Tale of the Fake Hero

Chapter 7 – Childhood, the Dawn of Summer (6)

About 20 years prior, the abyss had ravaged the entire continent under the ‘Black Summer’.

During that war, humanity came to the realization that they couldn’t win if they fought the demons head-on.

Thus, humanity borrowed the dwarves’ power to build an extensive fortress system known as the ‘Inferno Line’.

The steel line of fortresses was built north of the Great Belisor River, dividing the territory of the old empire into three parts: eastern, southern, and western.

Though they had to give up the territory south of the river to construct the Inferno Line, it enabled them to achieve four years of relative peace in the face of the fierce uruk attacks.

For the next four years, the Inferno Line found itself wrought with continuous uruk attacks.

Kamila’s White Bone Corps entered the central and western fronts of the Inferno Line—places that were always mentioned as where the fighting would be most fierce in the early stages of the war.

“Fire at the ship! Don’t let those uruk bastards cross the river!” a battery commander yelled.

Dozens of steam guns roared toward the river, recoiling against the shoulders of their gunmen.

The uruk ship’s hull swayed under the force of the bullets for a moment, but it remained unharmed as the projectiles bounced off a dark-blue barrier around it.

Those who were watching the battle from afar turned pale.

“Confirming the presence of an enemy barrier… all shots were blocked!”

The flag flying on the uruk’s lead ship featured white eyes on a dark-blue background. Under the flag, an old uruk sat cross-legged, floating calmly in the air.

The uruk was Dudigal, chief of the Holdrim Clan, one of the top 21 uruk clans. As such, Dudigal was a member of the hai-tark.

“Shoot! Keep firing until the barrier breaks!”

“We can’t, Your Excellency! There isn’t even a crack in the barrier!”

Kamila watched the skirmish from a nearby hilltop and clicked her tongue. “They’re just foolishly wasting ammunition. You can’t pierce such a barrier with regular shells.”

Wolf softly sighed. “The Holdrim Clan, huh? Have the hai-tark started to take the lead in breaking through the Inferno Line?”

In the monster tongue, ‘Holdrim’ meant ‘Black Star’. They received wisdom from the stars and were famous for even their ordinary warriors being able to use assassination techniques.

Naturally, they were formidable foes.

In general, uruks were divided into shamans and warriors, but the Holdrim Clan’s uruks could be both at the same time.

Countless military ships filled with eight other uruk clans, all led by the Holdrim, approached the riverside with the Holdrim barrier at the forefront.

There were approximately 20,000 uruk warriors, while the garrison of Fortress 7 numbered slightly less than 8,000 humans.

They were overwhelmingly outnumbered.

“They’ve landed! The enemy has reached shore!” one of the human soldiers shouted.

As soon as the bow of the first ship hit the riverside breakwater, the uruk shouted and charged out.

Being the vanguard was a great honor for the uruk race, and the highest-ranking warriors in the caste led the attack.

“Gunmen, ready! Fire!”

Even under a barrage of bullets, the uruks climbed toward the fortress, using the corpses of their comrades as shields.

Their first target was a heavy gun battery directly in front of the fortress.

(#Battery: a fortified emplacement for heavy guns.)

Humanity had to drive the uruks out before the battery was destroyed, and the uruk had to neutralize the battery to support their main force.

Since the battery was of critical importance on the battlefield, the fighting there was the most intense.

“U-Ha!” an uruk roared in laughter.

The uruk warriors hacked the humans guarding the gun battery to pieces, splattering their brains and organs everywhere.

Shiiiing—

The sharp hiss of a blade being unsheathed seemed to cut through the bloody chaos. Even amidst the roars of battle, the sound rang out with eerie clarity.

At the source of the sound, a jet-black-haired boy swayed quietly in the wind.

“Asu-dubari (Who are you)?” the lead uruk, holding the still-bleeding corpse of one of the guardsmen, snorted.

The boy’s sword flashed in a lightning-like trajectory, decapitating the laughing uruk and flowing into a smooth motion to pierce the heart of the uruk next to him.

One of the uruks swung his axe at the boy, but kaisen deflected the axe head with his scabbard and cut the uruk’s hands off at the wrists.

“…?!”

