The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 5.1

“I’m sorry, if I had only done better...”

“Never mind me. Take care of Mr. Rochefort.”

“No, you should stay here! I’ll go!” Meltina couldn’t stand to let Liselotte, who was injured, fight while she stayed safe.

While she tried to hold back Liselotte, the mana-extract giant swung its arm around, trying to attack the Paladins. As elite knights, this was not a particularly threatening attack, but the hangar was packed with a variety of materials, and those went flying. Many of the Paladins ended up tripping over or running into the resulting debris and losing their balance. Toward one of the knights, the giant stretched out its other arm, ready to grab hold.

“Ugh... Dammit!”

“Oh no!”

“We’ve got you!”

“Yessir!”

Other knights unleashed their Artifacts’ Gifts to hold back the giant’s arm, but before their attacks could connect—

“Agh?! Ahhhhhhh! Gghhh...” The knight who was caught withered away with a sickening crunching of bones and flesh—and disappeared. Their clothes and Artifact were left behind, but they had vanished completely. And the giant seemed to have gotten a bit bigger.

Meltina shuddered. “Ahhh... It captures people, absorbs them, and gets bigger?!” Seeing a person wither away before her was a terrifying sight.

“If you get caught, you’re done for! Spread out!”

“But there’s not enough room!”

“We can’t abandon Chancellor Riegliv!”

“There’s a big hole that’s opened up! Get him out through it, scatter, and open fire!”

“That makes sense! Chancellor! Hurry outside!” one of the Paladins called out, and Chancellor Riegliv’s bodyguard nodded.

“Understood! Your Excellency, we’re taking you out in a Flygear! Wait a moment!” The bodyguard ran toward one of the Flygears in the hangar while the Paladins held back the mana-extract giant.

Meanwhile, another person appeared at the far side of the hangar. Sword in hand, she slipped past the giant and ran in between the Paladins and Chancellor Riegliv.

“Ah, Echidna! You’re back!” Chancellor Riegliv looked relieved.

“Good timing!”

“Take care of the chancellor!”

The knights did not see her as a threat. This was a battle, so her having her sword drawn was only natural. But silently, Echidna ran up to Chancellor Riegliv, and in the same motion pointed the tip of her sword at her master.

“What?! What are you doing, Echidna?! Eeeek!” Chancellor Riegliv screamed and tried to duck down, but his portly figure made it quite impossible to dodge.

However, the sword did not run him through. Instead, a narrow, aqua-colored whip of light entangled it, stopping its momentum.

“No... You can’t do such a thing!”

It was Meltina’s Artifact. While no one else had suspected the lady knight, Meltina knew better. Already on guard, she had managed to be one step ahead.

“Oooh! Well done, my dear! Thank you!” Chancellor Riegliv escaped, worming along the ground toward Meltina. While she found it rude to think so, she did feel a bit of revulsion as he clung to her ankles.

“Good job, Meltina!” Liselotte called out. “Now stay right there!”

“O-Okay!”

Liselotte tried to press on with her hurt leg, but before she could, Meltina was already pulled to the ground and dragged with an incredible force.

“Eeek?! Sh-She’s so strong!”

It was hard to believe Echidna was human. A few aimless swipes with her blade entangled with Meltina’s whip-sword, and Meltina was sent flying into the air. Somehow, with every ounce of effort, she managed to keep her grip on the hilt.

“Meltina!”

“Bwuhhh?!” Chancellor Riegliv, who had been clinging to Meltina, lost his grip on Meltina’s ankles, and he was swung away—unfortunately, not even toward a wall, but toward the hole Meltina had entered through. Perhaps that was Echidna’s intent.

“Ah?! Chancellor Riegliv?!”

“Ugh! I’ll get him!” Liselotte reactivated her Gift and caught Chancellor Riegliv as he was about to be thrown out the hole.

That was good, but it left Meltina with a problem. With no one to help her, she was pulled forward and forcefully slammed into the floor in front of Echidna.

“Ah?!” The shock was nearly enough to knock her out.

Echidna’s blade swung free of the whip-sword.

“Run away! Meltina!” Liselotte called out.

Liselotte’s voice made Meltina look up, only to see Echidna’s sword swinging down toward her. She gasped and braced for it.

“Damn you, Echidna!” Before she could cut down Meltina, another blade thrust from behind Echidna, piercing through her and coming out her chest.

It was Chancellor Riegliv’s other bodyguard. He had charged from behind and had run Echidna through. “I won’t allow you to raise your blade against our master!”

“Ahhhhh...” Meltina was saved, but it was a gruesome sight.

But that is the battlefield’s nature, Meltina thought. People try to hurt each other. What a sorry end. 

