Ch.16Blood Bag (5)

They were all seasoned warriors and knights. Monsters of strength not to be underestimated or taken lightly.

At least at my current level. A mere Level 2 Mourner was no match for them.

So I needed to act wisely and approach carefully while maximizing my equipment and racial advantages. This was less about fighting and more about survival.

Just as you wouldn’t call chasing away a charging bear a “fight,” I prepared thoroughly for this non-fight confrontation.

Calculating the best odds by comparing the cards in my hand against my opponent’s capabilities was my specialty.

This applied beyond games. Most of life worked that way.

It was advantageous to consider what gave the best advantage and highest probability before putting myself at risk. The same applied now.

I couldn’t claim to have lived long, but this was the best approach I knew. So I thought calmly.

The Blood Knight. Though transformed into a woman, her agility had reached 20. I didn’t know her original stats, but they certainly weren’t at 20 before.

So she possessed reflexes and senses comparable to mine. A surprise attack wouldn’t work.

She might even have methods she used while pursuing me earlier, which she was now using to corner me.

If possible, I wanted to avoid dealing with the Blood Knight myself. If I had to face her, it should be when she was weakened or worn down.

Conversely, what about the enemy who was pursuing the Blood Knight but would attack me without hesitation?

Known in the world as the Blade of Stars.

A massive figure over 2 meters tall with the mighty strength befitting a lion beastkin.

Add to that keen senses, excellent combat instincts, and swordsmanship.

Not an easy opponent. At range, he rains down stellar flames; up close, he slashes with a sword wreathed in those same flames, true to his name.

Clearly a formidable foe, but if I had to compare, he’d be easier to deal with than the Blood Knight.

He was also the enemy I needed to subdue first.

I didn’t know his intentions, but I didn’t want to conveniently assume he’d be friendly to me. Unless he wanted to burn both the Blood Knight and me at once.

The Blood Knight had already been engulfed in flames once, so she’d want to avoid such a situation.

No, wait.

“…Did she already use something?”

“What?”

“The vampire. She definitely got engulfed in flames.”

Isra, who was helping me put on my breastplate, rolled her eyes. That’s right. A thought that had slipped out.

“But she’s alive. I don’t know how intact, but still.”

The Flames of Stars are essentially like the flames of the sun. A star drifting somewhere in the universe.

If someone could withstand such flames and remain intact, it would be right to assume they used some corresponding means to survive.

And it seemed the Blood Knight couldn’t use that method again.

Whether it had a cooldown or came with a price.

She might be consuming magic power frantically, unable to use it now but preparing to use it again anytime. I couldn’t be certain.

But I could guess to some extent from the fact that she wasn’t closing the distance or hunting the Blade of Stars right now. She couldn’t use it immediately. Or using it would cause her trouble.

That’s why she was avoiding the Blade of Stars. My thoughts naturally progressed to the next step.

We were equally bothered by the Blade of Stars.

I lifted my head slightly, and the white-dyed sky greeted me.

The snowstorm was so thick that nothing was visible. I could rely only on hearing at best.

Even that was filled with noise. This was clearly both a screen and cover.

As an experienced warrior, the Blade of Stars would also know this.

That there was nothing to gain from confronting me or the Blood Knight head-on.

So he too couldn’t carelessly use his flames. He would only use the power of stars when he could roast both me and the Blood Knight.

What a Mexican standoff this was. As a slight chuckle escaped me, Isra pressed the tip of my nose.

“Done.”

“Thanks.”

I’ve played several games set in medieval times.

But that didn’t magically teach me how to put on armor.

I hadn’t played any such incomprehensibly complex games. I’m not even sure they exist.

So I needed Isra’s help. Looking at the structure of the plate armor gave me a headache; I didn’t know where to start.

Fortunately, Isra knew exactly how to put it on.

[Blood Shadow]

[“For the Blood Kin.”

-Blood Knight Lorian at his knighting ceremony.

Blood Knight Lorian lived as a Blood Knight for a long time. Fighting only to protect the Blood Kin and for their interests, he finally descended to the surface.

What the Blood Kin don’t know is that his intentions for descending weren’t entirely pure.

This is the plate armor he wore until his final moments, exclusive to Blood Knights. Those who aren’t Blood Knights probably can’t use it properly.]

[All parts of the armor are treated as body parts, sharing the effects of regeneration and health recovery.

Body enhancement spells or effects are also shared.]

[(Blood Knight Exclusive) The wearing Blood Knight can channel blood manipulation and Blood Kin secret techniques through the armor.]

Thanks to this, I had secured a new means. Finally, I put on the helmet Isra handed me, and over it, I draped the relic left by the Cannibal Baron.

“What are you going to do?”

Isra asked, and I checked my hand.

The Blade of Stars who couldn’t carelessly use his flames and was watching for an opportunity, the Blood Knight who didn’t want to give the Blade of Stars a chance to use his flames.

And me.

While I was considering my options, Isra covered my helmet slit with her tail.

What is it?

“I have a method.”

“What is it?”

“But I don’t want to tell you.”

Seriously, what is it?

Seeing my bewilderment at her cryptic words, Isra showed embarrassment for the first time.

