Chapter 4 Part 7
Translator : PolterGlast
Proofreader : John4891
"U~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~on !!"
One of the Wild Dogs was leading the
way.
The four-legged demon beasts kicked
the earth and rushed to eat up the prey in front of them.
Nozomu, on the other hand, also
strengthened himself and started running with both feet.
The rushing Wild Dog jumped and tried
to bite Nozomu's throat, but Nozomu drew his katana faster.
"Gahyu…………"
The katana, which was quickly drawn,
sliced through the throat of the Wild Dog that was about to bite, and a
fountain of blood sprouted out, raining on Nozomu.
(14 remaining...)
Nozomu's mind calmly counted that the
opponent's strength had been reduced by 1/15.
Even though there was a fire burning
up in his heart, Nozomu's accumulated combat experience kept his reasoning and
thought-reading intact.
However, his eyes brilliantly shined
with an unprecedented fighting spirit, and an urge that overflowed from the
depths of his chest swept away the hesitation from using his power, and his
remaining reason was directed to "how to slaughter the opponent".
Despite the death of their companions,
the Wild Dogs calmly surrounded Nozomu and examine the situation. The other
Wild Dogs weren’t upset, and it could be seen that they were a fairly
well-commanded pack.
It looked like the Wild Dog who jumped
in earlier was just a scout, and the leader seemed to have pushed that one
ahead to measure the other party’s strength.
"Gau!"
"U~on!"
"Gu~o!"
This time, one from the front and two
from diagonally behind attacked Nozomu all at once.
Nozomu pulled his leg back half a step
and swiped his katana while turning his body once, but the three calmly flew
back and avoided it.
Then, another one appeared from the
shadow of the one that attacked from diagonally behind and jumped using one
that attacked earlier as a stepping stone. It tried to thrust its sharp canines
into Nozomu's neck.
Nozomu quickly put his sword between
himself and his opponent, but that was a bad move.
Right now, Nozomu was surrounded by
Wild Dogs, and if he caught the opponent's attack poorly, his movement would be
stopped.
And when he stopped, the Wild Dogs,
which held a numerical advantage, would flock to him, and he would be devoured.
That was their aim.
Wild Dogs that hunted in groups were
familiar with how to kill opponents larger than themselves, using the most
efficient and least dangerous method.
At first, the flock drove the opponent
away and made them tired. Doing so diminished the opponent's energy to
counterattack; however, Nozomu went to confront the Wild Dogs instead, so they
couldn't use this method this time.
Nozomu didn’t escape, so they decided
to send one dog first, stop Nozomu's movements, and crush him all at once.
As the preceding one was hit by a
counter-attack, the leader thought that it would work if the three of them
distracted their opponent's awareness, and then another one attacked in the
form of a surprise attack.
Actually, Nozomu was supposed to catch
the attack of the Wild Dog and stop. However, the reality was different from
expectations.
Certainly, the surprise attack was
successful; however, at the next moment, the attacking Wild Dog was bisected
and dropped to the ground with the same momentum as when it attacked.
The strange thing was that Nozomu
wasn't even moving from the position where he caught the Wild Dog's attack, and
he didn’t seem to have swung his katana either.
If we thought about it normally, when
he received the opponent's attack, Nozomu and Wild Dog should have contended
with each other, but that was not the case.
It WAs true that Nozomu didn't slash
with his katana.
Nozomu's katana WAS shining faintly.
It was proof that Nozomu was charging his Qi.
Actually, Nozomu was using a Qi
technique.
Qi technique [Phantom -Clad-]
It was a Qi technique that
dramatically increased the cutting power of a sword while keeping the phantom
inside the blade, which was originally released as a flying slash.
It was a more advanced version of the
Qi technique called "Matoi", and it was a technique that gave Qi to
one's own armor and raised its ability. Although the name may have change, it
was a technique that was widely used on the continent.
However, the story changed when it
came to the "Phantom" level.
Originally, "Phantom" was a
slash that easily cut even rocks, and if we put it inside a blade, the blade
would become a rare magic sword even if it was just an iron knife.
When he used [Phantom -Recurrence-] in
the previous battle, he attached Qi to the blade, but it was only for a moment
when he was about to shoot a slash, and he didn't leave it inside the blade.
This time, the highly compressed Qi
was still attached to Nozomu's katana, but the fluctuation of the Qi gathered
inside the blade couldn’t be felt.
Nozomu protected himself from the wild
dog's attack with this katana clad in Qi technique. The Wild Dog that had
rushed in had been cut in front of the blade which had cutting power increased
to the limit.
The problem with this Qi technique was
whether someone could compress that much Qi as well as maintain that much Qi.
