When Renzo’s gaze was stolen by that, Ares shouted again.
[Those things don’t matter at all! Go get my spear! Now!!]
“Shut up!! Your damn spear doesn’t matter to me in the slightest!!”
Renzo shouted. In truth, Ares’ spear really was something he couldn’t care less about.
KWAaaa......!
Ares reached out his hand again.
The struggle began once more. A fierce fight to seize control of the body. Normally, a struggle over whether possession succeeds or not would proceed in complete silence, but—
KWA-THUD! KWAANG!
—in Renzo’s case, it was better not to expect that.
Renzo bounded here and there, slamming his own body into everything around him. Not only into trees and cliffs, but even using the midair leap he had devised for himself in reverse, to drive himself headfirst into the ground.
For an ordinary person, it would be no different from a suicide attempt.
[Renzo! Do you truly want to die?!]
“I told you! I’d rather die than let you control me!”
THUNK!
Renzo smashed his head into the ground again.
In that brief moment, he hid his face from Ares.
‘......Hm.’
Then he lifted his head again and, flash, Renzo’s eyes turned toward Ares.
“I know that your spear and shield toyed with my heart.”
[......!]
“And yet you have the gall to command me to bring you your spear? If you’re a god, you should feel ashamed of yourself, you fucking bastard.”
At Renzo’s words, Ares’ body stiffened for a moment.
In that short instant, seeing an opening, Renzo dashed toward the cave he’d seen earlier.
[──Hey!]
“Kha-ha-ha-ha! You fell for it, Ares! You and I are both not suited to feeling shame!”
[You son of a bitch!]
Renzo had just seen people entering that cave.
‘Judging by their gait, they’re not just ordinary folks! They’re people who know how to fight!’
Renzo didn’t know why humans were outside the barrier, or why they were filing into the cave.
He had no interest in such reasons. If he could use something, he would use it, that was all.
‘If those guys attack me, Ares won’t be able to pull any weird stunts either!’
In other words, Renzo was now planning to pick a fight.
In order not to be possessed by Ares, he was putting himself in even greater danger.
‘As expected, I’m a genius!’
“You bastards!!!”
KWAANG!
Renzo deliberately kicked his way into the cave with a loud crash.
But unfortunately, there was no one near the entrance.
“Damn it! This place is annoyingly big!”
[Renzo! Stop!!]
Ares’ voice came.
[You must not go in there!!]
“......Oh?”
Renzo pricked up his ears at that.
“‘You must not go in there?’”
He’d thought Ares would say something like, Don’t run away. Instead, he heard something completely unexpected.
It was as if Ares knew what this place was.
Saying he must not go in there made it sound truly dangerous.
“Arghhh!! Now I absolutely can’t not go in! You stupid bastard!”
[Who are you calling stupid, you lunatic!!!]
KWA-KWAAAAANG!
Renzo smashed his way deeper in, pounding on the cave walls and ceiling.
It was an application of the midair leap Renzo had originally used, or maybe he was just hurling his body forward and crashing into things.
Going a bit farther in, he began to see people. They were the ones he’d seen earlier.
“Wh-what the?!”
“Some crazy bastard is slamming his head—uwaaagh!”
THWACK!
Renzo simply punched away anything that got in his path.
He was currently driving forward while slamming into every side of the cave, so in this case, you could say the entire cave was in his way.
“Th-that guy, don’t tell me!”
“It’s Renzo! It’s Renzo!!”
WHUD! THWACK! KWA-THUD!!
“That’s right, it is Iiiii!!!”
──Up until this point.
Renzo had been planning to be attacked by the humans here.
Only then could he stop Ares from trying to possess him.
Of course, he had no intention of dying, so at some point he would probably kill all the humans here.
Then how would he stop Ares’ possession after that?
That was something he’d think about when the time came.
“Damn it! How did he find this place!”
“Everyone, block him! We mustn’t let him inside!!”
Soon the ones inside came streaming out, blocking Renzo’s path.
