Chapter 44

Chapter 44. Bloody Battle in the Night (1)

In a clearing within the dense forest, where the sunset had fallen and darkness was settling, a sudden commotion broke out in the campsite where several tents had been pitched. It was because the order to prepare to move had been given the moment they had finished preparing camp.

“Everyone, stop what you are doing! Close down the campsite immediately and move!”

“We are moving? Now?”

“That is right. Hurry up and move!”

“Sir Knight, it is already dark. We are starting to lose sight of things. And you want us to move?”

“It cannot be helped. The enemy has appeared. Stop talking and prepare quickly.”

“Pardon? The enemy?”

“There is no time for idle words. Do you want to die for disobeying orders?”

“U-understood. We just have to move, do we not?”

With puzzled looks, the expedition members stopped what they were doing and began packing up the campsite all at once. However, their speed was not fast, and their movements were extremely disorganized.

That was understandable. They had finally reached a point where they could rest, and their tension had eased. Some were filling their stomachs by tearing into hard meat, others had taken off their damp shoes for a while and were drying their feet by the campfire, and others had already lain down inside the tents and fallen asleep, snoring loudly.

And in such a situation, enemies had suddenly appeared, so they were told to close down the camp and prepare for battle immediately?

Naturally, their response could only be slow.

Balun could not simply stand there and watch his comrades like that.

“Get up. Now.”

“Balun?”

“If you do not get up, I will split your head. Should I split it?”

“A-all right. I am moving.”

Balun ran here and there, kicking the expedition members’ backsides one by one and growling. Thanks to that, their sluggish reactions became somewhat faster.

Of course, that was still all it amounted to. Recovering loosened tension quickly was extremely difficult.

If they had seen the enemies right before their eyes, the story might have been different, but right now, there were no enemies visible before them.

Their senses were not sharp enough to detect faint Killing Intent. Even the three knights, including Roton, had only just detected the presence of Killing Intent, so what more needed to be said?

Balun knew that well too, so he did not scold them any further. If they still could not come to their senses after he had growled at them this much, he could consider it as them wishing for death.

Balun immediately went to find Gregory. Gregory was sitting on a rock in a corner of the campsite with his eyes half-open, his lips moving.

When Balun approached, Gregory opened his eyes. Balun sat down beside him and asked.

“What were you doing?”

“I was preparing to fight.”

“By mumbling?”

“Yes. It is called Memorize. It is a Mage’s combat method.”

“A combat method. It seems you still have strength left to fight.”

“I am not in normal condition, but that does not mean I can only ask for help, does it?”

Gregory’s tone was calm. However, Balun could feel the bitter emotion hidden within it.

That was understandable. He was not in normal condition.

According to Gregory himself, he was not an especially powerful Mage, but he was not someone with insignificant skill either. After all, he had been in the Blue Magic Tower for more than ten years.

How powerless must such a person feel now that he could no longer use proper magic?

Balun had never experienced the helplessness that came from being unable to fully exert one’s abilities, so he did not know what it felt like. However, he could certainly tell that the self-reproach caused by that helplessness must be considerable.

“How much magic can you use?”

“My mana is seething. I am trying hard to control it, but if I use powerful magic in my current state, the risk of mana going berserk will increase.”

No, do not explain it in such a difficult way. Say it simply.

“If your full strength is ten-tenths, how many tenths can you use right now?”

“Hmm, it depends on the situation.”

“Then I will ask this way. If you do not cause that berserk thing or whatever, how many tenths?”

“Four-tenths.”

At those words, Balun groaned softly. Mana Poison seemed to be quite vicious. To think Gregory could only use forty percent of his strength.

And that was probably after diligently controlling his power.

Balun had seen it. Ever since they escaped the underground dungeon, Gregory had used every spare moment to try to normalize his body.

“I wish you luck. I hope you survive.”

“Are you worrying about me?”

“Of course. You are a good man.”

‘You have to survive so you can pay me, you know.’

