Ch.74Doom Knight (4)

Whoosh——!!

The Doom Knight’s spear, imbued with fierce energy, aimed straight at Khan.

The purple energy rushed forward with an ominous aura, causing the surrounding trees and grass to gradually wither.

Thunk——!!

The Doom Knight’s spear missed its target’s head but pierced precisely between the iron chains wrapped tightly around Khan’s wrist, causing an explosion of spiritual energy.

Crackle——!

Boom——!!

However, the lightning that erupted from Khan’s wound pushed the spiritual energy outward rather than inward, causing it to explode externally. Unharmed, Khan turned his head and fixed his red eyes on the Doom Knight.

Hmph—!!

Khan snorted dismissively. Seeing this, the Doom Knight tensed up and began to carefully observe Khan.

This creature had not only easily blocked his surprise attack but was also a special variant capable of manipulating lightning.

Carrying an axe suggested it could use weapons, making it extremely dangerous, with strength exceeding his own.

Realizing this opponent was equal to or stronger than Knight Baytram, the Doom Knight abandoned the idea of winning through surprise attacks and calmly activated his skills.

“King Of Death, The King’s Judgement, Strong Bone…”

Roaaaar———!!!

While the Doom Knight was casting various buffs, Khan charged toward him.

The Doom Knight dodged Khan, who seemed determined not to allow any more buffs, and realized that this creature must be a participant.

He had already applied all his buffs before coming here and was using additional buffs to check if the creature was a participant or not. The way Khan immediately charged upon seeing the buffs confirmed he was definitely a participant, not a monster.

Rumble——!!!

Lightning flew through the air as the chain-attached axe swung ferociously. The Doom Knight counterattacked Khan, who was attacking with lightning-wrapped feet and horns.

Clang——!!

Crack—!

The Doom Knight’s spear struck the center of Khan’s axe, creating a crack in it… but Khan paid no attention and continued pushing forward with the axe in that state.

Khan’s axe, proportional to his size, was larger than the Doom Knight’s two-meter spear, easily engulfing it. The Doom Knight had no choice but to release the spear and retreat.

After instantly swallowing the weapon, Khan delivered a kick toward the Doom Knight, who guarded with her gauntlet.

Rumble——!!

Crack—!

Despite being wrapped in spiritual energy, the Doom Knight’s body—normally impervious to pain except from holy power—felt a tingling sensation from Khan’s lightning as she crashed into a tree.

Boom—! Boom—! Boom—!

The minotaur charged in an instant.

The Doom Knight avoided the deadly charging attack of the minotaur species by springing her waist and quickly climbing up a tree.

Boom——!!!

Crack—

Rumble…

The tree shattered under Khan’s horns.

As the tree collapsed with a rumbling sound, the Doom Knight broke off a branch, infused it with spiritual energy, and turned it into a weapon.

The Doom Knight’s trait: anything in her hand becomes a weapon. Because of this, though the wood was rotting and soft, it gained sharpness exceeding that of an ordinary iron spear.

She swung the branch toward Khan.

Thunk—!!

The rotting branch cleanly pierced Khan’s back. Lightning erupted from Khan’s back in response…

The Doom Knight, unwilling to miss this opportunity, poured more spiritual energy into the branch, causing it to continuously clash with the lightning repelling from Khan’s back.

The clash between purple spiritual energy and black lightning. What ended this confrontation was Khan’s tail.

Swish——!!!

“What!?”

The Doom Knight was pulled away from Khan’s back by his tail wrapping around her body. Khan turned to face the Doom Knight.

The Doom Knight, completely wrapped in purple armor, faced the six-meter-tall Khan.

Bound by Khan’s powerful tail, the Doom Knight was looking for a chance to escape, while Khan wrapped lightning around his tail to pressure her further.

Roaaaar———!!!

With a roar, Khan slammed his lightning-wrapped tail repeatedly into the ground.

The ground cracked instantly, trees shattered, and birds’ nests and small animals’ homes were blown away.

Boom——!!! Bang—!!! Crash——!!!

Khan continued to swing his tail, shattering the ground. Each swing of the tail produced black lightning that looked like dark flashes cutting through the darkness.

The Doom Knight was being tossed around like a toy, unable to counter these attacks. To finish her off, Khan brought his tail in front of him and then…

Zzzap——!!!

Rumble——!!!!

He clapped his hands filled with lightning to attack the Doom Knight.

The shockwave from the clap blew away everything nearby, and the lightning flashed, driving away the surrounding darkness.

Hiss…

As the Doom Knight’s body went limp, Khan raised both hands high, filling them with lightning to strike her down, when…

Crash——!!!

A Bone Drake rushed in from somewhere and tackled Khan.

Despite being reduced to bones, the drake’s powerful physical abilities remained intact, sending Khan crashing into a distant tree.

This allowed the limp Doom Knight to climb onto the Bone Drake’s head.

As she mounted the Bone Drake, purple light began to shine brightly through the cracks in the Doom Knight’s broken helmet, which had appeared unconscious just moments before.

