Chapter 48

Legion Commander of Beasts (2)

Night lay heavy over the snowy mountains. In darkness so deep that even the moonlight had hidden behind the clouds, Kai and the lycanthrope clashed.

CLANG!

Sparks flew as metal struck metal. Kai's sword was wreathed in aura, but it could not cut through the lycanthrope's claws.

The sparks drove back the darkness for a fleeting instant, revealing the lycanthrope's two red, flashing eyes. They were filled with an animal's ferocity and a monster's pure killing intent.

'Danger!'

Kai swiftly fell back at the warning from his instincts.

SLASH!

At that same moment, the lycanthrope's savage claws tore through the space Kai had just occupied. He swallowed involuntarily. Had he failed to dodge, those claws would have torn through his entire body along with his aura-clad sword.

It was astonishingly agile and staggeringly powerful. Had Adrian been fighting this savage beast alone?

Kai calmly steadied his breathing and adjusted his grip on his sword. At that instant, the lycanthrope's claws gouged the earth beneath its feet, and it closed the distance in a flash.

A hulking body over six meters tall. Sharp claws driven by densely packed muscle. They reached for him without a sound.

But Kai had already swung his sword. It opened a long gash in the lycanthrope's right arm. Not a fatal wound, but not a harmless one, either. The muscles in its arm shuddered, briefly throwing its claws off course. Kai slipped into that momentary opening.

BOOM!

An explosion erupted where sword met claw. There was no more metallic ringing. Each strike of the aura-clad blade and the lycanthrope's claws was now a killing blow. The wounds they inflicted on one another took on a different weight.

Kai's sword strikes danced furiously. Dance of Fangs.

BANG! BOOM!

Sword and claw collided again and again. Neither side yielded. The lycanthrope took a step forward. Kai took a step back. Seizing the advantage, the lycanthrope aimed its claws at his side.

Just as he tried to twist away, Kai froze. Seraphia was on his back. If he dodged now, she would be in danger.

He had to protect her. Even at the cost of his life. He did not ask anyone to understand. Since when had following one's heart required anyone's understanding?

RIP!

A long strip was torn from Kai's side. Blood poured out in torrents. His armor would have absorbed some of the blow, but he had stripped it all off to disguise himself as a woman.

In other words, it was a fatal wound. One that should have made further combat impossible. Yet Kai did not fall.

Immortality—the ability Kai had gained by taking a step into the realm of a Master. But Immortality was not a healing ability like Regeneration. It merely prevented injuries from being fatal. As a by-product of eternal life, it could sustain his vitality indefinitely. Until every last drop of his aura was spent.

Nor did it make him immune to pain. Agony ravaged Kai's mind. Yet the faint heartbeat of Seraphia on his back, the quiet sound of her sleeping breaths, gave him profound peace.

With an impassive expression, Kai readjusted his grip on his sword.

WHOOSH!

He swung. The strike lacked sharpness. The fundamentals of swordsmanship were cutting and thrusting. The advanced sword styles of the continent were simply methods of performing those two fundamentals better and more efficiently.

Some sought a sword swift as lightning, others one solid as rock. Some sought a sword hot as the sun, others one fluid as water. Kai had found his inspiration in the way wolves hunted.

His first strike disrupted the lycanthrope's guard. The following attack from the side created an opening. Then came the third.

Wolf's Swordsmanship. Second Form.

Moonlight Claw.

A succession of slashes as swift as a wolf.

Bleeding, the lycanthrope retreated. It growled, glaring warily at Kai. Even then, its wounds were healing.

The lycanthrope possessed powerful regenerative abilities. Ordinary wounds could not even faze it. In other words, merely wounding it would not do.

Kai held his breath and sprang forward. He mimicked the instant a wolf swiftly pounced on its prey: a technique that pierced an enemy's defenses with a fast, powerful thrust to deliver a fatal blow.

Wolf's Swordsmanship. Third Form.

Crimson Moon Strike.

