The Hero’s Party Members Treat Me Well for Some Reason

29 – Battle with Chungwang (2)

Balkan, the Insect King, was a clever man.

Having lived for over a hundred years, he had gathered much experience.

Thanks to that, he was well aware of his weaknesses.

It is clear that he knows very well that his own body is his weakest point. Therefore, he had various means to protect himself from external threats: poison, paralysis, dimensional bugs, summons, and so on…

In short, no matter how much one aims for the weakness of the body, there will inevitably be a certain degree of difficulty.

‘Ugh…’

He didn’t overlook that fact, but it was definitely more annoying to experience it firsthand.

I couldn’t even ring the doorbell properly if I got close.

‘…But it’s still okay.’

I forced myself to calm down my anxious heart.

Although time is against us, there was no need to panic.

Let’s calmly wear him down.

Wear him down and make him use ‘that’ no matter what.

That is my primary goal for now.

While I was thinking that…

“Pierce through.”

Suddenly, the guy muttered something, and then purple runes began to form all around me.

It’s a pattern that I’ve seen countless times in the game.

Without even thinking, I moved my body.

Immediately after, countless thorns shot up from where I was standing.

Each thorn is a part of my thigh. Surprisingly, all those thorns were a kind of bug.

‘Dimensional Thorn Bugs.’

They are the best works created by the King of Insects, and they are like bodyguards always protecting his weak body.

These guys, who have dimensional magic all over their bodies, usually hide in crevices of space and bring out their weapons when he calls them.

Fortunately, they’re not poisonous, but since I don’t know when and where they will pop out, I always had to be careful.

“Oh, to evade that. How did you know?”

Ignoring his words, I rushed straight towards him.

As I swung my holy sword once again, another organic weapon appeared on his arm.

It had been more than five minutes since the battle began, and there were quite a few organic weapons on his arm.

But it didn’t cause any fatal injuries.

“hehehe, it’s really enjoyable. This warrior party has a taste for fighting. The previous warrior squad didn’t have any proper trash, but… I wonder if they chose correctly this time?”

“But I always think, you talk too much. Can’t you just shut up and fight?”

Nevertheless, it was still painful, quite so. He was still laughing leisurely.

But it must still be worth it.

“You seem quite impatient, hero. You must know that time is not on your side either, right?”

Suddenly, I turned to look behind me.

I could see Adel and Camilla steadily defeating monsters. Perhaps they had adapted to the insect-type monsters, as their killing speed was quite fast.

But it was still slower than the speed at which monsters were being summoned from the summoning circle.

“Struggle as hard as you can. In the end, I will be the one standing.”

Balkan reached out both hands and began to form a hand seal.

For a moment, a sinister magical power wriggled in his hands, and soon two purple magic circles appeared.

They were magic circles similar to the one he drew earlier, the summoning circle for monsters.

Before long, monsters began to pour out from the magic circles he drew.

Sand worms with acid blood, 1-meter-long beetles covered in thorns.

Seeing that, Camilla cursed out loud.

“Damn it! There’s no end to them!”

“Yuris! We need additional support. We can’t handle this!”

Seeing that, Balkan burst into laughter.

“I can sense it. I can feel it. My children are gradually gathering here. All of you are destined to be overwhelmed and killed by them.”

“No matter how many of them come, it doesn’t matter.”

I tightened my grip on the sword.

The prayer of the saint seemed to have ended, and another light was emanating from the holy sword.

[‘Flame of Judgment’ seeps into the sword!]

[Your blade shall become the flame that destroys evil.]

One of the buffs of the saint.

She can deal additional damage to the enemy she designates.

“But before that, I will slaughter you.”

I accelerated my blood flow to the maximum.

The pounding heart that was leaping wildly gave me a sense of excitement.

Blood acceleration allowed me to do much more than I had imagined.

Not only could it increase my strength and speed, but it also increased the circulation speed of magic power.

And that magic power can once again be used to enhance the body.

Shooo!

Like burning fuel, I gather magic power in my legs. Every muscle fiber in my legs is thoroughly imbued with magic power.

When the muscles had contracted to their limit, I charged at the guy once again.

Bang!

A speed that was on a completely different level from before!

It was an attack aimed at taking advantage of his momentary lapse of attention, now that he had roughly adapted to my speed.

“What?”

The guy could only be taken aback by my sudden increase in speed.

I swung my sword down just as it was.

“Ugh!”

In an instant, the guy’s face contorted.

With the additional buff, my sword cut through the guy’s defensive armor. His blood splattered out in a fan-shaped pattern.

A heavy blow that came close to a critical hit.

He would no longer be able to maintain a relaxed smile like before.

“Thrilling, isn’t it?”

“You…!”

The subsequent battle continued in a similar manner.

