Chapter 946

946: Izario's Reasons for Fighting

Even as the old soldiers of the Militant Nation of Hagane sacrificed their lives to destroy the antidemons, they just kept coming out one after another.

It happened an hour after we returned to the bar.

Right as the town was beginning to relax, a scout barged into the bar shouting. That was already enough to figure out the situation. Bultori was about to come under attack for the third time.

After listening in on the conversation, Izario slowly got up from his chair. He clearly thought it was a pain in the ass.

「You’re going?」

「Don’t have much of a choice. Damn, I thought I wasn’t gonna have to work this time.」

Fran tilted her head at Izario’s lazy comment.

「What do you mean?」

「I didn’t expect a third wave, given the size of the horde. Well, I’m not gonna claim our predictions are always accurate…… But this damn antidemon season, it’s weird how many of them there are.」

Since the antidemons weren’t brainless, it’s hard to predict their movements and numbers perfectly. Still, this was the intuition of the Rank S adventurer who had been active in Gordicia for many years.

Indeed, this season may be different from usual. But for now, our first priority was to fend them off.

「You want to go alone?」

「You’re worried about me――or not, I guess. Make that face as long as you want, but I ain’t taking you with me.」

「Why not?」

「Because I’ve got my own job to do. Everyone’s gotta see how the adventurer uses his divine sword to wipe the floor with the antidemons, all by himself. Or else, the bigwigs will come yell at me.」

「Fighting alone is your job?」

「Bingo. I have to show the people of this continent that this guy and divine sword are here for them.」

Many have come and gone on the continent of Gordicia. The famous and the mighty. The holders of divine swords, renowned adventurers, and even royalty. All of them contribute to the fight, but none will bury their bones in this land.

There was no reason to linger in Gordicia, a land without entertainment, peace, or honor. The only ones willing to stay were the criminals and troublemakers who got booted out of the other continents.

Such was the fate of Gordicia, the continent of death where war rages without end.

But still, many people lived on the continent. Despite the constant threat of antidemons, they had their own reasons for not being able to leave.

These people needed assurance. No matter how many abandon the continent, it didn’t matter as long as Izario was here for them. It was his role to inspire hope and assure them that they won’t be left to die.

「Anyways, I’m heading out for a bit. Oh yeah. You can watch, but keep your distance, okay? I’ll be using my divine sword, so don’t blame me if you get a little burnt.」

Izario left with a lazy gait as soon as he finished speaking.

「He’ll use the divine sword!」

『If he has to warn us, it’s probably the type that has a really wide range.』

「I’ll go watch!」

『Alright, just don’t get too close.』

「Nn.」

Before going after Izario, we had to do the bare minimum for our job. We called in the adventurers, who had been relaxing because they thought the hordes were long gone, and told them to stay on guard again.

Some of the adventurers looked disgruntled, thinking that they should be fine since Izario headed out. To be honest, I can understand their frustration.

I highly doubt Izario will fail to defeat the antidemons, so the chances of them reaching town was practically zero.

That said, the guild expected us adventurers to show that we were serious about our work. The whole point of sending us out was to convince everyone that the Adventurers Guild was doing its job.

We couldn’t let the citizens see us drinking at the bar while Izario was in the middle of combat.

Diggins stepped in front of the drunken, red-faced adventurers who were complaining. No doubt he planned to punish them. However, Fran decided to take charge here to prevent the issue from repeating itself.

All she had to do was intimidate them with her skills and Urushi.

「Grrrrr.」

「……Nn.」

With a snarling Urushi behind her, Fran silently activated her intimidation. Wait, is she overdoing it a bit?

「Hyah!」

「……!!」

Her intimidation affected not only the targets, but also the other nearby adventurers. Some were unable to utter single sound, others looked like they were almost about to collapse.

Apparently, Fran got a bit irritated since she wanted to chase after Izario as soon as possible. Those feelings must have leaked out in her intimidation. It seemed to work though, so whatever.

Leaving the now obedient adventurers in the hands of Diggins and Urushi, Fran dashed out of Bultori.

「The battle already started!」

『Yeah! But he hasn’t released Ignis yet!』

We got here just in time to see the antidemon advance party reaching Izario.

In Izario’s hand was a distinctive crimson sword. That must be the Flameblade, Ignis.

The blade had a wavy pattern from side to side, as if imitating a flame. It took the shape of a flamberge, with a number of smaller sharp spikes sticking out of it.

It seems he had not activated Divine Sword Release yet. The flow of mana gave Ignis a dazzling presence, but its power was not enough to make us shudder.

Well, maybe that’s only because he was so far away.

While holding his blade, Izario began the battle with slow steps. But this was a strange sight to see.

「Izario isn’t fighting back?」

『Yeah. He’s almost always on the defensive.』

Blocks, parries, redirection, evasion. He made skillful use of all his techniques to defend himself against the onslaught. Occasionally, he would throw a counterattack, but not often.

The number of enemies kept increasing, leaving him surrounded on all sides. Still, Izario maintained his defensive stance.

What was his goal? Letting them gather up before taking them out in one fell swoop? We were still confused about his intentions, when something finally changed.

The antidemons closest to Izario suddenly collapsed and dissipated. There was no sign that anything had been done to them. It was truly out of the blue.

「What did he do?」

『……I have no clue.』

This was not at all what I had imagined. His passive fighting style felt alien to us.