“Monsters ahead!”
The battle began with that shout.
About 30 minutes after climbing the mountain, the knights collided with the monsters visible in the distance.
“… Amazing.”
Wayton and Alex who were excluded from the battle due to their roles as messengers couldn’t help but utter admiring exclamations as they watched the unfolding battle.
For Alex, especially, the shock was even greater.
Having lived his entire life in a rural village, the only monsters he knew were the occasional small groups of goblins in the hills behind his home.
Perhaps the only things more terrifying were the rare fearsome wolves or bears.
Yet the knights wielded their swords more swiftly and bravely than even these scary beasts.
The monsters included in this dungeon wave ranged from goblins to kobolds armed with various weapons and about a dozen trolls stood their ground as they watched the battle.
There were about 150 monsters in total.
This could well be considered a small wave.
Though there were only about 30 knights in opposition, not a single one thought they were at a disadvantage.
In the first clash, the knights used their shields and spears to deal with approaching goblins and kobolds, while werewolves attempting to flank were swiftly cut down by sword-wielding knights.
The knights were impressive but one boy in particular stood out.
He appeared younger than everyone else and wielded a sword emanating a bright golden aura similar to his own hair color as he cut down the monsters with graceful movements.
Alex who was watching from a distance could not close his mouth in astonishment.
“Amazing…”
“It’s fine to admire, but don’t lose your focus.”
“Ah, yes!”
Alex snapped to attention at Wayton’s warning and scanned the surroundings.
The trolls had not yet fully engaged, so the battlefield was still under control.
However, Alex was not the only one watching the trolls.
Klein never took his eyes off the trolls, even while slicing through a werewolf.
The trolls breathing heavily as if gauging the knights’ strength were a looming threat.
Once they joined the fight, the knights would not be able to let down their guard.
No matter how sturdy their armor, a troll’s mighty punch was enough to break through it and crush the person inside.
Klein possessed an instinctive ability to analyze and assess the situation directly.
This was one of Klein’s innate talents.
Even without consciously trying, Klein was able to stay aware of the situation around him.
Layerd who was observing Klein’s intense gaze felt a chill run down his spine.
At just 17 years old, the boy’s eyes shone as if he had been battling on the front lines for more than 20 years.
Laeyrd was not the only one to sense this.
The knights felt a similar emotion.
The more exceptional the son of their lord proved to be, the more their morale rose.
As the heat of the battle intensified,
Finally, the trolls began to move.
Grrrroooowwllll—!!
With a deep bellow, the leading troll unleashed its Fear and it was followed in unison by the remaining trolls.
“Ugh!”
Alex’s legs gave out from the Fear and Wayton quickly supported him.
“Get a grip. This is a battle between humans and monsters that wield magical powers.”
“Yes, yes!”
The only reason Alex managed to keep his senses amid the primal fear induced by the trolls was thanks to the magic of the knights fighting at the forefront.
The knights’ magical power acted like a shield and it materialized in the air as they faced the monsters and beasts.
Still, for a youngster, his gaze hasn’t faded.
Wayton glanced at Alex briefly before turning his attention back to the battlefield.
As the trolls fully engaged with the knights, Klein moved from the left to the front of the battlefield.
There’s no benefit to delaying the fight here.
The knights certainly had enough strength to hold back all the trolls, but it was uncertain whether other monsters might head towards the village in the process.
Of course, the village had his older brother, five knights, mercenaries, and the village’s militia as well.
Still, Klein’s goal was to reduce variables as much as possible.
“Huh!”
Magical power surged from Klein’s core.
The magic that enveloped his entire body soon unleashed a surge of power that dwarfed that of the thirty knights.
At the moment Klein swung his sword horizontally.
The surge of power actually transformed into a dragon.
However, the dragon maintained its form only for an instant before flying away like the wind.
It exploded the trolls heading towards the front of the battlefield and the monsters beside them in a single breath.
It was a one-sided display of force that could hardly be called a battle.
In the face of such overwhelming power, even the monsters who had come forward while risking death swallowed their Fear.
Even the army of monsters, which did not fear advancing to annihilate their enemies, realized that they were mere moths to a flame before this being.
“Charge!”
At that moment, following Layerd’s shout, the knights rallied their magic and began their assault in earnest.
They did not contemplate defeat in this battle for a moment.
