“We'll push through this field and follow the reconnaissance team's tracks. What do you think?”
Looking again, the Recon Squad Leader's eyes were twinkling when he said this. It was a look mixed with anticipation, confidence, and a suitable amount of tension. It was a new today.
To put it simply, the escape had failed. Enkrid opened his eyes and greeted the new today by mulling over the day.
‘Where did it go wrong?’
Maybe going east was the mistake.
‘No, I think it was fine up to that point.’
Reviewing was Enkrid's habit. While fleeing east, I ran into the crossbow unit again, got riddled with bolts, and collapsed. I writhed on the ground and then died when a bolt pierced my head.
I don't even want to recall the pain from that time. But if I don't go over it, I'll have to keep dying. I hate that even more.
Review, keep retracing to find the problem. Enkrid repeated the thought.
‘I was able to hear it, so I seized the opportunity first.’
I caught the unusual sound. What I learned from Jacksen was helpful. After that, the Heart of the Beast made me look at the situation calmly.
I had to choose one side and break through. Although I failed.
‘If I do it again.’
I think I can do it. I wasn't caught by the pursuing unit, I just had the bad luck of running into a unit that was waiting.
‘I think it'll work if I choose a different path.’
As I was lost in thought, someone tapped my shoulder from the side. It was Enri. Enkrid thought he had been too lost in his own world.
"We're just going to take a quick look and leave, so bear with it."
What was he always telling him to bear with?
"Your expression didn't look good."
As he spoke, Enri subtly gestured forward with his eyes. When I turned my gaze forward, I met the eyes of a soldier with a rough-looking face who was trailing the Squad Leader. It looked like he was glaring, but he probably wasn't looking for a fight.
‘Seeing as he's asking me to understand the Squad Leader, he must be the reasonable one.’
He was probably looking for a chance to have a good talk with me. Perhaps judging the situation wasn't right for talking, the rough-looking soldier was the first to look away. Enkrid nodded to Enri to show he understood and started walking.
He pushed the grass aside with his hands and stepped inside. Soon, a familiar sight filled his vision. The green tall-grass drastically limited his view.
It was definitely not good to face an ambushing enemy inside here. Risking your life to enter this place was not something an ordinary person would do.
‘What if we don't go in here in the first place?’
That's not an option. Scouting the tall-grass field is the reason and objective for this unit's presence here. What would they say if they ignored that and went back?
That they sensed an enemy ambush before even going in? Even if they somehow managed to change the scouting direction. As if the ten men here would all agree to that story.
It can't be avoided. The newly greeted ‘today’ was always like this. But if you were to ask if it was troublesome...
‘It's not bad.’
Even though I've only fought properly once. Enri had looked at him and asked what kind of bottom-rank soldier he was. The Squad Leader had belittled himself.
‘Real combat.’
It was only one battle, but that single experience was valuable. The Heart of the Beast didn't even give me a chance to be flustered. I swung and thrust my sword, splitting the openings.
I moved, predicting the opponent's action patterns. In between, I put what I learned to use.
Thump.
My heart pounds. It felt like something thrilling was piercing through my body.
‘This is a good chance.’
Before leaving for the reconnaissance mission, Rem and Ragna took turns checking my swordsmanship. What I learned from them. What I realized on my own.
It's a perfect time to digest it all.
“Do you see here? Where the grass is lying down?”
“Animal tracks.”
Enkrid was a man who knew how to use what he learned. He acted like he knew. Enri looked at Enkrid, rolled his eyes, and asked.
“You have hunting experience?”
I don't. I learned it from Enri.
“I just heard a few things here and there.”
I heard it from Enri. After answering honestly, he continued the trivial conversation. While doing so, he quickened his pace and moved to the front.
Right behind the Squad Leader. Enkrid was currently assessing the reconnaissance team's formation. It was something he hadn't paid much attention to before.
The Squad Leader was at the front, with two to his right and two to his left. The spot right behind the Squad Leader was taken by the rough-looking soldier. The rest of the members followed behind like a rearguard.
‘So he's not just a moron.’
The formation was plausible. A good formation for responding if an enemy appeared. Though a formation would be pretty useless against a unit armed with crossbows.
In the ‘today’ where he had died, the Recon Squad Leader didn't do any more foolish things. He silently followed Enkrid's lead. On top of that, his sword skills were quite decent.
The rough-looking soldier was a very skilled soldier.
‘At least mid-level or higher.’
That is, by Naurilia soldier standards. Both the Squad Leader and the rough-looking soldier. Both of them were skilled.
