As if born from a nightmare itself, Gavur's gray ape, with his long arms hanging slack, glared at the Leopard in front of him.
It was a large monkey covered all over with dirty, sticky gray hair, except for its huge, worn head, and even though Guin was very tall and strong, the monkey's disgusting head was a head taller than his.
Guin watched the great ape with his hands slack, as if he had been invited to a tea party at court. The gray monkey sprang from its cage and sprinted toward its prey as if it were about to seize it, but the other's reaction was so far removed from any that its crude brain knew. When he stopped, he looked curiously at the big man with the leopard's head and human body, his little red eyes blazing with an inexplicable rage, and he began to threaten him by beating his chest with his arms.
Guin did not move. But within the leopard's mask, his eyes narrowed and a yellowish glow began to shine, and he seemed to be gradually transforming into the noble and awesome creature that covered his head-the leopard itself. He waited patiently as they blew on him with their hot breath and the smell of monkeys.
And suddenly it visited them both!
Without any prompting, the monkey's long, monstrous arm suddenly shot out at Guin. If he had been caught head-on by it, the battle would have been over.
But Guin was well prepared. As soon as the monkey stretched out his hand, he stooped down and, with surprising determination, went to the monkey's inside.
The grey monkey's breath was filled with anger and a burning desire to fight. The great ape tried to hold the cocky Leopard in his arms, but Guin steadied himself again, grabbed the great ape by the throat and belly with both hands, and slammed him head-first into the stone floor.
"Oh."
But the great ape, slammed into the stone floor with a crunching sound, was in a rage that could not be turned away, and rushed forward with both arms outstretched, unable to weaken its momentum in the slightest. Guin dodged and turned his body, jumped at the gray ape from behind, tightened his grip on its thick, hairy neck with all his might and tried to snap its neck.
The monkey raised his arms and took Guin by the torso and pulled him off. Guin's arms were as strong as pine roots, his muscles bulging like twisted ropes, and his hand grasping his throat flute strained not to be torn off, but the monkey's mighty power tore the Leopard off and threw him after a short resistance. Guin regained his stance in the air and stood up quickly to brace himself. His thickly tanned shoulders were already rippling and his firm belly was rising and falling wildly.
But the gray monkey, too, had already noticed the slight difference between the people he had often beaten to death and the Leopard-headed man who stood there, and had begun to show caution. The monkeys slapped their chests, made horrible threatening noises, and glared at their unwilling opponents with primal malice and hatred.
"One."
The Count said in a hushed voice, turning over the hourglass once it had fallen.
This time, Guin did not let the monkey get close to him easily. Whenever he saw a sign that the ape was about to pounce, he would quickly lower himself and retreat. He had to buy some time to regain his strength, and he had to assume that the great ape's strength had not been damaged by the attack.
But Guin was no longer thinking about anything else. Even the situation of the four enclosures and the reason why he had come to fight the Great Grey Ape of Gavur in the first place had disappeared from his mind. He was now a wild Leopard, a huge beast that trusted its instincts and moved only by its instincts.
The gray monkey began to be wary, and the two sides continued to face each other tensely, and the Count became impatient and hit the partition.
"What are you doing?"
He cursed in a muffled voice and quickly picked up a handy jug and slammed it between the monkey and the Leopard.
The sound of the water jar cracking gave the two beasts the impetus they were looking for. The gray monkey leaped and fell upon them. Guin dodged his arm in time, spun around on the floor, and rose to his feet, a spiked piece of the jug in his hand.
The knights murmured.
Guin kept his body low, so low that his fists were almost hanging to the floor, waiting for an opening. At the moment when the gray monkey next leaped at him, he dared to grab its head by its arm, and the weapon in his hand pierced the monkey's left eye squarely.
The roar of the monkeys loosed the stone dungeons!
But the monkey did not let go of the warrior's head. The warrior grasped the neck of the monkey with his left hand and, trying to loosen the monkey's vise like strength, gouged it with his right hand and tore off half of its face, but the monkey did not care and lifted the warrior up with a roar.
Guin's feet left the floor. Guin kicked the monkey's hairy belly as hard as he could and kicked again, but he couldn't escape the great ape's hands that were trying to grab his head and crush it.
The knights held their breath.
Guin's mouth also let out a series of wild roars. If it had not been for the bizarre leopard head covering him, his head would have been crushed into an eggshell by now. Guin's exposed skin from the neck down turned red with the effort of holding back, and he ranted and raved as he madly attacked the monkey's face with his right hand weapon.
When the sharp stone, which he swung blindly, struck him just above his other eye, even the monkey relaxed his hand. Guin's foot immediately kicked him in the groin with all his might. The ape threw the warrior down like a piece of rag and grabbed his face in his huge, filthy palm and let out a cry of rage that roiled the cursed crypt.
The warrior, however, lay motionless on the beaten floor. The leopard's head, which had not been relentlessly battered by the force of the blow, seemed to be somewhat distorted, and there were long bloody scratches on his muscular shoulders and chest where the monkey's claws had scratched. He struggled to get up, but after kicking his feet in the air a couple of times, he groaned and curled up with his head in his arms.
