
“What?”
“That worm is called a Death Worm. I learned how to fight it from Your Highness, so we can do this.”
“Good! I'm counting on you!”
Davi glared into Kyle's eyes once, then broke into a run toward where the Blue Knight Order was deployed in the distance.
-The monsters swarming the sewers are called Death Worms. Of course, I swept them all away with magic...
-But what if a fight breaks out when I'm not around? We need to prepare tactics in advance. So, here's how to handle them with regular knights...
“Guardian Knight Order, all hands! Rally to me!”
Kyle's shout was overwhelming.
The knights, who had been frozen in place, finally snapped to attention and rushed to cluster around him. Recalling the Prince's personal instruction, Kyle immediately issued orders.
“Form a shield wall and lower your stances now! Don't overthink it! Just pack in tight and thrust out your shields! Angle them diagonally! Good, just like that! Remember! Left of me is the left wing, right is the right wing! Confirm your positions! When the monster bursts through the ground and charges, crouch low and deflect it upward!”
Right then, as if on cue, a Death Worm erupted from straight ahead, barreling toward the clustered knights.
The problem was that two came at once.
“......Left wing! Crouch fully! Right wing! Hit the dirt completely!”
Was it because the orders were so simple?
The assembled knights' reactions miraculously aligned. Thanks to that, the two charging Death Worms slid across the knights' shields like surfboards, colliding violently with each other midway.
Like a French kiss.
The monsters' massive maws locked together, their drill-like teeth grinding and pulverizing each other.
Krrrrrrumble!
“Now! Stab their bellies with your swords! The part scraping the ground is the underside!”
Kyle shouted, his entire body drenched in the blood raining down from above. The knights uncurled and began slashing madly at the Death Worms' bodies.
“Raaagh!”
“Die! Die! Drop dead!”
“Damn it! Sword won't go in!”
“Aim for the belly, you idiots! Not the flanks or back! Anywhere else, the blade won't stick!”
“Commander! Won't penetrate the belly either!”
“That's because you're too weak! Thrust with everything you've got!”
Kyle himself stabbed at the Death Worm's jaw underside with his drawn sword as he yelled.
It wasn't premeditated, but thanks to their differing angles, the collision point happened right in front of Kyle's eyes.
To the knights, it looked like a miracle Kyle had orchestrated.
“Just follow the commander's orders! Hurry!”
“Good! It's penetrating!”
“It's splitting here! Here! Jab here!”
Thanks to that, they began following Kyle's commands with ironclad faith. Kyle clenched his fist, instinctively feeling the knights moving like extensions of his own limbs.
‘Look at this? Feels damn good.’
That was the true savor of command.
Having already awakened to his own talent, Kyle began deftly controlling the knight order with simple yet essential directives.
“Left wing! Widen your intervals! Remember! Death Worms dig tunnels underground to make us fall through! Everyone, stay alert to the ground! Detect the vibrations early and evade early! Stay calm! Right wing! Lots of shields are broken! Fall back and switch to offense when the chance comes! Good! Stay calm and respond—we can win this! Here comes another one! Crouch on my mark!”
* * *
By the time Davi arrived, the Blue Knight Order was already half-annihilated.
“What madness is this...”
It was all the work of four octopus-like monsters.
One was dead, another on the brink, but the remaining two were unscathed.
“......Knight Davi!”
A knight who had been holding out cried out with a face twisted in terror.
“It's this one! Deal with this guy ahead of the others!”
“Knight Haine!”
Haine was the captain of the Blue Knight Order. But the instant Davi's attention shifted, the monster he'd pointed to cleaved his body in half.
‘One stroke to bisect a knight in high-grade magic armor?’
Unlike the others, this one clutched a greatsword bigger than a man's height in its tentacles.
Terror Lord.
Of course, Davi didn't know the name.
But the moment he laid eyes on the over-four-meter mollusk, primal fear surged through him.
Visually, aurally, and even olfactorily.
Spotting Davi, it immediately turned. The rectangular pupil in its round orb body was chillingly vacant.
“Davi... It's been a while.”
Even if it spoke, it was a monster he'd never seen in his life. Davi kept his focus on the creature's tentacles writhing alternately.
“No reply? Can't recognize me because I've changed too much?”
“......”
“Disappointing. Even fellow Knight Masters should recognize each other.”
“......Phiren? Didn't you die?”
“Yeah. Died once. By your hand. Thanks to that, reborn in a new body.”
But no trace of the old Phiren remained in the monster's form. Not that there had been any human traces to begin with.
“Nothing to say? How'd you end up like that?”
“Who knows. I don't either. All I wanted was...”
