Future Knight [EN]: Chapter 68

Future Knight Episode 68

This was the ending Garman had already anticipated.

It was generally accepted that at least two Sword Expert-level knights were needed to catch an ogre.

Of course, the ogre who had defeated nearly 50 hunters was not in good condition either.

The ogre, who had been hit by five massive crossbow bolts, had sharp tips sticking out of its back, and one eye was pierced by quarrels [short, heavy arrows] fired by the hunters, causing blood to flow continuously.

The ogre breathed heavily, but it didn’t seem like it would last long.

‘Yes, you killed my kin to protect your life, but I won’t blame you for it. I hope you can be born into something that can be happier in your next life.’

Garman, who had offered a prayer for the monster, turned to leave.

At that moment, he heard a sound like a baby’s cry.

‘What’s that baby’s cry?’

Garman turned around, puzzled.

He saw the dying mother ogre taking out a baby ogre she had hidden and nursing it.

Only then did Garman understand why the ogre had fought so desperately against the hunters.

The mother ogre had spared no effort to protect her baby.

In that moment, Garman felt a surge of emotion.

As a parent himself, he was reminded of his own children back in his territory.

He quietly watched the mother ogre’s final moments.

After a while, the mother ogre fell silent, still holding her baby. Only the baby ogre’s cry echoed through the forest.

Knowing that its mother had died, the cry sounded even sadder.

Garman tried to ignore it and leave.

But he couldn’t bring himself to abandon the young ogre, knowing that if he turned a blind eye, it would surely not survive the day, falling prey to beasts drawn by the scent of blood.

In the end, after much deliberation, Garman approached the dead mother ogre.

Garmon knew ogres were known as monsters with tenacious lifespans, so even a Sword Master like him could be fatally injured if he approached carelessly, assuming it was dead.

Approaching cautiously, he confirmed that the mother ogre had completely stopped breathing and looked at the baby ogre in her arms.

Even as a baby, it was as big as a seven-year-old human child.

He wondered if he could really take this ogre and raise it.

There was no precedent for taming an ogre in the history of the Arkandor continent.

There were cases of taming wyverns or trolls, but never an ogre.

As the strongest monster, its instincts were cruel and violent.

But the worry didn’t last long.

Garman quietly vowed to take care of this baby ogre for the rest of his life and picked it up.

That was the first meeting between the blue ogre Loki and Kalitz Garman, the strongest knight on the continent.

* * *

Loki thought of his deceased father as he tended the precious garden they had cultivated together.

‘It’s already been almost a year since Father passed away…….’

Loki knew very well that Garman was not his real father.

But to Loki, that small father was the strongest person in the world, and a strict but caring father.

After he passed away, Loki didn’t have the confidence to live alone.

The void left by his father was immense.

But because he had vowed not to become a shameful son in front of his deceased father, Loki gritted his teeth and endured the sadness and loneliness, cherishing everything they had shared.

This vast garden is one of the precious treasures they had cultivated together.

This garden, where his favorite potatoes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins grew abundantly, had grown at least twice as large as when he cultivated it with his father a year ago.

That was proof of the affection and love Loki poured into this garden.

He devoted all his time to this garden except for his mana training.

The reason Loki trained mana was that Garman had been teaching him mana cultivation methods since he was young.

It was the method he chose to prevent the ogre’s cruel and violent instincts.

As Loki grew, the ogre’s ferocious instincts also grew stronger, and Garman, who found it difficult to suppress them with force, began to pour his mana into Loki’s body.

Then Loki, who had been acting violently, became calm at that moment. From then on, Garman began to pour his mana into Loki’s body every day, all the time.

Clearly, training mana to an ogre was not an easy task.

Garman had lost half of his mana.

Thanks to his devoted sacrifice, Loki was able to become the first ogre on the continent to feel mana, and he was able to completely control his ferocious instincts and become the docile Loki he is now.

‘Father…….’

Loki, tearing up at the sudden thought of his father, suddenly smelled a strange intruder.

“Sniff! Sniff! Huh? What is this smell? It’s not the smell of a monster?”

Loki couldn’t help but be on edge, sensing an unknown smell that was somehow both nostalgic and frightening.

Loki gripped the huge hoe he used to plow the field and prepared to greet the uninvited guest.

“Oh my god…….”

Kang Chan doubted his eyes when he saw the huge silhouette standing proudly in the field.

Although it was somewhat smaller than a Gigantes [a race of giants], it was definitely an ogre and unbelievably huge.

Wyverns were also huge, but the size of an ogre standing on two legs was as huge as a wyvern compared to a wyvern lying on the ground.

Elica couldn’t say anything at the sight of the ogre she was seeing for the first time and just watched, holding her breath.

“Did they already kill all the villagers?”

“Look at the weapon he’s holding. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a primitive weapon.”

The hoe Loki was holding was a farming tool he made himself, a primitive form made by trimming a huge coniferous tree whole and fixing a stone with rope. It was inevitable that Elica would see it as a primitive weapon.

“Huh? That ogre’s color is a bit unique? An ogre with blue skin.”

Zekeon’s eyes, looking at an ogre with blue skin for the first time, were full of curiosity.

However, Kang Chan was not at all interested in the color of the ogre. He only wanted to finish off the ogre in front of him as soon as possible. He felt an unknown eerie feeling from the ogre.

