ALL NOVEL Chapter 24
Chapter 24: Betting on Fate
The soldiers charged in fiercely, united as one.
Their murderous intent was palpable. There was no contempt, no hesitation whatsoever. The soldier in the front kicked off the ground with bare feet, sending sand flying to blind me.
How reassuring, really.
If possible, I would have liked to fight alongside them.
Dodging the blinding sand, I rolled sideways.
If I took the hit head-on, I’d be beaten to a pulp. A few of them might grab me, pin me down, and it’d be over.
So, I had to keep moving, breaking their formation and coordination.
However, as I moved sideways, of course, the soldiers followed suit.
Using the outer edge of their formation as a pivot, they turned elegantly. With me fixed in their sights, five of them were poised to crush me.
Tough. Their defense is really solid—
‘—Are they forbidding coordination?’
Ante chimed in.
I see, this is about as effective as it gets. It doesn’t affect me at all. Even if they resist, it’ll be enough to create an opening.
But I won’t use forbidden magic. There are too many eyes watching. I still don’t want to reveal my cards.
Besides—Could I really pull off something so crude? If anything, it’d be a teleportation spell.
‘Revealing my cards doesn’t matter if I get killed first.’
I guess I’ll tackle that when the time comes.
I continued moving sideways, searching for openings, while the soldiers maintained their formation by following me.
“Charge!”
“Show us your manhood!”
“This isn’t a dating sim!”
Taunts came from the sidelines. I felt like a fighting dog in a gambling den, damn it.
—However, it’s also true that nothing was progressing like this.
I focused, observing the soldiers.
At the far right of the formation, there was an older soldier. He was probably the strongest.
The others were more or less similar, but—second from the left. His movements were slightly sluggish. Did he injure his leg?
If I’m going to break through, it has to be at a weak point. That’s the conventional path, right…?
“Phew.”
Taking a short breath, I switched the obsidian knife from my right hand to my left.
Then, without hesitation, I slashed at the artery in my right wrist.
†††
While we circled each other, the demon race prince, his gaze sharpened, made his move.
Are they going to attack? The soldiers braced themselves, caught off guard.
The prince suddenly slashed his own right hand with the knife.
“What the…?!”
The soldiers were at least somewhat bewildered; however, the seasoned older soldier was hit with an intense sense of dread.
When a demon takes such unexpected actions—it’s always tied to some sort of magic!
“Defense formation!! —[Evil ones, may the curse avoid us]!”
He thrust his left hand out as a shield and recited the magic protection incantation once more. Even the younger soldiers, confused, took the same stance according to training.
So, what’s coming!?
“—Here’s your return!”
As he approached, the prince swung his right hand. The blue blood collected on his palm splattered everywhere.
—Blinding sand?!
In that moment, the prince’s intimidation intensified. Magical energy spread!!
—A curse via blood, perhaps!?
With a faint whistle of cutting wind.
“—Huh?!”
The soldier on the left let out a strange noise.
A dark blade—
The obsidian knife was deeply embedded in his throat.
By inducing shock with self-harm, drawing attention with blindness, and distracting the seasoned soldiers with magical energy deployment, he concealed the knife throw—
The seasoned soldier instantly understood and trembled.
—Is this kid for real!?
It was way too familiar. It was even unsettling. The prince’s pressure and aura grew ever stronger.
But still, the knife is in our hands!
Despite coughing up blood, the soldier wrenched the knife from his throat and passed it to the next soldier before collapsing. As if saying, “I leave it to you.”
Here we had four. A knife too. The prince couldn’t use his right hand as a price for blindness.
“You little brat!”
The soldier wielding the knife, fueled by rage for his fallen comrade, lunged forward.
“Wait!”
Don’t let your guard down—The opponent is a cunning demon, and even if we have the upper hand, we don’t know what hidden tricks they might have—
But the hot-headed young soldier wouldn’t listen.
“That’s my knife!”
The prince looked at the bloodshot-eyed soldier with pity.
“Let’s get it back.”
A tense feeling, like a string tautly stretched between them.
“Wait—”
The reckless soldier was now outside the protection of the magical shield. By the time the older soldier realized this, it was all too late.
“[Teleportation]”
The laws of the world twisted.
“Wha—?! Aaghh!”
The young soldier dropped the knife. Blood gushed from his right hand.
The older soldier lunged forward. The formation collapsed, but there was no other choice. Make it in time. Somehow, make it in time!
Make it in—!
But that wish wouldn’t reach.
A small blue shadow.
A demon that could only be described as a boy.
He tripped the young soldier and fluidly picked up the knife, stabbing it into his heart.
The young soldier collapsed without a sound. As the pool of blood spread, the prince casually flicked his right hand, shaking off the knife’s blood.
There was not a single wound on that hand—
“Humans are so fragile. It’s nauseating.”
With an unreadable expression, the prince muttered.
“…Don’t mess with me!”
The older soldier filled with anger shouted, trying to suppress his trembling heart.
“Demon! Every last one of you… Using tricks we can’t understand!”
The red eyes narrowed, staring intently at him.
“…Indeed.”
It was a bitter smile too sour to be called a smirk. What’s with that face—like—
But that expression vanished in an instant.
The prince closed the distance, knife reversed in grip.
The older soldier steeled himself. He cast aside even the faintest hope that he might live to return.
This prince, this demon—must be taken down, even if it means we both fall in the process.
If he grows and enters the battlefield, who knows how many will be sacrificed?!
“Dieee!!”
He lunged. Whether stabbed with a knife or having his eyes gouged out, he was ready to bite at the prince’s throat.
Yet the prince remained unfazed. Rather, he accelerated further. He must have read my mind. Why? Does he not care if I grab him?
The knife glinted. It’s coming—!
Just as I thought so, the prince vanished. A shockwave. The world flipped upside down. He diverted my gaze with the knife and slid beneath me to trip my feet.
Too sneaky! I had no time to get mad at myself for falling for it; the knife cut through the air. As I dodged, a searing pain shot through my face. Apparently, I barely escaped a strike meant for my throat.
The prince dashed past. Is he going for the young soldier first?!
“Damn it—!”
Blood flowing from my forehead obscured my vision. But relying on the sound of footsteps, I chased after him, wiping my eyes. Light returned to my sight.
I lunged for the back of the demon prince.
“Together—!”
Just as I was about to shout, I was struck dumb.
The remaining two soldiers were sinking in a pool of blood.
One had his throat cut, and the other had been stabbed straight in the heart.
Instant death. They weren’t even given time to suffer. It was all too slick.
And then, a cold sensation pierced through my left chest.
An obsidian knife.
The prince gripping it had a face that seemed to curse the entirety of this world.
“I won’t waste your deaths.”
Words dripped with blood. Anger? Sadness? I couldn’t tell—
All my regrets and attachments seemed to flow away with my hot blood.
My consciousness rapidly faded.
The prince leaned close and whispered in my ear.
—Death to the minions of darkness.
The soldier’s eyes widened.
I tried to ask why.
But there was no time left.
Just like that, my consciousness flickered out.
All that remained was the corpse of a soldier collapsing in shock—
†††
Oooh, the training ground shook with cheers.
The still young prince had taken down five trained human soldiers with nothing but an obsidian knife.
The fallen human soldiers were by no means weak “prey,” and everyone was filled with excitement, showering him with unreserved praise.
As the prince received the cheers, he raised the bloody knife to the sky, responding in kind.
His expression was unreadable.
But there, a single tear traced down his cheek.