The Main Event Begins
Yoon Sang-hyuk looked at Valender von Graus, who had suddenly stepped in front of him to block the way, and tilted his head in mild surprise.
"Valend?"
"Would you mind if I fought first?"
"No matter how close we are, stealing kills is off-limits. Besides, that thing’s a boss monster."
Yoon Sang-hyuk spoke half in jest, half in earnest.
To be honest, he had never once planned to give up the fight against the drake chieftain, who looked strong enough to be worth the trouble even before considering the experience.
But after hearing Valender von Graus’s next words, he had no choice but to step back.
"If I don’t release the breath of the drakes I just absorbed, it’s going to cause problems."
"Hmm. In that case."
"Don’t worry. Just until those energies are spent."
"Deal!"
Valender von Graus lowered his sword, then slowly raised his head and looked at the drake chieftain.
The battle began.
The first to move was the drake chieftain. Leaving a blur behind him, he surged forward at high speed and drove a fist toward Valender von Graus. It was a fast strike, but the distance was still too great for the punch to land cleanly. Valender von Graus stepped in, preparing to thrust his sword.
Then he swiftly drew it back and raised his guard across the front.
Bang-
The distance was clearly too far for contact. And yet a sharp bone jutted from the tip of the drake chieftain’s fist, lunging at Valender von Graus’s solar plexus like a sword.
The force behind that bone was apparently considerable, because Valender von Graus was driven back several steps.
The drake chieftain closed the distance again. The bone that had risen from his fist was already gone.
Swish- swish-
The drake chieftain’s speed was tremendous. He shook his upper body left and right while throwing punch after punch, and the afterimages hanging in the air seemed to press down on Valender von Graus almost at once.
At the sight of strength even greater than he had expected, a satisfied smile crept over Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth as he watched. He should have been worried about Valender von Graus, but his expression was perfectly relaxed.
That was because Valender von Graus was the drake chieftain’s opponent. Right now, Valender von Graus could probably even fight one of the highest-ranking demon lords under Baal and still win. That was how much stronger he had become after the enlightenment he had gained.
Valender von Graus was dodging all of the drake chieftain’s attacks by a hair’s breadth. The sight was strikingly similar to the way Yoon Sang-hyuk himself moved when he used inch-evading steps.
The bone spikes springing up at random no longer posed any threat to Valender von Graus. Unpredictable attacks were only dangerous when you didn’t know they were coming; once you recognized them, the situation changed completely.
As time passed, Valender von Graus was growing accustomed to the drake chieftain’s speed. It was obvious in the way he had gone from dodging only to beginning to meet the attacks with his sword.
Clatterrrrr-
The drake chieftain was forced back. A wound had split open across his chest. He lowered his head and checked himself, a cold smile touching his lips. The injury healed in an instant.
"He’s going to make the trolls bow and call him elder by the time this is over," Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered.
That was how remarkable the drake chieftain’s healing ability was. Normally, when a monster recovered its wounds quickly, it weakened in proportion to the energy spent on that recovery. But there was no sign of that at all in the drake chieftain. It meant he had healed without expending energy. For an opponent, that was a particularly troublesome trait.
Still, Valender von Graus didn’t seem especially concerned.
Closing the distance to the drake chieftain, Valender von Graus sent his sword cutting out into the air. Unlike the drake chieftain’s attacks, it was an endlessly slow strike. Slow enough to make one wonder who could possibly be hit by such a blade.
Yet the drake chieftain, who had become the sword’s target, could not move an inch. To ordinary eyes, it would be hard to understand why the drake chieftain seemed so paralyzed. But Yoon Sang-hyuk understood it perfectly.
Valender von Graus’s sword was not simply thrusting straight forward. The tip of his blade was moving nonstop, vibrating thousands upon thousands of times every second and forcing the opponent into a pressure that sealed off every path of survival like an illusion. In reality, the drake chieftain was probably feeling that no matter where he dodged, he would not be able to escape the sword. Having fought countless bouts against Valender von Graus, Yoon Sang-hyuk could appreciate exactly what that meant.
"Kraaaah!"
The drake chieftain let out a scream that might have been a battle cry or just a beast’s howl and opened his energy. His entire body was covered in dark, black scales. The moment those hard-looking scales enveloped him, he lunged straight for Valender von Graus’s sword.
"A fellow who understands how to fight properly."
If there was nowhere to escape, then the answer was a head-on clash. The more one struggled to break free from the web Valender von Graus had cast, the tighter it would bind. The only way to overcome the crisis was to cut through the web itself.
Just like the drake chieftain was doing now.
Crack- KABOOM-
The sound of something breaking was followed by a thunderous blast.
Valender von Graus and the drake chieftain were flung apart in opposite directions.
Black energy billowed from all over Valender von Graus’s armor. In the moment of impact, he had been struck by the bones that had burst out from the drake chieftain’s entire body. The bones that had aimed for vital points were blocked and shattered by his sword, but he hadn’t been able to stop them all.
"Hoo."
