Chapter 56
Chapter 56
“…….”
Despite the tip of my sword being pointed straight at him, the bastard remained silent.
Judging by the pressure he was giving off, he looked even stronger than Rammas, so it didn’t seem like he had given up the fight.
I slowly moved my feet.
Tsuzzz—
At that moment, he suddenly raised both hands, wrapped in pitch-black demonic energy.
I, too, drew my sword back and tensed my body, ready to kick off the ground at any moment—but the demonic energy in his hands fired first.
“……?”
However, it passed me by emptily and flew behind my back.
Whether he had fired it anticipating that I would dodge or not, I wasn’t someone pathetic enough to get hit by such an obviously visible trajectory.
Tap.
After closing the distance with him at last, I lightly tapped the hood of his robe with the tip of my sword.
It toppled backward, revealing what was inside.
“Hooh.”
The demon race’s appearance was beautiful enough to draw admiration.
Alluring red hair, like Elysia’s, spilled out from beneath the robe and spread into the darkness.
As I momentarily had my eyes stolen by the soft glow it gave off under the moonlight, she looked at me and smiled gently.
The demon’s eyes were a pale pink.
Something even more dazzling than her hair sent me a subtle gaze.
I felt my head grow faint for a moment.
[SYSTEM: Use of mental-type interference magic has been confirmed.]
“……!”
The system message that appeared on one side of my vision snapped me back to my senses.
At the same time, I felt a fierce presence rushing in from behind.
“Keuk!”
I hurriedly kicked off the ground and twisted my body midair.
Something with a massive body brushed past me like a cannonball.
Kwaaaang-!
The teleport gate that had barely left any traces shattered into pieces once again.
Breaking into a cold sweat, I barely managed to steady myself, and there I saw Rammas standing tall atop the wreckage.
“I’m sure I cut him properly.”
Frowning, I rubbed my arm, which had broken out in goosebumps, perhaps due to the mental attack.
Rammas’s body should have been cut down dozens of times by my blade.
And yet, the body in front of me retained its form perfectly intact.
-Do you really think this body would fall to a mere human!
Rammas roared while pounding his chest, but looking at the demonic energy covering his body, there was something suspicious about it.
‘Was that the demonic energy she fired earlier.’
Rammas had definitely died once by my hand.
That meant the demonic energy she fired must have either revived him or nullified his wounds.
It was taking longer than expected to take down the demon race.
The vibrations shaking the ground were drawing closer, and the sounds of battle from the direction of the walls were growing louder.
A full-scale fight must have broken out.
I had left the rear to Alice, but if demons like these were over there as well, I couldn’t guarantee the outcome.
“Then.”
Tadat-!
I kicked off the ground with all my strength, leaving nothing in reserve.
My body, approaching that of a Sword Master, exploded forward at tremendous speed.
However, since my target was limited, Rammas—who had been roaring in front of the collapsed teleport gate debris—noticed and stepped in between.
-Oh no, that won’t do.
Boom-!
A sound completely different from before echoed in all directions.
Even after colliding with aura close to an aura blade, his body remained intact.
In fact, it had hardened to the point where my hand hurt from swinging my sword.
“Ghn.”
I quickly tried to slip into his blind spot and cut down the demon behind him, but unlike his bulky appearance, Rammas moved with agility, blocking every opening I tried to exploit.
Bright yellow sparks scattered into the darkness.
I looked at my blade, its edge dulled, and let out a light sigh.
“I couldn’t even reach Sword Master…….”
It had already been several months since I reached the highest level of Sword Expert, yet the realm of Sword Master still felt distant.
The gap between the two was truly like heaven and earth.
Right now, no matter how much blue aura I poured out and swung my sharp blade, it only damaged the edge like this without leaving any real wounds.
But if I had reached Sword Master, I could probably beat that bastard senseless without suffering any damage, even using nothing more than a fallen tree branch lying around.
Thud, thududud.
Seeing that I couldn’t cut him, Rammas let out a snickering laugh and loosened up his body.
He kept dragging his feet back as if he was about to launch himself and crush me at any moment.
Finding the sight utterly ridiculous, I let out a hollow laugh.
Boom-!
The vibrations from the direction of the walls continued to grow stronger.
I let out a small sigh and stabbed the sword I was holding into the ground.
-……? What are you doing. Have you given up the fight, human?
“I was planning to save this for later.”
It felt wasteful to use it on some extra demon, but as I was now—unable to reach the realm of Sword Master—I had no surefire way to defeat demons.
“Come, Excalibur.”
[SYSTEM: The Holy Sword Excalibur is being summoned.]
A dazzling light burst forth from my hand.
It was pure radiance, driving away the pitch-black night.
The two demons recoiled, startled by the sudden eruption.
Seeing that, I smiled faintly and firmly grasped the light.
Srrng.
A heavy, familiar sensation, as if I had been using it for decades, settled comfortably into my hand.
As I slowly drew Excalibur, a brilliant light flared up, like the sun rising in the darkness.
-W-What…….
“It means you’re finished now.”
The Holy Sword Excalibur was truly known as the nemesis of the demon race.
Lower-ranked demons would have their eyes burned out just by standing before it, and most couldn’t even endure a single slash.
Even Rammas, who had blocked my blade with that hardened body until now, flinched and began stepping backward.
