Chapter 14

Bang—!

Bang—!!

Each time an intermittent gunshot rang out, Ivan could sense the enemies scattering about in confusion.

It was not simply because they lacked training.

In fact, the more elite they were, the harder it was to avoid such a response.

When caught in an ambush, any competent officer would estimate the enemy’s numbers from the frequency of their attacks.

Judging by the intervals between shots, there is only one enemy—or perhaps a very small group.

That conclusion was only natural.

The problem was that the gunshots in this forest were not coming from a single direction.

One shot from the east.

Bang.

By the time they redirected their troops there, all that remained in that direction were a few corpses.

Then, just as they panicked and spread their forces out, another shot rang from the west.

Bang.

By this point, it was obvious what the commanding officer must be thinking.

The enemy has divided a small number of troops and is using them to herd us into position.

It was the correct assessment.

Unless their opponent happened to be a field commander from the Extermination Unit.

Click.

Feeling the tension, killing intent, and anger that saturated the air of the forest, Ivan slowly raised his pistol.

Ahead of him, three soldiers holding torches were looking around.

Their movements were either frightened or furious.

From a distance, there was no meaningful difference between the two.

Ivan exhaled slowly.

Halfway.

He braced his abdomen and pressed the breath firmly downward.

He aimed the tip of the front sight at his target, calculated the distance, and raised it by five notches.

The movement flowed smoothly, closer to instinct than conscious thought—the result of learning driven into his body.

All of that took 0.3 seconds.

His blue eyes opened wide as both pupils rapidly swept across the surroundings.

The distance between the three soldiers.

The difference in their heights.

And, using those as reference points, the distance between them and himself.

Once the calculation was complete, he filled his vision with the soldier farthest away.

Then fired.

Bang—!

The instant he pulled the trigger, Ivan lowered the pistol and grabbed his axe.

There was no need to confirm the kill.

The others would do that for him.

“Damn it! Inov’s down!”

“Where are you?! Come out, you bastard!!”

Ivan sprinted across the treetops toward his next position.

The torches they were frantically waving around served as excellent target markers all on their own.

Lighting a fire in a forest made one far too visible.

Of course, without even torches, the forest was dark enough that they would not be able to see anything at all.

But was that not their own fault?

They should not have chosen a night like this.

Fundamentally, carrying out a nighttime assault was extremely—truly, extremely—difficult.

It required an exceptional commander and perfectly trained troops.

Even soldiers of that caliber would hesitate when conducting an ambush at night, in a forest, and in a foreign country’s forest at that.

Perhaps a third of them had fallen behind immediately after the operation began.

Then their total strength should be around fifty.

Judging from the extent to which the enemy had dispersed and the size of each separated squad, that was the most likely estimate.

Standing above the soldier holding the torch, Ivan reached that conclusion, tightened his grip on the axe, and brought it crashing down.

Kraaash—!!

“Aaaagh!!”

That one was easily frightened.

The man actually struck by the axe had not even managed to scream.

Still, the other soldier appeared to have received proper training.

The moment Ivan appeared, he raised his gun.

Ivan lowered his body.

The man’s trembling finger pushed against the trigger.

There was no aiming process.

At this range, it was unnecessary, and the man had no presence of mind left for it anyway.

He had fallen into a panic and intended to fire first without thinking.

Ivan could not allow that.

“D-Dieee!!”

Ignoring the shout, Ivan tensed his thighs.

The tendons on the back of the man’s hand stood out sharply.

In that instant, Ivan had already closed the distance in a single bound and was swinging his axe.

The man’s right shoulder and the base of his neck shattered simultaneously.

They did not merely break.

They shattered.

One blow packed with tremendous force.

Then Ivan twisted his body and struck again.

And once more.

Three axe blows landed in less than half a breath.

No one left at that position would ever speak again.

“Hoo.”

Ivan rolled his shoulders until they cracked, then planted the axe away.

He picked up the gun that the nameless soldier had been holding and aimed it toward the sky.

He looped a thin string around the trigger and stretched it across the tree beside him.

After placing the gun securely in the corpse’s arms and fixing it firmly in place, his work there was finished.

A gunshot had already been heard, so someone would eventually come to investigate.

The moment they disturbed the corpse, the loaded gun would fire.

The command staff would become confused and misjudge Ivan’s position.

The delay before information from the field reached headquarters.

The limited visibility provided by the dark forest.

The fear of an unfamiliar environment.

The confusion caused by conflicting information.

And the steady decrease in their own numbers.

The more competent the enemy was, the easier they were to deceive.

As Ivan ran along the treetops, he thought:

This was strange.

These enemies were far too capable for a tutorial.

Dian August was supposed to be an NPC who assisted Isabel through her tutorial and then disappeared.

Ivan narrowed his eyes.

Had he not been here, would Isabel truly have been able to escape this forest alive on her own?

