Chapter 345
In Aoun Castle, there existed a transparent barrier that surrounded the entire inner castle.
With this, any aerial intrusion or catapult attack from outside toward the inner castle could be completely blocked, and the device that maintained this protective barrier was none other than the Guardian Stone.
“Haa, haa.”
Simon had just arrived at the inner-city district where the Guardian Stone was located.
The large crystal had been completely shattered, leaving only fragments behind, and traces of battle were visible everywhere.
It seemed that even the one Keyzen student who had been guarding this place, along with the beastman soldiers, had all been taken down.
‘When on earth…?’
As Simon crouched to examine the broken crystal shards, he suddenly sensed a presence behind him.
<Exhaust>
A strand of curse magic came rushing from behind. Twisting his body quickly to avoid it, Simon turned back while readying his own curse.
“Nice reaction.”
A male Keyzen student Simon had never seen before was approaching.
His school uniform was filthy with dirt, and blood was flowing from various parts of his body.
Lowering his hand, Simon spoke.
“Were you the one who broke the Guardian Stone?”
“Correct.”
In fact, Jule had another mission besides ‘hunting Simon’.
The moment Jule crossed into the city past the inner castle wall, he had secretly dropped a chess piece-shaped stone he’d been carrying.
Moments later, that chess piece swelled up, standing tall, and transformed into a human figure.
“I’m a necromancer on the Gargoyle tech tree. I can turn into stone or a statue. That's enough explanation for you?”
When he attached the magic circle he had drawn to his own body, his skin hardened and turned the color of stone.
Simon recognized that black magic.
‘Statue Form.’
He never thought he’d see in person the black magic that had appeared on the midterm exam.
While in Statue Form, one could not use black magic, but it granted powerful curse immunity and near immunity to physical attacks. More than anything, turning into an inanimate object made it difficult to detect Darkness, so even professional necromancers used it for ambushes.
“That’s right, from the start, you’ve been dancing in Elisa’s palm!”
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The boy charged forward, shaking the ground.
Simon clenched his fist and gathered Darkness in response.
‘Idiot! My body’s immune to physical attacks!’
The boy swung a literal stone fist, but Simon evaded with light steps and, in an instant, got behind him.
He was at his limit from the start.
Due to insufficient Darkness, the boy’s back was bare and not fully turned to stone.
Simon’s fist slammed into his back.
<Hongpeng’s Original – Chwita>
Boooom!
The boy was sent flying several meters, crashing into a wall. A shattering sound rang out as his barrier broke.
[Raq Stoneville eliminated.]
[Defenders (11/15)]
[Attackers (10/15)]
“Good work.”
His role had probably ended with the destruction of the Guardian Stone.
The gargoyle student scattered into the air and vanished, and Simon’s gaze turned to the top of the castle.
‘The royal palace is in danger.’
Raising the commander’s badge, Simon issued orders through the comms, then began running toward the royal palace himself.
* * *
“A… a dragon has appeared!”
“It’s really that legendary dragon! Run!”
The beastfolk were in an uproar.
Covered head to toe in dark scales, the Corpse Dragon flapped its massive wings as it took to the skies, striking terror into the soldiers of the Kingdom of Aoun.
Each time the dragon let out a thunderous roar, the soldiers dropped their weapons and fled.
The black dragon leisurely circled above the castle walls, destroying key facilities and crushing morale, before finally arriving at the top of Aoun Castle.
Hovering above and gazing down at the royal palace, the dragon opened its massive jaws.
<Dragon Breath>
Kwooooooom!
A black sphere shot forth, slamming into the royal palace.
With a deafening explosion, the surroundings shook as if an earthquake had struck. Chunks of stone rained down.
The dragon narrowed its eyes as it watched.
‘…As expected.’
The royal palace was an indestructible object.
To kill the king, he would have to shrink his body and enter the palace directly.
The black dragon landed, and its enormous body began to shrink. The long reptilian snout drew back into a human face, and the scales that had clung tightly to its body now hung loosely like tattered fragments.
The unique power of the Moore family, to transform into a Corpse Dragon.
Returning to the form of a man draped in a dragon’s remains, Hector began striding toward the royal palace.
