Solitude had been the only thing awaiting the girl after she’d left the dungeon. Even in the outside world, no one could stand against her swordsmanship.
The underworld was always a world of slaughter where survival of the fittest reigned supreme. The girl had no trouble dealing with the countless foes she found there, though. Constant challengers came to her, but she destroyed anyone who tangled with her, fight after fight.
Whenever she heard about a powerful enemy, she challenged them herself, but still cut them down. She piled up corpse after corpse like some kind of macabre assembly-line system. In this demon-eat-demon world, she found herself the only one with no equal in power, far too different from everyone around her. That was true solitude. Was there no one who could quell this emotion, someone stronger than her?
“Well, well, you’re a pretty amusing lass,” Master Minotaur said.
He was the demon hailed as the strongest fencer in the underworld, holder of the “Master” title awarded to the most powerful therianthrope swordsman. In their fight, the girl’s swordsmanship was bested for the first time.
“Bwa ha ha ha! I knew you were good for a laugh. How ’bout becoming my student? Who knows, you might even surpass me in five years or so,” he said.
Thus, the girl studied the blade under Master Minotaur, though at first she only observed his fights. That was still plenty for her. With just one viewing, she could recreate anything she saw and immediately put it into practice. Unicorn felt the most fulfilled in her life during that time. After all, she had an enemy she couldn’t take down with her sword; for her, that was bliss.
However, that changed only one year later.
“That was brilliant...my student.” Her teacher fell to his knees, a deep wound across his chest.
The therianthropes’ title of “Master” was passed down through a succession battle to the death. In a single year, the girl had reached a high enough level to challenge her teacher. It was a decisive victory that demonstrated the gap in their ability. She hadn’t sustained a single injury.
“You’re perfect...a flawless swordsman. You might even exceed the demon lord himself...in sheer combat ability. I doubt anyone will appear...who’ll surpass you in the way of the sword,” her teacher had said. Copious amounts of blood ran from his mouth and wound. No matter how durable demons could be, he wasn’t long for this world.
“Then...will I always be alone from now on?” She had outdone the first person who managed to defeat her in but a year. Wandering through a wasteland of endless solitude with no one to stand as her equal was the future that lay before her once more. Except that, this time, she felt that it would go on for eternity.
“Well... If...if someone who can defeat you does exist, it won’t be because of pure strength, but because they possess...something.”
“What do you mean by ‘something’?”
“Hah...even I don’t know the answer to that. I’m yet another person who lived in search of strength— Guh!” Master Minotaur finally collapsed. “I’m...sorry. I couldn’t...erase your solitude.”
With those last words, he expired.
“Looks like I’m alone again,” the girl mumbled as she looked away from her teacher’s remains and toward the gloomy, boundless sky of the underworld.
That was the birth of Master Unicorn the Aloof Holy Beast of the Sword.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Do you have that ‘something’?” Master Unicorn readied her sword.
As Derek watched her, he felt a chill from head to toe. This pressure is nothing like before.
“Something other than strength. If you don’t, you’ll never beat me,” she said.
It’s been said that those who meet someone who’s perfected their craft will feel overwhelmed and break into a cold sweat simply from facing that person. At that moment, what Derek had experienced was that exact phenomenon. He’d felt the same when he’d watched Alan or Kevin wield their swords in earnest, but this was on a completely different scale from those two.
“Shit! I don’t know what your little ‘something’ is, but thanks for taking your sweet time. My arm’s back in place now.” Derek slashed at Master Unicorn using the arm Elise had just healed. Surprisingly, he’d chosen to go for a head-on attack without feints or tricks. For the current situation, he’d decided it was the best course of action.
I have the upper hand in terms of strength thanks to Elise’s physical enhancement magic. I can push her back in a direct clash and beat her that way, Derek thought.
However, a loud clang rang around them as Master Unicorn effortlessly blocked his strike. “What?!”
“I’ve gotten used to your weight.”
You don’t just block a frontal attack by “getting used to it,” dammit! Derek cursed to himself. “How about this?! Curse Droplet!” Poison liquid potent enough to melt rock oozed out of the thorns on Emanuel’s Blade and rained down on Master Unicorn.
