Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

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Basques rapidly approached the demon with the giant arms, still wreaking havoc at every corner. But to get there, she had to make it through the thicket of soldiers first. Of course, it’s not like she wouldn’t be able to find her way through them, so she used that gap, sometimes while stepping on them, to reach the front lines as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the demon must have seen what Basques was here to do, swinging its arms wildly. However, these attacks didn’t connect at all because the timing was off since the demon panicked. Basques didn’t even have to react to the attack, just using this chance to get closer. Witnessing this, the demon smirked and packed more strength into its arms. As a result, they grew even more, doubling in size and visibly stronger in punch, making it so that one attack wouldn’t leave a human in shape if it connected.

Since the demons’ attacks were suddenly within sure reach of Basques, the monster confirmed that a hit was unavoidable at this point. Yet, Basques didn’t seem shocked by this at all, only speeding up more to slip past it while suffering mild scratches.

“Hmph, impressive destructive forceee…But that’s all it can offerrr,” she muttered in the typical tone of a lizardman.

The demon was bewildered and terrified of this unfolding of events, but Basques continued to speed ahead, slashing at the demon’s neck.

“Oh? You reflexes aren’t half baddd.”

Basques thought that should have done it, but through the demon twisting its body, it managed to avoid a fatal injury.

“H-How did you react in time?!”

After jumping backward to create some distance between itself and Basques, the demon uttered words of fear. The way Basques charged in without hesitation made it seem like she knew the exact length of the demon’s arms.

“It’s simple to see after watching you fight for a while, righttt?”

Basques meanwhile just argued like this was an obvious conclusion. This of course stemmed from her watchful eye she had kept on the demon for a while now to learn its mannerisms. And considering the possibility that it could grow its arms more, the rest was simple. It was a proof of experience earned through all her previous battles.

“If that was all you had in store…then let’s end this quickly, shall weee?”

With Basques’ speed, the size of the demon’s arms wasn’t anything to be wary of. Granted, the wound she inflicted wasn’t particularly deep, but also not something to simply ignore, so Basques decided to finish this in one go. However, a pair of arms suddenly flung toward her like a whip, which she just barely managed to avoid.

“Oh, so you can make them shorter, toooo?” Basques said with a voice of admiration.

The demon’s arms seemed to be extremely flexible, which it used to attack Basques from behind. Of course, they were still plenty long, but it was much more adequate for close-range combat.

“How interestinggg!”

Basques flashed a confident smirk and went to attack the demon again, fended off by the demon who had long lost its long arms. As for the surrounding soldiers and demons, they seemed completely overwhelmed by the difference in dimension these two fighters were in, taking their distance from the battle. Basques’ use of the scimitar with its fluid movement, able to control the flow of the battle, was a sight to behold, almost like she was dancing across the battlefield. Both enemy and ally were absolutely entranced by her. The demon was trying its best to fend off these highly skilled attacks, but the initial injury it suffered must have left it in a state of bewilderment, as it was slowly being pushed back. That said, his eyes were burning with vigor, showing that he had not given up yet.

“I admire your determinationnn! Then I shall give it my all, toooo!”

With a roar of joy, Basques swung her scimitar once again.

***

Meanwhile, the mole-like demon fighting Seran suppressed its urge to run away right now. Not too long ago, it had the time of its life killing humans left and right, so why did this happen? Swimming through the ground with its long claws, using its sensitive ears and nose, it figured out exactly what was going on above ground. And since the opponent wouldn’t know where it was hiding, it could attack whenever it pleased. To the demon, humans were nothing more than prey meant to be hunted, and this battlefield was the best possible hunting ground it could wish for—and yet when it jumped out of the ground to go for another kill, a sharp pain suddenly ran along its arm.

“Ugh?!”

The demon reflexively pulled back its arm underground and moved away. Looking at its arm, there was a wound, albeit nothing fatal.

“Curse you, human!”

The moment the demon understood what happened, the anger rushed to its head. Humans were supposed to be targets to be hunted, yet the fact he got injured not only hurt his physical body but also his pride. He couldn’t forgive this pesky human, swearing to tear him apart. Yet, the human must have marked their scent with the blood of the battlefield, not allowing the demon to determine where they were hiding. Still, they didn’t seem to be moving. The demon decided to not kill them quickly, aiming for its legs first to ensure it couldn’t run. After that, it could take its time to make it suffer. Inside the ground, the demon flashed a devious smirk and approached the human, jumping out of the ground—only to pull back its hands again because of the incoming pain.

