A Knight who Eternally Regresses - Chapter 767

WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Abstract

Chapter 767: A Talent for Finding Victory in Adversity

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A single Black Bird circled as it picked up speed, then folded its wings and dove. Its speed did not suit its enormous body. Perhaps its sheer weight made it fall even faster.

With a boom, the sound of air tearing rang out. When the Black Bird swept past below, Rem had vanished from where he stood.

"This crazy bastard?"

Fell had seen what Rem did and gave him the highest praise possible.

He had wondered what Rem would do when told to provide support.

Just before the bird charged in, the western madman tightly wound a cord around a hatchet and floated it in the air.

As the Black Bird came down with the tip of its beak thrust forward like a massive spear, Ropord and Fell swung their swords, striking and deflecting its beak. The hatchet and cord Rem had sent up then caught around its neck.

That was how Rem climbed onto the bird's body, and the bird took flight again.

"Captain."

Ropord called out to Enkrid. Enkrid knew the name of the person in this world he needed to worry about least.

"That's Rem."

In other words, Rem was the kind of person who would do his job perfectly well even in the sky.

"Rul-lu-lal-la!"

A strange cry spread through the sky. It was Rem's voice.

The forced cheerfulness was probably the influence of the song Teresa had been singing below.

A few lyrics from songs he had sung in the west came back to Rem after a long time.

Wasn't there something about a crow crying being bad luck?

Sitting atop the bird's back, Rem called upon a friend through Sorcery. The moment the form of a giant eagle settled behind him, he put strength into the fingers of his left hand and drove them between the Black Bird's feathers. Like an eagle's talons, his fingers pierced through the feathers, tore through flesh, and dug in.

Piiiii.

When he pursed his lips and made a sound, it echoed like an eagle's cry.

Using his left hand as an anchor, Rem lowered his body and moved forward. His movements were no different from those of a guide climbing a cliff.

The only difference was that, instead of a cliff, he was riding atop the back of a massive Magic Beast in the sky.

After moving near the Black Bird's head, he drove down the axe he had made into his Inherited weapon. His movements did not hesitate in the slightest, making him look incredibly swift.

The Black Bird twisted its body from side to side, struggling to throw off the thing on its back, but Rem did not fall.

The result was clear.

The axe split its skull.

Thwack!

Black blood and brain matter from its small head sprayed down like rain. With his left hand still embedded in its body, Rem bent forward and raised himself halfway.

When he lifted his head, he saw the distorted Ash-Gray sun fading far away in the sky. Another bird passed before it.

Rem had already read its movements. He had already hooked his Inherited weapon onto the clasp at his waist, then immediately pulled free the hatchet lodged in the dead bird and threw it.

A large body meant more places to target.

Shiiik.

The hatchet tore through the air and embedded itself in the other bird's back with a thwack. The dead bird was falling, but it could still serve as a foothold for a moment. Rem made use of it.

Using the falling bird as a foothold, he bent his knees slightly, put strength into his thighs, and pulled the cord tied to the hatchet. The circling Black Bird flapped as it was briefly dragged toward him, stopping in midair.

It was only a brief moment, but it was enough. Rem pulled the cord and jumped, spreading both arms to ride the wind and climb onto the next bird's body.

With both arms spread as he flew through the sky, he looked as though he might truly be an eagle.

Meanwhile, the bird that had served as his foothold fell far away from where the group was fighting.

Boom.

As the sound of its impact rang out, Rem's axe split the second bird's skull.

Piiiii.

His whistle echoed through the sky once more.

* * *

How was he planning to get down from there?

It would have been natural to wonder, but Enkrid did not.

He truly believed Rem would find his own way down. Rem was not the sort to climb up without considering how to return. There were plenty of ways. He could use trees as support to slow his descent, and if all else failed, he could ask Audin to catch him.

‘He might break a leg, though that does not seem likely.’

He had not climbed so high that he looked like a dot, so he should be fine.

