Vicious Bastards (2)

Lifting an ogre with nothing but my tail? It was truly astonishing. Of course, part of it came from upgrading one of my Runes of Giant to superior grade, which had increased my strength. But for someone who had lived as a guide in my previous life—where even dreaming of a brawl like this with an ogre was impossible—the experience felt profoundly new.

I drove Flame Slash into the paralyzed ogre’s body and immediately followed up with Flame Explosion to finish it. Then I shoved my dagger into the neck of the one I held in a headlock and detonated it.

BOOOOOOM—!

‘Oh. Already a level-up, and even a high-grade rune.’

It hadn’t been long since the regression orb pushed my level up two stages, yet here I was leveling again. After finishing off my tenth ogre, I quietly watched Arin as she struggled against her own foe, along with my companions waging a defensive battle from inside the Castle.

‘Arin should be fine if I keep an eye on her a little longer… I’m the problem.’

I had already accumulated ten stacks of the ogre’s fury. The marks would fade with time, but I remembered them lasting over thirty minutes. This was going to be a headache.

I could feel every plant, animal, and environmental factor in the forest working against me. No matter how many times I shook them off, vines kept coiling around my legs. Every step caused the ground to crack and my balance to slip—extremely difficult to counter. The Prospidi, which had never attacked first before, now crawled over to bite my leg. Even the Hanjarings we had treated like mere chickens flew in and pecked at my skull with their beaks.

Thud!

‘Now that I’m experiencing it myself, I finally understand why my old comrades shuddered at the mere mention of ogres. This ability is secretly terrifying.’

Was there a god that ruled over nature, and were the ogres its beloved children? I had faced many different powers in this life, but this one brought an entirely new kind of bewilderment. It felt as if the world itself was rejecting me, trying to push me away. The more fury stacks accumulated, the stronger that force grew. Fighting these ogres made me feel like the villain of the story.

I looked again at the swarm of ogres forcing their way past the Castle to reach me.

‘A blessed race, huh…’

Seven ogres were visible to the naked eye, and my detection range had already picked up more than twenty. It really seemed like every ogre that had fallen into this dungeon was converging on me.

In one sense it was fortunate, but if the hunters observed us even a little closely they would realize we were moving with purpose. In that case they probably wouldn’t make the mistake of attacking first. Of course, that was only from a broad perspective. For us right now, it was terrible news.

“Kyaaaak!”

While I maintained a suitable distance from the Castle and organized my thoughts, I saw Arin flying through the air after taking an ogre’s blow. She seemed to have blocked the attack somehow, but her face was badly swollen—one cheek puffed out like a fist.

Arin lightly rolled to recover her stance, then shouted at me as I stared at her.

“D-don’t come! I can handle it alone! R-really!”

‘I didn’t even move.’

When I tilted my head in confusion, she flashed me a thumbs-up and charged back at the ogre. She must have thought the end was in sight. The ogre’s movements, now at the bottom of its stamina, were vastly different from the beginning. Its fury effect had worn off and its regeneration had weakened considerably. Meanwhile Arin still had plenty of mana, and her swift swordsmanship was landing meaningful hits. Its legs had been shredded to rags and looked ready to collapse at any moment.

The fact that she could inflict damage through its Solid Skin trait showed that her improved offensive power had reached a considerable level.

Still.

‘It’s taking too long. That’s the only downside.’

The reason I had drawn the entire horde over to fight alongside my companions was time. Solid Skin, huh…

‘I don’t have any skin…’

I would need to test it further, but after obtaining the trait I didn’t feel any particular change. It will probably activate when I’m in human form. For now I should be satisfied that it would let me survive a little more safely while my stats were lowered in Mimicry.

A short while later, the battle between Arin and the ogre reached its conclusion.

KWAAAAANG—!

The ogre slammed the ground with tremendous force, forming a giant crater. Arin, who had lost her balance for a split second, was now dangerously close to being snatched up by its massive hand.

Whoosh— Thunk—!

“Krrk?!”

In the end I had no choice but to step into her fight. I hurled daggers in rapid succession to block the ogre’s attack. Once I confirmed the conditions were met, I activated the skill immediately.

Still sprawled on the ground, Arin stared with dazed eyes at the ogre being swallowed by flames and disintegrating. Relief at having survived a lethal blow and frustration at failing to defeat the enemy herself washed over her at the same time. Her lips twisted and her face crumpled as if she might cry any second.

Tap. Tap.

