episode_0081

Clang! Clatter!

Kenneth moved desperately.

He batted away the encroaching Sakpung, which freely traversed the air, all while aiming for an opening in his opponent’s defenses.

But the power difference was despair-inducing. Pernia stood a short distance away, arms crossed, leisurely watching him.

Not only had she gained Sakpung during the break, but she also seemed to have consumed a potent elixir. Despite what should have been considerable mana consumption, she felt no burden at all.

Kenneth barely managed to deflect the rotating, surging Sakpung.

However, he couldn’t completely shake it off, and blood flowed from his grazed shoulder.

‘Damn it! That bitch. I’ll definitely kill her.’

Even in the current situation, where not only weapon performance but even their levels differed, his fighting spirit did not extinguish.

He truly suited the description of a berserker.

Pernia also sensed his will and hardened her expression. She drew a dagger from her waist and slowly approached.

Kenneth was aghast at the sight of the dagger.

“You… what is that?!”

“Why, are you surprised? There’s no use regretting it. I have no intention of letting you live now.”

Pernia, seeing Kenneth’s berserker-like qualities, concluded that he would be a threat in the future.

She raised her dagger and pointed it forward.

The dagger greatly resembled the Sakpung currently circling Kenneth.

No, it was simply identical.

Moreover, another spirit, summoned by Pernia’s will, wrapped around the dagger, stirring up wind.

In other words, it meant that not only its appearance but also its function was perfectly identical.

“This is unbelievable…!”

Kenneth couldn’t easily calm down at the sight that clearly defied common sense.

In the meantime, Pernia melted into thin air and vanished.

“Where are you?! Come out!”

Kenneth, intuiting that he could truly die on this spot today, reacted roughly. He kept the Sakpung, which constantly circled, aiming for an opening, in check, while remaining wary of the vanished Pernia.

At that moment, the Sakpung surged forward, and Pernia appeared precisely from the opposite side.

“What are you going to do if I come out?”

With a mocking whisper, Pernia’s dagger tore through space.

“Damn it!”

Kenneth raised his concentration to the maximum, deflected the Sakpung surging from the front, and then launched his body away from the spot.

However, unfortunately, his movements couldn’t match Pernia’s agility.

Slash!

Her dagger, twisting its trajectory, caught up to Kenneth and grazed the tip of his cheek.

The Sakpung, enchanted with the power of the wind spirit, easily sliced through his skin like tofu.

Kenneth wiped the blood flowing from his cheek and laughed fiercely.

“Alright. Let’s try this. I’ll take you down!”

This time, Kenneth charged in reverse.

His unique skill, Blood Fiend, had a mechanism where his physical abilities increased in proportion to the amount of blood he shed.

Without fearing injury, he threw his entire body into the assault.

In less than a minute, Kenneth’s entire body was drenched in blood.

“Tsk! How persistent.”

“Hahaha! Go on, try and kill me. Try it!”

Pernia frowned, as if troubled.

It wasn’t that Kenneth had become so strong that he was difficult to deal with, but he was openly charging with the intent of a mutual kill, which was quite annoying.

She had several chances to kill him until now, but if she did, she would have to suffer losses herself, so she had no choice but to back off.

Therefore, she decided to stop playing around and deal with him seriously.

“You’re quite resilient. But that’s the end of it now!”

Pernia drew out mana.

The vast amount of mana accumulated from consuming the Storm Hawk’s core moved at once, concentrating into the Sakpung through her hand.

Whir!

With a small resonance, another spirit was summoned around her.

The wind gathered and rotated, then a wolf roughly 2 meters in size appeared.

Unlike Sylphs, which were merely low-grade, Shuriel, an intermediate spirit, was capable of direct combat.

“Go! Shuriel!”

Roar!

Simultaneously with Pernia’s command, Shuriel roared and charged. Two Sakpung blades, enveloped in Sylph winds, guarded its sides.

It was truly a despair-inducing offensive.

“Hahaha! I’ll take at least one of you down with me!”

Spirits are elemental beings. While death in the material plane is merely a temporary setback, if they are forcibly unsummoned, the summoner takes damage.

Kenneth, even if he were to meet his death, intended to inflict at least some pain.

Clang! Clatter! Clang clang clang!

He ingeniously moved his sword like flowing water, batting away the two Sakpung blades and aiming for Shuriel, but his sword was caught by its sharp teeth and stopped.

Its biting force was so strong that if he tried to pull it out by force, his sword would likely break.

“Damn it all!”

Kenneth released his sword without hesitation.

And in that split-second opening, as he tried to pull out a spare sword from his subspace pouch, Pernia exploited it.

“Die!”

After sending Sakpung and Shuriel, she had been lurking in a spatial rift as a Dweller of the Rift.

Completely caught off guard, Kenneth couldn’t even react to the attack. He could only stare blankly at the approaching dagger.

At that critical moment.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave swept through the spot where Pernia had been standing.

She landed a short distance away.

When she turned her head, she saw a man. The problem was his appearance. The man was wearing a mask, and his silver eyes glinted.

“You…!”

Pernia’s eyes widened.

A familiar situation. A familiar appearance. Familiar attire.

The commonality of these three things made her recall the humiliation she had experienced in the secret passage.

Even if she wasn’t particularly the type to prioritize purity, the shock at that time was immense for Pernia as well.

Grinding her teeth in surging anger, she soon formed a joyful smile.

“How dare you appear here? It’s perfect timing. I’ll kill you right now!”

Now that she had gained Sakpung, consumed the core, and even ascended in realm, she was overflowing with confidence.

