A Knight Who Eternally Regresses-Chapter 166: What Can One Human Standing Alone Do?

What is the feeling of evasion?

It wasn’t just a simple evasion technique.

When thinking about it, there were many strange things.

Enkrid had left a scratch on Rem’s cheek.

But had he ever seen one of his squad members get hurt like that before?

Whether facing him or on the battlefield, they never seemed to get easily injured.

They didn’t take wounds.

Unless they intentionally let it happen, they fought without getting hurt, most of the time.

How could that be?

"The feeling of evasion."

It wasn’t just a skill of dodging.

There was something vague that he grasped, and now, he was going to unravel it, one piece at a time.

While facing the approaching gnolls, Enkrid swept his hand through the air.

To someone who didn’t know, especially Kraiss, it might have seemed like he was just waving his hand at the air, but it wasn’t that simple.

Thud, thud, thud.

Using his hand like a signal and his chest as a launch pad, he threw his dagger with the full force of his body, utilizing his whole body’s elasticity.

The dagger, now turned into a beam of light, struck the heads of the hyenas and gnolls, piercing through their necks and skulls.

The speed of pulling and throwing was so fast that it was almost invisible to the eye.

Wasn't that considered a throwing technique?

Yes, it had grown. Isolation techniques, training strength, and an overall improvement in handling his body had all developed evenly.

Three gnolls dropped dead in an instant. Their bodies rolled across the floor with the same speed they had charged at him.

Other gnolls and hyenas stumbled over them.

The sound of them falling and tumbling rang in his ears.

"Socius!"

Lua Gharne shouted as she whipped the air, charging forward.

"Dammit! What the hell is this?"

Kraiss’ shocked voice followed.

"Ah!"

Esther also stood by his side.

"Th-That, uh, ugh!"

A worker, who had come out to relieve himself, screamed as well.

It was the same as any other day.

But it was met differently this time. Enkrid’s hands moved ceaselessly.

It was the second "today."

This "today" was a little different, there was more room to maneuver.

He had already known that the relentless waves of monsters would come at him.

Without leaving a single dagger behind, he threw them all.

Screeeech!

All manner of whistles and clashing sounds came from the attack.

And he killed monsters and beasts in the double digits, though that didn’t change the fact that...

The waves of beasts and monsters continued, and those who had leapt over the corpses tackled Enkrid once more.

"Commander, ahead!"

Kraiss shouted. He too drew his short sword as he yelled.

Enkrid adjusted his breath.

What he had learned from the previous "today," something only felt when fighting with his life on the line.

He honed his senses, sharpening his sixth sense and intuition.

He blocked, parried, and stabbed his sword into the gaps in the gnolls' attacks, more powerfully than ever before.

Though Enkrid didn’t know much, one thing he was sure of was that his stamina was his strength.

With all the experiences he’d gained, he felt like an industrial press that crushed beasts and monsters underfoot.

Crunch!

A neck severed cleanly.

A stab wound that caused death.

In the meantime, the clash of iron, the sound of bodies being torn apart, and metallic noises filled the air.

Kraiss, watching from the side, was stunned.

‘Is he a monster?’

The impression he had gotten from watching Rem and other squad members now surfaced again.

Such was the intensity of Enkrid’s movements.

He blocked everything, cut everything down. His sword cleaved through the gnolls and hyenas like a sharp edge through butter.

Whether Kraiss was impressed or astounded, Enkrid didn’t care. He raised his focus.

He had entered a world of his own, isolated from everything around him.

The only thing left in this world was the sword.

Time slowed, and in this world, only his heightened intuition, the enemy, and his sword remained.

In the face of a crashing wave of monsters, the best one can do, standing alone as a human, is...

Enkrid swung his sword.

But that didn’t change the outcome.

It was noon again, and though there were fewer injuries, this time, both his thighs were heavily slashed.

He couldn’t avoid the two damn gladii, and Kraiss’s body was nowhere to be found.

Enkrid endured the repeated “today” for as long as the day itself lasted.

‘Should I consider myself lucky?’

Esther was now perched on a roof, her big blue eyes seeming to carry some emotion, though there was no time to decipher it.

