Chapter 26: Chapter 26
The cockatrice was a monster Roden had once used as an example when bragging about how amazing knights were.
A giant lizard covered all over in stone-like skin…
Facing it in person, that was indeed a perfectly accurate description of the beast’s appearance, yet it was an expression that failed to reflect its overwhelming violence and intimidating presence in the slightest.
Perhaps because it stood atop a five-meter-high wall, the already massive creature looked practically like a monster on par with a dragon.
The cockatrice, narrowing its eyes as if trying to identify what they were, opened its bird-like pointed beak wide and roared.
[□□□■■■□□-!]
A wave unique to large monsters, which momentarily suppressed physical freedom, surged forth.
On a level completely different from that of the troll he had experienced before.
Shan tried to shake off the paralysis by borrowing the power of formidable fighting spirit, only to realize there was no need for that.
It was thanks to Priest Vent quickly bestowing a blessing that strengthened the mind and emboldened courage.
In exchange, Vent himself slumped powerlessly, just like Roden and Zerpo beside him.
“Kgh, ugh!”
“My legs…!”
Seeing that even the horses faltered as their legs gave out, Shan stepped forward to draw its attention before the cockatrice could pounce.
At this, the creature looked down at him with slit pupils like a snake’s, then leapt down with a swoosh.
Fortunately, unlike the others who were frozen and unable to move, it seemed interested in Shan, who was moving alone.
“Ugh!”
Boom! With a roaring thud, the ground was crushed, and dirt spattered all around.
That creature’s stone skin was not just stone-like in appearance; perhaps it actually carried immense weight, as it seemed extraordinarily heavy even for its physique.
The surprising part was that despite possessing such a heavy body, it moved as nimbly as ordinary animals.
Shan moved to the side to avoid its clawed forefoot reaching out sharply, and scraped his sword right along its flank.
With a screeching sound of grinding metal, sparks flew, and a long blood-red line formed along one side of the stone skin.
‘It’s tough!’
Though he had not poured in his full strength, he had imbued an amount of fighting spirit capable of cleaving even steel, yet it had only lightly scratched the skin.
However, Shan was not the only one surprised; the cockatrice was also terrified by the fact that its own tough body had been wounded, and it promptly backed away with a leap.
Considering the monster’s size, it was hard to view it as a particularly serious injury, but had it perhaps never been injured since birth?
As Shan met the cockatrice’s eyes, which were mixed with confusion and terror, Zerpo’s trembling voice came from behind.
“Wait, let’s fall back for now… We encountered it far too unprepared. We need time to prepare and devise a strategy at least.”
As he suggested, Green Eyes slowly backed away from the giant mansion, putting distance between them.
Fortunately, the cockatrice merely kept guard over them with its vivid yellow eyes glowing, making no move to pursue further as they retreated.
“Phew…”
It was only after they had moved far enough away from the mansion to require about five minutes’ walk that they breathed a sigh of relief without anyone doing so first.
Even after that, they looked back toward the mansion where the cockatrice had been several times.
Considering the beast’s footsteps, there was no way they wouldn’t notice its approach, yet the pressure was intense enough to make them feel compelled to do so anyway.
“Damn it, why of all places is such a monster in the most extravagant mansion?”
As Roden lamented their terrible luck, Zerpo, who was stroking his chin as if lost in thought, refuted him.
“Perhaps it’s not simply a matter of bad luck.”
“Then what?”
“This is a relatively recent hypothesis, but there’s a claim that monsters are drawn to powerful magic items or something similar.”
Like the tales of dragons hoarding treasure, stories had been passed down since ancient times that great items always had guardians protecting them.
Naturally, because if such a guardian were absent, someone should have already picked up and carried off the treasure.
Recently, however, several mages argued that this was not merely to ensure the narrative’s consistency.
Namely, that monsters use the residual mana naturally leaking from magic items as their own power source.
In particular, since high-ranking monsters find it difficult to secure enough energy to move through ordinary meals, they rely even more heavily on this kind of mystical power source.
