Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Serpent Temple 4
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From the Count’s perspective, the naga sorceresses were essentially his lovers, so it was maddening to see them under attack. Unable to hold back any longer, he charged toward Azadin, at which point the arrows Midiam had just fired fell from his body.
“Thanks!”
Azadin scooped up the arrows from the floor.
“Shaaah!”
“Kyak!”
Mummy soldiers threw themselves in front of the naga sorceresses, shielding them from Azadin’s arrows. But Azadin barreled into the nearest mummy, kicked off its shoulder, and leaped into the air to loose another volley.
“Kya…”
The sorceress’s condition was dire.
“You bastard!”
Enraged, the Count could no longer restrain himself and charged with weapon in hand, but Azadin slipped between the mummy soldiers. Ignoring whether they got in the way or not, the Count swung wildly.
-Thwack!
The mummy soldiers shattered and flew apart. However, Azadin had already taken cover elsewhere. The excited Count pressed forward, but with the massive naga moving through the underground waterway, the mummy soldiers kept getting in the way.
“You’re the one smashing the mummy soldiers you worked so hard to make!”
“You dare!”
The Count charged in fury. Yet Azadin used the mummy soldiers to dodge his assault, darting this way and that without ever engaging.
Desperate to corner Azadin, the Count strained every effort, but Azadin evaded and shouted to Midiam.
“Midiam! Can you lower lots of ropes?”
“Yes!”
“Good, here I go!”
Azadin slung his bow over his body and sprinted toward the statue. The furious Count raised his sword to strike but hesitated because of the naga statue. Attacking now would destroy it.
“As expected!”
Azadin planted a foot on the naga statue and leaped.
-Whoosh!
At that instant, the bronze torch stand the Count had been holding hurtled through the air. He had hurled it at the exact moment Azadin jumped. But Azadin had only pretended to leap with full force before flattening himself to duck under the torch stand.
“Knew you’d attack on the first jump!”
Azadin taunted the Count as he sprang up and grabbed the rope Midiam was lowering.
“Uwa! A-are you okay?”
“Can you pull up the rope?”
“Ismail’s up there… but it’s tough!”
Ismail was straining with the well pulley, but the ascent was agonizingly slow.
“Hey! Ismail! Just secure the rope!”
“Huh?!”
Midiam gasped at the order. At that moment, the Count began casting a spell to seize Azadin. Blood spears formed and flew toward him.
“Hup!”
Hanging in midair, Azadin swung on the rope like a massive pendulum to evade the attack.
“No chance!”
-Splat!
One blood spear struck Azadin true!
“Ah! Azadin!”
Midiam, clutching the rope a bit higher up, cried out in horror… but Azadin dangled unharmed and held something up in his right hand.
“This thing’s sturdy as hell. I like it!”
It was the halberd head. He had gripped the head of the halberd once wielded by the guard captain of the eastern outpost village like a tonfa and deflected the incoming blood spear.
“You bastard!”
Roaring in rage, the Count swung his greatsword and leaped. In that instant, Azadin used the pendulum motion to swing toward the wall and began running along it while gripping the rope.
By spiraling up the wall, he evaded the Count’s charging strike.
“Krah!”
The Count’s attack missed, and his enormous body wedged itself between the statue and the wall.
-Krunch!
The statue shattered under the pressure of the Count’s body.
“Truly a descendant of the Yaegas divine race, huh. Even as a naga, that unyielding spirit that bows to no Kurt god! Impressive! Smashing the Cobra Queen’s statue!”
Azadin jeered as he climbed the rope and finally escaped into the blood bathhouse.
*********
“Uwa!”
Midiam scrambled up the rope in a panic and let out a sigh of relief.
“Huff… huff… Y-you okay, Azadin?”
“Yeah. Thanks to you. I’d have been in deep shit if you hadn’t come.”
“Seems like we’re already in deep shit.”
Ismail pointed to the Count, who was beginning to climb after them from below.
“Let’s get out of here!”
“Y-yeah!”
As the Count dragged his massive bulk up the wall by force, cracks began spiderwebbing across the blood bathhouse floor.
Azadin retraced the path he’d taken with Midiam, passing through the mummy dissection room and arriving at the first floor of the rear garden annex. There, corpses fitted with blades on their hands and feet moved like puppets on strings, blocking Azadin and his companions.
“What’s this?”
These undead marionettes, powered by the corpses’ own muscles to wield the blades on their limbs, now threatened Azadin’s group.
“What the hell is this now?”
“There weren’t any when we came in… This castle’s crawling with monsters.”
Midiam felt uneasy seeing enemies block their retreat that hadn’t been there on the way in. A sorcerer lurked in the shadows, manipulating the corpses.
From a spot out of sight, he began channeling mana to control the marionettes. They spun toward Azadin’s group like dancing figures, their momentum fierce and menacing. But Azadin responded calmly.
“Got any arrows left?”
“Here.”
Ismail pulled arrows from his quiver and handed them to Azadin. Azadin had told Midiam and Ismail to bring plenty of arrows, and they had followed through.
