Chapter 110 – Hero vs Hero (2)

The situation changed in an instant.

The man who appeared out of nowhere muttered to himself as he swiftly wiped out the zombies that had stormed the castle.

Even the guards who had come as reinforcements stood dumbfounded at the unbelievable sight.

*Thwack!*

Each time the man swung his two-handed sword in a wide arc, the zombies’ necks and limbs were satisfyingly sliced away.

The Hero Tailder flicked a finger.

“Grrr.”

At the Hero Tailder’s command, a monstrously large creature for a zombie appeared.

A giant over four meters tall. With multiple arms and legs, it charged at the man, its massive mouth on its stomach wide open.

“Look out…!”

The soldiers all thought the same thing. But the man, far from dodging, took a step forward.

*Swish!*

It was as if a gleam of the sword had just flashed.

A faint diagonal trajectory of the sword was left in the air. The man walked through it and calmly spoke.

“Next.”

“Guuuh!”

The number of enemies was still high.

As if by an unspoken agreement, the zombies charged, and the man swung his sword without hesitation.

*Thwack, swish!*

Every time the man swung his sword, a zombie was obliterated.

“N-No way…”

The soldiers muttered in spite of themselves.

Even though they were seeing it with their own two eyes, something unbelievable was happening.

The Demon King’s army.

Nearly a hundred of the undead zombies had already been destroyed.

“I-Is he a knight?”

A knight.

Even in this holy city, beings known as knights existed.

They were akin to tactical weapons of war, people who could turn the tide of any battle.

“He’s no mere knight, you useless loafers.”

The captain of the guards muttered.

He knew.

No matter how skilled a knight, they couldn’t single-handedly fight so many enemies with such overwhelming power.

“That is a true Hero.”

“What?”

He couldn’t be talking about Tailder, the black-armored Hero currently commanding the monsters.

They suspected the captain might have lost his mind.

At that moment, the soldiers saw something shocking.

“Yes, a true Hero.”

The gruff-looking captain was shedding tears, his lips pressed tightly together.

That venomous captain.

The captain recalled the back of someone he had seen in his youth.

A face unchanged from 15 years ago, and that same exhilarating fighting style.

The man who came from another world and took up his sword for them, people with whom he had no connection.

And the hero who, in the end, achieved a feat no one else could.

The hero who left behind nothing but scarred glory, asking for nothing in return as he went back to his own world.

Now, he had appeared here, in the face of the continent’s renewed crisis.

It wasn’t a case of mistaken identity.

Anyone who had seen the Hero even once couldn’t help but weep now.

But to just stand there weeping in awe would be a disgrace.

“Confirm the kills on any zombies still moving where the Hero has passed. You lot, move the injured to safety. The rest of you, with me! We’re replacing the drawbridge with the emergency chains! Move it!”

The captain wanted to admire the scene longer, but the situation was dire.

He knew that the legendary Hero Vin was an all-time great.

But facing him was Tailder, who was also a Hero.

The Fallen Heroes were monsters beyond imagination, possessing the powers of both the Goddess and the Demon King.

‘We have to help him, quickly.’

The knights’ reinforcements will arrive soon.

No, perhaps he can do it even without them.

Because a legend stands before us.

* * *

The most urgent task now was to repair the castle gate.

To do that, dealing with the fiends relentlessly pouring through the gate was the first priority.

“Move it! Faster!”

The soldiers, realizing what they had to do, began to move.

“Gyaah!”

The Hero cut down a charging zombie.

But the fiends, as if tireless, kept swarming in.

There were too many zombies.

Zombies poured in endlessly through the open drawbridge.

‘Are the knights still not here?’

The captain bit his lip.

Soldiers with bows fired volley after volley of arrows to support the Hero.

*Fwish, thwip!*

Of course, a few arrows weren’t enough to kill a zombie.

But if they were to jump into that fray, it felt more likely they’d be killed by the Hero’s own sword.

Therefore, the soldiers kept their distance, providing support while proceeding with the drawbridge repairs.

“This is too many.”

A desperate remark escaped the Hero’s lips.

Having said that, the Hero plunged his two-handed sword into the ground.

It was a sight that made it seem as if he had given up the fight.

“Hero, rest for a moment! We’ll take over until the knights arrive!”

The soldiers, misunderstanding the Hero’s words, rekindled their fighting spirit.

“It’s been 15 years…”

The Hero muttered with a bitter smile.

“To think there’s someone who recognizes me.”

The Hero said, waving his hand.

“It’s fine. Everyone, stand back.”

As he spoke, the Hero extended his right hand forward.

“I was just saying the warm-up is over.”

The coat the Hero was wearing began to flutter in a sudden gust of wind.

An unusual flow of magical energy.

It was an aura that even the soldiers, unable to use magic, could sense was out of the ordinary.

“Lightning.”

The Hero uttered the activation word.

As the skill motion and activation word combined, auto-casting began.

A magical pattern was intricately woven into the air.

A light so magnificent and brilliant that it was hard to believe they were in the middle of a battle began to unfold like fireworks.

*Cra-koom! KABOOM! KABOOM!*

Earth-shattering bolts of electricity drew chaotic trajectories, flashing through the air.

The zombies’ limbs were shattered and disintegrated, flying in all directions.

The smell of burning was nauseating.

