Chapter 286 (1/2)

Chapter 286

Aegir POV–

Schwartz looks unhappy as he is being led by the crew member .

Be careful when handling him, he gets angry when he gets touched too much by men .

……he relaxes when Celia pats him . This pervert of a horse, are women the only thing on your mind?

「We brought out your horse…… but this is a s.h.i.+p and there’s water all around us . 」

The crew member comments fearfully .

You don’t have to be so scared, I won’t cut down an ally .

「I get that much . But I want to attack them before they board our s.h.i.+p . ……except I don’t have the confidence to land the grappling hook onto their s.h.i.+p and climb on . 」

It would be a terrible joke if I dropped down into the river before I could jump onto their s.h.i.+p .

「That’s why I’m leaving it to you . 」

I mount Schwartz .

「You can’t be thinking of jumping over together with your horse!?」

「That’s absurd……」

「That’s unheard of!」

Of course, I’ve never heard of that either .

Rather, I’ve never fought on sea before .

「I’ll be rampaging as much as I can on their s.h.i.+p while preventing them from boarding our s.h.i.+p, so support me with your bow . 」

「Uu……jumping straight into the enemy is too dangerous……」

Not a big deal, we’re all going to be in the confined s.p.a.ce of a boat .

It’s not like I’ll be bombarded from all sides by a large army .

As arrows fly from the approaching pirate s.h.i.+p, the crew members hide in the shadow to take cover and fire back .

It’s almost time .

The pirates gather on the deck and twirl their grappling hooks .

They’re getting ready to throw their ropes as soon as they get close enough .

It’s about time for me too .

「Go . Schwartz . 」

At my signal, Schwartz starts running .

The Surov is a little too tight for him to run .

Still, Schwartz used that little bit he could run as a running start to build up speed before leaping, barely getting his legs over the side of the boat .

Weighing over a ton, Schwartz probably damaged the boat when he jumped off the deck, but I’m sure they’ll forgive me for that much .

「If I missed and fell, I’d have to swim all the way to sh.o.r.e after all . 」

I mutter under my breath in mid-air, but it looks like I don’t need to worry anymore .

The giant horse captured everyone’s attention as it flew in the air .

Enemies who were twirling their grappling hooks stare in a stupefied manner like they couldn’t believe what was happening .

Schwartz lands right in the middle of all those stupid faces, though more accurately speaking it was directly on top of two of them .

「Gugeh!!」「Agaah!!」

I hear their m.u.f.fled screams and the sound of bone and flesh being crushed .

The two men Schwartz landed on were squished to the point of being unrecognizable as a human corpse .

「A horse?」「Eh? Eh?」「What on earth……」

I don’t have the need or luxury to allow the pirates around me to regain composure .

「s.h.i.+-!」

As soon as I land, I swing my longsword to sweep the enemies on the right side and those in front of me .

I was off balance so I couldn’t put all my strength in that attack, still a few people lost parts of their bodies and collapsed to the floor .

「One more time . 」

I turn the blade of my sword in the opposite direction and sweep the left side too .

They were gathered by the side of the boat since they were trying to jump on the Surov, making it easy for me to mow them down all at once .

Being able to wipe out several people with one swing actually feels pretty satisfying .

「「「「Gueeh!! Gyaaaaaah!!」」」」

The downside is that I hear such ugly screams right away . I wish they just died with their mouths closed .

「H-hold off on boarding their s.h.i.+p! Men, focus on taking care of this guy first!!」

A man wearing an important-looking hat shouts .

The pirates abandon their hooks and turn toward me . Now I don’t have to worry about the Surov .

「Schwartz, just run all over the place . I don’t mind if you swim . 」

The pirate s.h.i.+p may be larger than the Surov, but it still isn’t big enough for Schwartz to run around freely, plus there are many obstacles scattered on the deck . I can’t just ride my horse in this cluttered melee .

After I dismount, Schwartz neighs as if complaining “so you only used me to jump?”, then trots off in the direction of the stern of the s.h.i.+p .

