“Lilo, Haunzen, let’s go!!”
The figure of Fausto, extending his spear, disappeared.
Walm was on his guard, yet he couldn’t help but click his tongue at the extraordinary acceleration. The spearheads collided with each other and a contest ensued. Although Walm had strengthened his body with magic, he leaned back because of the lopsided difference in physical strength.
The movement of the two companions was also really sharp, though, not as sharp as Fausto’s. Constricting down the space with exquisite positioning and restricting Walm’s movement while narrowing down his options, they approached.
Walm continued to dance on the fragile scaffolding, taking advantage of the demon eyes, which were in good condition. He felt like he was facing a completely different person than the one he had fought in the Labyrinth.
“At that time, you went easy, huh?”
Fausto answered Walm’s question.
“Demon eyes that not everyone compatible, what a big deal. But, don’t think that you’re the only one, who incorporated demon at the end of the war.”
With the blow of the spear, the brick roof was blown away. And the roof made a noise as it couldn’t withstand Fausto’s steps.
Clearly, Fausto’s body protruded unnaturally around his left arm. Walm, now understanding his words, realized the true nature of his power.
“Did you incorporate a monster into your body?”
“During the Unification War, my unit was born with the help of Crimson Grass and necromancy magic. No more fear, no more limit. Come, show me what you got!”
Facing a formidable opponent, Walm prepared his trump card.
The air around Walm was filled with heat, blue flames overflowed from his body, and hot air blew through the surroundings.
“Uh, guh, uuuhhh!! That’s 《Demon Fire》 huh.”
Fausto and the others withstood the fire with the help of a non-average magical barrier. Walm knew that they weren’t the kinds who would surrender so easily.
Walm changed the way he gripped his halberd, raised it above his head, and threw it with hot air. The sharply extending flaming halberd approached the dull shield-wielder among the three. The shield-wielder, deciding that it was unavoidable, solidified his defense. The spearhead of the halberd bit into the great shield as it scraped the metal, and the blue flame spread on it.
“Haunzen, get back!!”
Fausto and the archer who had lost his bow tried to block Walm’s path, but were a little too slow.
Walm, who accelerated with the hot wind, pulled the longsword from his waist, cast blue flames on the blade made of Mithril. Flames were dancing along the blade.
With such a sword, Walm slashed the man named “Haunzen”, who held his large shield tight as he approached.
A single attack combined with 《Strike》 cut through his armor while burning and melting the iron on the surface.
As the gazes of Walm and Haunzen, who widened his eyes in astonishment, intersected, the blade that entered from the left hipbone exited again at the right shoulder. A man bisected by a diagonal slash, called “Gyaku-Kesa Giri” in Walm’s previous world, sank into a sea of blue flames in his death throes.
Fausto, who had lost one of his companions, showed no sign of flinching.
They were people who had been preparing for war for a century and had hardened their hatred and determination. It was foolish to expect mental fluctuations.
Without waiting, a short sword and spear approached in the form of sandwiching the front and back. Walm knelt down and fended off the sharply extended spear with the blade of the longsword. While maintaining the momentum of his sword, he turned around and slashed at the archer named “Lilo”.
The longsword struck the archer in the temple, but as he had anticipated a counterattack, he changed course and leaped just in time while aiming to cut off the knees of Walm, who was kneeling and leaning backward.
Walm pushed his knee and thrust the short sword upward with his shin guard. A blue flame swirled on his back and the hot air pressed him against the archer’s shoulder. The center of gravity of the archer caught in the sky collapsed.
Walm stretched out his arm to burn the target at close range, but a spear separated them.
The nasty attacker immediately changed direction and swung the spear horizontally, as if going after Walm, who escaped the blow.
Walm bent his upper body backward and let the spear slide over his head. Although his body’s center of gravity lowered, he managed to dodge the attack.
Without giving Walm pause, the tip of the short sword aimed for his throat.
Walm squinted his eyes and imagined the trajectory of the short sword. He moved his body and was able to dodge the blade just in time. The thin skin on his cheek was torn, but the magical barrier quickly suppressed his dripping blood.
Immediately, Walm supported the pommel of his longsword with his hips and plunged the blade tip into the archer’s flank, the structural weak point of the armor.
“Ugh, guh, gi, iiickk!!”
The blue flames roasted the flesh and boiled the blood. There was a reaction similar to that of a shield-wielder. Whether it was because of where Walm had cut or the difference in the magical barrier: While half of the archer’s body was consumed by blue flames, he pulled a dagger from his waist, aiming to stab Walm.
Walm extended his hand protector and held down the wrist that had gripped the dagger, but his gaze hastily wandered from the dying archer to the troublesome Fausto.