“......Huh?”
Renzo found their reaction odd.
Renzo had come here by coincidence, yet they were talking as if he were involved with them.
What was inside there?
Sssht!
Just then, a guy with a sword charged him.
‘......Oh, not bad.’
Renzo admired the man’s excellent agility, trained movements, and clean sword path as he came in.
Whoosh, THUMP.
Of course, once he dodged and slammed a punch into the man’s abdomen, he folded.
‘I wasn’t mistaken earlier. These guys really do know how to fight.’
While Renzo was knocking one down, the enemies spread out and widened the distance, surrounding him. The murderous intent was no joke.
“Die!!”
“Uwaaaah!!”
At one man’s signal, everyone rushed in.
It looked like they were charging without thinking, but they all jumped in with proper timing.
It was only because their opponent was Renzo; if their strength had been equal, there would never have been any opening to find in that coordinated assault.
But Renzo was the type who forced openings instead of looking for them.
THUD!
In front of the charging enemies, Renzo stomped his foot hard.
The ground trembled from the aura’s effect; it was close to a mild earthquake.
“Urgh......!”
The enemies wavered in their stance, startled, but they didn’t collapse.
However, an opening did appear.
Sssht!
Renzo slipped his body to the left and knocked aside the incoming blade with his fist.
“Gah!”
He took the enemy’s attack head-on, shaking the enemy’s entire body along with the weapon. At that point it was less defense and more offense.
“Hng!”
THU-UUUMP!!
With a snort of breath, he swung a single blow. One man flew away, and the ones caught up with him crashed down in a heap.
But other members quickly filled the empty space, and still others lifted the fallen man together.
‘They’ve all got lots of combat experience. Even while attacking, they don’t open their guard easily.’
Renzo liked their way of fighting.
It wasn’t exactly clean, but they were well-practiced at responding to all sorts of situations, and even if things went off-script, they did whatever they could to adapt.
A fighting style like this was something you couldn’t get without having gone through countless battles.
They were undoubtedly the type who had watched their comrades die over and over. They had absorbed everything there was to absorb from those deaths, and so they were strong.
“Yeah! This is what fighting is supposed to be!”
THUD! KWA-THUD! KLANG!!
Renzo reached the two who had rushed in before their attacks landed, rammed them with his shoulder, then knocked aside the next opponent’s descending sword with his fist.
The enemy whose sword had been blocked was dumbfounded.
‘He just punched the blade......!’
Renzo hadn’t gone for the side of the sword or anything fancy like that.
He just smashed his fist straight into the blade head-on, and the fist won.
“You monster-like—”
THWACK─!
The man didn’t get to finish his sentence; he took a blow to the face and was slammed into the wall. His body slid down with a slither, and he didn’t get back up.
“Ah! I like you bastards! I really like the way you fight! You’re a hundred, no, a thousand times better than that walking textbook of an annoying bastard!”
Renzo shouted, as if he were refreshed for the first time in a while.
Of course, the enemies had no idea what the hell he was talking about. All they knew was that this was one hell of a shitty situation.
“Hm, but I feel like I’ve met people who fought like this before......?”
Renzo stroked his chin and fell into ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) thought in the middle of the fight.
“Y-you bastard......!”
The enemies shook with rage at his relaxed attitude. But given that even their best-formed attack formations were collapsing easily, they really couldn’t just charge blindly in.
Just then,
Sssht!
“Hm?”
The shadow of one of them suddenly stretched long.
KAAANG─!
A metallic clang burst out in front of Renzo’s reflexively extended fist.
“Hm......!”
A hint of surprise and admiration. Renzo took a step back.
‘A person popped out of the shadow. Just seeing that was enough to make my body freeze for a moment.’
Renzo had never imagined he could feel surprised in the middle of a fight.
But what he’d just seen was something he truly had never seen in his life before, so his body stopped.
......No, wait?
“I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere before too......?”
Renzo tilted his head.
He felt a slight heat in his fist. Without thinking, he looked at his own fist.
