Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Two days later in the morning, right as the sun started to rise from the eastern sky, Kyle and the others stood outside the walls surrounding Archen. Cities surrounded by walls like Archen had their gates closed shortly after the sun started to rise, not allowing you to come in or leave. Because of that, they left Archen and camped outside near the gate, now hiding close to the gate in wait.

“And, how are we going after them? We can’t get too close, right?” Lieze said, adding. “They should be careful of anybody tracing them.”

“Indeed, this is where one of my abilities comes into play.” Shildonia said, as her body turned into particles of light, changing shape.

Shortly after, what greeted them was a single hawk.

“Eh? W-What just happened?” Lieze raised a shocked voice.

“My real body is the jewel inside the sword, and the body I use most of the time is created by mana, which is why I can change my shape at will.” Hawk Shildonia spoke proudly. “And on top of that…” She said, opening her wings, and jumped up into the sky.

Soon after, a top-down eagle-eye view from the surroundings appeared inside the jewel.

‘I can even project my view onto the jewel, and show it to you.’ Shildonia spoke from inside the jewel, sounding proud.

Urza and the other two were looking at this spectacle in admiration.

“That’s amazing, I have never seen a sword holding such an ability.”

“Yeah, this is really useful.”

“I’m so jealous…with that, I could peek as much as I want.”

There exist magic items that offer you to observe a scenery from a relocated location, but this was generally limited to a set location that you couldn’t move to create such a livid view. Thanks to this ability, in the previous timeline, Kyle and his troup could figure out the locations of enemy armies or hideouts, which saved them many times. With this, they could trace the princess’ location high from the sky, and act as soon as something happened.

“Now we won’t have to worry about losing them.”

“All that’s left is to take care of this danger approaching them”

“If possible, I’d like to have a cool entrance…”

“You three, we’ll be going after them, so keep it quiet, will you.” Kyle warned them, but deep inside, he was thankful.

Leaving aside Seran, even Urza and Lieze believed Kyle’s odd ‘I don’t know why, but let’s go follow the princess who will leave early tomorrow and save her in case she ends up in any danger’ explanation. Having Shildonia and Seran around was already reassuring, but these two were crucial after all. If anything, Kyle was probably relying on Seran and Lieze too much. He expected these two to always follow him no matter what he was planning. However, if they were to ask something similar of Kyle, he would probably jump in to help as well.

That just showed how much trust they had in each other. But, that’s also why Kyle felt guilty towards Urza. She had no reason to go along with Kyle’s plans, and yet joined along with that sleepy face of hers.

Once things calm down, I’ll treat her to some sweets in the royal capital.

Kyle knew how much of a sweet tooth Urza had, so he made plans like these for the distant future, when Shildonia’s voice came from inside the jewel.

‘Found the horse carriage.’

Most of the paths and streets letting you travel through the human folk territory have been made during the era of the Ancient Magic Kingdom Zaales, and they have existed for a thousand years and more. On one of these routes with a sufficient width, a horse carriage with the emblem of the royal family was driving along.

‘I can see around ten guards around the carriage. They’re not the Imperial Knights from yesterday. Probably city guards?’ Just as Shildonia stated, Kyle could see several city guards around the horse carriage.

“So the Imperial Knights are not with her after all…”

Of course, the city guards were trained in their own right, but a Hydra was too much for them to handle. Naturally, they weren’t exactly dead weight for Kyle to worry about, but they should at least suffice to protect the princess. Kyle took out a map to confirm their current position. Past the road they were riding on, they would drive into a path with trees at both sides, leading directly to Village Sanes.

This was exactly as Kyle had planned. Now they had to wait for the Hydra to appear, and rush to their aid. Waiting for this timing, Kyle and the others hid in the shadows.

The sun rose even further, and around the time the horse carriage was mid-way towards Village Sanes, something happened.

‘Oh, now that’s an irregularity.’

“What’s wrong? Has the magical beast appeared?” Kyle pushed his body forward.

‘No, not quite…The driver of the carriage suddenly stopped in his tracks, and started cutting down the surrounding guards.’

