I Got a Gallery in the Wild - Chapter 305

What trials must one endure to become a knight?

Innate talent, backed by training regimens built upon vast stores of historical data and practical expertise.

Only after enduring training where nine out of ten fail, and surviving at least ten real battles, can one finally shed the tag of an apprentice.

Even after stripping away the apprentice label, things do not get any easier.

Not only does one’s individual rank matter, but the skill variance between knight orders fluctuates wildly depending on their prestige.

Among them, the order that reigns supreme both politically and in sheer martial power is without question the ’Royal Guard.’

Monsters who serve as the final shield, guarding the imperial or royal sovereign.

To become the leader of such elites—that is, the ’Commander of the Royal Guard’—is utterly impossible without extraordinary prowess.

Normally, to reach such a position, one would be in their late 40s to early 50s at the absolute earliest.

Furthermore, being a politically delicate post, becoming Commander of the Royal Guard is exceedingly difficult unless one is exceptionally shrewd and seasoned.

Yet, there was someone who shattered all common sense and ascended to Commander of the Royal Guard on ’overwhelming skill’ alone.

Not in her 40s, nor her 30s, but at the tender age of merely twenty-five.

Kung! Kung! Kung! Kung!

"Uwoooooh!"

An Ogre easily 5 meters tall charged forward with a monstrous roar.

The beast’s objective was singular: the female knight charging straight toward it.

Having rushed over in haste, the female knight Ash was still clad in her standard uniform.

Though the outfit was far from practical for combat, she paid it no mind whatsoever.

Whoosh!

When the distance between them closed entirely, the Ogre slammed down its massive wooden club.

However, that wooden club never struck Ash.

Slice-

A strange fissure appeared along the wooden club, and then...

Phaak!

It burst into wooden splinters, scattering in all directions.

Ash didn’t bother sparing a glance at the debris, blowing right past the Ogre.

Enraged by this, the Ogre swung its body around to attack. However...

Kuuung!

Its massive body splitting vertically came first.

Unaware that it had even been sliced, its face still bore an expression of furious rage.

As the vertically bisected Ogre collapsed to the ground, Ash kept sprinting forward without missing a beat.

’In truth, I’d like to launch a few Sword Qi blasts, but...’

To clear out a monster army efficiently, unleashing a few wide-area Sword Qi strikes was the superior choice.

However, there might be captives being dragged off, like that female mage earlier.

Careless attacks might lead to friendly casualties, so although it was troublesome, she decided to dispatch them manually one by one.

’Can’t be helped.’

She could just view it as saving lives while getting a nice, long-overdue warm-up.

Settling her mind, Ash manifested Aura into the swords held in both hands.

Reflecting her unique constitution—where mana accumulated simply by breathing—her Aura Blade was unusually large compared to others.

"Kyaaaah!"

"Kiiiiik!"

Perhaps realizing there was nowhere left to run, the monsters that had been shrinking back suddenly reacted with violent frenzy.

Monsters of all kinds charged forward recklessly.

Ash shifted her eyes sharply, then slowly lifted her leg.

Kuuung!

A simple stomp. Yet the shockwave it produced was appalling.

The solid earth surged and rippled like crashing ocean waves, barreling toward the monsters.

"Grrk?!"

"Kyaak!!"

Unprepared for such an attack, the monsters’ balance broke completely.

Ash did not miss this opening, hurtling directly into their ranks.

The monsters in the front row frantically tried to adopt a battle stance, but it was far too late.

Two blades glided gracefully at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.

Chwaaak! Chak!

The outcome was a clean fountain of blood spouting from the severed necks of the monsters.

Attacks aiming strictly for vital points, showing zero intention of granting quarter.

Even if she didn’t target a vital point, it made little difference anyway.

Seogeok!

"Kwooorgh..."

If she slashed at a body, the body split whole; if they desperately tried to block, their weapons were severed along with them.

Ash gave the monsters no leeway to react.

Instead, she dove deeper into the heart of the army to sow even greater panic among them.

"Keo-ung! Keong!"

A Mad Dog bared its fangs at Ash.

Sharp, glistening teeth looking ready to tear her apart on the spot.

Ujigeun!

Those teeth were shattered into splinters by a single crisp kick from Ash.

Not just the teeth—its long snout caved inward, smashed violently into its own face.

Seogeok! Seogeok! Kwaang!

The monsters fell into utter chaos. They couldn’t track Ash’s movements in the slightest.

The moment they swung an attack, Ash would vanish, leaving their necks or torsos severed in the next instant.

A few slightly smarter monsters attempted an ambush from behind, but...

Kwaak!

"Kwaak!"

"Grrk?!"

Foreseeing it all, Ash deftly slipped out of the way, baiting them into team-killing each other.

Puk!

As the two monsters collided, Ash lightly impaled their heads in one fluid motion.

The Orcs perished instantly, their heads skewered together like a side-by-side kebab.Enjoying the story? Read on at nove‌lping.com.

’As expected, there are more Orcs.’

Even amidst the slaughter, she acutely analyzed her surroundings.

