Chapter 57
Chapter 57
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 57
Chapter Title: Darkness of Salasuma 5
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Azadin had his back to the entrance, cleverly evading the encirclement. They had him surrounded on three sides, but his escape route was securely open. Azadin smirked, as if he could read the were-rats' minds.
"In a situation like this, you as the superior should set an example, Kurben. Why don't you charge in first?"
"Urk!"
Kurben hesitated to approach. The arm and ankle he'd broken when Azadin had flung him hadn't fully healed, even with a were-rat's regenerative powers.
Truth be told, he was still alive among these were-rats precisely because he was one of their superiors. Any ordinary were-rat would have died from a single blow of Azadin's iron palm.
"Kieek!"
Unable to stand it any longer, one were-rat shoved a comrade toward Azadin. Azadin's sword flashed, slicing through the were-rat's neck once more.
But this attack snapped the sword in Azadin's hand. The inner wrought iron core was still intact, holding it together, but the blade had bent at a ninety-degree angle.
"Good! Now's our chance!"
"Kyaaak!"
Seizing the opening, another were-rat lunged at Azadin. A ruthless choice, sacrificing a comrade to create an enemy's vulnerability! The were-rats took pride in such decisions. It was a wisdom unique to them, something mere humans could never imitate.
But wisdom only counts if it succeeds—failure just makes it sordid behavior. Azadin first unleashed an iron palm strike at the lunging were-rat's neck.
-Puk!
Azadin's iron palm shattered the opponent's cervical vertebrae in one blow. As the were-rat's body stiffened upon losing consciousness, Azadin caught it and used it to block the other were-rats' attacks.
"Grk...."
"Guh!"
"This can't be! We're the hunters! With Mezzeri's blessing, we should be the ones plundering...."
"You're delusional."
Azadin kicked the torso of a were-rat staring at him in disbelief. The tip of Azadin's boot sank into the were-rat's liver as if being sucked in.
The were-rat flew off the ground, stumbling back two steps, blood spurting from its eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
"Kraaaagh!"
The were-rat writhed in agony from the devastating liver-destroying kick. Pathetically, their regenerative abilities only prolonged the suffering.
Their regeneration wasn't strong enough to fully restore vital organs like the liver without damage, yet it kept them half-alive, dragging out the torment.
The were-rats were stunned by Azadin's reaction speed, as he picked them off one by one despite their encirclement.
He was on another level entirely. Surrounding him from the front and both sides didn't give them the advantage. They were just getting beaten down repeatedly.
'What the hell is this guy?'
'Is this really the one Kurben always talked about?'
Kurben had always blamed the Herald clan for his devotion to Mezzeri.
The clan's biggest dimwit had become a Herald just because of the elders' political games. That's why someone like him, who quietly did his duties as a Korasar merchant escort, couldn't become one. The organization was clearly rotten.
He'd always grumbled like that. But seeing Azadin's skills now, he wasn't even comparable to Kurben?
Seizing the were-rats' moment of confusion, Azadin picked up the staff he'd dropped on the floor and retreated backward, slipping out the building's entrance.
"N-No! Chase him!"
Kurben realized what Azadin was doing and panicked, ordering his subordinates. But they were all skeptical.
"It's outside."
"If we go out, the other humans will..."
They were already transformed into were-rats. Charging out into the middle of the street in broad daylight would draw witnesses. So they let Azadin escape the building unchallenged—and that was their mistake.
Once outside and at a safe distance, Azadin unslung the crescent bow from his waist, clamping it between his legs and stringing it with the bowstring for horseback use. He began loading pebbles overflowing from the riverside into the composite bow and firing them.
-Whiiing!
A stone hurtled at terrifying speed, blasting past the entrance and smashing into a were-rat inside.
"Krack!"
"You bastard!"
But the intervals between stones were insanely short. If you didn't see it yourself, you'd suspect a massive army relentlessly bombarding them with catapults.
*********
Azadin scooped up stones one by one from outside the door, firing them with the composite bow. Remarkably, every irregular pebble sucked straight through the doorway, striking the were-rats inside.
"Get away from the door! Damn it! That guy's—!"
As Kurben panicked, Azadin reached into his clothes and pulled out arrows he'd hidden there. He snapped off their tips and nocked them on the bowstring. It was something even Kurben hadn't anticipated.
'What the hell is he doing?'
At that moment, Azadin unleashed the arrow-without-tip technique—no, the triple-arrow shot. Three arrows grazed the building's outer eaves in succession....
The thatch burst into flames. The friction from the wooden shafts against the thatch had ignited it through heat.
No matter how dry the conditions or how skilled the Herald clan was at the arrow-without-tip technique, "ignition" only worked if arrows repeatedly struck the exact same spot.
