Ch.2525. Wolf Hunt

The battle between the two apostles, if judged solely by conditions, was nearly equal.

Both possessed two divine artifacts each—Bjorn’s sword and amulet, Hastein’s two-handed axe and shield—both were apostles of gods, both were intermediate-level warriors, and both had advanced to the upper-class War Master profession within the pure warrior path.

Looking at these factors alone, one might think the battle would be evenly matched—but nothing could be further from the truth.

“Great Wolf! Your gloryyyy—!!!”

“…Huff, how pathetic.”

CLANG!!!

Due to several overlapping factors, Bjorn was currently overwhelming Hastein one-sidedly.

While Hastein’s divine artifact, the Wolfhead Shield, was secured to his forearm with magical leather straps that hindered his two-handed axe wielding, Bjorn’s amulet simply hung around his neck while providing high defensive bonuses to his entire body.

Of course, Hastein also had armor bestowed by his god, but…

Bjorn had the same, and naturally, Bjorn’s double-layered armor protection made him several times more durable.

And the most decisive reason was… simply that Bjorn was stronger than Hastein.

Unlike Hastein, who had lived a life steeped in luxury and debauchery after obtaining the position of Vice King, Bjorn had fought dozens of life-or-death battles with his aura sealed, even if unwillingly.

Additionally, the capacity to receive divine blessing was vastly different—if Bjorn was an aquarium tank, Hastein was merely a small fishbowl.

Even removing all these external factors, the conclusion remained that Bjorn was simply overwhelmingly stronger than Hastein.

Compared to Bjorn, the heaven-sent genius renowned as the youngest intermediate warrior in the region, Hastein—who was merely “talented” and nothing more—had fallen below mediocrity once he stopped putting in effort.

“Die!!!”

—SLASH!

“Guh, ugh!”

Thus, Hastein, who had been pushed back against Bjorn—now monstrously strengthened by blessings stimulated by hatred and vengeance—finally lost an arm to Bjorn’s Blood Demon Sword and deteriorated to a state where he was barely clinging to life while taking hits.

“Die! Die! Die! Die!”

Bjorn, who intended to kill but certainly not mercifully, was beating Hastein’s entire body with the flat of his blade.

The beautiful breastplate engraved with platinum and silver wolf patterns was torn and piercing his flesh, while the chain mail had broken into dangling pieces of scrap metal.

His head was in such a state that his skull had shattered as his helmet caved in, leaving him unable to even remove it.

Beyond pathetic, he was little more than a corpse-to-be of mixed metal and flesh.

“Lord Ma-Duk! I offer this to you!”

So when Bjorn finally shouted to end Hastein’s life, swinging his divine artifact—the Blood Demon Sword—toward him,

“Do you think this ends heeeeere—!!!”

With a scream louder than one would imagine possible from a dying body, something began to change in Hastein’s flesh.

“Hup!”

Of course, Bjorn wasn’t foolish enough to be stunned by this sight and swung the Blood Demon Sword at Hastein’s neck with maximum speed without a moment’s hesitation.

But Hastein, whose body had begun to mutate, avoided the blade and stepped back despite having his neck half-severed.

Crack. Crackle. Crunch.

With the sound of bones creaking and skeleton distorting, he began to transform his body thoroughly—and rapidly.

The crushed breastplate melted and adhered to his flesh, while the chain mail, though melted, maintained its form and clung to his body like skin as gray fur began to grow.

A long, luxurious furry tail sprouted between his buttocks, and his legs transformed as his boots and greaves changed, creating a reverse-joint structure reminiscent of a canine animal’s legs.

His body swelled, arms unnaturally lengthened, spine curved, and from his head extended a long muzzle revealing sharp fangs between parted jaws.

He had transformed into an ugly gray-furred bipedal wolf with distorted features—reminiscent of a werewolf.

“You’ve failed to contain the blessing and gone berserk, Hastein.”