They said this was also why warriors armed with powerful magic items frequently encountered exceptionally strong monsters and carved out legends.
“Then, could it be?”
“There might be something keeping that cockatrice staying there. No, there’s a high probability that there is.”
The mansion in the center of the city possessed a size and appearance that, at a glance, looked fit for the most powerful figure of this region to inhabit.
If there was any treasure, it would naturally be located in that place.
The problem was that excavating that mansion was virtually impossible without hunting down the cockatrice.
Considering the sensitivity of the creature, which had come looking for them even when they had merely made noise at the entrance, it was bound to discover them no matter how quietly they infiltrated.
“Even so, isn’t taking on that beast impossible? It’s a monster that even several lords would have to join forces to subdue.”
Vent expressed his opinion while frowning.
Trolls and cockatrices were both classified as large monsters, but the difference in their status was literally like night and day.
The former was usually hunted with one or two knights as the main pillar, like the subjugation force Shan had participated in previously, but the latter required a large subjugation force mobilized with at least hundreds of warriors and more than ten knights.
Excluding a few supreme monsters that appeared once every few decades or centuries and were powerful enough to threaten an entire kingdom, it was among the strongest monsters one could ordinarily encounter.
Just participating in hunting a cockatrice was enough to be a boast among knights, and if one personally decapitated it, it would become a tale passed down for generations.
“But giving up is far too wasteful.”
“That’s right. After going through all that trouble to get here.”
“Mmm.”
Unable to offer a counterargument to Zerpo and Shan’s words, Vent answered with a groan instead.
Considering the magic tools, supplies, and other resources consumed while breaking in, it was indeed far too regrettable to simply circle the outer edges and leave.
Of course, even so, it would be more than enough to cover their costs, but all the more so considering that, given the nature of the Demonic Realm, there was no guarantee they could enter safely like this next time.
“First, I’d like to hear Shan’s opinion. Having clashed with it once, you must have a general sense of it… can you do it?”
Shan sank into thought amidst gazes mixed with expectation and concern.
If he fought the cockatrice here and lost, it was not merely a matter of his own single life coming to an end.
The moment his martial power, the core of Green Eyes, was lost, the probability of returning safely from here to Shedil City would become practically non-existent.
“Mmm.”
Checking the sword that had slashed the cockatrice’s flank a moment ago, a groan escaped his lips naturally.
A gruesome sight with all its edge chipped away like a saw blade…
Even though he had protected it with the power of fighting spirit, it had turned out like this; had he swung it normally, it would surely have been as meaningless an attempt as trying to cleave a boulder with a knife.
To sever its breath, he would have to thrust toward where its heart or brain was located, pouring in almost all of his physical strength.
Rationally speaking, it was correct to retreat for now.
Because if he grew older, allowed his body to mature, and gathered several decent magic weapons (even if not to the level of the Count’s magic sword he had seen back then) before challenging it again, he would be able to attempt it more safely.
However…
‘If I do that, when on earth will it be?’
In the first place, countless people spent their entire lives working as explorers without acquiring a single decent magic item.
Discovering an uncharted city right now was an immense stroke of luck in itself; how many years it would take for such luck to favor them multiple times was impossible to tell.
Above all, if he backed down like this every time an obstacle arose in the future, how on earth could he achieve what he desired?
In the first place, the very dream of becoming a knight as an Altoan was something that could not ordinarily be accomplished.
Originally, extraordinary results required extraordinary methods.
“Let’s devise a plan.”
At Shan’s words, everyone nodded with heavy expressions.
As if matters were settled once he made a decision, even Vent, who had opposed it, raised no further objections.
Because if nothing else, Shan’s authority regarding combat was higher than that of the other three combined.
*
Prior to launching the operation, Green Eyes decided to begin by searching the surrounding area first.
This was to obtain usable magic items by raiding a few other sizable buildings located a short distance away from the cockatrice’s mansion.
Naturally, since they did not know when the creature might attack, they always searched a building together as a party of four.
