Paladin of a Ruined Order - Chapter 59

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◈ Paladin of a Ruined Order

Chapter 59

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Thrust Spear

Elbridge immediately kicked off the ground and ran, shouting.

"There must be one leading the pack!"

The weak point of a humanoid demon is usually the heart or the head.

What mattered right now wasn't where that weak point was, but the simple fact that one existed.

The giant looked like it had split into dozens of pieces, but the weak point, the core that formed the demon's foundation, had to exist somewhere.

Rombel's judgment was every bit as fast as Elbridge's.

Rombel charged the closest fragment of the giant and swung his axe in a wide arc.

Whoosh.

"One!"

Both of the giant's legs were severed and it went sprawling to the ground. Rombel finished off the fallen fragment with another axe strike.

Elbridge swung his sword too, cutting down one of the demon's fragments. But neither of the two they'd struck seemed to be the one leading the whole, since the giant's fragments didn't stop moving.

No matter how skilled Elbridge and Rombel were, the two of them alone couldn't suppress the giant's fragments scattering in every direction.

"Stay with me!"

One of the countless fragments charged straight at Bibeka.

Fragment or not, it was easily twice the size of an ordinary human.

But Bibeka didn't retreat. She raised her sword. She knew that if she didn't take the blow, someone else would have to.

'I can do this.'

Among the paladins of the Order of Spring Rain and Moss, none were stronger than Bibeka in real combat. But could she handle a fragment of the giant alone? She wasn't quite that confident.

'I trained hard for this.'

When the black giant's fragment swung its fist, Bibeka lifted her sword at an angle to meet it.

Boom!

Bibeka received the giant's fist with a stance as steady as anything out of a swordsmanship manual.

The problem was that the rubble beneath her feet wasn't nearly as steady.

Crumble—

Stone dust scattered with a rattling sound, and Bibeka staggered.

The black fist, which had almost been fully blocked, came flying at her again, its force not yet spent.

Bibeka's eyes went wide.

'Am I really going to die this pointlessly? In my first battle?'

But the very next moment, a sword shot out from somewhere and sliced through the giant's forearm.

'Elbridge?'

Bibeka whipped her head around to see who had saved her.

But it wasn't Elbridge standing there. It was Marcus, the mercenary who'd been trailing after Elbridge.

"...Huh?"

Even Marcus looked more than a little startled that he'd just cut off the giant's arm, his stance still somewhat awkward.

It wasn't the most reassuring sight, but the strike itself had been genuinely impressive, even to Bibeka's eyes.

"Thanks, mister!"

The giant's fragment lashed a fist toward Marcus.

This time Bibeka threw herself forward to save Marcus.

Bibeka and Marcus darted around each other, blocking, deflecting, and swinging their swords against the demon's attacks.

Subduing even a fragment of the giant, let alone the giant itself, was no easy task.

But Marcus and Bibeka both realized something important.

'...It's not as strong as I thought.'

'This is actually manageable.'

The fragment's speed was still fast, arguably faster now that it was smaller. But it no longer carried that bone-crushing raw power that seemed ready to smash everything in its path. A clean hit would probably still kill you, but this was far better than before.

The heat was the same story. Before, it had been too intense to even get close. Now it was tolerable enough.

In other words, this was something they could actually fight.

Marcus shouted, "This is winnable! Don't be scared!"

The shout wasn't meant for Elbridge or Rombel. It was aimed at the paladins watching the situation from a distance.

But contrary to Marcus's hopes, the paladins' response was lukewarm.

To fight at full capacity, a fighter needed to steel their resolve before the battle began.

But the paladins hadn't had that chance.

The church's policy, not yet reversed. The urge for vengeance against the giant that had killed their comrades. Plain instinctive fear.

All of it weighed their bodies down.

Still, they couldn't just stand there and let the charging giants tear through them.

The paladins drew their swords to protect their own lives and the bystanders around them.

"Hold them off!"

Paladins and fragments of the giant clashed. Only a few exchanges of blows in, one of the fragments began behaving differently.

One of the giant's fragments broke off from the fighting and started to run.

Rombel bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"Catch the one that's running! Now!"

But the other fragments moved with an eerie coordination, forming a defensive line.

The paladins had no way to chase down the fleeing fragment.

Marcus was gripped by confusion.

'Why is that one running?'

The black giant was the one that needed to force a decision now.

Give it a day and a half, and the combat churches would only grow stronger.

