Chapter 41 – Buffalo Dungeon (5)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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As the cords wrapped around Murasame were almost fully stripped away, the keen blade gradually revealed itself.

Weapon, looking fully prepared, had his lips pressed tightly around the end of his recorder.

I nodded to him and stepped farther forward. I looked down at Murasame, now almost completely unwrapped.

‘First time using it in real combat.’

To tell the truth, more than the weapon itself, the greater gamble for me was facing an enemy without relying on the Blessing of Painlessness.

The one fortunate thing amid the misfortune was that Murasame, though still only E-rank, was incomparably higher in class than a Daiso sashimi knife, and Weapon’s support was being added on top of that.

Even so, it would still hurt enough to twist my face. Just thinking of the agony about to descend on me made my whole body shiver.

I raised my gaze slightly and looked ahead.

The half-man, half-bull monster approaching with its nostrils flaring. The imposing gaze with which it glared at me was like that of a warrior. As though it had been eagerly awaiting a worthy rival.

At that sight, the furrow in my brow began to ease. Come to think of it, even when we were noisily swallowed into this hidden dungeon, that thing had barely moved.

Minotauros had only opened its eyes when I drew Murasame to cut through the door. And there were its ears twitching as if it had sensed the faint metallic sound.

Not only that, from its perspective there had been more than enough chances to take us by surprise. And yet it had deliberately illuminated the cavern and waited for me to finish preparing myself.

‘……’

Inside this hidden dungeon shut off on all sides, how many long years had Minotauros and those twin monsters spent here?

I met Minotauros’s gaze. The thing was looking only at me. The twin monsters also spread out, widening the distance from it. As if to say they would not interfere with the fierce battle about to unfold.

For monsters, the sight was surprisingly solemn. It did not feel like they were mere beasts. Thinking that way made a small laugh escape me.

To them, I was simply a trial. According to the proper story, they were the trial that would temper the protagonist Leon into something even harder.

I gripped Murasame’s hilt tightly with resolve.

I remembered the image duel I had with the old Sword Emperor a few days ago. The sparks flying when blades clashed. For setting a swordsman’s chest ablaze, that was more than enough.

The chest that usually remained cold now heated up like red-hot metal at the thought of swinging a blade.

‘I might even grow attached to a monster at this rate.’

Shaking my head with a hollow laugh, I looked ahead. Even though it was humanity’s enemy, I wanted to cross weapons with Minotauros with everything I had.

“Mooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

As if answering my state of mind, Minotauros raised its jaw and let out a great roar. Heated breath steamed from its nostrils.

The twin monsters each lowered the points of their spearheads as well. Their movements were slow, yet the ground gouged deeply beneath them.

Srrrk.

“You must’ve been bored all this time, so I’ll play with you longer than usual.”

The pointed blade of a sashimi knife. Light gathered on the blade in the torchlight and burst out like sparks. I shut my eyes tight and steadied my breathing in short bursts.

[The Blessing of the Sword God manifests.]

A cool-headed female voice echoed by my ear, and my half-open eyes slowly lifted.

++++++++++++++++++++++

《Might God’s blessing be with you.》

++++++++++++++++++++++

Next, Speed Weapon’s melody stabbed at my eardrums like needles.

* * *

Kang Geom-ma’s face twisted violently with pain. An agony like having his lungs pierced through. He swallowed back the blood-tinged phlegm rising into his throat.

He wanted to spit out a scream of suffering, but he stopped at merely trembling lips.

A single instant of an opening determined life or death. Kang Geom-ma forced strength into his eyes and opened them wide.

“…Haa.”

White breath escaped through the gaps of his teeth. Minotauros facing him also blew hot air out through its nose ring.

The heat emitted by man and monster gradually filled the chamber. Air mixed with intellect and savagery settled calmly downward.

Ppiririririk.

The sound of Speed Weapon’s recorder rang out, announcing the start of the duel.

Even with the Blessing of Pain Reduction manifesting, the pain still scraped through his insides. But Kang Geom-ma lifted his head and grinned. Rather, the excruciating agony boring through his entire body made him feel that he was alive.

“Mooooeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

The bull king let out a resounding battle cry. After striking the ground hard with the butt of its weapon, it charged at Kang Geom-ma. It was the movement of a beast. In rhythm with the pounding of its hooves, the torches hanging on the walls shook violently.

Pat-bat.

Kang Geom-ma also dashed forward, arms hanging loose at his sides.

He was not as fast as usual. But his movements were freer than ever before.

Once the Blessing of Painlessness was removed, the dormant sense of battle awakened his tactile instincts. The hilt coiled into his palm. The corners of Kang Geom-ma’s mouth rose a little further.

Kwa-dududuk.

The Cow King’s axe slammed down fiercely. Kang Geom-ma avoided it by twisting only his upper body slightly to the side. Only a handful of black hair cut by the wind pressure drifted slowly away.

Kang Geom-ma swung the arm carrying the inertia of his twisted upper body. The arc of the Slender Moon targeted the monster’s arm.

Kkadeudeuk.

The Cow King raised the angle of the shaft to block the blade, then counterattacked Kang Geom-ma with the sharpened edge. The savage axe blade passed through a moment later.

The monster’s dynamic vision pursued the human. The human shadow undulating in empty space. Having leapt up, Kang Geom-ma curled his body and came in harder, adding propulsion.

The savage noise of metal gnawing at metal. The human sword strokes cutting in from bizarre angles. Even when it turned its eyes toward the direction the sound came from, all the beast could do was chase Kang Geom-ma’s shadow.

Kkang.

The heavy two arms blocking the sword strike trembled. There was a weight to it that it could not believe came from a human only half its own size. Thick blood vessels bulged up on the beast’s arms.

“Mooe!”

The Cow King snorted shortly, then swung its shaft and forced Kang Geom-ma back.

The blades that had been tangled like vines separated and flew apart. Even to the beast’s eyes, Kang Geom-ma’s motion as he rolled to absorb the impact looked like acrobatics.

The Cow King thrust its axe out far. A strike making use of the difference in reach born from weapon and physique. The intellect of a monster was being added to the savagery that hungered for battle.

The axe blade gleaming wickedly drove deep into the floor. Whenever the beast’s muscles twitched, the ground shook.

Kwa-gang.

Dust rose from the aftermath of the impact. The Cow King quickly rolled its eyes to secure its vision.

“Moo, moo?!”

Kang Geom-ma was standing crookedly, gently stepping on the shaft like a snake coiled up. The bright bovine eyes opened wide. The pupils watching from the side opened wide as well.

“Good grief.”

Saki Ryozo muttered after catching a glimpse of Kang Geom-ma’s fierce battle.

At that instant, Left Ox Minister and Right Ox Minister’s spearheads traced crescent arcs and came flying in to exploit the gap. She bent her waist and dodged the blow, then loosed arrows while aiming for the dead angles in their sight.

Piyung. Piyung.

In a single instant, she calculated the airflow created by the heat, the weight of the air, and the refraction caused by the light, then converted all of it into motion.

The arrows nocked on her string at intervals attacked the enemies’ vital points accurately, without waste.

They were by no means easy monsters, but when meticulous calculation was combined with the S-rank weapon Red Bow White Arrow, the enemies could not recover their rhythm. In no time, the monsters ended up covered in arrows like porcupines.

“Whew, this side is mostly finished.”

As a moment of leeway came, Saki wiped her sweat and turned her gaze toward Kang Geom-ma. Soon her irises opened round.

Surely, she had thought Kang Geom-ma would deal with Minotauros through that superhuman speed.

But instead, he had slowed down and was overwhelming the monster with pure personal strength. Naturally, a human’s physical power should not even compare to a monster’s claw.

Then how was it that under Kang Geom-ma’s power, the monster’s body was gradually beginning to tilt?

Precision of skill taken to the extreme.

His sword strokes, making use of muscle usage, posture, step width, and positional energy, persistently targeted nothing but weak points and collapsed the enemy’s center of gravity.

Even if the enemy was a monster, it was still a mammal. It could not fully exert its strength in the direction its joints were being twisted. Proof of that was the way Minotauros’s huge body was staggering while receiving Kang Geom-ma’s attacks.

Still, all of that was merely theory. The gap between theory and actual combat was as wide as heaven and earth.

