Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

The battlefield was enveloped in a downpour amidst the darkness, hiding three types of deaths. The first death was as if to scatter tyranny. The area was faintly lit up by magic items with [Light] imbued into them, which revealed the corpses of several tens of people who died a futile death. They were soldiers, but they had not taken any coordinated action. The superior, the single individual who could give out orders, had probably already disappeared—or more likely dead elsewhere. The situation was hard to grasp, only clearly revealing that this happened during a nightly raid with a large number of casualties. And to not die a futile death, the troops had gathered here beneath the light to have a better oversight on things, if only a bit.

More accurately, even if they possessed the will to fight, being in the dark about the enemy made that practically impossible. This would normally be the moment for them to run for their lives, but as deserters would be given the death penalty, they fought against their fear and readied their swords. And while they were cautious of their surroundings, a personification of death and destruction—Seran—appeared from the shadows.contemporary romance

“Eeek?!”

One of the soldiers just so happened to turn his gaze in that direction, but even a trained individual like him could only scream in fear. He wasn’t given a chance to fight back with the spear in his grasp, let alone warn his fellows around him. With speed surpassing that of a wild beast, Seran closed the distance between them instantly, using the hilt of his sword to make the soldier soar through the air. What he witnessed during his final moment was his own body’s parts scattered through the air, crashing on the ground. His allies suffered a similar fate.

Once the soldiers landed on the ground, his body would stop moving shortly after, followed by Seran’s next victim, falling to the ground like dust specks. This couldn’t even be qualified as a battle and more like a beast’s storm or the assault of a giant dragon. Everybody standing in its way had their fate sealed, simple as that. It was like encountering a natural disaster. As this was a battlefield, these soldiers should be prepared for battle, ready to live under the idea of kill or be killed. However, none of them could have anticipated such a gruesome and abrupt death, which made it harder to accept.

After about half of the troops had gone to meet their maker, the rest had given up their resistance and chose to run away. They would rather bet on the chance of running successfully than meet certain death here. The reason they all scattered at the same time in separate directions was so that they had better chances during their escape—or so it would seem, but in reality, they all wished to run from this battlefield as quickly as possible.

Seran immediately grasped their intentions and headed for the bigger group of about ten people, throwing a magic stone at them. This stone had the electricity attack [Lighting] inside of it, but because of the rainy weather, this magic turned out to be weaker. In return, however, it affected a larger area, slowing down the group of soldiers running away. Thus, Seran dashed in the opposite direction of where he threw the magic stones at, chasing after the faster escapees. Seran made this decision in the blink of an eye, judging that it would be the most efficient way to decimate all his enemies. He had been born with this mindset, which made it one of his greatest strengths.

After dealing with the faster deserters, he returned to the group he initially slowed down, finishing them all off one by one. This entire fight barely lasted 100 seconds in total. Once Seran had confirmed that no survivors were amidst the corpses, he still remained cautious. Understanding that no more hostile individuals were around, he relaxed a bit, only to quickly shake his head.

“Not good, can’t be getting arrogant now. Don’t wanna end up getting fooled again…My sword is good, I got plenty of magic stones, and I’m feeling good.”

Seran aimed to be the embodiment of invincibility at any given moment, but at least during this situation, he had to be mindful and vigilant of his situation. Just for today, he had dealt with hundreds of soldiers, trying to fight back and defend themselves by using swords and spears, fully armored to the brim. Any sword would have probably given in by now, but Seran was blessed with the legendary Holy Sword Rand that had cut down countless demons and even the Demon Lord three hundred years ago. Thanks to its pristine quality and the user’s skill, there was not a single scratch on it to be found. Judging from the magic stones Seran had left and the stamina in his reserves, he began calculating how much longer he could fight.

“…I can definitely keep going. They’ve got numbers going for them, that’s for sure.”

Seran’s duty in this battle was to lessen the number of enemies. Imagining just how many more soldiers there were out there, Seran just silently disappeared into the night, looking for his next prey.

Another type of death was done in silence. At a different place, another twenty soldiers had gathered near the magic item just as Seran’s foes previously had.

“Everyone gather! Keep a watchful eye on your surroundings!

What was different compared to Seran’s instance was that the soldiers maintained their organization and listened to their superiors.

“Gather up! And stay calm!”

The troop’s leader raised a loud voice which effectively heightened their efficiency, but he was also doing it to calm himself down. He knew that fighting was happening all around them. However, the leader couldn’t get in contact with the higher-ups, unable to grasp what the current situation was. On top of that, it was pitch-black out during a heavy downpour. With no information to work on, the leader judged that acting recklessly would be their downfall, so they got together near the light and waited. After a significant amount of time had passed, when something white suddenly flew towards them. Amidst the rain, it resembled a curtain heavy from the water, as it wrapped around the magic item creating the light. Unable to deal with the weight, the item fell over and all light was erased.

