Chapter 30. A Man Who Surpassed Death
The faces of the soldiers darkened immediately. Even veterans like them couldn't handle the imminent future laid out before them.
Certain death.
Their bodies froze at this inescapable truth. Their pores widened up to pour out sweat. It was the consequences of their actions really.
Chua-
The Warrior got into an overhead throw position with his leg extended up into the air. The man was unbelievably flexible. Once his leg hit the ground, the cobblestone floor exploded. His arm muscles contracted and then stretched out. The bits of stone in his hand shot out like bullets.
Pshh!
The buckshot hit the steel shields that the soldiers were holding, and let out sparks.
"Eh…?"
A soldier looked down with a curious face. The hole in his shield allowed him to see the other side of the street.
"No… Way…"
Blood and organs began to spill out from his chest. The soldier fell backwards from the pain and blood loss immediately afterwards. This single attack killed five and heavily injured eight. Some lost their heads while others lost their limbs. The strategist lowered the hand he used to protect his face. He immediately paled at the scene in front of him. Blood and bits of flesh were laid out everywhere before him.
'He'll go easy on us since he's a hero.'
'There's no way he'd treat us like he treats monsters… right?'
The fighting spirit within the eyes of the soldiers shattered once they found out that their expectations of the Warrior were not at all what they expected them to be.
Was this how strong people could get once they overcame death…?
I remembered the contents of the report. The reason why he was able to become so strong was not because of mana. It was training. Because he had overcome death, he was able to put himself through inhuman training. Normally, overtraining the body would damage the muscles. In bad cases, the cell walls of the muscles would become damaged, and the myoglobin that gets released into the bloodstream would damage the body even further. In other words, the muscles would melt.
But.
This overtraining managed to put the Warrior into levels that humans couldn't reach before. Because he couldn't die. To be more exact, because the cause of death would be removed whenever he died. His body didn't get damaged, but instead, it managed to slowly adapt to the hellish environment it was put through.
Body enhancement. It was the result of countless hours of training in battle. Through intense training and fighting, the Warrior was able to attain an extremely dense body unlike that of any human. His muscles that were at first large enough to burst through his skin contracted into what it is now due to his sheer strength. And the bones that were unable to take this pressure restructured themselves into something more flexible and sturdy. Currently, the Warrior's body mass was at 2.6 tonnes. The rumors of him eating an entire cow every day to maintain his body probably wasn't an exaggeration. If he, at this state, begins to use mana and puts on blessing magic…
It was terrifying to imagine.
According to stories, the Warrior was said to have taken on a beast bigger than this town, all by himself. In the sea at that. Maybe we should've brought cannons instead of guns? Not that that would work in any way… It wasn't like the battle would end just because the soldiers lost their will to fight. The soldiers slowly closed in on the Warrior, and began to fire. This entire town was a hunting ground to catch the Warrior. The Warrior didn't even bother clearing out the barbed wires, and walked right through them.
Snap, snap.
The barbed wire was unable to even put a minor wound on the Warrior. They simply snapped off of the Warrior's body. The place where he was headed to was the bridge. One could feel from his aura that he was willing to kill anyone who approached him. But at the same time, it felt like he was unwilling to kill those who did not attack him. To think he wouldn't be maddened by the military killing an acquaintance of his, he really was a hero.
He was sickeningly kind.
Pshh!
The M18A1 mines that had been placed on the two buildings next to the Warrior, exploded. 1500 3mm bullets shot out of the mines at three times the speed of sound. Any normal man would've died instantly from this attack, but…
Whoosh!
A human shape shot out of the debris like a giant cannonball. This was probably the last thing that the soldier from a watchtower saw before he died.
Bang! Crack, craack!
The watchtower began to crumble into pieces. To think he'd be able to just jump that high with his legs…
A jump of 120m. Seeing how the bridge was 1.2km long, it seemed that he could've easily crossed the bridge if he wanted. The Warrior looked over the town from the top of the tower. The military's entire plans were exposed to him now. The First Subjugation Battalion tried to keep the Warrior busy, but utterly failed. Due to this, those who were excluded from the plans altogether had to step in.
Not even those from other battalions could just stand watching their fellow soldiers die.
"Hah, ridiculous. They seemed so confident and they didn't even manage to bait out the blessings."
Godspeed grabbed double barrel shotguns into each hand, and sighed.
"This is why we should never rely on useless people. Don't you think so, colonel?"
Accelerator tried to knock off the cigarette off of Godspeed's mouth with his foot, but failed.
"Shut up, idiot. We've been found."
The bottom of the Accelerator's chin was completely black. It was shining too.
"Damn it, he did notice!"
The first thing the Warrior did when he noticed the two was to put his hands on the pouch on his waist. Seeing how that pouch survived the explosion and the gunfire, it wasn't a simple item either. Was that where he kept his spellstones…?
