Chapter 189: The Strongest Snake (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: The Strongest Snake (7)
Fwoooooosh!
Hontail unleashed her breath. A net of brilliant blue lightning rained down toward the earth. From above, it looked as if the light was shredding the darkness into tiny pieces.
Sparks of electricity illuminated the entire area, simultaneously restricting the Basilisk's range of movement.
"Insane. Absolutely crazy."
Clinging to Hon's back, Choi Seol-ah watched in awe. Restricting the target of an attack to just one was incredibly difficult. Infusing the caster's will into magic was never an easy feat.
'But this pointy-ears is controlling high-tier magic completely at her own whim.'
Since she was still a young dragon, she lacked a bit of precision. Even so, Hon was undeniably a genius.
Choi Seol-ah stared at the long back before her, lost in thought.
'I used to nag her and call her pointy-ears all the time...'
But as of today, their positions would be reversed. After all, wasn't Hontail in a contract with her now?
And to make matters worse, the pointy-ears was Party A, and she was Party B! She could already picture herself serving up freshly slaughtered Korean beef to her every single day.
"Sigh."
A bleak future flashed before her eyes. A sigh escaped her lips as she mourned her bank account, which was destined to dry up to nothing.
'Still...'
Looking on the bright side, she could use magic again. And she wasn't even a villain.
This was only possible because her magic circuits had been forcibly pried open during her contract with the 5th Corps Commander, Agor. At the same time, it helped that her new contract partner was a dragon, a creature with little psychological hostility toward humans.
Had it been any other demon, her body wouldn't have been able to withstand the backlash. Thanks to a bizarre chain of coincidences, she could now wield magic power without being a villain.
She was probably the first of her kind. If so, what should she call herself? Choi Seol-ah groaned softly, giving it serious thought.
"I need a cool name..."
At that moment, a lightbulb went off in her head. The corners of her mouth curled into a smirk.
"Magical Gunslinger... Yeah, Magical Gunslinger sounds good."
Her satisfaction was short-lived, however, as she shook her head. Now was not the time for this.
She quickly loaded her revolver. She only had three bullets left. She had to time her shots perfectly.
She pressed her forehead against the gun cradled in both hands and closed her eyes.
Feeling the cool metal, she opened them again. Through the gap in Hontail's wings, the bloody battle below came into view.
* * *
Using the faint white light as illumination, Kang Geomma reassessed the situation. The heavy darkness had been swept away, and the wind chased off the heat.
Kang Geomma brightened. Thanks to the area becoming as bright as day, he could see everything at a glance. Darkness was the playground of demons, but light belonged to humans. Now, all that was left was to press the attack. However...
Kang Geomma's eyes narrowed.
Darting, darting.
The Basilisk's slit pupils scanned in all directions. The sparks of electricity crackling on the ground turned to stone in their exact shapes. Around the beast, stone debris began to pile up with a heavy pattering sound.
"Is he trying to build a bunker?"
Kang Geomma peered past the debris into the snake's eyes. They were deeply sunken and calm. No creature cornered like this should have such tranquil eyes.
'That's not all. That bastard barely reacted when Hon turned into a dragon.'
...As if he had expected it. Since it had been nagging at him for a while, Kang Geomma immediately expanded his Mindscape Domain.
Instead of relying on his vision, he perceived the world through his mind. Against a black background, like a color-inverted photograph, everything appeared in shades of grayish-white.
Amidst this, a pure white current of air was swirling toward a single point, like water draining down a sink. He didn't even need to look to know where that flow ended.
'He's absorbing energy from Hon's magic.'
Looking at it again, that stone bunker also resembled a cocoon. A shell to hide his body while he underwent metamorphosis...
"No wonder they say insidious bastards are like snakes."
Kang Geomma lowered his upper body. It was the optimal stance to minimize air resistance and maximize explosive leaping power. It was also the very posture he had used to annihilate countless powerhouses since his early days at the Academy.
'The time limit on [Blessing of Painlessness] is running out, too.'
He had thirty seconds left at most. Maybe forty if he paced his quick-draw techniques well. Still, he had a solid grasp on the Basilisk by now.
Just as Hon had said, the Basilisk didn't cast any magic other than his Evil Eye of Petrification. Even when within range of magic, the beast only swung his dual swords. He wasn't holding back; he simply couldn't do it.