“H-Hurry and put it back up again!” The order from the captain sounded like a scream for help, as his subordinates struggled to follow his orders, succeeding in setting up the item once more. Their field of view had recovered much faster, but right as the group sighed in relief, they were suddenly filled with doubts. Amidst this heavy downpour, how would a small piece of fabric land perfectly on the item? The leader looked around to figure out the solution for that, realizing that something didn’t add up. His hips almost gave up in shock.

“Wh-Where did they go?!”

The leader wasn’t aware of the exact number of soldiers under his command, but he should have had at least twenty or more. Now, there were barely eleven. Even less than half. The other soldiers caught on to what the leader was trying to say, and they panicked. Half their allies had gone with the wind, now filling the survivors with terror. The leader tried to raise a voice and calm down his subordinates, when—

“C-Captain!”

One of the subordinates screamed with a terrified voice and pointed in one direction, as they saw one of their own collapsed on the ground. They could only see his legs turned towards them, but that definitely wasn’t the case up to a few moments ago. It was clear that this pair of legs belonged to their ally, but unless they approached him, there was no way of telling if he was even alive or not. The captain hesitated in his judgment. Should he go check up on him or not? The chances may be low, but he had to confirm if his subordinate was alive. If he was, he had to be saved. However, if the worst-case scenario may happen, he would be met with absolute despair.

“Somebody…?!”

At the end of his hesitation, right as he turned around to give an order, he was shocked to the point his heart might just stop immediately. There were five soldiers missing from his squad. In that second he was curious about his subordinate, he had lost five soldiers instantly.

“Ah…No…!”

One of the remaining soldiers realized what happened and screamed in terror. Following that, the soldiers got closer to the next magic item that provided light. Their teeth were clattering, their hands turning white as they put too much pressure into their grip on the swords, as their whole bodies tensed up to the point they probably wouldn’t be able to fight properly. They prayed that nothing more would happen…that they would survive until morning, but this peace didn’t last for too long as the white cloth came flying again.

“Th-This can’t keep going!”

If another wave of darkness arrived, who would vanish next? Nobody wanted to imagine that. For that reason, the captain reached out for the white cloth to stop before it could cover the magic item, but right as his fingertips touched it, darkness appeared again…and then their minds went dark, too.

“…Phew. Finally done. It took a while, but this should make things easier.”

Moving through the darkness, Minagi sighed as she finished the first step of her job. Her main goal was to blow up the medicinal reserves near here by using magic stones imbued with Explosion. Without these, the army will struggle to coordinate their soldiers. But to get to that, the soldiers on guard were in the way. And Minagi’s preferred fighting style was to approach from the shadows. Granted, a head-on battle wouldn’t leave Minagi defeated, but she wanted to avoid taking any risks.

“Next up…the army provisions. I just hope there are no soldiers around this time.”

Minagi’s main goal may have ended, but she still had to do some more destroying left.

The final battle was an absolute massacre. And the one causing cruel death left and right was Kyle. He ran along the battlefield as he continued to fight, but his way of killing was different from his two allies. He granted his opponents mortal wounds without granting them a quick death, instead torturing them to death. Some had their arms chopped off and their eyes crushed as they walked around like corpses. Others had their bellies cut open as their organs started to fall out, trying to frantically pick them up again. It was all needless suffering that spread across the earth. And the magic stones Kyle relied on were just as gruesome.

One called [Poison Cloud] would disperse a toxic miasma, and another would do the same but with acid, called [Acid Cloud], which destroyed the organs of the soldiers from the inside, as they slowly but painfully died because of their injuries. On rainy days like these, any magic stones with an [Cloud] effect usually didn’t reveal their full potential, but there was still one prominent reason why he would use them—to make the soldiers suffer as long as possible without granting them a proper death and to stir up even greater fear by letting their screams of terror fill the silence at night.

And as Kyle moved through the darkness and rain, he spotted three new soldiers, moving to attack them. He cut off half of the first soldier’s head, turned his sword around to slice through the second person’s jaw, and then rammed the hilt of his sword into the third person’s abdomen. He was flung off and rammed into a wall, as he coughed up a great amount of blood, probably because a shattered bone pierced his lung.

With three more soldiers on the brink of death once again, Kyle wanted to move on, as he met eyes with the first man he cut down. Blood, his life itself, gushed out as the ground was colored crimson red, as the man pleaded to not be killed. However, Kyle simply watched the men. Not helping them, but also not easing their suffering either. He left them to rot to ensure the next soldiers would find them…to create greater terror.

Kyle’s plan was to break the fighting spirit of the soldiers and the army in itself. The more gruesome and grotesque the way of killing, the higher the chance of crushing their spirits, and the better the chance of this fruitless war ending. This was the belief that Kyle held as he continued to kill and kill.

“…Next.”

With a dreary expression, Kyle headed for his next destination—to end this war as quickly as possible. Three deaths brought about fear like never before. And like poison, it slowly spread on the frontlines of this civil war inside the Galgan Empire.

done.co