WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

A KNIGHT WHO ETERNALLY REGRESSES

Chapter 406: Reinforcements Dance

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Kraiss judged that they needed to send reinforcements, and he also believed those reinforcements did not need to be a massive force.

'Are they short on supplies?'

Probably not.

The royal army would not charge in without at least that much preparation.

Then could numbers alone light the beacon of a turnaround?

He did not know.

It was hard to predict. He could not read Count Molsen's move.

That was only natural.

Count Molsen had prepared something that mixed magic and sorcery, and he was in the middle of painting a bloody picture across the battlefield.

Even so, Kraiss expected the enemy to pull out something no one had foreseen.

His habit of imagining the worst possible outcome paid off again.

If that was the case, then of course they had to send the fastest, strongest force as reinforcements.

A small number of extraordinary fighters were exactly what turned battlefields upside down.

Audin, Sinar, and Teresa.

Kraiss assigned each of the three two sturdy, fast horses.

That was why Audin and Sinar were here now.

* * *

Enkrid took a step back. Audin had gently gripped his shoulder and pulled him, and there was no reason to resist.

"Come on, just watch. I watched a while ago too."

As Audin stepped up, Rem spoke, then crossed the weapons in his hands and slammed them together with a clang.

In his right hand was his usual long-handled axe, and in his left was a shorter-handled hammer he must have picked up somewhere.

Enkrid knew Rem did not care what weapon he used. That meant Rem was fully ready too.

"So I just need to cut that thing?"

Ragna spoke while dragging his sword tip across the ground.

Whatever he had done, every tooth on the blade was chipped out. You could call it a saw-blade sword.

Even so, in Ragna's hand it was still threatening and terrifying. Even a wooden sword in his hand would have looked dangerous.

Today, that feeling was even stronger.

You could feel it clearly. No matter what tried to stop him, he would cut through all of it.

Audin, still holding Enkrid back, smiled and said,

"Father, those who must be rebuked at Your side are here."

Taken plainly, he meant he would kill them and send them on immediately.

Audin's two fists were tools fit for sending those in front of him to his Lord's side.

He wore leather gauntlets on both hands, and they looked as if someone had stitched them with painstaking care, one stitch at a time. The finish was solid, and they looked durable.

The material looked like Magic Beast hide too. Enkrid had seen right.

To be exact, they were made from Centaur hide.

It took time to tan and process, but it truly was tough and durable.

Kraiss had them made, packed them neatly, and sent them over.

Enkrid got curious and asked,

"Leather gauntlets? Who made those?"

"We have an excellent tailor in the unit. I do not know his name, but his stitching is first-rate. He used to serve as a squad leader, but now he is a supply officer, brother."

Someone came to mind at once.

"Red nose, right? Loves to drink?"

"How did you know?"

The tension between the Five Monsters and Enkrid's group was still thick, but Enkrid spoke and Audin answered anyway.

The two acted as if this was perfectly fine.

Of course, Audin's gaze never left the front. More precisely, it stayed fixed on the largest monster of the five.

"I owe him one."

When Enkrid repeated that first day, that man had made him leather gaiters and gauntlets. His skill seemed to have improved a lot since then.

If he was now handling supply goods in the Border Guard, that meant his sewing had been recognized.

Enkrid had heard Kraiss personally handled supply-side work. So he would not put just anyone there, and that was proof enough that the man's stitching was excellent.

"My fiance, who bullied you? Point them out."

Sinar still stood beside Audin. Her elf-style joke had not changed. She had a cold, intelligent face and a flat tone, but what she said was endlessly light.

"The one who bullied me already left."

As Enkrid spoke, he pointed to the sky.

"You sent them to the Lord. Well done."

Was there anyone besides Audin, a priest-like sort, who praised someone for killing people?

Not everyone who believed in the God of War would be like that.

Sinar drew her sword, still expressionless, and said,

"So there is one half-wit here who soils elf blood."

She was right.

One of the five was an elf.

Rem was inwardly surprised. He had met that one just earlier. Even after her body was cut apart, she had scrambled away.

Still, he had not expected her to live. Even if she did live, he had not expected her to stand there looking this intact.

He had clearly hacked her torso open and watched her guts spill out, yet she was standing there moving.

Dark blood still seeped from the crudely stitched seams, but the fact that she was moving at all was shocking.

He had been sure he killed her.

Sinar stepped forward with her Leaf Blade.

That put Rem, Ragna, Audin, and Sinar between Enkrid and the enemy.

