Episode 208
Episode 67. Legacy of Witch Heluram (4)
Brain energy ejected from the mad heart wrapped around the pale sword body. The reddish landscape, blazing with that energy, turned blue in an instant, and the monster took a backward step.
A blindingly bright light.
Soon, the light that turned into a huge awl rushed towards the nape of the monster. The ashes of a thorn tree that spread everywhere are being sucked in by the fierce energy.
Even when the awl of condemnation came right in front of its nose, the monster’s eyes were wide open, but Jin was immersed in this intuition for some reason.
‘I don’t think it will end in one blow.’
A sword that swallowed five of the White Wolves at once. Even so, it seemed that he couldn’t kill the monster, and his intuition was never wrong.
Kyaaaaaagh!
Just before the awl pierced the nape of the neck, the monster bent its back like a bow and thrust out its forepaw.
Five claws sharp like swords were shining. It seemed to be overlaid with the unique power of monsters, not aura or magical power.
Pazuz that is!
When the awl collided with the forepaw, thunderbolts and blue sparks flew. Surprisingly, the monster’s desperate front kick twisted the trajectory of the awl, and Jin swung his sword again.
The awl that bounced diagonally followed Sigmund and attacked the side of the monster again. This time, the monster showed the appearance of chasing an awl with its claws.
It wasn’t a direct clash, but that alone was enough to infer the monster’s monstrous power.
‘Sir Vanessa didn’t say it was a test for nothing.’
It’s not just brute force. It is also a shocking part that he has already responded accurately twice to the awl close to the brain.
However, the monster was afraid of the awl. He screamed incessantly because he instinctively sensed what kind of pain would follow the moment the awl touched his body.
Pzie Kang! That’s-!
Five times to cut the awl like that, eventually, on the sixth, there was a hole in the hind leg of the monster. Jin immediately guided the awl to that spot, then threw his body and aimed at the front of the monster together.
The cerebral spirit spreading from the tyrannical Sigmund pulled the monster. Because of this, the monster couldn’t avoid the awl that attacked its hind legs, and only managed to cut off the blade that stretched out in front of it.
[Kak!]
The tip of the monster’s claw hit the center of the blade. Jin didn’t lose his balance, let go of his sword, and attacked again. In the meantime, the awl that attacked the monster’s back leg vomited a thunderbolt.
Painful cries spread out. The moment the unpleasant noise, like dozens of babies crying, rang in his ears, Jin dropped a thunderbolt at the face of the monster.
The two attacks, the thunderbolt and the awl of condemnation, hit at the same time. Even a 9-star warrior would never be able to stay sane if he was hit without a shield.
Obviously, the flat-style lightning hit the monster’s face straight through, and the awl pierced the back leg and tore it to pieces.
[Kiaaaak! Kaaaa!]
I even let out a painful scream that made everyone who heard it suffer. And the next moment, Jin had to face an amazing sight.
‘play…?’
The monster’s wound was regenerating.
The broken bone fragments from the hind feet disintegrated and seeped back into the affected area, and the face torn by lightning quickly healed.
It’s a well-known fact that there are species with regenerative abilities among high-ranking monsters, so there’s nothing particularly surprising about it.
‘Even if it’s fast, it’s too fast.’
The problem was that. The regenerative ability of high-ranking monsters that Jin knew was never this fast. The cat monster is literally regenerating the wound ‘instantly’.
It was not the time to stand still and watch. Due to the prolonged condemnation of the 3 swords, the aura is not properly arranged.
It’s because I didn’t have this kind of regeneration ability in mind. Even if Jin was a bit overpowered, he planned to deal with him by first inflicting a fatal wound and then adjusting his pace.
Who could have predicted that this monster had such a regenerative ability? The dark knights of the previous generation, who encountered the monster for the first time, also experienced the same absurd feeling as Jin.
[Kiiyiak…!]
The monster’s bright eyes filled with gin after recovering in an instant. I must kill him. Mana gathered again in his eyes with such a strong intent to kill.
It’s not magic this time. The magical energy gathered in the eyes was fired as it was, and Jin was able to evade it by quickly stepping on foot, but swallowed dry saliva when he saw the ground where the beam had landed.
A dark pit was formed. It was not enough, and the surrounding land was all broken and torn apart, so it seemed like the fort had collapsed.
Of course, if you get hit by that kind of light, even if you’re Jin, you won’t be safe.
‘It’s okay if it doesn’t fit.’
It wasn’t so fast that it couldn’t be avoided or blocked.
However, the fact that the enemy has one weapon that must be kept in mind at all times will significantly increase the fatigue of battle.
This was especially true in situations where a long-term battle had to be waged against monsters that regenerated at the speed of second.
‘Even that guy can’t play indefinitely. If I damage the organ that is the source of regeneration or injure it until it can no longer regenerate, I win.’
Of course, it wasn’t as easy as I thought. If Jin allows even one hit, it will be a fatal wound, whereas if a monster endures pain, it will easily regenerate a few fatal wounds.
I had to fight effectively. It means that it is necessary to use a sword that can be more delicately controlled than a destructive sword like the Myeongwang sword.
