Chapter 758 - Enigmatic Knight
"I was going anyway, even if you didn't say a word. Got it?"
Rem gritted his teeth and turned his body.
From all sides, drooling creatures were closing in, their sights set on this village.
In a way, you could call it efficient.
Now there was no need to waste time seeking out every Monster or Beast one by one.
Even the wandering type Monsters that hadn't left a trace for a while were showing up now.
Cawwww—!
In the distance, a Harpy flaunted its eagle feathers and strong chest muscles, flapping its wings as it floated in the air.
It was a wandering-type Monster known as one of Dmyuller's minions.
They traveled in groups of ten, and every member was said to unleash invisible blades.
Since the leader was a Harpy, naturally the rest were Harpies as well.
There were eleven Monsters in all, each capable of unleashing razor-sharp compressed wind blades all night long.
Rumble rumble rumble.
Suddenly, the ground began to tremble gently—not an earthquake, but the pounding advance of many heavy things.
Anyone with battle experience would recognize the vibrations and the sound.
In the distance, he cast his gaze and saw a herd of Rhinocers Beasts, their horns jutting sharply upward from their noses.
Among the Beasts, these were ones who had awakened special talents—they had left the Demonic Domain, stampeding toward a gourmet meal.
Even through the clouds of dust and the shaking ground, it was clear these weren't ordinary Beasts.
He figured they might have fought among themselves on the way here, too. It was only natural to brawl over delicious prey. Enkrid had fully anticipated such a moment. Precisely because he expected it, he smiled. And then he said,
"It's a party."
Next to him, the villager chief, stared wide-eyed in shock at his words.
A party?
A party where we're thrown in as sacrifices and someone just enjoys the spectacle?
It would've been natural for such doubts to arise.
After all, they'd seen the dark-haired man take down a Minotaur, but this situation was on a different scale.
They were now beyond the Demon God's protection.
The shelter that had guarded them was gone.
So, death was inevitable.
Those who had been desperately struggling for survival would now inhale despair and exhale resignation.
"Ahhh."
One of the villagers let out a shrill scream, almost like a beastly howl.
All the other villagers, upon hearing that, tried to scream just like him.
Luagarne approached and grabbed him by the neck with her hand.
"Grk."
Watching him choke, Luagarne puffed out her cheeks and shouted loudly.
Like a frog's croak, her voice always boomed.
"The Loooord!"
Her ferocious scream made everyone turn to look at her.
Even some members of the Madmen Knights glanced her way.
The effect of her outcry was obvious.
Everyone who'd been watching fell silent.
The attention of the entire group was now fixed as Frok spoke up.
"Repeat after me."
Luagarne was a Frog but also called herself an artist.
She had even worked with a theater troupe in the past.
She knew exactly what chant was needed right now.
"The Demonic one."
"…What?"
"The Knight."
At that moment, blades of wind fell from the sky.
Swoooosh.
You could hear the sound, but see nothing.
That's how the noise itself becomes a thing of fear.
Rem calmly swung his axe, dispelling that fear.
At the same moment he swung, something shattered with a sharp crack.
Clang!
It sounded like a glass marble being smashed by brute force.
"So you want to play up here, is that it?"
Rem spoke, a corner of his mouth lifting in a smirk.
So, their specialty is throwing things from a distance, huh?
He didn't even need to bother grabbing the sling or staff sling—what the Continent calls by those names is simply referred to as a "slingshot" in the Western Region.
Rem's left hand flickered.
That's all everyone else saw.
But to those like Enkrid, who had keen eyesight, it looked a bit different.
His left hand drew the axe from his belt and hurled it upward.
His movement was at least twice as fast as when he'd thrown it at Jaxen earlier.
The flying axe was faster than a hawk swooping down on prey.
Whack!
With a thunderous crash, the axe ripped through the air and embedded itself straight into the harpy leader's skull.
Its head burst, and the body was sent flying even higher, suspended in midair.
Because it was so hard to judge the distance, it almost looked as if something was grabbing the leader by the neck and yanking it upward.
Then, black rain fell from the sky.
Rem took a few steps back to avoid the rain the monster had released.
A harpy, as big as a bear, came crashing down.
With a heavy thud, the creature's body landed, twitched a couple of times, then went still.
"Perfect for a warm-up," Rem remarked as he watched.
Enkrid broke down every one of Rem's movements in his mind.
His almost supernatural combat instincts let him understand exactly what Rem had done.
