Barbarian in a Failed Game

“Embrace your noble death─!!”

“Karyaaaaan!”

“You, you crazy bastards! Enough already…!”

Though there seemed to be a voice attempting to dissuade them at the end, the warriors of Hoarfrost Gorge paid it no mind. Surrounded by formidable foes, both the beast troops and the demon contractors, they instead went even wilder as if they were dominating the fight.

“What kind of strength do these guys have…!”

“Just think of them as orcs, not humans!”

“What kind of orc fights like a master of weaponry─!”

Everywhere, beast troops who had felt the Beast King’s presence and stopped fleeing were charging bravely, only to be swept away in return. The claws and tough hide that deflected blades, which the beast troops prided themselves on, were utterly useless.

“Ha ha ha…! This great sword is to my liking!”

“A fine pet great sword!”

“It’s a festival─! Only strong ones here!!”

A barbarian, abandoning a perfectly good weapon, grabbed a struggling beast troop and swung it like a weapon. Another barbarian praised him, exchanging punches with the beast troops. Excited by the life-or-death struggle they hadn’t experienced in a long time, some barbarian jumped right into the fray, causing a bloodbath.

‘Crazy bastards….’

Eson swallowed a curse as he watched the barbarian sweeping the battlefield. He thought he had gotten used to them after going through the warrior’s trial in Hoarfrost Gorge and living with them….

“You. Your arm is broken! I’ll fight in your stead!”

“An arm can be reset!”

Crack!

“Dirty magic user! Let’s fight─!”

“Damn it…! Are these really humans?!”

“Tarak! How dare you hog all the strong foes! How insolent!”

“Dirty bastards! I’ll kill you!”

“Damn it…! Are you not afraid of the power of demons?!”

Boom!!

Even with a broken limb, they’d reset it and continue fighting. Some barbarian even recklessly attacked the demon contractors preparing for the demon’s descent.

“They fight too recklessly…!”

Crush!

Watching Tarak smash the head of a demon contractor and then kick the regenerating body to pieces, Eson sighed. He didn’t even look as he swung and broke the neck of a beast troop attacking from behind.

‘What a mess!’

But what concerned him more was the area where Hoarfrost Gorge’s Great Warrior and his son, Khan, were facing off against the enemy.

The fact that Khan, who was reported missing in the phenomenon called dimensional collapse, was in the Great Forest was baffling. However, the situation was too tense to ask questions.

『I’ll kill you! How dare an inferior species lay hands on me─!』

From the entire body of Julian, the contractor of Behelanokto, a sticky darkness poured out like mucus.

It was no ordinary darkness. True to his epithet as the “Bearer of Darkness,” Behelanokto wielded darkness as his own power, and the darkness Julian unleashed was a fragment of Behelanokto’s.

『Die─! Inferior species…!』

The darkness, which devoured even light, moved like a living creature, trying to engulf the Great Warrior.

“Hmm! Filthy power!”

The Great Warrior was also an apostle of a God. Not just any God, but the Warrior God Karyan, who had even the highest gods at his feet during his mortal days.

“Huup!”

Crack.

The sound that resonated from the Great Warrior’s clenched fist echoed across the entire battlefield. It was so distinct that everyone’s attention shifted to him.

Boom!

As he stepped toward the advancing darkness, the ground shook with a deep rumble reminiscent of a giant’s stride. By then, Julian’s face, shrouded in darkness, began to contort.

‘An inferior species dares…!’

Julian was a descendant of a noble house annihilated by the Imperial family. An old head of the house, unable to let go of his greed, turned to dark magic, sacrificing hundreds of his people alive to regain his youth. The entire house was burned by the hands of the Imperial battle mages.

Julian, who had been outside the family’s territory to find new victims to please the old head, was the sole survivor.

‘What’s so wrong about using a few insects…!’

Surviving alone, Julian swore revenge. Fortunately, the power for his revenge was close at hand. He began to master the dark magic left by the old head, and within a few years, Julian surpassed him, catching the attention of Behelanokto.

Behelanokto saw potential not in Julian’s talent for dark magic, but in his inherently twisted human nature, and infused Julian with his own darkness.

Thus was born the demon contractor, Julian.

『Behold. Witness the difference between you inferior beings and the noble me…!』

Boom!

Darkness spewed from Julian’s body, forming into specific shapes. Liches, death knights, ghouls, wyverns… All powerful undead known by name, forming an army that filled the Great Forest in an instant.

『Kneel……!』

Swoosh─ More darkness surged from above Julian’s head. The darkness transformed into curses.

Even a brief exposure would crush and melt a normal human’s bones, subject them to endless nightmares until their souls dissolved while still alive, and drive them mad with insanity. These horrific curses manifested, fueled by Behelanokto’s darkness.

If Ashfield, the contractor of Calisidus, had seen this, he would have been shocked by the overwhelming power.

‘Yes, this is it! With this power, I will bring down the Empire!’

Julian’s full power, never shown before, was enough to destroy a major city of the Empire in an instant. And the Great Warrior standing alone before him seemed incredibly insignificant.

