Ch.110The Edge of the World, the Outer Continent (4)

While pulling on the chain stake, Najin thought to himself. This was certainly an effective strategy. Befitting a unit that made wyvern hunting their profession, the tactics they devised were effective for hunting wyverns.

As creatures that inherited even a small portion of dragon’s blood, wyverns possessed high resistance and innate senses. It was no easy task to hit a wyvern with magic when they could perceive mana flow and perform evasive maneuvers in the air.

The same went for arrows shot from large ballistas. Not only were they difficult to hit with, but even when they did hit, they couldn’t inflict significant damage. Unless the archer had reached the level of a Sword Seeker, and such archers weren’t common, it couldn’t be a standard response.

‘So the strategy they chose is…’

Close combat using chain stakes.

Whether stepping on chains spread like spider webs to approach, or leaping forward to throw the stake, the goal was to get as close as possible to the wyvern before throwing the stake.

The target was the wyvern’s underbelly not covered by scales, or the membrane of its wings. Once successfully embedded, the next step was to use the chain’s recoil to launch upward. To mount the wyvern’s back.

A dangerous task requiring considerable skill.

But once successfully mounted, once the wyvern was within range of the blade in hand… from there, it was the domain of warriors like swordsmen.

Thunk.

Najin, who had climbed up the chain, grabbed the stake embedded in the wyvern’s belly. He didn’t need to observe the wyvern hunting unit’s movements to know what to do next. His combat experience thus far had taught him “how” to move.

Using his body’s momentum, Najin changed his posture. Like a bat hanging from a cave ceiling, he held the stake with one hand while placing both feet on the wyvern’s belly.

It was an unstable position, but that didn’t matter. He was about to establish balance. One hand gripped the stake. What would he do with his other empty hand? Najin was a swordsman. And a swordsman had only one job to do.

Squelch.

Najin thrust his reverse-gripped sword into the wyvern’s belly. The unscaled belly. The sword, wrapped in sword energy, penetrated deep into the wyvern’s belly with ease.

“———————!”

Blood sprayed with the wyvern’s scream.

But it was shallow. The wyvern’s belly was thick, and the sword was too short to stir its innards. It would take a long time to kill the wyvern by stabbing its belly, and it wasn’t easy to hang onto a thrashing, bleeding wyvern for long.

Above all, it wasn’t efficient.

With dozens of wyverns flying in the sky, this approach would be endless. Najin had no intention of dragging out such a war of attrition. The embedded sword was merely for balance.

Blood spraying, the wyvern beginning to thrash.

Ignoring this, Najin ran across the wyvern’s belly. More precisely, it was a series of leaps. Pulling out the embedded sword, stabbing it in again, repeating the same motion, Najin climbed the wyvern.

Tap.

Once his foot touched the wyvern’s scales after crossing its belly, it was over. Bumpy scales. There was no need to stab the sword anymore. Stepping between the scales, Najin instantly mounted the wyvern’s back.

“…!”

Najin’s eyes met those of the orc rider holding the wyvern’s reins. The wide-eyed orc gripped the reins with one hand and drew an axe from his back, but it was already too late.

Slash.

Najin’s sword flashed, and the orc’s head fell off. Kicking the orc’s corpse off to the ground, Najin exhaled briefly. Though the rider was gone, the wyvern continued to thrash wildly. Likely due to its torn belly.

‘Next…’

Najin looked at the wyvern’s scales.

Indeed, he could feel resistance from the glossy scales that disrupted sword energy. Though monster hide naturally possessed resistance, the resistance of the wyvern’s scales exceeded Najin’s expectations.

Ordinary sword strikes couldn’t inflict deep wounds. Having mainly faced humans until now, Najin wasn’t sure how to deal with such a massive creature.

But he didn’t need to ponder long. There was a clue nearby. Shifting his gaze, he saw a soldier not far away, mounted on a wyvern and swinging a blade. Najin observed how the soldier wielded his weapon.

Persistently jabbing at one spot, tearing off scales, opening the wound, then delivering a final blow to break the bone. After silently watching this process, Najin adjusted his grip on his sword.

Ka, kakakakak!

Sword energy wrapped in constellations flashed.

