Chapter 11
I realized.
The orcs I had cut down so far had been little more than weaklings.
The larger their bodies grew, or the more white tattoos wrapped around them multiplied, the stronger they became.
It had reached the point where hitting them three or four times with my sword no longer stopped their breathing.
The smell of blood had numbed my sense of smell.
They didn't die when I swung my sword horizontally. They didn't die when I slashed at their abdomens, either.
When that happened, I drew the black short spear—a javelin—rammed it into their necks, and twisted it around.
“Kraaaaaaaaaaak!”
The soldiers' screams rang in my ears.
My gaze and senses had long since moved on from the orc whose life I had just ended.
A huge orc was glaring at me from a distance.
Despite being an orc, it had an attendant carrying a red flag.
That bastard had been pulling at my nerves the whole time.
It was the same gaze that had watched me ever since I threw the javelin from the castle wall.
That bastard was probably planning to kill me.
But I was in the position of having to kill that bastard, too.
I cleaved another orc's head in two and shifted my gaze.
Risellin, the leader of the Lukerna Mercenary Band, wasn't an extra after all.
She was fighting desperately, covered from head to toe in red blood.
The shield in her left hand.
The spear in her right hand—both were caked with blood and chunks of flesh.
She calmly finished off an orc, then walked toward me.
“Yoo-seong.”
Risellin stood beside me with her one-handed shield raised to cover her upper body.
“It would be best not to approach the orc with the red flag behind it. It's the Orc Legion Commander.”
Legion Commander.
So she was referring to the huge orc I had just exchanged glances with.
The problem was that I had already decided to have it out with that bastard.
“I'll kill the Legion Commander, so could you help me reach that side? There are quite a lot of pigs.”
Risellin looked at me with her brow slightly furrowed.
…“Did you hear what I said?”
I continued in a low voice.
“Does it look like reinforcements are about to arrive?”
Risellin sighed.
“Of course not. They should have arrived long ago, but since they still haven't come…something must have gone wrong.”
“If we kill that Legion Commander, won't the current situation come to an end? We should be able to buy at least two days.”
“That's true, but…it’s absurd that you're saying it as if you're just going out for a stroll.”
Risellin clicked her tongue and thrust her shield forward.
“You're serious?”
“I am. Do you happen to have a mana potion?”
“Yes.”
Risellin didn't seem surprised that I could use mana. Perhaps after seeing me make such a fuss, she had assumed there was no way I wasn't using mana.
When Risellin handed me a potion filled with blue liquid, her expression was less one of embarrassment than one of looking at a strange person. It had been that way all along.
“I know you're strong, Yoo-seong, but…I don't think you're strong enough to kill the Legion Commander.”
Hmm.
It was a brutally cold assessment.
“That's right. I'm just going to try.”
“People don't usually risk their lives just to try something….”
If I stayed put, the rest of the legion would pour in, and I'd be swept away and killed by that wave of troops.
If I killed the Legion Commander before that, the Floor 2 stage might end.
Of course, my instincts were telling me that wasn't the case.
When I faced Queen Ansranthrope, words had appeared above her head. This time, no name came to mind.
That meant there was a possibility that a higher-order monster existed above that Legion Commander.
I looked at the roughly eighty soldiers fighting desperately. They were barely holding back the orcs' invasion, like waves at the edge of the sea.
The shields holding them back were long and vertical.
Countless spears thrust out between the shields.
The spearheads pointed toward the orcs, but failed to inflict fatal wounds.
The people at the front were dying one after another.
Screams.
The sound of flesh being torn apart.
NPCs.
I had no idea what would happen if I went up to the next floor.
It was also uncertain whether I could even clear the Floor 2 stage I was currently on.
But even if the story on this floor ended without continuing any further, I didn't want to keep watching the soldiers die.
I admit it.
I was in an extremely emotional state.
Maybe it was because, until now, I had only seen dead or dying NPCs and was now surrounded by people alive and breathing with vitality.
Glug-
I gulped down the vivid blue mana potion.
Killing the orc I had just slain had brought me to Player Level 6.
My Mana stat had risen by 4 this time, bringing it to 16.
Perhaps because of that, the Mana Body Enhancement skill had also reached Level 2.
By now, I had lost count of how many orcs I had killed.
I had needed to kill more than twenty orcs to go from Level 5 to Level 6.
“You're really going to do it?”
“Yes.”
After confirming my intentions one more time, Risellin had fifteen more people take up positions around me.
They were all members of the Lukerna Mercenary Band.
Unlike her manner in the current situation, Risellin spoke in a calm tone.
Just as when ordering them to set out, she spoke informally when speaking as the leader of the mercenary band.
“Form up in a charge formation and advance. Yoo-seong is the primary person to cover.”
At Risellin's words, all fifteen gathered mercenaries turned their eyes toward me.
Assault Captain Ed, with whom I had exchanged a few words, was among them.
“I don't intend to be covered. I'll stand at the very front.”
Everyone stared at me blankly.
“He says his goal is to kill the Legion Commander. Isn't that a very bold declaration?”
Risellin pointed straight ahead with a jerk of her chin.
