A Knight Who Eternally Regresses

As the creature wielding a crude spear rushed forward, Encrid’s sword drew an arc, slicing through the spear shaft and the creature’s chest in one swift motion.

Slash! Thud!

The sounds rang out simultaneously as the creature’s chest split open, spilling thick, black blood characteristic of monstrous beings.

Blood oozed from the creature’s yellow fur. Encrid swung his sword, splattering the blood from the spotted pelt.

The creature, chest split open, gurgled and frothed black blood from its mouth.

Slash!

A whip followed, catching the neck of a hyena-like beast that had lunged at a fallen worker, sending its head flying.

It soared through the air, landing amongst the creatures. One fell off a rooftop with a clattering sound.

“Lua is a name called by lovers, isn’t it?” said Frog, now wearing chest armor. Her gaze briefly passed over the creature’s corpse. Though unintentional, she had struck its heart. She looked away indifferently.

Frog, with her extensive experience, showed her seasoned nature. She was the teacher of the Correct Sword Technique and an experienced fighter.

“Hey, I have to go.” she suddenly said.

“…Where?”

Despite the situation, Frog announced she was leaving. Suddenly?

“A cult.”

She gave no time for questions.

Lua’s cheeks puffed up, a gesture expressing emotions like anger and regret, but Encrid couldn’t understand it.

Lua charged forward, launching herself with a thud, leaving a fountain of earth in her wake.

Frog moved swiftly, leaving afteriwizards. Hyena-like beasts blocked her path, but it was futile. Frog, a green blur, charged ahead.

With a thunderous noise, the creatures flew in all directions. It seemed surreal, a feat of immense strength, possible only for someone like Frog who ignored minor injuries.

Encrid focused his gaze where Frog was heading. There was something there, or rather, someone familiar. A figure he had seen over the past three days, always sticking close to that leader named Deutsche.

“Kyaa!”

Before the stunned worker, Esther stood firm. Encrid averted his gaze again. The area was teeming with creatures and hyena-like beasts. It was no time to be curious about the cult or anything else.

“What is this?” muttered Krais behind him.

There was no time to respond. The creatures were rushing towards Encrid.

“Ha.”

Exhaling, Encrid planted his left foot, twisting his ankle, knee, and waist as he slashed with his sword.

The mid-cutting rotation cleaved the approaching creature, black blood and entrails spilling out.

The bisected body flew to Encrid’s left, momentarily halting the creature’s advance, but only briefly.

One creature, stepping over the corpse, swung a battle hammer. More creatures followed, tongues lolling and drooling.

Encrid stood alone, without armor, wielding only a sword. The situation was dire.

“They keep coming!”

Krais shouted as Encrid took another deep breath and raised his sword. There was no time for words as the chaotic battle began.

* * *

In this world, some things couldn’t be ignored, and some deeds couldn’t be forgiven.

For Luagarne, the cult was such a thing.

A group of fanatics believing their God lived in the Demonic Realm, a target for an unyielding vengeance.

The moment she saw the cult, Luagarne’s mind went blank with rage.

Though she had extensive experience, enough to utter the word ‘heart’, she was still a Frog—a creature driven by the desires and urges boiling within her chest.

It was the cult that had killed her first lover.

She had sworn back then, to her heart, to kill every cultist she encountered.

For Luagarne, this was more important than anything else.

Kill them all and return—that was the goal.

But she stopped.

The cultist had been more cunning than expected.

“Damn Frog.”

The fleeing cult member smirked bitterly. To an observer, it appeared as such.

Had she fallen into his trap?

No, it was time to break their arrogance.

However, she couldn’t immediately return to Encrid.

‘Don’t die.’ she could only hope.

* * *

Right after Luagarne left, the monsters surged forward like water from a broken dam.

Encrid stepped forward to buy time, but it was futile. There were simply too many enemies.

“Grrr!”

