WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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◈ Sword Master of the Fallen Kingdom

Chapter 87

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Prey and Hunter (10)

It happened in an instant. Amid the spray of blood, the knight's head fell to the ground, his eyes still filled with disbelief until the very end.

Thud, thud, thudududuk...

The knight's head rolled roughly across the field, over grass mottled green and yellow. A beat later, the headless body toppled backward, blood spraying from the severed neck. Before anyone knew it, everything had gone still. Only the occasional wind softly stirred the field.

"He killed a knight in a single strike..."

"He's really dead? Truly?"

The rangers' whispers came from inside the wagons in the convoy. They were barely more than mutters, but Kyle, who had strengthened his five senses with mana, heard them clearly.

The count's soldiers and the barbarians stopped halfway down the hill were no different. Half were barbarians, and half were soldiers of the rebel count. Among them, the knight commanding the count's soldiers had died in one strike without even reacting. They seemed unable to grasp the sudden turn of events.

Kyle looked at the hillside field that had fallen into a brief stalemate.

No reinforcements. The soldiers near the hill are all of them.

The force he could sense after spreading his mana wide numbered a little over a hundred. Looking only at the raw count, it was not small. It was more than twice the size of the cavalry unit he had encountered before at the entrance to the auxiliary trade route. It was also far larger than Kellan's troops disguised as Silas's trading convoy and the mercenaries from the original convoy combined.

Even so, Kyle did not panic. He calmly analyzed the enemy's strength. He had caught the knight presumed to be the count's commander off guard and killed him in one stroke. The only important question left was how to catch and dispose of every last fleeing enemy while using as little mana as possible.

Drip, drip.

Drops of blood that had not yet dried fell from Kyle's blade. The soldiers on the hill and the convoy stopped below them. Between the two, the suffocating air swelled as if it would burst at any moment.

Kyle's sword tilted slightly.

"Fire! Don't leave a single one alive!"

Kellan shouted at the top of his lungs, as if he had been waiting for that exact moment. The rangers hiding inside the cargo wagons sprang out all at once and drew their bowstrings toward the hill. From the driver's seats, or from behind the wagons. Using the canvas covers and wooden boards as cover, their arrows flew and pierced the barbarians and Count Barkan's soldiers halfway up the hill.

"Kuaaaagh!"

"It's an ambush! They tricked us!"

"We have more men! Charge them all at once!"

Because they had seized the first move, close to twenty barbarians and the count's soldiers fell. Even so, the remaining enemies roared and rushed hard down the hill before the next volley could fly.

Neeeigh!

Just then, the horse the knight had ridden reared up in fright. As soon as its front hooves touched the ground, Kyle leaped onto its saddle in one motion and gripped the reins hard. From the opposite side, the barbarians and the count's soldiers rapidly closed the distance. Among them were mounted enemies closing in at shocking speed.

"Shoot! Keep drawing!"

"They're too fast!"

"Hold them off with the wagons! Rangers, cover them!"

As if answering those last words, arrows came flying from the hill. They had been fired by the barbarians and Count Barkan's soldiers. Most slammed into the wagons or vanished down into the field, but a few struck the soldiers and mercenaries guarding the convoy.

"Aaaagh!"

Screams rang out here and there. Kyle calmed the knight's panicking horse, then immediately moved toward the charging barbarians and the count's soldiers. When he raised his gaze, an arrow was already right in front of him.

Clang!

The moment his right hand flashed, a silver sword light knocked the arrow away. At almost the same time, a man who looked like another of the count's knights drew the sword at his waist and charged at Kyle.

"Die!"

The distance closed in the blink of an eye. Kyle held the reins in his left hand and turned the sword in his right at a slant. The knight opposite him glared at Kyle as if he meant to kill him and avenge the knight who had died first.

The two swords crossed.

Puhwak!

In the space Kyle passed through, another knight's head floated into the air.

Scattering blood bloomed everywhere. There was no need to use Sword Aura.

Kyle did not stop. He climbed back up the hill, cutting down every enemy coming down. He did it so even one fewer enemy would reach the wagons. He focused on killing the mounted ones first. Along the path Kyle carved through them, red pools of blood and headless corpses stretched in a long line.

"Stop him! The center's being breached!"

"He's the commander! Get that black cloak!"

