Hard Carried by My Sword-Chapter 40

Chapter 40
She’s dangerous,
Leon thought as his nape slowly became soaked in cold sweat.
The fact that the Keeper and Karen were the same person was a truth he wasn’t supposed to know. If not for El-Cid’s confirmation, he never would’ve dismissed his hunch in a heartbeat.
Their impressions were polar opposites, and they even acted independently. A cheerful, charming female adventurer was actually one of the bosses of the slums? No one would’ve seen that coming.
Khan clearly had no clue. And if the Guildmaster had known, he would’ve pulled me aside and given me a heads-up. He’d never keep it hidden from the Bishop Caesare either—not without risking serious consequences.
Which meant that Leon was the only one privy to this secret. Even if someone else did know, it wasn’t like they could ensure his safety. For an assassin, their identity was the last thing they wanted to be revealed. If discovered, they’d do anything to silence the witness.
Dammit...
Leon moved without changing his expression, keeping a perfectly blank face despite the turmoil inside. One of the assassin’s greatest assets was observational skill. Understanding what their target was thinking, how they moved, and why—only then would they strike.
Karen might not notice anything while she walked ahead, but it never hurt to be cautious.
“Left here!” she called out in a cheerful voice, and he followed.
No one would suspect an assassin looking like that, but that might have been the honed disguise of an assassin, or perhaps it was simply one side of Karen herself. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something someone like Leon could see through. For now, he could only cling to the fact that she wasn’t an enemy.
Whether by luck or misfortune, he didn’t have time to think about it further. Roughly ten meters ahead, Karen suddenly stopped and held up a single finger, signaling the presence of an enemy.
“One?” Leon mouthed silently. She shook her head.
Her finger still showed “one,” but her expression told him to come see for himself.
Ah.
That’s when he understood. It was indeed one enemy—but not a single individual.
The strange creature growled, though it sounded more like phlegm bubbling up. It looked vaguely dog-like, but on closer inspection, it was completely different.
It had four pairs of eyes, three tails, its twisted muzzle belched purple smoke, and its drooling saliva sizzled against the floor, corroding the stone. If that poison could melt stone, it would rot straight through to the marrow if it touched skin.
Looking at the creature that was bigger than a buffalo and monstrously grotesque in appearance, Karen clicked her tongue in disgust and said, “
Ugh
, I don’t want to fight something that looks like that.”
She wasn’t saying that just from the aesthetic distaste. With her primary weapons being daggers and rope, she had few viable options against a large monster. Even if she buried a dagger to the hilt, it wouldn’t do much. And this thing had likely been summoned by exolaw—it almost certainly had regenerative ability.
“Can we go around it?” Leon asked.
“Yeah. But it’ll add thirty minutes. And there’s no promise there won’t be more of these down that path.”
“Then we fight.”
Leon didn’t hesitate. The enemy’s intention was clear. They were buying time until City Swallowing could be activated. Once it was, the enemy’s victory was practically guaranteed.
Evil had no reason to come out and fight otherwise. It was the infiltration team that needed to hurry.
Pretending not to know Karen’s dual identity, Leon addressed the shadow flickering against the wall.
“Keeper.”
A voice soon flowed from the shadow.
“What... do you want...”
“Can you kill that thing?”
There was a pause before the voice returned.
“What... if... I can...?”
“We’ll pin it down. While we’re doing that, prepare your move. You’re in this with us now, so full cooperation is in your best interest, no?”
“Fine...”
He was basically speaking to Karen anyway. Leon stepped forward, past her. His stamina had mostly recovered on the way here, and now it was time to go all in.
Leon kicked off the ground, darting forward like a bullet into the straight corridor. The grotesque creature was too far away for a surprise attack, so the only choice was to close the distance fast and find a proper position.
However, the creature’s reaction speed exceeded expectations. With a chilling roar, its jaws opened. There was only one thing that came to mind at that sight.
