CH 8.2

8-2. Chapter 8 (Part 2)

The battle hadn’t finished. The enemy who had tasted success in the attack last time seemed to have underestimated Highserk’s soldiers. Perhaps they were hungry to annihilate the enemies, in addition to Duwei’s squad, two more squads rushed to the rescue and stopped the enemy from running away.

The Highserk soldiers intended to end this hide-and-seek in this place, here, right now. It was about 30 enemies, a little more than expected. Walm jumped into the center of the enemy platoon. The response of the enemy who suddenly attacked from the side was a little bit slow.

“Dam it, it’s reinforcement!!”

One of the enemy soldiers shouted. 

Walm swung down at the halberd he got from the knight he had defeated the other day. It was a sturdy and suitable weapon to demonstrate the skill,《Strike》, that he learned the other day. The enemy soldier thrust his spear into Walm as hard as he could, but as it was thrust, it got crushed a little by little.

The enemy soldier tried to pull out the short sword by throwing away the spear that had become completely shortened, but he was one step slower. Just before he pulled the sword, his neck flew in the air. 

When Walm stepped further and returned his wrist, he used the recoil to slash the nearby soldier.

As the soldier was one step behind and couldn’t evade the attack at all, the blow that entered from the side of the breastplate cut the torso into two. In addition, the horizontal slash Walm did, hit the remaining members gravely injured or killed more than 10 enemy soldiers. A group of differently dressed people, mixed with regular soldiers, came into view.

“He’s there. The adventurer who’s leading them.”

Jose, who saw through the true identity of the man, shouted. The number of people was five, probably it was the so-called “party”.

Walm headed for the group while slashing the confused enemy soldiers, but a blade of the wind approached. Normally he would have chosen to avoid or defend with a round shield, but Walm swung his halberd down.

The activated skill 《Strike》was momentary in a conflict with the magic. Then, the wind scattered around. When Walm, turned his gaze to the caster, it was the adventurer who cast the magic. A woman, no perhaps, you could say she was a girl.

The height was about Walm’s chest, and the brown hair extended to the shoulder. Armed with a short sword and a round shield, like a normal soldier. Three Myard soldiers stood in front of Walm as he tried to crush the nasty Magic user. Two soldiers approached while thrusting a spear at the same time.

Walm made a small turn to the right, closing in on one side of the soldier. He jumped into his bosom while parrying the spear that was thrust into his face with the halberd. At that moment, the soldier tried to cover his throat with the hand as he was wearing a hand protector, but Walm slashed the soldier while activating 《Strike》. The bones were cut off, and blood flowed through the gaps in the armor.

“Bastaaaaaaard!!”

One had collapsed, and the number of soldiers had decreased by one, but the soldier threw the spear, pulled the longsword, and came to attack Walm. It was a good move, but that horizontally swung slash was dodged by Walm.

Then Walm swung down the halberd from diagonally left, but it was caught before accelerating. He then pulled the longsword with all his might while jumping back. Then he thrust the Halberd as fast as he could. The soldiers regained their broken stance, but it was one step behind to dodge Walm’s attack. The halberd stabbed into the back of the soldier’s knee and scraped off the ligaments.

“Waaaarrghhh”

The soldier resisted hard with one leg, but as he couldn’t stand properly, Walm crushed his throat with the longsword. 

The remaining one hesitated to attack. But, without hesitation, Walm shook off the halberd with both hands, and made a blow.

“N-no, wait, a, help me.”

There was no need of a second blow. With that one blow, the abdomen was torn in a straight line and the viscera were overflowing. Blood rushed out so fast that the ground around the soldier was dyed in red in a blink of an eye.

“Give up. It’s useless now.”

If only he had escaped or surrendered before this happened

That idea flickered to Walm.

This soldier… he’s bound to his country, friends, family, everything in this land. He might want to run, but he couldn’t.

While stabbing the soldier, to put him to rest, Walm was thinking such a thing, if others knew it, they might laugh at him. 

When he was about to slash his next target, he was thrown words. While it might depend on the enemy. This time it wasn’t the familiar taunt or swearing words. It was a question to Walm.

“Why, why, why are you killing so easily!?”

