The Laughing Swordsman

Chapter 278 - Fool Myself

Apollo watched the people wearing rabbit masks die with a neutral expression. Well, more of a bored expression.

"This is taking a while..."

The corner of Hare's lip twitched.

He felt Apollo's comment was a little unreasonable as only a minute had passed, but did not say anything.

A rabbit person let out a horizontal swing with their sword, aiming to behead a guard. Unfortunately, the guard raised his arm, letting it hit with a loud clang on his armguard.

Then, he slashed at the rabbit person.

The rabbit person dodged that strike, but another one from a separate guard came soon after. Due to the chaotic battlefield, there was no space to dodge.

As the rabbit person had no armor, there was no way he could survive the blow. And so, he decided to go out with one last strike.

The rabbit person lunged forth, straight towards the sword, almost like he was trying to hug a long lost friend. Then, thrust forth with his own sword, straight to the guard's neck.

Two fleshy squelching sounds rang out.

The guard cut the rabbit person through the abdomen, digging in deep. On the flip side, the rabbit person slipped his sword into the guard's neck, piercing through part of it.

Blood spilled out of both their wounds before they collapsed onto the ground, sharing their last moments of death together.

One of the rabbit people sprained their hand while defending and involuntarily dropped their shield. Taking advantage of that, one guard raised his sword high.

Yet, before he could bring it down, an arrow pierced through his eye.

The guard immediately cried out in pain. He threw his head back and reached towards his wound with his hand. The rabbit person did not waste his saved life and thrust his spear.

With a loud snap, the spear slammed against the skull of the guard, sending cracks across. There was not enough force to pierce through, so it messily tore through the flesh of his face.

Strictly speaking, it was not enough to kill. At least, not fast enough within the context of this battle. However, the guard collapsed to the ground soon after, passed out from the pain.

But right after successfully taking down a guard, that rabbit person was open to an attack. He soon received that attack, losing his head entirely.

Wanting to avenge his fallen brethren, a rabbit person traced a horizontal arc towards the neck. The guard being targeted tried to sidestep.

But his foot wouldn't move.

He looked down to see one of the rabbit people bleeding to death held onto his ankle tightly. The rabbit person smirked as blood dripped down from the corner of his mouth. It was clear his hatred was deep.

Then, the guard's head flew off.

Like this, the guards and rabbit people traded their lives for one another, brutally taking each other down.

It did not take long for the ground to be littered with dead bodies.

The numbers of both guards and rabbit people were reduced significantly, making both sides look quite paltry compared to before.

The leader of the guards was still standing strong, though there were several visible dents within his armor.

With ragged breaths, he shouted.

"Continue on!"

Then, the leader charged forth while the other guards did lag behind. Hare responded by dashing forwards as well, meeting him head on.

The leader looked Hare right in the eyes.

...Then winked.

The two continued towards each other without hesitation. Hare thrust with his sword, straight towards the leader's neck. But at the last moment, the leader pulled on one of the nearby guards.

Hare shifted his trajectory and stabbed that guard.

The victim's eyes widened. He turned around to look at his leader, despite the fact he had to further cut his neck in the process.

"You-"

Before the guard could get another word in, the leader grabbed onto his head with one hand and his shoulder with the other.

Then pushed his neck further down the blade.

Gurgling sounds came from the guard. His eyes widened frighteningly. Then, blood overflowed from both his mouth and nose.

Only once the guard was very clearly dead, did the leader let go.

Several nearby guards saw this and freaked out.

"Commander? W-Why?"

The leader did not respond. Instead, he took off his helmet before pulling out a rabbit mask from within his armor and wearing it.

The sudden betrayal shook up the remaining guards badly, causing their morale to drop drastically. The rabbit people took full advantage of this, slashing at them.

Soon, there was only one left.

The leader pointed his sword towards the last guard. However, that guard no longer had the will to fight.

Instead, he just looked at the leader dead in the eyes.

"You betrayed us, commander?"

There was no response.

The guard had a pleading expression.

"Were all those things you told us lies?"

After a moment of silence, the leader spoke up.

"They were not lies."

The guard dropped his sword and clenched his fists.

"...Then why?"

The leader took a deep breath.

"Some things are greater than you and I."

And with that, he let his sword loose, beheading the last remaining guard.

The few remaining survivors were covered in blood. Hare looked up to the guard now wearing a rabbit mask.

"You put on a pretty good show. I couldn't tell you were on our side until you gave me a sign."

The guard sighed.

"Living such a long life undercover, I have learned how to fool myself."

Hare nodded.

"Well done. Do you have a status report to offer?"

The guard frowned slightly.

"The council has already found out about the existence of traitors. However, they are having difficulty in locating them. I have planted fake evidence to confuse them."

Hare chuckled.

"Smart. I like it."

At that moment, Apollo raised his hand.

"Hey, why did you just change who you were fighting? Are you confused?"

The guard turned to Apollo and chuckled.

"Well...."