WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 315: Ah, This Is Fun.

= = =

"Ah, this is fun."

She had wandered battlefields too, so she had heard every kind of curse, from insults about your parents to filth people could barely say out loud, but this was the first time she had heard something like this.

No one had ever spoken of her people’s blood in words so insulting.

More than anything, Aya was a knight, and she loved her own skin.

She was proud to be an Easterner.

"...What?"

Aya tilted her head.

"You stink.

Go wash."

Ragna had only done what he had learned.

Enkrid always aimed right at an opponent’s weak points.

When it came to provoking people, Enkrid could be called the best on the continent.

Ragna was not exactly his top disciple, but after watching him for years, he had learned plenty.

"...Did he just call me smelly?"

Aya was a knight, and she was also a woman.

Brown crap, stink, every word in that chain irritated her.

What irritated her even more was how calmly he said it, expressionless, as if it were simple fact.

"No.

She doesn’t stink.

She smells good.

Like flowers."

The squire spoke up quickly to smooth things over, but the damage was done.

Aya’s face hardened.

She clenched her molars.

Her jaw muscles tightened until they stood out on her face.

"You fucking bastard?"

Even in her rage, Aya did not throw away all her composure.

She had built too much over too many years for that.

She converted anger into force.

I’m definitely killing him.

"I’ll cut your tongue out first."

Aya drew her swords.

Ting.

Two blades, one in each hand, one short and one long.

The sword in her left hand was close to a standard longsword, and the one in her right was shorter.

"You nicely, no.

Forget it."

The squire started to say something from behind, then drew his own weapon.

Shrring!

Ragna heard that draw from behind and knew at once the other man held a longsword.

At the same time, his eyes swept over Aya’s weapons.

From the rear, the squire applied subtle pressure.

He leveled his sword and closed the distance.

Enemy in front and behind.

"You thought we’d give you a fair duel?

Watch your back, dumbass."

Aya’s words had weight.

She was furious.

Ragna took the advice.

He planned to be careful.

The squire moved his feet.

Ssshk.

He skimmed over the ground and shifted position.

Ragna took a few steps to match.

Aya in front, the fleeing squire from before behind him.

How should he handle this?

Pinned front and back.

Aya moved first.

She rushed in and crushed the distance.

A savage-speed thrust followed.

Ragna set his sword upright and blocked.

Bang!

That attack was only a probe.

The real one came from behind.

The squire’s sword dropped from above toward the back of his head.

Ragna’s trained senses woke his whole body.

He bent his knees and thrust his upright sword upward.

Heavy Sword Style was built on strength.

Of course Ragna knew how to load power properly.

Even with a movement this short and tight, he could still deliver enough impact.

The squire did not complete the downswing.

He showed his intent, then slipped back.

The instant Ragna stabbed up over his head, he threw his body sideways.

Aya’s sword shot up through the spot where he had just stood.

A terrifyingly fast rising slash.

Ping!

The sound of steel cutting air was vicious.

Fast and without hesitation.

"My name is Aya, Fragrant Aya of the Azpen Grand Duke's Knight Order."

Aya gave herself a nickname and charged.

Ragna felt another slash flying in from behind.

Even without seeing it, he sensed the pulse in the air and the killing intent.

Front and back, no clear way to block both.

'Hup.'

Ragna spun his sword.

If he could not block everything, he could knock it away.

A blade bigger and longer than average carved a spiral path.

His sword cut through empty air twice as fast as usual.

The squire’s blade and Aya’s blade were both inside that path.

Bang!

Again, only Aya’s blade actually collided.

Whatever else was true, in battle, Ragna read situations faster than anyone.

'Behind me is Illusionary Sword.'

And not just that, it was Illusionary Sword with rough Will mixed in.

They called him a squire, but he had enough skill to crush mediocre junior knights without trouble.

With intent and will, he pushed attacks right up to the edge of becoming real.

Then a virtual blade flew in.

