Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 121

The final Crag Mutant was skewered by Garland’s blade, its mangled body collapsing to the ground with a gaping hole. That marked the end of a battle that had lasted no more than ten minutes.

These mithril crags were difficult to destroy due to their mithril-infused composition, but individually, they were weaker than Swamp Trolls. A team of three A-ranks and a B-rank who were practically an A-rank working together could handle them with ease. And with Leon felling over half in a single strike, the time needed for combat had dropped drastically.

“Unit 8 has completed battle with eleven Crag Mutants. No injuries. Resuming shaft sweep after a short rest,” Leon reported over the communication crystal.

—Unit 11, roger that.

—Same here from Unit 14! That was fast, huh!

Letting Berger’s booming voice wash past one ear, Leon tapped the crystal in his ear to end the transmission. It seemed the first victory of the day belonged to their unit.

“We’ll rest here for five minutes, then continue,” Leon said to his unit.

Their damage was negligible. Leon, who had mastered the one-shot kill technique known as Void Shatter, was naturally fine. Garlond, who had danced around the crags with sharp footwork, had only broken a light sweat. Hazel had used only low-tier spells, and Karen had mostly focused on long-range suppression with her daggers, so both were still fresh.

We don’t have to rush just yet.

As Leon came to that conclusion and glanced at his members, he found all three of them staring at him. Startled by the sudden attention, Leon took a step back.

“W-what’s with those looks?” he asked.

Hazel’s eyes sparkled, unlike her usual expression, as she remarked, “Amazing! You took down crags made of mithril in one hit. I really can’t believe you’re still a B-rank!”

Leon didn’t know it, but the Crag Mutants in mithril mines were infamous for draining the strength of adventurers. Even with repeated magic or Aura strikes, they were tough to bring down, and extracting usable materials was a hassle on top of that. It was rare for this many A-rankers to confront them as a group, so they were usually considered formidable foes.

“Hahaha, as expected of the man who saved me. I had a good idea of your skill after what you showed in the forge, but you still exceeded expectations.”

Garlond praised him again, genuinely impressed. Even though he had cast off his noble status to become a mercenary and surely had pride in his own strength, there was no jealousy. It meant that he sincerely recognized Leon as superior.

“Hmph! This is normal for Leon!” Karen said, puffing out her chest as if the praise had been directed at her. She acted like a parent proud of their child, and Leon couldn’t help but laugh.

As a result, the vibe of Unit 8 got even better.

Not a bad start.

He’d gained his teammates’ trust after a single battle and had even developed a new application technique. If he were to score himself, it’d be a solid nine out of ten.

—Yeah, nah. Eight points.

El-Cid cackled, teasing him.

Cursed swords can’t read the room, huh?

—You should’ve puffed out your chest and strutted a little. That would’ve made it a nine. What kind of Hero gets embarrassed by some compliments?

Your scoring system’s messed up.

—They’re impressed now because they think you’re a B-rank. If they knew you were the Hero, they’d just see it as expected.

That made it even more frustrating—because he wasn’t entirely wrong. Five minutes passed as Leon tapped El-Cid’s hilt and finally stood up. It was time to resume the tunnel sweep.

***

Having secured their first win, Leon’s Unit 8 quickly advanced through M13-2, sweeping away the monsters lurking within. The mithril mine was a place where a single mistake could mean death even for seasoned adventurers, but even in such an environment, Leon’s team cleared monsters as easily as harvesting ripe grain.

With Leon turning even the troublesome Crag Mutants into training dummies, they had plenty of breathing room against lesser threats. For example, the Steel Ants, rated B+ in danger level.

“Frost, race across the land and snare the hooves of horses. Bitter cold from the heavens, ride the winds and strike,” Hazel muttered.

A fifth-tier spell, Frost Gale, swept across the ground, freezing the nerve nodes in the ants’ legs.

With their mobility gone, the swarm was easy prey. Without Leon or Garlond needing to lift a finger, Karen’s daggers skewered their heads with ease.

“Wow, compared to those stone freaks, these are soft as jelly,” Karen remarked.

Unlike the mithril-bodied crags, Steel Ants had durability no greater than iron or steel, at best. That was enough to deflect an Aura Weapon once, but it wasn’t enough against Karen the Assassin Master. She hadn’t yet formed an Aura Blade, but her control and application were monstrous nonetheless.

—Unit 11 has eliminated thirty-two Steel Ants. Proceeding forward.

