Chapter 257 : Chapter 257
Chapter 257. Overloading (12)
After tumbling and bouncing across the ground multiple times, he jammed the axe into the floor with both arms to brake. But the momentum was too great, and he slid another dozen meters before finally stopping.
SCRAAAAPE—!
The axe blade, heated cherry-red from friction, and the aluminum floor threw sparks as it carved a long, crimson-lit severing line.
Enoch skidded to a halt, one knee bent, the tails of his uniform whipping behind him.
The tingling numbness in his fingertips made his teeth clench on reflex. At the same time, he grasped what had happened in an instant.
Immediately after returning from the inheritance in the Inner World, he had instinctively blocked the incoming attack — but there hadn't been time to deflect it.
Enoch glanced at his own arm. The hand gripping the axe was still trembling faintly.
Realizing the sheer power behind the enemy's strike — which would have turned him into ground meat had his reaction been even slightly slower — sent a chill down his spine.
Enoch noticed blood flowing on the floor and shifted his gaze there.
A short distance away, unconscious freelancers and civilians lay piled together. Their bones had been shattered or their limbs severed in an instant. The underground facility's floor had long since turned into a sea of blood.
Among them, some faces he had seen during the defensive battle against the Magical Beasts caught his eye.
Just then, a massive shadow fell before him, and he raised his head.
There it was, suspended in the airspace of the underground shelter.
Three pairs of black wings spread wide, green light spilling from the cracks in its jet-black carapace — a twisted form like an angel.
The powerful Experimental Subject classified as a Master Class Magical Beast looked down at Enoch with a head encased in smooth carapace, featureless — no eyes, no nose, not even a mouth.
The only indication that it was staring this way was the sinister cluster of green light seeping through the cross-shaped fissure in its carapace.
Enoch slowly braced the axe handle against the floor and rose to his feet.
"......"
The situation was clear. By recklessly pressing on with combat while carrying the risk of the inheritance, the situation had spiraled to its worst, just as it appeared.
But in the end, there was only one thing to do.
He glared at the enemy before him, expressionless.
The enemy — its frame alone over ten meters, and hovering low in the air, making it appear even more massive — spread both arms wide in a grandiose gesture, Carapace Lance in hand, as if mocking him.
As if it had found the single greatest obstacle to its assault and was saying: let's settle this.
***
The same moment.
From high above in the underground space, the electronic eye of a drone quietly observing the standoff between Enoch Elsyde and the Master Class Magical Beast scattered its blue light.
Deep inside the underground shelter, on a massive monitor mounted on the shelter's ceiling wall, a live feed from the drone scouting overhead — powered by Nano's technical expertise — was streaming.
The shelter's display, reminiscent of a giant train station information board, had originally been installed to observe conditions outside during emergencies, but Nano had temporarily commandeered it.
As the battle dragged on, rather than continuously streaming the drone's footage through her visor, she had opted to use the nearby monitor as a relay device to reduce mana consumption and lighten the load.
Everyone around had their eyes glued to that screen. Freelancers and Outsourcing District citizens alike had gathered together, staring blankly.
Visibility was poor — the feed was far from clear, obscured by fires and smoke erupting everywhere, and the black powder billowing from Magical Beast corpses.
It was barely possible to tell who was doing what, let alone gauge the outcome.
But it was all they had to cling to.
They had already witnessed firsthand how multiple freelancers had been defeated with humiliating ease.
Even if that Direct Lineage was supposedly 10th Rank as rumored, whether he could win against that Magical Beast was anyone's guess.
"Ella, Ella!"
Ella, who had been staring blankly at the monitor, flinched and turned at the voice calling her. Realizing it was none other than her little sister, she let out a sigh of relief.
"I'm here. What is it?"
"I'm scared."
Seeing her little sister grab her hand tightly as she said that, Ella's eyes widened involuntarily. Normally, the girl was composed no matter what — never whining. For her to show weakness like this.
But looking at the shelter's surroundings, such a reaction was hardly surprising.
"It's okay, I'll stay right beside you...... Ngh."
When Ella let out a small groan from a sudden throb of pain she couldn't suppress, her sister's face creased with worry.
"You got hurt when you fell earlier. Are you okay?"
"Yeah...... I'm fine."
Ella forced a smile and shook her head. Then she casually cupped her hand over her ankle to hide it.