Kai became a blood-red wolf and sank his fangs into the lycanthrope.

* * *

Hunting the legion... No, replenishing myself from the legion wasn't difficult. Unlike the lycanthrope, its monsters could not easily penetrate my Toughened Skin[B]. And just like the lycanthrope's, their hides tore like paper beneath my Dragon's Claw[A].

Finally, there was my title, <Master of the Snowy Mountains>. Every monster in the legion fighting me was under a -15% penalty.

I indiscriminately stuffed the chunks of flesh flying in every direction into my mouth. I quenched my thirst with the spraying blood.

◆Available Calories - 100,000Kcal

In no time, I had filled my calorie reserves to their limit of 100,000.

◆You have leveled up!

The extra level was a bonus. Then I saw Kai relentlessly driving the lycanthrope back.

Despite the grievous wound in his torn-open side, Kai was fighting it fiercely. The lycanthrope could not easily subdue him. Far from it—it was being pushed farther and farther back.

In truth, I had brought Kai on this operation for one reason. His role was that of a hunting hound. And being good at hunting alone did not make a dog a hunting hound.

A hunting hound's role was not to hunt. It was to track the prey and keep it pinned down until the hunter arrived. Better still, to wear it out. That was why the two most important qualities in a hunting hound were patience and stamina.

It must not attack the prey before the hunter gave the order. It should only keep the prey from escaping. If it barked furiously on its own, charged in bravely, and got mauled to death? That dog was a failure as a hunting hound.

In that sense, Kai was a complete failure as a hunting hound. He was doing far more than keeping the lycanthrope pinned down—he was overwhelming it. He had never been a hunting hound to begin with.

He was a military dog.

Unlike hunting hounds, military dogs supported operations and killed enemy combatants. Kai's sharp blade severed the lycanthrope's left arm.

GRAAAAAARGH!!!

The lycanthrope retreated with a scream of agony. Kai pursued it, only to abruptly falter and stop. Madness and rage mingled in the lycanthrope's eyes. It had entered a berserk state.

In that state, all its physical abilities doubled. The price was total exhaustion. In other words, the lycanthrope had staked everything on one final gamble.

Tension showed clearly in Kai's blue eyes. Immortality, the ability he had gained upon reaching the realm of a Master, resembled my Regeneration[B+]. In other words, it wasn't true immortality.

It disappeared when his aura ran dry, and aura could not be replenished all at once. But I was different. What Regeneration[B+] required was nutrients. It would stop working if I ran out of those, just as his ability would. But nutrients could be replenished “all at once.” And I had just filled my calorie reserves to their limit.

“Fall back!!”

At my shout, Kai swiftly retreated. This time, however, the lycanthrope did not simply let him go. It pursued him with explosive speed. It also ordered the legion to keep me pinned down.

Switching places the way we had earlier would be difficult. Kai must have thought the same thing, because he changed his movements. Was it thanks to our experience fighting the Gelu Drake? Now we could tell exactly what the other wanted with a glance.

Kai and I moved like battlefield partners who had fought together for decades. Ignoring every incoming attack, we charged toward each other. As we smoothly passed one another—

My Dragon's Claw[A] raked the lycanthrope lunging at Kai. Kai's blue fangs tore into the legion lunging at me.

The lycanthrope's swinging claws were shredded and went tumbling backward. The onrushing wave of monsters collapsed, clearing my view.

I had been fighting the legion, but now I faced the lycanthrope again. Kai had been fighting the lycanthrope, but now he faced the legion again. The situation had reversed once more in the blink of an eye.

G-GRUK?!

The lycanthrope flinched in utter bewilderment. Even in its berserk state, consumed by madness and rage, it was rattled. Because it understood. Now, it would have to make a choice.

Would it pull the legion back and face both Kai and me? Or would it fight me alone as I used its legion for nutrients to sustain my Regeneration[B+] indefinitely?

“Choose wisely.”

On the battlefield, a single mistake, a single bad judgment, could decide whether you lived or died.

