Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium)

by Tsukasa Tanimai

  Kai wanted to run off just as badly, but he knew that the armored soldier could catch up easily if he simply ran, so he needed to think of something that would give him a better chance of survival.

  If we just scatter in all directions like always, we won’t get far enough away without doing something to buy more time.

  When human soldiers encountered an enemy beyond their abilities, this was always the way that they’d attempt to escape. To ensure that the maximum number of soldiers would survive, everyone would signal which direction they’d head off in, and then they’d spread out 360 degrees like a firework exploding.

  They’d been taught that regardless of how fast the pursuer could move, it would take them more than three times as long to catch two targets running in opposite directions, and about ten times as long to catch three targets.

  In this case, there were three people.

  Nail was already running.

  Chito had noticed this, and was running in the opposite direction.

  If Kai followed their example and ran, he would be able to keep running for about ten times longer than the first person to get caught, if he was lucky. With his life in peril, time that could be spent putting distance between himself and the org was incredibly valuable.

  But that was wisdom that applied to someone facing defeat in the face of an overwhelmingly more powerful soldier with no means to fight back.

  I don’t want to run...

  Kai’s chest filled up with emotion.

  He looked at the armored org and then assessed the situation around him. In this situation, Kai would somehow have to get behind the armored soldier. Behind his enemy lay the sprawling marshlands of the lagarto territory.

  If there were a way to leap over the soldier, the shortest path to escape would be found behind its back. Chito and Nail had run to the left and right of the armored soldier, which meant they couldn’t escape into the forest.

  It’s off its guard right now.

  It made Kai want to deal a decisive blow, crushing his opponent with the first attack.

  Similarly to Chito, the weapon Kai was holding was the same short spear that the village gave to all soldiers. He was left behind, pretending to shake with fear and retreating while pointing his trembling spearhead toward the enemy.

  Now that he could see the armor close-up, he noticed it was stained a reddish black with the blood of the soldier’s enemies. The breastplate and torso section appeared to have been forged from iron and were bound together by cords made from tanned hide. The pelt of some creature was wrapped around its waist, but that had become stiff with the hardened patches of blood that covered it.

  The armored soldier grunted and watched Chito and Nail as they ran in opposite directions.

  Kai realized that his opponent’s attention was distracted and began turning his back to it to show that he was also about to run. It was a glaring invitation.

  The armored soldier came at him with its axe in a heartbeat. The strike would have shattered his skull if it had hit, but it was such a straightforward swing that it left the org wide open.

  Now!

  Kai continued to turn and in an instant he’d turned a full circle, leaving him facing his enemy once again. Though the enemy was a guardian bearer, its attack was half-hearted and easy for another guardian bearer to follow.

  Kai kept his eyes wide and followed the movement of the attack with his keen vision to determine the trajectory of the axe. He then moved forward while thrusting out his short spear. The areas that were vulnerable to attack by short spear were small, so Kai needed to get in close. He slipped past the axe while watching it in the side of his vision and considered his actions calmly during this crucial moment.

  Tanned hide provided surprisingly tough protection, so the joints of the armor were no good. He had to aim for exposed skin. The face, below the jaw, the armpits, the thighs, or the wrists. If he was feeling greedy, he’d go for the face or below the jaw, but that might fail if he’d underestimated the armored soldier’s ability to dodge.

  The gap between the two fighters disappeared in an instant that felt longer due to Kai’s well-honed nerves.

  Kai knew that the armored soldier was caught off guard by his sudden leap forward.

  You’re mine!

  He immediately gave up on the idea of attacking the head when the org held out its left arm, which was as thick as a tree trunk, to defend itself. Instead, he drove his short spear into its inner thigh where enough flesh was exposed for him to thrust at with confidence. But despite his confidence, Kai was hit from the side and sent flying.

  His vision shook violently.

  He rolled through the grass, turning somersaults and watching the sky spin through his vision. There was blood at the back of his nose, and it felt hot as it spread to his throat.

  For a moment, Kai couldn’t understand what had just happened.

  Then in the corner of his vision he caught sight of the axe flying off in an unexpected direction and he noticed that the empty right hand of the armored soldier was balled into a fist.

  Now he realized that the armored soldier had been unable to stop the axe and had simply released it into the air before striking Kai with its empty right fist. Kai found it hard to believe that his opponent could have such reflexes.

  The shrill cry of the armored soldier filled the air. Although Kai didn’t understand the words, he felt the malice coming from the armored soldier. The fact that Kai was a guardian bearer had now been given away.

  Kai climbed to his feet amid the grass and brushed away the dirt from his clothing. Besides a bloodied nose, his body seemed to be more or less undamaged.

  In terms of toughness, Kai’s body too was beyond any ordinary human.

  “You might be pretty strong.”

  Kai blocked one nostril with his hand and blew blood from the other.

  “***”

  “I’ve got no idea what you just said, but let me tell you, I’m pretty strong too.”

  Kai hadn’t been able to cause any damage to the armored soldier’s body with his first attack, but he had caused his enemy to lose its weapon.