There was a genius in this world that words alone cannot express.
And this genius was the young master they served.
When the last troll was finally slain.
Klein twitched his eyebrows as he looked at the troll he had just personally slain.
“This is…”
From the corpse of the last troll,
A dark blue magical power took the form of water and dissipated into the air.
“Could it be…?”
Klein raised his head and shouted belatedly.
“Messenger! Hurry back to the village and tell everyone to evacuate outside the village!”
“What? Oh! Understood!”
Even though Wayton took a moment to react, he quickly grabbed Alex and left the battlefield. Klein then issued orders to the knights who were still in a state of bewilderment.
“We must return to the village immediately!”
***
Meanwhile, Shane saw the surge of dragon power from beyond the forest and realized that the battle had ended.
That was quick.
Had only regular mercenaries been deployed, or if Klein had not been there, this battle would have lasted for days.
So far, the scenario has been similar to what happened in his past life.
Back then, Klein had also acted under Shane’s orders and had begun to show his capabilities as the trolls started their active phase.
And.
It’s just like before up to this point.
At the boundary of the village. In the darkness of the forest.
Shane sensed an ominous magical presence.
In his past life, Shane had once encountered this creature from afar.
The pure power of darkness, holding people’s corpses in the dark.
It was one of the spirits of darkness, the Rotten Wood Spirit.
At the time, he hadn’t known but the Rotten Wood Spirit had concealed its presence with its own darkness and traveled all the way here during the night.
That’s why I didn’t know about it in my previous life.
If he had left a reserve force in the village like he did now, perhaps the villagers would have had time to evacuate.
But in his past life, Shane had led all his troops out and the abandoned village became a delightful dining spot for the Rotten Wood Spirit.
“Prepare for battle.”
“Sir? Ha!”
At Shane’s quiet command, Rodwill and four other knights suddenly realized the nature of the darkness and shouted their readiness for battle.
Rumbleeee—!
An ogre appeared, shrouded in the typical dark aura of the Rotten Wood Spirit.
And not just any ogre, but a Twin-Headed Ogre.
The Twin-Headed Ogre was much larger than it seemed and no longer hid its presence after realizing its prey had noticed it.
Instead, it explosively unleashed the darkness that was enveloping it.
The mere explosion of darkness forced the five knights to muster all their strength to hold their ground.
Twin-Headed Ogre.
If one were to face a monster requiring the strength of a fourth-grade expert, they would have to exert all their might, and to engage it more safely, one would need to be at least a third-grade master.
But such a being was already harboring a dark spirit and emitting its power throughout its body.
It’s dangerous…
The knights could not detect the presence of the Rotten Wood Spirit, but they simultaneously realized the danger posed by the ogre.
We alone can’t kill it… It’s too much for us.
The abilities of the five knights ranged from sixth to fifth-grade experts.
They could kill it if they were prepared to face death, but to go that far, at least two or three of them would have to be ready for death or suffer critical injuries.
They were not afraid of dying, but the roar that erupted with the ogre’s appearance must have been heard by the main force as well.
Then, even if it meant some damage to the village, they needed to stall for time.
Since all the villagers had already evacuated.
If they only needed to prevent the creature from entering deeper into the village, they reasoned they could hold on.
Shane spoke softly.
“You must abandon any half-hearted plans to confront it.”
The knights’ gaze briefly shifted to Shane.
Surprisingly, even the knights had to muster all their strength in their legs to withstand the power of darkness, yet Shane was staring at the Twin-Headed Ogre without any sign of distress.
Just you try.
Meanwhile, Shane sensed killing intent from the Rotten Wood Spirit that was parasitizing the ogre’s body.
A dark spirit formed by the negative energies of the forest.
Although the Rotten Wood Spirit unleashed its magical power, to Shane the threat was as negligible as a gentle breeze in spring.
That was to be expected. After all, hasn’t Shane been dominated by “Envy” one of the seven deadly sins and a form of corruption for over a decade?
Did you think such sinister magical power would work against me?
To Shane, the mere presence of such a spirit posed no threat at all.
“Envy” was a corruption named for an entity that envied and hated all life in the world.
It was the source of the “Undead”.
In his past life, as the commander of the First Legion of the “Nameless” organization, Shane had been the king of all undead and death itself.
The mere aura of “death” from a forest was insufficient to affect Shane.
