Chapter 666

Knut’s reason kept pouring out reasons why he shouldn’t antagonize Ai-shan Gi-or Ha-shal-leur. Rational reasons, moral reasons, strategic reasons, even emotional reasons.

Since none of them were wrong, Knut forcibly suppressed his long-held resentment and tried to erase the murderous intent toward Ha-shal-leur from his heart.

After all, it was a feeling he had to discard now that they were on the same boat.

—

As they got closer to the border, the frequency of encountering enemies also increased. They had managed to shake off the pursuers, but the Border Defense Force patrols were still roaming near the border.

Knut and Frigg moved cautiously, but it was impossible to avoid the gaze of so many soldiers. Eventually, they were spotted by a patrol and had no choice but to flee.

“It’s him! The leader of the rebels, One-Eyed Knut, has appeared! Chase him!”

“It’s not just Knut. ‘Light’ Frigg is with him too!”

“Light” Frigg. The newly acquired nickname made Frigg slightly furrow her brow. While it seemed like a compliment to her swift movements, the true meaning behind the nickname was actually a derogatory term for a promiscuous woman.

A former intelligence agent who betrayed her country for the rebels, or a harlot who seduced others. For Frigg, who had trained in swordsmanship to avoid using seduction, the nickname only made her laugh bitterly.

“Light as I may be, I’m not as light as your lives.”

Frigg held her longsword upside down and swung it like a hammer, striking the legs of the soldiers who had called her “light.”

The chainmail or padded armor the soldiers wore couldn’t withstand the heavy blow enhanced by centrifugal force. The soldiers hit by her sword screamed like children waking up from anesthesia during circumcision and fell forward. Their kneeling, head-bowed posture resembled criminals on an execution platform.

“Gwaaaah!”

“Ugh… despicable…!”

“That’s a compliment.”

Every time Frigg’s blade swept past the exposed necks of the soldiers, their spinal cords severed, they bowed their heads so low that their noses touched their chests, paying homage to her mercilessness.

Frigg avoided fighting fully armored knights as much as possible, targeting only novice knights who had recently gained their titles or ordinary soldiers to disable them as she ran.

For her, who hadn’t reached the level of a master, fully armored veteran knights were troublesome opponents. So, she had no intention of crossing swords with them. She could win one-on-one, but it would take time, and she would inevitably be caught if she got bogged down.

There was someone else to deal with the heavy knights.

[ ᚱ ] [ ᚢ ] [ ᛁ ]

“Raidō, Ūruz, īsaz.”

The Rune of Acceleration, the Rune of Strength, the Rune of Ice. Knut, who had muttered the names of the three runes, charged at the knights with his body wrapped in magical light.

With the speed of a galloping carriage and the strength of a bison, combined with the combat experience and holy power he had accumulated as a holy warrior of Bølberg, the knights were swept away like fallen leaves in the wind.

Losing his right leg and replacing it with a prosthetic didn’t even count as a weakness. The magical ice covering his prosthetic grew and firmly supported his body.

“Kwaaaaah!”

Knut roared like an enraged bear and slaughtered the knights.

“Keuuk!”

“This… this is impossible strength…!”

When he swung his axe, the knights’ bodies were torn apart along with their armor. When he threw his spear, three or four were pierced at once and collapsed.

“Bølberg, why do you bless such a man…!”

The knights’ shouts turned into screams and wails. One-Eyed Knut. The man who had been the vice-captain of the Einherjar, the Engraved Holy Warriors, was an enemy they couldn’t possibly stop.

Though Knut had lost the three powers granted by Bølberg after his defeat by Ha-shal-leur, he was now several times stronger than before with just the basic blessings of miracles and the addition of rune magic.

[ ᚦ ]

“Þurisaz!”

The lightning summoned by the Rune of Lightning wrapped around his axe and swept through the area. The knights struck by the radiating lightning bolts rolled their eyes, trembled violently, and leaked fluids from every orifice.

[ ᛋ ]

“Sōwilō.”

A small sun rose from Knut’s fingertips, and the next moment, it exploded with a blinding light, obscuring the knights’ vision.

“What, what is this?! His magic?”

