Chapter 286
Chapter 286
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 286
Chapter Title: Dog and Wolf (11)
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Crackle! Sizzle!
A raging torrent of blue lightning.
The tidal wave of lightning, conducted through six wires, viciously engulfed Kallike’s body.
“Gyaaaaaaaahk!”
In agony, as if his entire body were being torn apart, Kallike’s eyes rolled back and he flopped like a freshly caught fish.
“Wh-who, dares…!”
But only for a moment.
The two black horns on Kallike’s forehead emitted a sinister light, and his rolled-back pupils snapped back into place.
With hands whose fingers shone with colorful nail art, Kallike grabbed the electrified wires.
Fwoosh!
Black flames erupted from his hands, severing the wires.
Freed from the wires, Kallike glared with furious, wide-open eyes at the culprit who had inflicted such excruciating pain upon him.
“Tsk, you look even more fucked up in person.”
A beastkin youth, clicking his tongue and looking down on him—the grand vizier of the Khan Kingdom and its true ‘master’—as if he were looking at a piece of filth.
At the vulgar word, too foul to utter, Kallike’s eyes widened in shock.
“A-are you referring to my face?”
“Who else is here besides you?”
“Eek! To utter such a vulgar word to a beautiful lady…!”
His face contorted, Kallike glared at Oh-jin as if he wanted to tear him to shreds on the spot.
“…What?”
Oh-jin could only stare, wide-eyed in astonishment, at the shocking truth that came from Kallike’s mouth.
“A-a woman? You?”
He was wearing makeup so thick you could call it a mask, but…
The overall contour of his face, his prominent Adam’s apple, and his distinctly masculine frame.
No matter how you looked at it, Kallike had the body of a ‘man’.
“Hmph, is there a problem?”
Kallike crossed his arms and turned his head away with a huff, as if throwing a tantrum.
“Nothing but problems.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“You’re a man, you bastard.”
“Hoho. My body may be that of a man, but my heart is that of a beautiful lady, you see?”
“We have a fucking word for that. It’s ‘man’.”
He hadn’t come all the way to this distant demonic realm to argue about gender identity or the rights of sexual minorities.
Of course, whether on Earth or in the demonic realm, all sexual minorities deserved respect.
“But some bastard who tries to use kids as hostages doesn't deserve any fucking rights.”
Even more repulsive than his unpleasantly thick makeup was the unadorned interior of his mind.
“You… you’re not a beastkin.”
Kallike narrowed his eyes, sizing Oh-jin up and down.
His demeanor, his way of speaking, and his attitude toward him—all of it felt too disconnected from the beastkin he was familiar with.
“So what if I’m not? Does that change anything?”
He had worn the fake black ears and tail only to reduce unnecessary conflict.
In a situation like this, where his enemy was clear, there was no reason to hide the fact that he was human.
‘Is Kallike the only demonkin left?’
Oh-jin activated the Stigma of Canes Venatici and scanned his surroundings.
Besides the two demonkin the Silver Wolfmane tribe had taken down, there were no others in sight.
‘So he sent three here and two to the village.’
If that was the case, then taking down Kallike and Horus should more or less settle things here.
“Riak. You take Horus.”
“…Understood.”
Oh-jin drew Dantalian from his waist.
Shhhk, clack!
Dantalian transformed into a spear, and blue lightning flared around its tip.
“Haaa.”
He took a low breath.
Springing off his slightly bent legs, he shot toward Kallike.
Rumble!
A blue thunderbolt, streaking forward with the sound of thunder.
“You think you can…!”
Kallike swung his hand in Oh-jin’s direction.
A curtain of black flame spread out, blocking Oh-jin’s path.
He felt a dizzying heat, as if his skin were about to burn off, but.
“Poknoe.”
Craaack!
Oh-jin chose to break through head-on.
The lightning gathered at the spear’s tip exploded, creating a crack in the wall of fire.
Enduring the searing heat, he threw himself through the crack.
Kallike’s shoulders flinched.
But only for a moment. As if he had expected this much, he lightly twisted his body to evade the spear tip aimed at his neck.
“Indeed, you have the skills to back up your arrogance.”
