Relic Convoy (4)

There were five raiders. One of them was decapitated by Jerea, and two were struck by the holy law vortex unleashed by Ha-ri.

A blazing holy flame, would surely burn my enemies even when it touches them, it sticks to them like white phosphorus and won't stop until it burns them all──

The burning monsters, drenched and shivering, continued to stare at the convoy.

"How can you be on fire and still...."

As if they didn't feel the pain.

"Stay alert. Bring up your shields, keep an eye on his attacks, especially those tentacles, they're poisonous."

Ha-ri was about to ask how he knew, but then she looked at the nape of Jerea's neck and frowned.

A black bruise spread across the nape of his neck, centered on a small cut.

"Lord Jerea…!"

"Focus on the enemy. That is your priority for now."

Like the most veteran knight in the land, Jerea unsheathed his sword without hesitation. And so the battle between the four monsters and the holy object convoy resumes.

-Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

-Geeaaaaaah!

The monsters' voices were different, but their behavior was the same, as if they were the same species.

It swung its huge claws wildly like a bear, looking for an opportunity to release its poisonous stinger with its tentacles. It seemed to feel no pain, shrugging off the slightest snatch and pushing in.

'Strong…! It's almost at the level of a Class A monster!'

With a tricky strategy and pure physical prowess that would make it a mid-boss in the Orange Gate, it's not easy to deal with, especially since it ignores pain.

But Ha-ri is a goddess. She's a chosen holy law user, and these monsters are no match for her in terms of power.

-Kaaaaaah…!

The flames were large enough to incinerate them if they weren't driven back by their touch.

Ha-ri's flames consumed the stinging tentacles, burning the creature whole.

-Guy Yi Yi....

The creature's vocal cords burned away in an instant, its voice dying. Meanwhile, Jerea and the knights dutifully slayed the other creatures.

"Riders, hold onto your shields. I have two seconds."

"On my mark!"

The commoner riders held off the monsters' charge with their shields. Though they were lightly armed and commoners, they were skilled enough in the art of the shield to rely on each other for the strength and weight they lacked.

-Ew!

The monsters screamed as their charge was blocked. But in a group battle, it's not the strength of the individual that matters, but the coordination.

"Just watch out for the tentacles."

Jerea and the knights dodged a flurry of tentacles and stabbed the creatures in the head, the vital center of all life.

If they couldn't penetrate the skull with a single blow, they stepped back and let the next knight's sword take over, stabbing again and again until the creatures shriveled.

When only one last one remained.

-Burn, burn, burn…!

The creature that had been stopped by the shield wall saw something and broke into a mad dash. At the end of his death-defying sprint was a 'holy chest' that had been left behind in the chaos of battle.

"Uh, uh, uh?!"

Koo Dae-sung, who happened to be the closest, unwittingly stepped in front of him.

"Hunter Koo Dae-sung!"

Ha-ri shouted, but the monster was already right up to Koo Dae-sung's nose. Koo Dae-sung reflexively stabbed his sword into the tentacle-wielding monster.

-Kwak!

Was he lucky? Koo Dae-sung's sword, combined with the monster's acceleration, pierced his skull, and he died.

"I'm down…!"

But as it collapsed, the monster continued to attack him.

It had the speed to run, so the impact force of a near-collision was transmitted directly.

"Ouch! My arm…!"

He tries to pull his arm out of the pain, wondering if it's in the wrong place, but for some reason it won't listen.

"Pull it out!"

The knights and their riders rescue Koo Dae-sung from the monster. Ha-ri pushes the monster's corpse as hard as she can with her tiny hand, and Koo Dae-sung barely manages to free himself from its weight.

"Hunter Koo Dae-sung, you're hurt… Ouch."

Ha-ri, who had been tending to him, paled as she examined Koo Dae-Sung's broken arm.

Through the torn fabric of his tentacles, she could see… black spots.

"Poisoned."

Koo Dae-sung was not alone. Jerea, who had saved Ha-ri and Dae-Sung during the first attack, and several knights and riders, had also been impaled by tentacles while dealing with the monsters.

"Ouch...."

"Poison...."

In the heat of battle, the rider's adrenaline was too high to care, but one by one they fell. The knights seem to be holding on, but they don't look well.

"We need to find an antidote."

"But how, with a monster we've never heard of?"

"Could it be some strange curse cast by orc shamans or barbarians?"

In her dozen years of service as a Kingdom Knight, Stella had never seen such an abomination, and neither had Jerea.

It's a new creature, and finding an antidote seems impossible. But....

"This poison, I think I recognize it."

"What? Sir Jerea?"

Gazes focused at his words. He was the first to be poisoned, and as he examined the spots on his body, he deduced the poison.

"It's a neurotoxin from a sea coral. It's a potent poison and will kill you if left untreated."

"Sea coral, you mean? Why would the venom of a sea creature be used by a monster on land....?"

"That's not all, its forepaws are like those of an aardvark, and its skin is like that of a warthog. It's a mix."

"...."

The knights frowned at the words. It was taboo.

Synthesizing and creating life was the domain of the gods, a taboo that should never be granted to humans.

"Chimeric synthetic water, the work of warlocks."

* * * *

Jerea quickly created the antidote. Dismantling the chimera, he produced the ingredients for the antidote from the tentacles of a sea coral.

"Horsemen first. We're in a hurry."

