Iron could destroy a guardian bearer’s flesh because it was harder than the protection offered by a land god. The unanswered question was what would happen if he used a power that didn’t follow the world’s natural laws.
I’ll roast you...
The godstone in his chest filled with heat. The heat moved with Kai’s will and began to gather in his hands, which were clinging to his opponent’s wrist. Then he unleashed his power.
“***!” The armored soldier’s reaction was dramatic.
Kai’s hands were suddenly coated by blue flames, and their heat burned at the hands that were clutching him and trying to kill him.
Fire magic. An otherworldly flame that burned persistently, even underwater.
“**”
“*****”
Kai hadn’t expected to hear the shouting around him.
At some point, a great number of orgs had gathered to watch the fight between two guardian bearers. Kai had no way to express his annoyance at having gathered a crowd as he poured more spiritual energy into his fire magic.
Kai could feel the heat of the flames burning near him, but the sensation must have been limited because he was the one controlling the magic. This was the fire magic that had generated enough heat to boil a bucket of water in an instant; it was beyond what the tough skin tissue of the armored soldier could withstand, even with a god to offer it protection.
Meat would always be meat. Once exposed to a flame, those tissues would soon start turning into lumps of protein. The armored soldier’s wrist was a region where the flesh was at its most thin. The heat concentrated in that area was so great that the tendons were instantly reduced to ash, causing the armored soldier to squeal and to throw Kai’s body away from itself.
As the armored soldier stepped backwards, its pose was a strange one. Its wrists appeared to be bound together, as if it was a prisoner in shackles. The intensity of the flame must have fused together the flesh at both of its wrists.
After briefly examining its wounds, the armored soldier forcefully ripped its wrists apart. Pieces of loose skin were left hanging and fluttering in the wind.
“How’d you... like that...?”
Kai had been released, but he still couldn’t stand up. His breathing was coarse, and he coughed many times. He looked up to see a drooling face glaring down at him.
It looked as though burning with fire was a highly-effective weapon against guardian bearers.
The reason that Kai had been willing to take on the armored soldier despite knowing it was stronger wasn’t because he held the short spear. He’d never put his faith in a weak weapon used by human foot soldiers. He’d stood his ground because he knew he could use magic if he needed.
But Kai still didn’t fully understand everything about guardian bearers. He’d received the blessings of the land god so suddenly that he’d never had the chance to learn from anyone with more experience. In some respects, ignorance had made him arrogant. Even when facing the armored soldier, this powerful warrior who had earned the title of Rigdaros, Kai had felt confident that it could do little to harm him.
“Curses...?”
It seemed that orgs referred to magic as curses.
Kai had done nothing more than channel his spiritual energy. Orgs were an intelligent species, so Kai should never have expected his magic to be unknown to them. His lack of knowledge was a persistent problem.
His fire magic had appeared to be highly effective against another guardian bearer, so Kai still felt sure he had the upper hand. But his illusions were about to be shattered.
Kai had allowed the flames to continue burning visibly around his hands as if trying to show off his advantage, but the armored soldier just looked at him and laughed mockingly.
It checked that its fingers were beginning to recover, and then it lumbered closer to Kai.
“You rely on curses? Pathetic.”
Perhaps it was his imagination, but Kai could feel an overwhelmingly strong aura of hate coming from the armored soldier. Kai thought it must be the hate that fills someone fighting with another for their very life.
Just as Kai was climbing to his feet and feeling as though victory was within his grasp, the armored soldier came running at him to deliver a kick intended to make him lose any hope he had left.
There was no particular cleverness to it, it was a plain old kick, but it was a kick that came at him like a storm, with enough power to take the life of an ordinary person.
I’m not done roasting you.
Kai steadied his breathing and smiled slightly as he positioned himself ready for the kick. He had to catch the org’s leg and burn it. That was his only thought.
He grabbed the iron-capped toe of the lace-up boot with both hands and channeled as much spiritual energy into it at once as possible in an attempt to burn away its leg completely. Kai had no trouble following the movement of the kick with his eyes and was able to grab its leg tightly.
He unleashed his fire magic with greater ferocity than ever before.
“Guh...”
The intensified fire magic created a roar as it consumed the armored soldier’s leg.
At first Kai felt triumphant, but then his body was scooped off the ground and launched high in the air. That was when the realization hit him.
The leg had slipped from his grasp. When he caught sight of his enemy’s leg, he found it completely unharmed.
The protection offered to a guardian bearer was controlled by the will of a land god. That power wasn’t something that came from the guardian bearer themselves.
“My god’s spirit is always inside,” the armored soldier said while pounding its chest with its fist.
It opened its mouth wide and laughed loudly at Kai’s inexperience.
“What gods give us... we vessels must protect.”
Kai was wide-eyed in shock.