With a strange growl, a creature swung a small battle hammer at his head.

A weapon tipped with iron spikes—getting hit would do more than just hurt.

He stepped back and swung his sword upwards in a reverse vertical slash.

Thud!

Encrid split the creature’s jaw and skull in half vertically.

Then, he struck a hyena-like beast’s head with the pommel of his sword, which leaped at him from the left.

Thud!

The hyena fell to the ground, and Encrid felt the distinct sensation of crushing a walnut, indicating its skull had been shattered.

There was no time to check how well it had cracked.

Now from the right, three gleaming blades came at him. The creatures were remarkably coordinated.

In a split-second decision, Encrid swung his sword three times.

If he couldn’t block, he could at least strike down the blades.

Focused, Encrid’s eyes shone as he slashed through two of the blades.

Bang! Bang!

Encrid managed to deflect two of the incoming blades, but as he twisted his body to avoid the remaining one, a spearhead suddenly thrust into his abdomen.

Reacting quickly, Encrid brought his sword down, slicing through the middle of the spear shaft.

Crack.

He managed to stop the spear from going deeper, but then—

Thud!

A hammer came down on his shoulder from another enemy. There was no way to block it, even with heightened senses, it was impossible to detect every attack in such a chaotic battle.

The blow came from a blind spot.

Stopping after being hit meant death.

Instinct and intuition urged him to act.

Encrid allowed himself to fall back, using his weight to his advantage. He switched his grip on the sword, stabbing backward with the pommel towards his left shoulder.

Thud!

A heavy impact and a gurgling sound came from the creature behind him.

Pretending to fall, Encrid quickly sprang up and swung his sword to the right.

Another hyena-like beast was rushing towards him.

The first creature aimed for his throat boldly, but the following hyena-like beast was relentless.

This one aimed for his wrist.

Encrid split its head open just as it leaped at him.

In the midst of this danger, Encrid’s heart pounded wildly.

Calmness, courage.

The Heart of the Beast steadied his mind.

As he became aware of his surroundings, his senses heightened, and time seemed to slow down.

The weapons of the creatures in front of him—spears, gladii, battle axes, and hammers—seemed to fall towards him in sequence.

He saw the line connecting the points.

A line separating life and death.

Following the line, Encrid swung his sword.

Thud! Swoosh! Crack! Thud!

His well-honed blade performed a series of precise strikes.

The head of the nearest creature was cleaved off with an overhead slash.

The second one had its throat cut as Encrid smoothly brought the sword down from the first strike.

The third creature was struck with a downward slash, cutting through its collarbone and down to its heart.

The fourth was slashed diagonally across, cutting through its ribs and stomach, spilling its entrails.

The remaining three suffered similar fates, all struck with lethal blows.

In an instant, Encrid had killed four creatures.

The ground was soaked with the monsters’ black blood.

The creatures were known for their persistence.

They used their comrades’ deaths as opportunities to strike from behind with spears.

The hyena-like beasts added to the relentless assault.

Failing to attack his wrist, they targeted his thigh, and after that was thwarted, they went for his shin.

It wasn’t just a couple of them.

Counting their numbers seemed pointless.

There was no room to worry about others.

Encrid focused all his energy on what he could do: slashing, stabbing, and striking repeatedly.

The Mid-Cutting Sword Technique flowed naturally, cleaving through the heads and bodies of the beasts.

Despite battling and killing dozens of them, the number of creatures and hyena-like beasts around him remained unchanged.

Even with his calmness, he couldn’t help but feel breathless, his heart pounding in his chest.

Moreover, strange new enemies appeared among the creatures.

These were larger, standing a head taller than the others.

Naturally, they were stronger and more challenging to deal with.

Most of the creatures were smaller than Encrid, but these anomalies were even larger than him.

One of them approached, swinging a wooden club with nails embedded in it from above.

“Grrraah!”

‘I can’t dodge it.’

