Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 100

The Titan Mountains, due to the dimensional fissure at their center, had developed an ecosystem impossible by this world’s natural laws. It was riddled with monsters like ogres, wyverns, basilisks, and minotaurs that were ranked A or higher in danger level.

Just one of these creatures was enough to trigger a regional emergency, requiring elite knight orders and adventurer guilds to be dispatched. They could annihilate a mid-sized territory singlehandedly and dominate lesser monsters through sheer force of will.

Such monsters were potential causes of mass monster assaults known as “Stampedes,” and thus needed to be exterminated swiftly. However, in the inner depths of these mountains, A-rank monsters couldn't even cause a ruckus, let alone a Stampede.

There were simply too many beings stronger than them. To survive, they instinctively learned to suppress their rage. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Even ogres, known as the kings of mountains, were considered only slightly above average here. If it let out a roar in line with its temper, it wouldn't survive the night.

It was a place truly deserving of the title Demon Realm.

—You’ve got to be at least S-rank to stake a claim in this area, El-Cid said. —Only monsters strong enough to wipe out a herd of A-rank monsters solo can hold territory here.

And he was right. B-rank monsters were nothing but prey here, and even if A-ranks banded together, they’d be obliterated by a single S-rank. Though only one rank apart in classification, the power gap between the A and S rank monsters exceeded tenfold.

If an S-rank monster ever appeared outside the Titan Mountains, it would be a catastrophe. No kingdom could manage without a Master-level force. Some S-ranks were so infamous that their existence was brought up in legends across the world, even where there were no actual sightings.

El-Cid added, —That includes your opponent, the drake. Oh, also that Mountain Worm we saw the other day.

That had been about four days ago. Leon and Karen had started with Swamp Trolls and swept across the forest, hunting down monsters wherever they went. They brought down four ogres on a rocky mountain, climbed massive trees to raid wyvern nests, and hacked apart a Giant Turtle that had been hiding in a lake.

Besides those, there were dozens of other small and large skirmishes. Still adjusting to their newfound strength, each fight refined their form and teamwork.

—That Mountain Worm wasn’t even that impressive, El-Cid said. —But for you two, who don’t have large-scale attacks, the match-up sucks. Since it’s got no heart or brain, you can’t even go for critical hits.

Indeed, the one monster they’d deliberately avoided among perhaps a hundred battles was the Mountain Worm. Over three hundred meters long, it was a worm-like behemoth that crushed everything in its path with overwhelming mass.

Its durability was in the top three among S-ranks, and its regeneration was so fast that one would need to obliterate half its body to kill it. Once wounded, it would go berserk, destroying everything nearby in its rampage.

Leon’s party had no way to handle it.

—Still, you guys have the worst luck. Don’t you think? Who climbs up a rock only to find out it’s a sleeping cyclops? That’s the kind of luck where even falling backward breaks your nose.

“Shut up, you cursed sword!” Leon snapped, leaping aside.

Just then, a massive foot came crashing down from above, pulverizing the ground. The shockwave alone made nearby trees tremble violently.

Leon instinctively swallowed hard as he glared up and muttered, “Cyclops...”

The S-rank giant-type monster was staring down at him, blinking its single, grotesque eye.

At a glance, the creature stood over 15 meters tall—taller than most castle walls. Such overwhelming size was a weapon in itself.

But what makes a cyclops truly terrifying is that eye...

The crimson orb that resembled a ruby glowed like a beacon even in total darkness, and it possessed powerful magical capabilities. According to the records, it could unleash spells of at least sixth-tier magic. Some stronger individuals even surpassed the seventh. It was a walking tank with cheat-level magical abilities.

“Dammit. How was I supposed to know that rock was a cyclops?” Leon muttered, raising his sword.

Because of their massive bodies, cyclopes were easy to spot. To compensate, they altered the texture and color of their skin to match the terrain, camouflaging themselves completely when asleep. This one had done such a good job that even Leon hadn't noticed after checking multiple times.

As Leon faced off against the cyclops, Karen circled around and unleashed four streaks of light at its ankles. Four teal daggers exuding Aura Fire pierced the cyclops’s ankle, but despite being impaled to the hilt, it simply looked down, shrugged, and shifted its gaze.

It hadn’t even registered the damage. And those were targeted, repeated strikes to the same area.

“I guess wearing it down isn’t an option...” Leon muttered.

It had already been nearly an hour. Leon quickly signaled Karen, letting her know it was time to change tactics. They had to abandon the strategy of him drawing attention while she flanked. It wasn’t a bad plan, but Karen’s damage output simply wasn’t enough against its massive pool of health.

“Head-on it is. Come at me,” Leon said as he raised his sword and stepped forward, pushing Karen back.

It was a reckless move. He was giving up the mobility and feints he’d used to toy with the cyclops until now. The cyclops also noticed this foolish behavior and raised both fists high into the air, and without hesitation, it slammed them down.