“…?!”

“…?!”

To feel shock meant to show an opening. The boy cut down all the uruks who were staring blankly at him.

One by one, as if he were a farmer calmly reaping his crops, Kaisen cut the uruks down.

Covered in uruk blood and sliding forward, he slashed again and again, forging a path of blood, bone, and gore wherever he went.

The moment the uruk warriors, briefly overwhelmed by the sudden carnage, returned to their senses and rushed at the boy, bullets tore through their heads.

“Bullets are better-suited to these small assholes than blades!” Jin shouted.

Under the cover of ‘Rifle’ Jin’s gun squad, the blood-soaked Kaisen looked out toward a certain enemy uruk.

‘Is he the leader of the vanguard?’

The uruk in question looked unusual, like a cunning beast, and it wore ceremonial clothes only high-ranking Holdrim warriors were given.

The Holdrim uruk cast a dark spell, turning his resentment into a black fog.

“Wh-what the…? That’s…!”

“Fill it with bullets before it finishes casting!”

“It… it’s not working!”

The uruk’s fog of resentment melted the skin and fat of anyone it passed over, revealing their bones and spilling their innards.

“Wahahahahaha! Weak, weak! Lowly humans!” the uruk yelled in joy.

The moment he saw it, Kaisen began to cross the battlefield.

He swatted away the axes the uruks threw at him and dodged the fog of resentment washing toward him like a tidal wave by running up against the fortress wall and leaping up with all his might.

Pulling the sheathed sword from his back while contracting all of his muscles to their very limits, he used Mana Chain with his right hand and Mana Heart with his left.

A surge of mana sharper than any blade in the world wrapped around his sword and scabbard.

Cross Sword Style – 4th Form, Shoot.

From the start of the Cross Sword Style, the four basic moves were: Full Circle, Pierce, Crush, and Shoot.

There was only one basic move Kaisen could and should have ever used with Shoot…

Cross Sword Style 10th Form, Cross Decapitation.

The moment he landed, the technique, amplified by the power of his footwork, carved vertical and horizontal cuts on the uruk caster’s body.

* * *

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* * *

Kaisen’s iron blade opened a path through the uruk’s body, and the mana within the blade caused the internal organs to explode.

The body fell to the ground in four pieces.

“Wow, did you just see that?”

“Awesome!”

That was the turning point.

The soldiers, encouraged by Kaisen’s victory, drove the uruks from the fortress and began to reclaim the battery.

“Kaisen,” Jin said, “I’ll finish things up here, so you can go to the lady!”

Was there a need to go to her…?

Wolf, who was known as the empire’s greatest ice mage, had already frozen the water in the river.

Pillars of ice shot from the frozen water at random, skewering the uruks and breaking their formations.

Kamila led the beastmen, including Eltoram, across the frozen surface.

Rather than rushing, they walked forward, as if there were no need for them to go all-out, and none could stop their advance.

Five or six uruks blocking their way forward died from a single slash.

Every time Great Holy Sword Aradamantel was swung, decapitated bodies stumbled and fell, and those who survived with their limbs cut off screamed.

Long splatters of blood froze on the ice and formed red flakes.

Chief Dudigal finally levitated down from the bow of the uruk ship onto the ice, his legs still crossed. He was the most powerful Holdrim caster and was said to be able to freely manipulate lightning and gravity.

Kaisen recalled what Wolf had told him before the battle and that Kamila said she would take the chief on.

‘Is that uruk also a hai-tark? I heard his rank is quite high.’

Dudigal hit the ground with a hammer, sending jet-black thunderbolts swirling around as he shattered the ice and sent up a spray of water.

One, two, three, four…

Kamila blocked the thunderbolts one after the other before launching herself forward, leaving a deep imprint on the ice.

‘As expected, she’s fast. It’s hard to follow her with my eyes. I can’t even compare.’

Dudigal’s spherical spells emitted gravity-altering waves, but Kamila’s quick footwork evaded their effects.

The fight ended before he even had time to truly admire Kamila.

He didn’t even see where her slash started and ended; he could only roughly understand what’d happened based on the result.

“Dream Ender, Scarlet Silk Mist-Cutting Slash”

It was an extreme technique that could only be performed with a holy sword. It started from the moment Kamila sheathed Aradamantel again.

