Carpeng Subjugation (4)
In the game, Carpeng had a pattern right before Phase 2 began: while she gathered her blood energy, she would return every attack she had taken during that window straight back at her opponents.
Reality was no different.
Luci and Heinzel took the full force of the blows they themselves had dealt right back at them.
If they had possessed the same knowledge I did, they never would have been caught like that.
No—
They would have won with room to spare.
“Rubia. Support me as much as you can.”
Leaving her answer behind me, I walked toward Carpeng.
Heinzel’s shattered halberd caught against my foot.
The blood Carpeng had spilled had soaked the ground soft and wet.
I stopped where I stood.
Luci’s sword, still driven into the earth, became the boundary line between me and Carpeng.
Her quiet, continuous sobbing rolled across the field.
I spread my Qi Sensing and checked her condition.
She was still condensing blood energy deep inside her body.
And the beast’s frame was riddled with deep, gaping wounds.
Just like in the game, she could not heal the injuries from Phase 1.
If I focused only on those wounds, I had a chance.
If I followed the path Luci and Heinzel had carved, I could win this.
[GRRRRR-]
The blood energy drifting through the air gathered in an instant, announcing the start of Phase 2.
The armor plating that had encased her massive body crumpled and clattered to the ground.
Even the enormous halberd in her hand shattered into fragments and fell.
Blood energy compressed to its absolute limit made the very air tremble.
I drew the greatsword Hepais had given me and steadied my breath.
And then—
[GRRRAAAAAAAA-!!]
A roar that threatened to split my eardrums tore free as her arm swept through the air.
Blood energy shot forth.
I focused every scrap of my Qi Sensing on a single point.
The direction was—
Behind me.
Not me. Luci.
In this state, even Rubia was in danger.
Luci’s condition was bad, but there was no choice.
I sprinted toward Rubia, seized her by the scruff of the neck, and hurled her sideways.
Then I kicked the sprawled Luci and sent him flying after her.
The impact tore a mouthful of blood from Luci’s lips.
A few more bones had probably broken…
I shoved the thought aside for later.
I swung the greatsword on a diagonal into the oncoming blood energy.
A nauseating scrape—kagagagak—shrieked along the blade as the blood energy slammed into the ground.
The earth tore open; fine stone dust sprayed upward.
I held my breath and charged Carpeng.
Her right hand shot straight at me.
I twisted my body clear, only for blood energy to lance out behind it.
I swung the greatsword with everything I had and batted the energy aside.
Her claws came next.
Blood energy followed in their wake.
I exhaled and stamped a true step into the earth.
Twisting my waist, I carved a half-circle with the greatsword.
A bright, ringing note sang out as I deflected her claws.
The blood energy was still surging in.
I threw my body in the direction the greatsword had swung.
My frame accelerated.
Where I had stood a moment before, savage claw marks gouged the ground.
I drove the greatsword into the dirt and killed my momentum.
I had expected it, but—
This Carpeng was different from the one in the game.
No patterns.
No tells.
Even when I parried, she never staggered.
The difference in reach was brutal.
Scent, wind, dust—every scrap of the environment worked against me.
And—
There would be no second chances.
“Huu…”
I steadied my breathing and charged again.
I could not give her distance.
I had to drive in until my blade could reach her.
I could not let her attention wander toward Luci and Rubia.
I knocked aside a sweeping claw.
Dodged the blood energy.
Batted away the jaws that snapped open in my face and pressed forward.
I closed the gap.
Blood energy erupted from her tail and crashed over me.
I bit down hard on my lip, twisted my body, and fell back.
My side was sliced open.
Dozens of thin streams of blood burst free.
Again, without pause, I charged.
I had to keep her from looking behind her.
I pushed my Qi Sensing to its absolute limit.
Pain never came.
There was no recoil.
The reason… I would think about later.
Right now I had to focus on the fight.
I painted every one of her movements in my mind.
Even the finest twitches.
Carpeng’s shoulder muscle jumped.
I swung the greatsword to match it.
Kiiing—
A piercing note stabbed my eardrums.
The sound alone felt as if it were tearing my body apart.
Without a single breath of rest, Carpeng’s attacks poured in.
Blood energy lanced out.
Her tail whipped around.
Her jaws yawned wide.
I met every strike with the greatsword.
Sparks showered upward.
Before those sparks could even die, the next attack was already coming.
I dodged, blocked, knocked them aside.
Her tail writhed like a snake and lashed out.
I kicked off the ground, twisted in midair, and swung.
But a cut without power behind it was easily turned by the blood energy.
I used the rebound to spin my body.
The greatsword that had been plunging downward now surged upward.
It smashed into Carpeng’s jaw.
Her open maw snapped shut.
At last.
A drop of Carpeng’s blood stained the greatsword.
But the joy lasted only a heartbeat.
Her claws swept in.
I stomped on her solar plexus and leapt back.
Then I drove forward again at once.
Blood energy raked through the space I had just occupied.
Countless shards of stone skimmed past my body.
I kept my mouth clamped shut and burst free of the dust cloud.
Before I could even settle my breathing, her tail came around again.
I drove the greatsword into the ground and caught the blow.
Stamping hard, I wrenched the blade free.
I blocked the blood energy.
Dodge ten times.
Knock aside ten times.
Block ten times.
Only then could I land a single attack.
An impossible set of conditions.
An endlessly unfair fight.
But I was used to it.
I had always done this alone.
Greatsword and Carpeng’s strikes wove together through the empty air.
I stopped what tried to break me.
Straightened what tried to bend.