'He gathered his sorcery to instantly boost his physical strength.'
Just before throwing the axe, he moved to a position that would give him the perfect throwing angle.
It might have only been a few steps, but he would have drawn an imaginary line straight to the harpy leader.
'Then he unleashed it, throwing the axe.'
Along with that, he used a technique similar to Will's pinpoint explosion.
And finally, with incredibly fine-tuned control of his power, he canceled out the recoil from the explosion.
'He uses just as much as he needs, no more.'
It was just like the way Will was used in Yohan, with zero margin for error—something Rhinox had once demonstrated.
Rem did it as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
Truly, monster bastard wasn't a strong enough word for him.
As Enkrid grew, so did those crazy geniuses right alongside him.
I feel like I could win if we fought right now.
But after a few more months, who knows what might happen.
That's the difference between a genius and an ordinary person, between a genius and a slow-witted one.
'Even if I have the advantage with Will's inexhaustible power, this is about the best I can do.'
But if you're asking whether I resent any of this—the answer is not at all.
I'm enjoying it.
It's incredibly fun, thrilling even.
My whole body is filled with exhilaration.
Even though I've felt this way often, every time feels new.
"This is fun. Really."
The thought overflowed, and I muttered to myself.
But to the surrounding villagers, I must've looked like an absolute madman.
Here monsters and beasts are swarming us, and I'm saying this is fun.
Could it be that the Demon God has descended into this man's body?
Even if that wasn't the case, the idea that this guy was just as dangerous as the Demon God was firmly etched into everyone's minds.
By the way, what did the Frog say earlier?
A few of the watching villagers all called out with one voice.
"The Demonic One."
"The Knight."
It wasn't a particularly loud shout.
The shouts grew louder.
Before long, every villager was shouting with passion.
"The Demonic One!"
"The Knight!"
When hundreds of voices come together in a single cry, it carries tremendous force.
It's like how a hundred voices united in purpose are far more persuasive than a single eloquent speaker.
Enkrid, turning to the side, assumed this was just one of the Frog's nasty pranks, but to Luagarne, there was simply no better name.
The Demonic One—no other title fit him as perfectly as that.
Look at him, even now, exuding a magnetic pull just to lure the Beelrog here.
"They really won't let you rest, will they," she muttered.
Shinar joined in as well.
"Fel, Ropord, stop fooling around," said Enkrid as he dashed past, prompting both of them into action.
Roman had finally caught on to the situation.
Monsters and beasts charged in from every direction, but this wasn't a crisis.
Why? Because every person here was a monster in their own right.
Ragna strode off to one side.
As he walked, he drew his sword, and his greatsword gleamed, cutting through the darkness of night.
The sword, rejecting the moonlight in favor of a sun-like radiance, stood tall between the shadows.
Roman, who had been getting an earful from Ropord, also joined the fight.
Thud, thud, thud, thud.
Right now, the immediate threat was the charging Rhinocer Beasts, and stepping forward to face them were Audin and Teresa.
"Let's push them back!" Audin shouted.
Catching the rhinoceros's horn head-on with both hands, Audin tossed the beast aside.
Wait, is that even possible?
Even if Oara herself had come back alive, she wouldn't be able to pull that off, right?
Besides, I thought holy power was his specialty, but he wasn't even manifesting it.
This was pure power and technique in perfect harmony.
The ground beneath Audin, the bear beastkin, caved and carved out a semicircle.
With his hands, limbs, and body like unbreakable steel pillars, he forcefully shoved the Rhinocer Beast aside as if throwing it away.
Crash!
A thunderous boom erupted, like a lightning bolt striking a boulder, leaving eardrums tingling.
The Rhinocer Beast collapsed along with several other beasts.
Standing beside them, the Half-blood Giant showed off a similar feat.
Except, she used a shield.
She absorbed the blow with her shield and pushed the monsters aside.
Her feet, too, traced a wide semicircle on the ground It was a movement to channel and release strength.
Even if Roman lacked keen observation, he was still a Junior Knight.
He could tell just how exceptional those two's techniques were.
'Monsters!'
The word burst from inside him reflexively.
And now, the most terrifying monster of them all stepped forward.
In the darkness of night, his cloak took on a jet-black hue.
Roman knew well that if seen in the daylight, it would appear deep green.
Flaaap!
As he leaped forward, his cloak fluttered in the wind.
Suddenly stretched into a long shape, it looked almost like a scarf.
