WeTried Translations

Translator: Nemui

Editor: Nemui

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◈ Scum of the Brave

Chapter 30

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As soon as the light vanished, I accelerated my thoughts with everything I had.

Cold darkness, cold enough to freeze even my lungs.

My sight was completely useless, so I had to focus my perception entirely on hearing. Since he had created this situation, it was certain that at least Lord Morning Star Veil himself and that spear woman had some way of dealing with this kind of darkness.

In Lord Morning Star Veil's case, the mask covering the upper half of his face was probably night-vision goggles or something similar. Since he had this kind of Ether Perception, that preparation was only natural.

I did not know about the spear woman. All I could hear were footsteps approaching as if scraping along the floor. I took one large step back, but she followed, circling precisely around my right side. Apparently, she could at least tell where I was. Even without sight, she seemed confident she could fight.

But the same was true for me.

I judged each sound I heard and read the moves my enemies would make. I could do that. Blinding someone and forcing them into combat was something I often did myself. This was nothing more than an application of what I had done to Lord Amber Thorn. I strained my ears into the cold darkness. Footsteps scraping over the ground approached at considerable speed.

A little farther away came tangled footsteps and Jogamine shouting.

"Sara! That way!"

Then came swordplay. A sharp clash of metal on metal.

Jogamine could read an enemy's hand with her mind-reading, and Sara could tell the direction of threats. If things went well, they should be able to endure one or two attacks. Indo had probably used spatial movement to put distance between herself and the danger, then withdrawn.

Would those three get through this safely? No. Worrying about it was meaningless. I would do what I could do. Maybe I had been worried about them. That almost made me laugh.

Focus on the sounds instead.

Thanks to the large servers lined up at equal intervals on both sides, the attackers' options were fairly limited.

At a point roughly two steps away from me, the footsteps stopped for an instant. Then the spearhead cut through the wind. Here it comes, I thought. I stepped toward it instead, struck the spearhead hard with my bastard sword, and deflected the thrust.

"No way?"

I heard the spear woman's voice. Her balance broke, and her feet sounded as she somehow tried to hold on.

If the plan was to rob the enemy of sight and fight at a distance, then yes, a spear was effective. Even without relying on Lord Morning Star Veil, she was probably originally good at that kind of tactic. But if her first move missed and someone got inside her range, she was weak. I grabbed the spear shaft with my left hand. The strength of a bastard sword was that I could use either one hand or two depending on the situation.

After that, I pretended to yank the shaft with all my strength, then, when she reflexively started pulling back, I shoved it in, swept her leg, and rolled her. Then I kicked where her face should have been.

A solid impact.

"Your read on the tactics is too shallow. What are you, a complete amateur?"

There was a reason I said an extra provocative line and did not kill her immediately. I wanted her to think she could not win while the situation stayed like this. There were words I wanted this woman to say.

"The lights."

The spear woman shouted while rolling near my feet.

"Turn them back on, Lord Veil! This guy can see! Seki, I do need support over here after all!"

It was not bad to ask for help immediately once she realized she was at a disadvantage. I was glad she was not some strange creature on Jogamine's level.

"Tomoe! Are you all right?"

From beyond the darkness, I heard someone's panicked voice and footsteps, and along with them, a separate, irritated click of the tongue. Immediately after that, my vision returned.

A moment of dizziness from the sudden brightness.

I accelerated my thoughts further. Time almost stopped. The situation around me came into view.

Lord Morning Star Veil was crossing blades with Jogamine using a double-edged one-handed sword. Sara was crouched behind her. She seemed to be wounded in her left arm. No, I could see bleeding from her abdomen too. Sara had blocked Lord Morning Star Veil's first attack as well, but she had taken damage. That was probably the shape of it.

Indo was nowhere in sight. As expected, she had withdrawn quickly.

"Sara, fall back."

With a forceful upward swing, Jogamine knocked away Lord Morning Star Veil's slash.

"Answer me. Are you all right?"

Jogamine took the Dark Lord's next strike on her shield. That was the strength of a shield user. But rather than her countering with her sword from there, Lord Morning Star Veil's technique was still faster. Sliding his blade, he thrust his sword in over the shield as if slipping it through.

Jogamine's lack of practice showed there. After defending, she had no movement prepared to immediately launch a fatal counterattack.

"I am surprised you adapted to my darkness."

Lord Morning Star Veil sneered. It was a bluff. Words meant to intimidate his opponent.

"But with skill like yours, it means nothing in the end."

Jogamine had no choice but to jump back and avoid the blade thrust over her shield. She was not in a position to return a proper slash. That allowed Lord Morning Star Veil to attack again.

"Sara! Be careful. This one is strong."

Jogamine shouted while parrying the follow-up. It almost made me laugh that she could worry about someone else while trading blows with a Dark Lord of that level. Sara herself remained crouched, faintly groaning something. It did not become a voice. I could tell she was shaking. She was scared.

