NOVEL WEB Chapter 170
The crowd staring at the fight between the two beasts couldn’t help but swallow their saliva.
It’s different. Just, the level is different. For them, being mages, this was a fight they could never even dream of. Ignorant and primal. But that’s what made it impossible to look away.
A desperate struggle, just to tear each other apart.
Of course, the number of people who could actually see the fight properly was minimal. Most of them couldn’t even catch a glimpse of the afterimages because the speed of the two beasts was too fast.
A handful of people were capable of witnessing it, and among them was Hong Yu-ri.
All the while, the wolf was getting pushed back. At first glance, it looked like an equal fight, but the one gaining the upper hand was the Plague. It wasn’t that the wolf was lacking; it was that the very existence of the Plague was unreasonable.
“Should we start preparing soon?”
Winter’s Master suggested. Upon hearing that, Hong Yu-ri bit her lip. It was a natural judgment— the Plague had been wounded and was exhausted. It even seemed like they could kill it if they pushed a bit harder.
They must have thought to finish it off together while Alpha held it down. It was the right call for mages, for humanity, but anxiety swelled within Hong Yu-ri.
If magic was used, it wouldn’t just catch the Plague in the crossfire.
It’s hard to say, “Just wait and don’t do it.” Because killing the Plague was the wish of all humanity.
In an instant, her master’s gaze turned toward her.
That gaze was questioning. How do you want to proceed? In response, Hong Yu-ri couldn’t bring herself to say stop. While she wanted to voice that thought… it’s hard to fully believe Alpha would win.
She knew very well.
How terrible strong that monster was. What kind of despair it was to face a disaster that could not be killed.
No matter how much power Alpha had, it was hard to bet on victory this time. She held onto hope, but… would it once again be unreachable? If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to back down right now?
As the pus burst forth, the green smoke, emblematic of the Plague, spread out. When she was finally pinned down, Hong Yu-ri shut her eyes tight. Behind her closed eyelids, her pupils trembled uncontrollably.
A sigh of regret. A sound of disappointment. Then, amidst the chanting that began, it cut off suddenly.
“Wait.”
She couldn’t say that, but another voice interjected. Following the natural descent of the voice, countless dragons were flapping their wings.
“White Deer…?”
As a giant dragon descended upon the floating island like a white deer, the mages lost their words like they had eaten honey.
“He hasn’t given up yet.”
“―――!”
After that utterance, a spine-chilling roar from the beast shook their bodies. Without realizing it, their gazes shifted, and there was the Plague, writhing in agony with one arm lost.
When black flames erupted from the wolf that stood again, Hong Yu-ri opened her eyes wide. She knew the wolf had that kind of power.
But—was that really the black flames?
A dark flame that seemed to be filled with an endless sense of dread, symbolizing the Black Marang, engulfed the wolf.
At least every mage wielding the flames of Red Square could say nothing. Even Aster swallowed hard.
The black flames were pushing back the Plague.
When they witnessed that scene, all they could do was watch in daze.
It was like a scene from a myth, the struggle of Marang and the Plague.
***
[Black Magic (B) Level 4 has been merged into Intimidation (A)]
[Intimidation (E) Level 9 has been merged into Intimidation (A)]
[Intimidation (A) – Level Up 1/3]
Having consumed all the skill points he’d held for a long time, the wolf finally took a step forward and closed its eyes quietly.
It was a path the wolf had never walked before.
The path of Intimidation. The black flames the wolf had not chosen. It thought it would be enough with just Black Magic, but it painfully realized how wrong that was.
If the Void was a power that consumed everything, Intimidation was fire that burned everything.
Of course, there were no regrets on the path taken. The wolf believed that choice was not wrong. The sticky viscosity. Even when it stirred a storm, the smoke that couldn’t be easily pushed away vanished in an instant.
The horrifying smoke burned by Intimidation maintained its territory. The space for the Plague shrank, and the wolf’s territory expanded.
Seeing that, the expression of the Plague twisted. The wolf, noticing this, steeled itself.
