Chapter 145: Whether They Like It or Not
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145: Whether They Like It or Not
I heard people liked it when you held something like a magic sword, so I thought they’d like this too.
‘This is ridiculous.’
I had plenty of Queen Arachne’s exoskeleton left over. Since my opponents were who they were, I knew I had to prepare thoroughly. I had donned the exoskeleton, finely divided for joint mobility, like a suit of full-body armor.
Originally, it had a slight purple tint, but perhaps because it had been exposed to Tenebrax’s mana, it had turned pitch black.
Additionally, I had layered the Drake scales from my tail thinly in between the plates, making the suit surprisingly easy to move in. It weighed quite a bit, but that wasn't an issue if I used Queen Arachne’s muscles.
‘I suppose I should reinforce them with mana.’
I wrapped mana-reinforced muscle fibers around my entire body. Queen Arachne’s muscles were the highest quality fibers I possessed. The only problem was that they weren't particularly strong in a normal state without mana.
Furthermore, while they were fuel-efficient, using them across my entire body drained a significant amount of mana. I had no choice but to pull out Tenebrax’s Dragon Heart, which I had kept sealed.
‘Surprisingly, I can handle it.’
Ravi had mentioned that my mana circuits were completely trashed and then rebuilt. I wasn't sure if it was thanks to that, but even though I was using Tenebrax’s Dragon Heart, I didn't feel like I was about to lose consciousness like last time.
I had also just obtained Queen Arachne’s mana core. I had my own heart on the left and Tenebrax’s heart implanted in the right side of my chest. Finally, I placed Arachne’s mana core in the center of my chest to act as a converter, turning the mana produced by Tenebrax’s Dragon Heart into a form that Arachne’s muscle fibers could easily use.
Because mana kept accumulating inside my body, I needed an organ that could store the excess.
‘Is this the only option?’
Among the organs I possessed, the only one with a mana-storage effect was the Blue-Horned Deer’s horn. I removed a portion of the Arachne exoskeleton covering my scalp and summoned the horns.
—Whoosh!
The deer horns, now filled with Tenebrax’s intense fire mana, began to blaze. Since the Blue-Horned Deer’s horns were of a lower grade than the mana coming from the Dragon Heart, it was inevitable that they would be heavily influenced by it.
Fortunately, they didn't make my head feel hot. Tenebrax’s violet flames had the property of burning matter according to the caster’s will.
I removed the digestive and reproductive organs from my abdominal cavity—organs necessary for life but potential weaknesses in combat. Then, I moved my lungs, which were cramped by the three hearts, down into the abdominal cavity and covered them with a powerful diaphragm, drastically increasing my respiratory muscle strength.
Naturally, since the lungs were partially moved below the abdominal cavity, I removed obstructing elements like ribs and reinforced the peritoneum. I wondered if I could get enough oxygen this way.
If it didn't work, I could just use another pair of lungs. However, the bronchial tubes might struggle with high pressure and dryness, so I could simply pierce air vents elsewhere and connect them to the lungs.
In the end, I secured oxygen by carving wide air vents into the gaps of the exoskeleton armor beneath my latissimus dorsi.
As my total body weight increased, the Gargoyle wings seemed to struggle a bit, but after I engraved mana-reinforcement circuits extracted from Queen Arachne’s muscles onto them, the power of their flaps felt three times stronger than before.
I carved a cross-shaped groove into the exoskeleton covering my face. Since I had no digestive system, a mouth was useless. My air vents were in my sides, so I didn't need a nose either. I reached a compromise by lining up eyeballs with special abilities along the grooves, adjusting my field of vision by blinking different eyelids.
Pulling them out only when needed might be too slow, and if I retracted an eye to bring out a new one, it would create a blind spot in the interim.
Human eyes didn't come in pairs for no reason; you always need at least two viewpoints to perceive depth. Doing it this way also effectively eliminated the weakness of blinking when eyes got dry.
‘I can’t keep them all open at once, though.’
Three or four were fine. If I tried to process more than five viewpoints, my head started to spin.
Similarly, I reinforced my tail muscles with mana and finished by mixing Poison Mushroom spores into the wind generated by my wings.
I looked at the mirror attached to one side of the arena passage.
“I look like a monster.”
* * *
And so, the current Yoo Eon was born.
—Creeeak!
Boom—!!!
With physical strength reinforced by mana, he marched forward, his legs slamming into the ground like nails. Despite having no great technical skill with a blade, he used pure brute force and kinetic vision to parry and counter the Haunted Centurion Armor—a creature whose swordsmanship was precise enough to rank in the top ten among monsters.
