Chapter 831 - Stinky, Saint, Peerless Beauty
In front of the continuous warnings from his sixth sense, Enkrid aimed Dawnforged to his right, even before Themares could react.
Enkrid's movement was faster than his tongue.
Sound, smell, touch—all of them combined to issue a warning, and so it happened.
In Enkrid's eyes, he saw flames rise and form a mass.
The entire process of this transformation entered his sight, piece by piece.
A thin line connected from the wide-spreading cloud of fire in the sky to the fireball.
That mass flew, scraping the ground like a charging chariot.
KWADADADADADA!
The surroundings distorted with the roar and the rising flames.
It was to the point where an illusion could be seen due to the heat.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a natural disaster.
Was it even possible for a human body to withstand a catastrophe poured out by the heavens?
It was difficult.
For an ordinary human, that is.
But there was not a single ordinary human here.
Moreover, it wasn't a matter that needed everyone to step forward.
'Dawnforged.'
Enkrid trusted Dawnforged.
That trust was imbued in the sword, and the inscribed will shone.
The light of Dawnforged became deeper than before.
He went out to meet the flames.
He mixed the knack for cutting a fireball spell with what he had learned from cutting the walking fire.
'Spell Slaying.'
That's what Esther had called his sword.
Enkrid swung his sword just like that.
The blade, forming a pressure, cut through the heavily solidified air.
In accordance with that cutting slash, the air pressure changed and pushed back the heat, and the blade, imbued with Will, unhesitatingly cut through the flames.
To be precise, it cut the center of the flames.
BOOM!
Along with the sound of the air exploding.
Fwoosh.
The knack was the same as cutting the walking fire.
He didn't know if what his opponent had used was a spell, but…
'The source is the same. The principle is the same.'
Then all he had to do was cut it.
He would say he could cut it because he was cutting it.
'A moment ago, that was a thought as arrogant as Ragna's.'
Wasn't it the same as answering 'just because' when asked how he cut it?
The feeling wasn't bad.
An arrogant thought like Ragna's was something only a genius could afford.
"Refreshing."
Enkrid said after swinging his sword.
The ends of his hair crackled and burned from the blazing heat.
The soot settled on the ground, forming black smoke.
And soon, the smoke was crushed by the heat that enveloped the area and scattered.
To say it was refreshing in the suffocating air was enough to make him seem like a madman.
There were two fireballs, and Audin blocked the other one.
"Oh, Lord."
Clad in holy light, he covered the flames with his divinity and extinguished them.
The white light flowing from his body covered the fire and pressed it down.
He accomplished an outrageous feat as if it were nothing, even when discussing the extraordinary beyond the ordinary.
Perhaps that was the qualification to stand against a catastrophe sent from the heavens.
Here, there were beings who could be called a catastrophe based on their physical bodies.
They did not back down even in front of the flame cloud in the sky.
'Suppression.'
Enkrid thought as he watched Audin press down the flames.
That flame cloud was a form on a different level from Beelrog, and its fighting style was also difficult to gauge.
So how could he suppress it?
'What is the most appropriate method?'
The deliberation was not long.
Was it because he possessed Uske?
Enkrid's thoughts came to a single conclusion.
"A battle of attrition."
He just had to drain its strength and make it pant and gasp for breath.
Even if not, it was time to face it and gauge it.
Therefore, it was a battle of stamina, a battle of attrition.
The flame cloud had at some point formed a shape and changed.
It was a four-legged form, crouching low to the ground.
It looked like a dog or a wolf, or perhaps a lizard.
It was a thought that came to him as he looked at it.
Had he said the heat ray that had drawn a line on the ground earlier was a tongue?
It wasn't funny even in his imagination, the sight of it panting with that pulled out.
Then, a few masses of fire fell from the sky with a thud, rolled, and wriggled into shape.
Two arms and two legs were formed, and they held swords in their hands.
Should they be called knights of flame?
Their bodies were made of fire, but their posture holding the sword and the way they charged were human-like.
BOOM!
The fire-forms finished their preparations for battle as soon as they stood up.
