The Price of Ignorance (7)
Hwooooo!
Black mist billowed up from the blood the demon contractors had drawn by slashing their own forearms. There were three of them.
“Draugr! Go!”
“We just need to buy time!”
The only silver lining was that the things they had summoned were Draugr. They were a bit of a hassle to put down, true—but that was only true for me. In front of a priest, they were little more than a candle in the wind.
“Count yourselves honored…… for I shall personally cast you back into Hell.”
Still, I couldn’t just leave everything to the Inquisitor and stand around with my arms folded.
I opened my skill, Survival Instinct, and raced along the path that would take the least damage. The Inquisitor, neither as fast as I was nor nearly as practiced at weaving through skeletons, fell behind in an instant.
“Gretchen must die as well! He has betrayed us!”
Just as I was about to be cut off alone among the skeletons, a familiar voice brushed my ear. It was the one who had spent last night unilaterally acting as if we were close.
“So the temple was in on it after all.”
“……!”
“I should have taken your head back then…… shouldn’t I, you maggot?”
I backhanded a skeleton that reached for me, then rapidly opened and closed the skill window. My last remaining point found its place and granted me new power.
Hwoooooo.
One of the Draugr happened to be closing in on me as well. Perfect timing.
“This time I will sever your neck and console the dead……!”
“My lord, ahead—”
“Ground…… Crash!”
I activated the higher-tier Breaker skill I had just acquired.
Leap into the air, then plunge straight down and drive a mana-wreathed weapon into the earth. Upon impact, a shockwave erupts outward in every direction.
Effect: Consumes 60 mana. Deals 700% damage to the struck target. Enemies caught in the shockwave take 370% damage and are knocked back.
The moment my body left the ground and I slammed the reverse-gripped two-hander into the floor, pitch-black energy swept outward and the earth roared as if it had exploded—or as if a storm had struck.
Thud-thud-thud!
“Demon Knight……!”
Through the flying grit and rising dust I thought I heard the Inquisitor call my name. It wasn’t important.
“Th-that’s Gretchen……!”
“K-kill him!”
“Draugr!”
Instead I simply did what I could do, and what I had to do.
KWAANG!
“……!”
Breaker-line skills had large motions that made chaining attacks difficult, but they didn’t actually carry a stun penalty. Used properly, successive strikes weren’t hard at all.
I yanked the sword free in one motion and brought it down again, cleaving the Draugr cleanly in a single stroke. Hitting the center of the target mark meant a guaranteed critical at minimum. Factoring in the earlier hit, it was probably already dead.
Hwaak!
The dust made it hard to see the Draugr’s mist, though.
I swung the blade to clear a path of wind. Through the gap I saw the fate of the Draugr I had split in half.
It really was dead—the mist sagged limply downward and vanished.
“Destroy evil!”
Just as a brief stillness threatened to settle over the cavern, the Archmage finished the chant he had been preparing behind us and loosed an attack. A white flame edged with gold swallowed the remaining skeletons and the last Draugr.
KWAANG!
At almost the same moment the Inquisitor finished the final one. That ended their preparations.
I bolted forward at once. Facing a tough enemy had its own thrill, but I had no intention of giving them time to summon anything else.
“U-uaaah—!”
“Damn it, abandon control!”
“What? You mad—!”
By the time I reached the magic circle where the ritual was underway, the demon contractors coughed blood and made their choice. It was not the kind of decision I welcomed.
“As if I would allow it!”
The three who tried to stop me couldn’t even slow me down by throwing their bodies in the way, so I ignored them. If I killed the one performing the rite, would the summoning stop? That was how it usually went in comics and novels; games were another matter.
Well, if it was a mandatory sequence, then as long as the summoned thing was something we could handle, we would handle it.
“Come forth, death!”
Seogeok!
“Keok!”
I ignored the three demon contractors charging me and severed the neck of one of the ritual’s principals.
Demon contractors were classified as mages of a sort, so none of them could hinder me. Physically they were too weak; ability-wise, their cast times were too long.
Unfortunately, I was a step too late. Or else this was simply the fixed sequence.
“It’s done, the ritu—”
Flash!
Beneath the pile of corpses that were presumably the captives, a summoning circle drawn in white light vomited a crimson radiance. Suddenly the itching in my right arm grew a little stronger.
Crack, crack—
I must have let my focus slip for a moment because of that itch in my right arm.
BOOM!
