Chapter 175 - Help Me, Quickly

Encrid could describe Luagarne's fighting in two words: thud and boom. She ran straight into the Knoll horde in a brutal charge, giving it less thought than even a Ghoul's brain would have. A knight riding down enemies on a proper warhorse was said to be charging. Couldn't Luagarne's assault be called the same? 'I think it could.' It was certainly effective. Ignoring the scratches she took as she barreled in, she wielded a whip in her right hand and a sword in her left. CRACK! CRACK! Each time the whip sliced through the air, deafening impacts erupted from the Knolls' heads, shoulders, and bellies.

CRACK! BANG! BOOM!

Heads burst, scattering black blood and brains in every direction. Meanwhile, her left-hand sword plunged into the heads of the approaching hyena demonic beasts. SHUNK! SHUNK! THUD! CRUNCH!

The sounds came one after another. As she stabbed and withdrew her blade again and again, three or four short-snouted hyena demonic beasts collapsed, spilling black blood across the ground. WHIIINE, GURGLE. Luagarne raced past the demonic beasts dying with black froth at their mouths. That charge alone killed nine Knolls and fifteen hyena demonic beasts. After that, the Knolls began banding together in groups of five, six, or seven to face her. "Croak!" Luagarne puffed out her cheeks once and lashed her whip. It whirled through the air, wrapping around an enemy's neck instead of striking it. She caught it, yanked, and flung it. WHOOSH! Had he ever seen a flying Knoll? He had. Just now. The airborne Knoll landed headfirst with a thud. Meanwhile, the Frog's whip and sword kept serving as guillotines. She killed and killed again. An angry Frog's might was truly astonishing. She was displaying her immense strength and innate combat instincts. GROOOOK!

A Knoll's cry rose high, echoing like a scream. Meanwhile, Encrid walked steadily forward. Luagarne was a Frog, and she had given a fitting demonstration of the anger his provocation had roused. Her power was genuinely impressive. But now that repeating today had helped him begin to see and grasp certain things... 'Could I take her?' Frogs were a warrior race, but they weren't all alike. Hadn't Luagarne said repeatedly that she was a scholar? That she wasn't particularly devoted to combat? As he was now...

'I don't think I'd lose.'

The thought suddenly occurred to him. Was it arrogance, or confidence born of accumulated experience? Of course, no fight was certain until it was fought. But if he meant to kill her...

'I think I could.'

That was how he felt. ["I can teach you the Righteous Sword Technique, but knights or your band of lunatics? Well, they're rather difficult opponents."] Luagarne, the talent reader, was dispassionate in her assessment. She made her own ability and her current standing quite clear. ["My curiosity is stronger than my urge to compete."] What Frog wasn't curious? Her eyes had sparkled as she spoke. Light seemed to seep into those large, round, protruding eyes. Then, when Encrid explained his strategy for facing the monsters, she had puffed her cheeks with a croak and tilted her head. Accustomed to human life, Luagarne often conveyed her meaning through humanlike gestures. Her response to his strategy amounted to asking what sort of insanity that was. ["I did it yesterday, too."] As he answered her, Encrid felt heat fill his heart, his body, his hands, his feet—every part of him. How could he describe it? An urge to run wild? The urge to run through a sudden downpour? Or perhaps the urge to roll across a field blanketed in fresh white snow? Whatever it was, all those feelings combined into an urge to do something. More precisely, to swing his swords. ["So all you need to do is watch my back."]

The request was for both Luagarne and Esther. Left as it was, the village was on the verge of falling anyway. If the enemy had even brought ladders, well, that settled it. What should he do, then? 'Destroy what they're counting on.' What were the Knolls and the Cultist counting on now? Numbers and tools. Ladders and sheer numbers. While he was at it, he wanted to release whatever was boiling inside him. That burning something. That seething something. "It seems this will have to be a short but fierce fight." Encrid murmured as he stepped forward. Thinking of the ferryman, he spoke as though reciting a verse and advanced. While Luagarne's might held every eye, he approached until the monsters and demonic beasts were right before him. Luagarne caught her breath and withdrew. By then, she had slaughtered close to thirty Knolls and hyena demonic beasts in total. The Frog returned with small wounds on her arms, legs, thighs, and belly. She was strong. But was she so strong that he couldn't hope to challenge her? Well, he wasn't sure. He thought he might be able to. Encrid stopped amid the Knolls, hyena demonic beasts, and Ghouls. GROOOOK!

KYAA! KAA!

Knolls and hyena demonic beasts. KYAAAK!

