Chapter 341 - A Heavy, Swift Sword

Rem turned and knocked one spear aside with his axe.

CLANG!

The spearhead spun through the air as it bounced away. Trolls were monsters of tremendous strength, but Rem was a human endowed with tremendous strength himself. As Audin ran, he snatched the other spear out of its rushing flight. Despite the weight behind it, the spear stopped dead the instant it touched his hand. For something flying with such momentum, it came to an almost absurdly easy halt. It was an abnormal sight produced by abnormal strength. He almost seemed to be defying some law of physics. There was a saying that strength beyond its limits could look like a spell. This was exactly that: muscle trained to an outrageous degree. In sheer strength, he surpassed even Rem. The five troll brothers had no time even to sense that something was wrong. "Hahaha!"

Audin burst out laughing and launched himself forward.

BOOM!

A deafening blast erupted where his foot struck, sending earth fountaining upward. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Not once, but three more times, fountains of earth shot up behind him. His body streaked along in a long line, leaving an afterimage. That massive frame closed the distance at an impossible speed. To an ordinary person, he would have seemed to vanish. It was a charge born of relentlessly trained thigh muscles combined with perfect bodily control. The instant Encrid saw it, he thought it rivaled a proto knight's charge. Audin reached the trolls and used the spear shaft as a club to smash one over the head. His footwork was faster than ever, and the troll could not evade him. Add to that the Gather and Burst technique Encrid had grasped, and... CRACK! BOOM!

Perhaps it was only natural that the creature's head burst and black blood spurted into the sky. Fragments of skull and everything else that had made up its head flew everywhere. Blood sprayed in a fan from the point of impact, diagonally upward on the opposite side. The sun was setting and their surroundings had begun to darken, but no one here had night vision poor enough for that to matter. And so... "Don't let any escape," Encrid said. Dunbachel and Teresa rushed out, while Audin laughed and battered the trolls. Encrid watched arms being torn off and eyes popping out and being crushed, despite the trolls' legendary regeneration. Once again, he had nothing to do. The five trolls never even had a chance to flee. If so much as one escaped, it would hide away, forcing them to chase it in a game of hide-and-seek. That would be a headache even for Rem. Tracking a monster determined to stay hidden was another matter entirely. They could not let any escape. Naturally, none did. Audin dismantled three without a shred of mercy, and Rem chopped one of the five into nine pieces with his axe. "What's with him?"

Having finished chopping, Rem directed the question toward Audin. What he meant was, why was that great bear so excited? "Hoho. A fine night. The Lord watches over us."

Audin offered only a laugh. The last troll fell to Dunbachel and Teresa. As if competing, the two tore, smashed, and split the creature apart. That was the end of it. The trolls had no opportunity to demonstrate their characteristic regeneration. Sinar merely watched. No, she was busy putting out the fire. Then she raised her head from her crouch and asked, "Shall I light it again?" Encrid looked up at the sky to judge the time. Evening was past; it was night now. Had it been close to dawn, resting before they left would have been sensible. But did they have to? Nothing in the world absolutely had to be done a certain way. He wanted a wash, and thought he could make this another opportunity to train. Above all, there was no reason to put up with the discomfort of camping. "Let's head back." If they ran through the night, they would reach Border Guard in two days. Push harder, and they could arrive the following night. Would that be too much? They needed this kind of training too. Since resting after his earlier injuries, he had not pushed his body as hard. This was the perfect chance to work himself to exhaustion simply by running. It would be good training too. Following that line of reasoning, he decided to put off resting until they reached the city. No one objected.

* * *

Word of the people who had cleared the three lesser Demonic Realms—more precisely, two colonies and five troublesome monsters—quickly spread through the surrounding region. "I'm speechless."

Those were the first words from Krais, who heard the news before anyone else. Who could hear that and not be astonished? Not that it was a bad thing. The moment Encrid returned and told him what they had done, Krais's mind began racing. If feats like this were possible... In other words, if they had not just one or two people capable of frying, beating, roasting, cutting, slicing, and killing most monsters that came their way, and those people would step up whenever asked... Ah, except for one. No, wait. Another was on leave, so that made two exceptions. Even so, it was tremendous fighting power. Rem and Audin were more willing to act than ever, weren't they? 'And Dunbachel and Teresa are forces to be reckoned with too.'

