The two beasts seemed to have expected him to rush them, something that he himself had not predicted. One of them maneuvered over to his right while the other slammed its claws right into his sword. Sparks flew as the two fought each other, vying for control. However, that did not mean he did not get too focused on this one enemy.

No, he kept another eye on the beast that was trying to flank him. The vile creature paused, before pouncing at him headfirst, its mouth open ready to rip his throat out with the massive sharp teeth.

Hmph. Child’s play. As if he would be put down by something simple like that!

He twisted the blade to throw his immediate combatant off, before stabbing towards the incoming monster. The foolish creature hadn’t expected him to do such a thing as he could see the sheer raw panic in its eyes.

But it was too late. There was no way for the abomination to escape its fate, no possibility to dodge the incoming strike. No, all it could do was let itself be pierced directly and thrown straight to hell.

The blade plunged right into the beast's skull, with the momentum of the pounce causing the creature’s own demise. The body went deep, halfway through the sword before finally coming to a halt.

This created a slight problem: his sword was now stuck in this disgusting creature, making it difficult for him to continue using his weapon as intended. The sharp edges were stuck within the guts of this unholy abomination, which would greatly lower his combat capability right at this moment.

The other monster noticed this. It roared and rushed him, its right arm reared back. It seemed to try to take advantage of his current situation to take him down once and for all.

How unfortunate for this unholy existence that he was not out of the battle yet, nor was his weapon completely out of the picture.

With a swipe, he slammed the corpse into the incoming beast, causing both of them to go flying away. He blinked as he watched the enemy go tumbling away, before wheezing on the ground.

He hadn’t put that much strength into his strike. He shouldn’t have been able to cause the beast to go flying away like that, nor should he have been able to dislodge the corpse so easily.

Was this the power that God had bestowed upon him? Was this the strength that was promised, the touch of the divine that he had been blessed with?

… no. This wasn’t all.

He couldn’t understand why, but he knew deep down that there was much more to the blessing than some newfound strength. There was something much more to this than he could explain, an instinct that told him that there was more to his being than he could even explain at this current time.

Perhaps he should look into himself to determine this. Perhaps–

His thoughts were interrupted by the noise of growling and whining. He blinked, before turning towards the source of this incessant noise.

Ah. The beast he had attacked was still alive. He had hoped that the previous strike would have been more than enough to finish it, but he was not so fortunate. No, the creature was still conscious, though it seemed to be wheezing and gasping. It struggled to find the strength to move at all, only being capable of laying there miserably and pathetically.

It tossed and squirmed. It moaned. It tried to crawl but failed to even achieve such a task.

He stared at the beast struggling on the ground. The pitiful creature that was dying slowly but surely, its life being sapped away and its soul already on the way to hell.

Yet, for some reason… he couldn’t help but feel sorry for the abomination.

He did not know why this was going on. Was this not a demon straight from the fires of hell that sought to kill him? Was this not an unholy creature that deserved every single second of pain that he had delivered unto it?

Why did he feel the urge to grant mercy to such an existence? He couldn’t understand. But there was one thing he knew.

This was not something he wanted to keep staring at. He didn’t want to keep watching this suffering, whether it be deserved or not.

So he moved forward. He held the now bloody sword with both hands and aimed for the neck of the beast.

The creature spotted him. It growled and tried to move its body away from him. But it was not possible. There was no chance for the beast to escape anymore.

All it could do was glare and whine as the sword hacked off its head.

He took the chance to take a breath as he lifted the helm and wiped away the sweat from his forehead. As much as the Crusader despised to admit, that fight was the first time he was in a life or death situation. Even if the battle was short and quick, he couldn’t help but wonder…

Why was killing so easy? He had expected for things to take longer, for more damage to be levied unto him. For him to have to throw more strikes and levy more hits onto the creatures before they faltered or even felt injured.

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He sighed and took another breath and–

Vile. Abhorrent. Absolutely rancid.

He stepped back out of pure disgust and looked down at where he believed the source was, before flinching in shock. The corpse had already begun to rot, the flesh beginning to turn black and green, the fur and skin starting to curl up and turn into dust. The head itself was turning into nothing more than a smattering of dust and a solitary skull.

He couldn’t help but feel disturbed by the sight of seeing the body rotting at such a rapid pace. After all, he had never seen such a thing before. The most he had seen of such a disgusting sight was a dead deer in the forest that had already begun to decompose into a skeleton.

He sighed, before moving on. After all, there were more beasts to kill, more actions to achieve. He had to dole out the crusade that God had entrusted him with, he could not just dally around and do nothing.

He had to keep going.

