Paladin of the Dead God - Chapter 28



Only Noblemtl

Episode 28 Headhunter Hunt (2)

The valley where the sun had set was darker than the night on the plains.

Gebel and Isaac, who had no desire to deal with vampires in the middle of the night, hurriedly headed out of the valley. Isolde followed them quickly, as if she had no intention of putting herself in unnecessary danger.

Since it wasn’t strange if an attack occurred at any time, Isaac constantly looked around.

For now, the Holy Knights decided to think of it as a ‘means that just needs to endure in case of emergency.’ The enemy probably had no idea that the Holy Knights were running towards them, so they could win as long as they held on.

“Will they come back?”

“Are you scared?”

Gebel said with a smile. Instead of getting upset, Isaac calmly calculated the odds of winning.

“Once they see the beast in the furnace, it will be difficult for them to rush in recklessly, even at night. But the Heretic Questioner girl can’t call the furnace beast all night long… … .”

“Maybe it will make the furnace summon the beast first.”

And after Isolde, exhausted, returns the beast to the furnace, Duke Heinkel Gulmar will reappear.

The point was simple.

The hand they have is the Furnace Beast, and the hand they have is the Duke of Gulmar.

Either way, the one who draws out their card first loses.

In other words, it meant that Isaac and his group had to fight against Walaika hunters in the middle of the night without any animals from the furnace.

‘Then the odds of winning are roughly 50%?’

The pitiful skills of the Walaika hunters during the day were below expectations, but it would be different at night. There was a reason why they were treated as paladins of the Red Grail Club. Moreover, we had to estimate how much the number would increase.

Although I calculated it as a half-and-half, I had to assume that one or two of these three would be killed or seriously injured. Of course, Isaac himself did not even think about dying.

‘Because it was calculated on the assumption that tentacles are not used.’

If he is mortally wounded again and tentacles pop out, there is a high probability that the same thing that happened to Carlsen will happen. It devours everything around it. Isolde and Gebel too.

No matter how he survived, he had no choice but to kill Isolde if the tentacles were discovered.

‘Later, I decided to collect a high price from the Heretic Questioner… … If I want to survive right now, I have to separate these two.’

Isaac’s eyes sharpened and turned upward.

Silhouettes were running, gliding along the valley slope. There was no sound and almost no presence, giving the impression of fast-moving fog. Seeing Isaac’s gaze, Gebel and Isolde also seemed to notice and hurried their steps.

Fortunately, there was no red fog, and there didn’t seem to be many of them. However, with their free movement, I couldn’t tell where they were ambushing.

“Inquisitor, please write the Moth Doctrine.”

“yes!”

Isolde obeyed Gebel’s advice and used miracles. She seemed to melt into the darkness and disappeared, with ash like dust flying from her clothes. She’d been caught by hunters before, but that time she’d only paid attention to the bait Isaac had thrown.

As Isolde disappeared, the movements of the Walaika hunters who were tracking them began to malfunction. From their perspective, they probably think that the person they need to be most careful with is Isolde. However, since the biggest threat had disappeared, it was natural to be agitated.

However, they weren’t stupid either.

***

A sharp hissing sound echoed through the valley. At the same time, arrows flew from above my head.

“Whoop!”

Gebel struck down one arrow at once with his sword. However, Isaac, who did not have the confidence to do such a feat, quickly hid himself on a rock in the valley. The arrow stuck in the rock had a matte finish. They seemed like they specialized in hunting humans.

At the same time, Walaika hunters appeared from behind. They seemed to have gritted their teeth because of the humiliation they suffered during the day, and their spirit was fierce.

Isaac calmly assessed the situation.

‘Two on top, two on bottom.’

Although it had become ugly, it was the same face I had seen during the day.

‘The red mist tore them to pieces during the day. Is this all?’

Thinking like that, Isaac raised his sword and stabbed it. At the same attack as during the day, the Walika hunter laughed with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. The man’s hand moved as smoothly as fog. It was a graceful and elaborate movement that was clearly different from the daytime.

‘It won’t be easy.’

The tip of Isaac’s sword met the Walaika hunter’s sword. The moment they thought they were going to jump out, something unexpected happened to both of them.

With a loud thud, the Walaika hunter’s sword pierced through. Thanks to this, his wrist was bent at a bizarre angle. Neither Isaac nor the hunter immediately understood the situation, but the sword did not stop.

Isaac stuck his sword into the Walaika hunter’s mouth. Thanks to the fact that his sword was stuck together, he ended up cutting his own face.

“Ahihiaa!”

“What are you saying? “Her face is half cut.”

Isaac was surprised by the unexpected result, but quickly pulled out his sword. It smashed into the already cracked black face of the Walaika hunter. The guy stumbled and took a step back.

‘what? ‘Why are these guys still weak?’

But Isaac realized that he was mistaken. Walaika hunters have definitely become stronger. Their movements became much faster and more precise than during the day, and at the same time, they became more graceful. Even Gebel was unable to defeat the Walaika hunter at once.

It’s just that Isaac’s sword was faster, more precise, and smoother.

‘uh… … ‘Am I strong?’

Of course, Gebel is the most skilled among the three, so it may be because Gebel has someone with strong skills attached to him. There may be many variables to consider, but Isaac was confident that his skills were above average. It might even work at the level of paladins.

Isaac started walking towards him again.

“Ahia!”