「You’re the ones who attacked us first . So even if I destroy the boat――」

I lower my hips and wind my sword back until it’s hidden behind me .

Pirates brandish their swords and charge forward .

「Don’t hate me!」

I unleash an upward diagonal slash .

One of the men takes the full brunt of my attack and helplessly gets torn apart at the chest, while another man who sticks out his sword to block my strike gets cut in half together with his weapon, then only his upper half falls into the river .

「One more!」

I turn my diagonally raised sword around and bring it down vertically .

The pirate tries to run away but is unable to escape the reach of my two meter longsword .

His head cracks with a similar sound to wooden planks shattering and he falls silently, dying the deck with blood .

「Three people in an instant……!?」

「I-it’s this guy! He’s the one who killed all the ones who tried to board their s.h.i.+p!」

The pirates shout as they step back and try to surround me .

I take a breather and inspect the enemies around me .

They’re either not wearing any armor or just wearing simple leather armor, the size of their weapons range from large to small although they are all variations of scimitars, and while some of them have bows, I don’t think they can get a clear shot in such a narrow and obstacle-filled s.p.a.ce like the s.h.i.+p’s deck .

A small grin forms on my face .

Their scimitars are definitely advantageous in a fight on deck .

However the curved blades are not suited to thrusts with it being a given that they would be swung around to cut people .

Obviously they are not suited in fights were your allies are all densely packed together either .

They have no choice but to try and cross swords with me despite their shorter reach .

「L-let’s go on three?」

「Alright! One―― uwaaaah!!」

The three of them try to coordinate with each other to come from the front, but I’m not going to wait .

I take a giant step forward as I hear the countdown start .

I cut off the front man’s right hand at the wrist―― since bisecting him from the head would leave me vulnerable, I deliberately s.h.i.+fted my aim to the right .

I take one more step in and hit the man on my right with the back of my sword .

The man wasn’t wearing any armor so he collapses after I hear the sound of his ribs cracking .

The reason for hitting the man on my right with the back of my blade was so I could swing the sharp edge to my left .

I parry the attack from the man on the left with my armguard . The slash from the scimitar was like a gentle touch and didn’t make much of an impact when it hit my armor .

I run my sword into his defenseless stomach and slice him in two .

The other enemies are stopped in their tracks as they watch the man’s guts spill out .

Even so, I’m not finished .

「Hmph!」

I take a step hard enough to leave an indent on the deck and thrust my longsword straight out with my right hand .

My target is the important-looking man in a hat . He’s probably the commander .

「Heh!?」

I don’t know if he let his guard down because of the distance between us, but the hat-wearing man touches the sword stabbed through his chest like he couldn’t believe what just happened . When I pull the sword out, blood jets out from the hole and he slowly collapses .

「Who’s next?」

I turn to the pirates and smile .

Against these guys, I can comfortably take on dozens at a time . I’m not going to lose to anybody who fights me head-on .

「Y-you go fight him!」

「I’m obviously going to say no! He’s not just some chump!」

「He has monstrous physical strength…… not to mention he’s as fast as the wind!」

It was right when I was thinking of bringing the fight to them and readying my sword again .

「What cowardly things are you spouting!? He’s just one person, hurry and clean him up!」

The high-pitched voice makes me turn my head .

It came from a pirate wearing a hat even fancier than the hat the man I killed was wearing .

Unlike the filthy rags worn by the other pirates, this one is wearing clean clothes .

「Fumu――」

This one is definitely the commander .

Let’s end the battle right now .

「Above you, Aegir-sama!」

I hear Celia’s voice and the sound of something slicing through the wind at the same time .

I twist my body in response and manage to barely escape with a scratch from a crossbow bolt grazing my cheek .

From what I could see, it was shot from the top of the s.h.i.+p’s mast .

I totally forgot to pay attention to what’s above me .

Several people appear on top of the mast to follow up the first shot, though it doesn’t pose a threat to me if it’s not a surprise attack .

I deflect two with my sword and repel another with my bare hand .