A plume of pale violet smoke burst out. It wasn’t fast, but the spread was massive. That’s what made gas-type breath attacks more troublesome than liquid ones.
Leon quickly pulled back his sword. There wasn’t enough space to dodge, and swinging his sword wouldn’t disperse it with mere wind force.
El-Cid!
Leon called out, and the moment he did, purifying light burst from the blade.
It was one of the Holy Sword’s fundamental powers—erasing all substances and forces harmful to life. The creature’s breath was no exception. The violet smoke scattered in a blink.
Its trump card defeated, the monster flinched. Leon took two quick steps forward, exploiting that brief opening. This kind of opportunity might never come again.
His full-speed horizontal strike narrowly missed. The monster was faster than expected. Those four pairs of eyes weren’t for show—rolling and twisting, they tracked every move and calculated most, if not all, variables.
Sensing something and a chill running down his spine, Leon retreated half a step. Almost simultaneously, the three tails whipped through the spot where his upper body had been before his retreat, so fast that the air boomed from the impact.
The attack had broken the sound barrier.
I can’t dodge the next one!
The tails were faster than Leon at full speed. Even a graze would rip his body apart. Alarmed, he opened his eyes wide. Even with Rodrick’s Vision active, he merely saw blurred afterimages that only scrambled his focus.
At least one hit had to be blocked. As he began to shift into a defensive stance, Karen’s voice rang out from behind.
“Rookie! One more push forward!”
He had no idea what she was thinking, but he knew he had two options: trust her or don’t. Leon chose instantly.
“Let’s go, Karen.”
He leaned his body into a sprint, charging head-on into the three supersonic tails. Anyone would call it suicidal, and sure enough, one second later, death closed in.
Forehead, heart, abdomen. Three strikes aimed precisely at those points. He couldn’t dodge. He couldn’t defend.
The only trajectory he could deal with was the one going for his heart. The other two would hit, piercing two of his fatal parts.
However, that wasn’t how things played out. Two daggers shot through the air like streaks of light, intercepting the tails. The ones diving for his forehead and stomach recoiled from the shock.
Karen had struck tails moving faster than sound with thrown daggers.
Now!
Leon diverted the tail aiming for his heart with the flat of his sword and charged straight into the monster’s chest. At this range, no matter how fast it was, it couldn’t dodge.
Leon’s blade moved. In a world that had slowed to a crawl, it carved a perfect diagonal arc, aiming for the creature’s thick neck. The golden Aura flowing down the blade enhanced its sharpness, slicing through flesh tougher than troll hide like butter.
Even then, he couldn’t finish the cut. Just as the blade sank halfway in, the monster bolted backward at terrifying speed. Accelerating in reverse—something only a quadruped could manage.
Leon froze, realizing he’d missed a perfect chance. He had to be faster. He had to be stronger.
If he’d just cut a few centimeters deeper, he could’ve killed it. That fleeting shortfall had cost him victory.
It’s charging...!
Writhing in pain and bleeding, the monster glared at him with eyes full of hatred and rage. It was pure killing intent, mindless bloodlust pouring from it.
Death was seconds away. Leon tightened his grip on his sword, determined not to back down. He forgot even about Karen, focusing solely on the creature that would lunge at him any second.
He waited.
“
Huh...
?”
However, nothing happened. Leon let his sword drop slightly, his expression dazed. The creature, still postured to charge at any moment, didn’t move. Its bulging, vein-popping legs wouldn’t take a single step.
The reason lay beneath it.
Daggers!
Seven daggers were lodged in the monster’s shadow. He didn’t know when they’d been planted, but they pinned all four of its legs—and even the shadows of its tails.
This was the true prowess of Karen—the Keeper’s—Aura! And then the shadow came alive.
“...Die,” the shadow muttered.
Its shape was that of sharpened spears, of awls made to pierce solid flesh. Dozens of shadow weapons, each with a piercing force equal to an Aura Weapon, shot upward and impaled the monster’s entire body.
