Ch.757Wall City Spear Demon

In the war of all against all, I thrived like a fish in water, moving freely through the chaos.

Fire and lightning, wind and shadow, claws and spears, arrows, swords.

Attacks filled with killing intent came from all directions, but they were merely Master-level rabble.

If they had all targeted me at once, it might have been somewhat troublesome… but they were too busy fighting each other to focus their full strength on me, so I was merely kept busy deflecting attacks without feeling even a hint of danger.

“You’re too weak!”

I kicked apart a skeleton swinging a rusty weapon, then grabbed the collar of a Dragonborn who was bringing down a spear of lightning conjured by magic and threw him toward an approaching elemental mage.

– BOOM!

The Dragonborn hastily twisted his body to block the elemental mage with his lightning spear and crashed down with a thunderous noise.

“You monster bitch!”

“Who are you calling that, lizard-face!”

I slid across the ground to avoid the magical bombardment raining down from above, then entangled my Crimson Blade with an incoming spear thrust, yanking it forward and driving Durandal into the face of the suddenly close Dragonborn.

– CRASH!

I stomped on and shattered the stone hands that erupted from the ground, resisted binding spells and curses with my Mana Resistance and the resistance of my Stigmata, then located the caster and fired a dagger in their direction.

“Gack!”

I didn’t even need to finish him off. The moment the Dragonborn chanting spells staggered from the impact of my dagger, a waiting horde of skeletons pounced on him, knocking him down and beginning to dismember him, targeting the areas without scales.

“Arrrgh! You monsters! Move, I said move!”

What good was it to be able to shatter a skeleton with a single swing of his arm? More than twenty skeletons were already clinging to his fallen body.

【 Kraaaaaaaaa! 】

To make matters worse, a dragon and a high-level elemental were engaged in fierce combat right beside him.

“No, no-!”

As the tattered Dragonborn somehow shook off the skeletons and tried to stand, an ice giant’s leg mercilessly came down on his head.

– BOOOOOM!

Even with scales harder than black iron, the flesh and organs underneath were still just meat. How could they withstand the pressure of an ice mass of unimaginable weight?

When the ice elemental lifted its foot again, all that remained was a corpse crushed like a stomped cockroach.

—-

Of course, not all Dragonborn were mindless fools who charged in recklessly.

“Kyaaaah!”

Just after I had torn apart about twenty wingless Dragonborn, a piercing sound like “shweeek” approached rapidly with an intense pressure that sent chills down my spine, accompanied by a battle cry that was almost my trademark.

I turned toward the direction of the battle cry, throwing the body of the Dragonborn whose spine I had been extracting.

The Dragonborn corpse shot out like a thrown shot put. The winged Dragonborn flying toward me swatted away his comrade’s corpse like trash with his left hand, then thrust a spear concentrated with vast mana at me like lightning.

“How dare you!”

I released the Crimson Blade from my left hand, gripped Durandal with both hands, and swung it to meet his spear.

– CRASH!

The collision of the mana spear and my Karma-infused blade created an explosive sound.

A one-eyed winged Dragonborn. Except for walking on two legs, he had achieved a dragon transformation that made him practically a small dragon. In human terms, he was a being who had crossed the threshold to become a Hero.

“And who are you?”

After deflecting the spear tip that slid along my blade, I glared at him as if to ask what kind of creature he was.

Instead of answering, the Dragonborn flapped his wings to create a slight distance and nodded slightly.

“Black hair and blue eyes. Werebeast fur and scale armor with a silver-blue longsword. I see. Are you the Empire’s First Sword, the Winter Slayer Haschal Median Aishan-Gioro?”

“Hairless bald head and one-eyed cripple. Lizard scales and bat wings. I don’t know. Are you some nobody I’ve never heard of?”

The Dragonborn, who had been speaking in an arrogant tone, twisted his face in anger, spread his wings wide, and accelerated toward me.

“I was being courteous because you wear fine armor, but you’re as vulgar as they say!”

I merely returned his own manner of speaking, yet this was his reaction. Like a true villain, his tolerance was as small as a millet seed.

The spear blade, wrapped in high-density mana and emitting blue light, shot toward my face.

“I was being lenient because of your idiotic face, but your attack is as stupid as you look!”

I pulled Durandal’s hilt near my shoulder and then swung it out to deflect his spear, then blocked his following claw attack with my prosthetic arm. A sound like fingernails scraping a blackboard assaulted my eardrums.

“A barbarian mongrel with a filthy mouth!”

“I don’t recall biting any Dragonborn, was your mother perhaps a monster or human?”

“Kyahaaak!”

Instead of answering, the Dragonborn let out a strange cry, pulled his left arm behind his head and then whipped it forward, sending three spears of lightning crashing down toward me with a thunderous roar.

