Vikir lifted his head and looked over the cliff.
A large man with black skin and searing golden eyes.
D'Ordume D D'Orcdile.
Colonel by rank. One of the five wardens of Nouvelle Vague, and with the exception of Warden Orca, there is virtually no one higher than him.
"A riot?"
Colonel D'Ordume's voice was like a slow boil from a low temperature.
Lieutenant-Colonel Bastille, below him, answered hastily.
"Yes! One of the inmates of Level Nine refused to do his labor and injured the guards! We were just about to subdue him!"
"...hmm."
D'Ordume's gaze shifted to Vikir.
Suddenly, Vikir felt as if countless axe blades hanging from chains were stabbing at his entire body.
'This is dangerous.'
His reflexes, maxed out in the Hell Tree, alerted him to the danger by making every hair on his body stand on end.
It was a sensation he hadn't felt in quite some time.
Vikir was willing to trust the warnings of his instincts, and he immediately stomped the ground and stepped back.
Kwakwakwak!
The ground where Vikir had stood just moments before exploded with a loud crack.
D'Ordume had fallen there.
A slight earthquake occurred when a large figure measuring 298cm tall and weighing 220kg fell.
D'Ordume landed with one hand on the ground and slowly pulled himself up to face Vikir.
D'Ordume's yellow-blazing eyes emitted a strange glow beyond the searing sulfur fire.
He wore metal gauntlets and a bandana on his forearms, from which sprouted axe blades in a swirling, twisting spiral pattern.
Kiiiiiiing-
With that, an aura appeared on D'Ordume's axe blade.
It began to spin at high speed, following the swirling lines of the blade.
It was as if he was wrapping a vortex of blades around the forearms of both hands.
'...As expected, he uses an unusual weapon.'
Vikir nodded, remembering a time before the regression.
Among the heroes who once roamed the battlefields of the Frontier, there were two who were rumored to have unusual methods of attack: Mozgus, Archbishop of Quovadis Family, and D'Ordume, a Warden from Nouvelle Vague.
Mozgus's attack consisted of wrapping an aura around a thick scripture, splitting it open at each page and sending it flying, while D'Ordume's used an attack method of extending his fist with aura loaded onto the strange arm straps and torsos wrapped around both forearms.
'He's quite intimidating in person.'
Aside from his massive size and immense aura, there was something about D'Ordume that intimidated his opponents.
A human zookeeper, a man who had spent his entire life imprisoning, torturing, enslaving, harassing, and killing others.
Like a dog curling its tail around a dogcatcher, a human being would naturally shrink in the presence of this man named D'Ordume.
But Vikir is a demon hunter, a man who can make even demons curl their tails.
He is a veteran of the battlefield, having spent more time on the battlefield than D'Ordume has lived in his entire life.
The momentum that Vikir exuded was not only neutralizing D'Ordume's momentum, it was overwhelming it.
"...!"
D'Ordume flinched at the sharpness of Vikir's aura.
"Is it true that you can't use mana? If the power of pure flesh is this great... is amazing."
Seeing the groaning bodies of the Major and Lieutenant Colonel level guards lying around, D'Ordume spoke up.
"I'm going to have to uproot you from here."
In this state, D'Ordume had an overwhelming advantage, as his opponent was still wearing BDISSEM handcuffs and shackles, unless he had access to mana.
…Srug!
Dordium raised the axe blade on his forearm and said.
"I warn you, this may be a summary execution. Because of an 'unsavory incident' between a guard and a prisoner 19 years ago, the lower levels are strictly controlled and punished."
"...."
"There is no judgment. Farewell."
With that, D'Ordume clenched his thick square jaw tightly.
And soon, he ran forward with snake-like veins on his forearms as thick as logs.
…Thump, thump, thump!
It was as if a giant water buffalo was charging at him.
At the same time, D'Ordume's two forearms crossed horizontally and vertically.
ppeoeog-
Vikir blocked D'Ordume's two fists with his BDISSEM cuffs.
But D'Ordume's real attack came from behind his fists, from his forearms.
Kiiiiiiing.
Wind whipped along the sharp lines of the spiral axe blade on his forearm, spinning shards of sharp aura.
Vikir felt a chill run down his spine.
He could feel it in his gut. If he continued to struggle with D'Ordume in this position, he would be pulverized like fish meat.
Pow!
Vikir quickly ducked his head and rolled to the side, out of the wind's reach.