Instead of dust, chunks of zombie flesh floated up before falling to the ground with a splat.

Seeing the rain of rotten flesh, Olivier covered her mouth.

“Ugh, did you have to do it like this? The Demon King wouldn’t have fought so messily.”

“That Demon King bastard fights with his eyes.”

“Don’t you know eye-battles are the ultimate truth? The strongest techniques in this world are eye techniques.”

“When eye-battles start, every story turns to crap. That’s the unwritten rule.”

The zombie flesh pattered down.

Watching it, the Hero muttered.

“One more, for the occasion.”

“You crazy bastard!”

*Cra-koom! KABOOM!*

The power of lightning once again poured down upon the undead legion.

“Agh, are you a pervert, Hero? Does seeing rotten flesh scatter everywhere excite you? Ugh, I almost got hit by a chunk just now.”

Olivier, thoroughly annoyed, nagged from the Hero’s shoulder.

“Sometimes, you have to do it on purpose.”

“On purpose?”

Olivier questioned the Hero’s words.

But she soon understood what he meant.

The soldiers’ eyes held a mixture of emotions.

Disbelief. Shock. Joy.

A transcendent skill, one that only a Hero could perform, unfolded before their eyes.

It was no illusion.

Before them stood the true Hero, revered as a legend.

“H-Hero…”

“It’s really the Hero…!”

The soldiers cheered.

And yet, one by one, they began to weep.

“We weren’t abandoned…”

“Is this a dream I’ll wake up from?”

“Considering how much this hurts, it can’t be a dream.”

They thought they had been abandoned.

By the Goddess, by the continent, by this world.

All the Heroes had forgotten their duty and turned their backs.

To them, who were filled with despair, hope was what they needed.

And salvation had come.

The soldiers’ morale skyrocketed in an instant.

It was hard to believe these were the faces of men who, just moments ago, had been swimming in a swamp of death.

Olivier swallowed without realizing it.

Having seen his pathetic side so often in that other world, she might have forgotten.

This was what it meant to be a Hero.

Every single one of his actions carried meaning.

“Waaaaaah!”

The battle wasn’t over yet. But the soldiers roared, and the residents who hadn’t yet evacuated opened their windows.

Because to anyone, this was clearly a cry of victory.

“Hero…”

The Fallen Hero Tailder stepped forward with a sinister smile.

After witnessing the power of that lightning, the undead dared not charge recklessly.

It was a ridiculous sight.

The undead were already dead. In other words, they shouldn’t fear death.

However, they were instinctively repulsed by the ferocious energy they had just witnessed.

The Fallen Hero Tailder took off his helmet and threw it to the ground.

“Hmm. Can you put the helmet back on?”

“…?”

“What are you banking on with a face like that…?”

Olivier responded to the Hero’s sorrowful mutter.

“No wonder he fell…”

Tailder’s lips twisted into a smirk.

“I know of you, First Hero.”

As Tailder imbued his sword with magic, a jet-black aura flared ominously.

“Finally, a worthy opponent has appeared.”

The fiend bared his teeth in a grin.

As if he had been so tormented, so lonely, with no one to fight.

They say a tiger must use its full strength even against a rabbit. But is that really true?

A tiger hunts a rabbit merely to sate its hunger.

But a rabbit is not enough to satisfy its hunger, nor is it enough to display its strength.

The lonely tiger wanted an opponent against whom it could unleash its full power.

“You were bored?”

“Yes, I was.”

“Don’t you worry. No matter what you do, you can never beat me.”

“Don’t bluff. You used ‘Lightning’ twice in a row; your mana consumption must be severe.”

Tailder sneered and continued.

“I hear you were the ‘strongest’ back in the day, before I came along.”

An ominous magic began to swirl from beneath Tailder’s feet.

The cursed magic inherited from the immortal Demon King and the transcendent skill of a Hero blessed by the Goddess.

“This is true ‘Lightning’.”

For a moment, the surroundings were plunged into darkness.

A black light, symbolizing doom, cast a magic circle in the air.

Seeing it, the soldiers trembled.

It was like a mere mortal facing a storm head-on.

Unless they were mistaken, it looked even more powerful and spectacular than the Lightning the Hero had used.

“I’ll show you the power I gained by forsaking my humanity.”

Tailder laughed brazenly as he poured a massive amount of magic into the circle. Soon, he formed a hand sign, activating the transcendent skill.

*Thunk!*

Just then, Tailder felt something fly toward him.

His body, which should have forgotten pain, transmitted a tearing sensation.

“You talk too much.”

The sword in the Hero’s hand was gone.

Of course it was. It had already pierced through his chest.

“You have no honor…”

“Are you crazy? You expect me to wait for you to use your ultimate move?”

Olivier gave the Hero a look that said he’d just shattered the mood.

The Hero looked back with an expression that said, ‘What do you want from me?’

Tailder dropped to his knees. Then, he slowly tilted over and collapsed to the ground.

Waaaaaah!

The soldiers cheered at the unbelievable sight.

The knights who arrived late were bewildered, not understanding the situation.

Because the soldiers, and the residents who had been hiding, had all come out, weeping and cheering together.

“Well then.”

The Hero looked at the people and raised a corner of his mouth.

This was the first step in finding the Holy Sword.

“Next.”

The Hero waited for the next challenger.

Of course, no more monsters entered the castle.