A Ghoul was the first to greet him. A very enthusiastic greeting indeed. Looking at them, Encrid wondered. Was a knight's might somewhere far beyond his reach? And if it was, did that mean he would never reach it? He didn't know. No one knew the future. Still, he thought he could show them something. Briefly, but decisively. There were many enemies, a mass of countless monsters and demonic beasts. Among them, he saw the ones carrying ladders. Were there a little over thirty? Good. Thirty. He took that in and drew his swords.

SHIIING.

One in his right hand.

SHING.

One in his left. He was still far more comfortable wielding just one sword, but this would be better now. He had many opponents. And so Encrid swung his swords.

* * *

'What is he planning to do?' Luagarne didn't ask Encrid. There were several reasons why. First, she was a Frog. She was confident she could get herself out even from amid a horde of Knolls and demonic beasts. If things went wrong, she could sacrifice an arm to escape. It would regenerate, so that was no problem. Thus, when he proposed heading into the monsters, she hadn't bothered to ask. Another reason was the change in Encrid. 'Why has he changed?' She had only been away for half a day or so. Yet his stance and presence had changed. 'How?' Luagarne was a Frog and a talent reader. Her eyes and senses naturally assessed Encrid's ability through his steps, gestures, and posture. 'How?'

He had changed enough to draw the same question from her twice. Skill sometimes improved abruptly, but this was different. Utterly different from anyone she had observed before. ["I'm telling you, I have an appointment at the salon."] That was how geniuses were. Sometimes Luagarne was dumbfounded when some bastard who did nothing but screw around suddenly improved by leaps and bounds. That was a genius for you. Even so, had they shown no hints, no signs? No, there had been signs. Luagarne could see them—the hints and signs that appeared just before their skills improved. Once those signs appeared, growth was only natural. 'Nothing.' She had seen none of that. No signs, no hints. With nothing, absolutely nothing to herald it, he had suddenly changed. Was that possible? Moreover, in Luagarne's eyes, Encrid hadn't even qualified as a genius. How, then? The same question again. And so she stood here now to determine whether Encrid had truly changed or her own senses had failed her. 'If things go wrong...'

She could simply grab him and run. Beside her, Esther extended her claws and jabbed at the ground. Seeing that, she thought the cheeky panther had much the same idea. With worry and anticipation, curiosity and a yearning for the unknown mingling within her, she looked ahead. Then the worry vanished. SHING, SHING. Encrid drew two swords and moved. Into the Knolls and demonic beasts. Into the Ghouls. His objective was clear. 'The ladders.'

He charged straight toward their carriers. Luagarne had targeted them too. But she wasn't one of the monsters she called true knights. Perhaps if she were one of her kind who fought for a living—but she wasn't. The impossible was still impossible. The ladder carriers were deliberately hiding and falling back. She could slaughter every creature that swarmed in front of them, certainly. But chasing down the ones retreating? That would take overexertion. The problem was that there were too many. They were Knolls. A Frog could beat them to death half asleep, but there were simply far too many. Luagarne wasn't a knight. She was a Frog, but even Frogs had limits to their stamina. She could take down one Cultist, but she couldn't fight this entire horde. That was common sense. On this continent, those who shattered common sense were called knights, or knight-level. And now.

WHOOSH. SWISH, THUD, CRACK, SLICE, WHIZZ, SHUNK, SHUNK-SHUNK.

