Chapter 711 - A World of Black and White
Normally, Yohan's group should have been scattered, picked off one by one.
But instead, they managed to form something resembling a formation.
It started with putting the clan head, Alexandra, and Rhinox at the front.
They acted as an invisible wall, blocking the front line.
Because of those three, the lizard riders had to circle around rather than charge directly, which robbed them of their momentum and forced them to expose every movement.
To make matters worse for them, before some of the riders could even begin their charge, Enkrid sent Ana Hera ahead to break their formation, luring the battle into chaos.
Even so, Hescal showed no sign of panic.
If only I'd sent Ragna instead of Ana Hera.
That would've really messed with them.
It would've stunned them completely.
But no, Ragna was too valuable for that.
If the clan head was the fortress wall, then Ragna was the catapult.
He needed to fly in and deliver shock.
No one was expecting a catapult—so there was no reason not to use one.
More than anything, Enkrid didn't have time to run over and give him any instructions.
He simply had to trust that Ragna would act on his own.
Enkrid's gaze shifted.
It wasn't due to a specific sound—more like his senses spreading out, thin and wide, picking up strange signs.
It was subtle—like someone secretly waving their hand behind him—but at this distance, he could probably detect even a breath.
Even amidst the storm, his senses grasped the surroundings with razor-sharp clarity.
Rolling his eyes to follow his instincts, Enkrid caught sight of something—
Among the lizard riders charging at Riley, a few reached out their hands.
Black scales tinged with red, a sharp snout—the image of a monster came into view.
A unique one.
If it survived long enough, it would surely be named.
Among the army of ordinary Scalers was a unit of monsters with psychic powers, making the Scalers look like harmless children in comparison.
Ana Hera responded to their attack with a shout.
"Someone's grabbing me—!"
No one had actually grabbed her arms or legs, yet she cried out as if they had.
Enkrid understood the meaning behind her brief words.
Telekinesis.
Driving his sword into the ground, Enkrid spread his field of vision even wider and extended his senses.
A few monsters moving unnaturally brushed against his awareness.
He let the incoming information flood in more acutely.
He saw, heard, smelled, tasted, and felt.
The data assembled in his mind, arranging itself exactly as he willed it.
Like black dots stamped onto a blank white canvas, the monsters with psychic abilities became distinct within his range.
Even while expanding his senses to detect the enemy, Enkrid's hands didn't stop moving.
He pulled out two horn-blade daggers from the sheaths strapped to his chest, one in each hand.
Jaxen had once said it was the most hated weapon on the continent.
"You mean it doesn't silence sound but makes it even louder? That's awful."
It was a weapon that didn't suit Jaxen's style or philosophy.
The thought was brief.
His movements continued without pause.
Enkrid fixed his eyes on a few targets his five senses had picked up.
Everything, including the Scalers reaching out their hands, appeared to move in slow motion.
A knight's thought process moved several times faster than a normal person's.
It felt like slipping between the cracks of time, watching secretly from the sidelines.
Focus into a single point.
Perceiving slowed time came with a pressure like being buried in mud.
But Will surged through his body, reinforcing him.
That allowed him to move as he pleased, even in the mud.
What needed to be done now?
Throw.
Hit.
He focused.
Combined what he'd learned from Jaxen with techniques picked up from Riley.
Both arms swung back in unison.
He condensed power just enough to land a strike, then infused his arms with Will and swung.
His arms crossed like whips in front of his chest, and the horn-blade daggers tore through the air.
Pop!
Pop!
FWEEE!
The daggers sliced the air with a short horn-blast and pierced through the heads of the two Scalers reaching into the sky.
The popping sounds rang clearly even through the roaring storm.
The daggers didn't get lodged—they pierced straight through.
Meaning: their heads now had holes bigger than fists.
Not even a troll could survive that.
The one trying to wield telekinesis collapsed like a crumpled sack into the muddy water.
Enkrid pulled the sword from the ground and said,
"Leave the unique ones alone."
It looked like just watching from here wouldn't be an option anymore.
There wasn't just one or two with psychic powers.
So be it.
He'd have to leap into that thrilling battlefield himself.
