Kays Translations

Chapter 285: In the Godless Wilderness

With a fierce shout, the Raging Blade was swung down. The blow, filled with determination, sliced through the right inner elbow of the colossal orc, akin to those facing them. Though it didn’t sever completely, it cut off about two-thirds of the elbow. Even for a colossal orc with extraordinary regeneration abilities, its right arm was now rendered useless.

“Guoooh!”

“Huh!?”

Despite the expected disability of its right arm, the colossal orc swung its unusable arm to strike. A glimpse of white tendons was visible from the wound. The arm, nearly severed, was forcibly moved by fungal filaments connecting it.

Caught off guard, Victor couldn’t evade and instinctively raised his left arm to guard. A lightning-like shock surged from his left arm throughout his body, momentarily making him feel like he was about to lose consciousness. The hand guard crafted by the artisans of the capital and his steel-like muscles managed to endure this attack somehow.

“The old man’s punch packs more spirit, you damn brat!”

The Raging Blade swung again. The deep wound from before, like a surplice cut, sliced through the orc’s ribs, reaching its internal organs.

Unable to breathe, the orc, already showing a grim expression, darkened even further. Despite this, it continued to wildly swing its arms, its movements still swift.

…Such a pitiful sight.

Victor felt a pang of sympathy for the orc, who should have been a detestable enemy. With the thought of liberating it, he swung his sword.

Eventually, as if a thread had snapped, the orc’s movements ceased, and it collapsed forward. Victor immediately understood what had happened. Its main body had perished. If Gerhardt’s assumption about the cursed mushrooms was correct, they latched onto human hosts, manipulated them at will, and upon death, turned them into incubators. It was the worst possible adversary imaginable.

On the other hand, it wasn’t as if the mushrooms harbored any malice. They were merely plants, doing what they did to spread their seeds. They had little understanding of the needs of other organisms, let alone the pride of warriors, nor did they intend to.

“What are we fighting for…”

Victor directed a compassionate gaze towards the exploited corpse, its dignity sucked dry.

Such sentimentality was not only meaningless but harmful on the battlefield.

For just a moment, his mind wandered away from the battlefield. In that moment, he was grabbed from behind by another colossal orc.

…Damn it!

Before he could regret, his body was enveloped in a floating sensation. What felt like less than a second lasted for several seconds.

Then came the suffocating impact. By taking a defensive posture, he managed to retain consciousness.

The colossal orc lifted its foot to crush its fallen prey. Victor’s body still numb, unable to move.

In the instant he thought he was about to be killed, the orc’s body swayed.

“Captain, are you alright!?”

A fellow knight thrust his spear into the orc’s side.

Rolling over and getting up, Victor swung his Raging Blade to sever one of the orc’s legs. The blade, forged by the swordsmith Lutz, demonstrated its sharpness as it cut through.

The colossal orc fell backward with a ground-shaking thud. With one foot on the orc’s chest, Victor, and the knight who swiftly withdrew his spear, simultaneously stabbed their weapons into its throat, gouging the wound. It would likely die like this; there was no time to make sure.

“Thank goodness!” As Victor raised his head and said this, a large shadow loomed behind the young knight, who wore a bashful smile.

“Guaaah!”

Another colossal orc bit into the knight’s shoulder from behind. Whether due to intense pain or another factor, the knight remained frozen in place.

“You bastard!”

Still tingling, Victor scolded himself and swung his Raging Blade down on the colossal orc from above. The orc’s head was split in two from the top to the bottom, an instant death!

However, even so, the orc’s mouth remained clamped onto the knight. It was a characteristic of parasitized monsters called the “bite of death.” Gerhardt had previously mentioned this trait in reference to zombie ants.

The knight’s face contorted in agony. His right shoulder swelled, his right arm ballooned, and his face gradually enlarged. Parasitic mycelia were pushing up flesh and skin from within his body.

The right half of his body no longer moved freely. The knight tapped his own neck with his remaining left hand. Was he asking to be killed?

There was no means to save him; hesitation would only prolong his suffering. Despite knowing this, Victor couldn’t move in the spur of the moment.

He had been saved by this man just moments ago. Did he have to kill such a man with his own hands?

…Yes, that’s the only way.

Victor tightened his grip on the Raging Blade and shouted with determination.

“You saved me, I owe you thanks! From now on, any achievements I make will be yours!”

The young knight’s expression remained unchanged, whether he heard or understood was unclear. Victor couldn’t help but shout, hoping to convey even a little. Meanwhile, the knight’s body continued to grotesquely transform.

Victor stepped forward forcefully and swung the Raging Blade horizontally. The knight’s head and part of the orc’s head cleanly flew off. Both bodies collapsed as if crumbling.

He had been a brave knight, and Victor didn’t want to kill him. He held no grudge against the three orcs lying nearby.

“…Ah, that’s right, I remembered. The battlefield is just a damn mess.”

Victor muttered contemptuously and rushed off to find the next enemy, without even glancing back at the overlapping corpses.

Not knowing whom to resent, he had to keep swinging his sword. If he didn’t, either his comrades or himself would die.

A knight and a colossal orc were fighting. Victor leaped from behind and swung his sword from the shoulder to the heart. The colossal orc’s body trembled. Victor withdrew his sword and kicked the colossal orc’s body away.

The colossal orc fell face down. There was no time to pay attention to it anymore.

“Are you guys alright?”

“Yeah!”

The knights answered vigorously.

The man who had been bleeding from his head and kneeling desperately tried to stand up. Victor wanted to ask if he was okay, but he swallowed the words.

“Let’s go, onto the next one!”

The words that came out in exchange were a guide to hell.

Next, next. Knock one down, and another comes. This frenzy won’t end until everyone’s dead or all the killing is done. Doubt, mercy, even honor, must all be cast aside if one is to survive.

This is the battlefield, the graveyard of the soul.

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