The Plague was also regenerating slowly, but the wolf didn’t move. No, it couldn’t. Its spine that had collapsed was still not set.
The C-grade regeneration the Plague had was a highly useful skill. But the wolf’s Devour was constantly gnawing at its wounds. Naturally, as its stamina dwindled, the speed of its regeneration slowed down. On the contrary, the wolf’s regeneration, fueled by the effect of Devour, was getting faster.
A little time passed, and when the wolf’s spine regained its form, the Plague had yet to completely regenerate its arm.
The reason the Plague didn’t recklessly charge in was that it was cautious of the two fangs it could touch— Intimidation and the Void.
Though a very slim possibility, the Plague thought it could die. But still, it didn’t run away; it was because that pathetic little creature—the wolf was still alive that it bothered to remain.
However, that was the wolf’s curse. Even when it could confirm the form of its opponent, it willingly revealed itself instead of hiding with Stealth, and that was the reason.
It hadn’t realized it was caught in a snare from the beginning, and the Plague revealed its true form. Aside from one leg that was broken, it steadied itself on all three remaining legs, preparing for battle.
Two A-grade skills. Each one was not inferior to the Plague. Nevertheless, the wolf didn’t ease its tension.
It was only fifty-fifty now.
It was natural for the Plague to look down on it. There truly was a power disparity.
What filled that gap was the stamina worn down by the bombardment of the Square and the wounds sustained thus far.
If not for those wounds, even if it had approached armed with Intimidation from the start, the chances would have been slim.
As Intimidation burned through the smoke, the Plague returned everything it had scattered.
The wolf thought it couldn’t reach as long as it wielded fire and wind. The green smoke covering the area was a sticky liquid thinly coating the entire body of the Plague.
Even without wrapping it in a storm, the smoke had completely vanished cleanly, but instead, the tension rose. That thick smoke had all gathered. Just how concentrated was it?
As the sticky green liquid dripped from the Plague’s body, it melted and deeply penetrated the ruined ground.
Mitigation? Regeneration? All of it was meaningless. The moment it touched the liquid, that area would have to be given up.
As the long tail whipped around, the wolf widened its eyes. It was right ready to charge in, but it didn’t. Had it been liquid, it wouldn’t have been able to act. It began sprinkling the liquid with its tail.
Even as it burned between Intimidation and the Void, it was not easy. At this point, the Plague had no reason to charge in first. It naturally had to act first, itself.
As the wolf rushed forward, the Plague retaliated by spitting the green liquid, like applying poison to the tips of its thorns. Coating itself in magic worthy of the name of disaster, it matched the Square Master in power, and in the midst of running, the wolf enveloped itself in Black Magic.
The magic struck the Black Magic and was stripped away, and the green liquid wrapped around the thorns couldn’t breach Intimidation and was burned away.
The green liquid was indeed threatening, but now that the smoke was lifted, the wolf was also set free. It could now use the Black Magic and Shadow it had previously been unable to use.
Like the wind, the wolf ran. The Plague stared across the black mist. It had no doubt that Marang would reveal itself soon. And finally, as something burst forth, the Plague leaped in as if it had been waiting, and snatched the assault in one swift motion.
It was torn apart in an instant. —The wolf’s tentacle.
Upon contact, the tentacle began to devour the green liquid, but was melting away faster than that. When the tentacle had melted, the Plague sensed an eerie feeling from behind and turned its body to realize it had been deceived. Charging in was not the wolf, but Shadow.
A shadow that had melted even into the smoke could not penetrate through the green liquid. When the shadow dispersed meaninglessly, pain struck faster than the Plague could turn its body.
Absolutely, the wolf did not have the ability to shoot out tentacles, let alone from its thorns. The liquid that the Plague melted was clearly stuck to the wolf’s body. It simply used invisibility and Stealth to hide itself within Shadow and Black Magic.
The wolf used the deceptions available to the weak without reserve.
“――――――!”
