Chapter 113 : Chapter 113
Chapter 113. Blue Blood on the Snow
Kwaang!
Maxim and Smiral collided.
Watching this, Saint-Sard swallowed hard.
‘How can His Highness…….’
He knew that Maxim was special.
But he hadn't known it was to this extent.
Before Smiral, even the strong Perignon had collapsed helplessly.
He himself was no exception.
So he hadn’t thought Maxim would be able to do anything.
‘He did show it during the swordsmanship duel, but…….’
It was just a swordsmanship duel where mana wasn't used.
One that didn't involve thoughts of death.
The battlefield was different.
One always had to think of death. For death lingered nearby.
“How dare you!”
Smiral used his claws to aim for Maxim’s life.
A persistent movement of stabbing, scratching, and tearing.
But Maxim blocked it effectively.
It was as if he was someone who knew where it would come from.
“Perhaps……”
A hope bloomed, that perhaps they might be able to get out of here alive.
That they might be covered in wounds, but still be able to get out alive.
Wounds…….
“Captain Perignon!”
Saint-Sard ran to where Perignon had fallen.
The wound on his chest was vivid.
“Breath! Is he breathing?”
He brought his ear to Perignon’s chest.
He could hear a faint heartbeat.
Saint-Sard opened his bag and looked for any useful medicine.
“Not yet, sir. You can't go like this.”
Anxiety and desperation.
With trembling hands, he poured the medicine on Perignon's chest and put the rest in his mouth.
After a moment, it bubbled up.
“Cough.”
Perignon vomited blood.
Saint-Sard exhaled raggedly and rotated his Mana Circle.
And he placed his hand on Perignon’s heart.
“M-more medicine.”
He sprinkled medicine on his chest and poured it into his mouth.
And he circulated all the mana he had to stimulate Perignon's Mana Circle.
“Cough!”
He vomited blood again.
Darker blood than before.
“It’s-it’s beating. It’s beating!”
At the sound of Perignon's heartbeat, Saint-Sard let out the breath he had been holding.
He stimulated the Mana Circle once more, praying for Perignon’s consciousness to return.
“Gack!”
Perignon, spitting out the dark matter, opened his eyes.
Saint-Sard hugged him and asked, ‘Are you, are you conscious? Do you know who I am?’
“No, how……”
“Ha! Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.”
“More than being thankful, I was definitely fighting the enemy captain……”
Kaang!
Perignon swallowed his words and looked towards the source of the sound.
Smiral was scratching the top of Dawn.
“I shouldn’t be like this, I have to help His Highne—!”
He grimaced in pain and clutched his chest.
Saint-Sard shook his head and offered the remaining potion.
Perignon refused it and looked at Maxim, who was in the middle of a battle.
“We can't just stand here like this. We have to help, even if it’s just one of us.”
“We'll only be a hindrance.”
Bethel, who had approached at some point, said.
“What are you talking about?”
“Exactly what I said. We won't be a help, we’ll be a burden that needs help.”
At the word ‘burden,’ Perignon bit his lip.
As a commander, he should be leading the situation, but he was only being a burden…….
“Where did Sir Rodrigo go?”
At Saint-Sard’s question, Bethel pointed to Uresra's ship.
Rodrigo was embedding his sword into the lower part of the ship.
Seeing this, the Uresra soldiers were running towards him.
A situation where he had to fight hundreds alone.
“Even if not His Highness, we must help Rodrigo.”
Perignon squeezed out his strength and raised his body.
At that moment, Saint-Sard put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.
The eagle, Itz, flew up from the hill.
Saint-Sard pointed at Rodrigo.
A short cry.
Itz headed for Rodrigo.
Along with him, the hidden Poinus soldiers drew their bowstrings.
“Right, there were soldiers left!”
Perignon clenched his fists.
In his eyes were reflected hundreds of flaming arrows that dyed the black sky red.
“That guy won't be able to block it this time, will he?”
Bethel pointed at Smiral.
