The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 262

Druids shared some characteristics with both mages and priests.

Just as mages obsessively researched magic, druids passionately accumulated knowledge about natural phenomena, flora, and fauna, understanding and internalizing what they discovered.

And just as priests piously prayed to their gods and heeded their words, druids showed respect for nature, not by controlling it, but by borrowing its power.

A druid was one who entered nature of their own accord, built knowledge, and took on the role of a gardener within it.

Therefore, it was impossible to gauge their strength simply by looking at the amount of power they possessed.

A druid's strength varied so much depending on their surrounding environment that it was impossible to measure.

With that in mind, choosing to fight a druid in their own garden was, without exaggeration, the worst possible choice.

It was literally the same as defying and making an enemy of all of nature in that area.

"Aaaargh!!! The beasts are attacking!"

"Dammit! What kind of magic are those bastards using!"

"Keuk! To think a mere tree would be so annoying!"

And the holy knights, knights, and soldiers of the 7th Holy Knight Order, who had been resting in the cave while waiting for Noah, were now realizing this fact with bone-chilling clarity.

While resting, they had suddenly heard a sound like the cave was collapsing and had hastily rushed outside.

Grrrroooowwwl---!!!

What greeted them as they fled the cave were five massive, gray grizzly bears.

The beasts, huffing as if they had been waiting, attacked them without a moment's hesitation.

In truth, five grizzly bears wouldn't have been much of a problem, even without Noah.

Of course, their sweet rest was out of the question, but it wouldn't have escalated into a fight that would produce many casualties or injuries.

In other words, the grizzly bears were not the problem.

Shwiiik-!

"Dammit! These cowardly bastards!"

"Stop shooting, you sons of bitches!"

The problem was the few militiamen who had appeared with them.

The men, perhaps to avoid being spotted by the grizzly bears, only fired arrows from a distance, but the timing of their shots was too exquisite.

A cruel choice between being pierced by an arrow or being mauled by a grizzly bear was constantly presented before them.

It was safe to say that with every arrow that flew, a life was lost.

The holy knights gritted their teeth.

They swung their swords continuously, but the enemy still charged on, tireless.

On top of that, other beasts, having heard the commotion, were quietly observing the situation, drawn by the spreading scent of blood.

As if to drive the final nail in the coffin, the militiamen attached sachets filled with plant spore powder, received from Taphra, to their arrows and fired.

The spores in the sachets caused those who inhaled them to lose their reason, but in the case of the grizzly bears, it had the opposite effect of sharpening all their senses.

In front, massive beasts roared; from their blind spots, arrows flew; and from the ground, tree roots writhed, coiling around their legs.

At this, the forces, including the holy knights, screamed and were pushed back helplessly.

The killing power, created by the infusion of human malice into the great power of nature, was not something they could handle.

'If I leave those guys as they are, they should be able to finish the job.'

Taphra, hearing the information conveyed by the forest, made that judgment and shifted her consciousness to briefly check on Bodra's location.

Bodra, joining forces with Mio and Rwen, was relentlessly pushing Noah back.

Seeing this, Taphra's hands naturally clenched.

If they were to win over there, one of the pillars of the prison that had been tightening around them would crumble.

'Then, even if we lose, a path to escape will open up.'

With that small hope, Taphra drew upon her mana, listening to the words of the forest's flora and fauna, asking for their help in the fight and borrowing their power.

In this small war, Taphra's role was that of a commander, overseeing the wide battlefield and leading the fight to victory.

Even now, she was observing the overall battle, lending her strength and continuing other small skirmishes.

She had no time to catch her breath.

Just observing the state of the battlefield felt like her head would explode.

Because of this, Taphra did not pay close attention to the whispers the distant trees were sending her.

The small rustle of leaves, signaling that new strangers had entered the forest.

◎ ◎ ◎

Gr-r-rind-

"How dare you filthy unbelievers, not knowing your place, insult me, a Holy Knight Commander, with your dirty tongues?"

Provoked by Mio and Rwen, Noah's face contorted as he glared at them and pushed himself up.

As he spoke, Noah's eyes burned fiercely, revealing his will to tear the two who had insulted him to shreds right then and there.

Cough-

"If you're going to say that, can't you at least hold back your cough? I want to be scared, but I just can't."

"Or at least dust off your armor. Ah, if your goal was to be funny instead of threatening, then you've succeeded."

However, contrary to his glaring eyes, Noah's body was trembling, protesting the shock of taking their attacks head-on.

"...Shut up."

Noah knew it too.

That's why he could only wipe the drop of blood from the corner of his mouth and shoot them a low-voiced glare.

Noah was born a noble of a distinguished marquis house and grew up to be a man molded by pride and self-esteem.

Therefore, the very fact that he was being pushed back like this by two brats he looked down on and despised was, to him, the ultimate humiliation.

However, Noah was not a fool who would deny a truth laid bare before him.

He too was a man of skill who had survived countless battles, accumulating a variety of experiences to rise to his current position.

"Tsk..."

Thus, he possessed a mind that was not swayed by emotion and eyes that could objectively analyze the current situation.

Suppressing the emotions that were boiling up inside him by biting his tongue, Noah checked his condition.

'My sword has been taken by that brat. On top of that, the helmet protecting my head is completely destroyed, and my body has taken considerable damage.'