“That’s an irregularity alright! Tell me about that sooner!” Seran threw in a retort, complaining.

Kyle wholeheartedly agreed with him, but before thinking about anything, he just started running. Even though they had picked up speed fairly quickly, around the time they made it to the carriage, most of the guards had fallen to the ground already. The last guard, who even surrendered, was cut down mercilessly.

Standing there were two men. One of them was wearing the driver clothes, whereas the other looked more like an attendant. The door to the horse carriage was open, which probably meant that the attendant had stepped outside. Now, the both held their blades in hand.

Since the driver had his back towards Kyle, he quickly activated a chantless [Haste], and closed the distance between them instantly. Thanks to the leather armor not making a sound, and allowing for nimble movement, that worked out perfectly. The other person, probably an ally of the driver, tried to let out a warning, but it was too late. Kyle swung down his sword at the right arm with which the man held his sword.

Since Kyle used the foible of the blade, he couldn’t cut off the arm completely, but it did enough to break the man’s arm. He let out a groan riddled with anguish, as the sword fell to the ground. Following that, Kyle rammed a kick into the man’s abdomen. The man’s body was flung off, rolling on the ground a few times, and eventually stopped moving all-together.

After Kyle confirmed that the man was rendered powerless, he turned towards the other. He was bewildered for a moment, having seen his ally dropped to the ground, but eventually pointed his blade at Kyle.

“Kyle!” He heard Seran’s voice behind him. This time even his voice sounded serious. “Leave the princess to me!” He raised one thumb, and slipped past the two, running towards the carriage at full speed.

“I won’t let you,” said the attendant, trying to chase after Seran.

“Hey now, I’m your enemy.” As Kyle slashed at him, the man clicked his tongue, and blocked the attack with his sword. “You two, follow Seran, I’ll take care of this guy.”

Without looking away from the man in front of him, he spoke to the two girls having just arrived. Urza seemed like she wanted to say something, but since Lieze headed for the carriage without hesitation, Urza followed.

“Now then…It’s been a while since I was fighting with my life on the line.”

Although he fought an enemy he wasn’t familiar with, Kyle was fairly calm, even flashing an arrogant smile, and took the first move.

After they exchanged a few blows, Kyle could tell that his enemy wasn’t just some normal mercenary. He seemed trained, and a possessor of actual combat experience. Though imperfect, he could actually keep up with Kyle.

“Who are you? Why are you doing this?” Kyle didn’t expect an answer, and yet decided to pose that question.

“……”

As expected, the man remained silent.

“That’s Princess Milena’s horse carriage. You were aiming for her with this, correct? Then, you clearly failed, since we got in your way.” He taunted the enemy, trying to guess any possible motive.

As before, no response came. However, the man seemed to be panicking ever so slightly. Most likely, he quickly wanted to take care of Kyle, and then deal with the other three. However, after their short exchange of blows, he must have realized that this obstruction, Kyle, was stronger than expected, possibly even stronger than the man himself. Run away, or persist, hesitation filled the man’s face. He knew that Kyle wouldn’t miss this, and would aim for the opening.

It was a bare-faced invitation, but the man most likely wanted to finish this battle in a single strike, as he swung his sword. Kyle evaded this attack while sacrificing a strand of hair. Thanks to this, he kept his momentum, and swung the sword up at the man.

“Gah!”

The wrist that he held his sword with soared through the air. As the man instinctively held the open wound in agony, Kyle rammed the hilt of his sword into the man’s head, making him lose consciousness. Following that, he nimbly tied up the man with a rope, and stopped the bleeding.

‘How skillful.’

“Well, I’m used to it.”

Getting away with this much during a battle with a demon was considered lucky.

“Alright, that’s one thing taken care of. Got a lot of things I want to ask them later as well.”

Killing them would have been easy, but in order to understand this situation, there was a need to keep them alive. Who were they, and what goal did they have with this? And, what was going on with Princess Milena? In order to confirm the last part, Kyle wanted to head over to the horse carriage, when Urza met him half-way.

“You done?”

“Yeah. Is the princess safe?”

