CHAPTER 170

"Can't you open the door? Just a crack, enough for one person to slip through?"

Encrid asked, and the startled soldier responded with a question.

"Right now?"

Encrid and the soldier's eyes met. Encrid nodded.

"Yes, now."

The soldier blinked.

Where should he start explaining? Should he mention that if they open the door now, the group of monsters outside will come in? Or that it's impossible to open the door? Should he ask if Encrid couldn't see they were blocking the door for fear it might open?

While the soldier was choosing his words, Encrid suggested a compromise.

"Didn't they make a small side door next to the main gate?"

His tone was casual.

Despite the fact that outside there were knolls and hyenas, bristling with arrows but still attacking, his tone sounded as if he was out on a picnic.

Encrid knew that getting anxious wouldn't change anything. In reality, nothing was changing.

Hadn't he experienced this day over two hundred times?

He knew all too well that if left alone, they would keep coming.

However, he couldn't just say, "I've fought surrounded by those creatures, and even when a few of them die, they charge like berserkers."

Above all, he thought it was good that they had at least blocked the entry. It was a good start.

Expecting the next steps to go well just because the start was good was foolish. But it was much better than starting poorly.

Anyway, they couldn't open the door every time someone needed to pass. There had to be a small door for emergencies.

Usually, when constructing something like this fortress, they made such provisions.

Even though it was a pioneer village, there was a clear intention to build a castle later.

The quarry, the workers, and the craftsmen they had gathered were a clear indication of that intention.

Of course, Krais had guessed this, and Encrid had nodded in agreement when he heard it.

While dedicating himself to training and practice, it was hard to notice these details.

But Krais's words and the repetition of these 'todays' over two hundred times had made it clear.

Even someone with the brains of a ghoul should have noticed by now.

Anyway, Encrid needed to break the cycle of repetition. To do that, he had to go outside.

"There is a small door."

The soldier was still flustered.

"Then open it slightly. It's an order."

It was an unreasonable request and probably shouldn't have been followed, but the calmness of the request moved the soldier.

"It's over there."

He hesitated, but Encrid headed towards the small door. There was indeed a door.

It seemed big enough for a couple of people to pass through if it opened wide. It was to the left of the main gate.

From just beyond the wall came the guttural cries of the knolls.

The soldier, perhaps finally thinking clearly, spoke up.

"If we open it now, we'll all die trying to hold them off."

It could be opened, but if they did, they would all die. So, no.

It was a polite refusal.

Encrid, without much thought, called out.

"Esther?"

Though they weren't exactly on the same wavelength just by looking at each other's eyes, they did understand each other to some extent at that moment.

Esther nodded. The small panther had grown a bit since they last saw her, but she was still relatively small.

However, her size couldn't be underestimated.

"That one's a real creature, a real creature." 

Rem had said, because Esther wasn't an ordinary beast.

She proved that again now.

With a thud, Esther scaled the wall that the hyena monsters were trying to climb with their short legs. She climbed up, using her claws to grip the wall as if it were solid ground beneath her feet. Even considering the sharpness of her claws, her movements were unbelievably agile.

To someone unfamiliar, it would have seemed like she was walking on the wall as if it were the ground.

Even to Encrid, who knew her, it looked that way.

"She's climbing the wall?"

The startled soldier muttered, his eyes seemingly twice as big as before.

Normally, seeing her move through trees or rooftops, scaling a wall of this height would be no big deal, but it was surprising for those who didn't know.

Despite the wall being more than three times the height of a person, Esther easily climbed over it. But it didn't end there.

"Oh, oh, she... she..."

The soldier watching couldn't continue speaking, his mouth agape.

It was indeed surprising.

Esther had leaped over the wall into the midst of the monsters and beasts.

Esther's task was to disrupt them, to throw a wrench into the coordinated attacks of the knolls and hyenas.

Encrid had this expectation, and Esther fulfilled it.

A low, deep growl, different from the knolls and hyenas, resonated from beyond the side door.

It was a growl that shook the air and struck at the heart, a sound that could make anyone's knees weak.