"Groooar!"

The howl of a hyena echoed, and the leader of the gnoll colony emerged.

The same as before. The pain in his thighs left him unable to avoid, and now, it was a worse situation than before.

But Enkrid was sure, in just one day, his skills had grown.

Grim and brutal, but the edge of his senses was sharper now.

"We’ll meet again."

He muttered to the gnoll, throwing out words that wouldn’t be understood, and perished in the poison.

The scene faded, and the new "today" began.

This time, he didn’t bother asking Lua Gharne anything foolish.

She was going to leave, no matter what. There was no need to ask unnecessary questions.

Asking why she wasn’t staying to guard, that would be a pointless question.

Even if he told her to come back, it would have no meaning.

If she were coming back, she wouldn’t have left in the first place.

Her leaving meant that her priorities lay elsewhere.

Instead...

Creak, creak.

"I think your way of waking up is a bit unique."

He muttered while gathering his equipment, he had to wake up from his rest.

"It's a nice day. It’d be good to get up early."

"Ugh. It’s dawn, dawn. The moon hasn’t even disappeared yet."

Kraiss grumbled from the side, but Enkrid ignored him.

Once more, he broke into a sweat.

This day was short. Or rather, to be exact, there was little time for training.

What should he do? He’d make combat a ground for both training and conditioning.

Enkrid did just that.

The agony of addiction, the horrific pain and suffering?

He would endure it.

What helps him forget pain?

The thrill of growth, even if it meant crawling forward.

Right now, it didn’t feel like crawling, but walking instead. A faster pace, the feeling of moving forward.

How could he not feel joy in that?

‘This time, a little more.’

Should it be called a continuous challenge?

Enkrid set his own goal.

A simple but clear goal.

The repeating today, pushing back the moment of injury for as long as possible.

At first, it was just a few battles where his shoulder was struck.

The next day, his thighs were slashed, and after that, a spear pierced his abdomen.

Thanks to his sturdy armor, he didn’t die, but had the reaction been a little slower, it could have been a fatal wound.

‘Still lacking, still lacking.’

It was self-awareness. Enkrid now knew his shortcomings through all his experiences.

"Squad leader, brother, hand-to-hand combat must be ingrained through repetition. It’s not the mind, it’s the body that needs to remember. So, roll."

Audin’s words came to mind.

"At the moment you see, your body should react. That’s how you dodge. You don’t need some lazy focus technique."

Saxen’s words also echoed.

Originally, Enkrid had practiced improving his coordination through dynamic vision and sensory training. But he answered it through his own method.

‘What if I could make my muscles remember in every situation?’

That’s what he did.

In the repeating today, amidst the wave of beasts...

The third, fourth, fifth today.

He fought desperately, again and again.

Over twenty "todays" passed.

Training was a given, but the wave of monsters the ferryman mentioned seemed like an insurmountable wall.

Perhaps if he were already a knight...

Or had an army of similar strength...

But Enkrid didn’t allow himself to be distracted by such thoughts.

He was just stacking up the days, preparing for tomorrow.

No distractions.

The repeating today, he simply did what needed to be done.

At first, it was just ten beasts, but after twenty days, he managed to block and dodge all attacks, even in the midst of gnolls.

"Wow."

The worker, who had to run away, was astonished.

But Enkrid wasn’t at the level where he could dodge through them without taking a single scratch.

So what does he do? He repeats.

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After thirty or so “todays” had passed.

And then, forty or so days went by.

Every time he was poisoned, his teeth would chatter from the pain.

But he grew used to it.

Even after being poisoned, he would endure and swing his sword.

What happens when he rushes into a group of gnolls right after being poisoned?

Blades, hammers, axes, and spears would come flying from all directions.

Perberberbuck.

The pain of being butchered was far better than dying from addiction.

Thus, Enkrid tumbled between the gnolls and hyenas, rolling over and over again, trading his life to survive.

During the repetition of today, he had a chance to ask about the cult.

"Have you heard of the Holy Church of the Malignant?"

It was a half-intended question. With the daily repetition of today and the short time allotted, there was no choice but to ask something new every day, using that as a benchmark.