Woooong—
As I lightly drew up mana, the brilliant glow radiating from the blade grew even deeper.
The demon behind Rammas, judging there was no chance of victory, hurriedly began chanting some kind of spell.
Soon, a pitch-black hole formed behind them, and its purpose was easy enough to guess.
“Teleportation magic, huh.”
Teleportation magic was considered fairly high-tier.
It wasn’t something one could perform with mediocre skill.
Yet judging by how quickly that demon finished casting, she seemed more capable than expected.
But even so.
Pik.
-…Huh?
The teleport gate, which had been steadily growing larger, suddenly popped at a certain point and scattered into the air.
I let out a snort and lightly shook Excalibur.
“The protagonist’s weapon really is broken. Against demons, at least—unless they’re Demon King class, it’s probably hard for them to use magic in front of me.”
I was willing to praise her a bit for managing to form even a partial gate.
“Then.”
Pulling Excalibur back, I kicked off the ground.
A pure white trajectory left a trail of light behind me, which cleanly slashed through the bodies of the two demons.
They were engulfed in the radiance and vanished without uttering a single word.
Since the Demon Realm and the Middle Realm weren’t connected yet, what existed here were probably just their avatars.
They weren’t truly dead, but having been struck by Excalibur, they must have taken significant damage.
It was an almost anticlimactic ending, but I preferred overwhelming my enemies like this rather than fighting tooth and nail.
After all, it might be a story from a novel to others, but to me, it was reality.
I dismissed Excalibur’s summoning and pulled the sword I had stuck into the ground back out.
Then I turned my steps once more toward the walls.
“Hold them!”
“Don’t let them climb the walls! Keep pouring the oil!”
“Arrows, bring more arrows!”
Amidst the ear-splitting noise, countless people shouted at the top of their lungs.
The horrors of war, faced for the first time.
Soldiers held back monsters climbing the walls, while knights cut down those that managed to get up.
Everyone fought desperately, but there was no way there wouldn’t be casualties.
Some were reduced to bloody lumps by troll fists, others were skewered by orc swords and ended their lives as cold corpses in some corner.
The sight didn’t even allow the detached impression of watching a movie.
Reality was far more vivid and cruel than anything fabricated.
Kieeeek-!
Walking along the walls, I sought out monsters that had climbed up and severed their heads.
The knights initially told me to retreat when they saw my appearance, but once I started swinging my sword while releasing streams of blue aura, they soon shut their mouths and followed behind me, slaughtering monsters.
With each step I took, the stench of iron-rich blood mixed with an indescribable, strange battlefield odor stabbed into my nose.
But it didn’t feel that bad.
Standing at the center of a space turned into a scene of slaughter, with blood splattering everywhere, was something I had already grown accustomed to.
‘Are the others all safe.’
As I looked around while moving about, all my Academy friends were fighting without issue.
Whether it was because Alice had diligently fulfilled her role or because their skills were simply excellent, they were blending perfectly into the machinery of war, fighting amidst flying blood.
“A Twin Head Ogre!”
“Defend the gate!”
And then, a sound I couldn’t ignore rang out from the watchtower.
I turned my head downward and saw, in front of the gate reinforced with layers of iron plating, a gray ogre with two heads and a massive body waddling forward.
Mages hurled fireballs and rangers desperately loosed arrows, but as was typical of ogres, it boasted tough hide and unshakable sturdiness, taking no damage at all.
The Twin Head Ogre, in particular, was a top-tier specimen even among similar monsters.
In terms of raw destructive power and durability alone, it was even more troublesome than the Rammas I had just faced.
“I thought the monster attack would stop after defeating the demons.”
It was an undeniable fact that the monsters were being directed by the demon race.
I thought the assault would cease once I cut them down, but the world didn’t work out that conveniently.
“Knights with strength to spare! To the gate!”
At the commander’s shout, most of the knights fighting monsters atop the walls descended below.
With the monstrous strength of a Twin Head Ogre, it could easily destroy a gate that had already been battered by countless monsters.
Perhaps from experience, they gathered in front of the gate without a moment’s hesitation.
“…….”
Tension flowed among the knights.
Unfortunately, the elite knight order—including King Arthur—was absent.
The forces here were still Britain’s elite and not to be underestimated, but the number of high-ranking knights was severely lacking.
“Sir Percival! How long can the gate hold?”
“If the Twin Head Ogre charges it with its body, that’s the limit! We must kill it quickly and repair the gate before other monsters swarm in!”
Hearing a familiar voice among the knights, I turned my gaze and saw Elysia, her body smeared with monster blood.
She must have gone through fierce fighting—she was breathing roughly as she ran over—but her blazing eyes showed no sign of retreat.
“This is going to be tough.”
Coldly speaking, the forces here didn’t seem sufficient to hold the gate.
Even if they somehow took down the Twin Head Ogre, what about the overwhelming horde of monsters that would follow?
In that case.
Paaat-!
“W-What!”
“W-Wait!”
Since the Twin Head Ogre’s very presence was a calamity even to other monsters, the area around it was completely empty.
I lightly leapt from the wall and dropped down in front of it.
The Twin Head Ogre, which had been pushing the gate, looked down at me as I suddenly appeared.
“If you obediently become my experience points, I won’t kill you painfully.”
Your big brother wants to hit Sword Master already.