Only Jaxon still stood where he had been... no, he had already vanished. He had hidden himself.

The moment Enkrid noticed,

Jaxon appeared beside the count. His skewer-thin sword shot straight at the count's head.

No one expected that strike. The point drove straight for the count's skull, but Jaxon did not achieve what he intended.

Tung!

His sword bounced away as if it had struck a lump of iron.

Jaxon was startled. The hardness was unbelievable for human skin.

But standing still was no different from praying to be killed, so the moment he struck, Jaxon threw himself backward.

A black claw appeared where he had been and raked through it.

If that thing scratched you, it would not end well. The black claw was some magical thing steeped in ominousness.

Jaxon knew what blocked his sword was not some defensive spell.

He had already checked by feel whether a spell was active before he struck.

So that meant one thing. The skin itself was simply tough.

"Did you graft Demon Creature parts into your body too?"

Jaxon used the question to pass information to everyone.

The count's skin was extremely tough, like Demon Creature hide.

"You mayfly-like insect."

The count spoke again and flicked his hand. The black claw kept harrying Jaxon.

Jaxon vanished as if sinking into the ground, then appeared five steps away, but the claw kept chasing him without end.

At the same time, things that did not share blood with Rierbart, yet could still be called his siblings, rushed in.

At the front was the elf Rem had half-killed.

"Ghhhhh!"

She clawed at her head, then started running. Not straight ahead, but in a curving half-circle. Even moving in that sideways arc, she was terrifyingly fast.

To Enkrid's eyes, she looked even faster than Rierbart.

And that was true.

If Rierbart had thrown everything else away and used only raw physical ability, he could have moved exactly like that elf was moving now.

But he had not done that.

A human's desire, a knight's honor. Those had been his final shackles.

He had wanted to become a true knight.

So he had not fought like a beast.

What if he had used nothing but physical ability and rushed in?

The answer was right here.

In the blink of an eye, the enemy vanished from sight.

Right after he thought he had lost her, his right cheek stung. Something tore through the air toward him, a speed-loaded slash.

Enkrid saw it, but he did not need to react himself.

An elf had been muttering from earlier.

What she had said before the enemy ran reached Enkrid's ears too.

"A forest kin who has lost her pride."

That sword was not stepping in as a joke. It was sincere. One Leaf Blade stopped another.

Bang!

Green sparks burst where the two swords collided.

The impact knocked the opponent back, and Sinar was pushed back two steps as well. The two faced each other at a short distance.

Their swords were similar in shape. One was true Leaf Blade form, while the other was only a blade shape made by bulging veins bursting from the back of the hand and tangling around it.

"You are not even fit to be called kin."

Sinar rebuked her, and the enemy elf, perhaps not completely stripped of reason, answered,

"What the hell are you saying, bitch."

Not exactly pleasant words.

Sinar gave a faint smile. It was so cold it stung just to watch.

"Such foul language in front of my fiance."

With that, Sinar raised her Leaf Blade.

She spoke in rebuke, but after trading only one strike, the gap was already clear. Different strength, different speed, different physical durability.

Even so, Sinar did not think the opponent was a knight.

Just a monster that had desperately struggled to imitate one.

Sinar had seen elf knights before.

They were beings who naturally deserved respect and honor.

You could not tear up your body and become a knight that way.

So she had to cut her down. She had to free the soul of this ignorant, foolish elf.

"I will speak to the forest and the flowers."

Sinar spoke and lifted her sword. It was strange. It was the same Leaf Blade, yet it felt as if the scent of grass drifted from it.

"It is spring. Spring is the season that pulses with life more than any other."

Sinar recited again.

Her secret art could be manifested by taking in the forest's vital essence.

Just like when she had thrilled Enkrid in their spar before.

Back then, she had confused her opponent with attacks using several doubles. Using that same essence, she could also deliver physical blows.

Naturally, that was not all she could do.

That had only been a kind of trick.

She gathered the spirit born from the forest's essence and listened for its answer.

Sinar held that essence within her body.

It was an elven secret art, but now no one else could perform it, so it had become a forgotten technique.

By taking that essence into herself, for one instant she stepped into a world close to her opponent's.

The transformed elf's sword shot in. The blade of Naidhl, called Leaf Blade because it resembled a leaf, came right up to her face.

Sinar had already drunk down, without restraint, the essence she had stored for this moment, so she swung at nearly the same speed as her opponent.

Tung!

She did not stop at knocking it away. She twisted up from below and flung aside the descending strike.