“Th-That can’t be…!”

Looking at its arm, another wound appeared. Not just once but twice made the demon realize this wasn’t just a coincidence. There was a time it suffered a counterattack like this before, but that was just a lucky strike and has never happened since. Even so, the demon convinced itself that this was just another coincidence and attacked for a third time. Yet, this ended with just another injury.

“This bastard…Does he know when I’m going to attack?!”

Understanding that its biggest advantage was now lost, the demon was bewildered. If the human had the ability to see what was going on below its feet, it’d be qualified as the mortal enemy of the mole demon. For a moment, the demon considered just running away to safety, but it continued to stay strong. If its opponent really had something to render its own ability useless, then letting it stay alive was far too dangerous. Plus, even though it could freely move below ground, it wasn’t as fast as just running above ground, so the human might catch up anyway. But more than anything—the rage the demon felt at being toyed with was what really pushed its back.

Luckily, the wounds that the demon suffered showed its opponent didn’t have complete sight over what was happening, so if it accepted a few injuries like that, it should be able to kill the human—or so it told itself to swallow the creeping feeling and desire to run away. Unlike before, it slowly moved through the ground so that it wouldn’t be found out, and when it reached the ground right below the target, it prepared an attack. And it wasn’t just any regular attack, either. Up to this point, it only used one arm when attacking, but now it used both of them like it was using a pair of scissors. Even if the human managed to avoid one attack, even if a counterattack came back to wound the demon, the other arm would land. Lose a battle and win the war—that was the current strategy. The demon was certain that the human wouldn’t make it out of this situation alive.

“Fell for it, huh?”

Thanks to the demon’s sensitive hearing, it could hear a devious mutter right from above. However, it only realized that both its arms had been sliced off clean after the fact. The demon roared in pain and agony, as it could barely stay conscious. And not only that, the human seemingly tried to finish the job by stabbing their sword into the ground. Then after that…

“Hup and yo!”

The human pulled the sword up from the ground like he was trying to reel in a fish, dragging the demon above the ground.

“Oh, that’s what you look like? Judging from those claws, I figured you’d be a mole…but you’re much closer to a human.”

Having succeeded in dragging out the demon, Seran flashed a devious grin. In fact, the demon’s claws were extremely sharp, although they had already fallen to the ground, but the demon’s main body was close to a human, except covered in fur. That said, the demon couldn’t have cared less about an impression like that and just glared at Seran while trying to suppress the pain.

“How…How did you know when I would attack?!”

Thanks to the supernatural vitality that the demons were blessed with, it somehow managed to stand, but it knew that its life was just a moment away from ending, so it wanted one final moment of clarity.

“Oh, I could just tell.”

“Wha…”

Seran’s blunt response left the demon utterly bewildered.

“I just knew when you’d attack, I guess.”

Originally, Seran excelled at using his raw strength to quickly defeat the opponent. However, after fighting demons for the past half a year, his animalistic instinct and experience blended into one, allowing him to predict the movement and attack pattern of his opponent. Thanks to that, he could quickly read how the demon would attack and slash away in joy whenever he was right.

“Also, I simply had to counterattack before your attack would land, right?”

He made it sound simple, but the reality was that this method required supernatural reflexes.

“B-But at first, you just went for shallow wounds…”

“Of course, duh. I figured out that you wouldn’t try to let me leave alive if I played with you. And congrats for beautifully falling for that.”

Seran wanted all the demon’s attention on himself, ensuring that no more soldiers would get harmed. The demon realized it had played along to Seran’s tune beautifully, and it was already too late. And there was something else it caught on to. The human in front of it carried the same sword that was used to strike down the Demon Lord 300 years ago.

“S-Since you carry that sword…You must be…Seran!”

“100 points~” Seran answered with a cheerful voice, unfitting of this battlefield, but the demon was riddled with terror and dread.

Even amongst the demons, Seran had made himself a name. He had the worst possible reputation, sending fear and dread through their rows. But amongst all of those rumors, his strength was the one thing that remained consistent. And now, the demon had learned that first-hand.

“Y-You look completely different from how the rumors described you…You don’t have any fangs, your eyes aren’t blood-red either…so I didn’t know…”

“Just to be clear, none of the rumors you heard are true in any way.”