After he cut down about four mounted enemies, those shouts came from everywhere. The nearby barbarians and soldiers who had been rushing toward the wagons all turned to look at Kyle. A faint light flashed from higher up the hill, and this time, it was not a single arrow like before. Several were fired at Kyle alone.

He did not block them this time. Kyle quickly stepped onto the saddle and stood up on the horse he was riding. At the same time, he kicked off the horse's back and leaped high. The incoming arrows buried themselves in the body of the knight's horse he had been riding a moment before.

Neeeigh!

A terrible equine scream sounded behind him. The blades swung by the nearby barbarians and the count's soldiers aiming for Kyle cut through empty air. Above their heads, the hem of a black cloak fluttered powerfully toward the hill.

As gravity pulled him down, Kyle swiftly compressed the mana from his ring.

Blade Storm.

The instant his feet touched the ground, the compressed blades of wind spread out in every direction. Blades with no sound and no form. Around the place where Kyle landed, a storm of blood was raging. Severed arms and legs whirled through the bursting spray of blood.

***

"Hold your positions! Do not get pushed back!"

"Don't shoot! Our allies are in the line of fire!"

"You fucking traitor bastards! You call yourselves soldiers of the Duchy of Tervan?"

"You've sunk so low you're siding with barbarians, you pieces of shit who gave up being human...!"

The barbarians and checkpoint forces that had reached the bottom of the hill tangled together around the wagons. Among them were men who had once served under Count Barkan as regular soldiers of the Duchy of Tervan.

"Shut the hell up! We made more money robbing one trading convoy than Duke Tervan, that bastard, paid us in a whole year!"

"You're the ones who disguised yourselves as a merchant company and ambushed us! Stop spewing bullshit!"

As the rangers drew their bowstrings without pause, the infantry held the line with swords, spears, and other blades. Even the mercenaries who had originally been escorts for the convoy and had been dragged into the operation swung their weapons desperately to survive. Kellan, who commanded the soldiers, had drawn his own sword and was targeting mounted enemies to knock them off their horses. Dark-blue Sword Aura bloomed along his blade and cut through everything in its path.

"Hold them back! Time is on our side! This is nothing but their last struggle!"

After cutting down the barbarians and traitors approaching him again, he raised his sword and shouted. The company members, including Merchant Head Silas, had already gone inside the wagons or were trembling behind the rangers.

Damn it.

Kellan bit down on his lip. Behind the convoy stretched in a line, barbarians ignored the soldiers at the front and rode around the side, aiming for the rear.

He wanted to kill every last one of them, but he could not. The enemies that kept descending the hill were far more numerous than they had seemed at first glance.

There were easily over a hundred at a rough count. Even though the first ambush had dropped close to twenty enemies, they were still being pushed back by sheer numbers.

But it's fine. All they have to do is buy time. Just time.

Kellan, who had been busily blocking the enemies in the center, glanced up the hill. There, a black-cloaked mercenary stood alone in the middle of the enemy ranks, carrying out a slaughter.

Each time his sword swung, severed heads flew. Each time his empty left hand moved, soundless blades shredded everything around him. The only reason the front line at the center, which should have been breached long ago, was holding was because of Kyle. Kellan had guessed as much ever since he had used Incantationless Magic and raised white flames that left not even ash behind, but Kyle truly was stronger than most Gold-rank Mercenaries. At that rate, the area around him would be cleared faster than expected. The count's knight, their commander, had lost his head from the very start.

"It's coming! Arrows! Everyone, lower your heads!"

A soldier shouted right then. From beyond the hill, dozens of arrows drew arcs toward the convoy. Since the wagons were in the way of direct fire, they had changed their shooting method entirely.

"How are we supposed to dodge that..."

"Get inside the wagons! Hurry!"

The soldiers' formation was just about to break in panic. Then a fierce wind blew from the rear. The wind swept in over the wagons like a massive wall, changing the direction of every falling arrow and carrying them off to the side of the convoy. The soldiers' and mercenaries' eyes went wide. Kellan was no different.

"Magic...?"

Someone muttered in a small voice. Kellan turned to look at the rearmost cargo wagon.

