Chapter 107
Bzzt!
“……!”
Suddenly, a rough flapping sound rushed from ahead.
At the sound, Lloyd quickly ducked his head.
Fwip!
A locust leg grazed the back of his neck as it passed.
It stung.
Maybe the claw had torn his skin.
But he had no time to care about such a trivial sting.
Because now he could see hundreds—no, thousands—of locusts flying toward him from ahead.
“Damn.”
He thought he was herding them well.
He had carefully mapped out an escape route to leave most of the locust swarm behind.
‘Of course, the area is just too wide. The whole barony and the viscounty are crawling with them.’
No matter how carefully he plotted, some locusts would charge from the front as well.
The problem was, that “some” meant hundreds, even thousands.
“Lloyd, prepare yourself.”
A massive swarm of locusts blocked out the sky.
The thunderous sound of their wings was nearly deafening.
Through the din, Javier’s calm voice came.
The corner of Lloyd’s mouth lifted.
“Man, I’m not ready for this.”
He was serious.
He was no hero.
Not some brave warrior out of a storybook.
Charging head-on at a horde of hundreds, thousands of monstrous locusts? This was the last thing he wanted.
‘No, honestly, this is insane!’
He hated bugs.
He’d always hated them, but living in a cheap old goshiwon had made it worse.
Not a sleek modern studio, but a run-down old goshiwon.
Cockroaches, house centipedes, sometimes even finger-sized centipedes.
He’d had to deal with them constantly.
So he couldn’t help but shudder at anything with more than six legs.
But now?
‘I have to charge into hundreds—thousands—of locusts the size of a Jindo dog? Am I nuts?’
Maybe he should just abandon the estate and run for it.
Turn his horse around and flee.
Rush to the Queen and beg for some cushy job.
For a moment, he even seriously considered it.
But there was no time to get lost in thought.
It was too late to run.
The locusts were already nearly upon him.
And he was charging straight at them on horseback!
“Ah, screw it! I must be out of my mind!”
Whatever happens, happens.
He blocked the front with the pot lid.
Thunk! Krakunk! Kunkunkunk!
An onslaught of impacts battered the pot lid.
Not just any impacts.
‘Guheuheuh!’
Nothing like when Javier had hit the pot lid earlier—this was dozens of hits all at once.
Of course.
He was riding a thoroughbred under acceleration magic.
Even a rough estimate put their speed at well over 100 km/h.
And several-kilogram locusts were slamming into him head-on at dozens of kilometers per hour.
‘Calculate the force of impact on the pot lid…… Screw that! Just let me live!’
Kunkunkunkunk!
He could barely feel his arm anymore.
It felt like his shoulder would tear right off.
His waist was bending, his legs felt like they’d shatter.
If he hadn’t held on with the full power of Triple Circle, he’d have been thrown for sure.
‘And if I fall off? I’ll be devoured a thousand times over by those things.’
A chill ran down his spine.
He barely hung on, even while those thoughts ran through his head.
Of course, Javier was a huge help.
“Turn your head this way! Keep pace with me even without sight, and hold the pot lid at an angle! You need to deflect the blows instead of taking them head-on!”
The sound of a hundred fans at once, wings everywhere.
Yet Javier’s voice was clear.
Without thinking, Lloyd followed his instructions.
He angled the pot lid slightly forward.
The battering eased a bit.
Thanks to that, he managed a quick glance to the side.
‘How’s Javier handling this without a pot lid?’
From his voice, he sounded fine.
Thinking that, Lloyd glanced in his direction.
And saw it.
Kiiiiing! Twack! Twakwak!
Javier, racing alongside him.
His whole body, his horse, all blazing with the radiance of aura.
No, to be exact……
‘Can a human even swing a sword like that?’
Swick! Twack!
A sword blazing with aura danced.
It sliced, slashed, and tore through space.
Nothing could withstand it.
Everything that charged them was sliced apart with the wind.
‘It’s like swinging ten electric flyswatters at once.’
He was at a loss for words.