The Plague howled as it tumbled on the ground. The burning agony of Intimidation was not something easily endured. As the name “Destruction” attests, both body and mind were being scorched.
However, it hadn’t gained as much benefit as it had expected. The Intimidation blazing upon the Plague couldn’t burn through the green liquid as simply as it had with the prior smoke.
While it swung its tail in the midst of this, targeting the wolf, the Plague could indeed be called a born beast. Anticipating, the wolf leaped up to evade the tail, and the tentacle rising from behind cut through the tail cleanly.
As the severed tentacle burned away and melted the city, the black flames atop the Plague consumed the green liquid, pouring out dense smoke. The same A-grade skill— but in truth, it wasn’t. Before even the difference of liquid and fire, the wolf had another fang.
The Void. The power to apply Devour to the incorporeal would undoubtedly also work on Intimidation. The balance of power shattered, and the black flames scorched the green liquid, producing more black smoke.
Unlike calling forth the green smoke to create the liquid, the black smoke generated from burning Intimidation was something the Plague had no way to deal with. When the wind blew it away, revealing its sight, the Plague willingly endured the pain, charge toward the wolf. After all, killing the wolf would extinguish this fire as well.
The retreating wolf realized that a horde was closing in from behind.
If someone were to ask if the horde itself posed a threat to the wolf, the answer would be no. No matter how many they gather, the horde could never threaten the wolf. But the issue was that they were currently forming a barrier. There was no way to retreat.
The wolf enveloped itself in mist.
If fore and aft were all denied, there was only upwards to escape. But just as it was about to leap upward, the scattered green liquid blocked its path, creating a crescent shape, and the wolf shrank back.
With all paths to escape blocked, the wolf had no choice but to burrow beneath the ground. However, that too was impossible. The Plague was already right in front of it, not giving it the time.
The long tail was the first to swing out past the forepaws. Since it was covered in the liquid, it was impossible to hide into Shadow as it had before.
However, with Devour, the Void, and Intimidation burning and exhausting the Plague’s stamina had fallen to a level that couldn’t properly support its dexterity.
Its previously rapid movement, barely seen as afterimages, now appeared more distinct. Yet still, compared to the wolf, it charged in at a staggeringly fast speed.
The tail was evaded. The forepaws barely missed. But it couldn’t avoid the gaping jaws. The wolf, bitten by the large fangs, desperately struggled to break free, but one of its legs was already caught.
In a moment of quick judgment, the wolf had Shadow cut off its leg. When it created distance, the Plague gleefully devoured the wolf’s leg.
At that moment, something the wolf saw in the Plague’s hand flashed through its mind. It was a future just a bit ahead. The Plague was holding nothing other than the horde. The image of the Plague’s lord suddenly smashing its horde into the ground.
After seeing that future, the wolf faced reality again. As expected, just as it had seen, the Plague, holding the horde, attempted to smash it into the ground, and the wolf prevented that action. There was no way it would allow that. The smushed horde vanished as if washed away by the Void, and the Plague struck the ground fruitlessly.
Intuition had already shown it events that had not yet occurred. Naturally, even the contaminated horde was plagued with the Undead. What the Plague intended to do was burst the horde, scattering the Undead.
When its intent was obstructed, the frustrated Plague leapt at the wolf, who gritted its teeth. It had been a fair amount of time since Intimidation had burned, yet why hadn’t the green liquid ignited?
Somehow dodging the leaping Plague, the wolf opened its eyes wide. It was wobbling. Like a heart thrumming with life, the pus upon its back pulsed.
In due time, the vile pus saturating the Plague’s back began bursting one by one, and a viscous liquid oozed out. There was no need to say it was the green liquid. A lethal amount reaching hundreds and thousands of liters. The Plague’s form appeared to flow away like an amorphous puddle. When that overwhelming quantity finally extinguished the flame of Intimidation, the wolf swallowed dryly.
The pus covering the entire back of the Plague had finally burst completely. The end of the fight was surely approaching, but the road leading there didn’t seem easy. The dripping green liquid began to dissolve the earth gradually.