The Hunt (3)
The Hunt (3)
Uh-oh, why is it doing this?
The moment I drew up my magic power, a portion of it began to move uncontrollably.
I was flustered by the sudden anomaly for a moment.
But I soon realized that the uncontrollable magic was resonating with the Bone Dragon in front of me.
Only then did I calm my flustered heart and sense my inner magic in detail.
That was when I realized that it wasn't the magic filled with my original venom, but the Yin magic imbued with the unique cold of Niflheim that Hel had given me, which was reacting to the Bone Dragon.
I have no idea why my magic is suddenly acting like this.
Still, dealing with the Bone Dragon was the priority right now, so I was just about to suppress Niflheim's cold and fire a Breath using only the venom of my original magic.
-...Can you hear me?
"Cough, cough!...What the?"
-I suppose you can.
But once again, I had no choice but to forcibly scatter the magic I was gathering and stop.
It was because the Bone Dragon in front of me had spoken.
I didn't expect a guy who was nothing but bones to talk, so I choked.
The voice didn't sound like it was spoken aloud, but rather echoed in my head. I looked around to see if others heard it, but there was no particular reaction from anyone else.
-I am Zmei, the guardian dragon who once protected the empire... though I'd like to say that. Now, I'm just a remnant of his consciousness bound to this filthy thing, so I don't know how I should introduce myself.
"Guardian Dragon? Zmei? Tell me more in detail..."
-Careful. If you say that, the one who put me in this filthy thing might catch on, so keep it quiet.
[Now, my masterpiece. Show your power to your heart's content!]
At the words of the Bone Dragon, who introduced himself as the remnant consciousness of Zmei, I shut my mouth and kept an eye on the situation.
Fortunately, Koschei didn't seem to notice our conversation; he was still confident in his victory, raising his staff to give the Bone Dragon an order.
Purple light erupted from the skull at the end of the staff, and the Bone Dragon's body began to move slowly with a creaking sound.
And the same went for the countless skeletons that densely filled the surroundings.
Countless skeletons, ranging from beasts to humans, all different in size and shape, surrounded us.
At that, Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon drew their weapons and finished preparing for battle.
It was a tense situation where a clash seemed imminent, but I was still listening to what the Bone Dragon had to say.
-There is a reason why I, a proud dragon, am left only as a consciousness in this filthy undead body.
-As the guardian dragon of the empire, I devoted my whole life to it, and in the end, I met a glorious demise in a battle against the great warrior Bogatyr, only for Koschei to steal my bones from where I was buried.
-The bastard has used my bones to conduct all sorts of experiments, but he hasn't achieved any good results.
-That's only natural, as I, who remained even in death as a consciousness, did not lend him my power.
-Even so, the bastard didn't give up and consistently continued his experiments with my bones.
Zmei's consciousness was rambling on with its long-winded story.
At first, I waited with the intention of just hearing what it had to say, but as it dragged on, I started to get annoyed.
Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon were handling the ordinary skeletons that were rushing at us, reducing their numbers as they saw fit, but the Bone Dragon was not a size that the two of them could handle, so I was defending against it all by myself.
How long was I supposed to block these attacks like a game and listen to this story?
I couldn't hold back, so I used a technique to speak to Zmei's consciousness inside the Bone Dragon.
[Get to the point now. If you're going to keep rambling on with your long-winded story like that, I'll turn you into dust and put you out of your misery.]
-Hmm? You could communicate without speaking aloud?
It was a technique called telepathy to convey what I wanted to say to others, and fortunately, it was possible to use it on Zmei, who was a consciousness.
Zmei answered awkwardly, perhaps not expecting me to speak to him.
-Ahem! I was just about to get to the point.
[Then don't say anything useless and hurry up.]
-You're impatient.
[Do you want to die again?]
-No, I'll get to the point now. The energy I feel from you. It's definitely the energy of the dead, not the living. The texture is similar to the power that bastard Koschei uses, but unlike the dirty energy of a guy who handles it forcibly, it is the pure and genuine energy of the dead.
[So what about it?]
-If it's that, you might be able to seize control of this body that Zmei currently possesses.
According to Zmei's explanation, the essence of Niflheim that Hel gave me—
If I used that energy, I could seize the control authority from Koschei, who was currently manipulating the countless skeletons and the Bone Dragon.
However.
Why should I do that?
[I can wipe them all out with a single Breath anyway. Why should I bother choosing a troublesome way to seize control?]
-There is a reason for that, too. Look at Koschei's expression right now.
As Zmei said, I turned my head and looked at Koschei.
The skeletons were being helplessly cut down by Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon, and the Bone Dragon he boasted about couldn't even deal proper damage to me.
Even so, Koschei was still manipulating the skeletons with a relaxed posture and a smiling face.
-As you can see, that's not all there is to his ability.
[Don't tell me he has a hidden card?]
-Yes. And the card he has hidden is 'Resurrection.' The skeletons you and those humans defeated, and even me. It doesn't end with just being defeated. Even if you defeat them, they are bound to be resurrected.
[I see. So he was hiding such an ability.]
-Yes. He is waiting for you to exhaust yourselves by using your power to defeat us all. When you have defeated all these many skeletons and you are sufficiently exhausted. That is when he will resurrect them again to plant despair. In a way, you could say it's a method of hunting beasts.