“...!”
Even in the midst of that, he used his thick tail to swat away the punches of the powerful Red Ogre Warchief or wrapped it around the Ogre's wrist to hurl its massive body away.
—Thud!!
The Haunted Centurion Armor was sent flying by a fast charge led by a massive shield. Meanwhile, the Red Ogre Warchief, which had been thrown, rushed back at incredible speed and gripped Yoo Eon’s neck.
“Pshhhhh!”
Grip..!
Thanks to his extremely hard exoskeleton, there was no risk of his nerves being crushed, and since his respiratory system didn't go through his neck but out his sides, it wasn't an issue.
Two pairs of spider legs suddenly sprouted from his back and stabbed into the ground. He wrapped his long tail around the wrist squeezing his neck and applied pressure.
“Chhhhh...!”
The Red Ogre Warchief’s grip weakened, and Yoo Eon slammed the massive body into the ground using the wrist he held with his tail.
—CRAAASH!!!
In that interval, the Haunted Centurion Armor, which had been thrown far away, charged forward with its greatsword.
—Whoosh!
Dozens of reinforced magic circles from a Skeleton Mage erupted on Yoo Eon's left forearm. They flew at a speed no ordinary human could dodge, but his opponent was a 3rd Stratum Boss entity. Its agility far surpassed that of a human.
“..!”
Sudden paralysis. Inside the cross-shaped slit on Yoo Eon’s face, the pupil of an Evil Eye opened beneath a closed eyelid.
The Haunted Centurion Armor took dozens of fire bombs head-on as they hurtled toward it.
However, the title of a Stratum Boss was no joke.
‘It can even parry those?’
Through a slight mana coating and peak swordsmanship, it took the first few explosions with its body while the paralysis held. The rest, it swatted away in an instant.
Boom, boom, boom—!!!
The spectator stands exploded, and the audience fell into a panic. Mages rushed to reinforce the barrier, but the fight continued regardless.
The Haunted Centurion Armor had effectively parried the enhanced fireballs, but unfortunately, it couldn't perform the miracle of parrying a beam of light.
—Crackle!!
Violet lightning sparked within the cross-shaped slit. A moment later, an intense Mana Disintegration Ray fired toward the Haunted Centurion Armor.
Rat-tat-tat-tat—!!
The Haunted Centurion Armor barely dodged the ray by circling the arena.
Boom!!!
The Red Ogre Warchief, having stood back up, ripped up a piece of the flooring and hurled it at Yoo Eon’s head as he fired the destruction ray, skewing the beam’s trajectory.
Yoo Eon slowly turned his head toward the Red Ogre Warchief, and what he saw was unexpected.
Creak, creeeak….
The magical sigils engraved all over the Red Ogre Warchief’s body were glowing red. Its already massive body grew even larger, exuding a tremendous pressure, and vicious veins bulged over its rugged muscles.
“ROOOOOAAAAR—!!!!”
Emitting a sinister red glow from its eyes, the Red Ogre Warchief charged toward Yoo Eon. Having entered a berserk pattern due to its health reaching its limit, it reached Yoo Eon in a single leap.
—Boom!!!
A double-fisted overhead strike. Yoo Eon’s feet smashed through the arena floor, sinking deep into the ground. The Ogre grabbed Yoo Eon’s protruding right arm firmly, stepped on his head, and pulled upward with all its might.
Crack—
—Splurt!
Red blood sprayed as the right arm holding the sword was ripped clean off. The Ogre then grabbed Yoo Eon by the face and hurled him into the arena barrier.
Thump—!!
Yoo Eon slammed into the hemispherical barrier surrounding the arena with a loud crash.
—I-Is he dead?!
—Does this mean the Ogre warrior did it?!
Blood poured frantically from the right shoulder where the arm had been torn away. It gushed as if an artery had been severed, and while it looked gruesome, his body was only slightly larger than an average human's.
—He’ll die if he loses that much blood, won't he?
—No, something’s wrong..! That’s enough blood loss to have killed him already..!
—Pshhh!
Grab.
When Yoo Eon pressed his left hand against the wound that was geysering blood, the wound closed and the bleeding stopped. Even so, the fact remained that he had lost a lot of blood. Thinking it had the upper hand, the Red Ogre Warchief stomped toward Yoo Eon.
“Chhh...!”
A destructive straight punch, powered by the torque of its waist and starting from its toes. The fist hurtled toward Yoo Eon, who seemed not to have recovered from the shock of losing his right arm.
Whoosh—!!