And then.
kwa-gigigigigigi!
A whirlwind of aura that must have been more than a dozen meters in diameter flew out like a snake and swept in front of him.
Patter-patter-patter-patter-
It sucked in the surrounding rocks with a tremendous sucking force, crushing them into sand.
It was obvious that if a person was sucked into such a place, they would be turned into a handful of blood in less than a second.
"Ew, wah! D'Ordume is unleashing his power!"
"Everyone dodge, you'll get caught!"
"Co, Colonel D'Ordume, even the guards are getting affected...!"
In front of D'Ordume's power, which minced and crushed everything without distinction, everyone in the sweatshop began to flee in terror.
Vikir, meanwhile, was slightly impressed.
'This is the power of one of the Five Warden's.'
Before the regression, the heroes from Nouvelle Vague had mostly fought on the front lines in terrain that even Vikir had never encountered, so he had never seen their skill and prowess with his own eyes.
But now, in front of him, their power was truly untold, and the rumors had not been told in vain.
kwadeudeudeudeudeudeudeug!
Mountains are being chipped away before his eyes, and rocks are being turned into grains of sand and scattered in all directions.
The swirling air currents mix with the sulfurous gas, creating a maelstrom of flames that soon explodes into a violent explosion.
…Boom, boom, boom, boom!
And the whirlwind of strikes created by D'Ordume shredded even the explosions and flames, rushing towards Vikir.
'Such a monster has been lurking in Nouvelle Vague, but I doubt he will fight the demons in the future.'
In the pre-Regression world, D'Ordume had also participated in the war against demons.
But that was due to complicated circumstances, and his participation involved the sacrifice of many innocents.
In this life, Vikir had already changed so many things on earth that it was unlikely that things would go as predicted.
'True. Many of my allies have been harmed by this man. Perhaps it's better to be safe than sorry.'
Vikir shook his head as he saw the screaming prisoners and guards caught in the maelstrom of fire in the distance.
And when Dordium saw this, veins like a viper rose up on D'Ordume's forehead.
"How dare you slack off?"
D'Ordume drew in a deep breath to summon his strength.
Then he doubled the number of rotations per second of the aura spinning from his forearms.
Kiyuuuuuuuuuung-
The boulders that had been sucked into the vortex of the attack were no longer grains of sand, but instead turned into numerical dust and began to whirl.
'This is going to be hard to dodge, isn't it?'
Vikir ducked his head out of the way of the swirling blades.
Every nerve in his body was screaming like crazy from earlier.
Vikir had to keep his wits about him, because if he reacted any slower, his entire body would be torn to shreds.
'...No mana should be used at this time, so I must use my reflexes, which have blossomed to the extreme, to completely control and maneuver my body. Above all else, I must focus on the original principle.'
Vikir utilized his spatial perception and reflexes to the fullest.
To know the exact size and position of his own body, so that he could pass through a shower of flying strikes.
It was even harder than walking through raindrops falling from the sky without getting wet.
The slightest miscalculation in the size and position of the body would tear flesh and shred bone.
'But on the other hand, if I calculate the size and position of my body perfectly, it means I won't get hurt at all.'
Vikir moved like a ghost in the opposite direction of the twitching hairs.
wajijijijig!
One step, and the place where he had just stepped is ripped apart.
Pfft.
Tilting his head, a fine line of stitches burst through the shoulder of his prison uniform.
Vikir continued to dig into D'Ordume's arms.
And then.
peoeog-
A fist wrapped in BDISSEM chains shattered D'Ordume's aura and drove deep into his abdomen.
'It went in.'
Vikir thought to himself.
[...Human! Danger! Back!]
He heard the tiny voice of Decarabia shouting in his chest.
Almost at the same time.
"...!"
Vikir felt an uneasy sensation like never before.
No matter how much humans trained their bodies, there was a limit to how strong muscles could be when they were basically made of bone, flesh, blood, and skin.
But there was something different about D'Ordume.
His fist doesn't feel quite right at the end.
There's a hard, heavy semi-elasticity that comes back along the back of the hand after a clear hit to the abdomen.
It wasn't the kind of thing that would be felt when hitting a human body.
It's like....
"...Dragon body?"
Vikir furrowed his brow.
Whoosh!
The thick sulfurous gas and the fragments of the aura caused by the vortex were cleared away, revealing D'Ordume's body.
…BANG!
It was clearly not a human body as it ferociously stamped on Vikir's body.