Chapter 67: Distortion (4)

"…Kugh!"

Darius let out a groan as he rolled across the ground.

A heavy impact struck his back, hard enough that it was a miracle he hadn’t dropped his greatsword.

For a brief moment, his vision went black, and his breath stopped.

But without a second to writhe in pain, he clenched his teeth, sprang to his feet, and kicked off the ground.

Kwaaaang!

The spot where he had just been rolling exploded.

Gripping his greatsword, Darius slashed through the rising cloud of dirt, facing the enemy rushing toward him from beyond it.

Bang!

He had attacked first, yet a crushing impact surged down his wrist.

Crack-crack-crack.

The force difference pushed him back, but this time he had braced himself, avoiding the disgrace of rolling across the ground as before.

"……."

Running a hand through his disheveled hair, Darius looked at the creature before him.

He had managed to draw the attention of one of the two monsters and lure it far away from the cadets.

Now, the only thing left was to either kill or shake off the one pursuing him.

Killing it would be difficult, but he thought he could at least lose it and escape.

‘Damn, it’s fast.’

But instead of managing to flee, it felt like he was being toyed with, forced into repeating this same pattern over and over.

He could endure it for now, but the other monster still worried him.

Praying the cadets would be safe, Darius tightened his grip on the greatsword.

"Fine, let’s have some fun then."

He was sick of the pattern of running, being caught, and getting attacked.

At this point, it was better to fight head-on.

Thud─!

For the first time since being chased, Darius charged toward the monster himself.

‘I have to avoid everything. Even one direct hit would put me in danger, no matter who I am.’

This wasn’t the kind of impact toughness alone could endure.

He had to minimize collisions, avoid every lethal blow, and make sure his own attacks landed cleanly.

Shaaak─!

The thick greatsword tore through the air toward the monster.

It leapt away to avoid the strike, but Darius immediately redirected his blade.

Leaping up, he swung upward with all his strength, aiming to cleave it from groin to crown.

Thud.

The monster’s clenched fists slammed against the greatsword’s blade.

Instead of resisting the impact, Darius spun his body to redirect the force, then poured more strength into his grip.

‘Hhhup!’

With nowhere for either side to evade, the next strike came.

The relentless blade finally tore a chunk of flesh from the monster’s side.

Splurt!

With the flesh came a spray of bright red blood.

Ignoring the foul sensation at his fingertips, Darius landed and threw himself to the side.

Kwaaang!

The monster’s enraged punch smashed into the ground where he had stood.

Had it connected, it would have shattered every bone in his body.

「Aaaaaargh!」

From the wound in the monster’s side, a human-shaped face let out a grotesque scream.

It was enough to make anyone frown in disgust, but Darius charged at it again.

Shhhhk!

When his horizontal slash came, the monster stretched out its arms to grab his greatsword.

But in the middle of his dash, Darius suddenly dropped his body low, sliding along the ground to evade its grasp.

‘Fiore Style─!’

The greatsword sliding with him erupted in crimson flames.

The aura, the same vivid color as his hair, surged forth, tracing an even sharper arc than before.

Sslash─!

A deep gash opened along one of the monster’s thighs.

It stumbled back, but Darius gave it no time to recover.

Swish! Slash! Thrust!

He rushed the monster again, swinging his greatsword like a madman.

Despite its overwhelming strength, its body wasn’t all that durable.

If he didn’t give it an opening to attack, he had a real chance of winning.

At first, it seemed like this tactic was working, but then Darius felt a chill as he saw the monster’s crouched face.

Thunk, snap.

The stitches sealing its eyes came undone, revealing bright yellow pupils from within.

Darius, who had been raising his sword to split its head, immediately turned his head and threw himself sideways.

Kwooooom!

A massive blast of energy spewed from the monster’s mouth, piercing through the air.

Had he been a moment slower, his entire upper body would have been blown away.

As it was, he escaped with only one ear torn off.

"…Kugh!"

But with the force of that dodge, he couldn’t avoid collapsing.

Tumbling across the ground, Darius finally skidded to a stop and sat down where he landed.

"You bastard monster."

Does opening its eyes make it that much stronger?

Spitting out the mix of sand and blood in his mouth, Darius grimaced at the kind of monster he had never encountered before.

‘My body…’

He wasn’t seriously injured.

His stamina was a bit drained, and his mana was partly depleted, but aside from his torn ear, there were no major wounds.

He could still fight for at least another hour.

By then, the Empire would have taken some form of action.

…Rumble, crackle.

That was when an unnatural noise reached Darius’s ears.

In Erendal Forest, the weather never changed except for the alternation of day and night.

Rain or thunder were phenomena that simply didn’t occur here.

Then what was with those black storm clouds gathering above their heads?

Kwooooom!

A bolt of bright yellow lightning crashed down, instantly engulfing the monster Darius had been facing.

At the same time, Yuria and Maximilian burst out from the brush where they had been hiding their presence, launching a surprise attack on the staggering monster.

"Senior!"

Gale dropped down from a tree and cautiously called out to him.

