Chapter 593
The Butcher thought to himself: in his 30 years as a professional, he had never faced such an opponent.
Chwaaaaaang—!
Chwaaang—!
The world was filled with crimson lines. Through the rift in space, the onslaught of red-eyed monsters poured forth, leaving him no room to think.
“Kh-ugh!”
The buildings around him were already in ruins. The walls were riddled with holes like a beehive, and the rooftops had been blown away.
“Damn it!”
The Butcher raised his head—just in time for two beams of light to descend on him at an unavoidable angle. He quickly brought his cleaver forward.
Ka-kang!
The falling rays struck against his massive cleaver, pushing him back. His legs skidded, leaving long wheel marks across the ground.
“Graaaahh!”
He roared a guttural cry. The beams that had been pouring down refracted, veering away to the side of the village.
Kiiiiiiiing!
The searing rays drew a line across the village, erasing everything in their path. In an instant, buildings and ground were sliced apart, collapsing with a blast of scorching wind.
“Hahh! Hahh!”
The Butcher lowered his cleaver, drenched in cold sweat.
From the shadows emerged a girl in a school uniform, her jet-black hair fluttering like obsidian. Between those strands, two crimson eyes glowed like a beast.
“Kehahaha! So this is what Keyzen’s raising? Not students, but mad weapons!”
Loraine stared silently at her opponent.
He wasn’t just mixing Magical Combat with strange techniques, he was far trickier than she’d expected.
A blood-soaked professional necromancer, steeped in the dark for far too long.
He must have trampled countless human lives, stacking experience and karma alike.
There was no way she could allow this monster to reach where her friends were.
“I’ll ask you one question.”
Loraine’s lips parted.
“Are you a member of the ‘Executioners’?”
“Hah!”
The man twirled his cleavers before resetting his grip.
“I’ve no idea what you’re babbling about!”
“Why are you targeting Simon?”
“And what benefit would I get from answering that?”
“You’d gain one.”
As she gestured behind her, the nightmare-like rift slowly closed, as though a monster’s jaws were shutting tight.
“Depending on your answer, I will turn you over to Keyzen Headquarters in a humane condition.”
“That’s not a benefit—!”
Thud!
The Butcher kicked up a wooden board lying on the ground.
“That’s a threat!”
He smacked the rising plank with his cleaver’s flat. With sudden acceleration, it bounced like a rubber ball, ricocheting wildly around.
Without even looking back, Loraine coolly raised two fingers.
Thunk!
The wooden board, flying straight for her from behind, snapped into her fingers and stopped dead.
“You’re a caught-in-the-act criminal for assaulting Keyzen students.”
Crack.
The plank split in half, dropping helplessly to the floor.
“If you insist on being uncooperative, then I’ll have to use some… less polite persuasion.”
From her subspace, Loraine summoned two strange constructs made of glass and chains. The creatures flopped to the ground like broken dolls, unmoving.
She spread her palms, channeling her power into them.
Wiiiiing—!
Wiiiing!
Her ability and Darkness seeped into the constructs, and slowly, they began to rise.
They resembled glass-bodied humans bound in chains, floating in the air. A glowing eye, identical to Loraine’s own, flickered in their chests.
“Full barrage.”
The two summons opened with a mechanical clank, unleashing countless crimson beams skyward.
The beams twisted and bent in the air, turning again and again until they converged from every direction on the Butcher.
“Shit! This’ll cost you extra!”
His grin vanished as he tightened his grip on his massive cleaver.
* * *
Shwoooosh!
Swoosh!
Bone Spears and dragon scales rained down upon the one-eyed gentleman.
Yet he merely swung his staff at leisure, batting them away with ease.
“Graaaahh!”
Hector charged like a bull, Darkness swirling around his fist. The gentleman dodged back and cracked his staff across Hector’s skull.
Thwack!
With that sound, Hector’s body flew upward before crashing down hard.
The students watching were speechless.
“Hector…?”
“Losing?”
The one-eyed gentleman calmly adjusted the brim of his hat.
Around him lay dragon scales, bones, scorch marks, and remnants of curses—clearly from Hector’s attacks.
“The eldest son of the Moore family, and yet still no more than a student.”
Hector groaned, trembling arms pushing himself upright.
“In a few years, you could turn me to ash with just a breath. But for now, this is your limit.”
He slammed his palms into the ground with a thud, forcing himself back onto his feet.
“And that ‘dragon’ from before—that was you, wasn’t it? Facing me right after transformation, when your power is drained, is unwise.”
“...You talk too much.”
Panting harshly, Hector readied his stance.
“Come on.”
Anyone could see Hector was at his limit.
Unable to bear it, students around him began moving to provide backup. Even nearby Gahal warriors notched arrows and hefted spears.
But then—
[So you do know Simon Follentia well, after all.]
The one-eyed gentleman stirred his Darkness.
“!”
Every student and Gahal warrior clutched their throats.
‘I… can’t breathe…!’
The gentleman’s Darkness spread, swallowing the air, dyeing the surroundings pitch black.
Students and warriors collapsed one by one, foaming at the mouth or soiling themselves.
Overwhelming terror.
Before it, no human could resist. Even Hector’s face turned deathly pale.
[Speak.]
Rising into the air cloaked in fearsome Darkness, the gentleman lifted Hector’s chin with his staff.
[Tell me where Simon Follentia is. Do that, and you will all be spared.]
“...”
Hector’s lips parted.
“…Thanks.”
Crack!!
Suddenly, Hector headbutted the gentleman’s forehead, denting it inward.
