Chapter 46. Bandit Subjugation (5)
The battle began instantly.
When the Wild King rushed at Mitchell, his direct subordinates moved at the same time.
According to the plan, the lower-ranked martial artists handled the bandits.
Lauren and the others formed a joint formation and stopped the Wild King’s subordinates.
Meanwhile, Mitchell and Grant blocked the Wild King’s sword.
Unlike the Braxton man, the Wild King’s sword focused on sharpness rather than strength.
If even a slight opening appeared, his sword slipped in like a snake.
It was frightening.
Clang!
Mitchell blocked the Wild King’s thrust and was pushed backward.
He suppressed the groan trying to escape his mouth, bit his lip, and circulated the energy from his Aura Hole throughout his body.
Screeeeeech!
The Possession wrapped around his body.
Strength surged into him.
Mitchell immediately rushed toward the Wild King and swung Heaven-Breaking Flash.
The compressed sword energy headed toward the Wild King’s waist.
“Hup!”
The Wild King sucked in a breath.
Mitchell’s current Heaven-Breaking Flash was on an entirely different level than before.
The Wild King hurriedly created Sword Aura and blocked it.
BOOM!
Compressed sword energy collided with Sword Aura, creating a huge noise.
A cloud of dust rose and blocked their vision.
[Careful!]
Calian warned Mitchell.
Thanks to that, Mitchell quickly moved away.
A sword struck the place where he had been standing moments earlier.
“As expected... It can’t beat Sword Aura.”
[He hasn’t become a Master yet, so he won’t be able to maintain Sword Aura for long.]
Then there was a way.
Mitchell used Spirit Absorption to pull in surrounding energy.
At the same time, he stretched out a hand and absorbed souls as well.
His true strength began here.
Endless energy supply.
Persistence born from that energy.
It was time to show the Wild King.
Screeeeeech!
While breaking down souls, Mitchell continuously created Heaven-Breaking Flash.
BOOM! BOOM!
The Wild King became flustered by the repeated attacks and tried to strike Mitchell.
But Grant immediately rushed in, forcing him to turn his sword.
Mitchell refused to waste the time Grant had created.
He extended his sword and focused.
He had only just succeeded with Heaven-Breaking Shatter.
He was not yet familiar enough to use it instantly.
He needed time.
Mitchell calmed his heightened mind and began gathering energy.
Soon, a round mass of energy formed around his sword.
Hummm.
Mitchell heard a faint sword cry.
Then he launched the completed Heaven-Breaking Shatter at the Wild King.
The Wild King must have sensed the power inside it.
He stopped blocking Grant and turned his sword.
Slash!
Grant’s sword cut deeply into the Wild King’s left forearm.
Even so, the Wild King’s eyes remained fixed only on Heaven-Breaking Shatter.
Then Heaven-Breaking Shatter and the Wild King’s Sword Aura collided.
BOOOOOOM!
An enormous explosion unlike anything before rang out.
The impact pushed the Wild King backward.
For a brief moment, the battle quieted.
The Wild King frowned and looked around.
The bandits were losing.
His direct subordinates were also being suppressed by Lauren and decreasing in number without accomplishing anything.
“This should be enough.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Mitchell heard the Wild King mutter and asked.
But instead of answering—
Fweeeet!
The Wild King put his fingers in his mouth and whistled.
The enemies began preparing to retreat.
Mitchell shouted.
“Lauren! Don’t let them escape!”
“Understood.”
Lauren quickly muttered an incantation and stretched out his hand.
Whoooosh!
A huge wall of fire appeared behind the enemies.
Their escape route was blocked.
Grant shouted after seeing it.
“That’s right! Now what are you going to do? Abandon all your men and run away or— Huh?!”
Ridiculously enough, the Wild King saw that his subordinates could not escape and immediately turned around and ran.
Grant, who had been trying to provoke him, stood with his mouth open.
He had never imagined that a warrior as powerful as the Wild King would actually run away like this.
“Damn it!”
Mitchell cursed.
The Wild King’s earlier words bothered him.
This should be enough.
There had to be some objective.
Mitchell hated being dragged around without even knowing what it was.
“Then I’ll catch him and ask.”
“What? No! It’s dangerous!”
Mitchell ignored Grant and chased after the fleeing Wild King.
Grant followed behind using his movement technique.
But the distance between them and the Wild King would not close.
Clatter-clatter-clatter!
At that moment, the sound of hooves rapidly approached.
Nox caught up and slowed down.
“Nox!”
Mitchell happily called his name, jumped up, and landed on Nox’s back.
Then he grabbed Grant’s hand and pulled him up.
Once Nox confirmed that both men were properly seated, he accelerated again.
The Wild King, who had looked like a tiny dot, rapidly grew larger.
Once Mitchell came close enough, he launched Heaven-Breaking Flash.
The Wild King had no choice but to stop in order to block it.
He turned and raised his sword.
Clang!
While he blocked Heaven-Breaking Flash, Mitchell and Grant jumped down and blocked his escape routes.
The Wild King looked at the two men and one beast surrounding him.
Then he rushed toward Nox.
In this situation, choosing the direction blocked by a horse was perfectly natural.
However, he had forgotten one thing.
The horse in front of him was the very creature that had caught up with him while he was using his movement technique at full power.
Whoosh!
Nox dodged quickly.
The Wild King’s sword cut only empty air.
But that was not the end.
The Wild King saw Nox’s backside after the beast had already turned.
Then Nox’s hind legs shot toward his chest.
“Hup!”
The Wild King hurriedly raised Aura.
At that moment—
BOOM!
A powerful impact struck his chest.
He flew through the air while spraying blood.
Grant was waiting for him.
Still airborne, the Wild King blocked Grant’s rapid attacks.