◆Activating combination skill 'Metabolic Overdrive[U]'!

◆Calories Consumed - 50,000Kcal

◆All of the player's stats increase by [+50%] for [500 seconds]!

Fueled by the replenished nutrients, my nervous system went into overdrive once more. My Dragon's Claw[A] flashed out in an instant and tore open the lycanthrope's chest.

* * *

Dragon's Claw[A] ripped through its chest like paper and dug deep. Bright red blood soaked the snowy landscape as the lycanthrope sank deeper into its berserk frenzy.

With all its physical abilities doubled, it moved with grotesque speed. Its explosively writhing muscles possessed monstrous strength. But that would not last forever.

I used my boosted Agility to drag things out as long as possible. I allowed blows I could endure with Regeneration[B+] to land, occasionally mixing in Dragon's Claw[A] to inflict damage. As time passed, the lycanthrope's movements gradually slowed.

The slower it became, the deeper the wounds my attacks left. A wounded beast usually grew all the more ferocious. Yet this lycanthrope did not.

YELP!

The lycanthrope tumbled down the mountainside. Buried in snow and darkness, it struggled to get up. The growls emerging from its crocodile-long muzzle were thick with fear. Its eyes, once gleaming with rage and madness, had been swallowed by terror.

It looked like prey confronted by its natural predator. Its gaze wavered wildly. It was clearly agonizing over its choice.

Would it pull the legion back and face both Kai and me? Or would it fight me alone as I used its legion for nutrients to sustain my Regeneration[B+] indefinitely?

At last, it ground its teeth as though it had made up its mind. Then it suddenly turned its back?

Before I could do anything, it hurled its massive body down the snowy mountainside and began fleeing for its life.

“Huh...?”

For a moment, I was dumbfounded. I had never expected it to choose flight. It was a lust-crazed beast of a bastard; the thought that it might run had never crossed my mind.

I would sooner believe a sparrow would pass a mill without stopping. Or that a cat would walk straight past a fish shop.

The lycanthrope had never fled in my previous life, either. In fact, that was precisely why it had died. It had been so obsessed with the Saintess that it refused to flee even when escape was well within reach. A beast whose sex drive came before its will to survive.

I hadn't called it “a beast of a bastard forged from lust” for nothing. Nor had I devised a plan to use Seraphia as bait for no reason. Naturally, I had assumed it would insist on taking her. Even if it meant losing its own life, I had never imagined it would leave Seraphia behind and flee.

What the hell...?

Regardless, I couldn't let it escape. If I lost it here, I would never catch it again. I had to consume it with Predation[S+].

But it was fleeing far too fast. Its physical stats were already amplified by its berserk state, and now, perhaps convinced it would truly die, it was moving at more than twice its normal speed. That left me no choice.

'I won't be able to use Regeneration, but...'

I had to burn all my remaining calories to use Metabolic Overdrive[U]. Only then could I catch the fleeing lycanthrope. Fighting it without Regeneration[B+] would be difficult, but it was already berserk anyway. Since it had staked everything on a gamble, I had to do the same.

It happened just as I was about to burn every remaining calorie. As though all of time and space had stopped, everything in the snowy mountains was suddenly enveloped in silence.

Blue-black clouds covered the night sky above the mountains, and a painfully cold wind began sweeping in from afar. Slowly, I turned my gaze toward its source.

Then I seized up. My entire body went rigid. I could not move. Every thought in my head was torn apart in an instant.

My instincts screamed an endless warning, yet the thought of fleeing did not occur to me. Fear, terror, despair. Even those emotions were meaningless.

Seraphia, who had lain unconscious on Kai's back. Seraphia, who had fainted beneath the crushing weight of the lycanthrope's lust.

No matter how desperately I struggled, I could not survive that being. Even the instinct to survive was rendered futile.

Beyond my ice-frozen gaze, the Sovereign of Bitter Cold raises her pure-white eyes and looks at me.