Episode 354
Chapter 109. Ozdok (Part 1)

“Oh, it really reacts immediately, huh?”

Mary smiled with a gleam of interest in her eyes.

Jin, however, was still half in doubt. Setting aside the fact that the monster Ozdok had weakened compared to its prime, he wondered if it was even possible for such a creature to survive underground beneath the Black Sea for a thousand years.

Rumble… The tremors intensified rapidly.

From deep, deep underground, the massive lifeform writhed like a waterspout, the movement vividly shaking the ground above.

“Oh, feels like a whale’s hooked on the line,” Mary said, licking her lips.

“No matter how weak it’s gotten, both of you need to stay sharp,” Murakan said, looking at Mary with a hint of disdain. He figured her confidence came from never having faced Ozdok in its prime.

Suddenly—

A massive limb, which had to be one of Ozdok’s arms, sliced through the earth and shot upward.

It looked like a pillar made of metal. There were no visible joints, so it seemed incapable of flexible movement, yet the arm moved with the fluidity of molten steel.

A body that combined the hardness of steel with the flowing nature of water. Just seeing it, Jin instinctively knew it wouldn’t be easy to cut through.

Ozdok’s arm swayed, searching the ground for gold, and Mary simply watched quietly.

Jin, on the other hand, drew his sword before Ozdok fully revealed itself. With a sharp hiss, the pale blade slid from its sheath, crackling with icy blue energy.

At the same moment, a flash of light burst from Jin, and in the next instant, he slashed through Ozdok’s massive arm—even though the blade hadn’t fully emerged.

‘It didn’t cut through.’

His intuition was right.

It felt like slicing through water. The moment the blade touched, there was only a soft, chilling sensation—none of the heavy resistance that comes from cutting flesh and bone.

“Hey, rookie! What the hell are you doing?” Mary shouted.

She had planned to wait for Ozdok to finish devouring the gold on the ground—a courtesy to make the fight more enjoyable.

“You almost ruined the prey. Looks like no serious damage, though. Whew.”

“This isn’t the time to be picky, sis.”

“I couldn’t sleep last night, I was so excited. Even if it’s weaker now, I wanted to fight after it got a little stronger…”

“That’s not what I meant. Aren’t you fighting it right now?”

Mary’s eyes sharpened at that.

“No time to be complacent, then. You’ll have to do something before I finish it off.”

“Hah, you’re so cheap.”

“Who else but you would wear silver armor alone and turn a field into a wasteland with top-tier magic bombs?”

“You’ve got a grudge, huh?”

Clink!

The joints of Mary’s chained sword, the Venom Serpent, snapped open. Dozens of blades instantly glowed with fierce aura as she swung the weapon.

Sharp shockwaves burst in all directions. The gold nuggets Shuri spat out were sliced like tofu, and Ozdok’s arm was shredded beyond recognition.

But it still wasn’t cut.

Ozdok’s arm only lost its shape briefly under the swift sword strikes. When Mary stopped the Venom Serpent, the arm quickly returned to its original form.

Then it resumed its slow search for the gold on the ground. A few gold bars had tumbled into the pit from which the arm emerged, likely due to the shockwaves Mary created.

Chomp-chomp!

The sound of Ozdok greedily devouring the fallen gold echoed. The unpleasant resonance carried the dark, vicious energy of the monster.

Those two gold bars in the pit were like sparks landing on an oil slick.

[Grrr, Woooaaah!]

Ozdok roared, triggering another quake. The tremors were several times stronger than when it first moved, threatening to overturn the ground.

Kuaaaah!

Ozdok began to rise to the surface. Explosions large and small erupted across the ground from the energy it emitted, and Jin and Mary braced themselves, swatting away flying debris.

At that moment, Murakan settled far away, riding Shuri.

‘That punk was right. It’s nowhere near as strong as it was back then. Still, those two alone might barely hold their own.’

He decided to watch for a while longer before stepping in.

Though weakened after a thousand years of being sealed, Ozdok hadn’t lost the majesty of an inner-core monster.

Its massive shadow darkened the earth.

‘It looks grotesque.’

‘It’s coming. I can feel an electrifying power, like it’s incredibly strong.’

Jin and Mary looked up at Ozdok.

Its body was angular and hairless, resembling a fortress-sized ape.

A golden aura radiated from the center of its chest—that was Ozdok’s inner core.

[Grrr. Kuuuuah.]

Even after stepping onto the surface, Ozdok only made strange noises, showing no interest in Jin or Mary.

It seemed oblivious to their attacks. Ozdok’s large, red single eye rolled as it focused on finding gold.

“This is a bit of a blow to my pride,” Mary said, but her eyes sparkled with excitement.

