Chapter 34
The torch illuminated the sword.
Jeong Yushin looked down at his longsword.
The edge of the blade was chipped here and there, and hairline cracks were visible.
The sword had little life left in it. He needed a new weapon.
He judged from the sounds coming from outside.
There was a little time to spare.
Jeong Yushin glanced at Karin and Gilsion. They were poisoned and barely conscious.
Gilsion could at least stammer out a few words, but that was all.
He quickly ran over and picked up Gilsion's zweihander.
“I'll borrow this for a bit.”
“···All right.”
It was a two-handed greatsword, so it was quite heavy. Next was Karin.
Karin was groaning with her face deathly pale.
“Karin, how are you feeling?”
At Jeong Yushin's question, Karin mumbled something.
It was difficult to understand what she was saying.
He retrieved Karin's two daggers and secured them to his belt.
Jeong Yushin looked down at Karin and spoke.
“So people really do live by relying on each other, right? Acknowledgment and reflection. Good. Good children deserve a reward.”
He took a teddy bear biscuit from his robes and placed it on Karin's stomach.
When he stood up, Roynel was staring at him as though he were insane.
Jeong Yushin ignored Roynel and stood at the tower entrance again.
He wiped the blood and oily residue clinging to the two daggers and greatsword on his robe, then sprinkled them with blood oil.
If he had time, he would have prepared a little more carefully.
It was regrettable.
The centipedes' howls from outside were drawing closer and closer.
He hadn't thought Karin and Gilsion lacked ability.
Their performance against monsters they had never seen before was enough to inspire admiration.
He watched and experienced the battle, engraving only the points he needed to be careful about in his mind.
It was fortunate that he had bought light armor.
Life really was full of things one could never predict.
Jeong Yushin blocked the tower entrance.
‘Blocking the entrance alone.’
[Abyss Protection]
Ahiman cast a spell.
Dark energy flowed out of empty space and enveloped Jeong Yushin.
“What?”
Jeong Yushin was flustered.
“It's a spell for resisting foreign entities. I'm certain now. The opponents are otherworldly monsters. You should have gained some resistance to poison. Ska, you're the only one we can rely on. Hold them back.”
Ahiman said.
Jeong Yushin was dumbfounded by such baseless faith.
“Isn't it possible that I won't be able to hold them back?”
“Then we die. All of us.”
“Shut up!!”
Unlike the calm Ahiman, Roynel shouted in a fit of anger.
Ahiman gave a dry chuckle, closed their eyes, and began chanting again.
It was strange to see someone speak so casually of death.
Was that how mystics normally were?
The human heart was truly impossible to understand.
He put the questions aside. First, he had to do what needed to be done.
Jeong Yushin assumed his stance.
‘They're coming.’
Boom!!
The tower's wooden door creaked.
Jeong Yushin raised his sword.
Kraaaash!!!
The wooden door shattered, and splinters flew in every direction.
A centipede thrust its face through the hole in the wrecked door.
A centipede with a goblin's head.
“Kreeeeek!”
Fwoooosh!!!
An arrow flew at the speed of light.
The arrow pierced its head in an instant, sending the centipede flying back outside.
Five more centipedes burst out in the meantime.
Jeong Yushin planted his feet firmly and swung his sword.
A horizontal slash.
Shraaak!!!
Three heads flew through the air at once.
He split one head in half with a downward slash, then kicked the remaining one with his boot.
Bang!!
The centipede with its crushed head flew through the air, struck the wall, and crashed to the floor.
More centipedes swarmed in, trampling the fallen one.
He grabbed the neck of a centipede flying through the air and twisted it.
Crack.
He felt the bones breaking in his grasp.
The centipede's body went limp. He threw it as it was.
Several centipedes rolled across the floor after colliding with the one he had thrown.
Jeong Yushin's sword began moving faster and faster.
Shweeeek!!
Before long, it began making a sound that tore through the air.
Shraaak!!
He cut through the cervical vertebrae of the charging centipedes and split their faces.
Sticky blood poured across the floor, and the monsters' screams echoed through the entrance.
Roynel fired arrows frantically.
Clang!!
At last.
The longsword broke.
He offered it a brief eulogy and threw it into the swarm of centipedes.
The one struck by the flying hilt rolled across the floor, shrieking.
There were so many of them swarming in that the rolling centipede was swallowed up by the horde surging forward like a swarm of bees.
[Sacred Weapon]
He thought of Ainhofer.
He thought of the dwarf's one-edged axe. The image of the dwarf swinging it desperately was still vivid in his mind.
Mana gathered in his hand. In an instant, it forged a golden one-edged axe.
He lowered his stance and firmly centered his weight.
“Haaaaah!!!”
Jeong Yushin gripped it with both hands and swung with all his strength.
Whoooosh!!!
A horizontal slash.
