Chapter 162: Zahard Territory (4)
TL: Potato-tan
Woosh━!
A deep vibration and noise were heard behind him. Russell turned his flying body around and raised the blade of Nahilnir in front of him to block the attack.
A shockwave hit him along with a loud noise. Since he had forcefully turned around in mid-air to block the attack, Russell was blown back and crashed into a building.
Russell shook his head. Dust, wood chips, and stone fragments fell down. The attack that had struck him contained not only physical damage but also a sharp magical power that pierced his body.
It was a similar attack to the technique that his enemies used to destroy the inside rather than the outside when they fought him. Russell shook off the shock and suddenly looked at the place where he had crashed.
The building seemed to be someone’s house. A middle-aged couple, who seemed to be husband and wife, and two children who looked like siblings were sitting down, staring blankly at Russell.
Russell saw the chaotic kitchen and the wall he had broken through and got up. When he stood up with his large height and physique, his head almost touched the low ceiling.
As Russell grabbed Nahilnir, which had fallen right next to him, the couple was terrified and hugged their two children, cowering in a corner. Then, the little boy who had slipped out of his mother’s arms said in a clear voice.
“Uncle! What did you do to our house?! You broke my room and Miel’s room!”
“Hartz! Come here right now!”
The middle-aged woman shouted in a hushed voice, but the little boy didn’t care. Russell smiled and searched through his arms, pulling out a gold coin.
“I’m sorry for breaking your house. Use this to fix it.”
The boy took the gold coin, and Russell stepped over the broken wall and stood in front of the gaping hole. Another necrol, which appeared out of nowhere, was gnashing its teeth.
Unlike the ones Russell had killed earlier, it was over a meter taller, had a muscular body, and had six arms.
The monster with six arms was rampaging, fighting eight or nine soldiers and one knight. Judging by the looks of it, it was likely the one that had been first generated using the sacrifice.
Unlike the ones Russell had killed, the monster, which seemed to have combined the cloned bodies into one, was sweeping through the streets, emitting a fearsome magical power.
“Aaagh!”
Black smoke emanating from the necrol grabbed a soldier’s ankle and lifted him high into the air before slamming him to the ground. The soldier was crushed to death.
The monster, dropping the dead soldier into its huge gaping mouth, grinned. An axe pierced that grin.
The giant necrol with an axe embedded in its chest was about to be flung back when it was suddenly pulled somewhere as if tied by a rope. The surviving soldiers turned their heads. There was Russell, with his hand outstretched.
Russell, who had dragged the frozen giant necrol with Final Frost, looked at the knight who was struggling.
“What’s your name?”
“Kuluk, Liam. Who are you. . .? Oh? Young Master?”
The knight, who seemed to have lifted his head late because he was vomiting blood as if he had been stabbed, widened his eyes upon recognizing Russell. Russell nodded and said,
“These monsters are rising up all over the territory. The mastermind is a male dark elf who has a magical artifact. I’ll chase him, so in the meantime, evacuate the people of the territory and don’t let them get near the monsters. They are the kind that eat people, multiply, and gain strength. Behead them, and get help from the wizards. Understood?”
“Un, understood!”
The knight, who was standing at attention, shouted. Russell looked back at the giant necrol frozen in his hand. The completely frozen monster was still glaring at Russell with its glowing green eyes.
The moment his gaze met the monster’s, Russell felt a fearsome magical power spreading through the ice.
Time, which was stretched out moment by moment, unfolded. Russell could use the senses that ordinary people couldn’t feel until they died, or that they could only feel just before they died, as if he were breathing.
The magical power, which had been waiting for an opportunity, exploded like a bomb, shattering the ice and bursting out. The monster’s flesh, sharpened like a needle, transformed and flew in all directions.
Russell moved. Nahilnir in his hand drew countless afterimages. The attacks of the monster that touched the black trajectory drawn by the obsidian blade were all shattered and scattered.
