Already (1)
Already (1)
A stubby finger jabbed ceaselessly at my cheek as I lay sprawled out on the soft dirt floor.
"Wake up, nyang! Si-woo! Let's play more, nyang!"
It was Tigris.
Crouched beside me, she was poking my cheek with excitement written all over her face, her tail swishing back and forth.
I didn't even have the strength to lift a finger, so I just stared blankly at the empty air.
Beside her, Romanike stood with his arms crossed, letting out deep sigh after deep sigh, as if he knew trying to stop her was pointless.
As I steadied my ragged breathing, I calmly replayed in my head the sparring match I'd just fought while cloaked in Aura.
It was definitely different.
The moment the golden energy drawn up from my danjeon wrapped around my entire body, my previously sluggish body became light as a feather, and it felt like a sturdy, invisible membrane had been draped over the surface of my skin.
I felt it clearly in my own body—my attack power and defense power had skyrocketed to levels incomparable to before.
As my thoughts reached that point, my gaze naturally drifted toward Tigris, giggling beside me as she kept poking me, and Romanike, letting out heavy sighs.
Those two were currently draped in nothing but rags crudely stitched together from beast hides, let alone any proper defensive gear.
With no weapons, just their bare fists and bodies, they produced that monstrous destructive power.
'Then just how much stronger would they get if I equipped them with proper gear?'
Just imagining it sent chills down my spine.
If my Mithril or Orichalcum equipment were added to that overwhelming physical ability and Aura energy, it would be nothing short of a walking catastrophe.
And that thought immediately led back to myself.
'On the flip side, what if I could coat the surface of the armor I'm wearing with Aura?'
If the Aura energy were layered on top of the physical hardness of the equipment itself, its defensive power would surely become so sturdy that even a scratch would be hard to inflict with ordinary attacks.
My instincts as a crafter were stimulated, and all kinds of blueprints and designs began sketching themselves out in my head.
As I lay on the dirt floor lost in absurd fantasies, Romanike cleared his throat and looked down at me.
"It seems I've taught you all the basics. From now on, you'll just need to learn how to control the amount you use."
At his words, I nodded silently with painful understanding.
He was definitely right.
The feeling of cloaking my whole body in Aura and fighting was incredible, but the duration that energy lasted was far too short.
Like pouring water into a bottomless pot, the Aura evaporated in an instant, which was why I had no choice but to collapse on the ground like this.
'My stamina, which was completely drained, seems to have recovered somewhat... Should I try again while finely controlling the amount of Aura this time?'
I planted my hands on the ground and slowly prepared to lift myself up.
That was the moment.
—Kwaaaaang!
A colossal explosion, as if it would tear eardrums apart, shook the entire forest.
The ground heaved like a mad earthquake, and a sharp tearing sound, like glass shattering, resonated chillingly in my ears.
It was the sound of the invisible barrier that had been enveloping the village breaking apart.
"Nyang?!"
Tigris, who had been poking my cheek and playing around, stopped dead in her tracks.
The two ears standing perked up atop her head stiffened straight toward the direction the explosion had come from.
The bright, laughing face from just moments ago was gone, replaced by the sharp wariness characteristic of wild animals, filling her pupils completely.
Romanike also stared at the forest's edge where the sound came from with a frozen expression.
His thick lips trembled, and a voice of disbelief leaked out.
"H-how... how could the barrier that our elder created be...?"
Before his muttering could even finish, the horrific scene entered my vision as well.
Beyond the forest where the barrier had been torn away, a crimson pillar of fire could be seen, swallowing up massive trees and surging high into the sky.
So enormous and fierce was the blaze that even from the distant training ground, the red pillar was clearly visible to the naked eye.
The acrid stench of burning rode the wind and hit me.
Just then, an eagle beastman circling the sky above the village urgently came slicing through the air at high altitude.
With a voice that tore across the entire village, he shouted repeatedly.
"Intruders confirmed! I repeat! Intruders confirmed in all directions—east, west, south, north!"
All sides had been breached.
It was clear someone had deliberately pushed in simultaneously from all directions to cut off the village's lifeline.
Confused shouts and screams from the beastmen began to mix and echo from all over the village.
I shot up from the ground.
The fatigue I'd been feeling just moments ago was buried by adrenaline and vanished completely.
From the entire body of Romanike standing beside me, a ferocious beastly killing intent exploded outward, and Tigris also growled lowly with her fangs bared.
We exchanged glances.
No lengthy words were needed.
I urgently yanked the Orichalcum Dagger of Purification and Crushing from my inventory and gripped its handle tightly.
Then, together with Romanike and Tigris, we kicked off the ground and began running toward the direction of the crimson pillar of fire that seemed ready to scorch the very sky.
As we ran toward the crimson pillar of fire blazing as if to swallow the sky whole, acrid smoke and searing heat that felt like it would burn flesh stabbed at my nose the entire way.
As we broke through the boundary of the forest where massive trees were crumbling into charcoal, the horrific epicenter of the flames finally came into view.
There, a single woman stood.
Even in the darkness, red hair burning as intensely as blood fluttered wildly in the rough heat wave, and above her left eye, a hideous, deeply carved scar was etched long.
From both her hands, crimson flames coiled like living serpents, surging fiercely.
As if intent on turning the entire forest to ash, the blackened corpses of beastmen were already strewn at her feet.
The moment I confirmed her appearance, the movements of Romanike and Tigris, who had been running alongside me on either side, stopped dead.
The energy emanating from the two beastmen's bodies sank cold and heavy in an instant.
