"All personnel. Halt!"

As Frederick raised his hand, the unit's march stopped in orderly fashion. Before they knew it, two weeks had passed since Mikhail had joined Erich's unit.

It was because they had arrived at the fork that led either to the front lines or cut through the eastern mountains.

Mikhail glanced once at the halted troops and spoke to Erich.

"I suppose I'll be bored now that I can't put you through the wringer any longer."

"If you're disappointed, why not come with us a bit further?"

"No need. It's not like I enjoy looking at your face, anyway."

Even as he spoke, Mikhail wore a faint smile. It was a rare occurrence for the notorious icily mannered Mikhail.

"Take care, master."

At Erich's words, Mikhail averted his gaze down for a moment, and then, with his cloak billowing, turned his back on Erich.

"Alright, then."

Erich smiled.

When the journey first began, Mikhail had shaken his head and insisted he had yet to accept Erich as a disciple.

But during the past two weeks, it seemed he had come to think rather well of Erich.

Frederick watched Mikhail leave and shook his head.

"They call that old man the Living Sword, and just being near him feels like I might get cut."

"Well, that's not just a saying, you know?"

"... What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, that's... Never mind."

"Hey, you could at least tell me that much. Don't be stingy."

"If you ever see the real reason why Sir Mikhail is called the Living Sword..."

"If I do?"

"It'd be better to run away immediately. It means you're in the worst possible situation."

"...??"

Frederick could not understand Erich's words.

But Erich brushed it off as if it were nothing and raised his hand.

"Move out!"

The unit set off, and Frederick, with a sour look, followed behind Erich.

'... From here, we should reach the Swallow Tribe's territory within a day.'

They would soon witness with their own eyes the first spark of the Watch's downfall, caused by spreading Orca-roid along the Great Wall and sickening the organization.

And this would become the first monumental event Erich had altered since his regression.

Erich unwrapped the bandages, blackened and stiff with dried blood.

Feeling once again the calluses built from hard labor across his hands, Erich smiled with satisfaction.

The burgeoning amount of aura now infused his entire body with palpable vitality.

For a swordsman of Swordmaster caliber, the capacity for aura equated directly to physical might.

This type of training could only ever be received from someone like Mikhail, who had raised countless warriors of renown.

Even after all this, Erich's unit marched a full day more before finally reaching a cold, coniferous forest.

"... Halt. From here on is the Taigar Great Forest."

"Frederick, Barnes. Form the wings—dense formation on both flanks."

Frederick and Barnes nodded in unison. They gathered their subordinates and spread out to the left and right, just as Erich instructed.

It was a formation that allowed them to respond to threats emerging anywhere, yet without being too spread out, they remained able to conduct one-to-many intercepts.

'The Taigar Great Forest. I never thought I'd come this far...'

The Taigar Great Forest: this vast expanse of deep, dense coniferous trees was no territory of Imperial folk.

'Barbarian territory.'

― Crunch!

A startled trooper, stepping on something, instinctively grabbed his sword.

Then, with a blanch, he looked around at what he had just stepped on.

"It's—it's a human bone..."

"... Remain calm."

Barnes brushed off their fears. Yet a strange tension now coursed through the unit.

It was a moment when the truth sank in—they had indeed crossed into barbarian lands.

'The soldiers given to me by the commander have fought barbarians before, but Heinkel's men are experiencing this for the first time. So morale will be affected.'

The soldiers August had assigned to Erich were all seasoned veterans, near-senior troopers.

Most had been sergeants elsewhere, or were easily due for a promotion.

But even among Imperial soldiers, most only knew of barbarians by rumor.

Tales like—they stand twice as tall as a man, or that they eat people alive.

They were stories, essentially, of monsters from a fairy tale, widely believed by the populace.

But then—

― Smack!

"Get a hold of yourselves! Barbarians always go after the ones who run scared."

Frederick worked to shore up the morale of the troopers and soldiers, emphasizing several key points concerning the barbarians.

Chief among them: never scatter.