Enri wasn't bad either. Walking with a shortbow in his left hand, he knew how to rapid-fire arrows. However, not to the level of dodging dozens of bolts and surviving.
‘I must avoid the crossbow unit at all costs.’
Enkrid deliberately walked closely behind the Squad Leader. Perhaps reading the Squad Leader's mood, the rough-looking soldier didn't strike up a conversation.
Rustle. Hiss! Crunch.
And then he heard the same sound again.
“Down.”
First, he grabbed the Squad Leader by the scruff of his neck and threw him back. At first, only four had survived and escaped. This time, I will save a few more.
“Ugh!”
The Squad Leader fell backward and let out something like a scream.
“Enemy!”
An enemy soldier shouted. Bolts flew in immediately. In that instant, Enkrid kicked the back of the knees of two allied soldiers in succession.
Bolts zipped over the heads of the fallen soldiers. Enkrid also spread his feet front and back, lowering his body as much as possible. A grasshopper in front of him, perhaps startled, quickly jumped and fled.
Enkrid did a front-to-back split, then used the elasticity of his thigh and back muscles to get up and throw his throwing knives. Pang- The knife tore through the air. The knife cut through empty air.
It didn't hit anything, but it made the enemy soldier flinch for a moment. A brief opening, that was enough.
Thwack.
Extending his elbow backward, he lightly hit the Squad Leader's forehead.
“Get a grip.”
He said, and dashed forward.
Pababak.
He stomps on the dirt and grass as he draws his sword. Drawing it, he gets into stance and delivers a one-handed thrust.
‘All my strength.’
Put your will to surely pierce through, but your muscles must not lose their strength after the thrust. How do you leave strength remaining while thrusting with all your power?
“You need a feel for it. How do you get that feel? Just keep doing it. You'll get it eventually.”
Words Rem had said during sparring. Enkrid was in the middle of digesting that right here and now.
Thud!
The tip of his sword pierced the opponent's chest area. He twists and pulls it out. The blade that had split muscle, nerve, and heart was pulled out.
He feinted a horizontal swing, then closed the distance and swung his foot to kick another enemy soldier's shin. It was an enemy soldier who was just raising his crossbow to aim.
“Gack!”
The soldier who was hit instinctively ducked his head, and Enkrid brought the pommel down on the back of his head.
Kwajik!
The motion was like hitting a flimsy leather helmet with a blunt weapon. The sensation of splitting solid, green wood traveled up to his fingertips. After taking down the second one.
He saw a man wearing cloth armor twice as thick as normal and carrying a large round shield rushing at him.
Ping! Ping! Ping!
Enri rapid-fired three arrows. But the arrows couldn't pierce the armor. No blood seeped out from where they hit.
One arrow, stuck in shallowly, wobbled up and down before falling to the ground. He had shot too hastily and failed to properly utilize the bow's tension. Enkrid quickly switched the sword to his left hand and swung it.
Ka-ang!
Sparks flew as the blade met the edge of the shield. It dented the shield's frame, but Enkrid's hand also went numb.
“Kraaaah!”
The enemy soldier roared and brought his weapon down on Enkrid's head.
Thump.
A place where a moment of carelessness means death. If you panic, you die. That is the battlefield.
It was in moments like these that the Heart of the Beast truly shone. The boldness that kept him composed even in the heart of the battlefield. Because the heart made of thick muscle was doing its job.
Enkrid could clearly see the trajectory of the shield slamming down.
“Watch well, and dodge well.”
Rem's teaching.
Watch and dodge.
“There are no useless parts on a sword. From the handle to the tip, you use all of it.”
This is Ragna's teaching. Enkrid watched carefully and then stepped back at the last possible moment.
Whoosh.
The shield grazed past his nose, the wind pressure making his hair fly.
“Hoo, hook!”
The man who had slammed his shield down tensed his muscles and lifted the shield again. Harsh breaths could be heard from behind the shield. Through his breathing and shoulder movements, he could see the opponent was extremely tense.
He rolled the eyes peeking over the shield, watching Enkrid. Hitting the shield would only prolong the fight. Enkrid tossed the sword and caught it by the blade, with the pommel pointing up.
Holding it this way, he swung with all his might, using the rotation of his waist and knees. It was a move made before the shield-bearing enemy could do anything.
Whoosh, thwack!
The pointy end of the crossguard, just below the blade, plunged into the opponent's eye. Blood burst from the eye. Along with the blood, a clear fluid streamed out.
