Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Boar (3)

"Kkweeiiieeeek—!!"

The massive boar rolled across the ground in agony.

The bandits who witnessed it were all stunned. Paia especially.

And for good reason—that boar was a kind of secret weapon.

It was the single biggest reason Paia and his crew had been able to raid countless travelers and villages and still walk away unscathed.

The boar strengthened its owner's body and fought on his behalf when summoned—it was practically a guardian spirit.

The village militias that had hunted Paia's gang, the seasoned bounty hunters, the subjugation forces, even Giants and Ascetics—none of them had been able to handle that boar.

They were all simply overwhelmed by its strength and bulk.

The Old Man who'd died recently and the Ascetic Family were prime examples.

But this guy was different.

Anagin, the one with the epithet "Ascetic killer."

Even as the boar charged, he wasn't the least bit surprised.

Far from surprised, he moved as if this were routine, slipped inside its guard, and sliced off one of its legs.

[Ham Hock Slice]

He even called out an utterly ridiculous technique name while doing it.

The blade imbued with Gi cleanly severed the boar's leg—a leg made of Yeom—and the boar, having lost a leg, couldn't control its momentum and tumbled across the ground.

'This isn't the time...!'

The dazed Paia snapped back to his senses and shouted inwardly.

He could be shocked later. Right now he needed to think and act. If he wanted to live.

'I've used too much Gi and Yeom.'

Paia first checked his own condition. He'd expended a fair amount of Gi and Yeom releasing his power and summoning the boar—at this rate, even if he fought, his odds of winning were low.

'...Damn it! Me, afraid?!'

The moment the word "defeat" crossed his mind, Paia felt rage and humiliation.

Fortunately, he wasn't out of options.

The boar summon had lost a leg, but it was still manageable.

A single leg could be restored easily enough.

'And I just need to land one solid hit!'

Paia was certain that if he could land even one proper strike while Anagin couldn't defend or dodge, he could bring him down.

After all, it was a technique 'that person' had taught him.

All he needed was time.

Paia whipped his head around and bellowed at his men.

"Grab them!"

"Huh...?"

"You idiots! Take hostages!!"

In his desperation, Paia lost his composure and screamed.

Couldn't they see the situation? He meant grab Anagin's companions as hostages!

Perhaps his murderous expression betrayed his thoughts, because the bandits belatedly moved. But it was too late.

Shhk!

Anagin gripped the Beast Severer with both hands and, in one stroke, cut through the neck of the boar summon that had been writhing in pain.

The summon's neck must have been its weak point too, because it stopped struggling.

Instead, its body lost form and dispersed, reverting to smoke.

At a speed of execution far beyond his expectations, Paia was stunned once again.

Even with its leg cut off, he'd believed he could at least buy enough time to take hostages.

Was that why? Paia muttered in a stupefied voice.

Not to stall for time—but from pure bewilderment.

"H-how?"

"Easy."

Anagin answered briefly and lightly.

And with that, he walked toward Paia.

The difference from before was that he wasn't closing in fast—he was approaching slowly.

Not like a hunter chasing prey, but like a butcher approaching livestock for slaughter.

An attitude so unhurried it bordered on insolence. Yet Paia felt not anger but terror.

The man who'd made his name as a bandit was afraid of Anagin, who hadn't even been an Ascetic for long.

Kkwiiiiik—!

Paia transformed, letting out a sound that was neither quite a shout nor a scream.

From a two-legged beast that was half man and half boar, into the form of a complete beast.

One look made the purpose obvious.

"You can't run."

Anagin used Pa, concentrating Gi into one arm. Then he used Ek, releasing the Gi concentrated in that arm to seize the fleeing Paia.

He was mimicking the Ek that Paia had demonstrated.

To see it and imitate it on the spot—it was astonishing skill, and as if to prove it, the captured Paia wore a look of shock despite being a boar.

"How?! Don't tell me you can handle all of Gi—!"

Paia couldn't finish his sentence.

Before he could, Anagin yanked him in.

Normally, an improvised copy of Ek like that would have been something Paia could resist—but this time his luck was bad. He'd consumed no small amount of Gi and Yeom, and had transformed fully into a beast, making it hard to respond.

Befitting the situation, Paia flew toward Anagin.

Anagin clenched his fist...

[Tusk Crusher]

...and drove it into the boar-form Paia.

The tusks of the transformed Paia shattered and flew up into the sky, and Paia's transformation came undone.

As a result, Paia reverted to a pathetic human draped in nothing but pigskin.

"Guhk...!"

His transformation broken, Paia crawled along the ground with one tooth completely shattered.

"Hey."

Anagin lightly brought the Beast Severer down toward Paia.

Paia scrambled and caught the Beast Severer with both hands, holding it up.

"Hngh...!"

Paia let out a shrill scream at the blade that had dropped right before his eyes.

Tap.

Anagin, just like that, placed his hand on the flat of the blade and gradually applied pressure.

In time with the increasing force, the Beast Severer slowly descended.

No matter how Paia strained with both hands, the speed of its descent didn't change.

"W-wait a moment..."

Even with one tooth completely shattered and his pronunciation leaking air, Paia shouted desperately. If he didn't, his head was about to be skewered on the blade.

"Wait, wait, I said...!!"

Despite his desperate cries, the Beast Severer slowly descended, cutting through the pigskin draped over Paia and leaving a wound on the forehead beneath.