The soldiers, who had grown to trust Frederick in their time together here, listened to him intently, even through their fear.

And, unexpectedly, Frederick's encouragement worked. Their eyes soon adopted a 'at least I won't die alone' look.

But as Erich advanced, his eyes glimmered red.

He had no intention of letting them face the barbarians unprepared.

They could not afford to be the side taken by surprise.

― Vwoosh!

Erich darted forward like an arrow, having singled out the moving silhouette of a person upon the blurred backdrop.

'Two...and another.'

Having spotted the barbarians, Erich approached without making a sound. And before they even realized he was upon them—

― Pat!

Leaping forward, Erich stepped on a tree and shot ahead in rapid succession.

― Swish!

[!?]

The barbarians, who had seemed like mere dots in the distance just moments before, now stared wide-eyed in shock.

Moments later—

One of the warriors, walking beside him, suddenly clutched his neck in agony.

[...!]

While the other still had not grasped the situation, Erich appeared within his view, sword raised.

That was the last image he saw.

― Slash!

Erich felled two barbarians in an instant, then slid effortlessly towards the next target.

Both Erich and the barbarian were blocked from each other by trees.

But when blue aura erupted from Erich's blade—

― Screeeech!

His sword cleaved through tree and barbarian alike, drawing a line through them. The barbarian behind stumbled and fell back.

― Thud.

Its head dropped from its shoulders and it collapsed lifelessly.

'My aura has indeed become far sharper.'

As the amount of aura Erich controlled increased, it now allowed him to bisect both tree and barbarian with a single swing.

Most impressive of all, even after cutting down three enemies, not a drop of blood stained his sword.

"... Seems like you could do this all yourself. Do you even need us?"

Frederick, catching up, muttered in disbelief.

"I have to do it up to here. We must be the ambushers, not the ones being ambushed."

Erich continued to cut down the patrolling barbarians prowling the woods. Meanwhile, his unit moved covertly.

And by mapping the locations of the felled barbarians, he could extrapolate the tribe's base position.

'... It should be this way.'

Before his eyes lay a slope leading deeper into the forest.

If they crossed it, then surely the stronghold of the Swallow Tribe—the ones distributing the Orca-roid—would lie beyond.

Climbing that slope, he was able to see at a glance the path stretching downwards and the barbarian village below.

"It's not a large settlement. Looks like a group of refugees."

As Frederick noted, the Swallow Tribe wasn't large. But that was no reason for comfort.

When battle began in earnest, the warriors defending their homes would surely show tenacity beyond imagining.

Then Barnes, surveying areas a bit further from the village, spoke up.

"Something is odd."

"What is it?"

"It's as if this village is built outward, centered on that cave at the end of the slope."

Indeed, if you looked at the village symmetrically, it seemed that the faraway cave was the starting point.

"Then it would stand to reason that the leader is there."

"Erich, please give the order."

Frederick and Barnes awaited Erich's command.

'Do I attack now? Or risk being discovered and strike at night?'

After brief deliberation, Erich decided.

"My unit will take the front. Frederick, you'll take the right flank and form an extermination formation."

"Understood."

Erich turned to Barnes.

"Barnes, you take the left. But hold defensive formation—since most of Heinkel's men are with you, that side might be vulnerable, so keep that in mind."

"Understood."

Frederick and Barnes moved out at once, preparing for the attack as Erich had ordered.

― Swish.

Erich raised his hand.

Immediately after, 300 soldiers advanced down the slope en masse toward the village.

[It's the Empire dogs!][The crows are upon us!]

Realizing the Empire's wave was upon them, the barbarians shouted in panic. But Erich's unit was quicker than their effort to prepare.

― Swish!

"Attack! Encircle the savages!"

Each barbarian faced over a dozen soldiers and unit members.

Caught off guard by the sudden assault, the barbarians fell with little resistance.

[Gyah!][Get Lord Kalga, now!]

Barbarians rushed from their homes, belatedly trying to stem Erich's unit.

But they had no formation; they were struck down piecemeal by the surging soldiers.