"......!"
Thick veins bulged as if about to burst over Romanike's thick fists.
His pupils were already stained red with rage, like a beast that had lost all reason.
But it was Tigris who showed a reaction even more violent.
Her golden pupils split vertically, sharp and narrow, and from between her teeth, a horrifying beastly cry erupted.
It was a desperate roar tangled with sorrow, fury, and hatred soaked deep into her very bones.
"Kyaaaaaaak!!"
There wasn't even time for me or Romanike to stop her.
Having completely lost her reason, Tigris kicked off the ground and shot like mad toward the red-haired woman.
Normally, with her instinctive reflexes and beastly flexibility, she would have traced an unpredictable trajectory.
But now, her head was filled only with a blind killing intent, a desire to tear the enemy before her eyes to shreds.
That rage blinded her and made her movements far too monotonous and straightforward.
It was the very moment Tigris tore through the air, thrusting out a fist with sharp claws extended.
The corner of Imi's mouth, the red-haired woman, twisted upward with a bloody hint.
As if mocking Tigris's obvious attack trajectory, she very lightly twisted her upper body to the side and dodged the attack.
Then the crimson flames entwined around her hand instantly compressed into a single gigantic fist of fire.
—Puh-eok!
A horrific strike sound, as if bones were shattering, echoed through the forest.
Imi's fire fist plunged precisely into Tigris's abdomen.
"Ku-huk!"
Tigris's small frame was sent flying backward.
Her body tumbled roughly across the dirt floor and crashed down.
"Tigris!"
Romanike screamed and ran forward, but from between the lips of Tigris, who had tumbled on the ground, crimson blood suddenly spilled out.
The red blood flowing down her white chin soaked into the damp dirt.
And the moment she registered that red liquid, a horrific paralysis seized Tigris's body.
"Ah......."
The rage that had been boiling furiously toward her enemy just moments ago cooled as if it had been a lie.
Her golden pupils lost their focus and began to shake madly.
The trauma of the day she witnessed her parents' gruesome deaths resurfaced like a seizure, freezing her entire body solid.
'Move, nyang! Please, just move!'
Tigris screamed internally as if vomiting blood, striking her own legs with her fists.
The enemy who killed her parents was right before her eyes, letting out a horrifying laugh, and she resented and loathed herself so deeply for being unable to lift a single finger all because of this one drop of blood.
But despite her desperate struggling, her frozen body would not obey.
Thick teardrops fell from her eyes, mixing with the blood and soaking into the ground.
All she could do was send a gaze filled with hatred toward her enemy with her trembling body.
Imi, who had been watching that miserable sight, scratched her head as if annoyed.
Her red eyes swept in turn across Tigris collapsed on the ground, Romanike trembling with rage, and me standing behind them.
Her gaze was directed only at the two beastmen, perfectly ignoring the existence of me, a human.
Imi tapped the hideous scar above her left eye with her finger and opened her mouth mockingly.
"Ah! Are you the brats of that tiger beastman from back then?"
There wasn't an ounce of guilt in her voice.
On the contrary, as if excited by recalling the slaughter from that time, both her cheeks were flushing an unsettling red.
"This scar was left by your parents. It was really fun back then, you know... Those bastards struggling desperately, begging to be spared until the very end, was quite a sight."
Imi cupped her own reddened face with both hands and shuddered as if in ecstasy.
At that revolting display, no different from a psychopath, my brows instinctively furrowed.
"You're gonna make it fun for me too, right? Aren't you?"
No sooner had her madness-laced voice dropped than a massive fireball, as large as a house, surged fiercely from both of Imi's hands.
The surrounding air burned up in an instant, making it hard to breathe.
Imi laughed like a madwoman and hurled that gigantic mass of fire at Romanike and Tigris.
The heat radiating from the fireball poured in as if melting the skin.
But Tigris, collapsed on the ground, was crushed by her hemophobia and couldn't even twitch.
It was a desperate, critical moment—Romanike gritted his teeth and was about to throw his massive body forward as a shield in front of the fireball to protect his niece.
—Pa-at!
I kicked off the ground fiercely and cut in front of Romanike to block the path.
"Huh......?"
The moment Romanike's bewildered voice sounded from behind me, the crimson fireball mercilessly swallowed my entire body.
—Kwaaaaang!
Along with a tremendous explosion, the forest earth was scorched black and gouged out.
Flames shot up in all directions, and from the aftermath of the blast, thick black smoke billowed up, completely obscuring my figure.
Thinking her strike had landed perfectly, Imi scratched her cheek with an indifferent expression and muttered.
"What's with that guy? Not even a beastman, and he jumps in to die making a damn fuss."
As if she'd just swatted away a worthless bug, she began gathering a new fireball in her hand.
She was convinced that I would have been reduced to ashes from the previous attack, not leaving a single bone shard behind.
But before she could even finish forming that second mass of fire.
From within the thickly settled black smoke, a dazzling golden energy—blindingly brilliant—burst forth as if exploding.
"......?!"
The moment Imi's eyes flew wide open in surprise.
I, who had wrapped the Golden Aura around the Orichalcum Dagger of Purification and Crushing in my hand until it seemed ready to burst, tore through the smoke and reached right under her nose in an instant.
"Hey."
My cold voice pierced into her ear.
"Talking shit about someone's parents... that's crossing the line."
No sooner had those words finished than I shifted my grip on the Orichalcum dagger in my hand to a reverse grip and began mercilessly slashing toward Imi's torso.