Ch.181Chapter 181: Orc King (12).

# Chapter 181: Orc King (12)

Valt’s declaration was not mere bravado.

What flowed through his entire body was close to the liberation of long-suppressed instincts and a pure destructive impulse to completely crush the enemy before him.

The word commonly used to describe the Gerungtu.

‘Barbarism.’

That was what had been unleashed.

Now that the shackles of “do not harm” had been removed, Valt no longer needed to control his strength.

[Grrrr…!]

The Death Knight instinctively sensed the threat and staggered backward.

But the madness in its empty eye sockets still burned as it glared at Valt.

“Like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs. If you won’t come, I’ll go to you!”

THUD–!

Valt generated explosive speed just by kicking off the ground.

The Gawel in his hand was no longer a throwing weapon.

It was a bludgeon heavier and harder than steel, made from the fangs of an Orc Great Warrior from the mythical era.

Valt’s direct attack rushed toward the Death Knight again, and the Death Knight hurriedly raised its magical great sword to block it.

[Kruk!!]

BANG—!

But the attack infused with brute force didn’t end with just one strike.

BANG—!

CRASH—!

BANG—!

BOOM—!

In just a few seconds, strikes with power that in the past would have required Valt to throw Gawel with all his might began to mercilessly hack at the Death Knight without pause!

The power was so great that the ground where the Death Knight stood to receive Valt’s blow began to sink with a thunderous roar.

[GRRRRRRRK!!]

Under the relentless onslaught, the Death Knight had no choice but to maintain a purely defensive stance.

Then, as Valt swung another blow, the ground beneath the Death Knight cracked, causing it to lose balance.

Not missing that moment, Valt’s strike smashed into the Death Knight’s shoulder blade.

It was merely a “normal hit,” but the result was anything but normal.

CRACK—!

The magical armor tore like paper, and the Death Knight’s shoulder was crushed with a terrible sound.

[GRRRRRK?!]

The Death Knight instinctively began to regenerate, but one could sense clear bewilderment in the flow of its magical power.

It was an incomprehensible level of power.

In the confused aura of the Death Knight looking at Valt was disbelief: “How can a mere barbarian, not even a dragon, possess such ridiculous strength?”

“HAHAHAHAHA!! This is just the beginning!”

Honestly, Valt had been feeling frustrated all this time.

The Gerungtu with their enormous power.

Having a body at the pinnacle of that power but being unable to use it freely had left a small spark of discontent deep in Valt’s heart.

It was fine at first, but as the battles continued, that discontent grew.

Valt would often express this frustration by needlessly destroying the training ground floor when bored.

But no matter how many inanimate objects he smashed, his thirst for a true test of strength against a living powerful opponent was not easily quenched.

It was something like the fate of the Gerungtu.

A Gerungtu with overflowing life energy needed a target to fully unleash that power.

But now, in this moment, all the restrictions that had bound Valt were gone.

CRASH—!

Valt’s attacks did not stop.

He exploited every opening of the Death Knight, alternating between his Golden Blood Gauntlet-covered fists and Gawel, unleashing a storm of consecutive hits.

BOOM! CRACK! SMASH! CRASH!

Like a massive siege hammer pounding a castle wall, each of Valt’s attacks literally began to “pulverize” the Death Knight’s body.

The Death Knight, which had somehow managed to endure at first, couldn’t withstand the destructive attacks it had previously experienced from Gawel throws now being delivered several times per second without pause.

This was what made the Gerungtu so terrifying.

While the knights of the Central Continent might excel at refined one-hit kills using aura,

once it turned into a brawl, neither Experts nor Masters could handle a Gerungtu in close combat.

The fierce consecutive attacks bursting from pure physical strength didn’t give opponents time to precisely control their magical power or aura.

The same applied to magical energy.

Refined power, no matter how brief, requires activation time.

As one reaches higher levels, that time becomes dramatically faster, but the fact that it takes some time doesn’t change.

Only at the Master level can one instantly manipulate aura in sync with muscle movement, but it’s not easy at lower levels.

This was especially true in actual combat where life and death are decided in milliseconds, with flesh and blood flying.

In that respect, anyone who had fought a Gerungtu knew how strong they were in a pure strength brawl.

There was no chance to use magical energy, not even time to breathe, just an endless barrage of normal attacks.

BANG–!

BANG BANG–!

CRASH-!!

BANG BANG!!

Bones broke, rotten flesh burst apart, and black magical energy scattered.

The Death Knight desperately tried to gather magical energy to resist, but its resistance was meaningless before Valt’s overwhelming physical power and speed.

“HAHAHA! Yes! That’s it, brother! Smash it to pieces!”

Luktan cheered in admiration of his brother’s overwhelming force.

He casually swept away several Orc Lords trying to rush the Death Knight with Tunkaio, helping Valt focus solely on the fight.

‘Damn… that’s really… mess with him and you’re dead.’

Even to Luktan, who prided himself on reaching the peak of physical training, the power Valt was displaying now far surpassed the level of a Great Warrior.

It was as if his father, Kwan, had descended upon them.

