The Shadowed Legacy Of The Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 291

Of course, Azadin wasn’t hit by that boulder.

Azadin simply dodged the rock by ducking down.

Then, the one who threw the rock appeared.

“Groooaaar.”

It was a giant with stag horns on its head.

It was a giant of the hill giant race, but uniquely, its eyes had turned into vertical pupils, stag horns grew on its head, and hooves had sprouted on its legs.

In other words, it was a Bree giant.

“You. You’ve come again!”

A young woman’s voice came from the Bree giant.

More precisely, it was from the club the Bree giant was holding.

This Bree giant was swinging a freshly cut tree as a club, and a young woman’s naked body was fused into that tree.

It was the dryad shaman Azadin had met in the forest a little while ago.

“…No, wait, why are you like that after not seeing you for a while?”

“You damaged my avatar with your arrow! Thanks to you, I’m in this state!”

“Is that so?”

At that moment, Azadin threw a dagger.

The Bree giant was startled and reflexively raised its club to block it.

But that club was a tree fused with the dryad, and the dagger Azadin threw pierced the dryad’s naked body, specifically her abdomen, which was protruding from the tree.

“Cough?!”

“Since you’re the only one who can speak human, I’ll tell you this, being fused into a club that a giant swings around isn’t a very wise thing to do. How stupid do you have to be to do something like that?”

“You bastard!”

As the dryad screamed in anger, the Bree began to surround Azadin from all sides.

However, they didn’t recklessly charge in.

They only formed a perimeter at a distance where Azadin’s attacks couldn’t reach.

“Hoo. Good. Then…”

Azadin readjusted his ceramite longsword, Aurelia Dawn, and prepared to enter the fray.

But it was then.

“Charge!”

Aramis and the knights began to charge towards the Bree, crossing the village bridge.

“What!?”

The Bree who had gathered to surround Azadin ended up being attacked from behind.

‘Oh, charging with the squire knights, that was a pretty good command this time. The timing is good too.’

Azadin highly praised Aramis’s judgment for boldly entering to save him.

But…

“Are you alright, Sir Azadin!? Charging into the heart of the enemy like that, how reckless!”

“……”

For a moment, Azadin was about to get angry.

‘Compared to what you did earlier, that was a much more sensible charge! Who are you to talk?’

“But don’t worry! I’ve come to save you!”

When Azadin was surrounded by Bree soldiers a little while ago, he wasn’t in any danger at all. But Aramis was acting as if he had come to rescue Azadin in a crisis situation.

For those who didn’t know Azadin’s power, it wouldn’t be strange to think that Aramis was Azadin’s savior.

For Azadin, it was as if he had unfairly incurred a debt of life, and even if he were to shout now that it was nothing, there would be no one around to listen.

‘No, before that, why is this so annoying? I should just say thank you for helping me.’

Azadin also found it hard to understand why he was feeling such a sense of rivalry.

Regardless of Azadin’s feelings, Aramis approached Azadin, cutting down Bree soldiers.

“It seems you were startled by falling off your horse. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine. Thank you for helping, Sir Aramis.”

“You’re welcome. Aren’t we brothers of the same Rescue Knights Order?!”

“……..”

Before seeing any more of this ridiculousness, Azadin nocked an arrow and pierced the Bree giant’s eyeball.

With a dull tearing sound, the Bree giant fell backward in a single blow.

“Huh?”

“……”

The other knights had perplexed expressions.

Defeating a giant was one of the events that always appeared in knightly tales of valor, so they were all obsessed with the desire to raise their fame by defeating a Bree giant.

Of course, the other knights didn’t have the confidence to defeat a giant, so they were going to leave the honor to Sir Aramis of the Celestial Fire Knights Order.

But unexpectedly, Azadin had defeated the giant.

‘Hey, that guy took the best part…’

‘Because it’s a bow.’

‘Defeating a giant with a bow, isn’t that a bit cowardly?’

The reason why defeating a giant becomes a great achievement in knightly tales of valor is because it requires amazing swordsmanship and tactics to defeat a giant in close combat.

Of course, it was also because they didn’t know much about bows.

No matter how many arrows you shoot, unless you secure penetration power, the arrow won’t reach the brain even if you hit the giant’s eyeball.

The eyeball is harder and tougher than you think, and even if you hit a giant’s eyeball accurately, it doesn’t immediately lose its sight. Even if another archer had luckily hit the giant’s eyeball, they wouldn’t have been able to defeat the giant in one blow like Azadin.

However, the knights, who were already inwardly competing for merit, found Azadin’s actions audacious and unpleasant.

“Excellent archery skills!”

Aramis, the person involved, gave a thumbs up to Azadin’s archery skills.

“Now, don’t pay attention to useless things right now.”

