Monarch of Death

Boom! Boom! Boom boom boom!

A large ice barrier broadly surrounded the Stone Orcs.

A group of humans walked out from between the pillars.

A black-haired young man holding a wand sneered as he looked at the orcs.

“Wow, didn’t expect them to take the bait this quickly.”

A blonde knight clad in heavy armor shrugged his shoulders.

“Right? I thought we’d have to cast the bait and wait for at least an hour.”

From the opposite side, a red-haired beauty and a young priest also revealed themselves.

“Well done, Laficel.”

Laficel blushed shyly at Serati’s praise.

Alius admired as he looked at the headless orc chieftain.

“I thought it was too dangerous no matter what, but I guess I was wrong.”

This was why Karnak had insisted on bringing Laficel along.

The tactic of deliberately disguising a powerful warrior as weak and luring monsters was already widely known. Monsters wouldn’t drop their guard if the opponent seemed like an adult.

But if it was a child, they would charge in without hesitation.

It was a guaranteed way to save time.

The problem, of course, was that the child used as bait would be put in extreme danger, but Serati was clearly not an irresponsible teacher.

“Now I understand why you brought that child. She has got quite some skill.”

To be honest, her skill was almost too impressive.

“I never thought she would reach that level in such a short time.”

No matter how you looked at it, this was not the movement of a child who had only trained in martial arts for a couple of months.

Even if they’d received the best education in a noble household from the age of five or six, it was questionable whether they could reach this level.

Serati also responded naturally, as she had expected to be suspected.

“The kid’s naturally talented. When you’ve got the talent, you grow quickly, don’t you?”

In hindsight, it made sense.

Karnak, who had been a 4th Circle mage when they last parted ways, was now a 6th Circle mage, and Baros had also become a full-fledged aura user.

And yet, it didn’t feel strange. Somehow, with them, it seemed like that level of progress was only natural.

‘Well, I guess having a good teacher makes that possible.’

Alius himself had learned holy spells in just a few days, so he accepted it without much thought.

It was the frustrating common understanding that only geniuses share.

At any rate, now all that was left was to deal with the orcs and check for any signs of the cultists.

Karnak’s group had blocked all sides of the orcs.

The surrounded orcs began growling, raising their stone axes and clubs.

“Graaaah!”

“Kyaaak!”

One particularly large Stone Orc stepped forward.

He was the second-in-command of the group.

With the chieftain dead, he was now the leader.

The new chieftain raised his massive stone axe high above his head and let out a grand roar.

“Roooaaar!”

‘I’m the chieftain now! Follow me!’ was what it meant.

And then, his head flew off.

Boom!

Shattered skull fragments scattered through the air.

In just three seconds of becoming the new chieftain, he had to surrender his spot to the third-in-command.

Pointing his finger, Karnak muttered indifferently.

“Climbing this mountain made me hungry. Let’s finish this quickly and get lunch.”

***

Red hair fluttered in the wind.

Like a crane extending its body straight and swiftly diving like a swallow, Serati charged into the midst of the orcs.

“Hyaah!”

Her red aura sword left a trail of light.

It was the light of division, slicing through everything it touched.

Orc blood spurted out in succession.

“Guh!”

“Graaagh!”

Laficel’s eyes sparkled at the awe-inspiring sight of Serati cutting down Stone Orcs one after another.

It was a remarkably splendid and beautiful sword technique.

‘Wow, Serati unnie is so cool!’

In contrast, Baros’ swordsmanship was plain.

He took a single, steady step forward and thrust his sword with simplicity.

His body’s center remained as solid as a mountain, never wavering.

His arms flowed like a storm over the mountain peaks, wielding his sword with calm precision—striking, blocking, and slashing.

Laficel looked at both and pondered.

‘Oh no, I think oppa’s swordsmanship is better than unnie’s.’

Serati’s swordsmanship was undeniably impressive.

But Baros’ technique was excellent.

‘I want to imitate oppa’s style…’

However, she was Serati’s disciple. Wouldn’t it be disrespectful to copy Baros?

‘What should I do?’

After a brief moment of hesitation, Laficel found a compromise.

‘It wouldn’t be disrespectful if I imitated both, right?’

Gripping her sword firmly, she stepped forward.

An orc charged at her, targeting her.

“Hiyah!”

With a cute shout, she used the elasticity of her whole body to propel herself. Twisting in midair, she unleashed a series of slashes.

Her flowery, dazzling swordsmanship struck the orc’s vital points with precision.

“Guh-huh!”

After instantly severing the orc’s breath, Laficel landed steadily without faltering.

It was thanks to maintaining her body’s center as firmly as a mountain.

She had merged Baros’ steady swordsmanship with Serati’s flashy techniques, creating a sword style of her own.

‘Success!’

With great teachers, she had learned excellent techniques.

Feeling grateful, Laficel once again launched herself into the fight. Orcs’ screams began to echo around her.

Serati’s eyes widened as she watched the scene.

‘I never taught her that!’