Kallike grabbed Dantalian’s shaft as it grazed past his neck and twisted it violently.
The skin on Oh-jin’s palm tore as the spear was sent flying.
Whoosh!
A fist wreathed in black flames swung toward Oh-jin’s philtrum.
He hurriedly raised his arm to block the attack.
“Keuk!”
KABOOM!
With a roar like an exploding cannon shell, the ground beneath Oh-jin’s feet caved in.
The skin on the forearm that blocked Kallike’s fist was grotesquely distorted.
Oh-jin retreated, pulling a potion from his sling bag and pouring it over his forearm.
“The price for hurting a delicate girl’s heart.”
Kallike drew a sword from his waist and aimed it at Oh-jin.
“I’ll take it with your life.”
“What a load of bullshit.”
Hock, ptui.
Spitting a thick wad of phlegm, he tightened his grip on the spear.
[Be careful, my child. He may look like that, but I sense an unusual aura from him.]
“I know.”
It would be one thing if he were just another run-of-the-mill demonkin.
He had never thought that Kallike, who had been the de facto king of the Khan Kingdom for the past hundred years, would be an easy opponent.
“Hup!”
With a short intake of breath, he kicked off the ground.
He reached out toward Dantalian, which had been knocked far away.
As if it had a will of its own, the jet-black spear floated in the air and returned to his hand.
Oh-jin aimed the returning spear’s trajectory at Kallike’s back.
At this rate, it would pierce Kallike’s back on its way back to his hand.
“Such petty tricks.”
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Kallike swung his sword behind him without even looking.
Clang!
Blocked by the sword, the spear was once again sent flying.
“We’ll see about that.”
Oh-jin fired a wire at the distant spear.
Three strands of wire wrapped around Dantalian.
“I’ll show you what a real petty trick looks like.”
“……!”
Pulled by Dantalian as it flew backward, Oh-jin’s body was launched into the air.
Performing an acrobatic maneuver, he swung his arm while his body was upside down.
The spear, tied to the wire, swung toward Kallike like the log of a battering ram.
KWHAAANG!
Kallike was pushed back by the explosive force contained in the spear.
While still upside down in mid-air, Oh-jin used Lightning Step.
Dropping down rapidly as if bungee jumping, Oh-jin grabbed Kallike’s shoulders.
Crackle!
The blue lightning gathered in his hands surged violently into Kallike’s body.
“Gyaaaaaaaahk!”
While Kallike was disoriented by the flood of lightning, Oh-jin grabbed his horns and pulled with all his might.
He tried to rip out the horns—the source of the demonkin’s power, imbued with the might of the Heavenly Demon—but.
A gloomy black light erupted from the horns in Oh-jin’s grasp, and black flames materialized from all sides, pouring down on him.
[Watch out!]
Vega, who had been hiding in his inner pocket, flew out.
Vega spread her arms wide, creating a barrier of blue lightning as if to protect Oh-jin.
Lightning and flame collided, and a powerful shockwave swept through the area.
“Keuk!”
Caught in the shockwave, Oh-jin’s body was thrown back.
A dizzying pain spread throughout his body.
Clear fluid oozed from his scorched skin.
“Oh? It seems this is your first time fighting a demonkin.”
Kallike’s eyes gleamed as he caressed the black horns on his forehead.
“For demonkin, our horns are the source of the power granted to us by the Heavenly Demon, and also our most powerful weapon, you see?”
So the horns weren’t a weak point.
Oh-jin clicked his tongue and reached for Dantalian.
The wire retracted, and the jet-black spear returned to his hand.
“Now… that’s enough for a warm-up.”
Kallike’s mouth stretched into a wide grin.
The two horns on his forehead radiated a gloomy black light.
His eyes turned completely black, and blue will-o’-wisps ignited within them.
“Shall we begin in earnest?”
BOOM!
Kallike’s figure shot forward at high speed.
Sword strikes rained down from all directions.
He only had one sword, yet the barrage of strikes was split into dozens, as if the blade itself had multiplied.
“Heup!”
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Using the principles of the Pyxis Spearmanship, Oh-jin barely managed to parry the flood of sword strikes.