He walked through the forest and the more he walked, the more he realized just how wrong the foliage was. The trees were not made of wood, no, they were made of some strange black material that appeared to pulse and vibrate each time he took a step forward. The foliage were all of some wrong dark colors, none of them the vibrant bright colors he recalled in the mortal world.

A grimace found itself on his face as he kept going. Clearly, the signs of the Devil’s corruption taking hold of the world. Was this perhaps the world becoming twisted and dark due to the pure evil that the Devil was levying due to usurping some of God’s powers?

Perhaps. That did sound like the possibility of the dark world now. In fact, he could see that occurring.

Was the Devil not jealous of God’s abilities? Did he not tempt Adam and Eve to sin out of pure spite? Did he not desire to destroy the world and burn everything that God had created?

Another sign of the need for the crusade. Another point that he had been chosen by The Lord to deliver justice upon the evil that now stalked these lands.

He stopped as he could hear something. The sounds of screaming, the roaring of the beasts, and the rushed steps of someone running.

He did not hesitate. He ran towards the source of that dilemma, moving as fast as his legs could go in order to protect those in need.

The world became a blur as he forced himself to move. He maneuvered throughout each obstacle that stood in his path, swerving and twirling across each of the trees that stood in his way. Any beast that showed up in the midst of his journey was cut down without fanfare, all of them needing only a single slice to end their miserable lives.

Before long, he came across the scene in question. His heart dropped as he looked at the sight in front of him.

A horde of monsters were busy assaulting a trio of people. People who were dressed in nothing more than rags, each of them wielding wooden spears that did not seem to have a rock or iron tip to assist in defense. They were all doing their best to push back the swarm, but they were not able to do much with the sharpened wood sticks they held in their hands.

Especially with such monstrous beings assaulting them. Demons that had clawed feet, monsters with cow’s hooves, and abominations that had numerous legs. All of them of varying shapes and sizes, some of which even taking shapes that seemed nearly impossible, with holes and numerous appendages that grew out of unexplainable areas.

However, one thing was for sure: each of them were hostile and trying to murder. They were all fighting the humans, with each of them swatting and swiping at the humans with their hands.

Wait… that wasn’t right. Yes, while they were fighting and were trying to kill, they were not doing everything in their power to hunt and devour the poor souls. No, they were toying with them. They all had sadistic grins on their faces as they attacked, battering the humans enough to cause them to feel immense pain, but just enough to not kill them.

Rage boiled in his stomach as he came across this sight. Energy and strength came to him in droves as he screamed at the top of his lungs. He dashed forward, no, teleported to the nearest monster and without further ado, swung his massive sword down and cleaved the beast in two.

The horde stopped in their tracks. All of them turned towards him with confusion and shock. But he did not let that give him pause.

He swung once more. Another monster was cut down. Then another. Then another.

And then the monsters realized what he was doing and came crashing down onto him like a wave.

Of course, he wasn’t going to let them overpower him without a fight. No, he had to think, he had to be wise about what to do. He started backpedaling and guiding them away from the group of battered people, trying to head to a cramped space to force them to go one on one with him.

Thankfully, they were foolish enough to not split up like the last pair to overwhelm him. Unfortunately, their numbers were so great that none of his strategies mattered at all.

Eventually, they were becoming too much. The burden was far too much. There was too much to kill and he did not have any means to escape this situation. He ran through multiple scenarios, trying to find a strategy to defeat these things.

He could not rely on the others, for they were too weak to affect the flow of the battle. He could not run, lest these beasts redirect their attention to the defenseless. He could not effectively lower their count within a single strike, as he did not have the strength at the time to cleave through multiple beings all at once.

That is, unless he used God’s blessing. But how could he do that when he wasn’t even aware of that possibility? He could not understand how to access the divine gift, he had no clue of how to tap into such capacity.

Unfortunately for him, his thoughts led to a break in attention. One that led the monsters to land a strike on him. His ears rang, his vision shook, and his breath was stolen with that hit to the chest.

His eyes widened as he looked at one of the monsters rear back with a bladed arm. He could only stare in horror as the weapon launched towards him, getting closer and closer.

His thoughts went wild. He tried everything in his mind to do something, anything! Deflect the strike? No, not possible, he wasn’t fast enough to bring his sword to do such a thing. Dodge? He was surrounded without anywhere to go.

There was only one last thing he could do now. He prayed.

Then, he felt the tug. The sensation of power, that feeling that made his chest hurt but felt right all at the same time. He tapped into that strange sensation, hoping something would happen to change the flow of battle.

A miracle happened at that moment.

The monster began to slow down, before coming to a full stop. No, that was wrong: it wasn’t just the immediate threat. Everything began to stop. The people screaming, the other monsters, and the wind.

The world went silent. Everything went still.

It was as if the world had frozen, except for him.