Monster Wave - Sir Tiny, What About Me!?
“It's faster if I go alone!!”
Shaking off Garren's faint voice echoing from below, Tiny charged ahead for only a moment. After leaping over Elvenheim's walls, he had no choice but to land on the ground right away. Even at full gallop, it would take a week to reach the border with Ma-yeok, so continuing to dash through the air with space steps would drain his mana too quickly.
Of course, that meant...
“Grrr...”
...monsters maddened by the full moon's demonic influence might lunge at him the instant he touched down, just like now.
Boom!!!!
“Kyak!”
It was still less wasteful to handle them like this.
“Let's go!”
“Awooooooo!”
Leaving behind the massive boar's corpse—its horned head neatly pulverized—rider and silver wolf began racing through the Great Forest bathed in full moonlight.
Wolrang's speed at its peak was terrifying. Empowered by the Transcendent WeaponAnimus, Wolrang had grown into a colossal beast nearly 2.5 meters at the shoulder and 5 meters long. Its densely packed muscles, infused with Tiny's traits, surpassed its former limits long ago. And with gravity magic lightening its body by more than tenfold while keeping that raw power intact...
Fwooooosh.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom.
As the silver behemoth streaked past in an instant, dust clouds erupted a beat late from the iron-hard ground packed with ancient giant trees, whipping up a sandstorm utterly out of place in the forest.
Wolrang tore through the woods at a speed that truly lived up to the phrase “racing like a storm.” Some monsters sensed them late and reacted, but they were gone in a flash. And besides...
“Awooooooo!”
The howl bursting from Wolrang mid-stride froze any weak monsters swept up in madness and lunging with feeble power, just from the subtle intimidation laced within it.
A charge utterly unhindered.
“Good! Keep going!”
But as they closed in on their target—covering in one day what should have taken seven—their invincible dash inevitably met interference. The Great Forest's trees were thinning in his vision, replaced by an unignorable horde of monsters.
Even at a glance...
Skeletons, trolls, giant scorpions, specters, goblins... What a ridiculous mishmash.
Monsters of every rank and type were flooding into the Great Forest, ignoring even their natural predator-prey dynamics in their swarming masses.
At least...
- Kabooooom!
- Kyaaaak!
...the massive, powerful ones pouring from the black desert of Ma-yeok in the distance couldn't crawl into the forest. The sky was too dark to see clearly, but it was proof the Elven Knights were holding strong.
Even so, numbers like these meant Jay was right—this was an unprecedented monster wave.
How...?
A legend of Ma-yeok—no, the Great Labyrinth that birthed these monsters—flashed through his mind, but this wasn't the time for contemplation.
And ignoring them to pass by wasn't an option.
Estina's probably around there.
To make a good first impression, at least.
“Time to lend a hand.”
“Woof!”
Click.
Tiny let the Stamp—now always kept in its combined-rod form—dangle loosely in one hand.
“Let's go!”
“Woof!”
Whoosh.
Wolrang shrank to a more hammer-swinging-friendly size—2 meters at the shoulder, 4 meters long—and charged straight into the oncoming monster horde.
Kabooooom!
As the vanguard exploded in a thunderous blast, the monsters instinctively pushing into the forest flinched.
- Kreeeek!
- Kyak!
A human on some wolf had appeared out of nowhere, smashing the lead monsters into bloody pulp.
Yet despite that, the instinct gripping their souls commanded them onward. Destroy all lifeforms radiating that filthy, repulsive energy—mana—whispered the voice in their heads.
Their eyes reddened anew, and the monsters rampaged. A storm of blood met them head-on, relentlessly burrowing deeper.
- Kieeeek!
The moment a specter—an ethereal monster—was shredded by sunset-hued mana, Tiny, drenched in monster blood, burst into demonic laughter.
“Hahaha!”
Conventional wisdom held that ghost-types could only be banished by clerics' holy spells or mages' light-infused fire or lightning magic. Warriors needed destructive Aura or similar attributes—no other way.
But this specter vanished pathetically from a single gravity-infused hammer strike laced with sunset mana. Just a casual swing to drive it off.
The power of the soul pulls double duty like this, huh. As expected...
Fresh conviction that choosing the soul armor, Animus, was the right call bubbled up, drawing out an involuntary laugh.
“Die, all of you!”
Kabooooom!
No need for fancy techniques. Just keep advancing, smashing everything in his path.
Boom!
Kaboom boom!
“Woof!”
The spirit Wolrang, hating demonic energy even more than its master, barreled forward with fiercer killing intent, crushing lesser monsters with fangs and forepaws.
Nothing remained in their wake but monster blood sprayed everywhere amid total devastation.
And Tiny, bathed head to toe in the showering gore, let out a maniacal laugh.
“Kuhahaha!”
Yes, this was it.
Since his regression, he'd been constantly battered by foes beyond his level, half-dead over and over—the stress melting away all at once. A tyrant of raw power pulverizing all obstacles. The soul of the “Knight of Brutish Strength,” once called the Villain Crusher or Monster Butcher, thrilled and exulted in this long-lost sensation of slaughter.
Then, a two-headed monster lunged before his eyes.
