novelraw Chapter 109 : Toy
Chapter 109 : Toy
Chapter 109: Toy
The black blade aimed at Cruel failed to reach him.
Robin had no choice but to stop midway.
“Looking so murderous, what’s wrong now?”
Cruel took a single step.
Behind the woman.
Cold reason cooled Robin’s head.
“The guard captain taking a hostage like a coward?”
“Pfft.”
Cruel grabbed the woman by the hair and lifted her up.
Her hollow eyes turned toward Robin.
There was nothing reflected in those eyes.
The day that should have been the happiest in her life.
Her hopeful future had been ruthlessly trampled.
“Is there even someone who takes a toy hostage.”
“What?”
“Look at the state of it. What kind of person is this supposed to be.”
When Cruel let out a laugh, his subordinates laughed along with him.
Watching that sinister laughter, Robin could no longer endure it.
‘The old woman’s words were right.’
They said a leopard can’t change its spots.
Cruel was a villain.
It wasn’t for extorting wealth, nor was it from holding a grudge.
He was a deranged man who felt pleasure in killing.
That was the true face the man before him had been hiding.
The moment Robin was about to swing his sword filled with rage.
Cruel disappeared.
Shhk.
At the sound of something sharp stabbing in, his body reacted.
He retreated immediately, but a red line was carved across his cheek.
Droplets of blood scattered as the successive attacks continued.
Avoiding attacks coming from who knew where, Robin scanned his surroundings.
At least five of them were nowhere to be seen.
Even the woman had vanished.
‘Visual obstruction or invisibility.’
Robin did not panic.
Because he had experience directly facing the Demon Tribe.
With the intention of probing them, he shouted.
“Cruel! Acting all virtuous, but you were a Demon Tribe worshiper after all!”
“That’s right.”
He moved instantly toward where the sound came from.
‘Stupid bastard. You just answer when asked?’
Just before he was about to stab the spot where the voice had spread.
Robin couldn’t fully extend his arms.
“Sharp instincts.”
The position of the voice coming from the air was slightly off.
Though nothing was visible, Robin imagined the form of the one caught on the tip of his sword.
It was a woman.
Robin almost ended up piercing the woman’s head.
Shhk.
They did not leave Robin alone.
An attack came in, aiming for the moment of hesitation.
‘Troublesome.’
Even if the enemy was invisible, dealing with enemies alone was manageable.
But Cruel was cunning.
He even removed the hostage from Robin’s field of vision.
Because of that, Robin could not launch aggressive attacks.
The more that happened, the more they pressed him, and Robin was dragged along by it.
Sssht.
Once again, he allowed an attack.
They were shallow wounds, but they gradually piled up.
He had to make a decision.
Whether to change locations, or to attack while ignoring the woman’s safety.
If he came out into a wide open area, the range he could move in would expand.
They were far inferior to Robin in skill.
If they just followed him out, the situation would improve.
‘But if they just run away like that, I’ll lose them.’
That was why he had no choice but to agonize.
He couldn’t be sure they would follow just because he went outside.
After five seconds passed, Robin decided.
‘I’m going out.’
Cruel had built up quite a lot in this village.
He would want to eliminate Robin and continue living as he had so far.
Breaking through their attacks and stepping outside, cold air greeted him.
‘Where are you. Come at me.’
He steadied his breathing and closed his eyes.
The past three years. Compared to the monsters he had faced in the snowy mountains, they were nothing.
He would pick off the approaching enemies one by one.
Had they read Robin’s plan?
The presence moved farther away from him.
‘They’re running?’
Keeping his distance, he followed them.
The place they headed to was the underground space where Robin had been trapped.
The ceiling he had cut through while escaping had turned into a sloping downhill path easy to go in and out of.
They ran along that path.
“So even if I gather the village residents, it’s useless?”
There was no reply from them.
Robin clenched his teeth.
As if he had anticipated Cruel’s actions, Cruel had likewise grasped how Robin would respond.
Step. Step.
He moved his feet toward the underground space he had escaped from.
To the place where magic stones emitting an ominous aura were piled up.
‘A dangerous guy has entered the village.’
Cruel reached his destination with the woman slung over his shoulder.
