ch 22; Luck (2)
For every arrow shattered, a new blood dripped. For every ballista knocked, a new fracture in bones, miniscule, invisible, yet piling up like cracks of glass, waiting to burst. But however much that blood dropped into the ground, pooling as red became puddle under his feet, sword chipped again and again until mere fifth of it remains except for its hilt, that man keep standing.
Even in his aged life full of turbulence, Hitherto had never seen a knight with such tenacity, he could rivaled an entire team with well-prepared gear, specialized for executing one task, which even he thought of their preparedness as excessive.
Yet, beholding such bewildering developments, he ought to re-wrote his assessment.
…this is absurd.
A mage, a magic enhanced ballista, and numerous personnel ranging from 'Awakened' to one-hand-counted 'Realization' men stalling other king's knights over there—realistically this was a force most would called 'excessive' for merely killing a small kingdom's king, no matter how high his hierarchy are.
And none of them could break pass through that one knight in front of the king.
If such stupidly overpowered existence cannot be called 'absurdity', then what is?
"Sir mage!! How's the spell?!"
"You think I did nothing?! I've been showering that bastard with all kind of curses!!!"
How could it be that the situation turns for the worse by second the moment that guy awaken something then start standing tall before every assault; parrying, defending, or straight up taken hits yet instead of fallen, he got more tenacious instead?
Hitherto himself has taken it personally at this point. Throwing all kind of curses he knows, fighting with utmost seriousness now that pride's on the line.
But, how come? The man who was scared shitless and struggling to deflect their ballista, suddenly turned into an impregnable fortress. The assault team had used all their tricks, out of the box or by the book. Nothing worked.
Showering him with indiscriminate arrow and ballista? Deflected. Sending men? Butchered. And now Hitherto's curses are doing negligible disturbance on him. Shamefully, Hitherto specialization is curses, and that means he knows less of conventional magic except that [Wall of Mud] and some other escape-prevention spell.
"Kuhh!! I don't want to use this…"
However that doesn't mean he's out of option.
There's still one trump card, but…
I won't be able to harvest more for the time being…
There's a misconception that a rogue mage means they're less skilled that conventional mage. Which is, simply not true. Undeniably, at some aspect they're indeed less desirable. But that doesn't equate to their overall strength altogether. Most of them became rogue mage simply because their ability are quite unorthodox and some dangerously crossed the line of what should and shouldn't.
Hitherto was a prime example of the second type.
His journey into magic starts with seesawing a guy to extract his soul and emotion, according to his grimoire. Then after a little bit more mastery, he starts hunting slash and burn villages, massacring them villagers, and turning them into magical nourishments.
A small pill of red hue, capable of turning anyone who ingest it into his personal human-weapon.
As a mage of 4th tier, he was not one of agreeing such gigs offer out of nowhere. Such jobs typically taken by 3rd tier or lower, not a 4th like him. For a man of such stature, the height of magic held much more importance than anything worldly, especially money.
It was just his bad luck that he got tracked by the churches paladins and Empire's knights while in the middle of harvesting his red pills. With a heavy heart, he must use a huge amount of his reserve pills to escape from their encirclement.
Coincidentally, he was wandering in south, shaking off the pursuer and was about to go west, where he heard war is daily life, when he heard from fellow rogue mage a recruitment for battle mage to partake in assassination. Of course, that fellow mage ended up as one of his human-weapon, but that's irrelevant.
After acquiring information, he spare no time to go and negotiate his terms of service.
"W-What! Flesh Puppeteer?! That Flesh Puppeteer?!!"
There's a bit of commotion when he came in to introduce himself but it was negligible. For what it is worth, his value was uplifted thanks to his reputation of shaking off the church and the Empire's encirclement, along with his already notorious reputation as a practicer of what's commonly known as 'Taboo magic'.
Needless to say, there's also a bit of commotion where some righteous members tried to backpedalled when Hitherto stated for his payment he doesn't need much wealth. However, sacrifices is a must. It was when he specified how much of soul he need, and his personal preference, that a guy quickly opted out of the plan.
That pretentious guy (by Hitherto standards) was apparently valued his people (or slaves, for what Hitherto believes from his circumstances) too much for him to courageously opposing Hitherto's terms. The result?
"GAAAHHHH!!!!"
"Tsk. I'm giving you a chance and you flounder it. And what gives do you have to oppose me, insect?"
He became Hitherto's human-weapon, naturally.
"Let's do this instead. I'll have all this guy's population, and the rest of you pool some treasure to appease my anger. Agree?"