You could not detect and dodge that.

You could not cleanly separate real from fake either.

Relax for one instant, and it really would cut you.

It was Illusionary Sword, yes, but behind it sat a real blade ready to cut flesh and bone at any moment.

Aya’s swords were dazzling.

She focused on speed, but there was weight in them too.

It sat somewhere between Heavy Sword Style and Quick Sword Style.

She looked properly trained.

She looked like someone who had inherited a true sword lineage.

Most of all, the pair’s teamwork was absurdly good.

This was danger.

Pure danger, the kind where one bad step sent you straight down to death.

That was exactly why Ragna felt satisfied.

When he listened to the voice inside himself, had he not been waiting for moments like this?

What he faced now was deeply satisfying.

"You’re smiling?"

Aya looked at his face and asked in disbelief.

More than one swing of his sword, the emotion on that face disgusted her.

Aya gave a short, incredulous laugh.

Ragna smiled for real.

He enjoyed this moment.

"So what, you get stabbed and scream because it feels good?" Aya asked.

Ragna enjoyed it quietly.

A crisis was a trigger, and a chance.

He only had to leap toward what came next, right here.

He knew this was the moment he had waited for.

He needed a trigger.

"Shut your mouth.

You stink."

In the middle of it all, he used the other kind of blade Enkrid had taught him, his tongue.

"Yeah, yeah, I’ll kill you.

I’ll mince you to pieces and kill you."

Aya’s swords moved again.

Her blades moved left and right, leaving afterimages.

It was a kind of Quick Sword unlike Lykanos’s.

Ragna realized he had read it wrong.

It was not between Heavy Sword Style and Quick Sword Style.

'Illusionary Sword is mixed in too.'

That meant her overall swordsmanship was highly complete.

He liked it even more.

Clangclangclang!

He blocked Aya’s swords over and over.

Bang!

He blocked the blade coming from behind.

He found openings and knocked attacks away.

Kang!

Bang!

Jjeong!

At times, steel struck steel and sparks burst.

Scrrk!

He pushed off the ground with the soles of his feet and kept moving without pause.

No, he had to move.

If he caught his breath, he got stabbed.

So even breathing breaks were cut down to the minimum.

That was how he endured.

"Hah!"

A shout came from behind.

The moment he sensed an attack flying in with momentum too heavy to ignore, Ragna reacted too.

He raised his sword vertically and turned into a blocking twist.

Boom!

It was the loudest impact since the fight began.

He had blocked the squire’s heavy strike.

The bastard had not only Illusionary Sword, he also had Heavy Sword Style smashing blows.

Ragna needed to lift his body while blocking, but he failed to release the shock cleanly.

His knees throbbed.

Right after that, Aya’s sword dropped from above his head again.

It was a crown-splitting slash like a fast bird snatching a fish.

He did not have time to raise his sword, so he twisted his body.

Rip, tear!

Aya’s blade scraped across Ragna’s shoulder.

Blood sprayed into the air.

He was armored, but her blade still sliced him anyway.

The sword in Aya’s hand was not ordinary.

Its cutting power was on another level.

In that same state, Ragna swung too.

A blade roughly half again longer than most bent like a whip and tore forward like a streak of light.

Kkwarung!

Thunder cracked from the swing.

Aya did not block. She dodged.

She knew too.

This was not the kind of attack you blocked.

Her eyes were a little special, so she saw all of it.

"Hoo."

Ragna bought himself a short gap and steadied his breathing.

He unleashed every sword he had learned, and in return he took one stab behind the thigh and another gouge above his left shoulder.

He was clearly at a disadvantage.

Even then, Ragna did not retreat.

No assumption of defeat existed in his head.

His mind was filled only with the feeling that he was getting closer to something he kept almost catching, then losing.

And that was not a delusion.

Ragna stood before a wall only he could sense, and he had just met the trigger for it.

"Ah, this is fun."

Ragna muttered in the middle of repeated clashes.

