Tale of the Fake Hero

Chapter 29 – The Slaughter of 3,000, Kerknude Evacuation Plan (4)

“For what purpose do you think the abyss threatens humanity? For wealth? For honor?”

Kaisen remembered something from the Temple of the Sword of Bravery. The theory instructor, Rachel Dune Jeraye, always started her classes with such questions.

“According to what we know, the abyss strives for conquest. Its entire purpose is ‘reclaiming’ all land.”

“…!”

“Any land the abyss touches changes from the very leylines. Mountains turn into ash-spewing volcanoes, and the ground becomes a swamp or a wasteland that then becomes a desert.”

Such climate changes also played a large part in keeping humanity relegated to a relatively small portion of land.

Volcanic ash and fog made habitation difficult and stunted the growth of plants and animals.

Above all was the heat of summer…

Without magical tools to block the heat, soldiers simply couldn’t fight on the frontlines

“One fortunate thing is that such power is not something that the demon races can control. Only the Forgotten Kings can control the abyss.”

“…!”

“Therefore, you candidates must know about the Hai-khun-tark.”

The Hai-khun-tarks’ powers were fundamentally different from those of other uruk clans. They used the power of the Forgotten Kings, which varied depending on which of the Forgotten Kings gave the blessing.

Kaisen even remembered Arin Perry raising her hand and asking a question. “Why would you consider that fortunate?”

“Only the Forgotten Kings can control the power of the abyss. That is, such cannot be used by those who have not been blessed by those kings. The chiefs of Hai-khun-tark clans use tremendous power, but the power is limited to the individual. Not all clan members can use it.”

“…!”

“If you defeat the chief of one of these clans, the clan can be considered as having lost as little as 50%, if it is a warrior clan, or as much as 90%, if it is a shaman clan, of its entire power.”

Rachel paused for a moment and gave the candidates time to think. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Rachel required all of her students to be able to think for themselves without inhibition.

“You, Warriors, are tasked with killing the Hai-khun-tark leaders. Senior Fake Warriors have already destroyed four of their clans.”

The Hai-khun-tarks had a long history of rule, but only three of them were left in existence:

2nd place – Kiral…

3rd place – Nuwigin…

4th place – Tahuf…

Two previous clans were devastated during the ‘Black Summer’, and two other clans were devastated during the past five years of ‘Red Summer’ due to their inability to recover.

“This is your task as well. If the uruks have the Hai-khun-tark chiefs, humanity has Fake Warriors. Always remember that you are the key to turning the tide.”

* * *

Why…

Why was that memory returning to him at such a time?

Though Kaisen’s eyeballs had melted in the intense blast, his senses slowly recovered.

“The great Lord of Insects, Kelek-shak…!” Ranikikan prayed to a in front of a deformed corpse that had exploded and melted.

The area seemed to shimmer like a haze. Was it because the heat from the explosion still lingered, or was it because Kaisen’s vision was still returning?

“Your servant offers the soul of this blasphemous man…!” The uruk chief shook his skull-mounted staff. A moment later, a torrent of bright, torrential light rose from the center of the city.

The light held such vitality that it was clearly from Great Holy Sword Tas Alfo.

Seemingly provoked, an excited blush spread over Ranikikan’s face—he’d found an extremely desirable offering.

Clack, clack, clack—

Ranikikan turned around, dragging his staff with him. The grotesque madmen around him followed their master one by one.

As if waiting for the chief to leave, a butterfly flew out of the corpse the uruk had prayed over, and the corpse itself then vanished into a flutter of butterflies.

“We managed to trick them,” a man muttered, standing with his back against a window—Mad Spear Barov. “Arte is terrible with combat magic, but she’s extremely good with illusion magic and information gathering.”

The man was a Black Rose Corps executive and one of the elites of the so-called ‘Hero Party’.

At the moment of the explosion, he’d appeared in a flash, rescued Kaisen, and taken him to a nearby safe place.

Of course, he’d paid a price for the rescue and fractured one of his legs from overexertion.