I thought I should say something.

"Hold out a little longer, hey!"

I could not think of any especially effective counseling or advice, so I decided to present an easy-to-understand hope. If there was hope that the situation would improve, people could fight a little better.

"Just until I clean these guys up."

I had my own battle situation too.

The suited man called Seki was showing a bizarre movement.

"Tomoe, get away from him."

He seemed to step into the air, then rose as he was. No, he had probably "run up." That was the way his feet moved.

I see. Walking on air. He could see "stairs" or something like them. So that was his Ether Perception.

He ran up to a height of roughly three meters, then cut down from overhead with acceleration behind him. At the same time, the woman called Tomoe thrust her spearhead forward while rolling across the floor. You could call it coordinated breathing. I had to deal with both.

These two did not seem to be mere amateurs.

I somehow jumped back and avoided them. Distance opened. In that gap, Tomoe, who had fallen, recovered her stance. Blood dripped from her nostrils, and she looked at me with hatred in her eyes.

More than anything, there was still one person left over. The large man wearing a full-face helmet. He had not moved at all since earlier. It only felt like he was staring at me. Tomoe and Seki closed in to sandwich me between the two of them.

"Seki, this guy is strong. Match me."

Tomoe murmured briefly.

Then their offensive began again. Tomoe sent out her spear, and Seki stepped into the air again. This was hard to handle.

"Damn it, I'm busy here."

A spear from a distance and a sword from overhead that was hard to counterattack. While enduring attacks from two people at once, I could still see everything.

The battle between Lord Morning Star Veil and Jogamine, naturally, began tilting against Jogamine in the blink of an eye. Forced onto the defensive, Jogamine could not launch any effective counterattacks at all. She took two attacks, then three, and her stance began to crumble. As a result, she was forced to play the card she had been saving. Too soon.

"Yukine, no. It's too early!"

Maybe she had been reading my thoughts. Jogamine shouted, but there was no helping it. It would be too late after she took a fatal wound. Behind Lord Morning Star Veil, the air wavered like a heat haze. Indo had stepped straight in. Instead of her usual knife, she held the one-handed sword I had lent her. Her line aimed for Lord Morning Star Veil's neck, a stroke meant to sever it.

But any Dark Lord with a little experience would watch for that level of surprise attack.

"Fools."

The Dark Lord's voice sounded dry and rusted.

He was fighting three people, and one was out of sight. Of course he would be wary. After delivering a powerful blow to Jogamine and breaking her stance, Lord Morning Star Veil turned and blocked Indo's slash. From there, he sliced his blade along hers and cut deep into Indo's upper arm.

Even as blood sprayed, Indo did not scream. The one-handed sword spilled from her hand.

Lord Morning Star Veil reversed his blade again and aimed for Indo's neck.

"I will not allow it."

Jogamine practically threw her body forward and thrust out her sword to protect Indo. It was almost unbelievable reflex speed. Metal rang. For a brief moment, Lord Morning Star Veil and Jogamine's strength locked against each other.

"Hey, Sara!"

I knocked away the spearhead thrusting toward me and decided to give the best advice I could. I knew perfectly well that I was bad at this. Even so, I wanted to play every card I had. A poor man's habit.

"What are you doing? Do it."

Sara was trying to stand. The slash across her abdomen did not look too serious. The Kevlar body armor had barely protected her organs.

But she was shaking.

I understood being scared of someone rampaging with a blade after you had been wounded. For Sara, who understood the opponent's strength, it was even more natural. That was normal. Even so, she had to act. She needed to counterattack. Numb the fear and kill the opponent. That was the Brave's job.

"Is this the time to be scared? I'll kill you!"

In that instant, Sara shouted something incomprehensible. It was probably something like, "Shut up!" or "I know that!" Once she kicked off the floor and sprang out, she was fast. From a stance like she was carrying the katana on her shoulder, she took a simple diagonal line down.

That was bad.

There was no calm thought, no cunning, no craft in that strike. It was only an instinctive attack driven by fear.

Lord Morning Star Veil's empty left hand extended. He grabbed Jogamine's shield. Then he twisted it up and pulled hard. Reflexively trying to hold onto the shield, Jogamine lost her balance. She was knocked down as if being thrown into Sara's sword path.

Sara hurriedly stopped her katana. She had no other choice. She collided with Jogamine, and in the end, both of them fell over like idiots. The Dark Lord's follow-up attack was, absurdly, stopped by Jogamine with her own body.

She shoved Sara away, failed to fully evade, and took a slash across her right thigh. It was fairly deep.

"Foolish."

The Dark Lord muttered, sounding irritated instead. That was because Jogamine acted as if she felt no pain, trying to prevent Lord Morning Star Veil's next follow-up. What kind of guts did she have? Turning back, she swept her sword sideways. It was nothing more than a check, but it had a small effect.

Lord Morning Star Veil stepped back once to avoid it and seemed to try reading Jogamine's thoughts from her expression.

