Chapter 65 |
Just as Luan expected, the early morning raid was intentionally carried out by the instructors.
The instructors hadn’t gone to the frontlines to fend off the monsters but rather gathered in the meeting room inside their lodge.
Sitting in their seats, the instructors watched the light emitting from the magic crystal, which soon changed to show the young heroes in combat.
The Instructor of Survival, Soimond, the instructor who had just left, was the next to speak.
“It starts now. The good shall be separated from the bad. Honestly, I can already tell which of them will become successful heroes. It’s the same young heroes who performed well during your run, Tanko.”
The Instructor of the Hunt, Tanko, nodded.
They were the kids he was sure would become official heroes if nothing went horribly wrong.
After observing the young heroes for a while, Tanko said, “There were five who received points, but I don’t see one of them.”
“It’s true. Mir Giant isn’t here.”
“Yes.”
“That’s interesting. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone among the kids here that looked like a giant.”
As the name suggested, giants were multiple times larger than humans on average, so they were easy to spot no matter the battlefield.
But the video feed didn’t show any such person.
At this point, the Instructor of the Hunt pointed to a section of the video.
“It’s her.”
The Instructor of Survival narrowed his eyes.
“Hmm... She’s quite small for a giant.”
She was indeed quite small, not just on the scale of giants but even compared to the other young heroes.
“Is she of mixed blood?”
“Not from what I know. Rather, she inherited the blood of the greatest giant.”
“The greatest giant? Are you perhaps talking about the Frost Giant Ymir?”
“That’s right.”
“Ah. So that’s why her name is Mir.”
The Instructor of the Hunt nodded.
“In her personnel report, there was a short note about her situation. To put it simply, she’s a mutant. Even though she looks like that, she is stronger than the average giant.”
“Hmm. Then why is she over there like that?”
Mir Giant hadn’t moved and was standing there with a frozen face even though the other young heroes who had also frozen up at the start had started to move.
“She’s probably the type who can’t use her strength in real combat.”
She seemed to be the type of person who would die easily in the plains.
There was nothing worse than the death of a talented individual.
The Instructor of the Hunt’s heart became heavy for a moment, but he couldn’t help her.
Not even if Mir died today.
But if she can survive tonight...
He would not spare anything to help her overcome that weakness of hers and help her train.
The Instructor of the Hunt turned his attention away.
He was looking for the one that had caught his interest the most in this training camp.
Recalling the spar he’d had with that daring brat, the Instructor’s scarred lips quivered a little.
If he taught Luan more proactively, more diligently...
Luan could become the sole person to inherit the martial art that the Instructor of the Hunt had created.
Does that mean I’m going to officially get a disciple?
Just like the Instructor of Swords and Blades, the Instructor of the Hunt was famous for being a grand master with no disciples.
Oddly enough, he didn’t mind the thought of taking Luan as his disciple.
“...But are you keeping the rules fair?”
The Instructor of Survival quietly turned to the voice that had just spoken.
All attention fell on the Instructor of Martial Arts.
“Even as a reward, to give that much authority to a single young hero... I still think it was too much.”
“Haven’t we already had this discussion?”
The Instructor of Martial Arts quieted down.
Strictly speaking, among the eight grand masters who were participating in this training camp, three of them had opposed the decision. Of course, what mattered was that five of them had given the okay.
If Calzark were here...
The Instructor of Survival shook his head.
Although the Instructor of Martial Arts had acted as he pleased more than just once or twice in the past, he had been going over the line more and more lately.
That was because the Instructor of Swords and Blades, the one who would have shut him down before, was not here.
The Instructor of Martial Arts gave a slight smile as he said, “Let’s stop talking and focus. Let’s begin marking the young heroes.”
***
It had been a good idea to take the Sword of Seven Sins with me.
Thanks to it, the monsters’ disgusting fluids didn’t splash on me as much as they would have.
At first, I thought about mimicking the Martial God’s Galactic Sword, but I wasn’t proficient enough to use it in real combat, so I decided not to attempt it right now.
Splash!
While cutting down the centipede, its blood got on my face and I nearly made to rub it off instinctively.
Instead, I took another step forward and swung my sword again to cut down another enemy.