In that split-second judgment, he made the best decision he could.

‘Jump.’

Boom!

Encrid, having prepared for this moment but using his trump card sparingly, unleashed it now. Drawing on the Heart of Might, he swung his sword upward without hesitation.

Bang!

A deafening explosion echoed. The mutated creature’s club flew skyward as if struck by an explosion spell.

Seizing the moment, Encrid sprang forward, reaching for the creature’s neck. A single thrust of his hand turned into a piercing light, creating a hole in the mutant’s throat.

Splat!

The thrust and withdrawal were one swift motion. He had to act quickly, losing his sword would mean losing his only weapon.

Two more mutants charged from the side, their yellow eyes gleaming with malice and greed.

What could he do against those eyes?

What could he possibly achieve?

He didn’t know. All he could do was keep swinging his sword, and that was everything.

* * *

Esther sensed that something was wrong.

‘There are too many. It’s a large-scale colony.’

It was a word indicating the sheer size of the group.

It was too late to run.

Her panther eyes scanned behind her, witnessing the massacre carried out by the monsters.

“Sa-save me!”

A man couldn’t finish his plea before a gladius pierced his neck.

“Screeeam!”

Another was bitten alive by hyena beasts.

Stab, stab.

Knolls stabbed fallen corpses repeatedly.

“Grrrk! Grrrk!”

The monsters exuded a vile delight.

It all happened in an instant.

The humans had no chance to escape.

The walls were high. Once the monsters breached, it was no longer a human village but a platter for monsters.

There was no place to flee. Some humans ran towards the watchtower, hoping to buy some time by reaching higher ground, but it was futile.

‘It’s not just the monsters.’

Esther’s eyes narrowed.

On the watchtower, a former mercenary was laughing while shooting arrows.

He aimed at the humans trying to climb up, and thunk, thud—each hit, a person fell to the ground, becoming food for the hyena beasts.

Those trying to climb the tower met the same fate.

Esther felt a foreboding sense enveloping her mind.

“Raaaaaah!”

She decided to reveal some of her power.

She crushed a knoll’s head with a powerful kick.

Leaping forward, she slashed and clawed at several hyena beasts.

Thud! Stab! Crack!

Her claws cleaved through skulls. Esther rampaged, killing a dozen, but the wave didn’t end.

This wasn’t a colony that a small group could handle. It was a disaster-level colony.

An abnormal monster colony that would undoubtedly cause significant problems within the kingdom.

‘Someone’s behind this.’

Esther was a wizard with a realm of spells.

Her intuition told her that this was a planned event orchestrated by someone.

However, there wasn’t much she could do at the moment.

While thinking, she kept moving, quickly realizing her limits.

There were simply too many enemies.

If they stayed, they would die. They needed to escape. That was her conclusion.

How about using a bow?

“We need to break through the front! Captain!”

It was Krais, also known as Big Eyes, shouting. Somehow, he had drawn a short sword.

A resourceful friend indeed.

It was surprising that he had survived with just a short sword, but then again, he was staying near their captain, who was cutting through the enemies like a storm.

He was holding the line right at the boundary.

The creatures prioritized the most threatening targets.

Which meant Encrid.

He was a crucial person for Esther.

He fought like a legendary hero, slashing, stabbing, and killing the incoming creatures with a single sword. Grabbing near the ricasso, he crushed a creature’s head with sheer strength, much like fighting with a half-sword technique.

It was an incredible display of power.

If there had been more time and less danger, it would have been a sight to behold in amazement.

‘This is not good.’

Even if she was a wizard with a realm of spells, there was little she could do in her panther form.

Fighting alongside them? That would just mean dying alongside them.

Esther climbed onto the roof of a nearby hut.

She silenced her presence and watched the man.

She decided to observe for now.

‘I will avenge him.’

She made a resolve, a determination she hadn’t made for anyone in her life.

Without fully realizing it, Esther vowed revenge.

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