The armored soldier was essentially saying that it was unharmed by the fire magic thanks to the protection that its god had provided against it. When the guardian bearer, the vessel, was at risk of dying, the god would respond by offering new protection that might nullify the threat faced by its vessel. The armored soldier’s god had realized that Kai’s fire magic posed a grave threat and had given a new form of protection to the armored soldier so it could withstand heat.
Though still in shock, Kai managed to orient himself in midair and he landed gracefully.
The only time magic would be effective was during that first strike when it might surprise the opponent.
No, not even then...
As Kai struggled to make sense of it all, he realized that his reasoning was still naive. Even the first strike wasn’t necessarily going to succeed. Once it was clear that the opponent was a magic user, even that first strike might not work. Kai had made a huge blunder by revealing his secret. If a god could immediately provide resistance to their hosts, then it was the height of foolishness to have faith in such cheap tricks.
This was the main reason why guardian bearers rarely used magic. Rather than wasting spiritual energy on magic that was unlikely to be effective, it was easier to overwhelm an opponent with physical attacks. The focus was always on causing damage to the opponent so quickly that their healing couldn’t keep pace.
Be it fire or lightning, the god would offer new resistance against magic whenever it was used. The armored soldier was currently enveloped in a strong protection against fire.
The rational part of Kai’s brain warned him that his chances of victory were now very slim.
Kai soon decided that he would try to run at the first opportunity. Up to now, he had almost never seen a guardian bearer easily slain while fleeing from the battlefield. If a guardian bearer focused on running, they wouldn’t be easily caught, even by a more powerful guardian bearer.
Kai glared at the armored soldier. If he were to escape, it would be best to head toward the region that lay behind this huge org soldier.
“Hand over your stone.”
His fire ma
gic had been rendered ineffective, but it was still possible that some other type of magic might work against this opponent. No matter how tough a guardian bearer was, their body wasn’t as hard as iron and their endurance surely had its limits. For example, if a single point on their body was subjected to a high temperature, there was the possibility of breaking through the makeshift protection offered by the god.
Kai also had one more trick to rely on.
The invisible sword...
His conceptual sword with its supernatural cutting power had once taken down an org guardian bearer with ease. This new enemy’s skin was probably much tougher, but Kai had already proven that its body was softer than iron. He felt confident that he could cut through it.
His sword might just have the power to take this enemy’s life.
The armored soldier saw that the will to fight was still visible in Kai’s eyes and attacked him using a technique that was clearly some form of martial art. The armored soldier used all four limbs as it unleashed a barrage of blows that Kai’s keen eyesight just barely allowed him to parry. But it was clear to see that Kai was at his limit.
Every blow that came at him carried enough weight to shatter a boulder.
This huge difference in the power behind the two fighters’ blows came from the difference in their physical strength that existed before their guardians’ blessings were applied. In terms of the volume of muscle behind each blow, the firm body mass that carried the force of the attack to the opponent, and the endurance needed to deliver such attacks so relentlessly, orgs were already far beyond the level of humans.
The differences between the two fighters went beyond physical aspects. They were also far apart in terms of their combat experience. The armored soldier had honed its fighting technique and had learned how to use its incredible strength effectively.
As Kai parried each attack, he felt the vibrations within his bones, and it was gradually becoming painful.
Kai had underestimated the power of hand-to-hand combat when he’d thought that it was no way to settle a fight between guardian bearers. Now, he was slowly coming to realize just how wrong he’d been.
The armored soldier’s attacks became more and more ferocious as Kai began to groan in pain. Each strike carried with it enough force to be fatal.
“This time you die!”
“...Ngh.”
“Die! Valley God!”
The armored soldier was in a frenzy, and Kai was gradually being worn down.
36
Kai was finding it harder and harder to defend himself. The assault left him unable to do anything besides move backward until finally he was driven back against a tree. With nowhere left to go, the deadly barrage of blows continued.
It felt as though his body was burning fire and might burst apart.
His bones, though harder than steel, were beginning to give way.
His mind was overwhelmed by the agony being ceaselessly delivered to him.
The only thing that made Kai able to bear it was the single glimmer of hope that was left to him.
Not yet...
Even though his life was in peril, Kai never closed his eyes.
He could feel the killing intent in the arms and legs of the armored soldier as they struck him, but still he held his breath and waited for an opportunity.
The way that magic resistance worked meant that Kai might only get one chance.
He had to find some opportunity when he could reliably take his opponent’s life.
Kai’s determination and his will to fight were never gone from his eyes, which caused a mad smile to appear on the face of the armored soldier. It switched to backhanded blows, which allowed for attacks with the iron plates on its hands.
Kai’s eyes were good enough for him to see through the trick.
The armored soldier then straightened its fingers into a shape like a bird’s beak and thrust them at Kai’s body. Kai continued looking for an opportunity that might be created by the change in the nature of the attacks.