In an instant the light’s intensity spiked, and a tremendous physical force smashed into me. My body didn’t just lift—it was flung backward.
“Demon Knight!”
Clang!
Whether it was misfortune or luck that the place I landed was the Inquisitor’s greatshield was hard to say.
My HP plummeted. Whether it was from the impact itself or the Holy Power sheathed around the Inquisitor, I had no time to tell.
Even with pain sensation set low, my back burned.
“You maggot bastards…….”
I slid down the face of the greatshield and planted my feet on the ground. Both chest and back throbbed, which put me in a foul mood.
Still, nothing was seriously broken, so it was bearable.
“My lord, are you all right?”
“Are those eyes of yours just decoration?”
My HP had dropped some, but there were no actual wounds. I fixed my gaze forward.
Like me, the demon contractors had been hurled in every direction and were flopping about. That, at least, was satisfying.
Kyaaaaaa!!
Failing to stop the summon was a little sad, though.
“…So you managed to call it after all.”
“Wh-what is that thing?”
Well, I had still gotten a good dramatic sequence out of it, so I was content. I studied the summoned demon carefully.
It was a dragon-shaped demon without wings, but with fins.
A demon that swims freely through water and snatches humans through wells. Its fangs are said to carry a potent venom.
“It’s a Nucker. Mind the poison in its teeth.”
“…Even without poison, something that size would be bad if it bit you, wouldn’t it?”
The Thief was right. Even on all fours, the summoned Nucker stood roughly three meters from the tips of its claws to the crown of its head.
No wonder the cavern had been designed so large.
“Tch.”
More to the point, as far as I remembered a Nucker was not the kind of mob that appeared this early. Of course it would have been adjusted to the quest’s recommended level, but still…….
“Hah… with that, even the Hero……!”
Meanwhile the one who had been trying to act familiar with me was still alive. That wasn’t a bad thing. I would be the one to take that NPC’s head.
Kyaaaaaak!
“……! It’s coming! Behind me!”
The Nucker spotted us, gaped its jaws wide, and charged.
“…I offer this, so abandon reason and gain power……!”
Kyaak!
On top of that, one of the contractors still sprawled on the ground had muttered something that threw the beast into a frenzy. I couldn’t be certain, but the way its eyes suddenly blazed red and black energy poured off its body made it about 99 percent likely.
“O God, grant me the strength not to yield to evil……! Hyaaah!”
And the Inquisitor, seeing that, deliberately chose a frontal clash. From where I stood it looked like she could have simply stepped aside.
Apparently her stiff personality applied to combat as well.
“Uwaah, is holding this really the right call?!”
The Inquisitor poured an even fiercer radiance into her prayer, and the Thief ducked neatly behind her. The Archmage did the same.
“Gather and build, wall of protection!”
“What are you doing, my lord!”
“You—!”
I had been about to dodge to the side……!
The Thief grabbed me and hauled me in behind the Inquisitor. The timing locked so awkwardly that there was no longer any way to get out.
KWAANG!
Immediately after, a thunderous crash rolled through the cavern as if a mountain were collapsing.
“Th-they’re actually holding it……!”
The barrier the Archmage had raised shattered in a single blow, and the Inquisitor’s shield locked into a fierce contest of strength with the dragon’s head. Neither pierced nor broken, they settled into a pure contest of power.
“Uwaahp!”
After the Inquisitor bellowed a war cry, she stopped being pushed at all. At first the impact had driven her back a little; now she stood bolt upright on both legs and simply absorbed that weight and force.
I still had no intention of joining a party, but she was one hell of a tank.
“Demons…….”
Which meant a damage dealer could hardly stand idle.
The opportunity was perfect. A chance this clean to strike the Nucker’s weak point—its head—didn’t come often.
“All of them deserve to die……!”
Sreung.
I gripped the two-hander firmly in both hands and slipped out from behind the Inquisitor.
In a single step I was at the Nucker’s side as it ground its head against the shield; a twist of the ankle turned my body toward it.
Breaker. Ominous energy condensed along the blade, and the massive sword fell like the edge of a guillotine.
Seogeok!
A fountain of blood erupted into the air.
“……!”
“…So that’s a Demon Knight…….”
Kyaaaaaaak!
I stared at the Nucker whose snout and tongue had been sheared clean off and found myself momentarily speechless.
When hunting a boss or elite, very few gamers expect a successful weak-point hit to instantly destroy the part. Even if they hope for it, they want the damage to accumulate until the destruction triggers; almost no one expects it in one shot. I was one of those people.