How long had they been rummaging through shelves and cabinets in the dust-filled building?
Roden’s joyful shout reached the ears of Shan, who was coughing.
“Oh, I found one! Over here!”
As the members scattered about gathered, Roden presented a gold-plated goblet.
Indeed, fitting for an enchanted item, it sparkled all by itself, completely out of place in the messy interior.
“It doesn’t look very useful for combat.”
“We never know. It might be something that creates poison when liquid is poured inside… Let’s examine it first.”
While Zerpo investigated the goblet’s function, the others resumed their search.
The function discovered before long was somewhat disappointing.
“Temperature regulation?”
“Yes. It’s a function that maintains the temperature of the liquid inside whether it’s hot or cold. Seeing that such a trivial item was made with materials durable enough to be preserved for this long, its owner must have been quite wealthy. Or perhaps it was something needed personally.”
Regardless of Zerpo’s explanation, it was not an item that could be used immediately to catch the cockatrice.
Of course, since a functioning Altoan relic was an item that would fetch a tremendous price if sold in Shedil City, they did not forget to put it straight into the cargo compartment.
Dusting off his hands after pulling out a piece of paper so old it had crumbled from beneath a bed, Shan asked Zerpo.
“By the way, how come we barely find any books?”
“Paper must not have been a very good material for enchanting magic. Or perhaps the Altoans possessed a better means of storing information. Thanks to that, intact books from the Altoan era are incomparably more expensive than most relics.”
“Is it to that extent?”
“Not to mention spellbooks, but just imagine if even a map of the ancient Altoan Empire came out. For an explorer, it would be an unparalleled treasure.”
“Indeed…”
If so, they could easily locate Asilub, the capital of the Altoan Empire and the legendary city.
Unless it was a place located thousands of kilometers away to the far east.
“That’s also why the history of the Altoan Empire is hardly known. Strangely, almost no history was passed down through the surviving Altoans either. The most popular account is what the Goddess Church claims…”
“The story that the ancient Altoans betrayed humanity and the Goddess, opening a gate connected to the world of demons with magic, right?”
“Believers of the Old Faith believers still believe that. Personally, I don’t agree. No matter how you look at it, it’s a claim based on overly fragmented literature.”
Thus, the Goddess cast a curse to punish the Altoans, distorting their appearance and devastating the land so people could not inhabit it, and roaming forever in hideous form after losing their homeland was the punishment handed down to them.
It was content that Priest Ador had instilled until his ears bled during every sermon.
Even while chatting animatedly with Zerpo, Shan’s eyes and hands moved without taking the slightest rest.
After raiding five more houses, Green Eyes obtained quite a number of Altoan relics.
A large cabinet that preserved the freshness of items inside, semi-permanently usable cosmetics, a handkerchief that cleaned itself no matter what it wiped off…
Since they were raiding ordinary houses rather than an armory or barracks, most of the items obtained were bound to be such household goods.
The only thing that might be helpful in battle was a orb that absorbed sunlight to emit light at night, but this too had been unused for a long time and was currently unserviceable.
By the time they completed their search, the day had set before they knew it, and darkness began to spread across the entire city.
The night in the Demonic Realm, where clouds constantly hung so neither sun nor moon shone, was terribly dark.
Exploring until this time without fighting was also an intended move.
Because it was more advantageous to fight at night to make the most of the night vision capability Shan possessed.
“[Garnarobastang… Arbonasfrum…]”
In the dark night, an eerie incantation echoed from inside the building.
Having enchanted a weapon for the third time, Zerpo collapsed from total exhaustion.
Although its proportion was smaller compared to fighting spirit, magic was also an ability whose excessive use entailed physical stamina consumption.
“Haa, no, no more… I really can’t. Seriously.”
Fitting for an explorer, he was proficient in various magic spells, but regarding enchantment magic, he lacked aptitude and had not studied it much.
His specialty was a field closer to archaeology, appraising magic tools or analyzing traces of ancient relics.
As such, compared to proper enchantment mages, his magic power was weak and its duration was only a few tens of minutes.
