Episode 91
101. Greed and Schemes Move in the Night (3)
I swung my magic sword with all my might at the closest one.
Normally, they wouldn’t be hit by such a swing.
My swordsmanship is just practice based on the basics I briefly learned from mercenaries in the past.
A simple swing.
A knight who has received formal training would have to return their sword on the spot if they were hit by something like this.
However.
“Hmph!”
As I swung, I put more strength into my arm.
Purely, my physical ability is almost A-grade level strength.
If I activate the physical ability enhancement buff, which is the special ability of the newly acquired Giant’s Armor, the story changes.
Strength soars, and the speed of the swing accelerates.
Only then did he open his eyes as if in shock.
‘It’s already too late.’
My ordinary horizontal slash hit the knight’s side with terrifying force.
Clang!
The unique sensation of smashing something with a hard tool and a sledgehammer resonated, and the blade of the magic sword dug into his torso.
The armor crumpled, and he vomited blood.
It won’t be an instant kill, but the impact will be enough to break bones and damage internal organs.
‘Unexpectedly, the power is usable?’
I was just planning to hit him to keep him in check and disrupt him.
Maybe my strength is stronger than I thought.
If I use this well, I might be able to do enough in close combat.
But celebrating comes later.
There’s still one more left.
“Take this!”
As if swinging a baseball bat to hit a ball, I used the guy I just hit to powerfully knock away the remaining knight.
“…You monster!”
The knight’s response to his colleague being hit and flying towards him was simple.
He jumped to the side to avoid it.
If he caught him, his posture would collapse.
Even if he’s a colleague in a real battle, he can’t die together.
‘And of course, I was sure he would avoid it.’
Activating the magic sword’s ability, I deploy the magic power chain.
The chain chases after and wraps around the body of the knight flying away.
“Jackpot!”
As I pulled with all my might, his body flew back towards me like a fish caught on a fishing line.
“…What?!
The knight, only then realizing my intention, tries to avoid it, but it’s too late.
His posture collapsed as he collided with his colleague who was being dragged from behind.
“You coward!”
“You can’t say that when you’re the one who ambushed us first.”
Not missing the opportunity, I summoned a sprite and had it pour down electricity.
Four bolts of lightning poured down.
He barely managed to deflect one with his sword, but the remaining three struck him directly, and he was engulfed in electricity and burned.
His aura alone cannot completely offset the power of my current spirit magic.
As a finishing touch, I shot a rock bullet and blew away the head of the staggering guy, and similarly finished off the guy who was still twitching in pain from the sword I had struck him with earlier.
With this, the sniper squad is completely eliminated.
‘…For now, the guys who were shooting from outside are taken care of.’
The rest are the guys who have infiltrated Kalion Merchant Guild and are carrying out a massacre inside.
I was worried about running away, but unfortunately, the remaining guys noticed my existence because of this battle.
A shout was heard.
“It’s an enemy!”
“Who the hell is it? What about the guys outside? Were they taken down?”
“He has a strange power. He might be a wizard. Find him first.”
The knights shouted, and many presences moved.
I immediately teleported into a nearby building and took a breath.
I don’t commit to the reality of confronting them head-on.
‘Okay, let’s start a full-scale game of tag. You damn bastards.’
A battle against many.
Let’s get rid of them fairly and squarely.
* * *
Selrond Marquis’s knight, and the squad leader who commands the current assault squad, concluded that there was an enemy confronting them as soon as he heard the sound of destruction from outside.
And soon he realized that the sniper squad had been defeated.
But he doesn’t shed tears over the death of his comrades.
He immediately puts strength into the hand holding the sword, calmly clears his vision, and assesses the situation.
“Was there a rat?”
“What can we do?”
The squad leader instructed as if there was nothing to worry about.
“…Find him and kill him.”
After drawing a conclusion, they moved in an orderly manner without exchanging even the minimum amount of words.
First, they found the comrades who had been attacked and grasped the state of the bodies.
Battle traces contain a lot of information.
What did they use, what kind of personality do they have?
It shows everything.
The building was destroyed with considerable power, and there are traces of being struck by lightning.
‘Is the enemy perhaps a wizard?’
It is forbidden to make a conclusion, but he moved with a high possibility in mind.
“First, scatter and find the guy and drive him in.”
“I will.”
Under the squad leader’s instructions, the remaining knights scattered and moved, keeping their distance as if using buildings and narrow alleys as shields.
The city is not a very favorable battlefield for ordinary wizards.
Because there are many unnecessary obstacles.
The premise changes if you burn everything with magic, but only a very few wizards can do that.
If he was such a master, he wouldn’t have to fight so timidly.
‘I don’t know what kind of guy he is, but I’ll make him regret going against us.’
The squad leader burned with animosity towards the enemy he hadn’t even identified yet.
Likewise, the eyes of the other knights shone strongly with a desire for revenge.
They gave and received instructions with only hand signals and immediately scattered here and there.
‘He’s nearby.’
‘Find his location and surround him.’
I don’t know where he’s hiding, but finding him is only a matter of time.
Even if he’s a wizard, if you cut him down while he’s chanting a spell, that’s it.
Even if it’s a trick to deceive, if they find him and fight him head-on, they will never be defeated.
Believing in that, the knights tried to take action.
At that moment.
“You don’t have to find me, you damn bastards. I’m here.”
A voice echoing from somewhere.
And thud! Something fell.
“Is it there!”
He dared to reveal his presence.
Without confirming the presence that appeared, the knights slashed and stabbed the falling object with their swords and spears.
Thwack!
The sensation of cutting and stabbing a human is transmitted.
There is no doubt.
