Episode 96: Orc Extermination (4)
Despite the storm of emotions swirling within him, Damien’s mind remained calm and focused.
When facing a chimera, the most crucial thing was to stay vigilant and observe carefully.
Chimeras were created by fusing multiple monsters, granting them a wide array of abilities.
Judging them by appearance alone was dangerous, as you never knew when or where a new power might emerge.
“Quite the show-off, aren’t you? But you know what? Plenty of people have died because of that attitude!” Noctis shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at Damien.
“Yebbi, show him what you’ve got!”
The name was oddly cute for such a formidable creature.
-Grrr!
Suddenly, the chimera vanished, and a gust of wind rushed toward Damien.
The unexpected wind whipped his hair and clothes around, and dust stung his eyes, forcing him to squint one shut.
In that instant, the chimera reappeared right in front of him, swinging its arm toward him.
-Grrr!
Even with one eye closed, Damien had no trouble dodging the attack, gauging the distance with ease.
A sense of foreboding washed over him. As he leapt back, five deep gashes appeared in the ground where he had just stood.
The destruction didn’t stop there. Trees in the distance were split and toppled over.
“Fascinating creature,” Damien remarked with a hint of amusement.
“It doesn’t just turn into wind; it uses the wind to launch slashing attacks?”
The chimera hadn’t simply appeared out of nowhere. It had transformed into wind to move.
The chaos on the ground and in the forest was caused by the wind being turned into a cutting force.
“This is why chimeras are such a headache.”
Neither ability was ordinary, and there were surely more hidden powers yet to be revealed.
“Now do you see how amazing Yebbi is? Yebbi, keep up the pressure!”
Noctis commanded again, and the chimera swung its arms wildly.
Each swing unleashed a barrage of wind slashes, turning the forest into a wasteland in the blink of an eye.
Yet Damien dodged every attack effortlessly, not even blinking.
“This is getting interesting,” he said, grinning widely.
“Yebbi! What are you doing? He’s dodging everything!” Noctis shouted in frustration as Damien continued to evade.
“Finish him off now!”
The chimera’s eyes changed, and its body blurred once more.
“Oh?”
The chimera vanished into the wind and reappeared behind Damien.
-Grrr!
It swung its arm immediately, sending a blade of wind toward him.
Damien leapt to the side, avoiding the attack.
As he landed and looked up, the chimera had already disappeared again.
-Grrr!
This time, the sound came from right behind him. Damien pushed off the ground, soaring into the air.
The chimera’s arm sliced through the air, its wind blade tearing up the ground.
-Grrr!
The chimera transformed into wind once more. Watching this, Damien commented with a hint of boredom.
“It looks flashy, but it’s not very effective.”
Transforming into wind to move was clever enough.
But to attack, it had to revert to its original form, which made it easy to predict and counter.
Just like now.
Damien spun and swung his sword. In that moment, the chimera appeared in mid-air.
-Roar?
Damien was faster. His holy sword cleaved through the chimera’s torso.
The chimera raised its forearms to block, scales clashing with the blade.
The sword cut through scales and muscle, green blood spurting out.
“Hmm?”
But that was all. Damien’s sword had only sliced through the chimera’s hide, not its bones.
Seeing this, Noctis shouted triumphantly.
“Yebbi’s got drake bones! You’ll never cut through them!”
Drakes.
One of the apex monsters, known for their immense size, strength, and ferocity, making them among the most dangerous of large monsters.
Drake hide and bones were famously tough, nearly impossible to cut through with ordinary aura.
“Yebbi, keep up the attack!”
The chimera lunged forward, swinging its arms at Damien.
Meanwhile, Noctis called out to Marina.
“Marina!”
“Don’t rush me. I’m ready.”
The haggard woman, Marina, cast her dark magic. The deadly poison, which had taken the form of a snake, transformed into a swarm of wasps.
The wasps swarmed around Damien, encircling him.
In front, the chimera.
Around him, wasps carrying deadly poison.
If he moved to dodge the chimera’s attack, the wasps would inject their venom immediately.
Despite being cornered, Damien didn’t seem worried.
“An unexpected team attack, I must say.”
Damien drew his celestial sword, dodging the chimera’s attacks while swinging it through the air.
With each swing, the sword vibrated fiercely.
When the vibration reached its peak, Damien flicked the sword with his fingers.
Cursed Sword - Sonic Boom
A piercing sound, loud enough to burst eardrums, spread in all directions. The two dark mages clamped their hands over their ears in panic.
