Chapter 31
Ibrahmut muttered to himself for a long while in a language no one could understand, then thrust both hands forward and shouted, “Burn.”
The world brightened.
It felt as though the temperature was rising. No, not just felt as though it were rising, but actually was rising.
Starting from the place where Yoon Sang-hyuk stood, the surroundings began to tint red. Crimson flames swallowed the drakes. Sensing that something was terribly wrong, the drakes let out shrill, piercing screams.
But by then, it was already too late.
“Not bad.”
“Hahaha, I’ve prepared the battlefield for you, so now you can let loose to your heart’s content, hyung-nim.”
“Let loose? Hey, idiot. What am I, a colt? A calf? What do you mean, let loose?”
Even as he scolded him, Yoon Sang-hyuk was smiling.
Within the red-tinged area, a hemispherical wall of flame had risen. Heat shimmered there, flames that looked ready to scorch flesh at any moment. It was a barrier of fire forged by none other than Ibrahmut, the first Balrog and Lord of Flames. A fierce heat now flooded the battlefield.
Rustle- whoosh-
The drakes beat their wings, trying to get away from the wall of flame. But above the barrier, black-red sparks like molten lava dripped down one by one. Wherever those sparks struck the ground, the earth melted in an instant.
Some of the sparks landed on the drakes themselves. They flailed wildly, beating their wings in agony as they screamed. On closer inspection, the hide where the sparks had struck was slowly melting away.
“Heh, you’ve got some skill.”
Ibrahmut shrugged with a grin.
Yoon Sang-hyuk returned Song of Doom to his subspace storage and drew another sword.
“Today, I’ll use this one for you.”
What he held in his hand was the chain sword Ibrahmut had personally forged and gifted him not long ago. It wasn’t often used, but whenever he had time, Yoon Sang-hyuk had been practicing with it little by little. He was specialized in every kind of combat technique, and since he had used similar weapons before, he had grown accustomed to it without much trouble.
“Oho- at last, my masterpiece is making its debut.”
At that moment, the drakes shrieked in unison and lunged forward like creatures possessed. Ibrahmut stepped back, and Yoon Sang-hyuk and Valender von Graus moved to the front.
“I’m counting on you.”
He closed the distance with the drakes. They were coming fast. Raising Ibrahmut’s chain sword, Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered under his breath and imposed his will on the blade.
“Stretch.”
Clatter-
The blade broke into countless pieces and shot forward. The chain sword, now stretched to dozens of meters, wrapped around the drake at the very front.
Creek- screech-
The chain sword’s razor edge bit into the drake’s hide.
“Rend it apart.”
He yanked back hard on the chain sword wrapped around the drake’s body. Fueled by a tremendous surge of force, the sword literally shredded the drake into pieces.
“Not bad!”
Better than expected. Yoon Sang-hyuk lashed out again, wrapping the chain around another drake. This time, instead of slicing it apart, he swung the sword in a wide arc through the air and smashed the surrounding drakes with it.
Bang- thwack-
It felt like swinging a massive weight tied to a rope. The drakes collided with one another, and several were knocked to the ground. As if he had been waiting for this, Valender von Graus surged toward the drakes that had crashed to earth. The first thing Valender von Graus did was rip their wing membranes to shreds.
When fighting someone, Valender von Graus knew very well that the most important thing was to strip the enemy of mobility. Especially when facing winged foes, if the opportunity arose, one had to make sure they could never take to the air again.
Kyaaaaaaak-
Some of the unlucky drakes were also struck by the sparks falling from Ibrahmut’s barrier, hit in the wings and sent tumbling to the ground.
Clatter-clatter-clatter-
He yanked back on the drake he had been using like a flail. The drake shot toward Yoon Sang-hyuk at high speed. He shortened the chain sword once more and poured his energy into it. The aura blade that burst up through the sword’s edge cleanly split the drake in two as it flailed desperately, trying to twist away.
“The hide’s toughness really isn’t in the same league as those puppets. Those things were absurdly durable.”
It made sense, since they had been made from Zigritria’s scales and bones. Then were the drakes weaker than the puppets? No. The drakes had intelligence. More than that, they also had a leader to command them.
The only reason they were being unable to respond properly was that Ibrahmut had isolated the space with his barrier before they could mount a real fight.
And now, their leader had only just begun to control his subordinates.
The drakes, which had been diving in without discipline, scattered in all directions at the leader’s long cry. They hovered in the air at regular intervals, waiting for their next command.
The leader drake’s cry rang out again.
Kroarararara-
With it came dozens of streaks of breath.
Black breaths, charged with the attribute of darkness, poured toward Yoon Sang-hyuk and Valender von Graus. Valender von Graus hurriedly stepped in front of Yoon Sang-hyuk.
It was the posture of someone willing to sacrifice himself for a friend. But the expression on Yoon Sang-hyuk’s face, with Valender von Graus standing before him like a shield, was anything but solemn.