That wasn’t the end of it. Since Kaisen’s body had been covered in corrosive blood, the muscles on one side of Barov’s body had melted to the point that his bones were visible.

“This is a cheap price to pay for saving a Fake Warrior.” He injected as many as three syringes filled with dragon blood serum into Kaisen’s half-melted body.

The young man’s blurry sight slowly came into focus, and he was able to move again.

Barov had been watching and limped over as if he’d come to a decision. “Actually, I… I’m sorry, I remember you being a kid not so long ago, so I still speak informally.”

“It’s okay,” Kaisen replied.

“I didn’t save you because you’re a Fake Warrior. Well, that wasn’t the primary reason.”

“?”

“You can hate me for being so selfish… but can you save Captain Sharon?”

‘Save her?’ Had she fallen into danger or something?

“You don’t realize…? She’s planning to kill that uruk chief and die with him.”

“!”

“She’s lived her whole life on the battlefield. She used to talk about wanting to see Lady Lia become a Fake Warrior.”

Tears flowed from Barov’s eyes as he kneeled on his fractured leg. “I don’t have the strength to save her. No matter how hard I struggle, I can’t make my wish a reality… but you, someone who’s a Warrior like her…”

Kaisen didn’t need to hear the rest of the man’s plea. It was in a Warrior’s nature to help those who would otherwise die, but there was a problem…

“We can’t just give up on the right wing. If things go wrong, all of the refugees on the coast will die,” Kaisen pointed out.

“I will—”

“With a broken leg?”

Barov let out a sigh of frustration. The ground shook again as the demon forces pushed through the opening the Tahuf Clan had created.

* * *

Reaper Scans

Translator – Rainypup

Proofreader – ilafy

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* * *

Kaisen prepared to grab Aradamantel again and stand, if only it wasn’t for a certain yell he heard.

“Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!”

“Kyak! The super dragon Fake Warrior, Isla, has appeared! Where has the lowly Kaisen run away to? I bravely stand in his place!”

Isla leaped from the nearby bell tower and struck the ground with her great-hammer-type holy sword, Gaumris. An advancing troll was crushed by the force of her landing and became nothing more than a lump of fountaining flesh.

Her sword had the power to crush armor like it was paper.

The charging uruks fell from the force of the tremors and tripped over each other.

Isla yelled. “This place is guarded by me. Unlike when Kaisen was here, not even a single uruk can pass by!”

Giants ran up behind Isla, coming to a stop and forming a circle to block the street. Their right shoulders held the insignia of a dragon carrying a hammer in its hind foot—the insignia of the Dragon Hammer Corps.

Barov absentmindedly muttered, “Isn’t Isla Alter Gaumris’s area of ​​responsibility the left wing…?”

Had she realized something was wrong? It could be Krauzan’s command. It was lucky that she hadn’t run into Ranikikan on the way.

Isla was always good at picking up the situation on the battlefield, not just that time. She instinctively recognized where things were most dire.

“Let’s hurry while Isla buys us time.”

At the same time, as the right wing suffered catastrophic damage, the middle wing, where the third line was stationed, was also caught in a crisis.

The third line fell back to the fourth, and the fourth fell back to the square the Tahuf Clan was to be drawn into and annihilated.

If they failed there, the fifth line would also be damaged and broken through, creating a bloody storm on the coast, where the evacuation was in full swing.

Sharon’s breathing gradually became heavier as she eliminated the group of Tahuf madmen on the frontlines.

‘I’m out of breath.’

Every battle line was being overwhelmed.

Though it was a longsword, Tas Alfo had the shortest blade among all of the holy swords, and the Extreme Spider Sword Style was meant to target the opponent’s vital points.

In short, since the suicide bombers would still explode if she hit their vital points, the Tahuf Clan was the worst match-up for her.

‘I haven’t been able to pull in the chief yet, but I can’t believe I’m already out of breath.’

The next moment, her left arm was blown off by a series of explosions. Instead of taking down one of the charging uruks, she dropped her sword to retrieve a syringe of dragon blood serum from her belt and injected it into the stump of her arm.

Fake Warriors were known for how they could use dragon serum for ultra-fast regeneration.