Sureung…
Jin drew Bradamante while cutting Sigmund. At the same time as the sword, he released his spirit energy.
sword liberation.
The brilliance of Bradamante’s sword was buried in darkness and disappeared. Then, as spirit particles began to float near Jin’s body, the monster’s pupils narrowed.
“It looks like you’ve seen Reiki before? He would have lived a long time.”
[Kyaa…]
“It must be quite painful to defeat you, but I hope there will be a satisfactory reward.”
Jin and the monster rush at each other at the same time.
Magical power continued to form in the eyes of the monster. When the distance got closer, the monster fired a beam of light and pressed Jin again, repeating the process of forming magical energy.
The attack using its four paws, tail, and snout did not stop. I thought the claws and snout would be the most dangerous, but the tail was the toughest part.
It is difficult to read the direction as it comes out without warning after being hidden by the body. From Jin’s point of view, it felt like a pillar-like mace was falling down from the left, right, and top all of a sudden.
Also, it was Jin’s first battle with a giant monster.
While fighting dragons, I felt dizzy from the agility and flexibility I had never experienced before, but the monsters did not give me time to adapt at all.
It was quite tricky.
However, the achievement was not lacking enough to be difficult to deal with. As long as he could maintain his concentration, he could have sufficiently avoided or parried all the attacks of the monsters.
After the workshop continued for about 3 minutes, gaps gradually came into view one by one.
Even if the monster had a means of regeneration, it would often jump out in a hurry if an opening was found, and Jin felt that he had no more hidden cards.
Whoa…!
The aura that spread from the sword slowly dyed the relationship between Jin and the monster. Just as the demons did at first using the forest, Jin hid in the aura and repeatedly appeared, gradually creating a pattern in the workshop.
Conversely, monsters could no longer hide in the forest. All the thorns nearby are still burning, and if you hide in the deep woods, the wicked man will set fire to your precious food again.
So apart from the shocking regenerative power, Jin had the initiative in the fight.
‘The key is whether my physical strength goes down first or his regenerative ability goes down first.’
I also considered the method of luring him out of the forest and defeating him with his colleagues. However, the monster was not a weak opponent enough to run away with its back.
So it was bound to be a long fight.
* * *
The battle continued for over 40 hours. The monster had never fatally wounded Jin, and if it weren’t for his regenerative ability, Jin would have already killed the monster dozens of times.
On the ground covered in flames and where the monsters stood, only ashes and embers remained. All nearby thorns had been burnt away.
However, the flames caused by the fire jade continued to climb the thorns and penetrate deeper into the ground, and now the fire covered more than half of the thorn forest.
It was about that time.
One variable that Jin failed to calculate started to change the atmosphere of the battlefield.
‘He’s getting nervous.’
Is it because of the fear that the forest will burn and disappear without leaving anything at this rate?
Unlike Jin, who showed signs of exhaustion, the monster is showing a condition that is not much different from the first time.
As time passed, there were more gaps in the monster’s movements. Even as he wielded his claws, he kept his eyes on the fire devouring the thorns in the distance, and each time he cut somewhere in Bradamante.
The only thing that could be said fortunately from the monster’s point of view was that the ability to regenerate was still there. Contrary to Jin’s expectations, even if the monster suffered a heart or head injury, it would recover just as it did when the instep was scratched.
There was no organ that could be the source of regeneration. During the fight, Jin stabbed or cut every monster’s body at least once.
The regenerative power possessed by monsters was not common.
It was a long way from the rules of the world. Like the old dark-type magic described in history books.
I haven’t met Jin yet, but even the beings called the ‘King of the Black Sea’ don’t have transcendent regenerative powers like this monster.
There is a limit to the absolute regeneration through time reversal that dragons of Olta, such as Quikantel, have. Recovering indefinitely, without any restrictions, was never a mortal being’s ability.
A ‘just can’t have’ ability.
It also meant that it was possible if there was a sufficient price.
After 40 hours of fighting, Jin was able to come to a conclusion about the monsters.
“…you weren’t regenerating.”
[Karreuk…!]
“The witch, Heluram, who was your master, put a curse on you. It’s probably a curse related to immortality, so you regenerate endlessly. There is no other way to explain it otherwise.”
[Kahha!]
As Jin slowly approached, the monster scratched the ground menacingly.
“You are an immortal body. Even if I wanted to die, I couldn’t die, so no matter how many times my limbs were cut off, my heart exploded, and my head fell, I was fighting with me. Am I wrong?”
Jin knew very little about the old dark world magic, but he was sure. Apparently, the monster fell under the curse of Helluram for some reason.
And it’s probably abandoned.
“Where will you go when this forest burns up and disappears?”
The monster made a low sound without answering.
It seemed to say that there was nowhere else to go.
But it didn’t matter if there was nowhere to go. Anyway, the tree will grow again someday, and even if you can’t eat anything until then, the monster will still be alive.
Instead, in a world of rocks, trees, and solitude, monsters will have to live for a long time in a world where only solitude remains. Until the forest is all restored.
“If you don’t attack me, I’ll try to put the fire to rest from now on.”
When Jin said that with a lead sword, the monster nodded thoughtfully.
