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EP.38 Don't... abandon me, Eugene...?2
'Jeanne... why do you look so sad even while smiling.'
To Eugene's eyes, she looked sorrowful.
When he angrily said he would stay by her side for life and take everything from her rather than abandon her,
Jeanne's face smiling and saying to definitely do so looked that way to Eugene.
'Is there something I don't know well?
I thought I knew Jeanne pretty well.
So while receiving comfort from her since childhood,
I also thought I was taking care of Jeanne who had shadows in her heart.
I thought we were like wounded trees supporting each other so as not to fall.
But it seems my touch didn't reach as deeply into Jeanne as I thought.
Was it because of the arrogance of thinking I knew her well,
Now a feeling of regret welled up in Eugene's heart.
But beyond that aching heart
Thunk!!
An arrow flew like a dagger and embedded itself.
"!!!!!!!"
Jeanne's sorrowful appearance,
The cold, heavy arrow poured on top of that,
Because of that, Eugene Schneider's two eyes widened as if frozen.
"...Ah.."
Hnnng..!
A faint groan leaked from Jeanne's mouth,
And her eyes lost focus slightly.
With that appearance, Jeanne began to fall over, unable to withstand the impact of being hit by the arrow.
"Jeanne!!!"
Grab!!
As if escaping from frozen time,
Eugene embraced Jeanne's shoulders as she fell backwards, preventing her from collapsing.
Swoosh!!
Then by turning Jeanne's body to pull it into his arms,
He made a defensive posture in case more arrows might fly.
"Jeanne! Jeanne!"
Eugene looked at Jeanne and called her name.
Because Jeanne's expression seemed like her fuse had momentarily blown out
From the shock of being hit by an arrow in a defenseless state.
And Eugene's left hand moved slightly towards Jeanne's nose.
Even in his flustered state, he was thoroughly checking Jeanne's physical condition.
But at that moment, from behind Eugene like that
"As expected, even a Sword User is helpless when they let their guard down."
A man's voice tinged with indifference was heard.
Swish...!
After confirming Jeanne's breathing was continuing, Eugene
Immediately turned his head in that direction.
Thud, thud, thud, thud,
Then in the middle cave of the path splitting into three ahead,
The silhouette of gray gaiters was seen in the darkness along with footsteps.
Perhaps the areas other than the gaiters were black
Or seemed to be in a darker camouflage color than gray.
'Quite skilled, so the footsteps are faint but there are clearly four of them.'
They were gaiters worn by those who make combat their profession.
Then their shoes must also be quite heavy,
Yet the faint footsteps mean they are awakened ones.
However, Eugene's judgment sharpened like a needle as he entered the crisis situation, and he accurately picked out the number of enemies even from those faint footsteps.
"But for a regular mercenary group to have three Sword Users out of four, what kind of guys are you?"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The mysterious beings finally revealed themselves,
There were four as Eugene had judged,
And the man who seemed to be their leader tilted his head and raised a question.
'Those guys!!'
Eugene's eyes flashed as he faced those who had shot the arrow at Jeanne.
'Sophists!'
Black armor and black cloaks,
And a golden sword wrapped by a snake engraved on the left chest of the armor,
They were the Sophists, the fallen sword monk group of the mystical order.
'Four of them, and black cloaks, are these the ones the villagers saw and told Thomas about?'
Moreover, they matched the Sophists' profile he was aware of beforehand.
It seems highly likely they are the same ones.
'According to Thomas's information, we definitely shouldn't have encountered them inside Jebodang village, so how did this happen?'
While he saw a 50-50 chance of Sophists actually appearing in Jebodang,
He didn't think there was any possibility of encountering them like this in the Dark Forest.
First of all, that's where the villagers had spotted them.
Also, the area around Jebodang is relatively less influenced by imperial security forces, enough for the current goblin situation to occur.
So Thomas, with his smuggling experience, judged that the Sophists seemed to be using the area around Jebodang as their smuggling route.
Then of course they would try to avoid unnecessary conflicts with other forces,
But in the end, the place where the Red Fox Mercenary Group and Sophists ended up facing each other was inside the goblin cave, breaking all those expectations.