'Well, it makes sense. He has a broken skill like the Evil Eye of Petrification.'
Because of the Evil Eye of Petrification, a blind spot had formed where he didn't need any other magic. Thanks to that irony, all of his cards had been laid bare.
Kang Geomma's eyes gleamed coldly. Meanwhile, the beast was still reinforcing his bunker with his Evil Eye. He seemed to be preparing some insidious, underhanded trick.
Kang Geomma sneered. That bunker would soon become his grave.
"Giving the enemy time to transform is for the Power R*ngers. Reality doesn't give a shit, asshole."
Leaving only those words behind, Kang Geomma moved like lightning. He closed the distance, deftly dodging the gaze of the Evil Eye of Petrification along the way.
The beast's right arm stretched nearly ten meters. He swung his sword with that elongated arm like a whip.
Whoosh!
A barrage of blades from all directions—up, down, left, and right—surged toward Kang Geomma.
The multiple trajectories of the incoming blades curved like eagle talons. From the side, it looked like a snake opening its maw to bare its fangs.
A bizarre, hissing sound of tearing air grated against his eardrums.
Swoooooosh...!
Kang Geomma tuned out the noise. Silence fell.
A normal hero wouldn't have dared to throw themselves into such an onslaught. If they were a normal hero, that is. Fortunately, Kang Geomma did not belong to that category.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
Kang Geomma shifted gears. Instead of slowing down, he accelerated.
Gaining speed, he sprinted as if outrunning sound itself. No, "flew" would be a more accurate description.
In fact, the soles of his feet didn't even touch the ground; only his calves flexed with elastic power.
"...!"
The snake's eyes widened slightly. It was a physiological sign of sheer shock. He had intended to turn his foe to stone in an instant, but his eyes couldn't keep up.
'Can a human actually move like that?'
The Basilisk swung his black sword frantically. Dark afterimages sliced through the air, but Kang Geomma laughed mockingly, letting the blades slip past him by a hair's breadth.
Any angle that was difficult to dodge, he lightly deflected with the flat of his sashimi knife. Clangs of metal and brief sparks flared and died.
While the black sword tore uselessly at empty air, only the sashimi blade flickered like a lighthouse, signaling his approach. Murasame flashed briefly. It was the signal for a counterattack.
Slash!
Three scaled fingers fell away like dry twigs. Before the Basilisk could even register it, the swift blade flashed once more.
Murasame pierced through the scales and struck down into the forearm. As the arm writhed, skewered on the blade like a fish cake, Kang Geomma sliced it wide open as if gutting a tuna. Simultaneously, he used Ten-Thousand-Year Frost to sever the vertically split arm horizontally.
Thud, thud.
A moment later, bloody lines crisscrossed the snake's arm, and only after that did the flesh fall apart like cubed radish kimchi. Crimson blood sprayed as the gory remnants were violently shaken off.
"Reptile or fish, prepping them doesn't feel all that different."
Kang Geomma flicked the blood off his blade and swept his hair back. He was drenched in sticky, blue blood.
"You were squirming too much, so I had to clean you up a bit."
Kang Geomma's eyes curved into crescents. Glistening with murderous intent, his gaze was no longer human.
"Now, you only have your left hand left, right?"
Kang Geomma gestured with his finger, beckoning the beast to throw his left hand as well. The Basilisk's pupils dilated wildly.
"..."
Even Hon and Choi Seol-ah were dumbfounded by the sight. Though their eyes were wide open, they couldn't even track his movements. It was absurd to see an S-rank Magical Beast treated like a mere toy. By now, they were too exhausted to even be surprised.
"Ah..." the Basilisk groaned softly. His body shuddered briefly before going limp. Then, he muttered something.
"Sister, you brought a proper human to kill me. Hehehe."
He began to chuckle like a madman.
"Did you know, Hontail? I didn't choose Alduin's path because I gave up on becoming a dragon."
The moment the words left his mouth, the Basilisk glared.
"I was born unable to become a dragon! Because this cursed Evil Eye petrified even that possibility!"
A dangerous, cross-shaped light gleamed from his eye sockets. A hemispherical, blood-red barrier instantly blanketed the area.
"Th-this is!"