Azadin approached the tree that the giant had dropped and secured the dryad fused within it. Then, the Bree suddenly went berserk and charged.

They were not the Bree who had been hesitating whether to run away or not just a moment ago. Like a swarm of bees that had been disturbed, they rushed in, disregarding their lives to protect the dryad.

“Good! Come on! I’ll eliminate every last one of you!”

Aramis, even in this situation, was rather pleased and swung his ceramite longsword.

With that, a melee broke out.

Skilled soldiers tried to fight the Bree with their metal armor, metal weapons, and the advantage of their large formations, but the Bree used their high jumping ability to leap over the lines and attack.

Moreover, the Bree here were larger than the Bree soldiers who had been chasing the refugees.

In addition, there were also cavalry riding trained mooks [a type of beast], so even skilled soldiers and knights could not guarantee victory.

‘Everything’s good, but can’t you command a bit? This won’t do.’

Azadin, instead of Aramis, jumped into the strongest and most difficult part of the enemy forces, cutting down the charging mook cavalry and gesturing to the soldiers.

“Move to a wide area where you can use spears!”

“But!”

“I’ll hold them off in the meantime!”

Azadin directly defeated the strong enemies, protecting the soldiers and moving them to a place where they could take advantage of their weapons. Azadin’s command unraveled the tangled mess of the melee.

*********

The Bree went into a frenzy and fought to the last one.

Like undead who knew no fear, their fighting spirit was absurd, something that could not exist in normal living beings.

Therefore, this time, the casualties on the allied side were also significant.

Sir Sutton, who was also the lord of this place, was killed in action, and the soldiers also suffered considerable losses.

Thanks to Azadin’s command, the soldiers’ losses were reduced, but even so, about 20% of the total personnel were killed or lost their combat power.

On the other hand, the villagers were enthusiastic about the hope of regaining their village and were cheering for Aramis, who had led them.

“Oh my god! He defeated the giant and saved the village!”

“Long live Sir Aramis!”

It was Azadin who killed the giant, but somehow people were attributing it to Aramis’s achievement.

This was because no one had directly witnessed the battle scene.

Azadin had no intention of competing for merit, so he let them talk as they pleased.

“Ah, excuse me… Sir Azadin.”

A soldier who seemed to be a sergeant approached Azadin and spoke to him.

“What is it?”

“No, well, thank you. Really.”

The villagers were absorbed in Aramis’s splendid performance, but the soldiers, especially the experienced veterans, knew that Azadin had protected them and were grateful.

“I just did what I had to do. More importantly, what about the dryad?”

“Ah, she’s over there.”

The soldiers were surrounding the dryad.

The dryad, who was integrated with the tree, was unable to do anything after the Bree giant who was supposed to transport her was killed, and was displayed like an ornament in the middle of the village.

“You didn’t hurt her, did you?”

“Of course not. They say you’ll be cursed if you kill a dryad.”

“Then, let’s hear her story.”

Azadin intended to interrogate her to obtain information.

However, as Azadin approached, the dryad trembled and changed her expression.

“P-Please, save me! Knight! It wasn’t me who insulted the knight and hurt people, but the Bree sorcerer who took over my body. I…”

The dryad struggled like that, screamed evilly, and then slumped.

And suddenly, flames began to rise from her body.

“Kyaaaaak!”

The dryad writhed in pain.

“This is bad!”

Azadin immediately took off his cloak and tried to cover her body to put out the fire, but the fire did not go out.

“What are you doing!?”

Aramis, who saw the scene, rushed over.

“I’m putting out the fire!”

“This is bad!”

Aramis brought a nearby bucket and poured water on it, but the flames did not go out.

“Kyaaaaak!”

Rather, the dryad was in more pain, so Azadin, unable to watch any longer, swung his sword and cut off the dryad’s head.

“Ugh!”

Only then did the dryad’s scream disappear.

“You bastards!”

Azadin, having beheaded the dryad, cursed and was enraged.

He did it to save her, but the gruesome sensation of splitting her neck bone remained in his hand.

Azadin had resolved that he would not hesitate to kill anyone if there was a reason to kill, but he could not get used to this kind of slaughter no matter how much he did it.

“Hmm. What is this…”

“Sir Aramis. This is a trap.”

“A trap?”

“Yes.”

Azadin sheathed his sword and took a deep breath.

Arael’s voice was still being interfered with.

The magic that was spread throughout this forest did not disappear even though the dryad had died.

In other words, it was not the dryad who was interfering with Arael’s voice. There were still more Bree forces lurking in this forest.

For this to be happening in the Rescue Knights Order territory in the southern part of Fireglyph.

“Sir Aramis. Are there any other knights nearby? The Bree army is not of ordinary numbers. We need a large force. If necessary, even from Fireglyph…”

“Well, actually…”

Sir Aramis looked at the heavy infantry with a troubled expression.