Not knowing Balun’s true thoughts, Gregory laughed faintly.

“Why are you laughing?”

“It is nothing. I just remembered the situation before I met Lord Balun.”

“What kind of situation was it?”

“When I had just heard about Lord Balun. To be honest, I looked down on you.”

Gregory continued.

“I thought I only needed to coax a Barbarian properly. I intended to somehow lure you into acting for the benefit of the Blue Tower. But things did not go as I expected.”

“I see.”

“Instead, I have only received help from Lord Balun. Not only did I receive extreme goodwill, but I even came to owe you my life.”

‘Goodwill?’

Leaving aside the matter of his life, what goodwill?

‘I never did something like that.’

Balun did not even remember that he himself had said things like they were comrades and friends.

Had he not just done it again?

He had said, You are a good man.

“What meaning is there in hiding my true feelings after coming this far? I simply wanted to speak honestly.”

“You are being pointlessly sentimental. Is it because you are about to die?”

“I am simply saying that. That I am grateful. And why would I die? I intend to live a long life.”

“Oh, Balun is the same. We think alike.”

Balun grinned and rose.

When he immediately turned his steps outside the campsite, Gregory asked.

“Where are you going?”

“To fight.”

“Pardon?”

“For Balun, acting alone is right. That gives the highest chance of victory.”

Gregory stared at Balun with a dumbfounded expression.

Balun’s face was utterly serious.

“You and the knights command the troops.”

“...”

“I wish you good fortune. Let us meet alive.”

Gregory watched Balun’s back as he abruptly left, then soon laughed faintly and stood up with his staff.

***

Through countless battles and wars, there was one realization Balun had personally learned.

The first strike wins. That was truth.

This time too, in order to put that truth he had learned firsthand into practice, Balun took his axe and headed out into the forest beyond the campsite.

The forest had become quite dark before he knew it, since the sunset had almost completely faded. It was clear that if another thirty minutes passed from now, it would become almost impossible to see.

‘The darker it gets, the more disadvantageous it becomes. So moving now is right.’

If he had his way, he would have acted together with the expedition members, but he knew well that he could not.

After all, even Balun was not confident that he could win a war while dragging along forty-two useless people.

Fortunately, they had three experienced knights and a Mage named Gregory, so at the very least, they would not meet an end like moths flying into a flame.

Forcing himself to ignore his heartbeat, which had begun pounding, Balun walked. In the forest, where only the quiet cries of insects rang out, the sound of him stepping on grass was especially loud, but Balun had no intention of reducing his footsteps.

It was because he knew he would be discovered quickly even if he acted stealthily.

Of course, Balun had carried out many surprise operations before. He even had some confidence in them. But this was not that kind of situation.

Judging from the Killing Intent he felt from all directions, the enemies had clearly already surrounded them in a circle.

What meaning was there in a rat trapped inside a jar moving quietly? It was better to struggle with all one’s strength. Only then could one escape from the jar, or perhaps break the jar itself.

‘It is that way.’

Balun stopped walking. There was a place where the Killing Intent felt especially dense. It meant an enemy was somewhere in that direction.

Of course, he could not see them. Not only was the distance far, but darkness had also fallen. On top of that, there was the environmental characteristic of dense, overgrown trees.

It was extremely easy to hide in an environment like this. Somewhere in that direction, those Assassin bastards or whatever they were must be hiding. Like camouflaged snipers.

Then where was the enemy?

Balun did not know that either, but he did not particularly need to know.

If he did not know where the enemy was, he only had to make them reveal themselves.

“Huuup!”

Balun inhaled with all his might. Air filled his lungs, and his chest swelled. Balun put strength into his legs and stomped the ground with all his might.

THUD!

With a tremendous roar, a shockwave spread in a circle, and the earth immediately shook violently. Feeling that tremor, Balun stared intensely in the direction where he felt the Killing Intent.

And he found it.

