As darkness was pushed back, the blue light of dawn began to rise around them.
A gray haze swayed over Rem's shoulders, as if wrapping the blue air. It was steam that looked that way as his sweat cooled.
Before even fighting, he'd raised his body's heat to the limit. Proof he hadn't come out lightly.
Enkrid walked forward at the exact same speed as Rem and faced him.
In his hands, instead of broken Dawn Tempering, he held Penna. Gripping Penna's hilt with both hands, he raised the sword so it stood vertical to the ground, then moved only the tip slightly and aimed it toward the opponent.
Preparation was over.
Between them, ice-cold air brushed past. The start came from Rem. The moment he kicked off the ground, a world without sound opened. There was no noise, and the air was heavy.
To endure that heavy air, he used the sorcerous power boiling up inside. Rem did that.
This wasn't the playful sparring he usually did. The killing intent riding on his axes was real.
If you couldn't evade, you died. He'd packed sorcery into the axe blade, so even blocking it wouldn't be any fun.
Bang!
Their weapons met and split apart, and an explosive roar burst out. A line of fire shot up between them and stretched into the sky.
It was a column of flame as big as a human body. It was a loud opening that was hard for anyone nearby to miss.
"You blocked this?"
Rem, after clashing and separating, muttered.
Instead of answering, Enkrid tilted Penna by twisting his wrist a few times, then set it straight again.
It was the process of replaying the clash from a moment ago.
Rem recognized it too. He was twisting and setting it straight in the exact same way as the angle Enkrid had used to block his axe.
"What are you doing?"
"Review."
"While fighting me?"
"Right now is perfect for it."
Was that contempt? No. Enkrid's eyes were glittering more than ever.
Yeah. That's the Captain.
Rem thought that, and injected a new soul into the axe in his right hand.
Just before, it had been an axe swing that he'd put in the soul of a flame demon and swung. Enkrid had knocked it aside and bled it upward. Rem perceived the entire process of that clash, but he didn't understand it.
'He blocks it, then knocks it up.'
It was a simple motion, but it felt like he'd watched a joint bend in an abnormal direction.
'How did he do it?'
He didn't know. So if he didn't know, did that mean he had to lose?
"This time, I'll be a bit serious."
As he spoke, he lowered his stance further. Like a chariot charging with two axes held forward. The moment he kicked off the ground, Rem's body left an afterimage, drawing only a gray line as he reached right in front of Enkrid's nose.
Enkrid also accelerated his thought and cycled Will through his body.
'A world without sound.'
He reached the soundless world. You could call it a fighting method he'd gotten used to now.
'The air is heavy.'
More precisely, it pressed down on his shoulders.
It was the moment he felt the weight of the air that had been staying around him this whole time.
If you endured that pressure and moved, then from the outside, it became swordplay where you couldn't even see an afterimage.
It was a realm you couldn't even dare to step into unless you were a knight.
'Once you enter the realm, does everyone become the same?'
Enkrid asked himself and answered.
'No.'
Hadn't he lived it himself.
That genius he'd met in the spring when he was twenty-seven was faster and stronger than him when he met him again.
'How?'
He was in the middle of finding that answer. It was something he'd realized from that today he'd barely escaped with everyone's help.
'Will moves.'
An endlessly flowing river. If Uske was a well that didn't run dry, then Indules was a stream that didn't stop.
'If you narrow it, it becomes a small brook.'
If you widen it, it becomes a river. Enkrid burst open the stream that normally only trickled.
Will kept changing. By maintaining that constantly changing state, no matter when, he could swing faster and heavier than the opponent.
The key was the speed at which Will changed.
Because it flowed without stopping, the speed of change was overwhelmingly fast.
Enkrid thrust his sword faster than Rem's axe swing. If Rem had kept coming in like that, his head would've been skewered.
Once you entered the soundless world, straightforward cuts were more effective than noisy techniques.
Either way, both of them had to fight while enduring the pressure.
Rem didn't just take it. He turned his head to the side, put force into his left foot, rotated his waist, and whipped his left arm out like a lash.
Even in the soundless world, his arm looked like it was bending.
'A prepared blow.'
He must have been staking everything on a single strike with the axe in his left hand from before he even charged in.
Should it be called astonishing tactics and training ability.
He started by layering flame onto the axe in his right hand, making it something you couldn't ignore, then he charged headlong to make you guard the axe in his right hand, and then—
'He predicts the thrust and lands one blow with the left-hand axe.'
He wouldn't have calculated everything. That wasn't Rem's specialty. He kept only the big frame in his head and built the rest as instant responses, and that was how he'd shaped the situation to this point.
Either way, it was still amazing.
Against the left-hand axe that flew in like it was bending, Enkrid pulled back the thrusting Penna, set it against it, and bled it aside. The Will flowing through his whole body changed in an instant into a soft, cushioned nature. Matching that, Penna met the axe blade, took the force, and bled it away.
