Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Able to Cut
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BOOOOM!
A fierce clash.
An ear-shattering roar shook the entire space.
"Urk...!"
Balrog groaned as he was pushed back.
He had barely managed to block it, but the impact was overwhelming.
He's strong.
Damian sensed it instinctively.
A presence massive enough to completely demolish the command post.
An aura incomparable to any enemy he had faced before.
A true disaster incarnate.
"A spirit?"
Even Mikhail was seeing a spirit in person for the first time.
This caused immense confusion to swirl in his mind.
But he was the commander.
He couldn't afford to hesitate here.
"Everyone, scatter!"
Mikhail quickly assessed the situation.
"The shaman summoned the spirit! Killing the caster is our only option!"
He had never fought a spirit before.
However, as the guardian of Sobkov Territory, he had learned certain things.
Summoners' summoning magic, necromancers' soul-binding spells, spirit mages' spirit arts.
All such forbidden arts relied on the caster as the medium.
So, there was no choice but to sever that link.
The life of the Shaman King, Caldaram.
"Aden! Trollbane! Pin down the spirit's legs with Balrog! Separate the shaman at any cost!"
Hold back that colossal spirit.
An order no different from a death sentence.
Yet not a single one hesitated.
"You hunk of rock bastard!"
Aden charged at the spirit.
His movements were as reckless as a berserker's.
BOOM!
His axe cleaved into the spirit's lower body.
Stone shattered, and dust billowed.
But the damage was negligible.
RUMBLE...
On the contrary, the shattered section regenerated in an instant.
As if mocking them that this was nothing.
"Haaap!"
This time, the Trollbane twins flanked it from both sides.
Their swords targeted what looked like fragile joint areas.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
But swords could do nothing.
The stone infused with the spirit's power was harder than iron.
It was the worst matchup imaginable for swordsmen.
As long as the shaman remains intact, that thing is invincible.
Damian thought.
The lord commander's words were right.
Which left only one option.
Whoosh!
Behead the shaman.
But—
The moment Caldaram slammed his staff down, rock walls erupted around him from all sides.
CLANG!
Damian's Elven Sword was blocked by the wall.
Even with full power, it couldn't leave a single scratch.
It's tough.
Not ordinary rock.
A barrier infused with the spirit's power, as expected.
"I'll do it!"
Mikhail raised his greatsword high.
Power at the pinnacle of Expert level.
All of it condensed at the blade's tip.
CLANG!
Yet the barrier didn't crumble.
It merely scattered some stone dust with minor scratches.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
Mikhail didn't give up.
If not in one strike, then two, four, eight.
Dozens, hundreds of times if needed.
But—
Caldaram, hiding within the barrier, chanted another spell.
RUMBLE...
This time, a massive rock fist formed in midair.
A fist swung at the shaman's will.
BOOM! CRASH! BOOOOM!
That pair of fists assaulted the lord commander and Damian.
The shaman was no pushover either.
He's not just controlling the spirit.
Damian gritted his teeth.
Defensive spells that withstood even the lord commander's strikes.
Sharp offenses launched simultaneously.
No openings visible whatsoever.
BOOOOM!
The longer it took to deal with the shaman...
The Earth Spirit rampaged anew.
For instance, targeting Aden.
CRUNCH!
A rock fist grazed his shoulder.
No time to dodge.
"Kuh...!"
The problem was that even that was lethal.
His left shoulder was completely crushed.
"Aden!"
Was that all?
Balrog and the Trollbane brothers were struggling too.
Sacrificing their lives was the best they could do to hold on.
The spirit was an unforeseen variable.
"Did you think I wouldn't anticipate this?"
Caldaram took in the entire scene.
And burst into mad laughter.
"I've been waiting. For exactly this moment...!"
The situation reached its worst.
The suicide squad was crumbling.
A drastic measure was needed.
"...No choice, then."
Mikhail, lost in thought for a moment.
Steadied his breathing as if resolved.
And began resonating with mana.
"Huuuuuuu..."
The air warped.
Mana was being drawn in.
That's...?
Damian sensed it instinctively.
The lord commander breaking through some 'limit.'
In a way that was far from normal.
Mana Awakening.
Mikhail's hair turned pure white.
Blue eyes glowing with mana flashed.
Even his breaths expelled hot steam.
"Damian."
"Yes, Lord Commander."
"I'll clear the path."
"...!"
"Finish it."
"...Understood."
The conversation ended there.
Whoosh!
Mikhail charged at Shaman Caldaram.
His movements were utterly different from before.
