novelraw Chapter 26 : The Forest of No Return (6)
Chapter 26 : The Forest of No Return (6)
Chapter 26: The Forest of No Return (6)
The second head lunged forward with venom dripping from its fangs.
—Hssssssss!!
Kadim dug his heels in like tree roots and crouched low. The instant the head was in his face, he viciously swung Mosquito upward with both hands.
"HRRRRAAAAGH!"
—KRRRZZZZZZT!!
From the soft flesh beneath the jaw, through the solid skull, all the way to the armor-like scales on its crown—the monstrous sword, paired with monstrous strength, split the massive serpent's head clean in two with a single strike. Blood and brain matter sprayed out like a waterfall, and the two halves of the head writhed in opposite directions as if they had minds of their own.
—Ss, ssssss! Sssss!
But Kadim wasn't done.
He wiped the blood off with his forearm and swung his sword in a sweeping arc like a raging whirlwind. Even at full reach, the slash lost none of its power. Hydra’s thick neck was lopped clean off.
—CHRRRRRKKK!
The body writhed violently like a torn rubber hose. From the cross-section of the neck came a continuous hissing sound, like air escaping from a puncture.
—Ssssss, ssssssaaaa...
Even as flesh began crawling back together, Hydra couldn't regenerate easily. Kadim leaped onto the twitching neck and started hacking the stump to pieces.
Thunk, chrk, thunk, thunk!!
The moment new flesh grew in, it was immediately turned back into bloody pulp. The sword swallowed down all the blood it could, and the bloodlust flowing through Kadim's veins surged even stronger.
—Hssssss!
The third head charged in to stop Kadim, and he took the exact same stance as before. Just like that, the third head met the same fate as its predecessor.
Only this time, the Hydra had given up that head on purpose. Taking advantage of Kadim's blood-obscured vision, the fifth head shot forward like an arrow.
CRUNCH—!
Kadim couldn’t pull his left leg on time and a sickening crunch echoed. Even then, Kadim didn’t even flinch or show a flicker of concern.
—CHRRRKKK!!
He twisted his torso and unleashed a horizontal slash loaded with a massive centrifugal force.
The furious sword cleaved straight through the head and shattered both the upper jaw and fangs in one go. With the maw torn to ribbons, his leg came free naturally.
"..."
Kadim spared a glance at the wound.
His left leg, which had been all but torn off, was already as good as new. Even the lethal venom from those poisonous fangs only managed to cause him mild dizziness at this point.
The Hydra's eyes trembled for a moment.
—Hsssssss!
—Hssssss!
But it quickly adapted. It pulled back the severed heads and sent the intact ones to continue its assault.
It had panicked for a moment, but it was calm now. The berserker's ferocity was the same as before, but his power wasn't as overwhelming as it had been three hundred years ago. At this level, the Hydra was confident it could handle him alone, without the help of other demons.
No matter how much he thrashed around, he was still just one man. There was no way he could withstand an infinite barrage of attacks. Plus, for every head he lopped off, two more grew back. The Hydra’s arsenal was only growing.
The Hydra was sure of it.
The berserker would eventually tire out and fall.
But that prediction was completely off the mark.
"HRRRRRAAAAGH!!"
Far from tiring, Kadim's movements grew increasingly destructive and ferocious as time passed. The near-endless supply of demon blood flooded his veins with bloodlust and adrenaline. He took injuries here and there, but they regenerated so quickly that they meant nothing.
If anything, it was the Hydra being pushed into a defensive position.
The severed stumps grew into new heads, but with each new head sprouting, they became weaker and thinner.
KRRRAAKK!!
To prove the point, Kadim grabbed a whole bundle of the snake-like necks and twisted them together in one move. Skin and flesh were wrung out like a dirty dishcloth, becoming a mangled wad of meat.
The Hydra couldn't believe what it was seeing.
Kadim hurled the twisted mass aside and went back to chopping off heads.
—Chrk!
—Chrrrkkkkk!
It was getting harder and harder for the Hydra to keep up.
He was now cutting them off faster than they could grow back. The central head could only watch the situation with growing anxiety.
Kadim narrowed his eyes and turned his gaze toward it.
"Why aren’t you joining in?"
—...Ssss.
"I got something to pull out from over there."
A chilling unease crept over the central head.
