Between the vast thoughts, Enkrid pulled out one advantage he possessed.
An overwhelming amount of Will.
'Usuke.'
A name meaning Will drawn from an inexhaustible well.
That too was a weapon. A weapon not just anyone could possess.
It was something even Ragna didn't have—Ragna, who had stepped into a special realm among geniuses with heaven-sent talent.
'That's why it was advantageous in fights.'
He'd felt it when sparring with Rem and everyone else. No, now he'd established it more clearly.
Even after fighting the half-knight Rearvardt during his battle with Count Molsen, he'd learned tactics that put endurance at the forefront through the opponents he clashed with. That's how he'd fought with inexhaustible Will at the forefront.
"Why don't you use what you have?"
It was something Luagarne, who taught tactics, had said countless times.
"Everything you can use can become a weapon. Hone and polish it. For instance, you must think of even your face as a weapon. Expand the concept. Don't narrow and narrow it to confine yourself in a small well."
She wasn't a knight, but a Frog devoted to tactics. Her words carried weight. Enkrid had listened like that.
'Everything is a weapon.'
So he'd done so. When sparring with allies and when fighting enemies, he'd put inexhaustible Will at the forefront.
'But I can't suppress the Balrog in an endurance fight.'
The Balrog had lived for a very long time. It was too obvious that the Will it possessed wouldn't be small either.
'I can't win with quantity.'
Then should he decide the match with change?
He'd learned the method of accelerating Will in Zaun.
Though it was a technique that ruined the body, if the body was sturdy, the power to endure would also grow.
'Endure.'
It was the general term for techniques of enduring pain.
If 'Blur' was a technique whose origin lay with fairies, the technique called 'Endure' originated with monks.
Audin had said the foundation of Endure was tempering the body. What if he used Point Explosion while enduring with a tempered body and Endure?
'I'll decide the match with Will transformation.'
Rather than calculation, he'd decide the match in an instant. What if he used the Balrog's carelessness on top of that?
'I'll stake everything on the first sword strike.'
Then what should he do?
'That bastard's intimidation first.'
The Balrog gauged an opponent's skill through intimidation. So he had to shake off that intimidation in one breath. That was the prerequisite for attempting to decide the match in an instant.
"What are you again?"
It was the fifty-sixth today, and since he'd passed Donapa, this was the third opponent. A swordsman whose specialty was a single-edged sword and nimble movements tilted her head and asked.
When he met her gaze, the opponent—the single-edged sword wielder—widened the distance in one breath like an herbivore that had discovered a predator.
Ching!
She drew her sword simultaneously with retreating, and wariness was clearly visible in her eyes.
'That bitch's eyes.'
Her pupils trembled minutely.
Enkrid's blue eyes were like a lake. Except that lake was boiling as if a volcano had erupted beside it.
If Rem or the others had seen it, they would have said, "Those eyes have gone crazy again."
Once the method was decided, he'd carry it out stubbornly. It was one of Enkrid's most distinctive traits.
The single-edged sword wielder was just an opponent to pass by.
"I'm a bit busy right now."
After saying that, he lunged forward.
"...Sseup!"
The single-edged sword wielder stopped breathing and attacked again. If she retreated here, there would be no chance of victory. She knew her own specialty well.
She had to maintain offense rather than being driven into defense.
Kkagagagagagang!
Putting the tip of the single-edged sword to the ground and scraping it, she ran forward again. The ground was mixed with stones and dirt. Sparks flew from the tip of the single-edged sword as it grazed past stone chunks among them.
She seemed to charge in while dragging sparks. The moment of collision was anticipated. And what to do at that moment.
The single-edged sword wielder concentrated.
It seemed like they would clash immediately, but they didn't. The owner of the single-edged sword was momentarily flustered.
'He stopped?'
Enkrid stopped abruptly in the middle of charging at high speed. It was such a sudden braking that it created an illusion of his body shooting forward.