“No worries. She was inside the carriage, unhurt, but…”

Right at that time, Kyle and Urza felt the ground shake ever so slightly. When they looked towards the forest, trees were collapsing, with the birds flying into the air.

“…This sound.”

‘Indeed, it seems like you predicted things correctly.’ Shildonia responded from inside the jewel.

Swiftly, Kyle analyzed the situation, and pondered on what to do next. Should they run away? That way, he would lose the captured enemies, missing his chance to interrogate them, and casting aside the collapsed city guards was not an option either. Not to mention that that was moving faster than expected, so running away would be difficult. In order to let the princess escape safely, he needed the horse carriage.

“Not good, the reins are cut. Fixing it would take some time.” He heard Seran’s voice from the horse carriage.

There, Kyle was forced to make up his mind, and give out an order.

“You three, take position near the horse carriage!”

The one that should be prioritized the most is Princess Milena. If something happened to her, everything so far would have been for nothing. There might be other assassins ready, aiming for her life.

“What, you’re gonna take care of that…all on your own?”

Urza must have guessed what Kyle was planning, as her facial color changed.

“I won’t go overboard, I know my chances. Thinking about it rationally, this is the best possible choice. So please, go.”

“…Don’t you die on me, okay?” Urza headed to the horse carriage, albeit hesitatingly.

Kyle smiled after hearing these words, and turned towards the forest. The creature that appeared could very well stand its ground against a first-class group of adventurers, possibly even bring up casualties. It was a large Hydra, with twelve, maybe even thirteen heads. Standing head-to-toe with a monster as large as his own home in Rimarze, Kyle sighed.

“Guess my bad premonition was on point.”

***

There were several reasons as to why you should fear a Hydra. First, its attacks amassed immeasurable destructive power, resulting from its large body. Especially timed attacks with all of its heads could easily crush your body. The poison blaze attack was equally as troublesome. On top of that, the thick scales provided high defence, with most attacks useless against it.

However, that didn’t matter too much. As long as it was a simple beast, its movement was easy to guess, and act against accordingly. If you can see the attack coming, you can evade it, and the combined attack of the heads was simply predicted. Its poison blaze attack is generally the most troublesome, but Kyle’s dragon leather armor blocked off any poison. At the same time, the scales and their high defence were no problem either.

“Ayup!”

Kyle threw three [Blizzard] magic stones at the Hydra. The blade of ice cut through the scales, eating into the Hydra’s body. Feeling its body growing heavy and numb, the Hydra went for a desperate attack.

“There!”

Evading the attack of the Hydra’s mouth that could swallow up an entire human whole, Kyle shouted, as he slashed at the neck. Adding together Shildonia’s innate sharpness with Kyle’s skill and strength, the Hydra’s head dropped to the ground. As Kyle was only slightly exhausted, the tide of the battle moved into his favor.

‘Hm, this is going better than I initially expected. I thought you’d have to put up more of a fight.’ Shildonia spoke in admiration.

“I’m surprised myself. Well, I had more than enough time to prepare, and I’ve gotten stronger than expected.”

He had self-strengthening magic cast on himself, but being able to face a Hydra like this head-on was a welcome miscalculation. However…

“Well, this is pretty troublesome.”

Ahead of Kyle, at the neck of the Hydra where Kyle had just cut off its head, another head started to grow already. A normal magical beast could heal even fatal wounds in a short time, and even generate lost body parts.

“That is some insane regenerative ability.”

Although the battle was in Kyle’s favor, he saw no chance of winning like this. At this rate, killing the Hydra fully would be impossible. In order to defeat a Hydra of such a level, he would need to utterly obliterate its entire body at once, inflicting damage where the Hydra couldn’t recover from.

“At this time, I’d love for Lieze and the others to join me, but…”

Kyle would fight at the front, whereas they would attack from the Hydra’s shadows. That had been his initial plan, but in this situation where other enemies may be around, he couldn’t have them move away from the horse carriage. If he kept inflicting damage like he did, the Hydra should go down eventually, but betting on time alone would eventually bring Kyle to a disadvantage, especially since this might not be his last battle.