So what was this game lacking that it had decided one-shot part destruction was fine?
Goblins were one thing—those were the eternal trash mobs that came out weak no matter the game. But this was a dragon. Even a subspecies was still a dragon.
I was only level 15. This felt a little off.
“What—!”
“In a single exchange……?!”
The demon contractors’ feelings were probably the same as mine, but I couldn’t afford to break character, so I pressed my lips tight and reset my stance.
Even with its snout gone, the Nucker was still alive.
“Huu.”
I exhaled, swallowed slowly, and adjusted my grip on the two-hander as if drawing it back. The preparatory step for striking the next target I had chosen.
“N-no! Stop him!”
With its snout severed the beast had thrown its head upward, so hitting the skull was impossible. A dragon’s weak points, however, were not limited to the head.
The reverse scale. The scale that grew inverted nearest the heart. It was glowing red and impossible to miss.
Most virtual-reality games that featured dragons implemented that weakness.
“S-summon—!”
“Th-there are no more sacrifices!”
“I offer my blood…….”
The enemies thrashing behind the dragon were making a fuss, but at this distance they could never stop me.
“Bind the enemies!”
On top of that the Archmage provided covering fire. I completely dismissed the tightly bound enemies from my attention and took the next step.
I suddenly regretted that learning Ground Crash meant I couldn’t use the thrusting skill—Stinger—right now. I didn’t regret taking Ground Crash itself, but Stinger would have looked spectacular here.
Sssrrrk.
Even as I let the regret slip away and thrust the blade, black energy suddenly streamed from the sword in thick rivulets.
“……?”
Pook!
The instant I registered it, the blade punched through the Nucker’s heart. There was no chance to check again.
“Aigoo, my lord. Your back’s wide open!”
Yet the image was too vivid in my memory to dismiss as a hallucination.
Just before that doubt could pull me under, someone brushed past my side and slipped behind me. The thought shattered in less than a tenth of a second.
Pakak!
I twisted my head on reflex and saw the Thief’s hood and a scattering of bone fragments. Probably a skeleton one of the demon contractors had squeezed out the last of their strength to call.
“…Well, someone who can cut down a dragon in a single stroke doesn’t seem likely to fall to a skeleton.”
No, this was just the dragon being set weak. From an NPC’s point of view it would naturally look impressive, though.
Ssuuk.
I barely shoved aside the questions that had begun to flood my mind and pulled the sword free. Shattered reverse-scale fragments flew in every direction, and blood sprayed from the end of the pierced flesh.
My face and body were soaked in dragon blood.
Kung!
Having its snout cut off and its heart pierced must have been a direct hit; the Nucker collapsed. Knowing it was a high-tier mob, I found the ending a little unsatisfying.
Realistically, those wounds should kill it…… but thinking that a level-15 character had dropped it with two attacks felt somehow…….
“Gretcheeen!”
Suddenly a name that was neither my nickname nor my real name—but which I knew referred to me—filled the entire cavern. It was the one who had been acting friendly.
“You truly, truly betrayed—!”
What is he even saying. I wiped the blood streaming down my face with the back of my hand—it barely helped—and stared at the howling NPC. The lower half of his face visible under the hood was likewise soaked in blood, and his body was tightly bound by the Archmage’s binding.
It was the perfect posture for taking a head.
“That lying mouth of his……!”
The Inquisitor wore a face of pure rage; I, by contrast, put on an expression of ice. That did not mean I was not angry, of course.
“How could you, against the king……!”
“Yes. You’re still left…….”
The blank face a moment ago had only been the prelude to a trembling corner of the mouth and rolling eyes!
“Keep talking. I’m curious myself how much of my wrath you can bear.”
“……!”
I gave the two-hander a sharp shake. Blood spattered across the cavern floor, and a chilling gleam began to run along the blade once more.
“What, nothing more to say?”
One step, then another. Neither fast nor slow.
My opponent, still wearing his hood, twisted his head and averted his eyes. Even so, he could not stop me from drawing closer.
“Demon Knight.”
The Archmage called out to me.
“Do you mean to interfere again?”
I asked with a savage twist of my mouth. The Archmage gave a slight shake of his head.
“Kill him as cleanly as you can. We will need evidence to present to the temple, after all.”
In other words, he would not try to stop me this time.
“Hmph.”
With a snort of breath my two-hander rose into the air.