Her leg had been hurting ever since the fall. And from the alarming swelling, she might have been seriously injured — but she deliberately didn't say so.
The area was still full of groaning people.
A young nun from The Order, said to be part of Direct Lineage Enoch Elsyde's squad, was bustling about among them, but even she alone wasn't enough for the sheer number of casualties.
Lily called out, the hem of her nun's habit fluttering.
"Um, if there's anyone in critical condition nearby, please let me know! I'll go to them first!"
At that, Ella instinctively looked around, spotted a girl slumped against the wall beside her, bleeding heavily, and rushed to Lily.
"Sister! There's a badly injured kid over there!"
"Understood, I'll give first aid right away!"
The moment Lily nodded, a rough hand suddenly landed on her slender shoulder.
"Hey, nun from The Order."
Then the hand's owner forcibly spun Lily around. Before her stood three or four men with menacing faces, their expressions twisted from the pain of their injuries.
The man who had grabbed Lily glanced at the blood seeping through the bandage tied around his waist and spoke.
"Those brats are non-mages abandoned even by the Outsourcing District. Treat us first. We're Mages. In an emergency, we can at least contribute as a fighting force."
"B-but this child has the worst bleeding! If she doesn't get treated now, she'll really be in danger!"
"They're just non-mages anyway!"
The man raised his voice in irritation, but Lily refused to yield to their intimidating presence and shook her head firmly.
"I'm part of Lord Enoch's squad......! The Direct Lineage clearly said I could act on my own judgment. Whether non-mage or Mage, I will treat the most critical casualties first!"
"Stubborn nun, aren't you. Do members of The Order only listen when you use force?"
The man gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on Lily's shoulder, and tried to drag her away.
The instant Lily let out a frail scream, a small child stepped directly in front of them.
"Stop it!"
Ella spread both arms wide and blocked the way. The man spoke in a derisive, frigid voice.
"What? Who are you? Get lost if you don't want to die."
"N-no! The Direct Lineage's squad saved me earlier! They're protecting you too!"
"From the looks of it, you're a brat who doesn't understand words. I bet you're a non-mage yourself, given how you're sympathizing with these lot."
The Outsourcing District citizen didn't even hesitate before drawing a short staff from inside his coat and aiming it at Ella.
"If we get healed, we become a fighting force in an emergency. That's how you survive too, kid."
Ella stood her ground and shouted.
"I don't care! If you could have fought, you would've already done it! You just need an excuse to get your wounds treated first......!"
"Excuse or not, it's the truth, isn't it? You useless ones who are worthless even after treatment — you die first. Otherwise, we'll kill you ourselves."
The tip of the jet-black, modern-styled metal staff the man aimed began to glow with the color of mana. He wore a twisted smile as he shouted.
"In this world, lives are never equal! It's all about the worthy surviving! It's only right that worthless ones like you are sacrificed!"
"—'Only right,' you say?"
Just then, a cold voice from the side pierced through. All at once, the surrounding people stepped back in unison.
Alicia emerged from among them.
Amid the clamor of the crowd, the girl with ash-brown hair streaming behind her strode boldly through the throng and stood before the man.
The man who had been gripping Lily's shoulder saw the girl at the front, released his hold, and took a reflexive step backward.
"Wh-what? A Dragoon, are you. Why are you interfering?"
"Maintainin' order is also my duty. Out there, the Direct Lineage is fightin' to protect all of you. So please, don't fight among yourselves. Right now, whether non-mage or Mage, it's the time to be helpin' each other!"
"Help each other? Who's helping whom, exactly?"
The man scoffed.
"I'd rather not suffer because of helpless weaklings who need saving in a situation like this."
He spat venom at Alicia with a cornered expression.
"And if you're part of Victoria's Dragoons, shouldn't you be out there exterminating those Magical Beasts instead of standing here? Go tell that Direct Lineage to hurry up and save us from whatever those things are."
"That's......"
When Alicia hesitated for a moment at those words, the man smiled as if to prove his point.
"Don't tell me. You're not skilled enough for that? So much for the famous Dragoons — turns out you're useless when it really matters."
He snickered coldly.
"Well, of course! They've looked down on the people of the Outsourcing District so much that, even knowing this disaster was coming, not only did they manipulate public opinion by saying the war against the beasts was going well, they still haven't even deployed the Dragoon main force!"