Though various monster types were intermingled, the proportion of Orcs was overwhelmingly high.

Roughly a seven-to-three ratio by visual estimate.

When forming a cohesive army, Orcs ranked number one as the most troublesome monsters.

They weren’t unintelligent, and they possessed a natural affinity for mana.

’I definitely saw the Orc Champion earlier. Where did it disappear to?’

Ash had seen it clearly with her own two eyes.

An Orc Champion swinging a club-sized Aura Blade with wild abandon.

Perhaps assuming victory was assured, it seemed to have pulled back into the rear lines for the moment.

’Normally, taking down the commander would be enough, but... there are way too many of them.’

With nimble footwork, she neatly bisected three Orcs in a single stroke.

A single slash, yet possessing the lethal force to take down three or four at once.

A sword style unadorned yet far from rigid—honed to perfection through countless real combat encounters.

’Since I’m already here, I might as well clean house. That should draw the Orc Champion out.’

One of Ash’s core strengths was her patient, deliberate nature.

Thanks to her innate talent, she had never needed to rush anything in her entire life.

Granted, she had run into some pressing matters recently, but those were personal life affairs.

When it came to what she did best—like right now—she wasn’t hasty in the slightest.

’Step by step...’

To Ash, it was step by step, but...

’Let’s take them down one by one. There’s no rush.’

To anyone watching, she was butchering monsters faster than anyone else alive.

The perception of speed differs fundamentally between someone who runs 100 meters in 1 second versus someone who runs it in 10 seconds.

What’s more, wielding a blade in each hand gave her slaughter the illusion of a breathtaking dance.

Chwaak! Chak! Udeuk!

It was right as she was systematically slicing through monsters as if performing a dance.

A hairline crack opened along the sword in her left hand—the weapon she had scavenged off the ground earlier.

Because Ash’s Aura was far more intense than ordinary people’s, very few weapons could withstand it.

Considering the sword in her right hand was already hanging by a thread, it was impressive this one had lasted this long.

"Tsk."

"Kwraaaaah!!!"

An Orc brandishing a massive greatsword charged forward with a roaring battle cry.

Simultaneously, other monsters rushed her from behind.

Without even turning around, Ash assessed the situation and stepped toward the Orc with the greatsword.

Just as the Orc brought its greatsword crashing down—

Seogeok!

The descending greatsword halted mid-air, along with the Orc’s severed hands still attached to the hilt.

Unaware of its loss, the Orc continued to swing down—not with empty hands, but with empty wrists.

Pasasak!

At the same moment, the scavenged sword in Ash’s left hand crumbled into fine powder and vanished.

Unable to endure the immense pressure of her Aura, it had completely disintegrated.

"Grrk?"

Ash grabbed the bewildered Orc, who still hadn’t grasped what had happened, with her bare hand.

Then she hurled it backward toward the monsters charging from behind.

Despite the Orc’s massive bulk, she tossed it like a sack of luggage.

Kuuung!

"Kwaak!"

"Kkuek!"

Regardless of the chaotic crunching sounds echoing behind her, Ash casually looked down at the greatsword dropped on the ground.

The Orc’s dead hands gripped it so tightly that the fingers didn’t easily uncurl.

Prying it loose, she took the greatsword into her left hand and muttered softly.

"This one’s gonna break fast too."

Hwiik!

Grumbling, Ash swept the heavy greatsword back toward the direction she had thrown the Orc.

To an onlooker, it would have appeared as though she merely cut the empty air.

Kwagagaga!

Yet the monsters’ bodies were cleanly severed in two as the terrain itself churned upside down.

Realizing she had misjudged her output force, she felt a bit sheepish.

’As I thought, greatswords aren’t my thing.’

Of course, that did nothing to slow the massacre. If anything, her destructive power had escalated.

Every single swing of the greatsword upturned the earth, launching monsters skyward.

While steadily and methodically thinning the monsters’ numbers, Ash kept a vigilant eye on the field.

’I don’t see any captives. The cavalry really must have been completely wiped out.’

The monsters attempting to abduct adventurers had all been dealt with; all that remained were traces of the cavalry.

Yet no survivors of the cavalry were in sight—only the occasional horse corpse strewn across the bloody soil.

Still, just in case, she refrained from wide-area annihilations and focused on picking off individual foes, hoping to save even a single survivor.

"Kwaaaargh!"

"Kiiiiik! Kiik!"

Ash slaughtered the monsters without exhibiting a single sign of fatigue.

While she had started pristine and untainted, blood and flesh splatters gradually coated her form over time.

Yet she paid it no heed, continuing her fluid blade work.

Wiping blood from around her eyes only when it threatened her sight, she performed a deadly, murder-laden dance.

"Urrgh..."

"Kwakeu... kwakeu..."

"Ka, kakeu..."

By the time the monster population had dwindled noticeably...

A subtle change overcame the monsters whose fury had previously outstripped their survival instinct.

A primal ’fear’—the kind felt only before an overwhelmingly superior predator—had taken root.