“Kuaaaack!”
The one-eyed soldier let out a scream. With the hand that was bleeding from gripping the blade, Enkrid drew his shortsword. He plunged the blade into the neck of the thrashing, one-eyed opponent and pulled it out.
Fwip!
Blood spurted with the motion.
Gurgle.
Blood foamed from his throat as the shield-bearer collapsed to the ground.
“This way!”
Because it had been a series of brutal scenes. Everyone stared at Enkrid, too shocked to close their mouths. How many did he take care of in that short moment?
Enkrid retrieved the sword he had used to pierce the opponent's eye. Blood was thickly smeared all the way to the sword's hilt. He roughly wiped it off as he moved.
This time, the number of people who followed him was six. He had saved two more.
"... What are you?"
The Recon Squad Leader, who was stuck right beside him as they ran, asked.
"Are you asking because you don't know?"
He'd be better off running than talking like this. Enkrid ran east again. Afterward, he struck down and killed every enemy soldier he saw.
This time he had come in deeper than before.
‘I took the wrong direction.’
He was sure that east was not the way. This time, he met fifty spearmen. Fifty trained spearmen was a platoon-sized force.
Just the three of them couldn't face them. They had lost the others on the way, and only the Recon Squad Leader and the rough-looking soldier remained.
"We were unlucky."
The rough-looking soldier said.
"Dammit."
The Recon Squad Leader looked around with a grimace.
Enkrid.
"I'm taking five with me."
He steeled his resolve and charged. From the opponent's perspective, he must have been a madman. Charging at fifty spearmen?
To the group of spearmen, this was a complete madman. It might be different for a knight or someone belonging to a knightly order. What was this act?
Judging by his sword use, he knew how to fight, but he wasn't at an incredible level. At best, he might be called a skilled soldier. The sight of him charging without regard for his own life could not have looked sane.
Enkrid, charging like that, killed three spearmen. And then he was pierced through the stomach by a spear and died. Of course, it was terribly painful.
He saw a long banner lying on the ground behind the group of spearmen, and that was his last memory.
“Let's go this way. Killing the enemy beyond the grass field is a merit, right? No, maybe capturing them alive is better?”
Listening to the Squad Leader's words, Enkrid once again mulled over the day. It's a review.
‘I can't see a way out to the east.’
Then this time, it's north. Real combat was good nourishment. Even Rem and Ragna, who got along so poorly, agreed on this.
Moreover, didn't even Jacksen say so? That the best way to train the five senses is to fight with your life on the line. He said that in the moment of death, a person's concentration breaks its limits.
Enkrid was proving those words with his own body.
‘I've improved.’
It wasn't arrogance, nor was it conceit. Thinking about it objectively, his skills had improved quite a bit. And they were still improving.
In the repeated todays, Enkrid died nine more times in the north. Six more times in the east. And twelve more times in the west.
The battle continues. Skills don't improve in an instant. That can't be helped.
But he could calmly take one step at a time. Enkrid felt joy once again. Because he was still growing.
Because there was a today that was better than yesterday.
“Uwaaaah!”
Thwack!
During one of the repeated days, the spear tip of a rather valiant soldier grazed his cheek. It was a strike the previous Enkrid would not have been able to dodge. It was a strike quite similar to that of an enemy lancer, but he dodged it.
He didn't just stop at dodging. Countless real battles had ingrained a good habit in Enkrid. As he dodged, he brought his sword down from above.
A vertical downward slash.
Too-woong.
And in that moment, Enkrid felt a strange sensation. He had swung his sword, but there was no sensation left in his hand. No, it was too faint.
He had definitely cut through the opponent's arm, but it felt as if he had cut a rotten tree branch. It was that easy. On the other hand, the opponent's arm was cleanly severed and flew into the air.
He didn't even hear a sound. An impeccably clean strike. The so-called sword strike that leaves no feeling in the hand.
The strike that those called geniuses perform countless times.
"Ah."
Enkrid was so surprised that his concentration broke for a moment. It was the first time he had experienced this during a battle. He could fully feel the weight of the sword in his hand.
The thrilling sensation left in his hand made him feel ecstatic.
"Ha, really."
This is so exciting. He laughed while covered in blood. He couldn't hold back his laughter from the overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
"Crazy bastard!"
From the enemy's point of view, he was nothing but a crazy bastard. In any case, Enkrid died countless more times. And he repeated today countless more times.
In those repeated todays, what he learned from sparring seeped into his body.