"You crazy bastard!"

Aya got even angrier.

Aya was winning, but she was also the one getting impatient.

That was natural.

Aya had Seeing Will.

From what she saw, that bastard Ragna was catching up to both of them in real time.

'You monster bastard!'

Aya felt his sword changing more and more.

She saw it.

Her heart sped up on its own.

"Fuck."

Squire Bill spat a curse.

He was usually mild, but when pushed onto the defensive, he turned savage.

If that kind of language came from Bill, then something had already gone wrong.

The one who should have died long ago kept enduring.

As he endured and endured, his superior junior knight signaled him with her eyes.

The situation was turning into a total dogshit mess.

Bill burned inside.

Aya felt the same.

'What the hell is this bastard?'

The swords in Aya’s two hands moved faster.

For an instant, it looked like she had four arms, tricking the opponent’s eyes.

An illusion born from speed.

Ragna’s eyes tracked it.

Thud!

He could not block everything, so he allowed one hit to his abdomen.

He did not just take it blindly.

The thrust only half landed.

He stepped back and twisted his waist, avoiding a fatal wound.

'He takes the hit and still pulls out?'

As he twisted away, Ragna shot his sword out long.

Aya could not chain into a follow-up.

She saw his intent too clearly. There was no reason to bite into his fangs.

She pulled back as well.

That thrust aimed at a clean opening ended up only tearing skin.

Squire Bill moved again to reset position.

Aya stepped back for a moment, and in that gap, Ragna staggered a few times.

It was not movement to deceive anyone.

He had simply overforced himself to absorb that last exchange.

Aya’s body reacted on instinct.

The opening on him was obvious.

Her eyes caught it.

Bill also reset his grip to match.

'We end it now.'

They had to.

They had to.

An ominous feeling ran through Aya’s whole body.

She had already felt it herself. If she did not kill him now, she was in trouble.

What kind of bastard was this?

'He gets stronger while fighting?'

It made no sense.

What kind of talent did this?

Right before Aya and Bill charged in, Ragna realized it.

'This is it.'

The fight had been long, if you called it long, short, if you called it short.

Ragna reviewed his own fighting during that time.

He recalled every sword he had swung.

Ever since he first held a sword as a child, Ragna had seen the path his sword should take.

So he had always known where to swing.

It was not a skill he could explain.

He just swung where he saw it, and opponents died or got cut.

That was Ragna, a genius born with those senses.

Yet between this female knight and that squire, his path kept breaking.

It would not connect.

He had been forcing those broken paths together just to endure.

Then he understood.

Until now, he had only walked the paths he was given.

He had only followed the route his talent showed him.

That was passive, and defensive.

Then what was the opposite?

'With the sword I swing.'

Make the path.

Carve his own path.

Two sword trajectories started from the female knight’s hands.

From behind, another attack rushed in like lightning.

Between those two experts, Ragna did not connect broken roads this time.

He walked a new path instead.

Crunch.

His arm muscles reacted, his whole body moved, and his heart pounded.

Thump!

With that pounding heartbeat, Ragna moved.

To carve a new path, he first had to take a step.

Ragna did exactly that.

He blocked Aya’s first sword with his right forearm.

Stab!

He tensed his muscles while still impaled.

Then the short blade stabbed up toward his abdomen from below.

He raised his knee and slammed the hand holding that sword, knocking the strike off line.

Pk!

The blade scraped his side and slid past behind his back.

At the same moment he used his knee.

Ragna gripped the sword in his left hand and turned his body.

Ragna too was a man with superhuman muscle power.

Heavy Sword Style required strength training.

Aya’s sword stayed lodged in his forearm.

Using his right foot as a pivot, Ragna whipped his left arm backward.

A turning back-cut.

'Cut.'

He loaded it with the Will of Severance.

Whoosh.

The blade cut air and sound.

Before the sword from behind could land, that sound-swallowing slash reached Bill’s torso first.