Jerea fed the antidote to the least resistant riders first.

"Great… thank you, sir."

"Lord Jerea… you must detoxify first...."

"Never mind me. I have sworn an oath to protect the knighted, the commoner, as you have sworn to protect the people of the realm."

The duties of nobles and knights. They sacrifice first. None of the knights shirked this duty.

The problem came when it came to distributing the antidote among the knights.

"One…is…insufficient."

Three knights were poisoned.

Jerea, a knight errant; Stella, a kingdom knight; and Koo Dae-sung, who was considered to be a squire.

"Antidote, starting with Sir Stella."

Jerea half-coercively handed the antidote to the redheaded knight. It was obvious that she, as the one in command, should be the first to be detoxified.

"Lord Jerea...."

Stella took the antidote and hesitantly swallowed it, her duties as commander taking over.

"Ugh… I'm sorry, I burned one of the monsters...."

At Ha-ri's self-reproach, Jerea pats her on the shoulder and gives her a gentle smile.

"In battle, you never know what might happen. Don't blame yourself."

Jerea then approaches Koo Dae-Sung and offers him the antidote.

"I…."

Koo takes the antidote, but hesitates. He is the weakest person in the convoy, and Jerea is the alter ego of a Holy Knight.

Could anyone even begin to compare their worth?

Why does this knight casually hand him the antidote?

"Here, take it. This old man's arms are heavy."

Feeling burdened by the knight's unflinching gaze, Koo Dae-Sung accepted the antidote and swallowed it.

The powdery antidote clung to the back of his throat, but he washed it down with a drink of water from Ha-ri's hand.

"I've hidden the entrance more discreetly. Even with their good noses, they won't be able to track us easily in this cave."

Jerea summoned the last of her power to ensure the safety of the convoy, and urged them to rest for a while.

"…!"

"Lord Jerea!"

And his limit had finally come.

Knights and horsemen with bonfires burning around him, hooded to make him more comfortable. He was dying with honor, albeit in an alter ego.

"Sir Jerea...."

At their sad gazes, the aging knight said.

"Rest assured. Even when this body dies, the old me will be with you again."

The Grail Knight's recreation of his past is not a one-time event. The countless steps he had taken, the prime of his life, were granted to him for as many as seven times as he fulfilled the Task of Fle.

In other words, Jerea could be summoned six more times.

"But… there is only one of you, isn't there?"

Koo Dae-sung's words struck a chord. Death is death, even if it's a recreated past. How could he accept his own death so casually?

"My true body… is protected by the Lady of Death. She favors me, the one connected to her, so… there is no need to grieve. My death will be peaceful."

It was a calm death for him, but one that grieved those who watched. Jerea turned to Koo Dae-sung and said

"Young knight, you have earned it, and thanks to you, the holy relics have not been defiled by the evil hands."

Koo Dae-sung wanted to say that it was a miracle that he had managed to do it at all, that he was a halfpenny who couldn't even fit on the shaft of a knight.

The illusion seemed to weigh him down as he realized that he had only been lucky enough to pick up the hammer.

Jerea's gaze turned to everyone.

"Lord Stella."

"We are listening, Lord Jerea."

"It has become apparent that this mission is… a trap. The question is who is behind it...."

The rare alliance and raid by orcs and barbarians could have been dismissed as a blip in the search for the holy relic.

But such a relentless pursuit, a raid by an unknown group…and the capture of a holy chest that the monsters prioritized over their own lives.

"Someone is after the holy relics....It must not…must not fall into their hands."

"Of course, Sir Jerea."

"You… equate me with the Jerea of the Twilight… but I am but a foolish Jerea. Treat my resurrected past as such. This relic must be delivered to the Lionheart King."

"...."

Jerea looked at Stella, unable to speak, and then at death, unable to speak anymore. His blurred gaze stared at the ceiling.

"Glory be…to the Lionheart...."

He was a knight to the end, and Death willingly wrapped his last breaths in his arms.

* * * *

-Gahhhhhh…!

-Gaahhhhh…!

The roar echoed through the canyon. The surrounding orc warriors and beasts stumbled backwards.

"Ugh...."

Chimeric monsters that made even the orcs hesitate, let alone the beast gods appeared.

The leader of the pursuing party spat, showing his displeasure.

"To chase with such monstrous creatures."

"That's right. Even though it's an order from the Great Chief...."

In addition to joining hands with the barbarians, who would normally have taken an axe to the head on sight, they were firmly ordered to never come into conflict with the bastards who started this whole mess.

Orcs are notorious for disobeying orders, even those of their chieftains, if they don't like them, but it was the Great Chieftain who gave them their orders.

Before his fearsome strength and axe, even the mightiest of Orc warriors would fall to their knees in fear.

"There is a handy thing, though. These monsters can smell a human."

All around the orcs were the bodies of torn horses and knights. It was one part of the convoy that Grail Knight Jerea had split into five pieces.

"Damn it, I can't find that thing! That's my second bust!"

"How many convoys are left?"

"Three."

"These chimeras… have any of them not returned?"

"None."

In other words, all three are dead. Knowing the power of these chimeras, the orcs realized that the remaining three convoys were no match for them.

"We'll go after them all. We still have a long way to go to get out of the canyon."

"And then?"

"We'll hit the weakest ones first."

The orc pursuers' reasoning was sound.