Demon Beast vs Demon Beast? (2)
The air throughout the entire auditorium exploded. The shockwave from the clash alone scattered the surrounding demon beasts into chunks of flesh.
"......"
"......"
Ricardo and the others could only stare in shock at the center of the collision, their eyes wide open.
What the hell was that thing that had burst through the ceiling? Why was it fighting the high-rank demon beast—and protecting them, no less?
Even from a distance, its overwhelming presence made their bodies freeze.
For something like that to appear out of nowhere...
What was its true nature? Where had it been hiding all this time?
Ricardo pushed aside the endless questions surging in his mind and helped Serena to her feet, rejoining the main group.
Whether the high-rank demon beast had stopped creating rifts to focus on the fight, the number of demon beasts had drastically decreased—but they weren't gone entirely.
They still had to hold them off.
For now, he'd put thoughts of that thing on hold. It hadn't shown any interest in them yet.
He could only hope it wouldn't target them after defeating—or losing to—the high-rank demon beast.
—Clang!Boom!
Every time the two black-armored monsters collided, the auditorium walls crumbled, and debris flew in all directions.
The knight's sword pierced toward Seongjin's blind spot.
He twisted his body. The pitch-black blade grazed his side.
One step forward. He drove his tightly clenched fist into the knight's breastplate.
—Boom!
The knight staggered back slightly from the impact.
The knight closed in swiftly, swinging its sword. Instead of parrying, Seongjin retreated to dodge.
—Whoosh! Whoosh!
He could feel the wind pressure as the blade sliced through the air. He jerked his head aside to evade. A sensation told him the blade had sheared off part of his horn.
The knight prepared its next attack. An overhead thrust.
Now.
Timing it with the knight's forward step, Seongjin ducked his head and lashed out with his foot.
—Boom!
The sword tip whistled just above his head, and Seongjin's sole slammed directly into the knight's knee.
The knight's knee buckled backward for an instant. Seizing the opening, he plunged a fist into its abdomen.
The knight was hurled back far.
Seongjin whipped tentacles toward the spot it had retreated to.
—Clang! Clang!
The knight swung its sword to block the tentacles. It tried to dodge and sever them.
But the blade-covered tentacles, sheathed in armor plating, didn't yield easily even to the knight's sword.
One, two, three, four, five. A total of five tentacles surged toward the knight.
Seongjin had shifted to unilaterally assaulting the knight from range with his tentacles.
—Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
[GRRAAAAAH!]
The knight roared as it slashed away the tentacles. With one mighty swing, a sword gust whipped up, batting them aside.
—BOOM!
"Gah!"
"Ngh! Debris!"
Seongjin extended his remaining reserved tentacles to swat away the debris flying toward the people.
—Shiiiing
"......"
At the same time, the temperature around them plummeted. Frost crept over the knight's sword and the surroundings.
Crack, crack—the floor nearby froze solid.
So this was the real fight beginning.
Seongjin's eyes gleamed coldly from beneath his helmet.
Massive power surges through your body for 5 minutes.
Seongjin's muscles swelled and hardened, contracting with immense density. Overwhelming strength coursed through his entire frame.
The knight regripped its sword and aimed it at Seongjin.
"......"
[......]
After a brief standoff, the silhouettes of the two black-armored figures vanished in an instant.
—BOOM!!!
Seongjin's fist clashed against the knight's sword. His speed had surged dramatically compared to before.
The knight swung its blade diagonally to cleave him.
—Crunch!
Seongjin seized the incoming blade with his left hand. At the same time, he kicked the knight away.
The knight was blasted straight back. But it didn't release the sword. The blade scraped from Seongjin's hand with a metallic screech.
As Seongjin moved to press the attack, an odd sensation drew his gaze to his left hand.
"...!"
His hand had frozen blue, armor and all. The result of grasping the frost-wreathed sword.
No time to think. The knight closed in instantly, swinging its blade.
He jerked his head back, barely dodging. A chunk of his bio-armor was sliced off and flash-frozen.
Seeing that, oddly enough, the corner of Seongjin's mouth curved upward.
—BOOM!!!
The two black afterimages hurtled toward each other at blinding speed. Seongjin kicked the knight far away.
He ran along the wall and drove his knee into it. The knight blocked with its blade.
Seongjin lashed out tentacles to smash debris down on it. The rubble shattered, kicking up a dust cloud.
In that instant, Seongjin's figure appeared in the air behind the knight.
He unleashed a kick at the back of its head.
The knight reacted. It parried the devastatingly fast kick with the flat of its blade, then spun using the recoil to back-kick Seongjin in turn.
—BOOM!!
Seongjin's body rocketed like a meteor, smashing into a pillar on the far side of the auditorium. The pillar crumbled to powder, but he didn't stop. Using the collapsing debris as footholds, he launched himself at the knight again.
The knight thrust its sword into the floor and swept it upward. Massive ice spikes erupted from the ground toward Seongjin.
He didn't slow down. He kept charging.
Blade tentacles radiated outward from his full-body armor in a spiral. He spun his body like a drill.