But things were not over yet. Echidna chuckled and grinned as she spun toward the knight behind her. It was quite the eerie sight, given the sword projecting from her chest. There didn’t seem to be much blood flowing from her wound either.

“Sh-She’s an undying! Be careful!” Liselotte called out.

“Gah! I can’t pull it out!” As Riegliv’s bodyguard tried to pull his sword back for another strike, Echidna’s cut into his gut. “Gwuhh?!” Her sword was covered in blood, and a red pool quickly formed around his feet.

“All right, now to feed you...” Echidna hoisted the knight with her sword, then carelessly flung him away. Her uncanny strength easily sent him flying toward the mana-extract giant. He slammed into the giant, and from there, his fate was the same as the previous knight. A sickening crunch of bones and flesh, then unity with the giant.

“Ga ha ha ha...ha ha ha...” Even sacrificing her supposed comrade, she showed no sentimentality, only a smile. And even her words were unsteady and halting. Liselotte had said she was an undying; had that granted her strength at the cost of her mind?

“Still, this is the first time I’ve seen an undying that can speak even a little! Tell me, to what aim are you here?! It’s Venefic’s General Maxwell that made you like that, isn’t it?!” Liselotte asked.

But Echidna did not answer. In place of a reply, she leaped toward Meltina, who was close to her.

“Ah?!”

Her movement was so swift, her aim so true, that Meltina had no time to react. Meltina braced herself again, but before Echidna reached her, the undying flew away to the side. Someone had rushed in and kicked her in the side of the face with such force that Echidna bounced off the ship’s interior.

“Meltina, Liselotte, are you two okay?!” A pair of fluffy ears and a tail were a welcome sight; Ripple had arrived.

“Lady Ripple! Yes, we’re still okay!”

“Thank you!”

“Great! Sorry I’m late!” Ripple turned to Liselotte and Meltina and smiled, then immediately turned her attention back toward where Echidna had been thrown.

There, a man in crimson winged armor with a sword in the same crimson faced off against the mana-extract giant. It was Rafael in the Dragon Fang’s armor. Nearby, Echidna had collapsed on the ground. She had taken Ripple’s kick head-on, and while she immediately sprang back up, her neck was bent at a strange angle. Expressionless, she reached up and twisted her head back into place, to the accompaniment of creaking, cracking bones.

“Ugh...!” Meltina breathed in sharply.

“She must be an undying,” Liselotte reaffirmed.

Her head forced back into position, Echidna charged toward Rafael, who was near her.

“Rafael! Behind you!” Ripple’s warning and Echidna’s slash came at the same time.

“Yes! Ready!” Rafael dodged her blade so smoothly that it seemed like he had eyes in the back of his head. Not only that, but he spun around as if trading places with Echidna, getting behind her and delivering a powerful kick to her back. Sent flying by Ripple and then by Rafael, Echidna crashed into the mana-extract giant, where even she was absorbed into the creature.

Meltina gasped. “Wh-What’s going on?!”

“An undying is consuming another undying?!” Liselotte asked.

“I can’t tell either. Are they fighting about something? Did she lose control of it?!” Ripple wondered aloud as she ran to join up with Rafael.

As she did, a change took place in the mana-extract giant. In the empty space where it should have had a face, Echidna’s features arose, far larger than on her original face. It was entirely out of proportion with the giant’s short, stout body, and it exuded an eerie, uncomfortable ominousness to those who saw it.

“No! Th-They’ve merged into one!” Ripple shouted in surprise.

The face’s mouth opened wide, leaning toward Ripple trying to chomp down on her. The short neck stretched out until it almost reached the hieral menace.

“Whoa!” Forget the strength of the attack—the visual was enough to frighten her. Even the previously faceless version would’ve been preferable. Ripple screamed and leaped away from Echidna’s oncoming face. She jumped up and kicked off the face, somersaulting a long distance away. “I don’t wanna get eaten by that thing!”

Having missed Ripple, Echidna swung her head around, setting her sights on Rafael. She moved as if crawling across the floor. A tongue flicked from her mouth, and wrapped in it was the sword she had wielded. As it scraped a wide arc on the floor, a wall of wind spun forth and crawled forward. Her sword must have been an Artifact. Even in this form, she could still control Gifts.

“You’ve been reduced to this! How pitiful—at least I can give you peace!” Rafael made no move to avoid the attack which sped at him. “Hyaaah!” He swung Dragon Fang down from above into the wall of wind. The power of the blade split it in two.

“Aw yeah! We knew you had it!” the knights cheered.

Rafael wasn’t done, though. With Dragon Fang, he’d sent a line of fire through the split wind to run along the ground, scoring a direct hit on Echidna’s face, which burst into flames. Before Echidna could extinguish it, Rafael leaped up and propelled himself forward with his armor’s wings. In an instant, he had moved into close quarters and drove his blade into the enemy’s thick neck. Imbued with the intense heat of a dragon, the blade burned through the mana extract and lopped the giant’s head off in a single stroke.