“Oh-ho.”
He grinned.
Blood was running from his fist. There was a faint wound.
“To think you could cut my fist with a sword, not bad.”
“......You really only ever say things that make no sense.”
The one who had leaped out of the shadow was a woman. She wore slightly lighter clothing than the others Renzo had fought so far. Her movements were nimble, as if that was no coincidence.
‘......Her outfit’s kind of revealing, though?’
Renzo glanced at her clothes and face for a moment.
Then he popped his eyes wide open.
“I see! You people are......!”
He pointed his finger at the enemies.
“Mangcock!”
“It’s Manggot! And just what have you been looking at this whole time to only realize that now?!”
“No, it was when I was looking at your body that it came to me. I thought, There were girls with outfits and figures like yours when I was fighting in that war. Ha-ha-hah! So that’s it! That’s why you all fight so well!”
Renzo nodded as if relieved that his memory had come back.
Everyone was at a loss for words.
He had forgotten every single characteristic of Manggot, and only the women’s faces and bodies had remained in his memory.
In truth, there were few people who could keep up with Renzo’s insane tempo.
“So.”
Renzo grinned.
“What are a bunch of routed soldiers doing here?”
“......!”
Murderous intent rose from them.
Routed soldiers. Right now there was no word that enraged Manggot more than that.
“And you, woman. You’re one step above the others in skill. What are you?”
“......I am Yeolgot.”
“How oddly polite.”
Renzo cocked his head.
Manggot and Yeolgot. Then Manggot must have ten thousand people, and Yeolgot must have ten?
“So why are you guys here?”
“......You came here without knowing that?”
“Well, yeah. Ah! This isn’t the time for that! Come on, keep coming!”
Renzo suddenly remembered that Ares was waiting for a chance to possess him. He crooked his finger to provoke them.
The woman hesitated for a moment, then asked,
“......If we were to abandon the fight right now, would you go back?”
“Nooo! Absolutely not! Attack me! I’ll play with you! Hurry up!”
“Is there really no way for us but to fight?”
“Well, if you became mine, I might consider it.”
At that, Manggot’s fury boiled even hotter.
But the woman looked around and said,
“Everyone, fall back.”
“Di! What are you saying?!”
“Calm down. Right now we’ve been given a golden opportunity. The chance to stop this fight with Sir Renzo with just me alone.”
The woman called Di cleverly changed the way she addressed Renzo to “Sir Renzo” in the meantime.
‘......Wait, huh.’
Of course, for Renzo, that had only been provocation; he had never imagined that this woman would actually offer herself up.
“Now, go on.”
“......Di, are you truly all right with this?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
All at once, the atmosphere among Manggot turned resolute. They nodded to one another.
“......No! That won’t do!”
Renzo shouted. Di turned back to him with a puzzled face.
“What do you mean, it won’t do?”
“I have to fight! Hurry up and attack! You lot!”
“......You just said that if I became yours, you’d stop, didn’t you?”
“That was provocation! I have to fight! No matter what!”
At those words, Di’s eyes sank.
“......No matter what, you must fight....... Is it something like fate?”
“Wh-what? Yeah, something like that! I mustn’t stop fighting!”
Because Ares was watching for a chance to possess him.
Di glanced briefly at Ares, then nodded.
“So even you, once called the Guest of Chaos, seem to have your own reasons for living that way. I’d heard you were just a human who’d gotten hooked on women, money, and fun.”
“That’s true! But I still have to fight right now!”
“......If you crave fighting that much, can’t you be satisfied with just me? If you defeat me, I will obey your will. Is your creed that you can only obtain a woman if there is a fight?”
No, if things went that way, once he took Di down he wouldn’t be able to keep fighting.
“You’re a good woman! But that way won’t work! I just have to fight, that’s all!”
At Renzo’s words, Di gave a wry smile. She nodded deeply, as if to say she understood everything.
“I think I might understand you a little.”
‘I don’t think you understand me at all.’
