*** Elroy’s POV ***
ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRRRR
The monster’s roar struck my eardrums like a hammer. It had deep wounds, but its will to live was not broken. It didn’t scurry away, grunting at the loss of a leg or an arm, frothing at the mouth with each wound on its body. ‘How are these creatures? They’re like killing machines.’ They didn’t mind sacrificing their life if it meant they could have a meal, and they especially liked the taste of humans.
Slip
I let my front foot slip. I narrowly dodged an attack. A small crater appeared in the ground where I stood a second ago. The creature I was dealing with, the Ashen Bear, was enormous. I’d seen it in pictures before; it looked like a possessed fluffy punching bag and then frozen to death. Except it never said it was as big as a small hill. There’s no way to describe the feeling of intimidation that came from its size.
“Fucking teddy bear.”
The Ashen Bear wasn’t just big; it was fast. Its arms swung like battering rams, tearing up the ground around it. It didn’t look like anything like the photo. No bear I know has unusually long forelimbs like that or a chest the size of the White Mountains. The bear stared at me momentarily, catching its breath, and then lunged at me, knocking over a tree.
“Aaahhhhhhh!”
If I rolled sideways, I’d get caught in its front legs, and dodging backward wasn’t an option. If I jumped up, the bear would attack me, and since I couldn’t just dig into the ground and disappear like a mole, my only option was o move forward. As I move to the left, the grizzly’s right front leg opens wide, opening a gap in its torso.
“Elroy, look out…!”
It was Daphne. She had grown a lot in the last few days. It was rare for her to panic on the battlefield anymore. Her attempts to cast spells on monsters still failed, but the protective spells she cast on me were more reliable now. I felt quite secure in the magical shield that surrounded me. I could probably take a punch from that damned bear by mistake and be fine.
Trusting in my protective magic, I turned to face the charging bear. Preparing my arms and body, I gritted my teeth and braced myself. Its forelegs are thicker than a log. I could smell the foul scent of the beast as it approached. The bear’s front legs could not make it stop in time due to its immense inertia. The bear howled but was more panicked this time as it slammed on the brakes.
“…Do I really have to do this?”
It was a miserable fate for a hero in disguise. I then take a breath as I take my stance. I move my left foot back, digging into the ground like a wedge, kicking up gravel and dirt in my face. I didn’t have the luxury of spitting out the sand that found its way into my mouth. I chewed on a grain of dirt between my molars and glared at the bear’s wide-open body.
“Shit-.”
I raised the hilt of my holy sword and twisted it as my body demanded. My left arm centered the weight of the blade while the right arm prepared to send the tip flying like an arrow. I could feel something other than blood flowing from my pounding heart. It was mana. Mana could be drawn from and nurtured by a unique breathing technique. The Hero’s body stored up quite a bit of mana, and I was lucky to have it.
Rasp
Muscles and bones contracted, gathering strength. Before the Ashen Bear could regain its collapsed form and attack me again, I unleashed a burst of mana, sending the Holy Sword flying with all my might. The unleashed power ripped through the air, slicing into the Ashen Bear’s flank. Sensing the end, the bear roared louder than ever, and my holy sword pierced through its flesh, more rigid and stronger than steel, sending the full force of its impact into its heart. But I didn’t stop there. I ran forward and pulled the sword from its torso. I raised it once more, slashing deeply into the Ashen Bear’s body again and again.
“Ooooooo….”
The Ashen Bear whined and fell backward. Thud. It collapsed onto the ground. I let out a ragged breath that I had been holding in due to tension and, at the same time, spat out the dirt and sand that had entered my mouth. A small pool of blood formed under me, my clothes and face stained with dirt and Ashen Bear blood.
“You’re so dirty.”
The Ashen Bear was a far cry from the monsters they had faced. A few wild boars, wild dogs, and the like were fine, but a class 1 monster was different. If they were to go out into a battlefield where the Seven Disasters were lurking, they would be attacked by the dozens and hundreds, so how they managed to capture the Third Disaster was a mystery.
“… Elroy.”
Daphne approaches me from behind with quiet steps, concern written all over her face. I looked at her and waved a hand to indicate I was fine, but Daphne gingerly placed her hand on my face, still concerned, and turned it slightly to the side.
“It’s okay; thanks to your protective magic, I’m not hurt anywhere.”
Daphne lifted her head slightly without removing her hand from my face. Her violet eyes always looked a little surprised when we talked like this.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Really. I’m fine.”
I smirked and reassured her repeatedly, and only then did Daphne pull away from me, her face flushing slightly.
“… Elroy is strong.”
Daphne murmured as she turned her attention to the corpse of the Ashen Bear behind me. I followed her gaze and shook my head.
“I’m not strong; I barely caught that one bear.”
“You don’t have a single scratch on you, and I can only think of a few people in the kingdom who can catch an Ashen Bear by themselves without taking a single hit.”
Daphne clumsily tried to console me. I felt a bit more comfortable after hearing her talk to me. I shook my head lightly and smiled, grabbing the Holy Sword.
“We got lucky when we defeated the Third Disaster, and there’s no guarantee we’ll get lucky again, so we’re going to have to do whatever it takes.”
