Chapter 884 - If It Must Be Done, It Is Done
"Yes, I wanted to meet one of you. It would have been regrettable if you all went to the battlefield without any remaining HERE."
Pustis was sincere.
He wanted to properly clash with them.
Hadn't he heard about what they accomplished until his ears stung?
'Flowers blooming in the mud.'
Diamonds hidden among stones.
A narrative all of the Mud Knights loved.
The structure of a story where a beggar covered in rags succeeds through effort and luck—didn't it seem like it was talking about them?
Since they too started from the bottom and rose to the highest status.
Pustis saw them, The Madmen Knights, as similar to the Mud Knights.
'From ordinary soldiers to knights.'
There must have been so many events from the days they were called troublemakers until reaching where they are now.
Half was a sense of kinship, the other half a competitive spirit.
Adding to this, since the Mud Knights should be the only ones fitting that narrative, there was also a greed to erase their existence.
Whatever it was, the sincerity was real.
"Is your hearing coming back a bit now?"
As he said, Jaxen's hearing started to return.
"Do you perhaps need time to rest too?"
Behind him, a soldier sinking into the swamp screamed, but it seemed irrelevant to him.
His composure was real.
He didn't care about a few soldiers dying.
Jaxen collected the two daggers he had thrown earlier and dropped on the ground.
In the meantime, he deliberately showed an opening, but the opponent didn't move.
Pustis waited, moving only his wrists a few times.
Loosening up so his body wouldn't stiffen before fighting.
The sight of cracking joints from ankles up looked familiar, as if hardened into a habit.
He was skilled in fighting knights.
Moderately tense and moderately excited.
He was a natural fighter and a person with rich experience.
"If you're going to wait anyway, let's fight tomorrow morning. Go back for today."
Jaxen said calmly.
A tone as if it should naturally be granted.
"...Huh? Wow, you've got some nerve."
Pustis was momentarily speechless before opening his mouth.
Has Jaxen been tainted by Enkrid?
Using a bit of his speaking habit caused a crack in the opponent's composure.
Of course, that crack disappeared quickly.
He abruptly acknowledged Jaxen.
Judging he couldn't win with words, he nodded.
Rich experience creates tolerance to accept various situations.
Like the guy standing in front of him now.
"Can't do that."
The guy answers laughing.
Judgment, attitude, and ability to act—everything is outstanding.
A proper knight.
Jaxen cast his gaze beyond him.
The presence of the fellow standing in front wasn't small.
But a more dizzying sense of crisis stimulated him.
A feeling in the realm where sixth sense and intuition are involved.
He had the talent to distinguish the intangible sense of crisis felt through intuition, thanks to years of experience.
Pustis helped kill the wizard just a moment ago.
It was an attitude like cleaning up an annoying bug.
Why did he do that?
Because he was overflowing with composure.
Because the variable magic provides wasn't important.
'Or he thought it was okay without magic and that it was a hindrance.'
Or maybe they had a bad relationship usually.
The reasons would be various.
He couldn't know everything, but one thing was certain.
The enemy was certain of victory.
"How many came?"
Jaxen asked.
Even with the subject missing, the meaning was sufficiently conveyed.
If the question were unraveled at length, it would be 'How many knights are there?'
"Five."
The total number of the Mud Knights is seven.
Since two of them moved under the Great Emperor, it means all of them came.
"We only need to strike Border Guard. Since that's our entire role in this war."
A tone implying this much wasn't even a secret.
At Pustis's words, Jaxen asked back.
"What about the front line guarded by Sir Cypress?"
"Hm, there is a part you guys misunderstand the most."
Jaxen naturally waited for the opponent's next words.
Pustis, who had been speaking so smoothly until now, aimed for Jaxen's carelessness.
For a knight, five steps are like being right under one's nose.
Especially since Pustis specialized in charging and assaulting.
Bbeong-
The air condensed and exploded.