There were also Esther and Odd-Eyes, though he counted them separately. "I need to go see the lord," Krais said.

Encrid gave a vague nod. His eyes were sparkling with another idea. He must have spotted some way to earn Krona. Encrid soon washed, rested, ate, and immersed himself in the Isolation Technique again. Ultimately, Gather and Burst required a body capable of keeping up. Its core was muscular compression and explosive release. Once he became proficient, he would be able to do what had just been done to him. After beating the trolls to death, Audin had been so delighted about something that he personally demonstrated the technique for Encrid, wearing an even broader smile than before. "Once you become proficient, you can do this as well."

He said it as he approached with a hammer in his left hand. It was a deeply unsettling sight, yet it also stirred anticipation—and that anticipation was rewarded. He came right up to Encrid, his nearly Giant-sized frame towering over him. Encrid was not short himself, but their eyes were nowhere near level. "Watch."

Audin extended a fist, stopping it barely a finger joint's length from Encrid's stomach. Just as Encrid wondered what he was doing, his dodging sense activated. There was no time to evade. He instantly tensed his abs. BOOM!

With an explosive sound—one that erupted right in front of his stomach—Encrid felt himself float. Both feet left the ground. He flew briefly backward, landing a couple of paces away. He did not tumble in an undignified heap. He kept his balance. All those hammer blows had not been for nothing. His ability to take a hit had improved considerably. "What was that?" "Gather and Burst." Encrid looked down. A clear mark remained in the dry dirt of the training grounds: a deep footprint twisted as though a tiny whirlpool had formed there. 'Rotation of the ankle.'

Compression and explosive release of the muscles throughout the body. All of it channeled into destructive force from barely a finger joint away. It was a brutally powerful, enticing technique. "Nice."

Encrid expressed his sincere admiration, then immersed himself in training again. Both body and mind were busy. Gather and Burst was not the only thing he was learning. Audin still hammered him all over. Aside from his head, every part with muscle received its fair share of blows. Then he gained a rough grasp of Dunbachel's swordsmanship, which used the spring of her entire body. He fetched a shield from the smithy and trained with Teresa, then learned to handle other weapons from Rem. "Does learning all this miscellaneous stuff actually help?" Rem asked.

People sometimes said depth mattered in learning, but that did not apply to this madman. In short, he already knew the answer. "It does."

The answer was brief. Encrid had found a path in the realm of experience and intuition. Was it a path to knighthood? He did not know. But there was one thing... 'This is driving me mad.'

Pleasure and enjoyment stole his attention. Exhilaration filled his body. He learned and mastered new things, and the speed at which they became part of him was unlike before. "Your body's a bit stupid, Captain. I mean, you can use Will and all that, but this has you floundering?"

Rem's barbs sometimes interrupted him, but that was fine. Compared with before, his current rate of growth was unbelievable. Ragna watched from one side with languid eyes. He had not lost his motivation. Rather, having seen a knight's sword and faced the path it showed him, he was doing what he needed to do now: organizing and sorting. It was time to gather what he possessed, calmly put it in order, and make it his own. Ragna had spent a long time wandering the continent. Half of it had been unintentional, because he was lost, but he had met many people along the way. They had shown him various techniques of their own—mercenaries and trading-company warriors alike. Ragna was a genius. He could watch their techniques and quickly understand and learn them. After seeing one once, he could imitate it. After a couple of repetitions, he reached its original user's level. Before two days had passed, he surpassed them. ["A demon. That's a demon's talent."]

A trading-company guard had once said that to him. Those words taught Ragna that he was different from ordinary people. They also left him with a question. 'Is it all right to go further?'

No one beside him would be able to follow. Was that a path worth taking? Questions and doubts. The doubt soon ate away at him, until at some point he stopped advancing. Even after finding motivation, he had confined himself to mastering what he had already learned. He had needed a catalyst. That catalyst was his battle with the proto knight Aya. Through it, he had surpassed his limits. How had that become possible? Because at some point, the thing eating away at his heart had disappeared. "How long are you going to laze around? Let's spar."