Still, everyone agreed that this would be best rather than having him step out directly to employ miscellaneous tricks that would not even work.
Leaving the exhausted Zerpo behind along with the horses, the three men (Shan, Roden, and Vent) headed toward the mansion where the cockatrice resided.
“Phew…”
Shan could see cold sweat trickling down Roden’s face illuminated by the torchlight.
Vent was not to that extent, but his tension was equally evident.
In truth, feeling tense while walking into the lair of a powerful monster in the pitch-black night was a perfectly normal reaction.
Yet even while thinking so, for some reason, he did not feel the slightest bit of tension.
No, perhaps something hot was smoldering and spreading from deep within his chest…
‘Ah.’
He suddenly remembered when he had felt this sensation before.
When he fought the bandits of the Steel Lion Corps who had raided his village for the first time, when he fought Black Spear Feonil, and when he fought the troll.
He felt this way only when engaging in a battle where a single misstep could result in death.
A sensation he did not feel in the slightest against non-threatening enemies like common monsters or ordinary foes.
Something blending the exhilaration of impending combat and the terror of death seemed to violently prick at his brain.
Shan, letting off a little steam with a quiet sigh, brought the two men to a halt only after reaching a distance of about thirty meters from the mansion.
“This is far enough.”
“Is it fine not to go any further?”
“It’s fine. If I can assassinate it first, that would be the absolute best.”
During their first encounter, they were caught because they entered boisterously while talking openly, but if he entered alone stealthily, he might be able to sever the sleeping beast’s neck in a single blow.
If it turned out like that, it would truly be the ideal outcome.
*
Receiving a blessing of vitality from Vent one last time, Shan left the two men at the mansion entrance and infiltrated with stealthy steps like a cat.
Unlike earlier when he had used the single-handed sword he was carrying due to fighting in a rush, this time he held a longsword he had bought for a high price at a smithy in the capital in the past.
It was an item belonging to the finest luxury tier among ordinary steel swords, having cost half of the money earned from catching the troll.
Stepping silently past the entrance into the inner garden, heavy thudding sounds echoed almost immediately.
‘I’ve been spotted.’
Since he had made no more sound than a rustling leaf, it could not have noticed him by footsteps; was smell the issue?
Although Shan was well-versed in the ecology of various monsters thanks to Sir Darkal’s instruction, he did not know much about the cockatrice.
In the first place, instances of hunting it were rare, and even when hunted, it was centered on subjugation by large-scale forces, meaning analysis itself was lacking and data was virtually non-existent.
He only knew that unlike its relative, the basilisk, it possessed no special abilities, but was extraordinarily strong, fast, and tough.
Before long, the cockatrice revealed itself from deep within the mansion, piercing through the darkness.
Perhaps entering inside the mansion had gotten on its nerves unlike earlier, both its eyes were filled with rage without the slightest hint of searching around.
[□□■□-!]
Just like during their first encounter, it let out a thunderously echoing scream, but Shan was not intimidated in the slightest.
Though he had not received a blessing of mental resistance, it was thanks to his body having adapted to some extent after experiencing the roar once already.
In truth, even without that, he could have resisted with his formidable fighting spirit.
Moving quickly to dodge the creature charging at him, the first thing he checked was the flank he had slashed earlier.
‘Good, it has barely healed. It definitely doesn’t have super-regeneration…’
Evading several attacks, Shan drove the longsword precisely into the flank he had slashed a moment ago.
Imbuing a much stronger fighting spirit than earlier and aiming for the spot where the stone skin was already crushed, the sword sank in up to the hilt in an instant.
[■■■■■■□□□!]
A scream filled not with rage or threat, but with sheer agony.
Even for a giant lizard nearly ten meters long from head to tail, having a longsword with a blade length over one meter driven into it seemed to be a fatal blow.
Lacking the leeway to pull out the sword, Shan immediately let go of the hilt and ducked his waist.
A tail bizarrely thin for its massive size and whip-like in its flexibility grazed the back of his head.
