Scum of the Brave - Chapter 20

WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 20

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At first, I thought it was a bear.

But my accelerated perception caught their forms almost perfectly. Black, huge, and barely human-shaped. Barely, because every joint in their bodies was swollen and twisted to an unnatural degree.

Corpses, I thought for some reason.

"...This."

Indo Yukine murmured quietly. Her eyes opened wide, and her voice sounded forced out. She seemed to continue with something after that, but it was drowned out by the roar of collapse.

Even their heads were far removed from human form. The eyeballs had swollen, blue-black blood vessels stood out across the face, and those vessels writhed like centipedes. Every organ their bodies possessed was distorted in some way.

A warped giant doll shaped by some intense malice. Or a design born from a child's cruel prank.

Several of them fell together with the rubble. Screams rose from all around.

I felt a sense of familiarity with those abnormal forms, and I quickly reached the cause.

Lord Amber Thorn's black arm. The arm that had grown in place of the one I should have cut off.

They looked just like that arm. As if to support my guess, at that moment, the malformed humanoids showed exactly the same behavior as Lord Amber Thorn's arm. In other words, they began attacking the people around them at random.

Huge arms moved. Crushed.

A man who had been pinned by rubble and could not move became the first victim.

With the blood and scream of that first victim as the signal, a terrible commotion began.

"Hey!"

I looked back at the three students, but I was a little late. Thinking back, it was a stupid line to say.

"Don't move on your own! Especially you, Jogamine..."

"No, that's not it, damn it."

Sara cursed and grabbed my shoulder. She was telling me to look ahead.

"It's Yukine, that idiot!"

"Yukine, alone is dangerous."

Jogamine shouted next, then started running.

"Come back!"

I wanted to say, you come back. At least stay grouped with Sara. But the real problem was ahead of them.

Indo Yukine. Without paying any attention to the falling rubble, she ran toward the monsters. Her motion resembled a wild animal lunging at prey. She stepped forward, one step, and with that, Yukine's figure vanished. Instantaneous Movement across space.

I felt a little surprised.

In times like this, I had thought Jogamine would be the first to do something stupid.

"Every damn one of you."

Moving however you like. I clicked my tongue loudly enough for the other two to hear and started moving.

"Sara, don't leave me! Follow!"

I had no room to check how Sara actually moved.

Indo Yukine leapt through space and circled behind a malformed monster. She aimed for the nape of its neck. She stabbed with both daggers as if to clamp it between them, then twisted.

With a wet crack, flesh and bone made an abnormal sound.

The monster's neck spun about a hundred and eighty degrees, twisted off, and flew.

Indo Yukine expressionlessly bathed in returning blood. It was dark, muddy blood. You could call the technique brilliant. But even so, it was not enough. When fighting an unknown opponent, there was no such thing as being too cautious.

I had thought Indo Yukine would understand that. In the next instant, she frowned slightly.

Because the monster that should have lost its head forcefully swung up its arm.

Indo barely took a defensive posture, but she was not in time.

She was punched and slammed into the floor. Her small body bounced, and the headless monster followed up.

"Yukine."

Jogamine called her name shortly and stepped in.

"Master told you to fall back! Fall back! Stay!"

She diverted the monster's follow-up by smashing her shield into it. Then her sword. The thick blade, like a butcher knife, bit deep into the base of the elbow and severed it.

I see.

That was when I first realized their swordsmanship had been trained for three people to fight one enemy. Was this how the Academy did things?

Group combat over individual technique. Indo opened first, and Jogamine covered her. Sara probably handled the finishing blow.

It felt warped somehow, but I could not put it into words.

So before speaking, I accelerated and swung my bastard sword. The monster was still trying to move after losing its head and arm, so I struck its waist. I split the bone.

If its waist was destroyed, it physically could not stand.

"Are you stupid? What are you doing?"

I quickly grabbed Indo by the collar. It would be annoying if she teleported again.

She had been coughing and trying to get up again, so this worked well.

"Stop."

Indo twisted, trying to escape my hand.

Her resistance was quite violent. She was like a fish flopping on land, but who would let her go? When I twisted her collar harder, Indo's brow twitched to show displeasure. Worse, she kicked me.

If I had not reflexively parried with my elbow, she might have broken a rib.

"This time, I can fight."

That answer made no sense at all. She was terrifyingly bad at dealing with people, I thought. Because of the effect of E3, irritation began building in me.

"What are you doing?"

I asked again and looked into Indo's eyes.

They looked frightened, or perhaps like she did not know what to do. For some reason, I had seen those eyes before too. Right. At Lord Amber Thorn's castle, I had seen her make those eyes for an instant. That was when Lord Amber Thorn's mutated left arm, against my wishes, forced me to shield her.

The instant I remembered, Indo muttered shortly.

"Northern Beacon."

