Thawing Flame
Raon drove a true step into the earth. Focused energy surged up from his ankles, coiled around his grip, and he shoved his sword forward.
A thunderous crash split the air.
For all its massive frame and enormous club, the Ice Troll Warrior was hurled into the wall by that slender blade as if its bulk meant nothing at all.
"KRAAAAAH!"
The enraged Ice Troll Warrior bellowed and swung its club, now wreathed in crimson Battle Qi. A vacuum-tearing shriek ripped through the air, and a crushing wall of pressure scraped across Raon's face.
It felt as though his skin would be peeled from his bones — but he cut through the wind and pressed forward. Channeling the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames at full power, he smashed the Battle Qi-laden club head-on.
The collision of an aura-wrapped sword and a club melting under Battle Qi sent a shockwave that scoured every flake of snow and ice from the surrounding ground.
"KIAAAAH!"
The Ice Troll Warrior's body was far sturdier than he had expected. It absorbed the massive shockwave with its bare flesh and brought the club crashing down again.
That regeneration is completely insane.
Flesh torn open by the shockwave was already knitting itself back together. Not just strength and agility — its regenerative power was in a different league from an ordinary Ice Troll.
"Hup!"
Raon bent his knees. He swept his sword upward into the crimson Battle Qi cascading down like a waterfall.
The Ice Troll Warrior's Battle Qi was formidable, but the flames of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames burned hot enough to melt even that.
Scarlet fire capable of searing through steel itself surged upward, splitting the tidal wave of Battle Qi — like a salmon fighting its way up a frozen gorge.
"Grk!"
The Ice Troll Warrior groaned as it watched its Battle Qi split apart. Panic flickered through those yellow eyes that had so recently looked down on him.
I'll finish this now.
There was no need to drag it out. He was about to follow the split Battle Qi all the way through the creature's neck when a mass of cold shot in from the right and knocked his sword off course.
The blade carved not the Ice Troll Warrior's throat, but its chest. Even with a wound so deep its ribs were laid bare, the creature sprang backward.
Raon narrowed his eyes and looked up. On the hill above, an Ice Troll Shaman was waving its staff. The frost orb it had just launched was what had twisted his sword aside.
"You cheap bastard! Why are you interfering in a one-on-one fight?!"
Dorian jabbed a finger at the Ice Troll Shaman and stamped his foot. Of course, he made no move to actually join the fight.
"I'll handle the shaman!"
Edquil, leader of the Snow Strike Squad, spun around at once.
"If you can't kill it before I finish the Troll Warrior, I'll take the shaman too."
"That won't happen!"
Edquil scowled and started back up the hill. The Snow Strike Squad scrambled after him.
A growl like a wounded beast rumbling in its throat pulled Raon's gaze forward. The Ice Troll Warrior had already healed its wounds and was lifting its club once more.
"Sorry," Raon said, lowering his sword with a cold smile, "but this fight is over."
Operating the Ring of Fire and the Mad Fang Sword in tandem, he had already read every movement the Ice Troll Warrior could make. All that remained was to open its throat with a single stroke.
"KRAAAAH!"
The Ice Troll Warrior smashed the earth and charged. As the creature filled his entire field of vision, Raon adjusted his grip. He didn't retreat. He leapt forward.
Crimson blossoms unfurled along the silver blade as if spring itself had come to rest upon the steel. Petals that held the likeness of the sun spread in every direction, declaring that the bitter winter had reached its end.
The dancing scarlet flowers settled. The frozen earth melted beneath them. And upon that thawed ground, the Ice Troll Warrior's head and its club dropped in two separate pieces.
"Hoooo..."
Raon lowered his sword and let out a weary breath. The swordsmanship of the Cultivation of Ten Thousand Flames was powerful and spectacular, no question — but the drain on aura and mental strength was severe. For a moment, his mind went blank.
Still, the power and keenness that had cleaved the Ice Troll Warrior in a single stroke were more than satisfying.
He caught his breath and looked up the hill. The Troll Shaman was commanding trolls and scattering shamanic magic as it fought the Snow Strike Squad.
It's not over yet.
Raon fed aura like kindling into the dying flames along his blade and raised his sword.
Then that one's mine.
Killing a monster strong enough to wield Battle Qi raised both his stats and the rank of his soul. There was no reason to hand such a delicious meal to anyone else — least of all to those people.
He was about to climb the hill when a prickling gaze landed on his back. He turned. Terian, the mercenaries, the scouts — everyone present was staring at him as if their souls had left their bodies.
He found himself curious what faces they would make once he took the Ice Troll Shaman as well.
"You're not even Greed," Wrath grumbled, "and yet look how greedy you are."
As if I could match your appetite.