—All good here too! Twelve crags and twenty Steel Ants! We’ll catch up after a short break!

Units 11 and 14 were making good progress as well. Leon ran a quick calculation in his head and came to a positive conclusion.

We’re already halfway through. At this rate, we could reach the target zone in three, maybe even four hours.

That was twice as fast as the estimate from the briefing. With their efficient takedown of the crags, they even had enough time to rest if needed.

However, typically, that was exactly when things got dangerous. When one starts to relax without realizing it, that was when fate rolled the dice. Unit 8’s next challenge came from the most unpredictable of monsters—an amorphous being.

Without warning, the ceiling above their path collapsed, and a silvery mass of slime began pouring down.

Hazel was the first to recognize it, and she shouted in alarm, “M-Mithril Slime?!”

It was a rare and powerful monster. Rookies who’d only fought regular slimes often made the mistake of underestimating them, but any slime above A-rank was leagues more dangerous.

Among them, Mithril Slimes ranked in the top ten. Accounting for their mass, strength, and magical abilities, they were rated S-minus—on par with the cyclopes from the Titan Mountains.

“Karen! Grab Hazel!” Leon shouted.

“On it!”

Karen scooped Hazel into one arm, who was flustered at being treated like a duffel bag. However, she quickly realized it had been the right call when the Mithril Slime extended several tentacles and whipped them like lashes.

Unlike slimes from the plains, those in mines were heavy. Their tentacles, made of viscous fluids containing lead, iron, and mercury, could shred armor just by grazing it. So, what could a tentacle made of mithril do?

“W-wha...” Hazel stammered, still shaken after her brush with death.

No one pointed out. It was simply a natural reaction.

The four mithril tentacles tore through the tunnel like it was butter, meaning that they were as sharp as a masterpiece sword. Their massive weight and acceleration channeled power into deadly linear force.

“Don’t block them! Just dodge, no matter what!”

Feeling Karen and Garlond both nod behind him, Leon ignited a golden flame across his entire blade. This was no time to hold back.

I have to cut the flow in one strike.

The range and power of those lashes were devastating. If he let it run wild here, they’d be overwhelmed in an instant.

He lunged in, aiming for the moment when the tentacles recoiled. Grand Chariot wouldn’t work, and Eclipse was too focused to work on a slime. He had to burn it down by pouring out Aura at full force.

“Hah!”

Leon appeared in front of the slime in an instant and brought his sword down in a golden slash. The heat warped the air, leaving mirage-like trails. It may have been inefficient, but it was strong enough to bisect even a mithril crag.

Or it should’ve been. Instead of slicing the slime, the Holy Sword slammed into empty space and bounced back with tremendous force, hurling Leon away.

“What?!”

He barely caught his balance and opened his eyes wide. The Stigma of the Observer sharpened his focus.

He saw what shouldn’t be visible—waves of magic forming a spherical barrier around the Mithril Slime. The moment his sword had struck, the shape of that barrier briefly revealed itself.

And once again, Hazel was the first to realize what they were dealing with.

“Force field...? A slime using a sixth-tier defensive spell?” she muttered in disbelief.

A sixth-tier mage was the equivalent of an expert in martial terms, someone far beyond anyone but a Master. Hazel couldn’t claim to fully wield them as she had only barely learned a few of them. And yet that slime had activated a sixth-tier defense spell, Force Field, in response to Leon’s high-speed strike.

“Karen, evade with Hazel while keeping it pressured! Garlond, fight as you see fit! Hazel, is there any way to break that barrier?”

“No! With that kind of reaction speed, even if we wait for an opening, it’ll still block the attack! Our best bet is to concentrate all forces on a single point!”

“Got it!”

Leon swallowed dryly, comprehending her reply. He needed to combine offense and defense into one. To bring down this Mithril Slime, brute force was the only option.

If they were outside the tunnel, it would be easy. He could simply spam Grand Chariot until the slime’s goo dried up under sunlight and moonlight.

Not here! Its whip attacks only cracked the walls, but Grand Chariot would collapse the whole tunnel!

Evading a tentacle that came down at a terrifying speed, Leon shifted half a step and swung his sword. Aura compressed along the blade with Eclipse pierced through the barrier, but only a splash of goo had been sliced away.

“Tch...! Still not enough?”

The core was still far too deep. This wouldn’t work, no matter how many times he tried.

Three tentacles flew at him in retaliation. He twisted midair and landed, and Garlond used that break to charge in and swing his blade. However, just like Leon, he was repelled by the invisible barrier.