As the exchange continued, Oh-jin was pushed back one step, then two.
“Hohoho! This is the blessing bestowed upon us by the Heavenly Demon!”
An unpleasant laugh echoed in his ears.
Even as he was being pushed back, Oh-jin let out a smirk.
“Is that so?”
The Heavenly Demon’s blessing, huh.
If Kallike has the Heavenly Demon behind him.
[O star of Lyra, risen high.]
Vega clasped her hands as if in prayer.
[With your radiant starlight, illuminate the darkness that shadows my child’s path.]
I have Vega behind me.
Woooooong!
A brilliant silver light emanated from Vega and seeped into Oh-jin’s body.
An explosive surge of power.
KAAANG!
Parrying the sword, Oh-jin stomped his foot hard and swung his clenched fist.
A fist blazing with blue lightning slammed into Kallike’s solar plexus.
“Keo, heok…!”
His body bent like a bow, Kallike was thrown violently backward.
* * *
Meanwhile, as the battle between Oh-jin and Kallike raged on.
“Grrrrrrrrr!”
A black wolf, sprinting at high speed.
Leaping nimbly, Riak swung his forepaw viciously at Horus.
Scrape!
Horus deflected the attack with the gauntlet on his forearm and threw a heavy punch.
A fist that whistled through the air.
Riak used Lightning Step to spin in mid-air and smack Horus’s cheek with his tail.
It was a tail covered in fluffy fur, but the power it contained was formidable.
Struck by the tail, Horus’s head snapped to the side.
“Heup!”
Horus twisted his body in the direction his head had turned and struck the airborne Riak with a spinning back kick.
Horus’s leg, swung at a dizzying speed, grazed Riak slightly.
WHAM!
Even though it wasn’t a direct hit, Riak’s body was sent flying as if struck by a cannonball.
Riak, landing and absorbing the impact with a roll, let out a dry laugh.
“…Fortunately, my body hasn’t gone stiff.”
He murmured softly and gently lifted a forepaw.
THUD!
With claws sharpened, he kicked off the ground again.
Moving in a dazzling Z-pattern, he swung his forepaw toward the nape of Horus’s neck.
“Grrrwl!”
Horus twisted his body to avoid the claws and rammed Riak with his shoulder.
Just as the powerful shoulder tackle, capable of turning solid rock to dust, was about to hit Riak.
Riak twisted the forepaw that had been aimed at Horus’s neck and brought it down on his shoulder.
It was a technique akin to a martial art, like instantly changing the direction of a full-power punch by ninety degrees.
After striking the shoulder, Riak somersaulted over Horus’s head, aiming for his back.
“You won’t!”
Horus fell forward as if collapsing, planting both hands on the ground.
With both hands on the ground, he kicked backward like a horse, aiming for the spot between Riak’s eyes.
Riak, who had been aiming for his back, clicked his tongue and twisted his body.
Riak precisely placed his hind paw on Horus’s swinging leg.
Like a stone launched from a catapult, Riak’s body fell in a parabolic arc.
Dazzling movements that seemed more like acrobatics than a fight.
“Wh-what…”
Leoru, who was watching their battle, stared with his mouth agape, his face filled with shock.
He had heard from Leo that one of the beastkin traveling with Oh-jin was a formidable warrior.
But he never imagined he would be strong enough to fight on even terms with Horus.
“You are…”
Horus’s voice trembled.
Why was it?
The black wolf’s movements felt somehow familiar.
Yes, like opening an old photo album.
“N-no. It can’t be.”
Horus shook his head, denying the thought that had surfaced in his mind.
‘He’ couldn’t possibly be here now.
Because.
“B-but you died back then…”
Horus looked at the black wolf before him with trembling eyes.
His fur color and appearance were a little different from the ‘him’ in his memory, but.
He knew it instinctively.
He realized it intuitively.
“Riak…?”
That the black wolf before him was the one he had killed with his own hands more than a hundred years ago.
His ‘friend’.
“……”
Riak stared at Horus in silence.
“It’s been a long time, Horus.”
At the familiar voice that echoed softly in his ears, Horus’s eyes shot wide open.