…Derek still couldn’t understand.
What on earth did the knight see to believe his words?
No, even if he did believe him, how could he fight so wholeheartedly?
‘It would have been easier to run away….’
Anyone thrown into this situation.
If faced with such a giant, would tremble in fear and run away first.
That is the natural order of things.
Yet, far from giving up, he was now standing on the most dangerous frontline, swinging his sword.
What on earth made him so desperate…
so brave?
- Huh? You don't know such a simple answer? You really are quite the empty-headed smart aleck.
…And, the one who provided the answer to this was a girl whom amethyst eyes suited well.
- It's not because he's brave that he fights. When a person has something to protect, and a moment comes where they cannot run away, they are divided into one of two: either they give up and end their life, or they struggle. And the person you mentioned is probably the latter, except he's not someone who struggles ordinarily—
“-He resists with all his might.”
Derek recalled the words of the wisest and most trustworthy girl he knew as he watched the battle between the human and the monster.
That fierce and desperate battle, that is.
Watching this.
“Princess, it seems I am the only one struggling, and that person is just…”
Just brave, it seems.
Derek muttered softly and collapsed as his stamina ran out completely, and even as he fell, he kept his eyes wide open and prayed.
‘Please, let it be of even the slightest help.’
“…Status window?”
In an instant, Yihan felt it.
The presence of countless flower petals pouring down from the sky.
And he felt it once again.
The resolve of the grey-haired boy who poured out his desire from behind him, who desperately mustered his courage.
Feeling this clearly, he...
[[Haaaa!!!]]
With a powerful fighting spirit and a lion's roar, he swung his sword even more viciously.
For a moment, the Ghost King was flustered by Yihan's resounding lion's roar and heavy strike, and the Ghost King stepped back.
Yihan had now made the giant-like Ghost King retreat entirely with a strike imbued with his fighting spirit.
An achievement akin to an ant making a human step back.
But he hadn't made the bastard step back for the sake of such an achievement.
Since the coward he thought was timid had mustered courage for the first time, he was merely lending a hand so that courage could be rewarded.
Like so.
Thudududududuk-!
Countless needles resembling flower petals poured down onto the ground.
Pabababat!
Hidden weapons in the shape of flower petals densely filled the air, bursting forth as large needles rained down like a downpour.
Roughly ten thousand, or perhaps even more.
However, the needles did not target the humans.
Even if they were to target humans, the needles, imbued with a gentleness that wouldn't harm a person's body, solely targeted the monsters harboring evil demonic nature.
“*Man Tian Hua Yu*….”
It was a magnificent sight that unconsciously brought to mind the secret ultimate technique of the Saqing Tang Family, the hegemon of Sichuan in the turbulent Jianghu, the renowned house of poison and hidden weapons.
Sure enough.
[[Ugh... Ugh!!]]
[Ga…?!]
[!!?!]
[Aaaa…!]
Its power was also nothing short of a spectacle.
The needles pouring down like a rain shower were aimed solely at the monsters, killing them painfully.
Not only did they target the bastards fighting the cadets, but they also poured down on the Ghost King, crushing its skull, piercing its neck, and shredding its heart and back.
Truly a Claymore exploding from the sky.
But one point better than a Claymore.
"Bastard, he was hiding a ridiculous cheat skill."
Uung.
Yihan felt his body ease up the moment the needles hit him.
It meant his stamina and injuries had recovered a little.
He guessed it was probably a buff effect.
Death to enemies, a buff to allies.
Where else could one find such a cheat skill?
Of course.
‘It's not without its flaws.’
He sensed the presence of the collapsed Taechang.
He must have exhausted all his strength immediately after unleashing *Man Tian Hua Yu*.
Use it once and it's over; it was a skill with terrible cost-effectiveness.
‘It's enough.’
It played its role sufficiently.
What he gave was the time to catch his breath and a momentary respite.
A help like a light rain during a drought that barely arrived in the midst of a breathless chaotic battle.
He couldn't be more satisfied.
But what he liked even more was.
[[━━]]
"Does it hurt? Too bad, what are you gonna do?"
[[??]]
"Looks like there's one more left?"
Swooooosh!
As soon as Yihan's words ended, the waters of the lake surged up.
A water stream soaring high as if an imugi was about to ascend to the heavens after completing its training.