“I don’t want to show you. I’ve been hiding something.”

“…What is it?”

“I said I don’t want to show you.”

So is she going to use it or not? As I stood there confused, Isra belatedly added with a slightly hesitant tone.

Her voice, always clear and pure, now carried a faint trace of fear.

Fear of having something discovered.

“Pretend you don’t see it.”

I wasn’t tactless enough to say no to that.

All I heard was.

Rustle.

The unmistakable sound of Isra undressing.

*

A man advances through the snowstorm.

His sword is wrapped in flames, and despite the extreme heat that ordinary metal couldn’t withstand, the blade maintains its form without melting.

Though it defied common sense, he casually used his sword as a torch. As snow along its path turned to hot vapor and rose, he grimaced intensely.

His name was Ethan.

Otherwise known as the “Blade of Stars.”

Under his extended blade, he had arms covered in thick fur.

He was a lion beastkin. Born and raised in a hot, dry region, he had been an imperial at some point.

His arms led to a face. A typical lion’s face, but his well-groomed beard and solemn expression simply explained why he could become a contractor.

Stars favor beautiful humans. They don’t discriminate even if they’re Ein.

For that reason, beastkin too can be chosen by stars if they’re beautiful. He was particularly qualified among them.

He handled the Flames of Stars well and could use them extensively.

With excellent physical abilities and well-trained swordsmanship, he could fight like an ordinary warrior.

While not at the level of the star contractor “Blazing Lord,” who was several steps above him, he enjoyed infusing his trained swordsmanship with the Flames of Stars.

Before he knew it, he had become a symbol of the civil war. People called him the Blade of Stars and followed him with trust.

What was once an unfamiliar role as a leader became familiar, and he even came to enjoy caring for those who looked up to him.

But that’s all in the past now.

His subordinates, colleagues, and friends who trusted and followed him were all dead.

Not in a state where there was any chance of saving them. Traces of terrible dismemberment and crushing. A tragedy where even the most skilled doctor couldn’t guarantee survival.

His teeth grind involuntarily. Beyond the grinding sound, only the hissing of the snowstorm momentarily erased by the sword’s trajectory could be heard.

That was why he was here now.

He had to avenge them.

The inhuman monster, and those bastards fighting such a monster.

He didn’t care who was to blame or who started it first. He had to exact punishment, and he had a plan for it.

He would cut off the limbs of all those he caught and offer them to the stars. As his eyes flickered and burned with flames, and as the man looked down at the forest through the eyes of stars, it happened.

Rustle.

He didn’t miss the sound caught by his fur-covered ears. His golden eyes swiftly turned to scan the snowstorm.

Ethan’s senses weren’t particularly exceptional. He couldn’t see through or eavesdrop beyond the blowing snowstorm, even faintly.

But he had his own intuition. An intuition proven by his time at the center of the imperial civil war and his long life as a mercenary and adventurer.

From his perspective, both his enemies were monsters.

One was a monster with the means to withstand the Flames of Stars, and the other was a monster who fought such a monster as an equal.

Whichever appeared, he would bisect them with his flame-wrapped blade the moment they broke through this snowstorm. He confidently gripped and aimed his sword. His stance was high.

That was his mistake.

He completely dismissed the snow leopard that was with the monsters.

Even though anyone exiled to this new continent would have at least one monstrous aspect.

Crack!

The sound of something breaking. But it was a bit high.

The sound, coming from higher than his massive frame, was of a tree splitting.

He had heard such sounds before. Among the monsters appearing in swamps, there was such a creature.

A monster that climbed trees and jumped onto people’s heads to tear off their necks. He flinched, turned his head, and froze momentarily at the unexpected situation.

At the same time, he realized. The sound of the breaking tree was intentional.

Because targeting the throat was more fatal to a contractor than biting the nape.

Roooaaar!

A sharp feline roar. Not Ethan’s.

It belonged to the snow leopard leaping from the tree toward his throat.

A nimble four-legged beast with fur that could easily blend into the snowstorm.

A being that shouldn’t be here.

Such a beast tears at his throat.

Crack!

His throat is torn. Blood flows. Reflexively kicking, the snow leopard that had been spinning in mid-air lands on the ground in beastkin form.

She has no clothes. But the situation was too shocking to be excited by her voluptuous figure.

Only shock turned into words.

“Shape-shifter… divine race…”

The snow leopard beastkin narrowed her eyes slightly at those words, then leaped into the snowstorm.

Taking her place and walking forward was a completely different being.

If the woman just now symbolized a terrifying ancestor and enemy, what appeared now was an unknown monster.

A giant with blood-red armor and something like a dark red banner draped over the armor like a hooded cloak.

It approaches.

Without a sound or presence.

As it suddenly comes within reach, black metal covers the armor’s surface.

What’s revealed is armor gleaming in complete jet-black and something even more mechanical.

It gives the impression that the armor itself moves, not a human. This is a formidable enemy.

Hissss!

As Ethan cauterizes his torn throat with flames and rises, a naked girl walks out from his side.

It was a predicament. A monster in armor and a monster of unknown identity faced off with Ethan at the center.

Whoooosh!

In the blowing snowstorm, three monsters glared at each other.