As the soil on the ground soared like a fountain, a flail—an iron mace with three lumps of iron attached to a stick—crushed Jaxen's head before the sound arrived.
There was no brain matter, broken bones, popped eyeballs, or blood.
Pustis's flail only split Jaxen's afterimage.
Jaxen is more sensitive than anyone in The Madmen Knights.
As soon as the guy made up his mind, he predicted it and jumped to the side.
The person least likely to fall for a surprise attack in The Madmen Knights was Jaxen.
"That is my afterimage."
Jaxen said leisurely.
His two arms holding daggers hung down.
Was only the opponent accustomed to fighting knights?
Hahaha.
Jaxen hung out with crazy bastards who aimed for him and forced head-on confrontations every day.
Dodging attacks like this was daily life for him.
Chareureuk.
The flails collided with each other, leaving a noise.
Pustis, returning to the same posture as before swinging the weapon, spoke.
"Dodge this."
Striking while speaking.
A technique in Valaf-style mercenary swordsmanship.
In the South, illusion sword techniques have been famous for generations.
Naturally, there were several who mastered Valaf-style mercenary swordsmanship.
"What are we misunderstanding?"
A calm tone.
Pustis raised the corners of his mouth.
This bastard is overflowing with composure?
Isn't he scared even after hearing there are five?
Does he trust the wizard behind him?
Accelerating thought is something every knight does.
He organized his thoughts at once and spoke.
"Just one of our knight orders is enough to face your entire kingdom."
If the number of knights symbolized martial power, Pustis was right.
At hearing those words, Jaxen counted numbers inwardly.
It didn't take long.
Even excluding the Dragonkin who joined recently, there were ten including himself.
"Do you know the number of The Madmen Knights?"
"What?"
"We are ten."
And you are five.
Even without finishing the sentence, the meaning was conveyed.
"But right now, aren't you alone?"
Pustis was also right.
As he laughed, he kicked the dirt with his toe once more.
Puak, the scattered dirt blocked the view.
The end of the flail flew towards Jaxen's left.
While dodging that, he would kick up from below with his toe.
All movements would rage consecutively without giving a moment to breathe.
Jaxen moved as he predicted.
That was fine.
Deviating from prediction only as much as necessary at the necessary moment would be effective.
Also, a momentary gap is enough to kill a person.
That truth doesn't change even when facing head-on.
However, the point Jaxen overlooked was the existence of the Mud Knights itself.
Right after dodging the flail and escaping the range of the subsequent kick, Jaxen felt a sting on his left side.
Intuition struck his head like lightning.
Jaxen struck down with his left elbow.
Ttak!
The elbow was blocked by something hard.
The opponent also twisted his forearm to block with a vambrace or something and retreated.
"...Oho."
The black shadow that stabbed his waist approached and retreated.
Jaxen's eyes captured the figure of the retreating guy.
He was small, his head not even reaching Jaxen's chest.
Also, his ears were long like an elf's, and his cheeks were red like a dwarf's.
White eyebrows stretched long to the left and right, the corners of his eyes drooped, and his face was full of wrinkles along with a beard.
An exclamation came from that small monster's mouth.
"You blocked that. Still, you couldn't block it all, right?"
Jaxen didn't let out a groan or anything.
He just identified what hit his side and passed.
'Needle. No, an awl.'
A dwarf with elf ears.
The guy naturally hid his hand behind him. \
Although he didn't see the weapon held in that hand, it wasn't difficult to guess.
For Jaxen, that is.
Wide sleeves, and inside there would be a tool shaped like a vambrace that blocked his elbow, and besides that, various weapons would be lined up.
He knows without looking.
Because he is like that too.
In other words, an opponent of the same kind.
Jaxen felt numbness in the wound area simultaneously with blood trickling from where the awl stabbed.
"Ah, I don't need to apologize, right? I said I'd wait, I didn't say I'd fight alone, did I? The Mud Knights use any means and methods to win anytime, anywhere. This is our oath."
These are Pustis's words.
