The moment the Behemoth spotted Rohan, it closed the distance in an instant. It was an agile movement that didn't suit its bulk.
Knowing this well, Rohan was ready early and pulled his body back just as the Behemoth swung its fist.
WHOOOSH!
A cutting wind swept Rohan's bangs. Rohan felt that with his small eleven-year-old body, one hit from that fist would be the end.
He wasn't flustered. Even in his mercenary days, taking that fist head-on had been just as dangerous.
Rohan raised his sword. When he brought it down, fire spewed out.
A massive body pushed through the flames and came at him. The fire he could unleash at the 2nd Stage couldn't wound the Behemoth. Rohan immediately spread an ice shield and pulled back.
The Behemoth smashed the ice shield with a single punch. In the meantime, Rohan bent his knees and crouched low. Rohan hurled himself at the Behemoth's legs.
Before the eyes of the Behemoth, which had just smashed the ice shield, could reach down. Rohan's sword swept across its knee.
The sword, steeped in flame, carried power beyond the 4th Stage. It still wasn't enough to cut off a leg, but even the Behemoth's thick hide didn't come away unscathed.
KRAAAARGH!
The Behemoth howled. Without stopping, Rohan circled behind it. To the small Rohan, its back looked impossibly huge.
Rohan quietly chanted a spell. For an attack he would carry out in a single instant.
Rohan knew how the enraged Behemoth would come at him.
'This is the only way I can beat this thing.'
To beat an opponent far stronger than himself, he had to seize a split-second chance. It was a difficult and dangerous gamble, but if he pulled it off, Rohan would grow a step.
This was the training method of Rohan, the Mercenary King of his past life, who had grown faster than anyone.
The howling Behemoth turned around. Rohan lowered his stance and braced for its attack.
'Five times.'
The number of attacks Rohan had to withstand. For this moment alone, Rohan forgot the Baltran Sword Style and called up the Andelian family's.
Unlike the Baltran family's sword style, whose sword movements were graceful, the sword movements of the Andelian Sword Style were simple. That was why every single stroke had to carry weight.
Because of this trait, footwork was extremely important in the Andelian Sword Style. So much so that the Baltrans belittled their swordsmanship as a footwork style rather than a sword style.
But the Andelians didn't react much to that.
'Because they know better than anyone how important footwork is.'
So did Rohan. Even after he was thrown out of the Andelian family, the skills he'd learned there had been useful in many ways.
Especially in his early mercenary days, when he'd had to run away a lot.
Rohan dodged the Behemoth's swinging fist by stepping back a pace. When the distance widened a little, the opponent would thrust its arm out in a straight line. Rohan knew it from experience, and the Behemoth moved as he predicted.
SWISH!
He stepped aside, out of the path of the arm driving straight at him. At once, the other arm came thrusting in.
Rohan bent his knees and ducked his upper body. The Behemoth's bladelike claws swept through his hair.
Tightening his grip on his sword, Rohan watched above. At some point the Behemoth's right fist had started coming down on his head.
In that instant, Rohan seized the Behemoth's arm with a shadow. As if time had stopped, the Behemoth's movements froze. Rohan swung his sword straight at the Behemoth's chest.
SHRAAAAK!
The flame-steeped sword burned through the Behemoth's hide as it passed. Blood flowed down beneath the blackened, scorched wound.
It still wasn't enough to bring the Behemoth down. Rohan moved his hand toward his heart, then lowered it.
'This body can't handle it.'
Unlike when he'd opened the stone gate, here he couldn't afford to pass out.
As he'd planned from the start, Rohan pulled back.
The Behemoth's upper body followed. Using its long arms, it thrust its sharp claws at Rohan.
The distance closed in an instant. Rohan twisted his lips and raised his sword. The bladelike claws clashed with the blazing blade.
KRRRRRANG!
Lacking the strength, Rohan couldn't hold and went flying backward.
THUD. THUD-THUD-THUD.
THUD. THUD.
The small Rohan bounced away like a pebble. Enraged, the Behemoth charged straight at Rohan.
Lying on the ground, Rohan's mouth was slightly open, and he kept muttering something. When his mouth finally closed again, the corners of Rohan's lips rose.
SHK-SHK-SHK-SHK!
Sharp cones of ice shot up from the ground. The Behemoth tried to stop, but its enormous body kept charging on momentum. In the end, it skewered itself on the ice spikes.
KRAAAAARGH!
The Behemoth's roar rang out. Sharp horns of ice were lodged in its ankles and thighs.
The longest of them had pierced the Behemoth's calf, shattered its pelvis, and come out through its lower belly.
Rohan slowly got up. Covered in dust from head to toe, he gripped his sword with both hands.
He ran at the Behemoth. The thing roared at Rohan too, as if telling him not to come closer.
KRAAANG!
Paying it no mind, Rohan leapt. The Behemoth swung its fist too, but it was a beat late.
Rohan was already coming down, having cut through the Behemoth's neck with Sernain.
Tap! Landing on the ground, Rohan let out a small sigh. Just moments ago, he had been in a life-or-death fight.
But casually wiping the sweat beaded on his forehead with his sleeve was all the reaction Rohan showed.
That was the level of a life-or-death fight to him. Something that happened in life as often as eating a meal.
But unlike his mind, his body was an eleven-year-old child's.
After the fight with his life on the line, he had grown a great deal. Rohan felt his mana thrashing.
'My progress went up.'
Ever since he began handling fire rings and ice rings together, he had to be careful not to let just one kind of ring grow. One mistake could break the balance between the two different kinds of mana and make even his existing rings vanish.
'The big payoff from progress is nice. But thinking I have to form two rings every single time, it's no easy thing.'