Javier wasn’t just breaking through; he was mincing the locusts into cubes with inhuman speed and a storm of aura.
Even launching blasts forward every time he had a spare moment.
Twack! Twatwack!
He fired three or four blasts at a time.
He wasn’t just spamming them.
Each burst was precisely angled, timed, and overlapped.
Long but narrow ranges for each blast.
Maximizing the effect with every shot.
Twack!
Even a single blast rivaled his own Triple Detonation in coverage.
In fact, Javier seemed even more efficient with his energy than Triple Detonation.
‘Should I call it a 2+1 Blast? What a monster.’
Still, locusts were charging at them from the front in overwhelming numbers.
Lloyd ducked even lower.
He urged his horse on.
“Just a little further! Hang in there!”
“Frrrhiing!”
He was grateful for the horse’s efforts, even panting as it ran.
If not for acceleration magic, none of this would’ve been possible.
“Let’s go!”
He moved as one with the horse.
Thudududu!
They didn’t just race in a straight line.
Sometimes slowing, sometimes turning sharply.
Feinting left, then breaking through right.
Dodging, weaving, leaping forward.
He read the flow of wind, sound, even murderous intent.
He was getting the hang of it.
“Like this!”
Thunk!
He swung the pot lid hard.
Batted away a locust coming from above.
It crashed into another and fell.
He trampled them under his horse’s hooves as they fell.
And so, he broke through the locust swarm up ahead.
Of course, the rest of the swarm was still chasing from behind.
Easily more than hundreds of thousands.
Neither Javier’s aura nor his Triple Detonation could hold them back.
A chill ran up his spine.
“Keep running! Hyah!”
They charged on.
Crossed the Lacona Viscounty border.
Headed north.
Familiar roads and terrain appeared.
Land that used to be all marsh and swamp.
Now, reclaimed land made by everyone working together.
The Marez Reclaimed Field stretched before him.
“Over the ridge, to the drainage embankment!”
That was where the extermination zone was set up in advance.
He just had to make it there.
But then—
Thudududu……
“Huh?”
His horse’s pace suddenly slowed.
Alarmed, Lloyd checked his condition.
“Hey?”
“Frururuk! Huhiing! Hehheck!”
The horse was foaming at the mouth.
But it still tried its best to keep running.
Lloyd realized.
‘He’s exhausted.’
Even the finest horse had its limits.
Even acceleration magic couldn’t push past everything.
‘True. He’s been running since dawn today. Never got a rest, even coming to the estate.’
And after arriving?
He’d pushed flat out to lure the locusts.
Circled the entire outer edge of Frontera Estate.
Crossed into the viscounty.
Circled the viscounty, too.
Never slowed down, not for a second.
A marathon distance, run at sprint speed.
‘Did I push too hard for even acceleration magic to cover? What now?’
He glanced to the side.
Maybe Javier’s horse was faring better.
But it was in the same shape.
Obvious, from the way it was slowing down.
Its strides had lost their power.
If he pushed it any further, it’d collapse.
‘Better to dismount now.’
Hundreds of thousands of locusts right behind.
Pushing the horse now, for a bit more comfort, would just get it hurt.
If it collapsed unexpectedly, he’d be thrown and left defenseless.
‘That would just make things worse. Can’t let that happen.’
Maybe Javier had noticed the same.
Or sensed the horse’s state.
He glanced at Lloyd with the same realization.
‘Let’s release the horses here.’
‘Understood.’
Thuk!
No more hesitation.
Lloyd gripped the saddle with one hand.
Kicked the stirrups with both feet.
Leapt into the air.
“Get out of here! And don’t get too relaxed—run far away!”
Smack!
“Fuhihing!”
He gave the horse a good swat to urge him on.
With a lighter load, the horse neighed and shot off at full speed, quickly vanishing into the distance. By the time Lloyd landed, it was already more than twenty meters away.
“…….”
Weirdly, that blockhead seemed to regain all his energy as soon as Lloyd got off.
He put aside his suspicions.
Now wasn’t the time.