“Since His Highness is there, I think so.”
Saint-Sard’s answer.
Perignon bowed his head toward Maxim, who was fighting on equal terms with Smiral.
“I apologize, Your Highness.”
Subsequently, Bethel, Saint-Sard, and the surviving soldiers also bowed their heads toward Maxim.
All of them saying, ‘We are sorry. Please save us.’
***
“Ow!”
It wasn't a sword, but coming at me with claws was driving me crazy.
Just when I thought I blocked the front, he'd scratch from the side, and when I thought I blocked the side, he'd try to strike from above.
Kagagak.
Even now, he was scratching Dawn.
He looked like an alligator, but what he was doing was…….
“Like a dog.”
“Kuaang!”
I didn’t know what was up with an alligator howling like that.
Kang!
I forcefully deflected his downward strike.
The fellow who was pushed back drooled and loosened his hands and neck.
It was as if he was saying he hadn't used his full power yet.
“Let me ask you something.”
The fellow, who had discarded his broken nail and was pulling out a new one, tilted his head.
“Why did you become an experimental subject?”
“Does one need a reason to become stronger?”
“You’re human. You’re becoming something that isn’t human, and you still do it?”
“What a funny fellow. Are the weak even human?”
Was that the logic?
The logic that the weak are treated worse than human, that it's natural for them to be trampled and have things taken from them.
“Only the strong can enjoy life. In the frozen land where not a single blade of grass grows, only the strong can have their fill.”
A life where if you can't take from others, you starve to death.
A soldier from Uresra had said so.
That’s why he had liked the army I led so much.
He said he wouldn't starve just by doing what he was told.
“Nothing has changed even after 300 years.”
A country where only the nobles eat and live well.
Uresra, you bastards, disappearing is the answer.
“Are you done talking? Then let’s end this now.”
“That’s fine, but what’s your name?”
The muscles on the fellow’s face twitched strangely.
“If you want to be buried without a name, go ahead.”
“What a funny one. How dare you discuss death with me.”
“Fine if you don’t want to. Let’s just do it.”
I stimulated the Mana Heart.
The Talisman shone.
A cool purple light settled on Dawn’s blade.
Thump.
At the same time the ground caved in, sparks flew from the fellow’s claws.
The fellow’s grotesque pupils twitched.
The ground.
I retracted Dawn and jumped back.
In that instant, a sharp stone pillar shot up where I had been.
“Like a little rat.”
These guys never seem to tire of the word ‘little.’
It pisses off the little one who hears it.
Kang! Kak!
When I parried the stab from his left hand, he swung up with his right.
I deflected it and aimed for the fellow’s shoulder.
Kwaang.
He folded his arm and took the mana-infused sword strike head-on.
The alligator skin must be tough and hard, so he was confident he could withstand any attack.
But.
“It stings, doesn’t it?”
Because not all sword strikes are the same.
“Keuk.”
The fellow was pushed to the side and clutched his shoulder.
It wasn't large, but a wound deep enough to bleed had formed.
“Ha!”
The fellow, as if finding the fact that he was wounded absurd, repeatedly looked at the blue blood on his hand.
A growling sound of anger.
The fellow glared at me.
“Kraaah!”
With a monstrous roar, his grotesque body swelled up.
His nails also fell off.
If so, this is…….
Kwaang!
Dawn was pushed back.
Even though the blade was clad in aura, it couldn't cut off the fellow’s fist.
“To wound this body!”
Kwang!
My body was lifted along with Dawn by the follow-up punch.
I filled the fellow’s pupils.
His legs filled my pupils.
Koo-kwang!
“Cough!”
Before my eyes could follow, I was slammed into a wall.
Is that the kind of speed and destructive power that comes from giving up being human?
I vomited a handful of blood and stood up, leaning on Dawn.
The fellow had a surprised look on his face.
“To withstand that, I acknowledge you. You are the first one to be alive after I’ve gone this far.”
“They must have all been pathetic.”
“The one who is about to die has a lively mouth.”