Sitting cross-legged, Rohan separated the wild mana by its nature. He formed it into an ice ring and a fire ring, then wove both into the pillar of darkness at the same time.
"Whew!"
He let out a big breath and opened his eyes.
3 fire rings. 3 ice rings.
As he had felt before, this didn't make it the 6th Stage. It was closer to the combined strength of two warriors who had reached the 3rd Stage.
'And even that only when I handle the two kinds of magic power efficiently.'
Fortunately, Rohan had more than enough experience for that. As he caught his breath for a moment.
"Aaaaaagh!"
Hatz's scream reached him.
Rohan ran straight toward it.
The other monsters would never leave him alone by himself. Sure enough, Hatz was surrounded by three four-legged monsters.
Rohan cut straight in among them. What use would Hatz be if he died before he got strong?
"Lord Rohan!"
"Take just the one you're facing. I'll handle the other two."
Rohan was about to say he only needed to stall, then stopped. He had sensed that Hatz's level had risen too.
Still, only the 2nd Stage. Still not enough to take on monsters.
Even so, Rohan rated Hatz's skill highly. In fact, the carcass of the monster Hatz had faced before Rohan fought the Behemoth was already lying sprawled on the ground.
Rohan left Hatz alone and focused on his own fight. It was time to check the progress he'd just made.
In one hand he formed a blue mana shield, and in the other he held Sernain, blazing with fire.
Rohan was like a gladiator in the arena bouts held in the Empire. He stepped back to dodge an attack, then swung his sword. Attacks that came in meanwhile he blocked with the mana shield.
He didn't bother using dark mana. Before he even used magic, the two monsters were cut several times by Rohan's sword and sprawled on the ground.
Monsters far below the Behemoth's class were no match for Rohan. Even though he had just finished fighting, Rohan's breathing was steady.
He turned and looked at Hatz. He had rolled around every which way and was covered in dust.
'Still, he's not particularly hurt.'
For his first time fighting monsters, it was a tremendous showing.
'Is this what being born with it looks like?'
He felt a little jealous too. But the feeling didn't last long.
Right now he himself was showing a talent that even Hatz couldn't aspire to. Hatz was not a rival.
He mustn't be. A talent like that had to be something he could keep under him and command.
'Just as Father does.'
Hatz was thrusting his sword into the neck of the monster lying on the ground. In the meantime, Rohan had already found the Perilla flower through his black mana.
'Compared to before he came here, Hatz has grown tremendously. That's everything I came to get.'
Even Gion wouldn't have thought this far. That the eleven-year-old Rohan would be personally raising his own Guardian Knight.
"Hatz, let's hurry. If we're lucky, we'll find the flower without running into any monsters."
Hatz wondered what he was basing that on, but didn't voice any doubt. Even if they ran into monsters, it didn't seem like it would be much of a problem.
Contrary to his prediction, the two had to face two more monsters. But this time, Rohan swung Sernain and dealt with them before Hatz could even step forward.
Watching monster carcasses sprawl on the ground after just a few swings of the sword, Hatz's face went through a colorful range of expressions.
Surprise. Shock. Admiration.
'Just when I think I've taken one step closer, Lord Rohan has gone two or more steps further away.'
He didn't blame himself as he had before. He only renewed his resolve that, serving such a master, he had to get even stronger.
Rohan, who had been walking ahead with unhesitating steps, stopped. He bent his knees and looked at the ground.
Leaves of a clear, bright blue. A Perilla flower was in bloom.
Rohan went toward the flower. Then he discovered one more bloom behind the tall-grown flower.
'Whoa. Two of these precious things.'
Gion had told him to bring Perilla petals; he hadn't said exactly how many.
'Did Father not know this?'
Rohan shook his head. That couldn't be. Gion had surely known and sent Rohan here.
Rohan put a hand to his chin for a moment and pondered the reason.
'Hmm. No matter how I think about it, he means for me to eat one.'
Gion would have figured Rohan could soon make one more ring. For Rohan, a Perilla petal would have been a big help.
'But I already made the ring.'
His fire rings and ice rings now numbered 3 each. Of course, if he took the Perilla flower now, it would help him add one more ice ring.
Rohan thought for a moment.
'The gain's too small for what the petal's worth.'
It had just been delayed a little because he was handling two different kinds of mana; the 4th Stage wasn't hard for Rohan. Using a petal just to get there a little sooner seemed like a waste.
"I know! Hatz, you eat it."
"Pardon?"
Hatz, who had been looking around blankly, turned to Rohan. He didn't even know what a Perilla petal was.
"Keep this in your pocket, and as soon as we get back, put it in boiling water and drink it."
"Why would I make tea out of this......."
What Rohan had forgotten was that Hatz was only thirteen. He wasn't at an age to be interested in tea yet.
Rohan simply told him its effect honestly.
"Drink this and at your level you'll be able to make one more ring in no time. It's a precious ingredient; one blooms a year, if that. Luckily two bloomed, so you can have one."
"H-How could I take something so precious."
Rohan caught the hand that tried to push it away and pushed it back.
"It's the price for being my Guardian Knight. But don't tell anyone about this."
Hatz still looked uneasy.
"Answer me!"
"Yes, sir. I'll keep it secret even if it kills me."
"No, well, it's not a secret worth dying over. Anyway, let's head back now."
Rohan turned his back without regret. He meant to just go back like this. But something kept nagging at him.
Rohan, who had walked a step forward, finally turned toward the pond. It was a small pond, easy to mistake for a puddle. But Rohan sensed some kind of energy there.
"Who's in there, watching us all this time?"
At his shout, Hatz looked at him strangely from beside him.
"Who are you talking... Aagh!"
"The little brat has quite a sense for energy. To notice my presence."
A tiny winged figure rose above the lake.