#94 Our Calculations Are Over
Our accounts are settled.
Skeleton soldiers blanketed the entire area.
"Wh-wh-wh-what is this?"
Jiang Wei had never seen such a sight before.
Rumble— Ru-rumble—
There wasn't just one or two skeletons. Even at a glance, there were well over hundreds of them.
The power each one harbored wasn't all that great. However, sometimes, sheer numbers could be overwhelming.
Fwoosh—!
Flames erupting from Jiang Wei's talisman incinerated three skeletons right in front of him.
Clack clack clack!
The skeletons flailed about before thud! collapsing.
'Right.'
Jiang Wei swallowed hard.
'Each individual unit is on the weaker side.'
If this massive quantity were all powerful, nothing would be more absurd than that.
Just as Jiang Wei smirked.
"......What?"
Theo walked out holding a massive something that two skeletons, having headed into the cave, brought out while grunting.
It looked like an oval-shaped aggregate of mana.
Mana was gathering and fluctuating eerily within it. It was a Necromancer's unique ability called an 'Aura Stone', which Theo had been crafting in his spare time.
It served the role of accumulating mana during normal times to supplement mana during combat.
That mana was softly spreading out in all directions. Wherever the mana touched, the skeletons were regaining their vigor.
Clack clack clack!
"......!"
The skeletons that had been shattered by Jiang Wei's attack were hit by that mana and staggered back to their feet.
Theo's eyes had sunk with an unprecedented coldness.
Rumble
A giant skeleton titan was formed in front of Theo. Its entire body looked as if it were made of platinum, and its two eyes burned a deep blue.
What it held in its hand was the Demon Sword Apophis.
Was that all?
"Uh... Uh?"
When Jiang Wei turned around, a massive Casmus stood there.
The entire area was densely covered with the skeleton legion.
Theo reached his hand toward the sky.
Fwoooosh—!
An immense amount of mana poured down like rain onto the skeleton legion in all directions.
The Necromancer's unique ability, 'Wide-Area Enhancement', began. The skeletons receiving the mana emitted a glow from their entire bodies, and their sizes grew slightly larger.
An eerie voice leaked through Theo's lips.
Clack clack clack!
Hearing that command, the skeletons began to charge at Jiang Wei.
Bang!
Baaang!
Talismans inscribed with the Chinese character for 'Explosion' stirred up the entire area. Mana poured out from the talismans, creating explosions right in the middle of the skeletons.
Poooof!
Clatter!
Bone fragments of the skeletons rained down in all directions like a downpour.
Flame talismans turned the surroundings into a sea of fire, and thunderbolts struck, causing massive explosions in succession.
A Daoist's painstakingly crafted talismans are powerful.
Jiang Wei, who was ruthlessly unleashing those powerful talismans, suddenly felt something bizarre.
"How is this possible...?"
Clack clack clack!
Clatter! Clack!
The skeleton soldiers had definitely been completely obliterated. However, the cascading bones were flying at Jiang Wei as if they were alive.
"Ugh!"
Familiars do not know pain.
The skeleton legion, which absolutely refused to die, swarmed in endlessly without a bottom in sight.
Bone fragments rushed at Jiang Wei's entire body, creating a new terrain in the area.
Jiang Wei urgently pulled his body out and fired off talismans.
The talismans inscribed with the character for 'Water' created a massive torrent. However, the skeletons banded together to withstand the current.
Stepping on that aggregate, the next wave of skeleton soldiers mechanically charged toward Jiang Wei with single-minded devotion.
"Gah!"
Jiang Wei threw a punch.
Smash! Smash!
The skeletons were crushed. However, those bone fragments flew at Jiang Wei again as if alive, obstructing his vision.
Through that gap.
Vwooom—!
The giant skeleton titan came running.
Seeing the giant skeleton thrust the Demon Sword Apophis, Jiang Wei freaked out and twisted his body.
Swish!
The sword, which narrowly missed Jiang Wei's flank, was quickly retrieved.
Jiang Wei's talismans unfurled wide in the air.
The talismans bearing the characters for 'Protection' tore apart, creating bright yellow shields all around Jiang Wei.
'Damn it.'
Jiang Wei was slowly realizing that something was wrong.
'There's no end to them, no matter how many I break.'
The skeleton legion everywhere was an immortal army. The power of the talismans was extremely strong, but against the sheer volume of skeletons that revived no matter how many times they were killed, they were practically useless.
Furthermore.
Vwooom—!
Craaack!
The shields began to tear away under the battering of the Demon Sword Apophis.
"Damn it...!"
That giant skeleton titan in front of him was different from the other skeletons. It was exerting enough power on its own to rival a World Ranker.
Father, who was already quite powerful in the past!
But that Father had been strengthened several times over by the Constellation Gloves.
Add to that the fact that it was wielding the Demon Sword Apophis, one of the divine artifacts of the Demon Realm, and such power wasn't an impossibility.
'This is a disaster.'
Jiang Wei clicked his tongue.
'What the hell is this...?'
It wasn't the way he looked when he fought Xiao Xun. Xiao Xun had at least only dealt with that giant skeleton titan and Casmus.
Running the calculations based on that time, he was confident he could win without much difficulty.
But.
But...!
'This wasn't in my calculations...'
Gulp!
