Chapter 74
Chapter 74
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Temple of the Serpent 5
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"Not yet. Not yet…."
The count snarled in rage as he searched for Azadin. His dream, his ambition—it was far from over.
If he could take down that herald, rally the remaining mummy troops, and call in reinforcements from the Kurt God Tribe and the nagas of Nagashura who supported him… it was a loss he could still recover from.
There were plenty of corpses anyway. Plenty of humans to turn into corpses. The drought would continue, and this world would plunge into chaos.
And now that things had come to this, Queen Debislin of the Kurt God Tribe and the nagas wouldn't abandon him.
Would they…?
-Rumble…
With a terrifying surge of power, the count's body began to swell. His upper body, already ogre-sized, nearly doubled in bulk, and his tail grew even longer.
The massive greatsword that had seemed like a dagger when he was ogre-sized now felt as small as a fork.
"Hah! I knew they wouldn't abandon me!"
The count hurried after Azadin.
*********
The enraged count charged at Azadin. He uprooted a massive wooden torch post nearby and began swinging it like a club.
"W-What? A growth spurt? He's still getting bigger?"
Azadin gaped as the count, who had clearly been ogre-sized moments ago, continued to expand. He leaped over the garden's rear wall.
-Crash!
He'd figured the pile of decorative bricks, meant to cast shade in the garden, wouldn't be too sturdy—and sure enough, they shattered effortlessly.
"Uwaa!"
Azadin screamed, rolling to dodge the shower of debris. The count's tail whistled past his head by a hair's breadth. The garden's slight undulations allowed it to skim by in the gap even as the tail whipped around.
"Urgh! You slippery bastard!"
The count marveled at Azadin's agility and twisted his body, but his enlarged frame had slowed his reactions. Seizing the opening, Azadin ducked behind a large ceramic fountain flanked by flower beds.
"No you don't!"
Even that spot shattered under one sweep from the count. But Azadin used the obstacles to slip from the count's sight for a split second, changing direction effectively and evading.
From the count's perspective, it was infuriating. He'd dodge left, so he'd lunge left—only for Azadin to slip right. He'd think back, charge straight—only for Azadin to dart in diagonally from the front and loop around.
The fact that it happened every time meant his moves were being read like an open book. It felt like getting crushed in rock-paper-scissors or a card game, one loss after another.
"You little shit!"
The count lashed out wildly, but Azadin dodged nimbly every time. In fact, while running, he adjusted his quiver and sheathed the jagged iron sword he'd taken from a mummy soldier in his belt.
'Honestly… impressive! As expected of the emperor's herald!'
Amazed by Azadin's movements, the count pressed the chase.
No matter how skilled Azadin was, the count's enlarged body meant wider attack range. His responsiveness had dropped, true, but each swing or sweep covered so much ground that Azadin had to sprint at full speed to evade every time.
No human could keep that up forever. Sure enough, Azadin was panting, pouring every ounce of strength into each dodge.
*********
'Damn it, I'm gonna die at this rate.'
Azadin definitely sensed the crisis. He shouted to Midiam and Ismail.
"Midiam! Ismail! Get out of here!"
"Y-Yes?! But—!"
"Deal with the mummy soldiers on your way out!"
"What about you?"
"If I don't hold him off, you're all in danger! Don't worry about me."
Azadin scooped up arrows scattered on the ground. They were the ones he'd told Midiam and Ismail to shoot when they first entered this garden annex.
He filled his quiver to the brim, clutching the extras in hand.
"Alright!"
Azadin stabbed some of the arrows into the ground. The floor was pooled with the count's venom; he coated the arrowheads in it.
-Swoosh!
He fired a poison arrow he'd made that way, but the count deployed a barrier to block them. Could arrows pierce the barrier? And even if they did, could they penetrate the count's now-massive scales?
'We're screwed.'
As Azadin despaired, an arrow streaked in from the side—Midiam's. Despite Azadin's order to flee, she'd loosed it straight at the count.
But her bow was weak; it couldn't pierce his scales even when he was ogre-sized. Now, twice that bulk, his scales were thicker than ever.
Even Azadin, at point-blank range with a full draw from a strongbow, couldn't guarantee a penetration. Yet Midiam's arrow was no ordinary shot.
-'Flower-Bird Wind-Moon White Crane!'
The arrow flew far beyond her usual range and struck the count's barrier, which shattered to pieces. Midiam's magic had demolished it.
