Ch.1257Dog Fight

Geirod’s companion and his most trusted confidant, Hrungnir was a giant with an exceptionally ferocious appearance even among his kind.

His brow bone protruded through his skin with fiercely upturned eyes. Sharp, crooked teeth jutted out beyond his lips.

His boulder-like body was one and a half times larger than other giants, covered from head to toe in thick muscles and savage scars.

Not only was his appearance intimidating, but his actual combat prowess was so immense and brutal that, except for Geirod himself, he had no equal within the tribe.

In other words, he too was among the very few powerful enough to face a great dragon.

Though there remained an enormous gap between being able to fight and being able to win.

—-

“KWAOOOOO…!”

A meteor shower of flaming boulders rained down.

“GRWAAAAAAA–!”

Facing this catastrophic manifestation of destruction—devastating even by giant standards—Hrungnir roared as if to shatter rocks with his voice alone and drew the two beloved weapons from his waist.

A crude bludgeon closer to a club than a hammer, and a greatsword with its blade half-crushed, devoid of any cutting edge.

Too blunt and simple to be called a warlord’s weapons, but these extraordinarily sturdy implements traced a massive arc in an instant.

KWAAAANG! KWADUDUK! KWAAAANG!

Sparks and fragments scattered like fireworks. Rocks that crossed the weapons’ path exploded on contact, dispersing with thunderous noise. The earth screamed as it tore and split.

And in the midst of it all.

“Is this all? They call you the Explosive Dragon, but your reputation exceeds you!”

Standing firmly in the center of the burning, flying debris of rocks and lava, Hrungnir laughed heartily as he lightly dusted off his beloved weapons.

“These pathetic rock throws are meaningless no matter how many times you repeat them!”

Through the flickering embers, only ash and stone dust poured down. Despite blocking head-on what amounted to a meteor shower, his weapons remained completely unmarked.

“Krrrrr… Are you so pleased with blocking just that? It’s pathetic enough to be pitiful.”

Krackbabel rumbled like a volcano about to erupt, breathing even fiercer flames through the gaps in its scales.

A rain of fire and rock twice as powerful as before poured down like stars, exploding on impact and shaking heaven and earth.

“Your skill and imagination are both lacking. Increasing the number without changing the method…”

Hrungnir advanced step by step, swinging his arms like a storm to deflect and shatter the burning rocks.

“Forward! Crush these beasts who don’t know their place!”

“Watch out for the impact! Those flames explode on contact!”

Dozens of giant warriors followed behind him, deflecting rocks he missed, falling to explosions and rising again as they charged forward.

“They’re coming! The giants are coming!”

“Grrrr…! Don’t fear! They’re big but slow! They’re nothing if they can’t hit you!”

Caliburn, who had taken position at the front of the formation, shouted loudly to encourage his subordinates as he tore off his cloak.

“WOOOOOOOOO!”

With a long, fierce howling, the demigod’s power was unleashed.

His body, large for a werebeast but nothing compared to a giant, convulsed violently and swelled instantly, taking the form of a massive beast comparable even to a dragon.

“KENAZ—!”

Then his entire body was engulfed in brilliant crimson flames.

The rune of flame with heat resistance. Caliburn, transformed from a black dog to a flaming dog, charged forward wrapped in flickering flames.

Though not comparable to Haschal’s twilight rune, it had enough firepower to instantly melt a giant’s flesh.

“FOLLOW THE CHIEF!”

“GRRRRRR!”

“KYAAAAK!”

Behind Caliburn, werebeasts charged toward the giant horde with fierce battle cries.

True to their reputation as the elite of the Naraka werebeast army—where even the weakest would be called a champion on the surface—their speed was truly lightning-fast.

“Come!”

“KROOOOO!”

Geirod struck with his clenched fists like lightning. Caliburn ducked low to avoid it, then leaped up to bite his forearm.

HWARARUK! KADUDUK! PEOK! KWAJIK!

“GRWAAAAA—!”

“KYAOOOOO!”

The king of giants and the werebeast chief became entangled, striking, clawing, and biting each other in the flames.

“Kugh…! Hrungnir! The dragon is yours!”

“Understood! Groba, Albar, bring two each and follow me! I’ll share the honor of dragon hunting!”

Naturally, the task of stopping Krackbabel fell to Hrungnir and several elite warriors.

“Yes!”

“What are you waiting for! Let’s go!”

Hrungnir, Groba, Albar. Four more giant warriors joined them. Seven giants charged toward the center of the exploding meteor shower, shaking the ground.

“Pathetic. Do you think adding six more insects will make any difference?”

Krackbabel, looking down at them from above, roared with mockery at their audacity.

“KRAAAAAAAAAAAH—!”

The flames leaking through its scales grew increasingly fierce, now hot enough to reduce anything nearby to ash in an instant.

The surrounding land, battered by the endless meteor shower, had melted beyond breaking and was now bubbling like porridge, while ash and black vapor swirled in the air.

It was literally a living volcano, a disaster raging with murderous intent.

KUUUNG! KUUUUUNG!

“UOOOOO-!”

Of course, the mountain-sized giant warriors were no less reminiscent of disasters by their very existence.

