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The invasion started at sunset. Leaping out from the shadows of the dark forest was a flood of figures who appeared to be goblins. Within that darkness the countless fiery red eyes shone threateningly reflecting the little light that was left. Their numbers were so plentiful that one could not understand how Rona could have only mentioned a meagre 50.

Opposing them was the side of the pioneer’s village. Inside the fortress those on defensive duty were spread around several watch fires which illuminated the vicinity guaranteeing them sight within the deep night.

Shion’s group was positioned as vanguard while the young men of the village, who were equipped with arms such as axes and bows, laid in wait behind them.

While the darkness of the night supported the attacking demons, the humans had no such advantage. Thus it was decided for Rona to cast Illumination magic once the battle began to shed light upon the battlefield.

However it was uncertain whether this would cover the entire battle field.

The weaponry used by the villagers were things such as hunting bows, carpenter hatchets and lumberjack axes as they were not expecting a real battle at all. And while those weapons certainly were powerful in the hands of young men, none of them had received any combat training, making them complete amateurs at mortal battle.

All in all their entire combat force consisted of 12 amateurs and Shion’s group. This small group of able combatants also had to protect the 40 elders, women and children.

By now there was no point in discussing how to use their combat force in battle but rather how to escape the assault without incurring significant damage. However there was no safe refuge available even if one considered escaping.

It is in the nature of a pioneer’s village to be constructed in a remote region in the first place. Usually soldiers were hired as guards, but since this was a newly built village there was no chance for soldiers to arrive yet, even if they were dispatched already. This was yet another drip of misfortune in the already full casket.

The distance to the nearest town was two days by carriage. Considering the women and children who were unable to fight, this was no distance one could easily traverse. For example, even if some villagers would be able to somehow escape by sheer luck, the majority of the villagers would end up as prey for the pursuing goblins.

“Uwaah … I feel like running away.” (Renya)

Holding the loaned longsword in the right hand and gripping an axe he picked up somewhere in the left hand while swinging it around lightly, Renya watched the approaching horde of goblins emerging from the forest.

In contrast to the grumbled words which emitted his feeling of how bothersome this whole ordeal was to him, his mouth formed a smile that gave off a strong aura of certain victory. Whereas the expressions of Shion and the young men were pale and terrified at the approaching menace, his face showed no distress or worry at all exuding a relaxed composure.

“Renya, you seem to be used to such situations?” (Shion)

Shion inquired in a strained weak voice. While the voice of the responding Renya on the contrary could only be described as flabby. (T/N: funya~ funya~)

“Nnn … I wonder~ … The memory of it seems to have been erased, I guess? But, oh well … some way or the other we will manage to do something about this mess, don’t you think?” (Renya)

“Re-Renya … somehow you are quite composed desu~” (Rona)

Even though Rona stated this, Renya denied it flatly.

“No such thing. However, it can’t get any worse than me dying.” (Renya)

Because I already died once after all, he could have said. But he swallowed those words.

Those two wouldn’t understand it even if he told them. There was neither meaning nor significance in mentioning it either.

“Rather than that, won’t we enter the range of bows soon?” (Renya)

“Muuu~ … Archers fire away!” (Shion)

Though some of the villagers began to shoot their arrows towards the advancing goblins by Shion’s command, the amount of archers being four was low and thus the amount of arrows sent flying was low as well. Having the strength of hunters, some of the arrows pierced the goblins at the front of the approaching pack. But the resulting effect didn’t amount to any more than a mere droplet of water in a desert.

“Well then … see you later in case we survive this. I am going to attack them. Keep the arrows coming.” (Renya)

“Ehhh !?” (Rona & Shion)

Renya glanced at Shion and Rona who both raised their voices in shock. Then he started suddenly to run while holding the sword and axe loosely in his hands.

Some of the villagers raised their voices exclaiming his charge to be too reckless, but Renya continued to run without minding them at all.

In the first place, the difference in numbers was too far from expected. No matter where, there was no escape to begin with no matter how reckless he was. Thus he decided to jump in by himself to fight as efficiently as possible utilizing his full strength. But even then he was aware that confronting this many goblins alone could be called suicidal.