I walked over and gently patted her head, telling her she had fought well. She nodded as though she understood my message. I lifted her—she was still having trouble standing—and carried her toward the Castle. Held in my arms, she looked up at me, lips moving as if she wanted to say something. The fact that her ears remained perked up instead of drooping told me she wasn’t too disheartened.

In the end she swallowed whatever she had been about to say. I gently set her down among my companions huddled inside the Castle.

“You worked hard, Arin!”

“Whoa~ when did you get so strong? You were going toe-to-toe with an ogre!”

Yeonhee and Jua greeted her with amazement. Arin simply shrugged as if it were nothing and turned her gaze back to the ogres still frantically hammering the Castle.

The horde—now numbering in the double digits—was focusing all its attacks on a single point of the Castle. Cracks were beginning to appear in its defensive wall. Yeonhee used her mana to repair the barrier in a mysterious display of power, but the way she shook her head suggested the situation was far from easy.

“It’s still manageable for now, but the Castle’s durability is dropping rapidly. I can hold it with my mana, but if their numbers increase any further I can’t make any promises.”

Yeonhee explained that the Castle was currently in its Fortified state, which granted it a new durability value. Every hit reduced that maximum, and eventually her repairs would become meaningless.

“We need to draw their attention somehow… It looks pretty dangerous even from where I’m standing.”

“All the ogres are staring at Ilwol. Guess that’s what happens when you slaughter a bunch of their kin…”

‘……’

Even without my companions’ request, the creatures were already targeting me, so I had planned to head back out anyway. I stepped on the Castle’s head and launched myself high into the air, then rained skeleton bombs and fireballs down on their heads. With my mana now over 1,000, I had far more freedom to use skills.

“GRAAAAH!!”

They kept roaring at me and activating skills, but it was completely useless.

I tried using ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the same skill against them.

……

‘As expected, it doesn’t work. Why?’

It was a newly obtained ability, yet unlike Warrior’s Howl—which activated simply by clacking my teeth—this was a skill I could not use. Supporting allies and applying effects to enemies really were different things.

‘Damn it… There are so many abilities I can’t actually use even after obtaining them.’

Today was a day I keenly felt the shortcomings of being a skeleton, from the Solid Skin earlier to this. Once again I realized the system’s standards were completely arbitrary.

“Looks like this will be a war of attrition. Everyone, stay sharp!”

“Wow—we might actually have to pull an all-nighter here.”

As Arin said, the long battle had begun. While I lured the ogres from above and steadily wore down their stamina, sudden gusts of wind and swarms of dozens of Hanjarings pecking at me made things quite difficult.

‘Argh! Damn it all.’

The Threat of Nature ability was pure hell from the receiving end. Still, as time passed the marks were removed, so the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠fury being imprinted on me seemed to stagnate at a certain level.

Arin repeatedly entered and exited the Castle’s protection, playing an active role, while the rest of my companions did everything they could. In the end we spent a full five hours fighting the ogres.

The total number we defeated reached roughly sixty. I alone had annihilated forty with Flame Explosion. The mages took care of nearly all the rest.

‘I thought there would be over a hundred. Not as many as expected. Maybe the gate opened mainly around our location.’

I couldn’t steal the ogre’s status ailment removal ability with Thievery since it was a skill, but my companions had taken no damage at all. Overall, a satisfying result.

‘My level is already 79… Progress is fast.’

Since they were higher rank than me, the experience gain was excellent. Only one level remained until 80. Raising that single level inside a C-rank dungeon would not be easy, of course. Still, there would be no need for another expedition like the one with Cha Jin-hyeok. And with the chance to eliminate a great villain on the horizon, it seemed I would soon have another opportunity for class advancement.

‘Whew… Even I’m starting to get tired at this point.’

Five hours of what could only be called grinding. Even after leveling up, allocating my stats, and fully adapting to their movements, their disgustingly tenacious vitality and the cheat-like ability called Ogre’s Fury had pushed us from dusk into full night.

“Haaaa… We actually survived. If it weren’t for this kid we’d all be dead. Thank you, Yeonhee.”

Jua stroked the Castle affectionately as she expressed her gratitude. They were not empty words. Without the Castle I would never have been able to hold a single position. Not only us—the other hunters still inside the dungeon would have perished as well.

‘Thank you.’

The Castle gave its usual mischievous smile and slowly faded away. The moment Yeonhee dismissed it, she collapsed into my arms as if all strength had left her body.