'Is it mindless? Or is there a coward even among these fragments?'

Marcus got his answer soon enough.

At some point, the giant's fragments stopped moving and dissolved into the air like night mist, or like smoke.

The paladins were thrown into confusion.

"What? What just happened?"

The dark smoke rose into the sky and vanished into the purple cloud.

Rumble—

A sound like thunder rolled out from inside the purple cloud. And a moment later.

The purple cloud spat out a small, pitch-black lump.

From a distance, it looked like nothing more than a black dot.

But as the falling dot dropped, it swelled rapidly in size. By the time it struck the ground—

Crash!

It had become a whole black giant once more.

Fully restored to the same massive form and size it had first appeared in.

"..."

Only now did Marcus understand the black giant.

When threatened, the black giant split into countless fragments, and unless someone destroyed the one core fragment among them, it would quickly reassemble into its original form.

Marcus's vision went dark. Even Elbridge or Rombel couldn't possibly suppress dozens of the giant's fragments alone.

'No. Sir Elbridge might have a way.'

Marcus thought that as he looked toward Elbridge and Rombel.

But their reactions weren't what he expected. Neither of them looked excited or discouraged. They just looked calm.

Bibeka apparently thought the same as Marcus, because she shouted at Elbridge.

"Why are you so calm about this? Everything we just fought for went to waste!"

Rombel answered in Elbridge's place.

"Did you really think we'd take down a demon with just that much?"

"...That much?"

"We barely fought at all."

It wasn't bravado. Rombel genuinely believed it.

"That was just to check what abilities that thing has. And to begin with, a demon isn't something one or two people can subdue easily."

Elbridge agreed with Rombel's assessment.

Still, Elbridge's mind wasn't entirely at ease either.

No matter how skilled Elbridge was, picking out the single most important fragment among the giant's pieces and destroying it belonged to an entirely different kind of problem.

Destroying the giant's core fragment required cooperation from paladins of other churches.

And they couldn't just keep shattering the black giant endlessly, either.

The divine power the goddess could grant him still wasn't abundant, and Healing Authority had its limits too.

Elbridge offered a quiet prayer.

"Goddess. How many more times can I take the giant's blows with my shield?"

- Twice more, at most. Elbridge.

'Twice, then.'

How many chances could he create with that?

It depended on how the fight went.

But as Elbridge saw it, dragging things out while waiting for an opening wasn't the wise choice.

Elbridge looked back.

Plenty of people had been struck by the rubble the giant had scattered, or killed or wounded fighting its fragments.

As expected, the paladins of the Order of Spring Rain and Moss were channeling divine power to treat the wounded.

If Elbridge spent Healing Authority himself, the casualty count would only climb higher.

Elbridge made up his mind.

'I end this in one blow.'

Elbridge kept his eyes fixed on the giant and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Paladins! What do you think is the difference between a mercenary and a paladin?"

No answer came.

But a lesson could still be given without one.

"There's one difference that matters most. A mercenary fights because he was promised something. A paladin is promised something because he fights!"

Elbridge took a deep breath and finished.

"Right now, all of you stand on the path toward becoming mercenaries. Think carefully about whether you'll remain mercenaries under your church's banner, or be reborn as paladins."

Elbridge began walking toward the black giant.

"Rombel. Follow me."

"I'm coming."

The skin beneath his scorched armor still burned.

But from experience, Elbridge knew that feeling pain was proof that he was still fine.

Elbridge shifted his body slowly, checking for any part that wouldn't move.

'No functional problems.'

Tap.

Expecting the black giant to swing its fist, Elbridge kicked off the ground.

But the black giant reacted differently this time. Instead of throwing a punch at Elbridge and Rombel, it flung itself backward and clawed at the ground with both hands.

Craaack—

Rubble from the collapsed buildings sprayed toward Elbridge and Rombel. Stone chunks bigger than a person were everywhere.

Elbridge and Rombel threw themselves aside, and the rubble struck the bystanders and paladins behind them instead.

"Aaaargh!"

Screams rang out. But the damage likely wasn't as severe as the first time. This wasn't the first time the black giant had attacked by scattering rubble.

What frustrated Elbridge more was that the gap between him and the giant, which kept retreating while flinging debris, didn't seem likely to close easily.

Elbridge made his decision instantly.

'I push through.'

Elbridge lowered his stance and ran. The rubble the giant flung came at him again, threatening him.

