Heskal's gaze turned to Ragna's eyes.
The eyes that had been cast downward rose like the sun rising from the horizon to look directly at Heskal. The light flowing along the pupils of his red eyes seemed to scatter the darkness.
Blonde hair and red eyes—in terms of swordsmanship alone, it was an appearance reminiscent of one who was among the finest women born and raised in Zaun throughout history.
"You."
While Heskal couldn't continue his words, Ragna spoke in an utterly calm tone.
"When I grip a sword, I can see the path. I said walking along that path is really easy."
It was something Ragna had said as a child. Heskal searched his memory and recalled that these current words were what he had heard when teaching him the basics of straight sword techniques. After learning for just one day, he had refused to learn from him starting the next day.
After that incident, Heskal judged that Ragna lacked something essential.
Those without the desire for improvement cannot survive in Zaun.
Ragna Zaun fit that premise perfectly. Eventually, Ragna left Zaun.
He was a flower that would wither among mediocre peers, showing off his talent but never even reaching his limits.
But what if that flower lived fiercely, even taking risks?
The answer was here.
When Ragna gripped a sword, he could see the path. So driving opponents into dead ends wasn't difficult either.
Heskal had been driven into such a dead end.
Distance, position, posture—all of it became walls and created paths. Heskal saw these as paths he had opened himself, so he walked them without hesitation and became trapped in a labyrinth.
Now the choice belonged to Ragna, not Heskal.
It could be said he was caught in a spider web where he couldn't move carelessly.
It wasn't that his physical abilities were lacking, nor was he caught up in psychological warfare, and he seemed to know how to take risks, having experienced many life-or-death battles.
Ragna's sword had finished preparing to spring out at any moment.
'Did I see wrong?'
Ragna had cornered Heskal like that. Deception and all—now there was no choice but to strike down with his sword head-on.
'He'll be cut no matter which way he moves.'
Evasion would be the worst choice.
Though that didn't mean now was good either.
If he met it head-on, Camouflage's hidden blades would cut through empty air. However, he didn't have the luxury to pull such tricks now.
All that remained for Heskal now was to overpower his opponent with strength. Therefore, he had to win by adding power to fundamentals instead of phantom sword techniques.
Ragna slightly changed the direction of his feet. With that, even the chance to catch one's breath or exchange words disappeared.
The thought process after saying "clumsy" seemed long, but in reality it was extremely brief.
Actually, while Ragna said "clumsy" and Heskal responded with a few exchanges of words, Ragna's feet changed direction and his great sword scraped the ground. The great sword departed along the trajectory Ragna desired. The rain-soaked earth gave way without a single scream.
It was a clear, wide path. A smooth path without a single pebble, with solid ground that was good to step on.
That was the path Ragna's eyes saw.
Riiip.
The moment the air tore, Ragna's sword approached right to Heskal's nose.
Heskal also reacted. He too gave his all and struck down with his sword.
He chose his best option at the final moment. Pouring all his Will into Camouflage, he attempted weapon cutting.
He had an Inscribed Weapon while Ragna did not. Using the weapon's advantage, he would cut through the opponent's sword and pass through to split him from chin to forehead. It was the best choice.
At that moment, Heskal saw Ragna's blade emit a subtle milky light, and immediately after seeing it, he intuited the end.
'Ah.'
A knight's insight lets them know their end in advance. More precisely, it was recognizing one's death through high-speed thinking.
Then all that remained for them was the final choice. That final choice could also define that knight's past life.
If they wanted survival, they would struggle desperately to shake off approaching death.
If they were fighting an enemy or someone who absolutely had to be killed, they might swing their sword to the end for mutual destruction.
Rarely, there were those who made peculiar choices according to their will and beliefs.
When the great sword struck Heskal's sword, his arm was pushed back. Ragna's great sword continued pushing in, passing through Heskal's left thigh and groping through his body. The moment Heskal recognized death, he used his remaining strength to twist his body. Chronologically, it was right after the great sword had just struck his sword. He gathered the strength he was about to use for a final struggle and poured it into twisting his body away.
In other words, he reacted first, just before his body split.
'Not the heart.'
Crack-crack-crack!
*Whooooosh.**
The sound came belatedly to strike where the great sword had passed, showing how fast he had swung it.
Flesh tore and blood sprayed to the side.