Then a shadow fell over us.

It was an especially huge shadow. About fifty percent larger than the other individuals. What made it look especially dangerous were its arms. They were absurdly large compared to the body, and sword-like claws grew from them. A horribly grating roar rose, like a sandstorm mixed with rust.

"That is... Nephilim. Large type, with claws."

Indo said something. While struggling, she tried to turn back toward the huge shadow.

"Damn it."

After an instant of hesitation, thought, and judgment, I let go of Indo Yukine's collar. Almost at the same time, Indo's small shadow sprang, landed, and vanished. She had jumped through space. I was extremely exasperated. Too reckless.

With no choice, I shouted at my unreliable allies.

"Jogamine, support! Read!"

By read, I meant read my thoughts, but who knew how much got through. I had no choice but to start moving.

The fight between Indo and the giant was settled in about two seconds.

First move.

Indo's attack was very precise. A shockingly smart strike from behind to the right arm.

Not bad. If severing the neck did not stop it, destroying its limbs and reducing its combat power was the right approach. That said, her precision was precision against a human opponent.

She drove both daggers into the base of the shoulder, twisted them in with E3-enhanced strength, and tried to tear the arm away.

But the malformed giant's arm was far too thick and too tough.

Indo's daggers sank in cleanly, but after she had half torn off the arm, they stopped. Naturally, that allowed the monster to counterattack. A primitive motion like swatting away a small animal. Indo's body was easily blown away. Then came the claw. Jogamine tried to cut in again, but it was completely meaningless.

While shouting something stupid, she was knocked away together with her shield and rolled across the floor.

The drawback of their three-person coordination technique.

If one move failed somewhere, the others failed in a chain. I felt Sara rushing in too, but she would not make it in time to save Indo. The giant's half-torn arm came down quickly, scattering black body fluid. At the end were claws.

I made up my mind.

"Don't screw with me."

The only thing I could do was curse.

I ran in at maximum speed. Instead of the claws coming down, I blocked around the wrist with my left elbow.

An abnormal sound of destruction. Even a half-torn arm had this much impact. As expected, it was nothing like Indo's kick. The bone had probably been violently shattered, but before I could properly recognize the pain, the movement engraved into my body finished first.

One strike with the bastard sword in my right hand.

I severed the left leg supporting the giant's center of gravity below the knee.

The malformed monster shrieked and collapsed on the spot. In desperation, it swung its left claw around, but of course I expected that.

I knocked it away with an upward swing of the bastard sword. That one was severed too. Then the half-torn claw came again. There was nothing I could do about that.

I turned my back to the giant. Quite a bold decision, if I say so myself. I grabbed Indo as if hugging her and jumped back with all my strength, or that was the plan. In reality, I only ended up rolling across the floor. A burning impact ran through my left leg.

The claw had probably caught me. Had it reached the bone? The flesh was peeled up and looked as if it had burst. Even when I tried to stand, it did not work well. As for my left arm, it did not move at all. Left leg, left arm. No matter how skilled I was, this was not good.

The malformed giant seemed unable to move anymore, but other monsters were still wandering around the entrance hall. Worse, they were looking for foolish party guests who had failed to escape. There were only four humans left in the hall besides the monsters.

Meaning me, Indo, Jogamine, and Sara.

"Master."

Annoyingly, Jogamine stood as if to protect me.

"Please rest. Your first disciple will hold them off! Your first disciple! Me!"

There was not the slightest trace of fear in her voice. I shuddered. Even Indo had just shown something like fear.

"I mean, seriously, Sensei!"

Sara Pendragon would deny it herself, but she was much more openly frightened. She had already drawn her katana and stood behind Jogamine, guarding her back. Her blue eyes were fixed on my left leg.

"That is super broken, right? You're bleeding too! What are we supposed to do?"

"It's nothing major."

"Like hell it isn't!"

Sara shouted. Rather than scared, she sounded genuinely angry.

Certainly, I could not move. Sara's point was true. When bones were shattered, depending on the degree, self-healing took time even during E3 use. Dozens of seconds, or several minutes. Either way, in this situation, it was hopeless.

So all I could do was say something obviously flippant and careless.

"This will be a perfect lesson. Tense, right?"

If they failed, of course they would die, and so would I. In other words, I had to instruct them seriously enough to literally die.

"First, let's start with you. Hey. What are you freezing up for?"

I grabbed Indo by the collar and shook her. She had been staring stiffly at my wound and had not even tried to stand.

"You have to work the hardest. I'll ask about the circumstances later. If you do whatever you want again..."

"I understand."

Before I could finish informing her about the terrifying penalty, Indo nodded. Do you really, I thought.

"I understand."

As if reading my mind, Indo repeated herself.

The difference between that and Jogamine's "Yes, I understand" was night and day.

"This time, I will fight."