Mitchell hurriedly pulled back and avoided the sword thrusting toward him.
But there were two enemies.
Another attack immediately came at him.
THUNK-
A sword stabbed into the ground.
The other sword swept toward his chest.
Mitchell hurriedly raised his sword.
CLANG-
Meanwhile, the sword buried in the ground was yanked free and swung at Mitchell again.
CLANG- CLANG- CLANG-
Driven backward again and again, Mitchell gritted his teeth and began circulating his Aura.
Strength surged through his entire body, and his mind became clear.
When Mitchell swung his sword with all his strength, the two men backed away.
“Looks like you had a hidden move after all. But do you really think someone like you, who hasn’t even learned martial arts, can beat us?”
“Why do you think I haven’t learned martial arts? Maybe I have.”
“Hehehe. I can tell just by looking at your feet. You seem to know how to swing a sword somewhat, but there’s no way you’ve properly learned martial arts when you haven’t even learned basic footwork.”
“…….”
“So why don’t you just come quietly? If you’re lucky, we might only take your mana vehicle and let you live.”
Mitchell frowned at those words.
Those bastards clearly intended to kill him.
‘This is troublesome.’
He had trained diligently for a month, but with absolutely no real combat experience, fighting both men at once was difficult.
‘I need to finish this somehow, and fast.’
Fortunately, when their swords had clashed earlier, he had managed to roughly gauge their skill.
His own unsatisfactory movements had left openings, yet they had failed to attack through them.
Mitchell raised his sword again.
The enemies charged in response.
The hairy man’s sword came at him swiftly.
CLANG!
The skinny man attacked immediately afterward, but his clumsy blade instead gave Mitchell an excellent opportunity to counterattack.
As a result, the skinny man staggered badly the instant his sword met Mitchell’s.
Mitchell’s eyes gleamed.
If he wanted to escape this crisis, he had to break free of their combined attack.
‘I’ve got a Recovery Potion, so it’s fine if I get hurt a little.’
Winning came first.
Having made up his mind, Mitchell knocked aside the hairy man’s sword and deliberately exposed his side to the skinny man.
“Haaah!”
As expected, the skinny man did not miss the opening and swung his sword.
SLASH-
Mitchell’s left arm was cut deeply.
Blood spurted out, followed by a searing pain.
But Mitchell did not panic. He immediately swung the sword in his right hand and cut through the skinny man’s neck.
GURGLE-
Clutching his throat, the skinny man slowly collapsed with a wet, choking sound.
“Janko! You son of a bitch!”
The hairy man charged at him in fury when he saw it.
Mitchell hurriedly raised his sword and blocked the attack.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Mitchell was driven endlessly backward beneath the hairy man’s assault.
“I’ll kill you!”
A murderous voice rang out as a faint layer of Aura settled over the man’s sword.
The bastard was at least one move ahead of Mitchell in skill.
Mitchell was only barely managing to defend himself because he was no longer facing their combined attack.
He desperately searched for a way out of the situation.
‘That technique I used this morning…….’
He had only used it once, but right now, he had no choice but to try it.
First, however, he needed to create some distance.
Mitchell shoved the hairy man away with every last ounce of strength he could muster, and both of them lost their balance and rolled across the ground.
‘Now!’
Mitchell sprang to his feet and released energy from his Aura Hole while simultaneously beginning to break down the soul inside his body.
His rapidly draining Aura Hole filled again, continuously replenishing the energy.
At the same time, energy gradually began wrapping itself around Mitchell’s body.
It looked almost as though it were vaporizing around him.
Once he gained control of the energy, the form of a monster overlaid Mitchell’s body.
Mitchell raised his sword.
“W-What the hell is that……?”
Meanwhile, the hairy man, who had gotten back up and was about to charge again, froze in shock at the sight.
A monster had appeared before him.
It looked like something one might see only in hell.
The form of the monster, made from several humans fused together, writhed constantly.
The humans within it struggled and screamed, their mouths opening impossibly wide.
Overwhelmed by the grotesque, horrifying sight, the hairy man could not even think of running away. His legs merely trembled.
The monster charged toward him.
The hairy man instinctively raised his sword to block.
CLANG!
Since Mitchell’s swordsmanship itself was not particularly outstanding, the attack was blocked more easily than expected.
But the strength began draining from the hairy man’s body, and his arms grew heavy.
“What the hell are you?!”
The hairy man screamed in desperation, but the monster said nothing.
Instead, another barrage of attacks followed.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Fear began filling the hairy man’s eyes.
Losing was not the problem.
He felt as though he might be cut in half by the sword and die, but the fear gripping him was even more primal than that.
His life was scattering.
A terror surged through him that his very existence might be erased if this continued.
Ah…….
The hairy man realized it.
The souls writhing within that monster’s body were what was stealing his strength.
They hungered for life and were nibbling away at his life force bit by bit.
But by the time he realized it, it was already too late.
His arms, now as heavy as waterlogged cotton, failed to properly block the monster’s next attack.
WHOOSH-
His sword slipped from his hand and spun into the air.
What would happen next was obvious.
The hairy man’s final sight was the monster’s sword drawing closer and closer as his eyes widened to their limits.
Huff, huff-
After confirming that the last enemy had fallen, Mitchell dropped heavily to the ground.
An enormous amount of energy had drained away, leaving his Aura Hole throbbing.
‘Even after replenishing it by breaking down a soul…….’
The technique consumed far more energy than he had expected.
As his vision spun, Mitchell absorbed the souls of the two dead men.
He hurriedly broke down the souls and filled his Aura Hole, easing the weakness in his body.
But his vision was still spinning.
Only then did Mitchell remember what he had forgotten while concentrating on the battle.
DRIP- DRIP-
Blood was streaming from his left arm.
