When you seize an opportunity, you can’t give them a breather; you have to keep pushing. Without needing to exchange words, Kanak and I arrived at the same conclusion.
Kanak wielded a sword while I was empty-handed.
Sure, I could extend my range a little with magic, but that’s just within a margin of error. Neither of us could reach the spear.
The spear’s greatest strength lay in its distance. I had dealt a decent opening blow, but against someone of Hexion’s caliber, the moment the distance opened up, there was a possibility of getting toyed with in a 1v2 scenario.
I stepped in, extending my right arm.
Hexion chose to evade, stepping back to match my advance. It was a slight difference, but compared to the incredible reaction speed he had shown at the beginning, this felt somewhat slow. It seemed the initial strike had an effect.
It would have been splendid if I could finish him off in one surprise strike, but even so, this was a decent start, if not the best.
The biggest windfall was that Hexion’s armor wasn’t as defensive as I had expected.
Lack of defense didn’t mean the armor was flimsy; I couldn’t just easily break armor with sheer strength either.
Being empty-handed, it’s only natural. The reason I was able to pierce Hexion’s armor and inflict a wound was purely due to the power of the dark magic wrapped around my hand. It was a fantastic collaboration created by the advantage of surprise and specialized magic.
Now, you might think that if it’s magic, it should work in any situation, but that’s not entirely true.
From what I’ve heard, the armors worn by knights are inscribed with all sorts of resistance magic, making it hard to leave even a scratch.
Especially since the resistance magic is heavily focused on holy magic, it significantly reduces the effectiveness of dark magic.
Of course, comparing the gear of the strongest group of humanity in the Luminous Kingdom’s Palace to that of the equipment used in this backwoods territory is an excessively harsh judgment.
Moreover, from the perspective of the humans in Pahera, the primary enemy is the beastmen, so if they were to add defensive magic, it would make more sense to focus purely on mitigating physical damage rather than using holy magic.
But right now, such petty details don’t matter at all. What’s confirmed is that my attacks are very effective against the enemy right in front of me.
In this situation, I don’t even need to target the joints of his armor; landing a direct hit is enough, and the fact that Hexion is now consciously forced to focus on defense significantly increases my options.
Kanak stubbornly and threateningly pushes forward from the front. Meanwhile, I circle around behind Hexion, attempting a double attack while blocking his escape route.
Hexion’s spear moves with a sound that cuts through the wind.
The spear and sword collide. As Kanak twists his blade to deflect, Hexion quickly readjusts his grip on the spear and changes his movement to counter me.
I hurriedly leaned back. The spear tip grazes the spot where my neck was just a moment ago.
In the heat of the moment, I attempted to snag the spear shaft with my hand, but by the time my arm extended, Hexion had already retracted the spear as if predicting my move.
“Strong, indeed.”
Although I succeeded in breaking his armor and drawing some blood with my initial surprise attack, Hexion’s movements were surprisingly agile.
In a 1v2 situation, even having given him the distance advantage, he calmly searches for the best countermeasure, a level far above any humans I’ve fought until now.
If his responses hadn’t been slightly slowed by his injury, it would have been several times more difficult.
Hexion was adjusting the position of his spear, sometimes holding it short, at other times from longer ranges, making his movements unpredictable and placing him at least one tier above what I had initially assumed.
“Guh!”
Nevertheless, we still held the upper hand. Speculating that it might have been unfavorable if I hadn’t been injured or if it were a 1v1 situation is meaningless at this point.
Hexion’s face twisted with strain. He was fighting harder than expected, but the beads of sweat pouring down proved he was struggling.
I constantly looked for openings to get in and freely used my head.
How can I win?
How can I kill him?
I’m in control now, but time is not on the rebels’ side.
If I don’t settle this while I have the advantage of surprise and numbers, I doubt I’ll get another chance like this. Hexion must be finished here today, no matter what.
‘Should I just go for it?’
To be precise, I hadn’t shown all of my cards yet. The fact that he’d avoided all my attacks was proof of that.
Since arriving in Pahera, I had generally maintained a very ordinary fighting style of hitting when I could and evading when I could since I didn’t want to reveal my regeneration abilities. Especially in this place where humans primarily wielded silver weapons against vampires, I was even more cautious.
Silver isn’t my weakness.
However, if I miraculously healed immediately after getting hit by a lethal silver weapon, even if the enemies didn’t come to the insane conclusion that I was the Progenitor, they would certainly elevate my danger level by at least three tiers.
I didn’t want to attract attention like that when I was still weak. I had already been overestimated based on my regeneration alone, and if my actual combat abilities were poor, it would seem strange.
So, I had fought as normally as possible without revealing my regenerative powers. The act of picking up my severed arm and reattaching it when I first encountered Hexion was in the same vein.
