Book 2: Chapter 51: The assassin is trusted by the hero

I decimated hundreds of the enemy’s soldiers.

Only one of them was left.

Or so I say, but I was coerced into a hopeless battle.

[You are not a knight, are you? You are a foul, merciless, interesting fellow. I’m curious to see how you will try to kill me this time.] (Orc General)

The Orc General charged at me with a smiley expression.

I had been killing him in ten different ways since a while back.

I slashed him, bludgeoned him, strangled him, stabbed him, thrashed him, poisoned him, bombed him, crushed him, burned him, and shot him.

And yet, nothing worked.

He would regenerate immediately and go on the offensive like nothing happened.

And I was about to run out of options.

[【Wind Cage】] (Lugh)

I finished chanting one of my original spells, then it manifested itself.

It was a spell that used wind manipulation magic.

A cage of wind.

Judging by the name only, it may sound like it had no decent might, but the properties of wind made this a troublesome trap.

I saturated a defined airspace with nothing but carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Anyone thrown into an airspace containing 100% of carbon dioxide would instantly release the oxygen in their body and suffocate immediately.

…Once again, this was a hero-slaying tactic.

No matter how off the charts the hero’s defense could be, she still needed to breathe.

In that case, if I took away her oxygen, I would surely be able to kill her.

I developed this spell for that purpose, but it appeared to be effective against demons as well.

The Orc General died with his eyes rolled up.

I put some distance and caught my breath.

Due to the drug I had taken, this was an all-out war with no limiter at play.

In terms of physical strength and mana, it was very taxing, but it also caused heavy damage to my body.

My proficiency in【Hyper Regeneration】had improved, and I was now capable of recovering 120 times faster, yet paradoxically speaking, it only amounted to that much.

It only granted me the ability to recover in 1 second instead of 120, or 2 minutes if you prefer.

If I kept using up my stamina and mana at an even faster rate, and continued to put the strain on my body, I would eventually find myself unable to move.

For a long while now, I had been overexerting myself so much my healing abilities couldn’t keep up.

Otherwise, I would’ve long since been a goner.

[This is the first time I have been killed without even knowing how it happened. So, are you finished yet?] (Orc General)

And of course, that guy came back to life.

I carefully observed the situation.

[…Who knows? If that’s what you think, then come and get me.] (Lugh)

I smiled faintly.

I tried many different ways to kill him.

And at the same time, I was observing him coming back to life in just as many ways. With Tuatha Dé’s eyes, that is.

I was trying to see through the mechanism of his immortality by observing the movement of his mana and his regeneration depending on how I killed him.

The books abstractly said that demons were personified by their power of existence, but I had no intention of taking it at face value.

There had to be some kinds of rules. If I could shed some light on them, I would be able to kill him.

…I really didn’t know when to quit.

I knew I would die if I didn’t do everything I could to make Epona stand up.

Which was why I’d also been trying to figure out a way to win on my own, and what to do in case even that led nowhere.

At this pace, I could only keep fighting for 50 seconds, and if I let my guard down even a little, I would die, so I had to keep it up.

In the end, it seemed I had no choice but to resort to my very last tactic.

Said tactic was to use what little energy I had left to withdraw, conceal my presence and hide while I healed myself.

Then I would return to the academy, take Dia and Talt with me, and we would get out of here.

I could pull this off if I took action within the next 20 seconds.

Only ten seconds left…

[I’m guessing you are up to something. Please entertain me some more.] (Orc General)

With the expression of a hunter arbitrarily hunting his prey, he approached to strike me with his iron club like he didn’t know any better.

The time was up. If I managed to dodge this, I would run away.

I anticipated the trajectory of his club.

However, I didn’t even need to dodge his attack anymore.

[Lugh, I now understand how strong you are.] (Epona)

Because Epona received the iron club blow that was directed at me.

No matter how much power the Orc General put into it, she stood completely still.

[You’re strong. Still, you can’t handle me and my power… But you might be able to kill me. So promise me one thing: if I ever become a monster, kill me. If you can promise me that, then I will use my power.] (Epona)

‘If I ever become a monster, kill me’, she said…

I had to repress a smile.

Because I intended to do just that from the beginning.

…I wanted to find a way to keep Epona from becoming the enemy of mankind, and if I couldn’t, then I would kill her. Such was my plan.

What I had to do didn’t change.

[Are you sure you can afford to have a chit-chat in front of me…!?] (Orc General)

Another iron club appeared from out of nowhere, and the Orc General swung it down.

