5. Bread and dagger (76)
Right before the collision, I felt a strange presence.
First of all, they weren’t elves. All of them were just watching me from afar. It was a natural decision since Leoric had just shown off his strength.
A ray erases everything in a straight line.
It was a destructive power that was on a completely different level from range magic that distinguished enemies with exquisite control. If you approached me carelessly, there was a risk of being caught in the beam together.
If you do, you will return to a handful of ashes.
with me.
I could see an elf carrying an arrow on a bowstring from afar, but it wasn’t yet the stage to be wary. So all my attention was focused on Leoric.
Still, I felt a strange discomfort.
It felt like termites were gnawing at my nerves. I instinctively had to look around for that strange sensation.
It was only Leoric who stood before me.
At least until then.
My gaze was directed to a certain point as if attracted by a magnet. It was the boiling flesh that Leoric stood on. There were a few spots where it was particularly bubbling.
There are three locations in total.
I must have taken a couple of steps, and then something bubbled out of the flesh that was boiling like a furnace. A sharp howl rang out as if it would tear the eardrums.
Keee
It was a snake.
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Judging from the familiar inverted triangle head, it was clear that it was a double-headed warrior. At this point, I couldn’t help but doubt the intention of the snake appearing in three places far away from me.
Do you run like this or do you stop?
I was confused for a while.
I immediately froze as the snakes opened their mouths.
Inside the snake’s mouth was an elf’s face instead of a tongue.
One of them was particularly familiar.
It was Betty.
Avian’s younger sister, an elf girl in Leoric’s arms.
I cursed inwardly and tried to throw myself.
It was because the heads of the elves began to glow and resonate.
aaa!
And a storm of light is drawn in the air.
I tried to evade, but it was too late.
At the end, I tried to focus the aura on the sword face, but in the end I grazed my side and dripped blood. The sound of flesh burning was heard.
“… … I will turn.”
With a light moan, I coughed up blood.
The aura was pushed back by the beam. The sword might have evaporated if I didn’t care.
Still, it wasn’t that bad.
At the last moment, the beam’s trajectory was distorted. A little, but sure.
Auras refract light rays.
It was just that my aura was too weak.
The pain was creeping up my spinal cord. I bit my lip and forced myself to suppress a moan.
Magical power blocked the heat, but there was no way the internal organs were intact from the impact. It was fortunate that the flesh had matured and there was no need to stop the bleeding.
As I jumped up, the eyes of the snakes all turned to me.
Leoric let out a big laugh.
“ha ha ha! Do you see our regiment? Our strength?!”
“Don’t bullshit… What the hell have you done to Betty?”
At my low growl, Leoric smiled kindly. It was a smile that, if a stranger had seen it, would have thought that he was just a benevolent religious person.
To me now, it only looked like a monster’s hateful smile.
Leoric said as if it was nothing.
“I just borrowed my strength for a while. Not only Sister Beta, but all the brothers and sisters who have the ‘blessing’ can lend me strength.”
“I wonder if Betty agreed.”
“If they didn’t agree, how could they force it? Being ‘blessed’ means that… To be a true part of us.”
As if he had become a conductor, Leoric made a small gesture.
Then the snakes started opening their mouths again. The skull glowed white as if it were a lantern.
A shudder that gently vibrates the air is transmitted.
I focused my magic on my eyes.
Predictions based on rigorous calculations were impossible. I wasn’t a mage, and I was one of the few mages who could do that kind of math in battle.
The only thing the prosecutor relies on is intuition.
In a game where each moment was split into moments, the prosecutors had to make precise decisions at every moment.
The trajectory of the sword and the action to be taken after that.
This was a battle that far exceeded the speed of thought. The brain, accustomed to the high-speed battle, makes judgments based on repeated input experiences.
like right now
It feels like a virtual trajectory is drawn in front of your eyes.
After crossing the line a few times, my senses became more sensitive. Although the beginning may have been thanks to the many experiences of ‘I’ from the future, it is not anymore.
It is visible now.
Did that man cross the thin thread between life and death?
The moment I took a step, lines of light and heat heated the air.
Power went into my hand holding the sword. The aura was burning like wildfire.
One step, a sharp resonant sound pierces the skull.
aaa!
At the same time, the trajectory of light that dies and draws.
I rolled my body with the strength I had stepped on with my upper body. I could feel the slight heat on the back, but it wasn’t a fatal injury.
I took another step as if my body, which was raised straight up, bounced up.
yes, two steps.
As if waiting, another light flickers.
It flashed, and his vision went white.
The angle was a little lower, and it was a trajectory that could not be avoided by rolling on the ground.
If that’s the case, I’ll just have to respond with a leap.
My body flew through the air and spun around. A white beam of light heated the back of the landing and cast a shadow in front of me.
I took another step toward that shadow.
Last three steps.
As a result of running fast, Leoric was right in front of us.
Of course, Leoric was the car that was watching all my running.
There was no chin to allow meek access.
As the third snake opened its mouth, light began to leak through Leoric’s eyes and mouth.
And the skulls that start to resonate.
aaa!
They wouldn’t shoot at the same time.
Until now, the binge had never resounded simultaneously. The beam was fired only after there was always a regular thump, thump, thump of the ground.
But what if the gap is infinitely short?
I couldn’t avoid it.
I gave strength to the sword I had been holding. The aura that had been burning like a wildfire gradually faded, and the refined light began to shine on the blade.
There was a winning streak.
It was then that Leoric’s loud shouts resonated.
“Immanuel!”
It was a trick.
The one who vomited the beam first was the last remaining snake. For the first time since I started running, my steps slowed down and stopped.