Unraveled what tried to coil around me.
I no longer knew how many exchanges passed in a single breath.
I could not count them.
In the middle of that absurd exchange—
I lost sight of her claws.
I could not feel the blood energy.
I had missed the movement.
In that same instant—
Jjeong—!
Divine Power from Rubia, flying in from behind, intercepted Carpeng’s attack.
Having even one party member made me feel this secure?
I laughed inwardly and charged again.
Thrust, extend, recover, swing.
Every time I dodged or parried, her attacks came back along bizarre trajectories.
She bent her joints however she pleased with blood energy.
Movements like that had never existed in the game.
Those insane strikes tightened around my throat with every second.
Even a graze tore flesh free.
Blood burst.
Savage wind pressure shoved my body back.
I scooped up the scattering droplets of blood and charged once more.
I swept the fierce wind aside with a swing of the greatsword.
The breath I could not catch, Rubia caught for me.
The attacks I could not fully receive, Rubia blocked for me.
Every time she did, Carpeng’s gaze flicked toward her.
How dare you look at her.
I slammed forward and tore her attention back to me.
Carpeng’s claws swept out.
Rubia’s Divine Power caught them.
The blood energy that followed surged toward me.
I painted Luci’s movements in my mind and let the energy slide past.
I felt Carpeng’s breathing falter.
A cry thick with pain reached my ears.
I immediately drove the greatsword upward and smashed her wrist.
I swung toward the place Heinzel’s halberd had already split open.
Ttudduk— I felt muscle tear as I severed the blood vessels.
I cut the tendons.
Carpeng’s wrist went limp and dangling.
I did not miss the opening.
I latched on and refused to let go.
I struck again and again.
I kept slamming the blade down.
Until her right hand was useless.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Every claw was ripped free.
Bright yellow bone showed through.
Savage blood energy drove me back.
Then she began to restore the right hand.
Using the empty right eye socket Luci had torn open as my pivot, I spun.
Carpeng’s face turned with me.
One more turn, into her blind spot.
I drove straight forward.
The hollow of her knee filled my vision; I smashed it.
Twitch— Carpeng’s knee buckled.
I circled to the side and drove the greatsword upward.
Teeth clattered down in a rain.
I snatched up the sharpest fang.
And, into the hide Luci and Heinzel had already split open—
I drove it in with everything I had.
Enormous force punched through muscle.
I did not stop.
I hammered the fang buried in her thigh deeper with the greatsword.
The fang shattered the weakened bone and punched clean through the thigh.
Dark crimson blood fountained toward the sky.
A desperate scream tore across the field.
I drank the blood and wet my throat.
I chewed on the scream and stoked my emotions higher.
The metallic, nauseating taste snapped my mind awake.
The rising heat poured strength into my limbs.
I slipped beneath Carpeng and swung the greatsword.
Her massive body arched backward.
I spun behind her and brought the blade down on her spine.
I punched through the tough hide.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Muscle tore.
Blood vessels burst.
The grotesque vertebrae finally showed themselves.
I drove the greatsword in and crushed the spine.
Carpeng’s blood energy lashed out.
It shot and radiated in every direction.
I wrenched the greatsword free and leapt back.
The finer strands of blood energy were stopped by Rubia’s Divine Power.
Almost there.
I settled my breathing.
And sprinted out half a breath faster.
Before Carpeng’s blood energy could wrap around her spine—
My greatsword reached it first.
And so—
Bone shattered.
Strength fled from Carpeng’s lower body.
That endlessly huge, towering frame crashed down.
Her neck dropped right in front of my eyes.
But in the same instant, writhing blood energy coiled around the spine.
It shaped itself into bone.
It shaped itself into muscle.
Through blood energy, her body began to restore itself.
There was no time.
The moment Carpeng’s blood energy focused entirely on restoration—
When she could not defend—that was the final chance.
Now.
I stomped on Carpeng’s thigh and leapt into the air.
I smashed the greatsword down onto her head.
From above to below.
With a sound like a bomb detonating, her head was driven into the earth.
I spun my body in the direction the greatsword had swung.
Again.
A greatsword plunging from above to below—
A greatsword even fiercer than the last—
Shot toward Carpeng’s neck.
Blood energy wrapped the throat.
I clenched my teeth and forced the blade through her blood energy.
Hide burst open.
Muscle tore.
Her neck bone was laid bare.
The greatsword stopped.
I did not have enough strength.
“Rubiaaaaaaa!!!”
I roared for the one who could lend me power.
In that instant—
An arrow streaked in like a bolt of light and slammed into my greatsword.
It was not Rubia’s Divine Power.
It was an arrow.
An arrow I had never seen before.
Rubia did not use arrows.
No one present used arrows.
Then—
Who?
I flung my Qi Sensing wide in a flash.
Carpeng’s neck bone was already restoring.
Muscle.
Hide.
Everything was beginning to heal.
Time was running out.
I pushed the Qi Sensing farther.
Farther still.
Toward the direction the arrow had come from.
And the expanded sense painted a figure—
A woman of unknown identity, hooded in a robe.
She was looking at me with a bright, open smile.
I pushed farther.
Rubia’s form took shape.
Rubia, with dozens of arrows buried in her body—
Rubia, pouring blood, face twisted in pain as she still shielded Luci—
Was painted clear.
[GRRR-]
Carpeng’s restoration finished.
From the woman’s robes, a horn was drawn.
The very horn Luci had shattered—
The Horn of Frenzy was pulled free.
And with that same bright smile—
She used it.
The sword—
Broke.