Besides, even masters with abundant real combat experience tended to lose their composure in life-and-death situations where each second mattered. Experience was what dulled that wavering of the mind.

And as far as Saki Ryozo knew, there was only one person who came close to that.

“…Sword Emperor Siegfried.”

Saki Ryozo muttered softly. The rumor from a few days earlier, that Kang Geom-ma had sparred with the Sword Emperor. According to what people said, the Sword Emperor had even flared his aura against a mere cadet. Her mind spun quickly.

As she thought that, the ideas drifting around in her head slowly began fitting themselves together.

‘No way….’

Saki Ryozo’s pupils widened as she stared at Kang Geom-ma.

Kang Geom-ma adjusted his grip tightly on the hilt. The foot stepping on the shaft slid forward.

The monster thought.

The human was no weakling. He was the worthy rival it had waited for through the long years, no, something beyond even that. The Cow King opened its mouth wide. Its neatly lined herbivore teeth gleamed white.

In the Cow King’s bright bovine eyes, Kang Geom-ma’s figure was reflected like a mirror. The crimson glow stretching long.

At the sight of a demon holding a sword, instinct made the monster’s massive body stiffen for an instant.

Driven into a corner, the Cow King instinctively threw a punch. It had no sharp claws, but its power was enough that if it merely grazed an ordinary creature, it would tear a wind-hole through it.

Kang Geom-ma moved his wrist and raised his blade upright. He did not avoid the incoming fist. The keen blade advanced toward that fearsome straight punch.

Slash.

The chill of the blade passed straight through vertically. The red wound cut through the heavy fist and continued all the way to the monster’s shoulder.

Then, when Kang Geom-ma pulled the blade embedded in flesh back out, the Cow King’s arm opened wide like a flower bud.

“Moomoooh!”

The Cow King opened its maw wide and screamed. A primitive emotion that numbed reason. Fear seeped into the monster’s body.

Kang Geom-ma turned slightly and swept his eyes over the state of the battle.

Sweat beaded on the forehead of Speed Weapon, who was frantically blowing his recorder. His complexion was visibly pale. The color of his pursed lips was bluish.

And Chloe had her katana buried in Right Ox Minister’s neck. Right Ox Minister let out a short snort and coughed up blood. When she pulled the blade free, a vivid spray of blood burst from the monster’s neck.

“…Geom-ma.”

Chloe looked toward Kang Geom-ma. She bit down lightly on her lower lip.

The sight of Kang Geom-ma wearing out his own body as he fought the enemy. Warm streams of tears ran down along her cheeks.

Saki Ryozo, who had been looking at Chloe’s profile, also drew in a deep breath. Something she could not understand welled up from deep inside her.

Kang Geom-ma glanced backward and gave a faint smile. At that sight, Saki Ryozo felt the area around her chest grow ticklish.

With one hand, Minotauros violently yanked the axe embedded in the ground back out. As though the next strike would be its final blow.

“Mooooeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

After letting out a roar to gather its momentum, it raised the ominous horns growing from its temples. Its appearance was bristling with viciousness.

“Kang Geom-ma! Finish it!”

Saki Ryozo’s lips moved on their own. Her usual languid manner was nowhere to be seen.

Kang Geom-ma shut his eyes tight, then slowly raised his eyelids. At that, the fiercely blazing flames all began dying down at once.

“Haa.”

Kang Geom-ma exhaled a hot breath, letting warm vapor spill out. Weapon, who had been playing the recorder with all his might, nearly lost the melody at the changed atmosphere around Kang Geom-ma.

‘This is different from before.’

Unlike his usual preparatory posture of pressing down with his upper body, he was standing with his waist straight, gripping the hilt firmly.

The flames that had been burning so vigorously on the walls were suddenly snuffed out in the cold wind sweeping through the chamber.

Darkness descended in an instant. Even in the chill silence that followed, Kang Geom-ma simply held Murasame straight and steadied his breathing.

The wind reversed direction. An artificial pressure weighing down on the whole chamber. Their shoulders grew heavy.

Then a blue flame rose up, illuminating the vacant eyes staring on.

Fwoosh.

And against the backdrop of vision dyed black, a surreal energy began to sway.

From the sashimi knife wrapped in aura burst a lonely sword-note.