Either by fright or by some twisted confidence, the rest of them agreed easily.
That's how Hitherto ended up here.
Well. What harms in waiting a little more time? My pursuer won't came here anyway. I have time.
His little human-weapon could be cultivated again, but jeopardizing his future stream of living sacrifice by withholding his trump card would be a loss. In that instant he decide, Hitherto whisper, and one of the men staring at Reita fearfully suddenly clutched his stomach.
"!!"
gurgle—
Strange sound could be heard from his clutched stomach. And in mere two second, from his belly, burst a revolting mutated flesh, with its own sharp teeth and bones. In the next moment, that soldier's whole body mutated into a complete monstrosity. Walking on two legs is no longer Hendrik, a mercenary, but a mass of fleshy monster controlled entirely by Hitherto.
It was the literal 'human weapon'.
[Compendium of ■■■■■: Flesh Soldier]
"S-sir mage–! Please—"
burst
One by one, be it mercenaries hired to temporarily fill the numbers, or loyalist soldier participating for the cause, all were transformed into each distinct deformities. One had all flesh and protruding sharp bones like a porcupine. One fully armored in bones but losing his two legs; instead there's an eight bones looking like a spider legs coming from its back.
Another, had no face but little altered in other bodily function other than its longed hands. And another completely different body with four legs and six arms.
Only a handful of knights fighting the duke and marquis's knights, and the captain of assault team, as well as the ballista operator were spared of such monstrosity. It did not erase their pale, horrid face, however. Same could be said for Philip's side. The only two that maintains their composure in the middle of this transgression is Reita, and the culprit, Hitherto.
Reita had temporarily raise his limit thanks to [Becoming], but this cost him all his concentration and mental energy. And it's getting depleted by the seconds, rapidly. Instinctually, he realize this cannot be continued or he would be the one lose in the end. His explosive power could only withstand a couple more minutes more, at best. A war of attrition is not an option.
Meanwhile, Hitherto felt reassured by his monstrous soldiers awakening. All twenty six soldiers-turned-monster converging to where Reita and Philip be.
"Heh. Give up and let me use your corpse. A body of genius knight like you are hard to come by, you know. Who would've thought you would awaken your 'Realization' in the middle of a fight? But, worry not. I have tons of use for your body. So quickly give up and end this meaningless charade. You stand no chance."
Logically, what Hitherto said was true.
Painful as it is to admit, now that Hitherto has unleashed his trump card plus the continuous casting of various curses, Reita chance at victory is close to zero. Neutralizing those Flesh Soldiers would take a huge amount of energy and time. And Hitherto didn't forget his objective which is the assasination of Philip. He could simply divert his Flesh Soldiers into two teams. One focusing on Philip, another on Reita.
He had no chance, in any logical scenario whatsoever.
But in the first place, knights are the kind of being that shouldn't be judged with logic.
"Are you done talking?"
"!!!"
Wh-What is this… why does his aura spiked up instead?!!!
If a mage drawing the power from nature, refined it, and extract what's left in order to realize magic, a knight could simply draws aura from their inner self. But, everybody would became a knight if it's that simple. For one, the quantity is determined by birth. No amount of training could grows that inherent amount of aura sleeping inside each person.
However, the quality of aura itself could jump between best or worse, according to their inner self. The more they obsessed to a cause, the stronger they are. Yet, it was confirmed that to reach the next level, a knight must, in a way, break that 'obsession' themself.
It was no coincidence that mage society collectively called knights a 'systematic contradiction' being. Some are even derogatory called them 'faulty' bunch.
And Reita is currently embodying Bumi's 'Realization', a burning ember that serves as a warmpost, but also a terrifying fire that burns everything that tries to threaten its future. And lately, there's a technical question that plagued his mind day and night.
Senior's aura… I wonder what would happen if he could compress its heat and release it in the middle of the enemy? It would be really devastating, wouldn't it?
"H-he's compressing his aura!"
"The monsters can't get close!!"
"What about ballista?!"
"W-we've run out of ammo…!"
"Useless bunch!!!"
Oh Mother Goat, this is why I hate knights!!!
Knowing it would be too late for complete retreat, Hitherto calls some of the monsters and instantly transforming them to fully rounded into muscle and bones, creating a little bunker made from flesh.
A second later, lights filled the alley. Followed by a fireless heat explosion, liberating the soldiers-turned-monster by death, and burned every enemies in its path.
The table flipped once again.
