The Rune Thief's Reckoning
The cannibal (5) The ogre brat and I clashed in midair. My savagely swung claws slammed into the club the ogre held. The club wasn't anything special; when it met my claws formed from green mana, it was gouged deeply.
“Hoh?” A brief glint flashed in the ogre's eyes. It made sense. That bastard had never seen the power of my techniques up close before.
This little shit?
Of course, I was the one seething. Was it because of that reaction, like he thought he held absolute superiority? No. What really pissed me off was the near-total absence of any presence from him. The Kenaz rune he hadn't used when he first appeared!
I bared my teeth and roared.
“You goddamn bastard, stealing someone else's rune and using it!!”
This fucker had prepared an ambush using the rune he'd snatched from me! That's why he hadn't removed the tracker on his clothes even after finding it. If I hadn't noticed the fake ogre's lack of movement and figured out where he was hiding, I would've charged in for a preemptive strike and gotten one right back in the face.
“A problem? You must have been caught because you weren't used to it. I'll use it better next time.”
The ogre brat countered with a refined tone that clashed with his savage appearance. At the same time, just before landing, he swung his club at me.
“Mountain Soul Iron Claw!!!”
I pulled my body back and raked with my claws. Shukak—!! The ogre's club split into three pieces. Losing a weapon finally made the ogre brat furrow his brow.
“If you're gonna brawl head-on, use better gear, you idiot!!”
—Thud!
We landed on the ground almost simultaneously. The moment my feet touched down, I closed in without giving the bastard a chance to move. The ogre tossed the broken club aside and swung the intact one with both hands. I had to buy time in close combat until Tirsi could retrieve and throw her spear.
The bastard's gear quality is lower than I thought!
That was good news for us. I'd been planning to test the waters since he seemed to have some kind of relic, and switch to defense if things looked bad. I'll overwhelm him and finish it bare-handed!
I changed tactics. Retracting my claws, I clenched my fists. Fists would be faster for smashing the club. Kwoong—!! Fist met club. In the split second before the next exchange, I gauged the difference in our strength. As expected, my physical abilities were superior. Just like I'd estimated from his movements in the village. Even with his racial advantage, the opponent was a shaman! As long as I watched out for his heavy attacks from body weight and his four arms, I wouldn't lose in melee.
I grinned savagely and unleashed my attacks.
“What a bunch of water muscles. At least live up to that size!”
“Tsk. Your skill is better than I expected.”
The ogre blocked my sharp claw strikes with his remaining club. His movements showed none of a monster's clumsiness—only refined proficiency. Every time he blocked, the club splintered further, and it seemed he was finally grasping the situation.
The arms on his shoulders moved. He couldn't reach me with punches yet. Until he abandoned the club, the bastard wouldn't be able to throw four-fisted combos. In other words, what those hands were preparing—
“Hagalaz!!”
“Same pattern again.”
I dodged before the fire orb could form in the ogre's hand. Instead of attacking with the club, he twisted his upper body to chase me.
There are always idiots who, in the middle of a fight, activate a channeling skill and focus so hard on landing it that they forget everything else.
The ogre brat seemed to be that type. He could've used the club to keep me in check, but he froze his other hands trying to land the spell.
“!!”
“Sowulo!!”
Support fire came from the rear. Cold arrows and heat rays struck the fake ogre's bare back, creating an illusion to deceive him.
“A shallow trick!! Inferior species!!”
The ogre brat ignored the attack at first, then suddenly ground his teeth. As a fellow mage, he must have sensed there was no killing intent in the spells flying at him. But realizing it now was meaningless. The ogre had runes that increased his resistance to magic. It was a fact that this bastard was a threatening enemy to our party, which had a high ratio of mages.
But those runes are still magic when you get down to it.
The Thurs-type runes were like magic shields that consumed MP to protect HP. If we kept forcing him to burn MP like this, he only had two futures. Either his MP would run out after a two-on-one MP war and he'd freeze to death at Tirsi's hands, or he'd have to break open the mana savings account he'd worked so hard to build.
“You should've doubled your head instead of your arms!!”
I shouted while continuing my assault. If he'd known he was being tracked, he should've stayed hidden and waited for the right moment. But because he overestimated his power and rushed to use the magic circle, he was now cornered!
“!!”
“Sowulo!!”
Our party members shifted positions and fired more MP-efficient attack spells. When a cold arrow struck his face, I could feel the ogre brat's rage surpassing his reason.
“WWuuuuuuuu!!!!”
The ogre roared like a madman and swung his club wildly. I dodged and slammed my elbow into the hand gripping the club.
“Kuaaaaaaaaagh!!”
The burly green-skinned hand dropped the club. Thinking it might end more easily than expected, I prepared to finish him. That's when it happened.
—Flash!
His yellow eyes gleamed. The ogre's arm moved. The hand that had dropped the club grabbed my shoulder.
“Shit.”
Just as I'd suspected, this bastard had a warrior's spirit. The ogre stopped my movement and detonated the flames he'd gathered at point-blank range with Hagalaz.
—BOOM!!
The world in front of me turned to fire. The ogre didn't stop there, savagely detonating rune magic one after another.
“Hagalaz!! Hagalaz!! Hagalaz—!!”
—KWAKWAKWAKWANG!!