The weapons of the goblins were crude spears made out of tree branches and crumbling edged tools. The vanguards of the goblins hurried to set up their spears aiming for the approaching Renya. Renya waited for the moment they thrust their spears at him. Keeping his body low and sliding along the ground, he evaded the incoming spears.

Passing below the outstretched spears, Renya kicked one goblin down and stood up while slicing with both weapons, sword and axe, the legs off the goblins on the right and left side.

Dealing with a large crowd of spear holders the most problematic issue is getting past the line of the attacking of spears. Once you enter close combat the spear becomes unsuitable and very difficult to use.

Furthermore, brandishing the spear within a large crowd is impossible. Thus the spears have to be abandoned in favour of swords and axes.

The goblins whose legs were cut off were thrashing around on the ground trying to recover from their sorry state. Meanwhile the other goblins threw their spears down to prepare other weapons.

Using this opening in defence to hack away at both parties, Renya dispatched several of the goblins quickly. In response to the slaughtering ensuing, dark red liquid sputtered all around.

While basking in the crowd that tried scattering away from him as they were mowed down, Renya confirmed one fact.

“I do love fighting.” (Renya)

He couldn’t stop to laugh. Turning his eyes looking for the next target to attack, he didn’t even bother looking at the result of his previous one.

A ball of gleaming white light ascended into the sky. Renya realised, that Rona had used her Illumination magic which could only mean that the villagers had started their battle now too.

By its nature, it was not possible to stop such a large crowd with the charge of just one person. The amount of victims was limited to a few, but that was to be expected. Thus Renya continued killing. Every passing second there were even more of them.

Repelling a small rust-covered sword with his long sword, he stroke his axe into the upper body of a goblin. The blade of the axe bit deep into the flesh. Since it was too difficult to pull out the axe, he simply tossed the dying body at another goblin. Pressing on, he mercilessly crushed the goblins who tried to escape from him as they stumbled about.

Whether it was a head, a belly or an arm, he relentlessly crushed them. Driving the axe into a screaming mouth while chopping off the hand trying to help with the long sword.

He didn’t care about weak counter-attacks to the degree of only grazing him either. Choosing to repel only those attacks that were dangerous, he returned the favour by swinging his axe at the attackers.

Midway the longsword simply snapped. Renya adjusted the way he was holding it from an ordinary hold to a backhanded grip1, using the the hilt with its remaining part of blade to exchange a few strikes.

However as the blade failed soon afterwards, he tossed the hilt into the [Inventory]. Leaving him with only the axe, thus he grasped it with both hands.

No matter how sturdy and thick the blade of a axe might be, if it is used against countless demons at full power repetitively, it will certainly slowly chip and be destroyed in the process.

The axe’s handle was designed to endure chopping at hard wood and thus it wouldn’t break quickly, which served Renya’s purpose well enough. In the first place, he didn’t plan on cutting with the axe’s blade anyway.

All he required was a solid part to strike with, thus there was no impediment accomplishing his goal without the axe’s blade part.

Wooden bucklers, leather armour and arms brandishing weapons in defence, were utterly useless in front of Renya. Without a care using all his strength, he continued to strike in a mood as if he was working on a lump of iron. Whether breaking or being broken lost all of its relevance. After all it were only bodies made of flesh and bones he was facing.

After a short while his own leather armour was torn at several places as scratches had accumulated all over.

As it was only an hindrance at this point, he tore it off and tossed it carelessly away.

In a corner of his mind, he registered that it was a gift from Kami-sama originally. But that was only a passing thought as he focussed his concentration on the battle in front of him.

With his body screaming in pain from the accumulated cut and stab wounds all over due to becoming defenceless, his mind started to loose its rational bounds and shifted towards the edge of insanity.

It was an intoxicating pleasure.

Loosing himself more and more in the rising madness.

Enjoying the feeling of crushed flesh which was transmitted to him through the axe’s handle.

Revelling in the sweet melody of bones being crushed.

Desiring to bath his body in the lukewarm blood of his enemies, he was looking for the next victim.

Watching the ugly face of a demon distorted in agonizing terror, he was truly happy. The face which was crying and pleading for help was an interesting sight to him.

Judging escape to be impossible, the frantic expression as the deadly strike descended upon it, appeared to him as adorable.

