novelraw Chapter 98 : The Child Killed Him
Chapter 98 : The Child Killed Him
Chapter 98: The Child Killed Him
What greeted Robin when he woke up around sunrise was Emily.
She skillfully kept the campfire going and blocked the wind with a sled so the flames would not die out.
“Ah, did you sleep well?”
“Yes. It looked like Emily didn’t sleep very well.”
“Ne, next time, I, I want you to let me in too.”
Emily complained in a sulky tone, stuttering as if her mouth had gone crooked.
Robin spoke while pointing at Sigbard, who had followed him out.
“Shouldn’t you get permission from the homeowner rather than me?”
“Th, that’s true.”
Sigbard pointed at Emily and opened his mouth.
“That’s strange. I can’t understand a word.”
“S, Sigbard-nim. C, can I. G, go inside the house.”
Emily tried to communicate with her body trembling all over.
Sigbard somehow understood and looked at Robin.
When Robin nodded, Emily’s expression brightened.
“E, excuse me!”
After entering the shack, Emily finally let out a sigh of relief, saying she felt like she could live now.
‘No matter what, I can’t treat her carelessly.’
Emily was necessary to get out of this snowy mountain range.
She was also Burt’s porter, and putting personal emotions first was not wise.
Sigbard prepared breakfast, and Robin helped.
Using the spices and seasonings from the luggage Burt had brought, they made a stew.
Grilled meat was delicious, but nothing beat stew when it came to warming the insides.
By the time the cooking was finished, Burt came out, and Emily, having warmed herself up, carried the bowls.
“You said a giant monster would appear today or tomorrow. Do you think we’ll see it today?”
“Yes. Judging by how the demonic energy is surging, it will wake up soon.”
“I don’t feel anything at all… And isn’t demonic energy something the Demon Tribe uses?”
Burt continued while scooping up stew.
“The sense for feeling demonic energy grows the more you fight. It’s true that the Demon Tribe uses demonic energy for magic, but they’re not the only ones who can handle it.”
“So there are monsters that use demonic energy too?”
“You’ll know when you see it.”
After finishing his meal, Burt stood up first.
“Get ready. It’ll put us at ease to be there beforehand.”
Robin put the last spoonful into his mouth and then cleaned up.
Sigbard poured all the stew left in his bowl straight into his mouth.
Emily hurriedly ate the remaining stew.
“Let’s see how many barbarians came.”
The place Burt mentioned was where Robin had hunted with Sigbard.
Not a single barbarian showed up.
Emily pouted and made excuses.
“I told you, they don’t know how to talk.”
“It seems Sella didn’t educate them properly.”
Clicking his tongue while looking at Emily, Burt stared beyond the cliff.
There was no difference from yesterday.
Several monsters wandered below, but none were gigantic.
“This works out well. Let’s check your skills before it shows up.”
Burt lifted his prosthetic leg high into the air and slammed it straight into the ground.
Crack.
Power flowed along the strata.
A shock neither big nor small reached below.
Rumble.
The ground swelled up in the middle of where several monsters were gathered.
Its scale was so small it was barely visible.
In terms of impact, it was about the level of flicking someone on the forehead.
An attack that would deal no damage at all to monsters that were about five times the size of a human.
If anything, it was more like a greeting.
“Grrrr.”
The effect of that greeting appeared immediately.
The monsters drove their claws into the cliff and climbed up.
Robin grasped Burt’s intention.
Burt was granting Robin’s wish.
The wish to become stronger.
It was clearly a test for him.
Shing.
He drew his sword and stood shoulder to shoulder with Burt.
There was no need to use both blades.
The dark-hued sword wrapped itself into Robin’s hand.
“That level is more than enough for me alone.”
“Is it? Then I’ll increase it.”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Burt slammed his prosthetic leg into the ground repeatedly.
The same shock as before erupted this time around the middle of the cliff.
Crunch.
The sound of Sigbard clenching his fist served as a warning.
Something burst out from the middle of the cliff wall.
A mole-like monster joined the cliff climb.
It did not stop at one; their numbers gradually increased.
“Boss Burt, there are too many monsters.”
“If you can’t handle it alone, deal with them together with Sigbard.”
Burt turned his body and stepped back.
Sigbard stepped forward as if to join in, but Robin stopped him.
“I can do it alone.”
Fighting spirit flickered along the blade.
“Try it without using that.”
“Without using fighting spirit?”
“Why? Can’t you do it?”
At the slightly provocative question, Robin gripped his sword tightly.
Ten medium-to-large monsters.
If he used fighting spirit, it was not an unmanageable number.
From past hunts with Sigbard, he had gauged the monsters’ level.
But could he face them with pure swordsmanship?
“Robin, they’re coming.”
Sigbard stepped back while looking below.
“I’ll try. No, I can do it.”
At the same moment he spoke, three monsters appeared in front of Robin.
Six-legged beast-type monsters.
One of them lunged first.
He held his sword like an awl toward the point where it would strike downward.
He concentrated, observing how the next monster would move.
‘As expected.’
The one that hurriedly tucked in its legs gaped its mouth wide and aimed for his flank.
Thud.
He drove the sword into the monster’s glabella.
The sensation of piercing through the skull and into the brain traveled up the blade.
The two behind it had already charged in.
‘Bite? Slam? Tail?’
They rushed from both sides and targeted Robin simultaneously, but it was no problem.
In the slowed time, the monsters’ movements posed no threat.
Slice.
He slipped inside the one swinging its foreleg and cut its neck.
Thud.
Avoiding the whip-like tail, he stabbed the heart.