Most warriors would be terrified facing an opponent immune to physical attacks. But not Mary. Nor Jin.

‘It’s not regenerating. Maybe its body is ghost-like?’

While Jin pondered this, Mary charged at Ozdok.

The monster flicked out a long, dark tongue toward the scattered gold on the ground.

“I’ll cut you down until you vanish, Ozdok.”

Shaaak!

That tongue was the target—or rather, it only seemed like she was cutting it.

Mary’s Venom Serpent unleashed a barrage of sword energy like scattered light.

Even Jin struggled to follow the speed with his eyes. Afterimages overlapped, and with every flash, Ozdok’s massive form blurred.

For the first few seconds, Ozdok ignored Mary completely.

But when a gold bar it was about to swallow was ground to dust by Mary’s energy, its red eye snapped open in reaction.

A dull thud.

Right after Ozdok shifted its gaze to Mary, the sound came.

It was the distinct noise of a trained martial artist’s fist or blunt weapon striking flesh.

“Ugh!”

Mary was knocked back, gritting her teeth.

Ozdok’s tail had struck her side.

Fortunately, she had defended just in time to avoid a fatal injury, but the mental shock was greater than the physical.

‘I almost went down from a single hit…?’

Just one strike.

Not a prepared attack, but an unconscious flick like swatting a fly.

She nearly became incapacitated. If her defense had been even a moment slower, a couple of broken ribs would have been the least of her worries.

Jin, watching this, was equally shocked.

‘With that size, it can move fast enough to catch Mary off guard?’

His hairs stood on end.

“Murakan! Is it really weakened?”

Jin shouted.

Murakan raised both arms, drawing a circle in the air.

“If it gets too tough, this great Black Dragon will step in to help. So, give it your best shot! Hahaha!”

Mary stood again, her eyes blazing. Her whole body ached, and frustration and anger surged through her.

But she decided to keep her cool.

Everyone knew Mary was a wild fighter in the martial world. It was common knowledge she loved fights without strategy, just pure brawling.

So most warriors thought she was hot-headed and simple.

But those who truly knew Mary said she was most terrifying when her eyes turned cold like this.

‘Just like when she fought the rookie, or when she killed those phantom soldiers, and now. Ever since the rookie came back, it’s been nothing but thrilling fights. Now, how should we handle this guy?’

Chomp, chomp-chomp! The gold bars fell into Ozdok’s belly.

Their ambush wasn’t entirely ineffective. They hadn’t injured it, but over half the gold bars they’d brought to lure it were lost to their attacks.

Since the gold was the source of Ozdok’s power, if it had eaten them all, its energy would have doubled by now.

“Rookie.”

“Yes, sis.”

“To deal physical damage to Ozdok, we need to strike when it hardens its body to attack.”

“I was thinking the same. It seems like it’s usually in a state similar to air. I wish that damn Black Dragon behind us had given us a tip about this.”

Murakan lay back on Shuri’s back, watching the siblings with a grin. He even munched on some cookies he’d brought from Latri.

“But it can’t be air all the time. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to chew on gold bars like that.”

“So it must have a weak spot?”

“Yes. And there might be a way to force its body to become vulnerable to physical attacks.”

Fwoosh, tsck!

The battle was just beginning.

Jin drew his sword and simultaneously chanted a spell, summoning flames in one hand and icy magic in the other.

“I’ll try to find a way to land effective hits on him using both magic and divine power. Meanwhile, you focus on finding his weak points.”

“Got it.”

With a spit of blood, Mary closed the distance to Ozdok.

Now Ozdok was fully aware of Jin and Mary. At first, having just awakened from his seal, the metallic scent nearly overwhelmed him, but his intelligence had since returned.

[Roar!]

His chained sword traced sharp arcs glowing with radiant light. This time, Ozdok didn’t dodge but simply deflected Mary’s attack, sending her flying back.

Despite crashing to the ground multiple times, Mary showed no sign of fatigue and kept lunging at Ozdok. In just over a minute, she had been repelled more than ten times, each time slamming into the earth.

But it no longer bruised her pride—she had accepted that Ozdok was stronger.

‘He seems immune to magic as well.’

She had tried every element—fire, ice, wind, earth, lightning—but none of her spells landed a single effective blow.

He was, in every sense, an impregnable fortress.

Unless Jin hadn’t noticed one crucial detail.

‘He can’t be immune to both physical and magical attacks at the same time…!’

They almost missed it. Since Mary was being pushed back so hard, there weren’t many chances to strike together at the right moment.

They had found a breakthrough.

‘Now all that’s left is to time the magical attacks perfectly with your strikes, sis.’

Easier said than done, of course. It was no simple task.