WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator: Hydrogen B
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES
Chapter 246: Enkrid Refused.
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"Damn it."
Enkrid neither hurried nor ran.
He opened the gate and stepped out as if he were simply going to watch a pack of charging demon creatures.
Luchi and Richi, the brothers, followed right behind him.
The older one, Luchi, practically lived with the words "damn it" on his lips.
He did it now too.
"Damn it, you need to be careful. Those things are pulling some weird tricks."
Luchi wore studded leather armor with chain layered over the abdomen. Every step he took behind Enkrid made his armor rattle.
The Luchi-Richi brothers were strong, but they were not thinkers, not even if you beat them to death.
"Damn it. I came here to buy a composite bow, and now it's some colony mess."
Some habits never changed no matter how much you beat on them. Not that anyone was trying to fix this one.
Plenty of soldiers had foul mouths. Just saying "damn it" was mild.
"When we go at those Man-Faced Hounds, those horse bastards come charging in out of nowhere!"
Richi, walking at his side, added that. Luchi muttered another inventive curse under his breath, something about dog-faced horse bastards.
"Seems like it."
Enkrid had already seen it from the wall, and Torres had been yapping about it all the way down.
Even now, Torres was hurrying after them.
They can think.
Centaurs were demon creatures born to be cavalry.
Their numbers had grown, and there was even a general-type colony leader.
The previous Gnoll colony leader had at least been a normal type.
Its individual ability had been high, but it had no leadership to speak of.
A general-type was different.
To be honest, this was Enkrid's first time seeing one in person.
Monsters like that were hard to find unless you were near a Cursed Ground.
Still, it was right in front of him now. He only had to watch and judge.
They split into three.
One group of Man-Faced Hounds and Ghouls, one Centaur main force, and one group of Horse Magic Beasts.
As the Man-Faced Hounds and Ghouls rushed in, he glanced left and saw the Horse Magic Beasts surging to one side.
The intent was obvious. Widen the charge distance, then hit the flank of the human force engaged with the hounds.
A few Centaurs were leading that group.
Like officers leading soldiers.
So was this brilliant tactical movement?
Not really.
It was plain to see.
Then why was it hard to answer?
Handling the Horse Magic Beast charge itself was possible. The real problem was the Centaur commander at the front, standing there without committing, just waiting.
At the end of that thought, Enkrid spoke.
"Rem."
"Got it. But, hmm, you want me to pull that one in?"
Rem asked, jerking his chin toward the front.
He was asking whether he needed to hold back.
"You don't."
Enkrid answered.
He had thought it through while coming down from the wall.
Kraiss had said they could fight head-on, had he not?
Force against force. That was the kind of fight demon creatures wanted most.
Watching Rem sprint forward, Enkrid took a deep breath and swelled his chest.
Then he shouted.
"To-rres! Don't close the gate!"
"...Damn, that scared me. Damn it."
Luchi flinched so hard he stopped in place.
"I thought my ears were going to burst."
Jaxon had come up at some point and added a comment.
"From just this much?"
Enkrid answered with a hint of a joke, then watched Rem run ahead and swing his axes.
Rem's steps were light. His axes were merciless.
* * *
So this was about them beating his pet Beastfolk, was it?
If someone asked whether he cared about Dunbakel, Rem would probably crack that person's skull.
Then again, if someone cornered a Beastfolk right in front of him, he would probably just watch.
And if that Beastfolk got beaten senseless, he would mock them for being that weak.
Then after all that, he would turn to the one who did the beating and run his mouth.
"Want to play with me too? Yeah?"
Like that.
That was exactly how he felt now.
The charging Man-Faced Hounds looked half mad.
Rem did not care.
Their red eyes had no clear pupils. Kaaaahhh! Their jaws gaped as they rushed in, drool hanging from their mouths.
Watching them close in, Rem crossed both arms over his chest. Then he flooded his arm muscles with power and swung his axes.
His crossed arms snapped open, the axes whipping out, blades flying without restraint.
Things were caught in the twin arcs.
Kraaagh!
Ghoul heads, Man-Faced Hound bodies, all of it.
Puh-buh-buh-buck!
The axes smashed through the charge like rotten branches being split apart.
With that one strike, black blood burst around Rem. It looked like ink bottles shattering and spraying in every direction.
Red eyeballs bounced away. Fangs shattered. Skulls cracked, torsos split, forearms were severed.
Between it all, black blood streaked through the air like windblown rain.
"Let's have some fun."
Rem muttered and began swinging his axes straight down.
Thud-thud-thud-thud. He brought them down one after another on the creatures charging him.