The Walaika hunter, whose face was all disfigured, shouted something again. A normal person would have died, but like a vampire, his face was recovering quickly. However, pronunciation seemed difficult due to the broken blade stuck in his face.

The other Walaika hunters who were dealing with Gebel seemed to want to help when they saw this, but it was difficult to break away from Gebel’s fierce sword strikes.

Bang, bang. Every time Gebel swung his sword, there was a loud noise and the sword bent like a reed, but he did not fall. If he had tried to fight back with force, he would have broken long ago. But that didn’t last long either. Gebel steadily wounded the man and finally plunged a knife into his foot.

It was clear that the one with his foot pierced and the one with his face all over were in a state where they were both unable to fight properly. It was clear that those who were trying to find Isolde in the valley judged the situation that way.

Wedge! Thong, thud!

Arrows started flying overhead again. At the same time, the fog clinging to the slopes of the valley rushed forward like cavalry. But Isaac remained calm even in that situation.

‘Their goal is not us. Finding Isolde. Because the red mist can only reveal itself without Isolde.’

Now, they attacked Isaac and his group in order to capture Isolde in this place. In reality, Isolde was hesitant, unable to attack or leave. In times of emergency, she had to summon her beast from her furnace, so she had no choice but to do so. Although their skills are lacking, the Walaika hunters’ judgment is not wrong.

‘But my skills… … It’s not enough.’

They probably never thought that they would fight with Isaac to this extent in the middle of the night.

Whoa whoa.

The fog slowly began to reveal the shape of a heavily armed knight. A horse without legs ran silently. No, it doesn’t have legs, so can it be described as running? It just glided down like a ghost and struck at terrifying speed.

However, there was no fear in Gebel’s gaze as he faced it. He just calmly raised his sword. Isaac turned his back to Gebel and let out a long breath.

‘I can’t use tentacles… … Like tentacles.’

Isaac recalled the advanced swordsmanship he used to defeat Jihillet. He couldn’t remember the exact movement, but he knew he could use it when he wanted to, just like a skill.

Isaac imagined eight tentacle arms fluttering out from his body. The imaginary tentacles instantly stopped the ghost horse’s charge, decapitated it, ripped out its heart, dragged the Walaika hunter down, ripped off his limbs, and crushed his head.

Thus, we will make them pay for desecrating the sanctuary with their unclean blood.

Isaac swung his sword.

And so it happened.

***

The Walaika hunter running towards Isaac didn’t know exactly what was happening. I felt an unbelievably strange energy coming from Isaac, who seemed so delicate. Suddenly an illogical thought flashed through the head of the Walaika hunter that he was committing a ridiculous blasphemy.

‘Red Holy Grail!’

A scream rose up to my throat. But it was too late for him to let out a scream.

The next moment, the Walaika hunter fell head first to the ground. The Walaika hunter, who was rolling helplessly on the floor, tried to get up. But he soon realized that he was left with nothing but his head.

For a moment, Isaac’s silhouette became blurred. But Isaac passed by, tearing his body apart as if holding eight saw blades.

The hunter’s body was now only clumsily maintaining its shape.

It was ominous and ugly swordsmanship.

‘Swordsmanship that can only be seen in the realm of the Barbary… … How to the realm of the Code of Light?’

The Walaika Hunter opened his mouth as if to protest this nonsense, but his neck was no longer in a suitable shape for vocalization. And, there was no one who could hear his voice.

Isaac didn’t even care about the severed head.

I was just feeling a tremendous sense of hunger.

‘ah… … If I hadn’t eaten Jihillet, I would have been in big trouble.’

The feeling of hunger was merely psychological, and there was still quite a bit of meat left in the flesh storage. However, as powerful as the prize sword technique just displayed was, it was clear that it was a technique that would be difficult to use multiple times.

[Advanced Paladin swordsmanship proficiency increases! (Lv 2)]

[Please name the combined advanced swordsmanship.]

I’ve only used it twice, but my level has increased. The little boy realized that he didn’t give him a name last time either.

‘Avalanche Holy Knights are also called Avalanche Swordsmanship, right? then… … .’

I considered calling it tentacle swordsmanship, but I decided to stop because I was afraid I would be embarrassed when I introduced it to others. Still, it was embarrassing to call it Isaac’s swordsmanship.

‘Isaac’s swordsmanship. And since there are eight sword marks left, it’s called eight prongs.’

From now on, this movement is the ‘eight-pronged’ movement of ‘Isaac Swordsmanship’. Isaac decided so.

[Isaac Swordsmanship: Eight branches (A) are completed.]

Isaac felt the movement stuck in his mind like a skill. He specifically realized how much he consumed satiety.

Isaac felt his whole body tense and looked back to see what Gebel was doing. It was obvious that if he could take down Gebel, he would be able to stop it without difficulty.

But when I looked back, what I saw was unexpected.

“Mr. Gebel!”

An old Walaika hunter with a flowing red cloak was stabbing Gebel’s side with his spear.

It was Heinkel Gulmar, the vampire duke.

Gebel was also stabbing Heinkel in the chest, but he seemed to have no strength left.

Heinkel tightened his shoulders as if he wanted to finish off Gebel, but someone suddenly appeared behind him. It was Isolde who used the doctrine of the moth.

Isolde appeared without a sound and stabbed Heinkel in the back. The Sword of Judgment dug deep, emitting fierce heat and burning Heinkel’s flesh and blood. When Isolde pulled out her sword with all her might, her blood spattered and a long tear was torn from Duke Heinkel’s stomach to his side.