Volume 3 Chapter 96 The Swamp Adventure I
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
Sword Cain never bothers with refined tactics when it comes to claiming its prey.
It slashes with its prized scythe, cutting through throats and bellies, then laps up the blood that gushes forth.
Their feeding grounds are thus a ghastly, macabre scene.
Shield Cain, however, is far worse.
It crushes its prey with the shields on its arms, then grinds organs and bones into a paste before吞en.
In this case, the remains barely retain their original form.
”Wing Cain drops its prey from high above, smashing them before feasting. It’s unlike any of the Lower-rank Bloodsucking Kind victims we’ve seen so far.”
There’s also the higher-tier Remi Cain, lurking in the shadows.
This one takes its prey back to its lair, injecting saliva that prevents blood from clotting, preserving its meal.
If you examine the victim’s wounds, the blood is neatly congealed──proof that Remi Cain is no amateur.
’……’
”Let’s hunt down all the monsters around here first, then we can look for Nerea. I’m getting a bad vibe with them peeking at me since earlier.”
Kian rose from the corpse, brandishing the Windsong Blade with a sharp flourish.
A delayed storm kicked up, and the white mist was swept away.
In the dark, dense forest, once the veil of white fog was lifted, countless swarms of Sword Cains were revealed, clashing in the open.
”There’s so many.”
Kian bared his canines and laughed like a predator that had spotted its prey.
”Wonder how many times I can practice my Secret Technique.”
* * *
(There are those that have it, and those that don’t.)
As Kian gathered the scattered remains of Sword Cains in the swamp area, a suspicion turned into certainty.
Whether “it” is present or not doesn’t refer to some grand symbol of masculinity on the Sword Cains.
It’s about whether they have a thorn-like growth similar to the seeds of the Thorn Demon that he’d identified earlier.
So far, he’s hunted down 27 of them.
25 of those had thorns embedded in them.
The embedded locations varied, including bellies, shoulders, scythes, and legs, with some individuals having multiple thorns.
The two without thorns seemed to be affected by his charm spell, suggesting that whatever the thorns are, they interfere with Kian’s charm.
(What is this seed, really? Is it from the Thorn Demon…? If so, where’s the main body hiding?)
Before he has time to piece it together, another group emerges out of the dark.
This time it’s those rat-grey monsters, holding their massive arms up like shields──Shield Cain.
Looks like the stench from Sword Cain’s corpse lured them in.
Cannibals, the lot of them. Disgusting.
(But this many? Something’s off. Seriously off.)
Kian kicked Sword Cain’s remains aside and faced the Shield Cains head-on.
The lower-rank Bloodsucking Kind sometimes hunt in packs, but never more than ten or so.
And yet, just the Sword Cains──they’d already counted 31.
27 plus 4.
And now throw in the Shield Cains on top of that.
Whatever balance this swamp had, it’s done for.
’Kian, incoming.’
(Yeah. I see them.)
Kian watched the lead Shield Cain slam its shield-arms into the mud with a heavy thud.
That’s how they wind up for the charge.
Shield Cains, with faces and arms hard as bedrock, kick off with all that muscle──rushing their target, crushing it flat, then sucking up every last drop.
(In a swamp like this, it’s all going to taste like muddled mushrooms anyway.)
He can’t even count them.
There’s just too many.
Each one’s a walking wall──he can’t see the end of their lines.
Kian bent his knees and shot straight up into the air.
Shield Cain’s got armor like solid stone on its face and arms, but its back’s covered only by supple skin──soft, exposed.
So the usual move──jump right over, or slip around the charge and get behind them.
Standard Shield Cain takedown.
That is, if you’re only dealing with one.
When they swarm, they charge all at once──getting behind them’s nearly impossible.
Still, he doesn’t need their backs.
As long as he can get past those armored arms and land a blow, it’ll do.
”Sing for me, Windsong Blade.”
Like a bat, Kian dangled upside down in the gloom, gripping the enchanted wind sword low by his hip.
Then, spinning his whole body, he flung the warrior monk’s thread technique out──wrapping it around the withered trees nearby.
The silver light tore loose, swooping down like a thunderbolt and slashing through the swamp below.
A ferocious storm massacred the flock of Shield Cains, tearing up the earth and rending everything in its path.
Then the wind’s aftermath summoned ice and snow, freezing the marsh waters into a circular sheet.
The rear-line Shield Cains lost their footing on the mud that solidified in high waves, toppling over.
Their bodies began to freeze and stick to the ground.
Massacred.
Blown away.
Torn asunder.
Frozen stiff.
Where once there was no added effect of ice, Guy’s magical modifications now allowed the magic sword to inflict even more heinous status abnormalities upon enemies.
Kian danced through the dark night like a bat, swiftly dealing deathblows to the frozen and slipping Shield Cains.
His target: their necks.
Boasting a cutting edge that defied the laws of physics, the magic sword easily sliced through the monsters’ tough hides, severing bones and nerves.
(I had used a lot of magic power.)
The enchanted armor ‘Silver Ice’ was no match for the sheer consumption.
Left to its own devices, it would replenish magic power by drawing life from the surrounding flora and fauna, but with enemies all around, a quick recovery was necessary.
So he dug into the flesh of the surviving Shield Cains with his gauntlets, directly draining their magic power.
His mark was an elderly female of the species.
Unlike vampires, Bloodsucking Kinds possess tachyonian cells, cells that generate magic power.
So he could fully absorb the life force from this female individual.
He froze the prey’s limbs, drawing out its soul with a force so intense it threatened to rip it away entirely.
The female Shield Cain let out a pitiful cry and twitched, but soon grew still, collapsing in place as if falling asleep.
”Gulp”
(She had lived a long, long time and held a lot of magic power. But still, it wasn’t nearly enough to complement a strike from the Windsong Blade.)
If he went all out, he could wipe this swamp clean off the map.
But then… he’d be running on empty, not a drop of magic power left.
Last time, over in Izerland, he’d blasted everything just ’cause that hopelessly soft Witch and her little familiar could bail him out.
This time? No backup. No supply.
”It’s been ages since I had to stretch every drop of magic power this thin… I could almost admit──I were actually starting to enjoy myself.”
’This one had to admit, this one was utterly confused.’
”Hm.”
He glanced up on a hunch──and there, for just a flicker, floated the form of a small, weightless girl.
If not for Kian’s inhuman reflexes, he’d have dismissed it as a trick of the eyes, it passed that fast──a pale silhouette, slipping away past the trees.
In an instant, the darkness was smothered by a milky-white mist, thick enough that even a vampire’s eyes couldn’t pierce what lay ahead.
”She had ears up top. A cat Beastmen girl──Nerea, was it.”
’It was clear──someone wanted you to follow.’
At the warning from ‘glasses’, Kian pushed his bridge up in answer: ready.
”You knew perfectly well. But there was only one plan──charge straight in.”
’Brainless moves would get you killed. Fall back and regroup first──that’d be smarter.’
”Alright. I was going in.”
Sometimes, glasses could really grate on his nerves.
Kian flicked the blood from his Windsong Blade and pressed deeper, deeper into the heart of the swamp.
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Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
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