No matter how he looked at it, he was in no way in good condition.

'But those two aren't in a normal state either.'

Noah had the experience of breaking through numerous scenes of carnage.

Therefore, he could tell at a glance that Mio and Rwen had gained their current power at some cost, and that this power would not last long.

And even that their bodies were slowly breaking down and self-destructing due to a power they could not handle.

'The reason they let me go just now wasn't because they wanted to, but because they couldn't bear the pain rising from their bodies any longer. The provocation is likely a trick to make me, whom they let slip, charge at them again.'

Noah inwardly clicked his tongue, thinking what cunning brats they were.

Contrary to Noah's thoughts, the reason the two provoked him was purely for revenge, to vent their own emotions.

But there was no way for Noah to know that.

"Hoo..."

Having assessed the situation, Noah collected himself and adjusted his posture.

Thinking rationally, dragging this fight into a long one was more advantageous for him.

If he did so, it was obvious that those two would be unable to maintain their technique and would collapse on their own.

Clank-

However, Noah ignored that rational judgment and slowly began to draw out the energy within his body.

The reason was simple.

The instinct that had kept him alive until now was continuously screaming at him.

That he must not let it become a long fight.

The two's skills were, for now, barely within the realm of what he could handle.

But if the fight were to drag on, he couldn't fathom how high those two, who were already troublesome, would soar.

Shaaaa-

Having made his decision, Noah resolved to use his full power for the first time in this fight.

"It wounds my pride to use this on the likes of you, but I have no choice."

Noah raised his mana and opened his mouth, speaking to the two.

"Since you insolently spouted that you would strip this armor off me, I'll tell you an interesting fact."

At that moment, a white energy newly appeared above the ocher-colored mana Noah had raised.

Seeing this, Mio and Rwen stopped their feet, which were about to charge forward.

"This armor has another function besides protecting its owner from attacks. A function that you unbelievers, who have no reverence for God, can never use."

Hearing the alarm bells of their instincts, the two tried to guess what that pure white energy was.

Fortunately, the answer came quickly.

It was a power so famous that it could be called the primary contributor to raising the church to its current position.

Another reason why the saying that a knight could not defeat a holy knight had spread so widely among the people.

The power of healing, permitted only to those who believe in and pray to God.

Divine Power.

That power, which bloomed from Noah's heart, revealed a brilliant light and, with the help of the armor, swelled in size.

The thus-inflated divine power enveloped Noah's entire body.

At that, Noah's wounded body healed, and vitality seeped into his exhausted flesh.

"You even put a divine power amplification function in the armor?"

"For a filthy unbeliever, you have a good eye."

Noah said so and smiled.

Watching him, the two frowned.

The sight of all the damage from their attacks disappearing was not the least bit pleasant.

But unfortunately for the two, this was merely the preparatory stage.

Woooong-

Wd-d-dk- Ppd-d-dk-

Noah's body, having finished healing, began to twist and swell, and soon began to scream.

As a result of continuously pouring divine power into a body that had finished recovering from its wounds, the body, unable to withstand the excessive healing, was conversely breaking down.

Feeling the state of his body, Noah laughed.

"Surely you didn't think that you were the only ones with a technique to explosively increase physical abilities in a short period of time?"

At Noah's words, Mio and Rwen's eyes widened, and Noah, watching them, poured even more of his amplified divine power into his body.

Kigigigik-

The muscles all over his body swelled with enough force to shatter the armor he was wearing.

Then, at a certain moment, the continuously swelling muscles began to slowly compress, and soon Noah returned to his original physique.

"Hoo..."

But the power contained within was incomparable to before.

Feeling this, Mio and Rwen bit their lips as they looked at Noah.

Noah's body, which was already firm and overflowing with power, felt even larger and more powerful.

"What, are you going to start believing in God now?"

Feeling the power overflowing from within him, Noah swept his disheveled hair back and spoke with a sardonic smile.

"A god like that."

Pook-

At Noah's words, Mio muttered and plunged the sword she was holding, Noah's sword, into the ground.

"We don't need."

Paak-

Rwen quickly moved her foot and kicked the flat of the sword embedded in the ground.

Pachang-!

Unable to withstand the impact, Noah's sword shattered into pieces.

Gr-r-rind-

Noah's expression, having seen his own sword shatter right in front of him, contorted once more.

At the sight of Noah, Mio and Rwen raised one corner of their mouths and smiled.

There were no regrets.

God was the last resort for those who had nothing to lean on.

But the two of them already had two great pillars they could rely on.

So, they would be the ones to refuse a useless, phantom-like pillar.

"As expected, unbelievers are a race that only comes to their senses after they die."

Noah said so and drew a spare sword from the subspace pouch he wore at his side.

His preparations complete, Noah gripped his sword and charged toward Mio and Rwen.

Simultaneously, Mio and Rwen also charged toward Noah.

Unlike Noah, the two had neither the confidence to skillfully control this buff technique nor the means to recover their exhausted bodies.

'Even a short battle is too long. I have to settle this with a single blow.'

Neither of them wanted to drag this fight out.

Thus, they naturally poured everything into their single strike.

Fwoooosh-

Hwarururuk-

Pajijijik-

And so, their attacks, thrown with all their might, collided.

(End of Chapter)