‘Dangerous…!’
Had he lowered his head even slightly less, the back of his head would have burst open, killing him instantly.
Had he been standing upright, his head would have been lopped off.
Seeing this made him feel that it was fortunate he had not mounted a joint attack with Roden.
The strength and agility of the cockatrice were on a level completely different from a troll, so with Roden’s reflexes, he would likely have been severely injured or killed in exchange for absorbing one or two attacks.
Evading the successive attacks, Shan realized that the opponent recognized his presence sharply and counterattacked, as if its night vision was better than expected.
Could it be targeting his two eyes glowing green?
Just in case, as he closed his eyes briefly and moved relying on his senses, he immediately felt the sound of claws slicing through the air approaching.
Quickly dodging and snapping his eyes open, Shan realized he had succeeded in evading just as narrowly as earlier.
Apparently, this was not the correct answer.
‘I almost died!’
Though his agility was far superior, since their basic weight classes were so vastly different, a single bad hit would end everything then and there.
Then again, wasn’t that what a knight’s fight was all about in the first place?
Overcoming physical capabilities far inferior to monsters through excellent equipment, well-honed techniques, and faithfully forged fighting spirit.
Fortunately, as if bothered by the pain felt from the sword stuck in its flank, the creature merely whimpered once distance grew, without aggressively charging him.
Compared to the troll he had fought before, its tolerance for pain was clearly lacking.
“Spear!”
Leaping back a few steps to arrive near the mansion’s main gate, Shan immediately called out to Roden in a loud voice.
Roden, who had been listening in the dark with torches extinguished only to loud thuds echoing and wood splintering, threw a weapon straight toward the direction of the voice.
Had it been daylight, his body likely would have trembled just raising the spear, preventing him from throwing properly, so seeing nothing was rather a blessing.
“Watch out!”
Naturally, even without Roden’s warning shout, Shan could see the long spear flying toward him like a javelin.
Even though nothing could be seen in the dark, the sight of it flying tens of meters as if to impale a torso was admirable.
Shan lightly turned his body to catch the spear, then thrust at the approaching cockatrice’s face.
Aiming for the eye while avoiding the hard beak, the creature slightly jerked its head, resulting in only narrowly crushing the skin around its eye.
Rather than seeing and dodging, it was a movement closer to mere coincidence.
‘A shame.’
He had imbued quite a lot of fighting spirit, but since the spear was cheap, it seemed difficult to inflict a critical hit even with magic enchanted upon it.
Stabbing several times at the forefeet reaching out thereafter to keep the opponent at bay, Shan did not miss the moment an opening revealed itself and plunged the spear into the cockatrice’s neck, imbuing several times more fighting spirit than earlier.
The spearhead dug through the stone-hard skin, sinking in about a third of the shaft.
“Ugh!”
Groaning at the exertion of physical stamina intense enough to cause momentary dizziness, Shan quickly rolled to the side.
As the creature’s claws, wildly thrashing in pain, scraped near his abdomen, his chainmail was crushed and iron fragments scattered in all directions.
‘Glad I wore armor…’
Since it was heavy and caused noise when moving fast, he had considered taking it off, but had he not worn it, he almost spilled his intestines everywhere.
Facing the terror of death right before his eyes, his brain instinctively poured out pleasure chemicals like crazy.
A sensation similar to when he had taken the strike of the Black Spear in the past…
However, unlike back then, the enemy he faced now showed no intention of stopping the fight.
Fortunately, desperately moving his exhausted body to dodge a few more attacks, he felt his strength returning thanks to the blessing of vitality.
“Sword!”
Requesting a weapon once again, this time a familiar single-handed sword flew through the air with a swoosh.
The very first trophy he had obtained, the sword of a Steel Lion Corps leader.
Though Shan had wanted a longsword wielded with both hands, he felt slightly taken aback, yet immediately dodged the charging cockatrice, leaped, and drove the sword into its back.
At that moment, under the repulsive force generated as the beast moved abruptly, the sword snapped with a metallic clatter.
