Ch.279EP.62 – What Is a Knight’s Cause to Fight? (2)

BOOM!

A massive sound, almost like thunder, reverberated throughout the entire space, striking it like a fist.

The weaker monsters had their eardrums ruptured and fainted with their eyes rolled back, while the larger or more resilient ones didn’t lose consciousness but trembled like aspen trees, overcome with fear.

Lion’s Roar.

In Buddhism, it is said that just as a lion’s roar subdues all beasts, Buddha’s teachings subdue demons. However, Ihan’s roar didn’t suppress demons through high spiritual power and enlightenment like Buddha’s teachings—instead, it demonstrated a method of crushing opponents with spirit and fighting will.

A path of subjugation through ‘power.’

Though he borrowed the name, it was like a proud declaration that he was walking his own path, and Ihan’s Lion’s Roar would continue to develop as long as he didn’t stop growing.

As proof, just a year ago, his Lion’s Roar could only subdue a few students, but now—

Zzzzing!

[Grrrk!?!]

[Keheheek!]

[Ssss….]

Even high-rank monsters retreated.

Shudder…!

Orthros trembled as if it had never been confident.

Blood flowed from its eyes and ears, slash-like wounds appeared all over its body, and the giant snake-like tail coughed up blood in agony.

These injuries resulted from powerful sound waves targeting Orthros’s entire body—proof that Ihan wasn’t just roaring mindlessly like the monsters.

“You can’t do this, can you?”

Sound that didn’t spread force throughout space but concentrated it on the target, striking like a hammer or slashing like a razor.

This was the realm of technique, one of the forms of Lion’s Roar that Ihan sought to achieve.

‘It’s difficult to use it like sound techniques from martial arts novels, but this much is easy with the right know-how.’

With proper practice and understanding, he might soon be able to use voice transmission techniques.

…Well, practice could come later.

[Kaaaak!]

Bang!

“As expected, you live up to your name as a high-rank monster.”

Right now, he needed to deal with this creature.

[-Kahaaak!!]

Orthros, recovering quickly as if it had never been frightened or injured, kicked with its hind legs.

Whoosh!

Despite being larger than five bulls combined, it moved with incredible speed.

Its speed resembled that of a cheetah, and if it had been any other knight, they might have had their neck bitten off in surprise, but—

Whoosh!

“Is this your best?”

[!!]

He lightly countered with the Palace God Bullet Shadow technique, displaying the marvelous skill of outpacing Orthros in speed while preparing to throw a punch.

[Saaaaa!]

Orthros, realizing it was too late to dodge, showed intelligent judgment by moving its snake tail to protect its head, but this—

Crack!

[!?]

—was a mistake.

Or more precisely, its mistake was still treating this human as equal to other knights.

Splat….

One of its heads had its eye burst out.

It had clearly blocked the opponent’s strike, and yet!

With intelligence beyond that of normal monsters, Orthros was more bewildered than pained by this strange phenomenon, and its face showed disbelief.

“I didn’t know dogs could make such expressions.”

[Grrrr…!]

“Why are you getting angry when you’re a dog?”

Thwack!

[?!!]

Again, its head was knocked back.

It had clearly dodged, and yet!?

This time its molars broke, and its jawbone was clearly cracked.

It was an alien attack that even Orthros’s exceptional mind couldn’t comprehend, and it needed to raise its vigilance and tension toward Ihan.

And then….

[……]

“Not moving anymore?”

[……]

“Smart one, aren’t you? Even knights get disoriented when they first experience the Mountain-Breaking Strike, but you’re better than most knights. Well, you’re still just a monster.”

Orthros didn’t fall for the provocation. It maintained absolute composure.

This was the frightening aspect of a monster ranked high among high-rank monsters.

A monster that could formulate strategies and had the high learning capacity to even learn human techniques.

Intelligence. With this quality, Orthros was a monster that would survive an enemy’s grasp, learn human strategies and techniques, and become stronger next time.

Therefore—

Whoosh!

“…Huh?”

Orthros quickly launched itself away to escape.

The opponent used incomprehensible, bizarre attacks.

Realizing it would only suffer losses by continuing to fight, Orthros abandoned all pride and chose to flee.

This was a choice impossible to imagine for a monster with instincts that drove it to attack humans regardless of survival—a choice that naturally drew an astonished exclamation from its opponent.