Her sword took on a soft green glow.

Leaf Blade Naidhl changed through a technique called "Seasons."

The blade in her hand now was spring.

Spring Naidhl released living essence more vividly than ever. Its shape did not change, but the power within it did.

After that, Sinar moved like a dancer. Take away the parts where she knocked away, cut, pierced, and shattered, and it would have looked like a dance.

And by shattering her opponent's blade piece by piece and battering her, she thrashed the elf chimera that had tried to claw its way up to knighthood.

* * *

Watching the fight Sinar started, Audin spoke.

"I am late, so as punishment I will take two."

The moment he finished, the remaining guards moved too.

Like the transformed elf, once they started running, the others were also faster than Rierbart.

Of course, not fast enough to trouble Audin and the two beside him.

Hearing Audin's words, Ragna extended his sword.

'Faster and stronger.'

What could he do for that?

Will.

A formless force settled into his arm.

He laid Will over his intent to cut, then mixed it into his limbs.

He recognized how Will moved and directed it.

That was the answer Ragna had found.

So he did it.

It was energy that would scatter after barely two breaths, but that was enough.

For a single instant, Ragna manifested a knight's sword.

More precisely, it was the sword shown by the knight of Azpen.

It was simply fast and sharp.

Ragna did the same.

Left foot half a step forward, keep the path of motion as short as possible, add rotation from ankle to waist to load power from Heavy Sword Style. It was a preparatory movement.

Compared to the thing charging him, Ragna looked drastically slower, up to the moment he raised his sword and shifted stance.

From the outside, it looked like he was about to be skewered by claws, have his heart or guts torn out, and knock on heaven's gate.

That was if you had the dynamic visual acuity to see it.

Ragna's sword accelerated in an instant.

It drew a line far faster than the enemy's charge.

Before untraceable speed and force, a tower built by false means collapsed without resistance.

Whoosh, rip!

It happened in a true instant.

The enemy charged, split into two, and flew apart left and right.

Rem, who had just been battering his own opponent with axe and hammer, saw it too.

'That crazy bastard.'

He had gone even wilder than before.

Rem had already faced one of those chargers himself, and it was no easy monster.

Rem did not hesitate.

He pulled out what he had recovered while hunting the Undying Madman.

In the west, Rem's homeland, there was no word for Will. The concept itself did not exist.

But there was a way to temper the mind and move forward.

What you gained through that was called sorcery.

For Rem's tribe, sorcery was one of the weapons naturally required to become a hero.

Their inherited weapons came from that tradition too.

"Watch closely, punk."

Rem said that toward Ragna, then crushed a totem between just the thumb and index finger of the hand holding the hammer.

The totem was a small doll, about two fingers thick. Its effect was simple.

To place the sorcery Lightning Step in the caster's body.

Then, without holding back, Rem pulled out another charm, crumpled it, and stuffed it into his mouth.

This charm's effect was Bear's Arm.

Two kinds of sorcery settled into his arms and legs, changing the strength in all four limbs.

They were not originally his sorcery, and he had not forged them through his own invocation, but this trick let him use sorcery for a short while.

That trick made Rem's body faster than before and added power to his muscles.

His opponent charged with thick swords in both hands.

This was the one who kept dodging Rem's attacks over and over, as if dodging alone was enough.

Rem's axe, which had mostly been forced to block, like when Enkrid fought Rierbart, moved at an angle it had never shown before.

It surged up from below, then crashed down like lightning.

Boom!

The opponent blocked, but was shoved backward. A full-body shock strong enough to numb him piled on, naturally driving him back.

Even with sorcery, showing this kind of power was difficult. This was possible only because it was Rem.

He had inborn talent for using sorcery, greater than his talent for controlling his body.

And he was even better at casting it on himself and using it.

This was the result.

He smashed the flank with his hammer, then the axe that had feinted withdrawal and thrown off the opponent's hands shot forward and split the chimera's head.

Crack!

The tough, hard skull split vertically.

Maybe because of Demon Creature blood, bone, and hide, the head only split halfway, and eyeballs and everything inside spilled out from the split center.

Letting both arms hang, Rem thought,

This one was going to leave aftereffects.

It could not be helped. That was the price of borrowing someone else's sorcery.

His gaze turned to the final two.

At a glance, Audin looked like he was barely holding them off, but of course no one stepped in.

He had said he would take two, so he had to take responsibility for it.

Rem thought Audin was an unlucky fanatic, but he also thought the man always kept his word.

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