“That won’t hit me if I dodge.” In an instant, Master Unicorn once again moved behind Derek.
“Go to hell!” Derek swung his poison-coated blade behind him.
“That poison is meaningless,” Master Unicorn said as she blocked Derek’s sword, resulting in a phenomenon he couldn’t comprehend.
How is the poison not splashing in her direction?! Normally, blocking a sword coated in poison should cause the liquid to move in your direction because of inertia. How the hell did she block my attack without any inertia?!
Next, while their swords were still in contact, Master Unicorn gripped and shifted hers in a way that sent an impact directly to Derek’s internal organs.
What...happened this time?! Derek thought through coughing fits.
“See, you can achieve the same effect as poison without using a drop of it if you just send a shock directly into your enemy’s body through their sword as you’re blocking it,” Master Unicorn said in a low voice. The techniques she’d used were practically indistinguishable from high-level magic, but this freak of nature considered them normal.
“Curse you and your talent!” Derek said while biting down on his bloodstained lips. Her condescending attitude was driving him mad. He wanted to teach her a lesson and make her quiver in fear. “You were blabbing about ‘something other than strength’ earlier, right? Then just watch, I’ll show you that something!”
Derek directed Elise to throw spells at Master Unicorn to force her to dodge, then used the opening to put some distance between them.
“Brainwash!” he shouted. No sooner had he finished that word than the therianthropes who’d been observing the fight all charged at Master Unicorn with a loud roar.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wait, what’s going on?! I know that His Majesty’s magic is incredibly potent once it’s taken effect, but it can’t go farther than twenty meters, and it shouldn’t work on people with high mana or strong willpower unless they’re weakened first, right?!” one of the Third Kingdom’s soldiers asked in surprise. Not only had Derek brainwashed enemies outside his magic’s range, he’d also affected the robust therianthropes who had plenty of fight left in them; that shouldn’t have been possible.
“Ha ha ha! Those conditions don’t apply to those with my blood inside them! For them, the range is infinite, and they can only block the effect with exceptionally high mana or willpower!” Derek said, followed by a burst of laughter. “That’s how I keep Elise under my thumb even though she’s a first-class mage. Those turret shells were smeared with my special brainwashing liquid: a mix of poison and my own blood!”
With all the shrapnel scattered around, every therianthrope should have at least been grazed.
“That’s far too vile, Your Majesty!” said the soldiers who valued chivalry at all times.
“Shut your damn mouths, simpletons! Want me to force you to fight too?!” Derek shouted. These fussy morons couldn’t get it into their thick skulls that pride wouldn’t defeat the monster in front of him.
“I see.” Master Unicorn smoothly sidestepped her attacking subordinates. With magnificent footwork, she dodged their attacks, even as she readily dealt with Derek and Elise when they dived for her openings.
“You damn freak!” Derek shouted in irritation.
“How beautiful. So that’s the culmination of swordsmanship.”
“Not to mention she keeps knocking her men out without killing a single one.”
The Third Kingdom’s soldiers had nothing but words of praise for Master Unicorn’s kinetic movements, despite them being on different sides.
“They’re still my subordinates, more or less. I can’t let them die,” Master Unicorn said humbly.
“On the other hand, our king is—”
“Shut up, you idiot. He might hear you!”
I already have, you useless fools, Derek thought as he listened to the all-too-familiar criticisms coming his way. To begin with, this is only happening because you guys are so incompetent you couldn’t hold a candle to her even as a group.
“Yeah, it’s exactly as they say. Unlike me, you can do this with honesty and honor, horn girl,” Derek spat.
Master Unicorn tilted her head in confusion while nimbly dodging her brainwashed subordinates’ attacks.
“You’ve fought and defeated every enemy that’s come your way fair and square with those beautiful swordsmanship skills you were born with, while everyone around you has praised and respected you for just how incredible you are. You see, I...” Derek’s expression twisted with more rage with every word he uttered. “I absolutely loathe people like you! Each and every one of you who walk the straight and narrow path are the worst!”
“Right. I’m sorry, but I don’t understand that kind of sentiment.”
“I’ll warp your composed expression with pain, you bitch!”