And besides—
This unique monster with psychic abilities was only the first of many they had prepared.
CRAAAACK!
With a thunderclap, a sense of foreboding spread across the sky.
When I looked up, I saw rain converging beneath the dark storm clouds above, forming into something massive.
It looked like a giant serpent had appeared in the sky.
Not a dragon.
A long-bodied snake hovered overhead, clearly siding with the monsters.
The ominous sensation that struck the back of my neck confirmed it—it was a curse.
"I was wondering when it would show itself."
Enkrid muttered.
The effects of the curse were obvious.
As soon as the snake floated into the air, the monsters grew more aggressive.
Saaaah!
The noise spewing from the Scalers grew clearer and more piercing, setting off alarms in his senses.
"Hold the line."
Enkrid said this as he passed by Riley.
"I'm doing that without being told!"
As he walked past, Enkrid swung his sword with grace.
The blade of Samcheol traced an upward curve and swept through the neck of a lizard sneaking up from the floor.
Pibik, drdrk!
It was like a whip with a blade had curled around its neck and yanked it off.
The sword circled once around the monster's neck and lopped it clean off.
This one was especially good at hiding its presence, but the sound of rain striking the ground had been slightly off, and its shape was caught in the shifting streams of water.
That's how he killed it.
'Hescal.'
Enkrid could guess what he was aiming for.
If someone like Krais or Abnaier were watching the battlefield now, they would probably say:
"So in the end, he wants to settle this with a single decisive blow."
And before that final blow, he intends to drain every ounce of strength from us.
Physically—and metaphorically.
He sends the monsters charging in to exhaust those who've reached knight-level strength, and if needed, throws in the rest of the soldiers under Yohan to kill their families.
That shakes their hearts.
Knights are an asymmetric force.
If you can kill them, sacrificing a few thousand monsters is nothing.
'He's brilliant.'
Hescal was a remarkable tactician.
Enkrid had no choice but to follow the flow of Hescal's strategy to some extent.
He intended to fight while conserving strength—but ignoring the situation wasn't an option.
All he could do was prevent them from shaking hearts, from killing people like Riley and the rest.
If this line broke, the road to Yohan would open.
Then they wouldn't even be able to protect the rear.
Enkrid's senses, finely honed and on edge, picked up something in the distance—and he suddenly shouted:
"Get down!"
Now this was going too far.
That thought briefly flickered through his mind.
The serpent summoned by the curse elevated the monsters' physical abilities far beyond normal.
But now something new had entered the mix—a unique entity.
A monster with supernatural ability.
The colossal monster raised its head—far larger than the others, rare even within the Demonic Domains.
Shaaah—
Hundreds of snakes writhing from its skull marked its identity.
That mark swept across the battlefield.
If you met its eyes, it unleashed the curse of petrification.
A Medusa.
Its body looked at least five times larger than a Scaler's.
Bigger than a giant.
The curse of petrification wouldn't work unconditionally.
If you had Will, you could resist it to some extent.
But the very idea that you had to resist it was already a problem.
Because that meant less Will available for actual fighting.
They had to fend off a horde of monsters—some with supernatural powers—while enduring a curse that laced your blood with stone dust.
In a normal fight, the advantage belonged to the allied forces.
With a supernatural monster mixed in, it became even.
When the cursed serpent floated above, it tilted to disadvantage—and with the Medusa's arrival, defeat seemed inevitable.
And yet Hescal had strategized even here.
'He's using the Medusa as a tactical weapon.'
He hadn't unleashed it in a charge—it was deployed as a suppressive force across the entire battlefield.
Now Enkrid could tell where the curse's power was coming from.
The Medusa wasn't just a monster—it was the talisman and symbol of the curse.
The enemy's forces were unquestionably superior. On top of that, they had a warlock and a legendary alchemist on their side.
If that specter Dmule became the god he was striving to be… perhaps he'd be called Dmule of Disease or something.
Enkrid figured it was better not to look at all, rather than waste Will to resist it.
Even when your body was brimming with Will, only a fraction was usable at any moment—and even that was being drained.
A normal person would've started stiffening already, from the blood outward, their entire body turning to stone.