Up, down. Up, down.
He spun in place on his right foot, and once again Man-Faced Hound heads and Ghoul arms flew over allied soldiers' heads.
What else was there to say.
Rem was Rem.
"Fuck."
A soldier from the original Martai force watching from behind spat out the curse.
Were they really trying to fight that?
Even watching it, the scene was hard to believe.
At some point he could not even see the axes move anymore. All he saw was demon creatures dying.
In moments, more than twenty were torn apart, chopped to pieces, exploded, and flung away.
Rem looked like he had eight arms.
His feet never stopped, either.
Before anyone noticed, he had separated from the allies and plunged into the Man-Faced Hound pack, turning it into chaos.
Kaaat!
Kaaaah!
The pack's screams kept bursting out.
In one line:
"He fights insanely well."
The comrade beside him said exactly what he had been thinking.
"You just going to watch?"
Zimmer shouted from behind.
He was just as shocked. Nobody had thought Enkrid was the only monster, but nobody had expected the axe man to be this monstrous.
Kyaaaah!
Harpies screamed and circled overhead.
They had come with the Man-Faced Hounds. Over the last four days, several soldiers had died because of those harpies.
Zimmer glared up at the sky, limping, and shouted.
"Shoot!"
A few soldiers confident in archery fired into the air, but it was useless.
Almost none hit, and even the ones that did could not pierce the harpies' tough hide.
Then one of them dove.
The sudden drop flashed through Zimmer's vision.
It was diving at Rem, who was rampaging in the middle of the hounds.
"Watch out!"
Zimmer shouted, just about to throw his spear.
What the hell was that?
After what happened next, his jaw stayed open.
The harpy plunged. Rem, fighting attackers from every side, suddenly planted one hand on the ground and kicked into the air with both legs crossed.
The kick caught the harpy's head.
Bang!
It exploded.
Black blood sprayed again, and the falling harpy body rolled off to one side, crushing several Man-Faced Hounds as it went.
Kaat!
A pinned hound screamed, and Rem immediately reset his stance and kicked its head too.
Bang!
Terrifying power, and terrifying skill.
How could anyone move like that in that situation?
Zimmer found himself grateful he did not have to fight that man.
And soon he had no room to watch Rem anyway.
Dudududududu!
The ground started shaking. It was the opening of the tactic they had already suffered through several times.
Throw Man-Faced Hounds in as meat shields, then send in the Horse Magic Beasts to charge.
Three Centaurs led the front.
Each held a thick wooden club. They did not look like crafted weapons.
They looked like thick forest branches hacked off in a hurry, but they were still dangerous.
If one connected, a regular soldier's skull would split like nothing.
"Hold!"
Zimmer shouted. The fight had begun in confusion, but now that it had started, they had to do something, anything, right now.
It did not feel like they would lose.
Madmen.
They must have stepped out because they believed in something.
More than anything, everyone had just seen their skill with their own eyes again.
It was impossible to imagine a man like Rem getting bitten to death by mere Man-Faced Hounds.
Now the rest of the unit only had to hold this line. Hit, stab, kill the hounds.
Kill the charging ghouls. Kill the wolf-type magic beasts.
Just as Zimmer expected, right before the Horse Magic Beast group led by the three left-side Centaurs crashed in, Enkrid sent Audin.
"Go stop them, Audin, Teresa."
"Yes, brother. Time to smack their asses."
Audin said it, and Teresa followed silently.
Dudududududu!
A cavalry charge was terrifying on its own.
And now it was not humans charging, but demon creatures.
The Frontier Guard and Martai standing army in the left line gritted their teeth.
Fuck, here it comes again.
They had to stop it first. Then two huge figures stepped forward and blocked the front.
One guard recognized Audin.
"Religious nut?"
"I told you, not everything that comes out of your mouth is worth saying. Is that really the right way to address me, brother?"
Audin spoke without even looking back. The guard thought the man had absurdly sharp hearing for someone like him.
Still, once those two took the front, a strange sense of stability spread.
Just from their size alone.
But what was with that mask?
Was that not basically a giant's body? Even standing beside Audin, the masked figure's head and shoulders were just as high.
"Push them right."
Audin said.
"Understood."
Teresa answered.
Her size and gear stood out. She planted a huge kite shield in front of her body and set her stance.
Stopping a horse charge with a shield? Alone?
Kurururururung!
Now the hoofbeats sounded like thunder.
The Horse Magic Beast charge was brutally fast. The instant it entered view, it was right in front of them.
No time to worry about anyone's build. Just before impact, one guard threw his spear.