The black energies were sucked back into Valender von Graus’s helm. The shattered armor slowly restored itself. It was much the same as the drake chieftain healing his own injuries.
"You’re becoming a monster more and more by the minute," Yoon Sang-hyuk muttered in awe. His gaze turned to the drake chieftain on the opposite side.
If Valender von Graus had taken serious damage, then the drake chieftain had taken a fatal wound. One arm was more than half severed and hanging uselessly, and the leg on the other side had been cut off below the knee. A hole large enough for two human fists to pass through at once had been blown clean through his abdomen. On top of that, his whole body was covered with wounds great and small.
That was how a moth would look after tearing itself free of a spider web. Even if it succeeded in snapping the web and escaping, the organs entangled in it would be torn apart as well. The moment it won freedom from the web, it would gain death along with it.
"Oh? So you’re not just a moth, huh?"
Crack, crack-
Bone erupted from the severed end of the cut leg. Tendons attached themselves to the bone, and blood vessels wrapped around it as though it were a living creature. Flesh sizzled and reformed, until in an instant the leg looked whole again.
The arm that had been hanging uselessly was restored as well.
"Still, looks like that one did a fair bit of damage."
The drake chieftain’s momentum was considerably weaker than it had been just a minute earlier. Furious at the damage he had taken, he scowled and let out a strange sound. It was like listening to a mournful flute.
Then, to Yoon Sang-hyuk’s surprise, the double-headed drakes stationed behind him began to approach one by one.
Shhk- CRACK-
Without hesitation, the drake chieftain plunged his hand into the chests of the subordinates stepping forward. Watching to see what he planned to do, Yoon Sang-hyuk snapped, enraged.
"You crazy bastard! Who gave you permission to do that?!"
The two double-headed drakes with their chests pierced were drying up like mummies. In contrast, the drake chieftain’s energy was surging again.
Yoon Sang-hyuk flicked his hand, and the expanded chain sword flew toward the drake chieftain.
"Get your hands off my experience points!"
Just as the drake chieftain reached out again to bore deeper into one of the double-headed drake’s chest, he pulled back his hand and leaped away.
Yoon Sang-hyuk ground his teeth at the drake chieftain glaring at him, fury sharp enough to kill in his eyes.
"I’ll forgive anything else, but I will not forgive stealing my experience points. Valend! Still not done?"
Valender von Graus, back at full strength as before, gave a slight shrug and stepped subtly to the side.
"You dare lay a hand on my experience points? You won’t get to die cleanly."
In that instant, Yoon Sang-hyuk vanished.
Fwoosh-
There was the sound of something being cut, then another body hitting the ground.
A round head rolled across the earth, having left its rightful place. The body to which it had belonged flailed in the air with its hands, as though it still hadn’t realized it was dead. Blood sprayed like a fountain from the severed neck.
Yoon Sang-hyuk, who had somehow already moved to stand beside it, didn’t even bother avoiding the bloody spray.
Sizzle-
The blood failed to stain him. It was blocked by the Blade Armor wrapping his body and evaporated instead.
The drake chieftain’s head, still rolling on the ground, came to a stop at Yoon Sang-hyuk’s toes. He gave it a light kick.
"So why’d you have to go and piss me off?"
Even as he spoke, the corner of Yoon Sang-hyuk’s mouth curled upward.
"Well. Thanks for the experience points, at least."
Having burned through a great deal of energy in his fight with Valender von Graus, the drake chieftain could not withstand Yoon Sang-hyuk’s strike and met his end.
At the sudden carnage, the remaining double-headed drakes nearby shrank back with fear-filled eyes.
"Don’t run. You’ll just end up taking two hits instead of one, then three."
The other drakes were still flapping their wings, trying to flee after the death of their leader, but Ibrahmut’s barrier kept them from escaping their place.
Yoon Sang-hyuk whipped the chain sword, shaking the drake chieftain’s blood from it, and shouted,
"Party time!"
Marhalta, where Zigritria’s lair lay, was now just ahead of them. Seen up close, it was even more enormous. No, “enormous” wasn’t even enough to describe it. It was so vast that the word itself felt inadequate, because he couldn’t fit its whole form into his eyes at once.
"We’re here," Yoon Sang-hyuk murmured.
After the battle with the drakes, there had been two more fights. The first was the undead corps led by the black mage Zarhan, one of Zigritria’s right-hand men, and the second was an army assembled from the monsters’ bosses.
Through it all, Yoon Sang-hyuk had earned an enormous amount of experience. He had leveled up seven times. Every time his level rose, he felt a surge of exhilaration almost enough to make his chest burst. It was more than enough reward for the long journey he had made.
"At this point, shouldn’t you be showing up already? Is there still an event waiting just for me?"
Then it happened.
Yoon Sang-hyuk shifted his gaze to the summit of distant Marhalta. A small dot was visible there. The dot was growing rapidly larger.
Along with it came a killing intent so sharp it made the hair on his skin stand up.
Yoon Sang-hyuk smiled broadly.
"So the main event is finally starting."