Chapter 393 - Two Fists Instead of a Club

The man who had become a Lycanthrope was named Ronald. Even as a human, he had been a pervert who killed people and dismembered their bodies for fun.

"It's fun, isn't it?"

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He did not even deny enjoying what he did. The outcome was inevitable. Bounty hunters pursued Ronald and drove him to the brink of death. Then he met Count Molsen and received the power of a monster. Ronald considered that a stroke of luck.

Monstrous power seethed through his arms and legs. His pounding heart pumped blood throughout his body. He overflowed with strength, so much that he had to do something. He wanted to tear someone's limbs off right now and dig into their entrails. He wanted to drink blood. To crush bones between his molars.

That surging desire showed in his eyes.

"Heheheh-aooooo!"

Laughter mingled with a howl. An uncontainable, savage cry. He could see the troops holding their ground ahead. They were standing firm, pretending they weren't terrified. In front of them stood a huge man raising an arm and drawing it back.

He looked tough, but that was fine. Ronald's sharp fangs could tear through anything. He would chew him to pieces. Then he would enter the city, pick out the young women among those watching from their hiding places in terror, kill them, and chew their flesh.

"Heehee!"

He swallowed his anticipation, extended his claws, and lunged.

WHOOSH.

A rush of air struck his face. It was too fast to react to. Ronald's strength had doubled, and his speed had increased to match, but to Audin, it made no difference.

BOOM!

It was like two carriages colliding at full speed. The crash erupted amid the Lycanthropes' howls. Fragments of Ronald's shattered head flew everywhere.

Audin held his left hand open like a blade and his right arm extended where the punch had stopped. Dark red liquid dripped from the studded leather gauntlet on his right hand.

The reason he normally used a club was to avoid using his fists. But things were different now.

["If we can't stop them, we're finished."]

Hadn't Krais said as much? Everyone in Border Guard, the city behind him, would die. There was another reason to show no mercy with his hands: he faced scum who had been human yet chosen to live as monsters.

The Lord had said that when humans forsook their humanity, their only place was at His side. Seek forgiveness at the Lord's side. Receive judgment at the Lord's side. Those very words were written in the scriptures.

"My left hand is a blade, my right a stone."

Audin murmured. Moving from his held stance, he continued his recitation.

"Under the Father's protection, I shall hold no mercy in either hand, as He commands."

Drunk on the desire to slaughter, the Lycanthropes charged without fear. They had lost their human reason. Their leader had been sent flying in a bloody pulp, but though they saw it, their monster-possessed minds could not comprehend it.

Audin advanced to bar their path. Each step stamped down upon the earth. His stride made him look like a war chariot that would smash through anything in its way. He pressed doggedly onward.

"Though once human..."

Praying, he struck down at an oncoming foe with his left hand. His left hand was a blade. As its edge swept diagonally downward, the head of an eyepatch-wearing Lycanthrope was sliced along its path.

Blood spurted. Dead, but still carried forward by its charge, the creature hurtled into Audin. He pivoted slightly on his left foot to avoid it. The Lycanthrope with the severed head toppled to the ground and slid.

BOOM!

Before the fallen creature even stopped sliding, another crash rang out. Audin's right fist had struck the chest of the one charging immediately behind it. Fragments of organs, bone, flesh, and blood burst outward from the impact. When his right hand withdrew, it left a hole no one would believe a human fist had made.

"I send up to You these beings who are now monsters. Make their sins known to them and pass judgment."

Before finishing his prayer, Audin swung his left hand three times and his right four. Three Lycanthropes lost parts of their bodies; four had parts of theirs smashed. Just as his prayer ended, a husky voice joined him from his left.

"For forgiveness and judgment belong to the Lord."

Teresa continued the prayer as she held her shield horizontally. She drew her left hand back, then thrust it forward.

The shield flew through the air with a whoosh. It wasn't faster than an arrow, but its speed was incredible for a shield large enough to cover half of Teresa's body. Its edge cleaved through the waist of a Lycanthrope ahead. Sharpened and backed by Teresa's strength, the shield's rim was as good as any masterwork sword.

She tugged the cord, and the shield snapped back into her hand. Another creature lunged from the side, but even as she pulled the shield back, she struck the crown of its head with the flat of her sword.

CRACK!

A half-Giant's strength blasted into the Lycanthrope's skull. It crunched apart, sending its severed tongue and broken teeth flying, stained red. Dark blood poured from a head reduced to mashed potatoes.

Several people saw it, including the newly appointed commander of the heavy infantry. Even knowing what the pair could do, they were stunned. Was that human? This was their first time seeing Audin fight in earnest. Could a human do that with just two hands?

The gauntlets on both hands split and broke, but he paid no heed, swinging his right fist and his left hand. He was like a grinding machine. The charging Lycanthropes were shredded in an instant, sliced, burst, and pulverized as though they were nothing but moving chunks of meat. Beside him, Teresa moved with sword and shield.

Fifty Lycanthropes were a force most cities would struggle to face. That threat was being torn apart, broken, and shattered by just two people.

One of the standing army's commanders shook his head sharply and roared.

"All troops, chaaaarge!"

Advance when victory was within reach. Those were the orders from above. That Big-eyes fellow had come down to deliver them and stressed the point until the commander's ears nearly bled.

["No matter what you see, don't be startled. Advance. Keep your formation and push forward."]