There, Kyle's companions who had suggested this operation were riding with a small number of rangers. Beyond the driver's seat, sharp wind surged and ice spikes shot up from the ground in clusters. The barbarians trying to circle around and surround them from front and back fell from their horses one by one. The few who survived crashed down with their horses, spraying blood, when the dark-brown-haired man who looked like a coachman lightly swung his sword at a speed the eye could not follow.

A Gold-rank Mercenary and a mage from the Magic Tower, was it? No wonder people that skilled would boast about crossing the duchy with only three of them.

"Left! They're coming again from the left!"

Pico, who was riding in the rearmost wagon, raised his hand and shouted.

By the time Pico spoke, the charging barbarian already had a spike of ice buried in his chest and was falling from his horse.

"Young lady, you all right?"

Jade, who had gotten down from the driver's seat and was cutting down every enemy approaching the wagon, glanced back and asked. Beyond the white robe and the hood pulled down low, the golden eyes that shone beneath seemed a little tired. Since the battle began, Elysia had been blocking arrows and throwing spells without rest, so it was no surprise.

"I am still fine."

"Yeah? That's good, then."

"Is this really all right? If things go badly, more arrows might come flying..."

Pico, who had used almost half the arrows he carried, looked at Jade and Elysia with worry in his voice. Jade shrugged as if it did not matter.

"What is?"

"The battle is not over yet, so shouldn't we help the front? The mage looks fairly tired too. If she keeps using magic, her stamina..."

"You haven't really seen that guy's skill yet, have you?"

"Sorry?"

Pico asked back, looking like he had no idea what Jade meant. Jade jerked his chin toward the top of the hill.

"No need to worry about pointless things. Soon, I probably won't even need to step in."

Jade shifted his gaze from inside the wagon toward the front, where fighting was still going on. Over the corpse of the first knight, who had seemed to be the commander, the man who looked like the leader of the barbarians was just crossing swords with Kellan.

And then.

Paaaaang!

With a rough blast through the air, the scenery up the hill wavered like a heat haze.

A beat later, a strong wind violently beat against the wagon's canopy.

"Uaaaah!"

"What the hell is this now?"

The checkpoint soldiers and convoy mercenaries. The count's traitor soldiers and the barbarians who made their living by pillage. As if by agreement, every one of them stopped fighting and looked up the hill.

Hudududuk.

Beneath the drops of blood raining down, a black-cloaked mercenary slowly turned. The archers who had been firing arrows nonstop until moments ago were no longer there. Kyle looked down at the line of wagons for a moment, then flung the head of the last remaining knight of Count Barkan in his hand down below. The head rolled down the slope and stopped in front of one barbarian.

"You are the last one."

Kyle spoke quietly. His voice was soft, but it rang clearly across the field, where not even a breath could be heard. The man who appeared to be the leader of the barbarians in front of Kellan twisted his face in a vicious scowl.

The remaining enemies were not even a quarter of their original number. The first ambush had dropped close to twenty enemies, and Kyle alone had killed nearly fifty barbarians and Count Barkan's soldiers. The only ones still alive were a little over ten barbarians and the count's soldiers staring at Kyle with terrified eyes.

"...Who are you?"

The mounted barbarian man asked in awkward Continental Common. Kyle looked around at the corpses scattered around him and spoke leisurely.

"Who knows."

"What?"

"There was someone who asked me the same question before. He was the one leading the cavalry unit at the entrance to the auxiliary trade route..."

Kyle looked at the barbarian man's face. The man's lips trembled as if Kyle had struck a nerve.

"I took his severed head with me, but sadly, I do not have it now. I killed nearly all of the cavalry unit he led too. Are you stronger than him?"

"You bastard!"

Unable to endure any longer, the barbarian man turned his horse's head and charged toward Kyle.

"I'll kill you!"

The curved sword in the man's hand bent in a strange arc. A faint blue Sword Aura rose over the gleaming blade. The curved blade, swung with the horse's acceleration behind it, aimed for Kyle's neck.

Even then, Kyle stood still. Only when the barbarian man came right up to him did Kyle's sword move. Slowly, but clearly. The star iron sword, shining sharp and bright without a trace of Sword Aura, slipped inside the man's curved sword and dug into his body.

Chaaaak!

Blood burst along the smoothly advancing Sword Path. Kyle lowered the sword he had slowly raised.

The man's upper and lower body, split in half, fell to the ground. In the chilling silence, the cry of the masterless horse rang out in agony.

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