Would it still be necessary to maintain that attitude?
At this point, my sheer combat ability would be enough to catch the attention of the humans. Having shown somewhat unusual regeneration wouldn’t be particularly out of place.
By giving up part of my defense, I could greatly enhance my means to pressure my enemy.
I weighed the pros and cons in my head. The desire to keep my cards hidden until the end and the instinct to ensure Hexion’s death clashed.
The deliberation didn’t take long.
I quickly discarded the scale tipped toward the latter and resolved myself.
Bang! I pushed off the ground, investing all my energy solely in closing the distance.
Hexion’s spear moved horizontally.
What I had to see was the future of one second ahead.
Posture, center of gravity, muscle contraction and relaxation, breathing, and heartbeat all revealed to me the trajectory of the spear about to come.
One second from now, I will overlap with the horizontal trajectory going through my heart.
It’s not a point, but a line. A masterful absence of movement would manifest the destructive power of a line even with a small spear.
Now is the time to move.
I abandon defense. As long as it’s not my neck or heart, I don’t care if they’re exposed.
Instead of slowing down, I accelerate further. I pull my lowered upper body upright, adjusting my position so my heart is higher.
The narrowed distance and changed posture alters the predetermined future.
A look of surprise crosses Hexion’s eyes. He must have seen me throw myself into the spear’s tip and thought I was using a kamikaze tactic.
Still, for him, there’s no option to not strike me.
Even if his seasoned intuition sensed something off, choosing to stop the attack would be far from optimal; it would be closest to his best response to try to incapacitate me with a strike.
The spear that should have passed through my chest and heart barely grazes lower and digs into my left side.
Ignoring it, I charge forward. I catch sight of Kanak’s startled face from the other side, but that beastman should understand intuitively.
As the spear tip digs into my body from the left, it shifts to the right, leaving a red line on my side. Blood surged up between my separating upper and lower body.
By giving up my bones and flesh, Hexion finally enters my striking range.
When Hexion’s spear passes through my right side and exits my body, I should have been completely split in two… which is hardly the case.
“What?!”
So it wasn’t surprising that Hexion, witnessing his supposed target standing unharmed and clenching his fist, expressed disbelief.
The reason I could still stand was simple.
My regeneration was faster than the moment that should have cleaved my body in two. It was just that.
The left half, which should have been severed when my spine broke, had already healed, and by the time the spear exited my right side, my spine was already reconnected.
It’s a simple but truly unexpected sight that defies human logic. My fist, which I swung, accurately goes inside the hole I made in his armor earlier.
Same attack. However, there’s no defensive power this time.
The shadow wrapped around my fist easily burrows into Hexion’s frail human body.
“Ugh!!!”
I feel the crunch of shattered ribs. Simultaneously, the warm, sweet wetness soaks my fingertips.
However, Hexion wasn’t your average opponent either.
For most foes, that attack could have turned them into a ragdoll, but even in that situation, the seasoned knight managed to avoid instant death by opting for a desperate evasive maneuver rather than half-hearted defense at the last moment.
Kanak’s sword crashes down on the side of Hexion, who is losing a piece of his side.
If I tried to stop that, I’d be barely able to shake him off, but if I didn’t, I might lose my life or part of my body.
And without hesitation, Hexion chose the latter.
His right arm, which was the life of a warrior. Hexion sacrificed his own arm by bringing it to Kanak’s sword, successfully creating an opening.
At the same time, something slipped from his left hand, which had been hidden inside his cloak, falling to the ground.
BOOM!!!
As something fell, a tremendous roar erupted, along with a fierce tempest.
If the beastmen had fired an explosive magic emphasizing firepower with their catapult, what Hexion released was pure rebound force itself.
Suddenly, the storm created by the condensed wind magic sent both Kanak and me flying back, while the battered Hexion hurled himself towards the castle wall.
“…What?!”
‘Crazy son of a gun.’
As far as I could manage, I didn’t expect this.
In an instant, a wall of soldiers formed between Hexion and me. Despite his age, he was incredibly resilient; having flung himself with the explosion he created, Hexion was up again, blood flowing from his side as he lost one of his arms.
I saw two nearby soldiers rush to support him, and I instinctively thought,
‘I have to kill that guy. Now.’
Losing his right arm, the very life of a warrior, didn’t even matter.
If I don’t kill Hexion now, he will find a way to block my path no matter what.
I steadied my breath and pushed off the ground. I didn’t even have time to feel anxious.
Blood sprayed everywhere. The wall of soldiers blocking my path disintegrated in an instant.
I pierced straight through to the castle wall, catching a glimpse of Hexion’s back disappearing beyond the crumbled wall.
‘I won’t let you escape.’
I chased after him, crossing through the wall and into the city.
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