Having stopped like that, blood flowed from Enkrid's nose. The flowing nosebleed splattered forward in droplets. Of course, that wasn't even a part worth paying attention to.
The single-edged sword wielder couldn't stop. With the purpose of slashing the opponent, she'd gone all out with both Will moved consciously and Will moved in the realm of unconsciousness.
If she stopped here, she wouldn't end with just a nosebleed.
Kakak!
The single-edged sword that had been spilling sparks accelerated using the friction force that had been sweeping the ground. The blade that used the ground as a scabbard and was swung split the gap in the air and flew in, leaving sound behind.
Having suddenly stopped, Enkrid at that moment bent his body at a speed no different from before stopping and took a step, swinging his sword. It was a picture of both rushing toward each other and striking out with their swords.
'How?'
Kkaang!
The single-edged sword wielder saw a sky-blue serpent that struck her sword, then climbed up her arm to bite her neck.
That serpent cut the collarbone below her neck as it was, split her heart, and then withdrew.
Black soot settled in her eyes. It was right before death. What she saw last was Enkrid swinging his sword in the air a couple more times.
Seeing that, even nonexistent strength arose. The single-edged sword wielder spewed black smoke and said with all her might.
"Kyaak, you used me for training?"
Black smoke surged up in a lump from the wound the sky-blue serpent had split and fell to the ground in a mass.
Since Enkrid heard it so often, he didn't even nod his head. He ignored it. It was something said more than thirty times out of over fifty todays.
The single-edged sword wielder was sensitive to acts of ignoring her. It was a character flaw. He'd seen this woman more than fifty times.
As time passed, their weaknesses became more and more distinct. Ignoring the opponent's words, Enkrid only reflected on the brief exchange that had just occurred.
'Control of Will.'
Enkrid had focused on control rather than Point and Line Explosion. Having stopped like that, he immediately changed to Point Explosion.
The speed of Will changed swiftly in an instant. Even horses need to keep running to build up acceleration, yet Enkrid swung his sword at high speed directly from a stopped state.
His arm trembled intensely.
No matter how tempered the body was, it was natural to be burdened when doing something like this. He couldn't cut a thousand people without taking a single breath or feeling any stiffness in his arm.
Just because he'd become a knight by strengthening with Will and tempering his body didn't mean he'd escaped the category of being human.
That would be no different even for giants or fairies.
Anyway.
'I learned one thing. Odd-Eyes.'
He'd tried it because the image of Odd-Eyes freely stopping and accelerating at Border Guard came to mind.
At that time, it had been so impressive that he'd even called him Indomitable instead of Odd-Eyes.
Though he'd given him such a name and it stuck to his tongue so he kept calling him Odd-Eyes.
Odd-Eyes had just snorted when he heard the name Indomitable.
His attitude had asked why he was bringing up that name.
Anyway.
'I can start with actions beyond the opponent's predictions while inducing carelessness.'
That was the conclusion.
And the successive sword strikes were imitations mixing various movements while matching with the fire serpent called Salamandra.
The actual blade couldn't become a whip.
It was because the sword's trajectory changed so quickly that such an optical illusion entered the opponent's eyes.
So just now, Enkrid had accelerated twice.
Once when moving his body, once when swinging his sword again.
'Point Explosion twice.'
More precisely, it was containing Point Explosion within Line Explosion.
No wonder his forearm was stiff. It was this much because he'd trained repeatedly with Audin all this time. If not for that, his arm muscles would have ruptured.
Just as thoughts were endless, his feet didn't stop either. Enkrid advanced forward. Though darkness seemed to swallow him, the cave's darkness had now just become a manageable path for him.
There was no fear. No dread. Just the mind wanting to hurry and train and test it because he'd decided what to do.
"...Oh, you came? But why are your eyes like that? Why are you excited?"
Oara noticed it and asked.
Enkrid approached beside Oara, who sat by the campfire.
"Do I look like that?"
"Yeah, it seems like anyone would notice."
"I've been well, and Roman..."
Enkrid reflexively said what he needed to say. Oara only summoned the Balrog after hearing this story.