She boldly gave up on Kenneth and focused all the power she had deployed on him entirely on the masked man. Once again, Shuriel and two Sakpung blades flew in, and Pernia vanished into space.

In front of them, the masked man calmly looked at Kenneth and said.

“Run away.”

“…What?”

“You’re in the way.”

Boom!

Immediately after, their fight began.

*

Clang! Clatter! Whine!

Three minutes after the battle began, I had only defended against Pernia’s attacks.

“Die! Just die! How long do you plan to hold out?! That’s useless! Mana just overflows now!”

Her realm and mine are identical. If I set my mind to solidifying my defense, no matter how much Sakpung and spirits she mobilizes, she cannot easily inflict damage.

Perhaps that frustrated her, as she emphasized that defense was meaningless and poured out her offensive.

Whiz! Whiz-whiz!

In the battle where the tempo had risen a notch, eventually, scratches began to appear on my body, one by one.

I looked at Pernia and pondered.

‘Can I win?’

In terms of combat sense and skill, I was superior, but the existence of Sakpung negated that difference.

I also use Arachne’s Gauntlet, but if I had to say, it wasn’t a weapon that suited me. Furthermore, Pernia had two Sakpung blades.

Since Sakpung was originally just one blade, that must naturally be the power of a unique skill she gained after reaching Level 100.

‘What kind of ridiculously overpowered skill is that?’

Sakpung is a top-tier weapon that can even summon a Spirit King in the late game, and she can copy that?

Considering that what I gained after reaching Level 100 was the ‘Rapist’s Holy Water,’ it was so unfair that it was absurd.

While I writhed in indignation, the heat of the battle grew hotter and hotter.

“Come on! Are you just going to collapse like that? Why don’t you try to rape me like last time!”

Had she grown impatient with the stalled fight?

Pernia, who had been unilaterally pouring out attacks, provoked wildly.

I ended my deliberation there.

‘I guess there’s no choice.’

Pernia wouldn’t give up on me like this, and if we fought in this state, one of us would probably die. So, to subdue her, I also needed to exert a certain level of power.

Of course, ‘Incarnation’ is too distinctive, so I should use abilities already revealed to Pernia.

Boom!

I used Rupture to strike Pernia away and then leaped back.

The fight entered a lull, and I declared.

“I’ll rape you.”

“Gasp…!”

Pernia, upon hearing the declaration of rape, flinched for a moment. It was probably due to a slight trauma she had developed.

She soon shouted, undaunted.

“Yes. Rape me! Try it! I’ll cut off your dick!”

A voice full of rage.

Her momentum was fierce, as if she would charge immediately, but Pernia did not act rashly.

Instead, she calmly analyzed the situation, and judging that Shuriel couldn’t handle me, she unsummoned it and filled its empty spot with countless Sylphs.

Soon, she reached into her bosom and threw dozens of daggers into the sky.

A Sylph resided in each and every one of those daggers, and they surged forward all at once, riding the wind.

Whoosh!

It was as if tens of thousands of bees were buzzing.

The attacks flying in, occupying the space around them, were unwelcome for me, who focused on strength.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t handle them.

Clang clang clang clang!

I quickly grasped the daggers’ positions, then broke through the weakest point in the encirclement, moving while simultaneously defending and evading.

Against the relentless offensive, I even felt a sense of familiarity.

‘It’s just like training.’

Having batted away mana orbs endlessly in the cafeteria basement, it actually felt easier to deal with now than before.

I perfectly defended against the daggers, without allowing even the slightest damage.

It seemed to surprise Pernia.

“How…!”

She gasped in astonishment and instinctively took half a step back.

Then, realizing she had gotten scared, she bit her lip firmly, grasped the two Sakpung blades tightly, and lunged towards me…

“Huh?”

Instead of coming, she ran to a treasure chest.

Pernia opened the chest, took out the Boots of Absorption, threw off her own shoes, and put them on.

Then she turned her head towards me.

“You’re finished now!”

Pernia, armed with equipment-based power, melted into space. One second later, she kicked off the ceiling, fell, and swung her dagger at me.

Afterward, she ran along the walls using the Boots of Absorption and began to pour out attacks from multiple angles.

Moreover, that wasn’t the end.

Utilizing the functions of the Boots of Absorption, she displayed various applications, such as releasing wind at the moment of attack to increase destructive power, or absorbing it to remove recoil, enabling sudden stops.

I absolutely couldn’t keep up with Pernia’s movements, as she flashed here and there.

Curses naturally rose from within me.

‘What a messed-up skill.’

If only the ‘Rape Declaration’ hadn’t also strengthened the opponent, I would have won much more easily.

While I expressed my regret, I also searched for a breakthrough.

Clang!

And finally, I discovered something.

Simultaneously with my blow shattering a dagger, the spirit controlling it had stopped.

‘That’s it!’

I immediately understood why it was behaving that way.

Low-grade spirits do not have high intelligence.

Therefore, they only follow very simple instructions. Since it couldn’t follow the instruction to control the dagger now, a momentary confusion occurred.

As soon as I realized that, after shattering another dagger, I ignored all attacks and charged at the controlling spirit.

Due to the confusion in its command system, it merely stared at me blankly.

“Oh, no!”

Pernia realized my intention belatedly and shouted, but it was already too late.

Pop!

My fist burst the cute fairy, barely a span long, into smithereens.

“Ugh!?”

At the same time, Pernia, who had received the backlash, clutched her chest and groaned.

I curled up the corners of my mouth into a grin.

‘It’s time to counterattack now.’