Swaying briefly from the overwhelming exhaustion caused by imbuing fighting spirit to his limits, Shan hurriedly leaped as the creature turned around to snap at him on its back, stepping on several protrusions of an adjacent building to scale it.
Considering that the beast had climbed a five-meter-high wall, he could not rest easy, but he would at least be able to buy a moment of time.
“Haa, haa…”
Having squeezed out his fighting spirit at near full power twice in a row, a wave of nausea surged up as if he might vomit at any second.
Had it not been for the blessing of vitality, he would surely have passed out and collapsed on the spot.
Regulating his physical energy with the breathing technique he had learned from Darkal, Shan soon realized that for some reason, the creature was not attacking.
‘…What is this?’
The longsword stuck in its flank, the spear in its neck, and the blade in its back looked quite uncomfortable and painful, but they were not injuries directly threatening its life right away.
Yet for some reason, far from attacking Shan, the beast merely looked around its surroundings.
As if it could not find where he was.
‘Could it be?’
Shan pondered briefly, then called out to Roden once again.
As the final weapon thrown from beyond the wall, a spare longsword, whirled through the air for tens of meters and crashed onto the ground, the cockatrice charged and wildly swung its claws and tail through empty air.
‘Aha…’
Though he did not know complex concepts like vibrations, he could roughly figure out how the creature perceived the world.
No wonder it noticed so well in the pitch-black night without a speck of light; it clearly moved by listening to the sounds of footsteps treading on the ground.
Since an intruder was inside the mansion, it seemed unconcerned with Roden and Vent outside.
Shan waited for about a minute while clinging to the building until his physical energy fully returned, then descended to the ground once more.
As expected, upon landing with a thud, the cockatrice discovered its target and immediately pounced.
“Up we go.”
Shan narrowly evaded its attack and retrieved the longsword Roden had thrown earlier.
Then, holding the longsword with one hand, he quickly scaled the exterior wall of the adjacent building.
‘Good, now I just need to bring it under here…’
Simultaneously with his thought, the cockatrice approached the building with a doubtful expression.
Since the intruder who was near the building had suddenly vanished twice in a row, it seemed to think that some trick was being played from this side.
Had it been a clever creature like the troll he had met before, it would have deduced that he climbed atop the building and acted accordingly.
Sure enough, a highly intelligent monster was clearly a tricky existence beyond its inherent capabilities.
‘Come over here, just a little more.’
With that thought, Shan extended his longsword straight out, aiming precisely at the cockatrice’s neck.
He had considered stabbing its head, but since skulls were generally the hardest part and lore dictated that severing the neck guaranteed death, targeting this spot seemed better.
One step, and then another step.
The moment he thought this was close enough, he released the hand holding the building wall, and his body plummeted.
At that moment, a doubt suddenly surfaced in his mind.
‘Can I really cut it off in one blow?’
The longsword he held now was a spare, far inferior in quality compared to the one he normally used.
Even though Zerpo’s magic was enchanted upon it, it was not particularly grand; if he failed to cut that thick neck in a single stroke and fell right before its eyes in an exhausted state, he would be crushed to death on the spot…
Shan gritted his teeth hard and erased the doubt that had risen in his mind.
The priest relies entirely on the Goddess, the mage questions all things in the world, but the knight only possesses conviction that he can pull it off.
Recalling Darkal’s teachings, his cluttered mind settled.
Cleave it!
With that thought, sharply refined fighting spirit dwelled on the blade of the longsword, slicing through the cockatrice’s log-thick neck.
Nearly half was severed in an instant, while the remaining half was forced through almost by crushing.
Having fulfilled its duty, the longsword bent completely out of shape, becoming something that would need to be melted down and forged anew.
“Ahaha…”
Thud. Laughing as he watched the head fall powerlessly, Shan realized that his own body had also betrayed his will and collapsed onto the ground.
The mismatch between his head, flushed with victory, and his body, completely drained and unmoving, was so amusing that laughter spilled out naturally.