"You protect that useless one? How pointless."

"I am a Brave, and the first disciple of Yashiro the Reaper."

What was terrifying was reckless courage. Jogamine's insanity, which ignored her own wounds and the gap in skill between her and her opponent, temporarily stalled the battle.

"I protect my comrades and strike down my enemies! Prepare yourself, Lord Morning Star Veil."

I suppressed the urge to punch Jogamine. She sounded spirited, but the disadvantage had not changed. Her deeply cut right leg probably would not move properly. White skin had split, and blood poured from the gap in the flesh of her thigh. It would not heal immediately.

By then, though, my side was about to be settled.

"Ah."

Seki let out a panicked voice. He had stepped in too deeply trying to wound me. It was worth continuing my steady defense.

"You're too predictable."

I provoked his impatience further. I blocked Seki's slash from overhead and slid the blades down to the guards. Close range. When I tilted my blade just slightly, Seki reflexively followed the movement of the tip with his eyes. He tried to step on the air and retreat, and his attention left the handwork right in front of him.

Here. I grabbed Seki's fingers and broke them before he could react.

A strained scream leaked from Seki's throat. Catching the void in an opponent's reflexes. When it came to that kind of thing, no one surpassed my Ether Perception.

"Idiot."

I heard Tomoe curse him. She sent out a shallow spear thrust. I wanted to finish Seki, but I had no choice but to knock it away. I understood Tomoe's aim too. Using the recoil from having her spearhead deflected, she turned her back to me and started running.

"Seki, I'm telling Teacher later. This is impossible, we're pulling out! We can't beat him!"

Quick judgment was also something a Brave needed. The moment I broke the fingers of Seki's dominant hand, the balance had shifted heavily. Run from opponents you cannot beat. Reset if the plan goes wrong. They were very well trained.

"I know, damn it, this person is insane! It's two against one!"

Seki shouted noisily and followed Tomoe. While retreating, he stepped on empty air and escaped my blade range. I did not chase them, or rather, I could not. Just before that, Seki had put something to his mouth. A whistle. I had seen that before. That was,

"Dritt!"

Along with the call, a sharp whistle pierced my eardrums.

The helmeted large man who had been watching moved. The instant his right arm swung up, it expanded explosively. The sleeve of his black coveralls tore, exposing darkly discolored bare skin. Muscles and joints swelled in misshapen bulges.

That thing was a Nephilim. No mistake.

I did not know the logic behind it, but part of his body had mutated into that deformed monster. Dritt's arm moved quickly and punched away one of the large servers lined up beside him. Unbelievable strength.

The server was torn from the ground and flew toward me. The aim was rough, but I had to dodge it. The distance from Seki and Tomoe opened wide. It was impossible for me. I could not catch up.

"Hey, Indo! Don't let them get away."

I called the name of the person I needed right now. Indo Yukine could jump through space and chase those two.

But Indo did not respond.

It was probably a reflexive action.

The instant she saw Dritt change, Indo had jumped through space. She appeared above Dritt and, using her own weight, went to sever his enlarged right arm. When had she picked up the one-handed sword again?

As a result, that attack was far too reckless. It was not something she should do when she did not even know the opponent's specs. Especially since Indo was already wounded in the upper arm. Her sword line was weak. When Dritt casually swung his left arm around, that one also swelled instantly.

An arm like a giant log intercepted Indo.

"Ah."

A faint scream. With a soft, snapping impact, Indo's small body was knocked away easily. The one-handed sword broke, and Indo herself bounced across the floor with it.

It was clearly Indo's mistake in judgment. I could vaguely guess the reason too. I had no choice but to give up on them. Dritt no longer cared about Indo or us. Dropping to all fours like a beast, he chased Seki and Tomoe with astonishing jumping power.

I exhaled white breath. I meant it as a sigh. There was still a little left to do. Lecturing the idiots could wait.

"Looks like both of us owe those people one now, huh?"

I meant to say it to Lord Morning Star Veil. He had his sword readied toward me. He was no longer paying attention to Jogamine. In the few seconds of exchange since then, Jogamine had suffered numerous cuts centered around her now-slow lower body. Her eyes were still filled with an insane fighting spirit, but she had lost too much blood. It was only a matter of time before she collapsed.

Sara, who was lying on the floor unable to move, was out of the question. Indo had no weapon either.

"They used you to buy time, Your Majesty. I understand how you feel. They really are annoying. I'll clear your resentment for you, though."

I took one large step toward Lord Morning Star Veil.

"Got anything you want to tell those bastards? Say it now."

Lord Morning Star Veil glared at me. Fine bluff.

"Fall into hell."

His voice was full of anger. Then the abandoned Dark Lord extended his swordless left hand. Darkness covered the surroundings again. But the Dark Lord himself must have known it would only buy a little time.

About thirty seconds later, my sword pierced and destroyed Lord Morning Star Veil's heart.

There were many things I had to say to the three of them.

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