Proof of Strength

Roxy pressed her lips together. She did not know what Cain was thinking, but the Asura Kingdom... She hoped it would not be especially hostile to the Demon Race.

And she wondered how much stronger the Sword God was than other Sword God Style swordsmen. Whatever the difference, she certainly would not hold Cain back.

Roxy tightened her grip on her staff. Soon, though, she would see how different a Divine Rank swordsman was from the rest.

After buying supplies, they set off with Roxy as their guide. Cain finally made it to the village under attack by the Earth Dragon Magic Beasts. With Roxy leading the way, he had not gotten lost this time!

The massive beasts were still rampaging through the village. They soon spotted the pair at the entrance and charged at them with a roar.

Clang, clang! The beasts weighed several tons apiece, and their pounding steps made the stones on the ground tremble. Sunlight glinted off the scales on their backs like metal.

Mud Dragon Beasts were fiercely territorial. They had claimed the village on their migration route as their lair, and they would attack anything that came near it.

Cain hurried forward to shield Roxy. He slowly drew Instant Void from his waist, and a clear ring of steel burst through the air. Gripping the sword with both hands, he assumed the High-Level Stance, his expression serious.

Roxy gripped her staff with both hands as she watched the beasts charge. She wanted to see what Cain could do, so she held off on attacking and gathered magic in her staff, ready to cast at any moment.

In the blink of an eye, the nearest beast, still more than ten meters from her, split cleanly down the middle. Blood sprayed everywhere.

Roxy froze. If she had not seen Cain's blade come down and bite into the ground, she might have thought he had used Saint Rank wind magic.

After that, Roxy was more or less reduced to a bystander. The boy named Cain did not seem to need a mage after all.

He was simply too fast. His sword strokes and dashing steps moved faster than her eyes could follow.

There was nothing showy about his fighting. It just felt overwhelmingly powerful, with every strike a killing blow.

Another roaring beast charged in. In the blink of an eye, it became a corpse in two halves.

More came at her and Cain, one after another. They stood two or three meters tall and several meters long, with lizardlike bodies that shone with a metallic sheen.

And one after another, like ducklings in a row, Cain cut them horizontally or vertically into two, three, or four pieces.

Roxy's mouth fell slightly open. Her eyes twitched, and her blue pupils quivered with shock.

Boom! Boom! The several-ton chunks of dead beast slammed into the ground, sending tremors through the earth.

"S-so incredible..."

Roxy had traveled across many continents and met plenty of Sword God Style swordsmen. Cain was the first she had seen slice an A-rank Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beast apart like tofu.

She also noticed that whenever Cain split a charging beast in two, he retreated to a spot a few meters in front of her and assumed the High-Level Stance again. He was nothing like a Sword God Style swordsman who charged ahead for the thrill of battle and forgot all about his companion.

No wonder he's called the Second Sword God. I can count on him!

The corners of Roxy's mouth lifted as she breathed a little easier. She had thought Cain might plunge into the beasts and leave her behind, but she had worried for nothing. Despite his youthful appearance, the Second Sword God was far more dependable than he looked.

Even so, I need to show him what I can do!

Roxy pressed her lips together and began chanting in earnest.

"Moisture drifting between heaven and earth, heed my command. Bitter frost, gather. Howling winds, sweep across the land. Become an endless storm of icy blades and tear apart all who stand in your way. Let cold seep into flesh, freeze every limb, and bring all movement to a halt!"

"Ice Storm!"

Roxy raised her staff and cast Ice Magic in support. Snow and icy spikes formed ahead of them to slow the beasts, though they had little effect.

The spikes could not pierce their thick armor and left only shallow marks on their shells. A thick layer of fat beneath their skin blunted the freezing cold as well. At most, their charging steps grew a little stiff.

Intermediate-class wind blades struck their bony armor like a light scratch.

It looks like only Advanced-class or Saint Rank magic focused on attack could break through their armor from the front.

Roxy frowned at the thought.

Still, Cain promptly cut every beast that broke through the Ice Storm into two neat halves, so it hardly mattered.

I've really struck gold this time! Without Cain, this job would've been a struggle. Working with him, I could finish adventurer commissions in no time! Maybe we could become an S-rank adventuring party. Even SS-rank!

Rather than losing heart over her ineffective magic, Roxy nodded and smiled.

She looked at Cain's back and could almost see gleaming Asura Gold Coins.

"Hey, are you seeing this, Zoldat? That swordsman just now... Was that slash for real?!"

"Wh-what happened?!"

Zoldat had no time to look. He was fighting two enormous Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beasts. Ahead of him, the dwarf Bruce braced his great shield against the crushing impact of the lead beast's charging horned head.