Originally, Phantom was a Qi technique
that required extremely high Qi control and concentration.
It was a difficult technique. Not even
A-Rankers or prodigies could easily pull off not only activating it but also
maintaining it.
Furthermore, Nozomu was now on the
battlefield where the door between life and death was as thin as a piece of
paper, and it was difficult to keep calm in such a situation.
Nozomu's skill, which enabled [Phantom
-Clad-] in such a place, was not half-assed.
However, this technique was originally
Phantom, which already had a high killing power. This technique, which continued
to clad the katana with phantom, was also very deadly, and Nozomu has never
used this technique at school.
Also, no matter how much Nozomu had
extraordinary control over his power, maintaining this technique was extremely
mentally exhausting.
Nozomu rarely used this technique even
on battlefields where he didn't know what would happen, because if he lost his
concentration, he wouldn't be able to maintain his technique, and a lack of
concentration would lead to his own death on the battlefield.
But it was different now. Nozomu, who
was engulfed in his own blazing fury, couldn't think of any risk awaiting him
later.
It was just a matter of giving up
everything he had so that he could satiate his fury.
"U~o~ooon!"
The three beasts that were about to
attack earlier, pursued him.
Nozomu rushed towards the one in
front. He slashed his katana with [Phantom -Clad-] attached to it and cut down
the Wild Dog.
Nozomu quickly put his attention into
both of his feet. He stopped the momentum of his rush with the strength of his
strengthened legs and activated [Instant Move].
He turned in the opposite direction
and swung his katana toward the other two behind, attacking one opponent and
then immediately attacking the other.
Nozomu's sword swing accurately sliced
the throats of the two beasts that were about to leap, cutting deeply into
their necks.
The two beasts whose throats were cut,
collapsed while gushing large amounts of blood.
The blood that flowed out of the
throat synchronized with their heartbeats and gushed intermittently. Their
bodies were convulsing every time the blood flowed out.
Eventually, their convulsions began to
subside and finally stopped moving completely.
(10 remaining ...)
In the meantime, Nozomu didn’t even
mind the opponents he killed. If he was thinking too much about it, he would be
bitten to death.
The Wild Dogs surrounding Nozomu had
changed the way they fought, recognizing Nozomu as a difficult enemy who could
kill five of them in quick succession.
They stopped throwing themselves upon
their enemy. They kept their distance while surrounding Nozomu, and glared at
him.
They realized that Nozomu, whom they
perceived as their prey, was actually a formidable enemy, so they tried to
bring it into a test of endurance rather than a short-term decisive battle.
Furthermore, each of them checked in
turn and waited for their opponent to get tired.
No matter how strong a person was,
when fatigue continued to accumulate and never escaped, the movements would
always become sloppy, creating gaps in their fight. Nozomu was alone after all.
He couldn’t keep holding on against the enemies that surrounded him forever.
That was the wisdom that the Wild Dogs
had acquired while surviving in this forest.
A means to overcome their enemies
stronger than themselves.
The Wild Dogs try to kill their
"enemy" using everything they had.
(If you don't kill your enemies,
you'll be killed. If so, let's just kill them.)
At this place, that was the only thing
that Nozomu and the demon beasts had in common.
The Wild Dogs that surrounded Nozomu
sometimes approached and sometimes left, trying to exhaust him.
However, he understood the Wild Dogs’
aim. That was why Nozomu acted quickly.
(If the situation doesn't improve even
after being delayed this much, then I need to change the situation by force.)
Nozomu thought so and forcibly plunged
into the Wild Dogs’ siege with [Instant Move].
In the past, he was once defeated by
them without being able to put up a fight. Without Shino's help at that time,
Nozomu would have been eaten up by those mutts.
However, the current Nozomu has
acquired skills and experience that were incomparable to that time.
He just hit them all with his fury.
It was incomparably ugly and empty
compared to the usual elegant sword technique he released.
===================================
Nozomu's POV
Swinging the katana while fury still
swirled inside me. A katana attached with [Phantom -Clad-] cut off one of the
Wild Dogs, whose withdrawal was delayed, and its body parts were thrown to the
ground, spilling its internal organs. With this, there were only 9 beasts left
...
I didn't stop my movement and slashed
one opponent followed by an immediate slash toward another Wild Dog who was
nearby.
The Wild Dog that was about to be
slashed tried to dodge, but it was unavoidable and one of its legs was cut off.
With a wound like that, one would end up dying from heavy bleeding. This left
only 8 beasts.
"" Gau~ !! ""
This time, two beasts leaped from
behind; however, their appearance was completely visible to me.
While turning around, I elbow striked
the nose of one of the beast, put the katana along the side of the other
beast's body that leaped in, and slashed it with the [Phantom -Clad-].