"Guess I have to call that one flying soldier."
Brushing back his soaked hair, Enkrid had a single clear thought—this was dangerous.
If he couldn't draw out one of his hidden cards and turn the tide, he would lose for sure.
His instincts said it, and the numbers backed it up.
Well, then, that's what he would do.
Luagarne style tactical swordsmanship couldn't be mastered by watching from the sidelines.
Intuition reached into the unconscious, pulled things out, and fused them into an answer.
That included the raw force he held within.
Enkrid followed instinct and intuition, sketching a path in his mind.
The heat in his head and the sharpness of his focus lit the way forward.
This, too, was tied to a recent realization.
Enkrid lowered his head.
'Rhinox manipulates restrained Will waves.'
He applied what he had learned by watching that man's swordsmanship.
Enkrid wasn't a genius, but when it came to handling Will, he could be called talented.
Though it wasn't so much talent as it was the fact that his overflowing Will allowed him to train endlessly without restriction.
That was why learning advanced techniques was easier for him than the basic training of Yohan.
'Restraint.'
He didn't look at the Medusa.
Then he concealed his Will.
As he synchronized his wave with the surroundings and himself, he entered the state known as harmonization.
Ironically, it was only after coming here that he finally understood the harmonization technique shown by Aspen's knight, Jamal, back then.
If Rem saw this now—
"What the hell, seriously? Why the hell can you only do that now?"
—he'd probably blow up like that, right?
Enkrid could practically hear him complaining, asking why he couldn't do it when he was first taught.
And then, Enkrid melted into the battlefield.
He calmly distributed his breath, thin and steady, sticking out his tongue to taste the air and the falling rain.
A sweet tinge carried information to his palate.
Distance, direction, location—it wasn't precise, but he could feel presence.
He figured he might as well shut his eyes.
So he did.
In place of vision, he opened his ears.
Sound replaced sight.
No need for echo-location.
The rain would handle that part.
Shhhh.
As the sound of rain receded, Enkrid's world turned to black and white.
That was when everything came into view.
Enemy positions, their movements—he saw it all.
Following the path drawn by Luagarne's tactical sword in his head, Enkrid sprinted.
No one from Yohan, including Riley, caught even a glimpse of his movement.
Of course, neither did the enemy.
He moved in a harmonized state, unleashing his restrained Will only in front of his target.
The first was another Scaler, just about to raise his hand and unleash telekinesis.
Enkrid drew Penna and thrust upward beneath the man's chin.
Thuck!
The blade pierced through his skull, jetting black blood and chunks of brain through the cracked bone.
Enkrid yanked Penna out even faster than the thrust, flicked off the blood, and slid it back into the sheath as he moved eighteen steps sideways.
It looked like walking, but the speed was that of a sprint.
As he slid that way, an Owlbear—adept at hiding its presence—was just about to release poisoned feathers.
Ptututut!
Feathers sharp enough to cut through a storm snapped up like a wild beast.
Every single feather was a poisoned dart.
If left unchecked, someone might get hit.
But the Owlbear failed its mission.
Samcheol sliced through the creature's iron-tough feathers and neck.
Black blood burst like a fountain from the severed neck, but rain diluted it as it fell, mixing in a murky swirl.
In Enkrid's auditory world, it looked like two liquids of different textures blending together.
He kept moving.
Still harmonized, still sensing enemies through sound and pulses, releasing his restrained Will only when necessary.
Crack!
The next Scaler had a particularly tough body, but Penna jabbed into his eye socket and split his skull.
He didn't die immediately, but no second strike was needed.
On to the next.
The enemies had three types of abilities.
Telekinesis, hardened bodies, and concealed presence.
Enkrid focused on the third—the ones who hid themselves.
The black-and-white world felt like a battlefield permitted only to him.
Like he was the only one moving freely across a spiderweb.
The spiderweb of Aker.
Everything had its sequence, every strike its order.
He blended his trained sword style with Luagarne's tactical sword.
From then on, it wasn't all that difficult.
It was simply something he could do.
And just by doing what he could do, Enkrid ensured that not a single person near him bearing the name Yohan would die.
***
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