Encrid's swords shattered the path. The path laid down by common sense. 'Ah.' Skill couldn't improve without a hint or a sign. Even a genius couldn't do that. How? Encrid's swords moved exactly when needed, and only as far as needed. He stabbed and slashed. Cut and thrust. He lightly split the crown of an approaching Knoll's head, then swept a sword sideways to sever another Knoll's spear shaft. The creature whose spear he had cut opened its mouth. As its sharp fangs sought his shoulder, a flash swept upward from below. That flash split its head in two with a crack. A head sliced in half couldn't bite anything. The split halves parted to either side, and the now two-headed Knoll crumpled. The power behind those blades. Luagarne knew it now rivaled her own. He had shown that strength occasionally in their sparring sessions. But during their spars, he had only known how to unleash it at the cost of his balance. Now, perfectly balanced, he used only what he needed and reined it back in. He cut vertically and thrust forward, his feet constantly moving to claim space. Whenever a ladder came within reach, he smashed it with a sword. Then five or six Ghouls hurled themselves at him from the side in a single tangled mass. They looked ready to cling to his trouser legs even if it killed them. The Cultist's brainwashing spell was at work. That, too, proved useless. Before the mass of Ghouls reached him, Encrid placed his left foot forward and his right foot back, then whirled his swords naturally, as though he had been waiting. WHOOSH, SWISH, CRUNCH! What use were bones, muscles, or tendons? The Heavy Sword Technique's spinning cut sliced straight through the entire mass of Ghouls. Arms, legs, heads, chests, and bellies—the tangled creatures' body parts littered the ground. Between those movements, he drove one sword into the earth with a thunk. TWEEEEEE! With that strange sound, throwing knives flew from the hand Encrid had freed by releasing his sword. They were whistle daggers. Ten throwing blades scattered like the wind, piercing in all directions. Every whistle dagger buried itself in the head of a ladder carrier. Knowing how to use tools didn't mean Knolls knew how to take care of them. When the ladders fell, the creatures inadvertently trampled them. The hastily made "tools" broke. "Groooo!" Mutant Knolls charged. They stood a full head taller than the others. Three or four moved to surround him on every side, while hyena demonic beasts thrust their heads through the gaps. Encrid grasped the sword he had planted in the ground and vanished for an instant. Luagarne's eyes didn't lose him, but even she saw an afterimage. 'A charge technique?' The kind of charge proto knights commonly used. Or rather, perhaps his speed was on a similar level. Vanishing just before the circle closed, he appeared behind the mutant on his right and stabbed with both swords, crossing their paths. SHUNK! The two blades crossed as they pierced the mutant's heart and withdrew. Because it had to be the heart of all places, her cheeks puffed out for a moment. Still, she could ignore it. She was an experienced Frog. Yet before her stood a human unlike any she had encountered in all that experience. The unknown stirred her heart. Encrid pulled the embedded swords back. Black blood streamed after the blades as they slid free. "Grook!"

The mutant died. GROOK!

A hyena demonic beast charged. A kick struck it with a thud, and a pommel smashed its head open. KAA! A Ghoul lunged without concern for its own safety, thrusting out its claws. Its poisoned nails were deadly weapons in themselves. THWACK. A sword swung as though brushing aside a nuisance struck its head, taking the top of its skull off. One popular belief held that Ghouls had no brains. Apparently, that wasn't true. They were small, though. Barely the size of a finger. Encrid hadn't been out there swinging his swords for very long. Not half a day, not even hours. Perhaps only long enough to drink a cup of tea? So little time that the sun hadn't shifted in the sky. In what long-lived dragonfolk or Fairies might call an instant, Encrid destroyed most of the ladders. He reduced close to a hundred monsters and demonic beasts to lumps of rotten meat. The Ghouls had been almost entirely wiped out. Luagarne was a Frog. Rather than getting goose bumps, she felt an ache in her heart muscle. Admiration and wonder. The joy and exhilaration of discovering something unknown, something she couldn't comprehend. The happiness of having that unknown before her. All of it combined to bring tears to her eyes. It was a cruel happiness. "Ahh." With admiration in her voice, she began a Frog song—a battle song. Before the song had even properly begun, Encrid leaped backward and collapsed. His knees buckled, and he drove a sword into the ground. His body swayed even as he did that. Then he opened his mouth. "Help me." Huh? What? She had only just been moved to tears. She still had more singing and crying to do. Why was the man who had been fighting like a proto knight suddenly doing this? "Quickly."

Encrid spoke through blue lips. Luagarne lashed out her whip by reflex. It whirled through the air and wrapped around his wrist. She pulled, dragging him roughly across the earth. The ground was littered with mangled corpses, so halfway through she flicked her wrist to lift him into the air. She caught him against her chest with a thud, bending her knees to absorb the impact. "Let's go."

The black-haired, blue-eyed man in her arms spoke. The moment had been interrupted, but that first feeling hadn't disappeared. Luagarne gave a nod. The remaining Knolls and demonic beasts charged, but she had already decided to flee. And then came support. "Shoot! Shoot!"

As they withdrew, arrows flew from above to cover them. The monsters and demonic beasts charged again. Even as arrows pierced their heads, they once more clawed at the log palisade and hacked it with axes and whatever else they held. Arrows and rocks rained down on them. A few raised ladders, but... "Is this the time to stand and watch?!" At Krais's shout, Deutsch's militia—his former mercenary corps—sprang furiously into action. They fought, shoving the ladders away. Once Luagarne and Esther returned and joined them, the fewer than ten remaining ladders proved useless. "Insane. Absolutely insane." Deutsch Fullman muttered from atop the wall as he watched the monsters retreat. Luagarne agreed. 'It was insane.' Briefly, Encrid had fought much like a proto knight. Without a single hint or sign beforehand. The transformation, in just half a day, of a man she had thought lacked talent made Luagarne's heart muscle stir as it had in her youth. For a moment, she felt like a girl again.