Even he probably wouldn't be able to handle it if he got caught in that water stream.
To that extent, the water stream was threatening and overwhelming.
"Don't bully our instructor!"
Irene Windler.
The highest tier of this generation, a talent whose actual value was higher than even Loen's.
The girl with the talent to become the archmage of the century unfolded her magic.
"[O water, be enraged, O water, rotate, O water stream, pierce my enemies, become bars and judge them]."
A water magic infused with a massive amount of mana.
However, the ghost girl hovering by Irene Windler's side, to this powerful magic...
[O wind, blow, become one with the water, become a guillotine that pierces the enemy.]
Hwiiiiing!
Combined an extra-large wind magic.
Dual incantation.
Not only did she possess two attributes, but it was possible thanks to the help of a certain ghost protecting the girl's back.
The miraculous moment of an individual simultaneously using two attributes.
"N-no way."
Irene's magic was so absurd that Oddwal screamed.
To the eyes of other magicians, it was nothing less than a talent and mystery that transcended cognition.
And that disaster-like magic...
"Go!"
Headed towards the monster that had tormented the girl's precious person.
What was created was a small [waterspout].
However, small as it might be, a waterspout was still a waterspout, and the moment that waterspout pounced on the Ghost King...
Kwaang!!
The Ghost King fell silent.
"...That chick next door, looking at it now, it wasn't a chick but a phoenix chick."
Yihan spat out a lament mixed with admiration.
As if he hadn't expected to receive such great help from a spellcaster.
An unconscious derogatory remark toward spellcasters came out, but Yihan was genuinely grateful for now.
Thanks to the girl making an effort, he was able to buy a little more time.
And utilizing this time, which was as precious as a thousand pieces of gold...
'The kids are giving it their all, can't look lame.'
He decided to take out the 'trump card' he had prepared.
* * *
- The small waterspout bound the Ghost King.
The massive mass and flow of water compressed by mana was a law no creature could defy.
In fact, the Ghost King couldn't move an inch due to the magic, and it was as if he was trapped behind narrow bars and subjected to water torture.
[[-----.]]
The rotating water bars not only kept the Ghost King trapped, but also inflicted wounds with their strong rotational force, seemingly aiming to completely grind its body away.
A mixer.
That was nothing short of a mixer made of water.
Once caught, one could never escape, until their entire body was ground away...
In other words, death was the only way out, and it was a powerful, overwhelming force that couldn't be considered as something an individual could unleash.
But the problem was...
[Irene, just hang in there a little more!]
"Eughhh!"
No matter what, sustaining a magic of this scale was an extremely difficult task.
Irene's whole body was already trembling, and she was on the verge of fainting.
If she hadn't been forced to do stamina-enhancement training after meeting Yihan, she wouldn't have been able to hold out at all and would have collapsed right there.
[As expected, stamina is national power!]
'Is this the time to say that!'
Irene felt like she was going to go crazy right then and there.
No!? How on earth was the instructor fighting this monster!
'He's crazy! This is a real monster!'
Its resistance was no joke.
No, putting resistance aside, that monster...
Coooo!
Was trying to go against the waterspout.
Kung! Kuung!
So what if its body gets ground away?
Even if its body was pulverized, it would just regenerate, and as if saying that even if the water was heavy, it could just break through with strength.
That guy was just that.
A bastard who solved most of the world's impossible problems not with his head, but with an excessively powerful body!
One step, one step.
Like a horror movie, the bastard was escaping the waterspout and trying to pounce on her.
As if promising to definitely pay back what it suffered.
"I, I'm dyinggg!"
[Irene-?!]
Irene reached her limit and her eyes rolled back.
Now any more...
Thud.
"You worked hard."
"...Instructor?"
"Thank you, I'll repay this debt later."
"……."
Irene forgot her fatigue and looked at him.
The moment he conveyed his gratitude along with encouragement, she felt a sense of relief.
A sense of relief that it was okay to faint like this.
Therefore.
"Y-you have to buy me an expensive meal later..."
"I promise."
"I-it really has to be expensive..."
Hehe.
The girl let out a carefree laugh and collapsed just like that.
Looking straight into his confident eyes.
Thump...
She wasn't as light as a feather, but catching the girl who felt almost weightless, Yihan slowly laid her down.
