73 – Assault (1)

“I think I can really stop now…”

Robin, who was pulling the cart, looked up at the seawater tower he made with his own hands and said, As soon as Robin says that, a new body of Haesu is placed next to him.

This time, what Damian caught was a saber-toothed tiger with impressive large fangs. Its size, which had grown under the influence of the magical power scattered over the mountains, was not comparable to that of a normal saber-toothed tiger. The residual magic power remaining in the corpse tells you how strong it must have been when it was alive.

To put it bluntly, the least monster class.

If a guy like this appeared in front of his eyes, Robin would have the confidence to run away right away, but there is no need to run away as long as he is dead. He takes out the dagger from his waist. As usual, he began to draw blood from the corpse by slashing its neck.

There is no room for new residents in the high seawater tower. I think I’ll have to sit next to him, but I didn’t have a problem with my stomach, but I felt strongly that I’d have to stop at this point because I’d be in a situation where I wouldn’t be able to drive a horse on the cart if I continued like this.

In the end, Robin couldn’t stand it and complained to Gwen.

“Captain! Isn’t this too harsh?!

“Well, how is it?

Robin spoke to Gwen, who was now leaning against the cart with her sword tucked in, but the reply was not very pleasing to him.

Gwen was the only person here with a history of winning the tournament, so if he was saying it, Damian wouldn’t stop. But contrary to his wishes, Gwen laughed blankly at Robin’s words and affirmed Damian’s actions.

“The mountain range is wide. It’s still too early to worry about the ecosystem with this much. This is not as bad as the claws of the sea beasts that live in Legion.”

“still…”

“He’s someone who hasn’t shown his ability so far. It seems like he’s made up his mind for this tournament, so let him do whatever he wants. Now, look at him. Doesn’t he look happy?”

Seeing Gwen respond with a bright smile on her face that didn’t suit her blunt face, Robin was able to realize that he had no intention of stopping Damian.

The more game Damian caught, the more people knew how good he was, so from Gwen’s point of view, who cared for Damian a lot, there was no need to restrict his behavior.

Robin turned his gaze to the forest. A faint smile spreads across Damian’s lips as he plays between the trees.

He was running amok with this forest as the stage to the extent that it made me wonder how he had endured it until now. When one arrow is fired, two or more beasts are caught, and with each flash from his hand, those hiding in the darkness of the forest fall down one by one.

Seeing that, Robin couldn’t answer Gwen’s words.

It was a fact that he knew very well that Damian had not shown his talent outside.

When apprentice knights participate in knights training, the first thing they experience is Sogaju’s talent.

Even though they are labeled as apprentices, those who are closest to superhumans called ‘knights’ are apprentice knights. Those who were selected after filtering through as many swordsmen as grains of sand were apprentice knights, but when they are by Damian’s side, they also sympathize with the feelings of those who have fallen away.

genius.

Truly a gift from heaven.

Just as an animal living on the ground may be envious of a bird flying in the sky, but it does not feel jealousy, it does not even cause jealousy due to the overwhelming difference in rank.

In front of Damian, Robin’s talent was like a match held in front of the sun, but even he had a desire to show off his talent to others.

If it’s a desire to show off, it might be.

However, since honor, which knights value as much as their lives, is something that must be recognized and raised by others, not oneself, there was no shame in wanting to reveal one’s talents. Rather, it was something that could not be separated from the tribe of knights.

The fact that Krauss was considered a prestigious family was all possible because they proved their abilities to others. And as a knight of the best swordsmanship in the empire, Robin’s eyes are always looking upward to prove that he is a knight worthy of his family’s name.

It would be embarrassing to say that an apprentice knight from a single family was like this, but he was the head of a small household carrying that family on his back.

Whether voluntarily or unintentionally, he would have to prove himself someday. Not in front of vassals, but to those beyond the family fence.

In that sense, the hunting competition was a good opportunity to show Damian’s abilities. It was a tournament with a deep history and clearly visible performance, so there is no shortage of making a nobleman who had no special features into a popular figure in the south at once.

That’s why Robin nodded without saying anything to Gwen’s words.

“I know… I know.”

‘Isn’t this going too far though?’

Robin closed his mouth, swallowing the words that followed.

Although the reason is understandable, the corpses of the sea water piled up behind him were not normal at all, and the fact that Damian’s fiancée was the cause of the piled up bodies of sea water made Robin’s head complicated.

Well, that would have been completely unthinkable for her.

Gwen, Robin, and Damian himself couldn’t deny that the reason Damian, who had been walking narrowly unnoticed until now, changed his line at once like this because of his fiancée.

“If you carry more than that, the horses are too heavy to push.”

“Then you can push from behind. Where are you going to use your overflowing strength? You’ve been moving so far anyway. Is there anything else you’ve done besides slicing?”