The sneering tone was sufficient to make one want to tear his mouth.
Still, Jaxen didn't get excited.
Why is my side numb?
Questions accompany answers.
'Poison.'
And a type he's suffering for the first time.
A synthetic poison mixing poisons from plants, minerals, and animals.
'And manufactured in his own way.'
It's not of a general category.
Jaxen trained to endure poison since childhood.
So he has resistance to most poisons, but.
"Mine is a bit special. Young friend."
The dwarf said.
And he was right.
Strange sounds are heard along with dizziness.
Symptoms of poisoning.
"Phew."
Jaxen let out a small breath.
"How about it? Should I join too?"
Here, another knight also intervened.
A guy carrying two swords crossed behind his back.
The sword length was shorter than a longsword, but the guy's arms were long like a monkey's.
The handles of the two swords on his back jutted out towards the outside of his shoulders for easy drawing.
"Yeah, join in. I might have been beaten if I were alone. His skill is unusual."
Pustis said.
He was a man who acknowledged the enemy's skill more than anyone and could endure servility to survive.
Lihin-Stetten's knight orders are divided into two branches when viewed as a whole.
The side continuing tradition and the side raising through new training methods.
Among them, the Mud Knights were the former, and Pustis's attitude was a characteristic resulting from that.
They fought to survive, and transmitted such arts, techniques, and mindsets, continuing through generations.
This is why the characteristics of each southern knight order are distinct.
Since knight orders other than Mud adhere to their own methods.
"If Venom hadn't stabbed him, that guy would have thrown something at me or taken out an unexpected weapon. Maybe not. Anyway, he would have done something."
Pustis said consecutively.
Jaxen didn't bother to intervene in their conversation.
Instead, he looked around at the three once.
If he could escape from where he stood now, he was full of confidence he could kill those three.
If he fought by taking time and distance, facing them at the moment he wanted, it wouldn't be difficult.
Meaning, it's possible if he dodges first and promises later.
Things would become several times easier than now.
"Our objective is the wizard. Move."
Observant Pustis, this was his nickname.
Because he has such observation and insight, his eye for gauging opponent skill is extraordinary.
He saw through Jaxen's fighting method and habits.
'A guy master of assassination arts.'
Venom in his own knight order fights like this.
The name of the dwarf elf who stabbed with an awl just now is Venom, and recalling how he fights, it's easy to imagine the opponent's style.
Related to this, it's also easy to infer why this fellow is guarding here while enduring disadvantage.
"It's comfortable for both if you move. We're good removing the wizard, and you're good surviving."
Jaxen laughed once more.
It's quite funny that when such a moment comes, he understands Enkrid's heart.
Fighting because someone is behind his back.
His fight is like that.
Not murder to earn Krona, but a fight to protect someone.
It was something hard to imagine even five years ago.
"Cut the nagging and just attack."
Speaking, Jaxen spun the two daggers in his grasp to hold them in reverse grip.
One side looked like an empty hand, but the shape of the hand holding something invisible meant something was held in that hand.
Since he had already wiped the Invisible Blade while they were chattering, it wasn't visible.
Jaxen was calm.
There was no change in that attitude.
Facing three knights head-on wasn't the type of fight he enjoyed, and he was fighting with a disadvantage, but what could he do?
'If it must be done.'
It is done.
Just as Enkrid did, it was enough if he did it too.
'I'll take all three.'
If things go wrong, he will make those three his companions in death.
Jaxen's eyes rarely show emotion, but today was different.
Just for today, enthusiasm dwelt in them.
They were eyes different from usual.
"Until I die, you won't even get a glimpse of our wizard. And if that woman sees my body, she'll pluck out my eyeballs."
"This bastard still has a mouth on him?"
While words were exchanged, the figure of the dwarf named Venom blurred and disappeared, and the newly joined guy also drew his two swords.
Pustis spun the flail over his head from the front.
Kwa-a-a, kwa-a-a.
The sound of the iron mace tearing the wind was loud.
***
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