"Don't shoot the panther!" came the shout from Deutsche Pullman.

The knolls' cries mixed with the whimpering of the hyenas and a few death cries of the knolls.

The sounds from the knolls' mouths started to move away, indicating that the group blocking the door was dispersing.

Encrid's focused hearing caught this change.

"Now."

At Encrid's whisper, the soldier hesitated and asked, "Huh?"

This guy needs to be retrained from the beginning. How could he be so slow to react?

"Open the door." 

Encrid said, grabbing the soldier's wrist and pulling it. He applied force to the soldier's wrist and exerted a certain aura similar to a lethal intent, a technique he had learned by opening the Gate of Sixth Sense.

The militia soldier began to hiccup, but that was the least of their concerns.

Reluctantly, the soldier's hand reached the door latch.

"If something goes wrong while opening it..."

"I'll take responsibility. I'm the military commander of this village."

Then why was the commander committing what seemed like suicide?

The soldier thought this but still moved his hand.

Click.

The lock on the side door was released.

"Don't lock it. Just hold it and be ready to open it again when I ask."

"What?"

What on earth was he talking about?

The side door opened slightly. Apparently, Esther had caused enough chaos among the monsters and beasts that they all turned around to look.

Encrid could see the backs of the knolls' heads.

It was fortunate that none of them were wearing helmets.

Even just holding weapons made them a significant threat.

In fact, he probably wouldn't have noticed helmets even if they had them.

As he stepped through the side door, Encrid let his arms hang loosely. As soon as he was completely outside, he relaxed his body and threw daggers in all directions, excluding his whistling daggers.

Throwing daggers was entirely different from shooting arrows.

He gauged their weight with his fingertips and swiftly swung his arms, embedding four daggers into the heads of the knolls that had turned around.

No knoll could survive with a knife more than a hand's length embedded in its skull.

That was a given.

As four knolls fell dead and one beast turned to look, Encrid had already reached it.

With a swift, downward slash from the middle, he executed a precise and economical sword strike.

The strike split the back of one beast.

With a swift motion, Encrid's sword sliced through the spine, organs, and parts of the bones, cutting the creature in half.

Simultaneously, he stepped to the left and struck another beast's head with his knee.

Using the twisting motion of his waist, he crushed the skull, causing the eyes to bulge forward, with the optic nerves dangling.

After killing two beasts, Encrid began to cut down the remaining monsters without hesitation.

Through training his Sense of Evasion, he had developed a heightened sense of coordination.

The moment he saw, felt, and reacted, his body moved instinctively.

Encrid danced among the monsters, and in a short, deadly dance, three knolls and two hyena beasts lay sprawled on the ground.

Heads, chests, heads again.

One knoll had a hole the size of a silver coin in its body.

This was the result of a combination of short, precise strikes and stabs.

Thud.

Finally, the door through which Encrid had come closed.

'Were they just watching?'

The door had closed slower than he expected.

The sound of the door locking followed shortly after.

'I said not to lock it.'

Still, would they really have left it open?

Getting back would come later.

Now was the time to do what needed to be done.

With Encrid's swordsmanship and deadly skill, the knolls and hyenas around them fell rapidly, and the remaining creatures, seeing this, charged at Encrid and Esther.

It was only natural that even when facing just two opponents, sticking together in combat would be advantageous.

Esther moved toward Encrid.

Even while rushing over, Esther didn't just come directly. The panther's prowess was remarkable.

With a powerful push off the ground, she raked her claws through the air, slicing any knoll or beast that came into contact with them into pieces.

It didn't matter if it was the head or the chest.

It was a combination of overwhelming strength and cutting power.

As Esther charged forward and the knolls and hyenas closed in with weapons, teeth, and claws, Encrid spoke.

"Esther, can you cover the back?"

What did he mean by that?

Esther's eyes questioned him, but Encrid did not answer.

'Is this guy serious?'

Esther felt a surge of anger. Just as Encrid seemed to draw attention, he suddenly suppressed his presence.

But that wasn't all. Rolling in the blood of the knolls and hyenas he had slain, he pressed his belly to the ground, lying flat.

