That protagonist is trash; I could do better!

Shinji Matou leaped into the air and disappeared into the depths of the forest at night.

The villagers who had followed, holding torches, were speechless at the sight: "Is that gentleman also a magician?"

"Yes, leave the task of finding the child to us. The forest is where magical beasts live, and it's too dangerous for ordinary people to venture deep into it at night. Go back and inform the other villagers to increase their vigilance, especially in the area where the barrier is damaged."

"Understood, I'll go right now!"

······

"Several hundred? Far more than that, it wouldn't be surprising if it exceeded three digits. How do these magical beasts survive?"

In the night sky, Shinji Matou, flying at high speed, looked down at the forest below and muttered to himself curiously. His Mystic Eyes noticed the strange things happening in the forest below.

As Betty had predicted, Ram's attack was a trap. The forest below was teeming with hidden monsters, but there were few to be seen on the path leading from the village.

The missing children in the village are also bait. When someone continues along this road and finds the children, the monster will bare its fangs and block the only safe path leading here.

In short, it's a simple and effective trap: close the door and unleash the hounds. If someone who knows nothing about it walks into this trap, their only fate is to become food for monsters.

After flying for a few minutes, Shinji Matou finally found the village children. There were six of them, lying on the grass at the edge of the forest. Their vital signs were weak, and it seemed that they had been affected by a weakening spell like Ram.

"Using children as bait, they really dare to do that. Such scum doesn't deserve any mercy." Matou Shinji's face was cold. Everyone hates bratty kids, but involving innocent people, especially children, is one of the bottom lines that Matou Shinji cannot accept.

Shinji Matou landed on the grass from the sky. In the shadows of the surrounding forest, countless red dots lit up—the eyes of monsters, bloodthirsty and greedy, ready to pounce.

Shinji Matou, who exudes the aura of a witch, is the ultimate delicacy in the eyes of magical beasts.

A new week!

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Chapter 122 Swordsmanship is the Art of Killing

"Roar roar roar~~~"

The monster Urgarum emerged from the dark forest, baring its teeth and letting out a low roar. As soon as one emerged, hundreds and thousands responded, and more and more monsters came out from all directions of the forest, their scarlet eyes fixed on Shinji Matou with drooling eyes.

The Urgalum resembles a Doberman Pinscher, with a long, muscular body, eyes that glow with a faint red light, and fangs that cannot be concealed even when the mouth is closed. Numerous horns grow on its mouth, back, and tail.

The monsters resemble Doberman Pinschers, each one as large as a male lion, exuding a powerful presence.

"Interesting. I wonder what would happen if the magical beasts created by the witch were used as materials for a synthetic beast." Shinji Matou grinned, clasped his hands together, and activated the transmutation technique by forming a circle of magical energy.

Boom!

Behind Shinji Matou, the grass where the child was lying suddenly rose up, turning into a platform more than ten meters high.

There were no trees of similar height around, so as long as these magical beasts couldn't fly, the child would be safe.

"Let's have some fun. It's been a long time since I've had a satisfying killing spree with a sword. I wonder if my swordsmanship has become rusty." Shinji Matou grinned, and the soil around him slowly piled up into a stone pillar. When it cracked open, it revealed a thin metal sword inside, the same type used by President King Bradley.

It's not that Shinji Matou could imitate President King Bradley's fighting style. If he were to travel to the world of "Fullmetal Alchemist" and become known as the Immortal Alchemist Shul, he would be an experimental subject of "Wrath" just like King Bradley, undergoing the same combat training and using the same Western rapier as his weapon.

At that time, Shinji Matou once thought, "I can do it too!" He believed he could bear one of the seven deadly sins of the bottle-shaped Hormones, namely "Wrath," and thus replace King Bradley.

The result was a failure. [Anger] has extremely high requirements for both mind and body. At that time, Shinji Matou was mentally stronger than he was before he became King Bradley's experiment. In terms of physical compatibility, he was completely defeated.

