Pride of the Artisan Race (5)
Boom——
The ground flipped over with the sound of an exploding shell, sending up a massive cloud of dust.
Through the billowing dust, a dwarf shot forward like a cannonball. Gripping an axe far larger than his own body, he charged straight at Dohyun and swung.
The axe, propelled by Talgrin's momentum, carved through the air with terrifying destructive force. Mana-infused and glowing red-hot, it hurtled toward Dohyun as if to cleave him in two.
Whoooosh——
The searing heat alone felt like an attack. Anything it touched ignited spontaneously. Trees around them dried out and burst into flames as the heat sharpened into a deadly edge alongside the axe.
Yet Dohyun merely muttered while watching the incoming strike.
“Pretty strong.”
Blocking it directly would likely shatter his weapon. Instead, he kicked off the ground, riding the vortex created by the heat, and used telekinesis to form a foothold in midair, escaping the blow.
The storm of heat followed the axe, turning the surroundings into a sea of fire.
The area burned even more fiercely than when he had summoned Agni. Dohyun whistled appreciatively.
“Whew.”
It was certainly impressive.
He had wondered what the epithet “Lava Fighter” meant. Now he saw it was mana infused with heat.
So traits could imbue mana with elemental properties like that.
Talgrin wasn’t consciously wielding a perfected image; the attribute simply manifested naturally. It wasn’t the kind of mana property that posed an immediate threat to Dohyun.
Still, it was tricky to handle. But Dohyun had gained something from observing Talgrin yesterday.
Skill 「Heat Resistance [B]」 nullifies the heat.
Analysis really was godlike.
Thinking that, Dohyun glanced toward Talgrin, who had been flung forward by his own momentum. Through the burning forest, the dwarf’s dark silhouette emerged. Talgrin walked out slowly from the flames.
Crackle, crackle.
Stepping over trees on the verge of turning to charcoal, Talgrin appeared. Dohyun watched him with interest. Talgrin stared back, equally intrigued.
“Not bad for a lesser race.”
“Hmm. A bit disappointing for a dwarf, though.”
Dohyun never missed a chance to get the last word, but Talgrin didn’t rise to the provocation this time. Instead, he scrutinized Dohyun carefully.
The burning heat that screamed to tear Dohyun apart remained, yet his mind stayed coldly focused.
Talgrin said nothing more, but genuine surprise flickered within him.
A human had actually dodged his attack.
Most dwarves would have underestimated a human and grown careless, just like the dwarves facing Hana Rin and Ji Yu-chan.
But Talgrin was one of the capable ones.
‘Don’t think of them as lesser races.’
Talent could bloom in anyone.
That was why even superior races sometimes fell to lesser ones. Even if humans had always been hunted and driven to extinction, Talgrin refused to let his guard down.
He gripped his axe again, now brimming with heat-infused mana, and adjusted his stance.
His earlier charge had been an attempt to end things quickly, but Talgrin’s usual fighting style didn’t rely on speed. Instead, he layered heat mana onto his massive axe.
Crack——!
Thud——!!
The ground around Talgrin’s feet sank as if crushed by something enormous. Seeing that, Dohyun finally dropped his relaxed demeanor.
At the same time, Analysis spoke.
Analyzing attack patterns.
The message glowed faintly orange. Dohyun also tightened his stance, refusing to be careless.
Red meant an opponent he couldn’t possibly defeat. Yellow indicated a fairly formidable foe.
Orange sat between the two—difficult, but not impossible.
‘I thought he’d stay careless a little longer.’
Talgrin was undeniably a strong warrior.
He had quickly assessed Dohyun’s capabilities and was now preparing to fight in earnest. Dohyun mirrored the dwarf’s stance.
Talgrin moved first.
It wasn’t the explosive speed from before, but still reasonably fast.
Dohyun wasn’t fooled.
Clang, clang, clang——
Furrows carved into the ground along Talgrin’s path. His current weight was beyond imagination. Taking a direct hit would split Dohyun clean in half.
Keeping that in mind, Dohyun moved swiftly, leading with Dark King’s Swiftness, and tried to dazzle Talgrin’s eyes.
His movements were extremely efficient, stripped of all excess. As he circled Talgrin at a perfectly consistent speed, countless afterimages of himself appeared.
Of course, these weren’t created by speed alone.
Dohyun couldn’t move that fast yet.
But he had magic.
He reinforced the afterimages with illusion magic, deceiving Talgrin’s vision.
It worked. Talgrin came to an abrupt halt.
Seizing the opening, Dohyun lunged to attack. At that moment, Talgrin shouted.