Heskal never let go of his sword in the end, but his arm was raised up. He fell backward like that, his posture looking as if he was holding his sword and enduring.
A single question came from Ragna's mouth.
"Why?"
Cut from his left thigh to his shoulder. Survival was hopeless. The reason "why" came from Ragna's mouth was because of Heskal's final action.
There had clearly been a chance to land one strike, but he twisted his body away in that moment.
"Cough!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth along with the cough. It was significantly less than the blood coming from his body.
Already, blood that rainwater could hardly dilute flowed from his body, and his internal organs revealed their naked form to the world for the first time since birth.
"Get away from me."
Heskal gathered his final Will, forcing air into his lungs to speak. Ragna instinctively followed those words.
Where the two had been was next to the monster unit gathered as reserves.
Whether watching the fight from the side or looking for opportunities, hundreds of monsters had gathered. Ragna pulled back his swung great sword and leaped backward.
It was after moving more than twenty steps away. That could definitely be called a clear distance, and after briefly looking back, Ragna saw Heskal's body explode in his eyes.
Pop.
It wasn't that loud a sound.
But the result that followed had a major impact on those nearby, regardless of the sound.
Saaaaaaah!
The screams of the Scaler horde rang out.
As Heskal died, blood droplets splattered in all directions centered on his body, and all monsters that touched that blood rolled their eyes back and died.
It seemed like he had held poison inside his body and detonated it.
Why he had given him a chance to escape was simply puzzling.
Well, that was something to think about later.
Ragna turned his head. He had killed Heskal.
Could this be considered achieving his goal?
No. He had never lost his way in the first place. Heskal had been mistaken.
When there was a target clearly visible in the distance, how could he lose his way?
Ragna's goal from the beginning had been the monster with snakes adorning her hair. So he had walked well, finding his own path.
Since Heskal had interfered in the middle, nothing had changed. Ragna continued walking.
Swoooosh.
The wind lessened while the rain continued.
The pouring rain washed away the entrails and brain matter of the monsters Enkrid had killed, diluting the black blood to seep into the ground.
Right after Panito died, several Scalers with supernatural abilities did something reckless. They stretched out their hands to use telekinesis while simultaneously shooting their claws like arrows.
The claw arrows were black as if dipped in black ink, and naturally, they hadn't dipped those claws in ink just to show off.
Three of them did similar things, with four to six claw arrows shot per individual, all like venomous snakes carrying deadly poison.
Accelerated by telekinesis, the flying claws curved and moved freely like snakes cutting through wind and rain.
Enkrid recognized them to the end not through sight but hearing, then twisted his head to dodge right in front of his nose, then swung Tri-Iron to destroy those coming with time delays.
Unbroken claws spun around from behind to aim at the back of Enkrid's head again.
Enkrid briefly rushed forward during the moment the claws reversed, splitting the monsters' heads vertically one by one.
Then the claws lost strength and fell to the ground.
There were more monsters that did peculiar things.
They were worthy of being called carefully selected elite monsters.
The one shooting claws to control with telekinesis, the one bursting its skin to scatter blood droplets—he beheaded and split the heads of them all.
Dodging or destroying arrows, and as for blood droplets bursting, couldn't he just retreat before they burst?
Solid legs and Reinforcement added speed, while his trained body and sense of balance gave him the skill to move in any direction—front, back, left, or right.
If he moved unpredictably at speeds that would confuse the dynamic vision of telekinesis-using Scalers? There would be no way to fall victim to telekinesis.
As he was cutting down monsters like this, thoughts sometimes intruded.
'Tricky to deal with? That's true, but not threatening.'
Ghoul Zerix came to mind. Was the name Zerix correct? Or was it Zeris?
Anyway, that ghoul he had met in the city of Oara was also a unique individual and one that had survived long enough to be given a name.
But compared to these guys, he felt a gap.
It wasn't simply because that guy had survived long. Ghoul Zerix was one who knew how to fight.
Compared to him, these monsters were much easier to deal with.
'Once you solve the supernatural abilities, it's over.'
Even if accidentally caught by telekinesis, he could shake it off with strength, and he could dodge poisoned claws.
Looking at it now, he could guess the identity of the monster horde too.
Rather than identity, should it be said their purpose was clearly visible?
'Chimeras meant to drain strength.'
Not unique individuals but individuals created through personal research.
Enkrid, who organized his thoughts through brief reflection while looking at the corpses of killed monsters, swung his arms around.