Jjeong!

Pubbuk!

His body split in half in midair.

Blood and entrails spilled out.

It was right before Bill’s blade could touch him.

Bill’s blade, carrying his final strength, struck Ragna’s shoulder.

Thud. A short impact sound, and the shock ripped through Ragna’s whole body, but it did not matter.

The newly carved path was still continuing.

Thud!

Right after blocking a sword with his right arm, smashing the sword hand with his knee, turning back to split an enemy torso, and taking a shoulder hit from the remaining force of that blade, Ragna slammed his forehead into Aya’s helmet.

Aya’s face guard took the hit, so Ragna’s forehead split open and bled.

Didn’t matter.

Crack!

Aya yanked out the sword lodged in her opponent’s right arm by force.

Ragna relaxed and let her do what she wanted.

Instead, he drew his left hand back and set it upright above.

The sword that had split Squire Bill came crashing down.

Aya’s eyes darkened.

'Crazy.'

For just one instant, the opponent in front of her showed an ability like hers.

Like Will in the eyes.

In every fight, he found and executed the best move.

Aya crossed her swords, but Ragna’s falling blade was heavy.

Boom!

An explosive sound burst where their swords met.

Crunch!

"Aaaagh!"

Both of Aya’s arms broke.

And with that, the fight’s direction split.

"Ah."

Blood streamed from his right arm, shoulder, and thigh, and Ragna let out a short sound.

He swayed like he might collapse at any second.

He slowly shook his head left and right, controlled his breathing, and tried to stand straight.

His body still leaned halfway to one side.

That was how exhausted he was.

In that state, Ragna said,

"Thank you."

He meant it.

Aya understood her opponent was truly insane.

"You, you, this..."

This was not over.

Did he know who stood behind her?

Did he think she had come here alone?

Those words never came out.

Instead, Ragna’s sword smashed Aya’s helmet with perfect accuracy.

Thud!

Her helmet caved in, and Aya’s skull shattered.

That was how one junior knight of the Azpen Grand Duke's Knight Order died.

* * *

Enkrid thought this was not the end.

Even while following the path through the dust, he prepared for what might happen.

Just moments ago, a rope had flown in and wrapped his body tight.

It was useless, of course.

Isolation Technique, make the body look larger.

He coiled his muscles, then snapped them open at once and spread both arms, layering Heart of Superhuman Strength over it.

Crack.

The rope snapped the moment it caught him, scraping his skin as it broke.

After that, the frequency of incoming arrows slowly dropped, but carelessness was still forbidden.

If he could repeat today but failed to give his best now, then what was left?

That would no longer be Enkrid.

So he gave his best.

The footsteps of the soldiers chasing him grew distant.

He still did not relax.

'To the end.'

Go farther.

Find allies, spot a signal, wait for change, no, chase it down and force it to appear.

He had six Quarrel Bolts buried in his back.

He had taken a stab to the thigh too.

That was not all.

His right boot had been torn apart and ripped off, and he had even taken a thrown stone to the forehead.

He had bled a lot.

The half-dried blood crust on his forehead split open again under violent movement.

Every strand of muscle trembled.

He had been past his limit for a while.

Did that matter?

No, it did not.

So Enkrid ran.

Because he thought this was not the end.

Carelessness was forbidden.

He ran and ran again.

Then suddenly, a four-legged beast burst out in front of him.

Enkrid dropped into a defensive stance.

He let the sword in his right hand flow away and thrust with the sword in his left.

That short preparation came out as pure reflex.

Along with the beast came a man with a longsword.

Enkrid instinctively tried to draw again, then stopped.

Seeing that, the other man said,

"Let’s spar later.

I sprained my arm."

It was Ragna.

Grrr.

Standing beside him was Lake Panther Esther.

He had broken out of the encirclement.

Enkrid did not know since when.

Truthfully, he did not need to know.

Run until you die, or walk until you break free.

He simply had no intention of stopping.

= = =

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