After the experiment failed, Shinji Matou escaped the laboratory and continued to study Body Transmutation in order to heal his body, eventually becoming a State Alchemist by changing his appearance.

When he traveled to the Type-Moon world, Shinji Matou had no choice. Even if he used magic to enhance his Servant-like body, he was no match for that group of overpowered Servants. Therefore, he relied on magic as his main means.

In this world, most magic is ineffective, and there's no time to learn the magic of this world. Melee combat has become the least resource-intensive and most efficient way to kill.

Anyway, I got the ability to reincarnate from death from the Witch of Envy Satella, so even if something goes wrong, it's worth a try.

Shinji Matou believed that the ability of death looping was a weapon of the weak and had no effect on the strong.

Strength and weakness are relative to the environment. In a world like Edge of Tomorrow, the protagonist is an ordinary person who needs to fight against aliens. The protagonist is weak in terms of strength and can only make use of the advantage of the death cycle ability in such a brutal war environment.

Shinji Matou is a strongman in this world, both in terms of strength and mentality.

To say that strong people don't need a second chance is just pretentious, but it is precisely because they can seize every opportunity that they can become strong.

"Awoooooo..."

The monsters roared to the sky, hundreds of them pouring out of the forest, their scarlet eyes filled with greed, as if they wanted to tear Shinji Matou's body into countless pieces and devour it.

Shinji Matou slowly stepped forward towards the hundreds of magical beasts, holding his silver sword upright before him. His eyes gradually sharpened as he chuckled to himself, "I hope I'm not too rusty. I didn't have a chance to use it at all last time I fought the Gut Hunter."

The tense atmosphere was about to erupt when the monsters launched their attack. They were incredibly fast, and in the blink of an eye, they were already in front of Shinji Matou. The lead monster leaped high into the air, opening its mouth full of serrated fangs to bite at Shinji Matou's head.

Time stood still, and Shinji Matou's right silver eye shone eerily.

The monster's enormous shadow blocked the bright moon in the sky. Its scarlet eyes met Shinji Matou's eyes, one silver-white and the other light purple. It could not see any emotion in Shinji Matou's eyes. The last thing it saw was the moonlight reflected on the blade of that rapier.

Swish~!

Shinji Matou's figure vanished from the spot, and the rapier drew a regular circle with blood, cleaving the first monster that pounced on Shinji Matou in two from head to tail.

"Roar~ Roar~~"

The second attacking monster successfully bit Matou Shinji's left hand, its fangs piercing through Matou Shinji's muscles. Before the monster could even taste the blood, a clear, thin light flashed by, severing its neck.

"I see. This is how monsters feed. They devour the life force of their targets through curses. Just like Betty said, the curse will naturally dissipate after death." Shinji Matou shook off the monster's head from his left hand, deliberately letting the monster bite him to test its abilities.

Once the monster that bit Ram is killed, the curse on Ram will be lifted naturally.

Among these thousands of magical beasts, Shinji Matou had no way of distinguishing which ones had bitten Ram.

Swish!

Another attacking monster was ripped open by the sword light.

Shinji Matou flicked away the blood from his rapier and muttered, "That's not important. Instead of complicating things, killing all the monsters is the simplest and most effective way to deal with it."

After speaking, Shinji Matou charged towards the dark mass of monsters. His arms glowed with light patterns as magic enhanced his body and healed his left arm, which had been bitten by a monster. The moment he made contact with the horde, sword light danced, and sharp sword energy pierced through the ground, severing the bodies of three monsters at the same time.

The swordsmanship was not particularly flashy; it followed the simplest trajectory, and every change in the trajectory inevitably resulted in a drop of blood.

A sword is a weapon of destruction, and swordsmanship is the art of killing.

This has always been the case; Shinji Matou's swordsmanship training was basically centered around the concept of killing.

Swish~ Swish~ Swish~

One after another, the demonic beasts were cleaved in two by the sword light, their blood gushing out like a fountain.

Shinji Matou's body moved rapidly through the horde of beasts, his sword flashing endlessly, and his white shirt was soaked with blood.