Using his full body's spring, he sent it flying into a Horse Magic Beast's head.
Thud!
He hoped one dead beast would fall and take a few behind it down too.
But even at full sprint, the others leaped clean over the falling body.
Their reaction speed was frightening.
Then the leading Centaur's club slammed into the masked giant's shield.
Boom!
In that instant, the guard could not tell exactly what had happened.
He only saw the Centaur that struck the shield lose balance and tilt sideways, staggering as if it would fall.
At that same moment, the masked giant naturally brought her sword down on the head of the next charging beast.
That was not all.
She yanked the sword free, tucked the shield close to her body, and knocked another charging beast off to the side.
The movement was simple and repetitive.
Push them to her right, then slash and force the Horse Magic Beasts away.
What was that?
At minimum, it was squire-level combat power.
Even without Will, this was what it looked like when someone with half-giant blood fought properly.
In truth, even Enkrid had not drawn out all of Teresa's ability.
After meeting Enkrid, she learned the joy of wielding a sword and fighting.
The original Teresa had lived up to the giant nickname.
Red-Blooded Beasts. Another name for giants.
"Khat!"
A husky shout burst out, and every Horse Magic Beast that crashed into her shield was shoved away and flung aside.
She angled the shield and deflected them while holding her ground, her feet carving furrows as she slid backward.
Even so, her arms did not break and her stance did not collapse.
She was taking their charge with raw strength.
"The gates of heaven have opened!"
Her performance was astonishing, but the religious brute was even more so.
A body that looked heavy and slow launched into the air.
Audin shot upward, landed on a descending Horse Magic Beast, and swung his club into its head.
Thud!
Kihiiing!
The beast gave a short dying cry and dropped. As Audin came down from it, he thrust his club at another charging beast's head.
Thud! Crack!
That one blow ripped out the beast's spine with its head.
It flew backward in a long arc, spraying bloody rain through the air.
Moving between the charging Horse Magic Beasts, Audin kept swinging his club.
He was not stopping the charge. He was beating them to death.
Even while doing that, he clearly pushed the charge left of center.
A few beasts still broke through and struck allied troops.
Compared to the fighting over the past three days, though, it was barely a scratch.
"You got time to watch?"
A voice cut through.
He looked over and saw a reddish-brown-haired soldier in a rounded helmet.
A Madmen Company man.
At his feet, a Centaur was already down, bleeding heavily.
It was the one knocked aside earlier.
The creature had tried to rise again with astonishing balance, but by then a blade had already gone into its neck and come back out.
"Fight. That's your job."
Jaxon only spoke the truth.
"Hit back!"
Torres shouted from behind at just the right moment.
With the charging beasts split left and right by those two giants, the Horse Magic Beast group scattered.
No time to stand around.
"Shoot!"
A massed charge was dangerous, but if they exposed their flanks, then what?
There was hardly an easier kind of magic beast to deal with.
Archers, crossbowmen, and slingshot users all fired.
Arrows flew. Stones flew. One lucky bolt even punched into a beast's eye.
Enkrid checked both sides with all five senses.
When will he come?
Then he focused on the one standing at the front.
Did this fight not end only when that one moved?
He had never been hit this way before, but now the gate was wide open and the battle had turned into a chaotic brawl.
This was no situation for the beast leader to run.
Most of all, that bastard still had not shown the killing pressure that had carried him this far.
Enkrid's expectation soon became reality.
"Kiyoyoyot!"
The Centaur pack, the enemy's main force, came charging as the third wave.
The tactic the demon creatures were using was a Three-Wave Assault.
The first wave drew attention, the second delivered impact, and the third shattered what remained.
Simple, but if the power gap was clear, reliable and effective.
That third wave was now charging straight in.
Enkrid drew his sword and stepped forward.
From the start, his place was where the allied center met the enemy center.
Ragna moved up beside him.
"The killing pressure of magic beasts is like intimidation. Did you know that?"
Unlike the soldiers whose balls shrank at the sight of the charge, Ragna's tone did not change.
Calm as ever. Even with hoofbeats loud enough to numb the ears, his voice still cut through clearly.
"Yeah."
Enkrid answered.
Then the charging Centaur leader raised a glaive it must have picked up somewhere and roared from deep in its throat.
"Kiaaaah!"
A moment later, something fierce struck even Enkrid.
It was like a cat's stare pinning a mouse in place.
Dizzying killing pressure flooded his whole body.
It overwhelmed the surrounding soldiers and the entire nearby field.
With force and bloodlust, it spread fear of death.
And Enkrid refused all of it.
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