So swift even Damian nearly lost track.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Caldaram instinctively felt fear at the overwhelming momentum.
He gestured, sending a massive rock fist flying at Mikhail.
BOOM! CRASH!
But Mikhail's speed was far greater.
It couldn't even graze his clothes.
"Block him! Hurry!"
That left only the spirit.
At Caldaram's shout, the spirit reacted.
It immediately turned to intercept Mikhail.
"Where do you think you're going!"
But even that was blocked by the suicide squad.
Balrog charged with his dented shield.
Climbed onto the spirit's shoulder with his battered body.
BOOM!
And struck down with all his might.
With the shield's edge, at the spirit's head.
BOOM! CRASH! BOOOOM!
Attacks squeezing out his last reserves.
Aden and the Trollbane brothers joined in.
Desperate efforts to hold back the spirit.
Nothing more than a few seconds of struggle.
But that was enough.
"That's enough."
Mikhail had already closed in right before Caldaram.
"Let's end this!"
The moment his greatsword smashed into the rock barrier.
BOOOOOM!
This time, it was decisively different.
From the sound to the destructive power.
BOOM! CRUNCH! CRACK!
Before the life-force-burning strike, the barrier was meaningless.
It collapsed like ordinary rubble.
"Th-this...!"
Caldaram vomited blood from the backlash.
The instant he staggered back.
"Damiiaaan!"
Even before the lord commander called his name.
Damian moved a beat faster.
I'll finish it. With my own hands!
The opportunity the suicide squad created with everything they had.
A silver flash, staking it all, sliced through the air.
SLASH!
And that beam of light achieved its purpose.
Caldaram's head flew off pathetically.
New power seeped into his body.
The sensation of communing with the earth's mana.
Eyes that discerned the flow of elements.
"Hah! Hah! Haah...!"
They did it.
The opportunity the suicide squad staked their lives on.
He had seized that sole chance for victory.
"...Huh?"
But that was mere delusion.
The Earth Spirit didn't vanish no matter how long they waited.
Not until they faced it rampaging even more ferociously.
...What? Why isn't it disappearing?
The strategy of severing the summoning medium.
Conventional wisdom time-tested.
It had failed.
Was my choice wrong?
Everyone was stunned.
An unexpected variable.
And then.
‘Runaway beyond control.’
The shaman's death had instead unshackled it.
The fallout of that rampage headed straight for the suicide squad.
"We have to block it!"
The Trollbane brothers, holding the spirit to the last, attempted a final joint attack.
CRUNCH!
But an even larger rock hand crushed their bodies like insects.
"Gunther! Arsen!"
Mikhail's agonized scream echoed desperately.
And not just them.
SPLAT!
This time, Balrog Gardner.
The shield knight was sent flying by the spirit's fist.
No strength left to endure, no shield to block.
Sobkov's greatest shield lay in shattered pieces.
"Balrog!"
Three down in an instant.
Dead or critically wounded.
"You bastard!"
Mikhail charged at the Earth Spirit, vomiting blood.
An attempt to end it while the aftereffects of Mana Awakening lingered.
SCRAAAPE!
His greatsword carved through the sturdy body.
Of course, it didn't stop there.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! BOOOOM!
The frenzy of slashing resumed.
Just like how he demolished the rock barrier moments ago.
This time, intent on shattering the spirit's body into pieces.
RUMBLE...
But that lasted only a moment.
The spirit's body, clearly split into multiple chunks.
Those countless stones reformed into shape.
Back to the same form, with massive limbs.
"What... is this?"
A spirit that wouldn't die no matter how many pieces it was cut into.
How do you kill a monster like that?
"Cough...!"
Mikhail spat up black blood.
Even he was reaching his limit.
Mana Awakening lasted mere minutes at best.
It was then, when even the lord commander found no answer.
...I see it.
Damian Winter.
Only he saw it.
Not despair, but hope.
The elemental threads binding that monster together.
Essence Eye: Earth.
And Earth Resonance.
They provided new information.
Whoosh!
Damian Winter, resolve hardened.
He moved without hesitation.
Gripping the Elven Sword with both hands.
Cut.
Invisible things can't be cut.
But if it's visible...
I can cut it.
Plenty.
SLASH!
The moment the first thread was severed.
THUD!
The spirit's leg collapsed.
SLASH!
The second thread severed.
THUD! BOOM!
Both arms detached.
SLASH!
The final, third thread severed.
RUMBLE...
Dozens of stones and rocks tumbled down.
Not coercive destruction, but a return to its true nature.
And with that.
As always.
Blue text cluttered his vision.
The price of their hard-fought victory.