The wasp swarm lost its form, reverting to liquid poison. The chimera staggered, disoriented.
Damien sheathed the celestial sword and gripped his holy sword, concentrating his aura.
Drake bones? So what?
If aura couldn’t cut through, he just needed to concentrate it further.
Any mid-class warrior could do that much.
And Damien had long surpassed the mid-class in skill.
The concentrated aura enveloped the holy sword, thickening like smoke.
-Grrr!
The chimera shook its head, recovering from the sonic attack.
But it was too late. Damien was already swinging his celestial sword at Yebbi’s neck.
At that moment.
“Yebbi, spit it out!” Noctis screamed.
Instantly, Yebbi opened its mouth wide.
Flames erupted from the chimera’s throat.
The blazing fire engulfed Damien in an instant, spreading to the surrounding forest.
The intense heat reduced trees to ash in moments, melting the ground beneath.
“Ha ha ha!”
Noctis laughed in delight.
“Didn’t see that coming, did you? Yebbi’s got a drake’s fire sac too!”
The most dangerous aspect of a drake, making it one of the top threats among large monsters, was its ability to breathe fire.
Though nothing compared to a dragon’s breath, it was powerful enough to turn a castle into a sea of flames.
“Serves you right! That’s what you get for showing off! You let your guard down and now you’re just a pile of ashes!”
While Noctis reveled in his apparent victory, Marina watched the flames with a tense expression.
“No, Noctis!”
Thanks to her vigilance, she noticed it quickly.
“He’s… he’s still alive! He’s alive!”
There, standing unharmed amidst the flames, was Damien Haxen.
“What nonsense is this? That’s drake fire!”
Damien emerged from the flames, and Noctis’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“This level of fire is easy to withstand.”
Damien brushed off the embers from his clothes as he spoke.
Previously, Damien had absorbed the heart of a fire spirit.
As a result, his body had become highly resistant to fire.
“This… this can’t be…”
Damien walked through the flames, leaving Noctis and Marina in a state of panic.
“Ma-Marin… what do we do?”
“I-I don’t know! How do you deal with a monster like that…?”
Damien swung his holy sword repeatedly. The concentrated aura unleashed massive slashes.
The first slash cleaved the chimera in half. The second severed its waist. The third and fourth cut diagonally.
The chimera’s body was marked with lines, and soon it fell apart in pieces.
“You… you bastard…!”
Noctis’s eyes were bloodshot with rage and despair as he screamed.
“How dare you kill Yebbi? I’ll never let you get away with this… Ugh!”
Damien rushed at Noctis, kicking him in the stomach. Noctis crashed into a tree behind him.
“You… you… I’ll never let you go…”
Even as he lay on the ground, Noctis couldn’t regain his senses, spewing anger at Damien.
“Do you hear me…? I’ll make sure to avenge Yebbi’s death… I’ll… Agh!”
Damien stabbed Noctis’s hand with his holy sword, severing three fingers.
“M-my fingers…”
“Say one more word, and I’ll cut off your wrist.”
Damien’s voice was cold and emotionless, making it all the more terrifying. Noctis clamped his other hand over his mouth.
Damian pulled the sacred sword from the ground and swung it to the side without hesitation.
“Aaah!”
Marina’s left hand was severed, the hand that had been clutching a vial of poison.
“Don’t bother with tricks. It’s useless.”
Marina clutched her bleeding wrist, gasping for breath.
“I have a lot of questions for you. I hope you’ll answer them sincerely.”
“Who do you think would answer you?”
“Yeah, stop wasting time and just kill us.”
The two dark mages glared at him with venomous eyes, which only made Damian chuckle.
“That’s the spirit. It’s more fun when you resist.”
After all, it gave him an excuse to vent his frustrations under the guise of interrogation.
“Just so happens I’ve learned a new technique.”
Damian had recently acquired a half-burned mana cultivation manual and a technique book at the Green Fragrance auction house.
It hadn’t taken long to restore them. When he finally held the complete manuals in his hands, he realized he’d stumbled upon a treasure.
The technique was called Myeonrigumchim.
It was a mana cultivation method that allowed manipulation of the body’s energy pathways, known as meridians.
With it, he could train his own meridians or enhance them to unleash a massive amount of power at once.
But the true value of Myeonrigumchim lay elsewhere.
It allowed him to manipulate others’ meridians as well, either blocking them or causing excruciating pain by stimulating them.
“I needed someone to practice on. This works out perfectly.”