Chapter 153
Seventh and Eighth (1)
The fierce battle stopped for a moment, yet the tension had doubled.
It was a lull like the night before a storm.
‘Grarr~’ the silver-haired lycanthrope bared its fangs.
As it hunched down and stared at Gwain, Trindall, Kampra, and Eli, the men retreated with grunts as the beast growled on. The knights gathered by my side.
Adelia still stood before me, and she had not moved. Naturally, the lycanthrope glared at Adelia while she stood in front of our group. What was contained in that monster’s yellow eyeballs was the flashing hunger of a predator about to feast.
‘Garrr!’
Even Eli and the three other knights were tense. I could see their bodies stiffen. The lycanthrope was truly ferocious and powerful. However, the meek woman did not retreat even a single step.
On the contrary, she stood firmer as she confronted the fierce energy of the monster.
As I watched Adelia, emotion welled up inside me – she was so bold.
Adelia stood tall as she faced the foe, and this without relying on her traits. I wanted to run to her and praise her. I wanted to say: “Well done, you are brave.”
However, I tried my best to swallow the words of praise that had welled up in my throat.
Her determination was too great to deserve a few mere words of praise, and there was much she still had to endure. Now, a woman who despised hurting things wielded a sword by her own will. A timid and meek woman stood facing the murderous half-man.
Praise would be insulting – a comfort, a deceit.
All of Adelia’s karma was there because of me. If she hadn’t met me, she would never have been in a situation like this.
b If that child never met you, she wouldn’t have to suffer such hardship} Agnes said inside my mind.
b Her destiny is not to be led by someone. She must know that it is she who is standing there}
Agnes’s voice sounded more like a sigh than a reproach.
b How long on this earth do you plan to carry the karma of others?}
My answer came from my heart.
“I am not a substitute for her karma, yet it is a responsibility I have to bear.”
b You’ve remained unchanged, same back then as you are now} Agnes lamented.
b Poor Gruhorn, a soul who voluntarily played the role of a magic sword. I feel sorry for you}
The way Agnes said this was the same way in which the white night mage spoke to me.
It was a compassion that I could not understand, and it was an unwanted sympathy.
I closed my ears to it, for this was not the time to hear the noble, sympathetic chatter of Agnes.
The silver lycanthrope lowered its head, shook it. I saw Adelia’s shoulders become tense.
And immediately after that- ‘Gwak!’ the lycanthrope hit the ground running, and Adelia jumped aside, meeting its charge. A silver trail of light hovered where the lycanthrope had swung its claws through the air. The attacks that Adelia launched also left shining traceries in the air.
In that dark forest with its lush canopy, a place where sunlight does not properly penetrate, brilliant gold and silver flashes clashed.
‘Shhhtrr~’ the giant, majestic trees trembled, their leaves scattering.
‘Brrkkg!’ and in the aftermath of that shock, the ground burst open, and trees toppled.
To avoid injury, the knights and I had to step back for a while.
“Crazy-” Bernardo Eli groaned stupidly.
“If we had stepped back only moments later, we would’ve died.”
“I know, yeah.”
I heard Gwain and his comrades converse in bored voices, and their talk did not last long. They quickly focused on the battle between Adelia and the silver half-man.
Adelia was fighting surprisingly well. After every step she took, a heavy strike followed, and the ground burst open. She was reliving the slaying of giants, as the great chasm she ripped into the earth could deal just as well with this lycanthrope as they had dealt with the giant legionaries.
Every time Adelia struck out with her sword, the lycanthrope’s flesh fell to the ground in handfuls.
However, the silver half-man was still a tricky foe. It attacked Adelia fiercely, and even though its flesh was being torn from its body, the wounds inflicted quickly healed. The beast was a seasoned warrior. It knew what weapons it had and how to use them.
It used its near-immortal body to attack Adelia aggressively. It always narrowed the gap to prevent Adelia from landing a fatal strike, and it slashed out with hands and legs to prevent her from building up her power.
As time went on, Adelia’s breathing was getting irregular.
The tip of her blade trembled, and her steps grew slower and slower.
It seemed that there was doubt in her, uncertainty as to the new, unexpected state she found herself in.
In the end, Adelia couldn’t overcome the pressure, struck her sword down with all her might, and stepped back. She looked at me with a sorrowful face.
“No!” shouted Eli. Across Adelia’s shoulder, I saw the lycanthrope hunching down and rushing at her.
‘Kwadrk, Kwadrk~’
Faced with that fierce charge, it seemed that Adelia would be trampled at once.
Realizing her peril too late, she faced the beast, but as if her progress so far had been but a lie, she could not respond. She just stared blankly at the charging lycanthrope.
‘Wooo~’ Eli readied his sword and stepped out. Gwain and the other two were ready to charge in. Their willingness to aid a comrade deserved praise, and it was an instinctual, blameless response.
But it was a meaningless reaction.
“No further,” I said as I stepped forward. The lycanthrope had come thumping, loping in, but it now crashed to a halt, braking itself with its arms.
Looking at it, I said quietly, “You cannot have her.”
The lycanthrope gave a low growl.
The fierce momentum of its charge was no longer in evidence.
“She’s mine. This is my knight. She is not an insignificant person to be trampled on.”
And I said this I released my hidden presence with all my might.
