Chapter 15: Siege of Buinyu Fortress (7)

"Turn around! We have to break back through the way we came, as fast as possible."

It seemed the commander, Sir Knight Rowe, thought the same. Sir Rowe quickly grasped the situation and came straight down.

"I will open the way. Follow me!"

Shouting that, he drew his sword and swung toward the charging soldiers of Baron Buinyu.

Swaaaash!

Crack. Crunch.

"W-What the hell! A knight! A knight is here!"

The soldiers of Baron Buinyu were terrified. A soldier who fought well and a knight were worlds apart.

A properly armed knight was practically a walking calamity.

And Sir Knight Rowe, who led the forlorn hope, was not only fully equipped, he was a seasoned veteran.

"Aaaargh!"

"Spare me-!"

There was a reason people made such a fuss about knights. Every time Sir Knight Rowe moved, Baron Buinyu’s soldiers fell like autumn leaves in a gale.

They tried to form ranks and hold with a square, but stopping this killing machine was close to impossible.

With every step forward, a path opened and space to run appeared.

Of course, that applied only to Sir Knight Rowe.

"Kill them all!"

"We have to at least kill these bastards. Leave the knight. Our own knight will handle him."

Mauled by Sir Knight Rowe, Baron Buinyu’s soldiers rushed the rest of the strike team.

"Huup!"

"Kh, kh… urk."

A few unlucky ones ended their lives under the sudden flood of numbers, but most did not.

"Hmph, where do you think you’re going!"

Clang!

They too were elites picked from elites. Ordinary soldiers could not match them.

And among them stood someone who already surpassed the level of a common soldier.

Shatien.

‘They are impressive alright… Now, shall I make a move too?’

Thinking that, Shatien tightened his grip on his sword.

Many of Baron Buinyu’s soldiers charged in. In the past that sight would have filled him with fear, but after fighting this kind of battle so many times, he knew roughly how to handle it.

"Kill them! Wipe out the Count Bellua dogs… squawk!"

Deal with the loudmouthed seniors first.

Cutting his way forward, Shatien felled them, then lopped off the head of the one who was shouting.

A lightning advance in every sense.

"H-Huh…?"

"Fuck…?"

The men stared, slack-jawed, at the officer who died before they could even react.

It felt unreal to them.

But this was reality.

Shatien did not stay still and moved to step two.

-Screeeech.

He drew his blade across the ground with a slow scrape and declared,

"Four meters around me. Anyone who comes inside, I cut down to the last man. Back off. Back off and I let you live."

"W-What?"

"This dog thinks he is hot stuff. Who does he think he is, a knight?"

"Die-!"

Words alone did not deliver shock.

When they snapped out of it and bristled in anger, Shatien moved again at once.

His target was the soldier who had stuck his head out first, flapping his mouth.

"Uh, uh?"

-Ching! Kkang.

Startled, the man frantically raised shield and sword to defend, but only for a moment.

As the blows rained in succession,

-Ching-kang!

-Krrrack!

His stance collapsed, and his shield was pierced by Shatien’s blade which then punched through his chest.

"Khrrrk, grrrrrrk."

He foamed blood and crumpled to the ground.

Shatien did not stop there.

More.

He had to deliver a stronger shock.

-Whip!

He sprang off the earth and slashed for the next victim.

-Ka-kang! Kang!

This time the baron’s soldier traded a few decent beats, but that too was brief.

-Swaaaaaash.

-Slice.

A flash like lightning ripped across, and the man’s head flew.

-Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!

-Thud. Thud. Rattle… thud.

A geyser of blood spurted from the neck, and the severed head bounced and rolled a long while before stopping.

Staring at that face, eyes wide in frozen shock, was pure horror.

"A-Ahhh..."

"F-Fuuuck…"

With that, Baron Buinyu’s soldiers understood. This man before them, Shatien, was not someone they could stop.

-Shuffle, shuffle.

Pale and frightened, they stepped back each time Shatien stepped forward.

Their morale was completely broken.

‘Hm, good.’

They looked ready to crumble at a tap.

That was how precarious their morale was now.

Glaring at them, Shatien walked forward slowly.

They retreated for the moment under pressure, but who knew when they might flip and charge again. If they did, he intended to start cutting at once.

And then, in that moment, a brutal sense of wrongness seeped in from within the ranks of Baron Buinyu’s troops.

-Ziiiiing.

At the same time, his senses warned of danger.

Death.

A sticky feeling, everything turning crimson for an instant. Shatien snapped his head down.

-Baaang!

With a heavy ripping of air, a throwing spear grazed over his skull. A heartbeat later and his head would have burst.

‘That was close.’

Shuddering, Shatien sprang up and leveled his sword toward where the spear had come from.

Step, step.

Between the flickering torches, a silhouette drew nearer.

"Oooooh!"

"He is here!"

Baron Buinyu’s soldiers brightened the instant they saw him.

A handsome figure who looked two meters tall.

"Good instincts you got there."

An otherworldly being with pointed ears grinned at Shatien.

"…An elf?"

Shatien knit his brows.

Why was an elf here?

In his memories, he had never heard of such a thing. His head swam.

He shook it and cleared his thoughts.