"Urgh!" Brook staggered back more than a dozen steps with a pained grunt. His shield arm trembled, and the beast's tremendous force gouged two furrows beneath his feet.

"Zoldat! Do it now!"

The blond man seized the chance to leap into the air and bring his Twin Blades down with all his strength. But they left only a shallow wound and a streak of blood on the beast's armored back. He failed to break through its armor and only enraged it further.

Roar! The beast let out an earthshaking bellow and charged at them, its massive body making the ground quake beneath its steps.

"Damn it! How can its hide be so tough?!" Zoldat clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes as Battle Aura wrapped around his Twin Blades.

"Find a way to hit its underside! That's the weak spot. There's no armor there!"

At last, the two mages, Mia and Rina, drove icy spikes into the red-eyed beasts' legs, and Fira struck one in the face with a Fireball, blinding it.

Only then did Zoldat find an opening to slash open the soft bellies of both beasts. Even that did not kill them. They stumbled about like headless flies.

After another round of attacks, the five of them barely managed to kill the two beasts. Bruce had been injured and was receiving Fira's Intermediate Healing Magic.

"Hah... What's with these monsters? Ordinary Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beasts aren't this hard to kill. Did some ancient beasts come down from the snowy mountains?"

The two corpses crashed to the ground. Zoldat sat on one, gulping down air as steam rose from his body. The rest of his party was utterly exhausted.

The other adventuring parties that had taken the same job were in even worse shape. Some were struggling despite having a dozen or more people surrounding a single beast, and a few parties had already suffered casualties.

"Hah... This isn't a B-rank job anymore. Beasts this berserk, throwing themselves at us like they don't care whether they live or die? This is A-rank, maybe even S-rank. We really got the short end of the stick."

Bruce lay on the ground, panting hard.

"Aren't these beasts supposed to live in caves and be docile unless attacked? Why would they suddenly change their habits and migration route to attack a village?!"

"Hey, Zoldat! Look over there!"

Someone in the party interrupted Zoldat's thoughts. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"I said, what am I supposed to look at? Huh?!"

Zoldat went still when he saw the scene off to one side. Everyone else in his party stared in equal shock.

A few hundred meters away, at the center of the herd, the boy named Cain was effortlessly chopping apart the same kind of beast that five or six of them had struggled to fight together.

"Hey... You've got to be kidding me!" Zoldat's jaw dropped.

Cain faced several enormous beasts with a focused gaze. Their charge made the ground tremble.

As they bore down on him and Roxy behind him, he drew a deep breath, his gaze unwavering, and slowly assumed the High-Level Stance. When the lead beast closed to roughly five meters, he brought the blade down like lightning, cutting into the ground.

Crimson blood gushed forth. The beast's body, hard exoskeleton and all, split down the middle in an instant. Its blood-red eyes widened as it separated into two neat halves from head to tail.

Roxy pressed her lips together at the shrill ring of the blade. Her azure eyes stayed fixed on Cain's back, her thoughts drifting.

That must be the Sword God Style's ultimate technique, the Blade of Light. Incredible...

Cain's movements were fluid and precise. Every beast that charged him died instantly, cleaved in two by the great Tachi in his hands.

Boom! Another beast, several meters long, split into perfect left and right halves from head to tail. The halves slid past Cain and crashed to the ground, kicking up a spray of snow.

The force of his slash swept the flying snow toward Roxy, stirring the bangs on her forehead and lifting her two blue braids in the wind.

He's using the Blade of Light like an ordinary attack?!

Zoldat's mouth hung open, and his eyes kept twitching. He had never imagined a swordsman could be this strong.

So this is the man they call the Second Sword God...

Cain swung too fast for Zoldat, a Saint Rank swordsman, to see more than a blurred afterimage. But he was certain that one out of every two or three strikes was a Blade of Light.

He could see the vast, razor-sharp Battle Aura blazing around Cain and clinging to that ornate, gold-patterned Tachi, pouring from the blade without pause.

His left-hand strike hits hard, and his right-hand strike hits even harder.

I doubt I'll learn to weave ordinary attacks together like that in my lifetime...

Cain carried only one Tachi, but he might as well have been wielding two.

"Tch. He's as strong as a monster..."

As a fellow swordsman, Zoldat felt a pang of defeat. Remembering that Cain bore the title of Second Sword God somehow made it easier to bear.

Behind Cain, a petite mage in a magic hat, her blue hair tied into two braids, carefully used a small knife to sever the beasts' tails one by one and pack them into a leather bag.

With Cain holding the front line, not a single living Heavy-Armored Mud Dragon Beast came within ten meters of Roxy.