"I'm a warrior of the Northern villa—"
He never finished. Briz swung his great bronze hammer and smashed the village guard's head apart.
"Ah… Captain…"
The young Human warrior stood there gripping his sword, at a total loss.
"Human, you're a lucky one… I'll let you keep your life."
Briz studied the sword scar left in his bronze armor, his voice booming like a struck bell.
"I am the gate guardian of the free city of Gaderia, Lightning Schlacht. Tell the Emperor of the Humans in the North that everything we do, we do for the future of the Demon Race!"
The young man could never have imagined that his own hesitation, his own cowardice, had just saved his life. But when he looked at the warrior lying in the dirt, something rose in him that he had no name for, hot as a wildfire.
Next year the two of them were going to sit the Empire's trials together. Join the Empire's Knight Order together. Live good lives together.
Why? There had been no grudge between them, no feud, nothing.
"No — I'm going to kill you!"
No more hesitation. He would fight back. He would not run.
Feeling beat out reason. He fixed on the Demon Race member's neck, on the mark the guard captain had cut into that bronze, and threw himself forward with his sword.
"Bold talk. This hammer of mine, Lightning Schlacht's hammer—"
And just as the two figures were about to meet.
A crack like thunder out of a clear sky. A greatsword dragging along the ground, a figure streaking past like a bolt of lightning.
All the young swordsman would remember was fate itself seizing him by the scruff of the neck.
An enormous force hauled him backward.
The Demon Race member with the ox-like horns, having dragged the Human out of the way, locked both hands around the hilt and brought the greatsword up like a thunderclap to meet the falling bronze hammer.
A white arc of light knocked that lump of bronze spinning away.
The hammer tore out of his grip. Briz reacted fast, giving ground to open the distance.
"He says he's Lightning Schlacht too. Lightning hammer against lightning sword? Now that's actually interesting."
Draht, who had come along with Schlacht, was applauding the exchange, a rare smile at the corner of his mouth.
Then he flexed his fingers, and the young warrior bound up in threads of Mana was lowered smoothly to the ground.
The young man stared blankly at the two Demon Race members squaring off.
He had finally worked up the nerve to throw his life away, and now what was all this?
"You're counterfeiting me with speed like that?"
For once, the honest Demon Schlacht let genuine anger show. Of all the people to knock off, they had to pick him — someone who only wanted a quiet, settled life — and drag his name through the mud.
Unbearable.
He didn't wait for Briz to explain. Schlacht simply raised his sword and went for him.
The other's Mana volume was an even match for his own, and from the way he fought, he was a Demon General as well. Normally, with the Demon Race's every-man-for-himself temperament, Schlacht would have walked away from a fight like this if there were any way to walk away.
But this one was different in kind. This one was about his own future.
"How…"
Briz "Bronze" was thrown by Schlacht's decisiveness. His bronze hammer had been batted away, and he couldn't shape a new one with magic on such short notice.
So, almost on instinct, Briz laid a hand on the armor sheathing one of his arms.
The bronze plating peeled off in an instant as a green liquid, and in the grip of that huge hand it set into a great hammer.
Both hands on the haft, Briz backed up step after step, turning aside the pursuit by the barest margin each time.
And Schlacht's swordwork was lightning in a thunderstorm, fast past the point of belief.
Blow linked to blow, cut after cut driving forward, crushing Briz down by sheer force until all he could do was bury his head behind the hammer, hunch his body, and give ground while he endured.
The young village guard watched, dumbstruck. A blade taller than half a man, swung as easily as an ordinary longsword, every clash flashing past like a stroke of lightning.
If it had been him out there, one careless moment on the first exchange and he'd already be dead.
"Human, watch closely. That is my sworn rival. That is what Lightning Schlacht looks like!"
Draht was already itching to get in on it himself.
"Awooooo—"
And just as Schlacht was pushing Briz around at will, a pack of uninvited guests joined the battlefield.
Black magic wolves with blood on their jaws squeezed out of the broken houses all around, red eyes locked on Schlacht as he swung, waiting for their opening to begin the hunt.
"Human, raise your sword and keep yourself alive. You're an important witness of ours. I'm going to go chase off some stray dogs."
There was no chance Draht would let a school of small fry interrupt Schlacht. He crossed his hands, pulled, and spun a strand of Mana threads out of the air.
His Mana threads worked best in an enclosed space.
Still, there were plenty of houses nearby, so the threads had anchor points enough.
Draht straightened both arms and spread his palms, working his ten fingers back and forth until the knuckles cracked.
Invisible Mana threads began to spread and multiply, like one vast spiderweb.
"—!"
Combat instinct screamed a warning. Mid-cut, Schlacht changed the motion and brought his sword across to block.
Briz, hunched behind his guard all this time, snapped upright. The bronze armor over his body twisted and crawled, and a massive bronze spike shot out of the chest plate like a cannonball.
With a tremendous clang, Schlacht caught the ambush and slid back several centimeters.
At that same moment, the magic wolves that had been biding their time hurled themselves at their prey.
There was a rasping hiss as the Mana threads drew taut, blazing dazzling silver under the moon.
Thwip. Thwip. Thwip. One magic wolf after another leapt at Schlacht and came apart on the silver lines, dropping in chunks of black meat. The silver covered the space around him with perfect precision, holding the wolves off without once getting in the way of his sword.
On the other side, Briz, granted a moment to breathe, reached toward the bronze hammer that had been knocked away.
Mana caught hold of it. The hammer burst up through the splintered boards of the rubble and came flying toward Briz's hand.
Before Briz could enjoy the moment.
The hammer jammed to a halt in midair, a web of silver threads locking it fast.
"Nice work, Draht."
Schlacht turned defense straight back into offense. He'd already seen through that bronze spike; it wouldn't land a second time.
For the first time, the cold mask on Briz "Bronze"'s face changed. He couldn't believe it.
Those two Demon Race members were cooperating — and in near-perfect sync.
Understand: even when the Demon Race gathered and moved as a group, they almost never fought many against many in the same stretch of ground.
The Demon Race preferred to scatter their targets across separate areas, then break them one by one in single combat.
The Demon Race was not supposed to be capable of fighting as a team.
What Briz didn't know was that Schlacht and Draht had faced each other hundreds, thousands of times, and had long since read each other down to the bone.
"Zaha! Hurry — Zaha, get over here!"
Briz threw away whatever face a Demon General was supposed to keep and bellowed at the sky.
Against Schlacht alone, once the two of them had each figured out the other's tactics, the outcome would still be undecided.
But one against two? He would die.
The young warrior looked at the lean young Demon Race member beside him the way a man looks at a monster. He butchered magic wolves the way other people butcher dogs.
And now, as Briz's shout faded, the moonlight that had been clear a moment ago went dark.
The young man assumed a cloud had covered the moon. Then he lifted his head, and saw an enormous pitch-black shape hanging in the sky.
____
🔥 HELP UNLOCK THE NEXT EXTRA RELEASE!
Drop a Review: Every 5 reviews on the story unlocks 1 bonus chapter!
Power Stones: Reach 100 Power Stones and the next bonus chapter drops instantly!
Early Access: Can't stand the cliffhangers? Head over to P@treon: Walnut-chan to read 40 chapters ahead and unlock access to a library of 60+ novels!
🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: The Retired Void Hunter — posted on The_Mikudayo