Yes, everyone in the party was lacking when they defeated the Third Disaster in the original. Arjen was weak, Georg was weak, Isis was weak, and the wizard, now on vacation, was weak. Not to mention Elroy. There were thousands of deaths before they finally ended the Disaster. At the mention of the Disaster, a shadow fell across Daphne’s face.
“…Why are Disasters a Disaster?”
They are catastrophes that would end the world. Seven threats that had existed since the days of mythology. Defeating them was the task of all mankind. The first and second Disasters were defeated in the past by kings and heroes at great cost. A fumbling hero with an equal number of sacrifices slew the Third Disaster.
“… They just are.”
I retorted bitterly. The more I thought about the rest of the Disasters described in the original, the more I realized I did not have time to waste. I sighed and looked up. ‘If only time flowed a little slower.’ I walked over to the tree trunk the Ashen Bear had knocked down and sat down. Daphne came and sat beside me.
“What was the Third Disaster?”
Daphne asked after we’d been silent for a while.
“…The Kraken. You know, a gigantic octopus. It made a sailboat look like a toy. I don’t think anyone with seasickness could get close to it.”
I answered. However, I hadn’t fought the Disaster so I couldn’t speak from experience. I stumbled through the story, avoiding many details in the original. As I continued to talk, I made eye contact with Daphne, who was staring at me. I swallowed dryly. ‘Oh no, I am being too suspicious….’
“… I’m sorry to have touched on a painful memory.”
Oh, no.
Daphne was biting her lip as if she were genuinely sorry. She must have interpreted my refusal to tell her the details as a sign that I didn’t want to be reminded of what happened. When I didn’t say anything in response, Daphne’s face grew more somber.
“I-I should have been more thoughtful.”
Her voice creeps in. I felt sorry for Daphne, but I hope she misunderstands here. I didn’t want to have to explain myself, and I didn’t want to keep talking about something that hadn’t happened.
“It’s okay; I don’t care that much anymore.”
Daphne nodded timidly in response, and an awkward silence ensued. Even though Daphne isn’t very talkative, I’ve never felt uncomfortable around her, but our conversation made me conscious of the silence. I looked around, trying to think of something to say.
“By the way, your magic feels a lot more stable now. You were shaking the whole time when you first used it.”
Daphne’s expression brightened at the change of topic.
“It’s all thanks to Elroy. Until now, I kept failing when I tried to cast auxiliary magic on someone else. However, when I fight with you, I can’t take my eyes off you….”
For some reason, Daphne, who had been rambling on excitedly, suddenly closed her mouth and bowed her head deeply. I wondered what had happened this time, and I approached her anxiously, but she moved away from me instantly. Peeking out from beneath a curtain of light pink hair, her face was tinted the same color as her hair.
“By the way, why don’t you use an Aura?”
“Aura?”
Daphne nodded.
“Everyone who uses as much mana as you use aura, but you don’t seem to be using them today, even against the Ashen Bear.”
“Ah… aura.”
I smirked and looked down at my side. A pure white sword hung there, from tip to hilt. Aura, could I form it? I had enough mana, and I knew how to do with it. Well, that was a pointless assumption.
“It’s not that I don’t use it; I can’t.”
“What…? Does that mean… Elroy, are you sure you are healthy…?”
“It’s not because of me. This is the problem.”
I said, tapping the hilt of the Holy Sword.
“I can’t put an aura on a Holy Sword, no matter how good a swordsman I am.”
A sword that chooses its master. It is natural for the Holy Sword to have an ego, a sword as old and mighty as it is. Just as I can’t apply an aura on someone else’s arm, I can’t put an aura on a Holy Sword that acts as a single entity.
“Then….”
Daphne looked at me as if to ask why I was using a sword that couldn’t support aura. I drew my Holy Sword and held it in my lap. No one knows what was used to make the Holy Sword’s pure white blade. Its appearance was far from glamorous. The hilt was white, but everything else looked like a normal sword.
“I guess we’ll find out why later.”
I muttered to myself and stroked the hilt of the sword. It felt cool to the touch.
It is powerful, that’s for sure. It can pierce the hide of an ashen bear with ease, even without an aura, and it can channel mana that strengthens its wielder. However, it was far from its true strength.
“When will it wake up?”
I sighed as I put the holy sword back into its sheath.
***
“Yes, you may enter.”
We made it through today. Daphne’s magic was stabilizing, and as I got more comfortable in combat, the number of monsters I could capture per trip increased. Of course, Daphne isn’t entirely over her trauma yet, and I have my own misgivings, so I can’t be too optimistic.
‘… I’ll have to work harder.’
“Good job again today.”
“Good job, Elroy.”
I exchanged exhausted greetings with Daphne. I wish I had more of a share of that youthful look on her face, more of that pride. As I was about to walk away with that simple wish, I felt someone walking towards me and Daphne.
“That’s….”
My eyes widened as I realized who it was. An elderly man in black priestly robes was waving from a distance. Beside me, Daphne tilted her head slightly in confusion while I gulped softly.
“Hey, Hero. There you are.”
There were only two clergymen the hero knew. It couldn’t be the Lord of the Holy Land, the Pope of the Puritans, so it had to be the other.
“It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it?”
Bishop Andrei. The one who had sent Iris to the brave party. I frowned nervously, meeting the bishop’s narrow eyes.
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