What the people saw was a flashing light, a blurry shadow, and the shattered body parts of the black monster.
In the blink of an eye, the large black monster was shattered into hundreds of pieces.
As the soldiers and the knight watched with their mouths agape and their eyes wide open, Russell shook off his greatsword. The remaining remnants of the monster crumbled into dust.
“I’ll catch the mastermind. Like I said before, focus on calming down the chaos and evacuating. My colleagues and Irrucil will help.”
“I, I understand!”
As soon as he heard the answer, Russell looked at the street where the dark elf had been. His magic eyes activated, and the obstacles that had obscured his vision disappeared. Russell’s gaze swept around, then stopped, and a smirk spread across his lips.
“Found you.”
Boom!
The cobblestone floor, which had received the full force of his leg power, was dented, and cracks spread outward. Russell, who had been shot out like a cannonball, stepped on the wall in front of him and jumped up onto the rooftop. He then leapt from rooftop to rooftop, chasing after the dark elf, who was quickly running away in the distance.
🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷🔷
“Huff, huff, huff.”
Percus was hiding in an alley, catching his breath.
“This should be enough. He won’t be able to catch up.”
He thought of the owner of the eyes he had met earlier. It was a man with purple eyes that he had never seen before. The distance between him and the man was at least several hundred meters, and there were many people running around, but his eyes had caught him specifically.
He couldn’t forget the eyes that had pierced his mind. Even when he closed his eyes, the flashing light came to mind.
Feeling that he had finally calmed down, Percus lifted the censer he was holding in his arms. It was a magical artifact called Breath of Nemesto.
Legend had it that the ancient devil Nemesto had breathed his breath into this artifact, which constantly emitted black smoke. The smoke, defying the nature of gas, could be held in one’s hands.
Perkus had not forgotten what he was supposed to do with this censer. He would select a sacrifice, inhale the black smoke, and turn them into monsters, causing them to rampage. His role was to divert attention.
The true purpose. . . Percus’s long ears twitched as he continued his thoughts.
Boom!
With a loud noise, the wall Percus was leaning against shattered, and a hand reached out and grabbed Percus’s neck. As the horrified Percus struggled, a man emerged from the rubble of the broken wall and stones.
“Who are you?”
Russell, whose black hair had turned gray from the dust, asked in a calm voice. However, what Percus spat out at him was a spell.
“Re, Repherma!”
Russell’s grip tightened. But there was no dark elf’s neck pressed against his grip. With the incantation, the censer emitted light, and Perkus’s body turned into a cloud of black smoke, flying into the alley.
“Oh.”
Russell wouldn’t just stare blankly at that. Right away, his magic-infused power gathered in his right hand, transforming into the attribute of lightning, sparking with blue flames.
Crackle, crackle!
A bolt of lightning that tore through space struck the mass of black smoke.
“Kuagh!”
Then, the black smoke instantly turned into the body of a dark elf and collapsed on the floor. Percus gasped and looked at Russell, who was walking towards him from the other side, his face turning pale.
“Hup!”
He gritted his teeth and immediately got up and started to run away. Russell, who was shaking his head and releasing his neck, followed right behind him.
The dark elf ran without stopping, dodging between walls and alleys. Even while running through areas with many obstacles, he used his flexible and agile movements to escape, and he didn’t hesitate to throw himself into dangerous gaps.
Russell used his magic eyes to see the direction the dark elf was running and jumped up, chasing the dark elf through the gaps in the buildings and over the roofs.
“Huff, huff, huff, how can a human, huff!”
Perkus was going crazy. No matter how fast he ran, Russell would appear from somewhere. He tried to dodge through areas overflowing with obstacles, squeeze through gaps where humans couldn’t fit, but Russell would always appear again, blocking his escape.
He couldn’t even dream of creating and spreading necrols as he had originally planned. He had randomly released the smoke from the censer, but even that was shattered by lightning bolts fired by Russell, disappearing into nothingness
The dark elf’s anxious steps unknowingly led him towards a place where he felt safe. Russell read that movement right away. He couldn’t help but notice that the dark elf, who had been running around like a madman, suddenly took a direction and ran straight.
