novelraw Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78
Hobelerus' spear and my shield clashed.
The shield dented, and my body shook violently.
Hobelerus preferred a fighting style where he would unleash a rapid succession of attacks to pressure his opponent and force an opening.
However, perhaps because he didn’t have much life force left and wanted to end it as quickly as possible, he was reducing his speed and instead putting great force into each blow.
I pushed Hobelerus away with my left arm and jumped back significantly.
Hobelerus clung to me tenaciously, chasing after me.
And then.
BOOOOM!
Galakal slammed its palm down on the spot where we had been standing.
If I had engaged in a test of strength with Hobelerus for even a brief moment, I would not have been able to escape Galakal’s blow.
“This feels a bit unfair.”
I had to fight while keeping track of not only the Hobelerus in front of me but also the attacks of Galakal, which was hostile to all living creatures in the vicinity.
My goal here was not to kill Hobelerus, but to get out of here alive.
But Hobelerus' goal was solely to finish me off.
Therefore, even if Galakal’s attack approached, as long as I was also within its range, he would not evade but rather cling to me tenaciously.
I could see a madness in him that said he would achieve his goal even if it meant dying together.
As a result, the one with something to protect was inevitably at a disadvantage against the one with nothing to lose.
CLANK.
“Ah…”
The shield, which I had overworked, finally couldn't hold on any longer and completely broke.
Barely hanging on by a hinge, it was no longer serving its role as a shield and was instead just getting in the way of my movements.
“Just in time.”
I completely unfastened the devices remaining on my left arm.
The tattered shield fell to the ground with a thud.
Even in that short moment, Hobelerus' spear was approaching me.
The target was my heart.
An attack aimed at a single point was difficult to deal with using a sword.
My skills were still lacking for that.
I could twist my body to dodge, but I decided to use the Authority I had recently obtained instead.
The Authority that the white-haired Rian Kaltz had given me in that strange mental world.
“Svalinn.”
Upon using the Authority, a black light gathered over my left arm.
Usually, an Authority would manifest in an elemental form like a fireball or ice, or it would enhance physical abilities.
However, very occasionally, there were Authorities that manifested in the form of an object, and the Svalinn I had just used was one of them.
The form it manifested in was a shield.
A cool chill was felt running down my left arm.
BOOM!
I used the shield to block Hobelerus' spear.
Its strength was so great that it would be an insult to compare it to the standard-issue shield I had been using until now.
My arm throbbed from the heavy blow, but not even a small scratch appeared on the shield.
“……”
Hobelerus' continuous attacks began as he stared at Svalinn with a frown.
He must have started using his attribute as well, as a black darkness spread around us every time I blocked his attack.
And again.
Graaaaaah—!
Galakal’s attack followed.
Galakal’s widely opened maw, roaring violently, approached at high speed.
‘This… I don’t think I can dodge this.’
The attack range was too wide to evade.
In the first place, it didn't seem likely that Hobelerus, who had seized the momentum, would let me go easily, so I steeled myself for the end.
Hobelerus' spear struck the center of Svalinn with great force.
VWOOOOM!
A powerful darkness spread out.
It was getting difficult to see my surroundings, and I could feel that a considerable amount of my stats had been reduced.
Due to that darkness, a change occurred in Svalinn as well.
The power of the emanating chill weakened, and little by little, darkness began to flow out from the shield.
“Heup!”
I took a deep breath and quickly put on my goggles.
Immediately after.
SWOOOOOOSH!
Galakal swallowed both me and Hobelerus.
Along with a strong impact, I was sent down Galakal’s throat.
Galakal was not an ordinary creature.
It was merely a fiend created when the residual mana of a Leviathan mixed with its blood, so it did not have organs for survival, like entrails, inside its body.
What constituted Galakal was solely blood.
Therefore, being swallowed by Galakal meant having to swim in the poisonous blood of a Leviathan.
The poison was so strong that the hem of my clothes was slowly melting away.
Even in that situation, Hobelerus was swimming and approaching me.
Unlike me, who had resistance to poison, not only Hobelerus' clothes but also his skin was melting away.
The red tissue exposed beneath his white skin was a horrific sight that was hard to bear looking at.
‘For my sake, and for Hobelerus' sake, I have to end this as quickly as possible.’
I checked the state of Svalinn.
Unlike before, the current Svalinn was emitting not only cold and darkness but also a green poison.
Normally, I would have been worried about the constantly changing state of the shield, but since it was an Authority I had used since I was a player, I wasn't particularly concerned.
When I first summoned the shield and saw the emanating cold, I had named it “Svalinn,” reminiscent of the shield of cold that blocks the sun in Norse mythology.
However, Svalinn was not just a sturdy shield with resistance to heat.
Its initial attribute was just cold; Svalinn absorbed about 20 to 30 percent of all elemental attacks inflicted on it, and depending on the amount, it gained resistance to that attribute.
The original cold.
The darkness that had formed from taking Hobelerus' attacks.
And the poison being created inside Galakal.