Yes, it was because of this man. Encrid stood before him, beckoning with his sword as he spoke. Ragna nodded. He had finished putting his mind in order, and sorting through the hodgepodge of techniques his body had picked up over the years. Like the man before him, Ragna had begun forging his own path. It marked the birth of Ragna-style swordsmanship. Rather than remain confined to The Oniak Sword Technique, he had opened a new path. "A heavy, swift sword."

It happened as he spoke. Encrid instantly recalled the knight's sword. Ragna's blade vanished in a blur and reappeared as though it had folded space. The speed was different. So was the weight. Encrid raised his sword horizontally to block.

CLANG!

With a deafening crash, the impact traveled through his entire body. 'A snapping strike?'

It was different from Gather and Burst, but similar in power. Merely by seeing a technique, Ragna incorporated it into his swordsmanship, adapting it to suit his own body. This was genius at work. "Crazy bastard."

Watching him, Rem grinned and picked up his axe. "Yes. Now I can beat your ass."

Watching Encrid retreat from that single blow, Ragna casually addressed Rem. "What's this lazy bastard talking about?" "I said I can beat you without killing you now. Having trouble understanding? Do you need more hand gestures?" "Fine. Let's do it. Let's see who dies." Ragna and Rem soon clashed. Having stepped back, Encrid did not bother intervening. This was different from their previous fights. Rem was losing ground. Ragna had crossed some threshold. Not that Rem yielded easily. Encrid took in this spar too. There was an abundance to learn. Things he had once been unable to see were visible now. A heavy, swift sword—Ragna was demonstrating his words exactly. His blade looked light, yet struck Rem's axe with immense weight. BOOM!

The repeated thunderous crashes drew nearby soldiers over to peer at them. Some were astonished; others, while astonished, acted as though it was only to be expected. When had the Lunatic Company's members ever been ordinary people? Watching the two spar, Encrid felt goosebumps rise all over his body. He was almost beside himself with excitement. He could not hold back. "Are you just going to watch?"

Encrid drew Sinar, who had approached without his noticing, into it. He wanted to see and learn from the finesse of her sword through sparring. "My greedy betrothed, what will you give me in return?"

Anything but an engagement. "Surely you can give me one date?"

The Fairy asked, and Encrid could not resist his desire. "Very well."

Swordsmanship for a date. It sounded like a joke, but the arrangement satisfied both Encrid and Sinar.

* * *

"They cleared the marsh?"

At Count Molsen's question, the steward delivering the report bowed his head. "My apologies. I didn't know they would act so quickly." The count himself had released the monsters into the marsh. He used insects called bells and bloodsucking flies to keep people away, and had conducted several magical experiments there. It had also been a good place to procure medicinal herbs and other rare magical ingredients. He had known that Encrid was attacking the Gray Ghoul forest after leaving the city. Intelligence gathering was not for nothing. That Frog might be running wild, but surely that would not stop him from obtaining any information at all. So he had known, but... "They have also disposed of the five trolls." "What the hell are these bastards...?"

The count could only marvel at the absurdity. Did they never sleep? The route was too rough for a carriage. Had they run through places with no proper roads? For a moment, he was too stunned to speak. An unpleasant feeling stirred, but he soon shook it off. 'Unbelievable.'

It was already too late to intervene. He could hardly admit to having released the monsters, could he? Once he obtained what he wanted, none of this would matter anyway. "Someone from that guild claiming it will reclaim the kingdom's language has infiltrated the territory." "Deal with it." "There are several troublesome mercenaries involved."

Meaning the territory's security forces could not handle it alone. The count pushed that mad Company out of his mind. Once his thoughts were working properly again, the answer came. "Send Matz." "Yes, my lord."

The steward bowed his head. The count sat in his chair, quietly contemplating. Preparations were still inadequate. He would have to wait. But how long? A year or two at most. Was rising to one's desired heights a human instinct? Or was it his own desire, born and raised as a man of power? He could not know. He would find out once he got there. Until then, he did not even want to know. His present ignorance would bring the pleasure of being satisfied by experience later. Until then... 'You'll still be alive, won't you?'

Encrid of the Lunatic Company. What an unusual man. An impressive fellow. When the time came, he had best not be standing on the opposite side. Otherwise, the count would be unable to spare him. If possible, the count wanted to let him live. Very few people had ever interested him this much.