Fausto was approaching Walm with his spear raised above his head.
With enough power, an iron spear would bend like bamboo. Even such an attack from a common soldier could break bones and damage the iron material of the armor. With Fausto’s ridiculous physical strength, his skull and cervical spine would be shattered even through his armor.
Walm burned the archer, who had been relentlessly trying to restrain him with 《Demon Fire》, to death. Then, he immediately parried Fausto’s spear and supported the blade of his sword with his free arm.
A dull, numbing pain runs through Walm’s entire body. He screamed as his arms and spine creaked. Endured, he endured, but suddenly a feeling of floating dominated his body.
The scaffolding reached its limits first.
Walm was slammed to the floor with the remains of the roofing material and the charred remains of the archer. His lungs were asking for air and his whole body ached, but he had no time to falter.
Fausto approached Walm from above while pressing down on the spear in his hand.
Walm, getting down on one knee, hit the ground with his elbow, caught the floor with the sole of his shoe, and rolled away.
The spear smashed the floor and dust scattered all over the room. The room where Walm fell was an enclosed space with a window and an entrance.
Considering the situation, Walm worked out his mana and fired 《Demon Fire》 with maximum firepower. Due to the large wave of blue flames that manifested in a short time, the flames that had nowhere to go in the room flooded the windows and doors as they wanted to dance free. This time, its power was to the point that even Walm, who had high fire resistance, started to feel the burn.
Walm hurriedly escaped through the window and stared at the burning building.
The outer wall was suddenly destroyed like an explosion. Out of the sea of dust and blue flames rose Fausto, whose body was so bloated that it was hard to believe he was human.
“Thiz bodyy, hazz begun to go beyond, the human realm. If you, wannaz, kill me, drop me neeeEEECCKK!!”
Not only Fausto’s appearance, but also his tone of voice and manner of speaking had changed. At that moment, the words “fear and limit” that he had said earlier popped into Walm’s head.
The man standing in front of Walm, wasn’t a hundred percent suitable for being a monster, just like him. Fausto’s body was eroding, while Walm’s eyes were rotting.
A man who now stood between the realm of humans and demons, a man who should now be called a demonic human, came roaring toward Walm.
“Really, giving up on being a human huh, FAUSTOOO?!!”
Dodging the protruding spear, Walm stepped to the side. Each blow was powerful enough to overwhelm the wind and cut the sky with a resounding blow. A single blow could have decided the situation. Of course, not in Walm’s favor.
There was no need to wait long, Walm rejoined the fight. He manipulated blue flames and hot air at irregular intervals, confusing Fausto about the sense of distance. His eardrums kept catching the roar of the expelled air, cutting sound, over and over.
Walm continued to scrape Fausto’s arms and cut the flesh from Fausto’s abdomen. But that wasn’t enough. To settle the matter, he had to hit the vital point precisely. Thus, he continued to close the gap.
The sound of doom shook Walm’s eardrums. An alarm bell rang in his brain to warn him of the danger. The demon mask, on the other hand, enjoyed the situation and trembled happily every time he hit Fausto.
Cutting off the viscera, and gouging out the huge arm with the tip of the longsword, Walm scraped Fausto’s life.
Fausto held his spear in an extremely forward-leaning posture against Walm, who raised the longsword above.
The stone pavement was torn apart, and Fausto’s figure disappeared.
Now, the two positions were exchanged and reversed.
Blood oozed out of Walm’s throat. A ferocious look leaked out on Fausto’s face, but soon the red lines carved into his neck spread out, and flowers of blood bloomed in the sky.
A very close call.
Walm learned the pattern from the blow that Fausto, confined in a human body, kept making. Walm wouldn’t have been able to dodge it at first glance. If this had been the first time Fausto let his limit off, the result might have been the opposite.
Even though Fausto’s throat and carotid arteries were cut and he was struggling to stand still, his eyes hadn’t lost fighting spirit.
“Thiz, thizz much, izzz, NOOOTTHIIIINNGG!!!”
Fausto rushed in with a wet scream, and Walm responded with a stance that in his previous world was called, “Jodan no Kamae”, or “The Stance of Fire”.
The blade, which was raised above the head, cut through Fausto’s torso. His wounds were immediately filled with blue flames. His chest was cut open horizontally. As the slash severed his chest along with his sternum, the blue flames burned him from the inside.
“It, iz, not, over, yet.”
Fausto propped his knees on the ground and uttered a voice, but he collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. Walm simply stared at the man’s back smoldering with blue flames.
“……died already?”
Not even a glimpse of joy could be felt.
Just like that, Walm left the place with a bitter aftertaste. He had only cut one pest. The culprit was still out there.