Not to mention that inflicting lethal one-shot damage with a single sword was nearly impossible. Magic stones surely were effective, but not helpful when it came to striking down the enemy in one hit. As for high-grade magic, Kyle sadly couldn’t use any yet.

“Maybe I should have practiced some attack magic.”

Kyle had never been particularly skilled when it came to attack magic, as he always relied on subsidiary magic to assist him in battle. Since Kyle’s mana pool never had been too large before, even if he used attack magic, it never had enough power to injure a demon, so he didn’t practice any further, and instead focussed on his sword skills. Now that the problem of mana pool wasn’t a problem, he might be able to use high-grade magic, but he was busy training his body itself, so magic had to be dealt with later.

‘Can’t be helped begging for something you don’t have. You have to use your brains for this battle.’

“I know that without you telling me. If anything, I should be glad that my battle is like this.”

Kyle said, taking out a magic stone with attack magic [Explosion] engraved in it.

“Well, no matter how much you regenerate, if your core’s mush, you’re done for.”

Even if you cut down the heads of a Hydra, it’s not like it’ll exponentially grow more heads, but rather regenerate the one it has lost. Kyle’s gaze drifted towards the main body where all the heads grew from. Generally speaking, its main body was the greatest weakness. However, if you were to aim for that, the several heads would immediately protect it, and attack you. To reach the core, Kyle needed to slip past the multiple heads.

“…Guess I gotta rely on that.” Kyle took a step back, creating space between him and the Hydra.

Since its regeneration would slow down if the Hydra moved, it merely observed Kyle’s movement, standing still. At the same time, Kyle lowered his waist, and turned his sword horizontally.

“……[Haste]!”

He focussed his mind, putting all of his intention on raising his speed even further, if only for a moment, as he cast acceleration magic on himself. Because Kyle had always been skilled at subsidiary magic, he could choose what benefit he wanted from the magic, and how strong.

At that point, the Hydra had finished generating its head, and started moving towards Kyle again. He took a deep breath, filled his entire body and mind with strength, and took a step forward. The cobble paving flew off in the process, and the speed Kyle showed greatly surpassed the magical beasts ability to react.

Kyle made it past the thirteen and more heads of the Hydra, reaching its core in the blink of an eye, and stabbed his sword into the body. Shocked to feel this attack at its own body, despite it inflicting damage only at a spot which was 1/100th of its full body, the Hydra howled in pain, as blood splattered from all of its heads. Kyle had landed a simple, yet effective attack that consisted of him raising his speed exponentially, and using the immense charge to inflict greater damage than with a normal slash. Thanks to this skill, even a small human like Kyle could strike down this Hydra.

A magical beast like this Hydra wouldn’t be defeated even from such an attack, as it could just regenerate again. However, Kyle wasn’t quite done yet. He turned the sword to open up the wound, pulled out the sword, and stuffed his left hand inside the body. After pushing his upper arm inside, one of the heads of the Hydra that had recovered aimed at Kyle’s body from the side.

Since his arm was restrained inside the Hydra, Kyle was unable to dodge the attack, and was blown off, rolling along on the ground. However, he immediately fixed his posture, and stood up. With such an impact, it wouldn’t be weird for a few of his bones to be broken, but he merely felt a bit of the impact.

“Ouch…I’m glad I got this armor.” Kyle thanked the quality of the equipment he was wearing.

He stored the sword in his mantle, and left his battle mode. Filled with rage, the Hydra aimed at Kyle, but right as its fangs were about to reach him, the monster exploded.

“Alright, it worked out.” Kyle formed a fist, celebrating his victory.

Even if he threw an [Explosion] magic stone at the hydra, it would not deal much damage because of its thick skin. Hence, he stuffed two of these magic stones directly inside the Hydra. Since the explosion happened inside, even its high defence couldn’t do anything to prevent the damage, which is why around half of its body was blown to smithereens, immediately killing the Hydra.

‘We won, huh. Not bad, defeating a Hydra with more than ten heads all alone. Also, what was that skill just now? That sure had some power.’

“I call it [Shukuchi¹].”

