Chapter 41
Chapter 41
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Legend #6
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The terrifying thing about Arang was that it didn't just deal damage; it shattered the very circulation of one's aura.
Gerard's Arang, wielded by a master of the Beast God Fist, literally tore Juingong's aura to shreds. But the same was true for Juingong's Arang. It was a clumsy imitation compared to Gerard's, but it was Arang nonetheless.
Juingong, who had released and detonated his pure white aura simultaneously, coughed up blood. Thick blood trickled down his jawline, and his right hand was numb. He could still see, but his vision was blurry and indistinct.
Juingong didn't fall. He lowered his upper body and stared ahead. Gerard, struck by the Fist of Explosion, was struggling to his feet.
Gerard was a mess, too. His beastification had worn off, and his left arm hung limp, seemingly useless. The jet-black aura of Famine had also weakened.
But his eyes still held their fire. With a grotesque shriek, Gerard straightened up, and in that instant, a sharp dagger flew toward Juingong like a flash of light.
Clang!
White Eagle intercepted the dagger. Spreading its metal plates like wings and deploying a green force field, it momentarily shielded Juingong from view. Gerard gritted his teeth. Though his bleeding ears heard nothing, he knew by instinct.
The moment White Eagle soared back into the air, Juingong charged at Gerard. Instead of summoning his aura again, he fired an arrow of flame at his own right leg. Flames erupted along the scales of his Dragon Scale Greaves.
Lightning.
Not a flash of pure white, but a bolt of crimson lightning rained down. Gerard reflexively tried to dodge, but it was no use. Juingong's kick struck his left shoulder.
The lightning was less of a strike and more of a slash, tearing through Gerard's left shoulder. His shoulder crumbled with a crackling sound, like a piece of charcoal.
Gerard staggered back. Juingong's knees buckled. Instead of rising to press the attack, he glared forward and shouted.
“Karak!”
“Kuraha!”
Karak charged into the fray, a battle no one else had dared to interrupt. His massive battle-axe slammed into the staggering Gerard’s torso. Just like his shoulder, Gerard's chest caved in, and White Eagle then struck him in the abdomen.
Gerard’s body was thrown several meters, tumbling across the ground.
Karak grabbed Juingong by the waist. Leaning against him, Juingong watched Gerard. Horrifyingly, it still wasn't over.
“Get back!”
Just as Juingong’s ragged voice burst out, Gerard’s right hand touched the ground. He unleashed the aura of Famine as if in a final, desperate act.
“Wither!”
His demonic scream washed over the area. The power of Famine rose like a tidal wave, spreading out from Gerard.
Karak embraced Juingong and turned his back to the wave. Green Wind once again generated a force field to block Juingong’s front, while the Lycanthrope soldiers hastily kicked off the ground to evade the famished tide.
‘Master!’
Green Wind screamed. The power of Famine collided with White Eagle, exploding and shattering into pieces. The land swept over by the tide turned gray, losing all vitality and cracking like earth plagued by a long drought.
The bushes withered. A giant tree shriveled into a gaunt, dead husk in an instant, then collapsed under its own weight.
There were casualties among the Lycanthrope soldiers. Those who failed to completely evade the wave and were touched by it collapsed with groans. A man whose arm was touched lost his arm; one whose leg was touched lost his leg.
When the power of Famine subsided, Gerard was gone. He had clearly used the absorbed power to escape.
[You have leveled up.]
[You have leveled up.]
A clear voice echoed in his head. The battle had concluded the moment Gerard lost the will to fight and fled.
A pure white light enveloped Juingong. All the external wounds on his body were healed.
The Lycanthrope commanders quickly assessed the situation. They glanced at the limp Juingong held in Karak’s arms, then stared straight ahead and shouted loudly.
“After him! He couldn’t have gotten far!”
“Chase him! Don’t approach recklessly! Use projectile weapons!”
As much as the Lycanthropes preferred close-quarters combat, they weren't entirely opposed to using weapons. Moreover, this was not an ordinary village but a military encampment. Lycanthropes who had hastily grabbed throwing spears began to run in the direction Gerard had fled.
Juingong couldn't watch them go. He closed his eyes and let out a ragged breath.
Thanks to the level-up effect, his external injuries were healed, but his insides were still a wreck. Forcing his aura after being hit by Arang had thrown its circulation into chaos. Even breathing was difficult.
“Prince, Prince. Breathe. Just breathe, slow and easy.”
Karak fretted as he carefully laid Juingong down. He felt he had to do something, but all he could manage was to wipe the blood from Juingong’s lips.
Just then, Chris’s voice rang out.
“This way… bring him… here. Lay him down… next to Caitlin.”
Leaning against his subordinates in a half-reclined state, Chris forced out the words in a voice that sounded ready to break. Covered in blood, he was a gruesome sight, but ironically, he was in the best condition of the three who had fought Gerard directly.
Gerard had fled. Juingong and Caitlin, right here and now, were more urgent than the man who had escaped in a far worse state than when he left the Gray Tower.
As Karak awkwardly carried Juingong over, Chris grimaced as if swallowing his pain and said.
“The Moonlight… Herb.”
The command was incomplete, but its meaning was clear. Caitlin’s attendant, Seira, scrambled to her feet and ran off somewhere. Felicia’s face crumpled.
“Don’t push yourself! You’re in bad shape, too!”
Felicia, who had been frantically casting healing magic on Caitlin, reached a hand toward Chris. Chris looked at Felicia’s face, a mess of tears and snot, and managed a weak smile.
