Chapter 14 - {The Despair Given by Mammoth Prime}
{The Despair Given by Mammoth Prime}
Translator : Elizabeth
"Mmm~ Perfect."
Kang Jin-ho looked down at his fist and smiled with satisfaction.
At his feet, Mammoth Prime, called the calamity of the North, was fainting with foam at its mouth.
Its massive bulk like a mountain range didn't budge.
'I succeeded in controlling my strength.'
Kang Jin-ho sighed in relief.
Actually, for him, what was harder than killing was beating moderately.
5 years ago, when he first fell into another world, he couldn't control his strength.
When a group of bandits passing by picked a fight, he tapped lightly but the bandit's upper body disappeared—that memory still remained as a trauma(?).
To be precise, the fact that blood splattered on the clothes he was wearing was the issue.
'I tried to do laundry but eventually gave up and had to throw away the clothes. To never make the same mistake again, I practiced tirelessly since then.'
How to pull out a tree delicately without crushing it.
How to only crack a rock without turning it into powder.
The fruit of that bloody effort shone today.
The opponent was an ancient demonic beast.
It was a bastard with tricky durability where if he put too much strength, its head would explode, and if he put too little, it wouldn't even leave a scratch.
But Kang Jin-ho succeeded in accurately shaking the bastard's brain and only cutting off its consciousness.
"Let's see. Breath is still attached."
When Kang Jin-ho put his hand to the bastard's nose, hot breath gushed out.
There was no hindrance to life activities.
Like this, it would sleep soundly for a few hours.
"Now, then I have to go deliver it…."
Kang Jin-ho crossed his arms and looked up at the bastard's massive bulk.
Carrying this wasn't the problem.
The problem was if this guy woke up during transport.
If this massive body struggled in mid-air, the center of gravity could collapse and it could fall.
He would be fine, but if the Mammoth, the request item, fell to its death, it would be trouble.
Because money would fly away.
"I should put a safety device on it, right?"
Kang Jin-ho approached the Mammoth's hind leg without hesitation.
And indifferently lifted his foot and stepped on it.
Crunch—!
"K-Kueong…."
Perhaps it was painful even in a fainted state, as the Mammoth's body flinched.
Kang Jin-ho didn't care and stepped on the remaining three legs in turn.
Snap. Crunch. Crackle.
In an instant, Mammoth Prime's limbs were broken.
It might look cruel, but Kang Jin-ho's judgment was extremely practical.
"They said bring it alive; they didn't say its limbs had to be intact."
Whether the Grand Duchy's wizards attached themselves later to fix the legs or not was none of his business.
What was important was delivering it in a living state.
"Good. Shall I go now."
Kang Jin-ho dug under Mammoth Prime's belly.
Then took a deep breath once and released the Aura of his entire body.
Rumble—.
Blue Aura spewed out like a waterfall and wrapped around the Mammoth's massive body.
Like a giant forklift, the Aura supported the bastard.
"Heave!"
Kang Jin-ho kicked the ground with a shout.
The ground subsided, creating a massive crater.
And an unbelievable scene unfolded.
An ancient demonic beast weighing dozens, no, hundreds of tons defied gravity and soared into the sky.
One month ago.
North, Howling Canyon.
"Everyone! Maintain formation! If we get pushed back, we die!"
Kalian de Winter shouted as if vomiting blood.
Through the canyon where the blizzard raged, despairing fear was covering the Northern Army.
It was not a war.
It was a struggle against a natural disaster.
Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!
Every time the ground shook, soldiers lost their balance and fell.
A massive shadow appearing beyond the blizzard.
It was Mammoth Prime.
Every time the bastard swung its long trunk, centuries-old coniferous trees snapped like matchsticks, and rocks turned to powder and scattered.
"Magic Unit! Commence attack! Bind the bastard's feet!"
At Kalian's order, the waiting wizards raised their staffs in unison.
It was the elite Wizard Corps of the North.
"Flame Cannon!"
"Lightning Spear!"
"Fire Spear!"
"Explosion!"
Dozens of spells poured toward Mammoth Prime.
Cannon-like flames burned the bastard's fur, lightning struck down, and intense explosions wrapped around the bastard's legs.
Like that, countless splendid explosions caused a chain reaction and obscured the view.
'Please!'
Kalian bit his lip and waited for the result.
But the scene revealed after the smoke cleared was despair itself.
"Kueooooo—!"
Mammoth Prime was unscathed.
No, it wasn't just unscathed; it was tickled.
An ancient demonic beast.
The bastard's fur and hide were natural armor possessing magic resistance in themselves.
The flames only slightly singed the outer fur, and the ice chains crumbled futilely as soon as the bastard flinched its muscles once.
"M-Magic doesn't work!"
"The bastard's magic resistance is too high!"
"We need to prepare more powerful magic!"
The wizards screamed and stepped back.
As the bastard stomped its foot as if annoyed, a shockwave covered the wizard formation.
Shields broke, and wizards vomited blood and rolled on the ground.
"Damn it!"
Kalian drew his sword.
There was no choice.
He had to step forward and buy time.
"I will draw its attention! Bent! You lead the knights and strike the bastard's flank!"
"Your Highness! It's dangerous!"
"Then do you intend to let everyone die!"
Kalian spurred his horse and rushed out.
Blue Aura formed on the edge of his sword, Winter Heart.
The Sword Master's Aura Blade.
The strongest sword energy that cut through even rock and steel like tofu.