Considering that the enemy possessed ample firepower, well-trained troops, and a competent command structure—

This was no longer a level of danger that a girl barely past twenty could overcome.

Why…? Could it be that eliminating the enemy isn’t the condition for clearing the tutorial?

There were games like that from time to time—games where the player had to learn the controls while fleeing from an overwhelmingly powerful enemy.

But how?

And where was she supposed to go?

Considering the distance remaining to Pritchenkaya, the chances of an inexperienced girl who could not even tell which direction she was going making it safely out of the forest were practically zero.

Even amid his confusion, Ivan did not stop moving.

He could think about it after the situation had been resolved.

“Boss, they got us again. This time, all three of them were hacked apart with an axe.”

“Well, now… What is this supposed to be?”

The man groaned as he stroked his chin.

It felt as though they were facing a tiger.

It was a hunting method that slowly tightened around the group’s throat, beginning with the weakest prey.

The countermeasure was simple.

All they had to do was concentrate their forces.

But they could not do that.

Their target was the Hero’s daughter.

“Wouldn’t it be better to gather the men even now…?”

“You fool. Isn’t that exactly what the bastards out there want us to do?”

The enemy was few in number.

That much was obvious.

Had they been facing a large counterattack, the enemy would not have resorted to such a troublesome method.

Suppose an extremely elite strike team had scattered throughout the forest.

Bang—!

Another gunshot rang out.

This time from the west.

Then, moments later—

Bang—!

This time, from beyond the north.

The gunshots were gradually drawing closer to his position.

“They already know where we are.”

“Sir?”

“They already know this is our headquarters! You idiot! Can’t you see that?”

“Y-Yes. That does seem to be the case, but… then why aren’t they attacking us directly…?”

Would it not be far easier to strike the headquarters first and then hunt down the troops one by one after they fell into confusion?

Why were the enemies going through all this trouble?

The answer was—

Bang—!

Bang—!

After two shots rang out from different directions, realization struck the man like a bolt of lightning.

“Give me your gun.”

“What? Ah, yes!”

He snatched the man’s gun and fired it into the air.

Bang—!

The man remained frozen for a moment before growling,

“There’s only one of them.”

“But, Boss, the direction of the shots—!”

“Damn it! Cheap tricks!”

Crack!

The man crushed the gun in his hand and roared.

“Those were our own guns! That bastard killed our men and adjusted the timing of the shots! Even a child could set up a simple trap like that, and we failed to notice!”

He threw the broken remains of the gun onto the ground and drew his sword.

“He must have fired the first shot to test our reaction—to see whether we had someone with Line-of-Fire Detection! We reacted too quickly. Damn it!”

Ordinary soldiers would seek cover the moment they heard a gunshot.

But not the command unit.

Their leader possessed Line-of-Fire Detection.

The instant a shot was fired, they had immediately determined its direction and dispatched a tracking party.

That had been their mistake.

“Why do you think he didn’t attack us directly? Either he isn’t confident he can take us, or he can’t afford to waste time. Why else would someone trained to that degree act this way? Hm?”

“B-Because he’s alone…”

“Exactly! Damn it all! The gunshots were bait from the beginning! Gather everyone! Damn it, I didn’t want to face the Hero’s daughter myself…”

The scar across the man’s face twisted.

The Hero’s daughter.

Even if she resembled the Hero only by half, the offspring of a monster was still a monster.

He remembered the Hero.

He remembered that absurd incarnation of violence.

No matter how young the girl was, he could not afford to underestimate her.

The Hero himself had been little more than a young man of around thirty back then.

The man loosened his shoulders and stepped forward.

“I’ll deal with the girl myself. Gather the men and capture the bastard in the forest.”

“Yes, Boss!”

“Are you the Hero’s daughter?”

Standing beneath the moonlight, Isabel stared directly at the man who had emerged from the forest.

Behind her sat the people huddled together in terror.

A group gathered around the campfire, shivering in the cold as they looked to her.

Isabel shook her head.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, forced her heavy sword around, and tightened her grip.

“No.”

She opened her eyes.

The moonlight dimly illuminated the surroundings, making the man’s silhouette a little clearer.

This was her first time fighting with her life at stake.

It was also her first time fighting while carrying the lives of others on her back.

But it was all right.

Because this was right.

“I am the daughter of Maximilien and Marie.”

Not the daughter of a Hero.

The daughter of two people.

That was the meaning contained in her words.

The man standing before her laughed at length.

The horns rising from his head pointed toward the sky.

A demon.

Isabel swallowed.

It was her first time facing a demon as well.

“Excellent.”

The man nodded and adjusted his grip on his sword.

“I am Eiphelos. Formerly of His Excellency the Sixth Demon General’s Guard Infantry Division. A centurion.”

“Isabel. Of Thales. A knight.”

The night wind rose.

The coniferous forest rustled ominously.

Bang.

A faint gunshot echoed from far away.

The two charged toward each other.