Epio faintly regained consciousness.
He felt a floating sensation as if plunged into the sea.
His consciousness was hazy, like in a dream. The feeling that if he stopped thinking, he would sink forever into the sea of oblivion and disappear.
But there was no anxiety at all.
The sensation was too comforting to shake off.
Perhaps it might be okay to let everything go like this.
At that thought.
…Wake up.
An unidentified voice rang in his ears.
Wake up.
It felt vaguely unfamiliar.
But it was definitely a familiar voice.
…Wake up, Epio. You must not fall until you fulfill your mission.
[Damn it, Epio you idiot! Get up quickly!]
Right after the mysterious voice overlapped with the familiar ego sword’s telepathy, vitality returned to the boy’s body.
“Umm….”
He clutched his aching head and was dazed for a moment, but the drowsiness vanished as if washed away by the blade wind brushing his cheek.
He recalled what he had been doing just before.
He had charged spiritedly at one of Caracol’s fighters, but ended up stabbed in the heart due to paralyzing poison.
How am I alive after being stabbed in the heart?
There was one question preceding that thought.
“…Pleb, how many minutes have passed since I fell?”
[Only 5 seconds. More importantly, how are you alive?]
Instead of answering, Epio instinctively raised his sword. The mage he had to protect, Dilan, was confronting the assassin Domingo.
He scanned the surroundings to assess the battle situation.
Due to the chaotic melee with ceaseless metallic clashes, Caracol’s fighters hadn’t yet noticed he had regained consciousness.
“Good, huff….”
Epio’s form, operating ‘Rampage Qi,’ shot forward like an arrow. The Caracol mage chanting spells shouted in great surprise.
“Domingo! Look behind you!”
“What…?”
Boom!
‘Boom Strike,’ along the red trail created by Plebelziam, unfolded the ultimate technique of the Silas school, close to explosion magic.
Whoosh— A cloud of dust rose, rendering Domingo’s superhuman vision and senses useless for a moment.
‘I’ve grasped the movements of the other four without missing a beat. Who the hell…!’
At the moment he wondered.
Stab!
Piercing through the thick dust, the red blade plunged into Domingo’s abdomen. It was too swift to react.
“Got you!”
“Y-You bastard! How are you alive!”
Instead of answering, Epio shouted.
Boom Strike!!
Whoosh!
Flames erupted explosively, engulfing Domingo’s entire body in blaze.
Epio’s power was insufficient to burn an opponent one step from quasi-Twelve, but Plebelziam stuck in his abdomen had the function to absorb the opponent’s mana and HP.
It was enough power to change the battle situation immediately.
Epio suddenly released the ego sword’s hilt and lunged, pushing Domingo down.
“You insolent brat!”
Domingo, caught off guard, gritted his teeth and tried to resist with the paralyzing poison dagger in his right hand, but,
Boom Strike!
Boom! Another explosion detonated.
Acrid smoke scattered, and due to the recoil, Domingo rolling wildly on the dirt lost grip of the dagger’s hilt.
The Silas school’s technique, ‘Boom Strike,’ would self-destruct if control slipped even slightly. Roship could perform precise control without a hair’s breadth error in extreme situations, but Epio wasn’t that proficient yet.
In other words, high-risk high-return technique.
As proof, the boy’s left arm was mangled from the recent explosion’s recoil… Actually, this barely counts as a penalty.
Swoosh!
The left arm, twisted grotesquely like deboned meat, regained its original form in an instant. Shattered limbs are recovered in a flash through the Infinite Regeneration(S) trait.
No-risk high-return.
Epio pinned Domingo to the ground and began mercilessly pummeling him.
Smack! Thud! Crack!
Heavy impacts echoed across the open battlefield.
[Hey! Be careful! This guy’s plotting something!]
At Plebelziam’s telepathy, Epio’s gaze shifted.
Crunch! Immediately after, Domingo’s left hand, swiftly reaching into his bosom for paralyzing poison, was completely crushed by Epio’s elbow striking like lightning.
‘Ugh!’
Domingo didn’t let out a scream. The pride built as an elite from ‘Silvestris,’ the king of Wiblet Empire’s underworld, wouldn’t allow it.
Instead, he prepared the next move.
He had hidden extreme poison in his mouth that leads to instant death for such situations. If he spat it out, an inexperienced boy would be helpless.
But.
[Hey, Epio! This time, a strange wave is felt from that guy’s mouth!]
“…!”
Upon hearing Plebelziam’s telepathy, Epio unhesitatingly headbutted Domingo’s head.
Clang! Boom!
Over the sound effect as if metals collided, the flashy explosion of ‘Boom Strike’ overlapped.
“Keheuk!”
Rexar’s whole body spurted crimson blood from taking ‘Vileshaker’ head-on. Whoosh! I lightly swung the Burn Sword to separate his body and head.
Having dealt with Rexar, I finally looked around.
As expected from seeing Caracol’s fighters in the duel, the situation was extremely favorable for us.
If I had to mention an anxiety factor, it was Epio and Dilan’s side, much lower level than the opponents…
Boom!
A sudden explosion sound.