The throbbing wound of the light cut by a blade felt comfortable to him.

The striking impact to the numb body about to puff the candle of life was irresistible.

What kind of feeling will he experience with the next one?

What kind of show will he watch with the next one?

What kind of taste will he savour with the next one?

As one would expect, the strain on the axe’s handle took its toll in the end. As he crushed another demon who didn’t understand what was happening in front of its eyes, the handle broke. He stabbed the remaining sharp splinter into the face of a nearby goblin and thus parted with his last weapon.

At last Renya was empty-handed causing the goblins to grab this chance to rush upon him. But there was no sign of panic on Renya countenance to be seen. Grabbing a wrist holding onto a weapon in order to steal it from its owner, he rammed his elbow into the face of the goblin snatching its weapon away, just to use it to crush another goblin’s head.

The weapon was of low quality and not maintained at all, thus it broke after just one swing. But Renya didn’t care at all and simply stole another weapon from a different goblin.

“This is not satisfying enough at all, you lot!” (Renya)

Stepping on a goblin that fell to the ground and crushing it, Renya spread his arms widely and declared thus threateningly.

“How weak! The enemy who kills your comrades stands here! The enemy you should kill is right before you! What’s wrong? Come and get me!” (Renya)

Renya shouted in front of their eyes.

A remarkably huge goblin appeared in from of him. Renya’s figure couldn’t even begin to compare to its tremendous size.

Gripping a longsword in its hand and donning a chain mail, one could tell at a glance, that this goblin was a different kind of breed in comparison to the goblins standing behind him.

In a corner of his mind left untouched by his madness he realised that this was the goblin commander Shion mentioned before the battle started.

“That’s the goblin leader! You have no chance without weapons. Run away!” (-)

A voice exclaimed from a very far and remote place. Although unlikely Renya considered it to be Shion’s voice but disregarded such thinking right away. Whether the enemy had a weapon or was bare-handed didn’t matter to Renya. This was a battlefield after all. And he wouldn’t escape from it either way.

Though his entire body was riddled with bruises from the fighting, Renya’s speed didn’t drop at all.

However the speed of the goblin leader brandishing his longsword couldn’t be compared to the other goblins he fought before at all.

How slow, is what Renya thought nevertheless. Stepping in quickly Renya delivered a front kick with his left foot. As was expected of the goblin leader’s physique, the kick was limited to only stopping it for a moment instead of sending it flying.

Switching the foot stance from a kick to a step, Renya closed in on the goblin leader, using a palm strike with his right hand to pommel the wrist holding the brandished longsword. This attack caused the goblin leader to let go of the longsword.

Continuing on, he rammed his right shoulder with deadly force into it. Even though their physique couldn’t have been any more different, the goblin leader was knocked down on the ground.

As it tried to stand up again, Renya quickly wrapped both arms around its neck. However he didn’t intend to use such a half-hearted method as suffocating it. To avoid the other goblins attacking him in the back, he used the huge body as a shield. Channelling tremendous force into his arms, he pressed his back against the ground breaking the neck of the goblin leader.

With the dull sound of the bone breaking, he used his palms to push off the limp body of the goblin leader.

Without confirming its death, he leaped towards the longsword that was laying on the ground picking it up and grasping it tightly.

The feeling it emitted was slightly heavy as it had a rather thick blade. Though he didn’t understand where it procured such weapon, he doubted the goblin leader was able to use any sword skills (Kenjutsu).

However it was a sturdy longsword and most likely wouldn’t break even if he was to use his full strength, thought Renya.

“Well, I guess I was able to resupply myself with a weapon again, huh?” (Renya)

Turning around to the surrounding goblins, Renya smiled radiantly.

The faces of the goblins who saw this became frozen stiff.

“Shall we continue then?” (Renya)

It was not possible to suppress him even if they assaulted him in numbers and their leader had been slain as well. There was no way left for the goblins to defend against Renya’s attacks. While the goblins were screaming in terror, he waded through them leisurely as if he was taking a walk.

The place called battlefield immediately changed into a slaughterhouse.

Something like this happening daily … he was imagining.

He was looking forward to it.

 

Translation Notes

1 – Imagine switching from an ordinary sword stance to using the sword like a dagger holding it backhanded like a shinobi.


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