Akatsuki Translations

When Shuou stepped into the courtyard littered with corpses, he saw something crawling on the ground and was overcome with a sense of total horror, forgetting even the presence of the raging rabidaemon.

Ba Ryouki, having completely lost the use of one arm and one leg, was crawling towards him, relying solely on his one remaining moving arm.

“You… how dare you, how dare you!” Ba Ryouki continued to crawl forward using only the strength of his one arm, despite the excruciating pain he must have felt with every movement.

“Why… why didn’t I see through it?! That your swordsmanship was all a facade. Why, why?!” His pace was so slow that it posed no threat whatsoever. Yet, Shuou stepped back, distancing himself from Ba Ryouki as if fleeing.

“Heh, hahaha, HAHAHAHAHA!” With bloodshot eyes, upturned eyes filled with rage, and teeth bared in hostility, the old soldier, once revered as a powerful warrior, laughed loudly with a smile on his lips, but tears streamed down his eyes in rivulets.

“He’s gone mad,” Shuou muttered.

“I was allowed to live?! Sealed by petty techniques, unable to resist… and by a single young man with a colorless stone!”

Clenching his fist with one hand, Ba Ryouki repeatedly pounded the ground.

“Unable to hold a sword, crawling on the ground, screaming and raving, is this what a general of the army is? Is this what a warrior praised as the Sword Saint is… Who am I… I don’t know anymore.”

With fluids dripping from all over his face, Ba Ryouki turned pleading eyes towards Shuou.

“Kill me! Please kill me! This Ba Ryouki is already dead!”

Ba Ryouki put strength into his crawling hand again. However, his advance towards death was suddenly stopped by someone who stepped between them.

“That guy…”

The castle lord’s daughter, A Shara, walked out from somewhere and spoke to Ba Ryouki in her usual voice, tinged with a hint of coldness.

“I appreciate your efforts, Sword Saint, but if you wish to die, use the thing on your waist and do it yourself. If you were allowed to live, that too is the choice of the victor. No matter what you say, the loser can only accept it. Have you forgotten even the principles of competition in your life of constant victories?”

Ba Ryouki stared at the girl, who was young enough to be his granddaughter, in a daze as he received her words. When he opened his mouth to say something, it was drowned out by a new intruder who appeared on the scene.

Shuou recognized the man who arrived on horseback. It was Ba Libi, a young man who was often by Ba Ryouki’s side and a military officer of Shanoa, his relative. Behind Libi, several wounded Coral Soldiers, likely survivors, accompanied him.

It was far from a dashing entrance. The blood dripping from his head suggested a bleeding volume that soaked his neck. Libi shot a strong gaze at Shuou from atop his horse, then dismounted and ran to Ba Ryouki’s side.

“Uncle, let’s leave this place,” Libi said, trying to lift Ba Ryouki onto his shoulder, but Ba Ryouki desperately resisted, raising his arm.

“No! The battle isn’t over yet!”

“You’re still going on about that?! The whereabouts of the commander-in-chief are unknown, and the elite of our Shanoa have been slaughtered. Many of the Uzumi soldiers are dead, and most of the survivors have fled. The chain of command no longer exists; this place has already fallen!”

Libi raised his voice in an exasperated tone.

Shuou sensed countless footsteps approaching from behind.

“Shuou—”

Borge, appearing with Murakumo soldiers in tow, frowned and shook his head sideways as soon as he saw Shuou.

“Sorry, I searched for it, but…”

Libi and the accompanying Coral Soldiers grew tense at the sight of the men appearing with blood-stained weapons.

“Protect Lord Ba Ryouki!” Someone among the wounded Coral Soldiers shouted, and they voluntarily surrounded Ba Ryouki, drawing their swords to intimidate Shuou and the others. A few of them forcibly lifted the resisting Ba Ryouki and began running towards the South Gate, where the road leading to their home country, Coral, stretched.

“Stop, stop it! Let me go, let me gooooo!”

Ba Ryouki’s voice, growing fainter, seemed to be uttering curses directed at Shuou, though indistinctly.

Having confirmed Ba Ryouki’s safety, Libi quickly mounted his horse and reached out his hand to Shara, who was standing nearby.

“Lady Shara, take my hand!”

Shara took a step or two back, moving her hands behind her waist.

“Why—” Libi asked with an anguished expression.

Shara smiled innocently, with the raging rabidaemon behind her, and said, “Even if I go with you, I won’t be able to see a sight like this.”

Libi tightly clenched his outstretched hand. Twisting his lips bitterly, he turned forward as if cutting ties and rode his horse, running towards the South Gate.

