“Oh yeah! That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life! That’s when I truly knew that this is who I am!” Derek said as he burst into a fiendish, bestial, and devilish bout of laughter. His smile see-sawed between one of pleasure, rage, scorn, and delight. “That’s why I can do anything, no matter how despicable, without a shred of remorse!”
Even though the Third Kingdom’s soldiers weren’t currently fighting, they shuddered as cold fear washed over them.
“Hey, horn girl. You said you wouldn’t let your subordinates die, didn’t you?” Derek asked.
“Yes, I did. Why?”
“Then I’d like to see you try. Therianthropes! Take turns killing yourselves,” he commanded. The therianthropes obeyed, many of them aiming their swords directly at their own hearts.
As could be expected, the soldiers raised their voices in loud opposition to their king’s actions. “Don’t do this, Your Majesty! You’re taking it too far!”
“You guys wanna join them?” Derek threatened.
“Eep!” The soldiers’ commander fell on his backside in fear.
“Now come on, what will you do, o upright and impeccable Holy Beast of the Sword? You’re not going to let anyone die, right?” Derek asked.
“That’s my intention.” At a tremendous speed, Master Unicorn ran through the gaps between the therianthropes about to kill themselves and knocked their weapons away. Even though the therianthropes were spread across the battlefield, she moved as abnormally fast and fluidly as always. As soon as that was done, another wave of therianthropes attempted to take their own lives, but she somehow reached them faster than they could turn their own swords and disarmed them.
“Next,” she nonchalantly said, repeating the process over and over. Despite her perfect soundless movement, dashing high and low should’ve exhausted her, but that was where her Ex-Skill came into play, supplying her with endless stamina.
“You really are something else, you know? But you’ve given yourself a huge opening!” Derek shouted. Since he was the one who decided who would attempt suicide next, he could predict where Master Unicorn would go. No one was better than him at doing what his enemies hated most. He ordered the furthest therianthrope from her to commit suicide with the worst possible timing for her. While she was still able to deal with it quickly enough, even she revealed a chink in her armor.
“There!” Derek slashed at Master Unicorn with impeccable timing. Like the true monster she was, she managed to dodge by a hair’s breadth. “Well, well, I only managed to graze your clothes, but this is the first time I’ve gotten a hit in.”
She’d dodged the sword itself just fine, but a tiny poison droplet had found its mark and dissolved a small part of her clothes. This was the first time in their fight that she hadn’t managed to fully evade one of his attacks. Since she hadn’t taken any damage, she moved to counterattack, but his next words stopped her in her tracks.
“Oh? Are you sure you have time to deal with me? More of your men are about to die over there.”
Far from where the two of them stood, several therianthropes were holding their sharp claws up to their own throats. Master Unicorn stopped her counterattack and raced to knock the therianthropes’ hands away from their necks.
“Here’s another one!” Just like before, Derek attacked at the worst moment for Master Unicorn to react to him, though she dodged by the narrowest of margins again—just the sword. This time, several droplets landed on her clothes and burned a portion away. “The poison got you again! How many more of these can you dodge?”
Despite the side they were on, Derek’s allies heckled him while watching with disgust, fear, and contempt.
“What a dishonorable fight.”
“What is there to be proud of if you win like this?”
“Bwa ha ha! Like I said, it’s all good as long as I win!” Derek sneered at their grievances. He didn’t mind being labeled as evil; he was the Exiled Dark Priest, after all. At this point in his life, their scornful gazes filled him with nothing but delight.
Meanwhile, Master Unicorn stared at him while preventing another one of her men from taking his life.
“What is it? Do you have a complaint too?” Derek asked.
Master Unicorn simply shook her head from side to side. “I just thought...you seem to have a lot on your plate,” she said with an expressionless yet somehow sympathetic voice.
“Is that sarcasm? Stop talking down to me and die already!”
“I didn’t mean it to come across that way. I haven’t enjoyed a fight this much before, but I’ve figured out how to defeat you,” she said before cutting through one of her men as he was about to kill himself.
Has she finally given up on saving her subordinates? Derek thought.
“Huh? What was I doing?” The therianthrope Master Unicorn had seemed to kill was alive and back to his senses.
“That’s impossible! How did you undo the brainwashing?! Your sword should have gone right through his body. How is he not in two pieces?!” Derek shouted.
“The only thing I cut was the brainwashing link,” Master Unicorn replied.
“What kind of nonsensical pinpoint technique let you do that?!”
Derek’s brainwashing was an innate skill, and differed from learned ones that were based on existing magical mechanisms. Therefore, it was impossible to undo it using the magic currently available. His skill itself would need to be thoroughly studied for a cancellation method to be developed, but he would never collaborate with such research. That’s why his skill had always been so strong once he took hold of someone—until today.
“One I just came up with,” Master Unicorn said in a matter-of-fact tone.
“You goddamn prodigy!”
Master Unicorn undid the brainwashing on the therianthropes still trying to kill themselves, one after the other.
“No, no, no, dammit!” Derek cursed as he lost his precious tools one slash at a time. Things are getting ugly for me! I have to do something before they’re all freed from the brainwashing, he thought and brought his sword down on her to try and take her down.
“Are you sure you want to get that far from her?” Master Unicorn abruptly changed course.
“Shit!”
Master Unicorn was headed toward Elise, the one who’d been supporting Derek with physical enhancement magic and the occasional offensive spell. During the entire battle, he’d positioned himself to always be ready to intercept any enemy headed her way. His impatience had driven him to leave that position for but a brief moment, and Master Unicorn wasn’t a foe to let such an opening slide. She raised her sword and sliced right through Elise’s body.
“Huh?” Elise was left in a daze as twenty-five years of brainwashing came undone. “No way, this entire time, I...”
“Elise...” Derek muttered.
Master Unicorn took the opportunity to release the last therianthrope from Derek’s brainwashing. “Now you’re out of people to help you fight.”
Elise had been released from her brainwashing, the only thing that had made her spend decades as Derek’s devoted tool. His brainwashed therianthrope tools were gone too. He was left without a single ally.