They lowered their stance to charge.
It was just before they kicked off the ground.
Before the creature could charge at full speed, its head exploded first, because a fired projectile had pierced the flames and disappeared.
Whether the will to advance remained, the flames flickered and it took a few steps forward, but then it collapsed.
Psssht.
Only black ash remained, scattered on the ground.
Whoooosh.
Rem, who was lightly twirling a sling in the very back, shrugged his shoulders.
"Can't we just press them down with force and tire them out?"
Rem's head, as expected, worked well.
"Right."
Enkrid agreed.
Themares was surprised as he saw the resolve felt from each and every one of them.
The number of times a Dragonkin is surprised in his entire life is less than five, and this was the second time, following Enkrid.
A group of individuals with an extraordinary purity of will had gathered.
As they moved, a high-purity will and light were visible to the Dragonkin's eyes.
'Still, that man is the best.'
Black hair and blue eyes. The light seen from him was just too great.
***
Seiki was not officially part of the standing army, but she had learned to fight by learning a little from Enkrid and a little from Audin. Enkrid knew her talent was extraordinary, but conversely, he also knew that she lacked will. For a person whose goal in life was to live leisurely watching the stars from a mountain, martial arts were secondary.
Still, Seiki also did something similar to training. She had also learned the skill of handling divine power. She was a highlander, a person who roamed the mountains, and since the mountains of the continent were not only filled with friendly animals, it was natural for her to know how to fight. The grandfather who had raised her had also lived by fighting through hunting and trapping.
"What is this, all of a sudden!"
It started with a wolf of fire that had approached while she was playing idly.
A mass of figures sculpted from fire came rushing down in a horde.
Seiki fought and fled, mobilizing all the skills she possessed.
She might have been lazy, but the skills she had learned so far had kept her alive.
She moved straight to the city.
The numbers were not something she could handle alone.
"Fight!"
"Only magic weapons are effective!"
"Don't charge with a normal weapon until it's been blessed!"
Where she was heading, the standing army was already in the midst of fighting the fire sculptures.
Seiki joined them.
'There are too many.'
The standing army fought well.
Not a single one was pushed back.
Those armed with magic weapons even overwhelmed the fire-forms.
But in between, a monster presumed to be a special individual would appear.
A type that the soldiers could not dare to handle.
'Bipedal.'
A monster that walked and ran on two legs.
They were faster than the normal monsters, and stronger too.
KWANG!
As it struck a shield with its fist, the shield-bearer staggered and was pushed back.
"What is this," the shield-bearer muttered, gritting his teeth.
A dizzying force.
Can I withstand this?
With a single blow, the shield, which had been oiled and dried in the shade, let out a creaking groan.
The iron rim of the shield creaked.
If I didn't have the shield, I wouldn't have been able to block that blow, would I?
The threat tightened around his heart, but he would not fall.
That is to say, if there was an out-of-spec monster on that side, there was one on this side too.
"Your training is insufficient."
Would a monster made of fire understand the meaning of the word 'training'?
It probably couldn't even understand the words, but Fel said what he had to say.
A single sword slash.
The fire was split vertically and scattered.
It was the power of the idol-slayer.
His sword was specialized for cutting unformed things.
In the shield-bearer's eyes, all he saw was a line that passed vertically through the fire monster's body.
The owner of the sword that had killed the fire monster flicked his sword towards the air.
The faint remaining flames scattered into the air and disappeared.
The shield-bearer gulped.
As his surprise subsided, he saw the person standing before him.
The owner of the sword, a member of the Madmen Knight Order.
The one who had just saved his life opened his mouth.
"How about that? I'm better than Ropord, right? In both looks and skill?"
The shield-bearer could not dare to shake his head.
Wasn't he the one who had just saved his life?
In the meantime, Ropord moved even more busily.
A single line was clearly drawn in his mind.
A line that was also visible to his eyes.
A path that told him how to move efficiently.
It was the technique called Hawk's Eye, which he had now fully mastered.
Keen senses, a wide field of vision, and even the tactics he had learned through Luagarne—it was an art that blended everything together.