Walm was asked why he killed others on the battlefield. Such a question might result in a long answer, and also the answer would be different for each person. Why asked Walm for such a thing, then? Well, anyway, for Walm, the enemy might ask for mercy, but he surrendered after being fatally injured, even Walm couldn’t do anything about it.

“It’s a battlefield, why are you surprised? You also killing others… what a useless conversation.”

A corpse of a Highserk soldier was lying at the feet of the woman. Although they passed each other once and twice during the march, the soldier was definitely Walm’s compatriots. The girl might have noticed that the conversation was useless, and she cast the magic on Walm again. It was the magic he saw once. In addition, the trajectory was the same. While keeping the posture low, Walm changed the center of gravity, that he slid in. As it was, he kept moving to the girl who had her eyes opened in astonishment.

“Leethia!!”

An older adventurer with a shield shouted. But, the halberd had already been swung sideways headed straight toward the girl’s neck. The girl responded in that instant as if the gaps she showed earlier were a lie. She held the round shield diagonally upward while bending the left elbow. Her right hand went to support the round shield, while still holding the short sword.

To be honest, Walm might have been underestimated the girl. It was an ideal stance to say to do now. Seeing it, he understood that she had been disciplined and had an actual experience. However, the conversation she brought up not long ago sounded stupid in Walm’s ear. So, he felt some discomfort, but he understood the reason behind it.

It was stupid things to have on the battlefield, but in a way, an enviable thing for Walm. In short, the girl hadn’t used to killing people. If that was the case, perhaps it could be solved by talking, in fact, Walm would like to choose that solution, but he was in a war between nations. The battle was still in progress and the enemy hadn’t surrendered.

Without loosening the halberd, Walm activates 《Strike》. The blade, wrapped in a faint light, bit into the round shield and broke through as it was.

“A, ug, urrgh”

The round shield rolled on the ground, probably the girl let it go because she couldn’t hold the impact well. She seemed to have a hand protector on the arm under the shield, and her arm wasn’t cut off. Even so, she seemed to be unable to escape the impact completely, and now every time she moved her left arm, she expressed anguish, but still held the short sword with the other hand.

“It’s broken”

When Walm uttered his words, the girl lowered her eyebrows and seemed terribly confused.

It seemed to be the first time she had received a skill attack. She retreated from Walm as if frightened, but it was a bad move in a forest with poor footing. The girl stepped back to keep a distance, but stepped on the “soldier” who had fallen to the ground, and she lost her stance.

“At least, remember the place of the one you’ve killed”

When Walm smiled unintentionally, the girl opened her eyes and shouted as if she had encountered a monster.

“U, Uaaahhhhhhhh!!”

Walm jumped in and used his halberd to flicks the short sword on the girl’s hand away. When Walm slammed from her shoulder using his body, she exhaled air and fell to the ground. He then thrust the halberd into the throat of the fallen girl. He thought that since the opponent was a girl, it would be better than crushing her head or face.

But, something flickered at the edge of his field of vision. At that moment, Walm’s heart jumped. He was careful about the surroundings, but it came too fast.

“Uhh――!?”

Walm jumped back while tilting his head, but his hair and cheeks were slightly cut. 

The shadow was still approaching. Walm swung his halberd down, and his opponent received the attack. The man was one of the adventurer’s parties.

The weapons rubbed against each other for a while.

When both of them stepped back, Walm aimed his halberd at the wrist but it was blocked by the sword’s brim.

“Are you okay with me?”

The young man was furious when Walm deliberately asked.

“Shut up, you damn invaders!!”

There, was a young man with a good-looking face, blue hair extending to his shoulders, eyes of the same color as his hair, and it would be more than enough to be an idol in Walm’s previous world. He had a blood-stained two-handed sword and wearing good enough equipment. It seemed Highserk soldiers around him had been slashed. 

There was no doubt that he was the leader of the adventurers. Walm thought he would be the right opponent for the Squad Commander Duwei, but Squad Commander Duwei was engaged with an adventurer holding a large shield.

Perhaps that adventure was the shield user with a Skill.  And it seemed the skill,《Strike》 and 《Iron Wall》, had collided with each other. The soldier at he surroundings were just looking at it as a spectator. 

Should I ask for their help?

Walm was thinking about asking for help from the surrounding soldiers. But decided not.

Huh, so annoying

Walm thought so, as he had to deal with this adventurer no matter what.