A thunderous roar erupted as dust and debris obscured the ground, completely shattering the terrain where the fists landed. There wasn’t even a need to look. The outcome of a frontal clash between a human and a cyclops, whose mass outweighed his by hundreds of times, should have been obvious.

And yet—

“How’s that, you monster?”

Leon spat. His blood, mixed with saliva, was a dark crimson—but his stance and breath showed no wavering.

The cyclops, having taken two steps back, widened its eye in disbelief.

“Gwung? Gwuuung??”

It was unthinkable. To be overpowered by a mere human in a contest of strength—this unprecedented event left even the cyclops at a loss.

The unknown was fear itself. Facing a phenomenon it couldn’t understand, the cyclops responded to its fear by unleashing its own ultimate attack. Its single eye gathered immense mana and glowed bright red in preparation for the disintegration beam that was to melt everything in its line of sight.

“Good. That’s more like it,” Leon muttered as he stared into the ominous light with a cool smile.

His body, strained from forcibly blocking the cyclops’s blow, creaked, but the Stigma of the Guardian calmed his battered insides within seconds. He had counted on this regenerative power when he gambled, all to lure out this disintegration beam from the cyclops.

As Leon focused his strength, the Holy Sword ignited. Aura surged without the slightest delay, shooting from his fingers, through the hilt, and into the blade, wrapping it in a maelstrom of golden light.

He compressed it again and again. The already dense Aura was further refined, becoming thread-thin and clinging tightly to the blade.

I can do this.

Leon’s eyes darkened as he focused. The enemy was another towering giant, like before. But this time, he would use a technique that was entirely his own. He visualized the path of the Grand Chariot—the arc of light that had once cleaved through the bloody exolaw giant’s death throes in a single stroke.

The moment Leon initiated the first stance, the cyclops’s eye fired its red beam. From the moment the beam was released, it would take only half a second to melt him down.

Heavenly Core First Form—Dubhe.

Leon stepped into the oncoming beam and brought the sword down vertically from above. A surge of light erupted from the Holy Sword like a crashing wave. The force of the beam was halved and brought to a halt.

One strike wouldn’t be enough. As expected of an S-rank monster, its power was monstrous.

So, Leon drew the sword to his side and swung it horizontally. The second form of the Grand Chariot. The vertical slash connected to a horizontal one, forming the shape of a cross.

Heavenly Jade Second Form, Merak.

The beam split into four streams and was pushed back by the cross slash. Leon, pale from the exertion, allowed himself a faint smile.

It worked...

This was the true face of the Grand Chariot. Unlike back in Blaine, Leon had recreated this chained technique entirely on his own, all without El-Cid’s help. The North Star Cross had cleaved through the beam of destruction.

The cross-shaped shockwave struck the cyclops’s eye, causing it to burst. Before it could even scream, a spike shot out from its own shadow and pierced its brain. It was Shadow Spike, a new assassination technique Karen had developed to make up for her lack of raw power.

The massive body of the fallen cyclops shook the earth as it collapsed. The two of them had slain an S-rank monster.

“Phew,” Leon exhaled and lowered his sword as the intense battle ended.

Even for him, executing the chained forms of the Grand Chariot took a heavy toll. Not even his fourfold healing rate could keep him from needing a break.

The results, however, were worth it. The fight had forced both of them to push their limits, erasing what little disharmony remained between them.

El-Cid remarked, —Looks like you’re finally ready now.

“Yeah, I’d say so.”

At last, he had fully adapted to the powers granted on the day of the prophecy. The overflowing strength throughout his body had been tamed, and his Holy Power and Aura were fully under control.

Leon calmed the glowing stigmata on his skin and sharpened his gaze. The Grand Chariot, the speed of his Aura circulation, the techniques of using the stigmata—there was nothing more he could learn in the short term. He and Karen were now fully prepared.

“Let’s go.”

Ahead awaited a battle against the drake, an enemy far more dangerous and cunning than the cyclops. The Holy Sword in Leon’s grasp let out a small crackle of energy.

***

Meanwhile, Elahan, who had departed from Blaine, was heading toward her final destination. Her beauty was such that every passerby turned to look at least once. The silver-haired, golden-eyed girl crossed the road at a brisk pace.

Any act of violence was sure to draw attention and expose her identity, but fortunately, no one stepped in her way, as it was a well-policed village. With her heart a little more at ease, she walked on until she stopped in front of a grand building.

“Oh, is this the place? The Academy?” she muttered.

The Holy Iron Breaker, shrunk to the size of a trinket, chimed at her waist. That was a yes.

“Hm...? But I can feel the Goddess’s presence more strongly from the mountain out back than from this building.”

She was right. As one who bore the title of the Staff of the Goddess, Elahan was naturally sensitive to divine energy. The place where the Holy Sword had descended was not inside the Academy, but in the quiet, shadowed clearing on the mountain behind it.

After glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Elahan deftly leapt over the Academy’s wall. That much was nothing for a girl who used to be known for her tomboy-ness like her.

With that, the silhouette of a girl slipped into the woods behind the Academy and soon vanished from sight.