A red line was drawn from the wyvern’s spine to its nape, and blood sprayed upward. The wyvern’s movements grew more violent. It twisted its body in every direction, trying to throw Najin off, but…

Thunk!

With his sword embedded, Najin began running along the wyvern’s back. Scales were peeled off, and blood sprayed in all directions. When Najin twisted his sword, the wound opened, revealing bone. Ah, so that’s how it’s done.

The bone running from the wyvern’s spine to its nape.

Najin swung his sword at what would be the spine in a human. With a cracking sound, the bone broke, and something like blood vessels were severed along with it. At that moment, the wyvern’s movement abruptly stopped.

The immobilized wyvern fell. Jumping off the falling wyvern’s body, Najin spun the chain stake. With his new target nearby, there was no need to throw the stake far.

Having gotten the hang of it, Najin began to rampage.

2.

The commander of the wyvern hunting unit.

Gillette Reginpert was looking up at the sky with a dumbfounded expression. There, a single swordsman was demonstrating his presence.

“———————!”

The wyvern’s scream echoed across the battlefield.

A scream of agony. Spraying blood.

While a soldier would be praised for bringing down just one wyvern, that swordsman had already brought down his third. And showing no signs of stopping, he was moving on to find a new target.

‘What the hell is this guy doing?’

The youngest Sword Seeker, Najin.

The boy called by that name had brought down three wyverns and, far from being tired, seemed to be moving even faster. He would throw the chain stake, mount the wyvern’s body, and instantly slaughter it.

As if he’d gotten the hang of it.

Tearing off one wing with his sword, running along the spine, and severing the wyvern’s neck. While he had broken the spine of the first one, from the third one onward, he was killing them with a single blow by cutting off their heads.

‘That shouldn’t be so easy.’

Even for a Sword Seeker, penetrating a wyvern’s scales and severing its neck in one blow was by no means easy. Gillette was also a Sword Seeker, but unless he was extremely lucky, he couldn’t cut off a wyvern’s head in one strike.

Only if the sword happened to find a gap in the scales.

Only possible when the sword energy was in optimal condition.

Watching the boy perform such feats nonchalantly, Gillette let out a hollow laugh. He sensed something in that boy, something that Gillette, as a soldier who had been on battlefields for a long time, could perceive.

‘When you live on the battlefield.’

If you stay on the battlefield long enough, occasionally, very rarely, guys like him appear. Guys with something that’s hard to explain as mere talent. Guys with an innate sense for fighting, for combat itself.

Guys who choose the optimal move in every situation. Guys who intuitively find the answer without being taught. Guys who surpass the skills and judgment that ordinary people hone over years with a moment’s intuition.

Those who survived long on the battlefield were usually such people, and Gillette knew a few of them. With a bitter smile, Gillette muttered.

“Well, that’s quite humbling…”

Hard to learn. I’ll kick you out if you get in the way.

He had said such things, but they were utterly useless advice. After all, his opponent was an unparalleled genius who had even surpassed the record of that monstrous Sword Master.

An absurd guy had arrived.

Thinking this, Gillette looked up at the sky. By now, the wyvern unit was retreating.

3.

“Good work.”

After the battle concluded and they returned to the barracks, Najin looked at Gillette who had come to find him. Gillette awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and extended his hand to Najin.

“Thanks to you, our casualties were reduced, and the wyvern unit retreated faster than usual, which greatly helped maintain our front line. It’s all thanks to you.”

Najin shook Gillette’s outstretched hand.

After a brief handshake, Gillette smiled bitterly.

“You were really flying out there without anyone teaching you. You’re probably the only one who’s ever taken down five wyverns in their first battle. The soldiers were amazed.”

Pursuing the retreating wyvern unit, Najin had managed to bring down one more. The soldiers had burst into laughter watching the wyvern unit flee with their tails between their legs.

“How long did you say you’re staying?”

“About ten days, sir.”

“Right, ten days. To be honest, I’d love to recruit you for our army somehow, but… I doubt our army could claim a talent that even the Sword Masters couldn’t keep.”

Gillette shrugged.

“I’m Gillette Reginpert. I look forward to working with you for the next ten days.”

“I’m Najin. I look forward to working with you as well.”