“If you can’t tell which one’s real!”
He gripped the end of the axe handle, leaped into the air, spun once, and brought the axe down toward the ground. It carried a heat so intense it felt like a massive fireball.
Then—
Rumble———
As if striking the very veins of the earth, the heat burrowed deep underground. The ground split open, and red lava gushed upward.
Gurgle!
Whoosh———!!!
Lava erupted like a volcanic crater. For an instant, Dohyun flinched in alarm—only to realize it wasn’t real lava.
The fragments of the superheated ground merely glowed red, mimicking lava.
But whether lava or not, the heat within was genuine. The scorching stone shards burned and melted everything around them.
The intense heat stirred the air into rapid convection, erasing all the illusions. Even with heat resistance, Dohyun had to squint against the blaze, and his figure was revealed.
Talgrin saw his chance and charged, swinging his axe. Dohyun grimaced and swung his sword in return.
Without any wind-up, the heat and weight in Talgrin’s axe were lighter than before, yet still lethal.
At that moment, Dohyun poured so much mana into his sword that the air itself rippled. Using Mana Manipulation, he struck.
Guided by Sword King’s Intuition and Dark King’s Swiftness, his blade moved toward perfection. It clashed with the axe.
Claaaaang———!!
A piercing metallic ring echoed as both were hurled backward.
Dohyun was sent twice as far as Talgrin, overwhelmed by raw power. Yet he immediately charged again. Talgrin swung his heat-wreathed axe in response.
Dohyun barely dodged the searing heat and struck back. Talgrin skillfully parried every blow with his axe handle.
Sparks flew into the air with increasing frequency. Dohyun evaded every attack while Talgrin, despite his slower pace, blocked everything.
The fierce exchange continued—until Dohyun closed the distance to a single handspan.
Talgrin sensed danger and tried to shove Dohyun away with his axe, but Dohyun was faster.
He unleashed a sonic roar using ultrasound directly at Talgrin.
The sound wave struck Talgrin’s head with pinpoint accuracy. The dwarf’s world spun violently.
Eeeeeee———
Crunch——
Talgrin couldn’t hear it, but he felt something burst. Hot liquid streamed from both ears.
Both eardrums had ruptured from the sonic roar, and his brain had been rattled badly.
Even so, Talgrin gripped his axe and charged at Dohyun.
Witnessing the dwarf rush forward without regard for his wounds, Dohyun could only shake his head in disbelief.
“Tough guy.”
“You lesser-race scum have far too many tricks!!!”
Unable to hear properly, Talgrin bellowed even louder at Dohyun.
Dohyun honestly found him impressive.
Deaf, his sense of balance ruined by the brain trauma, yet still charging straight ahead—Talgrin was truly an outstanding warrior.
But the fact that he charged like this, consumed by greed and having cast aside his pride, made Dohyun shake his head in disappointment.
As they continued trading blows, Talgrin felt a strange sensation. A wind like a raging typhoon, and an inexplicable shadow blocking the sky.
He dodged Dohyun’s attack and looked up.
There, spinning furiously, was a stone spear he hadn’t heard because his eardrums were destroyed.
Shhhhh———
The applied magic attack Hana Rin had created surpassed intermediate magic in power, but it had drawbacks.
One was the long preparation time. Another was the loud noise from its rapid rotation.
But what if the target couldn’t hear that sound?
If prepared in advance and launched, it became a flawless attack.
Dohyun sent the furiously spinning stone spear plummeting from the sky. The moment Talgrin saw it, dread spread through his entire body.
He realized that taking the hit would mean instant death.
Feeling as though the goddess of death herself was staring at him, Talgrin unleashed every ounce of his power.
“Kuaaaaah!!!”
With a battle cry, he poured all his heat into the axe. The sturdy weapon that had withstood his previous attacks began to lose its shape, melting from the intensity.
Yet Talgrin paid it no mind. While the axe’s edge still held, he spun and swung at the falling stone spear. The concentrated heat shot forward like a sharpened blade, cleaving the spinning spear in two.
BOOOOOOM———!!!
A sound like thunder reverberated as shockwaves spread outward. A powerful wind erupted, making the already wide clearing seem even larger.
Having barely split the spear, Talgrin lowered his gaze to find Dohyun—only for his vision to drop endlessly until it met the ground.
The world spun. Talgrin saw his own decapitated body.
Behind it stood Dohyun, who had appeared from stealth and was now sheathing his sword after the strike.
Talgrin tried to speak, but no words came. His eyes slowly dimmed.
“Whew. That wasn’t easy.”