Clang!
At that moment, the palace doors burst open and beastman knights in plate armor charged out.
Shiiing!
Clang!
They drew their swords and leveled them at Hector.
“We are the Royal Knights, squeak!”
“Squeak! Squeak! Foul guardian of the Karl Kingdom, withdraw, screeech!”
A vein throbbed on Hector’s forehead.
“Do not presume to command me, fakes.”
“Squeak squeak! Attack!”
“Aium Aoun!!”
All the knights roared as they rushed in. Clicking his tongue in irritation, Hector opened a subspace.
“Fight, you fools.”
From the subspace, skeletons descended.
The moment they emerged, their bodies disassembled and reassembled into long, straight forms.
<Bone Spear>
With an expression of boredom, Hector swung his arm. The bone spears floating in the air exploded forward with a chilling sonic boom.
Thud! Thunk! Thunk!
The bone spears pierced through the plate armor, killing the beastman knights in a single blow. Though their comrades fell one after another, the knights did not retreat and instead increased their speed.
Ssshhk.
Hector extended a finger. A crimson curse shot from his fingertip, linking one knight at the front with four comrades behind him in a single line.
“Graah!”
The lead knight raised his sword high.
There were gaps between the scattered dragon scales on Hector’s body, and the knight swung accurately at one of them.
Clang!
But the scales moved on their own to block the sword.
“N-no!”
Now towering over him like a mountain, Hector raised his fist. In the giant shadow his body cast, the knight trembled in fear.
Crunch!
Hector’s fist smashed into the knight’s helmet. Both helmet and skull caved in at once, and the knight crumpled. At the same moment, the four knights linked to him by the curse also collapsed, their heads struck with the same force.
“I am a necromancer, you vermin.”
Wham!
Another knight fell to Hector’s kick.
From above, Bone Spears—freshly reassembled—rained down like a storm, skewering the knights’ bodies.
“If you wish to stop me…”
He spun his body, and the dragon wings on his back sliced off like blades, cutting through the knights as they passed.
“…bring me Simon Follentia!”
With every move Hector made, more knights died.
It took Hector only five minutes to annihilate the Royal Palace’s elite Royal Knights of the Kingdom of Aoun.
“Not even a warm-up.”
Snorting in disdain, Hector strode into the royal palace.
<Exhaust>
Pop!
From the side, a strand of curse shot out like an arrow. Hector formed Cancellation in his right hand, and swept it to deflect the curse.
“You’re not getting into the palace, Hector Moore!”
At some point, a female Keyzen student from the defending side had come up the stairs. She activated all the magic circles she had floating in the air.
<Exhaust> <Blind> <Feint>
With an indifferent expression, Hector twisted his body to evade the curses, or unfurled Cancellation to nullify them.
The last curse he shattered by drawing Darkness into his fist and releasing it at the exact moment the curse came flying in.
“...No way!”
The girl’s face stiffened. This time, Hector extended his arm.
<Strangle>
She panicked and clasped her palms together to create Cancellation, but Hector’s curse passed straight through the Cancellation magic circle and dug into her body.
“Khuk!”
Grabbing her throat, she collapsed on the spot. Tears welled in her eyes as choking sounds escaped her lips.
“Pathetic.”
Hector lowered his arm with a bored expression.
“Clinging to mid–low squad trendy curse spamming, won’t work against upper–squad level, trash.”
“Fall back, Pengel!”
This time, a curly-haired male student blocked the entrance to the royal palace. Annoyance tinged Hector’s expression.
“I have no need for runts like you. Bring me Simon Follentia!”
“Sorry, but Simon’s a bit busy right now!”
The male student grinned, activating a magic circle in his palm.
The basics of Haematology, <Blood Silk>—silk woven from blood—covered his body.
“I can deal with the likes of you myself!”
A blood arts user this time.
Hector waited with a cold expression. The Blood Silk draped over the man’s body twisted and layered itself, solidly protecting his whole form.
<Blood Robe>
Having finished casting his black magic, the male student charged at Hector.
In response, Hector sharpened the scales clinging to his body and fired them off.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Of course, the male student’s Blood Robe perfectly deflected every scale projectile.