In truth, the other heads were no more than appendages. This head was the brain, the one and only part that could think and control the whole body. If it went down, the rest of the heads would be a mindless beast.
It had a very bad feeling about this.
The Hydra hurriedly retreated into the swamp. But Kadim trampled over the other heads and launched himself forward to land right in front of it in a flash.
He spun in the air and struck down the central head like a thunderbolt from heaven.
—CHRRR—KKK!
—SSSSSSSSSSS!!!
He dragged the deeply embedded sword straight downwards, tearing a long gash through scales and skin, and without hesitation, Kadim thrust his hand inside.
Through the squishy, sticky flesh, his fingers closed around something hard, a handle of an axe. It was the one he’d thrown before. The Hydra had healed around it, trapping it inside its skull.
———RIP!
He yanked the axe out along with the brain matter that got cut by the blade. The central head collapsed to the ground. In an instant, the light in every one of the Hydra's eyes went out. The Hydra lost its cunning intelligence and became nothing more than a monster thrashing on instinct.
—Ssss, ssssss!
—Ssss, ssss, ssss!
Still, the regeneration hadn’t stopped yet. The gushing brain was squirming and starting to stitch itself back together, but the demon had no chance of getting its mind back.
Not when a blood-drunk berserker was constantly hacking its brain with his axe and sword.
Chrk, thunk, scrch, chrk!
Flesh and bone chips went flying. Venom and brains sprayed like a geyser. If the thing was just going to keep healing, then he just had to keep killing it until it was too scared to even think about regenerating.
From time to time, other heads would rush him, but they weren't much of a problem as they acted based on instinct alone. After he lopped off their necks a few times, the heads became seized by a physiological terror and no longer approached him.
And through it all, Mosquito’s blade just kept drinking the blood without rest. The wild blood energy coursing through him was making his burnt skin glow a deep crimson. And just like its master, the Mosquito’s blade also glowed burning red.
He had a constant stream of demon blood, so he didn't have to worry about the buff wearing off. But there was one problem he couldn't ignore.
This wasn't some convenient buff with no side effects.
Kadim had clearly taken in too much blood.
“Haaah… haaah… haaah…”
His breathing was ragged. His muscles spasmed. His veins throbbed, and his heart hammered like it was about to burst out of his chest.
His mind felt far away, like he was staring at a mirage. The corners of his eyes started turning red. A hot, sticky feeling boiled up inside him, like he’d swallowed lava.
The rage and adrenaline craved for violence, and his hands became a blur as they tore the Hydra apart. The monster was turning into ground meat beneath his onslaught, but it wasn't enough.
Faster!
More brutal!
Rip and tear until it's done!
Chrk, scrch, crk, crk, chrrk, CRK!!!
The more he swung his blade, the more blood he absorbed.
Just as the excessively concentrated bloodlust began rising over his shoulders like creeping mist—
Squish... squisssh...
Kadim suddenly noticed the Hydra's regeneration had slowed down.
"Huff, huff..."
He barely managed to stop hacking and caught his breath. He couldn't kill this demon yet. He waited until it could regenerate enough to speak.
Before long, a small serpent's head sprouted from the mangled stump of its neck.
—You... damn bastard... that hurt like hell... you brainless... piece of shit...
"..."
—Hssss, if the demons from the Demon Scape... were here... I wouldn't have ended up like this... I guess... trying to face you... alone... was too much...
Kadim grabbed the snake's neck and snarled.
"Answer me. How did you come back to life, and where are my companions?"
—...
“If you don’t talk, I’ll make sure your death this time is a hundred times more painful and disgusting than before.”
The Hydra rolled its blood-soaked eyes. His murderous aura was so intense it made its scales stand on end, but threats didn't work on it anymore. It was spent and had already given up on living.
And yet, the demon decided to answer his questions anyway.
—Coincidentally… those two questions converge on a single answer...
"...What do you mean?"
—Ssss, the one who brought me back to life… and the one who unleashed all these demons... is one of your companions.
Kadim’s crimson eyes trembled.
Ripples spread across Kadim's gaze and the snake's mouth stretched into a nasty grin.
—Why...? Can't believe it? Hsssss, but... what I say is true. Even if you don't believe it now... you'll find out eventually...
"..."
—Or maybe… You feel betrayed? Is that it? The fact that a friend who fought and bled with you… who went through hell and back with you to kill demons... is suddenly helping them...?