Thankfully, the extermination zone at the Marez Reclaimed Field wasn’t far……
“What are you doing?”
Lloyd asked as he glanced over.
Javier raised his sword, his eyes fierce.
“Lloyd, you go on ahead. I’ll hold the rear.”
Shing!
Aura blazed with resolve.
It wrapped around Javier’s sword.
A brilliance only a Swordmaster who’d mastered the sword’s ultimate could produce.
A knight’s sword shining for the sake of master, honor, and oath.
Javier showed his determined back.
He stood proud before the oncoming horde of hundreds of thousands.
Lloyd’s heart pounded.
He slapped the back of Javier’s head.
“Are you nuts? You’re going to fight them here?”
“Lloyd? What are you—”
“Hold the rear, my ass! You want me to run away while you die? Just carry me, quick!”
“Carry you?”
“Hurry up! There’s no time!”
Only 30 meters to the locust swarm.
Lloyd yelled as he jumped onto Javier’s back.
He didn’t wait for a response.
“Run!”
“…….”
Javier’s face twisted for a moment.
But he quickly understood his young master’s intention.
‘He’s being purely practical.’
Thwack!
He turned.
Pushed off the ground.
Carried Lloyd and sprinted.
Lloyd, piggybacked, smacked the pot lid with his other fist.
Bwoooong—!
A massive echo sounded, and the swarm’s pursuit grew fiercer.
Only 25 meters left.
Javier ran on.
“Lloyd, was getting off the horse and having me carry you all part of your plan?”
“Plan?”
“Letting me carry you.”
“Of course.”
From his back, Lloyd let out a dry laugh.
“I’m not fast. Quicker than a normal person, but no way I can outrun that swarm. But you? You’re fast.”
“But if I run while carrying you, I can’t guarantee we’ll escape. If I stayed and blocked them, you’d have a much better chance on your own.”
“That’s exactly what I didn’t want.”
“…….”
“Do you have some kind of hero complex? Why do you always get all dramatic about dying? You did this in Cremo, too.”
“…….”
“So, let’s say you stay behind and die. I escape, thanks to you. How am I supposed to live with that? Huh?”
“Lloyd…….”
“I hate that kind of thing. So just run. Go!”
Smack!
“……Please don’t treat me like a horse.”
“It’s payback.”
“Payback for what?”
“In the ant cave. After the explosion. When we escaped. Remember?”
“……I don’t recall.”
“Oh really? That’s odd. I remember everything.”
“…….”
“Anyway, let’s get out of here alive together. Someone stays, someone runs—that’s just awkward. And cheap.”
“…….”
Where did the jokes end and the truth begin?
Lloyd Frontera.
Sometimes, no—often, he was hard to figure out.
But one thing was certain.
Let’s get out of here alive together.
“I like that, at least.”
Taat!
Javier kicked off the ground even harder.
Only 20 meters left.
But he didn’t look back.
He used every bit of strength to stay upright, keep balance.
He roused endless circulation of the mana heart.
Poured Triple Circle’s amplification into it.
Twak!
Last strength into his tired legs.
Dogged resolve in his breath.
He sliced through the wind, crossed the ridge.
Only 10 meters left.
The furious flapping of wings closed in from right behind.
And only 30 meters left to the extermination zone.
“Just five more steps!”
A shout from behind.
Counting the final steps.
Five—for carrying the lord’s son.
Four—for keeping their promise to live.
Three—for not giving up to the end.
Two—for staying focused to the last.
One……
“Jump to the side!”
Tahat!
He reacted instantly to the shout.
Kicked off, dove sideways.
Tumbled into the drainage ditch.
Now what?
That was when Lloyd’s hand shot out.
Grabbed the back of his head.
“Duck!”
A firm hand forced him down.
Now, just five meters from the swarm.
At that moment, Javier saw.
“Bangul!”
Jinglejinglejingle!
Through the grass, Bangul’s plump tail shot out with a noisy ring.
Then came an explosive storm of destruction.
Kwooooong—!
A volcanic eruption skill of unprecedented scale swept through and devoured the locust swarm.