Ch.471Ferocity

Five hundred to one.

Numerically, it was more than twice the force of the Church of Grimnir, but I didn’t feel the same sense of crisis.

Unlike those Grimnir bastards who persistently unleashed all kinds of magic, this time’s enemies were mostly paladins who charged in with nothing but straightforward methods.

As long as I was careful of the light of judgment pouring from the sky and the weights of sin that would try to grab my body if I let my guard down even slightly, the rest was essentially no different from fighting five hundred knights.

It wasn’t an easy task, but it wasn’t life-threatening either.

I just needed to run around until I worked up a sweat.

“13th Squad annihilated!”

“He’s heading toward the 5th Squad! Shoot him down!”

I leaped from rooftop to rooftop like stepping stones, mercilessly slaughtering the fearlessly scattered paladins.

Each time I charged, they swung their golden glowing swords to meet me, but I wasn’t about to fall to sword strikes so slow they made me yawn.

– CRASH!

My blue-silver blade dug into the Blade of Order and shattered it.

Metal fragments scattered. The remnants of holy light flickered in the air before fading away.

Durandal’s ability wasn’t much help against paladins, but Jin’s characteristic hardness and sharpness combined with the power of heroic deeds was enough to overwhelm them.

Even a sword enhanced by divine light was ultimately just a miracle of an ordinary paladin.

All I had to do was break it with overwhelming force.

“Kugh…!”

I lunged at the paladin holding the shattered sword and grabbed his right arm with Frosting.

Then, placing my right hand on the paladin’s shoulder and pulling with my left, the paladin’s upper arm separated from his shoulder with the sound of tearing flesh.

“AAAAARGH!”

The armor that had been emitting golden holy light turned red with spurting blood, giving it an even more luxurious glow.

I gifted the newly independent arm to another knight, then picked up the paladin who was clutching his shoulder and screaming, and threw him toward the incoming light of judgment.

Countless thorns of light pierced through his back. Since it was their own miracle, it probably wouldn’t be fatal.

I erased the paladin wrapped in light and falling from my mind and charged toward the next target.

– SWISH!

A spear of light flew toward me in mid-air. Did they attach a Blade of Order to a spear and throw it? What a stupid move.

With the elasticity of my waist, I twisted my body widely and kicked the missed spear with the top of my foot, sending it flying.

A technique I learned from watching Nigel.

The spearhead, now twice as fast as when it came at me, embedded itself in the abdomen of an unfortunate priest.

“GAAAH!”

The priest who let out a scream flew backward and slammed into a wall. Like a butterfly specimen pinned with a brooch.

Seeing him struggling to move his hands to perform a healing miracle, it seemed there was no need to worry about his life.

The fact that each of them could heal themselves was quite welcome news to me.

Even if I inflicted serious injuries, they could recover on their own, so I just had to avoid vital points.

So, about two minutes after the battle began.

I had used up all the daggers in my pocket and cut down about thirty enemies.

It was thanks to good use of the confined space of the rooftops.

Unlike a cathedral, only about 5-10 people could stand on the roof of an ordinary building, so it wasn’t difficult to assault and dismember such opponents.

They paid a heavy price for dispersing their forces in front of me.

“Impossible, he’s too fast—GACK!”

“AAAAH! My arm! My AAAARM!”

They tried to counterattack or surround me, but with their speed, it was impossible.

If they wanted to catch up to me, they needed to be at least a Master.

Arrows and spears flew at me with each leap, but they couldn’t even properly penetrate the leather of my armor, let alone the scales.

Even if they did penetrate, they wouldn’t reach my skin.

The Church of Menes, specialized in fighting werebeasts, might have been able to penetrate Rurik’s leather, but the holy light of the Church of Astraea couldn’t exert its full power against werebeast hide, though it might against monsters.

I couldn’t thank Asha enough.

The only better armor would probably be one made from dragon scales or a hero’s holy armor.

—-

“…Trying to induce fatigue through wave attacks is futile.”

As the number of seriously wounded exceeded fifty, Wilhelm, who had been observing the battle, finally issued a new order.