"I'm gradually remembering, but my movements are still a bit rusty." Shinji Matou licked the blood off his lips and grinned maliciously. The familiar taste stimulated Shinji Matou's taste buds and mind. His body was the weapon, and the sword was an extension of his body. The sword skills that had been etched into his soul through countless training sessions were gradually being integrated into this body.

Snapped!

The rapier pierced the skull of the monster, breaking the blade. Facing another monster that pounced, Shinji Matou grabbed its upper and lower jaws and snapped them off. He pulled his right hand out of its mouth, used its blood as a catalyst, froze it into a sword, and pierced the mouth of another monster.

Even a rapier enhanced by alchemy, far stronger than the bones and fangs of a magical beast, could not withstand such intense use.

More monsters surrounded them, but they felt no fear as they witnessed the gruesome deaths of their companions.

"Just to my liking."

呲味味~

Shinji Matou looked cheerful and pleased. The alchemy circle beneath his feet lit up, and he extracted metal elements from the earth to condense into a rapier. This time, Shinji Matou created two rapiers. He used his mind-cutting magic to fight in close combat, multitasking and making his killing efficiency even higher.

In less than a minute, hundreds of magical beasts fell to the sword.

Let's talk about the power rankings from the Zero world, only mentioning characters who have appeared or may appear.

Reinhard > Witch of Envy > Dragon God > Puck (original form) > Roswaal > or ≈ Betty > the current protagonist > Bowel Hunter

With the protagonist now possessing the ability to reincarnate through death, he can kill anyone, including Reinhard.

After all, alchemists can create the Philosopher's Stone. Defeating Satella would require sacrificing a kingdom, and defeating Reinhard would at least reduce the world's population by half.

Emilia and Rem are too weak to even mention.

Emilia's abilities are restricted; she's more powerful when she goes berserk, while Rem isn't very strong.

Ram, with its horns, seems to be at the same level as Puck's main body.

Chapter 123 Beastmaster

"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill all the demonic beasts! Kill all the witches!"

The clear clanging of chains echoed through the forest, where even the chirping of insects was inaudible. The demonized Rem swung her meteor hammer furiously, easily killing a few scattered monsters.

However, the meteor hammer is difficult to use in forest areas, as it is easily blocked by trees and rocks after being thrown.

boom!

Rem threw her flail and smashed a monster's body to pieces.

From the shadows, a lurking monster pounced on her from behind, its mouth open, its fangs about to bite through the maid's head.

Sensing the wind behind her, Rem gave up trying to retrieve her flail and turned around to block the monster's bite with her right hand.

"Do you like it? The taste of demon blood." Rem grinned maliciously, her pinkish-purple demon horns on her forehead glowing. Rem swung her left hand and smashed half of the monster's body to pieces with a single punch.

wow~

Warm blood splashed all over Rem's face. Her expression slowly calmed down, and she shook her head: "Oh no, I almost lost my mind again. Shinji-sama said that one can be controlled by anger and rage, but one must never lose one's mind in battle."

Rem pushed away the monster's corpse that was pressing down on her, stood up from the ground, and could not sense any movement from the monster around her.

"This smell is..." Rem sniffed, recognizing the familiar scent.

"Lord Shinji is nearby!" Rem's face lit up with joy. Being alone in the quiet, dark forest facing so many magical beasts was bound to be terrifying, but thinking of Matou Shinji made her feel a little safer.

After spending a few days together, Rem had long since abandoned her initial hostility towards Shinji Matou. Rem enjoyed talking to Shinji Matou and always heard interesting stories from him.

Shinji Matou's willingness to risk his life to help has greatly brought the two of them closer.

"There's also... the smell of blood. Hurry and go support Lord Shinji."

Rem pulled the chains to retrieve the meteor hammer and headed towards Shinji Matou's direction.

Rem was incredibly fast, leaping through the forest's blockade. Upon seeing the moonlight again, her body stiffened, staring in disbelief at the scene before her.

Under the moonlight, the forest meadows were tinged red, and a sweet, fishy smell filled the air.