This is something Kyle came up by himself. Crossing the ocean to the east of this continent was an island country, and Kyle saw this technique from a sword master who came from there. They called it [Shukuchi], so Kyle followed up with that tradition.

“Well, it’s a technique relying on speed and impact. It takes some time to prepare for it, so I can’t use it against magical beasts, let alone folks who know how to fight against it.”

Not to mention that Kyle was fully open if the attack didn’t end fatal, so the uses were much rather limited than appealing.

“I used it since my body could hold out the amount of mana now. But…this is some fine mess.”

Thanks to the explosion, the flesh and innards of the Hydra flew everywhere, creating a shower of blood. The smell was already pinching at Kyle’s nose, but the scent of burned flesh made it only worse.

“…They won’t get angry at me, right?”

Kyle looked at the royal horse carriage, splattered with blood, flesh, and innards, Kyle’s face tightened up. It couldn’t be helped, it couldn’t be helped, or so Kyle tried to convince himself, as he approached the horse carriage. By doing so, he saw several hellhounds, magical beasts resembling a dog, collapsed near it. Their heads were smashed in, burned to a crisp, and cut up, so this must be Lieze and the others’ work.

“So they attacked as well…But, something is off.”

Every magical beast had its own territory, so multiple types of magical beasts appearing at the same time was a rare sight, mildly said. Especially now, with the Hydra close by. Hellhounds were much weaker, so they should fear a stronger beast.

“Kyle! You okay!?” Lieze ran over towards Kyle.

“You really defeated the Hydra…impressive.”

“Of course, a Hydra doesn’t have any hope against me.” Kyle spoke with a bit of pride in his voice, instigated thanks to Urza’s surprise.

“But…couldn’t you have chosen another method to defeat it?” Lieze observed the area, and shuddered.

“…I’m reflecting on it.”

“And, you really stink, Kyle.” Urza’s face tightened up, looking at Kyle, showered in the Hydra’s blood.

“…Really?”

“You’ll rub that off on me, so stay away, will you?”

Both Urza and Lieze took a step back from Kyle. He dropped his shoulders in defeat, and moved away from the horse carriage.

‘What, did you want some more praise than that?’

“Zip it.” Kyle complained, as he took out a water bag, pouring water on his head.

Inside the horse carriage were three women. One of them was Princess Milena, wearing a white dress today. The other two most likely were her maids. One seemed to be ten at most, whereas the other seemed slightly older than the princess herself. All three of them were sleeping.

“Being able to sleep in a situation like that, I’d love to be so nonchalant.” Seran sounded like he was half-annoyed, half praising them.

“No…they must have been forced to sleep with some medicine.” Urza commented, observing the status of the women.

“Can you use poison-dispelling magic medicine? That should be enough to clear away the effect.”

“Got it.”

Listening to Kyle’s suggestion, Urza took out some magical medicine, and had the three drink it.

“Ah, that reminds me. Take a look at this, Kyle. I found this on the driver’s seat.” Seran spoke up, showing Kyle an old, currently closed leather bag, with magical letters engraved in it.

“This is…a magical beast summoning bag?”

“Yeah, and a pretty strong one at that. It wasn’t sealed.”

Magical beasts’ innards and body parts can be used as ingredients for magical medicine, whereas the bones and fangs are great material for weapons and equipment. Depending on it, you can gain a large sum of money, so there are a lot of adventures specializing on hunting magical beasts.

In order to work conveniently, these adventurers generally rely on the magical beast summoning bag, as this used scent that could pull closer any nearby monsters. The one Seran held on was a stronger type, which summoned any magical beast in the vicinity, disregarding its type, so that’s why both the Hydra and the Hellhounds came here.

“So he summoned the magical beasts here in order to have them attack the princess.”

The princess was made to sleep with the medicine, so running away would have been impossible. The ones who set this up were probably the two men. The death of Princess Milena was not an accident caused by the attack of the magical beasts, but rather a set-up assassination.

“I fixed the reins, so let’s get this carriage moving.”

“Alright, then…”

Right as they wanted to depart for Archen, the princess opened her eyes.

