Ch.324Chapter 324 – Hakan (2)

“Ugh, faster, faster, it feels like I have 4 legs!”

“That bastard doesn’t even realize he’s got 4 legs now!”

I shouted at Hakan who showed no signs of stopping.

Despite my shouts, Hakan didn’t look my way.

I remembered that he had thrown the sea dragon at me earlier out of revenge, but now he seemed to not care about that at all.

No, he seemed like a completely different person.

“Hahahahaha!!”

Debris and carts scattered on the street were smashed under Hakan’s legs.

As monstrous as his appearance was, he seemed equally strong, advancing forward by crushing obstacles with his legs rather than avoiding them.

As Hakan moved forward, soldiers who appeared to be from the Firenna Kingdom came into view.

“W-what is that monster?”

“That thing holding a halberd in the sky…!”

They seemed to be a platoon-sized unit moving as a separate detachment when they spotted Hakan and me.

Their words ended there.

Even seeing human obstacles, Hakan didn’t stop his charge, and ran them over with his legs.

“Damn it!”

Accepting that he was too far gone to distinguish between people and debris, I switched my weapon to a bow and shot at Hakan.

The arrow struck him, and luckily hit a weak spot, severing one of his hind legs.

Just as I thought he would stop now and aimed for his upper body…

Another horrific scene caught my eye.

“…Ha, seriously.”

While charging on three legs, a long string-like thing extended from the lost leg.

The string grabbed the fallen leg and started pulling it back.

The next moment, the string connected the leg like a needle and thread, and the severed hind leg soon began functioning again.

The fact that he continued his charge without stopping while doing all this, and kept laughing, added to the grotesqueness.

I couldn’t stop him with small attacks from a distance.

“Then I’ll have to block him with force.”

I increased my speed to overtake Hakan and changed the form of my armor.

With thickened armor, I dropped right in front of Hakan and extended my hands toward the charging monster.

I grabbed Hakan’s two legs and started pushing him back with force.

“Faster, fast… what?!!”

Only when his joyful charge stopped did Hakan seem to realize something was wrong.

Then he noticed me in white armor pushing him back.

“This, get off!!”

Hakan swung his sword while saying that.

But his sword couldn’t pierce my armor and bounced off instead.

He seemed a bit surprised to see his arm recoil from the impact despite striking with full force.

Then Hakan thrust the sea dragon’s head from his other hand toward me.

The sea dragon’s head, which had been mangled by the jousting lance earlier, had somewhat regained its form, and now bared its teeth at me.

-Crack, crack!

“It’s useless.”

I realized the sea dragon’s teeth couldn’t penetrate this armor.

At least the current Hakan had no means to break through this form.

Thinking that, I applied force to my arms.

With a cracking sound, Hakan’s two front legs that I was holding broke, and I lifted him up and threw him away.

With a thud, dust rose slightly, and beyond it, I could see Hakan getting up again.

“It hurts, hurts, hurts, damn it, it hurts.”

Hakan muttered in dismay, looking at his broken legs.

Then he soon turned his head and said:

“Who, who dares to hurt me, who is it.”

“You don’t even recognize me?”

I said that to the completely deranged Hakan.

And Hakan turned his gaze to me.

Soon he began to rage.

“It’s you, you did this to me, no wait, you seem familiar, do I know you? Hey, do you know me?”

“You’re out of your mind.”

I voiced what I had noticed from the beginning.

I thought he wouldn’t understand anything I said.

But surprisingly, Hakan still seemed able to comprehend my words.

“I’m… out of my mind?”

After pausing briefly.

He soon giggled and shouted:

“If I’m out of my mind, then I’ll destroy everything and then I’ll be sane!”

With those words, Hakan rose from the ground again.

His regenerative ability must be incredible, as his two legs were restored to their original state.

As he charged at me again, I created a large shield to prepare for the collision.

And the next moment, I was being blown away after being hit by Hakan’s front legs.

“What?”

It was heavier than I expected.

Clearly, Hakan couldn’t harm me at all earlier, but now I felt the impact.

Realizing something had changed, I examined him.