The warrior would protect the one thing he thought was the most important to himself, and the two would attempt to take it away from him. Even if they don't take it away, it would end up being a success if they baited the Warrior to use his spellstones.
"Your mouth is the problem, you hear? That's why you're always under me even when you're faster than me."
Godspeed raged when he heard this.
"Damn it, speed isn't everything, power is! The reason why I respect you so much is…"
"Just shut up and get ready to fight. Do we really have to drag this on much longer? My back freaking hurts."
Accelerator cracked his neck a few times with his hands on his hips and raised his hand.
"Ah, sorry, sorry! It's been awhile since we've met, but we've just ended up in a situation like this."
The two seemed to know each other.
"Life is quite annoying, isn't it? Whatever, if the top tells me to do something, I guess I have to do it."
The Warrior listened to the Accelerator quietly, then put the spellstone on his armor.
– A custom mail armor created by the [Mad Frog Valdka], the thirty fourth enemy of humanity. The curse on this armor would turn anyone with a low magic tolerance who wears this into a frog.
– Changes properties of objects. It can change shape, color, volume, density, and material of an object, but it can have a chance of failure. The bigger the change, the more mana it costs.
The armor changed to cover his entire body. Next, red matter climbed up his neck in order to cover half of his face.
"You being here means that… The Second Subjugation Battalion was deployed. Are you surrounding the entire area?"
Godspeed didn't deny the Warrior's suspicions.
"You know well. Don't think too badly of us. We think highly enough of you to have to surround you. Oh, dear me. I speak too much. Are you good now? I think we gave you enough time to use your spellstones."
The Warrior grinned.
"I don't need it."
"Really? We'll start then."
Accelerator took a deep breath out of the cigarette in his hand, and threw it up into the air. Accelerator and Godspeed immediately disappeared from the spot at this point. By the time the wind from their movements cleared up, and people were able to open their eyes again and they saw Godspeed put his double barrel shotgun on the Warrior's face. Before he even started to fall, he shot the gun four times in a row.
Ka-bam!
Four shots at point blank range. Sparks flew off the Warrior's face as four buckshots struck his face. The Warrior's face was simply drawn back a little bit. Other than a tiny burn mark, no wounds appeared on the Warrior's face.
This really was a world of demons. To think movements like those were possible…
Even after I saw it, I didn't believe it. Bodies who manage to near the speed of sound sustain injuries on their hands, knees, and feet. Once a human body goes past the speed of sound, it causes several parts of the body to start vibrating.
It must be near-impossible to run when the body is shaking like this. It was questionable if the joints would even survive. Plus, the amount of air one would have to come in contact with was far too great. It was expected that the body would just float off of the ground before it even reached the speed of sound. Well, of course, before that, the heart would explode, the blood vessels would pop, and steam would be rising from the body. For example, when a fighter jet breaks the sound barrier, it becomes as hot as 177 degrees celsius. Wouldn't organisms that go past the speed of sound be able to resist the heat and the shock that comes with it? Running faster than sound also required the muscles to go with it, but it didn't seem like the ability users had that either.
Due to this, it was easy to conclude that Godspeed's power was a "cheat" of sorts. It made use of other methods to go past the speed of sound. He was fast, but he probably wouldn't be able to use that velocity of his to cause destruction.
Accelerator was different, however. The weapon he brought was a simple blade. A weapon without any handles, or decorations. Out of nowhere, he brought out multiple blades floating in the air and constantly threw them at the Warrior.
– A weapon that is able to reconstruct itself into different weapons. Simple weapons can be created immediately on the spot. Normally, it can stick to the skin in order to become something similar to armor.
Kiii!
The sound of metal crossing the air rang across the field a bit later. The Warrior's face and chest had exploded from the heat of the blade going through him, causing steaming blood to fly everywhere.
The estimated velocity of the blade was mach 25.
No matter how great the defense of the Warrior was, he wasn't able to stop plasma blades coming for his face. But…
"Fucking hell!"
Godspeed cursed. He would restrain the Warrior with a shotgun, and Accelerator would destroy the Warrior from afar. But the battle just didn't seem to end. No matter how many times his head would be destroyed, no matter how many times his body was burnt away, his body would regenerate back in a second. It was the same for his armor as well. Hirganrel was an armor that was able to shapeshift itself. If one fuses the Warrior's cells into Hirganrel, it would…
I thought of the word 'regenerate', then stopped myself. Was that really regeneration? Heat caused irreversible reactions. Due to this, Memento Mori would have to recreate the body completely from the start. But if you were to try to explain it like this…
The burn marks that stayed on the Warrior's armor whenever it regenerated just didn't make sense.