Contorting his body as each attack grazed him was the most he could do. Then there was an explosion of blood as an attack landed on his skin. As Kai watched the attack play out, his eyes went wide, more with surprise than pain.
“Fight back!”
While the people of the borderlands trained in the art of Zula-ryu, it appeared that the orgs had developed their own martial arts. The armored soldier’s blood-covered fingers held a lump of flesh.
Somehow, the armored soldier had been able to grab a piece of Kai’s flesh and rip it from his body with a twisting motion.
The armored soldier laughed loudly, sounding insane. It looked at the piece of Kai’s torn flesh as if nothing could be more amusing before placing it in its mouth and chewing. Kai clenched his teeth in an attempt to endure the pain it had caused him.
“This is your successor...? You’ll pay for your pride.”
As tough as the skin of a guardian bearer was, the armored soldier was somehow able to tear it away easily using its fingers.
Why? How?
Over the course of the battle, he’d worked hard to determine a set of principles he could follow that might make him a match for this strong enemy, but it had all been turned on its head in an instant.
The armored soldier was delighted by Kai’s confusion and continued the barrage of attacks. Kai was parrying each blow more or less unconsciously, but he couldn’t stop himself from losing more pieces of his flesh.
The org ate each piece.
Why? Why is my flesh so soft?
A storm of confusion raged in Kai’s mind. The strength of his defense had been something he’d taken for granted as a guardian bearer, but through martial arts or some other means, the org had easily broken through that defense with its bare hands.
The armored soldier laughed a deep laugh from deep within its broad throat.
“You are disgraced, Valley God!”
“...”
“Come on, fight.”
The taunting caused the god of the valley to scream with rage inside him. It went wild, demanding that Kai kill the org.
The superiority of the enemy’s attacks was understandable given the huge difference in physical strength between humans and orgs and their incomparable levels of actual combat experience. The only thing that had made it possible to endure being subjected to this devastating assault was Kai’s unquestioning faith that the god within him provided an equal level of defense.
However, he now had no choice but to accept the reality of the events unfolding.
Kai’s skin was weaker than the org’s. It meant that the armored soldier’s fingers could cut through Kai’s skin like scissors and tear it away.
It meant that even in unarmed combat, it could use its hand like a spear to cut into Kai, allowing its hand to pierce his body as if it was an iron weapon.
I’m no match for this thing... It was then that Kai realized that his death was approaching.
He decided he would run without hesitation when he got the chance.
He needed to find some opening, and if possible, fight back somehow.
“I’ll lay ruin to the valley myself,” the armored soldier muttered.
A shiver ran down Kai’s spine.
Now he remembered that his opponent knew about the valley.
If he ran now, the armored soldier would follow him all the way to the valley. And not alone. This thing would bring its army, and orgs would invade the valley in great numbers. Kai imagined how they would greedily take the wealth of the valley for themselves once they invaded it.
His god’s gravesite would be defiled, and the girl... Aruwe would be tortured and killed without doubt. The despicable nature of the orgs meant that they would never allow her to die an easy death.
Kai should never have challenged this opponent.
He should never have let it know that he was under the protection of the god of the valley.
I have to kill it somehow.
The val
ley would be defiled.
His beautiful valley would be trampled over by these disgusting creatures.
It has to die.
Everyone would know that the god of the valley’s successor lacked experience.
Those bent on claiming the god’s power for themselves would flock to the valley.
Kai’s decision to start a fight carelessly had left him backed into a corner with no way out.
I have to kill it!
He had to do it, live or die.
Even if it cost him his own life, he had to somehow kill the armored soldier.
If there was ever a next time, Kai would have to hide the fact that he was the god of the valley’s successor. His true form could never be revealed until the day that he amassed enough strength to be one the borderlands’ great powers.
Kai hid his right hand behind his back. He had to chance everything on the sword.
“Hiding another weapon? It won’t work on me.”
The armored soldier was clearly mocking Kai. It looked calm and posed itself to deal with whatever weapon Kai might pull out. It didn’t realize that Kai was forming his invisible sword around his hidden right hand with more power than ever before.
This thing’s fast... The sword needs to be long.
It was forming in the shape of the sword Kai held in his mind. As he made the sword narrower, it grew longer, and the tip reached down to the grass at his feet.
Just then, it cut through the grass at his feet, and he reacted by shortening the sword once more.
The change in the armored soldier’s expression made Kai worried that it might have noticed. He took a step back and placed a foot over the cut grass to hide what had happened.
Longer... It needs to be longer.
This time he bent his arm to give the blade more space to extend.
Kai fixed his eyes on the armored soldier and stepped forward by just half a step with his dominant left foot as if trying to show that he had no fear.
The distance between Kai and the armored soldier was roughly two yules.
Moving forward a half step would make it one and a half yules.
Teogonia: Volume 1 (Premium) Page 22