It was quite a gentlemanly posture.
But his fierce eyes were still fixed on the Ghost King.
Grrrrr!
With the sound of scraping a chalkboard, he saw the bastard breaking through the weakened waterspout.
It was a force that explained why it was treated as a living natural disaster.
"I admit it. You are strong."
Yihan had devised countless means until this day came.
The Gwanilchang containing explosives.
A large harpoon.
Up to the assistance of a skill he unexpectedly got help from, and the help of a magician.
...Even after using all these means, the bastard still didn't die.
He admitted it.
That bastard was strong, and wasn't a monster that a weakling like himself could beat.
But.
"I will subdue you."
Even if he couldn't kill it, he could subdue it.
It might seem like an absurd declaration, but he by no means spouted empty words.
Tu, tuk.
Yihan's body slowly rotated.
A limp movement.
A languid face and not even a trace of strength in his entire body.
A forceless sword stance, entirely different from his hitherto spirited appearance.
'This is enough for now.'
Yet, his eyes were clearer than ever, and his concentration was peaked.
The enlightenment Yihan had gained the day before by relentlessly swinging a pickaxe without rest at the quarry was one thing.
That 'strength' did not necessarily come only by applying force.
It was a paradox, and one might think it was nonsense.
But from what he had realized, power did not necessarily mean what the flesh possessed.
'Power is everywhere.'
There is power in the rotating airflow or the blowing wind, and there is power in the sound of songs and instruments.
The same went for pickaxing.
The pickaxe swings 'back then' were the weakest pickaxe swings in Yihan's life.
But that pickaxe had somehow cleaved the rock like a knife with a blue-sharp edge.
It didn't break it, it cleaved it.
A feat achieved because he had instantaneously spent all the power the pickaxe itself possessed, the power of the thing called iron.
It wasn't a grand concept like 'Man and Sword as One'.
He just felt like he understood.
That the weapon he held was, in fact, a sharper and more powerful weapon.
And that enlightenment...
Hwarak!
Formed Sword Qi.
Sword Qi Manifestation.
A new milestone in the Aura method that Loen had shown.
However, if the Sword Qi Loen had shown was oppressive and a Sword Qi forcibly raised by combining various elements and innate talent, Yihan's Sword Qi was not like that.
It merely emitted the potential held by the sword, the lump of iron.
Though the principle was similar to Lightness, having come to understand the sword more deeply, the sword responded to its master's will, and the Sword Qi swayed like a ray of light, and finally—
Hwak!
─Bloomed into a flower.
[[???]]
Once again, an optical illusion occurred in the eyes of the Ghost King, who had barely escaped the waterspout.
What is this?
[...A flower?]
Yes, it was a flower.
Something entirely different from the flower-shaped needles just now...
It was a flower in the truest sense.
But it was not a flower fit to bloom in this season.
Because it resembled the petals of a fruit tree that blooms lavishly and vanishes in the spring days.
...A moment of blossoming that went against the season, making one wonder if the trickster had played another trick.
And the bloomed petals were just like...
"-I couldn't do the Liuhe Sword Art, but I could bloom a plum blossom. Strangely enough."
That's right.
That flower resembled a spring day's plum blossom.
* * *
[[…….]]
The Ghost King didn't even think to avoid the Sword Qi that resembled flower petals.
The beautifully bloomed Sword Qi possessed a bewitching quality that stole the gaze of even the King of Monsters.
Beautiful.
It was merely a flower bloomed from Sword Qi, but those watching it felt unfamiliarity and mystery.
None of the bastards who had attacked it a thousand years ago had shown it such a thing.
Thus, the Ghost King was bewitched by the plum blossom that bloomed out of season as summer approached, and just like that.
Puk.
[[?]]
It had to blankly watch the petals pierce its flesh and enter inside.
"It won't be weak."
He muttered with a haggard face.
As if he had used everything he had this time.
Crumbles...
The sword that had bloomed the Sword Qi reached the end of its life and scattered as dust.
Everything required a price, and the sword had fulfilled its role for its master.
Likewise, by blooming the flower, he too didn't even have the energy to lift a finger.
Because this was that kind of technique.
But with a satisfied expression.
"It's quite a decent piece of work, isn't it?"
Puk!
Pupuk!
Puuuk-!