“…You never lose a word until the end. I get it. I get it. I won’t take responsibility even if Viscount Graham complains about this later. Did I stop you two?”

“Son.

Although he affirmed Damian’s behavior with his mouth, he also agreed with Robin’s words as if he was grumbling, as if he was aware that the amount Damian had caught was unusual.

Even in the eyes of him, who participates in the competition every year, the corpse of Hae-soo that Damian caught was at an unprecedented level. The amount easily exceeded last year’s record for wins, and especially considering the large number of people participating in this event, there could be no more record than this.

As Robin said, unless you intend to dry the seeds of seawater living in Legion.

In fact, it is as if the victory has already been confirmed.

It wasn’t that Gwen had any intention of stopping Damian, but she still had the idea that since she had been on a forced march, she needed to take a break.

Robin’s constant whining played a part in this, but even if Damian had excellent physical strength, he didn’t have to go through the competition to the point of overdoing it.

Gwen surveyed the forest for a moment before speaking to Robin.

“If the young master comes back this time, tell him that it’s enough.”

“Yes? No. When I was talking earlier, you didn’t even listen to me…”

“It’s okay. But if the young master says he’ll continue, don’t stop him. He’s not the kind of person who would waste energy on something like this.”

“Eh… I see.”

Robin answered without a soul as if he was dumbfounded by Gwen’s words, but since he was expecting Gwen’s words, he went back to his place and began to clean up the mess so that he could leave at any time.

“guy…”

Did the sight of Robin running away in a hurry reminded me of an old memory? Gwen looked at Robin’s back as he returned to his seat with an unusually warm face.

But that’s for a while.

Gwen and Robin stared at a spot in the forest with their faces stiff as if they had never done that before.

“leader…!!”

“Know.”

Unlike Robin, who seemed urgent, Gwen’s voice was the same as usual. However, there was restrained tension in that voice that seemed calm at first glance.

Gwen hurriedly took out a whistle, apparently made from animal horns, from a small leather pouch. Damian, who hid himself in the darkness of the forest, was about to be missed by even the most talented, so the first thing to do was to blow the whistle to bring him here.

The mysterious magic power caught in both of them at the same time was incomparable to that of the sea beasts they had dealt with. Although it was only a reverberation carried by the wind, it was an issue that could not be overlooked since the place where they were standing now was the Rune Proud Mountains, the habitat of monsters.

The fortunate thing is that it is in the opposite direction from where Damian is.

Not long after, Damian heard a whistle and appeared in front of them.

“Lord Soga! Hurry to the camp…!!!”

As soon as Robin saw Damian, he shouted at him, but Damian continued to run in one direction, leaving Robin’s cry behind.

Towards the source of the magic they felt.

Damian didn’t come out at the sound of a whistle. Like them, he felt the magic of the monster and came out. Seeing Damian leave without hesitation, Gwen immediately follows him.

“Captain?!”

According to the principle, it would have been correct to return to the camp immediately and report, but as the top decision makers 1 and 2 headed to the site in turn, Robin couldn’t help but be embarrassed. Of course, it is written that if you have enough power, you must quickly suppress it.

“Ahhhhh.

Robin looked at the cart full of seawater’s corpses. If left unattended here, other sea beasts will come and quickly create a mess. I don’t think the two people who left earlier wouldn’t know that fact, but it was inevitable that they kept getting stepped on.

‘I’ve had a hard time…’

However, it was impossible to remain alone and guard the bodies of sea water in such an emergency.

“Ehh…I don’t know.”

His troubles did not last long.

After sighing once and speaking so briefly, Robin, like the two who left before, left the cart in the woods and moved his feet following the reverberation of magic.

***

“hahahaha….”

The boy, leaning against a tree and holding a sword, looked at the monster in front of him with a terrified face.

A monster that suddenly broke in and tore apart the family’s knights and attendants in one fell swoop.

The scene still lingered in his eyes, and the feeling of fear for the boy was not something he could carelessly erase.

Barely mustering up the courage to raise the sword and face the monster’s eyes. That was the best thing a boy could do.

I wanted to swing my sword with a spirit, but I couldn’t even do it as I wanted because I was crushed by fear. He is a monster who simply chewed up the article his father proudly attached to him, but would he be able to inflict scratches even if a newbie with a sword wielded it?

However, I did not want to die insignificantly like this, so I barely stood with my sword.

The face of the monster resembling a monkey moves bizarrely.

It gave him a sense of extreme contempt as it looked as if he was laughing at himself, but the uncooked blood that flowed from his mouth, which had bitten off the knight, further increased the boy’s fear of the monster.

The monster didn’t kill the boy. Just looking down and smiling.