And immediately understood the reason.

“…Is that lightning?”

Lightning that was almost black in color.

Come to think of it, he had also babbled that the power of dragons was no longer my exclusive domain.

He must have drawn out dragon power using dragon materials.

‘…It’s not impossible.’

Thinking about it, it wasn’t impossible or surprising.

After all, broadly speaking, I too can draw out dragon power using dragon materials.

I quickly regained my posture and reassessed his condition.

A monster with four legs making him swift, wielding a sword and a sea dragon’s head, able to use dragon power.

That was Hakan now.

“I’m labeled a monster too, but you’ve become even more of one.”

“Shut uuuuup!!!”

As if answering my words, Hakan rose into the air.

He tried to crush me, so I quickly changed my armor’s form.

Enhancing the wings to escape Hakan’s falling attack, I charged at him again.

Using the spinning jousting lance and speed as weapons, I completely shattered one of his legs, then stopped just behind him and struck him with all my might using the lance.

Hakan’s body flew away.

“You, damn bastard!!”

Hakan cursed as he was sent flying.

He rolled on the ground a couple of times.

Then he looked at me and shouted:

“Become part of me too!!!”

Spine-like projections shot out from Hakan, and I quickly moved my wings to escape from him.

However, Hakan seemed to know my speed, as he curved some of them around to target me from behind.

“That form makes it hard to change direction!!!”

“You remember the useless things!”

I swung my jousting lance to break the spines.

And as several spines tried to target me, I reverted my armor to its original form and narrowly avoided them.

With a form capable of free and flexible flight, avoiding the spines wasn’t difficult.

However, while I was at a distance, Hakan had recovered his body.

He stood up again and soon shouted:

“No, the order, the order! Must kill! Must kill!!”

“Damn it, stay there!”

I flew after Hakan as he started charging again.

After quickly determining his position, I gritted my teeth.

‘When did we get this far?’

I realized it late because I was focused on him.

His charge must have been faster than I thought.

Somehow, Hakan and I had already reached the vicinity of the western gate.

As we moved forward, soldiers of the Firenna Kingdom and holy knights of the Emiris Order began to appear.

And.

“W-wait!”

Hakan’s legs crushed them without exception.

Occasionally, I saw the same black armors that Idea had defeated earlier.

Hakan grinned at the sight of them fighting silently.

And raising his sword, he shouted:

“Become part of me!”

Was Hakan the commander?

One of the black armors stopped moving.

And Hakan’s greatsword struck off its head.

The next moment, the sea dragon’s head on Hakan’s arm began to devour the armor.

I could see Hakan’s body swelling up a bit more.

“…So he can strengthen himself too.”

“The power, overflowiiing!!!”

Hakan roared in ecstasy.

And soon he looked around.

He saw the black armors fighting against the holy knights and Firenna Kingdom soldiers.

“Fresh, delicious meat!!”

Hakan stuck out his tongue and soon began his attack.

He knocked down surrounding soldiers with the huge sea dragon’s head and began devouring the black armors.

And seeing this from a distance, screams were heard.

“W-what is that monster?!”

“Kei? Oh my goodness…”

For some reason, it was Sera and Eve fighting on the front lines.

Sera was shocked at the sight of the monster, and Eve was shocked at the sight of me.

Soon Sera also noticed me and shouted:

“K-Kei, did you finally use that armor…?”

“Sia failed…”

“Both of you, snap out of it!”

I quickly flew toward the two women.

I pushed away the black armors that were about to swing their weapons at them, then rose up again.

And I saw Hakan devouring those armors.

“Kei, you shouldn’t use that armor…!”

“I wouldn’t have made it here if I didn’t.”

I felt sorry for Eve but cut her off sharply.

After placing the two in a slightly safer location, Princess Gabriella, who happened to be nearby, looked at me with surprised eyes.

“You are…”

“Lord Kei?! Why are you wearing that armor?!”

Chris approached us, having noticed us.

He immediately looked at Eve and asked:

“Where’s Beatrice? And what about Vanilla and Gigas?”