Enkrid let go of Penna in that instant and stepped forward two more paces.
That meant he'd slipped into Rem's embrace with his fist clenched.
Rem reacted even here. He twisted his body to the side and tried to swing the axe in his right hand.
But he couldn't avoid Enkrid's fist, tossed out with a twist of the waist using the left foot as a pivot.
Ttaa-aa-aak!
When the soundless world ended, the stretched-out sound was the last thing you heard. Rem's head snapped back and even his waist bent backward. The axe in his right hand passed emptily over Enkrid's black hair.
Enkrid's right fist delivered the impact with a cutting strike. Enkrid, taking a fighting stance with his fist clenched in front of his face, stopped and observed Rem.
"Phoo-oooo."
Rem let out a breath, straightened his waist and head that had been bent back, then as his legs went loose, he put one knee on the ground. Blood ran down from his nose.
"The world's spinning. Is the sign of ruin coming?"
Rem asked, kneeling on one knee.
"No, you took a clean hit to the jaw, so your head's spinning."
"If I lose to anyone else but you, I'll kill them however I can. Don't forget."
Rem steadied his breathing, and only after the shock dispersed did he stand.
The gap in skill was clear. The result spoke. He hadn't cut or stabbed anywhere—he'd only hit the jaw and retreated.
Wasn't everything proven with just that.
"Next."
Enkrid said.
Rem was the beginning, not the end. He wasn't the only one who'd gotten up at dawn and waited.
"I don't understand."
If a human said that, it would mean something else, but if a Frog said it, it was high praise. It was what Luagarne, who'd been watching, spoke as if reciting.
As she spoke with admiration, Shinar stepped in front of Enkrid.
"Are you going first?"
Enkrid asked as he picked up Penna, which he'd let go of to throw that punch.
"I want to ambush you, but even so, it doesn't seem like it'll work."
It was what she said as she watched him pick up the sword. The fairy's eyes coldly recognized and grasped the situation. She felt Enkrid was different from before, but she couldn't understand it.
There was nothing you could know without putting hands together and crossing blades. That was the conclusion she'd reached.
"I don't know. You only know everything after you try it."
Enkrid answered.
Yet it was truly hard to find an opening in Enkrid as he said that. It was only the motion of bending his waist, picking up the sword, and rising, but no matter how she attacked, he would counter. She glimpsed even an inch ahead like that.
'How?'
She couldn't draw the method.
But the answer was set.
Somehow.
Instinct activated and spoke clearly what the result would be.
And right now, the reason for that instinct was being revealed.
Shinar drew her sword, changed it into a needle form, and thrust. Winter Thrust. Among the four seasons, it was the fastest, a technique the opponent couldn't easily react to.
Enkrid swung Penna, knocked the sword outward, then smoothly swung forward. Shinar made an instant judgment, bent her body forward and avoided the sword, and struck Enkrid's thigh with a knife-hand.
The fairy's hand looked white and slender, but it was a knight's knife-hand. If it hit, it meant it could tear even a lump of iron.
Enkrid didn't bother to dodge. Instead, his Will became heavy, solid rock and settled into his thigh.
Thud!
The fairy's knife-hand struck his thigh, and the match was decided. Enkrid gave up his thigh and, at the same time, brought his knife-hand down on the back of the fairy's neck.
Sound returned, and Shinar's eyes, hit on the back of the neck, rolled.
Enkrid wrapped one arm around her waist as if holding her. Shinar, barely keeping consciousness right before fainting, said,
"You're holding my waist? Is this a proposal?"
"In a moment like this, you're joking?"
Enkrid pulled his hand off Shinar's waist, and the fairy, with astounding balance, rose straight out of the posture she'd been falling in and slid to the side.
Her turn was over. If this had been a kill-or-be-killed fight where you didn't hold back, her cervical spine would have snapped.
"I always knew something like this would happen someday, but it's truly surprising, brother."
Audin said.
Shinar, who'd slid to the side, added a line.
"Yeah. It reminds me of the first time I tripped you with grappling. Should I have carried you to bed back then?"
Of course, no one answered Shinar.
Enkrid looked at the man in front of him, who resembled a bear beastman with both fists clenched.
"You've defeated the barbarian brother and the crafty fairy sister."
At Audin's words, the front of Shinar's eyebrows, rarely, drew inward. Making that much of an expression change show on a fairy's face was, in a way, a great talent.
"Crafty?"
Audin didn't turn back. He was doing his utmost to control his body so his hands wouldn't sweat. There was no room to pay attention elsewhere.
"By chance."
Enkrid answered, and flicked Penna. A little of the blade's edge had chipped.
No matter that it was a treasure of the fairy folk, it lacked the strength to endure a sword thrust a knight had truly extended.
Enkrid calmly sheathed Penna, then undid the belt that had been holding the sword and set it down to one side.
"Are you wearing armor?"
Audin asked.