It wasn’t a matter of what she had or hadn’t taught. This was swordsmanship of a higher level that Serati hadn’t even touched.

‘Unbelievable…’

From stillness to movement, from movement to stillness.

Standing firm like a mountain, flowing like a river, fluttering like a flower, then striking like lightning.

‘That’s the perfected form of Tascal Swordsmanship!’

Tascal Swordsmanship was the style Serati had mastered and was currently teaching Laficel.

But it couldn’t be said that Laficel knew the full technique.

Right now, she was only teaching her the basics, which are quite similar across different sword schools.

[Has Laficel perhaps practiced Tascal Swordsmanship in a past life?]

[Who knows.]

Even Baros didn’t keep track of every sword technique she might have learned.

But even if she hadn’t learned it, it wasn’t all that strange.

[That’s just a milestone everyone passes once they’ve trained in swordsmanship.]

To be frank, Baros could do the same. He was just fighting with basic moves for practice right now.

By top-tier standards, this was just an ordinary skill.

[So, does that mean…]

Serati’s voice grew gloomy.

[My ultimate move is just an ordinary slash for her?]

A deep sense of discouragement overwhelmed her, and she let out a sigh.

Baros chuckled and comforted her.

[It’s normal to feel down when you cross swords with her. Even I, and other Martial Kings, have felt the same way.]

Baros and the other Martial Kings were stronger, but they could never quite match that unique battle sense of hers.

[Don’t worry about it. Just keep learning from her. We did the same.]

[…Really?]

Hearing that even the other Martial Kings had gone through the same thing made Serati feel a bit better.

Swallowing her pride, Serati focused on Laficel’s movements.

‘Ah, so that’s how you do it?’

Serati herself had been talented enough to awaken aura at a young age. She wasn’t on par with the Martial Kings, but she had still been considered a genius in her own right.

Moreover, she was still in the physical and mental stages of growth.

Identifying her shortcomings, Serati found herself learning quite a bit.

As she became aware of her weaknesses, her movements became more refined and graceful.

“Hyaaah!”

Watching her, Laficel thought to herself.

‘Unnie is demonstrating the Ascension Swordsmanship!’

Surely, since she had been following her so well, her teacher was now showing her a more advanced level of swordsmanship.

As expected, Serati was an excellent teacher.

With a heart full of gratitude, Laficel watched and learned even more intently.

‘Swordsmanship is something you steal from your teacher, right?’

Serati had never said such a thing, and Laficel didn’t know where she had picked it up from, but in any case, her movements became even more precise and delicate.

She read and predicted every movement of the orcs, even understanding the flow and trajectory of their strength as she pierced them with her sword.

Completely reading all of their moves, the battle began to look more like a performance than a real fight.

The orcs’ death cries echoed all around.

“Graaaaah!”

“Guh!”

“Argh!”

And so, the two disciples diligently swung their swords while observing each other.

The teacher taught the disciple, and the disciple taught the teacher. It was truly a beautiful teacher-disciple relationship.

Well, aside from the minor issue that one side had far too much to learn from the other.

As Serati frantically tried to keep up with Laficel’s movements, she inwardly cried out.

‘Teacher! The pace is too fast!’

***

Under the overwhelming power of the group, the Stone Orcs continued to fall.

At this point, no matter how ferocious the monsters were, it was normal for them to lose their will to fight.

Monsters don’t have the concept of surrender, so their only remaining option was to flee.

But even that wasn’t possible.

Karnak and Alius had them thoroughly cornered.

As the orcs turned to flee, Karnak cast a spell, aiming at their retreating backs.

“O light of suppression, envelop my enemies, Hold Person!”

Ropes of light formed and wrapped around the fleeing orcs’ bodies.

Bound and collapsed, they struggled in vain before being cut down by the incoming blades.

Hold Person doesn’t specifically mean it only works on humans.

The spell sent ropes of light vertically to bind the bodies, and it was mainly used on bipedal creatures, which is why it had that name.

For quadrupedal creatures, there was a separate spell called Hold Beast, which cast the light horizontally.

On the other side, Alius was reciting a holy prayer.

“Hatoba, use your authority upon the guilty and bring them to their knees.”

Waves of sound spread across the battlefield.

The fleeing orcs froze in place.

“Guh!”

“Wha…?”

In the end, the last orc fell.

One of the orcs muttered its final curse in a faint voice.

“…Krakaak…”

The dying words meant, ‘Damn it! I knew today was going too well.’

Alius drew upon his divine power as he surveyed the scattered orc corpses.

“Let me check now.”

The divine radiance of the goddess slowly washed over the bodies.

Most of the orcs showed no traces of darkness. However, the one whose head Laficel had cut off first, and the one whose skull Karnak had shattered, were different.

“Lord Karnak, you were right.”

The orcs who had held higher ranks exuded a sinister aura.

It wasn’t the Darkness of Doom, but traces of refined necromancy.

“These monsters were under the control of a necromancer.”