Scarlet energy fiercely roared from the scabbard before she released the energy through an explosive sword draw, tearing through the horizon faster than sound as energy extended outward.

Shhhhh一

The blade was but a blur, and Kaisen merely saw the afterimage of the light reflecting from the metal.

Only when Kamila sheathed Aradamantel again did the slash’s sound reverberate. Her sword was back in its scabbard before anyone even realized the uruk had been cut.

Dudigal’s body, dozens of ships, and the bodies of hundreds of uruks fell into pieces from the strike, cut as easily as if they were pieces of paper.

Kaisen gave Aradamantel a fascinated look.

‘Mother’s sword…’

His mother must have fought with that sword as well. Kamila had learned swordsmanship from his mother and used that power perfectly as the leading Fake Warrior following in his mother’s footsteps.

‘Will that day ever come for me?’ Since males couldn’t become Fake Warriors and he wasn’t Kamila’s true disciple, such a thing was probably a pipe dream for him.

* * *

That afternoon, the uruks retreated.

No matter how much they tried to push forward, it was of no use in the face of the overwhelming power shown by the leading Fake Warrior.

The gun battery, which survived thanks to Kaisen’s support, began to fire again. Without Dudigal, it was impossible for the uruks to create a barrier capable of completely repelling the bombardment.

Thus, the invincible White Bone Corps created another legend that day.

The number of wounded in the corps was 127, and only 35 died.

As for Fortress 7, there were only 2,000 casualties, and the combined uruk army suffered 8,000 deaths—more than four times that number—before retreating.

“Kaisen cut the head off of one of the Holdrim Clan’s best bastards with just a single strike!” Jin raised his glass of beer, and the corps soldiers raised their glasses to each other and noisily chatted.

Kaisen was uncomfortable with the situation. He felt that what he’d done was really insignificant compared to Kamila’s feats.

Eltoram must have read his expression. He slapped Kaisen on the back with his huge hand. “Kamila is a Fake Warrior. A hero. It’s rude to compare yourself to her and say you aren’t a warrior.”

“It’s not like that.”

“What is it then? I can smell lies, little Kaisen. You don’t know what she sacrificed to gain such power.”

Yeah, he didn’t know.

Looking back, perhaps he should have hoped that he’d never find out that Fake Warriors demonstrated superhuman strength by tapping into their own lifespans. Kamila didn’t have much time left.

* * *

“You exerted yourself too much today, Kamila.”

Far from the clamor of victory, in a field the volcanic ash hadn’t yet conquered, Kamila looked up from the grass at the shining moon in the sky.

“Wolf”

“Using the holy sword’s final secret technique, Dream Ender… was that necessary?” the ice mage asked.

“Yes, of course. Should I have taken a fight against a hai-tark lightly? It was important to take the initiative to suppress the enemy.”

“Why?”

“Something felt off. No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t look like they were trying to breach Fortress 7.”

“Then what was it?”

“Hmm… I guess I should say it seemed like they had other intentions. That’s why we needed to get rid of them quickly. Dream Ender was meant to be a show of strength.”

“Kamila, those Holdrim Clan uruks were hai-tarks. Not some new ones, either. They were deeply established. Are you trying to say that they were sent out as bait for an undercover operation?”

“It didn’t look like their main forces even came… No matter how I looked at it, it was a bit strange,” Kamila explained.

“Are you saying it seemed like the Holdrim Clan was already passed to the successor and the remnants attacked us instead?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Kamila. Are you sure it’s not that you feel things ended blandly since you’re as strong as our previous leader? It seemed to me like you were overexerting yourself and showing Kaisen a demonstration of your ‘new’ final move.”

“Fuck demonstrations.” Kamila shrugged.

Wolf sat next to her and forlornly stroked the side of his friend’s hair, which had turned completely white. “How much more time do you think we have?”

“There’s not a single damn bit left.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

It would’ve been nice to have more time. Even just a little would’ve been okay so that she could teach the pitiful brat, give him more guidance, and pass on her teaching as her teacher had done for her.

Unfortunately, fate wasn’t so kind.

They would soon have to part ways.

____