Mitchell hurried over to the mana vehicle and pulled a Recovery Potion from his bag.
He poured some of it directly over his arm and drank the rest. The wound bubbled and seethed as the bleeding stopped.
A Recovery Potion worked by enhancing the body’s natural recovery, so it would still take quite some time for the wound to heal completely.
‘Still, I’m glad the bleeding stopped.’
This had also been among the supplies in the training cave. If he had not brought it along, he might have bled to death by the roadside and gone straight to the afterlife.
Mitchell started to climb back into the mana vehicle, then stepped down again and walked over to the two corpses.
They had paid with their lives for trying to kill him, but the interest was still unpaid.
Mitchell threw away his cheap sword, whose edge was now badly chipped, and took the hairy man’s sword instead.
Considering it had survived such a fierce battle without damage, it seemed to be a fairly good sword.
Mitchell searched their clothes, taking even their coins, then finally climbed into the mana vehicle and set off.
Now it was time to truly head for his destination—the north.
***
THUD!
“Damn it. I was almost there.”
Mitchell cursed as he kicked the mana vehicle.
The vehicle breaking down was troublesome enough, but because he had deliberately traveled along deserted roads, there was no one around to ask for help.
“Whew…… If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve just skipped the training and hurried.”
It had been a month and a half since he had confidently left the inn and set out.
As planned, he had hardly stopped at any villages, but because he made sure to set aside time for swordsmanship training while traveling, the journey had taken even longer than expected.
‘I should get moving for now.’
The sun set quickly in the deep mountains, so he could not simply sit there indefinitely.
‘Good thing I bought travel supplies in the last village.’
The mana engine had occasionally begun cutting out starting the day before yesterday.
Feeling uneasy, Mitchell had bought travel supplies, including a tent, before departing.
He had never expected to actually need them.
His prediction had been correct, but he was hardly pleased about it.
He took the tent from the trunk, set it up, and started a campfire. By then, the sun had completely set, leaving the surroundings dark.
Mitchell sat in front of the campfire and ate a simple meal with the food he had bought in the village.
Once his hunger was gone, he stood and picked up his sword.
“This really is a pretty good sword.”
After using the hairy man’s sword for a month and a half, it had become quite familiar in his hand.
Smiling at the pleasant feel of the grip, Mitchell swung the sword while recalling what he had read.
Consider a situation so unfavorable that one cannot use Aura.
In such a case, inflicting a fatal wound on an enemy would require considerably more strength.
However, those who train without cease can, even without Aura, cut through a human’s hard bones and tough muscles in a single stroke merely by controlling their strength.>
In the end, it came down to the fundamentals.
Building a solid foundation was the basis for reaching greater heights.
WHOOSH-
His relentless training had allowed him to get the hang of it, but Mitchell still felt he was lacking.
And he knew very well what he needed at times like this.
‘Just like it said in the heroic chronicles, all I have to do is not give up.’
It had taken him ten years to research Soul Drain, master it, modify it, and finally use it.
Swordsmanship was no different.
Although he had taken up the sword late, Mitchell possessed things that put him far ahead of others.
A powerful body and the energy within his Aura Hole.
As long as he had souls, he could continuously refill his Aura Hole.
There was no need to even think about how extraordinary that ability was.
Had he not defeated the hairy man and the skinny man not through swordsmanship, but because he had replenished the energy in his Aura Hole with souls?
WHOOOSH-
After swinging the sword for quite some time, Mitchell stared at its trembling tip and finally stopped.
He would recover quickly even if he trained more, but pushing himself too hard while camping in the middle of nowhere would not be wise.
So Mitchell sat down and began circulation and breathing according to the basic Aura circulation method he had learned from the book.
The natural energy around him stirred and tried to enter his body, only to recoil and spring back outside before the growling energy of his Aura Hole, as though letting out a frightened yelp.
‘Hmm…… I do need more souls.’
He had used up the last of the souls inside his body while training the previous night.
If he wanted to refill his Aura Hole, he needed new ones.
Since he had time to spare, Mitchell considered hunting a wild animal and collecting its soul.
Soon, the energy flowing through his Aura Roads gathered around his ears, sharpening his hearing.
The chirping of insects.
The sound of the wind.
The cries of unfamiliar birds.
The sound of a stream flowing.
The sound of swords clashing.
‘……?’
The last sound was coming from fairly close by.
He seemed to have missed it because he had been concentrating on training.
Mitchell reproached himself for being careless and resolved to remain more alert from now on.
Now that he had chosen to stand on his own, he needed to pay particular attention to his safety.
But that was one matter.
‘I should still see what’s happening.’
Mitchell took his sword and headed toward the sound.
His Aura Hole was not full, but the circulation and breathing had completely cleared away his fatigue.
Thanks to that, he reached the source of the noise at a brisk pace.
“Why don’t you surrender already? Your retreat is blocked. What do you think you can do?”
“We have to break through somehow and report this to the main family! Break through!”
Men wearing black headbands had surrounded a group trapped with their backs against a low cliff.
Mitchell clicked his tongue quietly at the sight.
At a glance, the people backed against the cliff were clearly in a bad situation.
‘I should get out of here.’
If he stayed, he would probably get dragged into the fight.
There was no reason for him to involve himself in a battle between people he did not even know.
Mitchell was about to slip away, planning to return later and collect the souls, when—
“Who are you?”
Several men wearing black headbands had already approached from behind him.
Mitchell let out a deep sigh and raised both hands.
He had been spotted, but they probably would not kill him outright. He intended to offer them some money and explain the situation.
“I was passing by when I heard the noise…….”
“So the campsite beside the mana vehicle must be yours.”
SHING-
A cold sound followed Mitchell’s answer.
The men in black headbands drew their swords in unison.
What that action meant was unmistakable.