Chapter 35 : Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Wild Instinct (5)

A shuddering vibration shook the heavens and earth.

The presence of the Giant was overwhelmingly unreal. Perhaps calling it “unreal” fit this situation exactly. I had been banished into the Spirit World by the spell of the Orc Elder. This wasn’t reality but the Spirit World, so the logic I knew wouldn’t work here.

But I didn’t know how to fight in the Spirit World. The Middle Realm, the Spirit World, the soul and the flesh—such things were studied by the Witches of the Sky Empire. What I knew was only how to wield a sword and how to fight. That was why, instead of hesitating, I did what I could do right away.

Just as my teacher had said.

I grasped my sword.

A measly, insignificant blade compared to the colossal Giant before my eyes.

This was all I could do.

***

What sword should I choose to fight a Giant? Right now I have 「Needle」, 「Fang」, and 「Twilight」. These three swords each had their own traits and had always helped me in my moments of crisis. But in this moment, my swordsmanship had turned into nothing more than petty tricks.

「Needle」—which pierced vital points from countless angles to subdue an opponent instantly. Useful against humans, but meaningless against a Giant as big as a mountain.

Then what about 「Fang」, imbued with the dark techniques of the Assassin of the Free City? Of course, useless. Assassinating a Giant hundreds of times my size with a dagger was impossible. This wasn’t something for blades—it called for siege weapons or a corps of magicians.

And the last, Fetel’s knightly swordsmanship, 「Twilight」? Even that couldn’t be expected to do much. Fetel’s sword was exquisite and solid, combining fundamental swordsmanship with wrestling techniques to effectively subdue foes. It was a weapon meant for humans. Wrestling down a Giant like that was impossible. Not even the most advanced forms Fetel had practiced in life could block a Giant’s strike.

Then how was I supposed to fight? What weapons remained to me……?

“Hoo.”

The Giant was getting closer. I exhaled. My second heart, the 「Mana Heart」, surged, bestowing superhuman strength upon my entire body. Starting from the heart, countless 「Paths 」 spread out to seize my surroundings. The Giant stepped into my 「Path」 without hesitation. In that instant, I could read the details of the Giant’s power.

‘Insane.’

The Giant’s body was made of muscles with terrifying power, its skin like rock. Thankfully, suspicion found a weakness within the presented information. Endurance.

‘It can’t move for long. An inefficient body.’

Such was the trait of large species like the Giant. Beings with abnormally massive bodies couldn’t move for long. The larger the body, the more resources it consumes. Even if this was the Spirit World, that law would still apply. Watching the Giant inside my 「Path」, I decided to act.

「Fight back.」

Pit— I kicked off the ground and ran. Then, like climbing a mountain, I ascended the approaching Giant’s body. Its skin was as hard as a rocky path. Underfoot, its skin didn’t feel like a living creature’s but like stepping on stone. Could something like this even be stabbed and wounded? Grimacing, I drew 「Fang」 from my thigh and stabbed hard. It went in a little, but the blade didn’t sink deeply.

「Would a mountain collapse just because children dug holes into it?」

Liam’s metaphor was correct. I retrieved Fang and began climbing upward again. Even a Giant needed to breathe to maintain life. Its heart beat, oxygen flowed, blood circulated—without those, it would return to the earth. Reading the Giant’s biological signals through the 「Path」, I confirmed this information. Even a Giant would die if its airway was severed. And no matter how enormous it was, it would still have vital points. The neck, the windpipe within the throat, lungs, heart, the temple near the brain, the eyes……

I had to fight cleverly.

I clenched my teeth and climbed the Giant’s body. This time wasn’t for the three swords I had consumed. This was the time to unleash my sword. Suspicion—my innate way.

“Uh, ugh…….”

Just as I was climbing hard, a huge murmur echoed like a reverberation. The Giant’s voice. With a grand sound like rocks crashing together, the Giant’s face slowly emerged from behind the clouds. It was lowering its head. As it did, a massive eyeball, a blunt nose, and a snout protruding with fangs came into view. That enormous eye fixed squarely on me, as if looking at an insect clinging to its body.

“Uu, ah. Aaah.”

Its irritated voice spilled out. The volume alone made my ears feel like they would burst. As I struggled to endure the roar and climb, the Giant’s massive hand swung at me. If I got hit, I’d die. If I tried to block it, I’d die. If I could fend off a lump of flesh swinging at that mass and speed, I’d have become a 「Sword Runner」 or 「Sword Expert」 long ago. I had to dodge.

