WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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Chapter 36: Mountain City Barquntol (6)

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A demon's arm, rippling like black flame, shot toward Rombel.

Caught off guard, Rombel made a split-second judgment.

'I can't dodge perfectly. I just need to make sure it doesn't grab me.'

Just as Elbridge's physical ability far surpassed that of an ordinary human, Rombel's body also outclassed most dwarves by a wide margin.

Even so, that body could not beat a demon.

A demon's strike would kill him if he took it unguarded, and forcing a clash would likely kill him too.

So Rombel used a defense move that had long since become second nature.

Right before the demon's hand reached him, Rombel jumped slightly in the direction the hand was moving.

Then he raised the broad side of his huge double-edged axe like a shield, crouched his short body behind it, and hid there. Only a dwarf this short could make a move like that.

The demon's grasp tried to close around Rombel and the double-edged axe in a single fist.

If Rombel's axe had been an ordinary blade, the demon would have caught him with it and crushed him. But Rombel's axe had once been consecrated by priests and paladins of all kinds of orders.

Ssszzzt-

Smoke rose from the demon's grip where it touched the axe blade. In the end, the demon opened its hand again and smacked Rombel away.

KWAANG-

Through the axe came a shock that rattled his skull. Rombel forced himself to stay conscious.

His body was hurled violently backward. Rombel glanced over his shoulder to see what he would hit.

A building wall came into view. Rombel twisted his body in midair. Then, the moment his feet touched the wall, he bent his knees slightly and absorbed at least some of the impact.

Crash-

The wall collapsed, sending up a cloud of dust.

Rombel leaned on his axe and stood. His knees still tingled from absorbing the blow so roughly. But his legs had not broken. At this point, it was almost a perfect defense.

Ptui.

Rombel spat and lifted his axe.

Then, as the veteran warrior he was, he gathered everything he had learned about the demon so far.

'It smashed the door by throwing a demonic beast at it. That means it can't use any other ability to break through a door.'

'Judging by the size of the arm, its true body is on the large side even among demons. It probably relies heavily on brute force.'

'The range of motion in its joints looks similar to a human's.'

'I felt a faint heat right before impact. Black flames rising from the arm... It looks like a demon that uses overwhelming strength and the heat of hellfire as its main weapons.'

'But it probably can't bring out that heat whenever it wants. The distortion-type demonic beast it used as a conduit wouldn't be able to withstand it.'

'Its brute strength also seems limited. That distortion-type beast's body couldn't take the recoil.'

Rombel reached a conclusion.

'This is doable.'

But even a seasoned warrior had failed to account for one variable.

The demonic beasts that had not been caught by Elbridge's sealing authority were still loose.

* * *

Elbridge hacked through the demonic beasts in a daze and offered their corpses to the goddess.

1171, 1170, 1169...

Fatigue piled up. But the power dwelling in his body only grew stronger. The goddess's authority also kept building instead of being spent. At this rate, he felt like he could hold out as long as needed.

But the moment Rombel blocked the demon's attack, Elbridge felt something was off.

He heard Rombel block the demon's strike, then the building wall collapse.

That deafening noise drew the beasts' attention toward the rear. Worse, the demon's arm was thrashing around inside.

'...So Rombel's ambush failed.'

No beasts trapped inside the sealing authority could escape no matter what happened behind them.

But the problem was that there were plenty of beasts that had not been caught by the sealing authority and were waiting for it to disappear.

The beasts that escaped the sealing authority changed direction and started moving toward the rear.

Just one distortion-type demonic beast, plus one demon's arm, was already a dangerous opponent.

What would happen if dozens or hundreds of beasts swarmed Rombel on top of that?

'He'd die for sure.'

There was no telling whether Rombel could get rid of the distortion-type beast while dodging the demon's arm.

'...The odds are too low.'

If Elbridge wanted to save Rombel, he had to move right then.

But the instant Elbridge stepped out of the sealing authority, it would vanish like mist over water.

And then countless demonic beasts would surely swarm the dwarves, so Elbridge had no way to move.

1165, 1164, 1163...

Then Marcus's shout came from behind.

"Sir Elbridge! Go!"

Elbridge couldn't look back.

Still, he could tell Marcus was breathing hard. He must have run over in a hurry after fighting.

Elbridge shouted, "If I get out, the authority disappears too."

"We'll handle that!"

"We?"

Elbridge looked back.

Beyond the hastily built barricade, he saw dwarves who had run over with Marcus. In their hands were crude things that could barely be called weapons.

At best, pickaxes, shovels, crowbars, and the like.

But what caught Elbridge's eye was not their gear. It was their eyes.

The dwarves were not dreaming of a perfect victory with no sacrifice. They were ready to accept sacrifice. Just like the dwarven warriors he had met on the battlefield two hundred years ago.

Looking back, every dwarf had been a little bit of a warrior.

That was in their sturdy bodies and stubborn nature.

Elbridge hardened his resolve and shouted, "I'm going!"

He tore through the beasts and sprinted at full speed.

The route Elbridge had blocked until now lay wide open.

"Push!"

"Uwaaaaaa!"

The dwarves' shouts rang out.

As Elbridge charged forward, the beasts attacked as if they had been waiting for it.

His armor picked up large and small scratches all over, and new wounds opened beneath it as well. But unless it was an attack he absolutely had to block, Elbridge did not care.

1131, 1130, 1129...

At last, Elbridge stepped on the back shell of an insect-type beast and leaped.

Then his body touched the pillar formed by the sealing authority.

