Chapter 93
The moon had risen beneath the night sky.
In the forest near the Edelheid ducal estate, a fierce battle was raging.
It was a fight between the Imperial Knights chasing the witch and Leon, who was trying to stop them.
-CLANG!
Steel rang out.
Sparks flew.
Leon's sword slammed into the shield.
"Kuh!"
Unable to withstand the impact, the knight was hurled backward.
Leon slipped through the disordered formation and tried to finish them off.
-Fwoosh!
However, as if refusing to give him even the slightest opening to attack, crimson fire arrows rained down from overhead like a downpour.
From the ground, ice rose and seized his ankles.
The mages lined up in the rear had calculated Leon's movements and approach routes and poured on the firepower.
“Tch.”
Leon clicked his tongue briefly.
He violently detonated his mana.
The chunk of ice binding his legs burst into fragments.
Breaking free of the restraint, he swung his sword toward the air.
-Shwoosh!
A crescent-shaped sword wind spread out.
It swept away the rain of fire arrows.
"Don't stop! Keep pressing him!"
The knight order's furious assault allowed no gap whatsoever.
Like interlocking gears turning, the formation shifted nimbly.
The shields surrounded Leon on all sides, forming a prison with nowhere to run.
"Iron cage!"
At the command, three razor-sharp spearheads stabbed in through the gaps between the shields at Leon's blind spots.
A combined attack aimed at his thigh, ribs, and throat all at once.
-Kakakak!
Leon twisted his upper body and knocked away the spear shafts with the flat of his blade.
He stepped on a shield and hurled himself out of the encirclement.
He put some distance between them, wiped the sweat from his brow, and caught his breath for a moment.
This is definitely no easy fight.
One knight's strength was nowhere near Leon's.
But the reason the knight order was truly feared wasn't in the strength of each individual.
The coordination of dozens of troops moving as one huge organism.
Even if someone fell, another would immediately fill the gap, defending and attacking at the same time.
From afar, the mages rained down precise shots.
Only when the knight order united as one did it reveal its true strength.
Paradoxically, that was why the knight order feared Leon.
His strength—taking on the entire knight order alone and even pushing them back—felt unreal.
The thought even crossed their minds that they might lose.
"Everyone, good work buying time. From here on, I'll join in too."
Aiter, having recovered somewhat in the rear, joined the front line.
"Sir Aslan, are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
Leon let out a sigh.
"Aren't you being a little too shameless? If you've already dropped out, at least stay out until the fight's over."
"This old body would love to do that if I could, but what can I do when you're so absurdly strong? Please bear with me."
Aiter took up a battle stance.
Leon also took his stance.
He checked how much mana remained.
'Barely 20%, at most.'
Leon had so much mana that he easily outstripped most mages.
But because the battle had gone on so long, not much remained.
He had managed, with his first strike, to reduce the knight order's numbers, but the problem was...
"Sir Aslan! We'll join you too!"
The rear reinforcements stationed in the duchy had arrived. Thanks to that, the forces he'd painstakingly whittled down were restored.
'I haven't even managed to stall them for long.'
It felt like days had passed, but in reality less than an hour had gone by.
He needed to buy more time.
Leon drew up his mana.
He lowered the output by one notch from before.
He didn't need to annihilate the enemies before him. Just keeping them pinned down would be enough.
Leon gave a small nod.
As if telling them to come at him first.
The knight order did not hesitate. Led by Aslan, they all rushed him at once.
Aslan's slender sword whipped forward, twisting its path unpredictably to threaten Leon.
Normally, anyone would be flustered the moment they faced his swordsmanship, but Leon remained calm.
He laid his blade flat and slid the slender sword's trajectory outward.
Leon deftly deflected Aslan's attack and stepped back half a pace.
-Shwoosh!
A spearhead stabbed in at that spot. A slender sword surged in, aiming for his escape route.
Leon didn't dodge with any large movement.
Even if a spear grazed his arm and scraped his cheek, he would let it pass as long as it wasn't a fatal wound.
Instead, he took control of the next move.
He found the weakest link in the onslaught and targeted it.
He broke spear shafts and stabbed thighs. He smashed chins with the pommel and slashed wrists.
It was a battle of brutal efficiency, spending only the bare minimum of mana and stamina while surrendering whatever he had to surrender.
He lured his opponents deeper into the mud. Leon's defensive posture threw the knights' rhythm into disarray.
-Crash!
The hulking knight, having lost his center of gravity, caught the legs of other knights charging beside him and toppled like a domino.
The moment one side of the formation, which had been turning with machine-like perfection, collapsed in a ridiculous heap.
Using the chaos of the flailing knights as a shield, Leon drifted smoothly into a blind spot beyond the reach of Aslan's rapier.
-Thwoom!
He burst through the encirclement and shot like a cannonball toward the mages in the rear.
Just as he was about to take care of the mages who had been in his way all along.
-Swoosh!
Leon sensed movement.
They were assassins hidden in the forest.
Waiting for their chance, they were trying to slip away while Leon's pressure was focused elsewhere.
To go after Renoa.
“Tch.”
Leon reined himself in.
At the same time, he increased his output.
Leaving the mages behind, he fiercely pursued the assassins.
In an instant, he seized them by the nape of the neck.
"I told you you'd die if you crossed the line."
The blade flashed.
The assassins thudded to the ground.
Leon landed on the ground.
A sweet, metallic taste filled his mouth.
The moment Leon let out a deep breath and tried to steady himself.
“……!”
A streak of light sliced through.