Just like the swordsmanship the Lord of Blood and Iron had shown me in the demiplane, I eliminated all the unnecessary movements and only focused on attacking.
Even though it sounded easy, it was pretty difficult.
In combat, it was only expected that unexpected situations would pop up one after another, and maintaining consistency throughout was difficult.
However, I silently focused only on attacking.
I was intentionally fighting in a different way than usual, and it was because of my stubbornness that I was using the Sword of Seven Sins.
Since I’d only used my fists since the Blessing Ceremony, I’d hoped that maybe using a different weapon would allow me to find a clue about my blessing...
But I don’t feel anything different.
Honestly, I wasn’t too frustrated about not knowing my blessing at this point, but it was still annoying.
Although some blessings only activated under special circumstances, people usually knew instinctively what those “special circumstances” were...
But I had no clue whatsoever.
When I took a glance around, I could see many young heroes were actively using their blessings.
Although they still looked a little awkward, they at least knew how to use them.
Maybe the mirror was wrong?
While I’d been having those useless thoughts, the number of baby centipedes was cut down by half.
I couldn’t see any dead young heroes either.
That was within my expectations, but it was surprising to see that no one had even been severely injured.
They were truly the descendants of heroes. They were adapting faster than I’d expected.
The ones who survived tonight would probably become at least twice as strong as they currently were.
Clitter clatter!
The huge centipede made a horrifying sound and began to crawl toward us at an incredible speed.
Although it was smaller than the Sapphire Snake I’d fought before, it was that much faster.
Having said that, it still wasn’t small, and I could see divots being created in the ground and rocks flying to the sides as it crawled.
“Stop it!” one of the young heroes bravely shouted while charging the centipede.
That idiot...
Had he become overconfident after so easily dealing with the baby centipedes?
The result of such overconfidence was difficult to look at.
The moment he collided with the centipede, a crunching sound was heard as he was flung into the distance.
Boom!
With a loud sound, the young hero flew into a tree, and I approached him to check his condition.
Honestly, I’d expected his bones to turn to dust and him to die, but he looked relatively fine.
Of course, his bones were broken and he was bleeding all over, but he was still alive.
He probably has a blessing that boosts his endurance.
Then I could be a little bit rougher with him, right?
I grabbed the young hero and threw him into the bushes without any baby centipedes.
“Uwaaah!”
At that moment, I heard the scream of another young hero.
I’d thought it might be about time for someone to try to run away, but the direction the sound was coming from was interesting.
One small young hero was screaming while—in contradiction with her fear—charging the centipede.
What the hell is she doing?
As I stood there confused, the huge centipede turned its body and used its huge tail to strike the small kid.
* * * * *
* * * * *
The scene that followed surprised me.
The kid blocked the tail swipe head-on.
“Oh...”
Was it a blessing? But that didn’t seem to be the case.
A moment later, I realized that she had blocked the giant centipede’s tail attack with pure physical strength.
Was that even possible?
Both I and even the Instructor of the Hunt, who had a much stronger body than me, would have a difficult time blocking that centipede’s attack with our bare body.
As I looked at the screaming girl’s face, I realized that she was one of the notable individuals in this training camp.
She was the one who had come 5th in the Instructor of the Hunt’s run.
Was her name Mir Giant?
As I saw her memorable bouncing twin tails, I recognized her.
Giant? Ah. She’s a giant.
In that case, her monstrous strength was understandable.
However, what she did after was too embarrassing.
After blocking the tail attack, Mir simply threw whatever attacks she could before being surrounded by the swarm of centipedes.
At this rate, she could become the first death of the camp...
Suddenly—
[That giant...]
The Martial God woke up from his long slumber.
What is it?
[Inheritor, save that giant.]
I was thinking about doing that anyway. But why did you suddenly wake up...
[You should at least know what kind of sword the Sword of Seven Sins is.]
I nodded mentally.
It was the famous sword used by the Nameless King to unite the seven races.
[Do you know the races united by the Nameless King?]
That escapes my memory.
[Humans, Dwarves, Fairies, Beastmen, Dragons, Spirits, and Giants.]
Wait a second...
[The one defeated by the Nameless King back then was the Frost Giant Ymir. That giant is definitely one of his descendants.]
Hmm...