“Time for a little nourishment.”
The moment the words left Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth, Valender von Graus’s sword swept through the surrounding space so fast it couldn’t be tracked by the eye. Each time the blade cut through the air, space itself was severed.
Cut, and cut, and cut again. As the space kept being sliced apart, an intense suction formed in the area affected by Valender von Graus’s sword.
And into that space, dozens of black breaths poured down. The dozens of breaths gathered as one and became even larger. Visually, it was the most overwhelming breath attack Yoon Sang-hyuk had ever seen. It seemed as though it might sweep both him and Valender von Graus away on the spot.
But...
The enlarged breath of darkness vanished without a trace right in front of Valender von Graus. More precisely, it was being swallowed into the vacuum he had created. Like a black hole devouring everything, the void greedily consumed the dark breath.
As the space widened, the surrounding area began to warp. That was the exact moment Valender von Graus’s sword slowly began to move.
From top to bottom.
It was an extremely simple motion. Yet the result of that simple, slow movement was astonishing. More than ten drakes came crashing down to the ground.
“He really is amazing.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk tapped Valender von Graus on the shoulder guard and sprinted forward. With this exchange, the drake leader would no longer be able to use the same style of attack again. He would surely feel it too: after that breath attack, Valender von Graus’s energy had become even more formidable.
Yoon Sang-hyuk pulled the Wings of the Sky out of his subspace for the first time in a while. Pure white wings of light burst from his back. Flying freely, he plunged between the drakes.
He could feel their confusion at his unexpected movement. Ibrahmut’s chain sword, held in Yoon Sang-hyuk’s hand, kept stretching and shortening in rapid succession, harassing the drakes without mercy.
Thunk- thunk-
The number of drakes falling to the ground kept increasing. Valender von Graus, kind enough to leave them alive, only inflicted wounds severe enough to keep them from moving.
He was generously handing over the finishing blows to Yoon Sang-hyuk.
Kroarararara-
Only after more than half of the drakes had crashed to the ground did the leader finally step forward. Behind him, double-headed drakes followed like escorts.
The drakes that had been surrounding Yoon Sang-hyuk and attacking him all withdrew at once.
- Human.
“Oh? You can talk? So you’re a spirit beast, then. Maybe if I cut you open, there’ll be an inner core inside.”
- How dare you oppose Lord Zigritria’s wrath?
“I don’t think that’s any of your concern.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk lifted the hand not holding his sword and crooked a finger.
“You just need to come down here and become my experience points.”
He didn’t understand the meaning of the words, but he seemed to understand enough to catch the sneering mockery in the tone.
The leader’s aura changed.
Beating both pairs of wings, he slowly descended and planted his feet on the ground.
“Hoh.”
Energy rippled, and the leader transformed into a human form.
“That one has already surpassed the limits of his species,” came Ibrahmut’s voice from behind.
“You don’t have to explain it to me. My eyes aren’t for decoration.”
Yoon Sang-hyuk was smiling.
When he had taken the form of a drake, the leader had exuded a savage aura, a rampant embodiment of beastliness and madness. But now that he wore a human shape, his power felt refined and concentrated. In this form, he radiated even stronger energy than in his true body.
“You... interesting one.”
In the air behind the leader, the double-headed drakes that had been flapping their wings became shrouded in darkness. Their forms disappeared, and a moment later several grotesque beings lined up behind the leader.
They were not fully human. Their mouths had been ripped wide to the left and right, revealing rows of sharp teeth. Their noses were blunt, their eyes slanted unnaturally. Sharp bones jutted from their shoulders, and their arms were grotesquely long, dragging almost to the ground. They had bent backs and abnormally thick thighs.
Even compared with the beings Yoon Sang-hyuk had seen in the Demon Realm, there was nothing remotely normal about them. They seemed to have gathered a fair amount of dark energy, but compared with their leader, it was still nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
Even so, the double-headed drakes that had finished transforming also carried an aura far stronger than before, just like their leader.
Normally, the opposite would be true. If you looked only at dragons, it was easy to understand. They would polymorph into human form, but when a crisis arose or it was time for a serious fight, they would manifest their true bodies. Yet those strange drakes were stronger in human form than in their original state.
“Anyway, we should finish what we were just doing.”
Clatter-clatter-clatter-
Growl-
Ibrahmut’s chain sword stretched out in one clean line. Shooting straight forward, it pierced a drake that had been wounded and collapsed, writhing in agony, then snapped back into a shorter form.
The leader’s eyebrow twitched, just barely.
The moment Yoon Sang-hyuk killed the drake, the leader and his subordinates moved.
Looking at the drakes surrounding him, Yoon Sang-hyuk gave a deep smile. They really were unusual in many ways. He had thought the leader wouldn’t care at all even if a drake was killed.
But the bastard had reacted.
The provocation had worked.
“Since you’re so unusual, I hope you’ll give me plenty of entertainment.”