“I can’t see anything! If this keeps up—Kyaaaah!”

The knights, blinded by the flash of light exploding before their eyes, swung their swords wildly, cutting and stabbing each other as they fell.

Knut and Frigg didn’t miss the opportunity, breaking through a corner of the encirclement and stealing the horses the enemies had ridden.

Now that they had been spotted by the patrol, if they delayed any longer, the entire Border Defense Force would swarm them. To survive, they had to break through the encirclement and cross the border as quickly as possible, rather than moving cautiously as before.

“I trust you haven’t forgotten how to ride a horse.”

“Of course not.”

Knut skillfully mounted the horse and, while pulling the reins, thought to himself. It was fortunate that he had only lost the part below his knee. Since his thigh was still intact, maintaining balance while galloping wasn’t too difficult.

“They’re escaping! Chase them!”

“Arrows! Shoot the arrows!”

The archers drew their bowstrings in unison and unleashed a rain of arrows at the two fleeing rebels—more precisely, at the warhorses galloping toward the border. It was much more efficient to target the unarmored riders with only saddles than to aim at armored knights.

Even if just a couple of arrows hit their buttocks, the startled horses would surely throw off their riders.

“Knut. Can you block it?”

“Of course.”

Mounted on the horse, Knut looked back and saw a hundred arrows raining down on him like a downpour. He stretched out his left arm toward the arrow rain and shouted.

[ ᛉ ]

“Algiz!”

A translucent mana barrier spread out like a veil, blocking the arrow rain. Each time an arrow hit the barrier, ripples of light filled the air, and the arrows, now powerless, fell uselessly.

Thus, the two broke through the patrol’s encirclement and galloped toward the border.

—

Of course, the battle with the Border Defense Force didn’t end there. They had to fight twice more before reaching the border.

Once against the patrol that had pursued them, and once more to break through the defense forces stationed near the border.

The last fight was especially brutal.

Frigg had tried to quietly slip through the defense forces’ camp by disguising herself in stolen armor, but an unexpected misfortune caused her to fail.

The armor she had stolen happened to belong to a female knight who had an inappropriate relationship with the commander.

As soon as the commander saw Frigg, who was hiding her face with a helmet, he hugged her from behind and naturally reached into her pants.

Frigg realized she had chosen the wrong person to steal armor from.

‘So she’s a female knight who slept her way to the top! No wonder her skills were so pathetic…!’

Without hesitation, she drew her sword and pointed it at the commander’s neck.

Enduring the unpleasant fingers groping her groin was pointless. If the owner of this armor and the commander were in that kind of relationship, it wouldn’t stop at just groping, and they would surely move to the next step.

If she gritted her teeth and endured the disgusting fingers, the moment the other hand lifted the helmet’s visor, she would be exposed.

“What, what is this?!”

While the commander was stunned by the sudden appearance of the blade, Frigg swung her sword and severed his arm. Using the squealing commander as a hostage, she forced her way through the gathering defense forces.

The moment the commander hugged Frigg, Knut, who already had his axe in hand, realized things had gone wrong and immediately joined her.

Though their identities had been exposed due to unexpected bad luck, it wasn’t yet the worst situation.

Thanks to taking the commander hostage, the enemies couldn’t easily attack.

The problem was that among the defense forces, there were several who wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of the disliked commander and also take credit for capturing the rebels.

– Thud!

A small arrow from somewhere pierced the forehead of the commander, who had been screaming to save him.

“Ugh…”

With his dying breath, the commander collapsed. A heavy silence fell over the chaotic camp filled with curses and shouts.

All eyes turned to the arrow shaft protruding from the commander’s forehead. The blood-stained fletching signaled the end of the hostage situation.

“The general has fallen to the rebels! Don’t let his killers escape!”

Someone’s incitement acted as a catalyst, and the defense forces, regaining their senses, charged at the two.

“Tch…!”

Frigg threw the now-useless corpse aside and swung her longsword at the approaching enemies. Knut also roared fiercely and swung his axe.

A desperate and brutal battle began.

Since no one cared about the discarded corpse, the commander’s body, thrown to the ground, was trampled by the soldiers’ feet and quickly turned into a well-compacted lump of meat.