The Black Count drew in his breath and leaned forward. The hourglass under his arm had somehow been completely forgotten.
The great ape was blinded by the blood that flowed into one of his eyes and into the other, and was so enraged that he stomped his feet and pounded his chest with his fists. The monkey shouted angrily two or three times as he stretched out his hand to find out where his partner was who had inflicted such pain on him.
"Rise and shine, Leopard!"
Unexpectedly, a cry of warning erupted from the watching knights.
Guin could not get up. His crushed head was dazed and his eyes were dark. He moaned weakly as the pieces of stone fell helplessly from his hands.
The monkey's outstretched hand came in contact with a piece of water jug. The monkey let out a cry of anger and bit it into a pulp. A dark, boiling rage that seemed to lead straight to the darkness of ancient times.
The monkey's clawing hands touch the body of the fallen warrior!
"It's dangerous!"
The knights cried out in fear. One of them suddenly pulled out the long sword at his waist.
"Leopard man! To the right, here it comes!"
Screaming, he threw it at Guin.
Guin opened his blurry eyes and looked at the weapon that had been thrown at him.
His hand stretched out and he grasped the hilt of the long sword firmly, just like Silenos, the mythical Leopard, who grasped the anazuma.
A grey monkey is coming at me, screaming.
The long sword in Guin's right hand strikes its body with the force of an encounter!
The gray monkey's screams deafened me.
The leopard man jumped up. It was the agility of a giant Leopard itself. The Leopard-headed warrior, covered with hot blood gushing out of the monkey's belly, jumped into the monkey's inner cavity and repeatedly poked and gouged it with his long sword.
With the life force of an amazing beast, the ape was still able to hold on despite the wounds. With blind crimson rage, the Great Grey Monkey of Gabor grabbed both shoulders of the Leopard who had injured him and tried to pull his flesh.
The Leopard pointed his sword at him again. When he saw that the monkey was still alive, he raised his sword and cut off the monkey's finger.
The hand slowly fell away, and just before the monkey fell, the Leopard jumped away and landed on the floor. People stared in horror at the huge purple finger marks on his thick shoulders, as if they had been made by the doll's own fingers.
Guin snapped the monkey's neck from above and put an end to the brutal and cautious Leopard. But he staggered and fell with the long sword in his hand. His whole body was covered with blood and wounds, and he was weak.
At that moment, the second hourglass finally fell gently.
"Molester!"
Just before he fell into the exhausting darkness, Guin faintly heard the Black Count Vernon ranting.
"Fool! You've ruined my precious experiment! The man who threw the sword at the Leopard must step forward quickly. Fool!"
"With all due respect, Count."
The captain took the liberty of defending himself, as he himself would have liked to have behaved like one of his men.
"Since the leopard man has shown that he can fight well, this is just as it should be - anyway, there is no one in our squad who can slaughter Gavur's Grey Ape in two zangs with a single long sword, unfortunately."
"Lascivious! Lascivious!"
Ranting madly the nobleman of karma.
"There are more than enough fighters in Mongol who could take down the city of Torus by themselves with a single long sword! I was expecting him to tear the Grey Ape apart with his bare hands. In any case, I had no intention of throwing him a dagger or a long sword."
"But it's--"
The captain kept his mouth shut and withdrew snidely. The Count became even more boisterous, shuffled his feet and pointed at the nodding criminals who had been pushed out.
"Rip off that lout's armor helmet. Strip it off now! I'll punish him myself. Take the Leopard back, lock him up, feed him and wait for further orders. You'll have to wait until the barbarian merchant brings back the beast to see how he fights.
--no..."
Suddenly, the Count began to clap his hands in amusement at the devilish idea.
"Give the sword to that kind fool and send him down to the arena. If you fight and defeat the Leopard I'll replace you with the fifth captain. Hurry up, take off his armour, give him the sword and send him down the stairs."
"Count! How can Oro of Torus stand up to a fighter who can defeat the Great Grey Ape of Gavur with two gongs?"
The captain protested.
"Then let him cut you down."
The Count was cool.
"The Leopard is wounded and weak. If you wound the Leopard I'll overlook your crime of disobeying an order. Let's get him down the stairs."
The Black Count pressed the button and a stone staircase slowly came down from the wall.
It was a moment!
Crouched, covered in blood, and seemingly fainting, Guin sprang up like a spring-loaded machine!
Before the knights could even utter a sound of astonishment, the warrior grabbed the long sword covered in the blood of the gray monkey and charged up the stone steps, danced across the partition, and rushed toward the accursed lord!
Before the Black Count had time to raise his hand to flee, the Leopard warrior thrust his sword at him, grabbed the cloak of the nobleman with the disease, and shouted in triumph. The knights fell back.
"If you want to spare the life of the Lord of Mongol, make way for him."
Guin barked.
"He's gonna talk to you!
A cry of astonishment goes up from the knights.
"Now, get out of the way. Unless you want me to put an end to this disgusting carrion."