The Wild Dog, whose shoulders and
flanks were deeply cut, was thrown to the ground, and the one who got hit with
an elbow strike staggered because his sensitive nose was smashed.
After that, I slashed both of their
necks and glared at the survivors. Six beasts remained........
The Wild Dogs, which were reduced to
less than half in the blink of an eye, were intimidated by my gaze and growled
low.
I returned the katana to its scabbard
and was about to end it.
But, at that time...
"U~ooooooon !!"
Howls reverberated from the
surroundings.
Looking toward the source of the
sound, new Wild Dogs appeared from the other side of the bush. The number was
about 3.
Among them, there was a Wild Dog with
an enormous body. Probably the leader of this pack.
The surviving Wild Dogs rushed to
their leader and glared at me again. It looked like they regained their morale
when their leader arrived.
Nine Wild Dogs, including the leader,
confronted me once again. Under the command of a powerful leader, their orderly
line-ups were just like a cavalry unit trying to overrun the battlefield.
They were united by a powerful leader
and became one large creature, not a collection of individuals anymore.
The moment the leader, who was the
brains, tried to give a signal of assault …………I slashed the leader's neck.
The Wild Dogs' time stopped for a
moment.
They didn’t understand what happened.
It was reasonable.
The moment when they were about to
leap all at once to kill their enemy in front of them under their leader's
command. They noticed that their leader's neck had disappeared.
The Qi technique that I released was
[Phantom].
The extremely compressed blade that
flew at such a high speed instantly killed their leader and remained unnoticed
by the Wild Dogs.
The blood spilled out from the
leader's neck, dying the surviving Wild Dogs in a bright red, making the bloody
odor that filled the surroundings even stronger. The smell of rusty iron
piercing my nose fuelled discomfort, but I didn't mind it due to my fury, and I
rushed towards the survivors while trampling on the corpses of the Wild Dogs
that I had slaughtered earlier.
=================================
Silence returned to the surrounding
forest. Nozomu was standing in silence.
The corpses of the Wild Dogs were
scattered around him. No matter how much a person was accustomed to blood, it
was a spectacle that made others' eyes squint.
None of the five corpses lying on the
ground were intact. The neck, legs, and some parts were missing, and Nozomu
threw the missing parts far away.
The blood and beast odors emitted by
the blood and pieces of meat scattered around were terrible, and Nozomu's nasal
nerves were already paralyzed.
The internal organs that spilled out
were still warm, and they were steaming when touching the chilly outside air.
“…………………….”
Nozomu was standing still, staring at
a certain point in the forest covered with darkness. In his thoughts, he didn't
think about the Wild Dogs, who had already been slaughtered. An alarm was
ringing inside Nozomu's head as something was approaching from the depths of
the forest.
He heard a sizzling sound. The sound,
which was initially heard in the distance, gradually became louder and closer,
until the trees shook due to vibrations.
Eventually, "it" emerged
from the darkness.
A bronze-colored giant that was nearly
three times as large as a person.
The legs that support the giant's body
were thick, and they were rooted in the ground like a long-standing big tree.
Its waist was wrapped in some kind of
beast skin, and its torso was covered with muscles just like steel armor.
Its arms were thicker than a child's
torso, and it had an adult-sized club in its right hand.
And the most distinctive thing was the
three eyes on its face.
Triclopes.
It was powerful demon beast classified
as rank A. It was a giant with a threat level incomparable to the previous pack
of Wild Dogs.
"Goaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
The roar of the giant shook the
surroundings.
It probably came because of the battle
and the smell of blood.
“………….. Kuku”
When Nozomu saw the giant towering in
front of him, he held his katana and lifted it up.
It was better for him to withdraw
immediately. Confronting such a powerful demon beast posed a great risk to him,
who was under Ability Suppression.
Also, this forest was the home of
demon beasts, and even if he survived, there was a risk of encountering other
demon beasts. Nozomu understood that avoiding fights were necessary to
survival, as long as he truly thought about his safety.
However, the current Nozomu was just
looking for an outlet to vent his heart-breaking anger, and this fight might’ve
done the trick.
His usual rational judgment was gone,
and his thoughts didn’t offer him the option of escaping, as he continued to
search for a way to defeat the giant in front of him.
He was exhausted from the previous
battle with the Wild Dogs. He couldn't hold his fury, and he was just delighted
at the outlet that reappeared in front of him.
(………………eld.………………me)
Something whispered from the depth of
Nozomu's chest.
Furthermore, he was beginning to hear
the pounding sound.
Usually, his strong vigilance pushed
the fury and the voice back.
But his head couldn't resist it, and
he was rather willing to accept it.