And it required grazing to maximize friction—direct hits wouldn't light. Could a human even do that?
As the building caught fire, everyone panicked. The prolonged drought made it spread even faster.
"Hey! You know there are other humans around here, right? Is this what you're doing?"
Kurben finally shouted. Only then did Azadin shrug.
"Oh, really? My bad. I'll put out the fire. Won't interfere."
"Urk!"
"Or you can roast in there like rats. I saw refugees outside grilling rats. Come to think of it, you guys were saying something funny? What was it? With Mezzeri's blessing, you're the hunters now? Rats like you? If you turned into werewolves or were-tigers, maybe. But you're pathetic. Honestly."
"N-No!"
"You think we chose to become were-rats? We thought were-tigers were cool too...."
"Hey, shut up!"
The were-rats flinched at one of their own denying Mezzeri's blessing.
In any case, fire spreading through the dry wooden building was a serious problem.
"Damn it! He's really not attacking, right?"
Kurben ordered his men to extinguish the flames. The parched thatch burned in an instant, embers falling inside and spreading, but once the were-rats got serious, it wasn't too hard.
They stamped out the flames by ripping away the burning thatch.
"Phew. It's out."
"But... where'd he go?"
If Azadin had attacked while they were putting out the fire, they'd have been helpless. But Azadin truly hadn't touched them during the firefighting.
That was fine, but... he was nowhere to be seen.
"W-Wait. Did he...?"
"Already inside?"
As the were-rats panicked and checked the inner entrance,
"Hmm. So, the fire's out now? Shall we continue?"
Azadin muttered from behind them, having sneaked up.
"Ugh!"
"You bastard?"
Azadin held the head of a halberd in his hand—the pike portion detached from the shaft, gripped like a tonfa.
"Hup!"
Azadin swung it, shattering a were-rat's jaw.
The were-rats raised their claws to rake him. Just a scratch would tear human flesh and infect with poison and bacteria, leading to death. In bad cases, it could even transmit Mezzeri's blessing, turning the victim into a were-rat—a horrific claw attack.
But Azadin swung the halberd head, severing their fingers clean off.
"Kieek!"
The were-rat disguised as a holy knight drew its sword and charged Azadin. Azadin parried the blade with the halberd head, deflected it, closed the gap, and drove in a kick—this time to the liver.
"Guh!"
As the were-rat staggered, Azadin snatched its sword and swung at the others. Were-rat limbs flew, necks severed—a massacre unfolded.
'He's... too strong! What is this? This is Azadin? No way a 108th Herald is this good!'
This was no low-rank Herald's skill. In terms of personal martial prowess, he rivaled the top-tier Heralds. Kurben gaped as Azadin swept through the were-rats like autumn leaves.
"Urk. W-Wait! Azadin!"
"What? Last words?"
"I-I'm gonna run. Let me go!"
"Why should I listen to you? You know there's no reason for me to spare a servant of Kurt God, right?"
"Ugh.... We go way back, from when we were kids?"
Azadin chuckled inwardly for a moment.
'Is this guy nuts? "Way back from when we were kids?"'
But Kurben misinterpreted Azadin's smirk.
"We ate from the same pot in the same neighborhood! Trained together! We're hometown buddies, right? Yeah?"
"You forget how you bullied me?"
"Th-That was just kids being kids, roughhousing a bit. And you know how it was—if I didn't join in bullying you, I'd be the one getting bullied! I had to, to survive. You gotta understand!"
"So to survive, you ended up becoming a were-rat?"
"It was that district chief! He sent me to investigate missing people, and I got ambushed by were-rats there, so I became one. Wasn't my choice. So let me escape! Please?"
"Haa."
Azadin was baffled by Kurben's self-centered ramblings. He'd always been a jerk, but becoming a were-rat seemed to make him even more egocentric.
'Does transforming into a were-rat lower their intelligence compared to human form?'
Azadin nodded.
"Fine. Run."
"Oh, really? Thanks. Heh heh."
"But first, spill the info. Is Baroness Nort inside? She went missing yesterday."
"Oh, that noblewoman? Yeah, of course."
"What are you planning to do with her?"
"We knew there was a copy of the New King Scripture around here... but it hasn't manifested. The damn thing has self-defense magic, so it won't just fall into our hands. They say it appears if you torment and abuse people enough, so we've been working on that. Nobles were perfect timing too. Humans with Yaegas divine blood make great sacrifices."
As expected of the king's grimoire—it responded to people's calls and desires?
"That's premium info. Only Kurt God's high mages know it. Now I'm outta here."
Kurben backed away from Azadin until distance opened, then bolted away running.