Hon flapped her wings, hurriedly ascending. Startled by the sudden movement, Choi Seol-ah hunched over. Her back grew damp from the moisture clinging to the ceiling.
"Hey! Pointy-ea... Hon! What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
"Look below, Contractor."
"Below?"
At Hontail's words, Choi Seol-ah looked down. In the spot where they had just been, boulders suddenly coalesced, friction heating them up. Each ignited rock was a meteor.
[Meteor.]
The moment the Basilisk opened his mouth, meteors rained down like a torrential downpour.
Rumbleeeee...!
Wherever the Basilisk's gaze landed, newly formed fireballs plummeted, obliterating all cover. The impact zones melted into a glowing red, dissolving into lava. As the fireballs repeatedly pounded the ground, streams of fire erupted in all directions like pus.
It was a scene of pure calamity. This was how an S-rank Magical Beast could cause a natural disaster all on its own.
"Dammit, throwing out his ultimate move out of nowhere," Kang Geomma clicked his tongue, dodging or slicing through the chaotic rain of meteors.
In the center of the chaos, the Basilisk clutched his empty arm and laughed hysterically.
"I will surely become a Black Dragon and bring the entire clan to its knees! And that includes you, Hontail!"
Clack. Clack. Clack.
Just then, a fragment of a meteor bounced off the wall once, twice, three times, ricocheting wildly. Then, it suddenly struck Choi Seol-ah right between the eyes.
"Huh?"
Choi Seol-ah felt her consciousness fade. Her core went completely limp, as if she were heavily intoxicated. Her upper body tilted, and she slid right off Hontail's back.
"...Damn it."
She reached out to grab onto anything, but her body refused to listen. Just like that, Choi Seol-ah plummeted headfirst toward the ground.
"Miss Boradori!"
Hon noticed Choi Seol-ah falling. She desperately dove after her, but three fireballs slammed into her body.
As she fell, Choi Seol-ah watched the scene with blurry eyes. She forced her mouth open.
"...D-don't come."
However, her voice was too faint to reach the pointy-ears. Gravity dragged her down relentlessly. The fall felt much longer than it actually was. Choi Seol-ah closed her eyes.
At this rate, she would die. That was the one absolute certainty. She had struggled so desperately to survive, yet her end was to be this futile.
'Futile...'
Chewing on the word, Choi Seol-ah slowly opened her closed eyes. The pointy-eared woman was gliding down toward her, taking heavy hits from the fireballs. Burn marks like brands from a hot iron covered her entire body.
"I told you not to come..."
Choi Seol-ah managed to turn her gaze to the side. There was Kang Geomma. He wore an expression she had never seen on him since she began serving him. He seemed to be trying to catch her somehow, but the situation looked grim. Even as he rushed toward her, he was busy deflecting meteors with his sashimi knife.
'My Lord.'
The voice caught in her throat. Her focus was slowly returning, but she almost wished it hadn't. The world was completely upside down.
'I'm going to land headfirst.'
Was it a small mercy that death would be instantaneous?
Choi Seol-ah squeezed out the last of her strength to hook her finger around the trigger. She closed one eye. A stubborn, brilliant light shone in her open eye.
'...But I have to do at least one thing before I go. A Magical Gunslinger has her pride.'
The muzzle of her gun pointed directly at the Evil Eye of Petrification. Ah, now that she thought about it, looking into the Evil Eye turned you to stone. Her mind was so hazy she had momentarily forgotten.
No wonder she had lost all feeling in her legs a moment ago...
'Well, I'm dying anyway, so what does it matter?'
Choi Seol-ah replaced her lament with a faint smile. Then, she quietly whispered the lines she had always wanted to say before she died.
'The tip of my gun shines, and my trigger delivers judgment.'
A sheen ran along the barrel. The coldness of the metal seeped into her knuckles.
'He who spills my Lord's blood shall spill his own.'
The first Magical Gunslinger aimed at the impure snake. Though her world was turned upside down, her finger on the trigger of judgment did not tremble.
"This Magic Bullet is my Lord's will."
Choi Seol-ah inhaled and exhaled. Pouring her final breath and magic power into the shot—
"Bang."
The final Magic Bullet left the revolver, unleashing a thunderous roar. The sound of something shattering into pieces followed immediately after.