The end of it trailed out, a streak of black that contrasted sharply with the night around them.
"Assimilation!"
With an incomprehensible shout, he swung his sword.
A ghoul, using its assimilation ability to blend into the environment, was split in two right before him.
'When did he—?'
This was a monster that could hide its presence.
Yet the thing had been cut down and split apart.
As its black blood and guts spilled onto the ground, it seemed as if the darkness itself was greedily devouring the mess.
"The Demonic One!"
"The Demonic Knight!"
Everyone shouted in unison at the Frog's command from behind.
Their cries seemed to summon a wild frenzy.
Roman embraced all of it.
As he did, a fierce urge surged up inside him—a burning flame, as if he were setting fire to a dry field, to join in and contribute to this cause.
"Wooooah! Roman of Oara is coming through!"
Caught up in the mood, Roman thrust his greatsword straight ahead.
Whack!
The massive head of a troll collided with his greatsword.
"Woooh!"
Shouting with vigor, he yanked the sword upward with brute force.
The troll's head split open.
No matter how incredible its regenerative power, once the head was split, death was certain.
Look!
This is who I am—Roman of Oara!
That's what he seemed to declare.
Just then, a shadow slipped by his side and a calm voice poured a bit of water on Roman's blazing excitement.
"No. You're putting too much strength into your movements. Your joints need to move more fluidly—apply force when it's needed, and relax when it's not."
Fel said, "If words alone could fix that, it would've happened by now. Just let him be. If he dies after all that wild thrashing, that's just his fate."
This was another shadow.
The first was Ropord; the one behind was Fel.
Running alongside, Ropord added,
"I'm telling him so he can avoid that."
Fel shot back, "And I'm saying it won't make any difference."
Ropord retorted, "Maybe you plugged a human-faced dog's penis into your ear, but this guy isn't like that."
"Hey, don't you always say talking like that makes a person sound cheap?"
Ropord, usually one to mock but not to swear harshly, felt a brief pang of self-disgust after accidentally talking like Fel.
Maybe being around him so much was making him pick up Fel's habits.
The thought made him even more annoyed.
So now it was time to show who was on top.
"Let's see who racks up the higher body count…"
"Sounds good."
Even before Ropord finished speaking, Fel agreed.
The two scattered to the left and right.
There were even more dangerous creatures scattered around than the troll Roman had taken down just moments ago.
It was the perfect environment for a competition.
Roman saw it too.
With a rustling sound, a few stones popped up from the ground, and then—boom—a fountain of earth and rock erupted.
'Worm!'
A giant earthworm monster, big enough to instantly strangle a bear, burst out of the ground.
"That one's mine!"
It was Fel who took it down.
He launched himself through the air, curled his body in mid-flight, and swung his sword.
Moves like that were simply out of Roman's league—not even worth attempting.
Even though the worm tried to thrash about with its head split open, Fel just carved it up.
He swung his sword as if it were nothing, yet every slash had the precision and intent of someone putting their entire being into it.
'Swordsmanship so thoroughly practiced it comes out unconsciously.'
That truth hit Roman in a new way.
Beside the fallen worm, five ghouls came charging with drool dripping from their mouths, but Ropord stepped in to block them.
Calmly, he decapitated each one, taking them down one by one.
The entire process seemed so natural, so inevitable.
But when you looked closely, it wasn't that simple.
'It was like watching prey caught in a spider's web.'
That was the impression it left.
He kept the ghouls' movements in check and, when necessary, cut them down without hesitation.
After that, it became difficult to pay attention to anyone else's fights.
Roman had to stay on the move himself—so many monsters were pouring in.
It started with harpies, then came ghouls, human-faced dogs, ogres, trolls, armored skeletons, the Maiden of the Plague, and the Poison-spreading beasts.
Well, it wasn't a big deal.
That's what he tried to tell himself.
After all, what was a night or two spent fighting without sleep?
All the villagers who had earlier cried out for the Demonic Knight now hid inside their homes.
Luagarne saw no reason to drag them out and expose them to danger.
After that, Luagarne also entered the battle.
She directed the defense from the center of the village, filling in any gaps.
The Luagarne-style Tactical Sword, the foundation of Enkrid's orthodox swordsmanship, was also well-suited for commanding a unit.
And so, two days passed.
Roman looked at the mountain of monster and beast corpses.
It wasn't a figure of speech—their bodies were literally piled up like a mountain.
***
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