Time starts to flow slowly.
In the midst of time that seemed to have stopped, Leoric’s mad eyes were looking at me. That genuine smile seemed to be talking to me.
‘can not avoid.’
So I also smiled and gave a silent answer.
‘I know, bastard.’
and the next moment.
Time, which had flowed slowly, began to flow like mad as if it had met a rapid. Bang, the sound of my blade colliding with the beam echoed.
Normally, the sword would have evaporated, or at least bounced off into the sky.
However, the results that emerged were quite the opposite.
The rays do not penetrate the aura.
The tightly condensed mana was gradually pushing away the light beam. And just before the beam of light was ejected from Leoric’s mouth, I clenched my teeth and turned the angle of the blade.
Then, a beam of light shot towards Leoric.
It was the moment when the two rays collided.
aaa!
Oh oh oh oh!
It seemed that there was no way to break the beam that had already been shot.
Leoric and the snake continued their sorrowful screams. It would have been enough if the snake opened its mouth, but if it had been able to do that in the first place, it would have been able to respond to my evasion.
Leoric was quite embarrassed.
It was ‘determination’.
He hesitated until the very end, but the effect was certain. It was indeed the vision of a great witch who was in charge of one of the masters.
I gritted my teeth and took a step.
And while paying attention to the angle of the blade, take another step.
A booming sound resounded, and the clash between the two beams ended in a draw.
“… … Whoops!”
Leoric had no choice but to stumble backwards in the aftermath.
Into the trajectory where my sword has already drawn a solid silver line.
The man’s arms crossed and blocked my sword. As seen earlier, Leoric’s body possessed the strength of steel.
It didn’t matter.
Because there was another vision that led to ‘Kyeol’.
With a bang, both arms exploded, spraying blood and flesh all around.
No matter how you look at it, there were no signs of encountering the sword. It felt like being hit by a bullet.
That was ‘Hae(解)’.
It breaks the solidarity of objects, and furthermore, pushes in the hardened flow into ‘texture’.
The results were now being shown in front of my eyes.
The dazed eyes and the solid silver line intersect.
In the severed time, blood and water were splashed in the air.
It was my victory.
With a thump, Leoric’s body collapsed, submerged in boiling flesh.
And screams erupting from everywhere.
“Kyaaa!”
“Leoric! Go, how dare you be a human!”
There were a lot of voices criticizing me. Nonetheless, no one dared to approach me.
Leoric was not only their spiritual support, but also their focal point with unimaginable power.
The person who did that was punished with a single sword.
It was normal to panic right away and not be able to do anything. I felt the need to escape without missing this opportunity.
I caught my breath and squeezed my side. The wound was still deep.
I don’t think it will work unless I meet a proper priest… … .
First of all, it was to rescue Avian.
Thinking so, the moment I tried to move slowly.
I felt deja vu again.
My eyes hurriedly looked behind me.
Then something strange immediately caught my eye.
Snakes don’t go away.
No, it wasn’t just snakes. Even the boiling flesh I stood on was still bubbling and expanding my territory.
It didn’t take long for me to come to a conclusion.
It was because I had suffered too many times from these enemies.
“… … Fuck this.”
I ran frantically out of the seething flesh. I almost threw myself at the last moment, fearing that I might be late.
Then, behind me, there was a fuhak and the sound of something surging.
“Ah, Immanuel! Praise the Lord! No, hate! Lord… How can you not allow me to die!”
It was another snake.
No, the faces of the four snakes were wriggling and changing in real time. As an elf Betty didn’t know, and an elf she didn’t know as Leoric.
Could it be that these snakes should all be slain?
The snake from which Leoric’s voice erupted was also changing in real time.
“This, that, week, received, silver, life… End, my, everything, oh! End, my, everything, oh!”
Leoric couldn’t stay sane any longer.
Several tentacles protruded from the seething flesh. Then, to guard against me, I started dragging the elves standing around one by one.
The seething flesh swallowed the elves and gradually grew in size.
Every time the elf disappears, the snakes increase one by one.
I groped along and held Avian in my arms.
desperately groaned.
how to beat that guy
No matter how you think about it, it was unreasonable. Above all, my body was injured, and even I was not alone.
Up until now, I’ve been fighting alone many times.
It was like that at every important moment.
The role of making a resolution has always been my share.
But in fact, it was me who desperately needed the existence of my colleagues more than anyone else.
They always paved the way for me.
Supported my back and protected my precious ones.
Otherwise, how can I stand at the forefront?
I too was just a timid and weak human being.
Heroes are never made alone.
Even now, isn’t Avian not being properly guarded?
I trembled and hugged Avian.
Was it useless?
The idea of protecting my neighbor, my little girl, and my precious comrade might be essentially nonsense.
However, it was too late to regret it.
No, I couldn’t regret it.
It was a life that I decided that I would not throw away anything.
I was the one who said I wouldn’t go down the path someone had decided for me.
So I decided to refine my fighting spirit again.
That moment when I carefully put down Avian and stood up again.
“Judgment of Light!”
bang!
Kieee
A thunderstorm pours down.
Each time the lightning strikes closed, a blue electric charge flowed over the ground like an afterimage. One of the snake’s heads exploded, spewing blood.
In the midst of kidnapping elves and proliferating, the action of the flesh stopped.
And the eyes of the snakes are on me.
To be precise, towards my back.
Only then could I hear the voice I longed for.
“… … master!”
It was Elsie senior.
I inadvertently recalled a faint smile.
In the midst of this, Elsie-senpai was holding back tears again.
Anyway, she was a woman with a lot of tears.