martial-elf ch81

As Algul’s massive form, floating in the air with Bullak, collided, the thick dust cloud that arose was quickly swept away by the strong winds traversing the wide plain.

What remained after the dust settled was the sight of the giant orc Algul sprawled out, Bullak plunged into his solar plexus, tearing it apart.

The upper body of his garment, originally made by weaving animal hides, was completely tattered, and the charms that had been scattered by the impact of colliding with the ground were strewn about.

From the shattered charms, an ominous energy flowed.

As I extended my right hand, Bullak, embedded in Algul’s solar plexus, shuddered once, then spun around, scattering blood like rain, and entered my hand.

Then, I gazed at Algul, who was lying sprawled out.

His pupils, staring blankly at the sky, were devoid of light, and from the area where Bullak had been pulled out of his solar plexus, dark crimson blood gushed out like water from a newly dug well.

Algul’s body remained motionless, without even a hint of breath.

However, I did not sheathe my sword and instead aimed Bullak’s blade at Algul.

“I already know that wasn’t enough to kill you, so why don’t you stop with the cheap tricks?”

At those words, Algul’s body, which had been lying motionless like a dead corpse, stirred.

“…How did you know?”

Algul, his eyes now filled with life, looked at me, raised his body, and groaned as he spoke.

Thick, dead blood from Algul splattered onto the ground.

I pointed to my eyes with the index finger of my left hand.

“I told you. I can see it.”

“…Huh.”

Algul contorted his face as if he were dumbfounded.

Algul’s appearance as he stood was wretched.

Shallow wounds scattered all over his body from the Harmonious Dissection.

A deep sword wound caused by the Single Stroke Soul Severance, diagonally cutting from his left shoulder to the center of his solar plexus.

The technique of Silver Scale Starfall that had ravaged his solar plexus from the air.

It was a severe injury to the point that it would be strange for a normal being to survive.

Especially when looking at the blood gushing from his solar plexus like a well, it was clear that his heart had been targeted and struck.

Even if one judged him to be dead, it would be hard to consider it a careless mistake.

However, Algul’s body, as examined by Probing All Forms, was creating a flow similar to the Turtle Breathing Technique, so it was not difficult to know that he was not dead.

“…I’ve taken excessive damage from a single exchange. I thought you were a herbivorous beast, but you were a wild animal. To end up like this after only giving you a single moment of weakness. Are you really only alive for less than twenty cycles?”

Algul muttered in disbelief.

However, I also revised my assessment of Algul.

He blocked the first strike, allowed the subsequent attacks, but countered in that fleeting moment, and despite taking such attacks to his body, he possessed a strong vitality that allowed him to survive. And even in that moment, he quickly assessed the situation and feigned death to induce carelessness.

He was certainly a being who had survived hundreds of years of struggle.

“Compared to the years you’ve lived, even for an Einherjar, the amount of energy you possess is absurd, and even the way you handle that power is foreign.”

As Algul spoke, his wounds were surprisingly beginning to heal little by little.

However, seemingly dissatisfied with even that alien healing speed, shadows crawled over Algul’s body and began to fix the wounds in place.

“The wounds I’ve suffered are even slow to regenerate… Truly peculiar. And troublesome. Dangerously so. The fact that the ability to devour you and make your power my own is strong enough to threaten my life… Is that good luck? Or a bad thing?”

“It will end in the worst situation you can imagine.”

“Kuh… Perhaps. But your power and knowledge…! Especially your brain, I truly desire it!”

With Algul’s shout, energy approached from behind.

Kyaak!

The iron chain that had transformed into a snake, which had been sent flying after biting Bullak.

My body moved faster than I thought.

My body, accelerated by the Energy Wave erupting from the Dragon Spring on the soles of my feet, spun in place like a top, slicing through the iron snake.

Even if the snake’s body was made of star iron, Bullak was also a masterfully crafted sword made of refined silver.

Moreover, unlike before when it was hastily retrieved, it was a sword wielded properly by someone who had entered the realm of the superhuman.

The snake, split in two, transformed back into a two-piece staff and fell to the ground, as if the spell had been broken.

“Sa-Elo-Ru-Sena!”

Along with that, Algul’s incantation was chanted.

Algul’s hand, which had been holding something like a bean, transformed into a thick tree trunk and stretched out.

A small amount of energy fell from my Dantian and dyed itself.

The desired energy was fire.

Flames bloomed on Bullak’s silver blade.

Flame Blade.

Each time Bullak, armed with Underworld King Energy, was swung, the approaching branches were incinerated and scattered as ashes.

Sharp shadows soared up without warning.

It was a quite familiar technique.

The shadow spears I had seen when I fought Lamiya once before.

But they were sharper and more stealthy than what I had seen back then, without even a hint of warning.

‘He’s using it more skillfully than the succubi.’

It was perhaps natural, since he was the one who had moved the orcs in the far Eastern Continent with shadows.

