Chapter 95
“Hoo…!”
Since the first attack in the village facing the main road, I had been subjected to numerous continuous ambushes.
I wanted to enter a large city, but because of the assassins surrounding and pressing in from all sides, I couldn't easily maintain my travel route.
My body was already covered in large and small wounds, and my Qi, whose efficiency I had improved significantly, was gradually hitting rock bottom.
Thanks to the sacred relic, my energy recovery was markedly faster, but the rate at which it depleted was still faster than the rate at which it gathered.
‘This won’t do.’
I desperately plotted a rough travel route.
Looking at places where I could get help immediately.
There was Ulstein, where the mercenary guild was, and Humming City of the Alcantara Knights.
Neither could be said to be very close.
But staying like this would eventually lead to death from exhaustion anyway.
I made a quick decision and set my direction towards the location of the Alcantara Knights.
And just as I was catching my breath for a moment, a group of assassins appeared before me again.
The number of guys I had already cut down must have easily been in the dozens, yet they kept popping out as if they were being stamped out from a mold somewhere.
Slice.
Even if their limbs were severed, they attacked again without batting an eye.
Could a human being ignore the pain of having their body parts severed like that?
There were at least dozens of these machine-like individuals.
Perhaps even hundreds.
And their skills weren't terrible either.
Naturally, none of them were a match for me individually, but it was an organization capable of pushing me this far through the combination of numbers and skill.
It was an organization with something beyond the common sense that ordinary people, including myself, could imagine.
“Kugh!”
As I cut down the next enemy once more, a dagger rapidly approached me.
An assassin missing his right arm stuck close in that state and left quite a deep wound on my side.
I barely suppressed the scream that threatened to burst out momentarily and swung my sword, sending the assassin’s head flying.
The group of assassins had dwindled to five before I knew it, but in the process, I too had sustained many injuries.
‘This is impossible, I need to rest a bit.’
Recognizing that I couldn't move further from here, I quickly launched myself away.
Even if it meant moving somewhat recklessly, I needed to put some distance between myself and them.
[Karl Meyer Style Movement Technique. Soar.]
My body soared through the sky like a single bird.
Blood from my wounds dripped to the ground below, but I paid it no mind.
I had to secure a place to recover somehow.
‘Over there…!’
As I moved for quite some time, my eyes discovered a natural cave just large enough for one person to enter.
I quickly flung my body towards the cave, then blocked the entrance and camouflaged the surroundings.
And I took out an item from the subspace.
[Random Potion Box]
Looking at the square box with a potion shape drawn on it, I prayed for a decent potion to come out and opened the box.
A bright light illuminated the surroundings.
Just as all my nerves were fixed on the glowing box.
The light from the box subsided, revealing a single potion.
[Medium Potion]
‘…’
After emitting such a dazzlingly brilliant light, only a Medium Potion came out.
I hadn't thought that consuming all the potions the Pope gave me during the battle with the Alcantara Knights and the fight with the mercenary guild would come back to bite me like this.
Still, it was better than nothing.
This wasn't the time to be discouraged.
Compared to when I was stranded alone in the desert of the East Continent, the current situation was better.
I poured about half of the Medium Potion into my mouth and poured the rest onto the severe wounds.
There was no miraculous effect of flesh instantly knitting together, but the bleeding stopped, and the wounded areas were slowly recovering.
Although I had put some distance, there was no telling when they might find me.
I had to recover as much as possible in the time given now.
Barely leaning against the cave wall, I began to circulate the energy and aura within my body.
A bright light started bursting from Gullveig's sacred relic worn on my left hand, beginning to draw external energy and supply it to me.
The energy circulated within my body, moving through various parts of me.
The fatigue accumulated from the long battle recovered at a rapid pace, and the depleted energy quickly built up again inside my body.
Simultaneously, the turbid energies accumulated within my body began to be discharged along with the flow of energy.
At some point, focusing on circulating Qi, I fell into unconsciousness.
And energy raged in all directions, beginning to heal even the external wounds on my body.
A scene was unfolding that would have astonished any Master who witnessed it, yet the person involved wasn't even properly conscious, just pouring everything into circulating energy.
***
“…”
“…”
Inside a dark space that also seemed to be a meeting room, five figures wearing robes gathered.
“They say the number of children who have died is already approaching 100.”
The cost of raising a single assassin, though less than a knight, still required a significant expense.
In that sense, the damage suffered by those called Taklama's Sandstorm was clearly a blow difficult to recover from.
Out of a total force of 500, they had lost 150.
Moreover, those were individuals who could be considered elite compared to the remaining 350 members.
It was a painful loss.
There was no telling how much more damage would occur in the future.
“We cannot retreat like this. We must raise the commission fee and make sure to deal with that bastard.”
If they committed all their forces here and failed to capture Karl, it would be the end anyway.
For the sake of the lives of the subordinates already lost, they absolutely had to eliminate Karl.
“We must never let him set foot in Humming City. We must thoroughly block his path, even if it requires sacrifices.”
