“My Lord! Don’t come close! It’s dangerous here!”
“You are more in danger than I am.”
Pushing aside the soldier who almost had his shoulder torn off by the monster’s claws, Noel bolted through the gap to the monster’s front. The knights were anxious to see Noel solely combat the monster and did not know what to do, but the reaction of the mercenaries was different.
“Why not just deal with it quickly and we all go back. Not you people...but the Duke.”
“He can solve this on his own.”
“In the meantime, we will check the condition of the horses.”
Belief was that each monster has a different weight class and strength. But the one of the Snow Forest is bigger and stronger than any others. No matter how great and skilful the Duke was, how could he be that easy-going when confronting such a menacing existence alone? The guards grit their teeth, distressed. They felt disappointed in themselves for lacking the calm and the spirit a knight should have had. Yet, Noel tossed a warning look at them, indicating that no one was permitted to come near him, so they had no choice but to stay put. The surroundings became quiet as the creature began to look around with only one eye open. Then, when it found Noel, it roared and rushed forward. It attempted to kill him, as it recognised the culprit who put the sharp object in its eye. Even though the monster was just a few metres away and with its mouth wide open rushing toward him, Noel did not even budge. He just stared at the demon indifferently, with a bunch of arrows in one hand and a sword in the other. When the monster finally reached Noel’s feet, he leapt and landed on the top of the monster’s nose. Subsequently, he climbed down to the beast’s shoulder and rammed all the ten arrows he was holding into its neck.
“SCREEECH!”
The monster roared and rioted at the arrows that pierced through its skin, but Noel never fell from the monster’s shoulder. Holding on to the hammered arrow and resisting the shaking, Noel gave strength to his legs. He maintained his balance and shoved the sword once more at the point where the arrows had struck.
'Shing.'
Finally, it completely penetrated through the black monster’s hard skin and dug deep into its flesh.
“Now! Attack!”
One of the soldiers, who had been watching the spectacle of slaughtering the huge monster, barely came to his senses and shouted. The fight after that was too smooth to be called a battle. Losing one eye and having a fatal injury at the neck. The wounded monster had to yield its life to the swords of the mercenaries and knights, without having a single minute to recover from its pains. While they were clearing the monster’s corpse, Noel checked for any remaining demons. At that moment, he found another sign. But it was not a sign of a demon.
Shoot.
Neigh!
The horse, writhing in pain, ran away when an arrow from the mist struck its thigh. Noel turned to look at the direction the arrow flew from. A group of mercenaries, unaware of the occurrence just now, approached and talked to him.
“...Your Grace, the monster has stopped breathing for sure. But where is that…”
“The demon isn’t the problem. There is an assassin.”
“What?!”
Following the monster, this time, a group of assassins who had been hiding, jumped out of nowhere, frightening the group. The guards were a little overwhelmed and wary of the number on the nemesis side. It was an estimate that exceeded twenty.
“What is this all of a sudden…th-this time, protect the Duke!” Leaving out the soldier’s shout, countless assassins rushed to Noel at once. At the same time, the knights and mercenaries also lined up around Noel to deal with the assassins. Blocking the swords’ strikes flying from all directions, he slid into their blind spots. He swung his sword at defenceless spots, and lastly beheaded the assassins. Noel bit his lip nervously.
It won’t be a big deal since she has Louiselle and the ring. If a planned massacre occurred here, an attempted assassination must have aimed at Irene as well. Noel wanted to confirm Irene’s position with the ring, but the circumstances did not support him. Because if he looked away even for a moment, that would be the perfect chance for the assassin to immediately end his life.
I have no choice but to hurry out of this danger and go to Irene. As soon as he made the decision, a murderous flame arose in his eyes.