The Hero King, Reincarnate to Master the Art of War

「Wh-, what the hell is that?! His body is like the insides of a Flygear!」

That explained why he didn’t feel pain. He had no flesh nor blood. Inglis also detected them because she said something about their odd flow of mana. That was obviously no longer the natural human body.

Was that also a product of the Highland’s technology? It was the first time Rafinha saw something like it. It was also apparent that the man had enough physical prowess to strike her down with his blade even without an Artifact. His very body itself had been replaced by a machine, so his physical prowess was beyond that of a normal human.

That said, whilst she believed that having the power of Artifacts was appreciative, Rafinha found herself hard to favor the thought of having to twist herself into a cold machine just to gain strength.

Did he perhaps have something that obliged him to gain power, even if that meant he had to become what he was now? Special Envoy Theodore would never use this kind of technology and would never let anyone do it either. Just who did something so cruel!

「Indeed. This is the power that Archlord Abel had bestowed to us!」

It was Diego who spoke up, he was looking over the battle from a little distance away. His tone was calm, cold, and matter-of-factly.

「ABEL?! That trash-natured brat!」

Of all Highlanders that Rafinha had met, this boy had the worst personality, if not the second-worst. It was all too possible for this one Highlander to do something like that. He couldn’t care less about what happened to the people of Midland.

「Even so, even the weak Runeless can gain power with this. They feel no pain, and any damages to their body can always be replaced. An ideal, perfect soldier.」

「As if! They are no different than a Golem! 」

Leone rebutted.

「Wrong. Even if our body is different, our will is always the same. The will is the source of a man’s strength, as long as we don’t lose our will, nothing else matters.」

「If so, then I shall destroy your prized body!」

Using the power of her Gift, Liselotte made a pair of pure, white wings appear on her back before she flew through the air at high speed to slash at Diego. Due to her wings, Liselotte was the most maneuverable of the three.

On the other hand, compared to Rafinha who could scatter countless amounts of light arrows and Leone who could enlarge the blade of her black greatsword, Liselotte could only land a direct hit using her halberd, and thus she had low destructive power.

Thanks to those characteristics, she was best suited in the front line as a decoy.

As of now, she was trying to put pressure on the strongest enemy on this battlefield, Diego.

Even if she couldn’t defeat the enemy by herself, as long as she could hold the line without being defeated, she could stall until her ally took advantage of the situation. In this case, whilst Liselotte was holding Diego back, Rafinha and Leone would defeat the remaining two individually.

After which, they would strike Diego together, that was the flow of the battlefield that she was trying to create.

And Rafinha knew well of her aim. If so, she would get in on that plan! First, to deal with the assassin in front of her.

「UOoohhh!!」

Even though he was shot in both knees and in the shoulder, he came at Rafinha with no signs of slowing down. It was bad to have him so close, she wouldn’t have the time and distance to draw her bow. Rafinha jumped back just as fast as her opponent moved forward to maintain the gap between them.

「Accelerate!」

However, suddenly, her opponent’s speed increased significantly. The tubes protruding from his back and shins spewed bright red flames as though they were Artifacts, accelerating his movements.

「——!」

He’ll catch up to me! No, wait, then I should do this instead! Rafinha stopped stepping backward and began to jump forward.

Whilst her opponent was still dashing at her fiercely, his blades at the ready.

「Hyaaah!!」

Rafinha leaped from the ground right before they collided. She used the assassin’s shoulder as her footstool and jumped high up. The momentum of his acceleration was astounding, but it made it hard for him to control his posture, and since he was only rushing forward, his movements were monotonous and predictable.

So, Rafinha decided to use him as her springboard.

Added with her opponent’s momentum, Rafinha’s body had soared to a considerable height. She had plenty of time in the air for her to fire her light arrow.

「Have some of these!」

This time, instead of firing in rapid succession, she built up the power to form a strong and thick arrow of light before unleashing it.

「GOOOOOOO!!!!」

The thick light arrow pierced the assassin’s knee once again. This time, it shredded the machine’s leg away from its body at the knee.

「HGGGHHHHKKK?!!!」

「Sorry about that! You’re fast indeed, but monotonous!」

Right when she landed, another shot was fired. As his other leg was torn off, the assassin could no longer stand and dropped to the ground.

Right after that…

Screeeech!

A high-pitched screech like iron scratching was heard. When Rafinha turned towards its source, she saw Leone had just slashed Diego’s other goon. With a heavy thud, the assassin’s body split into two and collapsed.

「Nice going, Leone!」

「Of course! I knew it, this one is a machine too!」

Said Leone as she looked at the assassin that was lying on her feet. Even with his body mutilated, there wasn’t a single drop of blood coming out of it.

「Uugh……they’re strong!」

「F̲u̲c̲k̲! If this continues, then……!」

Never mind dying, both assassins were still alive and speaking with their upper bodies still functioning, even when their lower halves were no longer intact.

「As expected of the Knights of the Great Kingdom Charalia, very splendid done for one your size.」

Stated Diego calmly.

「You’re up next!」

「Yes!」

「We won’t let you escape!」

Now it was three on one. Even if Diego was a little bit stronger than the rest, this should be enough to either defeat or capture him.

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