He ran across the battlefield.
'Leave the miscellaneous things.'
He only strikes the ones that a normal soldier cannot handle.
He runs along the line connected by dots and swings his sword.
Esther had imbued the sword made by a dwarf with magic.
Jjeong!
Every time Ropord's sword passed a fire-form, blue powder scattered in the air.
The slash he unleashed with a change of direction as he planted his left foot was something even the current Enkrid would have admired.
"As expected of Captain Ropord!"
He was respected by some soldiers as he was in charge of the new recruits' training.
He was different from Fel, who would drive people into the ground with nagging, sparring, and violence, always saying that training is the best, discipline is the best.
Of course, there were soldiers for whom Fel's method worked, but they were a minority.
Most were more influenced by Ropord's training methods.
It depended on the soldier's disposition, but the majority was on Ropord's side.
Of course, Fel had his side too.
For example, the ten swordsmen under Ragna were more inclined to follow Fel.
Even though their affiliation was directly under Ropord.
In a way, it was a minor difference in preference, but what was certain was that Ropord was more popular.
"Ropord!"
"Running Ropord!"
He had been told to run so much that he had even gotten such a nickname.
The battlefield was wide.
If these two were active on one side, on the other, a half-giant, a beastkin, and a Frog moved.
Dunbakel ran, holding a spear and a sword, one in each hand, that the soldiers used.
Her sense of smell surpassed even that of a normal beastkin.
A nose that instinctively found what stimulated her.
"Just right."
Where her spear and sword passed, the sound of glass breaking was heard in succession.
Then the fire giant turned into white ash and crumbled.
It was due to the blessing that Theresa had cast.
The divine power had extinguished the flames.
"Ooh, Stinky Dunbakel!" some of the soldiers cheered.
"Stench of Dunbakel!"
"Will you not shut up?"
It was not a nickname Dunbakel particularly wanted.
Theresa sang in the center of the standing army.
A chant, a hymn imbued with divine power.
The words of the song became divine power and seeped into the soldiers' weapons.
"Oh Lord, where Your hand reaches—"
As the high note burst forth, a white light began to linger on the soldiers' weapons.
This was the power of a chant, a skill that even Audin could not wield.
The emboldened soldiers raised their swords and spears.
"Saint Theresa!"
The real saint was Seiki, but within the unit, the one called a saint was Theresa.
It was not a nickname that suited the appearance of a half-giant, but as if to prove that they were not just any standing army, they were the army standing under the Order of the Madmen Knights, they enjoyed giving out insane nicknames.
It might have been a side effect of being beaten like crazy in their daily training.
Between Stinky and the Saint…
"Peerless Beauty Lua!"
The Frog, with an appearance similar to a frog in human eyes, puffed up her cheeks upon hearing her nickname.
It was a laugh bursting out.
"You crazy bastards."
She said, twirling her loop sword.
It was a technique she had created while watching Rem's sling rotate.
She wore gloves with thick leather straps wrapped around each finger joint, with beastkin leather added on top.
Whoooooosh!
She swung the thus-fixed loop sword, rotating it at high speed.
PANG! PANG! PANG!
The fire-mass monsters caught in the rotating blade scattered and flew away.
Her weapons were all magic weapons; there was no need for a blessing.
It was not difficult for everyone, including the standing army, to block the approaching masses of fire.
The problem was that there was no sign of it ending.
Garet and Luagarne, who were stamping their feet in the back, knew that they would have to hold out like this for at least three days.
The Salamander does not tire easily.
The summoned fire creatures would continue to charge for at least three days.
The two of them knew that.
But something happened that was beyond their expectations.
"Hmm."
"Is it over?"
Such words naturally came out from among the standing army.
After a wave of fire golems amidst the fire beasts and monsters, they began to dwindle.
At some point, their numbers had clearly decreased, and now they had stopped altogether.
'Enki.'
Luagarne instinctively felt that Enkrid, who had gone into the mountains, had done something.
There was no other reason for the Salamander's power to be cut off.
And her guess was correct.
***
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