The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary

“There’s something wrong with that Black Knight.”

Lapis muttered while watching the battle between Loren and the Black Knight. Loren kept on attacking, but could never deal any real damage aside from some scratches on the Black Knight’s armor. Meanwhile, the Black Knight, who didn’t even sustain any damage even when getting hit, used his greatsword to receive Loren’s blows with a strength that Loren seemed unable to withstand.

From what Lapis saw, it was the Black Knight who was acting strange.

If he had that much power, he should be able to close the gap and attack Loren directly, but as far as Lapis saw, the Black Knight was hardly moving from his standing position since the start of this battle.

“He doesn’t move, or can’t move?”

“Ah, of course, Lapis-chan will notice it.”

Judie said. She had come near Lapis before anyone noticed. Lapis glanced at her with a somewhat sullen look, then immediately turned her eyes back to Loren.

It was just a small thing she had noticed, but Lapis wondered if it could give Loren some advantage if she told him. She didn’t have time for Judie now – that was why she unconsciously gave her the cold shoulders.

Judie didn’t seem to mind though. She came to stand beside Lapis.

“You don’t have any subordinates that huge, do you?”

“Well? What do you think?”

“He has experience with swords… Otherwise, it would be impossible to wield such a super-heavy weapon.”

The Black Knight was moving very little, but he was definitely defending against and returning Loren’s attacks. Lapis could see that he wielded the sword properly, raising the blade before cutting down. An inexperienced person wouldn’t do that even with normal swords, but the Black Knight did with every strike. The person inside that black armor must be very used to handling swords.

“He had enough physical strength to send Loren flying back when defending… Most demons are able to do that.”

There was some difference in strength between men and women, but demons could also use self-boost to enhance their own strength. With that, any demons working at a Demon King’s castle would be able to send someone with Loren’s built flying back while still defending themselves.

Lapis gritted her teeth:

“I can’t narrow down who that Black Knight is… If I know the person, I can think of a counter-attack plan.”

On the battlefield, Loren was having the same thought. But unlike Lapis, he didn’t know about the demons in this castle, so it was meaningless trying to identify the person behind the black armor after all. It was then that he realized the Knight’s unnatural movements, something he hadn’t considered before.

“You’re just standing there, aren’t you?”

Due to the length of the Knight’s sword and arm, there was a fairly wide gap between Loren and him. If Loren stepped into that space, he wouldn’t be able to escape the Knight’s counterattacks unless he leapt back quite a distance. But once he calmly assessed the Black Knight’s movements with each strike, Loren noticed that he had hardly moved from his original standing position. He would move one step to cross swords with Loren, but that was all. Even if he was flicked back due to defense, the Knight never tried to pursue him.

Furthermore, as Loren moved around him to find an opening, the Black Knight only followed him with his eyes. If he entered the knight’s blind spot, he would just let himself be exposed without changing his body’s direction.

“You can’t move because your armor is too heavy, can you?”

The Black Knight didn’t show any reactions to Loren’s muttered words, but Loren could see the purple eyes behind the helmet wavered, even if just a little. He knew his guess was correct.

In other words, the Knight standing in front of him had an extraordinary defensive ability, but he was unable to handle the weight of the black armor that built up that very ability. This was the reason why his body could not keep up with Loren’s movements.

Loren believed that the person inside the armor was definitely someone from the demon tribe, judging from the color of his eyes. In that case, the black armor must be so heavy that even with the power of the demon race, he could not move satisfactorily. And if the armor was that heavy, it made sense that no matter how many times he slashed at it with his greatsword, the attack would not go through.

Moreover, unlike Loren, who was moving in a circle around him, the Black Knight himself was only swinging his sword in response to Loren’s attacks. Unable to make chase seemed to be the only problem he had in this battle.

“If you can’t run, I’ll be the one to run then.”

If your opponent couldn’t chase you, it meant you wouldn’t be chased. This might sound stupid, but with this opponent, if Loren just gave up on the battle and ran now, there was a very high chance that he could really get away.

‘A very high chance’ only, because it was possible there was some hidden cards, and he would get a blow the moment he turned his back.

“Well, I can’t run away.”

If he did, he would be considered to have abandoned the battle, and the negotiation with Judie would end with Loren’s defeat.

That didn’t mean anything, but Loren had no way of dealing with the embodiment of defense in front of him. He glanced at his greatsword, which he had smashed it into the Black Knight’s armor over and over again, causing the blade to be covered with chips. Originally, it was not a weapon that relied much on the sharpness of the blade, so if such a weapon was blunted further, it couldn’t possibly penetrate the black armor.

