A Display of Elegance and a New Battlefield Reward
Crrraaack!
The Elikro split cleanly in two. Its white bones snapped apart and toppled left and right.
“Guuuuurgh.”
The Armed Zombie Warrior bellowed as it swung. Every arc of its axe claimed another kill.
Crrack!
An Elikro crumpled. No exceptions.
Shhlick!
Crrack!
Crrraaack!
The two undead carved through the Elikro like they were racing each other. With their numbers up, the ground they could cover widened, and the hulking Armed Zombie Warrior pulled every scrap of aggro that would have gone to me. Sir Isra no longer had to watch her back; she simply swung.
“Minion. That will not do.”
“Guuh?”
“There is no dignity in your fighting!”
“Guuuurgh.”
Sir… please stop. Watching this is going to make me cry.
Sir Isra’s combat looked like a dance. She pressed with pure agility, slipped past enemy strength with effortless ease, and even parried by striking the perfect point at the perfect instant. Her raw specs sat only a little above E-class. In a pure contest of power she would not have lasted five seconds against an Elikro. Technique alone closed the gap completely.
“Guuuuurgh! Split!”
The Armed Zombie Warrior was the opposite. Straight-line charges. Elikro of similar bulk were cleaved in a single blow. That did not mean it fought on brute force alone.
Crrraaack!
Having just taken an Elikro’s head, the Armed Zombie Warrior kept its momentum and twisted further. The Elikro charging from the side offered its body to the axe blade and collapsed with a wet gurgle once the edge bit more than halfway through.
“Never thought I’d be glad for the Necrosmith class.”
My minions shared the benefits of Heavenly Martial Body. Back when I had been a cursed klutz the Necrosmith abilities had been nothing but a source of endless resentment; once I obtained Heavenly Martial Body, their combat power soared.
“Look at that, will you.”
Kang!
Even the Elikro’s razor claws and fangs could not pierce armor forged from the dense bones of an Owlbeast.
“Why allow hits you need not take?”
“Probably because scratches are all they can manage.”
“It lacks dignity!”
Teacher… you already said that exact line a minute ago. Why the sudden rivalry?
“Sir Isra. Want me to remodel you like that?”
“I refuse.”
“Boosting your defense would make things a lot easier.”
“It does not suit my way of fighting.”
Then maybe stop trying to outdo the Armed Zombie Warrior?
“Kraaaarak!”
“Silence!”
I no longer knew who the real monster was.
Barely into the swamp, the Armed Zombie Warrior had already pushed deep inside, butchering every Elikro it laid eyes on. The fighting itself was so swift that walking and collecting mana stones took more effort.
Squelch!
“Ugh. Gross.”
“This swamp was your choice, Sir. Endure it with sheer spite.”
Damn it.
“Guuurgh. Master. I’ll carry you.”
Get piggybacked by the guy who just took an Elikro-fluid shower? I’ll politely decline.
“At this rate we might finish the whole gate in a day.”
“Was that not your intent?”
Huh?
I only came to check how well the new undead fought. Solo-clearing a ten-man gate had never been the plan.
“Dream larger.”
“Do I really need ambition just to clear a gate?”
“Any who would be lord to me, Isra, must do no less.”
Fine. Since you put it that way… let’s see this through to the end.
Deeper in the swamp stood a three-meter Elikro whose body was a canvas of scars and tattoos.
“Whoa. Ugly mug.”
Real impressionist material.
“Scars are a warrior’s medals.”
“Then the Armed Zombie Warrior is a great warrior too, right?”
“Hmph. Those are unnecessary wounds; I cannot acknowledge them.”
Society has agreed to call that particular double standard “do as I say, not as I do.”
“Kraaaaarak!”
All stats reduced by 10%
Fear Lv. 8 applied
Judgment clouded by terror
……
Resists bodily interference
Fear lifted
It startled me for a second—then the chill melted away like spring snow. Heavenly Martial Body… is there anything you can’t do?
“Those tattoos don’t look decorative.”
Spirit Eye showed mana circulating in steady patterns around each mark. Some kind of buff effect.
“Correct. A form of shamanism that grants elemental resistance.”
“Elemental means magic defense, then.”
Elikro already had low magic resistance as a racial weakness. Painting itself in magic-defense tattoos like that covered the weak point completely. Ruthless. They had come prepared to screw over every hunter who entered.
“We, however, are unaffected.”
Sir Isra let out a bright laugh.
“Guuuuurgh.”
“Give the order.”
No need for ceremony.
“Kill it.”
“Yes. My Lord.”
“Guuuuurgh. Kill.”
The Armed Zombie Warrior charged head-on. Sir Isra slipped sideways into a flanking path.
“Kraaarak. I see you.”
The Elikro Gladiator flicked its gaze and leveled its greatsword. Squelch! Squelch! It ran as though the swamp were solid ground, cutting off Sir Isra’s angle with vicious intent. In a heartbeat the two giants closed the distance.
The Armed Zombie Warrior heaved its axe back and swung with everything it had.
Ulcydian Axe Arts
The Elikro Gladiator brought its raised greatsword down in answer.
KRAAANG!
Metal screamed against metal. The Armed Zombie Warrior staggered two steps back, grinding its teeth.
“Guuurgh.”
Surviving a frontal clash with the boss was already impressive. Sir Isra was returning, but the distance still gaped.
“Kraaarak!”
The greatsword fell on a diagonal, shattering bone armor and burying itself in the shoulder.
Even better. The Armed Zombie Warrior was absurdly tough. Beyond the armor’s defensive boost, its reinforced spirit circuits had raised every overall stat.
