The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race - Chapter 50

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Genius Knight of a Fallen Race ◈

Chapter 50: If You Receive Something, You Must Give in Equal Measure

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The central unit at the front of the subjugation force had the largest concentration of knights.

Most were Old Faith lords from the western region near Hasra, along with the knights under their command.

They had been brimming with confidence when they first charged the ogre.

No matter how big and strong it was, they believed it could never withstand a knightly lance charge.

“Charge!”

“You shall be known as ogre hunters!”

“Uoooooh!”

The knights’ eyes, burning with fighting spirit, saw nothing but the ogre’s dark red skin.

They would pierce its body with their lances, bring it down, then draw their swords and cut off its head. That would earn them immortal fame.

Every lord would seek out the knights who had slain the ogre and promise them gold, silver, and every treasure imaginable.

Yet only moments after they charged forward with such hopes, several horses at the front suddenly stumbled and fell.

The ground was filled with dozens of pits.

“W-what!?”

“What is this?”

Only then did the knights realize, to their horror, that the ogre had dug countless holes before it, each slightly deeper than a person’s knee.

Worse, it had cunningly shaped them like horseshoes, with the open end facing the enemy.

They were impossible to notice while entering, but anyone trying to get out had to turn around first.

The knights froze in confusion, never expecting a monster to use such a trick. The ogre grinned and pointed at them with an outstretched finger.

At once, the nearby trolls began hurling boulders.

“You bastards!”

“Block them!”

Boulders the size of human heads crashed against armor and shields.

Even when they blocked with Spirit, the impact was too much to ignore. As the knights curled up like turtles beneath the barrage, other large monsters, orcs, and countless other creatures spread out in every direction and attacked the entire central unit.

Their leader, the ogre, stepped forward as well and began crushing the knights in earnest.

“Aaaagh!”

“Cough, urk!”

“I am Masio of House Dovel, urk!”

The martial arts the knights had trained in all their lives were useless in a situation like this.

How could they fight an ogre charging at them on foot while boulders continued raining down from every direction?

If they were struck in the head and body until they hid behind their shields, the ogre’s mace-like fists would come down soon after.

After that, nothing remained but a mangled mixture of flesh and metal.

The only ones who survived were a few knights at the very rear, who had not been caught in the traps the monsters had prepared.

Naturally, the central unit’s soldiers, left without the knights’ protection, collapsed helplessly under the attacks of monsters swarming them from every side.

* * *

‘Damn.’

After seeing the central unit collapse, Shan quickly looked east.

The right wing, which had been fighting the separate force that emerged from behind the hill, had not completely wiped out the enemy as the left wing had, but it held a clear advantage.

‘The center has collapsed. The left has won. The right is holding...’

His mind, which normally did not work especially quickly, made astonishingly swift judgments in battle.

Retreat?

No. That might get them through the immediate crisis, but it was a choice without a future.

People’s hearts were fragile. Even if the central unit reorganized after having its spirit broken once already, it was unlikely to become a proper fighting force again.

It would be better to settle this while they were still offering themselves as shields.

After reaching a conclusion through a complex calculation in a short span of time, Shan raised his voice.

“No retreat! Go around the side and kill the ogre! I’ll lead!”

His thin, high voice, not yet fully changed, rang sharply across the battlefield.

“Join the central unit!”

“Attack!”

Though the order came from a mere wandering knight rather than a lord, the left wing, unsure of what to do, cleared their minds and began following him.

Right or wrong, what they needed now was someone to give them a clear direction.

Humans could become anything from a helpless flock of sheep to a brave pride of lions, depending on whether someone stood at the front to lead them.

“That banshee! Archers, shoot it if you have silver arrows!”

“Get the werewolf!”

“We’re joining the center!”

On a battlefield, every knight was not only a supreme warrior but also an experienced field commander.

Instead of gathering together for another lance charge, they coordinated the infantry units they had hired and struck at the flanks of the monsters advancing on the central unit.

Lugh hurried after Shan as he charged toward the ogre.

“Sir Shan, me too!”

“Change horses first!”

