How About a Four-Way Battle?

Kyaaaaaaah! Craaaack!

The longer it dragged on, the more savage the battle between the assassins and the Black Spirits became.

Poison and darkness mana alike inflicted agonizing pain on contact, so both sides poured every last shred of their power into each other, murderous intent blazing hot.

Raon looked down from above and let out a dry chuckle.

They really do deserve each other.

Watching their faces twist as they fought through the pain, he couldn't help but smile. These were people who never gave a damn about anyone else's suffering, and seeing them like this was genuinely satisfying.

"Guhk!"

"Aaagh…"

Fighters started dying, poisoned by toxin or darkness mana, and Raon felt not a shred of guilt. The Black Tower's lot had raided an innocent village to turn its people into sacrifices, and Loctan had slaughtered an entire settlement with poison. Both sides could die and the world would be better for it.

"Hah…"

Wrath let out a hollow breath as he surveyed the chaotic battlefield.

"Truly… the only word that comes to mind is insane."

About what?

"This King has heard of reaping the fisherman's profit, but never imagined it would actually come to pass."

When Raon had first talked about making two completely unrelated forces fight each other, Wrath had thought the boy had finally lost his mind. And then it had actually happened. He shook his head, too incredulous for words.

This isn't the first time.

"Exactly. That is precisely why it is so irritating."

He was helping because those bastards had interrupted dessert time, but things were going so smoothly that rage was starting to well up anyway. Watching this brat have such an easy time of it made Wrath inexplicably angry.

"Are you not going to move?"

I'll take care of those two over there.

Raon pointed toward the Black Water Master and Loctan, still locked in combat just below the peak.

Like I said, this is the time to prepare the ending. It isn't my turn yet.

He turned and looked toward a lower peak in the distance.

I've got something else to do first.

"You noticed that as well?"

The caliber of my senses has changed.

"Kgh…"

Wrath's face scrunched up in open displeasure.

You're the one who taught me how to use the Sense of Frost Flowers and the Sensory Veil of Frost Flowers. Why are you annoyed?

"Because you use them too well. It infuriates This King. This King should have held back a little!"

He slammed the ground, muttering that he'd been distracted by dessert of all things.

That ship's already sailed.

Raon gave Wrath a tap on the shoulder and turned away.

Too late for regrets.

He stepped into the Supreme Harmony Footwork and headed for a low peak near the entrance of the Zamari Mountain Range.

The Three Steps of Supreme Harmony were the quietest, most fluid form of the entire footwork. Without leaving so much as a trace on the ground, he arrived at his destination in an instant.

Cresting the peak, he spotted a masked figure hidden between two large stones. The man was watching the battle between the Poison Practitioners and the Black Tower through a cylindrical telescope.

I knew it.

A scout. An informant, posted to report back if anything went wrong with Loctan and the Poison Practitioners — which was why he hadn't joined the fight, and why he was hiding here.

Which means these are their last line of defense.

Eliminate the informants, and he would slip entirely out of Derus's sight. A smile touched his lips.

Thud!

Raon came up behind the informant, drove a blade through his heart, and clamped a hand over his mouth. As quietly as he had every time before, he laid the corpse down and moved to the right.

Stepping only on solid rock so he made no sound, he slipped up beside the last informant hidden in the brush.

This one, too, was watching the battle through a telescope.

"What in the world…"

The man pulled his eye from the lens and let out a disbelieving laugh.

"Why are those two fighting each other?"

"Because I stepped in."

"H-huh? You— ghk!"

Raon cut his throat before he could even turn around.

"Urgh…"

The informant's pupils trembled to slits as he crumpled to the ground.

"Tell them when you get to hell."

Raon smashed the telescope the man had been holding and smiled, cold as ice.

"I'll be sending plenty more down. Save them a seat."

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Dorian had his fingers dug into the cliff wall, his shoulders trembling.

Is this actually going to be okay?

Raon had told him to climb to the peak once things got busy down below — but Dorian had no idea when "busy" was supposed to happen.

He had the strength to hang on, that much he was sure of, but the tension made his heart feel like it was about to burst out of his chest.

Following this guy around is exhausting, I swear…

He was sighing inwardly when the clash of weapons rang out from below.

That's it.

Instinct told him it was time. He started climbing toward the highest peak, then peeked sideways over the edge.

Huh…?

Figures in black robes who looked like Tower Spirits of the Black Tower were fighting people in tight dark combat gear that screamed assassin.

W-what?

Why were they fighting each other?

Where had Raon gone, and why were these people trying to kill one another?

They were going all-out — poison and darkness mana spraying wildly in every direction.

…I have no idea.

Well. He'd figured something out, probably.

Understanding what Raon did was a lost cause. Dorian just decided that Raon had gone and done a Raon thing, and kept climbing.

Huff.

Scaling a sheer cliff with no aura left him pouring cold sweat, but he thought of the people waiting above and threw every last ounce of strength into his arms and legs.

Hah! Made it.

The moment he reached the Drake's nest — the highest peak — the first thing he saw was people dying.

"Aaagh…"

"Kh-hhk!"

"Please, do something…"

"Aaaagh!"

The villagers clutched at the black holes carved into their bodies, moaning as if their throats had been slit. Each hole was the size of a ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠human head, and the flesh around it was rotting like a zombie's.

"What is this…"

Dorian's jaw trembled as he took in their condition.

You bastards!

He'd known the people would be in pain. He hadn't known it would be this bad. He couldn't believe human beings had done this to other human beings. Rage surged up in him so hot it burned the fear right out.

"Kh-hhh…"

He swallowed the urge to drop back down the mountain and cut down every last member of the Black Tower, and checked the old man at the front.

There was a hole through the man's shoulder, and black blood had already climbed as far as his neck.