In that instant, the monster's countless legs sprang from the ground like springs.
“Your face.”
Kaaaa-boom!
At the same time, the massive greatsword smashed down, splitting the earth. Davi barely dodged, his sense of distance vanishing in shock.
‘Insane speed! Right after the leap, it was practically invisible.’
“Distorted.”
Whoooosh!
Four legs whipped in from all directions like lashes. Davi exploited the blind spots of evasion to the limit, narrowly dodging every attack.
“Face.”
Whish!
Whish!
“I wanted to see.”
Pffft!
Suddenly, smoky vapor erupted from vents between its legs. Davi held his breath and leaped back, but Phiren approached leisurely, unconcerned.
“Too late. You've already inhaled it. I can feel the fear inside you.”
“......!”
Davi exhaled sharply and held his breath again.
‘What is it? Poison? Fear-inducing poison? The captain's terrified face right before he died...’
Whish!
Suddenly, a hidden long tentacle arced from afar toward his nape.
“Urk!”
He reacted in time, but the intense movement made holding his breath hard. Amid the barrage, a short leg's stab he couldn't evade pierced his guard.
But Davi's eyes caught it all.
His sword hand rotated smoothly, slicing the incoming tentacle in a circle.
Vmmm!
With the wrist rotation, his whole body traced a small crescent, swinging at the enemy's distant head.
‘Not sure if that's the head or torso, but...’
Believing the eye cluster was the weak point, he unleashed a perfect Gale Blade at the perfect timing.
But the foe was watching just as intently as Davi had.
Whish!
Just before the massive wind pressure hit, Phiren's body wobbled and bent backward.
“......!”
An angle impossible for a human.
Naturally, it wasn't human. It dodged and simultaneously slammed down its raised greatsword like a guillotine.
Kaaaa-boom!
He barely evaded, but the erupting shockwaves hurled his body away.
“Urk!”
Not even a direct hit, yet his armor crumpled in places. Worse, he'd gasped in a breath from the impact.
“As expected of skilled Davi.”
Phiren admired his own severed short leg.
“That spacing, yet so precise... The finisher was a Gale Blade, right? To elevate the most basic technique to that level. How many accelerations in that split second?”
“......”
“Impressive. And pathetic. Human techniques, after all.”
Then it smashed the greatsword into the ground again.
Kaaaaaaa-boom!
“Urk!”
Even at a distance, the shockwaves were ferocious. Davi kept retreating, focused solely on evasion.
“See? Just a casual swing. And you can't block it—you just dodge.”
“......”
“You'd block if you could. Like when you parried my heavy sword last time. Meaning this surpasses my old heavy sword's power.”
Phiren's rambling was mostly true.
This version was half-monster, half-human—no, far beyond the half-baked previous Phiren.
A monster pure and simple.
Human techniques utterly discarded, its raw power and speed awe-inspiring. Plus the seamless offense-defense from its mollusk flexibility.
But one thing it didn't know.
“Gasp...”
Davi's face twisted in fear as he inhaled. Phiren began closing in slyly again.
“Good. That's the expression I wanted. There's a reason the new me is called the Terror Lord.”
“Ugh...”
“How's it feel? Scary, right? Shivering in fear? Huh?”
“Damn it...”
Davi groaned, retreating step by step. Phiren smirked contentedly and raised the greatsword again.
But right then.
The cowering Davi sprang forward fearlessly in an instant.
“Hm?”
The sudden gap closure prevented a greatsword swing. Not that the other tentacles stayed idle.
Slash!
Tentacle stabbing straight ahead.
Tentacle arcing in a parabola.
Tentacle surging up like a joint popping, from below.
Countless tentacles wrapped around the charging Davi without a single gap, pouring in from all sides.
But that was Phiren's miscalculation.
Slash!
Davi first vertically bisected the two stabbing frontal tentacles.
“Huh?”
He twisted his body at an eerie angle, narrowly dodging the two diagonal ones.
“This?”
He wrenched his sword arm nearly to its limit backward, severing the rear-attacking tentacle, and in the same instant bent his waist to the breaking point, perfectly evading the final two stabs.
“Impossible...”
All in one fluid motion, he slipped through, lightly leaping at the last second to thrust his sword at the enemy's brow.
Stab!
“......”
Suddenly, Phiren's dark skin turned deathly pale.
The change was so abrupt that Davi, who had thrust the sword, was more startled. The pallid Phiren dropped its greatsword and began to collapse slowly.
“H-... How... How did you know that spot...”
“Knew it was your weak point?”
Davi twisted and yanked out the stabbed sword in one motion.