He admired the piece of work he had bloomed,
the petals digging into the Ghost King's body.
[[!!!!!]]
The Ghost King's body flipped over.
With a thud, it rolled on the ground and spewed out a scream.
It hadn't shown such a dramatic reaction to any attack until now, but it had no choice now.
The petals of the Sword Qi minutely pierced through its skin and dug into every nook and cranny of its body.
They wandered all over its organs, repeating the process of stabbing, cutting, and burrowing.
For a living creature with a sense of pain, enduring that was an impossible feat.
It must be seeing hell by now.
"...I told you, I'd subdue you."
As expected, he couldn't kill it with that.
Because that regeneration was beyond foul play; it was akin to a mystery.
But as much as it had regeneration, it would hurt.
He had learned what the pain of a blade endlessly wandering inside was like when he was tortured by a mage in his youth.
After going through that, one's stamina would be completely depleted, and they wouldn't even think of standing up.
...Well, unfortunately.
[[You... you... trick...]]
Kung...!
It seemed common sense didn't apply to the bastard.
The Ghost King rose again eerily, and Yihan smiled bitterly.
They said it was immortal; was its stamina infinite too?
'My stamina hit rock bottom after going through that, damn monster bastard...'
He was genuinely terrified.
Its persistence put cockroaches to shame.
"......I lost, you bastard."
Yihan readily admitted his defeat.
That bastard was a monster that the current him couldn't beat, before it was even a demonic creature.
A transcendent lifeform, a monster.
A natural disaster, a Demon King.
It was a monster deserving of all these titles, and thus, the ancient kingdom must have perished.
Kung, kuung!
[[I'll... kill you!!]]
The Ghost King came to eat him with intense emotion, and Yihan, unable to lift a finger, leaned his body against a tree and looked at the bastard calmly.
Fortunately, it didn't lay a hand on Irene or Derek nearby, or even the fish in the lake, and solely focused on him. Geez.
"...Do you want to eat me that badly?"
[[Grrr!!!]]
Its eyes gleamed with blood, as if asking why he even bothered to ask, and Yihan smirked.
He was popular with weird things, after all.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Eating something like me won't even fill your stomach, you know?"
[[Kill...]]
"Seeing as how that guy only keeps saying he'll kill, he must have heard the words 'I'll kill you' so often that he learned it. What do you think, old man?"
[[……?]]
...It was a fleeting moment when he realized something was off.
Who was this lowly creature conversing with?
When such a question arose.
"-You've created another bizarre technique. But it was quite decent. If it's perfected, even I wouldn't have an easy time facing it, hehe."
...Since when had he been here?
"Aren't you too late?"
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't just leave the castle empty carelessly."
"Good grief. A person was about to die here."
"I believed in you."
"Bullshit! You speak so smoothly."
"Haha! You don't believe me even when I speak sincerely. How unfair."
The two conversed peacefully, and the Ghost King was pushed to the sidelines before he knew it.
[[GAA!!]]
The Ghost King roared in fury.
As if asking how dare they ignore it.
However, paying no mind to the Ghost King's anger...
"That fellow is quite dull. His life has already ended, so why does he have so much lingering attachment-?"
...It tried to move forward, but the Ghost King had no legs.
Slice-!
No, they were in a 'severed' state.
Separated legs.
However, it wasn't just the legs that were separated.
Slash! Slash-!
[[G……r…!]]
Its neck was also falling off along with them.
The Ghost King glared, still unable to comprehend what had happened to it.
It wasn't that it couldn't close its eyes out of resentment, but simply that it hadn't even registered that it had been slashed.
The Ghost King...!
[[[-----.]]]
Without even the time to spew out a death wail, the vitality in its eyes simply faded away.
So emptily...
"...I don't know why everyone calls me a monster."
When the man before his eyes was the true monster.
Yihan was utterly overwhelmed by his skill, unable to even see when he had swung his sword.
The Ghost King was being carved into pieces, and he shook his head.
Thinking that beating that human was so impossible that it would only be possible in the far distant future.
Baltar Grace.
The strongest knight of the kingdom and a superhuman.
Appearing in an era with Aura Users, which did not exist in the ancient kingdom a thousand years ago, was the Ghost King's only fatal flaw.
Empty yet overwhelming.
It was the conclusion of the Monster Raid.