Six fire orbs trailed each other and exploded against me. The chain of high-powered blasts, strong enough to make a flamethrower look like a toy, resembled a grenade warehouse going up in flames. One orb had power similar to my Burning Hand, but the rate of fire was on another level. Naturally, detonating flames at such close range should've caught him in the blast too, but the ogre seemed to trust his magic resistance. He'd decided to pour twice the mana into attack and defense just to crush me, the vanguard.
“For a weak inferior species, you pushed me this far. It was rather impressive.”
—Thud.
The ogre released me, burning like a candle magnified thousands of times, and spoke.
“Your flesh will be worth eating. It shall be a feast after decades……”
The ogre, who had been gloating, stopped mid-sentence.
—Whoosh!
It was because I stood up casually while still burning, or perhaps because I'd already retrieved the spear in my hand. Seeing the ogre's jaw drop stupidly, I knew the ambush had succeeded.
“Fire Punch.”
—Shwaaak!!
Trailing fire like a tail, I swung the spear in a straight line.
“Wunjo—!!”
The ogre activated a rune and raised all his arms to guard. With four thick arms lined up, it looked like a shield of muscle, but when the mithril spearhead flashed vertically, his green skin had no choice but to spray purple blood.
“Kuuuuaaagh……!!”
“I told you. If you're gonna brawl head-on, use better gear.”
I raised the spear to slice off the ogre brat's limbs. The spear shaft Larilura had enchanted with Puppetry. Enchantment magic. That was the secret to how I'd retrieved the spear and counterattacked while burning in the flames.
You're not the only one who carries enchanted items.
After the last fight, during the remaining time before the promotion exam, I'd asked Larilura to put Puppetry on my spear. It was experience from nearly throwing away the expensive spear I'd made and having to fight bare-handed in another world. That was how I'd retrieved it, and the reason it remained intact despite the fire was thanks to Veronica. The wooden talisman Veronica had engraved with the Thurisaz rune! Before coming here, we'd all equipped them. Just like how I'd created the Impressive Mask even before knowing enchantment magic, runes activated by “engraving” could easily share their effects with others. Without enchantment materials, the effect would cut off if we separated from Veronica, but there was no reason not to prepare something like this against a shaman. If I'd been too obvious, the ogre would've dispelled it. That's why I pretended to be wary of the fire orbs while looking for an opening to ambush him head-on.
“Come on, guest. I'll cut off your arms and legs, so stay still? I'm a veterinary student, but I've never operated on a pet ogre before.”
People with six fingers get one finger amputated, so maybe three or four limbs for this guy was within the margin of error? As I said that and raised the spear, the ogre, despite wounds deep enough to expose bone, launched a tough counterattack.
—Whoosh!!
The ogre raised two arms like shields to protect his torso and threw a punch. I'd been about to lower the spear to block, but changed my mind when I saw the large Wunjo rune carved on his chest and felt the destructive power in his fist. I calmly stepped back and dodged out of the attack's range. The ogre chased me with bloodshot eyes and fired off two right-side punches in rapid succession.
—Whoosh!! Whoosh!! Whoosh!!
“Rapid fire” wasn't an exaggeration. Like a boxer with two extra arms throwing alternating jabs, fists as thick as my waist poured out with no cooldown. The power couldn't be underestimated either. When a missed attack struck a forest boulder, it exploded and scattered like dynamite had been stuffed inside.
Shit, that's terrifying.
I broke into a cold sweat and widened the distance. The ogre brat had realized the magic battle had turned into an MP war and switched to physical attacks. I stopped retreating and crossed to the ogre's left side. Veronica moved according to our pre-planned strategy and shouted.
【You there!! It's the Wunjo rune that strengthens the body!! Don't think of fighting head-on!!】
【That's the one you said was stolen from you!!】
【Indeed!! It's the rune the bastard took from me with the Jēra rune!!】
What the ogre had activated was the rune stolen from Veronica. That shameless mana thief, who had already snatched Kenaz and Ansuz from me, was now abusing the rune he'd stolen from Veronica!
“You fucking R4 chip bastard—!!”
I glared at the ogre brat charging like a tank that combined offense and defense. The face of the cannibal monster who would eat even his parents overlapped with a childhood memory. The day I brought my birthday present, Pokémon Platinum, to school! The face of that pockmarked, glasses-wearing kid bragging about his Giratina pack downloaded onto an R4 chip, saying “Who even plays that anymore?”
“A guy who never even lifts weights is using magic to boost his strength and pretending to be a warrior!! Don't you have any shame!!”
Even though I'd shouted with my eyes rolled back, being pissed off was one thing, and being in trouble was another. The stat difference had reversed again. I'd heard an explanation of what the rune stolen from Veronica roughly did, but its output was higher than we'd expected. According to its original owner Veronica, it wasn't a technique that demanded extreme aptitude like my Beast Regression, so its base power was low, and overusing it came with side effects.
The side effects aren't our problem, but this output……!!
Had he finally used it? Maybe my concentration had wavered while thinking that. The timing came when I couldn't dodge the ogre's punch. I focused mana into my eyes and caught the flurry of punches with my spear.
—Kwoong!!
“Kugh……!!”
I deflected the impact of the punch and avoided the ogre's arm. If he grabbed me, I'd end up in a submission or mount. It wasn't my wives—it was a sweaty green-skinned thug. Hell no. But as if to say that hard work brings spring, I heard Tirsi shouting from behind while firing magic.
【Norde! Right side of his waist!! There's an accessory hanging there!!】