“…I will keep that in mind.”
Akshay Kumar, the leader of Taklama, quietly closed his eyes.
His mind was filled with the thought that he might have accepted a pointless commission.
Then, he stood up.
It seemed this wasn't a matter to sit idly by.
He decided to move personally.
***
“…You still haven’t dealt with that bastard?”
“No, Your Excellency the Marquis.”
“And yet they demanded additional payment?”
“Yes, they say the resources lost are significant. They claim they will cease work here if there’s no additional payment.”
“Hmph… How dare those lowly things try to bargain with me?”
Marquis Baltimo wore a sly sneer and fell into thought for a moment.
Considering the effort and forces required to kill the bastard, it was better to let those guys kill him, even if it meant paying more money.
Besides, if they failed or gave up here, he also had to consider the possibility that his involvement might be revealed later, making the situation more troublesome.
“Tell them I’ll pay more. But convey that they must handle it definitively.”
“I will do so.”
After one vassal left the office, Marquis Baltimo, left alone, tapped his head with his finger.
‘There isn’t a single competent one.’
Starting from the mercenary guild, getting entangled with that Karl Meyer bastard had complicated the situation considerably.
Marquis Baltimo felt his insides twist because of one eel-like bastard.
Just then, a letter caught his eye.
A letter bearing the seal of Tarantula.
To him, aiming for the Emperor’s throne, Tarantula were also vermin that ultimately needed to be eliminated, but he thought they might be useful pawns until Karl Meyer was eliminated.
Taklama's Sandstorm were clearly dangerous fellows capable of assassinating even Master-grade knights, yet strangely, he didn't quite trust them.
‘…This feels dirty.’
Feeling his patience increasingly wearing thin, Marquis Baltimo opened the cap of the whiskey bottle on his desk and poured it into a glass.
“Kh…!”
As the strong whiskey went down his throat, the unpleasant thoughts momentarily flew away.
“Right, let’s watch a little longer.”
Marquis Baltimo decided to trust the Taklama fellows a bit more for now.
***
How much time had passed? It felt like about 3 hours had gone by. Fortunately, during that time, the enemies hadn't discovered me.
‘Strange…’
My body felt incredibly light.
It felt so full of vitality that I wondered if I had really been struggling with blood loss and Qi exhaustion just moments ago.
Besides.
‘The wounds are almost completely healed.’
It couldn't be called a complete recovery, but compared to just a short while ago, the condition was unbelievably good.
“What on earth…”
I came up with a few hypotheses.
First, the Medium Potion I used earlier; although no detailed explanation was provided, its effects seemed different from the Medium Potions distributed in this world.
The overall amount of Qi had definitely increased.
And….
My gaze shifted to the ink-black bracelet.
Gullveig’s sacred relic.
She didn't distribute numerous sacred items like Essus did.
The fact that no one possessed Gullveig’s sacred relic was proof of that.
Perhaps this ink-black bracelet was her only sacred relic existing in this world.
Maybe that's why its effects were tremendous.
‘Should I consider this a kind of fortuitous encounter?’
I pushed myself up with my now-healed body and slipped out of the cave.
Perhaps thanks to the sufficient rest and increased energy, my Qi sense felt wider.
All directions were still surrounded by enemies.
Although they hadn't found me, they had surrounded the entire vicinity.
At least 300 of them.
I thought it would be a difficult escape.
However, strangely, I didn't feel like I would die here.
In a way, my current condition could be considered even better than before the ambush.
‘Let’s see.’
A faint layer of aura enveloped my body.
It was a thin layer, barely visible to the eye.
It meant my aura utilization ability had become even more mature than before.
Simultaneously, I kicked off the ground and began flying in one direction.
Swoosh.
The moment I kicked off, assassins who had appeared from all directions closed in on all sides as if they had been waiting.
Small hidden weapons also flew through the air towards my body.
“…!”
The eyes of the assassins, confident that the minute hidden weapons would penetrate between the links of my chainmail, widened.
The small hidden weapons flying in bounced off as if blocked by a wall.
In that fleeting moment, my body flew into the sky.
[Karl Meyer Style. 3rd Form. Lightning Strike]
Golden aura struck down like thunder hitting the ground.
About ten assassins who were leaping up and those holding their positions vanished in an instant.
“…”
In the movements of the masked assassins, though very slight, something like hesitation mixed in for the first time.
It wasn't fear; they were sensing a problem of possibility.
An intuition that charging in like this wouldn't allow them to complete the mission.
They had always been the hunters, never the prey.
But at this moment, they felt the situation had reversed.
Thump. Thump.
No urgency could be felt in my form as I walked with my longsword hanging loosely.
Thump.
When I took one step forward, the entire group of assassins took one step back.
Hesitate.
As the assassins retreated like that, an old man with white hair walked out in front of them.
Leader Akshay Kumar.
His face was expressionless but strangely stiff.
In the fleeting moment Karl’s eyes met Akshay’s, golden aura exploded towards Akshay.