“Knights, listen. With a single strike. I will finish it off, so give your all to create an opening.”
“…Understood!”
Normally, the knights would not have trusted Shane’s words in the slightest.
They had no faith in Shane whatsoever.
But Shane’s voice, burning with hostility and threatened by the Rotten Wood Spirit, carried an undeniable aura of supremacy that the knights could not defy.
It was not a blind faith like Klein’s, but rather a chillingly cold command of obedience that stemmed from the very depths of their souls.
Normally they might not have known, but in a situation like the present where they faced imminent death, Shane’s command paradoxically gave the knights an inexplicable trust.
The knights began to imbue their weapons with magical power in unison.
And at the forefront, Rodwill who was a fifth-grade expert charged his sword and shield with magical power to find an opening in the ogre.
Shane threw advice to Rodwill and the knights.
“The creature’s true nature is a dark spirit. If you charge in thinking it’s just an ordinary ogre, you’ll be swallowed by the darkness in an instant, so always be wary of places where darkness resides.”
“…Yes!”
After hearing Shane’s advice, the knights charged in immediately.
Normally, one might expect them to deflect the enemy’s attacks and gauge its strength, but there was no time for such luxuries now.
The instinct of a warrior who had faced countless battlefields was screaming.
If the creature started attacking properly, they wouldn’t last even a minute.
If it were just an ogre, things might be different, but this monster was enhanced by the power of the spirit and it wasn’t something they could handle alone.
Meanwhile, Shane was furiously rotating the two circles formed in his heart.
Though Shane had only two circles, his magic was exceptional.
Indeed, for him, the concept of circles was merely a measure of total magical power.
He was the king of darkness and a legion commander who had led hundreds of millions of undead.
Now, manipulating magic circles was child’s play to him.
It must be killed instantly.
Spirits fundamentally required a medium to exert their power.
And the medium that the dark spirit was using was the already dead Twin-Headed Ogre.
In the end, they had to destroy this ogre in order to subdue the spirit.
Shane introduced his own modification to the fiercely spinning circles.
It was one of the techniques derived from runic language.
Amplification.
Shane’s manipulation of the circles increased the distance between the magical power and the range of the magic.
The absolute total remained the same, but the scale of it was beyond what could typically be achieved by two circles.
Of course, this still did not surpass the limits of second-circle magic.
To this, Shane added another technique.
Duplication.
A technique of layering one magic upon another.
At first glance, it might seem merely like adding an additional spell, but duplication was fundamentally a forgotten art.
There was a set capacity in the prescribed magic circles, and forcefully duplicating within them was akin to pouring water into an already full cup.
However, Shane had expanded the interval between magical powers with amplification and inserted the exact same magic circle into the space created.
The attribute is “metal”, and the form is “cutting”.
A blue disc made of magical power formed above Shane’s outstretched hand.
The disc began to rotate at a high speed and soon, due to the recoil of the magical power, it started to turn red.
As it did so, the disc’s size expanded and its cutting power increased at the same time.
When the disc took on a blood-red color, Shane’s mouth opened.
“Now!”
The knights did not miss this momentary shout.
In that brief moment, although the knights were covered in blood, they spared no effort in response to Shane’s command. They squeezed out their remaining magical power and successfully grasped the ogre’s feet.
The Twin-Headed Ogre and the Rotten Wood Spirit ignored the knights’ attack and was only wary of the disc in Shane’s hand.
However, it could not underestimate the combined attack of the knights converging on it from all sides. So the creature gathered the power of darkness in a desperate attempt and spread out a shield-like barrier.
The moment the dark barrier which possessed the property of “absorption” blocked Shane’s red disc,
“How dare you!”
Shane’s shout, carrying the soul of the Absolute, turned into a spear of fury that violently shook the Rotten Wood Spirit’s soul.
The shaking of the soul soon caused a significant disruption in the creature’s magical power.
The red disc that pierced the barrier passed cleanly between the twin heads of the Twin-Headed Ogre which was a symbol of its identity. And it didn’t stop there; it flew into the forest and cut through everything in its path.
And so, the ogre with its two heads severed fell to the ground under the force of gravity.
The knights looked at Shane with disbelief.
Until now, they had never doubted the abilities of Klein, but in this moment.
They felt a sense of intimidation from Shane that they couldn’t resist. This was something they couldn’t even feel from Klein.
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