Naturally, the enemies' attacks would focus on Esther. It all happened in an instant.

Esther and Encrid's sudden assault, the slaughter of a dozen beasts and monsters, Esther drawing their gaze, and then Encrid's disappearance—all in a flash.

The eyes of the knolls, caught off guard, turned red, reminiscent of berserkers.

"Gruuughh!"

With bloodshot eyes, the knolls unleashed their rage, charging at Esther to kill her.

Esther skillfully dodged and stepped back.

She wanted to ask Encrid what he was doing, but then she saw him crawling on the ground, stilling his breath even as some knolls stepped on him.

It was clear what he was trying to do.

'Fool.'

The idiot had asked her to cover his back. Esther exhaled sharply and moved her body, enhanced with magic.

The incredible strength and some of the magic infused in her claws showed their mysterious cutting power.

She split the heads of two charging hyenas into three pieces, buying time while making herself hard to catch.

This was what the madman had meant by asking her to cover his back. He wanted her to handle this damned group of monsters.

Esther's guess was correct.

It matched Encrid's intent.

He hid his scent with the blood, flesh, and entrails of the enemies, crawling with a killing intent that mimicked Jaxon's technique. Encrid's target was clear: the knoll who seemed to be their leader.

* * *

Encrid realized that his abilities had changed.

'It's different.'

Even though the changes were significant, Encrid was not so dull as to fail to notice them. He felt and recognized these changes.

Previously, he had to repeat and repeat again to barely learn something. This time, things were decidedly different.

This was a day for honing the Sense of Evasion.

There had been countless repetitive days, even some that seemed pointless. Yet, even on those days, he pushed himself hard, crawling and never stopping.

Every single one of those days contributed to his forward progress.

The changes manifested in his swordsmanship and other areas as well.

"If you know how to emit killing intent, you should also know how to conceal it."

This was something Jaxon had said when Encrid asked about a peculiar technique, the Stab Without Killing Intent.

"You don't need to learn it, but if you understand the principle, it might be useful."

Jaxon's words suggested a practical application, but his eyes seemed to scold Encrid, as if questioning why he hadn't yet mastered the Sense of Evasion. They seemed to challenge him, asking how much longer he would remain slow.

Not that Encrid paid much mind to this. What couldn't be done was simply a matter of persistence.

At that time, he had merely asked out of curiosity and received an answer.

The Stab Without Killing Intent was a technique where the attack was executed purely through movement, devoid of any detectable intent or force. Even when seen, it left one doubting if it was indeed a real attack.

That was the extent of the explanation.

During the more than two hundred days focused on mastering the Sense of Evasion, he also needed to learn to control his own killing intent.

Through the process of constant evasion, he instinctively picked up something through his body.

It was a matter of reacting purely based on senses, not on intent or force, seeking to refine his body's reaction speed rather than relying on aggression.

In the midst of this, he realized something.

Encrid had learned to use that something.

It was the method of concealing and suppressing his presence, a technique akin to that of an assassin.

Of course, it wasn't perfect.

He merely imitated it by slightly hiding his presence and breathing slowly and deeply.

'This isn't enough.'

Encrid crawled across the ground stained with the blood of knolls and hyenas, even hugging a knoll's corpse as he moved. If anyone were watching him, they would be amazed.

Despite having a beast slung over his back, he crawled with frightening speed.

'Crawling is one of my specialties.' he thought.

In terms of crawling, Encrid was beyond top-tier. So he kept crawling.

He heard Esther let out a loud cry from behind.

'I'm sorry. I'll give you two pieces of jerky when we get back.' he thought to himself as he continued to crawl.

By the time he reached a small rise, there were only a few knolls and beasts left around him.

He crawled up the rise. The stench of blood and the foul odor from rolling on the ground clung to him.

The smell of monster blood was, as always, unbearably pungent.

To Encrid, it was a familiar experience.

As a mercenary, this kind of thing was part of everyday life.

He had learned back then that monster blood could hide a lot more than one might expect.

After reaching the top of the rise, Encrid felt a sense of satisfaction.

His target was there, and he couldn't help but feel pleased.

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