Russell increased his speed there. He grabbed the eaves and pulled himself up, flying with his light body, and flying over the roofs and roofs was the very image of an elf that people usually imagined.
In contrast, Russell, as if he would break anything he touched, stretched his legs wide and forcefully kicked the ground. The remaining distance shrunk in an instant.
“Euaaaah. . .!”
The dark elf looked back, his expression pale with fear and horror. He hadn’t even reached his destination yet, but the fearsome pursuer was right behind him.
“Die!”
Perkus, leaping from one roof to another, thrust the censer forward. He held the round body with his left hand and the small lid with his right, opening it.
Puh-whoosh!
Then, black smoke burst out of it and enveloped Russell. The black smoke wrapped around Russell and fell to the ground as a large sphere.
The sphere, with a heavy thud, settled into the ground, cracking the stone. Perkus descended before it.
“Huff, damn it, huff.”
Originally, he shouldn’t have used it all at once, but Percus, consumed by fear, didn’t even think about it. The fear he had felt when he had met his eyes earlier had been swelling up like crazy.
Thump, thump, thump, thump━
His heart beat like never before, sending blood surging throughout his body. Sweat poured down like a waterfall, his breath wouldn’t calm down, and only grew more ragged. Perkus barely managed to raise his head. He could see the human enveloped in black smoke.
“It’s over, it’s over. . . No, is this better?”
Originally, it was enough to create a thousand more monsters, but now it might be more helpful to mutate that monster-like human.
Percus cautiously approached the wriggling mass of black fog.
‘But why is it taking so long?’
At the same time as the question, light leaked out of the mass. As the horrified Percus tried to step back, a fist burst out of the mass and slammed into his torso.
“Keuk. . .!”
Percus, whose ribs and organs were crushed, fell to his knees. He couldn’t move. Even the slightest movement of his fingers sent waves of pain.
“You’re very cautious.”
Russell, who had crumpled the Breath of Nemesto, which had become so dense and hard that it could break through stone, like a piece of paper, walked out from inside.
His eyes burned fiercely, and whenever his gaze met it, the Breath of Nemesto flinched as if it had been touched by fire.
Russell grabbed the dark elf by the neck and lifted him up.
“What’s your name?”
“Kuuuuhhhhh. . . . . .”
Percus couldn’t speak and only groaned. As his neck was forcibly squeezed and stretched, his broken ribs further pierced his organs and lungs, and his crushed organs were crushed.
Russell, realizing that he had hit too hard, raised his right hand.
“Keuk, keu. . . . . .?”
Percus, who felt the pain that seemed like he would lose consciousness at any moment gradually disappear, looked down with a bewildered expression. The pursuer who had chased him was holding a white light in his right hand against his own torso.
The broken ribs returned to their original place, and the crushed organs also returned to their original state. It was a phenomenon that occurred when the strong regenerative power of an elf’s body, which was different from that of a human, was combined with healing magic.
Russell, who was still holding the dark elf’s neck with his left hand and performing healing magic with his right hand, asked.
“I guess you’re feeling a little better now. What’s your name?”
Percus kept his mouth shut, and Russell nodded. The right hand that had been emitting white light was wrapped in lightning.
Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle!
“Gaga. . . g. . . g. . .!”
Percus’s eyes rolled back in his head and turned white from the tingling sensation of electricity that was instantly coursing through his body. Then, a tremendous shock hit his face.
After his vision flashed, the dark elf realized that he had been slapped, and then he felt something hard rolling around in his mouth. His jaw was broken, and blood and broken teeth flowed out of his mouth, which wouldn’t close.
Swoosh.
Then, Russell’s right hand emitted white light again, aligning Percus’s jawbone and closing the torn cheek.
“Name?”
“Pe, Percus!”
Percus shouted fiercely.
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