The knights feared and despised the Count of Vernon so much that they did not even breathe his air, but they offered their swords to the glory of Mongol, which the Count represented. The knights of Ghora are even used as adjectives of valour and loyalty. They looked at each other in confusion, and when Guin advanced to poke the Earl with the point of his sword, they fell back in trepidation. But they could not tell whether it was for fear of Guin or for fear of their lord's illness.
"Take your hand off the hilt of the long sword. If you don't..."
Guin yelled.
"Oro of Torus. I'll never forget your kindness. Give me the key to the white tower. And lead me back to the tower."
Standing upright, his long sword at the throat of their lord, his leopard's head almost touching the low stone ceiling, the tall half-breed, half-man was, for some unknown reason, full of dignity and wild pride. The knights of Ghora, feeling the majesty of his body, began to buzz hesitantly to obey his command.
The first to realize this was the nobleman who had been taken by the shield. The Black Count, his whole body wrapped in iron plates, suddenly began to laugh in a ghostly, shrill voice with Guin's sword at his side, and everyone was startled.
"You pus bag, what's wrong with you?"
Guin shouted angrily. The Count finally laughed out loud.
"I see, so this guy not only wields a tiered petal, but also has at least the brain of a Leopard. But a Leopard is only a Leopard, isn't it? How dare he think of using me as a shield?"
"Why, you're the lord of Staphorus."
"How very, very much so."
The Count looks funny,
"By the way, I'm the lord of Castle Staphorus, but I'm also the Black Count of the accursed Mongol. Don't let him forget that... Would you like to gouge my chest with your long sword? Would you like to slit my throat? A thin mask of iron separates me from the outside world, protecting me from the wind and the outside world from my curse. When the sword in your hand cuts through my mask, the source of my karmic sickness will gush out from the broken eye, and all of you here will become a living, sick man on the spot."
And the Count laughed even harder when he saw the startled Guin leave him and rush back.
"No, we need not wait for the sword to cut through it. Thus, open this mask and expose your accursed flesh to the wind. ..."
His iron-gloved hand slid slowly up to his face. Immediately a panic broke out among the knights. They fought and cursed each other in an attempt to put each other in front of themselves.
The captain did not try to flee, but he held his hands above his head, fumbling with the amulet of Janus, and shouted, "Count, forgive me! he cried.
Danpei fell from Guin's hand. He stood there stunned, not knowing what to do. The Count bellowed to his men to seize it.
"If you seize him and lock him up as soon as possible, and renew your vow to fulfill my life immediately, regardless of anything else in the future, I will only allow you to release this wind of sickness here."
The knights pointed the hilt of their long swords at their master, and the points of their swords at their own left breasts, and their armour clattered against the tips of their swords in a gore-like oath. Then, in a panic, he leaped at the leopard-headed warrior, clashing with him, and threw several layers of leather straps over his thick arms.
Guin would not be touched. His yellow eyes grew dim, as if he had seen a monster, and he became deflated, and his sword was taken from him, and he was left to be pulled down.
"Very well, you will continue to be obedient."
The Count teasingly held out his hand to his men and said.
"Now I'm tired. I'm going back to the Dark Chamber to relieve my rotting body. You must bring him back to the White Tower as soon as possible and tend to him, wash his blood, feed him and let him rest. Sooner or later he will be tested again and then he will be taken to the games as I ascend to Torus. In any case, I'll return to the capital to present the twins of Paro's heir to the Grand Duke in due course. Now go! The fool who thwarted my ambition will be punished at the captain's discretion.
Don't let me see any more of you! Take him away quickly!"
Suddenly the Black Count seemed to lose his patience. In a panic, the knights obeyed the order, and Guin learned that it was not so much Gora's prestige or Mongol's loyalty that ruled Castle Staphorus, but more fear.
And they passed in silence along the way as they had come. It was deep in the night, the water was soaking their leather boots, and their steps were heavy. The long swords at their waists made a clattering sound against their armour, and the guards of Staphorus' castle walked with their heads down and their heads bowed.
"Hey, watch out."
A soldier walking on his left warned him in a low voice when the unusually tall Guin almost hit his head on the low ceiling that seemed to be leaning over the passage. Guin looked over and saw that the kind man was none other than Oro of Torrath, who had saved him by throwing his sword at him, by the absence of a sword in the scabbard at his waist, and by the blue eyes and youthful face peculiar to the Mongols that looked out from under his helmet.
He must have realized that Guin had noticed it. Oro looked at the leopard head with a sly smile and a look of amazement.
"You're a hell of a fighter."
He whispered in a voice inaudible to the leading captain.
"If I had left you to die, I wouldn't have had the right to carry a long sword around my waist. I'm really glad I didn't have to fight you."
Oro fell silent as the captain turned to look at him. Guin did not speak either, and when they finally passed the long stone steps, they breathed a sigh of relief and took in the fresh night air.
Guin remained silent. Though he walked mechanically, his leopard's gaze seemed to fade, hiding the germ of some vexing idea. But no one knew what strange suspicions were rising in his round, fur-covered head, and the party once more entered the white tower by way of the ground, and ascended the narrow steps with echoing footsteps.