Chapter 96: Monsters

“Bear in mind, Driden. Orcs are strong. They won’t die from some half-hearted attack; they’ll fight back with persistence. Make sure to cut their throats to finish them off,”

a voice from an old memory burned inside Driden’s mind.

Two things that guided the tip of Driden’s blade—that voice and his instinct. If he mindlessly obeyed that voice and his instinct, he would eventually find his enemies begging for mercy on the ground in front of him. Depending on how he felt, he would kill them or let them live on a whim. After that, he would go off in search of another opponent. That had always been his routine, and that should have been the case this time as well.

However, a tremendous force pushed back Driden’s dual swords with a clang. Driden tightened his grip on his two swords and moved with great dexterity. His dual swords moved like a dance. He swung them rhythmically, targeting his enemy’s opening with the perfect timing. All of his attacks were usually spot on, yet when he struck his enemy’s exposed core this time, he was flung back again.

This orc was different from his previous opponents. Driden was falling out of his usual rhythm, and his expression stiffened. The orc Driden was facing had a ridiculously large sword, but he moved unbelievably fast. The blade of the orc’s huge sword moved swiftly from right to left and then from left to right. It was swinging about freely in Driden’s line of sight, yet it was impossible for Driden to gauge its trajectory. Driden had finally managed to make a crack in the City Hall’s magic circle, but they were pushed back outside the City Hall all because of a single orc.

“We can’t destroy the building,” said the orc with a grin.

Driden plastered a smile on his face as well.

Despite his smile, he was fuming inside. This was a tedious fight. He needed to end it as soon as possible.

Driden held the dual swords tightly and charged forward. The orc’s greatsword was big and heavy, but Driden ran toward Crockta, intending to swing his dual swords like a blooming flower. He was expecting his enemy’s body to rip apart from this attack.

Instead, the greatsword came thrusting down at Driden with an extremely heavy pressure that pushed him toward the ground. Nevertheless, Driden immediately halted his attack and rolled across the ground, narrowly managing to avoid the orc’s blade. Driden was panting as he got up.

Quiet seemed to envelop him. Driden felt again that this fight was tedious. A fight was a two-way activity; their attacks were supposed to stir each other up. Yet, Driden’s attacks didn’t have any effect on that orc. His rhythm was completely disrupted by the orc’s superior swordsmanship.

Driden gritted his teeth and raised his swords.

“Crazy...” someone said, breaking the silence.

The dark elves around them couldn’t even discern what was going on. Regardless, Driden shook his head and got into position again.

Like Driden, that orc was also able to enter ‘the realm’. No, he could travel more freely through time and space than Driden could. The orc was an infuriatingly annoying opponent.

“What’s wrong?” asked the orc.

Driden looked at the orc’s terrifying face. The orc’s eyes gleamed with a fierce intensity.

“Smile,” the orc said.

Then he vanished.

Driden was in shock. He had lost sight of his enemy.

At the next moment, a greatsword appeared right in front of Driden’s eyes with an explosive force that seemed to have moved across space in an instant. Driden wouldn’t be able to dodge this one.

His whole body screamed in alarm. He instinctively unleashed his magic and shrouded himself with a purple protective barrier, which blocked the greatsword.

“Oh?” the orc uttered, his eyes gleaming with intrigue.

Nonetheless, that was only for a second. A crack appeared on Driden’s magic circle and spread across it, completely shattering the magic circle. The orc shook off the remnants of Driden’s magic.

“How many more times can you use it?” asked the orc.

Driden took a deep breath as he retreated. He waved his dual swords. He had to regain his rhythm; he had to protect his flow and disrupt the enemy’s. That was the only way he could achieve victory.

“Orcs are simple. They just use brute force. Trust your technique,”

Driden once again recalled his father’s words.

Driden integrated all of the tricks that he knew into his dual swords. He slouched his left shoulder and struck with his right. One fake attack led to another, with the true strike hidden among the various fakes. This was a tactic that he used to confuse his enemy into inaction; he would utilize a mix of seemingly random vertical and horizontal movements, leaving them bewildered and unable to respond.

‘I can do it. I’m a genius,’

Driden thought.

Whenever he fought with his all, no one could catch up to him. That’s what he had believed so far.

However, Crockta didn’t fall for Driden’s tricks. He saw through Driden’s fakes as if he could read Driden’s thoughts. With a single slash, Crockta sliced through Driden’s vertical and horizontal movements and cut Driden’s shoulder.