The moment he saw the massive quantity of magic stones, laughter spilled out.
Just being beside it caused Demonic Energy to flow into his body.
When he flung the woman onto the floor, the subordinates gathered.
Thud. Thump.
Leaving the subordinates behind, Cruel chanted words of unknown meaning.
Then the dirt and rocks clumped together, and the passage was sealed without a trace.
There was no way in and no way out.
In the spacious hollow, only the sounds of beating echoed.
‘If it weren’t for that barbarian, things wouldn’t have gotten this tangled.’
When he set a candlestick beside the woman, the flame caught instantly.
The burning fire showed no sign of going out.
The fiercer the subordinates’ abuse became, the larger the flames grew.
‘The swordsman traveling with him was irritating too.’
Cruel recalled the battle from moments ago and twisted his face sharply.
It was bad enough that his Magic Stone had been noticed, but his only hobby had been interrupted.
He had attacked with the intent to kill, yet failed to inflict a fatal wound.
He had thought him nothing more than a decent-looking traveler, but he turned out to be an unexpectedly skilled expert.
‘Call people together? I really hope you do.’
Unlike the wind, Robin followed after Cruel.
Cruel had expected him.
A guard captain devoted to maintaining public order, and an outsider who had drifted in a few days ago.
It was obvious whose words would be believed.
Rather, it was regrettable that he couldn’t pin the blame on the barbarian and the swordsman.
‘He looks like someone handy with a blade, so let’s see this through to the end.’
Blocking the passage was nothing more than buying time.
He sensed that Robin would come here somehow.
Even so, that was enough.
Cruel clapped his hands.
At the sound, the subordinates all retreated at once.
“Marlen, are you ready.”
Cruel grabbed the woman’s chin and roughly lifted it.
There was not a shred of will to be found.
Violence was a convenient means of forcing humans into submission.
‘Power… it’s filling up.’
In his wretched life, a mercenary who had appeared like a savior.
The Magic Stone he discovered by secretly tailing him changed Cruel’s life.
After acquiring the language of the Demon Tribe and reading the spells aloud, a power he had never felt before took hold.
Thus, Cruel became a worshiper of the Demon Tribe.
‘Even… stronger.’
Intoxicated by the surging Demonic Energy, he wore a greasy smile.
Thump. Thump. Thud.
In the hollow with no exit, the sounds of beating echoed.
It took a considerable amount of time to pass through the blocked passage.
The closer he got to the hollow, the less the sword cut, even though it was the same rock.
He knew that Fighting Spirit was not万能, but he had not expected it to take this long.
‘Is it related to Demonic Energy.’
Even so, it couldn’t stop Robin.
When he cleaved through the final wall, Demonic Energy burst forth.
‘What is this. It wasn’t this bad before?’
Before he even set foot inside, an ominous presence covered his entire body.
“Oh, you came.”
Cruel and his subordinates greeted Robin.
Robin widened his eyes.
“That woman… is she dead.”
Cruel glanced at the woman he was sitting on like a chair and snickered.
“Who knows.”
“You kicked away even the slightest chance to escape alive with your own feet.”
There was no reason to hesitate anymore.
When Robin pointed his sword, Cruel stood up.
“Kill him.”
At that single word, Cruel’s subordinates rushed in.
While charging, the bastards smoothly vanished.
“It won’t work anymore.”
Robin closed his eyes and focused on his hearing.
Just because they disappeared from sight didn’t mean they could erase their footsteps.
Clang!
As sword met sword, a metallic ring resounded.
Facing four opponents, Robin noticed something had changed.
The enemies’ speed and strength had grown far more ferocious.
‘It feels like I’m fighting different people.’
“Haha! How is it. Just die obediently—”
Before Cruel could finish speaking.
Robin severed one man’s neck.
As the dead man’s invisibility was undone, the sword floated in midair.
Without missing the chance, he kicked it toward Cruel.
Screeeech!
Cruel barely dodged the flying sword.
Slash.
Another neck was cut by Robin’s blade.
“Wait. It won’t take long.”
Robin’s voice, declaring this with his eyes closed, was calm.
With his sight removed, composure settled in.
Slash.
Now only one subordinate remained.