"Nngh. This King does not eat a great deal — This King merely enjoys delicious food. Even when This King was in the Demon Realm, This King would go into the kitchen personally to cook..."
I'm busy right now. Later.
"Listen to me!"
Raon ignored Wrath's desperate plea and started up the hill. With every step, he killed his presence and erased his existence from the world.
"Attack!"
"Go for the shaman first!"
"Fuck! What kind of blizzard is this intense?!"
"Beat them down already and help the captain!"
The Snow Strike Squad was locked in a close-quarters melee with Ice Trolls inside the snowstorm the Ice Troll Shaman had conjured.
"Haaah!"
True to his station as squad leader, Edquil drove into the center alone and sent his sword flying at the shaman.
The blade stopped as if a wall had appeared in midair — a defensive ward the shaman had woven.
"Haaah!"
He swung a blade sheathed in fierce aura without pause, but the shamanic barrier would not break easily.
The Troll Shaman intoned a bizarre spell, and the streams of snow whirling through empty air grew even more violent. Visibility dropped until even what stood directly in front of them vanished.
"This much isn't enough to stop me!"
Edquil clenched his teeth and brought his sword down. The white storm split apart, and the shaman's figure was revealed.
I have to catch it. I have to catch it no matter what.
If he claimed the credit of taking the shaman down alone, he might be able to cancel that damned wager with the brat. There was no way he was going to haul luggage for those maggot scouts. He had to kill these monsters somehow and void the bet.
"Hyaaah!"
He kicked off the ground and hurled sword aura at the shaman. The shamanic wall shuddered violently, on the verge of collapse.
Almost there!
He was drawing up even more energy, intending to finish it in a single stroke, when the shaman's body lurched violently. A crimson current of energy bloomed from the left side of its chest, where its heart lay.
"W-what is this..."
He froze, unable to grasp what was happening — and with a booming crack, the Troll Shaman's upper body burst apart in shreds.
Behind the drifting red smoke, the blond brat Edquil least wanted to see was gripping a dagger that radiated an eerie energy.
"Y-you!"
Edquil's jaw trembled as he raised a shaking finger.
"What are you doing here?!"
"I told you. If you couldn't kill the shaman before I finished the Troll Warrior, I'd end this one too."
"Shut up! You ambushed it from behind! I could have finished it myself even if you hadn't shown up!"
"Spare me the excuses. Just collect the corpse."
Raon snorted and pointed at the shaman's body. His expression was so infuriating Edquil wanted to bury a curse in his face.
"From this moment on, you're the porters for our scout squad."
The man in the black robe swallowed dryly as he stared at the Ice Troll corpses piled through the ravine.
H-how did this happen.
This was not the scene he had envisioned.
Habun Castle's forces, who had been driving the Ice Trolls back, were supposed to be overrun by the Ice Troll Warrior and Shaman that had leapt in by surprise — more than half of them dead, the rest fleeing for their lives. Commander Milland leading his troops out in response to the appearance of such dangerous monsters: that had been the plan. Every piece of it had gone awry.
And all because of a single person.
The man in the black robe ground his teeth. His gaze turned toward the blond swordsman standing on the hill.
The one who had noticed the Ice Troll Warrior's ambush was that boy. The one who had taken the Troll Warrior's head was that boy. And the Troll Shaman, which had been preparing its sorcery, had died with its heart burst open — also by that boy's hand.
Strength aside, the child knew exactly how to sever the line of a life.
The man in the black robe fidgeted with the mask in his hand. It was blue, shaped as if to embody an Ice Troll — long-eared, the forehead a mass of wrinkles.
He exhaled slowly.
What to do. He was torn. Whether to kill them here and now, or to craft a new plan.
But setting all of that aside...
From that boy — the child who had killed the Warrior and the Shaman alone — an ominous wave of energy radiated so strongly the hair on the back of his hand stood on end. The danger-sense ability he had inherited through this mask had been triggered.
"So he's a dangerous one."
In a way, even more so than the lord of Habun Castle.
The man in the black robe turned. He climbed the mountain, his fist clenched tight.
"So I'll have to bring that out after all."
When Raon cut down the last remaining troll, a message rose before his eyes.
Agility has increased by 1 point.
Energy has increased by 1 point.
Raon looked at the messages and smiled with satisfaction. The price of taking down the Ice Troll Warrior and the Shaman had come back to him as stats.
And that's not all.
Killing a Battle Qi-wielding monster by himself would have raised the rank of his soul as well. He hadn't taken the Shaman entirely alone, but he had been the one to finish it, so there was no problem.
Growing every time I fight. It really is a broken ability.
"It is a system This King created. Of course it is so."
The sight of a Demon King who had that magnificent ability stolen from him acting smug almost made Raon laugh, but he held it in.
"Raon!"
Radin and the scouts came running, their lips trembling.
