I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents Chapter 11

I Became a Gallery Newbie Beloved by Transcendents 

Chapter 11

Mercury’s War (3)

 

I realized.

Up until now, the orcs I had cut down were close to being weak ones.

As their body sizes grew larger, or the number of white tattoos wrapped around their bodies increased, their power rose.

After striking them with the sword three or four times, they still hadn’t stopped breathing.

The smell of blood paralyzed my sense of smell.

Even when I swung the sword horizontally, they didn’t die. Even when I stabbed their abdomen with the sword, they didn’t die.

At that moment, I took out the black single spear, the javelin, and stabbed and stirred it into their neck.

“KRAAAAAAH!”

The soldiers’ screams echoed in my ears.

My gaze and senses had long since moved away from the orc whose breath I had just cut off.

A giant orc staring at me from a distance.

It was a guy who, despite being an orc, had a standard-bearer with a red flag.

He had been pulling at my nerves all along.

It was a gaze that had been watching me since throwing the single spear from the wall.

That guy must be thinking of killing me.

But I’m in a situation where I need to kill you too.

I split one more head and shifted my gaze.

Risellin, the mercenary captain of Lukerna, was definitely not an extra.

She was fighting while completely covered in red blood.

The shield in her left hand.

The spear in her right hand, both covered with blood and flesh.

She cut the orc’s breath and walked towards me with a cold face.

“Seong.”

Risellin stood beside me, lifting her shield to her upper body.

“It would be best not to approach the orc holding the red flag behind him. He’s the orc legion commander.”

Legion commander.

I wondered she meant, but it seemed to refer to the giant orc I had just exchanged glances with.

The problem was that I had already decided to have a go-around with that guy.

“Would you help me clear a path towards killing the legion commander? There are quite a few pigs around.”

Risellin looked at me with her brow slightly furrowed.

“…Did you hear what I just said?”

I continued in a low voice.

“Is support likely to arrive now?”

Risellin sighed.

“Of course not. If it was going to come, it would have come early… seeing that it hasn’t come yet, something must have gone wrong.”

“If I kill that legion commander, wouldn’t the current situation end? At least I think we’ll buy about two days of time.”

“That’s right, but… it’s ridiculous how you say it like you’re going for a walk.”

Risellin clicked her tongue and thrust her shield forward.

“Are you serious?”

“I am serious. Do you happen to have a mana potion?”

“Yes.”

Risellin didn’t seem surprised that I could handle mana. Did she think that after making such a fuss, I wouldn’t use mana?

Risellin handed me a blue liquid potion, her expression more like looking at a strange person than being flustered.

“Seong, I know you’re strong… but I don’t think you can kill the legion commander.”

Hmm.

A coldly rational judgment that was quite disappointing.

“That’s right. I’m just trying.”

“People don’t usually bet their lives like this…”

If I stay still, the rest of the legion’s troops will pour out, and I’ll be swept away by their wave and die.

If I kill the legion commander before that, the second-floor stage might end.

Of course, my instinct was saying that might not be the case.

Like the phrase that floated above my head when I met Queen Anthransthrop, no name was coming to me. There is a probability that there is a monster of a higher concept above that legion commander.

I looked at the 80 or so soldiers struggling. They were barely blocking the orc invasion like waves at the end of the sea.

The shields blocking were long and vertically shaped.

Numerous spears stretching between the shields.

The spear blades extended towards the orcs but did not inflict fatal wounds.

The people in the front were dying one by one.

Screams

Sounds of flesh being torn

NPCs.

I had no idea what would happen on the next floor.

In the first place, it was an uncertain situation whether I could clear the second-floor stage.

However, even if the story of this floor ended, I didn’t want to watch the soldiers dying anymore.

I admit it.

I am in an extremely emotional state.

It might be because I had only been watching NPCs who had died or were dying, and now I was with those breathing and alive.

SWOOSH-

I drank the icy blue mana potion.

Player level 6 reached by killing one orc just before.

Due to the rise of 4 in the mana stat, it became 16.

Perhaps because of that, the mana body enhancement skill also became level 2.

I couldn’t even remember how many orcs I had killed anymore.

I had to kill more than twenty orcs to go from level 5 to level 6.

“Are you really doing this?”

“Yes.”

The mercenary captain Risellin, who confirmed my intentions once more, made fifteen more people stand around me.

They were all Lukerna mercenary members.

Unlike the current situation, Risellin spoke in a calm tone.

As when giving the order to depart, she spoke informally as the mercenary captain.

“Prepare in a rushing formation and move forward. The main escort target is Seong.”

According to Risellin’s words, the gazes of the fifteen gathered all focused on me.

The attack captain Ed, with whom I had a brief conversation, was also included in those gazes.

“I have no intention of being escorted. I will stand at the very front.”

Everyone had a blank expression at my words.

“Saying you’ll kill that legion commander. Quite a bold declaration, isn’t it?”