And small wonder: Ash’s current figure was the very incarnation of terror.

A body soaked in blood and gore, paired with an utterly emotionless expression as if doing routine chores.

Wiping blood from her face onto her sleeve, her composure was more relaxed than anyone else on the battlefield.Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping(.)com.

Tread-

"K-Krr...!"

"Kiiii..."

When Ash took a silent step forward, the monsters flinched back.

Monsters were living beings after all, bound to show fragility when confronted with impending death.

To them, Death itself was walking toward them—falling to terror was inevitable.

’It should be about time for him to show up.’

Ash sensed that the leader of the host, the Orc Champion, would make its entrance soon.

Monsters possessed morale just like humans, and right now, theirs was at rock bottom.

Since antiquity, when morale collapsed, a commander was expected to step forth and bolster it.

While goblins were known to copy human ’tools,’ Orcs were famous for mimicking human ’tactics.’

Therefore...

Thud- Thud- Thud-

"Ooh! Owakeu!"

"Owakeu! Owakeu!"

It meant the time for their chief to appear had come.

From amidst the crowded horde of Orcs, an exceptionally tall giant stepped forward.

Ash raised her head to look at the Orc’s face. In height alone, it easily reached 2.5 meters.

’Definitely a mutated variant.’

The characteristic protruding tusks confirmed it was indeed an Orc.

Its colossal build was likely due to being born with an extraordinarily high mana affinity.

Much like Hobgoblins, Orc Champions were notorious for their massive size.

However, unlike Hobgoblins, which were an evolutionary mutation, an Orc Champion was more of a proven powerhouse.

In the wild, ’weight class’ directly correlated with strength, so a monster of that sheer scale naturally became the leader.

Hummmm-

Yet this Orc Champion was somewhat different. Ash lowered her gaze to the weapon in its hand.

As the Orc Champion channeled its power, the sword shimmered like an emerald galaxy.

Perhaps due to the blade’s color, even the Aura Blade manifested as a brilliant green.

’They said it was a relic-tier weapon, and it really is.’

Using an Aura Blade, glowing like a green galaxy—all of it.

Judging by the monster numbers, the raid itself was inevitable, but that weapon had clearly escalated the casualties significantly.

At the same time, it was a blessing in disguise.

Thanks to that, it drew public attention, allowing Ash to arrive so swiftly.

Hummmm!

"Krrrrr...!"

The Orc Champion gripped the sword tightly in one hand, letting out a raspy growl.

The Aura Blade expanded to the thickness of a war club, completely enveloping the blade.

Ash looked on with admiration. It was a blade that tempted anyone who laid eyes on it.

’So this is what a relic-tier weapon can do, huh?’

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Meanwhile, the Orc Champion charged, sword in hand.

Compared to the Orc’s hand, the sword was normal-sized; it delivered a single-handed downward strike.

Given how easily it had slaughtered the adventurers earlier, its strike carried undeniable, lethal weight.

Cha-eng!

Yes—if she had been an ordinary adventurer, that is.

The Orc Champion’s blade collided head-on with Ash’s greatsword.

A crisp, metallic ringing filled the air, casting off a sharp shockwave.

"Grrk?"

"Still holding together, huh?"

The Orc Champion’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Considering the massive difference in their physical builds, Ash should have been easily thrown back.

Yet she held her ground immovably. And with nothing more than a crude, shabby greatsword.

Despite her slender appearance, it meant her raw physical strength far outmatched the Orc’s.

’That sword... is actually an exquisite weapon.’

Ash, on the other hand, was surprised by something else.

Until now, weapons coming into contact with her Aura Blade were usually sliced apart like tofu.

If the opponent could manifest an Aura Blade of their own, they could exchange blows, but a massive skill gap rendered that meaningless anyway.

The Orc Champion’s Aura Blade was no exception—due to its atrocious mastery, its Aura layer was instantly sheared off.

Yet the blade itself remained completely intact. Its durability was beyond imagination.

’Now I really want it.’

Drooling inwardly, Ash flicked her greatsword upward.

It was light only by her standards—not by the Orc Champion’s.

Twoong!

The moment Ash pushed upward, the Orc Champion’s arm was repelled skyward.

Exposing its upper torso wide open.

Ash didn’t miss the opening, slashing across with the longsword in her right hand instead of the greatsword.

The Orc Champion frantically tried to block with its empty hand, but...

Seogeok!

Without having mastered Body-Protecting Gangqi, its flesh was sliced through like soft tofu.

Thud-thud-

Bisected diagonally, the Orc Champion’s upper body slid off and hit the ground.

An anticlimactic end for a monster warlord that had been slaughtering cavalry and adventurers just moments ago.

Of course, Ash mentally gave credit to the Orc Champion for managing to exchange even a single blow with her.

’Still, relying purely on weight class is foolish. You should at least plan for the next exchange.’

Ash picked up the Orc Champion’s sword, which had reverted to its normal state, and muttered softly.

’Well... works out great for me.’

The battle was over.

Brought to an end by a single person.