  Even guardian bearers lost much of their offensive capability when they were unarmed. In a fight between two guardian bearers, it was difficult for one to make the other yield without a weapon, because both would have such tough skin.

  Kai’s kumadori started to appear on his face.

  When the armored soldier saw the unusual sigil that was showing on Kai’s face, it fell silent for a moment.

  Kai somehow knew that this huge, reddish-black org soldier was familiar with the god of the valley. The sigil that began to appear on its snout was pure black.

  The org’s sigil was one of the most intricate Kai had ever seen. It was even more detailed than that of Moloch Vezin, Lag’s baron. The baron was a quarto sigil, which meant that this armored soldier had to be a cinquesta sigil, or perhaps something even higher.

  “You’re insanely strong, aren’t you?”

  “...”

  “Are you part of that Rigdaros thing?”

  The armored soldier was clearly affected by Kai’s question. It moved as if correcting its posture to show Kai respect after recognizing him as a worthy opponent. The mouth beneath its large snout opened wide, and it laughed as if pleased down to its core. Its unusually large canine teeth gave it the appearance of a dangerous predator.

  “Now I see... He has died.”

  Its laughter seemed to shake the ground beneath Kai’s feet.

  When it was done laughing, the armored soldier stared piercingly at Kai.

  “You grow weak, valley god.”

  34

  Kai felt he was being mocked. It triggered a feeling of heat deep within his heart.

  “I’m new to all this.”

  Even if he hadn’t said it, it was obvious enough that he was inexperienced as a guardian bearer.

  Kai felt as though his god from the valley was watching to see how he reacted. His god
wouldn’t allow him to walk away from this fight in disgrace.

  “Do you think you’re actually stronger than me?”

  Kai watched his opponent’s movements closely as he tried to think of some way he might win. In terms of power as a guardian bearer, it was definitely possible that Kai was actually inferior because of his lack of experience.

  Kai knew just by looking at the sigil on the armored soldier’s face that his opponent was fairly high-level. Deep down, Kai believed that he was capable of winning against an opponent stronger than the baron, but he had never actually tried fighting seriously against the baron because of his self-imposed restrictions.

  The one thing that was surely in Kai’s favor right now was the fact that his opponent was unarmed, and there was also the possibility of surprising it with magic.

  He tightened his grip on his spear and focused his thoughts on this dependable weapon.

  The thing that made his spear such a strong weapon was its sharp iron spearhead. Iron was hard. The flesh of living creatures, however, was soft. Based on this easily-understood principle, iron could be used to cut through flesh.

  Even the flesh of the guardian bearer standing before Kai was probably softer than iron. Or maybe not. Without actually putting it to the test, it was impossible to say for sure. Kai knew from the way his own skin felt to the touch that it didn’t feel any different from the skin of an ordinary human. It had left him wondering how the bodies of guardian bearers could be unusually tough.

  The armored soldier was unarmed, so it simply waited. Kai began to move using the circle footwork of Zula-ryu, and the armored soldier began rotating to face him. As Kai’s position constantly changed, the armored soldier had to constantly move with him, preventing it from relaxing. One of the most fundamental principles of circle footwork was exploitation of the opening created when the opponent was forced to move their feet.

  Kai aimed a quick thrust at the tip of the armored soldier’s jaw.

  If that was enough to cause his opponent to move its upper body backward, its posture would break when it let its center of mass shift.

  But the armored soldier easily brushed the spearpoint away using the iron plate covering the back of its hand, and its center of mass remained firm and unyielding.

  Kai made several attempts before accepting that cheap tricks wouldn’t be enough to create an opening.

  Kai held his breath and looked for another opening as their fight and its circular motion continued. While watching the movement of his opponent’s feet, he tried to follow the rhythm of its breathing and then tried to match his own breathing to it. Doing this allowed him to influence his opponent through the natural entrainment phenomenon it caused. Then Kai abruptly switched from circular to linear movement. This was a means of deception developed by the mercenary Zula, the creator of this form of martial arts. The knack was to continue the circular footwork with one’s eyes only, tricking the opponent.

  As Kai suddenly moved closer, the armored soldier stepped forward itself, unfazed. It used the plate of armor on its right hand to brush away Kai’s charging thrust with devastating skill, and simultaneously it roared as it attacked with its clenched left fist.

  Kai felt an instinctive sense of fear as its fist approached, carrying death with it. But still, he couldn’t imagine a single fist being enough to deal a fatal blow to a guardian bearer’s toughened body. Kai was ready to exchange blows, but his first priority was to find out how effective the iron weapon in his hand was against a guardian bearer.

  Kai’s eyes followed the movement of the approaching fist closely. All of his physical abilities were remarkably enhanced thanks to being a guardian bearer, but the enhancement to Kai’s vision that his blessings gave him was exceptional. That said, Kai had no way to objectively compare his vision to that of anyone else.

  He put his strength into his forward leg. His entire body leaned forward and then he pushed off, causing his foot to dig into the ground. His speed increased along with his degree of forward incline, and the fist grazed the side of Kai’s face and his hair as it traveled past his head.