And so, monsters with godlike powers clashed head-on.

“Strike!”

“Crush them!”

Shortly after, giant and werebeast warriors finally reached each other, entangling in desperate combat and spraying blood everywhere.

Though their battle was insignificant in scale and power compared to the monstrous beings, it was all the more desperate for it.

“I’ll cut your legs first! Kneel and offer your neck!”

“Mere beasts-!”

A giant’s kick tore away half a wolf werebeast’s upper body, and the werebeast, spilling its entrails while staggering, endured with regenerative power and buried an axe in the giant’s ankle.

“Grrrrk…!”

“KYAAK!”

The giant stumbled as his ankle was severely gashed. Seeing an opportunity, the wolf werebeast’s eyes gleamed as it dove between the giant’s legs—

“Got you, vermin!”

The giant’s hand, which had been flailing in the air, opened wide and seized the wolf werebeast’s head.

“Huk…!”

As the wolf werebeast froze in shock, the giant who gripped its head tightly closed his fist.

A squelching sound of rupture. Crushed brain matter and torn flesh burst out between his fingers along with blood.

“Gerrrrup….”

The headless werebeast sat down with a thud, convulsing and foaming blood from every orifice.

From skull to below the chest, all bones and flesh were flattened and ruptured—a gruesome instant death. Even a champion-level werebeast’s regeneration couldn’t handle such sudden, massive injury.

KWAJIK!

And to ensure it wouldn’t regenerate in that state, the giant stomped down on what remained of the wolf werebeast’s body.

“Kheh…! Now, next—”

“It’s your turn!”

Just as the giant raised his head with a satisfied smile after crushing the dead werebeast’s body.

POOK!

Another werebeast pierced through the giant’s knee with a spear, then used that spear as a foothold to leap toward the giant’s nape, drawing a sword from his waist and striking downward.

“Khek…! You dare…!”

The giant hurriedly twisted his waist and swung his arm behind his back.

But that desperate punch only tore away the werebeast’s lower body, while the bladeless werebeast’s sword precisely penetrated the giant’s cervical spine.

“Krrrrk…!”

The giant collapsed with a death rattle, his eyes glazing over.

The werebeast, slammed to the ground alongside him, began regenerating his torn-off legs and pulled the sword and spear from the giant’s body—only to be struck by another giant’s iron mace and burst into a spray of blood.

Despite the variable of regeneration, the power gap between giants and werebeasts was comparable to that between adults and children.

Even a light kick from a giant carried enough force to instantly kill a werebeast, while werebeasts needed to either mutilate a giant’s entire body or precisely target vital points to kill one.

Thus, for each giant that fell dead, five or six werebeast warriors paid with their lives.

However, the forces Caliburn had mobilized outnumbered the giants at least tenfold.

Using their overwhelming numerical advantage as a weapon, the werebeast army was slowly devouring the disaster-like giant warriors.

If one side was losing the battle of numbers, they needed to gain the upper hand in the duel of champions to have any hope, but that prospect wasn’t looking bright either.

‘Kuk…! How much more do I need to destroy this beast before it dies?’

“Slow, too slow! You’ve gotten even slower than before!”

Geirod had no means to stop Caliburn’s regeneration, and so despite possessing the strength to shatter his head in one blow, he was forced into an inevitable war of attrition.

Wrestling with the giant black hound whose entire body blazed with fire, his wounds increased bit by bit as he was torn, cut, and burned all over, despite wearing armor.

“KRAAAAAAAAAAH―!”

Hrungnir’s situation wasn’t much better. Though he was putting up a good fight, he had also suffered considerable damage.

One giant was caught in a surprise breath attack and died in the explosion, while another had his abdomen pierced by the dragon’s tail swung like a mace and perished after being thrown into lava.

“GRAAAAP-!”

Hrungnir did manage to smash one of Krackbabel’s front legs, but for a great dragon whose entire body was essentially a weapon, losing one leg was an acceptable injury.

Instead, the simultaneous explosion shattered Hrungnir’s club to pieces, forcing him to fight with only his greatsword afterward.

KWAOOOOO…!

Against the massive great dragon charging like a giant comet, surrounded by swirling flames that scorched and exploded.

Fire burns flesh, restricts movement, and impairs bodily functions including breathing through heat alone, depleting stamina.

Fighting a seasoned great dragon in the middle of a lava-filled fire pit was no easy task even for Hrungnir, the second-in-command of the giant army.

“—It’s about time.”

Moreover, Caliburn still had an ace up his sleeve to turn the gradually favorable situation into a decisive victory.

“BALAUUUUUR!”

He suddenly looked up at the sky mid-battle and roared. As the startled Geirod raised his head to look at Naraka’s ceiling—

“Finally. You’ve struggled admirably. Crawling insects.”

Something massive that had been clinging there unnoticed spread four wings wide and aimed its gaping maw toward the ground.

A bizarre great dragon with a hazy, indistinct body like black mist, entwined with stars of various colors.

“Now, meet a death befitting insects.”

Balaur, the dragon of divine hunger.

A notorious great dragon who, despite already possessing immense power from birth, coveted divinity he didn’t have and devoured several minor demigods.