“Yes!”

Lugh’s horse was foaming at the mouth after carrying its massive rider through the fighting.

Only then did Lugh realize it. He shouted his acknowledgment in alarm and quickly turned back toward the infantry.

Shan urged Awin onward, racing like lightning toward the rear of the unit, where the ogre was rampaging.

The monster, which had just crushed five soldiers to death with one swing of its mace-like arm, suddenly stopped.

The knights at the front must not have been completely helpless, because broken weapons were embedded throughout its body and blood ran from its wounds.

“Phew...”

There was an intelligence in the ogre’s huge eyes that did not suit a monster.

Instead of charging Shan immediately, it raised an enormous hand capable of crushing a person whole and pointed at him.

Something flew in from behind with a whoosh.

‘Damn!’

Shan, who had not seen how the knights at the front had been defeated, stared in shock at the trolls’ barrage of boulders.

Fortunately, Awin was quick-witted enough to sprint out of the path of the incoming stones before Shan could even give an order.

Shan raised an arm and struck aside the one boulder they could not avoid.

“Urgh.”

The small shield made by melting down the shield he had taken from a knight of the Ajun Kingdom did its job.

His arm was numb, but he could endure the blow well enough.

Since the battle would likely drain a great deal of stamina, Shan deliberately conserved his Spirit rather than using it.

As he moved to evade the barrage, the ogre strode toward him.

Its powerful legs and long arms let it run on all fours, making it frighteningly fast.

Its raised hand blackened the sky before coming down, intent on flattening Shan and Awin together.

“Move!”

Awin leaped at his shout, and a massive crater appeared where they had stood moments earlier.

Even if he poured all his Spirit into the shield he carried, Shan doubted he could block an attack with that much force.

No, perhaps the shield would remain intact while his body was smashed to pieces without leaving a trace.

Shan circled the ogre on Awin, disrupting its view, then realized its attention had turned away from him.

One of the knights from the left wing who had ridden over with Shan had driven a lance into its thigh.

As the enraged ogre swung a fist and reduced that knight to bloody pulp, Shan kicked free of the saddle and leaped.

Jumping into the air was usually extremely dangerous because it left his body impossible to control, but this was different when the enemy was not paying attention to him at all.

The ogre’s reddish-brown nape came into view, perfectly positioned for a thrust.

‘Good. One strike and-’

Just as Shan prepared to thrust his spear, a boulder flying from behind struck him squarely in the side.

One of the trolls, which had kept throwing rocks regardless of whether it hit its own leader, had gotten lucky.

Shan would never normally have allowed such an attack, but all his attention had been fixed on the ogre.

“Cough...”

He flew several meters and rolled across the ground, unable to even groan properly with the air knocked from his lungs.

If not for the plate armor imbued with enchantment magic he wore, the impact would have crushed his organs and killed him.

Unfortunately, Shan was not given much time to suffer.

The ogre, now aware of his location, raised its fist and struck down again.

In a rush, Shan planted his spear where the ogre’s fist would land and rolled away at precisely the right moment.

The force of the blow drove the spear through its fist, wrist, and deep into its forearm, all the way to the elbow.

[────────]

The ogre let out a desperate roar of pain and wildly swung the arm impaled on the spear.

It had already been pierced by several weapons, but this seemed to be its first injury of this severity.

Shan struggled to his feet, struck aside another incoming boulder with the shield on his forearm, and retreated.

An orc charged toward Shan, only for Awin to race over and ram it aside before stopping in front of him.

The orc’s bones broke beneath the impact of her heavy body, made even heavier by barding, and it sprawled across the ground.

“Th-thanks!”

Shan quickly grabbed Awin’s reins and climbed back into the saddle, trying to steady his breathing.

The dented side of his armor kept pressing into his abdomen, making it difficult to breathe.

“Haa, huff...”

He glanced aside and saw some infantry from the left wing keeping the trolls in check.

More specifically, it was the mercenary unit of the Altos led by Roden, especially its archers.

The arrows were absurdly small compared to their targets, barely embedding themselves in the trolls’ skin, but the monsters irritably scratched at the wounds.