With his greatsword at the ready, Loren walked around the Black Knight a little out of his range and wondered what to do. After a while, he suddenly thought of a way.

“Is it worth a try, I wonder?”

Loren muttered and patted Nigg, who was clinging to the shoulder of his jacket. Like an accessory, the spider clung to it without making a single movement – its body moved a little just because of Loren’s palm.

Loren moved his hand from Nigg’s back to stroke his tummy, then dropped his greatsword and ran towards the Black Knight barehanded.

The Black Knight seemed to be slightly bewildered by his action, but he immediately aimed his sword at Loren’s neck. With his strength, if the blow landed, Loren would die on the spot, weapon or no weapon. But before the blade could touch his neck, Loren slid down, avoiding the blow and dived behind the Knight in one move. He then quickly ran out of the Knight’s range, clutching a rather thick white thread in his hand.

“When?”

Judie exclaimed. When he ran towards the Black Knight, she was sure he was empty-handed. Before she could see where the thread came from, Loren had begun to run around the Black Knight with the thread in his hand.

When the Black Knight noticed what he wanted to do, the spider’s thread, with one end stuck to his leg, was wrapped around the Knights’ leg multiple times. The knight hurriedly used his sword to cut the thread, but Loren, thread still in hand, also picked up his discarded greatsword to stop him. The Blade met the blade, and Loren was sent flying back again, but the Knight was also unable to cut the thread. As the knight raised his sword to attempt to cut the thread again, Loren also made another one-handed thrust to stop him.

After several such exchanges, the Black Knight’s legs were wrapped in spider thread and eventually sealed in a pure white cocoon.

The spider thread was very durable to begin with, and a spider of Nigg’s size could spit out a pretty thick thread. Being wound so many times like that, it formed a cocoon that couldn’t be torn out from the inside or cut open from the outside.

The Black Knight used to be able to change direction with just some slight movements of the feet, but now even that had become difficult. He tried to remove the thread, but Loren immediately interrupted that attempt and wound even more thread around his legs.

Before long, the Black Knight completely lost the freedom to move his legs at will. As Loren drew near him from behind, he frantically tried to swung his sword at him, but Loren kicked at his back and knocked him face down to the ground of the arena.

“Now, wait, isn’t that cheating?”

Judie asked, and Lapis answered after some thinking:

“Would you claim that using a spider’s assistance is cheating?”

“That…”

Demons were a race of great power, and they generally considered other races to be inferior to them in many cases.

With such beliefs in mind, even a Demon King would be uncomfortable with the fact that a human, who should be inferior to them, had won the battle simply by borrowing the power of the spider, or calling the act ‘cheating’.

Moreover, it was the Demon King’ aide who Loren fought here. If she claimed that he was cheating, it would mean she was keeping by her side someone who wasn’t even a match for the power of a human combined with that of a spider. It would bring questions about the Demon King’s good name.

“Mother, that Knight must have a great fixation to that armor and armor’s sizes in order to put on something that limits his own movements to such extent.”

The Black Knight couldn’t even get up on his own, but he kept trying to.

“I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stand up again once I fell down with all that weight.”

“Should I stop that?”

Judie said in a disappointed voice, but she didn’t declare that Loren had won. In that case, the battle still continued. Or so Loren thought, and he picked up his chipped greatsword, placed a foot on the Black Knight’s back, and swung the sword down on his helmet. No matter how thick the armor was, he believed that if he kept hitting a vital point with enough force and precision, it would have some certain effect. Maybe if he kept hitting the helmet, the person inside the armor would lose consciousness at some point.

“Who’s actually inside that armor?”

Lapis asked as she watched Loren putting a foot on the Knight’s back and began hitting his helmet vigorously. Judie stared at Lapis, then said in a small, lazy voice:

“Your Father.”

“Father?!”

“Well, he kept going on about meeting the man his daughter has brought back, so I tossed him into some bulky armor, gave him a pair of platform boots, then took him along.”

“Eh? No, wait?! Mother! Father is being beaten to pulp!!”

Even though the blade didn’t cut through and the thick armor prevented most of the shock reaching inside, if Loren kept beating without a care like that, some damage might be done to the head if he hit the right spot. The Black Knight’s struggle to escape from Loren’s foot had gradually become sluggish.

“Should I stop it? But it’s a shame that the loss is confirmed.”

“Is this the place to say such a thing?! It’s alright, Mother, the battle has come to a conclusion?!”

“Yes, yes. So, Loren won.”

Judie offhandedly declared, and Lapis rushed out to protect the Black Knight’s head from Loren’s blows. Loren guessed that the battle had ended somehow and stopped striking at the somewhat-disfigured helmet. Watching the Black Knight’s prone form, he let out a sigh.