"...Explain. Who are they, where are they, and why did they side with the demons?"
—Ah, I can't tell you that... that's the most fun part, after all. Ssss, sss, sssss...
"...Answer me."
—Begging won’t do you any good, Son of the Wasteland. Why don't you work your feet off... turn the whole continent upside down... and find your companion yourself... Sss, sss, sssss...
The snake's head drooped down.
Kadim’s shoulders shook with rage before he tightened his grip and roared.
"ANSWER ME!!!"
CRUNCH!
The snake's neck was crushed. Bits of scale and meat oozed through his fingers, but no answer came.
Enraged, Kadim threw the corpse aside and raised his sword and axe again. He started hacking the corpse as if he'd grind the entire house-sized reptilian body to nothing.
—Crk, crk, scrch, scrch!
Blood.
Flesh.
Gore.
It didn't regenerate again. Having given up on life, the Hydra was no longer immortal.
—Chrrk, scrk, chrrk!
The corpse was slowly sinking into the swamp. He wasn't going to get an answer. The Hydra was completely dead.
——————— CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH!
More blood, flesh, and gore.
But wait. No. He could see some flesh regenerating deep down, squirming back to life. It wasn't just his imagination!
That's right, you filthy demon. You've died once already, you're not eager to do it again, are you?
Kadim stabbed the flesh, sliced it, chopped it, and tore it apart. He had no intention of stopping. Not until the Hydra tells him everything. The healing never stopped. The flesh sprouted endlessly like weeds, growing back no matter how much he cut.
Glub, glubglub, glubglubglub...
The Hydra's massive body sank into the swamp, sending up a froth of bubbles to the surface. Blood spread outward, turning the murky swamp a deep crimson.
But Kadim didn’t notice any of it. A dull ringing consumed his eardrums. His burst blood vessels meant his eyes could only see the entire world in the deepest shade of red.
———————Scrch, thunk, thunk!
He was basically on a sinking ship, but he had no intention of getting off the corpse. To him, the Hydra was still alive. And he wasn't leaving until it talked.
His feet sank into the sticky swamp. He was going under fast. Soon it was past his knees, then up to his waist.
But Kadim didn’t care.
He just kept hacking at the flesh even as the swamp swallowed his chest, then his shoulders.
Finally, as it reached his mouth and the viscous mire was about to cut off Kadim's breath—
"...! ...!"
—A vine suddenly wrapped itself around him.
The pull on the vine was pathetically weak. But it was just enough to snap him out of it, just for a second. When Kadim grabbed the vines himself and pulled, the mud spat him out smoothly. Luckily, the shore was close, and he swam out easily.
"My lord...! ...! Are you... okay...?"
A voice reached him faintly.
Through his reddened vision, he could see the merchant's form. But now wasn't the time to focus on that. A piece of the Hydra had stuck to his body and come out with him.
—Hssssssss!!
Kadim furiously hacked at the snake clinging to his left arm. It kept healing, but it also didn't cough up any answers. His face was a mask of pure demonic fury as he screamed his lungs out.
"ANSWER ME!! ANSWER ME!!! WHO REVIVED YOU!! WHO REVIVED YOU!!! SPEAK BEFORE I RIP YOUR MOUTH APART!!! ANSWERRRRR!!!"
He only stopped his questioning when the merchant grabbed his arm with a terrified expression.
"My lord!! Stop! Please stop! Y-You can't do that! You just can't!! P-Please, please snap out of it!!”
Suddenly, a searing pain seeped in, and a chill ran to his bones. Kadim stopped slashing and slowly lowered his gaze.
What he saw was his own forearm, brutally mutilated.
There was no Hydra. From the beginning, there had only been his arm. An arm whose flesh regenerated endlessly from absorbing the demon's blood.
"..."
Duncan trembled as he watched the barbarian nervously.
A heavy silence descended as if all the chaos from moments ago had been a lie. As if a cruel and farcical one-act play had just concluded.
Kadim raised his gaze upward. With the demon's death and the demonic energy gone, the blue sky finally showed itself. In contrast, the berserker's inner world was hazy and blurred, as if thick bloody mist had risen within.
A single word, heavy as a boulder, slammed into his thoughts.
Madness.
The nightmare from his past life that he'd forgotten had come back to haunt him once again.