The clear cause of defeat was the lack of accurate information regarding the Necromancer.
It was Jiang Wei's fault for invading a place completely littered with corpses that the strongest Necromancer in the Demon Realm had painstakingly prepared and researched.
The problem wasn't limited to just that.
'The jiangshi...'
The massive restriction of not being able to use his jiangshi was the biggest issue.
The Daoists of the Overlord Clan fundamentally had a high dependency on mighty jiangshi.
However.
Jiang Wei had clearly seen just how quickly jiangshi became useless in front of that guy.
He couldn't even dare to bring out the jiangshi he was carefully keeping in his pockets.
In that brief moment of hesitation.
Vwooom—!
Missing the approach of the forgotten Casmus, Jiang Wei urgently looked back.
Craaack!
He saw a massive tail flying at him. He saw the bright yellow shields distorting.
What he missed again while distracted by that was Father's incoming Demon Sword Apophis.
Cr-craaaack!
"Keugh!"
The Demon Sword Apophis had finally torn the shields to shreds. And Father's sword was surging toward the bare, exposed Jiang Wei!
At that moment.
Flash—!
Rumble— Krrrooooom!
A thunderbolt struck down, smashing the crown of Father's head.
As Kirin's attack exploded, Father instantly went into a state of complete shutdown.
"Huff, huff, huff......"
Father's Demon Sword was barely touching the nape of Jiang Wei's neck.
He could vividly feel that sharp blade.
Jiang Wei's gaze went to the blade of the Demon Sword. He saw the eyeball formed on the blade roll around before giving a playful wink.
Chill!
If it had been even a moment later, it was clear that Jiang Wei's neck would have been done for.
Sizzle—
Warm blood began to flow down the nape of his neck. Feeling a chill run down his spine, Jiang Wei backed away step by step.
'I-if I don't have jiangshi, I can absolutely never win...'
But he couldn't use jiangshi against this guy.
Meaning.
'Does that mean I can't beat this guy...?'
It was a continuous series of truly absurd events.
'A lower-tier S-rank of this small country... to a guy like this...?'
This was a massive shock.
Did he, who was called the Supreme Emperor of the Chinese World, really have to feel such shame in the outskirts of this small country...?
"Uwaaaaaaah! This has to be a dream!"
Jiang Wei screamed as if in agony.
Silence fell over the entire area.
Piercing through the brief silence, Kirin's voice was heard.
Startled, Jiang Wei looked at Kirin.
"......What?"
Kirin took a step back from the Ice Dragon he had been facing off against. Then, he bowed his head.
Kirin's voice was calm.
Kirin slowly brought his head to the ground. His not-yet-fully-grown horn touched the floor.
Kirin applied force to his head.
Bzzzzzzzt—
The Ice Dragon shouted in panic.
Vwooooom—
The horn let out a roar, scattering thunderbolts in all directions. Sparks flew like a fiercely rotating drill, and a sound of scraping iron, screeech!, could be heard.
But Kirin had no intention of applying only moderate force. At some point, as he slammed his horn into the ground with even more power...
Craaaack!
The horn he had regrown over ten years snapped off.
Flash—! Rumble—!
A storm of thunderbolts raged in all directions.
To a Kirin, its horn was practically the source of its life.
Breaking that horn himself was tantamount to apologizing with his life.
Kirin staggered for a moment before slowly backing away.
His mighty aura, which had been fluctuating bright yellow all over his body, was nowhere to be found, and his massive physique gradually shrank.
Kirin's face became noticeably haggard. As he coughed, cough, cough, blue blood scattered.
He asked quietly.
The Ice Dragon soon nodded slowly.
Kirin staggered and turned around.
Soon, he unsteadily floated into the air and flew away into the distance.
"......"
With this, Jiang Wei was left completely stranded.
"Th-this crazy..."
He quickly turned his body.
'What kind of insane situation is this.'
His blood pressure spiked, making him feel like his head would explode. Soon, Jiang Wei spun around.
He still had plenty of talismans left.
"Eeeeeeeek!"
He scattered his remaining talismans.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
As a deafening explosion occurred, Jiang Wei swiftly pulled himself out.
Dash dash dash dash—!
He headed back down Mount Geumgang and began running like crazy.
'Damn it. If it's come to this...'
His mind spun furiously again. If things were like this, he had to at least take the Kirin's heart.
This was a huge deal.
The Kirin would be tremendously weakened right now, so he planned to seize this opening and kill the Kirin.
'Alright. As long as I get the Eternal Crystal...'
That was the only thing he needed to get.
Clenching his teeth, he ran like a madman.
The snowfield began.
Running like a runaway train, Jiang Wei sensed the Kirin's aura from all around.
Suddenly.
He saw the Kirin flying unsteadily in the distance.
As if it had completely exhausted all the strength in its body, the Kirin staggered and swayed before eventually plummeting, thud!, right in the middle of the snowfield.
'At the very least, that...'
It was the moment Jiang Wei was running like an arrow.
"Huh?"
At some point.
"......?"
Like an illusion, someone was standing in front of him.
It was a man standing with his arms crossed, looking down at the fallen Kirin.
That man had appeared at some point like a phantom, and he was making a very displeased expression.
Jiang Wei shouted.
"Wh-who the hell are yooouuu!"