"Haaaaap!"
Kalian dug into Mammoth Prime's embrace.
The bastard's massive tusk swung aiming for him.
Instant death even if grazed.
Kalian dodged the tusk with superhuman reflexes and swung his sword aiming for the bastard's front leg joint.
Clang—!
A metallic sound rang out.
It wasn't the sound of cutting flesh.
It was like the sound of steel hitting steel.
"Kuk?!"
Recoil enough to numb the wrist.
The Aura Blade did dig into the bastard's thick hide.
But that was all.
It pierced the hide and touched the muscle layer, but the bastard's muscles were tough and hard truly like rubber.
The sword stopped before it could even reach the bone.
'Shallow!'
To a monster with a 30-meter bulk, a 5-centimeter deep stab wound couldn't even be counted as an injury.
In human terms, it was about the stinging of being pricked slightly by a needle.
Just that much.
Kalian shuddered at the fact that his full-power strike was merely a needle to the bastard.
Like this, the knights' flank attack was also meaningless!
"Kueong?"
Mammoth Prime lowered its head and looked down at Kalian beneath its feet.
There wasn't even anger in those eyes.
Just indifference as if looking at an annoying bug.
The bastard lifted its front foot.
"Your Highness! Dodge!"
The screams of the knights were heard.
Kalian hurriedly jumped off the horse and threw his body.
Kwaaaaang!
The bastard's foot trampled the spot where Kalian had been.
An earthquake occurred.
Swept away by the shockwave, Kalian rolled dozens of meters and crashed into a rock.
"Cough!"
Fresh blood burst from his mouth.
It was pain as if his internal organs were twisting even though it wasn't a direct hit.
Lifting his head in the dust, Kalian saw.
That the famous horse he was riding was crushed without a trace and turned into blood water.
"Monster…."
It was not a living creature.
A walking calamity.
Overwhelming violence itself forged by nature.
Ordinary soldiers' spears and swords couldn't even pierce the bastard's fur, magic was merely fireworks, and even a Sword Master's sword was just a needle that hurt a bit if pricked.
Boom—!
"Not yet! There is still a way!"
Kalian shouted with a blood-boiling voice.
If physical strikes didn't work, there was magic.
High-level magic prepared by the Northern Wizard Corps.
To make that hit, someone had to bind the bastard's feet.
"I will draw its attention! Shoot the magic when ready!"
Kalian jumped into the bastard's embrace once again.
The massive tusk swung as if to crush him, but he rolled and barely dodged.
The fear of death brushed his spine, but he didn't back down and exploded his Aura right in front of the bastard's nose.
Only to buy time for the wizards.
"Now! Everyone, commence attack!"
The Wizard Commander waiting in the rear raised his staff.
It was the moment dozens of elite wizards finished chanting.
They combined their power to unfold a linked magic.
"Hellfire!"
Boom—!
The sky of the North was covered with massive flames.
It wasn't simple magic.
Magic that an 8th-circle Archmage could use was unfolded through the linkage of numerous elite wizards.
An attack far more powerful than a Sword Master's attack was fired toward Mammoth Prime's massive body.
Thus, the flames of hell wrapped around the bastard's entire body.
Rumble!
With a tremendous explosion sound, the bastard's figure was completely trapped within flames and smoke.
The earth screamed and shook.
At that overwhelming firepower, the knights swallowed dry saliva.
"D-Did we get it?"
"With that level of firepower, no matter if it's an ancient demonic beast…!"
The knights were all submerged in hope.
Kalian also panted heavily and waited for the smoke to clear.
But it didn't take long for that hope to turn into despair.
Snort—.
What was heard through the thick smoke was not a scream full of pain.
Just the sound of a light sneeze, spat out as if the nose tip was ticklish.
"…Uh, huh?"
The smoke cleared.
And at the revealed sight, everyone on the battlefield froze.
"No… way."
One wizard dropped his staff and slumped down.
Mammoth Prime stood there unscathed.
Scorch marks from flames? None.
"There isn't… a single wound?"
Despairing voices burst out.
The bastard's fur and hide were in themselves an absolute barrier nullifying magic.
The all-out offensive poured by the Northern Elite Wizard Corps grinding their souls only gave the bastard the coolness of a winter breeze.
Rather, Kalian's Aura Blade was more threatening to the bastard.
In short, both the wizards and Kalian had done everything in vain.
"Kueooooo!"
Mammoth Prime stomped its front foot heavily as if annoyed and roared.
A shockwave occurred at that simple roar.
Bang—!
"Kueok!"
"Aaaagh!"
The wizards' shields were torn like paper.
Dozens of wizards vomited blood and flew away like fallen leaves.
Overwhelming gap.
There was an innate gap of species there that humans couldn't reach no matter how much they struggled.
'No. We can't win.'
Kalian's pupils shook.
Magic didn't work at all.
His Aura Blade only made minor scratches.
This is not a fight but merely a slaughter.
He had to admit the fact that further resistance was a meaningless dog's death.
"Retreat! Everyone retreat!"
Kalian ordered, shedding tears of blood.
The fight wasn't established.
It was self-evident that if this continued, they couldn't avoid annihilation.
To defeat that monster, at least more than half of the Northern Army had to be sacrificed.
"Kueooooooo!"
Mammoth Prime let out a roar of victory.
Conversely, Kalian tasted bone-deep helplessness.
It was the day the pride of the Guardian of the North was trampled miserably under those massive hooves.