At that moment, Yoo Eon raised his only remaining left arm to block.
—Boom!!
The Red Ogre Warchief’s arm was stopped with surprising ease.
Faced with a strength incomparably greater than before, even the Red Ogre Warchief, who had thrown the punch, was bewildered.
As it happened, Yoo Eon possessed two specific skills.
‘Bleeding Berserk is activating here.’
Because his combat power had been high relative to his usual activities, he had completely forgotten about the ability of Bleeding Berserk, which granted a ‘strength increase when bleeding.’
He had severed his nerves before the arm was ripped off, so there was no pain, but he had felt a strange surge of power as the bleeding continued. He had only just managed to recall why.
—Wham!!
Using his left foot as a pivot, he spun his entire body and drove his right foot into the Red Ogre Warchief’s side. Ribs shattered, and the Red Ogre Warchief was sent crashing into the arena barrier just as Yoo Eon had been.
The Haunted Centurion Armor, which had been watching from a distance thinking the fight was over, was stunned. It didn't have a berserk ability like the Red Ogre Warchief, but it could burn the mana stored in its mana core to boost the power of its blade.
—Whirrr...
A technique some called an ‘Aura Blade.’ A blue sword-light flickered and rose along the Haunted Centurion Armor’s blade. It funneled mana into its legs and launched a final thrust toward Yoo Eon at the speed of a bullet.
Stab—!!
The left chest. The greatsword pierced accurately near the heart. The final Aura Blade, fueled by all its remaining mana, even penetrated Queen Arachne’s exoskeleton.
—Grab.
Yoo Eon, reaching out with his left hand to nonchalantly grab the Haunted Centurion Armor’s breastplate,
Crack, crack….
He formed a massive mouth at the tip of his tail and began to slowly chew and swallow the Haunted Centurion Armor, starting from the head.
—Crunch, munch...
The Red Ogre Warchief witnessed the death of its comrade.
“ROOOOOAAAAR!!!!!”
They had only been trapped in a gondola together for a few days, a shallow relationship born of having the same monster as an enemy. But the bond forged on the battlefield was truly deep.
—Thud, thud.
Yoo Eon slowly walked over to his own severed arm and ate it. From the wound, the torn-off arm began to sprout anew. The Red Ogre Warchief realized the gap between them had widened to the point where it wasn't even a fight anymore.
Nevertheless, he had a reason why he couldn't give up this battle.
“Chhh...!!”
The Red Ogre Warchief felt the mana core of the consumed Haunted Centurion Armor. It had found a new place beneath Yoo Eon’s chest and was now pulsing.
Furthermore.
—Whirrr….
The very Aura Blade that his former comrade, the Haunted Centurion Armor, had used. The pure, brilliant blue aura was gone, replaced by a vicious and unpleasant violet aura that now wrapped around the greatsword.
‘Wow, I guess the swordsmanship was engraved into the mana core.’
Yoo Eon had simply eaten the Haunted Centurion Armor’s mana core and tried out the swordsmanship he’d acquired, but to the Red Ogre Warchief, there was no greater provocation.
Despite the pain of shattered ribs piercing his lungs, making it difficult to even move, the Red Ogre Warchief wiped the blood from his mouth and prepared for one final strike.
Looking at him was the Great Demon King Yoo Eon, holding a sword and shield without a single scratch.
—Flutter..!
Yoo Eon took to the sky and raised the flickering violet Aura Blade high.
Below, the Red Ogre Warchief took a stance, pouring all the mana he possessed into his bloodstained right fist.
A moment of silence.
—Whoosh!!
“ROOOOAAAR—!!!”
The Red Ogre Warchief bravely threw his fist toward the sky until the very end, and his fist collided with the Aura Blade of his former comrade, the Haunted Centurion Armor.
Slash—!!
—BOOOOOM!!!!
The force was enough to shatter the ground. A thick cloud of dust rose, obscuring the result of the battle between the brave warrior and the hideous monster.
Sshhh….
As the dust settled, what was revealed was the sight of the Red Ogre Warchief, split in half, being devoured by Yoo Eon’s tail.
—KYAAAAAAH—!!!!
—This is a scam!! No!!!!
—The Ogre warrior is dead!!!!
—This can't be happening!!! This world is trash!!!
As a riot broke out in the stands, the Mage quickly turned the arena’s protective barrier opaque, and the announcer scrambled to calm the situation.
Regardless.
‘Wow, this aura thing is pretty good.’
Yoo Eon’s eyes (all ten or so of them) sparkled at the power of the Aura Blade.