Every ten days, he asked something about the cult.

And so, he counted the days.

Well, if he was going to ask, he might as well ask a meaningful question.

"A rotten, fanatic group."

Lua Gharne, ever the straightforward one, couldn’t help but show her hatred.

It was hatred. The hatred that could make her cheeks turn bright red, puffed up in fury.

"I’ll kill them all. Every last one I see."

Now it made sense why she had rushed out earlier.

"I swore it. On my heart."

When Lua Gharne spoke of her heart, she sounded like a seasoned frog.

There was a brief hesitation, but in the end, she spoke, and from that, Enkrid could understand just how remarkable she truly was.

The Malignant Holy Church.

Whether this was their official name, he wasn’t sure, but they were a group of lunatics who believed their god, trapped in the source of the monsters, was someone humans could never emulate.

A cult within a cult.

The continent's greatest heretics.

It was said that they even performed strange summoning rituals, using humans as sacrifices.

What came out of these rituals? Monsters. Occasionally, they even summoned evil spirits.

Not all monsters were the same, however.

There were quite a few infamous monsters on the continent, and it was widely believed that they were the result of these rituals.

He had thought this was just some mercenary gossip, but Lua Gharne confirmed that it wasn’t just rumors.

"Do you know salamanders?"

There was no way he didn’t know them; they were monsters that spat fire from their entire bodies.

"They were those bastards’ work."

The rumors were true.

"I was there."

Lua Gharne was a witness.

So, why was this important?

It wasn’t.

It was just another milestone in the repeated days he had to endure.

The training and conditioning began again.

There were also moments when he revisited the mistakes made in the previous "today."

By the time he had passed fifty repeats, it was clear.

‘I pushed myself too hard.’

He had been so confident in his stamina that he gave everything from the start.

‘I need to manage my stamina better.’

It was as if he was learning to fight while surrounded by many enemies.

Such things naturally became ingrained in his body.

The days of gnolls and their stench were fading away.

Enkrid had now endured eighty-nine repetitions of today.

But even then, he still couldn’t stand before the leader without a single wound.

No, to be more accurate, the leader wouldn’t step forward unless he was injured.

He had to get seriously wounded for the leader to show up.

For example, if a hole was torn in his abdomen.

Or if his ankle was half severed and dangling.

It was always against an opponent who wouldn’t understand words.

In the ninety-sixth repetition of today, he lost his life to the leader's dagger. The end of his struggle was death, a fate-like routine.

In the endless cycle of time, Enkrid had gradually begun to learn the habits of the gnolls.

‘Gnolls have long torsos and short legs.’

He learned this from the monsters' body types.

Their feet were slow, but their hands were fast.

They handled human weapons but had no particular form—just wildly swinging at whatever came their way.

They had the strength of a regular adult male, but their short legs made their charge slower than expected.

They liked to attack from blind spots, engaging in close combat without hesitation, biting fiercely.

It was best to avoid being bitten at all costs.

Their biting strength was extraordinary.

Hyenas and gnolls alike.

If they bit, their "Heart of Might" would activate and rip apart anything, but otherwise, they couldn’t rip through things easily.

There were more things Enkrid had learned.

‘Two swords.’

When both swords activated the Heart of Might, that one moment became completely absurd.

"I’ll cut them all down."

Kraiss even seemed relaxed at this point.

The problem was sustainability.

No matter how well you managed your stamina, it was impossible to maintain this indefinitely.

And so, the cycle continued.

He dodged, again and again.

Originally, the feeling of evasion was somewhat in the realm of talent.

Saxen had substituted this with training, but only those capable could succeed.

Enkrid solved it by imprinting every detail onto his body.

So...

‘Muscles remember.’

By repeating everything he saw and responding with his body, he imprinted evasion into his muscles.

It became an evasion technique engraved in his body, not in his head.

By continuing to repeat this, he could now react immediately, the coordination in his body having been properly instilled.

He could now evade and react as soon as he saw the attack coming.

This was the coordination of his body, now truly ingrained.

The moment he saw, he could evade and respond.

And now, it was possible.