“Guuuuurgh!!”
A dangling shoulder and a shattered heart meant nothing. Undead never fell to wounds like that.
You just made a mistake.
“You should have gone for the head.”
One hand clamped the sword; the other lunged for the Elikro Gladiator’s throat.
“Kraarak!”
It released one hand and intercepted the axe’s path. The blade sank deep—yet without full power behind it, the same axe that had been bisecting lesser Elikro only cut halfway through the forearm.
The Armed Zombie Warrior simply let go. Thud—the axe dropped into the muck.
“Well done, minion!”
Imperial Sword Style – Modified Isra Form
5th Form — Flash Thrust
In that instant I saw it: the root power of the undead. Spirit energy flowed heart → thigh → foot, then erupted like a breaking dam. Sir Isra launched forward like a bullet.
I remembered. The first time we met, when she punched through the goblin encirclement—it had been exactly this. Heavenly Martial Body let me grasp the mechanism a little better.
Flash!
Like sunlight flooding a room the second you open the shutters—by the time I registered the motion she had already cut through and was past.
Splash—a massive arm dropped into the swamp.
“Kraaaaarak!”
The Elikro Gladiator screamed, one arm gone. To re-cut the exact spot already half-severed by the axe in a single heartbeat… that was why they called her the continent’s greatest sword.
“Guuuuurgh. You. Don’t pass.”
The Armed Zombie Warrior drove its body even deeper onto the greatsword. One arm already lost; lose the weapon too and victory vanished. Yet clinging to the blade with only one remaining arm left it unable to throw the zombie off.
Man. If I were in its place I’d be dying inside.
Shhlick! Slice!
The Armed Zombie Warrior held it fast. Sir Isra cut. The one-armed Elikro Gladiator found no answer in the two-choice death trap.
“This ends it.”
The bone blade punched through ragged scales, traced the already-ruined wound once more, and buried itself in the heart.
D-class Gate – Deep Swamp has been cleared.
Grade – SSS
Reward: 100 D-class mana stones granted.
After dropping the Elikro Gladiator we swept up every reward and stepped through the exit wormhole.
Whoosh!
The moment my foot touched the blue sphere the scenery flipped.
“You made it out safely!”
“I can see why this gate is unpopular.”
“Still, returning without a scratch against Elikro is a relief.”
The Rift Bureau clerk spoke with clear relief. Earlier he’d been fretting whether I would even go in.
“You’ll come again, right?”
“I don’t think so.”
The gate was already cleared. I had zero desire to wade through that swamp a second time, and even if I did, it was no longer possible. I was about to explain that we had killed the boss when the clerk barreled on without giving me room.
“Sir, if you just watch out for the boss this place is actually pretty decent.”
The boss monster, the Elikro Gladiator, was a tough opponent even for a full five-man team, he insisted, but Elikro dropped mana stones at a high rate so the spot was good—he pitched it several times.
Hmm. That strong, huh?
The clerk was practically begging with tears in his eyes. Time to explain properly why I would never return.
“Boss raid’s finished.”
“What?”
“Elikro Gladiator. Killed it five minutes ago.”
The gate will close soon, you know? I glanced back and pointed with my eyes. The blue wormhole had already shrunk considerably. The clerk’s head whipped back and forth.
“W-wait a second!”
He scanned the dwindling wormhole with the mana-distribution device.
“S-S-SSS-rank clear?!”
Eyes bulging so hard they looked ready to pop.
“A long-unconquered gate, how in the world…!”
Ahh. So that was why he had given me the long lecture on the way in and out. Well, already cleared—not my problem anymore.
“Good work.”
I left the dazed clerk behind and headed home, retracing the path to my basement apartment.
Creeeak—
I opened the cellar door, flicked on the light, and set to inventorying the haul from this gate run.
Elikro – 47 D-class mana stones.
Elikro Gladiator – Guillotine skill book.
Gate-clear reward – 100 D-class mana stones.
“More stones than the Living Armor run, at least.”
“I decline any return visit to that swamp.”
“Couldn’t go back even if I wanted to.”
Stop making me repeat myself.
Total mana stones: 147. Sell them all and I’d walk away with roughly eighty million won. Heh. A day that nets nearly a hundred million in pure daily wages. Thrashing around in that swamp must have been harder than I thought—otherwise my eyes wouldn’t be sweating.
Heh heh heh.
“Are you weeping?”
“What are you talking about. Sweat. It’s sweat.”
“Hahaha. You are definitely crying.”
“I said sweat.”
I laid a finger against my lips. One more word and I’d put her on a vow of silence.
Besides the stones, the Elikro Gladiator had dropped a skill book.
◈ Restriction: Melee-class jobs
◈ Durability: 1/1
◈ Raises the sword high and brings it down in a vertical slash.
◈ Additional damage proportional to Strength.
◈ On living targets: applies Stagger Lv. 25.
“This’ll fetch a decent price.”
Bonus damage plus a stagger effect—every melee hunter wanted a skill like this. Rare grade, too. At minimum I should get five thousand or more.
“It does not look particularly impressive.”
Sir Isra grumbled. Of course nothing would impress the continent’s greatest sword.
Gate-clear rewards fully checked.
“One more remains.”
“It’s not a reward, so I listed it separately.”
Right. What I had gained from the gate was not limited to mana stones and a skill book.
For a Necrosmith, the greatest prize of all: the boss monster’s corpse.
Storage: 2/10 → 1/10
Elikro Gladiator corpse released.
The corpse I had stored in my exclusive skill took form once more.