However, Kang Chan tried to ignore that feeling. Because the identity of that feeling was fear.

‘Hmm, why do I feel like this? It’s just a monster…….’

Kang Chan couldn’t give up the ogre in front of him, from whom he felt an inexplicable fear, to anyone.

“I’ll take care of the ogre alone. Zekeon, check if there are any survivors with Elica.”

Zekeon flared up at Kang Chan’s words.

“What? What do you want me to do? Why would I care about the well-being of lowly beings?”

Ignoring Zekeon’s protest, Kang Chan said with a growl.

“To dare attack people, I’ll send you to hell.”

As Kang Chan, filled with anger, gripped his dagger and ran towards the ogre, Zekeon, who had been quietly observing the ogre, hurriedly stopped Kang Chan.

“Hey! Wait! That ogre is…….”

However, Kang Chan had already thrown himself at the ogre.

Kang Chan, who had flown to within striking distance of the ogre in the blink of an eye, unleashed an aura blade [a weapon made of pure energy], the power of a Sword Master, with the momentum to butcher the ogre in one fell swoop.

It was the moment when a huge ogre, nearly 5 meters tall, would lose its life at the hands of a small human whose height was only up to its knees.

However, Kang Chan, Zekeon, and Elica witnessed an unbelievable scene.

The ogre unleashed an aura sword with the hoe it was holding.

Kang Chan, who was running, was momentarily flustered.

“Huh! A, an aura sword?”

It wasn’t just any aura sword either.

Like the Gigantes’ aura sword, it was a very large aura sword, with a length of nearly 3 meters.

As the huge aura sword came crashing down, Kang Chan had no time to dodge and blocked the attack with his aura blade.

Kwaaaang!

The ogre struck Kang Chan as if swatting a fly, and Kang Chan crashed to the ground with tremendous impact, like a fly hit by a fly swatter.

Zekeon and Elica, watching the scene, let out exclamations of astonishment.

“Chan!”

“Kang Chan-nim!”

Three suspicious men and women appeared before Loki, who was on edge.

They were not at all afraid even after seeing his appearance.

Rather, they were just observing him with curious eyes.

Looking at them, Loki recalled the words of his deceased father.

“Loki, I am very worried about you being left alone if I leave like this. But even if you are lonely, you must never go out into the human world. Even if there are humans who come to the forest, never encounter them. If you encounter them, you will surely be hurt in your heart……. And lastly, the most important thing is to be careful of those who are not afraid of you even after meeting you. They must be the ones who came to kill you…….”

Loki knew very well why his father told him not to get close to humans. And he also knew why he told him to be careful of humans who were not afraid of him.

Because the purpose they want is his blood and skin.

Loki’s face was filled with anger.

‘Keuk, are those guys hunters who came for me?’

After a while, as expected, one of the three men rushed towards him with a weapon at lightning speed.

Loki was momentarily flustered by the tremendous speed, comparable to that of his deceased father.

However, Loki, who had sparred countless times with his father during his lifetime, calmly launched a surprise counterattack against the intruder.

The power emanating from Loki’s huge body, nearly 5 meters tall, was beyond imagination, and the power of the aura sword was also on a different level from that of humans.

Kang Chan, who was hit by Loki’s surprise attack, flew for a long time and crashed into the field.

Sparks flew from Zekeon’s eyes as he watched the scene.

“That damn ogre bastard! How dare you!”

As Zekeon hurriedly unleashed his magic power, hellfire blazed in both of his hands.

It was Hellfire, the ultimate single-target attack spell of the 10th circle fire system.

It was also a hellfire that was at least three times larger than ordinary hellfire.

Even if it was the ogre Loki who used the aura sword, if he was hit by Zekeon’s special hellfire, an Ancient-class dragon, he would surely turn to ashes without being able to resist.

Loki, who was intimidated by Zekeon’s tremendous momentum, could no longer lay a hand on Kang Chan and stepped back hesitantly.

He felt tremendous fear towards Zekeon due to his monster-specific instincts.

Just as Zekeon’s completed hellfire was about to devour the ogre in front of him, Kang Chan’s voice suddenly rang out.

“Wait!”

Zekeon stopped his hand, which was about to launch the hellfire, at Kang Chan’s cry.

“Hey! Are you okay?”

Kang Chan, wearing a black combat suit, slowly got up from the dusty field.

“I’m fine. More than that, I said I’d take care of that guy.”

“Oh, you’re so capable…….”

Even though he said that, Zekeon seemed relieved at Kang Chan’s unharmed appearance.

Zekeon extinguished the hellfire that was burning in both of his hands and said.

“I won’t help you anymore, even if you cry and beg.”

Kang Chan gave a bitter smile to Zekeon, who had returned to spectator mode with his arms crossed, and then exuded a thick murderous aura towards the ogre in front of him.

“To use an aura sword as a monster, you’re quite something. But there’s only one chance for carelessness.”

Kang Chan unleashed his aura blade again and rushed towards the ogre.

Loki also gave a bitter smile as he looked at Kang Chan.

He knew very well that today would be his last day.

He couldn’t guarantee victory against the human rushing towards him right now, and the threatening woman of unknown identity standing behind him offered no hope at all.