The moment he was about to cut him down without hesitation.
Whooom!
The watching Cruel intervened.
“So you finally come out after using your subordinates as shields.”
“That arrogant tone of yours, let’s see how long it lasts.”
Robin sneered openly.
It was partly to provoke him, but he didn’t think he would lose.
Having once watched a sparring match with Sigbard.
Cruel’s skill wasn’t bad, but that was all it was.
And that expectation was wrong.
‘Was he hiding his skill?’
He moved at a speed far surpassing that of his subordinates.
To the extent that it went beyond the perception of an ordinary person.
On top of that, the bastard’s presence grew increasingly faint.
Sound, smell, body heat. The clues that could be used to predict an attack disappeared one by one.
“Why did you go quiet? Keep running your mouth!”
The bastard’s subordinates were annoying as well.
Perhaps because they had worked together for so long, their coordinated attacks were smooth.
Kakang!
Even so, Robin’s sword did not stop.
He blocked every incoming strike without exception.
‘No presence? Then.’
He consciously blocked his hearing.
When he discarded the two most important senses among the five, the bastard’s movements became clearer.
‘They’re stabbing from front and back.’
As he evaded and followed up with a horizontal slash, one of the subordinates was cut down.
Three years spent on the snowy mountains, training repeated endlessly.
He consciously blocked his senses and followed his intuition.
By pushing his instincts to the extreme, Robin’s senses became as sharp as Sigbard’s.
Sigbard had called it the sixth sense.
“You have no chance of winning.”
Cruel did not believe it.
After piling up and accepting so much Demonic Energy, he couldn’t win?
That was impossible.
However, the balance of the fight gradually tilted.
“Even in death, suffer in hell.”
The final blow was delivered.
Slash.
“…….”
The sensation caught at the tip of the sword was different from what he had expected.
He opened his eyes to check the result.
What had fallen to the floor was Cruel’s arm.
“Zarkos Shargos.”
Cruel rapidly chanted words of unknown meaning.
“What kind of trick is this.”
“Khehe… imitate the act you so despised.”
Cruel revealed himself.
No blood flowed from the severed cross section of his arm.
The candlestick in his right hand pointed toward Robin.
Black smoke shot out from the candlestick.
He hurriedly held his breath, but the smoke burrowed into Robin’s body as if it had a will of its own.
Thump.
He staggered with dizziness.
His body heated up and his breathing grew rough.
‘Poison? No, this is something else…….’
His vision spun.
His chest felt tight.
Cruel mocked him at the sight.
“You’re no different from us.”
A single desire began to consume Robin’s mind.
The three desires of humans.
Appetite, the desire for sleep, and the last……
“Don’t hold back. Let it burst freely.”
His entire body burned.
So hot, as if stricken with a fever.
He was swept up by an urge he wanted to release immediately.
Step.
He let his sword hang and moved his feet.
Seeing that, Cruel burst into mad laughter.
‘I am…….’
“It’s nothing to be ashamed of! Be honest about what your body wants!”
Robin stopped in front of Cruel and smacked his lips.
“I am…….”
He looked at the bastard prattling on in a mocking voice.
Drool sprayed from the wrinkled corner of his mouth beneath the rough stubble.
“I don’t like men.”
“Hahaha… what?”
Smack.
He snapped his head back with force and then slammed it straight into the bastard’s face.
Cruel’s nose burst into blood, and one of his front teeth popped out.
Puhk.
Just like that, he stabbed the sword into Cruel’s abdomen.
As if he hadn’t expected this outcome, Cruel’s face was filled with confusion.
“H, how……?”
“Seeing your face snapped me right back to my senses.”
When he twisted the sword lodged in the abdomen ninety degrees, Cruel spat blood.
Looking down at him, Robin spat.
“Try shaving once in a while.”
Cruel collapsed on the spot.
His beard was stained with blood and saliva.
“Filthy bastard.”
Schlak.
When he pulled the sword out, blood gurgled and poured forth.
The light went out from the candlestick the bastard had been holding.
The smoke that had been muddling Robin’s mind also vanished.
Thud.
He slumped down where he stood and pressed hard against his temples.
He longed for clean air.