Hearing it, the corners of my mouth curled up involuntarily.
Epio, who had his heart pierced by Domingo moments ago, used ‘Boom Strike.’
The guy, protagonist of ‘Reca Chronicles,’ went through countless crises hard to escape even with multiple lives.
But ultimately, he somehow overcame them.
Thanks to literally having multiple lives.
To summarize the power of the Incarnation(S) trait in one line, it’s ‘resurrection’ ability.
The trait itself has a built-in function for one resurrection by default.
After the first resurrection, each resurrection consumes 1 [Divinity] value, and this consumption is not permanent loss but naturally recovers over time.
The [Divinity] value acts as a kind of stack, and reaching the max of 10 means storing up to 10 spare lives.
As a protagonist’s signature trait, it’s top-tier among S-grades, but naturally has several unavoidable weaknesses.
Immediately after resurrection, vitality is extremely depleted. That is, close to near-death state.
The decisive cause of death or status ailments like poison disappear without trace, but it doesn’t fully restore HP.
In game terms, resurrecting in a defenseless state with about [HP:5%].
Without allies’ assistance, remaining lives could be consumed in an instant.
But that fatal flaw is covered by the Infinite Regeneration(S) trait. Thus, for Epio, there’s no particular gap except the instant after resurrection.
There are other limits and weaknesses, but none are effective in the current situation.
Boom!
I saw Epio finishing Domingo with a ‘Boom Strike’ mixed headbutt.
“That blockhead..”
A chuckle escaped involuntarily.
Zzzap!
Operating ‘Thunder Qi,’ I kicked the ground. In an instant, I approached the elite Caracol mage targeting Epio, struck his solar plexus and neck to knock him out.
In one corner of the battlefield.
Ravalbea, who had discarded his dulled axe midway and started bare-handed combat. At some point, the fist he swung Crunch! burst the opponent’s head like a tomato. The deceased was none other than the level 42 warrior, ‘Jose Pardo.’
In another corner of the battlefield.
Arent, with hammer in one hand and shield, was engaged in a fierce psychological warfare with his opponent.
The opponent was also a level 45 warrior ‘Ugo Campos’ using sword and shield. Both prioritizing stability, no sign of resolution…
Whoosh!
Hit directly by the spell starting from Dilan’s hand, <Ultimate Air Hammer>, Ugo exposed a gap, and was felled by the closing Arent’s strike.
With Ravalbea, who defeated Jose, joining the wolf beastkin Antimos, finally, the knight battle ended in the Blispiel alliance’s victory.
The Blispiel alliance, having achieved a crushing victory, seized the flag put up by Caracol’s fighters. And returned to the camp where Princess Isabella was staying.
When representative Aiden raised the tattered Caracol flag,
Waaaaah!!
The personnel of the 16 clans in the alliance all cheered in unison.
They had all watched the knight battle’s progress from afar, but facing the returning fighters, a strange exhilaration surged.
Meanwhile, in the Caracol camp……
Thud!
“Pathetic fools.”
“………”
“How on earth do you fight to lose to opponents including two brats? And you call yourselves executives of Caracol Clan.”
At a glance, clan master Citrio seemed calm. But that was because his anger exceeded the threshold, inversely unable to express emotions.
Three dead, one lightly injured, two seriously injured.
The damage Caracol suffered in this knight battle.
It might seem insignificant in numbers, but all are damages to core executives of the clan. Even borrowing the power of the newly hired priest, it’s not damage to overlook lightly.
“I’m ashamed, Master Altus. But Aiden Stroke’s power far exceeded our expectations, and that brat Epio also used hard-to-believe sorcery….”
Crunch!
The hand axe Citrio threw grazed the speaking fighter’s cheek and embedded in the wall.
“Excuses are enough.”
“…My apologies.”
The executive bowed his head trembling. Citrio, glaring at him with bulging eyes, soon opened his mouth.
“Hey, Adelio.”
“…Yes, Master Altus.”
“Convey to the magic corps to firmly reinforce Athenas’s magic barrier. Request reinforcements from the Wiblet Empire to Glicia Kingdom, and fortify defenses until they arrive.”
Adelio’s eyes widened.
“The empire’s ruling class will surely demand part of Glicia Kingdom’s control rights from us.”
“That’s said considering all that. Better to cede some shares than lose the civil war with hands tied. It gives them a pretext to expand influence to the central region, so they won’t refuse.”
“…Understood.”
The quality of executives is still superior on Caracol’s side, but due to the knight battle loss, in total power they’re behind. However, the Blispiel alliance also lacks sufficient power to forcibly breach Athenas fortress.
The initiative is still with Caracol.
But Citrio’s thinking was soon revealed as a miscalculation.
Just two weeks after Caracol requested aid from their homeland Wiblet Empire.
An elite fairy knight order of no less than five hundred appeared without omen in Glicia Kingdom, and joined the Blispiel alliance stationed in Praga.
That day, Aiden immediately held a strategy meeting.
“No need to drag time unnecessarily. We’ll charge straight into Athenas fortress.”
“………”
The faces of the sixteen clan masters turned pale white.