They say knights can cut down a thousand people.
But that requires supporting conditions. First, time is essential, and there would need to be equipment to preserve stamina and avoid wasting Will on useless things.
Where would there be people who would just die from one sword swing?
A knight's inhuman combat power is constrained by time.
Of course, if one's ability to control stamina and manage Will was excellent, they could fight for a very long time.
'From that point, it differs between knights.'
There could be knights who sweep through in a short time then fight while resting, and there could be knights who calmly increase endurance to reduce enemy numbers.
Anyway, checking his condition, Enkrid's body state wasn't perfect. It seemed like impurities had settled in various muscles. He was fighting while even his underwear got soaked by the pouring rain. The battle was still ongoing and he had done quite a bit of activity himself.
In other words, it was natural for his body condition to be like this.
Enkrid opened his eyes that he had closed at the presence felt from behind. Briefly, the rain had lightened. Looking at how the clouds Alexandra had called Black Storm Clouds still maintained the same thickness, it would be a temporary phenomenon.
Opening his eyes made Medusa's curse consume Will, but he could afford this much hospitality. In that sense, Enkrid spoke while looking at the approaching person.
"You're late, Ragna."
"Did you know I would come?"
"I was thinking it would be good if you came."
Honestly, he had predicted that when the family head's fight ended, either he would join that side or Ragna would come.
There were still many enemies left to be satisfied with just holding out against those approaching from his position.
Moreover, Ragna was someone who would take steps to find a target to vent his anger on.
The approaching Ragna continued speaking.
"Heskal blocked me on the way."
"Blocked you?"
"I cut him down."
"Is that so?"
Including the family head, Alexandra, Rynox, and even Heskal, no one would have known Ragna's real skills.
But Enkrid roughly knew.
Heskal or a few monsters could never block Ragna's path.
"Heskal was quite formidable though, right?"
"I got a hole in my shoulder."
"What about the medicine Anne gave you?"
"He didn't coat it with poison."
Regardless of content, their attitudes were so calm that outwardly it looked like peaceful daily conversation was taking place.
Centered around those two, several monsters formed formations while watching for opportunities from the surroundings.
Enkrid's senses detected several more new presences.
These were those skilled at hiding their bodies and presence. He had heard there were many such people in the Hunter's Village.
The Hunter's Village itself was said to be a village formed by those who had come seeking Zaun's legends they had heard and remained stubbornly when attachment lingered.
It was a village formed by those who lived by the sword, from bounty hunters to mercenaries, and they were also those who lived off the crumbs falling from Zaun.
It could be said to be a place where outsiders who couldn't belong to Zaun had gathered.
So should it be said they were likely to betray?
Shing.
Enkrid sheathed Tri-Iron back in its scabbard.
'Let's suffer a bit more, Tri-Iron.'
Tri-Iron was so excellent that he wondered if Aetri had actually deceived him when giving it.
Maybe he had actually made it as an Inscribed Weapon but said it wasn't because he was worried about disappointment?
The True-Silver blade seemed like it could cut anything, and the Black Gold blade seemed like it could break anything.
The feeling of the sword speaking to him each time he gripped it wasn't just due to Enkrid's madness.
"Let's go."
Enkrid said. It was a refreshing tone. It would be perfect if the rain stopped like this and dawn light shone, but of course such a thing couldn't happen.
The wind and rain wouldn't stop for at least three days.
Sometimes it would be fierce and sometimes weaker, but the storm currently blowing wasn't yet time to stop.
At Enkrid's words, Ragna realized the Captain had seen the same target as himself.
His mouth opened in admiration.
"Did you see the same thing as me? As expected, Captain has the talent of a guide. I guarantee it."
"...That's as unpleasant as being told I'm like that guy Rem."
"What?"
Ragna tilted his head as if he couldn't understand.
"Shut up and follow me. It's time to show what just two swordsmen can do."
Someone hearing this might call it petty.
"What could change just because two mere swordsmen and one young girl were added?"
He was still keeping the words of that false claimant of divinity called Dremül in his heart.
But Ragna couldn't argue about pettiness while looking at such an Enkrid. This was too natural.
He too hadn't forgotten the words about "just two swordsmen."
"Let's do that."
Ragna and Enkrid walked side by side. Their target was the peerless beauty from the demon realm who was holding out ahead, with uniquely adorned snake hair.