However.

“Hmm!”

The Great Warrior, Gordi, did not retreat an inch.

All the warriors of Hoarfrost Gorge underwent the same trials and grew under the same harsh conditions. Yet, Gordi became the Great Warrior for one reason only: his unparalleled strength.

Barbarians, deprived of mana in the chaos-infested lands, relied solely on their pure physical strength and skills. Gordi’s overwhelming power, enough to challenge the barrier of transcendence, was what made him the Great Warrior. And now, as an apostle of Karyan-

Slowly, he drew his fist back and then thrust it forward.

Boom…!

The thunderous sound that erupted from his clenched fist deafened everyone. In contrast, his fist moved forward ever so slowly. By this time, the darkness Julian unleashed had reached right in front of the Great Warrior, ready to devour him with its gaping maw.

And then.

At the moment when his fully extended fist met Julian’s darkness,

Boom───!!

The ground quaked as if an earthquake had struck, and the sky screamed with the roar of thunder.

Crack, boom! The darkness shattered, literally breaking apart. The sticky darkness, flowing like liquid, shattered like glass. Julian’s eyes widened in shock.

But the Great Warrior’s fist did not stop there.

Boom, boom, boom!!

Named undead, each powerful enough to raze a city, were all swept away in the trajectory of his punch. Even the supposedly immortal undead, sustained by dark magic, disintegrated completely, leaving not even a bone fragment behind. The army of the dead, capable of annihilating an entire imperial city, was obliterated in an instant.

『What……!』

Julian’s panicked voice rang out. The overwhelming violence, having destroyed the darkness borrowed from the Scion of the Arch Demon and ground the army of the dead to dust, surged toward him.

It was a clear death, an unparalleled fear he had never felt before.

『Don’t, mock me─!!』

Julian clenched his hand in the air, and Behelanokto’s darkness formed a sword in his grasp. It was a blade crafted from the power itself, even dispelling the darkness that had shrouded Julian.

“This noble Julian Kyris! To be bested by a mere inferior species who doesn’t even qualify as a commoner!!”

A hunchbacked old man with stark white hair and a face marked with liver spots—this was Julian. A revenant, clinging to life for the sake of revenge. Despite his house having been destroyed over a hundred years ago, he still considered himself a noble.

“How dare you─!”

Julian roared, swinging his sword with a grace that belied his decrepit form. It was the swordsmanship of the Kyris family, who had produced numerous knights. Even as a demon contractor, he never abandoned it. Now, the blade, infused with the dark energy of the Monarch of Hell instead of a blue aura, aimed to tear apart the Great Warrior’s fist.

But Julian overlooked one crucial fact: the Great Warrior was not one-armed.

“Hmm…!”

Right after destroying the darkness of Behelanokto and the Lion’s army, the Great Warrior, who had been holding his other arm back, let out a strange battle cry, producing a thunderous sound.

Boom…!

The thunder, which had been waiting to be released, smashed Julian’s head.

Thud─.

The battle between the two Apostles of Gods ended in such a dishearteningly anticlimactic moment.

***

“Boring!”

“After killing them all, you find it boring…?”

Within mere minutes of the Hoarfrost Gorge warriors’ intervention, Julian, the leader of the demon contractors, had been killed.

And it was by the hand of just one person.

‘Without even using his divine powers…?’

What stunned Khan even more was that the Great Warrior had defeated Julian without utilizing any divine powers. He had purely used his own skill to kill an apostle wrapped in the mantle of transcendence.

If he were to unleash Karyan’s powers, even the most formidable transcendent beings wouldn’t stand a chance. A man like that had been confined to the north in the game, not even earning a name for himself.

‘How terrifying….’

It seemed Khan wasn’t the only one with these thoughts.

『…A dangerous human indeed.』

There was no mistaking the unease in the Beast King’s voice, rapidly closing the distance. The martial prowess the Great Warrior had displayed was truly terrifying.

Yet, the Beast King did not turn back.

『But that’s all there is to it.』

When the Beast King finally appeared, he did not seem particularly remarkable. Compared to other beast troops, he looked almost frail, his broken claws a pitiful sight.

-Only his eyes, glistening with madness, stood out.

“Human…?”

Ron muttered as he saw the Beast King’s tattered form. Unlike other beast troops, the Beast King had a purely bestial face, devoid of any human features. Below the neck, however, he had a human body, with sharp fangs betraying his beastly nature.

He was a variant, more human than beast, and a pariah even among the beast troops.

Crack! Crack, crack!

It was then. The Beast King’s body, initially the size of an average human, began to grow larger, his flesh covered by dark green fur. He transformed into a massive wolf, standing on all fours.

Awoooo!!

The Beast King’s howl was answered by the beast troops, who were fighting fiercely against the barbarian.

The bodies of the beast troops, a mix of human and beast, began to twist. They grew larger, fully transforming into beasts, and stood on all fours like the Beast King.

『It is time to hunt, you fools…』