Seran showed a wry smile in the face of all the rumors spread about him amongst the demons, as his head hurt.

“Well, time to end this, I guess,” Seran rushed over to the demon to finish his job.

Meanwhile, the demon had no means of escaping. He should’ve ignored Seran and ran away when he still had the chance…but when he realized that, it was already too late.

***

Kyle was rushing over to the demon that had his whole body covered in needles, resembling something of a hedgehog. The sharpness of these needles allowed them to slice through steel armor, and since they could roll up into a ball to zoom through the battlefield, the regular soldiers couldn’t do anything against it.

“Almost reminds me of a giant chestnut,” Kyle uttered his first impression as he moved in the path of the rolling demon.

With Kyle’s skill, even that speed of the demon wasn’t anything to be scared of, as he just calmly inspected the lump of blades. But upon closer contact, there was something troublesome Kyle realized. The length of the needles was longer than the sword in his hand, so if he even attempted an attack, he’d only suffer damage in return. Not only that but looking at the hide beneath the needles, it looked like regular tools wouldn’t do the job.

“Equipped for both offense and defense, huh? The stomach looks like the weak spot, but that’s kept hidden of course…”

Observing all of this, Kyle evaded the demon’s attack which had reached all the way up to the tip of his nose. As the demon blew past him, he swung his sword once and managed to destroy several of the needles. That must have cost the demon its balance, as it came to a stop a few meters further.

“Not that tough…noted.”

Even if it might take some time, as long as he sliced off all the needles—is what Kyle thought, but that was naive thinking.

“…They regrew?”

These needles must be a part of the demon’s body because the parts that were left broken quickly grew back to their original size. At the same time, the demon must have categorized Kyle as a genuine threat, as it directed its attention at him with another attack. Met with this, Kyle once again evaded at the last second to strike back. The demon must have believed it almost had Kyle because it didn’t let up its assault. Despite the air being tense, this battle happening in the middle of a grim battlefield, with a demon covered in needles approaching him, Kyle was still as calm as always. As a result of his watching over the demon a while earlier, he confirmed a lot of things.

From afar, it might look like the demon was just randomly rolling around, but he did try to control its trajectory to not attack any of its allies. Sometimes it even stopped to look around. Even while its focus was directed over at Kyle, you could see a faint glimmer of a face on the body. Seeing that, Kyle thought of a strategy.

“Then I guess I could use that…”

If this was a regular duel, Kyle might have been able to take his time. However, with many friends and foes around, Kyle raised his hand to deliver a sign to his allies and started moving without waiting for a response. Having evaded another attack to the point Kyle lost count, he went on the offense. The demon thought that all he could do was focus everything on evading, so seeing Kyle move so quickly took it by surprise and threw it off. Having closed the distance between them at an insane pace, Kyle attacked without hesitation.

Kyle’s strong armor had no trouble protecting him against the needles, either. He then stabbed his sword right into the unprotected space of the demon, stopping its movement while also suffering light injuries himself. While pushing against it, Kyle met eyes with the demon. It looked surprised, but not to the point it was panicking. If the needles regrew, it could just go back to attacking, and it knew that Kyle’s sword would not be in reach. But before it could even come to that, Kyle moved sideways to get away from their clash.

The demon didn’t understand why Kyle went through all that effort to stop it, only to go away instantly like that. But right as that doubt filled the demon’s mind, he heard the sound of something shooting through the air, as an arrow entered its view. It was a clean shot passing past the needles to hit the demon directly in the eye. It raised a scream of terror as its whole body hurt, rolling around to bear with the pain. The real reason Kyle stopped the demon from moving and kept it busy was so that it wouldn’t realize the incoming arrow.

“Worked out just fine, thanks.”

Despite them being so far away, Kyle looked over in the direction of the female archer, giving his gratitude. Since the goblins weren’t on the same level of knowledge and strength as the rest, they had left the big three demons to take care of the humans, and these three demons were now struggling with their own battles, leaving the demon army as a whole in disarray. Realizing this, even more arrows came soaring down from the skies from the backlines of the human army, more specifically from the rows of dark-skinned elves behind the initial archer. Although they were only about one hundred, a tiny speck as a whole in the human army, they still packed plenty of power since they were using large compound bows. As the demons lost their formation, the humans didn’t lose their chance as reinforcements came in.

