Ch.758Premarital

The heart of the melee had become a furnace of death.

Beams of light in every color crisscrossed the sky, colliding like comets and scattering thunder and flames.

Blue lightning and crimson lightning canceled each other out in explosive bursts, while tentacles of Karma of Murder seized and retrieved the falling scales of a fire dragon’s wrath.

Wings and fire.

Each time accelerating spears and longswords collided, the air shattered into vortices, and broken scale fragments scattered like powder, refracting light in a chaotic sparkle.

—-

Unlike slaughtering the wingless Dragonborn, fighting the crippled spearman Beherikes was proving exceptionally troublesome for me.

Fighting a winged Dragonborn meant the battlefield had to be the sky rather than the ground.

In other words—

【 Kaaak! Vous Tuerrrrr! 】

The orphan who had chased me all the way here, but ended up just beating on innocent high spirits after I gave him the slip, was coming at me again.

With a muzzle cracked all over from the beating it had taken, it let out a roar filled with something resembling joy.

– Gooooooh!

No sooner had Nidhogg howled at me than black magic circles appeared in the air all around me.

A pungent smell spread like wildfire.

“Where are you looking!”

Taking advantage of the brief moment my attention shifted to the magic circles, Beherikes shot a lightning bolt.

As Aishan-Gioro Hersella’s crimson-scaled short sword deflected it, dozens of black claws emerged from the magic circles that had gathered sufficient dark mana.

The claws—sharp as talons, thin as if only bone remained, and writhing like tentacles—surged toward me.

– Kyaaaaaaaaah!

What’s more, as if they were some kind of half-soul magic, the palm areas split open like human mouths and wailed like ghosts.

Seeing how both my mana resistance and Stigmata reacted immediately to that sound, it must have been some kind of curse-based ability… but to me it was just irritatingly loud noise with no real danger.

Unlike the claws themselves, which were swarming at me from front, back, left, right, and even above and below.

‘Sheathe your sword!’

As Hersella, who had been swinging the crimson-scaled short sword with the Karma of Murder I had lent her, withdrew her tentacles and sheathed the blade, I switched Durandal to my left hand and extended my right to spew forth Karma flames.

– Kwaaaa!

Two legs, back, and right hand. Controlling the output and direction of four streams of flame, I performed aerial acrobatics, weaving through the gaps between the claws. Those I couldn’t avoid, I sliced through with Durandal in my left hand.

My vision spun so wildly I almost wished I could close my eyes, and the scales of my armor rattled and fluttered with each impact.

– Kyaaaaa…!

The missed claws clutched at empty air, their ghostly wails echoing as they receded.

Flying such a complex trajectory was a first-time experience even for me, but my body, which had entered the superhuman realm, easily handled movements that seemed impossible for an unaugmented human, guiding me through the gaps between streams of dark mana.

“Try catching this too!”

As soon as I escaped the net of ghostly claws, a symphony of lightning bolts followed, as if they had been waiting for me.

– Kwarrrrrrrr!

When Beherikes raised his left arm toward the sky then brought it down toward me, a literal downpour of lightning bolts cascaded from the thundercloud above his head.

“If you’ve got a spear, fight like a man with your spear! Why resort to cowardly magic?”

[ Shameless woman. ]

I hurriedly changed course and threw every dagger I had to neutralize the lightning streams.

With a rumbling boom, my black iron dwarf-made daggers disintegrated into powder. Extraordinary power.

These relentless lightning bolts were powerful enough to seriously wound even decent Heroes if they took a direct hit.

– Kwarrrrrrrr!

And there were still dozens of them left.

‘Block them!’

[ Hah, you really have no shame, woman. ]

Despite her grumbling, Hersella drew her crimson-scaled short sword and swung it in all directions to deflect the lightning bolts.

Each time the red blade struck lightning, it exploded with a boom as tentacles of Karma burst forth, and new tentacles extending from behind grabbed the deflected curved blade to swing it again. Red and blue fragments scattered like flower petals.

– Kwang! Kwaang!

“Kraaack!”

“Dodge! It’s Lord Beherikes’s lightning!”

Stray lightning bolts struck the ground, shattering the fairies, Dragonborn, and undead fighting there into pieces.

“Now I see why they call you a spearman!”

I dodged and deflected the lightning bolts that broke through Hersella’s defense and charged at full speed toward Beherikes.

“Too afraid to thrust, so you’d rather be the one getting penetrated! What a waste of size!”

“How utterly vulgar!”

Beherikes twisted his one remaining eye in disgust, gathered lightning in his left hand, wrapped it around his spear shaft, and charged to meet me.

The lightning-wrapped spearhead collided with my feat-imbued longsword and howled like an enraged giant.

“You savage beast! No respect for your opponent, no dignity as a strong one! Even Werebeasts aren’t this bad!”

“Respect? Dignity? You’re talking about bowing to a piece of meat at the butcher’s shop.”

Lightning grazed my cheek. Wincing at the tingling sensation running up my arm, I reached out with my left hand and grabbed his elongated muzzle.