At that moment countless 「Paths」 spread out. I moved along the clearest of them, like performing acrobatics. Spinning once in the air, I dodged the Giant’s hand and gripped its skin tightly to avoid being blown away by the gusting wind that followed. The strong wind felt like it would tear the skin from my face. Damn it.

‘If that had hit me directly, my body would’ve exploded like a fly.’

It was a monster. Even without being hit directly, I could tell from the indirect impact of its power.

This was a monster on a different dimension from me. My fingertips began to tremble instinctively. Not just my fingertips—my entire body trembled wildly. It was primal fear.

But I didn’t despair.

「Are you afraid?」

“Yes, I am afraid.”

「But you won’t run away, will you.」

“There’s no escape now that I’ve come this far.”

Afraid as I was, I had to face it. As I always said, yielding to fear and being unable to act even once was enough. Never again in my life would that happen. Even if I broke, even if I was crushed, I would face it. Head-on.

Hoo— I inhaled once. The Mana Heart pulsed hard, calming my tension and flooding my body with vitality. I gripped my sword and steadied my heart.

The Dwarf-made steel sword Daisy had given me was an excellent weapon. It could slice through ordinary iron blades like radishes and contend even with knights in full armor. But cutting up a Giant’s body was impossible. That wasn’t the weapon’s fault—it was mine. My strength to swing the sword was lacking, and the difference in size between me and the Giant was too great. Then what should I do?

With my strength alone, I couldn’t break the Giant’s bones, tear its muscles, or pierce its skin. But what I had wasn’t only the raw power from my muscles. Special blood flowed within me—the blood of the 「Karavan」. The talent left behind by the greatest Swordmaster who had once engraved his name in history. I ran with all my might toward the Giant’s head.

“Huup!”

I drew in a deep breath. Gripping the sword with both hands, bracing the end of the hilt, I opened my eyes wide. Along with it, the 「Paths」 I saw converged, thinning and sharpening. A 「Line」. The path of steel handed down to the Karavan, capable of breaking anything. There existed a great weapon that had even shattered the sword of a 「Sword Runner」.

Crack!

As I expected, the Line pierced the Giant’s hide and broke beyond it with force. When I’d climbed up to its chest, I succeeded in boring a hole as big as my head into its chest area. But even that wasn’t a fatal wound to the Giant.

‘I need to pierce its neck. Make it unable to breathe.’

A wound of this level was no more than a mosquito bite to a Giant. Even if I pierced its chest, it was impossible to reach its heart through the muscles and ribs. I couldn’t yet draw such a line. I was still immature.

“Ugh.”

I felt the Giant’s cold gaze falling on me. Moving this way and that, I avoided its hands, clinging to its body like hanging from a cliff to keep from being blown away by the gusts. One mistake meant death. This was like the treacherous climbs up the mountain ranges to the Orcs’ Sacred Ground. I had to keep climbing and struggling. To survive, to win.

「Be more cautious, young descendant.」

Amid all this, danger struck.

The Giant shook its whole body and swung its arms. The Giant’s thrashing was like an earthquake, transmitting a shock so powerful I could barely endure it. The skin on my palms tore, my fingers felt like they’d be ripped off due to my weak grip. Yet I endured. With all my strength.

Upward, higher still.

The Giant’s hand reached out. I narrowly dodged.

Its fingers brushed my torso. Swinging my sword from below upward, I extended the Line to deflect it. It would’ve been great if I could’ve cut the Giant’s hand, but after using the Line once and with my breath shallow, its power didn’t come out properly. All I could do was parry.

My breath rose to my throat. With bloody hands, I climbed the Giant’s body.

Heading for its head was a brutal path. It grew steeper and steeper, and when I could no longer ascend on foot, I began using Fang like a climbing tool. Stabbing the tip of Fang into the Giant’s hide—pok!—to support myself as I climbed. My arm muscles strained, the strength in my grip faded, and I felt like I’d fall any moment. The sensations were so vivid I could hardly believe this was the Spirit World.

If I died here, what would happen? If my soul disappeared, would my body die too? Or would my soul return to my body and be acknowledged as a warrior for having fought well enough? If so, would fighting to this point already count as a worthy fight?