With her hands clasped behind her back, Shara walked lightly to Shuou’s side. Borge pointed his sword at her in a cautious manner, but Shuou advised him that it was unnecessary.

“You really did it,” Shara said, and Shuou looked away, feeling awkward. Seeing this, Shara laughed.

“I’m not blaming you. Rather, I should be the one to blame.”

Shara gazed at the numerous miserable corpses scattered in the courtyard and narrowed her eyes.

“Father… what happened to A Zan?”

“He’s alive. We have him in our custody.”

At those words, Shuou didn’t miss the slight relaxation of Shara’s shoulders.

“I’m glad. It seems you’ve obtained what you wanted—” Shara’s gaze shifted to the Murakumo soldiers standing behind Shuou.

“So, what will you do? Uzumi has already lost its power as a base. The gates are wide open, and the walls are full of holes. It should be easy to escape.”

“…Not quite.”

As if following Shuou’s gaze as he twisted his neck, everyone’s eyes turned to a corner of the courtyard.

The rabidaemon, with blood and flesh clinging to its mouth, stared at them with an eerie face.

“Up close, it’s a strange creature. It must have gained enough prey to not go hungry, yet it seems to resent the presence of living, moving humans.”

While impressed that Shara could still speak in a calm voice at this point, Shuou stepped forward alone towards the rabidaemon, which had set its sights on them.

Turning his head back, he left a message for Borge.

“Don’t let anyone get close!”

“Ah—”

Borge, who had reached out his hand, quickly nodded firmly in return. To Shuou, it felt like Borge’s trust in him. Among those present, only Borge knew that Shuou had a way to deal with those monsters. However, as he ran alone, his mind was filled with anxiety.

The compound eyes of the rabidaemon were focused on his comrades behind him, who were more clustered together as a group. Shuou picked up a torch that had fallen on the ground and was smoldering, waving it around to draw attention.

“Attract attention,” he muttered to himself, then shouted loudly. As intended, the rampaging giant insect, finding a defenseless prey nearby, skillfully used its many legs to move and approach.

“Choose a weapon.”

He verbally listed instructions to himself. If he didn’t, he felt like he would be distracted by countless intertwining thoughts and wouldn’t know what to do.

Shuou took a sword of appropriate size from the corpse of a soldier lying nearby. The owner of this sword, who had perished, seemed to be a high-ranking officer, and the quality of the sword was excellent, with a sharp edge.

As the rabidaemon approached with single-minded determination, raising its two sickles, Shuou’s breathing gradually became shallow.

“And then… what do I do?”

The giant insect approaching him raised both arms as if boasting of its overwhelming size difference. Immediately after, Shuou lay on the ground to dodge the sweeping strike of the sickle. The insect, which hunted lives without hesitation, showed no carelessness. As if anticipating it beforehand, it quickly moved to the next action, aiming a thrust with a leg as thick as a spear at Shuou, who was lying down. He rolled his body to dodge, but at this point, Shuou was already being pushed into a losing position.

He couldn’t take his time. It was self-evident that if he was forced into a battle of attrition, the human side, inferior in every aspect, would lose. In battle, one should always aim for the weak point, a principle for winning that he had inherited from his teacher. A single breakthrough, a single deadly strike, was desirable, and what made it possible was the existence of the miracrystal, the second heart connected to life. However, the miracrystal of the rabidaemon he was currently facing was not on the back, where it wore a shell, but on the underside. With this, the orthodox method of attacking from outside one’s field of vision would not work.

──Run through, get into its reach.

The only path to victory he had found. It was by no means an easy method. When dealing with an opponent he had never engaged with before, an opponent whose weaknesses he didn’t know, this was the best he could do for now.

He pushed off the ground with his hands and feet, raising his body and running forward. The insect retreated slightly and tried to impale Shuou by lowering its legs, but he discerned the trajectory of each one and stepped on the path to survival. Just as he was about to reach the giant, faded green miracrystal at the desired range, three legs pierced the ground like a prison in front of him, forming a wall and blocking his way. It wasn’t a means of attacking him, but a clear defensive action to prevent the prey from entering its bosom.

“Damn it!”

He couldn’t take a detour to break through this defense. In his current situation, barely clinging to life, an extra step would immediately lead to death.

Shuou, maintaining the momentum of his forward charge, jumped with all his might, putting strength into it. He recklessly slashed his sword at the joint of one of the legs functioning as a wall. The short blade of the sword barely reached the tip, but it managed to inflict a small wound on the joint, which was not covered by a hard exoskeleton. When he saw the light brown bodily fluid spill from there, the rabidaemon let out a scream and unnaturally contracted its body, bending it as if crouching. The three legs that had been firmly pierced loosened.

