‘He’s much faster than I thought……. I couldn’t even see any movement.’

Cadel looked at the man who handed over the female believer to him. Taking off his robe, he was donning a thin cloth and a light chest armor that showed the outline of his muscles following his movements. It was an effective armor to minimize movement restrictions.

As if he felt the gaze scrutinizing him, the man turned his head. Blue eyes that clearly stand out even in the dark.

“For now, we’ve secured one believer. Now all we have to do is defeat that witch, right? Commander.”

Lumen Dominic.

Cadel nodded, looking at his lofty expression, whether it was natural or habitual.

“She hasn’t noticed your presence yet. Rush at once.”

“My specialty.”

After replying, Lumen launched forward in an instant. The only thing left where he was standing was a small crater left by the tremendous leg power. Cadel laid down the fallen Mary next to him and calmly created a barrier.

‘Great. So far everything is going according to plan.’

From the beginning, he was aiming for the believers whom the witch summoned. While the witch looked away, the top priority was to secretly remove and protect the believers. Lumen was deliberately hidden for the mission.

[Knight of Flash, Lumen Dominic]

Lumen’s attack speed could be said to be the strongest among all S-grade knights. His main specialty was the flash-like sword drawing technique, and he possessed not only speed but also monstrous muscular strength that could cut bones as they were.

No one was more suitable than Lumen to save the hostages by taking advantage of the witch’s carelessness.

Cadel, who judged that, came up with a plan in which Van and him drew the witch’s attention, and Lumen secured the hostages. The result was successful.

“Damn it! You damn low race!”

The witch, who lost one arm in a blink of an eye, was shooting magic spells recklessly with her bloodshot eyes. A black orb flew over Cadel’s barrier.

Carefully increasing the range and thickness of the barrier, Cadel watched the frantic struggle before his eyes.

The more the witch got hurt, the more her blood soaked in. The red aura around Van grew thicker, and the power and speed of his sword skills increased noticeably. Following the movement, the reddish eyes shimmered, leaving sharp afterimages.

Van avoided half of the witch’s attack and rushed relentlessly. Whether or not her attack hit him, his fierce momentum made even the enraged witch flinch.

Sensing that hesitation, Lumen aimed at the back.

「Swift Sword Dance」

In an instant, thin flashes of light passed behind the witch. There were dozens of long and short solid lines. The moment when the witch quickly felt the killing intent from a direction she wasn’t wary of at all.

“Aaargh!”

Just like a silvery afterimage, blood vessels were drawn and blood spurted out. Ironically, the moment the blood spurted out, her back was facing Van, so this time, Van’s greatsword was soaked in blood again.

Of course, it was all a planned connection.

‘When entering a full-scale battle, inflict as many wounds on the enemy’s body as possible. It wouldn’t matter if you could kill her in one hit.’

‘……Aha, a berserker. I’ve heard rumors, but I never thought there would be a swordsman who gets stronger the more blood he drinks.’

‘It’s not me who drinks blood. It’s my sword’

Van rubbed the drops of blood on his cheek, feeling a subtle displeasure that Lumen had not forgotten his request.

“You! It’s you! How dare you cut my arm……!”

And only then did the witch realize the existence of Lumen. Her anger rose to the top of her head as she found Lumen blatantly sneering. Through her scattered hair, black pupils filled with thick killing intent shimmered.

“Prepare to di―!”

But Lumen’s attack was faster than her warning.

“I was wondering what a great demon you were. However, you were a rascal who only picked the weak. This is a big disappointment.”

Lumen, who had been in front of her just now, disappeared. When the bewildered witch heard his voice coming from behind her, she quickly turned her body around.

But it was Van who was standing there, not Lumen. Van’s greatsword aimed at her neck without hesitation. The witch immediately lifted her remaining arm to form the barrier.

Thump.

This time, just like before, her arm fell off. With her wide-opened eyes glowered, her forearm gave out once again.

The startled witch hurriedly moved her body, but it was too late. Van’s greatsword was cutting deep into her throat.

“Kkeoh heok!”

Stumbling back, she tried to grab her half-cut neck. But there was no hand left to grab it, and she just struggled to get her bloody forearm near her neck.