And additionally!

[Saaaa!]

Orthros activated its ability to make its opponent look even more foolish.

Ssshhh-

As the fleeing Orthros’s body gradually became transparent, even its footsteps began to fade.

“!?”

[Kaa!]

It could almost feel the opponent’s bewilderment from behind, and Orthros inwardly sneered.

This was the ability that had allowed Orthros to mock those who tried to kill it over the past five years.

No matter how strong the opponent might be, how could they catch something that had disappeared from both sight and sense!

[Krrrng….]

[Kaaaa!]

One head expressed a desire to kill the human while still invisible, but the other head immediately objected.

Not only was the invisibility’s duration short, but any attack would reveal their position, and if they were hit, they would be the only ones to suffer.

Orthros had no intention of losing its life due to needless bravado….

“-Found you.”

Crack!

[!!?]

[!!]

[??]

Both heads and the snake tail couldn’t hide their shock.

Not only had this mere human physically stopped them, but he had also precisely located them while they were still invisible.

Crunch!

“Curious how I found you?”

He maintained his grip on them while gradually lifting Orthros’s massive body into the air.

A superhuman strength impossible to consider human.

“You hid your presence and appearance well, but you couldn’t hide something else.”

Thud.

“You should have hidden your smell.”

[…?]

Before Orthros could question this nonsense, its body was flipped upside down, and in that state—

Whoosh!

“-This is called a Tombstone Piledriver.”

It was forcefully driven into the ground.

CRASH!

* * *

Thud thud thud….

Orthros, driven into the ground, convulsed with its eyes rolled back and lost consciousness.

One head had its neck completely broken backward, dying instantly, while the other head seemed to still be alive.

The snake-like tail still retained consciousness, but—

[Sa, saaaa….]

It was completely terrified, with tears welling in its eyes.

As if begging for its life.

“Hmm, that’s not how you do a piledriver properly. Was it because it was too big?”

But this evoked no sympathy from him.

Rather, he expressed disappointment at the diminished quality of his technique.

The monster was too large and had two heads, making it feel like a different technique altogether.

He considered trying again with the remaining head, but soon—

“Pointless thoughts…”

Ihan drew his sword for the first time, as if wasting time on idle thoughts was the height of foolishness.

Shing.

Despite having been submerged in water, the blade still emanated a sharp, ominous aura that seemed ready to pierce the monster’s heart and sever its neck.

While he didn’t automatically kill everyone who showed hostility toward him, he felt no value in showing mercy to monsters and spellcasters.

[!!?]

The snake tail desperately screamed for help, but Ihan’s eyes and sword were merciless.

“In your next life, don’t be born as a monster—be born as a rich family’s dog or cat instead.”

Slash!

The merciless sword was swung with full force to bisect Orthros’s body, but—

Clang!

“…?”

“Impressive sword strike for a monster!”

“…What is this?”

The sword was blocked, failing to achieve its purpose.

No, someone had deflected his sword.

“You….”

Ihan blinked as he identified the person who had easily deflected his sword.

He was somewhat impressed that someone had easily blocked what he considered a powerful strike.

This wasn’t out of arrogance.

Ihan simply used the White Cats or average territorial knights as his baseline, so he found it refreshing when a knight could block his strike.

However, as much as Ihan was surprised—

“Amazing! To think there would be a human-form monster with such powerful sword skills!!”

The other party was also expressing admiration for Ihan.

…However—

“…What nonsense is this?”

Ihan’s brow furrowed at the ridiculous mention of a “human-form monster,” and as soon as his expression darkened—

“Ah! Indeed, such overwhelming presence cannot be human! I suspected you might be human based on your appearance…!! But you are indeed a monster! Reveal your true form, fiend!!”

“…I am human.”

“Nonsense! How could a human lift Orthros with bare hands! How could a human see through Orthros’s invisibility with smell alone! These are not things humans can do!!”

“No, that’s…”

“Furthermore, how could a human make monsters faint with just a roar!!”

“……”

“Surely you must be an ogre or troll disguised as a human!! I, Knight Felix de Modred, shall slay you!!!”

“……”

…Why?

He could refute each point individually, but why did it feel like…

‘I can’t deny it?’

Ihan suffered a slight wound to his heart from the words of the knight with a voice as loud as a train engine.