──Now!

Under the conviction, Shuou passed through the gap while somersaulting after landing, sneaked into the bottom of the abdomen, and thrust his sword at the exposed miracrystal. The sensation was so hard that his hand trembled. The blade, which should have pierced the center, couldn’t even slightly damage the miracrystal and was repelled with a clang, yielding no results. Before he could think of his next action, Shuou’s body was dancing in the air.

His body, kicked fiercely by one of the many legs, was thrown into the air with a spin and fell to the ground, rolling violently with a painful impact.

Rolling like a twig blown by the wind, he was slammed against the outer wall of the castle from behind, and the air in his lungs was forcibly pushed out.

He hurriedly inhaled air into his empty lungs, but his throat burned with pain.

Coughing violently, he checked his own safety. There were no problems with his limbs or other functions. However, various parts of his body simply hurt terribly.

The rabidaemon, having suffered only a small cut and been stabbed in the miracrystal on its belly, had deflated from its previous majestic appearance, arching its back and tucking its head into its shell.

──Unexpectedly timid, I see.

This rabidaemon, with its hard shell on its back, might be sensitive to life-threatening situations. If he understood that as one of its characteristics, it might lead to some kind of breakthrough, Shuou thought.

However, the rabidaemon slowly poked its head out as if to confirm its safety. With its mouth trembling, its gaze was fixed on Shuou. It must have been truly angered by the wound inflicted on it.

──There’s no escape route

He could only move forward. But to live, he had to win.

When he was thrown back, the sword he was holding had been flung somewhere, and its whereabouts were unknown. However, he had no more use for it. As far as he could see, various weapons lay scattered beside the corpses all over the courtyard, but none of them would be able to shatter the rabidaemon’s miracrystal. At this point, Shuou deeply regretted not having the “needle” at hand.

──Huh?

Among the many weapons blending into the scenery, one sword caught his eye, rolling as if asserting its existence. The dark steel blade illuminated by the bright red light of the torch. That hefty, heavy-looking sword was the one Ba Ryouki always carried on his back.

Shuou recalled the sight of that sword in Ba Ryouki’s hand, slicing off a statue made of hard stone. Without a second thought, he took off running and picked up Ba Ryouki’s sword along the way.

“Heavy—”

The sword had enough weight to make him involuntarily say it out loud. Even bundling two longswords used by the Brights might not be enough. It was incomparable to the custom-made sword he wielded in Adulelia. The impression that it was easy to handle, given that the seemingly old Ba Ryouki swung it with one hand, vanished the moment he actually gripped this sword.

The blade was rough, perhaps due to the use of a special material, making it difficult to ascertain its sharpness at a glance.

Dragging the heavy sword, holding it with both hands, Shuou once again stepped in front of the rabidaemon and slashed horizontally at one of the legs piercing the ground. The long blade reached the joint without bouncing, and the moment the blade touched, the rabidaemon’s leg was cleanly severed in two with a certain response.

The rabidaemon, missing a part of its body, retreated as if choking on foam. Letting out a roar reminiscent of a cry or scream, it shrank its body and spread the shell folded on its back, enveloping its body. Seeing its actions that indicated a loss of fighting spirit, Shuou instinctively dived under its belly.

Beneath the rabidaemon’s body, which was approaching as if to cover him, Shuou thrust the hilt of Ba Ryouki’s sword into the ground and pointed the tip of the blade at the center of the approaching miracrystal. He firmly fixed the sword to prevent the axis from shifting and stared intently at the faded green miracrystal within the expanding shadow. With a cracking sound, the tip of the sword dug into the miracrystal. The rabidaemon’s body, which had swallowed the blade into its miracrystal as it tried to close its shell, scattered into powdery sand the next moment.

Enveloped by the light sand rising towards the sky, Shuou dropped his bottom with a thud. Laying his back on the ground, feeling the cool sensation, he looked up at the sky, which was beginning to be covered with a faint light as dawn approached.

From above his head, he heard a rising cheer. Shifting his head, which was still resting on the ground, he saw his surviving comrades rushing towards him in the upside-down scenery. The pain twisting his body, the uncontrollable shaking of his legs, all of it was blown away when he saw their innocently joyful faces.

“Come to think of it…”

Shuou recalled the figure of Ba Ryouki being taken away by the Coral Soldiers. His own sword, which had been stolen, was still sheathed at Ba Ryouki’s waist. The other one he had thrown during the battle was probably rolling around somewhere.

“I couldn’t get everything back.”

Muttering to himself, Shuou was lifted up by his comrades who had rushed over.