“Oh my…I’m still alive?” Princess Milena said, seeming surprised at that. “I thought that I would never wake up again, right as my consciousness faded, but…it seems like I was lucky enough.” Rather than calling out to someone else, it felt more like she confirmed this to herself.

Only then did she spot Kyle and the others in front of her.

“Are you the people who saved me?”

“Yes. My name is Kyle. Kyle Lenard. We were in the area as we spotted your horse carriage being attacked by magical beasts, so me and my friends saved you.” Kyle kneeled on the ground with one knee, and recited the explanation he had come up with.

“Thank you very much. If not for your help, I would have surely lost my life.”

There, the two maids of the princess woke up as well, and jumped in front of her.

“It is fine, they are the ones who saved us.”

Thanks to the princess’ words, the two maids relaxed a fair bit, but they still kept a close look at Kyle’s group, ready to intercept with their weapons or magic even. Milena attempted to take a step outside, but Kyle stopped her.

“We should be safe, right?”

“That is true, but…How do I say this, the situation outside is quite hideous.”

It was like a scene after a year-long battle, corpses everywhere.

“I don’t mind, I want to confirm it with my own eyes.” Princess Milena stepped out of the horse carriage, and observed her surroundings, the dead bodies of the magical beasts and corpses of the knights, without any reaction. Her eyes were caught a moment on the wide open hole inside the Hydra’s body, but she remained calm nonetheless.

“I understand the situation. We must be on the way to Village Sanes from Archen, right?”

“Y-Yes, that’s correct…” Kyle was slightly surprised to see Princess Milena guess this accurately.

“Her impression is different from before.”

“Yeah, like a different person.”

Lieze and Urza whispered to each other, as Shildonia called out to Kyle in a voice only he could hear.

‘Kyle, there’s horseback riders coming from Archen. And this time, it’s the Imperial Knights.’ Shildonia still continued to soar through the skies, observing the area.

“Got it…Princess Milena, your Imperial Knights seem to be heading this way.”

“So they finally set out to catch up.” Seran said. “With this, we can take a breather.”

However, the second he said so, Princess Milena spoke up with a sharp voice.

“We have to escape right away! They surely aim to kill us, and you people as well!”

“Eh? No way, they’re the Imperial Knights, right?”

“The person who planned my assassination was the captain of the 2nd Imperial Knight Corps Zentos.”

“Eh?” A dumbfounded voice came out of Kyle’s mouth. “No, um…Zentos…did this?” He asked, unable to believe the princess’ words, but Milena didn’t give a response, and instead gave out an order.

“Arca, burn the corpses outside!”

Kyle and the others doubted their ears, but the older maid, presumably called Arca, didn’t hesitate at all, and started chanting a spell.

“Their goal is my death, and they would confirm all these dead bodies to see if I was one of them. If we burn them down, they shouldn’t be able to tell right away, and we could earn ourselves some time.” She spoke indifferently, but she had reason with her words, so Arca moved on to burn down all the corpses with her [Fireball] magic.

“Ninos and I will stay in the carriage, you take care of the driving, Arca.”

The young girl called Ninos listened earnestly, and clung to the princess, but Arca seemed hesitant.

“I cannot let Milena-sama alone…”

“Driving is an important duty. I want you to be wary of our surroundings, so I can only ask this of you.”

“……Understood.” Arca saw no other option, and moved towards the driver’s seat.

“You need to hurry inside as well, I will explain the circumstances.” Princess Milena turned towards Kyle and the others.

For a brief second, Kyle’s group looked at each other, but judged that following her words was a better idea, and stepped inside the carriage. There, Seran seemed to have remembered something, as he opened the magical beast summoning bag with a ‘There!’, and threw it towards the dead body of the Hydra.

“Another magical beast appearing should be enough to earn us time, right. Maybe we’ll even have another Hydra heading over here.” Seran explained, flashing a devious smile.

After everyone hopped on the carriage, they started moving towards the village of Sanes. Different from before, the carriage now moved as quickly as possible.

1 I think it meant something like [Quick-step]