Ch.1198Through Determination, Grit, and Bluster

======[ Hubrisia ]======

“What’s wrong? Can’t approach me? If you keep retreating like that, you won’t even be able to touch me with your fingertips even after a thousand years!”

Hubrisia, concealing her body within the thick poisonous mist, mocked Haschal who kept retreating cautiously as she sealed her forcibly reconnected wounds with her spider silk.

“Look at this loudmouth who was just cut in half.”

Of course, that mockery wasn’t particularly effective.

“Which one of us couldn’t land a single touch? With twelve limbs attached, you should have landed at least one hit. If I were you, I’d rip them all off out of sheer embarrassment.”

“What…!”

When it came to verbal sparring, she was no match for Haschal’s skill. Every time they exchanged words, she ended up giving a dollar and getting back a dime.

After all, having suffered a critical wound due to a moment’s carelessness, mocking her opponent only amounted to spitting in her own face for being defeated by such an opponent.

Hubrisia understood this much. Though her chest was boiling with rage, her mind at least clearly comprehended the situation.

‘How tragic. It was just a moment, merely a moment of carelessness…!’

The worst outcome brought about by a split second of inattention.

Though she had allowed just one attack, the damage she suffered was so severe that words like “painful” couldn’t begin to describe it.

‘My lungs are damaged. My spine is severed, and though I avoided a direct hit, even my divine core is wounded….’

The soul resides in the head, and power dwells in the heart.

Like most demigods of the mortal realm who were once mere creatures, Hubrisia’s divine core was located near her heart.

Haschal’s Durandal, swung while time was frozen, had lightly grazed that very heart, causing minor damage to part of her divine core.

‘…That was close. Fortunately, the damage to my divine core is manageable, but I nearly lost my life in such a pathetic way.’

Thanks to her desperate spatial distortion, she had barely avoided instant death. Had her response been even slightly delayed, either her head or divine core would have been completely destroyed.

In that case, even she would have had no way to survive—she had literally approached death’s doorstep in an instant and barely escaped.

But that was the extent of any consolation.

Though she had somehow avoided instant death, how could she feel safe about avoiding vital spots when her body had been completely split in two?

A severed spine, lungs and internal organs split in half, blood vessels and muscles gushing with blood—not a single wound that wasn’t life-threatening.

‘If I continue fighting like this, defeat is certain. I’m in no condition to respond to that barbaric woman’s movements….’

A truth that Hubrisia herself knew better than anyone.

Outwardly, she was putting on airs, challenging her opponent to approach if she dared, but her body was already in no condition to handle any further combat.

She had connected her severed body using her spatial connection ability and stitched it together with spider silk, but this was merely a temporary measure.

It wasn’t recovery or healing, just emergency treatment to prevent further deterioration.

The spider silk would tear open again with even slightly vigorous movement, but maintaining the spatial connection ability continuously would make it difficult to counteract the severing strike.

Even her poison mist attack at close range, which might have allowed her to turn the tide if it had landed, was neutralized by Frosting’s curse, rendering it meaningless.

Though she still had several means of attack that didn’t require movement, what good was the ability to attack when both defense and evasion were difficult?

Her challenge to approach was merely a bluff to hide her physical condition; if actual combat resumed, she might be one-sidedly beaten and die instantly.

In such a situation, it was only natural that the word “retreat” would come to mind.

Amidst the poisonous mist that hung like a smoke screen, Hubrisia gritted her teeth in frustration and humiliation, contemplating whether she should truly withdraw.

‘…Does this mean I must tuck my tail and flee? Me, Hubrisia?’

To survive, she needed to retreat.

But the thought of simply fleeing made her demigod pride hold her back like shackles.

Additionally, the fact that she had already committed most of her forces to the wall battle weighed on her mind.

While she herself could somehow escape if she wanted to, what would happen to the arachnes currently attacking the wall?

They had already advanced too far to retreat. Issuing a withdrawal order now would only ensure their annihilation during the retreat.

Fleeing now would merely save her life while losing all the prestige and power she had built up.

They say you can always have more children, but there are limits—losing this many troops at once would take an immeasurable amount of time to recover from.

Perhaps before she could recover from that damage, another demigod targeting her weakened state would attack her.

In other words, fleeing meant losing everything she had achieved and having to live quietly tucked away in a cave for at least several hundred years.

Even with her life hanging in the balance on the other side of the scale, it was natural to hesitate for a moment.

Perhaps, though it was only the slimmest of possibilities, if she could buy time, maybe a chance for reversal would present itself.