The arrowheads had been coated with an extremely expensive alchemical poison made specifically for trolls. It interfered with their regeneration, caused unbearable itching, and weakened their regenerative ability.

Even Roden, wealthy as he was, could never have considered such an extravagance if the royal family had not covered the cost.

“I’m here, Sir Shan!”

Lugh came charging in with a shout. Swinging his long sword with his long arms, he slashed across the ogre’s forearm as it ran toward the infantry to crush them.

The ogre screamed in pain and tried to grab Lugh, but they were too far apart.

While Lugh bought him time, Shan regained his breath and drew the sword at his waist in place of the spear he had lost.

Letters engraved into Guardian of the East, the magic sword, gave off a faint glow.

[Gooooo!]

As Shan charged at the ogre again, a large monster blocked his path with a roar.

It was a gigantic bear with a beak instead of teeth and feathers instead of fur, an owlbear.

Rather than stopping Awin at its appearance, Shan urged her to run even faster.

“Hup!”

Awin’s explosive speed at full gallop added the weight of a massive horse to Shan’s slash, cutting clean through the owlbear’s heavy upper body.

The magic in the sword amplified its cutting power, allowing him to unleash such force without spending much Spirit.

After instantly killing the large monster, Shan rode the momentum toward the ogre.

It was surrounded by five or six knights, including Lugh, and flailed its mace-like fists wildly in desperation.

“Urgh!”

“Ghk...”

The knights could not easily approach, intimidated by the force of its swings.

Even brave knights found it difficult to close in on a giant over four meters tall swinging its fists like mad.

Of course, that did not apply to Shan.

He charged directly at the ogre, memorizing each of its movements and predicting its next attack.

It swung its arm left, used the recoil to swing right, took a step, then swung right again-

‘Now!’

Shan’s helmet barely grazed past a fist as Guardian of the East flashed like lightning and cut diagonally through the ogre’s left arm.

The severed arm hit the ground with a heavy thud.

“Oh!”

“It worked!”

“That was incredible!”

“It’s not over! Stay focused!”

Shan rebuked the celebrating knights as he saw an enormous amount of blood pouring from the ogre’s severed arm.

Its remaining right arm was also difficult to use properly, with Heartbreaker embedded in it.

Realizing its defeat was near, the monster’s smug expression twisted into something ugly. It abruptly turned its back and ran.

Even with one arm disabled, it was astonishingly fast.

“It’s running!”

“After it!”

If they let it escape, it would gather monsters elsewhere and pose as a pack lord again.

Then they would have to face this terrible battle another time.

Knowing that, the knights spurred on their exhausted horses and gave chase to finish it.

Shan had spent a considerable amount of Spirit cutting off the arm, so he rested briefly before following them.

Then an uneasy feeling came over him.

There seemed to be an unusually large number of knights’ corpses where the ogre was fleeing...

“Stop!”

At Shan’s shout, the charging knights’ horses stepped into pits and tumbled over.

The fleeing ogre quickly turned around and crushed one knight and the knight’s warhorse together.

Shan considered what to do for a moment, then immediately jumped down from Awin.

Even a Horais Warhorse would be in too much danger running over traps made with such deliberate care.

But if he left the ogre alone, the knights who had just fallen from their horses would all die.

The ogre’s face twisted as it saw Shan running toward it on foot. Rather than swinging a fist as before, it hurled its whole body forward.

No matter where Shan fled, it intended to use its enormous body to crush him.

Shan could kill it by driving his sword into its approaching face, but its massive body would certainly crush him to death as it fell.

He jumped at once, cleared the ogre’s body, and slashed the exposed back.

Bright red blood streamed down, revealing white spine beneath.

[────!]

The ogre gave a short scream and swung its severed left forearm.

Though it was cut off, it was still longer than an ordinary person’s arm, making it a fairly dangerous weapon.

Shan avoided it with a single step back, then diagonally cut the back of the ogre’s knee as it rose.

The leg’s severed tendon could no longer support its huge body, and one knee crashed to the ground.