However, the thought that they had defeated him collapses in less than a second.
“Heeeeeck?!”
One of the knights reflexively swallowed a scream when he saw it.
What they cut and stabbed was not the enemy that appeared.
The body of the same colleague, the body of the sniper squad who was defeated first.
The corpse, which had been brutally transformed by their onslaught, thudded! It is rolling helplessly on the floor.
“Su, surely…….”
Someone trembled as they recalled the worst possibility.
“That’s not it! Co, calm down! It’s a corpse! It’s a corpse!”
One of the knights, who barely realized the truth, shouted.
“That guy was dead from the beginning!”
I don’t know how he did it, but the enemy deceived them by dropping the body of his comrade he had defeated there.
“You damn bastard!”
“A guy who is less than a beast!”
The knights were so enraged that they seemed to lose their minds, thinking that they had openly mocked the deaths of their comrades.
Leaving them behind, the boy who did not reveal his appearance muttered as if it was ridiculous.
“Who do you think should be angry? Why don’t you look back at what you guys did?”
Reacting to the boy’s voice that was heard again, they tried to attack as before, but there was clearly hesitation in their actions.
‘Surely…….’
‘Again this time?’
Even if it’s a corpse, even if it’s bait, there is a sense of rejection towards cutting the corpse of the same knight.
They are still immature to shake it off.
And the enemy aimed at it exquisitely.
In time with that, a flash of lightning fell from the sky and engulfed several of the knights.
“Kkeueueueueueuk?!”
I barely managed to pull up my aura [magical energy] and endure it, but the power is unusual.
The body is barely covered with aura, but some of the armor is melted by the current.
The most severely electrocuted knight could not withstand the temperature of the melted helmet and threw it off.
“You idiot! Don’t take it off!”
The squad leader rebuked his foolish actions, but it was too late.
The floor wriggled, and a rock awl stretched out from inside and pierced the neck of the knight who had taken off his helmet.
He soon vomited blood and slumped down.
“You cowardly bastard!”
“Doesn’t he intend to fight fairly!”
“Be sure to find him! Find him and get rid of him!”
The knights were swept away by anger, and their movements became rough.
Anger is clouding their vision.
The squad leader tried to point it out quickly, but.
As if aiming for that, a wall rose from the floor this time.
The wall soon covered their heads and completely trapped them.
“Are we trapped?!”
“Don’t do anything useless!”
“Do you think we can’t break this wall!”
The knights tried to draw out their aura from their swords and swing them.
It was even faster for the flames that exploded from under their feet and swept over them.
The fire that occurred in a limited space in a confined space rapidly raised the temperature like a kiln and burned the knights.
‘Fire!’
‘Pull up your aura and block it!’
But they realized that the problem was not the fire.
Some of the knights began to suffer, covering their mouths.
‘Ugh! Breath!’
I can’t breathe.
The more violently the fire burned, the more difficult it became to breathe.
No matter how strong an aura is deployed, you cannot breathe, so your concentration is disturbed, and the wall of aura weakens.
‘Escape! Hurry!’
They barely broke through the stone wall and escaped, but about two of them died on the spot.
‘We’re being completely played with.’
The squad leader had no choice but to admit the fact.
The enemy is using the advantage of being hidden and the means of angering them to distract them, and then playing with them in various ways.
Above all, he doesn’t give them a break.
Rain fell on those who escaped this time.
“…Rain?”
Surely he’s not pouring out poison, is he?
They trembled like that, but it was ordinary water.
“Just water.”
Before they could even feel relieved, they realized.
The raindrops that poured down were somehow sticking to their bodies.
The sight of the raindrops moving and not falling on their bodies as if manipulating each raindrop was somehow eerie.
The moment they struggled, lightning struck.
They, who were already mentally and physically exhausted, had no way to withstand it.
A scream rang out with a flash, and they were electrocuted and collapsed.
‘Is he a demon or something?’
The squad leader, who still had a faint consciousness, gritted his teeth and tried to get up, but his body wouldn’t listen.
‘What about the other guys?’
I can’t figure out the condition of my colleagues.
I can’t hear other signs either.
Understanding the meaning, he gritted his teeth.
And as if convinced of their annihilation, the enemy they were looking for finally revealed himself.
A boy with slightly reddish-brown hair appeared from the corner of the alley and gradually approached this way.
“I told you, you should have quietly returned to your home.”
“You, you…….”
“Why are you angry? You like honorable knights. You’re just trash who enjoys cutting down innocent, powerless people, aren’t you?”
Actually, you probably know it. You just don’t admit it.
The squad leader gritted his teeth and tried to get up, but it was useless.
And he knows that the boy won’t let his electrocuted body recover.
“Your situation is your own fault.”
The boy created lightning and struck the last remaining squad leader one more time.
“If you wanted to fight honorably, you should have created an honorable situation from the beginning.”
* * *
I took a breath to relieve the tension, making sure that there were no more living presences.
‘For now, has an enemy the size of one squad been eliminated?’
The knights who attacked Kalion Merchant Guild were all taken care of.
‘The problem is that’s probably not all of them.’
At best, it’s just one squad.
I still can’t estimate how many troops they brought to silence me.
I want to keep a few alive and interrogate them, but they’re still knights.
I don’t think they’ll answer my clumsy interrogation.
Conversely, I might be the one who gets cornered.
If possible, kill them immediately upon encounter.
‘…Before that, I have to go back to Pileros Merchant Guild.’
I’m worried about that place too.
I turned my back on the corpses of those guys and left this place.
Clearly, tonight will be long.
Surely today will be a night of tragedy.
For them or for us, for one of the two.