While magic-less Azadin had tried brute force to break through, Midiam had infused her arrow with magic to chip away at it.
"Gah?!"
With the barrier gone, Azadin's poison arrow sank into the count's flesh.
"Whoa, nice one!"
Azadin marveled at Midiam's perfect assist. And it didn't stop there.
-'Flower-Bird Wind-Moon Golden Crane!'
Ismail fired a magic-infused arrow too. Knowing Azadin's next target was the count's right eye, it flew right to his nose—then veered right, hitting near the eye. It exploded on impact, shocking the count's entire skin.
"Graaah!"
The count screamed.
"You treat me like a kid, but I'm an Aragas too!"
Midiam said that as she loosed another enchanted arrow.
"Damn it!"
The count scooped up a handful of broken brick shards from the ground to hurl at Midiam and Ismail, but Azadin fired a poison arrow right then.
-Thunk!
Azadin's rapid-fire technique involved half-drawing for speed. But this time, he drew fully, then propelled the bowstring for extra velocity.
Aragas technique!
His effort paid off—the arrow pierced the scales and buried deep under the eye socket, vanishing up to its fletching.
"Graaah!"
The count writhed and rolled. He'd barely avoided a direct eyeball hit, but with the poison arrow lodged in the ocular muscle, his right eye's vision would soon fail.
What could he do with razor-sharp sand in his eye, stabbing the muscle with every movement and injecting venom?
He wouldn't go fully blind right away thanks to his size, but the pain kept his eye screwed shut.
"You bastards!"
Azadin fired more poison arrows at the eye area. Blind the count now, and they could win!
But that was a mistake.
*********
This time, the count charged. Ignoring the arrow in his eye socket, he barreled toward Azadin.
"Urk!"
Azadin deployed Dusk to dodge the greatsword, but the tail followed. He blocked it with the crude iron sword at his belt, flipping backward to absorb the impact—but…
Unlike before, this hit hard. The tail had come mid-draw, so he'd blocked one-handed.
Failing to fully absorb the shock, Azadin flew over the garden structures, landing on the gallery roof connecting the garden to the bell tower.
"You're… still alive in that situation?"
The count gaped, feeling almost no impact from his tail. Azadin had absorbed most of it again and flipped away to safety. But…
"Kh…."
His nosebleed started again. No breaks, but his head buzzed, thunder roaring in his ears.
It felt like his whole body—head, gut, hips, legs—had been pummeled by heavy punches. The mummy's iron sword had shattered cleanly.
The count's larger body meant greater power. Blocking one-handed without both hands had shaken his organs and blood flow. Azadin used the Kazas Hasse breathing technique to control and recover as fast as possible.
If the count had pressed then—or if any mummy soldiers were near—Azadin would've been done for.
"Raaaaagh!"
But the count wasn't faring well either.
The poison arrow left his left eye blurry; the right still worked but ached and itched. Enraged, he swung his sword and torch post at Azadin, who flipped back toward the bell tower despite his injuries.
*********
"W-What are you?"
Soldiers hid in the bell tower. Terrified by the mummy soldiers and giant snake monster, they'd taken shelter there.
"Mind if I borrow some weapons?"
Azadin paused mid-sentence. The bell tower roof had burned and collapsed, leaving charred rafters overhead.
Inside, planks braced the tower's weight, but to stop the fire from spreading and collapsing it, the soldiers had cleared them.
"You all, run! This tower's coming down!"
"What? T-That…"
"I'll buy time—go, now!"
Azadin grabbed his Moonlit Bow and climbed to a window, firing arrows from there.
"Kyaaak!"
The count roared and approached the tower.
"Back door!"
"Y-Yeah… right!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
The soldiers fled at Azadin's command.
"Alright then!"
Azadin grabbed the bell rope and climbed up.
"You pest!"
To catch him, the count chanted a spell. Blood spears flew into the bell window, turning inside to shoot skyward.
"Dead?"
As the count wondered,
-Rumble!
The bell tower began to topple.
"Huh?!"
While the count panicked, Azadin leaped from the top, gripping a halberd head, plunging toward the count's skull.
-'Flower-Bird Wind-Moon Wall Thunder, Kazas Hasse!'
A thunderbolt-like shockwave pierced the count's thick skull and burrowed inside.
"Guh?!"
Tower debris rained down. Worst, a sharpened charred rafter speared through the count's body—Azadin had angled his descent using the rope.
"M-Maniac…"
Screaming, the count was impaled and buried under the bell tower.