Robin moved after sufficient consideration, but to a third party, it all happened in an instant.
With his arms crossed, Burt issued a single command.
“Hold out until all of them climb up.”
Before Burt even finished speaking, the mole monsters climbed up.
Robin, who had been about to knock aside a monster’s hand, hesitated and retreated.
Once he retreated, the creature seized the momentum and kept advancing.
“Grrk. Grrrk!”
Buying time by evading the attack of a single monster was not difficult.
The monsters that had climbed up joined in one by one.
Six, seven… ten.
Robin’s footing gradually grew dizzying.
Whoom. Whooong. Whoom.
Attacks that would shatter bones if hit even once swept in from all directions.
Even for Robin, who swam through slowed time, a human’s field of vision was limited.
To evade attacks that came crashing in from behind, he had to utilize every piece of information caught by his brain.
The length of shadows, the flow of air that made his hair stand on end, the sound of feet kicking off the ground….
He responded to every move in a way an ordinary person could never even dream of.
Burt muttered as he watched Robin.
“He really is something. But.”
The vibration of the ground lightly tickled his feet.
By the time he noticed one, Robin’s waist was already bent backward.
He immediately shifted his foot back, but he could not completely avoid the monster that suddenly burst out from underground.
Puhwak.
The mole monster sprang up from the earth.
Its sharp claws grazed Robin’s side.
The fur coat tore, and blood seeped out.
“His talent is actually blocking his development.”
Until the last monster revealed itself, Robin did not attack.
He focused solely on evasion, proving that he could do it.
That alone was impressive, but Robin felt oddly unsettled.
‘Why did Boss Burt make this demand of me.’
Even after Burt’s order was over, Robin continued to evade the monsters’ attacks.
At the same time, he gauged Burt’s intention.
For Robin, who entered combat with accelerated thought, evasion was not difficult.
Yet he had just allowed an attack.
He had faced an unreasonably large number of monsters, but that could not be an excuse.
“Sigbard, you try it. Robin, you come out now.”
At Burt’s words, Sigbard immediately jumped in.
Because of his massive build, when he landed beside Robin, the monsters froze for a moment.
Robin silently followed Burt’s instruction.
Whoom. Whooong.
Sigbard avoided every single monster attack.
His huge frame and muscular body were far more flexible than they looked.
Stepping back, Robin replayed the scene, trying to grasp the elusive lesson.
Predicting movement by considering all available information—enemy posture, body type, surroundings.
That was the strategy and evasion method Robin had adhered to until now.
‘Sigbard is different from me. It’s not accelerated thought. That is…….’
Instinct.
Movement closer to instinct.
Combat sense closer to a wild beast than a rational being.
A barbarian’s body was exceptional for combat, but to achieve that level of evasion must have required countless trials and errors.
‘He’s not calculating and dodging. His body reacts before his head.’
It sounded absurd, but Robin was watching in real time that it was possible.
Since taking up the sword, accelerated thought had been one of Robin’s most reliable weapons.
Deep down, he had been proud of that ability that set him apart from others.
In truth, he had not been very interested in how others fought.
He observed those stronger than himself closely, but most did not measure up to Robin.
As time passed, that gap began to show slightly.
Robin, who fought based on calculated thought, and Sigbard, who fought based on experience engraved into his body.
Robin was not wrong.
‘It’s a crossroads. I have to choose a direction.’
In more urgent situations, the one more likely to survive would be Sigbard.
Human thought had its limits.
Robin made his decision.
“Sigbard, finish it.”
Understanding Burt’s words, Sigbard threw a light punch.
Even after taking one hit, then two, the monster showed no sign of tiring.
He focused on evasion and attacked only at moments when he would not be countered.
‘A body entrusted to instinct, but reason still remains?’
Sigbard possessed both things that seemed incompatible.
It was something naturally ingrained from the environment he had lived in.
Puh-eok.
Unable to withstand the punches that had gradually piled up, one monster collapsed.
From that point on, Sigbard’s punches grew increasingly bold.
Like a snowball rolling downhill, victory tilted to one side.
“It ends.”
Sigbard brought them all down by himself.
As he always did, he dropped the monster corpses off the cliff.
“Robin, do you think you could beat Sigbard.”
“If I use fighting spirit.”
“That’s right. With pure physicality, there’s no race that can keep up with barbarians.”
Burt uncrossed his arms and limped over.
“He’ll be a good opponent for you.”
“Yes. There’s a lot to learn.”
“You’re a good opponent for Sigbard too.”
Robin agreed completely.
“Um… I’m sorry to interrupt while you’re talking, but someone is coming.”
Emily cut in, pointing behind them.
“It’ll be a barbarian.”
“Th… they didn’t seem to understand what I said yesterday.”
“It doesn’t matter what you said. Just tell them that I’ve come.”
Emily put on a blank expression, as if she had been fooled.
Soon after, a large barbarian appeared.
With his hair and beard gone white, he exuded a sense of long experience.
If he had been an elderly human, his frame would have shrunk, but even in old age, a barbarian’s muscles remained bulging.
‘A build similar to Sigbard’s……. Maybe even bigger.’
The old barbarian, who appeared flaunting his bulk, opened his mouth.
“Go back, outsiders.”
Robin doubted his ears.
It was not fluent, but it was the Empire’s common tongue.
Burt looked around and asked.
“Where did the other barbarians go? Did the chieftain come alone.”
“They are not coming.”
“They know I’m here, and yet no warriors came out to watch?”
“The warriors are dead.”
The barbarian called the chieftain pointed at Sigbard.
“That child killed them.”
Sigbard calmly looked at the chieftain.