The technique immobilized the enemy before shredding it to pieces. The beast flailed and sprayed blackish-blue blood in all directions, but it didn’t last long before collapsing.
Incredible. So this is what it means to be A-rank?
Leon watched the monster’s ruined corpse with awe. The wounds had stopped trying to regenerate. It was clear the attack had overwhelmed its regenerative power.
A technique designed to utterly annihilate a single target. It was fitting to be a true assassin’s ultimate move.
“Not bad teamwork for an improvised squad, huh? Don’t you think?”
Karen, who had snuck up beside him at some point, rested a hand on his shoulder. Whether it was just friendly or something more, it wasn’t great for his heart.
“Seriously. I never imagined you’d land a hit on those tails. That was insane.”
He meant it—no exaggeration. To hit a target moving faster than sound with a thrown dagger was a devastating mid-range tactic. Leon wondered if all A-rank rogues were like this.
Karen grinned bashfully, saying, “
Aww
, that? That’s nothing compared to the creepy guy. I didn’t think an assassin would pull off something that flashy.”
“That was a clean one-hit kill if I’ve ever seen one,” Leon agreed.
“Right? No wonder people call him the king of the slums.”
She praised herself without a hint of shame. She continued, “Well, shall we keep going? Doesn’t look like we’ve got time to rest.”
“Yes, let’s move.”
This entire raid was a race against the clock. Whether they could reach the ritual before it was completed would decide everything. Even though Leon was tired, he left without even considering a break.
If it came down to it, he could recover energy using the Holy Sword’s stored energy. Thinking of the people who would die if City Swallowing succeeded, this fatigue felt like nothing. He was determined not to fall until Evil was wiped out.
***
Fortunately, their trek through the labyrinth ended quickly. Barely ten minutes after slaying the monster, Karen and Leon reached a corridor guarded by eight exolaw wielders. The overwhelming, sinister force pouring from within made it clear this was the ritual’s heart.
The biggest problem was their lack of manpower. Leon, Karen, and the Keeper were three in name, but only two in practice. They couldn’t break through like this.
“Were we too fast? I don’t think we can pull it off this time,” Karen muttered, making a sour face.
No one in the strike team was better at gauging power disparities. Leon didn’t try to argue. His own Aura Sense agreed with her. Each of those eight radiated an oppressive strength. If any earlier battle had included two of them at once, he might not have survived.
“That means we either wait for the others to catch up or go find them ourselves,” Leon said.
“Both are risky. If they arrive too late or we miss each other, it’s all over. Can’t believe we have to gamble again after getting this far.”
Sighing deeply and sitting down, Karen looked like nothing more than a grumbling adventurer—and that threw Leon off, even knowing her real identity. Perhaps this was her real self?
Just then, a massive tremor shook the floor nearby. It wasn’t normal. It was the shockwave of two immense forces colliding. Someone was fighting. The two instinctively met each other’s eyes.
The exolaw wielders had clearly felt it too. They murmured among themselves, and after a brief discussion, four of them began moving toward the source.
Leon and Karen were put at yet another crossroads. Should they support the ally likely fighting out there? Or take advantage of the reduced defense and break through the corridor?
After weighing the options, Leon made the call.
“Let’s regroup. If those guys win and come back, they’ll surround us and we’d be finished. And even if they all go down, we don’t know how many more are beyond that corridor. We need to gather our strength.”
“Fair point. And those four who stayed behind don’t look like pushovers either,” Karen agreed easily.
Before standing, she pressed one ear to the ground. After a moment, she seemed to have located the source of the tremor and started running.
It was a level of perception beyond human—another domain entirely, different from Leon’s Vision or Footwork. Leaving the enemy base behind, they raced toward the clash of battle. It wasn’t far, but they had to take a detour to avoid alerting the remaining exolaw wielders.
“
Ah
!”
Just a few minutes later, Leon reached a wide-open space—and gasped. He couldn’t help it.
At the exact moment they arrived, Conrad was struck through the stomach at the center of the plaza.