ALL NOVEL Chapter 460
Chapter 461: The Taste of Manipulation… Maybe More, Maybe Less
With a sour expression, Choi Yeon-woo tossed the scythe he had been holding behind him. A shadow leaped out and caught the scythe, sliding it back into the warehouse.
It was actually a borrowed item. There are artifact collectors who lent it to me because they needed it. They said it was okay to break it, but still, it felt wrong to do so.
As Tae-oh retrieved the Grim Reaper, Yeon-woo focused on Hwayo’s outstretched hand.
He had to dodge it. The overwhelming pressure made his body recoil, but he took a deep breath, forcing mana to circulate throughout his body and pump strength into his shrinking form.
Despite overcoming the fear and pressure from the Demon King countless times, his body still reacted like this. It was a special phenomenon caused by Hwayo as a Demon King.
If he couldn’t shake it off beforehand, he had to factor that into his actions. Once he acted, he needed to make a light footwork routine. It was already a nuisance in itself.
Yeon-woo adjusted his grip on the sword as he twirled and swung it, realizing just like Yuri had moments ago that recklessly swinging it could lead to big trouble.
The seemingly defenseless arm felt as solid as Christopher, or perhaps even more.
He lowered his body and angled the flat side of the blade to slip past Hwayo’s arm. He needed to be careful not to be caught, even by mistake. Even while aiming for the heavens, it was still possible for the Demon King Hwayo to snap the sword like a twig.
As he dodged the strike, Noel erupted from the side, radiating brilliance and colliding with Hwayo. Meanwhile, Yeon-woo touched Relin’s Warehouse while sitting hunched over.
‘Second, Hydra’s Venom.’
A poison so painful it could make even the immortal creatures of Greek mythology wish for death. However, storing it had been a hassle, so he sought help from Baek In-hwa.
The blade of a sword, which could be called a fine weapon, was coated with Hydra’s venom and frozen solid in Yeon-woo’s hands.
Fortunately, even without intentionally melting it, the virulence was managing to melt Baek In-hwa’s ice, so timing was all that mattered.
It would take about three seconds for the ice to completely melt, but Noel, who had forced her way in, was thrown back by Hwayo’s counterattack, giving Hwayo an opening.
Hunched over, Yeon-woo met Hwayo’s gaze. Not good. Judging that, he attempted to dodge the incoming strike. But the murderous intent in those eyes made his body freeze in place.
‘Tae-oh!! Tae-oh!!’
[Whoa! Hold on tight!]
I don’t really know what I’m supposed to hold on to, but nonetheless, I clenched my teeth. It was possible since Yeon-woo’s body had merely flinched, and this didn’t affect Shar or Tae-oh.
Suddenly, his vision was engulfed in darkness, and when the light returned, he found himself directly behind Baek In-hwa.
“Ah…!?”
“Made it…!! Sorry for startling you!”
Baek In-hwa flinched and stepped aside, and Yeon-woo charged forward at Hwayo.
As if timed perfectly, the moment he lunged, the ice melted completely.
The sword, now tinged with violet, began to thaw. Though it cost a fair bit of mana, it wasn’t bad to catch the opening at just the right moment.
Slash!! The violet venom scraped against Hwayo, and in an instant, his body started to rot. It seemed successful at first, but it wouldn’t last long.
The rotting parts reversed as if in a regrowth, and the sword Yeon-woo held completely melted and fell away.
Of course, he couldn’t just leave it like that. If the Hydra venom pooled on the ground now stained with blood, it could wipe out Yeon-woo and his friends.
A shadow surged up from beneath Yeon-woo’s feet, sucking up a drop of the venom that dripped to the ground. Of course, the culprit was Tae-oh, but he hadn’t swallowed it.
It wasn’t so much that he had consumed it, but rather it felt like a secure storage within his body.
Tae-oh had become increasingly omnivorous since acquiring the Demon King’s qualification, but Hydra venom was probably a bit much for him. After all, his expertise lay in curses.
In any case, the second attempt ended in failure. With five artifacts left, he figured he’d just use them all and think it through later.
But before that, avoiding that fist was the priority.
*
It was an extreme tightrope walk. Having seen how Yuri got injured, everyone was on high alert as they fought.
Crisis struck multiple times. If one person fell, the others would inevitably follow in a chain reaction, so Yeon-woo and his friends tried their hardest.
But sheer effort alone couldn’t overcome every limit. It was simply a limitation of humanity.
Unable to handle consecutive blows by himself, they took turns absorbing hits, yet the state of the team was still battered beyond recognition.