Svalinn, having absorbed these three attributes, was brimming with an aura of a horrific color.
The amount of poison constantly flowing in was particularly substantial.
‘It seems like it’s reaching its limit soon.’
Although Svalinn had the name of a shield from mythology, it was just a name I had given it, and it didn't actually perform to that extent.
There was a clear limit to the amount of attributes it could absorb, and the moment it surpassed that limit, it would explode, releasing all the elements it held at once.
As a player, I used to throw a maxed-out Svalinn deep into the enemy lines to explode it and then re-summon it, but…
That wouldn't be enough to deal with either Hobelerus or Galakal.
I needed a more powerful single blow.
Most importantly, even with a gas mask on, it was useless here.
My breathing had also reached its limit, so I had to pour everything into this one attack.
I gripped the weapon in my right hand tightly.
‘…Alright. The preparations are complete. Come, Hobelerus.’
I glared at Hobelerus.
The moment Hobelerus' blow, which had rapidly approached, touched the shield.
BOOOOOOOOM!
An enormous explosion occurred.
The explosion, a mixture of cold, poison, and darkness, swallowed both me and Hobelerus and ravaged the inside of Galakal.
Woooooooooh—!
Galakal’s pained roar strongly vibrated the surrounding red liquid.
I wasn’t unscathed either.
‘Keuuuk…!’
I had already steeled myself, so I tried my best to endure it, but I couldn't prevent the remaining air in my lungs from being completely forced out by the shock.
Not only my breathing, but my body was also in a terrible state.
My shirt was completely torn, my left shoulder was dislocated and dangling, and the wound on my chest was mixed with Leviathan’s blood, causing excruciating pain.
My left arm, which had taken the explosion from the closest range, was so mangled that it was hard to look at with my own eyes.
No matter how good my automatic regeneration ability was, it seemed it would take quite some time to recover.
But taking the explosion from such close range had been worth it.
VROOOOOOM!
The Ella 7 Sword in my right hand.
The red blade, which had blocked and absorbed the powerful explosion at close range, was vibrating violently, and a black mana was overflowing as if it would explode at any moment.
The preparations were complete.
I searched for my target.
Ahead of me, I could see Hobelerus, who was in tatters from being hit by the explosion at close range, just like me.
However, his life had not yet been extinguished.
His skin was not just peeled off, but his bones were exposed, yet the look in his eyes as he stared at me was as murderous as ever.
‘I’m sorry.’
If I had my way, I would have wanted to send him off cleanly, without pain, in a single blow.
However, knowing that my lack of ability had caused him so much pain, a corner of my heart ached, and as Odin’s commander, I even felt a sense of shame.
‘But this will be the last of it.’
I took my stance.
My head was dizzy, and my vision was blurry.
My breathing was already at its limit.
But I focused with all my mental strength.
The target was Hobelerus.
And Galakal’s head.
After positioning myself so that these two targets were in a straight line, I swung with all my might.
Second Claw.
The black beast’s claw, having absorbed energy, was on a scale incomparable to the last time I had used it, leaving a massive wound as it shot toward the high sky.
SWOOOOOOOSH!
The size of the sword energy, cutting through the blood, grew exponentially, and soon it reached the point of trisecting Galakal’s massive body.
The sword energy, advancing without hesitation, eventually swallowed Hobelerus.
The last I saw of Hobelerus' eyes, though it may have been a hallucination, seemed satisfied.
Not stopping there, the extended sword energy cut through Galakal’s head and stretched toward the sky.
‘…….’
Galakal did not move.
It did not even let out a roar.
However, no matter how abnormally a fiend was born and lived, it couldn't possibly be fine after having its head cut off.
Galakal collapsed.
To be precise, the Leviathan’s blood that constituted Galakal lost its center and began to fall and flow in all directions.
A large amount of blood swirled and flowed away.
The only one left was me.
“Puha!”
I could finally take a breath.
The world that had been blurring became clear and sparkled once again.
“…Barely survived.”
There wasn't a single part of my body that didn't hurt, but wasn't that also proof that I was alive?
At this moment, the pain just felt welcome.
I stared blankly up at the sky.
I wasn’t lost in sentiment.
It was because the aftereffects of using the Authority had left me without even the strength to lift a finger.
I wanted to check the condition of the Ella 7 Sword, but I didn't even have the strength to turn my head.
Splash, splash.
The sound of someone stepping in water was heard.
‘…….’
My heart beat rapidly.
Right now, I was defenseless.
If the owner of these footsteps was an Alliance soldier, I could get help, but conversely, if it was a Purity soldier, I would be brutally murdered without being able to put up any resistance.
I prayed.
Please let the owner of these footsteps be wearing an Alliance uniform.
Before long, someone appeared and bent down to check my face.
Thanks to that, I, too, could identify who the person was.
“Damn… it.”
A curse came out.
The person smiled brightly.
Dammit, the person was wearing a Purity uniform.
Not only that.
The crest engraved on his chest was clearly that of Rodos.