Aiter seized the opening and charged.
With the rapier's signature high-speed thrusts and the mages' buffs, the blade reached him faster than sound.
Even so, Leon displayed absurdly unnatural reflexes and twisted his body at once to defend.
But his stance wasn't fully intact. His sword shattered, and the rapier pierced his shoulder blade.
"Even with such remarkable senses, how could you show your back like that?"
"Kuh…"
Leon let go of his sword without hesitation. He slashed with his empty right hand.
-Pshut!
He slashed vertically across Aiter's left eye.
"A knife-hand technique...? To think you could even pull off something like that. The more I face you, the more astonishing you become."
"Stop being clingy and get lost already."
Leon grabbed Aiter by the face and drove him into the ground.
-Kuuung!
Aiter was slammed into the floor.
He no longer moved.
Leon picked up the rapier Aiter had dropped.
It was much lighter and thinner than the one he normally used, but not so much that it was unusable.
“So this was how it was done.”
Leon took up a new stance.
It was Aiter's sword stance.
Leon possessed [Superior Swordsmanship] proficiency.
When it came to swordsmanship alone, he had already reached an almost unfathomable level.
Even if it was a sword he'd never seen or used before, if it was swordsmanship, he could copy it after seeing it once.
Leon gave a slight nod.
“Next.”
The knights charged.
They thrust spears, shoved shields forward, and swung swords.
When one fell, another immediately filled the gap, and the mages' flashes kept lighting up the darkness.
Amid the barrage of attacks, Leon swung only his sword.
He deflected everything with a single blade.
He blocked every enemy that came at him.
One step forward would let him cut down more enemies, but Leon stepped back instead.
Because protecting what was behind him mattered more than cutting the enemies down.
If he pushed forward, gaps would inevitably open in his defensive perimeter, and someone would squeeze through that blind spot.
Thus Leon willingly held the line in place, narrowing the chokepoint he had to guard.
-Kakakang!
He couldn't even tell how much time had passed.
It was a war of attrition, taking the endless tide of steel head-on with nothing but his body.
Leon’s body was literally being worn down.
Blood flowed from the wound that had pierced his shoulder, with no time to stop the bleeding.
His uniform was torn by magical bombardment, and his skin was scorched. The storm of spears and blades had covered his entire body with wounds of every size.
Anyone could see he was at his limit.
No, he looked so mangled he should have collapsed long ago.
Even so, Leon was still standing.
If his sword broke, he would pick up another lying on the ground and swing it.
Who the weapon's original owner was
or what form the sword took didn't matter.
The moment he gripped a sword, the fading golden light in his eyes flared brilliantly, exuding a sharp and ferocious killing intent.
And once again, he swung his sword.
***
Yet another stretch of time passed.
The moon high in the sky had shifted position.
Normally the forest shadows would have stretched long by now, but the great trees that filled the area had already been reduced beyond recognition.
The place had been swept by countless intersecting sword strikes and magical bombardments.
The once-lush forest had been carved away and turned into a barren wasteland where only dust blew about.
On such a clearing, it was hard to find anyone still standing in one piece.
The knights who had boasted of being the empire's strongest lay sprawled on the ground with broken spears and swords.
Some coughed up blood with their breastplates caved in, while others had their limbs bent at grotesque angles and couldn't even manage a proper groan.
The mages who had been pouring support from the rear had also fainted, swept up by mana backlash or attacks.
A horrific bloodbath.
At its center.
“Haa, haa, haa….”
Leon lay spread-eagled and breathed harshly.
He couldn't even twitch a finger.
It was the price of swinging his sword hundreds, thousands of times and pushing his body to the limit.
Among the few knights surrounding Leon, Aiter stepped forward.
"It's over, Leon. It's all over."
“…….”
"I'll admit it. You won. At this rate, I can't even think about pursuing you."
The forest had long since become a battlefield. Countless elite knights lay scattered like rags.
Not one of them was unscathed.
If Leon had been fully prepared, it would have been them lying there instead.
'To think the Imperial Knight Order would lose to a single slave.'
Of course, they hadn't brought the entire Imperial Knight Order here.
They had selected only the cream of the crop—the kind of elite who wouldn't look out of place waging war against another kingdom right now—and brought them here.
And yet they couldn't break through a single slave.
They had succeeded in forcing him to his knees, but too much time had already been lost.
In this state, pursuing the young lady was impossible.
Since they had failed to achieve their objective, it was effectively a defeat.
"What about her could possibly have inspired such loyalty in you, I wonder."
"Loyalty? What loyalty? I just ended up with the wrong master."
Leon muttered bitterly.
Still, this had been his choice, and since he'd fulfilled his duty, he had no regrets.
"Everyone, tend to the injured. We return to the imperial capital."
"What should we do with this one?"
Aiter looked at Leon. Under normal circumstances, it would have been an immediate execution.
"Take him to the imperial capital as well. Make sure he's thoroughly restrained so he can't move."
"You're sparing him?"
"It's mercy for breaking our promise. Of course, his treatment afterward will have to be discussed with the vassals."
"How generous of you."
While the knight order handled the cleanup, Leon stared listlessly at the sky.
The blue-tinged night sky.
A scattering of stars embroidered across it.
Renoa's face naturally came to mind.
'I wonder if she's managed to get far away by now.'
He was worried, but she was a cold-blooded person, after all. Wouldn't she act coolly as if nothing had happened?
Who had he gone through all this hell for, anyway?
If she got caught, he'd give her a smack, master or not.