"Ah, it's being repaired, so I took it off. Every time that leather wriggles and moves, it itches."
Balrog's hide armor was a piece of gear that regenerated on its own. Enkrid now knew why a hole had been put through that armor, and he knew how to handle it too.
Right now, he'd taken off the armor and even the fairy's cloak too, so he was dressed only in a single top.
The cold dawn wind quickly stole away the sweat that was flowing, but he didn't shiver and tremble.
Enkrid took off even his top. Muscles split and joined, and a smooth build was revealed. On this side too, it was the same—if you called it an artwork, it wouldn't be wrong.
"You're not letting your guard down? An honor."
When you were going to fight Audin with grappling, clothes with a collar were a disadvantage. It was an action born from simple logic.
"There's no need to fight while carrying something disadvantageous."
Enkrid said, facing Audin.
Audin laughed heartily and grabbed his own shirt with both hands and tore it.
Ttudeudeudeuk.
Buttons popped off, and his body was revealed too. Day slowly broke. The sun rose and cast a faint yellow light around them.
Audin's body, cast into shade by the falling light, resembled a heroic statue from the age of myth. It looked huge and solid, and the fine muscles hidden between seemed to say there was no gap anywhere in his whole body.
They had similar bodies, but Audin was overwhelmingly bigger.
"I won't tell you to take up a sword, brother."
Even as he tore off his clothes and spoke, his eyes never left Enkrid. Letting your guard down was forbidden. Audin felt like he was facing something overwhelming for the first time in his life.
From childhood until now, a feeling he'd never felt before slowly raised its head.
It was a pressure he'd never felt from his adoptive father called the ragged saint, or anyone in the holy knight order.
'My teacher doesn't count at all.'
It was enough to make him recall the teacher he'd served in secret.
He hadn't felt this even when he'd faced a lion turned into a monster bare-handed, nor had he felt it from high-grade monsters like a manticore. This pressure.
Enkrid wasn't showing intimidation, and he wasn't showing killing intent.
To him, it was still just sparring. But Audin couldn't step out with such a soft, pliant mindset. Even saying "be careful" was a luxury.
He released the fighting instinct boiling inside.
Boom!
The ground burst, and that huge body cut space and grew larger. In Enkrid's vision, it was him charging with both hands curled, and Audin's two hands looked ten times bigger than usual.
'Response?'
His accelerated thought told him what he had to do. So Enkrid did just that.
He reached out to grab Audin's two hands, and at the same time, lifted his left foot so it barely grazed the floor, extended it, and swept Audin's foot from the inside to the outside.
Against an opponent whose strength couldn't be matched within the knight order, it meant he was going to balance and endure on only one foot, but Enkrid didn't hesitate.
Audin's usual response was to put his weight into it and crush down, but he changed the purpose of his movement, grabbed Enkrid's left wrist with both hands, and pulled.
He meant to drag him in at once and decide it with a joint lock.
Just because you were faster and stronger didn't mean your joints could do that too. Audin's judgment was right. But Enkrid's choice was a step faster than that.
The moment his left arm was grabbed, with the same foot he'd been using to kick Audin's foot, he stepped on Audin's instep, then drove his right fist into his abdomen.
Boom!
This fight was short too. Audin's waist folded and his back bent. His back rose and fell like he'd become a hunchback.
"Ughk."
He even coughed up blood.
"Can you do that?"
Rem, watching, tossed out a line. Enkrid had hit him and dropped him, but he hadn't been able to pull his left arm free.
Crack.
Before he extended the fist, he heard the sound of a joint slipping out. Pain spread from the elbow and swelling started.
"Still, I took one arm."
Audin said, sprawled on the ground. If he'd continued the follow-up attack, Enkrid would have won, so he acknowledged the defeat.
But at the same time, he was saying that since he'd twisted one arm, he'd taken it.
"That bastard."
Rem snorted. From the start, he hadn't moved with the intent to win, only aiming for the arm.
"If it was a duel, you'd be dead."
"Since it's sparring, you have to use that, brother."
With this, Audin had achieved the best result among them. Leaving the two, Enkrid checked his left arm.
'It won't heal in a day.'
He threw his top back on roughly and put on his belt as well. When the weight of the sword settled on his waist, he felt stable.
"Are you saying you're fine even without one arm?"
Ragna asked. Enkrid put on his clothes in front of him and strapped his sword back on. His momentum didn't fade at all.
"It'd be fine to do it after it heals, but."
Enkrid said like it was nothing. In the end, Ragna drew his sword too.
The two met eyes. Enkrid drew Penna again.
Chiriring.
The drawn blade reflected the risen sunlight. Light fell over half of Enkrid's face, and shadow formed over the other half.
Time passed as they faced each other after drawing their swords.
The shadowed half of Enkrid's face slowly grew pale, and the light steadily increased.
Ragna furrowed his brow.
'Should I say he became a monster.'
He was right in the middle of thinking that.