Beneath three trees in a diagonal direction to his right, the undergrowth was shaking especially violently.

‘Found you.’

Balun grinned, put strength into his right arm, took out a hand axe, and threw it without hesitation.

SWISH!

Strength beyond that of a human filled the axe, and it flew in a straight line, splitting the wind.

SPLAT!

It struck the undergrowth.

The moment he saw something like watery pieces of flesh scatter everywhere with the sound of a watermelon bursting,

‘That is it!’

Balun cheered inwardly and immediately ran.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The strength in his legs had not yet faded, so the ground rang beneath him. As he made a roar like the footsteps of a dinosaur, Balun shouted thunderously.

“You rats! I will split you all apart!”

Then he felt the faint Killing Intent sharpen. The Assassins, who had been hiding and sneaking closer, had revealed their presence.

In that instant, a sharp sensation pricked at his skin. The feeling was so stinging that even Balun flinched.

‘Wow. This is no joke.’

One after another, men in black revealed themselves. They rose from the bushes, appeared smoothly as the empty air wavered, and dropped from trees before landing, revealing themselves in all sorts of ways.

When he counted them, there were thirteen in total.

Their eyes met, and Balun’s face hardened. There were fewer than the twenty-one from last time, but the problem was that these were not all of them.

They were only a portion of the Killing Intent that had filled every direction.

Moreover,

Their Killing Intent was thicker than that of the previous ones.

In other words, these men had committed more murders than the twenty-one Assassins he had faced before.

• What is this? Is this one from the expedition too?
• It seems so. According to the report, there was one Barbarian mixed into the expedition.
• Then this must be him.
• What should we do?
• Have you forgotten that our principle is to kill all witnesses? We leave no trace. That is why we are Black Moon.
• That is true, but we also received orders to investigate, did we not? We were told to find out how all the Third-Class Assassins were wiped out.

A conversation continued in the darkness. It used Message Magic, a secret conversation that others could not hear.

Naturally, Balun could not hear it either, but Balun was sharp. Balun noticed that the men in black were exchanging some kind of communication with one another.

• It does not matter. Kill him. Since the curtain has been revealed, there is no answer except killing all witnesses anyway.
• Yes, squad leader.
• Our approach was discovered, but in any case, all of them should be poisoned by Mana Poison. They managed to survive somehow, but they are still weakened. There is no reason we cannot kill bastards like that...

SWISH!

The man in black stopped speaking. It was because Balun had suddenly taken something from his waist and thrown it.

The man in black hurriedly raised his sword to block it. Ting! Ting! Small blades bounced off and fell to the ground.

They were daggers. Two daggers.

“Urgh!”

The man in black called squad leader groaned softly. The arm that had blocked them was trembling.

‘Insane. What kind of strength...’

That meant the force behind them was so powerful that it was hard to believe he had only blocked two small daggers.

“I will split you apart!”

Balun shouted thunderously and charged like an enraged rhinoceros, swinging his two-handed axe. In response to that threatening attack, three men in black drew their swords and blocked it.

CLANG!

Something astonishing happened. The three men in black who clashed against Balun’s axe lost their balance, staggered, and collapsed.

It was because the force was far too strong, and the men in black had not imagined that the Barbarian before them would be this powerful.

Of course, since he was a Barbarian, they had expected him to be strong. But this was excessive.

It felt as though they were facing not a human, but an Ogre.

No matter how much they were Second-Class Assassins of Black Moon, they could not deal with a situation like this. This had gone far beyond common sense.

In the end, their taciturn mouths opened.

“Impossible...!”

Balun tilted his head.

They had dropped their swords.

‘Are they idiots?’

Of course, they were not.

It was simply that Balun was a person who fought outside common sense, and they had not known in advance that such a person existed.

“Kahaha! If you dropped your swords, you have to die!”

Balun laughed loudly and swung his axe with all his strength. The black axe swung horizontally and split the three men in black, and the three masked heads flew into the air at the same time, scattering bright-red blood.