With a mechanical whirring sound, the fingers of my prosthetic hand tightened like a vise, crushing his jaws.

“Why would any of that matter between those trying to kill each other?”

Would an enemy be so moved by politeness that they’d just die for you?

Since that’s not the case, isn’t it a hundred times better to create openings with provocations rather than wasting time on useless courtesy?

“Nnnngh…!”

He seemed to agree with me, as he offered no rebuttal. Instead, he raised his left hand’s claws and swung at my face.

“Where do you think—!”

I jerked my head sideways and opened my mouth wide to bite his hand.

As my fangs broke through scales and dug into flesh, the tangy scent of blood and a taste similar to chicken filled my nose and mouth.

His claws must have grazed me, as my cheek stung a bit.

“Grrrrrr!”

Beherikes trembled as his muzzle began to crumple and his half-bitten left hand raised his talons to slash at my lower body.

– Kwaduk!

Three claw marks appeared on the scales of my winter armor. Wasn’t it mixed with dragon scale powder in the black iron scales? The defensive power was as excellent as Asha had guaranteed.

Still biting down on his left hand, I taunted him.

“A dying beast struggling, but at this distance—”

Just as I was about to thrust Hersella’s crimson-scaled short sword through his windpipe—

– Hwooooong!

I sensed a massive flow of dark mana from behind me.

A chilling sensation that even I couldn’t escape serious injury if hit directly. A dragon’s breath.

Ah, really. I almost had him…!

I grimaced, released Beherikes’s muzzle, kicked him away, and shot higher into the sky. The next moment,

【 Kraaaaaaa! 】

With a roar that was becoming tediously familiar, a black river spread beneath my feet. Not just any river, but a river of extreme heat that vaporized everything it touched as it approached me.

“You old pointy-eared bastards! Can’t you manage one dragon properly?!”

I turned my head sharply toward the direction the dragon’s breath had come from, berating the fairies who had failed in their duty to stop the beast. My voice carried all the contempt I felt for these fifteen-hundred-year-old beings who couldn’t handle one task despite there being two of them.

“That damn bitch!”

Perhaps hearing my voice, Eirnesia, perched on the shoulder of a rock elemental whose body was half-melted, shouted in uncontainable rage.

With only her right arm remaining, as if she’d left her other arm in a different era.

“Ignore her, Eirnesia! This isn’t the time!”

Even as the ice elemental completely evaporated and they began to fall, Tersillius calmed Eirnesia and summoned a wind elemental to mount.

A translucent giant bird resembling an eagle flapped its wings and soared upward, and Eirnesia jumped from the rock elemental’s shoulder onto Tersillius’s elemental.

“Grwoooooor!”

The rock elemental, abandoned by its master, heroically sacrificed itself trying to stop Nidhogg’s breath until the very end.

…In other words, Nidhogg, who had been unable to rampage properly while getting beaten by the two high spirits, was finally free.

【 Krrhahaahaahaaaak-! 】

That bastard sounds like he’s laughing.

With a roar eerily resembling laughter, Nidhogg spread his wings wide, covering his tattered inner wings with a layer of dark mana.

– Hwaaak!

Black wings so massive they blocked the sun. A curtain-like shadow brought darkness to the battlefield.

When he swept his wings downward, a fierce gale surged forth, pushing back all the ground-dwellers engaged in the melee.

“Ah, aaaah!”

“Krrrrrk?!”

“The dragon’s escaping! Mount up!”

Fairies, skeletons, and Dragonborn alike who failed to respond in time screamed shrilly as they rolled across the blood-soaked mud.

“Kyaak!”

“Everyone gather behind me!”

Demian’s group, who had been engaged with the two guardians, were also caught in the windblast, but fortunately, they avoided the indignity of rolling across the dirt with quick reactions.

Millia had no problems as she was already at a distance, Demian shattered the shockwave itself by swinging his greatsword, and the rest sheltered behind the mana barrier Ophelia had deployed.

“I’ll crush you along with that barrier!”

Taking advantage of the opening, Guardian Iberphalos roared as a rock elemental’s fist extended toward the mana barrier—

“Dream on!”

Demian, who had sharply altered his flight path to charge at the rock elemental, buried his greatsword in its forearm and spiraled upward in a corkscrew motion, shredding the massive boulder like a turnip in a blender, scattering fragments in all directions.

“Grwooooor!”

Next, a flame giant summoned by Guardian Disgelpierre swung a flaming sword at Demian—

“Haaaah!”

Demian used the falling rock fragments as stepping stones to leap away, avoiding the giant’s sword, then struck down with his mythril greatsword, cutting the missed flame sword in half.

Fighting well. As expected, I don’t need to worry about that side.

Reassured by Demian’s performance, which exceeded my expectations, I turned my head.

“Come on, try talking big again!”

【 Kaaaaaaak! 】

“I’ll kill you! Vile short-lived species!”

Perhaps my provocation had been too effective, as I faced the troublesome enemies now chasing me with their eyes rolled back in rage.