Chapter 5: Being the Brother of a Hero

Part 4

"Monsters are visible ahead!"

With that shout, the battle began.

About 30 minutes had passed since they began ascending the mountain when the knights clashed with the monsters ahead.

"...Impressive."

Weiton and Alex, excluded from the battle as messengers, couldn't hide their admiration as they watched the knights.

Especially for Alex, the shock was even greater.

He had lived his entire life in the countryside, and the only monsters he had ever seen were small groups of goblins that occasionally settled on the back mountain.

The most terrifying things he had encountered were the occasional ferocious wolves or bears.

Yet, the knights wielded their swords more swiftly and bravely than even those terrifying beasts.

The monsters included in the dungeon wave ranged from goblins to kobolds armed with various weapons, and about a dozen trolls firmly held their ground, staring at them.

There were about 150 monsters in total, enough to be considered a small wave.

Despite this, the number of knights opposing them was only about 30, but none of them thought they were at a disadvantage.

In the first clash, the knights used their shields and spears to deal with the approaching goblins and kobolds, and the knights with swords cut down the beast-like worgs that attacked from the sides with a single strike.

The knights were impressive, but the young boy at the forefront stood out even more.

Despite his youthful appearance, which seemed younger than Alex's, he wielded a brilliant golden sword, similar to his hair color, and cut down the monsters with graceful movements.

Alex, watching from a distance, couldn't close his mouth in amazement.

"Amazing..."

"Admiring is fine, but don't lose your focus."

"Huh, yes!"

At Weiton's warning, Alex, who had been dazed, regained his composure and looked around.

The trolls had not yet moved, so the battle was still going smoothly.

However, Alex wasn't the only one watching the trolls.

Klein, while cutting down a worg, kept his eyes on the trolls.

The trolls, as if gauging their strength, watched the battle, breathing heavily.

Once the trolls started to move, the knights would have to remain tense.

Even with the strongest armor, a troll's powerful punch could easily crush the person inside.

Klein's instinctive analysis and clear perception of the situation were among his talents.

Without even trying, he could understand the situation.

Layard, seeing Klein's eyes, felt a chill.

A mere 17-year-old boy was looking at the battlefield with the eyes of a veteran who had fought for over 20 years.

Layard wasn't the only one to feel this.

The knights also felt a similar emotion.

The more outstanding their lord's son was, the higher their morale rose.

As the heat of the battle intensified, the trolls finally began to move.

Krooo-!!

The troll at the forefront threw a spear, and the remaining trolls followed suit.

"Keh!"

Alex, hit by the spear, lost the strength in his legs and fell to his knees, and Weiton supported him.

"Pull yourself together. This is a battle between humans and monsters who wield magic."

"Yes, yes!"

The fear induced by the trolls' spears was mitigated by the knights' magic, which acted as a shield in the air.

'Even so, the kid's eyes haven't lost their light.'

Weiton, after looking at Alex for a moment, turned his gaze back to the battlefield.

As the trolls began to move, Klein moved from the left side of the battlefield to the front.

'This delay won't do us any good.'

The knights had enough strength to block all the trolls, but other monsters might head towards the village during the process.

Of course, there were the older brother and five knights, mercenaries, and vigilantes in the village, but Klein wanted to minimize variables as much as possible.

"Huff-!"

Klein's core boiled with magic.

The magic that enveloped his body soon erupted into a dragon-like surge, far surpassing the magic of the 30 knights.

At the same moment Klein swung his sword horizontally, the dragon-like surge became a real dragon.

However, the dragon only maintained its form for a moment before flying away like the wind, instantly exploding the trolls and the monsters beside them.

The violence was so one-sided that it couldn't even be called a battle.

Even the monsters, which fearlessly advanced towards their enemies, were terrified by the incomprehensible power.

The army of monsters, which fearlessly advanced to annihilate their enemies, realized they were mere moths before a flame in the presence of this being.

"Charge!"

At Layard's shout, the knights, who had no intention of losing this battle, unleashed their magic and charged.

In this world, there were geniuses whose talents could not be expressed in words.

And that genius was their young lord.

When the last troll was cut down, Klein, looking at the troll he had just cut, furrowed his brow.

"This is..."

From the body of the last troll, a very faint, dark blue magic dissipated into the air.

"Could it be...?"

Klein, realizing the danger late, shouted.

"Messenger! Quickly return to the village and tell everyone to evacuate outside the village!"

"Huh? Ah, understood!"

Weiton, though puzzled, grabbed Alex and left the battlefield, and Klein gave orders to the knights, who were still in shock.

"Return to the village immediately!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Shane, watching the surge of magic from beyond the forest, realized the battle was over.

'It ended quickly.'

If only regular mercenaries had been deployed, or if Klein hadn't been there, the battle would have lasted for days.

The situation so far was similar to his previous life.

At that time, Klein followed Shane's orders and, when the trolls began to act, demonstrated his true strength.

And then...

"Up to this point, it's the same as before."

At the edge of the village, in the darkness of the forest, Shane sensed a being with a sinister magic.

In his past life, Shane had encountered this being from a distance.

A creature that carried the pure power of darkness, feeding on the bodies of people in the darkness.

A rotten tree spirit, one of the spirits of darkness.

At the time, he didn't know, but the rotten tree spirit had hidden its presence in the darkness and found its way here.

'That's why my past self couldn't have known.'

If he had left reserve forces in the village, the villagers might have had time to evacuate.

However, in his past life, Shane led all the forces out, and the empty village became a feast for the rotten tree spirit.

"Prepare for battle."

"Huh? Huh!"

At Shane's low voice, the five knights, including Lordwill, realized the nature of the darkness and prepared for battle.

Kuung-!

An ogre, enveloped in the unique dark blue aura of the rotten tree spirit, appeared.