“Regroup! Deploy the Purification Formation of Ghost Slaughter!”

Purification Formation of Ghost Slaughter? I don’t know what it is, but it sounds quite grandiose.

As Wilhelm’s order fell, the enemy formation began to change rapidly.

The streams of holy light that had been pouring down in pursuit of me subsided, and the scattered paladins and priests retreated in unison to join the main force.

Were they planning to engage in a frontal battle with a dense formation?

No, given the name “Purification Formation,” they might have set some kind of trap.

Perhaps they placed catalysts for wide-area formulas throughout the area to manifest a large-scale miracle… something like that.

I’d never seen the Church of Astraea fight like that, but that was just in the game.

This was reality, so it wouldn’t be strange if tactics I didn’t know appeared.

I took a moment to catch my breath and looked around.

It was a miserable sight.

The snow-covered streets that had exuded a winter atmosphere were now transformed into a hellscape of collapsed and overturned ruins.

Most buildings had collapsed under the repeated light of judgment, and severed limbs protruded like sprouts between the debris, adding to the grotesqueness.

The paladins might be fine, but the priests buried there were probably dead… honestly, that’s their fault, so let’s move on.

I was the one who subdued them and stuffed them into buildings, but the real culprit who buried the priests alive by collapsing the buildings was the holy light pouring from the sky.

After doing that a couple of times, they seemed to realize it was meaningless and stopped attacking in a way that would harm their own allies.

Anyway, looking around, I couldn’t find any traces of a trap.

I couldn’t sense any signs of a wide-area formula about to activate either.

…Maybe I was overthinking it.

It seemed their strategy was simply to concentrate their forces to launch focused attacks without the risk of being picked off individually.

Well, it might be a bit more troublesome than before, but that alone wouldn’t be enough.

Wilhelm’s expression in the distance had hardened much more than before.

Of course, that was natural. He had lost fifty troops without inflicting any damage on me.

I was a bit out of breath from constantly running to avoid the light of judgment, but both my body and armor were intact without a single scratch, and my karma was replenishing faster than it was being consumed.

Well, if I were to get tired or injured fighting these small fry, it would be rather shameful.

The high-level miracles flying in between were threatening, but the ordinary paladins were ultimately just knight-level forces with tenacious vitality.

Moreover, looking at their close combat skills, many of them were barely at the level of squires, let alone knights.

That’s just how paladins typically are.

Their vitality and defense might be superior to knights, but if matched against knights of the same rank, most would inevitably lose.

Unlike knights who focus solely on swordsmanship, paladins must also train in miracles, so their swordsmanship, the most important aspect of close combat, tends to be relatively lacking.

The miracle of weapon enhancement also exerts great power against monsters or other races, but against humans, it merely makes the sword they’re holding slightly better.

Of course, things change with high-ranking paladins.

By that point, they’ve trained considerably in swordsmanship, and the power of their miracles is significant enough that they sometimes win against master-level knights.

Though that wasn’t common.

—-

“What difference do you think it makes to gather in a mob?”

Having looked around but sensing no particularly threatening signs, I dropped my guard and charged toward the dense formation in front of me.

“Here he comes! Shock defense stance!”

With an urgent shout, the front-line paladins thrust out their shields and emitted holy light.

The brilliant golden radiance on the shields merged to form a large barrier.

A golden holy wall spread out above the ground. It exuded a sturdiness that seemed capable of easily blocking even the charge of a large monster.

I’ll need to use some strength to break through this.

“KYAAAAH!”

Adding more power to my steps, I launched myself like a projectile, shattering the ground.

The barrier of holy light rapidly approached. My left arm, filled with the power of heroic deeds, made contact with their shields.

– BOOOOOM!

A deafening roar. Like firing a heavy artillery at a fortress wall.

The golden barrier that met Frosting screamed and shattered. Fragments of light sparkled brilliantly, and broken shields soared through the air with their owners.

“AAAAH!”

“Astraea save us—!”

The paladins who shot up into the sky flailed their limbs as they traced parabolas.

With a single punch, I literally crushed their front line and relentlessly plunged into the center of the dense formation.