Liam had said: the Orcs’ Coming-of-Age Ceremony was a test to verify a warrior’s will to surpass fear and limits. Wasn’t a warrior’s will simply courage? Then didn’t I only need to fight enough without necessarily winning? If so, wasn’t this enough already? Even if I were crushed by the Giant now, couldn’t I still be acknowledged……?

Trivial thoughts rose in my head. It was human instinct. My steadfast heart was weakening under the crisis. “This is enough, I did my best, I want to stop now.” Such thoughts kept arising in my mind.

This was the difference between humans and Orcs.

Orcs were simple. They feared no death and faced any enemy bravely. For them, death wasn’t the end.

But humans weren’t simple. They thought too much, worried too much, and weakened easily before death. I was one of those humans too.

I feared death. I had reasons why I must not die. For me, death was the end, and everything must not end here.

“Hoo!”

Yet precisely because of that, humans became strong. Because they feared death, because they held reasons in their hearts why they must not die, they could become stronger than the other six races.

— Whatever happens, don’t dream of revenge.

Me too. I couldn’t die here.

That was why I had to struggle. Like a beast.

— I’ll spare you. So forget today and live your life.

That terrible moment when a monster far more terrifying and mighty than any Giant took everything from me. Yet I had only frozen in fear, trembling. The rage of that day forced my exhausted body to move.

Even if this Coming-of-Age Ceremony was only a test of courage to verify a warrior’s will, even if winning wasn’t necessary, I would fight to the end. I would not let go of my sword until the very last moment. That was the proof of my life.

And the proof of the life I would walk from here on.

The memories and emotions contained in the three swords I had swallowed, the countless years of memories piled up within those figures, faded away. In their place remained only my rage as Arhan Karavan. Only the boy who lost his family, neighbors, friends, and hometown, who longed for revenge.

“Hhh, hhh, uaa, uaaaah!”

I let out a beastlike shout. A meaningless shout. A roar filled only with rage and resentment. Pouring out emotion like blood, I stabbed upward with Fang, higher and higher. Before I knew it, the Giant’s face was close. So close I could feel its breath. Its single eye glistened. At that moment I gripped Fang with one hand and drew the sword at my waist with the other. I inhaled, gathered Mana, and prepared to form the Line .

But—“Ah.”

The Giant, instead of grabbing me with both hands, was protecting its neck. As if it already knew that as long as it guarded that part, I couldn’t harm it.

‘After using the Line several times and losing output, there’s no way to pierce through that hand and puncture its neck. Absolutely not.’

The moment I saw it, I judged.

I could see the end of this fight. Defeat.

I looked blankly up at the Giant’s face. It stared down at me with cold eyes. A face as if mocking me.

***

“Uhhuhhu, phuuh. An amusing one, this.”

The Orc Elder watched Arhan’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony unfolding in the Spirit World with interest.

“A Giant larger than a mountain, huh. This human carries quite a monster within.”

The monsters appearing in the Ceremony were manifestations of the ‘monster’ the participant held within. For young Orcs, it was usually fierce wolves, ogre warriors, or beasts of the deep forest.

“His momentum is good, but that is all it is, phuhuhu.”

The Orc Elder had sufficiently confirmed Arhan’s fighting spirit. He had clearly seen his warrior’s courage. It was admirable enough not to be outdone by any other Orc. He could already consider him to have passed.

Originally, the Orcs’ Coming-of-Age Ceremony was proof of a warrior. They risked life-and-death struggles in this Ceremony, dying at the hands of monsters and being reborn anew. That was why this Ceremony was designed from the start to be unwinnable. It was a test evaluating the process within a predetermined outcome.

The Orc Elder watched Arhan struggling in the Spirit World. Even if he died to the Giant like this, the Elder intended to give him a passing grade. He disliked that his race was human, but he had shown enough ‘Orc-like’ courage.

“Hmm.”

But the Orc Elder didn’t end the Ceremony.

Because—“Show me more.”

From what he saw, Arhan hadn’t yet revealed everything he had.

“Prove to me you’re harder.”

Arhan still had something left. And the Orc Elder wanted to see it.

“Are you not the successor of steel who reappeared after hundreds of years?”

He wanted to see the greatness of the forgotten 「Karavan」 once more.

“Prove you’re unbending no matter what adversity. Do that and…… I’ll give you a gift even more special than the holy relic you desire.”