‘Gwoo-ooh-ooh-ooh~’
The karma I had accumulated, the power I had gained, spread all over the place.
My energy had reached the level of the hero and pushed the beasts back. The first two lycanthropes who had appeared groaned as they lowered themselves. They were like scared dogs, whimpering with their tails between their legs. The silver-haired lycanthrope roared fiercely, but it dared not charge at me; it merely growled.
“Huh, how? You said you had no mana?”
“I said I have no mana. I never said I couldn’t fight.”
“But how can-“
“The Sword Master does not fight with mana alone.”
If the quad-chain knights fight with their swordsmanship alone, then Sword Masters fight with their all. With a sword, only flesh can be torn apart; if the soul is used as a sword, then both the opponent’s body and mind are destroyed.
That was how Sword Masters did battle. And I knew my anger alone was enough to divert the silver lycanthrope from its former intentions. I glanced at Eli, who was still wracked by doubt, then turned straight to Adelia.
The silver-haired half-man retreated a few steps. It was not so long ago that the knights and wizards of the empire could not stop me in that battle where my mana was depleted, and my body became a tattered rag.
Yet, the lycanthrope stepped back, and after looking at him, I looked at Adelia.
“Good job, Adelia.”
At my words, she started to spill the tears that she had held back. It seemed as if all the sadness and fear she had suffered while confronting the mighty beast poured out from her at once.
The courage that had supported her seemed as if but an illusion and her body now trembled.
‘Shn,’ I reached out and supported her by the waist. She cried in my arms.
“Adelia.”
She looked up at me.
“It will be difficult. But since you have started, you should finish it.”
Adelia looked at me with a blank face.
“Do not worry about it. I’ll support you.”
At my words, she wiped away her tears. Then she summoned up the courage that had so quickly deserted her.
Adelia looked at me with a hardened face and then stepped away from me.
She gripped her sword and turned to face the lycanthrope. A brilliant glow quickly rose to the tip of her sword. I stood still and watched her back. Adelia charged across the ground.
Up till then, the silver-haired lycanthrope had been suppressed by my presence. It now lowered its body and staggered forward. Adelia’s assault rained down on the beast’s head.
‘Groaa!’ it roared as it leaped to one side, escaping her attack. Adelia advanced at it, step by step.
Her first step was taken by a light and slender body.
The second step was of a heavier tread, yet still insufficient.
Adelia’s third step dented the ground.
And the earth roared as she took her fourth step.
When her feet touched the ground in that final, fifth step, Adelia was like a tsunami.
“When I cleanse my sword”
Adelia, her sword raised above her head, sang softly. It was a passage from of Sudden Change].
‘Gwoo-ooh-ooh~’ Brilliant rays shone upon her sword. Adelia readied her sword for the strike, the golden light almost reaching out toward the lycanthrope. The beast gave a fierce growled as it readied its claws, looking at Adelia, who had her sword pointing at it.
“Blood into the river flows”
“And the flesh enriches the earth”
“By a giant’s flesh and blood”
“Shall I form the world anew”
Under my own breath, I recited the final verse that Adelia wasn’t able to voice.
‘Qschazik~’ and in the next instant, Adelia landed a direct hit on the lycanthrope.
‘Graah ahhr ahhr!’ the beast screamed. Its blood pattered to the ground in a light mist. Its right shoulder had been severed, for it had turned its body as Adelia attacked, preventing her from taking its head.
“Tchu,” I clucked my tongue, and the lycanthrope roared fiercely. Its yellow eyeballs stared at me, full of anger. I could see the cowardice in the beast’s eyes, and it almost seemed as if it was blaming me.
“I didn’t do anything. I just watched,” I mused, although I did raise my energy to save Adelia.
‘Aaaarhh!’ the silver beast with the severed shoulder cried. After it had seen so much of its own blood, its former anger and hunger that had been crushed by presence sprang back into life.
It seemed to care little about my presence now; it was solely focused on combat. Its fighting spirit was now once more like that of a true warrior of the full moon that sinks its fangs into the necks of its prey.
But such anger came too late to it.
“Aaah?” a sigh of ecstasy came from behind the beast, and it turned away from me. In front of the half-man, there stood a woman drenched in the spilled blood of the lycanthrope. Different colors flowed through her eyes. There she stood: A meek maniac who had now lost herself to the traits of [Butcher] and [War Mania].
The maniac was grinning and lifted her sword. The auspicious light of the blade did not fit well with that eerie madness that shone in her eyes.
The lycanthrope groaned.
The maniac laughed in reply.
* * *
The battle ended. All that remained was blood and clumps of flesh scattered all over the place, and a woman drenched in blood. Adelia didn’t even move.
Usually, she would have shed tears when he saw the carnage that she had wrought, yet now, she stood tall and still. It seemed that she was immersed in deep thoughts.
‘Gulp,’ I heard someone swallow spit down their dry throats. I knew not whether it had been Eli, Gwain, Kampra, or Trindall. I didn’t care – I only looked at Adelia.
She met my gaze with a face that neither smiled nor cried, and she touched her lips.
“I guess-” but before she even finished speaking, ‘Fwop!’, an intense light burst from her.
I muttered in awe as I saw the radiant glow.
It was at that moment that Adelia tore down the wall that had been blocking her.
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