“Let's do it. If we continue this standoff, all we can do is suffer a crushing defeat and retreat. Let's make one reckless choice.”
The Lukerna Mercenary Band raised their shields in unison and formed a line.
I advanced at the head of the mercenaries, swinging my sword as we pierced through the orcs before us like an awl.
“Everyone comes back alive! Hold your shields high and completely block the enemy's approach! Then strike their openings with your spears!”
Assault Captain Ed's voice rang out thunderously.
The systematically trained charge formation pushed the orcs back helplessly, spraying blood.
I had just finished killing the savage-looking orc that appeared before me.
A huge shadow suddenly fell over Ed as he stepped forward to kill an orc approaching diagonally.
A face.
A very savage face.
─Orc Legion Commander.
The Legion Commander, which had been standing motionless in the rear until just moments ago, had reached my side.
Kwaaang!
The Legion Commander's fist slammed into Ed's upper body.
Ed's body was crushed as if it had been folded in half.
I heard Risellin's anguished scream as she shouted Ed's name.
Every nerve in my body stood on end.
Whoosh—!
I grabbed Ed by the back of the neck, pulled him backward, then shoved him away as if throwing him.
I had to save his life first and worry about the rest later.
From then on, the only thing I could see was the Legion Commander.
A massive frame.
Overwhelming intimidation.
The Orc Legion Commander.
Standing before it, I seriously wondered whether I had hit my head without realizing it.
[Focus Enhancement Lv.3 - Activating skill.]
The thought of giving it a try had begun to bloom from the tips of my toes.
[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.2 - Activating skill.]
The Legion Commander's arm moved slowly.
The commander raised its enormous battle-axe, stamped its foot against the ground, and charged.
Its red eyes gleamed ominously.
The charge was impossibly fast for something with such a massive body.
That must have been how Assault Captain Ed had ended up like that.
The axe came crashing down vertically. It was a brutish attack backed by the Legion Commander's entire weight.
I endured the axe's pressure with my sword braced against it.
Dragon-Slaying Sword (龍殺劍), Libra.
The first form of the sword-defense technique (劍防術), which balanced the sword and body to block attacks with the blade.
Cracks appeared in the ground beneath my feet, but my sword remained intact.
The Legion Commander gripped the axe's handle with both hands.
Kwooooooooooooooooo──!
Then, with a thunderous roar, it began bringing the axe down indiscriminately.
Gray trajectories densely covered the air.
An attack is also a defense.
Rather than block the Legion Commander's attacks with sword defense, I responded with counterattacks.
Hair sliced off by the axe blade scattered through the air.
A diagonal slash.
The same situation repeated itself: if I had twisted my head even slightly less, my neck would have been cut through and my head would have fallen to the ground.
I poured out every basic technique of the Dragon-Slaying Sword.
Blood spurted from the Legion Commander's neck. But it didn't fall.
Its neck was far too thick.
Its waist was, too. So were the hide protecting its heart and the pectoral muscles of its upper body.
By contrast, my body was still frail. Even with Libra deployed, I was barely managing to block fatal attacks.
Krrrrrrrrrrrrk!
I twisted the trajectory with my straight sword. But—
Slash.
Even twisting it wasn't enough.
Pain beyond a dull ache spread from my left shoulder. Blood streamed down fiercely.
Clang!
Even as I felt my consciousness drifting away, I swung my sword and knocked the axe aside.
[Status Effect - Bleeding!]
Was I going to die?
It would be absurd to die like this.
Perhaps because I had lost too much blood, the pain evaporated instead.
In a state close to unconsciousness, I chased the trajectory and knocked away another attack.
If I allowed even one more attack to hit me, I would die.
[Skill ‘Composure’ level increased. Lv.3]
Just once.
Just one more chance.
I wasn't counting on a stroke of luck.
[Skill ‘Warrior's Movement’ level increased. Lv.3]
Everything I had built up.
[Skill ‘Warrior's Movement’ is calling a linked skill.]
I only wanted to show that it hadn't all been meaningless.
[Doombringer Lv.1 - Skill acquired.]
It had come.
[Doombringer activates according to the ‘Critical’ state of the Status Effect - Bleeding.]
[The body temporarily breaks through its limits.]
‘Warrior's Movement,’ which ‘Light's Sword’ had written in the appendix to the sword manual, was one of the skills I absolutely had to acquire.
A special-condition activation skill, Doombringer.
-Light's Sword) It's the final struggle, and the best struggle.
A skill that strengthens you when you're at critically low health—one often seen in other games, especially fighting games, when you've suffered a critical wound.
My joints creaked without obeying my commands.
But my mind was perfectly clear.
More than ever.
I was conscious. Twenty seconds at most was my limit.
If I exceeded that limit, my life would be the thing that went out.
I swung my straight sword.
A horizontal slash, Þursahǫgg.
The sword strike that had failed to land until then pierced the Legion Commander's armor and slammed into its upper body.
Hjartagnyr.
Drakabani.
Tress Punktrai.
I unleashed every sword path (劒路) my body remembered.
Again, Þursahǫgg.
A flash cut through the Legion Commander's waist.
The Legion Commander's body began to tilt sideways.
─Thud.
The Legion Commander's body sprawled across the ground.