  His target was his opponent’s large stomach.

  There were fine gaps in the defense provided by the armor where the pieces of hide between the plates were sewn together. Kai suddenly realized what living creature those blood-soaked pieces of hide had been collected from. This foul species delighted in the torture of women and children. Although he had no evidence to prove it, Kai felt sure that this hide was tanned human skin.

  The spearhead found its way into one of the gaps.

  As expected, even with the power of his reckless charge behind it, the spear met resistance. He could feel the skin of the armored soldier holding back his weapon.

  I’m not done yet!

  Kai clenched his right fist and slammed it into the metal butt of his short spear. The extra force was transmitted down the spear handle, and the moment it reached the spearhead, the spear suddenly felt as though it was penetrating something soft, as if it had broken through a hard shell.

  The body of a guardian bearer was softer than iron. That answered one question.

  “****!” The armored soldier howled.

  The short spear broke from Kai’s grasp and was left protruding from the stomach of the armored soldier. Kai was confident that he’d damaged its intestines. But he’d also been careless.

  There was an explosion of heat within Kai’s stomach. The burning sensation filled him first, and then came the pain.

  The armored soldier hadn’t so much as flinched in response to its injury. Instead, it had knocked Kai back with a front kick using the sole of its foot. The toes of its lace-up boots must have contained iron parts that had pierced the area below Kai’s ribs.

  The armored soldier had never been unarmed.

  Kai briefly flew through the air and then hit the grassy ground rolling before his back slammed against the rough roots of a balen cedar tree, bringing him to a stop. All of the air in his lungs was expelled at once, and he was left unable to move. Before he could even inhale again, bloody vomit erupted from his mouth.

  It hurts!

  It hurts! It really hurts!

  When he was done vomiting, he was finally able to fill his lungs with air once more.

  He felt as though his internal organs were all out of place. As Kai lay on the ground curled up and trying to endure the heavy, pulsating pain in his guts, the armored soldier approached with its gaze fixed on Kai. It paid no attention to the spear that was still embedded in its stomach.

  Is this thing immortal? No... it must feel pain.

  Just like Kai, the creature was nothing more than a guardian bearer. The fine layer of skin that covered its body was comparable to iron, but not the rest.

  Skin was the toughest part of the body besides bones, and the divine will of the land god could reinforce it beyond ordinary levels, which was one reason that guardian bearers were so robust. Beneath that skin, the flesh and blood were not so hard.

  Kai could guess that since bones were harder than skin, those probably became harder than iron. The bones of a guardian bearer were unlikely to break easily.

  Kai rolled away from the sound of approaching footsteps and clenched his teeth as he tried to rise. The waves of pain were becoming further apart.

  The internal organs of a guardian bearer were not so hard, but they were still more durable than common sense would suggest. The pain was not enough to leave Kai paralyzed, and he was gradually healing. His body’s ability to recover to its original state was beyond what was normal.

  Kai’s questions about guardian bearer’s bodies were all now more or less answered.

  To reliably kill an opponent, it was necessary to deliver fatal wounds quickly enough to outpace their healing abilities. For example, just a few days ago, he’d been able to kill the org guardian bearer attacking the koror settlement with a single blow. Destroying the heart, which was essential for supporting life, was no doubt the most efficient and relia
ble method for killing a guardian bearer.

  The armored soldier finally plucked the short spear from its stomach and angrily cast it aside. It was likely that it hadn’t removed it immediately because it had been waiting for its recovery ability as a guardian bearer to reduce the size of its internal wounds.

  Kai somehow got to his feet while praying that his own recovery would happen fast enough to keep pace.

  The armored soldier also understood how this battle between guardian bearers needed to be fought. Put simply, it would be a mistake to give the opponent a chance to recover.

  Kai’s last hope was his knife, but no sooner than he drew it, a series of blows from the armored soldier effortlessly sent it flying from his hand. Kai was left unarmed, and the armored soldier continued to deliver blow after blow, making it so that Kai couldn’t afford to let himself be knocked off his feet and he had no way to retreat. Then its huge hand grabbed Kai by his neck.

  As a guardian bearer, Kai’s neck bones were harder than iron, but the armored soldier must have thought it could snap them in two with the power of its grip. Or perhaps it just intended to strangle him to death.

  No matter how strong someone was, or how powerful their guardian, breathing was always a fundamental necessity for maintaining life.

  The tissues in his neck were gradually being destroyed.

  Kai knew this would kill him before long.

  35

  Kai needed to think of something. He needed some way to fight back against this enemy whose strength was far beyond his own.

  The cells of his brain were screaming as their oxygen supply was cut off. Kai was barely conscious as he brought his hand up to touch the wrist of the armored soldier that was choking him.

  Scratching at the hand with his fingernails did nothing to loosen its iron grip.

  It’s not over. There’s one thing I didn’t try.

  Even as he was being strangled with his airways cut off, the channels for his spiritual energy were still connected to the godstone in his chest as always.