Bjorn, who recognized this transformation from similar incidents in his former tribe as Hastein’s vessel failing to handle the blessing, spoke contemptuously while infusing his Blood Demon Sword with aura.

Just like the warriors of his past tribe who had transformed, Hastein’s physical abilities would have increased dramatically, but his intelligence and reason would have evaporated, leaving him extremely violent.

Therefore, his decision now was none other than to “hunt” the creature as a group.

“Everyone, take up your spears! We hunt this beast!”

“Yes!!!”

At Bjorn’s command, the gladiators who had been watching the duel from the rear entered the fray en masse.

Wearing red armor bestowed by their god, carrying red oval shields and spears as tall as themselves, the gladiators formed their battle formation according to their training and pointed their spear tips toward the growling beast that had been Hastein.

As if taking this as a provocation, the beast that had been Hastein charged toward the formation of gladiators instead of Bjorn—

“…What a pathetic sight.”

—SLASH!

[GRAAAAAAAH—!!!!!]

“Now, thrust!”

SQUELCH!

The charging beast had its side deeply cut by Bjorn’s Blood Demon Sword, lost balance, and fell toward the gladiators only to be skewered by their spear tips.

Yet, as if in exchange for losing his intelligence, Hastein’s body abnormally quickly recovered from the penetrating wounds…

Except for one. The wound on his side inflicted by Bjorn’s Blood Demon Sword wasn’t healing.

Moreover, as blood poured from his side, the wound on his neck—inflicted before his transformation—suddenly burst open and began bleeding profusely.

Needless to say, this was the first ability of the Blood Demon Sword: the Curse of Incurability.

Wounds inflicted by the sword could only be healed by the highest level 5 single healing magic, and since the curse originated from the sword rather than the wound itself, curse removal spells were meaningless.

This was actively influenced by Ma-Duk’s experience of ridiculously losing allied characters during gameplay, similar to the level 5 weapon “Harpe” that beheaded Medusa.

And the Blood Demon Sword’s special abilities didn’t end there.

[GRAAAAH!!!!]

As the beast that had been Hastein tried to charge toward Bjorn despite his gaping wounds, suddenly the wounds expanded with a tearing sound, becoming even more fatal.

This too was an ability of the Blood Demon Sword—the Curse of Wound Expansion. In the game, it inflicted a damage-over-time effect of 5% to 30% of the initial damage.

Of course, the Curse of Incurability applied to this damage-over-time as well, and being a divine artifact, the accumulated damage reached about 50%—a full half of the initial damage.

Consequently, the side wound that had only cut through skin and muscle had now eroded into his abdomen, with pink intestines visible through the wound, while his neck was now barely attached by the spine and a few bits of flesh.

‘…And yet he’s still alive.’

Amazingly, despite this condition, the beast was not only alive and moving but charged ferociously toward the gladiators’ formation with uncontrollable excitement.

With long, sharp metal claws surrounded by aura and fur standing up sharp like a porcupine’s quills, the beast threw itself at the shields, literally using its body as a battering ram to disrupt the formation, then swung its claws at the nearest gladiator’s neck.

CLANG—!!!

“Thrust!”

SLASH!

But these gladiators were all intermediate warriors themselves.

The moment one gladiator who barely deflected the attack with his aura-reinforced spear shaft shouted, the surrounding gladiators concentrated aura at the tips of their spears and thrust hard, completely impaling the beast with several spears.

The spear that entered through Bjorn’s earlier wound exited through the opposite shoulder, another spear penetrated from one thigh through to the other…

One even completely severed an arm.

Though they couldn’t penetrate the beast’s head due to the hard skull formed from the transformed divine shield, the creature was sufficiently neutralized.

…Yet, it was still breathing.

Therefore, everyone waited for the one who would end the beast’s life.

“…Huff.”

He approached the beast with blood-red aura surrounding his sword, then used the Blood Demon Sword to cleave the wolf in two from top to bottom.

And that was the end.

Bjorn had finally completed his first revenge.