Episode 44 – The Name of the Strongest IX
Monsters surged up from below the staircase.
Every one of them was a knight.
From towering knights twice the height of a human, down to smaller ones—each type was a monster Iris and Koroa had encountered before.
The first to appear was a gray knight, one that resembled the Sky Knight Corvo had once fought.
However, this monster was nothing like a beginner-friendly foe. The gray-plated armor bore not a single scratch, and the blade it carried was terrifyingly beautiful. On top of that, it stood about three meters tall, and its eyes were sharp.
Corvo had already activated his Ability.
The moment the knight reached the top of the stairs, Corvo extended his arm and cut its neck. He felt some resistance, but he was using Ogre Slayer. With its neck severed from its torso, the Sky Knight’s armor scattered apart and collapsed—just like the one Corvo had defeated earlier.
More monsters—more knights—continued to pour out from the stairway without end.
There wasn’t just one Sky Knight this time—A second, a third…And others as well.
Red swordsmen and blue swordsmen.
They closely resembled the monsters Iris had defeated in Tohe. But these were faster. And there were many of them.
The countless swordsmen emerged from the stairway, immediately spotted Iris, and rushed toward her.
But Iris only smirked fearlessly.
She knew—Koroa was already chanting.
“—O lord of lightning. Embodiment of my will. Noble bloodline of my kin. Grant me the power to halt time. Grant me the power to bind all creation.”
He activated Lightning.
Among Koroa’s Gifts, it was one of the weaker ones. It barely dealt any damage; at best, it momentarily slowed the monsters’ movements.
But for Iris, that was more than enough.
Iris was already wearing her mask. Her rapier quivered with a fine vibration from her Ability.
Even her physical abilities were heightened, letting her dash through the swordsmen as if weaving between them.
Her rapier merely brushed their torsos—no strength behind it. All she needed was the act of cutting.
Iris's strikes sliced through both sturdy armor and powerful bodies alike.
Then, a dual-bladed knight approached from behind. Its weapons were short, its coat concealing its body. In terms of speed alone, it was likely faster than Iris.
Just as it was about to slash her from behind, Koroa swiftly moved between them.
He caught the knight’s quick strike with his sword and discharged a surge of lightning into it. A sharp crackle echoed from the knight’s body, and it collapsed, falling forward from the knees.
“Not bad!”
Hearing the electrical burst, Iris noticed Koroa and cheerfully continued brushing her blade across more swordsmen.
“Try paying a bit more attention to your rear!”
Koroa shouted.
“You’re the one who should handle that! Isn’t that what you’re good at? I just cut—that’s all I do!”
Iris declared with a mocking laugh.
And indeed, just as she said, she never once looked back afterward. Instead, she simply charged into the monster swarm, sweeping her rapier freely and wildly.
The Sky Knights she split cleanly from the top of the torso. Giant Knights she sliced across both shins, toppling them. Afterward, Koroa—following behind her—would lop off the giant's head.
A Giant Knight that had given him trouble in solo battles was now easy prey for Koroa when paired with Iris.
Iris rarely delivered finishing blows. She merely stripped the monsters of their combat ability.
Against larger monsters, she severed their legs. Against smaller ones, she sliced off shoulders and limbs. Any monster that happened to die in the process simply died.
For example, the monster now standing before Iris—Perenbra Conde—wore different clothing than usual, but carried the same weapon as Iris: a rapier.
Normally, it was a monster found in a dark chamber, yet the one climbing up from the stairway seemed to be a different specimen. It wore no cloak, leaving its chainmail fully exposed.
And from the very start, it approached Iris at top speed.
But Iris matched it—she didn’t slow down for even a moment as she closed in on the charging Perenbra Conde.
Perenbra Conde thrust its rapier toward her, but Iris twisted her body slightly, slipping past the attack.
As they crossed paths, she lightly brushed her blade across its shoulder, slicing it clean off.
But Perenbra Conde did not fall. Only the arm without the rapier had been severed.
It immediately turned toward Iris, who had passed by it, and tried to step forward again, rapier outstretched toward her—but lightning surged through its body before it could act.
It was Koroa.
He had used a Gift.
Perenbra Conde’s movement froze for an instant.
It tried to respond to this new threat, but before it could even move, Koroa’s sword carved through it. Then he thrust into its torso, breaking its balance, and with another slash, he severed its head.
That was the moment all strength left Perenbra Conde’s body.
But Iris was no longer looking at that scene.
Her interest had already shifted to another monster.
This time, a group of Five-Colored Knights emerged from the stairs.
Iris had once seen them in Tohe. Each wore armor colored red, blue, yellow, green, or black, and each carried a spear.
Even against these monsters, Iris charged straight in without a second thought.
Lightning bolts shot past her back.
They were aimed directly at the Five-Colored Knights.
“Nice one, Koroa!”
Iris approached the slowed red knight first and sliced open its side.
The red knight attempted to sweep at her with its spear, but she slipped under it and cut open its back. She moved to its flank next and sliced its elbow. When it thrust its spear toward her, she flicked the weapon aside with her rapier, crouched low, and cut its knee.
The red knight staggered.
Iris showed no mercy—she severed its offered neck cleanly.
And Iris wasn’t the only one finishing off the enemies Koroa had slowed.
Corvo also felled one at the same moment.
He took down the yellow knight—enhancing his arm with his Ability, he simply swatted the spear aside head-on, dented the knight’s armor with brute force, broke its posture, and in that fleeting opening, stabbed his sword into its throat.
“—O lord of lightning. My incarnation. Noble bloodline of my kin. Grant me the power to pierce my foes. Grant me the overwhelming judgment of the heavens.”
Koroa chanted a Gift from afar.
He extended his empty left hand toward the blue knight.
What he released alongside his invocation was a bolt of lightning.
The blue knight had no means of evading such high-speed magic.
Among Koroa’s Gifts, its piercing power was the strongest—it penetrated the blue knight’s torso in an instant.
The remaining knights were quickly dealt with by Iris and Corvo as well.
But the monsters did not decrease.
A new variety of monsters continued to spill out.
Just as they finished clearing the knights already on the floor, something new emerged from the staircase.
It was big.
And it carried nothing in its hands.
The first thing they saw was its hand.
A metal-covered hand, massive—nearly the size of Iris’s entire body.
It crawled out of the stairway, planting itself on the floor.
Iris felt a heavy tremor shake the ground.
Its full form was still not visible.
“Iris!”
Koroa shouted.
“I know,” she replied.
Iris made the massive knight her top priority over all the others.
Even for her—a veteran adventurer—this was a monster she had never seen before.
A stray, most likely.
And her instincts told her it might be even more dangerous than the monster Nada and the others were currently fighting.
What Iris did was simple.
She leapt onto the back of the arm that had crawled out, driving her rapier straight down.
Despite its appearance, the giant’s gauntlet was surprisingly soft—her rapier pierced all the way to the floor.
But the arm itself seemed unharmed; it simply lifted Iris along with it.
The arm swung to the side. Iris was slammed onto her back.
Then the other arm emerged from the stairs, crawling upward while crushing several knights beneath it.
Corvo moved to deal with that one.
He tried cutting it off at the wrist, but it was too hard. He could cut the flesh, but not the bone.
“This is bad…”
Corvo muttered calmly.
As he swung his sword again at the enormous hand, he wondered grimly what would happen if this monster fully entered the room.
“If that thing gets in here, we’ll be wiped out…”
Koroa clicked his tongue and began chanting his Gift.
“This monster’s seriously bad news…”
Iris managed to stand up, pulling a healing potion from the pouch at her waist as she spoke.
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