It was a twin-headed ogre.

The twin-headed ogre, moving stealthily despite its size, no longer hid itself when it realized its prey had noticed.

Instead, it released the darkness that enveloped it into the surroundings.

Oooooo-!!

"Ah!"

Even the simple release of darkness required the five knights to use all their strength to hold their ground.

A twin-headed ogre, a monster that even a 4th-class expert would struggle to defeat, and a 3rd-class master would need to face to ensure safety, was now releasing the power of the rotten tree spirit throughout its body.

'Dangerous...'

The knights, though unaware of the rotten tree spirit, sensed the danger of the ogre.

'With just us, it's impossible to defeat it.'

The five knights' skills ranged from 6th to 5th-class experts.

They could kill it if they were prepared to die, but at least two or three of them would have to be prepared to die or suffer fatal injuries.

They were not afraid of death, but the roar that echoed when the ogre appeared would have been heard by the main force.

So, even if it meant accepting some damage to the village, they needed to buy time.

Since the villagers had already evacuated.

If they could prevent the ogre from entering the village, they could hold out.

Shane spoke softly.

"Trying to defeat it with half-hearted thoughts won't work."

The knights' eyes briefly turned to Shane.

Surprisingly, Shane, who was standing firm against the overwhelming darkness that even the knights had to struggle to resist, was staring at the twin-headed ogre without any sign of wavering.

'You, of all things.'

Meanwhile, Shane read the hostility from the rotten tree spirit parasitizing the ogre's body.

A spirit of darkness, formed from the negative energy of the forest.

When the rotten tree spirit unleashed its magic, it had no effect on Shane, who had been free from the sin of envy for over 10 years.

'Will such sinister magic work on me?'

The spirit's momentum, which was supposed to be threatening, had no effect on Shane.

Envy, a sin that makes one envy and hate all living things, was the source of the undead.

In his past life, Shane, as the first legion commander of the 'Unnamed,' was the king of all undead and death itself.

The 'death' aura of a mere forest could not affect him.

"Listen, knights. I will finish it in one strike. Use all your strength to create an opening."

"...Understood!"

Under normal circumstances, the knights would not have trusted such words from Shane.

They had no faith in him.

However, Shane's voice, burning with hostility and the threat of the rotten tree spirit, carried an authority that the knights dared not resist.

Not blind faith like Klein, but a chilling command that made them obey from the depths of their souls.

In a normal situation, they might not have trusted him, but in the face of death, Shane's command gave them an inexplicable sense of trust.

The knights began to infuse their weapons with magic.

Lordwill, the 5th-class expert at the forefront, infused his sword and shield with magic, looking for an opening in the ogre.

Shane advised the knights.

"The essence of the creature is a spirit of darkness. If you treat it like a regular ogre, you'll be consumed by the darkness in an instant. Always be cautious of spaces where darkness exists."

"...Understood!"

The knights, having heard Shane's advice, charged.

Normally, they would have probed the enemy's strength by dodging attacks, but there was no time for that now.

The instinct of a warrior who had fought in countless battles shouted that they wouldn't last a minute once the ogre started attacking properly.

If it were just an ogre, they might have a chance, but with the power of the spirit, it was beyond their capabilities.

Meanwhile, Shane was rapidly spinning the two circles in his heart.

Though only a 2nd-circle mage, Shane's magic was special.

To him, the concept of circles was merely the total amount of magic.

He was the king of darkness and the commander of an army of millions of undead.

Now, the formulas of magic were like child's play to him.

'It must be killed in one strike.'

Spirits, in general, need a medium to exert their power.

The medium for this spirit of darkness was the already dead twin-headed ogre.

Thus, to subdue the spirit, the ogre had to be destroyed.

As the circles spun fiercely, Shane added his own modifications.

A branch technique derived from the Runes.

'Amplification.'

The distance between the magic in Shane's spell increased, expanding the range of the magic.

The total amount of magic remained the same, but the size was far beyond what a 2nd-circle mage could produce.

Of course, this alone couldn't surpass the limits of 2nd-circle magic.

So, Shane added another technique.

'Superposition.'

A technique to superimpose magic on magic.

At first glance, it might seem like simply adding another spell, but superposition was a technique that had been abandoned.

The capacity of a spell's formula is fixed, and superimposing it by force is like trying to fill a cup that's already full.

However, Shane had widened the distance between the magic with amplification and then drew the same formula in the space.

'The attribute is 'metal.' The form is cutting.'

A blue disc made of magic formed above Shane's outstretched hand.

The disc began to rotate rapidly and soon turned red due to the repulsion of the magic.

As it turned red, the disc grew in size and its cutting power increased.

When the disc turned a blood-red color, Shane spoke.

"Now!"

The knights didn't miss this moment.

In that brief moment, the knights, though covered in blood, followed Shane's command and used their remaining magic to grab the ogre's feet.

The twin-headed ogre, along with the rotten tree spirit, ignored the knights' attacks and focused on the disc in Shane's hand.

However, it couldn't ignore the knights' combined attack from all sides, so it used its last effort to create a defensive barrier with the power of darkness.

The barrier, which had the property of 'absorption,' blocked the red disc Shane had thrown.

"Insolent!"

Shane's shout, filled with the magic of an absolute soul, turned into a form of magic that mercilessly shook the spirit of the rotten tree.

The shaking of the spirit created a significant imbalance in its magic.

The red disc, breaking through this imbalance, passed precisely through the two heads of the twin-headed ogre, and continued to cut through everything in its path as it flew into the forest.

The ogre, now headless, fell to the ground due to gravity.

The knights looked at Shane with disbelief.

Though they had never doubted Klein's abilities, at this moment, they felt an overwhelming presence from Shane that they had never felt from Klein.