“Vanilla and Gigas were sent to the rear first due to injuries. I was helping maintain the front line while assisting with the retreat.”

Eve seemed like she wanted to say something to me but was holding back.

“More importantly, what is that monster…?”

“It’s Hakan.”

I quietly answered Sera’s question.

“Idea turned Hakan into a monster.”

“…What about Lady Sia?”

“She’s probably engaged in combat with Idea.”

As if answering my voice, a building in the distance was cut down and collapsed.

Though at some distance, it was clear that Sia and Idea were exchanging sword blows.

Soon Chris narrowed his eyes as he looked at Hakan, and having apparently identified what was happening, quietly said:

“…He used that evil crystal.”

“You know what it is?”

“Yes.”

Chris nodded.

“It works on the same principle as the corpse golems we’ve often seen. However…”

“However?”

“Since the base was a living human, it seems to be causing unusual mutations.”

With those words, Hakan’s body grew even larger.

Perhaps from absorbing the surrounding black armors, he had grown bigger.

Armor-like carapaces that I hadn’t seen before had formed, reinforced with what looked like sea dragon scales in places.

The sea dragon’s head had also been enhanced, with various things attached to it, and his other hand was surrounded by armor, making the greatsword he was holding look almost like a kitchen knife in comparison.

With Hakan’s face unchanged and perched on that huge body, it looked extremely unbalanced.

“…Is there any way to save him?”

Though I had no obligation to save Hakan, I asked in case there might be future victims like him.

And Chris shook his head without any hesitation.

“So there’s no answer.”

“…In that state, he’s already dead…”

“That’s all I needed to know.”

It was enough to know he couldn’t be saved.

Knowing that only death could be salvation for such a monster, I raised my halberd.

“If we leave him any longer, the damage will continue to grow, so I need to resolve this as quickly as possible.”

“Lord Kei.”

“I’ll strike him. You all retreat first to a safe place.”

No sooner had I finished speaking than Hakan’s head turned.

Soon he looked in my direction with a bright smile and shouted:

“Here they are, the targets, all gathered!”

“It seems we are the targets.”

As soon as Eve finished speaking, Hakan charged in our direction.

I quickly stepped forward and brought my halberd down on him.

-Clang!!

Hakan’s sword collided with my halberd.

While his advance was halted, I quickly shouted:

“Hurry, take the princess and the soldiers and retreat!”

At my words, the three people looked at each other briefly.

And then.

“No.”

“I refuse.”

Sera and Chris firmly rejected.

Surprised but thinking there was no time to argue with them, I was about to shout urgently when:

“Kei.”

Eve spoke quietly.

“We didn’t come here to hold you back.”

“Eve.”

Eve didn’t answer my call.

Instead, she looked at Sera.

“Sera, that equipment!”

“Yes!”

Immediately, Sera raised the book I had seen at Ferrarius.

A page detached from the book, and tools began to be released from within.

And then.

“I’ll, eat, you!”

In the moment I took my eyes off him, Hakan’s sea dragon head stretched out long, making a wide detour around me.

And it began charging toward Eve.

Not expecting it to stretch that far, I shouted urgently:

“Chris, defend her, and get away!”

“It’s alright, Christina.”

Eve spoke immediately.

Meanwhile, the sea dragon’s head tried to bite Eve.

The next moment, the sea dragon’s head was deflected sharply to the side.

“Huh?”

Hakan looked at Eve with disbelief.

I too pushed back Hakan’s sword forcefully and retreated.

Did Sera do something, or did Chris ignore Eve’s instructions and help?

Thinking that, I looked at Eve.

“Eve, are you okay?”

“Yes.”

Eve answered lightly.

And soon she pointed her sword at Hakan.

It wasn’t her usual sword.

It was a larger, longer double-edged sword.

“I don’t know what means you used to obtain dragon power. But let me tell you clearly.”

Eve spoke quietly.

I noticed she was now wearing shoulder armor and arm guards with a mix of silver and red colors.

“I didn’t come here to hold Kei back.”

Right after that.

Blue energy began flowing from Eve’s armor and her sword.