The Orc Elder felt his heart beat for the first time in a very long while.

In that far-off past, now forgotten in history, when the seven races of the continent all looked up to the master of steel. He longed for the thrill he had felt facing them. If he could feel that again, the Orc Elder was willing to give this human anything. Any treasure, no matter how precious.

“Come on.”

***

The hand holding the sword trembled. My stamina was almost gone. Unconsciously, I looked down. An insanely dizzying height. This fight was almost over. Even if the Giant’s active time was short, it would outlast me. If it simply kept shaking its body over time, I would collapse from exhaustion. If I lost Fang and fell, I’d die instantly from the fall. That was the rational conclusion.

But I wouldn’t give up. My suspicion didn’t stop.

I swung the blade in my hand with all my might. A blue light scratched across the Giant’s hand. Bone and muscle spurted up. But it still didn’t reach the neck muscles.

Still, I doubted. How could I win? What must be deployed to kill a monster of that overwhelming size? My brain spun taut. My head burned as if it would explode.

“Uaa, uaaaaa-!”

I roared. Straining my arm muscles to the breaking point, stabbing Fang as I crawled like a beast toward the Giant’s nape. Then wedging my knee between its fingers, leaning my body, I stabbed my sword with all my strength. Somehow, to pierce a hole in its neck.

“You, damn—”

In that process, the memories of the swordsmen I had consumed or their exquisite swordsmanship didn’t accompany me. There was only one boy holding a blade, wanting to kill his enemy. Reason was gone, leaving only a human filled with rage and resentment. Yes, only wild instinct.

A formless sword stabbed and swung, thirsty for blood. My breathing grew rough, my strength drained. Yet I didn’t stop and kept repeating the same actions. When the Giant’s body shook in the process, I matched its violent movements and kept stabbing the sword in.

The Giant’s body shook. My body slammed against its rocklike flesh. Losing balance, the Giant’s hand swept through the air with a whoosh. A wind strong enough to rip the skin from my body blew. I tasted blood in my mouth. Thud, my body jolted. The tip of the Giant’s swung hand grazed me. Even

just that rattled my bones and flesh with a thunderbolt-like shock. My consciousness nearly blacked out.

Why was I suffering like this, fighting here?

What meaning was there in continuing a fight I could never win? My reason kept asking me, urging me to run, to give up. “Who would even know if you did this?” it whispered. “Even now it’s so hard—do you really think reaching that sky called Swordmaster is possible?”

Reasonable, rational questions tormented me.

Yet I couldn’t stop.

Within the blurring consciousness, I still moved somehow.

I swung my sword. From my unconsciousness poured out the swordsmanship I had devoured. Twisting my wrist’s angle, I stabbed the Giant’s hand. Pchit— I felt the sensation of skin breaking, but shallow. The Giant roared. My eardrums felt like they would burst. A piercing ringing—beeep—filled my ears.

Again and again I stabbed my sword. Then, pulling Fang from my thigh, I stabbed madly. Using the Fang embedded in the Giant’s hide as a foothold, I unleashed Fetel’s 「Twilight」. But nothing changed. Like a cat scratching a fortress wall, I only left small marks. A wall wouldn’t collapse from mere claw marks. No matter how much I unleashed my swords, nothing changed.

— Young master, you must forget. Otherwise, you won’t survive. You must……

It was as if the world itself mocked my efforts. At that point, I completely abandoned reason. Only instinct and wildness remained. In that moment, I was no longer human but a beast. A beast obsessed with victory.

Rage erupted. Anger surged. Fiery emotions stormed through my chest.

When I let go of reason, strangely the world slowed, my senses sharpening. Every thought and sense focused solely on battle.

I lifted my head.

I saw the Giant’s face. The one-eyed Giant, looking down on me mockingly as it guarded its neck. Over its face overlapped the face of Swordmaster Carlos. No— not only Carlos’s. The face of my mother who told me not to seek revenge, the face of the butler who sobbed as we left the territory, the faces of the townsfolk who fled with their belongings. And they all told me the same thing.

To give up, to forget, not to think of fighting back. That I could never win.

I still couldn’t obey their words.

I simply gripped my sword in silence.

And in that moment when my consciousness seemed about to fade away.

“…….”

One 「Path」 began to appear.

Different from all those I had seen before.

A streak of light, flickering like a comet piercing through the night sky—a shining 「Path」.

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