438 Part 3

“Okay, come– guhoh!?”

It was at that moment that the three heavy knights would take a step toward Gardan in a deadly coordinated attack. However, instead of running, the three seemed to have taken to the skies.

No, it wasn’t a martial art. They weren’t using something like “Sonic Walker”, which allowed for sprinting in mid-air.

They jumped into the air as if they had been launched. It looked like a really bad joke, but they were fluttering about in mid-air even above Gardan’s head.

“Ahahah! You really went flying spectacularly! Sorry, friends! I really wish I had avoided hitting you all! I hope you’re not mad!”

Instead, what appeared in front of him was a child.

From the point of view of Gardan, who couldn’t tell the difference between human faces, it was possible to tell that the little person in white robes in front of him was a child, but not whether it was a man or a woman.

However, in either case, it is obvious that they weren’t just a normal child, as they carried a huge hammer, which was very disproportionate to their young body, and their thin arms.

And their way of speaking made it also clear that they were the one responsible for sending those three knights flying.

“Huuh? Hey, what is this kid doing here? Go away, you’re bothering me!”

However, Gardan thought that it was still a child after all. He wasn’t sure what kind of magic they had used, but he didn’t feel like crushing it underfoot like an enemy.

The Knights of Spada wouldn’t lay a hand on children. There were women and old people who were terrifyingly strong, so this kind of special treatment was only for children. Gardan was still just a freelance adventurer, but he intended to become a knight. So that’s what he was supposed to do.

“Hehe, silly adults who treat me like a child…”

The child lightly lifted a steel sledgehammer that seemed to weigh as much as Gardan’s mace over their head. A fearless smile appeared amidst their flowing blonde hair and their young and lovely round green eyes.

“… Get pummeled!”

The next moment, the child suddenly jumped in a straight line forward. It was so fast one would need to watch the replay frame-by-frame to see what had happened.

“Nuoooh!?”

He instinctively pulled up his gigantic Tower Shield, which looked like a keep’s steel gate, at the last minute in order to match the incredible force and speed at which the child’s sledgehammer was coming at.

However, the impact of hitting the shield was stronger than expected. Gardan’s steel body, which weighed well over 1,000 kilograms, was forced to lean back significantly.

The most unbelievable thing is that such a heavy blow had been delivered by such a young child. Where in that small body was the power to shake an Iron Golem such as himself?

Together with his astonishment, a sense of crisis grew within him. In fact, Gardan’s head was ringing with a beeping alert, informing him that each joint in his body had overloaded.

He hadn’t heard this since that time when he was knocked down from a bridge by an enemy party made of men, women, and girls from a family, back when he was working as a slave trader’s bodyguard.

“Oh, you golems are amazing! You don’t get completely wrecked after one of my blows!”

The child seemed to be full of joy as they turned the sledgehammer over their shoulder, with a speed that ignored its momentum. They didn’t even need to reposition their body. They launched another attack right away.

“Damn it with this kid!”

Gardan was forced to swing his mace with all his strength while he was about to fall.

The hammer and mace collided with each other, creating a violent roar of wind upon impact.

“Guoooh!”

It had been a disaster to have been forced to block at such a disadvantageous position. Gardan’s right hand couldn’t stand the impact of the head-on collision and let go of the mace.

He thought that he had messed up there, but it was already too late. His mace spun with tremendous force, and by the time he saw where it was, it was already plunging far off into a crowd of petrified infantrymen. There was no way he could recover it immediately.

“But it looks like I’m stronger, right?”

Their smile exuded the pure cruelty of a child that was merely playing with insects by tearing off their wings.

Having let go of his weapon, there was no effective way for Gardan to counter-attack.

“Take this!”

A merciless pursuit. An intense, random pounding of his steel sledgehammer. Like a child playing knights while holding a stick in one hand, their swing was messy, but a single pound of theirs had the power to shatter an adult human being.

Gardan was forced into a defensive battle by holding his shield with both hands before the brutal onslaught of steel he was subject to.

It was the same one-sided offensive that he himself had launched against the heavy knights. Naturally, when an opponent that was more powerful than him appeared, the tables would turn immediately.

However, he couldn’t just accept the simple logic of power and admit defeat.

“Gaah! Damn it!”

Finally, after dozens of hits, his shield broke.

The large shield, which had been dented like a castle gate after being hit by a battering ram, broke into two with a loud noise. The thing that remained in Gardan’s hand, was nothing more than a piece of metal that looked almost like junk, which could no longer be used as a shield because it was lacking in size.

“Ahahah! Now you can’t block anymore!”

The impatience of becoming unarmed delayed his reaction. The sledgehammer came along with a strong wind, and its strong blow made a clean hit on the golem’s one-eyed head.

“Uwaah, so even though golems are living things, they sure are hardy, aren’t they?”

While listening to the noisy beeping alerts, Gardan raised his face while facing a flickering view. Apparently, he had been blown away and fell on his back.

While letting out a pitiful moan, he tried to get back on his feet, but his opponent didn’t allow it.

The child was there, trampling Gardan’s head with his small foot and resting his sledgehammer on their shoulder. A small body that weighed less than 40 kilograms should be something he could easily throw away… But strangely enough, they don’t move an inch.

“But i’m a bit disappointed for some reason. Even though you’re a golem, you still… Oh well, I guess I’m just that strong. Yeah. Well then, this is it, Mr. Golem! Time to crush you in a flashy way!”

In a place like this, by a brat like this… It seemed that Gardan’s brain was about to overheat with anger and regret, but he no longer had a way to stop the sledgehammer from being brought down.

“W-Why, you little…”