It Can Become Anything
CRRRK. CRRRK.
No sooner had Garon finished speaking than dozens of chunks of flesh began clumping together from the pile of corpses. They twisted and wrenched themselves into shape, and at last they took Isra's form.
"It hurts... it huuurts!!! I said it huuuuurts!!!!!!"
Garon's resurrection spell had been remarkably effective.
"Y-you... because of you I wasted... I wasted my sacrifices, damn yooooou!!"
Ah. So that was it.
She was using the corpses to forge weapons and regenerate her body. Which meant that as long as that pile of bodies remained, she would keep coming back. So should I set the corpses on fire? How, exactly? I had a lighter in the Subspace Bag, sure, but lighting that entire heap was practically impossible. I really should've brought a jerry can of gasoline.
CRASH!
In that instant, cracks spiderwebbed across the barrier enclosing the area, and it shattered like glass. She'd probably burned through so much blood restoring her body that she couldn't maintain it anymore.
"GRAAAAAAH!! I'll never forgive yooooou!!!"
Isra fashioned a weapon from the corpses once more. This time, a whip — a viciously constructed thing, bristling with razor-sharp blades.
I pulled a spare sword from the Subspace Bag.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Every time the whip struck Garon's barrier, it sounded like a bomb going off.
"GRAAAAGH!!"
Garon was holding on, letting out a groan so high-pitched it was downright girlish, but the barrier was clearly about to give.
"Ghk!"
Naturally the whip came flying at me too, and I managed to dodge it somehow. But with a whip's erratic trajectory, even a clean dodge left it scraping across my body, carving a trail of shallow cuts. The constant evasion and the bleeding had my breath catching in my throat.
"Hah. Hah."
The moment I tried to catch my breath—
WHOOSH!!
Isra formed a spear from a corpse and hurled it at me.
I don't think I can block this...
There was no angle to stop it with a single sword. Even if I somehow managed, the blade would shatter for sure — and I was out of spares. Dodging wasn't an option either. The instant I moved, that whip would catch me.
That barrier they used with the Guardian skill. If I could use something like that, I might be able to block it somehow.
The moment I pictured the shape of a barrier—
Barrier Form
HUMMM—!!
A translucent yellow film wrapped around my blade.
And then—
KABOOM!!!
"Ghk!"
The massive impact sent me sliding backward, but I'd blocked it. Something similar to the barrier Kiki had used to protect Celine had appeared on my sword. It was smaller, and yellow instead of blue, but the structure itself looked the same.
Primordial Power can do this too — not just lightning?
I didn't have the luxury of thinking about it right now. Whether from deploying that barrier or not, I could feel my mana hitting rock bottom.
Crack... crack...
The lightning wreathing my body weakened. At the same time, the euphoria that had filled my head drained away, and my mind snapped clear as if a fog had lifted. I couldn't even remember what I'd been saying up until now. My memories were full of gaps. Thankfully, I still remembered the entire fight.
"H-hey, you all right?"
"Hah... hah... I'm fine. I've still got a little left in the tank."
"Huh? Your way of talking changed again...?"
Crushing fatigue washed over me. I probably only had a few more uses of Primordial Power left.
"KYAHAHAHAHA!! Tired, are you?! You're tired, aren't you? Huh? It's drying up! Your blood is drying uuuuup!!"
The remaining corpses piled behind Isra numbered about a hundred.
If I can just find another opening, I can try something...
But a demon was a demon — she wasn't falling for the same tactic twice. Even with Garon and me splitting the aggro, that demon bitch kept pouring on attacks without a single gap.
Hah... maybe I shouldn't have sent Aria and Kiki away...?
No. If they'd stayed, those two would've been in real danger. I'd come to fight because Primordial Power had turned me into a lunatic. I couldn't put the people I cared about in danger just because of my own greed.
No choice. I'll just have to throw myself at her somehow.
If I wrung every last drop of Primordial Power out of myself and went in, maybe something would work. Even if I took a beating and lost a limb, that seemed like the only option left.
That was what I was thinking when—
CRACKLE-CRACKLE-CRACKLE!!
"KYAAAAAAAH!!!"
A bolt of blue lightning magic struck Isra, and the demon bitch started convulsing like she'd been electrocuted.
"What?! Whaaaaat!!!"
FWIING—
THUNK!!
"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
An arrow followed from the same direction, burying itself in Isra's eyeball.
"Minwoo! Are you okay?!"
A very familiar, beautiful voice. I turned toward where the magic and the arrow had come from, and familiar faces appeared between the buildings. Aria, Lin, and Kiki. And from behind a collapsed wall nearby, Vargo and Celine burst out.
"Boss! We couldn't just leave you behind after all!!"
"I told you to run! Why did you come back!!"
Garon shouted, his face a mask of disbelief. Hot tears had welled in his eyes.