“There they are! The Machine General squad!”

Someone screamed out loud, as cheers came from the whole human army. Appearing in the distance were a row of giants. A thousand years ago, the Ancient Magic Kingdom of Zaales had invested all their research into these monstrosities, hoping to find protection against the attacks of the demons—called Golems. They carried strength several times that of a human being, massive bodies of armor to protect them, and since they weren’t even alive, they could continue to fight without feeling any pain. They were a type of mass-produced demon-class soldiers. Nothing could be more reliable than them, and the demons saw them as terrifying weaponry. And even though a mere five of them appeared on the battlefield, many of the demons immediately began to retreat as they knew this battle had been decided. Witnessing this, Kyle showed a satisfied nod as he approached the demon he had been fighting to finish it off.

‘Stop! Kyle, to your right!’

However, right as he was about to finish this battle, a voice came from the sword. Just as it had warned Kyle, something white appeared to the right of him, which he tried to slice with his sword, but missed. Or more accurately, his sword didn’t connect with something that should have been there. It’s like he had cut through water as he pulled his sword back. That was all it took for Kyle to realize who he was dealing with, so he jumped backward, only barely evading an attack of sharp claws flying past him.

“You again…” Kyle cursed as he glared into the nothingness ahead of him.

He had faced this opponent several times already, and it didn’t get easier with time. The demon’s whole body resembled that of a human, white hair with skin so white it seemed transparent, but only its eyes were red. It was the kind of look you’d call an albino in human terms. Even the clothes the demon wore were white, so other than his red eyes, the black horn growing from its head was what stood out, too. If you were to use human standards, it was definitely a beautiful package, but this beauty was mostly born from terror.

“Missed again, have I? Your reactions are as commendable as always, Kyle-kun,” said the demon with an ominous smile as it looked at its own claws.

The name of the demon was Byakumu, showing his strength in the fact that he had a title of his own. Only ten demons or so were granted a title like that, showing that their strength and achievements spoke for themselves. Despite being very well in Kyle’s strike range, he showed no worry whatsoever, almost like he was begging Kyle to attack. Kyle was also looking for a chance to strike, but he didn’t act prematurely. He knew that trying to fight this guy was impossible.

“You never cease to annoy me.”

Kyle wiped his cheek and the injury he suffered as he cursed. This Byakumu was definitely one of the worst ones. Kyle was undoubtedly stronger, but he couldn’t defeat him no matter what. Slice at him with a sword, pierce him with a spear, hit him with a whip, shoot him with an arrow…no attacks work, as they just pass through him. Of course, the same is the case for magic attacks. Yet, he could attack just fine, which made no sense whatsoever.

“That is my line, really…But, I think you’re doing a great job, really. The last human name I remembered was Randolph from 300 years ago. So, I wish you’d finally let me kill you…as well as Seran-kun.”

He may be speaking in a polite tone, but it became evident that he was clearly looking down on others. Of course, Kyle sadly couldn’t grant this request, and so they just glared at each other until another arrow flew over at Byakumu. But of course, even that arrow passed through him.

“What a bother. You should know that this won’t work.”

More arrows followed, but it was all futile. It seemed like there was no means to strike him down. However, he couldn’t be left to his own accords, either. Kyle put more strength in the grip on his sword and took one step forward—

“Kyle!”

A familiar voice reached his ears, as something flew between the two, followed by a light explosion noise.

“A smokescreen, huh? All this smoke…” Byakumu coughed once as he lost his eyesight.

“Minagi?!”

“The demons have started to fall apart! You should fall back!”

Kyle hesitated for a moment but eventually decided to trust Minagi’s warning. He’d lost count of how many times he had encountered Byakumu on the battlefield, yet each time he had to withdraw.

“Ran away again…Well, I don’t think our guys can keep going for much longer, so that’ll be it for today.”

Byakumu didn’t seem all too interested in this war as a whole, as he left the battlefield. With that as a signal, the other demons around him reacted quickly. Despite no general order from their leader or something on that level, they retreated in unison. If even their vanguard decided this battle was futile, there was nothing for the regular soldiers to do. Considering the possibility of being baited in, the soldiers of humanity pulled back themselves. They suffered plenty of casualties themselves, but so did the demons, if not more. And although it was just another battle out of the many, it ended with the victory of humanfolk.