The scimitars unleashed their magic. If Driden didn’t have magic swords, he would have died already. He had almost died twice and only managed to hold onto his life with the help of his magic swords.

Then Driden heard Arden shout at him from behind, “What are you doing, idiot?! You should fight properly! Just chop up that slow-ass orc!”

Arden was impatient and had a short fuse. He couldn’t even follow their movements with his eyes, but he was spouting nonsense about how slow the orc was. What a joke. Nevertheless... Driden thought that it was true that he should be fighting properly.

Driden gritted his teeth and clasped his scimitars. He charged forward again.

That greatsword was an obstacle that was as annoying as its size, and Crockta swung it with bizarre reflexes. Whenever Driden was about to strike a weak point in Crockta’s defense, Crockta would block Driden’s attack with the blade or hilt of his greatsword or at times with the steel belt at his waist.

Thus, Driden had to move faster. He heightened his focus and stomped his feet once, twice, thrice... Then his footsteps sped up. He accelerated his body beyond normal limits. Driden could see a bird gliding above Crockta’s head with its wings spread open. The bird slowed down as Driden moved faster. The speed of the bird’s flight gradually slowed, reducing by half and then half again, until it appeared as if the bird was crawling through the sky. Then... it stopped moving.

Everything in the world had stopped moving. Driden was the only one still in motion. The gazes of those observing the fight lingered on the spots where Driden had already passed by. It was within this stillness that he would slash his enemy’s throat before they could even realize what was happening.

Driden lunged forward, thrusting his dual swords toward Crockta’s throat. He made eye contact with Crockta, who was looking into the distance. Driden was about to sentence him to death, but Crockta’s eyes suddenly moved, and he smiled at Driden. The dark elf got goosebumps all over his body, and emotions surged within him.

While the world stood at a standstill, Crockta’s greatsword moved and clashed with Driden’s dual swords. The two of them exchanged attacks again. They both continuously accelerated their speed, slashing at and blocking each other until they were gasping for breath.

A smile emerged on Driden’s stiff lips. His body would be destroyed at the slightest mistake. Crockta’s greatsword hacked off the little hairs on Driden’s body, and Driden endlessly repeated his near-fatal dances with death. A sense of exhilaration rose inside him as adrenaline ran through his body like he was on drugs.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Crockta remarked.

The orc and dark elf took a step toward each other.

Driden bravely faced and fought against Crockta, who exuded a frightening presence like a giant. He had never had to be courageous in battle before, but he had to be valiant today.

Crockta grinned, and Driden grinned back. Their weapons moved smoothly as the two danced again.

***

Ladet felt honored to witness their fight.

“What’s going on?” asked a member of the garrison.

However, Ladet couldn’t explain properly either.

“Crockta seemed to be in the lead, but they are close right now,” he told the garrison member.

That was all Ladet could say. He was unable to add further commentary. It was a fight between two beings who were on a whole other level. Their fight didn’t involve the destruction of buildings or their surroundings; they just went at each other in their own space.

Ladet knew that much, but Crockta’s and Driden’s movements were simply too fast to chase with his eyes. Their movements were like peak acrobatics expressed as martial arts. Chains of perilous moves that would result in death with the slightest mistake continued endlessly with ease. Crockta and Driden were dancing between the boundary of life and death.

Ultimately, Ladet just remarked, “Monsters.”

Crockta wielded his greatsword as if it was an extension of his hand, while Driden displayed an insane standard of swordsmanship with his dual swords. They were monsters who had transcended the level of ordinary humans.

This was a battle of monsters who could destroy armies on their own. Even the dark elves who didn’t have much experience in martial arts could figure out this much. Thus, everyone kept their mouths shut and blankly watched them fight. Even Arden, who usually couldn’t stop talking, was silent.

Crockta and Driden’s fight continued.

As Ladet watched them, he secretly wanted this fight to go on forever. This thought of his startled him, and he couldn’t help but laugh. During his younger days, Ladet had been a warrior who swung his bastard sword relentlessly. Thus, he was able to assess how splendid their fight was.

How much time had passed? Their fight muddled his sense of time.

“Arden,” called out Ladet.

Arden raised his head. “What?”

“Did you have to do this?”

“Shut up. You’re even borrowing a wandering orc’s strength. How low can you stoop?”