["Even if the enemy retreats?"]

["Maintain formation. That's what matters. Pursuit comes afterward!"]

That crazy bastard Krais talked too much. Still, excessive talking aside, the commander followed his orders faithfully. Everything had been approved by Graham, the lord of the city. More importantly, this was all to protect the city where the commander had been born and raised.

For most of the soldiers at the front, Border Guard was both their hometown and their home. Krais had deliberately sent out only people like that.

The troops advanced without much disorder, proof that they were well trained. Naturally, the commander of Count Molsen's army saw it too. What kind of battle began with punches and ended with an advance, without a single arrow being fired?

'What the hell is this?'

This battle lay far outside everything he knew. The man the count had sent was no brilliant commander, but he was competent. He made the best choice available.

"Retreat! Fall back!"

The blade he had prepared had snapped. He needed to regroup. He pulled his army back and fled. It was exactly what Krais wanted.

This was as far as they would go. Press on and inflict crippling losses? Not a chance. Only a tiny fraction of the troops Count Molsen had prepared could have come here. Buying time was enough.

Watching the enemy withdraw, Krais thought, 'I need to know what the hell is going on first.'

Had the count already swallowed up the royal palace? Probably not. If he had, there would be no need to attack Border Guard. This was more of a surprise raid.

'If I'd taken the palace, I'd demand an oath of loyalty first.'

Making that offer while surrounding the city would be even more effective. What better offer was there than one that limited the other side's choices? But the enemy had not done that.

'So this is retaliation.'

Against whom? That hardly took any thought. Who in this city had dealings with the count? Graham, the city lord? All he had done was grit his teeth and declare that he would defend the city.

Krais had both perception and intuition.

'Could the captain be involved?'

A small suspicion, but one he privately felt sure of. Nothing in the world was absolute, so he couldn't say it was certainly true, but the odds were very high.

'This looks like a headache.'

It was obviously civil war. War. And what had the count brought out? Fifty Lycanthropes. Humans had suddenly turned into wolves. Anyone who didn't need to piss at the sight wasn't human.

By Krais's standards, then, Encrid and a few others weren't human. They were monsters. Rather than being frightened by a pack like this, they would probably rush out in excitement. Or perhaps they would find it too much trouble and only kill the ones that attacked them.

In any case, the count had revealed a dangerous military asset without hesitation. Why? Because this wasn't his trump card. In other words:

'That's not all he's got.'

They had seen humans transform into monsters while fighting the Black Blade Bandits. Krais knew that too. Sending this force was practically a declaration that Count Molsen himself had been behind them.

'And his territorial army is well trained.'

They might not have been linking arms with the Lycanthropes, but having advanced alongside them, shouldn't they be shaken? Yet they withdrew quietly and steadily, their formation largely intact. They looked prepared for a moment like this.

Not knowing what else they had hidden behind them, he put off pursuit. No, they must not pursue. He knew it in his head, and his heart said the same. Fortunately, the enemy troops withdrew without incident.

"Giant Brother and Sister!"

Someone called out Audin and Teresa's nickname. Audin was silently shaking the blood off his hands and removing his ruined gauntlets. For all the work those hands had done, his fists bore only a few scratches.

More than forty Lycanthrope corpses lay before the pair. The remaining dozen or so had run past them, only to be stopped by the newly formed pike-and-shield unit.

The soldiers had not panicked. They kept their distance with pikes and sheltered behind shields. It was a tactic that required each squad to work as one. A small-unit battle formation commonly used by the Mercenary King in the continent's east, it was the work of a former mercenary commander who had recently joined them.

One squad became a hedgehog, calmly thrusting, driving back, and killing the wolf-men one at a time. Several fighters, though not on Audin and Teresa's level, were skilled enough to kill a wolf-man alone. Victory was only natural.

Krais expected word of Border Guard's strength to spread far and wide after this battle.

'Aspen and everyone else will be assessing our forces.'

They couldn't block every watching eye and listening ear, so it would soon become known that Border Guard was no easy target. Would that help in a situation like this?

'Of course it will.'

Wasn't it obvious that having strength was better than having none? With that, Krais caught his breath and prepared for what came next.

'The count's target is the royal palace.'

Taking Border Guard would have been nice for him, but they had shown him that it would be no simple task. Predicting that his next step would lead toward the palace was as easy as taking candy from a child. They would have to prepare for that here as well.

Krais told Graham all of this. Graham nodded.

"I'll send our fastest bird to the palace."

After a fight that had ended almost as soon as it began, Krais sensed that a bitter civil war lay ahead. He couldn't claim to fully understand Count Molsen, but if it were him...

'I wouldn't act without being certain.'

The count must have acted because he, too, was confident of victory. Probing Border Guard's defenses must have been little more than a bit of idle fun to him.

"Just where are you, and what have you been doing?"

Krais muttered to himself. At that moment, he was particularly curious about what his captain might be up to.

* * *

"What is all this?"

He had fallen asleep, then opened his eyes. Encrid stared at the unfamiliar furnishings aboard the boat. A table. Chairs. The ferry seemed twice as large as before.

"I thought we might have a talk. You and I."

There were two chairs. The ferryman sat in the one opposite him and pushed back his hood as he spoke. Beneath it were the gray skin, like cracked wasteland, and violet eyes Encrid had seen before. There was no lamp. Instead, the ferryman's eyes shone with the same light.