Unfortunately, the limit to the regeneration was that it could only be achieved through the catalyst of dragon blood.

Super-regeneration on the battlefield, something that only high-ranking life forms could handle, was clearly a huge advantage.

‘There’s a big flaw to it.’

Rather than restoring life, the serum used the target’s vitality to regenerate their body. Evidence of it could be seen in Sharon’s gray hair, which was dull and lifeless.

She remembered what Kamila had said when they received the last dragon spirit stone at the Temple of the Sword of Bravery.

“So what? It’s better than dying at the hands of the uruks. It’s not like I’m trying to seduce men with my youth.”

As soon as she injected the serum, her joints, muscles, and bones twisted and shot from the stump of her arm until it was whole again.

It only took a moment for her to regain the limb so that she could retrieve Tas Alfo and continue attacking the uruks.

Uruks of the Tahuf Clan both far and near exploded one after the other.

‘If I had a little more strength, I could have devastated most of them by changing my position right before the explosion…’

Ah. She found the situation truly annoying. How could she struggle so much against mere special forces when she’d annihilated two entire Hai-tark clans so far?

‘No, let’s admit it. The Tahuf Clan is a Hai-khun-tark clan, these guys are formidable enemies. At least it makes for a good final fight.’

She was glad to have such a worthy opponent at the end of her life. If she could finish them off, Lia and Kaisen wouldn’t have to deal with such monsters.

“A-amazing…”

“As expected of our captain…!”

“Our lady is the top Fake Warrior. She loses to no one!”

While the soldiers cheered, an ominous, cold sweat rolled down Lia’s face. ‘No, no. Why is she pushing herself so hard right now? She’s really thinking of ending things here?’

Sharon Alter Tas Alfo’s desperate struggle soon reached its limit.

Eventually, Krauzen, who’d lost his left arm in an explosion, appeared with his small cavalry unit. Chasing after him was a swarm of suicide bombers incomparable to before.

Ranikikan had arrived.

“Master!”

The bombers rushed at them like crazy, and Sharon, swept away by the mighty explosions, rolled backward. It couldn’t be described as purposeful in any way—she bounced along the ground several times before slamming into an exterior wall.

Her bare skin was exposed through her damaged armor, cruelly ripped and scorched.

“M-miss!”

“Protect Lady Sharon!”

Sharon’s vision diverged into two, three, four… before focusing again as she coughed up blood. Her hands shook so violently that even holding and swinging her sword was difficult.

Approaching the end of the journey, she knew things were coming to a close.

‘It shouldn’t… end like this.’

Ranikikan’s army of suicide bombers seemed to number more than 10,000. It was a hopelessly large amount, but she’d hoped to pierce through them to put an end to the chief with her Extreme Spider Sword.

Unfortunately, the bombers around the uruk chief were faster and stronger than the other madmen, and the intensity of their explosions was several times stronger.

‘There isn’t much vitality left in me. This is it…’

Caressing Tas Alfo’s blade with the tips of her fingers, Sharon took her final stance. “Dream Ender, Blue Heaven’s Piercing Wrath”

Quietly, gracefully, and indescribably, her sword stabbed forward.

Vicious sword energy rushed from the tip of the blade and seemed to scream through the air as it pierced the suicide bombers and continued on, and on, and on…

The beam of light reached Ranikikan’s face. At that final moment, it lost its power and dispersed into particles of light.

Her power…? Had her power reached its limit and finally consumed all of her vitality?

Blood spurted from her body, and Sharon’s knees buckled.

“Mentakus.” A smile spread across Ranikikan’s lips as he gave her blue sword a complex look.

“This… Fire!” At Krauzan’s signal, Hosen’s Quick-Fire Team, which had been waiting for the signal, appeared in the structures surrounding the square and started firing.

The suicide bombers fell one after the other as gunfire and explosions deafened everyone in the area. Still, the hail of bullets didn’t stop.

‘It’s like a nightmare,’ Sharon thought.

There was no end or way out of their coming encounter with death.

‘No, the world has been a nightmare from the start.’

____