“A reptile might see it that way. You guys are bluish, as if you’ve gone bad, right?”
The fellow’s face contorted.
Whatever.
I took a deep breath.
Mana passed through the Talisman and relentlessly stimulated the Mana Heart.
My blood vessels expanded.
The muscles that had been exhausted from fatigue regained their vitality.
“Tell me your name. Since you withstood my fist, I will give you a reward before you die.”
The fellow walks towards me.
He’s relaxed to a disgusting degree.
I'll have to see how long that relaxation lasts.
No, I might not be able to see it.
“Aren't you curious?”
I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and looked at the fellow.
As if he sensed something was off, the fellow stopped walking.
“About why you withstood it?”
“No, not something so obvious.”
“……?”
“You use the power of the earth, but aren't you curious why I haven't used anything?”
“You weren’t at full power until now? Are you trying to say something so cliché? Then I shall wait, show me which god you have pledged to.”
“God?”
That kind of thing is for weaklings.
“You see, I use something called a Saga.”
“What uninteresting talk. I waited for nothing.”
“And from now on, I’m going to use a really strong Saga. Why, you ask?”
Because I’m at the 4th Star.
***
Kurung.
A pillar of golden light suddenly shot up.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the pillar of light.
“What is that?”
“The God of Light? Is he someone who pledged to him?”
“His Highness pledged to the God of Light?”
The Poinus soldiers, curious about the identity of the light, opened their eyes and ears wide towards Maxim.
“Ah! That’s!”
Bethel, who had seen a Saga before, beamed.
He nudged Perignon and Saint-Sard beside him and pointed at the pillar of light.
“Do you know what it is?”
“If you know, just tell us. Don't just nudge us.”
At Perignon and Saint-Sard’s reaction, Bethel wiped the tip of his nose and put on a confident face.
“It is His Highness’s true power.”
“True? What is it?”
“Something strange that he uses because he’s a Mana Heart user……”
“Something strange?”
Saint-Sard’s eyes told him to answer without dragging it out.
But Bethel only scratched his head.
It was because he didn’t know how to explain the power Maxim used.
“Let’s just watch.”
Perignon soothed the two and watched the light, and Maxim within it, intently.
Maxim, holding his sword and staring at Smiral.
「The dragon that descended upon the land has no mercy.
Its maw burns the earth
Its maw calls for blood
Its maw delivers death.」
Smiral's fists and feet persistently aimed for Maxim.
Maxim dodged them and swung Dawn.
Each time, Smiral's teeth tried to tear out Maxim's throat.
「But a dragon that has lost its wings
Is no longer a dragon.」
Maxim’s Dawn was imbued with a deep blue light.
And cut Smiral’s chest.
「Red blood wets the flower
And brings warmth to the silent field.」
Blue blood splattered.
It melted the white snow and illuminated the frozen ground.
Smiral’s eyes widened as he swung his fist.
But it did not reach Maxim’s body.
「The one who looked down,
Now only looks up.
The one who knew no fear,
Comes to know what fear is.」
His arm was cut.
His chest was cut.
Smiral’s pupils trembled.
He had only been cutting, but he could cut no more.
Even wringing out the power of the earth, he could not restrain Maxim.
Even if he climbed a pillar to trample him.
The pain becomes Smiral's own, not Maxim's.
「A dragon that has lost its wings
Is no longer a dragon.
It shall be less than a snake.」
Smiral, shaking his head at Maxim.
His face crumpled wretchedly.
Dawn split the moon.
And sprinkled blue blood on the earth.
Smiral clutched his chest and fell.
Blue blood flowed.
And red blood flowed over it.
Smiral’s form returned to its original one.
That of a human, not a reptile.
「The Dragon’s Blood Soaks the Earth – Wandering Knight, Leonhardt」
Maxim raised Dawn and looked at the cooling Smiral.
His eyes were full of bitterness.
“Still, you die as a human.”
The northern wind blew.
As if hoping the red blood would cover the blue.