At that instant, the stone temple made of authority vanished like a mirage.

Not only Elbridge, but the beasts trapped by the sealing authority regained their freedom as well.

Some beasts turned and went after Elbridge. Others charged the dwarves blocking the road to Mountain City Barquntol.

"Hold them! Hold them!"

"Aaaagh!"

"Hold the line!"

The dwarves' screams and shouts rang out. Elbridge did not care at all.

Worry was for those who had not made up their minds.

Elbridge sprinted full speed toward Rombel. A few beasts that had started running earlier changed direction and aimed for him.

"Get lost!"

Elbridge swung his sword and blocked attacks with his shield as he ran.

In the end, Elbridge reached Rombel faster than any beast.

"Rombel!"

A look half suspicion, half confusion appeared on Rombel's face. Well, of course it did. Elbridge should have been sealing off the wall, yet here he was, racing through the beasts and charging over.

"Elbridge! Why are you here-"

At that moment, the demon clenched a huge fist. The demon's arm surged toward Rombel. Its speed was terrifyingly fast. If it landed, Rombel would be crushed for sure.

Rombel could not finish his sentence and tried to dodge the demon's fist.

But Elbridge shouted to him, "Rombel! Go!"

Rombel trusted Elbridge, and he trusted Elbridge's judgment.

If someone like Elbridge had made that call, there had to be a reason.

Rombel stopped hesitating and immediately sprinted toward the distortion-type beast.

Elbridge drew in a deep breath and prayed to the goddess.

"Goddess. Grant me the authority of No Retreat!"

Thanks to Elbridge's nonstop slaughter of the beasts and the offerings of their corpses while trapped inside the sealing authority, the amount of authority the Goddess of the Rusted Shield could use was greater than it had been before the battle began.

Elbridge asked the goddess for an even stronger authority.

The demon's fist was already right in front of him. There was no time to wait for an answer.

Elbridge raised his shield at once and blocked the enormous demon fist.

'Please, Goddess, grant me your authority.'

Elbridge's shield and the demon's fist met.

It was only one arm of a demon, but the difference in size between that arm and Elbridge's body was almost impossible to compare. Normally, he should have died from failing to block the strike. Even if he managed to block it, he should have been driven far back or crushed under it.

But Elbridge did not move at all. He held his ground.

Elbridge's shield blazed brightly.

And Elbridge sensed it.

Everything the goddess could grant had been spent in that one use.

But that gap was enough. Rombel had already thrown himself into the distortion-type beast.

Rombel flung himself forward and swung the double-edged axe.

The huge axe blade seemed to rake across the distortion-type beast's neck.

It worked.

The demon's fist Elbridge had been holding back began to scatter like smoke.

That happened because the distortion-type demonic beast serving as the demon's conduit had died.

Both the demon's arm and the charging beasts began to dissolve.

Only, neither the demon nor the beasts actually died. With the source of the distortion gone, they simply returned to where they had originally belonged.

Elbridge and Rombel looked back.

Beyond the passage connecting Bronzimmar and Mountain City Barquntol, they saw a barricade soaked in blood.

Unfortunately, most of that blood was not the beasts' blood, but the dwarves'. As a result of Elbridge leaving his post and running, more than a few dozen dwarves had died in that short span of time.

But the dwarves were not swallowed by grief or fear.

"Ooooooo!"

Instead, the dwarves shouted loudly and savored the thrill of victory.

The dwarves Elbridge had met on the battlefield in the past had never introduced themselves as paladins.

The paladins of that era had called them warriors.

They were not a race that could only fight with a god's help, so the name paladin did not suit them.

Rombel shouted louder than anyone.

"Uwaaaaaa!"

Then Rombel picked up the distortion-type beast's head rolling on the ground.

A joy that was hard to put into words shone in Rombel's eyes.

Every dwarf's gaze, along with Elbridge's and Marcus's, turned to Rombel.

Rombel walked toward the dwarves with heavy steps. Then he stopped and climbed up onto the tallest building in Bronzimmar.

What was he planning to do? Deep suspicion appeared in the dwarves' eyes.

But the sharper dwarves quickly guessed what Rombel was about to do.

Rombel had said he had been expelled from the Order two hundred years ago.

He had said he wanted to return to the Order of the Iron Anvil.

He had said that after two hundred years of repentance, he would earn one last merit and stand proudly before the god, reclaiming his place as a believer in the Order of the Iron Anvil.

So now Rombel would dedicate that head to the God of the Iron Anvil and prove his faith.

Rombel lifted the beast's head high and shouted.

"God of the Iron Anvil! A warrior who was expelled from the Order two hundred years ago! The dwarf Rombel, who has lived as an unbeliever for two hundred years, stands here! This demonic beast's head and the glory of battle, I dedicate them to you..."

At that point, Rombel hurled the beast's head to the ground.

The huge mountain city fell silent.

The dwarves were only confused, unable to understand what they had just seen.

Did he just throw away the offering he had been about to present to a god?

No, he must have dropped it by accident. But the movement of his arm had been a little...

Rombel met the bewildered dwarves' gazes and drew in a deep breath.

Then he shouted, carrying two hundred years of fury in his voice.

"...Offer it to you? Like hell I would, you bastard worse than a dog! What the hell have you done that I should make an offering to someone like you?"

The silence deepened even further.

Since Mountain City Barquntol had been built, it had probably never been this quiet.

And that silence was broken by a voice nobody had expected.

- You blasphemous wretch. Are you done talking?

A thunderous god's voice filled Mountain City Barquntol.

Footnotes:

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