Some of the men had changed their demeanor after the duke's earlier command.
They were not royal guards.
Their nature was different.
They were probably—
"Uoooooh! Those royal guards who were bragging about 'just watch our strength from the back' turned out to be nothing special! They must be a little tired from fighting the royal guards too! Let's finish this in one go!"
Hired mercenaries.
They charged forward with raging momentum.
From their words and actions, the enemies were not coordinating at all.
They were only thinking about outdoing each other.
"For us, that's actually convenient…"
Several fired-up mercenaries broke past Eve.
"Killing people for money, and sometimes even getting fame on top of it! Man, being a mercenary is the best!"
Eve was prioritizing the elimination of anyone trying to escape.
It could not be helped if some broke through.
"[Berserk]"
I inflicted berserk on one of the mercenaries in the front row.
"Gugaaah—"
Slice!
The berserk mercenary was cut down by the one next to him.
"If someone starts acting weird, just kill them right away! From the looks of it, the cause is that robed guy! But after observing, it seems he can't affect a large group at once! First, let's kill that robed man!"
There was a sharp-eyed one among them…
He had analyzed it pretty well in a short time.
The mercenary unit was closing in.
I glanced at the fallen Ashinto and the immobilized first wave.
As time passed, they were dropping dead one after another from poison…
"Status, open."
I displayed the skill information.
I confirmed that the "slot" for [Paralyze] was now open.
I thrust my hand forward.
"[Paralyze]"
"Ah, gu, ugh…!"
I continued inflicting poison right after.
"Don't you bastards falter! Look! It seems there really is a limit to how many he can affect at once! That means if we all rush him at the same time, he shouldn't be able to handle us all! Come on! If we do a good job here, a future of doing whatever we want under Duke Zuan's name is waiting! Gooooo!"
Even as those beside them were neutralized, the mercenaries did not falter.
In fact, some of them seemed to think it was convenient because their competitors were decreasing.
These mercenaries might have been a particularly reckless bunch.
With paralyze, darkness, and berserk, I kept throwing the enemy into chaos.
At one point, riderless horses began to panic and rampage.
Two men leaped out from behind a horse.
"All right! We got him!"
"Money, status, and honor are all ours! Hyahahaha!"
I thrust both hands forward.
At this distance, I could use [Sleep] to put them to—
Thud! Slice!
"Gah!?"
"Gu, oh!?"
Arrows pierced the heads of the two mercenaries who had rushed at me.
The arrows had flown from inside the woods.
I shifted my gaze.
—Seras.
She seemed to have provided support from the woods.
She was probably using the bow and arrows recovered from the Ashinto.
High elves had the image of being skilled with bows.
It seemed Seras lived up to that image.
In any case, the support was welcome.
While receiving Seras's covering fire, I finished off the ones who had broken past Eve.
I continued advancing.
Fallen mercenaries and royal guards lay on the ground.
As I passed, I inflicted [Poison] on them.
"Gu… what the hell is that guy!? Shit! I thought I'd get a front-row seat to watch that leopardkin die pathetically!"
I spotted a royal guard trying to flee into the woods.
"[Dark]"
"…Eh? Aaaah!? My eyes!?"
The royal guard tumbled from his horse.
He tried to escape on all fours.
"Hiii!"
Stab!
The duke speared the fleeing royal guard from horseback.
"Gueh!?"
"I won't allow any fleeing, you bastard!? Are you even a member of my honorable ducal royal guard!? You fool! I won't forgive anyone who tries to run from me—whether it's the leopardkin or the royal guards! I won't forgive any ungrateful wretches who try to escape from me!"
The duke was consumed by hatred.
He had lost his mind in his rage.
Many of the royal guards seemed hesitant to flee out of fear of the duke.
The scene they had just witnessed would only make them hesitate even more.
Letting him thrash about had indeed been the right choice.
"What are you all doing!? Kill that creepy black-robed bastard! I don't know what he's doing, but this bizarre situation is almost certainly caused by that man…! Kill him! I will never forgive anyone who has made a fool of Duke Zuan! I am a duke! A duke, you hear!? Everything must go exactly as I planned! All things must proceed according to my will!"
Even without me using [Berserk], the duke already seemed completely insane.
"Touka."
From behind me, Eve called out.
"What?"
"I want to thank you."
"What's this all of a sudden?"
"Ever since I became a deathmatch fighter, I have thrown myself into fights that were nothing more than spectacles. Even though I am a warrior, I had begun to feel futility toward fighting itself. I had started thinking I was done with fighting…"
"…Has something changed in your mindset now?"
"Yeah. I don't really understand why, but—"
Eve skillfully flicked a sword lying at her feet upward with her toes.
She caught the hilt and immediately hurled the sword at a royal guard.
Whoosh!
"Guah!"
"Right now, I feel glad that I can fight like this."
Right after, Eve let out a roar into the night darkness.
A fierce, beast-like howl.
That roar carried joy.
For a moment, the remaining royal guards faltered and froze.
Eve charged straight into the clump of royal guards.
Her speed was like a gale.
She leaped into their midst and slashed them apart.
Slice!
Slash!
Screams rose into the night sky.
"...Man, I'm impressed."
Eve's fighting form.
I had never seen her bloodmatch before.
Eve had not fought the first wave or the Ashinto either.
So this clash with the third wave was the first time I had seen Eve in battle.
Seeing it now, her combat ability was tremendous.
She was probably still no match for that Sivito, but that could not be helped.
He had been special.
Still, she might have put up a good fight against the other Five Dragon Warriors.
Her fighting style was captivating enough to make me think so.
And before I knew it—
"Guuuuh! Shit! Shit shit shiiit! Damn it all!"
Only the duke remained.
Veins bulging, the duke trembled violently.
He finally seemed to have noticed what was happening around him.
Everyone except the duke had been wiped out.
I had already begun moving on to confirming the corpses.
Those who were still breathing were dropping dead from poison one after another.
The duke began flailing on his horse.
"Gu, gah… gugiii! Gigigigigiii! Whyyyyy!? Aaaaaaaaahhh—!"
He looked like a child throwing a tantrum because reality was not going his way.
The duke wheeled his horse around and showered me with curses.
"R-remember this! I'll withdraw for now because I have no choice! But I will never forgive you bastards…! In the near future, I will make sure you suffer a miserable death—!"
"[Paralyze]"
The paralyze slot was already plenty open.
"Gu, oh… oh…?"
The duke and his horse fell into the paralyzed state.
"You idiot."
I said in disbelief.
"Remember this? As if. Do you really think we're just going to say 'yes, sir' and let you escape here?"
Why did he think he could get away at this point?
I turned the question over in my mind.
There was probably something the duke could not see.
He had likely convinced himself that everything would always go exactly as he wanted.
At the same time, he could not tolerate anything that did not.
He had always covered up inconvenient truths.
Using violence and authority.
In short,
"If you had faced reality just a little more honestly, you might have survived."