Risellin pointed to the front with her chin.

“Let’s try it. Anyway, if we continue this standoff, we’ll only end up being defeated and retreating. Let’s make one reckless choice.”

The Lukerna mercenary corps simultaneously raised their shields and formed a formation.

At the forefront of the mercenaries piercing through the orcs like awls, I advanced, swinging my sword.

“We’ll all return alive! Raise your shields high and completely block the enemy’s approach! And stab the gaps with your spears!”

The attack captain Ed’s words rang out loudly.

A systematically trained rushing formation. The orcs were pushed back helplessly, spraying blood.

I had just cut the breath of an orc with a vicious face that appeared in front of me.

Ed, who had stepped forward to kill an orc approaching diagonally, suddenly had a huge shadow cast over his body.

A Face.

A very fierce face.

─Orc Legion Commander.

Clearly, the legion commander who had been standing in the back until just before had now reached right next to me.

KWAAAANG!

The legion commander’s fist struck Ed’s upper body.

Ed’s body was crushed as if half-crumpled.

I heard Risellin’s scream calling Ed’s name.

All my nerves were on edge.

SWOOSH-!

I grabbed Ed’s nape and pulled him back, then pushed him away as if throwing him.

It was to save his life first.

From then on, only the legion commander was in my field of vision.

Massive physique.

Overwhelming pressure.

Orc Legion Commander.

Standing before him, I seriously doubted my sanity.

[Concentration Enhancement Lv.3 – Activating the skill.]

It was because something was rising from my feet, thinking “Let’s try this once.”

[Mana Body Enhancement Lv.2 – Activating the skill.]

The legion commander’s arm moved slowly.

The legion commander, lifting a massive battle axe, stomped on the ground and charged.

Gleaming with a red glow.

The charging force erupting from his huge body was unimaginably fast. So that’s how the attack captain Ed ended up like that.

The axe came down vertically. It was a brutal attack that bore the weight of the legion commander.

I blocked the axe’s pressure with a clashing sword.

Dragon-Slaying Sword (龍殺劍) Libra.

Sword Defense Technique (劍防術) Type 1, balancing the sword with body and maintaining equilibrium.

The ground beneath me cracked, but the sword remained intact.

The legion commander gripped the axe handle with both arms.

KRWAAAAAAAA─!

And with a thunderous roar, he began indiscriminately striking down the axe.

Grey trajectories densely covered the empty space.

Attack is defense.

Instead of blocking the legion commander’s attacks with sword defense, I responded with counterattacks.

Hair cut by the axe blade drifted in the air.

Diagonal line.

If I had tilted my head even slightly less, my neck would have been severed and my head would have fallen to the ground.

I unleashed all the basic techniques of the Dragon-Slaying Sword.

Blood spurted from the legion commander’s neck. Yet he did not fall.

His neck was incredibly thick.

His waist too. The leather protecting his heart and the chest muscles of his upper body were the same.

In contrast, my body was still weak. Even deploying the Libra sword defense technique was barely enough to prevent fatal blows.

KAGAGAGAGAK!

I twisted the trajectory with a straight sword. However.

SWISH.

Even twisting was not enough.

Pain beyond a throbbing spread from my left shoulder. Blood flowed sharply.

KANG!

Even in a sensation of consciousness fading, I swung my sword to strike away the axe.

[Status Abnormality – Bleeding!]

Am I dying?

Dying like this would be too absurd.

Perhaps from losing too much blood, the pain seemed to evaporate.

In a near-unconscious state, I tracked the trajectory and struck again.

Just one more attack would kill me.

[The skill ‘Composure’ has increased in level. Lv.3]

Just once.

Just one more chance.

I don’t hope for luck.

[The skill ‘Fighter’s Movement’ has increased in level. Lv.3]

What I have built up.

[The skill ‘Fighter’s Movement’ calls a linked skill.]

I hoped to show that it was not meaningless.

[Doombringer Lv.1 – Skill acquired.]

It has arrived.

[Due to the critical bleeding status,  is activated.]

[Body temporarily transcends its limits.]

One reason to acquire ‘Fighter’s Movement’ noted in the appendix of the ‘Light Sword’.

A special condition activation skill, Doombringer.

Light Sword) The last and best struggle.

A skill where power increases in the final moment, often seen in game combat action games.

That’s how I understood this skill.

My joints creaked and disobeyed.

But my mind was clear.

More than ever.

Awareness exists. At most, 20 seconds are the limit.

If I exceed that time, my life will be extinguished.

I swung the straight sword.

Horizontal slash, Giant’s strike.

The sword strike that had never hit before penetrated the legion commander’s armor and exploded in his upper body.

Heart Roar.

Drakavani.

Tres Puncturai.

I unleashed every sword path (劒路) my body remembered.

Again, Giant’s strike.

A flash cut across the legion commander’s waist.

The legion commander’s body began to tilt sideways.

─THUD.

The legion commander’s body collapsed to the ground.