Drip.

Blood ran down Paia's forehead.

Panicking, Paia rolled his eyes wildly and began spitting out whatever came to mind.

"I'll give you treasure...!" "I'll... I'll teach you the ascetic method—!!" "Kuaaah... What do you want!?"

His voice grew more frantic by the moment.

Before the encroaching blade, rational judgment had become impossible.

Then, Anagin spoke and snapped him back to his senses.

"Whether it's a two-legged beast or a four-legged beast..."

"...?"

"I just kill the beasts that ruin the fields."

Tk.

With those words, the descending blade of the Beast Severer touched Paia's skull.

"Guhk—!"

The blade did not stop.

"Kuaaaaaah...!!"

- - -

Slowly. But not too slowly.

Paia's screams echoed and echoed... then stopped.

The boar-hide cloak Paia had been wearing was split cleanly in two, divided left and right.

One look made it clear it was beyond use.

That was a considerable waste.

Magic tools were expensive, and Paia's boar-hide cloak ranked among the pricier ones. Thought Residue magic wasn't easy to cast, and immoral as it was, having been fed and strengthened with no small number of humans, it could fetch a decent price.

Yet Anagin didn't feel the slightest pang of regret.

Splitting the boar-hide cloak alone was satisfaction enough.

Perhaps as an expression of that, Anagin took a breath in and let it out, then turned around.

The bandits who, until moments ago, had been watching Paia's fight with grins now stood with frozen expressions.

...No, correction. They were frozen stiff. As if they wanted to flee but couldn't.

However, not all of them.

"D-don't move a muscle...!"

One bald bandit had seized Sphinx.

A vaguely familiar face.

Ah. Now he remembered.

He was one of the ones who'd raided the Aoi family alongside Paia.

The man ran his mouth.

"I'll say it again! Don't move... Drop the sword!"

The man shouted, trembling. For his size, he seemed to be quite the coward.

Of course, if you'd watched a pigskin get split in half right before your eyes in real time, you'd understand it wasn't entirely his fault—but anyway.

Anagin wiped the blood off his blade onto his clothes and scolded Sphinx in a tone of exasperation.

"You let yourself get caught?"

Step. Step.

"You've got the kids with you."

Step. Step.

"Just take the kids and run. Is carrying two kids really that hard?"

Step. Step.

"Don't come closer..."

Step. Step.

"I'm not as strong as you, Oppa."

Step. Step.

"How ridiculous."

Step. Step.

"I—"

—Tk.

Anagin had somehow closed the distance to right in front of Sphinx.

Anagin grabbed the bandit's blade that was pressed against Sphinx's neck, and Sphinx covered the children's eyes.

Anagin swung the Beast Severer in his other hand just like that.

Shhk.

The head was cut cleanly off without a single drop of blood spurting.

Sphinx and the children were free, and the bandit's headless corpse collapsed to the ground.

The bandit, distracted by Anagin and Sphinx's natural back-and-forth, had lost the hostage he'd struggled to capture... or perhaps he'd simply been too terrified.

Either way, what mattered was that the bandits had lost their last hope—the hostage.

With Paia dead on top of it.

Clang—!

Several bandits, apparently deciding there was no other way, threw their weapons to the ground.

A sign they no longer had the will to fight, and a plea to spare their lives in exchange for surrender.

Honestly speaking, it was smart.

There was no way a few dozen bandits could do anything against a monster who'd brought Paia down so easily. And running was difficult too.

Surrendering and begging for mercy at least held some chance.

They'd give up every last spoil and woman they'd taken, and if necessary, all their inside information...

However, there was one thing the bandits had overlooked.

Money, women, information. If he were the kind of man to let them off for such things, Paia wouldn't have died in the first place.

"Don't you all remember what I said?"

"...?"

"I'm pretty sure I said I'd kill all of you before fighting Paia, then leave."

"...!"

Someone spoke desperately.

"Th-there's no need to kill all of us, is there!"

"We were just dragged here!"

One of the women beside them shouted.

She was the woman who, until moments ago, had been fawning on the bandits.

Her attitude—that she'd survive even if she was the only one—made the surrounding bandits' faces twist, but none dared lay a hand on her with Anagin standing there. Seizing the opportunity, the other women began shouting and pleading too.

"I-I was dragged here too!" "We're not bandits!" "I was sold here!!" "By force...!"

As many stories as there were mouths.

The women who, until just now, had been catering to the bandits—cooking, cleaning, doing odd jobs—defended their own innocence.

Watching, Sphinx added a word.

"It's probably true they were dragged here by force."

Anagin answered as he always did.

"Don't care."

The women were terrified.

Anagin explained properly.

"I don't care about any of you. The only ones I care about are the bandits. All of you, pick up a weapon."

A few quick-witted women moved away from the bandits and fled.

The bandits wanted to follow, but couldn't bring themselves to.

Instinctively, they knew that the moment they ran, that monster would come for them.

That left only one path.

The bandits picked up the weapons scattered on the ground.

"Fuck! Fuck!" "Goddammit, give me my sword!" "Shit! Get lost! Just grab anything!"

The bandits who'd been singing with their arms around each other's shoulders moments ago now fought over slightly better weapons. And in that gap...

Tk.

Without any warning, Anagin cut into their midst.

Once more, the sound of pigs having their throats slit filled the air.