Clang-clang-clang!
They exchanged more than ten blows in an instant.
The Wild King gathered Sword Aura again and tried to attack Grant.
But then he sensed energy approaching from behind and hurriedly turned.
A monster was charging at him.
The monster had mouths opening all over its body.
It raised its sword and brought it down.
The Wild King’s eyes focused on the energy covering the blade.
Heaven-Breaking Shatter.
Because it contained tremendous explosive power, the Wild King instinctively realized that his current body could not block it.
And his judgment was correct.
BOOOOOOM!
Repeated injuries had worsened his internal condition.
The Sword Aura he created was incomplete.
The instant it collided with Heaven-Breaking Shatter, it shattered.
The sword in his hand also broke apart.
Fragments of the blade pierced through his entire body.
Thud.
He fell to his knees.
Mitchell approached him.
He took a potion from his bag and placed it in front of the Wild King.
“Tell me what you meant by ‘This should be enough.’ If you tell me, I’ll give you this potion.”
The Wild King gave no answer.
He looked like someone who had already accepted death.
I should keep him alive first.
Only then could Mitchell interrogate him.
Mitchell opened the potion and approached.
Then—
Cough!
The Wild King suddenly vomited an enormous fountain of blood.
Then he died.
[What a ruthless bastard. He exploded the Aura inside his own body and killed himself.]
It was an incredibly empty end for such a powerful opponent, someone Mitchell and Grant had barely defeated together.
Mitchell stared at the fallen Wild King for a long time.
Then he sighed and searched the body.
The man was already dead.
There was nothing to be done.
Still, Mitchell hoped he might find something useful.
But the only thing inside the Wild King’s clothes was a scrap of paper.
Mitchell unfolded it.
Even after opening it, he saw only strange scribbles he could not understand.
Grant came closer and looked at the paper.
“Is this supposed to be writing?”
“I think so. Do you know this script?”
“No... As far as I know, there’s no place that uses writing like this.”
“Let’s go back. Lauren might know something.”
The two climbed onto Nox and quickly returned to the fortress.
However, the martial artists’ reactions were strange.
They should have been celebrating a great victory.
Instead, they looked gloomy.
Mitchell only learned the reason after speaking to Lauren.
“All of the Wild King’s direct subordinates committed suicide. They had poison hidden inside their mouths.”
“Not even one survived?”
“No. Every single one died.”
Nothing ever went smoothly.
Mitchell and Grant entered the only intact building in the fortress and searched it.
There, they found another paper containing the same strange writing as the paper from the Wild King.
It had been left on a desk beside a pen.
It looked like someone had been writing when the battle started.
Mitchell took the paper outside and approached Lauren.
“Lauren, do you know what this is?”
Lauren looked at the two papers for a while.
Then he frowned.
“I’m not certain, but I think this is Other Script.”
“Other Script?”
“Yes. It was a written language used by strange people who suddenly appeared around five hundred years ago. But at that time, the Empire was a nation only for humans, so I don’t know much about it either.”
Elves lived longer than humans.
But even for elves who lived around two hundred years, five hundred years was a long time.
Lauren explained the little information he knew.
“Those strange people understood the human body extremely well. Based on that knowledge, they used powers similar to magic. I’ve heard that most swordsmanship humans use today was developed from techniques taken from them.”
Grant listened quietly, then tilted his head in confusion.
“Why isn’t such a major event widely known?”
“I heard the Empire thoroughly erased the information. That’s why even I know almost nothing. Even so, humans probably know the most about Other Script. As I said, that incident happened when the Empire was still entirely a human nation.”
Mitchell frowned.
Lauren’s words reminded him of something.
But he did not say it aloud yet.
For now, the major matter had been finished.
There was still plenty to clean up.
“Let’s return.”
At Mitchell’s words, the martial artists began moving.
After arriving at the iron mine, Mitchell received reports on the progress and gave several instructions.
Only after that did he finally get some time alone.
Then he spoke the question he had been holding back.
“Master, you know about Other Script, don’t you?”
[Why do you think I know it? Didn’t that pointy-eared fellow say it was from five hundred years ago?]
Calian flatly denied it.
Mitchell did not believe him.
“Five hundred years ago was around the time Runei, a branch of Dark Swordsmanship, was founded. And Lauren said modern swordsmanship was taken from those strange people. The timing fits perfectly.”
[You’re saying that based on only that? That’s too much of a stretch.]
“Most importantly, you didn’t say anything.”
[...]
“If you know something, you always interrupt and explain. If you don’t know something, you interrupt and say you don’t. But this time, you didn’t say a single word. That’s strange.”
[...]
The fact that Calian no longer answered made Mitchell certain.
Mitchell silently waited and pressured him.
Eventually, Calian spoke.
[I don’t know the exact meaning either. I only recognized a few of the characters written there.]
Mitchell narrowed his eyes.
If Calian knew nothing at all, that would have made sense.
But saying he could only read a few characters sounded strange.
Calian noticed Mitchell’s suspicion and shouted.
[I really don’t know, you brat! Every character in Other Script has its own meaning, and there are tens of thousands of them. Of course, the number used in everyday life is far smaller.]
“Tens of thousands?!”
The enormous number made Mitchell dizzy.
If every character was effectively a word, then it was possible.
But learning them was another matter entirely.
[Anyway, I only heard a little about it in passing. I have nothing useful to teach you.]
Calian drew a firm line.
But Mitchell still had one major question.
“Then why were you trying to hide it?”
[...]
[I’ll tell you when the time comes. More importantly, I have a request.]
Calian had never once said that he wanted to ask Mitchell for something.
Hearing the heavy tone in his voice, Mitchell silently nodded.
Then Calian made an unexpected request.
[Translate the Other Script written on those papers.]