At that, Alicia lowered her head slightly. Then she opened her mouth quietly.
"......I understand how the people here must feel. But there's at least one thing I can say for certain."
Alicia raised her head, her vivid blue eyes looking toward the monitor where Enoch was.
"That person will definitely pull through."
A few seconds of the standoff had passed. The heat of the surrounding flames caressed Enoch's skin.
Enoch stamped the aluminum-reinforced ground hard with the sole of his shoe.
The fierce fighting spirit and tension, intense enough to break a sweat, brought on difficulty breathing, and he clawed at his shirt collar.
His condition was far from good. His vision was limited by the inheritance's aftereffects, and on top of that, the impact from the last blow may have damaged his semicircular canals, because he had partially lost his sense of balance.
The enemy was serious. Over a dozen freelancers lying unconscious around him had swarmed the thing all at once and couldn't inflict a single scratch.
On top of that, it had the luxury of leaving its gravely wounded victims scattered everywhere instead of killing them — as if it intended to turn them into material for its own kind someday.
The twisted artificial angel assumed its stance.
Gripping the massive Carapace Lance in one hand, it tucked its wings tight, ready to charge forward at any moment, and coiled its body.
Enoch assumed his own stance in response.
He kicked the axe up, caught it offset, and lowered his waist deep into his stance.
He still couldn't use the sword.
Not because he feared others watching. If he used swordsmanship now, the odds of entering a 'complete' inheritance state were high. If that happened, everything would be over.
On the ceiling of the underground shelter, wrecked by the combat, a fluorescent light dangling by a thread of wire swung back and forth like a pendulum — then abruptly stopped.
And then, unable to hold on, it fell to the ground and shattered with a loud crash.
That was the signal to begin.
The moment Enoch took a step forward, the Magical Beast spread its wings wide and charged first, using the fierce gust as thrust. It immediately swept its arm in a cleaving motion.
WHOOOOSH—!
The Carapace Lance, honed to a needle-like point, hurtled toward Enoch.
But that was the enemy's mistake. Enoch angled the axe handle to deflect the Carapace Lance at a slant, converting the enemy's devastating blow entirely into his own momentum.
[Sword Saint of the Waves, Swordsmanship - Form 1]
Paying no mind to the form of the weapon in his hand, executing the sword's principle through body mechanics alone without Unique Mana, Enoch's axe spun once and soared high.
[Lethal Strike]
The axe, accelerated to explosive speed by the redirected force of the enemy's own blow, tore through the incoming enemy's wing, twisting and punching through it. Black powder erupted from the point of impact. Both sides were knocked back.
The Magical Beast traced a wobbling trajectory through the air, while Enoch was pushed backward, his shoe soles dragging across the ground.
SCREEEEE—!
The beast glanced at its wing, and upon realizing that the wing it had swung up in defense had been completely shattered, it let out a bizarre shriek and twisted its body in midair.
But that wasn't all.
The entire damaged wing began making strange cracking sounds before breaking apart entirely.
The principle of Lethal Strike — no matter how sturdy the armor, nothing could stop water from seeping into cracks. Its signature penetrating blow had detonated.
Enoch watched expressionlessly as the enemy began to frenzy.
However, a single clash had told him enough.
The combat instinct, the reflexes, the grip strength that far transcended human limits, and the defensive technique of sweeping a wing into that razor-thin gap the instant he launched a counter—
The Master Class Magical Beast before him was a fundamentally different individual from all the ones before.
If so, a quick decisive battle was the answer.
The moment the decision formed, he kicked off the ground, dragging the axe along the floor as he charged toward the enemy. With a violent shower of sparks, he aimed a rising slash at its vitals.
The enemy likewise spread its wings and raised its lance sideways, thrusting back.
A single clash of weapons erupted, followed immediately by strikes aimed at each other's lives.
Dozens of sparks flew across the trajectories that tore through the air like a storm between the two, and Enoch gritted his teeth at his wavering vision once more.
The enemy's defense had no systematic principles like lance-work or swordsmanship — it relied purely on superhuman reaction speed and instinct.
Under normal conditions, the advantage would have been his, but in this situation, it was considerably unfavorable.
Rather than relying on vision, he was deflecting the enemy's attacks on pure intuition alone, but there was no telling how long that could last.
