"Heracles was certainly extraordinary. But you are not Heracles, are you?"
At my taunt, King Rience's bloodshot eyes flashed.
"You insolent little whelp...! You dare insult me, a descendant of the great hero?! I'll tear that arrogant mouth of yours apart first!!"
Boooom!
Rience kicked off the earth and sprang forward, bringing down the greatsword Marmyadose with an agility that did not suit his massive bulk.
I did not retreat. Gripping Caliburn in both hands, I raised it and met him head-on.
Kaaaang!!!
The aftershock of Mana released by the clash of the two holy swords tore the trees of the forest out by their roots.
"...!"
In terms of the weapon's rank and sheer mass alone, Rience definitely had the advantage. The crushing weight radiating from the legendary sword said to have been wielded by Heracles made my wrists go numb.
As expected, a holy sword said to surpass Excalibur in its sealed state. A divine weapon forged by Hephaestus for Heracles truly lived up to its name.
If Excalibur was the strongest holy sword, then was Marmyadose the second strongest? In its sealed state, this one might well be the strongest holy sword.
"Hahaha! Even the sword of Pendragon is nothing but a toy before the great hero's blade! I'll snap it in half where it stands!"
Rience burst into a mad laugh and poured Mana into Marmyadose.
In that instant, a blinding golden blade-flash erupted from the sword and pressed down on Caliburn's edge. It was the destructive light of a holy sword said to reduce all things to ash.
But I did not panic in the slightest. If anything, the corner of my mouth curled upward.
"What good is a fine weapon when the bastard using it is just an animal that knows nothing but throwing his weight around?"
The red dragon's heart lodged deep within my chest roared. The crimson dragon's Mana surged explosively through my veins, strengthening every last muscle fiber in my body to the utmost limit.
"Hryaaah!!"
Twisting my waist, I knocked away Marmyadose's golden blade-flash through brute force alone.
"Wh-what?!"
Rience's eyes flew wide open at the fact that his own strength had been thrown back.
Not missing that fleeting opening, I wrapped Caliburn in wind and charged at him with ferocious speed.
The footwork passed down to me by Ushiwakamaru. My body slipped into Rience's guard in an instant, as though erasing space itself.
"Damn...!"
Rience hurriedly tried to draw back his greatsword and defend, but my swordsmanship was one beat faster—no, three beats faster.
Slash!
"Graaaargh!!"
Caliburn's sharp slash cleanly severed Rience's enormous left arm straight through the shoulder blade. A pillar of blood shot into the air, and the severed arm tumbled across the dirt.
"If you want to fight me, raw strength alone won't cut it. If you wanted to so much as reach the toes of the real Heracles, who stood at the summit of martial skill, you should have trained your technique until it carved your bones away."
I looked coldly down at Rience as he writhed in agony and rebuked him.
"Did you really think some simple-minded brute whose only trick is power could beat me? You're nothing but trash that stains the very name of the great hero."
I clenched my fist and focused Mana into it.
Thooom!!
My heavy uppercut struck Rience square in the jaw. With a sickening crunch of shattering bone, his jawbone was completely smashed apart, spraying blood and fragments of teeth through the air.
At the same time, using my planted left foot as a pivot, I spun like a top and kicked Rience's right hand away with my opposite leg.
Kang!
Unable to withstand the impact, Marmyadose flew from Rience's right hand and went spinning off into the far side of the forest before embedding itself there.
"Thath... can't be poffible!!"
With his jaw shattered, even his words came out mangled as Rience roared like a beast.
An ominous red light flashed from Gwen, the transparent cloak wrapped around his body, and the life force absorbed from the eleven kings he had defeated began to run wild.
Crack, snap!
His shattered jaw regenerated in an instant with a grotesque noise. His severed left arm did not recover, but he gathered every last scrap of Mana in his body into his remaining right arm and prepared a furious final blow.
"Dieee!! Pendragon!!"
Rience hurled his gigantic fist at me with all his might.
I did not dodge either. The Mana condensed in my right hand formed an explosive current of air. I drove my fist straight forward to meet his enormous one head-on.
Until the very brief instant our fists met, Rience remained certain of his victory.
