Chapter 163. For the Weary...
Chapter 163. For the Weary...
I glanced back.
Max and Emir, already done with healing, breathing evenly.
Our eyes met.
"Hoo... I've still got a long way to go."
"I still have much to learn from ma'am..."
I chuckled at their self-deprecating remarks.
'Still, for those two... I'd say they're about knight level by now...?'
─ Krrrrrk...
─ Clack, clack, clack, clack...
The witch, still not grasping the situation, laughing.
I was definitely ripping that mouth of hers apart...
"First of all..."
The moment I seized the dragon's jaw with one hand, a grinding sound like bones crushing rang out.
─ Crrrack...!
It pulled its head back, trying to escape my grip, but only the sound of cracking bones came, and it didn't budge at all.
"Need a beating, huh?"
A chilling omen flickered in my eyes.
Veins bulged on my forearm as I raised the club and slammed it down.
─ Kwajik! Bang!!!
A brutal impact drove into the dragon's brow.
The club smashed precisely between its eyes, pounding the massive skull into the ground.
Its head was driven into the floor, and cracks spread like a spiderweb across the brow.
But the thing was already a lifeless existence.
"I expected as much, but..."
It shook its head as if feeling no pain.
Ignoring the cracked bone, it slowly raised its face again.
─ Clack, clack, clack.
The witch, watching from behind.
A bizarre laugh burst from her faintly twisted lips.
That distinct rhythm, close to mockery.
[Still hasn't come to his senses]
[lol zombies can't feel pain anyway]
[Yeah I saw that in a movie too]
But there wasn't long to laugh.
The dragon opened its mouth again.
With a horrid grinding of bone fragments, its massive jaws lunged at me.
As if to swallow me in one gulp, its sharp fangs moved to devour me like a trap.
"Heh... Even after getting hit like that, you still try to bite someone?"
I wasn't fazed at all.
Instead, I grabbed the closing jaws with both hands.
─ Crrrack!
No matter how it tried to shut its jaws, my hands didn't budge an inch.
"Hrgh...!"
Still holding both jaws, I lifted the dragon into the air.
A massive skeletal mass raised parallel to the ground.
Holding it, I spun around once.
"Keep your damn mutt in check!"
I hurled the heavy body with centrifugal force.
Like a hammer throw, the dragon's torso spun in a circle and wobbled.
─ Whooooosh...!
I threw it straight at the witch.
─ ...!!!
The witch's eyes widened in shock.
The huge corpse hurtling at her with tremendous speed.
She dodged to the side, barely avoiding it.
"Dodged?"
The dragon's body crashed into the stone wall behind.
The wall crumbled, dust billowed, and rubble came crashing down.
─ Grrrrk...!
It sprang to its feet again.
Even amidst the shattered wall and collapsed rubble, still perfectly intact.
─ Kgggggggak...!
The witch laughed bizarrely, tracing the air with her fingertips.
A strange pattern etched into empty air, and a deeply unpleasant sound, different from before, rang out.
The mana rising from the dragon's body wavered stickily and grew thicker.
"Hmm... so this is what hitting a sandbag feels like?"
I laughed, scratching my chin.
"Laila, shall we give these corpses a lesson for old times' sake?"
Laila, who was healing Max and Emir behind me, smiled.
"Come to think of it, it has been a while since we last saw undead, hasn't it?"
She quietly inhaled on the spot.
And a beautiful, serene song flowed from her lips.
"...♫"
Like a hymn heard at dawn.
Or like a prayer that might echo in an ancient temple.
[Wow... insane...]
[Even my heart is fluttering for no reason...]
As if responding to the song, golden mana shimmered from my club.
A holy radiance slowly spreading in this dark place.
"Even those guys who strut around calling themselves high-level dark mages—once they get hit by this, they go and set fire to secret bases that didn't even exist."
*Smirk.*
A smile naturally formed.
In my hand, a club blazing with golden light.
I rolled my shoulders and loosened up.
"There's a saying in Korea too."
[?]
[What is it]
"A peach wood club drives away ghosts..."
A mystical energy that banishes evil spirits?
There's no such thing.
You just pour holy power, which was anathema to undead, into it and beat them senseless.
"Guess you're gonna get pummeled?"
Golden aura rose serenely from the club in my hand.
It gave off the feeling of purifying even the surrounding air.
Max and Emir, watching the scene, instinctively held their breath.
"W-What the hell is that...?"
"Something... gives me a weird feeling from the boss..."
A solemn and majestic aura.
An aura so sublime that a person would want to kneel and bow their head upon facing it.
And the streamers who had tagged along for the broadcast.
Even they, entirely unrelated to combat, felt at ease in this moment.
"I-It's definitely supposed to be scary..."
"It's warm and cozy... so comforting..."
[Holy shit lol comfortable?]
[Yeah... not a bus driver, he's practically a pilot lol]
[Have you lost your mind? wwwwww lol]
"Ah, no...! That's not it... ah, damn... how do I explain this?"