"Y-you bastards!! I'll never forgive you!! I'll never forgive yooooou!!"
Isra ripped the arrow from her eye in a rage, then stretched a hand toward Aria's group.
"Kyaa! Unnie! Hide! Hurry!!"
"Keruk! Keruk!"
KABOOM!!!
The blood weapons Isra launched slammed into the surrounding buildings, which began collapsing in a cascade of rubble.
Are they okay...?
But I didn't have time to worry. I was already charging at Isra.
CRACK!! CRACK!!!
I wrenched Primordial Power up to its maximum once more. And once I'd gotten behind the demon—
SLICE—
I took Isra's head off once again. But this time, I didn't stop.
SLICE! SLICE!
I cut off an arm. I cut off a leg. The corpses behind her began rapidly fusing into her body.
SLICE! SLICE! SLICE!
So I kept cutting.
Until those corpses are all gone, I just have to keep cutting.
A simple, brutish method. But a sure one. With every cut, the corpse pile shrank rapidly.
"KYAAAAAH!! Stop! Stooooop!!"
I cleaved her waist in two, split her skull, and severed her limbs. It was so exhausting I thought I might lose consciousness. My arms didn't even feel like my own anymore.
Even so, I cut.
I cut.
I cut.
And then, at some point—
KABOOOOOM!!!!
I didn't even feel like I'd been hit by anything. There was just an explosion, and my body went flying backward and slammed into the ground.
EEEEEE—
"Ghk."
Pain like my entire body was being smashed to pieces. The agony was so intense I couldn't even scream.
And then—
"Hah!"
Fzzzzzt...
The mana I'd been wringing out of myself ran completely dry, and Primordial Power snuffed out entirely.
Th-this is bad.
There were still a lot of corpses left. I couldn't stop here...
But where Isra had been—
"Isra. What are you doing here?"
"H-hiiik! M-Master!!"
The man Isra called Master. Long black hair, and skin so pale it was almost ghostly. He looked well over six and a half feet tall.
"I summoned you some time ago. Why do you remain?"
"I-I'm sorry, Lord Sian. Something came up..."
Hearing Isra's words, the one called Sian looked this way.
"Playing with those insects, were you?"
"Th-there was a slight problem..."
"Surely you do not mean to tell me you struggled against the likes of them."
"J-just a little more time... h-hiiik!!"
Sian's eyes glowed red. At the same time, crimson mana began to surge violently from his entire body. It was as if the space itself had been dyed red, squeezing the air from my lungs.
And the moment I saw it, I understood instinctively.
No. There is absolutely no way I can beat that thing.
Was this how a rabbit felt standing before a tiger?
But I had to get up. At the very least, I had to buy Aria and Kiki enough time to run.
I was barely managing to push myself up when my eyes met Sian's.
GRAB—!
Out of nowhere, he seized Isra by the throat.
"Ghk! M-Master..."
"We return."
WHOOOOOOSH—
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a storm of crimson mana began to swirl.
FLASH!
And they vanished.
"D-did we survive? What the hell was that guy... Minwoo, are you all right?"
"Hoo... hoo..."
THUNK!
I jammed my sword into the ground and leaned on it, but I could feel the strength draining from my entire body.
Aria and Kiki...?
The surrounding buildings had collapsed. Did they make it out? If they got hit by debris, they'd be in serious trouble. I looked toward where they'd been. The dust from the collapsed buildings was settling.
HUM— HUM—
Kiki, holding a tower shield high. And a blue barrier was in place around him.
"Kiki really is amazing."
Thud.
I lost consciousness and collapsed on the spot.
First to repel a Demonkin. Reward issued.
├─ Trait:Wanderers are not bound to a single world. ✓
└─ Enhancement:Skill has been strengthened. ★
Ugh, that hurts...
My whole body ached. With the adrenaline from the fight gone, the wounds from that demon bitch's whip started making themselves vividly known.
Hah... this fight was seriously too much.
I'd felt it since the tutorial, but every single mission was no joke.
How long can I keep scraping by like this...
Especially that Sian guy who showed up at the end... The fact that I'd made it back alive this time was a miracle in itself. On top of that, today's fight had driven my weaknesses home with brutal clarity. Primordial Power was definitely strong, but the more I cranked up the output, the worse the mana efficiency got. It was a premature-ejaculation skill, through and through.
Aigoo, I should get up and disinfect these wounds...
That was what I was thinking as I opened my eyes.
"Huh?"
An unfamiliar ceiling. This definitely wasn't my room. And a soft, squishy pillow under my head. Was this even my pillow? It smelled really nice.
Instinctively, I buried my face in the pillow and sniffed.
"M-Minwoo... that tickles..."
"Huh?"
I turned my head and found Aria giving me a lap pillow.
"W-what?!"