No sooner had that thought ended than the last of the three Black Birds shot into the sky in fright the moment Rem climbed onto it.

Even Enkrid could tell it was an instinctive action born of fear, but the result was the same as trying to take them both down together.

People could not fly. That remained true even if they became Knights. The bird that had cast a dark shadow over their heads shrank until it was no larger than a human body.

Enkrid wondered whether Rem would smash its head and somehow come down, but Rem simply cut the bird's neck.

Black blood poured from the sky again. There was blood splattering down, falling feathers, a bird plummeting once more, and a person.

Rem used the dead bird's body as a foothold again and displayed an astonishing trick.

Once he came down far enough, he flew through the sky.

Rem was not a Knight. He was a Sorcerer.

He called upon the spirit of an eagle and lifted his body. He could not truly fly, but with both arms and hands spread wide, it looked more like gliding than falling.

The problem was...

"He looks like he's lost."

Having roughly dealt with the plague Ghouls, Ragna approached and said that. When Enkrid did not answer, Ragna spoke again as though emphasizing the point.

"There's an idiot up there who cannot even find his way."

Ragna almost sounded excited.

"......He'll find his way back."

The Black Bird had thrown Rem far away. Whether the Magic Beast had intended to do so was unknowable. It was already dead.

If it had wanted to get one last hit in as it died, Enkrid supposed it had done well enough.

That did not mean he was worried. He truly meant it when he said Rem would find his way back.

Rem was not Ragna. A hunter from the west could find his way even in the Cursed Ground, so there was no need to wait for him.

For some reason, the dark elf that had been atop the spire had also left their post. The one who was either a Sorcerer or a castellan was gone as well.

In truth, those two had left because they knew this audacious group would have to fight until they wore themselves down.

The plague Ghouls were troublesome Demon Creatures, so dealing with them would not be easy. And there were not only Ghouls.

Modified crow Magic Beasts flew overhead, and after the plague Ghouls came Demon Creatures created through forbidden research and forbidden arts.

More than anything, they were inside a fortress encircled by a thorn-wood wall. They could afford to take their time.

From the dark elf's perspective, having fired so many arrows at them, they also needed to conserve their strength.

Their plan was obvious and clear.

They would watch from above and mock the fools once the group wore itself down fighting the Ghouls.

"Yes, you fought well. Now it is time to play with a four-armed werewolf. Ah, my apologies. There was also an elite Demon Creature I poured my heart into behind that. Did you see it?"

That was what they would say while looking down from the wall.

So there would be a different kind of difficulty from dealing with plague Ghouls.

They would fire arrows from the spire tree and send out crystal knights clad in black armor.

Enkrid could not read the intentions of the vanished castellan or dark elf.

He simply intended to shatter their trust if they were relying on that wall.

The two had left, but that did not mean no one remained atop the wall. A few shadows wandered there. To Enkrid's eyes, those shadows seemed to ripple.

The moment he noticed that, he also realized Jaxon had disappeared.

Jaxon would do what he had to do. Then those left here only needed to do the same.

Enkrid opened his mouth.

"Rua."

Frog did not answer Enkrid's call. Instead, her large eyes simply rolled over and over.

The wall, the Demon Creatures, the arrows, the dark elf, the terrain, and the situation.

Frog took everything in and drew a picture in her mind.

Frog Ruagarne found the path to victory amid disadvantage. That was her specialty. She was a tactician who turned a losing position into an advantageous or evenly matched one.

Everything was based on Frog's particular combat instinct, so it would not be easy either to learn or teach. But that ability was real.

Someone capable of turning an unfavorable situation into an even one would display even greater skill in battle when the situation was already favorable and their overall fighting strength was superior.

Naturally, it was easier to fight well when one held the advantage.

That was the foundation of Ruagarne's tactical swordsmanship.

Enkrid had also learned some of it through countless deaths.

No wonder Ruagarne had grown so fond of Enkrid. Combat instinct was not something that could be learned simply because it was taught, yet Enkrid learned when taught.