“Your face is in pretty bad shape, too, Sis.”
“Chris!”
“I’m fine. It’s just… external wounds. The problem is… Shutora and… Caitlin.”
Seira returned, running as if she were flying. In her arms was a palm-sized, dark blue box.
Chris took Felicia’s hand and said.
“Right now… the one with the most mana… is you, Sis. So… I’m leaving it to you.”
Felicia didn't know what a Moonlight Herb was. But from the way things were unfolding, she could guess what kind of thing it was.
When Felicia nodded, Chris grimaced again and forced himself to swallow. He put on a strained smile and continued.
“As soon as you open the box… envelop the Moonlight Herb… with your mana. Keep it wrapped… in mana, and break it in half… Feed it to Shutora… and Caitlin.”
“O-Okay.”
Chris let go of Felicia’s hand. Felicia wiped his blood from her hand on her negligee and took a deep breath. She wiped away the tears that had started to fall again and took the box from Seira.
As a competent mage, Felicia had handled various medicinal herbs. The instruction to wrap it in mana clearly meant that the Moonlight Herb's efficacy would diminish if exposed to the air without it. The box itself was likely treated with special magic as well.
Felicia enveloped the entire box in her mana before slowly opening the lid. Inside lay a single, pure white herb, slightly longer than her index finger.
Its forked root made it look almost human. If Juingong had seen it, he would have said it looked like a ginseng root.
Carefully picking up the Moonlight Herb, Felicia swallowed hard. She hesitated for a moment, wondering if this was alright, but then she applied pressure and snapped the herb in two with a crisp sound.
But the next part was the problem.
“H-How am I supposed to feed this to them?”
The herb was quite hard, as evidenced by the snapping sound it made when broken. It wasn't something an unconscious person could chew and swallow.
Karak asked, his face flushed with excitement.
“Do ya have to feed it mouth-to-mouth?”
Like an animal caring for its young, chewing the food and passing it from its mouth to theirs.
At Karak’s question, Chris slowly shook his head.
“No… it’s different. It’s a Moonlight Herb. Put it in their mouths… and it’ll dissolve… on its own.”
Felicia let out a sigh of relief for some reason and turned toward Caitlin. Thanks to Felicia’s continuous healing magic, her external wounds had more or less recovered, but her insides were a mess. Just looking at her pale, blood-stained face was enough to bring fresh tears to Felicia’s eyes.
Chris spoke again.
“Daphne. I heard… you’re a druid. Help… my sister. The absorption…”
“Understood!”
For druids who lived in harmony with nature, herbology was a basic skill. Aiding the absorption of herbs using the power of spirits was one of Daphne’s specialties.
“Begin.”
Nodding, Felicia pushed a piece of the Moonlight Herb into Caitlin’s mouth. Just as Chris had said, the herb began to melt the moment she withdrew her mana. In an instant, it turned into a white liquid and trickled down Caitlin’s throat.
Daphne closed her eyes and murmured the names of the spirits. Miraculously, a faint white light began to emanate from Caitlin’s entire body.
“Sh-She’s glowing!”
Karak shouted in surprise. At that moment, Green Wind appeared beside him. Her face was uncharacteristically stiff as she spoke sharply.
“It is because the power of the Moonlight Herb is being absorbed. Quickly, give the Moonlight Herb to the master as well. I shall aid in his absorption.”
The Lycanthropes stirred at Green Wind’s sudden appearance, but Felicia, who already knew of her existence, reacted differently. She quickly pushed the other piece of the Moonlight Herb into Juingong’s mouth.
It started the same way as with Caitlin. But after Green Wind intervened, it became entirely different.
A brilliant white light erupted from Juingong’s entire body. It wasn't a faint glow like Caitlin’s. For a moment, the light was so bright it filled their vision, and Juingong’s body even began to levitate slightly.
Karak urgently looked back at Green Wind, but she didn't need to answer. The look of shock on her face was proof enough that this was an unexpected turn of events.
“Ah, seriously! Nothing ever goes simply!”
Karak cried out, his face crumpling. Felicia frantically turned to Chris.
“What’s happening?! Did something go wrong?”
Felicia was on the verge of tears—no, she was already crying. Instead of answering immediately, Chris looked at Juingong. If the light from Caitlin’s body was like the stars in the night sky, the light from Juingong’s could be compared to that of a bright, full moon.
Juingong’s body floated a little higher. Then, as if influenced by him, Caitlin’s body also rose slightly. Green Wind and Daphne, each with a hand extended toward one of them, squeezed their eyes shut and desperately channeled the power of the spirits.
The Moonlight Herb bloomed only once every hundred years. Thus, this was the first time Chris had ever seen the process of someone ingesting it.
Caitlin’s initial reaction matched the general records. But Juingong’s case did not. And now, Caitlin’s reaction was also deviating from the records.
Could it be, as Felicia said, that something had gone wrong?
“Perhaps… but on the other hand…”
“On the other hand?”
Chris swallowed dryly. He looked at Juingong, who was now so enshrouded in pure white light that his form was barely discernible, and said.
“We might be witnessing… the legend of the Moonlight Herb.”
An unconventional record.
A true legend of the Moonlight Herb, recorded only once in the history of the Lycanthrope royal family.
Chris smiled bitterly. Karak was right.
“Nothing… ever goes as planned, does it.”
Felicia turned back to look at Juingong. A soft, warm light that didn't hurt the eyes pushed back the darkness.
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< Chapter 12 - Legend #6 > End