At that very moment, the cross-shaped gleam of the enemy's eyes before him seemed to stretch long and curve, as if smiling.
In the instant that creeping sensation made Enoch's eyes fly wide—
The enemy's sweeping lance suddenly morphed into a thrust, and silent streaks of light shot toward Enoch.
A lightning-fast strike with no preparatory motion, impossible to read even by instinct, grazed Enoch's shoulder and scattered blood. In that instant, Enoch realized the terrifying truth and widened his eyes.
Unable to rely on vision, and with even his physical senses dulled by the inheritance's side effects, the enemy had launched an attack that could defeat even the intuition Enoch had been using as his last resort.
A thrust with its own movements suppressed to the extreme, reducing its presence like a silenced gun. The intent was clear.
Enoch was not the only one who had been reading his opponent.
The Master Class Magical Beast before him had also identified Enoch's weaknesses and had been learning them.
Normally Enoch would never have such vulnerabilities, but now, engulfed in the inheritance's side effects, the story was different.
At this rate it's disadvantageous — the moment that judgment formed, Enoch immediately reversed his grip on the axe and focused every nerve on defense.
But an enemy's Carapace Lance would never let a discovered weakness go unexploited.
Barely deflecting the attacks that nicked his shoulder, waist, and forearm — whittling him down piece by piece — Enoch watched for an opening and leapt far backward.
The instant he jumped to avoid the enemy's lance shaft embedded in the ground, kicking off it and leaping to the rear, Enoch realized his mistake.
This was bad. He was airborne.
This was the home ground of a winged enemy.
SCREEEEE—!
The enemy immediately detected that Enoch had leapt into an inescapable position and swept its wings wide in pursuit. The instant it began charging to deliver the finishing blow to Enoch in midair—
"How pa~thetic. Get away from him!"
A prim voice rang out from directly above the beast as it hovered with wings spread.
A streak of crimson light dropped vertically onto the enemy's head from above, scoring a direct hit.
A massive shockwave erupted in midair, and the beast lost the lift in its wings, staggered, and half its body cratered into the ground.
As if an enormous nail had been hammered brutally into the floor by a mallet far smaller than itself — a bizarre sight that completely defied the laws of physics.
On top of that, four pillars standing dozens of meters tall around it couldn't withstand the violent impact and shattered to pieces all at once.
Fragments of the pillars rained down upon the beast embedded in the ground like a finishing blow.
Watching the scene before him — rubble piling up into what looked like a stone cairn amid billowing dust — Enoch looked up.
The wolf-eared girl who had stomped on the beast's head and launched herself into the air was spinning in a single graceful turn.
"Sirocco."
In the fleeting instant their eyes met, Sirocco shouted with a proudly prim expression.
"Hmph, see? You do need me after all!"
She had defied the order to evacuate the shelter's occupants and come to help him.
Glancing at Sirocco, who had landed with a spinning somersault in the opposite direction of the embedded enemy with a heavy THUD—, Enoch spoke quietly.
"Sirocco, I told you earlier to evacuate people deeper into the shelter......"
"That doesn't matter!"
Sirocco placed one hand on her hip and looked up at him with a bold expression.
"Remember? I said I'd help you as your Follower Family. No matter what you say, I came to help you!"
Enoch couldn't help but crack a smile at her brazen attitude. It was all too easy to imagine her hovering around the perimeter out of worry, then rushing in at the critical moment.
"Did I do good?"
Enoch nodded silently. If Sirocco hadn't intervened, he almost certainly wouldn't have been able to block that strike.
"Definitely. Without you, that would've been a disaster just now. Thanks."
"Hmm~ph, great!"
At those words, Sirocco blinked her eyes wide, then broke into an overflowing smile.
"So. You're going to pat my head again this time, right?"
"That's random. Later."
Enoch said that and glanced ahead.
Judging by how readily Sirocco said such things, her sudden intervention on the battlefield had packed tremendous power.
Even if not a kill, that much should have definitely rendered the enemy combat-incapable.
It was precisely because of that assumption that, when a massive hand suddenly shot out from the rubble and seized his ankle, Enoch couldn't react at all.
Sirocco's short scream lasted only an instant. He blinked once, and suddenly his entire field of vision was filled with the open second-floor wall of the shelter. He had been hurled a good dozens of meters from where he had just stood.