[You must save her. To unseal the Sword of Seven Sins in the future, you will certainly need her help...]
How do I unseal it?
[...]
Hello?
[...]
Martial God didn’t answer me. He seemed to have fallen asleep.
Goodness me.
Did he just say what he wanted to say and then leave?
I clicked my tongue in my heart before cutting down the baby centipedes surrounding Mir.
I made an escape route for her.
“Hey. Come here.”
However, Mir didn’t seem to hear my voice as she moved forward once more.
Did she want to die?
I instinctively moved to grab her shoulder, but something caught my leg.
I didn’t know why it was here, but it was a rope.
Was it someone’s weapon?
Anyway, I could use it.
I picked up the rope and threw it, trying to bind Mir’s body just like I had been bound by those steel chains.
“Uwat!”
“Ah.”
But I ended up tying up her head instead of her body.
I’m not that proficient with it...
Of course, there was no time to untie her and try again since she was in a lot of danger from the baby centipedes, so I just pulled her with all my might.
Mir flailed her limbs in panic, but I still slowly pulled her toward me.
“I-I can’t see anything...! I can’t see...! Is this perhaps Jotunheim...”
Obviously she couldn’t see anything because the rope was around her eyes.
Since she was a giant, I overlooked her lacking intelligence.
After dragging her to safety, I untied the rope.
After regaining her sight, Mir immediately jumped up and moved away from me.
“You are... Gold-Hair Bednicker...?”
Gold-Hair Bednicker?
Ah. It was to distinguish me from Hector.
“What are you doing?”
I threw the rope to the ground as I responded, “That’s not it.”
“What?”
“You should thank me first since I saved you.”
“That was saving me?”
“Then did I attack you?”
“What nonsense! Those centipedes could not have defeated me!”
Although she wasn’t wrong, she wasn’t right either.
I took a closer look at her and saw that she wasn’t in her right mind.
Her entire body was shaking like a branch in the wind, and her face was pale. Her eyes were quaking as well, and I could tell that her heart was in disarray.
I judged that she would die tonight if she kept fighting like that.
“Thank you for helping me... but don’t get in my way again! I... I will prove that I am a warrior!” Mir said before running back toward the giant centipede.
I looked at the back of her head for a split second before smacking her with the Sword of Seven Sin’s wrappings.
Bam!
Upon having the back of her head smacked with the iron chains, Mir collapsed to the ground.
I easily recovered her, then plopped her down next to the person who had been knocked out earlier.
“Convincing is tedious. The fist is faster.”
Master’s advice was useful today as well.
“What are you doing?” a low voice said to me.
As I turned my head, I saw someone standing sneakily on the branch above.
“Rescuing them.”
“Why?”
“They’re too young to die now.”
“...”
There was no expression on Charon’s face as he replied, “So you are a hypocrite.”
What was this guy talking about?
When I turned my head up to him again, he had already disappeared.
I wanted to chase after him and hit him on the back of his head as well, but I decided to focus on what I was doing.
I looked for the ones who had already fallen unconscious or were about to die and picked them out from the battlefield.
After about 20 minutes had passed, only the ones who could handle themselves remained on the battlefield.
At this point, I stopped focusing on the uncharacteristic rescue mission and joined the fight against the centipedes.
As I made to cut down the centipede in front of me...
Boom! An arrow flew in from somewhere and pierced the centipede.
The arrow boosted with a blessing was more destructive than a cannonball as it blew apart the centipede’s head.
After moving around the remains of the monster, I looked for my next target.
It happened when I went to attack the plant-type monster near me.
Fwip!
Another arrow flew in.
It wasn’t as powerful as the one before, but there were a lot of them.
The arrows fell down like rain and punched holes in the monster.
“...”
I felt that something was off, but I ignored it and moved toward the next monster.
However, the monster was pierced with an arrow this time as well.
Now I was certain.
Someone was killing the monsters I was aiming for.
There was no need to guess; I already knew who it was.
I spoke toward the tree nearest to me.
“Hey.”
I looked at the person standing on the branch.
“What are you doing?”
Charon notched another arrow as he replied, “They’re my prey. Don’t touch them.”
“What?”
“Just go curl up and take a nap, Luan Bednicker.”
