Swordmeister of Rome

"Dammit, what happened?"

Stiel felt Sian jumping out and raised herself up. She felt the energy from the plains and went outside. The tree was full of Dukes that were more powerful than her, but they barely managed to feel the energy and was moving up the tree to seek confirmation.

Stiel grabbed Lagaope as he ran up to her and asked, "HEY! What's going on?! You said it was going to be okay!"

Lagaope shook his head and shouted, "I don't know! I don't know what's going on!"

"What?! Sian is fighting those Murakans right now!"

Stiel shouted as she shook Lagaope by his collar. Lagaope quickly responded, "I mean I don't know why it happened- UGH. But that's not important right now!"

"WHAT?!"

"We might have to run."

It was from the back. Stiel turned and saw Lorvall.

"You will not go and help?"

Stiel confronted Lorvall, even though Lorvall was much stronger than her. She was desperate.

"You… do you think you can defeat me?"

"…"

"No, right? If I get caught up in there, I won't survive. Same goes for the other Dukes. We will only get in his way if we go."

"…Dammit."

Stiel remembered how she felt so helpless when Sian dragged her into the red sphere a long time ago. She thought that she was powerful, but after she saw the world with Sian, she knew she wasn't even considered strong.

The fight was happening miles away but the released power was terrifying. If they went, they would only disrupt Sian's focus.

"You will die if you go there. So… go with Lagaope to safety."

"What are you going to do?"

It seemed that Lorvall wasn't trying to leave, so Stiel asked. Lorvall just said he wouldn't be of much help even if he went. Lorvall laughed.

"If they manage to win, we will be wiped out. Of course, we hope that Sian wins. But if they win… where will they come first?"

"To you."

Stiel spoke grimly. The monsters running rampant meant that they were no longer being controlled. They would surely not forgive the being that controlled over them for over thousands of years.

Lorvall nodded.

"Yes. The winner will be in a half-dead state, but we should still get ready. Even if they are half-dead, I'm not sure if we can fight them off."

Lagaope's expression turned grim.

"You… will go berserk."

Lorvall smiled. It seemed he was ready to use his last resort.

Stiel didn't know what that meant, but she could tell that it was very dangerous. And that it was powerful enough to damage those Murakans.

"Take care of Lagaope. If they're after me, you don't need to be dragged into this. You're not one of us. You should survive."

"Dammit…"

"Let's just hope that Sian wins,"

Lorvall said as he turned to the plains.

'Please survive…'

Sian was necessary for the human race. He must not die out here.

Sian was barely managing to fight them off. He felt two things. One fortunate and one unfortunate.

The fortunate thing was that he knew how to fight when he was being attacked by a large number of enemies. What was unfortunate was that these monsters had learned how to fight against powerful beings first hand.

Sian tried to run out of their formation and attack them one by one, but they did not allow that. They tried their best to keep Sian within the formation and Sian had to give up trying to escape it. He turned to the beyond, as he smacked down the one that tried to bite off his arm.

'Bastards…'

The one that took huge damage moved out of the formation and began eating dead bodies to recover. Sian then realized what their goal was. They weren't trying to minimize their damage. They were willing to sacrifice almost everything to kill Sian.

'What have I done to you?'

Sian became irritated. These monsters didn't seem to have the basic instincts of survival. That's what annoyed Sian. It was good that eating those corpses didn't make them grow stronger, but they quickly regenerated and came back.

The dangerous one wasn't the one that ate the bodies. The dangerous one was the one that actually bit Sian.

'Dammit.'

Sian cursed at the monster who had just bitten off his arm. The monster morphed after biting Sian. Something was coming up from the damage it acquired from Sian's attack. It was an arm. If given more time, another pair of arms was sure to pop out. But the arm itself wasn't the problem. The reason that the arm was coming out — that was the problem.

These monsters were trying to open up the way to break through their walls. As they opened new possibilities, they went back to eat up on the corpse to heal then came back.

Sian was having a much harder time because of that. He then realized why they were trying to so hard to attack Sian.

'They just want to eat me up.'

Fortunately, Sian felt something changing within him. He knew what this feeling was as he had felt it three times already. But he didn't like it. It meant that he was going through considerable danger.

"Dammit…"

Sian fought hard but he was still lacking.

They were vicious. All of them died except one. He even passed the barrier at the end. If he recovered, he would be a fourth stage Beta.

However, he had lost. There was one survivor. The final survivor was now at the third stage. This survivor would become the strongest of the land.

Both of them were half-dead but Sian couldn't even move. The Murakan was also weak but it seemed it could move enough to at least deal a finishing blow and finish eating him.

'Ugh… it's sad.'

He read stories where the main character was saved by his friends at such times, but no one was coming.

"Dammit. GOODBYE WORLD!"

Sian shouted and panted. At that time, the Murakan that was crawling over to Sian with its remaining three arms screamed.

"Huh?"

Sian had no energy left to turn over, so he looked at the Murakan weirdly but he knew why.

Tens of people appeared from a distance and began showering down power after power onto the monster. It did not have much energy left, but it was still at the third stage. They did not dare to come closer, but they attacked it so it would not go near Sian.

Sian felt someone grabbing him.

"We were not late. Are you okay?"

A man was smiling as he picked up Sian by his arm.

"You're late, Lorvall."

"No, you're alive, so I'm not late. You just broke through a wall, so we are just in time. We just need to kill him and it will be perfect."

Sian thought of some words to retort, but he felt his energy completely drained and fainted.