He was a monster among monsters, the conqueror of North Wales who had even forced the giants to their knees. At the very least, in a pure clash of strength against strength, he firmly believed there was no way he could lose to some young brat like me.
Kwaaaang!!!
The moment our fists collided, the ground caved in for dozens of meters in every direction, gouging out a massive crater.
And then.
Creeeak... crunch!!
"...Huh?"
A stupid sound slipped from Rience's mouth.
The instant his enormous right fist struck my smaller one, it crumpled like paper and was completely crushed.
The force of the impact did not stop there. The destructive power erupting from my fist surged back through the bones of Rience's right arm, snapping every joint and bone in it into grotesque directions they were never meant to bend.
"Ah... aaAAAAAGH!!"
The reality that even the one thing he had prided himself on—his brute strength—had been utterly trampled by me. Overwhelmed by that crushing despair and pain, Rience screamed.
Slowly, I slid Caliburn back into its sheath and looked down coldly at that hideous scream.
"Rience. You are not my opponent. My true opponent is far away, in Londinium."
I lowered my body and gripped the hilt at my waist tightly.
Chaaang!!
A sword-drawing strike shot forth like lightning.
My blade passed diagonally across Rience's massive torso.
A deep line was carved into his chest.
But red blood did not burst from the wound.
Instead, the brilliant and sacred golden Mana of Pendragon held within Caliburn exploded from the wound's opening and began burning his body and soul white.
"Guh... aaah... I... who bear... the blood... of the great hero...!!"
With that final scream, King Rience—the tyrant of North Wales and the monster who had forced the rulers of Ireland to their knees—died amid golden light.
---------------------------------------
The battlefield fell silent.
The giant tyrant who had snarled like a beast before the boy king of Pendragon had been overwhelmingly crushed and killed with absurd ease.
Guinevere, who had watched that astonishing display of martial might with bated breath, felt her eyes shine brilliantly.
When Arthur, having finished the battle, slowly turned and sheathed Caliburn, the sword's remaining Mana poured down behind him like a golden halo.
He looked like a war god descended upon the earth—like a savior.
'Ah... so this is Pendragon. The clan of heroes.'
Guinevere trembled in awe.
The royal house of Britain were descendants of the ancient gods of Britain, exalted beings whose blood also carried that of the Olympian gods.
Deep in her bones, she became certain that this radiant boy king standing before her was the one and only ruler who would one day defeat the dreadful Vortigern and bring true peace and prosperity to Britain.
And at the thought that her homeland had been saved by such a great king, she felt boundless gratitude and respect.
"Medea. Are you hurt anywhere? Are you all right?"
The first place Arthur ran to after dealing with Rience was Medea, who was sitting collapsed on the ground. In a gentle voice, he bent down and checked on her condition.
"Ah... y-yes, I'm... fine."
The moment Medea met Arthur's worried gaze, her cheeks flushed red and she lowered her head deeply.
"That's a relief. Don't push yourself."
Arthur smiled brightly as he brushed back her disheveled hair. At that dazzling smile, Medea clutched at her heart, at a complete loss.
Then Arthur looked around and called out.
"Artoria! Sister! Kay! Are you all right? Princess Guinevere, are you hurt anywhere?"
"I'm fine, Brother! Kay got hurt a little, though!"
Artoria answered spiritedly while guarding Guinevere, and Kay grumbled as he clutched his torn armor.
"Ow... this armor was a gift from Father.... If he finds out about this, I'm dead."
Just then, Stheno approached with a light stretch.
"Hehe, things are finished here too, but it looks like the battlefield over there has been cleaned up perfectly as well."
Stheno's gaze turned toward the distant outer battle line of Cameliard.
In the middle of thousands of corpses and the shattered remains of giants, Caenis stood drenched in blood, letting out a beastlike laugh.
"Kyahaha! Is that all you've got?!"
Dangling from the tip of her spear was the severed head of Nero, commander-in-chief of the Nogales army and Rience's younger brother.
It was an overwhelming victory in the battle to save Cameliard: fewer than ten Heroic Spirits had completely annihilated the ten-thousand-strong army of a superpower.
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