"Are you all right?"

"N-not me… Please look after my g-granddaughter."

He was gasping as if he were about to die, and still he pointed to the small child on his right.

"I-I'm fine… hhk!"

The brown-haired girl, maybe ten years old, clutched the black hole blooming at her waist and shook her head with everything she had.

"Ugh…"

Dorian swallowed hard. Watching people think of each other in a situation where they could drop dead at any second made something boil in his gut.

"M-my superior is seriously, incredibly capable! If you just hold on a little longer, he'll save all of you. Please wait just a moment!"

He rummaged through his Belly Pouch and pulled out painkillers and holy water — anything that might help them.

Dorian even used footwork to move faster, distributing the painkillers among the wounded.

"Swallow it right now!"

The people poisoned by darkness took the pills with shaking hands. For those whose bodies had already gone stiff, he put the medicine in their mouths himself and helped them swallow.

"It's going to hurt. You have to bear it."

Dorian opened the holy water. It was genuine holy water, rare and precious, obtained from the Kelton Holy Kingdom — and he didn't care in the slightest what it was worth.

Hoping they could endure, he let a single drop fall onto the old man's wound.

Ssssssssssh!

A sound like flesh burning rose up, and the old man began to thrash.

"Khhnnngh!"

He convulsed as if in a seizure, eyes rolling back.

"You can hold on. You have to live — for your granddaughter!"

Whether the words helped or not, the old man's fit subsided, and the black blood that had reached his neck began to recede. The gaping hole started to shrink as well.

It's working!

An effect worthy of genuine holy water. The pain was unavoidable, but now there was a way to save them all.

"I'll save every one of you! Just hold on a little longer!"

Dorian moved across the entire peak, sprinkling holy water into the black holes in people's bodies.

"Kyaaaaagh!"

"Uuuuugh!"

"Haaah…"

"Nngh!"

Some screamed. Some hurt too badly even to scream. But the holes and the black veins shrank, steadily and unmistakably.

"Hoo…"

He gave water to the people who were so drained they could barely breathe, then looked down from the peak.

They're still fighting.

The Black Tower and the assassin band were still hurling poison and darkness at each other, still driving blades home. Fortunately, no one was paying any attention to the peak.

Where on earth is the vice squad leader?

Fewer than ten remained on each side. Whichever group won would come straight up here — and Dorian had no idea where Raon was or what he was doing.

"What an exhausting boss… huh?"

He turned with a sigh and froze.

Something enormous was flying in from the western sea at a terrifying speed. The moment he saw those blood-red eyes blooming out of the darkness, every hair on his body stood on end.

"I-it's here!"

Dorian staggered backward in a panic.

The Drake is here!

Why isn't that guy here yet?!

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

"Die!"

Loctan hurled daggers at the sky. Ten blades scattered through the air, then dove like hawks, shooting for the Black Water Master's vital points.

"How troublesome."

The Black Water Master swept his hand down. The darkness wreathing him became a massive claw, batting every dagger aside before crashing toward Loctan's head.

"You goddamn bastard!"

Loctan thrust both aura-wrapped hands forward. Aura laced with a deep green light surged up like a tidal wave.

KRAAAAAANG!

Poison and darkness slammed together and detonated. The energy that didn't annihilate itself spread outward, turning earth and trees black and dead.

"……"

"Kh…"

The Black Water Master's skin had gone deathly pale from poison. Black veins had crawled up Loctan's neck, eaten away by darkness.

"Let us finish this."

"Fine. You deaf bastard!"

Loctan kicked up a poison fog and retreated. The Black Water Master, as if he'd expected exactly that, slipped out of the fog at once and hurled his darkness forward.

KRAAAAAANG!

The two of them had forgotten their missions entirely. They poured everything they had into killing each other. Darkness and poison clashed again and again.

Raon watched Loctan firing off poison palms and the Black Water Master bringing darkness down like a hammer, and adjusted his grip on the Heavenly Sky Sword and the Requiem Sword.

They've weakened.

It wasn't just that pain ‍‍‌‌⁠⁠‌‍‍‌⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠‌‌‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had worn down their focus. Poison and darkness had been gnawing at each other's bodies, and neither of them could bring their full power to bear.

Not much longer.

Even so, ambushing both of them at once was still too much. He had to wait for an opening.

Raon ran the Sensory Veil of Frost Flowers at its limit, sinking his presence into the natural flow of the world around him.

KRAAAANG!

He was watching Loctan and the Black Water Master collide, holding his energy still, when something enormous rose overhead and blotted out the moon.

"KREEEEEEEEEEK!"

A cry that threatened to split eardrums, and a savage presence that swallowed the entire Zamari Mountain Range. The Drake that had left its nest had returned.

"The Drake…"

"Hah! So it's a three-way fight now."

Both the Black Water Master's and Loctan's eyes and senses snapped toward the Drake.

Now!

Raon stepped into the Supreme Harmony Footwork. The instant his left foot extended, his vision narrowed. In a sliver of a moment, he drove straight into the center of both men.

They were still looking at the Drake. He brought the Heavenly Sky Sword and the Requiem Sword down as one.

Ssshk!

He felt the blades bite into flesh, and in the same breath poured demonic energy into the Black Water Master and heat into Loctan.

"Kh!"

"You…"

Their eyes turned toward him — too late.

He met those pupils, packed with shock and pain, and dragged both swords all the way through.

SPLUUUURT!

Crimson blood fountained. The Black Water Master's right arm and Loctan's left arm went spinning into the sky.

Thud. Thud.

The sound of two arms hitting the ground, and time, which had seemed to freeze, started moving again.

"Khhngh…"

"Keh-hhk!"

The Black Water Master clutched his right shoulder. Loctan clutched his left. Both of them scrambled backward.