But Elbridge twisted his body just enough to dodge what he could, and took the rest on his own body when he had to. Something grazed his head, and his forehead split open, blood running down.

The giant threw again. This time, the size of the debris was too much for Elbridge to simply absorb.

Elbridge raised his shield.

"Goddess! Grant me the power of No Retreat!"

The power of No Retreat was meant to keep him from being pushed back, not to drive him forward.

But Elbridge thrust his glowing white shield out and ran straight through the massive debris, breaking through it.

That wasn't the proper way to use the power of No Retreat, so the goddess's divine power drained at an extreme rate.

But one clean strike beat two clumsy ones.

Once Elbridge broke through the debris and closed to short range, the black giant could no longer respond by hurling rubble.

The giant's upper body twisted, and then a massive fist came slamming down at Elbridge.

Boom!

Elbridge leapt into the air to dodge the fist and drove his sword into the giant's wrist.

Then he yanked the sword free and kicked off the giant's forearm. He could feel his armor heating up at a terrifying speed. The smell of roasting meat was foul.

But Elbridge ran along the giant's forearm anyway. One step, two steps.

The giant's forearm led to its shoulder, and the shoulder connected to the neck and heart.

Elbridge's blade chose the neck.

Slice.

A pale, smoke-like gas leaked from the giant's neck.

Perhaps something like human blood.

"...!"

The black giant let out a strange, hissing wail and, before Elbridge could land, struck him with the palm of its left hand.

Crack!

Elbridge tried to brace himself in midair to bleed off as much of the giant's force as possible.

But there was no way to fully dissipate the giant's overwhelming power from the start.

Elbridge's left arm, which had held up the shield, and the left kneecap that had supported the shield's lower edge, were both shattered. If he hadn't been rapidly building up his divinity recently, he would surely have died on the spot.

Crash!

Elbridge went flying and rolled across the ground.

But he laughed.

"Idiot."

Because the giant had lost track of Rombel again.

Rombel had already leapt onto the giant's back and swung his axe straight down.

"Die!"

Crunch!

Rombel's axe split the giant's head nearly in half.

The black giant's body began splitting into pieces again.

Everyone there already knew what would happen next.

Boom!

With a deafening roar, the black giant shattered into dozens of fragments.

Then the fragments began to run.

But the paladins still hadn't made up their minds.

Paladins of the Order of the Laurel Wreath, paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear, paladins of Antlers...

All of them held a defensive posture, merely blocking the giant's fragments.

"Hold the line!"

And unlike last time, the fragments converged on a single point, driving hard against the encirclement formed by paladins of every church.

Just as the line was about to break, three of the giant's fragments shifted their stance and broke into a full sprint.

One of those three had to be the demon's core.

But the fragments had already pulled too far away for the paladins to stop them with a sword.

Still, it wasn't too late yet.

"I've shown you, as promised, how to fight a demon!"

Elbridge fought down the pain and demanded an answer from the paladins.

"Now answer my question! Do you fight because you were promised something? Or are you promised something because you fight?"

At last, someone answered that question. The High Paladin of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear.

"We are promised faith because we fight! So, everyone, Short Spear!"

The paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear cast aside their long spears at the same moment, gripping the shorter throwing spears in their right hands.

"Ready!"

The paladins wrapped their bare left hands, ungloved, around the blades of the short spears.

Blood ran down from their gripping hands, streaking along the spearheads.

Then the paladins leaned their upper bodies back as far as they could go, waiting for the next command.

"Thrust Spear!"

At the High Paladin's order, dozens of spears cut through the air.

The paladins of the Order of the Bloodstained Spear had, since ancient times, taken on the role of finishing off demons.

Protected by divinity and divine power, their short spears flew in a perfectly straight line without so much as a hint of arc. It looked like dozens of beams of light.

Crunch!

Dozens of short spears buried themselves into the giant's fragments.

Two of the fragments were simply riddled with holes. But one was different.

That fragment began gushing thick black smoke.

And then, something formless exploded.

At that same instant, the paladins felt divinity filling the air around them.

Strength surged through their bodies, and their fatigue seemed to melt away.

The paladins, briefly caught up in the rapture of it, shook themselves back to their senses and shouted.

"We need to seal the demon! Get the mages, bring the mages here!"

"There's no way the Magic Tower hasn't seen this! They must already be on their way!"

Only then did Elbridge let his body sink to the ground.

Agony wracked every part of him, but his heart was at ease.