― Smash! Crunch!

[... You bastards!]"Kill them!"

A barbarian swung his axe at a soldier who stabbed him with a spear, but a unit member darted in and plunged his sword into the barbarian's side.

[Craaagh!]

As the barbarian slowed, other soldiers thrust their spears into him.

― Thud.

When the barbarian finally slumped down dead, the soldiers turned to attack the next enemy.

Or tried to.

― SMACK!

"Uh, w-wait!"[Craaah!]

The barbarian presumed dead, like a wounded beast, grabbed a soldier by the ankle and snapped the man's calf in one motion.

"Ahhhhh! Spare me—!"

― CRACK!

Even drenched in blood, the barbarian easily snapped the soldier's neck.

― Slash!

Barnes, finishing off the barbarian, spoke to the pale soldiers.

"Lose focus and you'll die. Only move after confirming your kill."

Barnes then dashed off alone, cutting down barbarians. Inspired, the soldiers regained their composure and pressed the attack.

Erich, noting Frederick's skill and Barnes's unexpectedly strong showing, thought:'Barnes's flank wasn't so weak after all.'

The initial decision to place Heinkel's troops defensive seems to have paid off. They overran the Swallow Tribe with speed.

Still, Erich couldn't shake a sense of unease.

'This is too easy. Surely they knew I was coming.'

Was it possible whoever was behind them failed to deliver word of his departure in time? While cutting down the charging barbarians, Erich stayed vigilant.

'The one manipulating the dead... and yet there are no special defenses at the source?'

Finding the situation suspicious, he chose to preserve his strength rather than reckless adbarnes.

The extermination campaign begun at the village's edge soon had the remaining barbarians hemmed into the end of the village.

Those scattered were picked off, and the survivors fell back, huddling by the cave at the end.

[... Is Lord Kalga not here yet?][So this is how it ends...!]

The barbarians' eyes betrayed their hatred, never letting go of their enmity toward the Watch as they retreated.

And, finally, when Erich's forces had driven the remnants into the cave—

Erich felt an uncanny, ominous presence from within.

"... Everyone stop."

"Stop! Re-form ranks!"

Frederick and Barnes, though unsure why he did not attack the fleeing barbarians, could at least read from Erich's face that it was no time to be careless.

'Nicholas could only escape here. If so, then Nicholas must be in that cave? ... Still, for a tribe that had an Elder like Artu, I don't see any real powerhouses.'

Even among barbarians, who honored pride, their leaders rarely left the village, unless it was a fight to the death. And no chieftain would personally handle Orca-roid.

This meant there was someone here stronger than Artu... and yet, there was no such person in sight.

At that moment—

― Tap. Tap!

The sound of a staff echoed from the cave. Its eerie clatter darkened the faces of both the unit and the barbarians.

But Erich, tense, carefully followed the source of the sound.

― Vvooom.

His eyes blazed crimson, and his vision blurred as if a filter had been applied.

Within that vision, he saw the outline of a moving human. But... something felt wrong.

'... Those steps are unnatural. And...'

― Tap! Clack!

'It's too big.'

Then, at last, Nicholas' ashen face appeared from the cave.

The problem was—

'... It's too big.'

A giant, vaguely human-shaped figure stirred.

A lifeless corpse, all blood drained and empty of vigor, with Nicholas embedded in its chest.

[Your Empire's strength is no longer needed. With my own power alone—and with the might of Haratakan!—I shall settle all accounts!]

The voice of a barbarian, thick with madness, echoed from the cave walls.

― CRACK!

Nicholas' body was crushed, his life consumed. The massive rock mass began taking on a defined form—

A golem. A colossal golem, made entirely of stone.

― KRAAAAAAAH!

A beast in human form. Or rather, the master of that beast—a figure Erich had already guessed the nature of.

'Shaman.'

The barbarian's spiritual leader. A mage of the barbarians, wielding incomprehensible magical powers.

Such a being now stood in Erich's path.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Nicholas deserves what he got...【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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