‘I’ll think about it later.’

The important thing lay elsewhere.

He had to bring down that elf.

Sensing his resolve, the elf smiled again at Shatien and spoke.

"My name is Bjorne. You look strong, human warrior. State your name."

"…Shatien. I am Shatien."

"Oh? Shatien?"

The elf’s expression flickered in mild surprise.

"Are you the ‘Sword Breaker’ making such noise lately, Shatien? Excellent. Truly excellent! A worthy foe has appeared, one fit to contest a warrior’s honor!"

Bjorne cried out in delight.

Elves held it glorious to face a great warrior on the battlefield and die.

If it was the famed ‘Sword Breaker,’ that was more than fitting.

Unlike Bjorne’s excitement, Shatien was appalled.

‘Of all things, it has to be a northern barbarian.’

On battlefields, they were the most frightening after knights.

They did not have the refined, powerful technique of a trained knight, but their natural strength, their guts that did not fear death, and the experience accumulated across long years inspired a different kind of terror than the war machine called a knight.

Shatien had fought such elven warriors more than once in the past, and he loathed them.

Even now, look at him.

"Good. I will offer your head to god and prove my valor, and I will claim a fat reward."

What kind of nonsense is that supposed to be? He couldn’t tell if this was the act of a civilized man or a barbarian.

"Crazy bastard. You must’ve lived too long and your brain rotted huh!"

Shatien could only let out a laugh of disbelief.

-Shing.

Then he raised his sword and moved at once.

His target was the arrogant elven warrior.

"Fine, try and take it if you can!"

He meant to teach that cocky barbarian a lesson.

-Clang! Kang! Kang!

Steel flared and sparks sprang again and again in the air. Each time the blades met, Shatien felt a tingling shoot through his palms.

‘He’s strong as I expected.’

Elves had long been called born warriors. They were similar to humans, but from bone density to muscle quality, they were innately superior.

On top of that, they did not fear death and even revered it, which made them all the more troublesome.

-Kang! Kang!

"Uahahaha! O god, grant me a glorious death!"

They were a mad race who could give bone and still carve flesh.

Even so, Shatien had no thought of retreat.

He had learned in earlier battles. A step that seemed to lead into a dead end could, in truth, become a path to life.

Kkang!

"More!"

Kkagang!

"More, moooore-!!"

Screech. Screeeeech.

His sword screamed as if about to snap, but Shatien still did not yield.

‘If I hold and stay calm, a chance will come.’

-Vwoooom.

And when Bjorne’s blade finally came in a wide sweep,

‘An opening-!’

Shatien found the threadlike chance. A single strike to take his vital spot.

He drove in with all his strength, wheeled his raised blade fast, and cut on the diagonal.

-Swaaaaaaaaash!

A knight’s technique he had copied long ago from a veteran of the heavy infantry.

Like a raptor dropping out of the air to snatch its prey, the slanted blade shed a keen aura and aimed for Bjorne’s torso.

At the same time,

"Kugh."

Bjorne let out a strangled cry,

-Ka-kang! Kang. Kalarararang!

A brutal shriek of metal rang out, as if something would shatter any second.

‘If I can just press that last bit, the arrogant elf’s life will end.’

Unfortunately, he could not.

-Screeech. Clang!

Having borne all the force it could, Shatien’s sword finally failed and snapped cleanly in two.

"Damn it?!"

He frowned at the broken blade in his hand.

Bjorne, gashed deep across one side of his chest, burst into roaring laughter when he saw it.

"Uahahaha! Sword Breaker, behold. God smiles upon me!"

Despite dripping blood, Bjorne did not care. He charged Shatien head-on.

-Swish!

Bjorne’s sword cleaved through space.

"Kgh!"

Shatien ducked fast to evade the longsword, but the follow-up blows came in a rush. He lost his balance and fell on his backside.

-Thud.

Dry soil filled his palms.

Was this how it was going to end?

For the first time in a while, Shatien felt death creep close.

But then,

-Ziiiiing.

In that sliver of an instant, he saw a way out.

"It ends now, Sword Breaker!"

Bjorne raised his blade for the final blow, as if pronouncing a death sentence.

Acting on pure instinct, Shatien moved like lightning.

-Whirl.

-Ching-kang!

First, he hurled the broken sword at Bjorne to foul his motion.

"You think that works on me, bastard!"

-Swaaash.

Next, he flung the fistful of sand he had grabbed straight into Bjorne’s face.

"Aaagh! My eyes!"

They were at striking range, far too close to dodge.

Bjorne’s stance collapsed as he clutched his eyes.

And the price came back heavy.

-Thunk!

Rolling once across the ground, Shatien snatched up a jagged fragment of his blade and drove it into the elf’s chest.

"K-Khugk… you, coward…"

Bjorne spat blood with a look of shock. Shatien leaned to his ear and let out a soft sneer.

"What cowardice? You call this a struggle for death, the kind you like, right?"

He could not hear the end. Bjorne’s heart was already skewered and stopped.

Hot elven blood ran down the shard and dripped to the earth.

-Clang.

At last, Bjorne’s sword slipped from his fingers and dropped with a lonely clatter.

Victor and vanquished were decided.

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