Ignoring their chatter and looked, I trudged forward, dragging the club along the ground.
The ground trembled, rippling as if responding to the club's energy.
The witch, watching the scene, flinched as if startled.
In that instant, her face twisted in apparent irritation.
"What? Changed your mind now?"
─ Grind... Grind...
Her face twitching, she raised a finger and pointed at me.
The dragon walked forward and came to the witch's front, but...
It was far too different from before.
The massive dragon approached with cautious steps, clearly showing cowed movements.
Its gaze was fixed on only one place.
Fixed on the golden club in my hand.
"Alright. I'll talk to the owner of this mutt later... but first, you."
I lunged at the slowly approaching dragon.
And swung horizontally at the dragon's mouth like swinging a baseball bat.
"First off, that vicious mouth that bites people!"
─ Kwaaaang!!!
A tremendous burst resounded, and the bony teeth, held together by magic, shattered into pieces and scattered everywhere.
The area around the dragon's mouth was completely wrecked, and the massive skull was collapsing.
A dead being, an undead that shouldn't feel pain.
But...
─ Kieeeeeeeeek!!!
The dragon let out an unimaginable scream.
That scream was a howl that mixed skin-tearing revulsion and pain, erupting from instincts that had long disappeared after death.
[Wow shit;;]
[I pursed my lips for a moment too lol]
[Even dropping your phone on your face while lying down hurts like a bitch, but that's fucking lol]
I approached and precisely struck down on both of the dragon's front legs.
─ Crunch...!
The front legs completely shattered and it collapsed to the ground.
The witch urgently extended her hands and poured out mana.
Her magic wrapped around the dragon's broken legs, trying to forcibly suture the scattered bones.
─ Sizzle... puff!
But the dragon's leg, mid-regeneration, crumbled into dust and scattered.
'Holy power was the bane of undead.'
Regeneration and destruction repeated, and the dragon collapsed, crawling on the ground.
Ignoring the dragon, I walked toward the witch.
The witch let out a scream as if losing her sanity and raised both hands high.
"Same pattern again?"
─ Bang!
I leaped in immediately and swung my club, smashing both hands.
Her fingers, without leaving a single one intact, cleanly flew off.
"Ah...!!! My money!!!"
I accidentally smashed the ornament she was wearing to pieces as well.
However, the brooch she wore and several other ornaments remained.
"Still, lucky that plenty are left."
[This crazy bastard thinking about money even now lol]
The witch screamed.
Within that bizarre form, from the eyes revealed through it, a terrible terror bloomed.
Seeing the witch's face stricken with fear, I felt no emotion.
"I lost many comrades because of faces like that."
Pretending to be pitiful now.
It was truly disgusting.
─ Bang!!!
As if she had never had a head to begin with, the witch's head was gone.
As she collapsed, the remaining dragon also slumped down like a puppet with its strings cut.
"...I'll take care of this."
I muttered, stuffing the dragon into my ring.
Behind me, the streamers who had been standing dazedly shouted.
"Waaaaah!!!"
"Hero, that was awesome...!!!"
Hearing their cheers, I smirked.
"Alright, time to go home."
I tossed one last word over my shoulder.
"And of course, before we go, don't forget to grab souvenirs again."
And so our school field trip(?) came to an end.
---
As soon as the gate opened and people's footsteps headed outside.
─ Flash! Flash! Flash!
A shower of flashes dyed our vision white.
"E-Excuse me! Could we have a brief interview...?"
"The value of the ornaments the witch wore...!!!"
"What will you do with that massive dragon corpse from earlier...?"
Dozens of reporters stood like a barricade, and the place, with the mix of shutter sounds and shouts, was noisier than the gate after the battle had ended.
On the streamers' faces, ecstasy and bewilderment mixed more than fatigue, and they faced the light of the world again with faces as if they'd just woken from a dream.
It was then.
Cutting through the reporters, figures in neat suits approached in a line.
Polished shoes, glossy hair, and bundles of business cards in their hands.
"W-We are currently operating a multinational guild...!"
"We are currently in partnership with an American military supplier..."
"We have a research facility specialized for S-rank monsters..."
Streamers who looked fairly easy to approach compared to Unknown and S-ranks.
They vied to hand out business cards to those streamers, bowing their heads.
Though everyone spoke over each other, ultimately their message was the same.
- Please, sell us the monster corpses.
But I never welcomed situations like this.
So I quickly organized things and told them I'd make time later.
"These people are civilians. They haven't even rested yet..."
As soon as I said that, the crowd parted like the miracle of the Red Sea.
"Let's get them some good food to regain their strength, and we'll meet again later."
An S-rank Gate they'd followed into as ordinary people.
I thought about preparing a special meal for them.
'Hmm... isn't bone soup the best for restoring energy? Throw in some abalone and other stamina foods...'
Since I just luckily got my hands on some excellent bones for making stock...