'Looking at Jeanne's complexion, there doesn't seem to be poison, but the hit area isn't very favorable.'
Eugene couldn't just be flustered even though an unexpected situation had occurred.
Because he had to keep examining Jeanne's condition too.
As he glanced at Jeanne again,
It seems she has at least avoided the worst situation that could be imagined currently.
"You, you showed an amazing appearance earlier."
At that moment when Eugene turned his attention to Jeanne,
The man who seemed to be the leader among the four Sophists,
A man with white hair pointed at Eugene.
"You weren't affected by the shaman goblin's debuff spell. Looking at you, you're not an Expert but seem to be a Sword User Alpha."
The white-haired man speaking in great detail about the situation that had happened to the Red Fox Mercenary Group's main infiltration team,
He had been watching Eugene Schneider's side not just now but for quite a while.
Moreover, the white-haired man, befitting a member of the sword order Sophists, noticed Eugene's awakening level.
However, he seemed more interested in a different aspect than that.
Swish...!
Eugene looking forward again,
The white-haired man's reaction was enough to make Eugene focus on the Sophists again.
"So that's what you were curious about. Alright, I'll answer. But only after I hand over my comrade to our camp and come back."
However, Eugene's current top priority was naturally saving Jeanne's life.
So Eugene set aside even the fact that the humans before him were the ones who shot Jeanne,
And entered negotiations while suppressing his hostility that wanted to immediately draw his greatsword and slaughter them.
"Kuku, you're talking nonsense. Your eyes when you first saw us just now, they were eyes that knew the identity of this emblem on the left chest. Then for us who don't discriminate means and methods for the truth of the sword, there's no way we'd respond like idiots to such soft negotiations."
Then the white-haired man sneered.
A group that uses crossbows while claiming to follow the sword,
And attacks defenseless opponents while claiming to pursue truth,
The sword order Sophists that once pursued swordsmanship had become such a den of evil.
But the man seemed to have great pride in the Sophists' current tendencies and teachings.
"Kill that woman, and cut you just short of death before dragging you away. A black-haired one showing immunity to the crimson shaman goblin's debuff spell... The Jedi would be interested too."
Shing...!!
Then the white-haired man drew a sword with a hilt mixed with black and red unique to the Sophists and pointed it at Eugene.
Then the remaining three Sophists moved to surround Eugene and Jeanne.
"....."
Eugene didn't just perceive their movement through footsteps and look.
His eyes were focused only on the white-haired man pointing a sword at him.
Eugene Schneider's expression, which had started to change slightly from when he attempted negotiations,
He was releasing the killing intent he had suppressed.
"Not at all,"
Shing...!!
Eugene who released his limit like that also ended the silence of his greatsword.
It was the appearance of Eugene Schneider pulling out the heavy thing by grasping the greatsword hilt with his left hand behind him.
If negotiations had fallen through,
Of course the card Eugene would choose was to kill all the humans before him and take Jeanne out of the cave.
"You bastards won't be able to touch even a hair on Jeanne. And not just your heads but your bodies will be sliced by my sword."
Thud!!
Moreover, for what they did to his precious family member Jeanne,
Eugene could never forgive them and
Wouldn't be satisfied with just an appropriate level of retaliation.
After that, Eugene Schneider planted his greatsword blade into the ground pointing towards the white-haired man,
Thus he responded to the opponent's declaration of war.
"Kukuku! I like it."
Crack...!
It was Eugene's killing intent enough to feel a chill.
Any normal person would feel something was off and show wariness,
But the white-haired man reacted by raising the corners of his mouth with madness.
"With that level of killing intent and spirit, you could mercilessly stimulate my madness."
Crack...!
The Sophists' intermediate seeker Claymore,
They basically possess awakened abilities at Runner level or higher.
Despite there being four such awakened ones, Eugene wasn't intimidated at all
And exuded killing intent to the point it didn't even feel like bravado.
As the white-haired man also claimed to be a human obsessed with the sword,
He revealed his intention to welcome Eugene who could draw out over 200% of his abilities, and took an attack stance.
"Let's go mad together, black-haired greatswordsman!"
Fwoosh!!!
Then he explosively kicked off the ground
And closed the roughly 15m distance with Eugene in one go.
Thud!