Over 3 meters tall, humanoid but with a far uglier mug, its mottled green skin gleaming unpleasantly—a bipedal freak.
Twin Head Troll.
Come to think of it, he'd once struggled against something like that. Against a mere 4th-stage beast.
Creak.
“You just made my day.”
Sunset mana ignited in the Stamp like roaring flames.
And soon, the massive hammer slammed the ground with full force.
Kabooooom!
Mana waves shot out, obliterating three lesser monsters and slamming the twin head troll.
“Kyaoooo!”
Its twin pairs of reddened eyes glared, but silver wolf and rider were already swinging the warhammer right in its face.
“Kak!”
“Ura!”
The two heads sensed danger instinctively. Their four eyes blazed redder, and twin roars erupted from their maws.
The beast swung its log-sized club at the insolent human with its right hand. No thought of defense—just pure aggression.
But strangely unfamiliar to it, the human met it the same way.
As brief doubt flickered in those four red eyes...
Kaboooooom!
A deafening roar, and its upper body exploded.
No regeneration could save it from that blow. And moreover...
“Hmph!”
The human took the club strike full on his body and just snorted.
“Grrrng.”
The wolf below yanked its paw from the cratered earth, shook it off, utterly unscathed.
“Krrk.”
“Kek?”
“Grhh.”
At the unbelievable sight, some nearby monsters ignored their soul-bound commands and staggered back unconsciously.
But the human who'd wrought it paid them no mind, quietly retracting the sunset-mana armor enveloping him and Wolrang.
As expected.
Thanks to Animus boosting his soul power, he could now deploy Mana Body at max output repeatedly.
Obviously, compared to his past life at a similar level, his power was now absurdly beyond.
“Test complete.”
And with soul power like this...
...the destruction attribute must be even stronger now, but...
Blindly swinging uncontrollable might wasn't his style.
But instead...
“This works too.”
As Tiny's black eyes swept the encircling monsters, they faltered under the chilling killing intent filling the air.
In that instant.
The wolf rider plunged back into their midst.
The warhammer swung without mercy.
Kaboom!
“Kieee!”
Kaboom!
“Krrk!”
Kaboom!
“Kyaaa!”
With each rhythmic swing, monsters shattered atop their own corpses. Sunset mana lingered like an afterimage, swirling and churning the surrounding air.
And soon...
“Now...!”
Tiny grinned more sinisterly than the blood drenching him, swinging the flaring sunset-mana Stamp not at monsters, but empty air.
Thooooom!
The final piece binding the roiling mana together.
Tiny-style combat method, form 2.
Storm Swing, full charge.
“All of you, die!”
With his bloodthirsty roar, a crimson storm began raging at the Great Forest's edge.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom.
“Keeek!?”
“Krraa!?”
“Kyaaaak!?”
Ferocious winds sucked in and shredded nearby monsters instantly. Swirling up corpses too, the sunset vortex sharpened into a vivid scarlet tornado and rocketed toward the black desert.
Whooooosh.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom.
- Kieeeek!
- Kyak!
- Kraaak!
The 50-meter-wide blood storm dominated space, bulldozing straight into Ma-yeok and laying waste to hundreds of meters ahead in a blink.
The result...
“...Pretty damn good.”
Tiny, pale for a moment, caught his breath. Then sunset light flared from his shoulder armor across his body as he bared savage fangs in a grin.
And the charge resumed.
“Kee, kieek?”
Monsters barely surviving the devastation ahead couldn't muster hostility toward him. A profound terror overriding even their soul commands froze their mindless bodies.
But Tiny showed no mercy even to them.
“Not attacking? Then just die anyway.”
Kabooooom!
A brutal hammer blow amid his ferocious smile sprayed more crimson.
Sunset energy spread through the gore.
“Kuhahaha! Here we go again!”
Kaboom kaboom kaboom kaboom.
The red storm razed ahead once more, repeating the cycle.
Hordes swept away in an instant.
After exactly three repetitions, nothing blocked Tiny's path anymore.
“Kieee!”
“Kyaooo!”
Monsters fleeing in full panic, bodies locked in terror.
Only then did Tiny wipe the blood-soaked grime from his face.
“Hoo...”
Hummm.
He felt soul armor Animus exalt his spirit, rapidly recharging his Mana Body's mana scraped to the bottom repeatedly.
A miracle born of amplified soul power and recovery.
“This area's cleared enough.”
Muttering at the fleeing remnants amid the ruins, he sensed faint morning sunlight warming his back.
Attacks would slacken at dawn, but monsters still poured endlessly from the opposite black desert. Its Ma-yeok surface shimmered multicolored in the light—easily tens of thousands, at least.
No worries, though.
They'll retreat soon and come back at night.
That was the hallmark of a monster wave, as he knew it.
But then...
- ♬♪♬♪!!!!
Elven tongue rang out like song from somewhere, unusually loud. At the black desert's edge, a massive eagle's phantom arose.
- Screeeee!
A piercing cry echoed over the battlefield. The green-Aura-cloaked eagle phantom split into six, raking the ground as they soared in different directions.
Simultaneously, monster hordes exploded helplessly, the sight searing into every onlooker's eyes.
And Tiny, knowing its nature well, naturally smiled.