But it would take more than that to stop the mana-extract giant. Its arms and legs reached for Rafael; however, he’d anticipated that.

“Not happening!”

He flew at high speed with his wings, unleashing slashes at the mana-extract giant and carving through it. Crimson flashes of light burst forth, and in the next instant, the arms, legs, and torso of the giant all fell in pieces to the floor.

“A-Amazing! He really is our greatest holy knight,” Liselotte murmured in admiration, not even aware she’d said this aloud. Of course, the power of Dragon Fang as an Artifact was a factor, but Rafael’s swordsmanship alone was amazing as well. In terms of raw skill, he was even on a level with Inglis, she thought.

Paladins under his leadership cheered. “All right! You did it, Rafael!”

“Ha ha ha ha! No one can stand up to Sir Rafael!”

“We can’t let our guard down yet! Let’s completely burn the fragments until they’re gone! Help me out!” Rafael instructed.

The cut-up pieces of the mana-extract giant had not stopped writhing. Left alone, they would probably revert to their original form.

“Yes, sir!”

But then, immediately above the head of the mana-extract giant, which still bore Echidna’s face, the ceiling collapsed and something massive fell in.

“Ah! Everyone! Get back!” Rafael warned as he pushed knights away.

What came falling from above was a nearly liquid clump. That is, a lump of flesh made from mana extract, the same material as the giant he had just fought. And it was just as big. The second half of the battle had begun.

“Ngh!” The lump fell on Rafael, enveloping him.

“Sir Rafael?!”

“Wh-What the—?!”

“He saved us, but...!”

The knights he had shoved away were safe, but they turned pale at the sight of him being swallowed up.

“Hey! Don’t give up! It’s not over yet!” Ripple called out to the knights as she pointed at the center of the mass of flesh that had swallowed Rafael. Its core glowed a faint red, and something like steam began to rise from it. “Rafael’s burning it out from the inside! He’s still okay! But we need to get him out of there!”

Her gunfire chipped away at the surface of the mana extract.

“Allow me!” Liselotte said.

“M-Me too!” Meltina added.

The two joined in.

“Don’t count us out!”

“We’ll save Sir Rafael!”

“Raaah!”

The Paladin knights joined the all-hands effort to save Rafael, attacking all at once. However, some of the cut-up parts of the mana-extract giant began squirming again. Writhing along the floor, they joined the mass of mana extract enveloping him, becoming one with it.

Ripple gasped. “Is it trying to put itself back together?!”

“It’s getting bigger and bigger!” Liselotte said.

They looked worried, but they were already fighting as hard as they could. They couldn’t stop the pieces from fusing together, and the clump covering Rafael grew larger and thicker. The crimson glow within it grew fainter and fainter.

Liselotte despaired. “L-Lady Ripple! H-How do we deal with this?! If this keeps up, Sir Rafael will be—! Rafinha’s brother will be—!”

“We can’t manage anything more, Liselotte!”

“No, don’t give up yet.” Rochefort stood behind them, wobbling on his feet.

“Mr. Rochefort! Don’t push yourself too hard!” Meltina quickly lent him her shoulder to lean on.

“We’re in a tough situation. I’ve gotta do what I’ve gotta do.”

Something only Rochefort could do for them—Ripple immediately realized what he meant. “Y-You want to wield me?! In your condition?!”

“It’s because of my condition. Didn’t Arles tell you?”

A hieral menace wielded as a weapon sapped away their wielder’s life; that was simply the cost for a holy knight to wield such power. Somehow, this didn’t affect Inglis, but that girl was always an exception even among exceptions.

“Well... Yes, she did, but...”

However, there was a way to bypass this cost: a wielder close to death with no more life-force to give would get away with using the most powerful Artifact for free. In fact, Rochefort had already inadvertently illustrated an example of that very case.

“Now c’mon. I’d look like a damn fool if I died without doing anything here. Hurry it up.” Rochefort’s hand, which bore a special-class Rune, trembled slightly as he held it forth. Although he was managing to hold his speech together, he was obviously near his limits.

“Understood! Take care of Rafael and everyone for me!” Ripple said.

Rochefort’s and Ripple’s hands met, and light exploded forth. Amid a light so bright one would have to close their eyes, Ripple transformed. When the light subsided, Rochefort held a golden gun.

He laughed. “Don’t know how much longer I’ve got left, so let’s get this over with quickly.” He pointed the barrel straight toward the center mass of the mana extract clump. As if sensing danger, it stretched out tentacle-like limbs toward Rochefort.

“Hmph. That ain’t gonna stop me!” He pulled the trigger without hesitation.