“What a troublesome beast! Even with full power, I can’t cut through!”

Garlond clenched his teeth, dodging tentacle whips while eyeing the barrier, rippling from his strike. The monster’s sheer magical output was reinforcing the force field.

To break it in one strike would require an Aura Blade or a seventh-tier spell. Since they couldn’t do that, they’d have to chip away at it until the Mithril Slime ran out of mana.

Then, El-Cid chimed in with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

—Really? You’re rubbing the key against the chains like a saw, instead of putting it in the lock.

What?

—Think. Think about what you can do. Free thinking is what overcomes the limits of martial arts. Just because you’re holding a spear doesn’t mean you can only stab. Just because you’re holding a sword doesn’t mean you can only slash.

El-Cid was asking Leon what he needed right now.

What I need is... A force like a hammer that can shatter the barrier...! Leon thought as realization lit up his eyes.

He looked down at the Holy Sword in his hand. He was the one who had been limiting himself.

There should have been no limits. If holding a spear only meant thrusting, or a sword only meant slashing, that would have meant that he was a second-rate warrior. A first-rate warrior could smash with a sword or cut with a spear.

“Garlond! I’m going to break the barrier, and once I do that, I need you to strike!”

Leon raised his sword to his upper right. Not to slash, but to strike, as if he were holding a club.

“I’ll break the force field! Hit it the moment I do!”

Whether by instinct or fear, the Mithril Slime turned its attention from Garlond to Leon as if it had detected the new threat. The goo writhed and launched ten spikes.

Where its previous attacks were whips, now it stabbed like spears. The hardened goo shot forward in formation like a phalanx, strong enough to punch through shields.

With a loud clang! Leon swung once, slicing through all ten tentacles as if they were nothing. Whips retained force even when cut, but spears lost all power the moment their shafts were severed. The hardened goo turned soft again and splattered to the ground, crushed beneath Leon’s step.

It was a mistake on the slime’s part. To stop Leon, using whips to form a physical wall would have been more effective than spears. Whips had a wider, unpredictable range, while spears were predictable and linear.

There won’t be a second chance.

Determined to succeed in one go, Leon lifted his sword. A single blow wouldn’t be enough. To destroy the barrier, he needed a chain of strikes.

“Hup!”

Leon took a deep breath, held it, and tightened every muscle in his body before unleashing a whirlwind of blows. He reshaped his Aura Sword—not into a blade, but a mass—then slammed it into the barrier like a battering ram.

Between Aura and magic, it was hard to say which was superior, but in terms of density, Aura had the edge. Each strike scattered the barrier’s energy.

There was no need for wide swings. What mattered was infusing Aura. Leon hammered short, quick strikes using only his wrists and elbows.

Each time the blade struck the barrier, ripples spread out like concentric rings. Before those ripples could fade, Leon struck again and again. The injected Aura resonated with the expanding waves, cracking the barrier in sync.

Leon could see the distorted gap forming after exactly seventeen strikes.

Aura Arts, Secret Technique, Void Shatter Chain: Wave-Crushing Blade.

He slammed the final blow into that point and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Now!” calling out to Garlond, who had been gathering strength behind him.

And then, with a crisp sound, the barrier shattered like glass.

“Magnificent,” Garlond said, having lowered his sword and gathered all his Aura. He smiled with admiration and added, “I shall meet your expectations, my rescuer!”

He was the man who was said to have descended from the famed knight who once quelled a tornado with a single slash. He unleashed the secret technique of the Storm Sword School.

The swirl of energy around his sword was the Storm Sword’s essence—Aura spiraling around the blade like a drill.

“Wail, O wind!” Garland roared like thunder and lunged.

Storm Blade, Secret Technique: Dragonfang Sweep.

The spiral shot forward with the thrust, piercing the Mithril Slime’s exposed body. Its penetration alone was fearsome, but that wasn’t all.

The rotating Aura tore through the interior, slicing and pulverizing until it reached the hidden core at the center and drove its fang deep.

With a dry snap, the core split. The slime’s sole, absolute weakness.

Once its core was destroyed, a slime couldn’t hold shape for even seconds. It lost the “frame” that bound it as a monster. The Mithril Slime was no exception.

Its gooey body collapsed into a puddle, soaking into the ground, leaving behind a mound of mithril powder. Thus ended the monster ranked S-, the Mithril Slime.