When I saw him at the auction house, I thought he was just an idiot full of confidence because he took hostages and was deceived by false information.
Certainly, if he used that method, Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon would run out of magic first and be exhausted and defeated, even if I didn't.
[Even so, if I step in properly, I can wipe them all out, which is the same thing. That resurrection can't be infinite, right?]
-But if you wipe them out every time they resurrect, he will tuck his tail and run away.
[I've already carved a mark on his soul, so I can just chase him down and kill him.]
-......
[Try to come up with a more plausible reason. Why I should bother seizing control.]
-...Damn it. I forgot the fact that you are a dragon.
[What does that mean?]
-I forgot that dragons have a damnably arrogant personality.
[Is that something you should say, considering you were a dragon yourself?]
For some reason, the Bone Dragon's attacks seemed even fiercer than before; was it just my imagination?
Zmei's consciousness, which had been silent for a moment, finally grumbled and revealed his true intentions.
-Hoo... You won't lose a single word, will you? Fine. To tell you the truth, even if I am a consciousness, I am the consciousness of the dragon Zmei, just as you said. I cannot forgive the bastard Koschei who has been experimenting on me all this time. If you seize control, the look on that bastard's face will be worth seeing, and I intended to take revenge for the experiments he has done on me all this time.
[There. You should have told the truth from the beginning.]
-Damn dragon.
[And you are the consciousness of one of those dragons.]
-Damn it! So are you going to seize it, or are you going to kill me like this?!
[Hmm... What is the benefit I can get from seizing control?]
-If you seize control, all the skeletons currently attacking you, and even I, will become your power. Is that not enough?
[Very insufficient.]
-Even so, other than that, the benefits you can get are small. The only thing is that the object that controls us was originally made from my heart...
[You should have said that from the start!]
Good. Plan change.
I was planning to wipe them out with a Breath, but if the Dragon's Heart is in Koschei's hands, that's a different story.
Before he wastes any more of the heart's magic, shouldn't I take it and gobble it up—no, use it for something good?
-Umm. Is that such an important reason? Anyway, thanks for helping. The object that controls us is the staff he is holding, and it is inside the skull on top of it.
[Don't worry. I'll take it soon and set you free.]
Ah, thinking about a Dragon's Heart after such a long time makes my mouth water.
At first, I thought he was just a stupid guy who didn't know his place, but now that I see it, Koschei looks like a Golden Goblin.
Good, everything is going according to plan.
Koschei thought to himself, smiling broadly.
In the direction he was looking, Shin Su-ah and Baek Yeon were coating their bodies in magic and dealing with countless skeletons.
The two of them had quite excellent abilities to handle magic, so they were doing well by destroying the skeletons with the minimum amount of magic, but even so, the method of coating their entire bodies in magic was a huge waste of magic power.
If they continued to fight like that, there was no guarantee how many more hours they could maintain it.
But on the other hand, Koschei's magic power was almost the same as it was at the beginning.
This was all thanks to the 'fragment' of the Dragon's Heart inside the staff Koschei was holding.
It was merely a fragment, but it was a divine object that provided massive amounts of magic power, allowing him to easily control countless undead and even the Bone Dragon.
'I'll let the humans get tired first, and when I have some breathing room, I'll attach all the other undead to the dragon to make it waste its power. I might not be able to beat a healthy dragon, but I can beat an exhausted one.'
What should I try first when I get a new dragon corpse?
While spinning happy fantasies, Koschei adjusted the undead appropriately.
So that not too many would fall at once, and so that they would waste as much magic power as possible.
Just when he thought everything was going according to his plan.
Sshing-!!
Something shining flew through the air, cutting through it.
The direction was toward where Nidhogg was.
'He intends to target me, the caster.'
Having finished his judgment quickly, Koschei twisted his body faster than the flying object.
The moment the thing that flew quickly grazed his side, Koschei realized it was a golden spear.
The golden spear, Gungnir, passed by Koschei's side as if grazing him, and just when he thought he should cast a defensive spell in preparation for when it targeted him, the caster, like it was doing now.
Kwajik!
Along with an ominous tearing sound, terrible pain engulfed Koschei.
Koschei, who lowered his head following the direction of the pain, was met with his missing right hand.
Gungnir, which he thought he had definitely dodged, had ignored the laws of physics, turned back, and pierced Koschei's hand.
Terrible pain surged up, but what was important to him right now was not his missing right hand.
For him, a body was just something to be swapped or regenerated.
As long as the medium that bound his soul and spirit was safe, he could resurrect as many times as he wanted.
'My staff!'
Therefore, he didn't care about the wound and searched the surroundings thoroughly to find the staff.
Since Koschei's magic power was inside the staff, he was able to find it quickly.
As Koschei turned his head toward where he felt the staff's magic power, there was Nidhogg, holding the staff with one of his front paws.
Nidhogg, who had blown off his hand using Gungnir and even snatched the staff, brought his head close to the skull at the very top of the staff to peer inside.
"What the. It's not even half..."
A deep sigh escaped from Nidhogg's mouth as he confirmed the 'fragment' of the Dragon's Heart inside.