Magic manifested through will alone, without incantations or trigger words. Though he seemed dim-witted, his magical prowess was on par with Ophelia van Sigmillus, befitting a Dragonborn.

[Ha, quite fast indeed.]

But they couldn’t touch me. Even with his claws gripping my left arm and his spear binding my right arm, I still had three weapons remaining.

Hersella, who had extracted new tentacles to grasp the Crimson Blade I had released, swung three red blades toward the lightning spears.

Dragon’s reverse scales and lightning bolts collided, sending crackling electrical charges in all directions.

– CRACK!

The Karma of Murder tentacles holding the Crimson Blade were shattered by the lightning that traveled along the blade.

The three curved swords fell limply. However, before the Crimson Blade could embed itself in the ground, new tentacles of Murder Karma extracted by Hersella grasped the hilts and lifted them again.

If I had held them directly, I couldn’t have avoided being electrocuted, but blocking this way only consumed some of my Murder Karma without causing any damage.

“You’re a monster in your own right…!”

The Dragonborn flapped his wings like a startled chicken to create distance as the lightning spears shattered, clicking his tongue.

Judging by how he approached at high speed to unleash a flurry of attacks before retreating before any counterattack could come, he seemed to have heard the rumors about me correctly.

He was wary of my Tale of Heros, Defying Fate.

Knowing that my movements become impossibly fast as if time stops, but that the duration is short, he was rapidly approaching to deliver quick combinations before retreating quickly before Defying Fate could activate.

If Defying Fate activated during close combat, he would be one-sidedly slaughtered, but if he maintained sufficient distance, even if I activated Defying Fate, the duration would end just by the time I closed the gap.

Well… since I had no intention of using Defying Fate anyway, I found his antics rather amusing.

—-

Those who had heard rumors about me, and even those who had directly witnessed me fighting, harbored a great misunderstanding.

The misconception that my Tale of Heros, Defying Fate, was a type of ability that rapidly accelerated my body. That’s why even the winged Dragonborn feared Defying Fate.

Assuming that a sword swung at a speed impossible to react to would also carry tremendous power.

Well, looking at it visually, one would naturally think that way…

But the essence of Defying Fate is not acceleration but time compression. Since the physical speed itself doesn’t increase, the power of the slashing attack is no different from an ordinary strike.

While such slashes could easily cut down fairies, humans, or wingless Dragonborn, against a winged Dragonborn, the power was somewhat lacking.

After all, Dragonborn become stronger and harder the closer they get to a dragon’s form.

Even if I activated Defying Fate and slashed at him, I would at best inflict minor wounds, blocked by his scales.

So against him, rather than activating Defying Fate to inflict numerous superficial wounds, it would be more effective to convert all that Karma into power for heavy, powerful strikes.

“Stop running away like a coward!”

Therefore, instead of using my Tale of Heros, I charged toward him, kicking off the ground while infusing Durandal with the power of Good Karma.

– BOOM!

My superhuman leg strength shattered the ground, scattering fragments, and in the blink of an eye, the distance between us closed to point-blank range.

The golden inscriptions on the blue blade emitted a brilliant afterglow, carving a golden arc through the air.

“How dare you say that to-!”

Apparently disliking being called a coward, the Dragonborn also flapped his large wings and charged toward me.

To think he hated being called a coward more than the insinuation about his mother. He showed promising qualities as an unfilial son.

“Who do you think you are, punk!”

Sword and spear collided with an explosive sound. Three curved swords wrapped in crimson lightning were deflected by his wing beats, while Frosting’s claws and his talons scraped against each other’s scales, sending sparks flying.

“If you wish to know, I’ll tell you. My name is Beherikes. I am Beherikes, the Spear Demon of the Wall Star!”

“Idiot Spear Demon? What kind of nickname is that?”

“Wall Star Spear Demon!”

Beherikes shouted angrily and unleashed a rain of thrusts aimed at my entire body.

– RUMBLE!

Simultaneously, he conjured lightning spears all around, firing them relentlessly.

“I am the First Seat of the Five Dragon-men who serve the Heavenly Demon, the Spear Demon of the Lightning Wall Star! That is who I, Beherikes, am!”

[Heavenly Demon? A winged half-lizard dares to speak that name?]

Hersella spat out what seemed like a racially—no, species-discriminatory remark in an irritated tone. I might be mistaken, but the power behind her Crimson Blade seemed to have increased by thirty percent.

Apparently, she couldn’t tolerate the reality that someone other than herself was being called a Heavenly Demon, as if she had exclusive rights to the title.

Of course, whether she was angry about losing the Heavenly Demon title or not was none of my concern, so I simply continued swinging my sword at the Dragonborn who had revealed his name as Beherikes.