Due to such lingering attachment, Hubrisia couldn’t bring herself to flee and continued to hesitate.

She glanced anxiously at the indirect causes of her critical injury—the orc War Devil Caljarat and the nameless Fallen Angel.

======[ Caljarat ]======

“Krhaaaaap!”

Unlike Hubrisia who had reached death’s doorstep with a single mistake, the orc demigod Caljarat was still going strong.

Though he had lost two arms and his entire body was covered in all sorts of wounds, he had avoided vital spots and major organs, so from Caljarat’s perspective, they were all merely minor injuries.

Two arms gone and still calling them minor injuries?

That’s just from a human perspective. By orc warrior standards, any injury that didn’t make combat impossible was merely a minor wound.

Caljarat, exemplifying such orc warrior spirit, might rage at his wounds but never even considered retreating because of them.

“You cowardly bastard…!”

Of course, this didn’t mean Caljarat was in an advantageous situation.

Strictly speaking, the battle situation was rather the opposite. By a narrow margin but clearly visible to anyone, Caljarat was gradually being pushed back.

“Fight properly! What the hell are you doing!”

Not because of a pure difference in strength, but due to the compatibility of tactics and divine abilities.

—-

Caljarat, who had originally come looking for Haschal, finally reached the limit of his patience due to continuous interference and changed his target from Haschal to the Fallen Angel, charging at him like an enraged bull.

【 Hostile divine ■ approaching. Priority counter■ initiated. 】

The Fallen Angel, who had been indiscriminately bombarding widely, also responded to this hostility by narrowing his target to just Caljarat.

As a result, the third party, Hubrisia, suffered truly massive damage, but neither of the two monsters cared about such circumstances.

The orc demigod and the Fallen Angel clashed like colliding storms, focusing only on each other.

– Whoooong!

…Or rather, only Caljarat did so.

“Krahahaaaap! …Hmm? What is that form?”

What awaited Caljarat, who had broken through by cutting, deflecting, and enduring the light beams pouring down like heavy rain, was the Fallen Angel who had folded all his wings and transformed into a spherical shape.

“Trying to block with your wings? Do you think that will work?”

Judging it to be some kind of defensive posture, Caljarat roared like spitting fire and brought down his three great swords like flashing thunder.

– Kwararrung!

A slash containing enough power to shatter even a dragon’s bones and scales in a single blow. That lightning-like blade penetrated the Fallen Angel’s feathers—

– Whoooong!

And passed through without any resistance, like cutting through river water, emerging on the opposite side.

“What…!”

Caljarat widened his eyes in momentary confusion. However, being an experienced orc who had fought countless battles, he immediately realized what had happened.

“Phantomization? Of all things, such a troublesome ability…!”

Phantomization.

A top-tier evasion ability that momentarily transforms one’s physical form into an illusion, allowing most attacks to pass through.

Though implementation methods varied, each had at least one weakness, so it wasn’t invincible, but without exploiting that weakness, there was no way to counter it.

‘Subspace, world-class illusion, or etherealization. Which is it?’

Caljarat knew three methods of implementing phantomization.

Creating a subspace and hiding within it, casting an illusion on the world itself to deceive about one’s existence, or transforming oneself into an ethereal being.

There was also a method of completely denying one’s own existence to become momentarily phantomized, but that wasn’t possible at the demigod level.

Anyway, subspace could be broken with spatial interference abilities, and illusions could be shattered in the same way as breaking mental magic.

The third method, etherealization, was slightly more troublesome, but even that wasn’t a concern if one had the means to attack souls directly.

Even the final method of existence denial had a way to break it.

In terms of countermeasures, that one was actually the easiest to deal with. Simply continuing to slash at the illusion endlessly was sufficient.

Having denied their own existence, the subject was no longer an existing life but merely an illusion barely maintaining selfhood through divine power or similar forces.

If one prevented re-materialization while dragging out time to the limit, even that selfhood would fade, ultimately reducing them to a pure mass of power without will.

So, what method was the Fallen Angel using for phantomization…?

‘…How am I supposed to tell the difference?’

Caljarat had no way of knowing.

Such distinctions weren’t matters that could be resolved merely with extensive combat experience; they required advanced magical and mystical knowledge.

Unfortunately, although Caljarat had awakened his divine nature and ascended to demigod status, his essential nature remained that of a pure orc warrior, just as in his mortal days.

He was completely useless in matters requiring knowledge rather than experience.

“Ah, I don’t know! If I keep cutting, it’ll work itself out eventually!”

Therefore, the solution Caljarat chose was, in many ways, typical of an orc warrior—truly simple, brutal, and forceful.