Beyond the quiver, they’d bundled arrows in their packs too, so they had ample supply. Azadin took the arrows and, guided by his sharp eyesight, located the sorcerer emanating black mana and fired.
-Scree!
The arrow pierced through flimsy wooden barriers and struck the sorcerer controlling the marionettes.
“Grah! H-how?! I’d completely erased my presence!”
The foe screamed as his human disguise unraveled and he transformed into a naga…
-Shwick! Shwick!
Azadin followed up with more arrows, blasting the transforming naga’s head clean off. With the sorcerer dead, the corpse marionettes collapsed to the floor.
“Nagas are tough. Took that many arrows. Guess those naga sorceresses might still be alive?”
Azadin debated turning back to finish them off right now. But that would be far too risky.
Even if turning back midway served the greater cause of saving the refugees’ lives, it would be disrespectful to Midiam and Ismail, who had come to rescue him.
‘Can’t recklessly risk the lives they saved for me.’
There were likely other nagas who knew the spell to awaken mummy soldiers, so withdrawal was the right call here.
“Let’s go!”
“Ah, for a second there it felt like you were super grateful to me. Whew, no helping it. You’ve gone and fallen for me just like my other suitors.”
“…What’re you babbling about?”
Azadin left the rear garden annex alongside the nonsense-spouting Midiam.
*********
As Azadin emerged outside, patrolling mummy soldiers spotted them and closed in. And then…
-Rumble!
The annex roof caved in, revealing the Count—a naga whose upper body alone matched an ogre’s in size.
“Herald Clan!”
Outraged, the Count swung his greatsword and charged at Azadin. Azadin vaulted over the garden fountain to dodge, but…
-Krunch!
The fountain, made of terracotta tiles, was too fragile to withstand the Count’s single blow and shattered.
-Swoosh!
Azadin rolled and fired an arrow, but the Count deployed a mana shield that detonated it.
“Pointless! Interfering with my ambitions!”
“Then it’s not pointless.”
“What?”
“If it’s interfering with your ambitions, then it’s effective.”
“No, I meant your arrows are… argh, forget it! I’ll tear you into a thousand pieces!”
The incensed Count charged again. Azadin raised his left hand to Ismail and Midiam and shouted.
“Aim for the right eye!”
He himself tossed a few arrows skyward and prepared a rapid volley.
Catching Azadin’s intent, Midiam and Ismail drew arrows and began firing at the Count’s *left* eye. The signal called for the opposite target from what was stated—a hand signal used among the Herald Clan, drilled into them from childhood.
Azadin, Midiam, and Ismail hadn’t coordinated such signals beforehand, but on the fly, they zeroed in on the Count’s left eye. Azadin unleashed a barrage at it too.
“Th…”
In the pitch-black night, even the eye of a naga the size of an ogre was no bigger than a bean at this range. Yet Midiam and Ismail’s arrows flew with deadly precision, and Azadin’s rapid fire was impeccably accurate.
But the Count opened his maw, spewing venom from his fangs in a fountain-like spray that deflected the arrows.
“Ah!”
“Dodge!”
Azadin evaded the venom and fell back once more.
Mummy soldiers swarmed in, but Azadin seized them, yanked free their swords, and hurled their bodies into the path of the Count’s venom spray.
“Urk! Damn it!”
Black mana seeped into Azadin’s hand. Mere contact with the mummies inflicted a weakening curse that burrowed into his body.
Still, he’d successfully blocked and dodged all the venom. Plus, though it was more like an axe, Azadin now had a brutal iron cleaver sword in hand.
“Grrrrr!”
The Count clicked his tongue after spraying venom to block the arrows. Midiam and Ismail’s shots veered harmlessly off in the venom blast, but Azadin’s kept flying, weakened or not, and struck around the Count’s eye.
Fired with such precision, even deflected by the venom spray, they pierced the scales around his eye socket. Venom-soaked arrows embedded in his flesh meant the poison now seeped into his bloodstream.
Snakes weren’t immune to their own venom. Creatures using hemotoxic venom typically suffered damage if it entered their own veins. Of course, the Count’s massive body wouldn’t drop from arrow-tip venom alone, but…
His vision was blurring. The hemotoxin spread through the veins around his struck eye, impairing its function. Once fully circulated, he’d surely lose sight in his left eye.
“Damn! Sly little shit! Full of tricks!”
The Count was honestly impressed by Azadin. Sneaking this far, fighting battles—it had to have drained his stamina immensely. Yet he evaded every attack, landing no overwhelmingly powerful blows but peppering him effectively with irritating strikes.
*This* guy was really turning down a chance to flee and save the refugees—not even his own people—staking his life to protect them?
‘Pathetic. The soulless blasphemer, the Godslayer, the epitome of chivalry!’
A Herald willing to face death for powerless commoners, even if they weren’t his kin!
The other Heralds he’d broken—Harad and Kevna—weren’t like that. In other words, the Count had the rotten luck of facing a rare, devout Herald from the clan, one thwarting his ambitions.