King Jerdin was thinking exactly the same thing as Luktan while staring at the scene in a daze.

‘That’s just like… Kwan!’

He had just returned to the central battlefield after giving orders to the outer units.

What his eyes beheld was Valt, who seemed to have become a completely different being.

Using no magic whatsoever, overwhelming a Grand Master-level Death Knight one-sidedly with pure physical power and barbaric fighting spirit.

Is this the true power of a Gerungtu Great Warrior? A chill ran down his spine.

At the same time, reports were coming in that the outer units were successfully pushing back the Orcs.

If the information Prince Valt had provided was true, the Death Knight’s regeneration would soon stop completely.

Of course, he could intervene in the battle now if he wanted to, but there seemed no need when Valt was already dominating his opponent.

“…Truly, a monster.”

Jerdin muttered with a mixture of bitterness and awe.

At that very moment, a bizarre sound like scraping metal emanated from the Death Knight.

[Mere… mortal…! This… cannot be…!]

The first clear words heard.

Valt quickly realized this was not the will of the Orc King.

‘Geolbgeu.’

The master of the rotting corpse and lord of the dead.

The demon must have briefly manifested its will through the Death Knight’s body.

“Hmph, a rotting corpse that can even speak. Let me tear that mouth first.”

CRACK—!

Valt’s fist shattered the Death Knight’s jawbone.

[This can’t… this can’t be…]

The Death Knight, possessed by the demon’s voice, desperately cried out.

It tried to push Valt away by squeezing out all its remaining magical energy, but Valt’s Golden Blood Gauntlets and Lupedium bracelet easily deflected even its final struggle.

A perfect harmony of attack and defense.

The current Valt might be difficult even for Jerdin to face easily.

But it wasn’t over yet.

Despite allied forces having almost pushed back the Orc army on the outskirts, the Death Knight’s regeneration hadn’t completely stopped.

It was barely hanging on by absorbing the life force of the remaining Orcs around it.

‘I can’t miss this opportunity. I must end this now.’

Valt gripped Gawel tightly again and began thrashing the Death Knight once more.

BANG-! CRASH-! BANG-! BANG!

Having started to allow attacks, the Death Knight had no choice but to receive Valt’s attacks with its bare body.

At that moment, everyone on the battlefield began to notice a change.

‘Its regeneration speed is… decreasing!’

The Death Knight regenerates by sacrificing Orcs’ lives.

With each successful attack Valt landed on the Death Knight, it suffered tremendous damage and absorbed the life force of dozens of remaining Orcs around to repair that damage.

Since the ordinary Orcs had retreated beyond 500 meters, now the elite Orcs nearby were collapsing one after another instead.

The sacrificial regeneration method that had terrified their allies had ironically become shackles holding the creature back.

CRASH–! BANG–!

Valt’s untiring strength was not to be underestimated.

An ordinary person would have been exhausted after exerting so much energy and movement.

But Valt continued to mercilessly pulverize the Death Knight until its regeneration completely stopped.

Smashed, an Orc dies, regenerates.

Smashed again, another Orc dies, regenerates again.

After dozens of cycles of destruction, death, and increasingly slower regeneration.

Finally, the Death Knight’s regeneration stopped completely.

Thud– Clatter–

At last, the Death Knight’s black helmet shattered and fell to the ground, and it desperately struggled in Valt’s grasp, reduced to little more than a skeleton.

“It’s over. You pitiful thing.”

With Valt’s low voice, his final strike began to prepare.

He put Gawel down on the ground and instead clenched both fists covered in Golden Blood Gauntlets.

Golden aura, red blood energy, and the power of the earth surged throughout his body, concentrating at the tips of his fists.

Physical power, magical power, elemental power, life force, aura.

All the energies Valt possessed began to gather above his Golden Blood Gauntlets.

RUMBLE—!

Seeing that enormous golden surging energy, Jerdin gasped in amazement.

He had somehow become a spectator to this battle.

“What in the world is that…!”

The bonds with his friends and comrades, all the experiences and strength he had accumulated were coming together to create the ultimate strike.

-Final Secret Technique of Martial Magic-

-Five Elements Fusion Fist-

The essence of the five powers Valt had mastered.

It was a strike containing the simplest yet most powerful will to destroy.

“Let’s end this!! RAAAAAAAH!!”

Valt’s golden fist plunged toward the core of the Death Knight, which had almost lost its form and was staggering, toward the faintly glowing evidence of the contract with the demon.

BOOOOOOOOOM!!!

With an explosive sound that seemed to erase all other sounds in the world, the Death Knight’s very existence began to completely vanish.

Black dust swirled like a storm before being sucked into the light and disappearing, and the ominous magical energy that had covered the battlefield also melted away like spring snow.

“…Holy shit.”

As the dust settled, only Valt stood tall at the center of the fierce battle, breathing heavily.

“Huff, huff, huff!”

At his feet, nothing remained. No Orc King, no Death Knight, not even a trace of the demon.

Silence.

Like after a storm had passed, a heavy silence fell over the battlefield for a moment.

And then, one by one, the knights who had been possessed by magical energy began to regain consciousness and stand up in a daze.