"You little bastard, what the hell even are you?!"
"I never imagined you'd cut down an Ice Troll Warrior in a single stroke!"
"And you killed the shaman too! This kid is the real deal! The genuine article!"
The scouts crowded around him, bursting with awe.
"Ahem!"
Radin's pointed cough drew every gaze.
"You lot. Before you make a circus of yourselves, there's something you ought to say."
"Ah, right."
"That's true."
The scouts dropped their grins and straightened. Then, as one, they bowed their heads.
"Thank you for saving us!"
"We're alive because of you!"
"I was only performing my role as an escort. There's no need for this."
Raon waved them off. It wasn't humility. If you accepted a mission, producing results worthy of it was only natural. He had no need to receive thanks like this.
"No. Honestly, when that club came down, I thought, Ah, I'm fucked. I'm gonna die."
"Same. My mind went completely blank."
"I even saw my life flash before my eyes."
The scouts nodded in agreement, letting out hollow laughs.
"When you stepped forward and blocked the Ice Troll Warrior's club, I got chills over my entire body. I've been a scout for more than ten years, and I'd never experienced anything like that."
The dried tracks of tears were still visible at the corners of Radin's eyes. He was smiling now, but it was clear he had truly prepared himself to die.
"You didn't just do your job. You saved every last one of us. 'Thank you' doesn't even begin to cover it."
"He's right."
A low, resonant voice turned Raon's head. Terian was there, smiling for the first time since they had arrived.
"Countless people run from their roles. Whether it was for the mission or to save lives, standing alone in front of that club is something most would never dare."
Terian dipped his head, and the smile gained a living warmth.
"Thank you for saving our soldiers."
"...Yes."
Raon nodded slowly.
Something about this makes my chest itch.
In his previous life, once an assassination or a fight was over, he had been too busy fleeing. There had been no such thing as thanks — only the next mission waiting. Receiving gratitude like this after a battle felt awkward.
But he didn't dislike it. It felt as though a soft, warm cloth were stroking his heart.
"Superb swordsmanship, formidable aura, and impeccable timing — mix those together and the result surpasses anything one would imagine."
Beto, commander of the Wolves Mercenary Corps, approached, clapping his hands.
"To display power beyond the martial strength you possess... you are an uncommon man in more ways than one."
His eyes sparkled like those of a man who had just seen a product he liked.
"I'd love to dig into your background, but thanks to you not a single one of my people died, so I suppose the decent thing is to stop here. Wouldn't you agree?"
He shrugged and offered a faint smile.
"Ah, of course! Not digging into someone's past is an unspoken rule among mercenaries!"
"But that nickname Sword Fiend really fits him! His blade was going completely berserk!"
"I've never seen anyone swing a sword with that much joy in it."
"No, what's with overpowering a Troll Warrior with raw strength? Is he some kind of ogre?"
"What do you even have to eat to get that strong at his age?"
The mercenaries praised him without a shred of ulterior motive, thumbs raised high. It was the manner of martial men who worshipped strength and combat.
Raon listened to the cheers of the scouts and mercenaries as he approached the Snow Strike Squad, who stood there like corpses.
"Ghk..."
He stopped in front of Edquil, whose jaw was trembling, and set down the pack he had been carrying.
"I told you. You're the one who has to carry my things. Pick it up."
"A-are you serious?"
Edquil's hand twitched as if he were about to draw his sword.
"You made a promise. Everyone here heard it. Were you planning to just walk away from that?"
"You're going to make an enemy of me over a handful of scouts?"
He hadn't actually expected the luggage to be handed over. His eyes bulged as if they might tear.
"Th-that's right! We weren't even that hard on you!"
"We just passed off some of the bags and made you handle the meals!"
"W-we teased you and shoved you around a bit sometimes, but it was all just jokes!"
Far from apologizing, the Snow Strike Squad muttered that it wasn't something that warranted going this far.
Just as I expected. These people won't learn from this much.
"It was just a joke." "It wasn't that bad." Those were words that should never have come out of their mouths. Just as he had thought, their very way of thinking was rotten to the core.
"Well, I don't particularly want to be too hard on comrades I've fought alongside, either."
Raon nodded, concealing what he actually felt.
"But we can't exactly reverse a wager that's already been made. So there is one way..."
"W-what is it?"
Edquil and the Snow Strike Squad's eyes lit up. They looked ready to accept anything if it would get them out of this situation.
"Tsk. Those are the eyes of a man about to lose his entire fortune and get thrown out naked."
Wrath clicked his tongue lightly at the look in Edquil's eyes.
"We stack another wager on top of the first. If you win, I'll wipe away the porter duty. If I win, we add a new price."
Raon smiled faintly. His pupils sank, dark and still, as if they had swallowed the night.
"What's it going to be?"