“Ghk!”
Grab!
Thud!
Hector seized the gentleman, clamping onto him.
“Thanks for getting close.”
Scales erupted across Hector’s body.
<Hector’s Original – Thorn Scales>
Chwaaaaak!
Still clutching his opponent, Hector’s entire body erupted with scales that sharpened like thorns.
The one-eyed gentleman let out a cry of agony as blood sprayed upward into the sky.
[You cur…!]
Kiiiiiiiing!
The gentleman once again tried to subdue Hector with terror.
[Pathetic!]
Clang! Clang!
His lone pupil dilated in shock.
‘Dragon Fear?!’
The master of terror himself was seized by a sensation he had never once experienced.
‘I… am feeling fear…? Toward someone other than myself?’
Crack!
Hector drew his head back and slammed his forehead against the gentleman’s.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
He rammed into him mercilessly, over and over. The gentleman’s face twisted grotesquely. Then Hector unfurled the wings of the dragon and shot into the sky, spinning at the apex before plummeting down.
Kwaaaaaang!
The gentleman’s head smashed into the fortress wall, fracturing the ground with a thunderous crack.
“You bastards!”
Crunch!
“This vacation, I thought I had become perfect! That loss I suffered—I’d buried it deep!”
Crack!
“I was certain my second year would be different!”
Snap!
“But then he snatched the position of Student Council President! I was left to clash with him as nothing more than a department rep!”
Crack!
“In every single evaluation! In the way he always acted like he was holding back for my sake! Even the others who lined up to pick fights with him, as if competing with him was some noble challenge! All of it pisses me off! It drives me mad!”
Smash! Thud! Crack!
“Why did you hand over the commander’s role to me, Simon Follentiaaaa!!”
Kwaaaaang!
A section of the fortress wall collapsed into a crater. Hector stomped the gentleman’s skull down, panting, eyes blazing with killing intent.
The one-eyed gentleman realized with dread:
‘I picked the wrong opponent…!’
“In the end, the one who wins…”
His head tilted back in a maniacal laugh, black haze seeping through his teeth.
“…is me!”
A pitch-black Dragon Breath roared out, engulfing the gentleman in a massive explosion. Hector flung out his arms and screamed like a beast.
“$@!&^%@!!”
A devastating Dragon Fear burst forth, flattening every Mimicker climbing up the walls. Many collapsed outright; others fled back down in terror.
The students hardened by curses shielded themselves with Darkness, gritting through the wave, but among the Gahal warriors, many fell unconscious on the spot.
Shraaaaak!
Out of the explosion’s smoke came a black puddle—the gentleman had transformed and slipped downward.
The inky pool slithered diagonally down the fortress wall.
“Well now. This is… inconvenient.”
From the shadows of the sloping wall, his distorted face reformed.
“Seems I’ve struck a dragon’s reverse scale.”
It was troublesome from his perspective. He had no intention of making the Moore family his enemy.
He had merely asked where Simon Follentia was, with a little fear added in. He hadn’t expected such an extreme reaction.
An unexpected waste of stamina and strength.
“!”
Suddenly, his single pupil widened. A colossal shadow fell over him.
Fwump!
A rotten stench filled the air as a black corpse-dragon flapped its wings beside him.
‘He followed me even here?!’
Snap!
The dragon-shaped Hector clamped both massive claws onto the gentleman’s face.
Krrrrrk!
Grinding him along the fortress wall, Hector dragged him at terrifying speed.
[You damned brat!!]
Hector’s fury had yet to cool.
* * *
Meanwhile, inside the fortress.
A full quarter of the city had been obliterated by Loraine and the Butcher’s battle. Her destructive firepower was far too much for a small town to withstand.
“Huha-ha-ha!”
In the center of the ravaged ruins, the Butcher stood drenched in sweat. His legs creaked, and his arms trembled.
But Loraine’s breathing was still steady.
The retreating Butcher had to admit it—his initial assumption had been wrong.
‘I thought if I dragged it into a long fight, it’d be in my favor. After all, what kind of necromancer recklessly expends that much firepower?’
And yet this girl, only eighteen, wielded such overwhelming might.
Talent enough to dominate the entire continent.
‘If this continues, I’ll be the one crushed.’
But to be captured by an eighteen-year-old girl… that would disgrace all the great names he had decapitated over the years.
It wasn’t as if he’d just been dodging until now.
From the rift behind her, crimson beams poured out once more. Having already anticipated their trajectory, he raised his cleaver and shouted:
“Your friend’s about to be in danger!”
Kaaang!
The beams deflected off his blade.
Their new path aimed toward the fortress wall—where a girl student was commanding zombies against Mimickers, unaware of the attack.
Thuuuum!
Gritting her teeth, Loraine surged upward with her power. She appeared behind the girl just in time, blocking the crimson beam with her dagger.
“And that one’s in danger too!”
Whoosh!
The Butcher hurled a massive cleaver toward the opposite side, this time aiming for a boy student.
Loraine seized the girl by her collar, forcing her down, then leapt toward the other side, Darkness swirling at her heels.
“Hah!”
Her dagger slashed out—the strike barely intercepting the flying cleaver, knocking it away.
Shwaaaaak—!
Sliding across the fortress wall, she looked back toward where the Butcher had been.
He was gone.
She quickly raised her communication crystal.
“This is Loraine! Right now—”
—Loraine.
A calm middle-aged man’s voice came from the crystal.
—Well done. Leave the rest to us.
Superb.
When are we getting more free chapters?
Thanks for the new chapters