Eugene Schneider who slightly released Jeanne's shoulder while watching that sight
Swoosh!!
Slid forward in an instant.
Slash!!!
At the same time, using that charge as momentum
He pulled out the greatsword he had just planted into the ground himself.
The savage friction sound that burst out because of that,
Due to the greatsword being pulled out in a rotating motion structurally,
The ground was roughly dug up even more than the original space where the sword had been planted.
Whoosh!!
With such tremendous rotational force and repulsive force fully imbued in Eugene Schneider's greatsword,
That greatsword was swung vertically with a roar like tearing the wind towards the white-haired man who was rapidly closing the distance.
Swish!!
Clang!!
"Gah! Incredible!"
Eugene's swung greatsword struck the ground.
And the white-haired man narrowly avoided Eugene's first attack.
It felt like a mace pounding the ground rather than a sword being planted,
Chillingly savage enough to send shivers down one's spine.
Then the white-haired man, seeing the majesty of the greatsword up close that he had been watching from afar,
Stuck out his tongue as if it was even more amazing than he thought.
"But it's still crude, a sloppy movement that can't find the path of the sword!"
The white-haired man's movements were like a bullfighter.
That was the concept he had decided on for hunting Eugene Schneider.
The man's awakening level was Sword User, while Eugene was Sword User Alpha.
However, the man had already encountered Eugene's combat before
And grasped that he was far behind in sword skills.
In other words, by taming the physical beast through superior skills,
The white-haired man aims to stimulate the extreme of the sword he pursues.
Stab!!
"This is the sword, you black-haired beast!!"
Then unlike Eugene, he launched a thrust with concise and efficient movements.
"You're the one talking nonsense about swords."
Then Eugene Schneider
Clang!!
Struck and deflected the wide side of the white-haired man's sword with his elbow that had solid gauntlets.
"!!!!!"
It was an unbelievable reaction speed and reflexes,
And boldness.
Moreover, it was a response that couldn't be seen or heard coming.
The white-haired man's expression upon encountering that gift set situation
Was one of shock with his previous confidence completely gone.
Spin!!
The man's shock seemed like it would continue.
After the left elbow,
Eugene's huge body rotated quickly and
"I'm fighting right now, you bastard."
Slash!!
Thud!!
While pulling out the greatsword planted in the ground,
He utilized a spinning kick to strike the white-haired man's abdomen.
"Guooh!!!"
The white-haired man's scream burst out,
Crash!!
He flew about 5m and rolled over miserably.
However,
The incapacitated white-haired man was no longer Eugene's primary target.
Fwoosh!!!
"Where are you looking, you bastard."
Eugene's goal was to protect Jeanne,
So he immediately charged at another Claymore closest in his movement path.
"T-This!!"
Swish!!
After giving his attention to the fallen white-haired man,
The other Claymore who belatedly noticed Eugene charging at him,
Immediately drew the sword at his waist.
"Too late."
Slash!!!
But Eugene's greatsword had already started swinging first
And as a result, the tip of that greatsword cleanly cut the second Claymore's head in two.
'At least this guy is a Sword Runner unlike the white-haired one,'
Eugene Schneider's explosive change in movement path without pause,
Yet he charged while focusing on the opponent's response situation.
Because he had to move differently depending on whether the target was a Runner or User.
If the opponent was a Sword User, they would be familiar with mana footwork so he would have tried to step first.
But seeing the second Claymore try to draw his sword first,
Eugene judged he was a Sword Runner and swung his greatsword without hesitation.
'That guy is a Sword Runner too.'
Swish!!
Eugene picked up the sword dropped by the second Claymore and immediately threw it to the opposite side.
Thud!!!
"Guh!!"
That sword hit the abdomen of the third Claymore who was running to take the sitting Jeanne hostage.
'Then the last one by the escape route,'
Glance!
Then Eugene glanced towards Jeanne's rear.
Tap tap tap tap tap!!
'As expected, he was a Sword User.'
It was a yellow-haired man.
He approached in a zigzag using mana footwork.
'Eat this, you bastard."
Slash!!
Since the opponent started first, they would reach Jeanne almost simultaneously,
Eugene strongly scraped the ground with his greatsword.
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