Darius drained the potion offered to him in one gulp and wiped his mouth.

“Gale, what about the others?”

“Most have regrouped. Right now, they’re blocking the magical beasts swarming in this area together with the soldiers.”

“And the remaining monster?”

“…That, I don’t know. But Carl’s nowhere to be seen, don’t tell me—”

“Damn it.”

Darius’s face twisted.

The odds were high that the last monster had gone after Carl.

It was surely because Carl had offered himself as bait to save the others.

But that was recklessness.

Even Darius was struggling this much—would Carl really be able to escape?

Even if he did shake the monster off, the forest was teeming with magical beasts.

If things went wrong…

Bang!

At that moment, Maximilian was sent flying, rolling across the ground.

The monster, having shaken off the lightning strike’s effect, had landed a clean hit with a swing of its arm.

“…Kuhhk.”

The blow had been so heavy that Maximilian couldn’t steady himself, coughing up blood.

Laysis tried to lure it in the opposite direction, but it caught up in an instant thanks to its speed.

Kang! Kang!

Laysis fought desperately, unleashing her swordsmanship with all her strength.

But no matter how skilled she was, a cadet was still just a cadet.

Her sword couldn’t inflict a fatal blow on the monster.

Chzzzzzt.

Then vines sprouted from the ground, entangling the monster’s legs.

They climbed its body, trying to bind its limbs, but the monster let out a massive roar, twisting violently.

「Krrrooooarrr─!!」

The sound was so loud it seemed to shake the forest itself.

Dark red flames surged around it, burning away the vines.

Crack.

The weakened vines were torn apart as the monster kicked off the ground.

Its target was the barely-conscious Maximilian.

Darius charged ahead of it by a single step, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, hurled him toward Gale, and swung his sword.

Bang!

Dark red flames and crimson aura clashed violently, pressing against each other.

“All right, let’s do this.”

Five minutes.

Darius made up his mind.

Within five minutes, he would slaughter the creature before him and go find Carl.

Thud.

With a heavy crash, the monster’s massive body collapsed.

The blazing Heavenly Demon Divine Art flames burned its shattered body to ash.

Standing before it, Carl silently looked down as its body began melting into a sticky liquid.

“Even the ending’s unsatisfying.”

Clicking his tongue, Carl inspected what remained.

The dark red liquid of its melted flesh evaporated quickly, leaving no trace.

What remained in the middle was a small white fragment.

At first he thought it was a piece of bone, but it wasn’t.

It was something of unknown material.

From the alien energy condensed within it, it seemed to have been the true core that controlled the monster.

“This isn’t mana. It’s not demonic energy either. Rather than being turbid, it’s actually pure.”

If he had to compare, it was closer to the energy of Shaolin or orthodox Buddhist sects.

Now that he had firmly committed it to memory, he wouldn’t fail to recognize it in the future.

Carl glanced behind him.

The knight called Daon seemed to have survived by some miracle.

His companion and the two rookies showed no signs of life—they were likely dead long ago.

In other words, it took at least a seasoned knight to barely handle one of these things.

‘Looks like they’ve managed to hold out over there.’

Darius’s group was locked in a fierce battle with one of the monsters.

Darius’s strength was already comparable to a knight’s.

The cadets’ level was far above the ordinary, so they could at least hold the balance.

He had left that side in Luna’s hands, so there was nothing to worry about.

Saaaaah─.

The once-vivid violet sky was deepening, signaling that night was near.

Along with it, Carl could feel more monsters with the same energy as this one approaching.

There were already eight within sensing range.

Considering the size of the forest, there had to be at least twice that number in total.

Clack.

Carl pulled a mask from his coat.

Unlike the NOX mask he usually wore, this one was a plain black mask with no ornamentation.

As he slowly put it on, a pitch-black robe materialized over his shoulders.

It was an artifact that obscured recognition, altered his voice, and concealed his build.

Shing.

Sharpening the blade in his hand, Carl lightly kicked off the ground.

His target—the closest monster approaching this way.

In an instant, he closed the distance and unleashed a flurry of sharp slashes.

Schhhhk─!

Dozens of fine lines appeared across the monster’s huge body before it was engulfed in pitch-black Demonic Fire.

「Kiiiiiieeeek!」

The Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s flames burned its flesh until death, swelling its body as it did.

Since no corpse or trace would remain, all he needed to take was the fragment containing that strange energy.

One, two, three…

The Erendal Forest rang with the monsters’ screams.

He had no more business with these lumps of flesh.

Carl’s blade showed no mercy as he cut them down without restraint, slaughtering his way through the forest.

‘These things weren’t naturally occurring.’

They surely had something backing them.

If he could estimate their range of activity and backtrack it, he could find where they came from.

「Kyaaaaak!」

Already more than a dozen monsters had turned into nothing but splashes of blood before vanishing.

“……”

Carl narrowed his eyes.

After stirring things up this much, he expected a bite soon.

Sure enough, a deliberately released wave of energy from deeper within was provoking him.

“Interesting.”

Smiling crookedly beneath the mask, Carl gladly accepted the invitation.

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