Krrrrunch!!!
The bodies of more than ten centipedes were torn apart in a single stroke.
Shattered bones and chunks of flesh flew through the air and struck the walls.
“You're insane!!”
Roynel's horrified voice came from behind him.
The golden one-edged axe turned into shards of light and disappeared.
He quickly grabbed Gilsion's zweihander.
It was heavy.
He had never used a greatsword before.
But he had watched Gilsion swing it.
He could imitate it, at least a little.
He lowered his stance again and rested the greatsword on his shoulder.
Whoooosh!!
A downward slash.
Bang!!
The greatsword smashed the centipede to pieces and embedded itself in the floor.
Stone fragments flew up and struck his helmet.
He pulled it free and swung horizontally again.
The bodies of five centipedes were torn apart.
Jeong Yushin swung the greatsword with all his strength.
The tower entrance was already piled high with shattered and mangled centipede corpses, but even more centipedes were forcing their way in from outside.
“Damn!! I'm out of arrows!”
Roynel's lament pierced Jeong Yushin's ears.
He gritted his teeth and swung the greatsword.
Every time he swung the heavy mass of iron, great chunks of his strength drained away and his muscles screamed.
With the arrows gone, Roynel drew a sword and stood in front of Ahiman.
The situation grew increasingly bleak.
The face-centipedes that slipped past Jeong Yushin increased in number one by one.
Roynel swung the sword, shouting at the top of their lungs.
Bang!!
Another vertical slash.
The greatsword smashed through a centipede's torso and embedded itself in the ground.
At that moment, a face-centipede ran along the sword and lunged at Jeong Yushin's face.
He released the greatsword and turned his head.
Clang!
The centipede's stinger struck his helmet and passed by.
His head rang.
He drew the two daggers tucked into his belt, gripped them in reverse, and swung.
Shraaak!!
The centipede's tail and cervical vertebrae were severed at the same time.
Jeong Yushin took another step and stood closer to the entrance.
The daggers had a shorter reach than the greatsword.
He thought of nothing else.
He pictured only Karin's movements as she wielded her daggers.
Relying on that image, he swung the daggers.
Slash!!
Slash!!
He cut only their faces.
The faces belonged to all kinds of people: elves, dwarves, beastkin, humans, and hobgoblins. There were also faces belonging to races he had never seen before.
Among them were faces Jeong Yushin knew.
Jeong Yushin's eyes widened for an instant.
Jackson.
Someone he had met in the novice explorer class.
The class had lasted only a week, but as fellow novices, they had gotten along well.
Jackson had not held much prejudice against Barbaroi, either.
The time they had spent together had bred affection, and that affection shook his heart.
Jeong Yushin's hand slowed for an instant.
The centipede with Jackson's head dodged the dagger and lunged at him.
The centipede's tail stabbed through the helmet's eye slit.
“Kgh!”
“Ska!!”
Roynel screamed.
The stinger did not pierce his eye.
The centipede thrashed its tail violently. The helmet caught on the tip came off.
The helmet flew far away, exposing Jeong Yushin's face.
He swung the dagger spasmodically.
The centipede's body was cut in half and fell to the floor.
Thud!
Before he knew it, the stinger of another centipede that had approached him was embedded in his neck.
“Kgh!!”
Thick venom bubbled as it rapidly spread through his veins.
He swung a dagger and cut off the tail.
The stinger was still lodged in his neck.
When he pulled it out, poison and blood gushed from his neck.
It had missed his carotid artery. He couldn't afford to worry about anything more than that.
The centipedes kept surging forward.
Jeong Yushin swung the daggers like a madman.
Karin's movements had already vanished from his mind.
He had forgotten the teachings of the swordsmanship association as well.
Only desperation and grit remained.
He cut, slashed, and tore.
He mercilessly stomped and crushed the ones charging from below with his boots, heedless of whether he struck their necks, faces, or tails.
But he could not stop every one of them surging forward.
Thud!!
His thigh.
Thud!!
His shin.
Thud!!
His right arm.
He was stabbed in several places the steel plates failed to cover. His vision blurred.
He no longer knew how he was still standing.
He had been able to hold out this long thanks to the defensive magic Ahiman had cast on him.
But even that was gradually reaching its limit.
His body grew increasingly sluggish.
Roynel shouted something from behind him, but he couldn't hear it.
Thrust!!
Jeong Yushin's eyes widened.
Another stinger plunged into his neck.
His eyes met those of a face-centipede.
‘So that's it.’
The creatures drove their stingers deep into the neck, tore off the head, then inserted their own spines into the cut necks to control the bodies.
He understood the principle behind their actions through his own body.
What vicious bastards.
Jeong Yushin grabbed the centipede clinging to his neck.
The centipede bit into his arm with its sharp teeth.
Jeong Yushin opened his mouth wide.