—BOOM! BOOM!
The ten blade tentacles whirled like a drill, pulverizing the obstructing ice spikes. Seongjin's fist burst through the fragments to smash the knight's helmet dead-on.
—BOOM!!
The knight toppled. Seongjin raised his foot to stomp its head—but it jerked its head aside desperately.
His foot slammed into empty floor instead.
BOOM! The floor shattered, shards exploding outward.
The knight rolled backward to its feet and swung again. Seongjin parried and blocked.
In that moment, a tentacle shot from Seongjin's leg, whipping the knight's ankle. Off-balance, the knight's body tilted and lifted into the air.
—BOOM!
A tentacle-fist plunged into the airborne knight. Its helmet crumpled.
The knight crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom. Seongjin moved to mount it for the finish—but recalling the earlier incident, he held back.
The cold is a pain.
Grabbing it would freeze his body with the surrounding frost. No close contact.
Maintain optimal distance.
He kicked the knight away. Its body flew, tumbled several times, then rose immediately.
—Shiiiing! Boom!
Tentacles swarmed the knight from all sides. It leaped back, slashing them away with its sword—but it couldn't fully negate their force.
A crack spiderwebbed across the knight's shoulder armor.
Seongjin kicked off the ground, burrowing under its chin.
—BOOM!!!
His fist sank into its abdomen. The knight dropped its sword.
Its body folded in an L-shape and slammed into the opposite wall.
—Rumble rumble rumble
The wall collapsed entirely, burying the knight in rubble.
"......"
Silence fell.
Everyone in the auditorium, having mopped up the remaining demon beasts, turned to stare at Seongjin.
Seongjin eyed the dust-choked wall.
It's not dead yet.
Demonic Body lv.3 Growth Progress: ■■■■■■■■□□ (82.7%)
Of course—his Demonic Body experience hadn't increased.
Glancing at the status window beside him, Seongjin approached the direction the knight had flown.
After three steps—
—BOOM!!
The knight exploded from the rubble with a roar.
[GRRROOOOAAARRR!!!]
The now-unarmed knight. Cold gathered in its hand, forming an ice sword.
Even after all that, it gripped a sword again.
Seongjin's eye twitched.
If it loved swords that much, he'd oblige.
—Crunch crunch
A ability unlocked after his bio-armor reached lv.2. He concentrated it into his right arm.
The enlarged, sharpened armor converged into a single line.
The amassed bio-armor took shape.
[......!]
A sword.
A sword now filled Seongjin's right hand.
He gripped it two-handed and raised the tip overhead.
"Hoo......"
He exhaled once. His breath froze in the air.
It had been cold back then too.
Seongjin closed and opened his eyes. The world seemed to recede, a thrilling sensation racing up his spine.
All his senses sharpened to the extreme. His nerves grew hypersensitive.
Each strand of the knight's mane fluttered in slow motion before him.
Nothing existed but him—and the enemy. Just the two.
His vision expanded in an instant.
Something blinked on the knight's body ahead. Gaps. Layers upon layers.
Seongjin gripped the sword hilt.
This wasn't a dagger. He'd never swung a sword before. Naturally, he'd never cut anything with one.
But... he knew instinctively. How to wield it.
The knight thrust its ice sword. A hasty motion.
As if it had realized something. As if it couldn't let that happen.
The knight's sword hurtled toward Seongjin's head. Blinding speed that would leave only afterimages—but to Seongjin now, it was slower than a tortoise.
For a split second, a fleeting gap. Time splintered a thousandfold within one second. Even shorter.
The gaps aligned.
Seongjin brought his sword down. The armor-forged tip swept from above to below.
The knight's pitch-black blade met Seongjin's.
—Sliiiice.
Seongjin's blade sheared through the knight's sword and pressed on. No resistance.
Like slicing water, his blade reached the knight's helmet.
The armor offered no defense.
The helmet split along the sword's path, its head cleaved inside. The cut ran through neck, chest, torso.
And soon—
—Shwick.
The knight's body was bisected.
A perfectly clean cross-section, paper-thin, without the slightest deviation.
The knight's halved helmet clanged to the floor.
—Thud.
The knight's sundered corpse collapsed.
Black fluid oozed from between the severed halves.
The high-rank demon beast, the Black Knight, fell without so much as a dying gasp.
Demonic Body lv.3 has met the level-up requirements.
Level up?
> Yes > No
(Selecting 'No' will defer the level-up.)
A notification popped up in Seongjin's vision.
Finally, Demonic Body had met its level-up conditions.
He selected No. He couldn't level up right now.
"......Hoo."
He dispersed the armor sword in his right hand. It vanished instantly, leaving no trace.
Seongjin turned his head to confirm the knight's remains, then slowly pivoted his body.
"......!"
As he did, dozens of gazes from across the auditorium froze in unison.
Eyes like they were staring at a monster. Filled with terror and wariness.
Not a word passed between them as a chilling silence blanketed the auditorium.
...Hmm.
Now, how to explain this.