“You’re the one who is using Julio’s son. You must be out of your damn mind.”

Ladet and Arden continued their conversation while Crockta and Driden exchanged attacks.

“The son of the dark elf you murdered has returned to avenge his father! Although swords grow dull, resentment grows sharper with time. He shall sharpen his blade and release his grudge with blood!” Arden stated.

“You should remember what kind of guy Julio was,” replied Ladet.

“That doesn’t matter.”

Arden raised his hand. The dark elves standing behind him pointed their arrows and rapiers at Ladet.

“Things don’t change over time. I will take action and seize control of Nameragon, join forces with the chiefdom, and make the north and the continent into the dark elves’ land,” said Arden with fiery eyes.

It was the face of a fanatic who was entranced by a firm belief.

When Ladet realized he could no longer persuade Arden with words, he raised his bastard sword. He too had been a warrior at one point—the warrior who killed swordmaster Julio. However, could he face all of these soldiers by himself?

“You seem to have forgotten about us,” said Tiyo.

Right then, Ladet heard the sound of a gun clicking behind him. It was Tiyo. He was aiming the gun at Arden’s group.

Meanwhile, Anor, who had been quiet, released his powers at this moment. Dark energy slid across the ground and encroached on their surroundings.

Ladet grinned, while Arden’s expression crumbled.

Arden lowered his hand and shouted, “Attack!”

With that order, the dark elves under his command let go of their bowstrings, shooting indiscriminately without regard to their ally Driden. Arrows flew at Crockta and Driden, and the rest rained down on Ladet and the members of the garrison. The first one to be impacted was Driden, who had his back turned away from his comrades. He rotated his body like a top and deflected the rain of arrows with his dual swords.

Crockta didn’t miss using this opening to strike. As Driden defended himself from the arrows, Crockta thrust his greatsword at Driden. Driden crossed his dual swords to block the attack, but he staggered a bit, unable to assume a stable foothold. The greatsword drew closer to him, and Driden gritted his teeth. He let the greatsword swoosh past him and retreated to the side. Crockta chased after him.

Crockta was on the offensive, and Driden was on the defensive. It appeared that the battle, which had been a close fight so far, was leaning in Crockta’s favor. Witnessing this, Arden erupted in anger and commanded his army to fire again. The dark elves began nocking their arrows once more.

Clink.

Right then, Arden turned his head at the sound of a gun getting loaded. The weird gnome who had been standing beside Ladet held an artifact that was transforming in strange ways. The muzzle increased from one to two and then four. The barrel expanded, and it began to turn slowly.

“...?” Arden blankly stared at the rotating muzzle.

Tiyo’s Vulcan went into gear and revolved vigorously. Tiyo yelped as he lowered himself to the ground and then fired his Vulcan. He had to force himself to endure the recoil of the cannon with his whole body. Then he relentlessly fired his magic bullets left and right.

“Crockta! Dodge!” yelled Tiyo.

“Ah, man!” exclaimed Crockta.

He quickly crouched down and then leaped. Tiyo’s Vulcan shot bullets at where Crockta’s feet had just been. Driden, who didn’t know anything about Tiyo’s magic cannon, tried to block the bullets with his swords. However, the bullets caused a shockwave that swept Driden away, sending him tumbling and rolling on the ground. The Vulcan then blasted bullets at Driden. It was an indiscriminate shooting that lasted mere seconds, but that brief attack incapacitated all of their enemies.

Tiyo, who had used up all of his energy, panted as he retreated. Then Ladet and his garrison charged forward. Guerilla warfare ensued, but Ladet and his garrison were able to overpower Arden’s group easily. Arden’s group had been startled by Tiyo’s Vulcan, a weapon they had never seen before, so they surrendered before they were about to be decimated. Once Crockta subdued Driden, even Arden lost his will to fight and surrendered to Ladet without further resistance. It was the perfect ending to a long fight.

Tiyo puffed out his chest and asked, “Hahaha. Did you see, Crockta?”

“Your expression is annoying,” commented Crockta.

“Are you jealous? You worked hard to fight, but what ultimately decided the outcome of the battle...” Tiyo said while running to the front, “...was me!”

He jumped and twirled around and stretched his arms above his head. Then he lowered them and flexed, striking a pose that displayed his ego to the maximum. It was a bodybuilding stance charged with testosterone!

“Tiyo!”