Epona was hit on the top of her head… and the iron club shattered.

[Oh, shut up.] (Epona)

She waved the hand that had an iron club in it.

The Orc General was blown away and slammed into a stone wall.

Epona’s surroundings were wrapped in a red aura.

I knew that skill.

The S-rank skill,【Berserk】.

The skill used by Setanta back in Soigel.

In the user was a man, he would experience physical changes such as gaining horns and bulging muscles, and if the user was a woman, she would be wrapped in a red aura.

[Lugh, can you promise that you will kill me?] (Epona)

Epona asked while suppressing the desire to rampage at any moment due to the effect of【Berserk】.

[I promise. If you ever become a monster, I will kill you… For I’m an assassin.] (Lugh)

Epona smiled.

It was like the smile of an innocent child.

Since she believed in me, I revealed my true identity.

[Yeah, that’s a relief.] (Epona)

Epona turned her gaze to the Orc General she slammed into the wall.

She walked slowly step by step.

She steadily increased her power at the same time.

The red aura burned even more strongly.

It did so endlessly.

Her power was increasing over and over.

Along with that, Epona’s expression was filled with madness.

Then she clenched her fists.

[Wha-!? What the hell is that power!? Hero or not, this sort of power cannot be rea- …Don’t tell me that… you are… not a counterfeit… but the real one… the Original…!!?] (Orc General)

For the first time since coming here, the Orc General lost his composure.

[STAY AWAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY…!!!] (Orc General)

He opened his mouth wide, then orcs and goblins appeared one after another to engulf Epona while the perpetrator ran with his tail between his legs.

However, neither the orcs nor the goblins even managed to slow her down.

And that was because they all vanished without leaving a single speck of dust just by making contact with the red aura generated by【Berserk】.

…Even if I used【Cannonfire】, the shell would probably disappear the moment it touched that red aura.

Yeah, if it did, then I would be finished.

I couldn’t even touch her.

[I can’t… repress myself anymore…! …Kihihihihi…! I’ll kick your ass with everything I’ve got!!] (Epona)

Epona lifted her arm.

Her red aura was concentrated around her fist.

[NO, STOOOOOOOOOP…!!!] (Orc General)

[AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!!!] (Epona)

The Orc General’s shriek and Epona’s outcry overlapped each other.

Before the blow Epona put all her heart and soul into landed on its target, the Orc General was completely obliterated and scooped out from the surface of the earth in a red shockwave.

I was watching the whole scene by focusing all my power into my eyes.

First, the Orc General’s physical body disappeared, then something like a red jewel shattered, and he ceased to exist.

…I finally understood the secret of how to kill demons by observing the difference between that and the way I tried to kill him until now.

Indeed, depending on how you did it, you could kill that kind of creature.

Of course, that red jewel was his real body, and it wasn’t so mediocre that he would’ve died if I had broken it.

The key to it was the singularity of the hero’s power.

[It’s a good thing that Epona went with a straight punch.] (Lugh)

If she had punched the ground, she would’ve caused a catastrophe even greater than that of【Gungnir】.

Now, it was time for my last job.

Epona looked at the sky with her bloodshot eyes, laughed loudly… and fainted when she took a【Cannonfire】in the chin.

[I promised I would kill you, but it seems I didn’t have to this time.] (Lugh)

That was a close one.

Her eyes were completely blinded, and she was losing reason.

If she had gone on a rampage with that power of hers, she would’ve turned the whole area into a wasteland.

What I just did prevented that.

This【Cannonfire】was effective precisely because I fired it right after Epona unleashed all of her might.

If it wasn’t for that one moment, it would’ve been completely pointless.

The fact that the best I could do with a cannon shot comparable to that of a tank gun was make her jaw tremble made me want to laugh.

I mean, I said I was ready to kill her in the worst-case scenario.

[But now that she’s out, I could kill her.] (Lugh)

I cast my eyes on Epona who had passed out.

If she took a full-frontal blow from【Gungnir】in a vulnerable spot of her body, she would probably die.

But it was still too early for that.

Epona still had one demon to deal with like she did just now.

[It was unexpected, but I managed to confirm that I could kill her.] (Lugh)

The fact that I could kill her if I launched a killing move on her after she had used up all her power and I had knocked her out was a valuable information.

Now, time to head back to the academy.

I carried Epona and started walking.

Before she woke up, I would tell everybody that she was the one who wiped out the entire orc army.

If anyone found out that I was capable of all that, I would just be in a tight spot again.