Otherwise, the conversation would get long. Enkrid's speaking speed was a bit faster than usual todays.
"Did you always talk like this? It's like you're speaking very dutifully and formally?"
Even in death, Oara was a knight with keen intuition.
"Ah, is that so?"
Enkrid nodded his head.
"No, um, well, be careful."
Wings spread wide from her shadow. Enkrid unknowingly smiled when he saw it.
The subtle smile might have stimulated the Balrog.
—Was it a bastard who wanted to die by a demon's hand?
It was a question no different from asking why there was a madman here when it was summoned.
The one who summoned it wasn't crushed by its presence but laughed instead. The Balrog had seen many unique and special intelligent beings.
From those who laughed right before death to a human who, born in a human body, had defeated it.
Moreover, that had been recent in terms of time.
Among those many intelligent beings, the first impression of the bastard standing before it now was supreme.
Laughing immediately upon seeing it?
Then he spoke.
"Try it."
Enkrid provoked as a habit and regripped his sword.
'The start is shaking off intimidation.'
Enkrid had decided how to fight the Balrog in just three todays. The expansion of thought now happened naturally. And there had been as many as over fifty todays. Experience was sufficient.
Instead of saying anything, the Balrog first spread intimidation. Was it saying it wouldn't even associate with a bastard who couldn't overcome this much?
That was quite amusing.
And thinking about blocking that intimidation made it more amusing.
Enkrid had already visualized the Will of Rejection before the Balrog showed intimidation.
Could effort alone catch up with genius?
The time seeking an answer to that question had accumulated, and all that had accumulated had become a solid castle wall within Enkrid.
A tall and sturdy castle wall—Enkrid had made it his oath to protect what was behind him.
That was the vow he'd kept after becoming a knight.
An illusion appeared in his eyes. A solid wall built with sky-blue bricks blocked blazing chains. Ttung. The chain containing sparks that had bounced off drooped to the ground. Should it be called a wall of rejection?
Should it be called armor made by accumulated time?
Or should it be said that it didn't crumble because it never broke in the end?
—You keep laughing.
Even though its intimidation was blocked, the Balrog had no way of being flustered. Enkrid recognized from its words that he was smiling.
At this point, he was really crazy.
Rationally speaking, there was no way to be enjoying this at all.
But.
'Am I a rational person?'
According to Krais, he was intelligent, but.
'Not my concern.'
There was no time or reason to ponder such things. From the moment he faced the Balrog, he combined the thoughts that had been splitting while preparing wave-blocking.
He'd stake everything on just one sword strike.
'Looking at only one point.'
Concentration on one point. He just needed only one thought.
In a way, it looked like gambling. And the fact that he could do this might seem possible because he was repeating today, but it wasn't.
Enkrid had never carelessly let any day flow by. He always acted as if today were the last.
'Even if I die.'
He would die after achieving what he'd set his mind on.
He would die while walking the path he'd decided.
So today didn't need to come back. He didn't keep the Ferryman's curse-turned-blessing of "today" in mind. His resolve was always lofty. And the will he'd just firmed up was also entirely infused in his sword.
Chirririririring.
The blade of Dawnforge emerged while scraping the edge of the scabbard.
The funny thing was that the Balrog's lips also curled up. If it fought by crushing opponents with the intimidation it possessed, it would be easy. The bastard had means to fight easily.
But it didn't.
Instead of innate intimidation, it used its hands and feet. It was an emotional action rather than rational judgment.
So the Balrog now was no different from Enkrid.
Both narrowed the distance while maintaining twisted lips. Enkrid moved while dragging the ground with the bottom of his boots, and the Balrog walked with big strides. Its wings were spread wide, which was fortunate for Enkrid.
Wings would hinder sudden movements. The moment the part made of membrane resisted the wind, invisible shackles would be created on its ankles.
—Ah, this is why I can't quit fighting.
The Balrog spewed out mental waves in delight. Enkrid felt the same way.