「Those on top of the mast, keep shooting! Those on the deck, surround him and aim for his blind spots! Use the obstacles as s.h.i.+elds . His large sword is likely to get stuck so he shouldn’t be able to swing it freely . 」

The instructions from the clean pirate are definitely effective .

If they simultaneously fire arrows from above while I’m not able to make a complete swing with my sword on this narrow s.h.i.+p, that will certainly make it hard for me to fight well .

「Will it go so smoothly though? Natia, Pipi, I’m counting on you!」

「Aye!」「Yeah!」

After I shout, I hear screams from above me and men start falling head first .

Pipi and Natia are shooting down the pirates with their arrows .

「Get behind the mast and―― ugyah!」

「Fire back at them! Don’t let them――dowah!」

The pirate s.h.i.+p is pretty much parallel with the Surov, meaning the distance between the boats is practically zero for Pipi .

Even though the pirates try to hide, they still get brought down by precise targeting of the tiniest exposed parts of their feet or arms .

Meanwhile, Natia climbs up the mast of the Surov and gets on the same eye level as the opposing pirates .

While she also faces counter fire, she keeps jumping around in high places to make it hard to aim at her .

For an elf like her who regularly traverses through the treetops, that is a cakewalk .

「Now then, with the threat above me eliminated, this fight is mine . 」

I charge towards the pirates once again .

「Don’t be scared! Use the boxes or the mast as a s.h.i.+eld――」

It didn’t need to be said to everyone . Keeping the instructions of their leader, the pirates approach using the cover of wood boxes .

Without hesitation, I destroy the boxes meant for hiding themselves with my longsword . The box explodes with a thunderous crash, scattering wood chips everywhere . The only things left behind are the heavily damaged box and the lower halves of the men .

「Eh?」

「It’s not made of stone or steel . 」

One of the pirates grab a rope hanging from the mast and swings at me in the air .

I avoid that attack and repeatedly slash the mast instead of the man .

The thick pillar cracks and tilts to one side .

「N-no way…… that’s the st.u.r.dy main mast!」

「Uwaaah, it’s coming down!」

「He smashed it with a sword! He’s not human!」

「It’s just wood, you think that would stop me?」

With the mast collapsing, the boat’s center of gravity is s.h.i.+fted and tilts to one side .

A barrel falls over onto the deck and rolls in my direction .

The pirates’ eyes widen in antic.i.p.ation for the barrel to hit me .

However I betray their expectations and easily stop the rolling object with my left hand .

Compared to Claudia’s tackles, this barrel is as light as a feather .

「If you think you can take me-」

I swing my sword down vertically in front of the shocked pirates, my exaggerated actions of exerting more strength being clear to the men and causing them to take steps backward to get out of the way, resulting in my strike slamming into the s.h.i.+p’s deck .

The pirates take the opportunity to transition into attack…… but that’s just as planned .

「Our foothold!」

「The deck is breaking!」

An unsettling cracking begins to spread all over the deck from my single full-powered strike .

The thick boards laid together cave inward, dropping the pirates inside the boat .

「-go ahead and try . 」

I lower my hips and charge up for another swing briefly before unleas.h.i.+ng a horizontal slash .

My sword takes out everything within its two meter range, including barrels, wooden boxes, various sizes of pillars, and filthy pirates .

I cut down all of those things .

The semi circle I drew with my sword scattered a mixture of wood fragments and pieces of flesh, dried meat and guts, water and blood .

After a one second delay, another pillar cracks dryly and falls over, further tilting the s.h.i.+p .

I hold my longsword in both hands, then let out a b.e.s.t.i.a.l roar as I charge at the pirates .

「A-amazing…… he’s just like a monster . 」

The captain of the Surov says something . I am pumped up right now but I can still hear him .

「So this is Lord Hardlett…… this is beyond what I heard . He’s literally a demon of war . 」

Arbakin has also come out before I knew it .

If so many people are watching, I’ll get embarra.s.sed .

The pirates are making faces like they have no clue what to do as I cut them down one by one .

I slash diagonally at the man who charges straight at me, then kick and crush the face of the man who dives at my leg .