A slash to the other knee completely disabled both its legs.

‘It’s over!’

The ogre’s chest, now that it was kneeling, had dropped to the perfect height to climb onto and stab.

Shan stepped on its knee, climbed up, and drove his sword into the center of its chest.

He converted nearly all his stamina into Spirit, allowing Guardian of the East to pierce smoothly through its thick chest muscles until the hilt sank in.

He could not see it, but the sword had surely pierced its heart and come out through its back.

“Haa...”

The same weakness he had felt when he cut off the cockatrice’s head washed over Shan, and he let out a deep breath.

He felt as though he could fall asleep immediately, but the battle was not over yet.

He had the blessing of vigor. If he rested for only a little while-

“Urgh!”

To Shan’s shock, the ogre, despite having lost its heart, raised its remaining right arm and grabbed him.

Too exhausted to react in time, Shan was caught in its enormous hand.

Infinite malice filled the monster’s eyes as it looked at Shan in its grip.

It seemed to say that it would die here, but no matter what, it would take the one who killed it down with it.

“Cough...”

Air escaped Shan’s lungs as the hand tightened around him.

There were several reasons he was not immediately crushed to death despite the ogre’s monstrous strength.

First was Thousand Forms, which he wore around his upper body, soft as clothing.

In that moment of danger, he had instinctively hardened it, and the true silver armor protected his body like an exoskeleton.

Second was the spear embedded in the ogre’s right arm.

It had severed several tendons from the palm through the forearm, preventing the hand from exerting its full grip.

Third, even an ogre could not bring out all its strength after being stabbed through the heart.

It was literally squeezing out the last of its power before death.

Even so, the ogre’s strength was enough to choke Shan’s breathing off.

No matter how much he struck the fingers gripping his body, they showed no sign of loosening.

At the moment he was about to suffocate to death-

A sharp shout came from behind.

“You bastard! Let him go!”

Lugh, who had fallen from his horse and broken one leg, limped over and cut at the ogre’s fingers with his long sword.

He must have put nearly all his strength into Spirit, because even though his sword was not an exceptional magic sword, it severed several of the ogre’s thick fingers.

Freed, Shan quickly rolled away.

The ogre screamed in frustration and swung at Lugh as though venting its rage.

The tall knight flew away like a branch without even managing a scream.

“Cough, huff-”

As Lugh flew through the air, Shan took two quick breaths, then immediately rushed in again and shoved his hand into the hole in the ogre’s chest.

He grasped the hard hilt by touch and pulled it out with all his strength.

Blood exploded from the hole in its heart, soaking Shan’s entire body as the ogre finally collapsed, apparently out of strength.

* * *

‘Is it really dead?’

Even after the ogre fell, Shan did not lower his guard and circled around it.

He had nearly died once after letting his guard down. He had no choice but to be careful.

He had killed many monsters so far, but this was the first one that had shown such vitality after being pierced through the heart.

Even trolls, famous for their overwhelming regenerative power, were not like this.

‘An ogre can move even after its heart is pierced... I need to remember that.’

Of course, he did not know whether another ogre would appear while he was alive, but he still needed to record it so no one else would make the same mistake.

Perhaps those who had killed ogres before either did not know this fact or had failed to tell others.

Chaos had broken out around them.

With the pack lord dead, the monsters that had moved like a single body moments ago began fighting among themselves or fleeing in every direction to escape predators.

The people focused on battle noticed as well and cheered.

“The ogre is dead!”

“We won!”

“Aaaaaah!”

Many of them had despaired that they would all die here when the central unit was annihilated, making the joy of survival all the greater.

While everyone celebrated, Shan looked grimly down at Lugh, who had been struck by the ogre.

Priests summoned by Roden quickly checked his condition nearby.

“How is he?”

“I’m afraid it will be difficult. His injuries are too severe...”

Lugh’s condition was grave after being hit by the ogre’s final desperate blow.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that half the bones in his body had been crushed.

He was also coughing up blood continuously, suggesting that his internal organs had been damaged. At this rate, he would soon stop breathing.