Gillette’s gaze toward Najin had become friendly. Najin had proven his worth in the previous battle, and from a commander’s perspective, a capable soldier was someone to welcome with open arms.

Even if he was just a mercenary temporarily staying on the battlefield.

Though an outsider, Najin was recognized as a member of the wyvern hunting unit for the next ten days. The soldiers were also friendly toward him, and whenever they had free time, they taught Najin various techniques using the chain stake.

“Hold the middle of the chain like this. You don’t even need to embed the stake. Just wrap it around like this…”

“Like this?”

“Uh… huh?”

Seeing Najin master techniques after just being shown once or twice, some widened their eyes in surprise while others laughed in disbelief. Najin repaid them by immediately applying the techniques they taught him on the battlefield.

And so time passed.

Having grown accustomed to the battlefield and spent several days here, Najin suddenly spoke to Merlin.

‘This place isn’t that different from what I expected.’

When he first set foot on the Outer Continent, he had felt like it was a demonic realm where all sorts of monsters ran rampant… but after staying for a few days, it didn’t seem that different from the outside.

Of course, that’s excluding the constant feeling of constellations watching and battlefields spreading in all directions where fights broke out almost daily.

-This is just the outskirts.

Merlin briefly replied to Najin’s muttering.

-If you go a little further in, the feeling will be completely different. But it’s better not to go there now. It’s not a place you can handle yet without having a star.

Let’s just get a feel for things here and go back.

Merlin’s muttering didn’t particularly resonate with Najin. Hunting the infamous wyvern unit hadn’t been that difficult, and he hadn’t encountered any formidable opponents despite the Outer Continent’s notorious reputation.

-Well, that’s just because you’ve been lucky.

Merlin sighed at Najin’s monologue.

-Variables always come unexpectedly.

And.

Her ominous prophecy came true.

On the seventh day of his stay on the battlefield, Najin sensed something different from usual as he went out to battle as always. The enemy forces, the number of wyverns in the unit—something was different.

Fewer than usual.

Only minimal personnel had appeared on the battlefield.

It didn’t take long for the soldiers on the battlefield to realize why. The enemy had brought less than a tenth of their usual forces. Yet they were filled with confidence rather than fear.

The reason was simple.

Among them was someone who could more than make up for the lack of troops, someone who alone surpassed an army. A woman appeared in the middle of the scattered wyvern unit.

Long, flowing red hair.

Burning red eyes.

A woman floating in the air, riding a staff rather than a wyvern. Seven bright red circles rose behind her. The moment the soldiers understood that these were what magicians called rings or circles, the battlefield changed.

“Retreat, retreat!”

“Fall back! Magic unit, unit!”

“Aaaaargh!”

“Kirhov, call Lord Kirhov! Send a signal to him immediately! We need to bring him here!”

“Witch, it’s a witch! A witch has appeared!”

The battlefield was instantly thrown into chaos.

Commanders ordered retreat, and soldiers and knights began to fall back, forgetting even to maintain their formation. They had no choice. The woman who appeared on the battlefield was a nightmare etched in the soldiers’ memories.

Just to burn humans.

One who joined hands with demons and defected to the Demon Lord’s army.

The demons call her Glimmer.

Humanity calls her Witch.

-Witch of Glimmer.

Merlin’s voice echoed in Najin’s ears.

-Witch of Glimmer, Ermina.

The moment the witch appeared on the battlefield, everything was turned upside down. A single individual dominated the battlefield and controlled its flow. As allies retreated, Najin saw it.

Whoosh.

The seven circles floating behind the witch were burning. The circles rotating while engulfed in flames resembled rings of fire. The moment the flame-wrapped rings dyed the sky red.

The witch gestured.

Flames glimmered at her fingertips.

7th Circle Spell, Fire Demon.

A massive flame engulfed the battlefield. The flames burned everything indiscriminately, both enemy and ally, and only ashes remained where the flames had passed. Dozens of humans and monsters turned to ashes in an instant.

Scattering ashes.

Scenery wavering in the heat.

Through them, the witch and Najin locked eyes. The witch’s swirling red eyes stared directly into Najin’s sunset-colored eyes.

“Holy shit.”

Gillette, standing beside Najin, gritted his teeth.

“Looks like I’ll be retiring today after putting it off for 20 years.”