Crrrunch!!
He bit down on its spinal bone and tore it out roughly with his teeth.
“Kreeeeek!!”
The centipede let out a death cry and went limp.
“Ptooey!”
He spat out the bone fragments and gathered the mana in his palm.
[Sacred Weapon]
The weapon he wanted was a warhammer.
He gripped the radiant golden hammer that formed in an instant with both hands and brought it down.
Kraaaaaang!!!
Dust billowed up.
The living and dead centipedes alike were crushed and shattered, fragments flying in every direction.
This was the last of it. No mana remained. It was over.
Thud!!
Thud!!
Thud!!
The steel plates of his light armor were ripped away.
Sharp stingers pierced the leather of his light armor and lodged all over his body.
Thick poison spread throughout his body.
He sensed that he was going to die.
That was when it happened.
[Abyss Barrier]
An immense force erupted from behind him and pushed the face-centipedes away.
It drove away not only the centipedes clinging to Jeong Yushin's body, but also those forcing their way through the entrance.
It was barrier magic that expelled otherworldly energy.
Some of the ones being pushed back struck the walls, crumpled, and burst.
Seeing that, Jeong Yushin fell to his knees.
Roynel hurried over to Jeong Yushin, panting heavily.
Karin and Gilsion, who had regained consciousness, crawled across the ground toward Jeong Yushin as well.
“Skaaa.”
A trembling voice escaped Karin's lips.
Jeong Yushin opened his mouth.
“Bweh-ehk.”
A mouthful of black blood poured out.
“Don't speak. Just wait a moment.”
Roynel ran to the luggage.
“···Why go this far?”
Karin muttered as she looked up at Jeong Yushin. Her pupils were trembling.
“···To. Live. To. Remain.”
“How is this supposed to mean surviving?!!”
“You. Survived. Didn't you? This time. You. Save. Me.”
Jeong Yushin spoke in halting bursts, then slammed his head against the floor.
Karin shook Jeong Yushin's body and shouted, but he did not respond.
“Skaaa!!”
Darkness approached.
* * *
His faint consciousness remained in reality, drifting.
Every so often, he heard the party members' voices.
“···Isn't there any way?”
“···All the recovery potions···.”
“Hold them back!!”
“Bring some arrows!!”
“We need to cast the barrier again! Ahiman!”
His consciousness and body were tossed about like leaves in the wind.
His eyes closed, and darkness returned.
* * *
Jeong Yushin opened his eyes.
His entire body had stiffened, and he could barely move.
His stomach churned, and he felt nauseated.
He barely managed to sit up and look around.
He was still inside the tower.
But it didn't seem to be the first floor.
Only a faint torch remained to illuminate the dark space.
“You're awake?”
Karin said.
She was sitting close to Jeong Yushin.
Her face was pale, and her lips were parched.
“···Where are the other party members?”
“Gilsion and Roynel are searching the tower. They're probably upstairs.”
Karin explained the current situation in halting words.
Two days had passed since Jeong Yushin collapsed.
He had barely clung to life thanks to the defensive magic Ahiman had cast, and was only saved by recovery potions and Gilsion's purification magic.
Karin continued.
“I used purification magic four times. Only then did you start breathing. It was a close call.”
Jeong Yushin nodded as he listened, then stopped.
Purification magic?
“What is purification magic?”
“It's holy magic exclusive to clergy. A spell that cleanses unclean things.”
So it was holy magic exclusive to paladins, not an inscription?
Still, shouldn't the body have to be in proper condition to use magic?
“How did Gilsion recover?”
“Abyss Barrier drove out some of the otherworldly energy inside Gilsion's body too. In the meantime, we used an anti-poison scroll to recover Gilsion first, and then Gilsion used purification magic on you. On me too, of course.”
He understood why Karin and Gilsion had been able to regain at least a little awareness and move when Ahiman cast the barrier spell.
Moreover, Gilsion had been able to stammer out words even before that.
He realized that holy knights could resist otherworldly power to some degree.
Karin continued explaining.
They had failed to block the entrance on the first floor.
The second floor had failed as well.
They had been pushed back to the third floor.
Ahiman was currently casting barrier magic on the stairs leading up to the third floor, preventing the face-centipedes from entering.
“We can't hold out much longer. Ahiman is reaching their limit.”
Karin finished in a gloomy murmur.
“...”
Jeong Yushin listened silently to Karin.
Two days had passed since they were trapped in the tower.
It was only right to assume that it was too late to hope for rescue. They were not in a situation where they could wait any longer, either.
They had to fight their way out using their own strength.
Clank!
One of the two wooden doors at opposite ends of the third floor flew open.
It was the wooden door on the right.
The torch between Karin and Jeong Yushin flickered.
Jeong Yushin turned his head toward it.
Someone was standing in the doorway.