Whenever I charged at him relentlessly to inflict injuries, the guy would use various tools to try and stop me.

Sometimes I would manage to land a blow, and sometimes I would be blocked.

“You have been poisoned by paralyzing venom!”

Indeed, the guy was also skilled, so his countermeasures gradually increased.

“The paralyzing venom has been neutralized!”

Nevertheless, I believed in the skills I had accumulated and continued to charge.

In this way, several more minutes passed.

The guy’s body was covered in countless wounds, and I, too, had consumed a significant amount of magic power.

Huff… huff…

Our breathing intertwined in the surreal atmosphere.

And then, it happened. The guy let out a laugh once again.

“Heh, heh…”

It was rough and suffocating, but there was clearly a sense of ease in that smile.

“It’s finally over.”

“······.”

I stopped the sword for a moment and looked around.

Boooom!

Suddenly, I heard the flapping sound from various openings in the cavern.

It was like soldiers who sensed the king’s danger rushing to protect him. Their flapping sound was urgent and intense.

After a ten-minute flight, his forces finally gathered here.

It also meant that the situation that had barely been maintained so far was suddenly overturned.

“It’s been enjoyable, warrior. You will surely be recorded in the history books as a hero who died gloriously. Don’t worry. I’ll have my historians write it down in a beautiful style for you.”

I didn’t bother to reply but looked at another place this time. Amongst everyone engaged in fierce battle, there was a woman standing alone, chanting spells.

Lily Spencer Beatrice.

Our team’s magician and the most powerful little brat with immense attack power. She was gathering her magical energy, her red hair flying in the wind.

When a tremendous amount of magical energy gathered in one place, it shook the ground under its presence. After reciting the incantation for a while, Lily suddenly opened her eyes and uttered a statement.

“Explode.”

At that moment,

Boom!!

Her concentrated magical energy surged in all directions.

The surging energy accurately settled towards dozens of openings and collapsed them with explosive force.

“Oh···.”

And so, what remained were dozens of blocked passages and Lily’s satisfied face.

That guy, always wanting to explode things, finally had his wish come true.

I smirked as I looked at Balkan’s startled face.

That pile of rocks won’t be able to protect the bugs forever.

There are enough monsters on the other side to be called monsters.

However,

“We bought another 5 minutes with this.”

I could endure that much.

And five minutes was more than enough time to do whatever I wanted.

In real time, the king’s face decayed.

After roughly ten minutes of chipping away, it seemed that there was ample room for pressure in the following five minutes.

Believing in the Holy Maiden’s buff, they pressed on against the opponent.

With each stroke of the Holy Sword, the enemy’s body accumulated more wounds.

Most of the bandages surrounding his body had been cut away, finally revealing the creature’s hidden form.

“Damn…”

A skin reminiscent of dead wood, like rotten bark.

A body with hardly any flesh, with skin clinging tightly to the bones.

And even various insects crawling over it.

It felt like looking at a partially decaying corpse in the midst of decomposition.

In the midst of this, only his eyes shone ominously, radiating a profound eerie quality.

A monster consumed by dark magic, even sacrificing parts of his own body.

He resembled not so much a human as a kind of Lich.

“You must acknowledge it. You’ve prepared quite diligently to catch me.”

The creature spoke.

A chilling, spine-tingling sound, like scraping metal, resonated.

Despite being clearly in a dire situation, his voice did not betray any desperation.

It wasn’t due to a consistent composure as a being who had reached a higher state of enlightenment.

It was simply because there was still a hint of trust lingering within.

“It’s been decades since I last used this technique…”

He mumbled with eyes clouded by memory.

Then, he began wrapping his body with bandages again.

The scattered and cut bandages strewn across the ground wound themselves back around his body.

Soon, his skin was concealed once more by the bandages, and he was “petrified.”

It was quite literal. The creature they had just been fighting was now frozen in place.

I hurriedly raised my sword and charged toward Balkan, but before I could reach him, the technique he had prepared activated quickly.

Crack!

Like guarding a king, thorns sprouted around him.

These were the dimensional thorns of the tormenting creatures that had been plaguing me just moments ago.

This time, he intended to use his minions for defense, not for offense.

Not only that. Chitin gloves, the tough skin of the Sandworm, and various defensive parts surround him.

I hesitated for a moment and swung my sword.

To see if it would cut.

Thud!

However, all I heard was the sound of hitting something hard and empty. The creature’s bio-defense barrier only had a scratch, and its main body was unharmed.

Tsk, I clicked my tongue.

“It’s starting.”

The creature’s only means of survival.

Molting.

Those who enter this place are temporarily immobilized but can recover their wounds within. And now, I have to break through that barrier before it fully heals.

“Phew.”

Looking back now, this creature was truly annoying in many ways.