Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 10 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: A Hard-Pressed Battle

Three swords crossed, and steel clanged over and over as each participant swung like they were chipping away at life itself. The equilibrium didn’t last long, though; the scales quickly tipped to one side. I wasn’t surprised, though, because I’d sensed it the first moment our blades met. My opponents were more skilled with a sword than I was.

“Raaah!”

“Hmph!”

Edgar swung his sword like a windstorm, while Zoltan filled in any gaps Edgar left. I wouldn’t quite say it was unexpected, but these two were an impressive combo. Edgar’s attacks were blindingly fast yet heavy. His sword was wider and longer than the ones the other knights wielded, and it had the weight to match its size. Despite this, he could swing it with abandon. That, coupled with his skill, definitely made him a menace.

Zoltan was also an irksome enemy. In contrast to Edgar’s weapon, his sword was slender and light, and he wielded it with nimble wit. He kept blocking my strikes as if he could see the future, and he grazed my body with the tip of his blade as if he were weaving his way through gaps in my consciousness.

Zoltan was supporting Edgar, but it wasn’t as if Edgar was just swinging wildly. He was actually matching his partner’s movements. They left no opening for me to get in any attacks of my own.

From what I could tell so far, if I were facing any of the other knights, I could’ve retaliated one or two times by now, or maybe even overturned the situation. But against these two, I doubted I’d find any opening in their offense.

It was tough luck for me that they were the ones who’d made it all the way here. Or maybe they’d made it this far precisely because they were who they were. In that case, this was the natural outcome.

“Grgh!”

Death bearing the weight of steel grazed my neck with terrifying vigor. Sweat ran down my cheeks, and I shivered. I was acutely aware that a single mistake would lead directly to my last breath. If I froze in fear, they would cut me down. If I hesitated, they would slice me up. But preventing my demise already took everything I had.

My breathing was ragged, and sweat poured from my brow. Blood from my injuries speckled my white clothing with crimson. The reality was that I didn’t have the strength to repulse these enemies.

I was different from the saviors throughout history and the cheaters of the exploration team. I didn’t have the tremendous power they’d so frivolously received that could remove any obstacles before them. In other words, it was painfully obvious that I was no hero. But that didn’t mean that I amounted to nothing either.

“The hell is going on?”

“How...?”

I heard Edgar and Zoltan groaning. They surely found this strange. Retaliation wasn’t allowed. They were the ones attacking in this one-sided battle. The scale had remained tipped in their favor, and they had dominated the fight with their overwhelming advantage, so why was their enemy still alive?

“Raaah!”

Edgar roared and swung from my right, no indication of his movements beforehand. My shield wouldn’t make it in time to block the attack, so I jumped as far back as I could to evade the air-rending blade. Zoltan waited for the exact moment I landed, delivering a calculated diagonal slash from behind. Normally it would’ve cut me by the time I noticed it, but I twisted my body and turned to face Zoltan.

Zoltan’s eyes shot open. “Again?!”

This wasn’t the first time I’d dodged his surprise attack. The trick was using the information flowing to me from the Misty Lodge’s magic. Up until now, the mist had been imprecise because it had been covering the entire region around the village in a thin fog. However, I’d just deployed a faint, milky-white mist that covered only a ten-meter area. The precision increased the narrower the range, so like this, I could clearly see any blind spots I had.

What’s more, now that Salvia had manifested, information traveled through the mental path between us faster than ever before. We were quite literally one in body and mind at this point, and the boundary between us was actually very vague.

This technique, which could only be used if we fully accepted each other, was an embodiment of everything we’d acquired in this world. Thus, it bore wondrous fruits. Being able to observe an entire battlefield was, in a certain sense, the final step to becoming a master of war. Our technique was similar to that, an imitation made possible by our coordination with each other. It was one of the reasons I was still alive. As for the other...

“Ssster!”

Edgar looked like he was going to close in, so Asarina stretched out a great distance and attacked him. She could only stall him for a few seconds, but her contribution was still crucial. Now that Edgar had to slow down a little, which created the tiniest gap in their coordinated attacks, I could deal with Zoltan. I used all my might to run down that narrow path to survival.

“Oooh!”

I avoided Zoltan’s thrust by holding my shield at an angle where his weapon would slide off the surface. The impact was light, yet it had a sharpness to it that could’ve easily ended my life. He remembered the pain in his wrist from the attack I’d blocked earlier and was adjusting his approach properly.

Zoltan unleashed a number of quick slashes, then stepped in while stooping low. He stood back up with an upward slash. I continued stepping back and bent my body far to the side. I dodged his blade but lost my balance. I stomped on the ground, trying to right myself, when suddenly, I threw myself to the side instead.

“Raaaah!”

In the next instant, Edgar, having cut Asarina down, lunged in and aimed right where my neck had been.

“Tch. Does he got eyes on the back of his fucking head?!” Edgar snapped.

He’d been certain of that blow. In truth, he’d been close enough to graze my hair with his blade. But this still wasn’t over.

“Like hell you’ll get away!” he roared.

“There!” Zoltan shouted.

Edgar forcefully swung his blade down, aiming for where I was tumbling to, and a flickering thrust closed in alongside him. Being in midroll, I had no way of evading.

“Ssster!”

Asarina struck the ground like a whip, forcing my body back up. The swords chasing me hit nothing but air, and, unable to react myself, I fell shoulder-first onto the ground.

“Ugh!”

Any normal person would’ve broken a bone and fainted from the agony, but my body was reinforced with mana. It only felt like a hard blow. I gritted my teeth to endure the pain, then sprang up to my feet.