No matter what he did alone, he somehow came to understand it.

Enkrid's ability to learn had stirred Frog's curiosity and desire, which was why she was here now.

As Ruagarne looked toward the wall, Enkrid began a similar train of thought.

‘Siege experience.’

Enkrid recalled the times he had attacked a fortress in his past lives. There had not been many.

There was no need to consider the advantages of defense or the weaknesses of attack. There was no moat, nor did it seem likely that boiling oil would be poured from above.

Instead, the moment they approached the wall, vengeful spirits wearing thorn shrouds would stretch out their hands and try to bite them.

He knew that without needing to experience it.

‘This is not an ordinary fortress, so ordinary tactics will not work.’

Normally, the defending side would use a fortress with a moat as a barrier and send skirmishing units to sever the attacker's rear supply lines.

The defenders fought from home, while the attackers camped on damp ground and launched their attack.

‘Ordinarily, defense has the advantage.’

Of course, the opposite could also happen. It was possible to surround a fortress with limited food reserves and starve it out.

‘None of that applies here.’

Their side was a small elite force with no separate supply line, and Thornwood Fortress within the Cursed Ground was not an ordinary fortress.

His thoughts seemed lengthy, but Enkrid's mind was fast. Everything flashed through his head in an instant, leaving only two essential questions.

What did their side lack?

‘The absence of siege weapons.’

Even if this was not an ordinary siege, it would be advantageous to have a catapult such as a Mangonel. He could see ballistae that looked as though they were made of bone atop the wall. The enemy had weapons that his side lacked.

Then came the second question.

What did their side have?

‘Nine forces called calamities. No, eight.’

They would be nine once Rem returned. Until then, they had eight calamities and one Frog capable of finding an opening in the enemy's defenses.

Enkrid's gaze settled on Ruagarne.

Ruagarne did not puff out her cheeks even once. Without making the slightest sound, she merely watched in silence.

The Ash-Gray sunlight faded. More precisely, darkness devoured it. It was as if black soot were spreading across the sunset of the Cursed Ground.

Someone had picked up a black brush and begun painting from the sky to the ground.

Just before that black paint filled everything around them, Ruagarne's cheek moved.

Gurgle.

"This will be fun."

Then she spoke again.

"Let's smash through by force."

Ruagarne's explanation was short and direct.

She had a rough idea of what each member of their side was capable of.

Telling them to circle the wall and fight in some half-baked manner would be a bad move.

‘Will is not limitless.’

Even Enkrid, whose Will did not run dry, did not have limitless stamina.

Therefore, they only needed to break through in one stroke.

They had the force to do so.

The enemy had underestimated Enkrid's group, who had made it this far. The group moved together, then spread out in a long line to the left and right as they advanced toward the wall.

Ruagarne did not think about it in complicated terms. Sometimes, the simple answer was the clearest one.

If they wasted time overthinking things here, they would hand the advantage of the battlefield to the enemy.

What they needed was unexpectedness that went beyond the enemy's expectations.

It was something possible only with absurd military strength, and it was what Ruagarne wanted. There was no gate in the wall. No place that looked like a passage could be seen anywhere.

There were only awl-like thorns that looked capable of leaving a fist-sized hole if they struck flesh, along with thin, sharp thorns painful to look at.

"I will open it."

Audin spoke as he looked at the gateless wall.

Woo-eo. Wuege. Weee-ek.

Perhaps because of the Hymn Teresa had sung, the screams of the vengeful spirits forming the wall sounded different from before.

One spewed something dark red, and its vomit pooled in a long, palm-wide strip beneath the wall. Was it trying to make a moat?

Another had a distorted face and extended a tongue covered in thorns. The way that tongue moved resembled Ruagarne's whip.

Pang, pang.

The thorn-covered tongue tore through the air, ready to rip apart anything that approached.

Others extended their arms. One, with a face split in two, tried to stab with its forked tongue like an awl.

Not one of them was staying still.

"Should I sing?"

Teresa asked.