CH 130

Episode 130 – Vs. Ogre

TL Note: Sorry for not uploading yesterday, real life happened. I’ll upload yesterday’s and today’s chapter at the same time.

Ignoring the battles that were going on the outside, we ran towards the inside of the city of Seykoll. We attempted to prioritize helping the civilians that lacked fighting strength as we headed to the downtown quarter… Disastrous scenes played out left and right, and I wanted to avert my eyes from the miserable spectacle before us.

I had thought that things would be fine over here since the Knights of the Royal Order had already been deployed, but, thinking back, the Knights only left just as we were returning to Grezesta. Considering the city was being attacked since this morning, there was no way that they would have made it in time.

“This is… a tragic sight.” (Byrne)

After entering the city, the members of [Iron Gear] and I began our assault on the monsters. Our enemies were basically the same as what we saw from the outside of the city: rampaging red-bodied Ogres and the occasional green-skinned Troll here and there. I had never fought any of these monsters before, but the Ogre looked pretty much like an adult-sized Goblin, and the Trolls were twice as tall as the Ogres. Both types of monster were muscular in appearance, but at least they were humanoid, which made them easier to fight.

Up ahead, I could see four ogres beating relentlessly on the door of a building with their clubs. I exchanged glances with Lyra and Byrne, who were running alongside me at the front, and drew my sword, accelerating so that I would be the first to dash into the fray. Lyra and Byrne were right behind me, in position to provide cover in case anything happened. Even if I got attacked from behind, I could trust Lyra and Byrne to hold them off, which allowed me to concentrate on the Ogres in front of me.

…My opponent was a monster. Unlike in a mock battle, there was no need for me to hold back, so I could put all of my power into my attacks.

After I felt Porta’s [Bravery] land on me, my speed was pushed to an even higher level, and I sprinted like the wind towards the Ogres in front of the door. At this point, the four Ogres finally realized that I was coming at them, and they slowly turned around to look at me, making some kind of grunting noises as they raised their clubs.

“Lewin!! Watch out for their attack! An Ogre’s blows are so heavy that they can easily break your guard!” Byrne cautioned from behind me… But there was no need to worry. As far as the Ogres’ movements were concerned, there were too many openings in every single one of their motions. Their movements were like mine were a year ago, where it was easy to see through them and deal with them using only my physical abilities. If that Ogre had been the one studying under Kirty, he’d probably already be beaten black and blue…

Pushing any further nonsensical thoughts out of my head, I lowered my upper body as I tucked close to the ground. Then, with precise, efficient movements, I jumped up and slid under the Ogre’s reach.

From the Ogre’s point of view, it would seem like I had disappeared for an instant, which was made clear by the fact that it wasn’t even looking at me. Once in this state, it would be a simple matter of slaughtering this Ogre in one blow.

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I had stored up power in both legs when I crouched, and I then released that accumulated strength without waste, which allowed me to use my knees almost like a spring. Skillfully adding in the rotational force between my hips and upper body to increase the power, I poured the entirety of this instant, explosive strength into a full-body reverse slash that hewed right into the waist of the Ogre. Before it could even react, the sword entered the waist of the Ogre and cleaved upwards through the Ogre’s body to its opposite shoulder without any resistance whatsoever.

The Ogre was probably still thinking, “What just happened?”

As the Ogre’s top half slid to the ground, the expression on the Ogre’s face made it obvious that it hadn’t even realized it had been cut. Fresh blood spurted out of the two halves of the Ogre’s body a moment later, but I completely ignored it and turned my attention to the second Ogre.

Even though there was an enemy right in front of it, its gaze was still fixed unblinkingly on the Ogre that was just cleaved in two.

If I was that Ogre and if Kirty was here, she’d be pissed at me for taking my eyes off my opponent in the middle of a battle…

Quipping lightly to myself, I once again applied instant, explosive strength to a diagonal slash and sliced the second Ogre into two parts. I immediately followed up with an overhead slash on the third Ogre, bisecting it from the crown of its head, right down the middle. And then, the fourth Ogre finally began to move, commencing its attack, but by that point the battle was already over since the Ogres’ side failed to push their numerical advantage early on.

I took a step back and sheathed my sword, eyeing the fourth Ogre that was running at me while brandishing its club when I suddenly redrew my sword in a flash, sundering the Ogre into two with a flourish and ending its life with a smooth iai slash1.

With the lower half of the Ogre collapsing face down and the upper half falling to the floor facing upwards… the battle with the four Ogres reached its conclusion. Less than 10 seconds had passed since the start of the battle.

I was buffed by Porta’s [Bravery], but I would say that this was the most perfect bout of monster slaying I’d had so far. I was feeling pretty good, looking around for another monster to defeat as I wiped the blood off my sword and resheathed it… But when I turned around and looked behind me, I saw Lyra and Byrne looking taken aback, gaping at me with dumbfounded expressions.