“Are you all right, my dear?” Salvia asked.

“Ssster?”

“I’m fine,” I replied. Asarina’s help had been rather violent, but if not for that, I’d have been dead. “Get ready for the next attack.”

“Heh heh... Ha ha ha! So you got by that one too, huh?” Edgar said, bursting into laughter. “You’re not half bad.”

He smiled like a wild beast. The more dangerous the battle, the happier he was. Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to develop to the point where I was more trouble than I was worth, such that they’d retreat. This fight would only end with a fatal loss.

“To think you’d manage on your own against the two of us like this,” Edgar continued, savoring the taste of this moment. “You’re impressive.”

“Not really. I’m not that big a deal,” I responded.

I wasn’t being humble. I merely specialized in surviving against opponents who were far stronger than me. On the day the Colony fell, I’d witnessed hell. Caught in the violence of superhumans who’d gained power that could influence the very world, I’d been on the verge of death. In a sense, that was the start of my life here.

Because of that, I had a standard to meet. In short, I had to gain enough strength that I could survive such a disaster. So long as that remained my objective, even if I hadn’t reached that stage yet, I expected myself to at least put up this much of a fight. Besides, Edgar was misunderstanding something—I wasn’t on my own.

I was exhausting all of my strength to hang on because I believed Lily and Gerbera would come running given enough time. Asarina and Salvia were actively helping me, while Rose and Gerbera’s equipment supported me. If I were truly on my own, facing either Edgar or Zoltan would take everything I had.

“You two are the impressive ones,” I said, half stalling for time. The other half of me was serious. “Why do you attack the village’s elves when you have so much strength?”

There was more passion in my voice than I’d expected. My stomach had been churning ever since I saw the Holy Order destroying the village. A blazing indignation that surprised even me welled up inside. That fire in me had urged me to question them.

“Hm?” Edgar grunted, looking annoyed. “What? You think knights should protect the weak or something?”

“I—”

“Cut it out. That’s such a killjoy,” Edgar said dismissively as he dangled his sword about. “I just wanna enjoy fighting. That’s all I need. Working as a knight, I get more chances like this to fight. I even get food and board. I don’t give a shit about anything else, and I don’t need anything else either.”

He was speaking from the heart, and in a sense, his words were innocent. In all likelihood, Edgar wasn’t intentionally evil. He didn’t get pleasure from oppressing and hurting people, and he didn’t enact brutality for the sake of personal achievement. For example, say he came across a formidable enemy obliterating a friendly force. He would surely charge in without fear, but his reason for doing so wouldn’t be honorable. This problem wasn’t unique to Edgar either.

“‘Knight’ is just the word for a pawn sent out as the vanguard for the saviors,” Edgar said.

“Beings who can easily kill monsters in a direct confrontation all on their own. That is what you saviors are,” Zoltan added. “Nevertheless, once outnumbered, even they can die. In order to preserve their power for as long as possible, ‘expendables’ are needed to die in their stead. That is the true duty of those we call knights.”

A dark fire burned behind the gloomy man’s eyes. It seemed I’d hit a nerve.

“In that sense, you saviors are nothing more than pawns too,” he continued. “Irreplaceable pawns, and replaceable ones. We’re all pawns in the end. There is absolutely nothing noble about it.”

“Well aren’t you unexpectedly chatty today, Zoltan,” Edgar said, looking surprised.

Zoltan, on the other hand, looked slightly agitated. “Not really,” he muttered. “Naive ideals about knights simply grate on my nerves.”

“Ha ha! Grates on your nerves, does it? That’s also unusual for you!”

Zoltan sank into silence.

“Well, that’s the gist of it,” Edgar said, turning back my way and shrugging. “If you wanted to give us some big ol’ lecture, then give it up. You’re dreaming if you think we’re gonna repent or something. Haah, so damn naive.” With those last words, the atmosphere changed. “You’re way too naive. At this rate, you’re not gonna hold out until the spider or slime gets here.”

A chill ran down my spine. Something was coming. Convinced of this, I put myself on guard.

Seeing me do so, Edgar snorted. “You’re stronger than I expected. I had fun. Think of this as thanks for that.”

He then put his hand to his head. His fingers bent as he strained them, and mana gushed from his entire body, enough to make me tremble.

“Hnnngh!”

“Wha?!”

It was too bizarre. Edgar’s hair turned scarlet, and his skin turned metallic black. His muscles swelled. Steam rose from his body as if it contained a great heat. He had a relatively small stature for a man, but now he was larger than any normal person.

“Haah...”

He removed his hand from his brow, revealing a single shining horn. His eyes widened, and burning pupils stared right at me.

Ogre.

That was the first word that came to mind.

“To be honest, I was saving this power to fight the Great White Spider.”

The ogre placed his sword on his shoulder and laughed. From the very beginning, Edgar had said that he wanted to fight Gerbera—to fight against the Great White Spider from legends—but he couldn’t fight her head-on when he didn’t even have the strength to bring me down after such a long time. However, Edgar had a trump card that could oppose Gerbera. It was the power passed down to the beloved of blessed blood, a savior’s power from the past manifested through their bloodline.

“Battle Ogre Sir Edgar Guivarch. That’s the name of the man who killed you. Remember it.” In the next instant, he was right in front of me. “Die.”

I’d been as vigilant as I could, but by the time I noticed, the ogre was swinging his sword straight at me. His speed rivaled that of Gerbera’s pounce. Salvia just barely managed to capture the movement, and I perceived it myself at the very last second. My body didn’t react in time, though. The ogre’s hardy blade came sweeping in right at me.