* * * * *

Mounted on the Bone Drake, the Doom Knight now pressured Khan with sheer numbers.

As she had called out “King of Death” at the beginning of the battle, beings touched by her spiritual energy began to gather.

From humans she had killed to skeletons rising from human corpses with only skin and bones remaining, and various monsters. Skeletons, archers, and mages rose up carrying all kinds of weapons like swords and spears, suggesting there might have been a war here in the past.

Large skeleton monsters were shattered by Khan’s strikes, but they kept coming in overwhelming numbers.

The first to charge, an ogre skeleton, had its body sent flying by one of Khan’s punches, rendering it immobile.

Following that, skeletons of ogres, trolls, orcs, saber-toothed tigers, and various monsters and demonic beasts rushed toward Khan.

Boom——!! Crack——! Rumble——!!!

Khan grabbed a charging purple ogre skeleton with one hand and shattered it, then swung his tail to destroy a troll.

Skeleton mages and archers bombarded Khan with attacks, but his hide seemed unaffected as he continued to advance.

Roaaaar———!!!

With a roar, Khan unwrapped the iron chains around his arms, grabbed them, and swung them around.

Crunch—! Crunch—!

With crunching sounds, the monster and demonic beast skeletons in the front lines were instantly shattered.

Even though the ground was dyed purple due to the Doom Knight’s self-buff skills and traits like “King of Death” and “Land of the Dead,” strengthening the skeletons, Khan paid no attention and continued to advance, destroying everything in his path.

After the monsters were shattered, it was the turn of ordinary human skeletons.

Skeletons equipped with swords, spears, shields, and various weapons and armor charged bravely.

But Khan simply stomped the ground with lightning-infused feet, dispelling the spiritual energy emanating from the skeletons’ bodies.

Roaaaar—

Then he raised his arm to call down lightning, which transformed into dozens, hundreds of thunderbolts striking the skeletons.

The spiritual energy animating the skeletons disappeared due to the lightning, rendering hundreds of them immobile.

After summoning the lightning, Khan charged forward. The ground cracked wherever he stepped, making it difficult for the skeletons to even stand.

As the crimson minotaur, Khan, approached, the Doom Knight felt a chill. But she was the King of Death.

Thinking that her future would be over if she lost to such a beast so soon after being defeated by those who followed the gods, she began gathering the abundant bones around her.

Just by Khan charging forward, skeletons were being shattered, and though mages and archers attacked him, they only inflicted minimal damage to his hide.

Whoosh…

While the skeletons were doing their best to hinder Khan’s advance, the Doom Knight standing on the Bone Drake’s head threw a bone spear concentrated with spiritual energy at Khan.

Bang——!!!

Khan, approaching the Doom Knight with lightning wrapped around him, swung his axe to block the purple spear flying toward him, but… there wasn’t just one spear.

One, two, four, eight. The spears doubled in number until they filled the sky, flying toward Khan.

Clang clang clang—!!

Khan spun his chains in front of him to escape the rain of spears.

However, he couldn’t completely block the rain of spears, and they pierced his arms, legs, and shoulders, embedding spiritual energy into him.

Crackle—!!!

Khan emitted lightning to burn away the spiritual energy, but… his body, continuously exposed to the spiritual energy-soaked ground, was gradually becoming heavier.

Purple hands from the earth were grabbing Khan’s legs, and the surrounding air was gradually filling with the smell of rotting corpses.

Despite these unfavorable conditions, Khan simply wrapped his body in lightning to show his fighting spirit.

If he left this animal abuser alone, more animals would be hurt. With flashing red eyes, Khan, now with lightning wrapped around his legs as well, charged forward.

Thud—!!

The ground was covered in lightning as Khan’s figure instantly advanced forward, and hundreds of skeletons were shattered with each of his footsteps.

The Doom Knight threw bone spears dyed with spiritual energy, but Khan minimized the damage by wrapping lightning around his front. Eventually, he broke through the final defense line of mages and archers at the very back.

“Drake!”

Screech——!!!

The Doom Knight, still mounted on the Bone Drake, charged at Khan and succeeded in biting his forearm.

Crack—!

Groan—!

The Bone Drake, strengthened by spiritual energy, succeeded in penetrating Khan’s hide, which had been weakened by the spiritual energy. The Doom Knight seized this opportunity to thrust a bone spear strengthened with spiritual energy at Khan.

“One-Hit Kill!”

This was a skill she had obtained through the roulette from a participant she met in the first village.

That participant, who was both a lumberjack and hunter, possessed a powerful skill that concentrated all her strength into a single strike.

Because of this, she had lived with one arm and one eye until she absorbed the fourth mountain village.

As the powerful skill of the lumberjack-hunter participant met with the purple spiritual energy, emitting an ominous light aimed at Khan…

“Sanctuary Declared!”

Flash——!!!

Hiss——!!!

Light poured down from the dark night sky, and the ground that had been dyed with purple spiritual energy began to return to its original state.