As if to let the boy know that the sword he mustered up the courage to carry had no meaning, he quietly met his eyes and smiled.

Looking at the bright yellow eyes without pupils of the monster, I have mixed feelings.

From participating in the competition without thinking much about being pushed by his father’s back, to his useless feelings about the dog he raised at home.

All kinds of thoughts rushed through my head like a storm within a few seconds. In it, there was resentment towards his father who brought him to such a place, who had no connection with the sword, but at the same time, his father, who could not take his eyes off him until the moment he entered the forest by giving him the most trusted knight in the territory, was projected.

As the storm subsided, what was left of the boy was pure anger at the monster in front of his eyes that had put him in this situation.

“Haa… such a rotten…”

Strangely enough, the boy’s head seemed to cool as his anger grew.

Evening his dizzy breathing, the boy gave strength to the hand holding the sword again.

As the wandering thoughts disappeared in my head, the pressure that dominated my body disappeared, and I felt that my grip was stronger than before. It was only that he was able to move his body a little more freely, but the situation was still not good for the boy. It wasn’t that the power that wasn’t there springs up just because you’ve made up your mind a little.

The monster seemed to have no intention of waiting any longer, as if he knew that the boy’s eyes had changed.

The boy knew that too, so he held the sword as close to his body as possible. Since he was a boy who had not awakened the aura that could be said to be a symbol of unmannedness, there was no possibility of scarring the monster’s skin as hard as steel, but the boy knew that even he had a part that could make him bleed.

‘He’s been killing people by biting. If so, at least one eye…’

The boy didn’t know if he was breathing properly. The only thing he’s focused on is the monster’s bright yellow eyes. I couldn’t think of anything else because the moment I was bitten, I had to stab the sword right away.

The distance between the monster and the boy gradually narrowed.

when the tension is at its peak. For some reason, the boy could see that the monster was about to attack him. Sure enough, the monster moved towards the boy. However, if there was a difference from the boy’s expectations, it was that he had caught the boy with his long hands as if snatching it up, unlike his previous actions of killing him with his mouth.

“Damn it..!!”

The boy hurriedly tried to resist the unexpected action of the monster, but as expected, the boy’s sword did not injure the monster’s skin. Rather, such fierce resistance resulted in giving more strength to the monster’s grasp.

“aaa!!!”

Even the boy did not know if this was a cry of pain or if it came from the courage he had developed in the face of death. The boy slashed the hand that held him with the extended sword. Even though I knew it wouldn’t work, I didn’t want to give up.

In the midst of the dizzying clock, the boy suddenly saw the face of the monster holding him.

The monster was laughing.

The monster grinned with a strange smile as he struggled, just as he had just looked at the frightened figure he had driven himself into a tree.

Even though he knew the monster was playing with him, the boy couldn’t contain his anger. After glancing at the sword, the body relaxed. The sword in his hand was the last resort, but the boy decided to throw away useless lingering feelings.

The distance to the monster’s head was not properly calculated. It’s just that the yellow eyes of the monster can be seen at a distance as far away as the arm’s length of the monster seen earlier.

It wasn’t as surefire as initially planned, but the boy threw his sword into the monster’s eyes. Unfortunately, it might hit somewhere else and bounce off, but in any case, this was the boy’s last resistance.

[■■■■■■■■■-!!!!!]

The eerie cry of the beast echoes through the forest.

When this deafening sound entered his ears, the boy knew he had succeeded. But he was not allowed time to rejoice here. The monster screamed in pain, but it quickly recovered its body, and as soon as it drew its sword, it opened its mouth at the boy.

Is it because I put death in front of my eyes? At that moment, the boy fell into the illusion that the whole world was moving slowly.

Even if the boy had the ability to slow down time, the boy’s death would not have been avoided. The boy’s body was tightly held by the monster, and despite the slowing time, the monster’s mouth slowly approached the boy.

The boy who was about to die had no fear of death. Since I had achieved what I wanted in the first place, I threw away my lingering feelings along with the sword. Only the boy could see things he hadn’t seen before in that slowed down world.

“uh?”

A figure is visible behind the monster’s head.

He was shrouded in darkness and everything seemed black, but his golden eyes in the darkness were like the light of daylight. When their eyes met, the boy felt just as overwhelmed as when he first encountered the monster, but at the same time felt a different sense of relief.

squeak

As a result, the monster’s mouth never touched the boy. The monster’s head fell to the ground before it approached the boy.

A sword extended from the darkness decapitated the monster, and hot liquid covered the boy’s eyes.

Since his head fell, his uncontrollable body also fell to the ground. With the feeling of floating on the ground, the boy’s spirit began to fall into darkness.

In the midst of the blurring stream of consciousness, the boy engraved the last eyes he saw into his head and slowly surrendered himself to the flow.