The floor she was standing on was bleeding profusely, and her neck was dangling as if it would fall at any moment. Dying was only a matter of time.

“It wasn’t a big deal.”

As if his excitement had cooled, Lumen muttered and swabbed the longsword that had been pulled out halfway. He thought she was a pretty great demon because she had caused a big accident enough for the temple to request a knight order. In reality, however, it was disappointing.

If he took that female believer to the temple, he could receive a reward, but it was difficult to feel a personal sense of accomplishment that way. Tsk, Lumen clicked his tongue and turned to face Cadel and the believer. Just then, he sensed the aura that Van had also raised.

“You idiots! It’s not over yet!”

With the hot craze, a gruesome laugh rang in his ears.

The reason why the ‘Witch’ race was able to leave a very strong impression in Cadel’s memory was because of a phase that didn’t end even if you killed the enemy. A phase which was called a serial self-destruct show where you could feel the witch’s strong will to ‘screw the opponent’. This was because the self-destruction show, which was even spectacular, was so impressive that it was disgusting.

He removed the barrier that protected himself and the believer and quickly put it in front of Van and Lumen.

“Kkeugh……!”

The witch was exploding. It wasn’t a mental explosion, it was a real explosion. From the wounds on her body, black embers were popping up, and large and small explosions continued.

He could feel the barrier that protected them from the blast tear and shatter in real time. Cadel poured his mana and constantly created a new barrier.

“What is this……!”

The panicking voices of Van and Lumen were heard.

Should he have told them about the witch’s self-destruct from the start?

However, before facing the witch, Cadel had already warned his knights that they should ‘never let their guard down and kill their enemies with certainty’.

He thought they would give her a one-shot one-kill because they answered so confidently! Who would have known that they would be relieved to see her slowly dying.

“Die! I’ll use you guys as playthings in hell!”

Even as her whole body exploded, the witch laughed loudly. Her voice was maddening as she held her half-severed arms high in the sky.

Van and Lumen were stuck behind the barrier, unable to move from the endless explosions. Van looked at Cadel with a worried face as he plunged his greatsword into the ground, and Lumen wrinkled his brow as he stared at the [Flame Barrier] that repeatedly broke and was restored.

“To think you couldn’t properly cut off a single head with that huge sword. It’s not worth feeding the blood.”

“Shut up. In the first place, I didn’t have the confidence to kill her at once, so I did a shallow cut.”

“I think I cut off both of her arms so you could kill her comfortably.”

“This is the result of your useless consideration. It looks like she has a cannon attached to her forearm.”

It was easy to notice that the explosions were coming from the wounds they had inflicted. After a short argument with Lumen, Van chewed on his lips and checked Cadel’s condition.

‘I heard that it takes a lot of mana to maintain the barrier. If he continues to block the explosions that may not end at any time, Commander’s body will…….’

Maintaining the barrier was also a problem, but the bigger problem was the extent of the explosion. The strong explosion was deflecting the barrier and affecting Cadel’s side. However, Cadel was unable to create a barrier to defend himself as he was busy protecting Van and Lumen. At this rate, Cadel, who could not avoid the flying fireball, could have been seriously injured.

Just imagining it made him feel like the blood in his body was drying up.

‘If only I had swung my arms a little stronger!’

Van didn’t know that not being able to blow the head off in one shot would give him such lamentable regret. He shouldn’t have been relieved watching everyone die, but he should have given her a solid blow.

From the beginning, Commander repeatedly asked him not to let his guard down. It wasn’t long ago since he boasted that, of course, he wouldn’t be careless in order to appear trustworthy. He wanted to find his past self and beat his confident face to the ground.

It was around the time when Van was thinking about the timing to run out so that he could go to protect Cadel without being swept away by the explosion. Lumen, who was concentrating on the crack in the unstable barrier, spoke in a low voice.

“Let’s leave the barrier.”

“……What?”

He raised his crouched body and put his hand on top of the scabbard. His cold eyes, as if determined, captured the witch beyond the barrier.

“I’ll give her a finish that you weren’t able to, so buy some time with that big sword of yours.”