But if I only admired, I would become a skewer.

My feet moved frantically.

In the rapidly moving field of vision, I could see the shadows stabbing only the empty air.

Golden Crow wings unfolded on my legs.

“Kuh!”

Along with a cry of astonishment, blood splattered from Algul’s right arm and scattered as ash.

It wasn’t deep.

It was because the tree covering his arm had weakened the force.

But the sword that had been swung down reversed again, and my right foot stepped forward, taking a firm stance.

Swish-!

The sword was swung horizontally.

Algul’s upper and lower body were separated.

The cut surface sizzled, emitting a foul odor of burning fat.

But the moment the separated upper body fell to the ground, there was a sound of a stone statue breaking.

The upper body shattered into pieces.

Even if a living body fell to the ground, it could not have shattered like that.

As if the smell of burning was an illusion, Algul’s body, which I thought I had cut, had turned to stone.

Algul emerged from one of the surrounding shadows.

“I really can’t let my guard down. Each and every one of your attacks is brutally savage.”

Algul clasped his hands together and clapped, and this time bats began to pour out of the shadows.

10, 100, 1000, 10000.

The number of bats multiplied in an instant to the point where they could no longer be counted by the eye.

“These are blood-sucking bats. They were created with the power of a vampire, so if even three of them cling to a normal human, they will suck all of their bodily fluids in the blink of an eye.”

Algul said with a faint smile.

“The problem is that with this many, even I can’t fully control them. If you want to die peacefully, how about surrendering quietly?”

The bats swarmed around me like a giant swarm of locusts, circling threateningly in the sky.

If Algul gave the order, all the vampire bats flying around would rush towards me.

I slowly sheathed Bullak.

“Hoh…? Are you really thinking of giving up?”

I sneered at Algul, who tilted his head as if he were surprised.

“There are too many of these insignificant things, so I’m just preparing to strike the widest area possible with the martial arts I possess.”

“Hmm… So you have another means? …Well, it doesn’t matter. If you’re showing that much confidence, I hope you’ll at least leave enough for me to eat.”

At Algul’s signal, all the vampire bats surrounding me rushed in.

Up, down, front, back, left, right.

The presence of the bats approaching from every position, every space, blocking even the light.

Along with that, Bullak, drawn from its scabbard, scattered a song of death in all directions.

Soul Stealing Sword Cry.

The sonic attack unleashed by the sword, which I had once demonstrated in front of Prigos, now manifested the phenomenon of its name, unlike the old days when I had shown mercy in my movements.

In an instant. The sound waves that spread out from Bullak burst the approaching vampire bats as they spread out.

The light that had been obscured by the bats began to illuminate the surroundings again.

As if an invisible fire bomb had exploded from the center where I stood, countless bat corpses and blood scattered outwards in a circular shape.

“Do you have any more moves?”

I confidently aimed my blade at Algul, who showed a faint sense of astonishment, and provoked him.

◈ ◈ ◈

A deafening roar erupted, and the ground shook.

The plain had been plowed up here and there by the aftermath of the battle.

The totems that had risen with Algul’s magic were all cut down and scattered in disarray.

Algul’s expression, which had initially been as relaxed as a hunter driving a wounded deer, had now hardened.

For over an hour, Algul had not only failed to gain the upper hand, but had not even been able to escape his disadvantage.

‘…He’s truly a monstrous being.’

Algul thought as he watched the giant spirit wolf, summoned by his charms, being cleaved in two vertically.

The martial prowess of that young Einherjar called Araya was beyond imagination.

Could such a being really have been created in less than twenty cycles?

It was beyond a joke.

He, who was armed with all sorts of charms, possessed the power of two Elder Loa, albeit partially, and had lived through hundreds of years of battle, was being pushed back so unilaterally.

Algul, who had intended to devour the immature Einherjar and take her power, could only feel absurd.

On the contrary, if things continued like this, he might be killed by the hands of this young Einherjar, whom he had thought of as prey.

‘…But…’

While clashing with Araya, Algul saw the distortion in Araya’s soul.

He didn’t know exactly what it was.

It was a distortion that was too unstable for that body.

And it was foreign. As if it were the soul of another world.

Algul, as a sorcerer, instinctively realized.

That was the weakness of that monster.

Algul secretly prepared a spell.

The power of a nightmare and shadows derived from the power of Ul Kanadiel, which touched the opponent’s dreams and subconscious.

His talent for manipulating souls, which he had gathered as a sorcerer, and the charms that had been scattered around by the initial engagement and could not be used.

He wove all of that together into a single spell.

And when Araya’s sword approached him once again, aiming for his battered body, Algul deliberately took the blow.

At the same time, shadows surged up, and Algul used the spell he had woven towards Araya.

In that instant, Araya tried to abandon her sword and escape, but she could not avoid the wave of shadows that crashed in from all directions at the moment she thought it was over.

Araya and Algul’s consciousness began to sink.