“Sorry, but this is my original black magic!”
Whoosh!
The student swung his fist. Hector tilted his body aside to evade, but at the same time, the Blood Robe swelled up, turning into thorns that stabbed at Hector’s body.
‘Got him…!’
Hector’s expression chilled.
“Pathetic, trash.”
<Hongpeng’s Original – Sky Calamity>
With no complicated movements or calculations, Hector’s fist drove straight into the student’s abdomen.
“Khuhk!”
The blow pierced through the Blood Robe and struck his body directly. Clutching his stomach, the student staggered.
“What’s so original about that.”
Striding forward, Hector smashed his fist into the student’s face.
Crack!
“Every dog and cow calls it an original when all they’ve done is tweak the original technique.”
Crunch!
“Knocking out fifty at a time in dribs and drabs.”
Thud!
“That’s why trash like you still remain in Keyzen.”
Smash!
Hector now didn’t even bother with Sky Calamity, pounding the male student with his bare fists. Eventually, the Blood Robe dissipated, revealing the student’s bare body. Trembling, he raised his arms as if pleading.
“S-stop…!”
Crack!
Hector’s uppercut caught his jaw. White showed in the student’s eyes as he collapsed to the ground.
[Emens Folorens eliminated.]
[Defenders (10/15)]
[Attackers (10/15)]
“All kinds of vermin pestering me…!”
Muttering, Hector swung his arm without even looking to the side.
Clang!
The incoming curse was casually deflected with Cancellation. When he turned his head, the girl called Pengel stood there, panting.
“Putting on airs as a curse-user, did you break my Strangle.”
Hector approached like the grim reaper. Pengel trembled, but her eyes sharpened as she raised both hands.
“Haaaah!”
From her fingertips, curses burst out one after another. But Hector swatted or shattered them with mere flicks of his arm.
When she ran out of prepared curses, she began retreating with a face full of fear.
“So it’s back to low-grade curse spam again. Can’t fix trash habits.”
Hector lowered himself and charged forward.
In an instant, the distance between them closed.
‘Got you!’
Pengel smirked. Hector passed right through her now-blurred body.
‘Damn, she’s in spirit form!’
Spinning her body, she wrapped her arms around Hector’s back.
<Banshee’s Embrace>
As the black magic triggered through the embrace, Hector’s body turned gray and froze completely.
“Too bad. I’m actually not a curse-user, I’m from the Banshee clan.”
Her pretending to be a curse-user was a feint, Pengel’s chosen field was Spiritology.
“Banshee’s Embrace stops not only the target’s movement, but even their thoughts.”
She tapped Hector’s cheek lightly as she spoke. His massive frame made her look like a cicada clinging to a tree.
“Now then, how should I finish off the immobilized young master of the Moore family…”
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Pain like her back was seared with fire made her pupils shake.
At some point, Hector’s scales had embedded themselves in her back like throwing knives.
“Ah!”
Agony turned her mind blank. Her focus crumbled, and light returned to Hector’s eyes.
“Curse-user or spirit-user, it doesn’t matter.”
Grab.
Hector seized her head in one hand.
“A-aaaargh!!”
“The moment you got close, you were bound to try some petty trick.”
Seeing her excessive focus on curse spam earlier, Hector had suspected a hidden ploy.
So he had imbued his scales with Darkness in advance, pulled them back, and set them to return to him automatically after a set time unless he controlled them.
“Now get lost.”
Crack!
Snap!
With monstrous grip strength, the barrier gauge around her shattered.
Just then—
“!”
The sole of a shoe suddenly appeared before Hector’s face.
Smaaash!
Hector barely managed to raise his other hand to block.
Sliding backward, he saw a boy land on the ground holding Pengel in his arms.
Finally—
“Keh…!”
Unable to hide his joy, Hector’s mouth split into a monstrous grin.
“I was just starting to crave a fight with you again! Simon Follentia!!”
Simon gently set Pengel down on the ground, then rose to his feet.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters
Very good story and translation but half the chapter aren't for free and it is wayyyy too expensive will it stat like tjis foreve or will it get free after some time