Especially hard off was Kim Yoo-min. Unlike Yeon-woo, Namgung Seong, and Baek In-hwa, who used swords and ice respectively, he had to directly clash with fists.
Yeon-woo’s first encounter with Christopher had left him pretty beaten up, but Kim Yoo-min’s current state was far worse.
His skin was tinged a sickly blue in places. Even though he hadn’t been hit, his body was reacting excessively to the unnecessary brutality he had faced.
Considering he was still a young girl in her prime, it was a heartbreaking sight.
“What will Kim Hyun-soo think when he sees this?”
“Hey, are you okay!?”
“Phew, phew…!!”
At Namgung Seong’s question, Kim Yoo-min gasped for breath. Namgung Seong looked equally drained.
His large wings trembled violently, and the hand gripping his sword was swollen. It was clear he wouldn’t last much longer.
“…Last one!!”
The final artifact, embarrassingly named ‘Osmosis Syringe,’ was plunged into Hwayo’s body.
With a thick, long needle that looked like it could puncture through to the back if stuck into the belly, it was quite the sight.
Perhaps due to the fact that he had slammed it in like a siege weapon, Hwayo was pushed back significantly. As the piston of the syringe plunged, an unknown liquid began to fill the syringe.
The seven great quasi-immortal artifacts collected from around the world each inflicted a wound on Hwayo’s body.
Though the Grim Reaper and Hydra venom, along with the third one, ‘Life and Death Spoon,’ felt utterly ineffective, everyone, not just Yeon-woo, sensed that something was beginning to change.
[…Ha ha.]
“Damn it, I’ve used them all!!”
Hearing Hwayo’s laughter, Yeon-woo withdrew the syringe. Without hesitation, Hwayo counterattacked.
According to the visions he had seen of the future, this coming attack would kill whoever tried to block it. With that, Yeon-woo shoved aside his moving friends and threw himself forward.
Mana… he could no longer use it. Considering the amount spent in the fight against Moryo, if he dispensed any more, he wouldn’t even be able to use his eighth technique, ‘Past’… ‘Causal Severance.’
If that was the case, he might as well prepare to sacrifice somewhere. It was a bad habit, but sometimes, you just had to use what was necessary.
As thoughts swirled chaotically in his head, assumptions about countless situations shifted from his mind to his eyes, reflecting several images.
Yeon-woo reached out his left hand towards Hwayo’s arm after deciding to forgo a part that could be sacrificed.
The mana of Courage, used minimally, wrapped around his left hand. As his hand met Hwayo’s arm, a chilling sensation surged through his left hand.
Instinctively judging that this sensation should not be allowed to dig deeper, Yeon-woo triggered the prepared mana of Courage immediately.
With a sickening sound, like cutting through raw meat with a knife, Yeon-woo’s left arm severed just above the elbow. Blood didn’t spill out. Hwayo’s face twisted in a strange expression.
“Ugh…!!”
A sharp pain raced through him along his spine, and he instinctively moaned. It was a representation of lizard tail severing, executed through mana.
The pain allowed him to draw the best possible result in terms of mana expenditure, so this was the choice he made.
[Impressive, Hero!!]
In that moment, Hwayo, who had been silent until now, couldn’t help but exclaim. The perverse joy on his face was profoundly unsettling.
Yeon-woo clutched his severed arm and retreated significantly. His allies blocked the path in front of him.
Crack, crack! The sound of bones grinding echoed from Hwayo’s fingers. In that tense moment, Yeon-woo faintly heard a voice.
“…Hey, you….”
It felt like a voice he had heard before. Pondering, he turned his gaze toward the direction from which it came.
It was slightly ambiguous, but it felt like it came from behind, and above… maybe.
“Bastard!!!”
Boom!!!
With a thunderous roar, a tremendous wind blew in. The whirlwind sent blood soaring high into the sky, only for a rain of blood to return once more.
In the midst of this, a blonde woman was forcibly holding Hwayo down.
All of Yeon-woo and his friends raised their hooks high above their heads.
First of all, Hwayo’s strength was by no means weak. Even the strongest among them, Namgung Seong, found it hard to endure.
Secondly, just the contact itself was filled with murderous intent, yet she seemed entirely unaffected as she pushed against Hwayo’s hands.
Whether she knew her allies were thinking this or not, she was conversing with the local.
[…Hmm, feels familiar. Where have I felt this before…?]
“Local person, you bastard!!”
Lucrecia shouted back, tilting her head back. Was she out of her mind? Even Yeon-woo and everyone else couldn’t help but think how recklessly bold she was.
Bang!!
Once, twice, three times…
Lucrecia’s headbutts slammed into Hwayo indiscriminately. They continued until both their faces were drenched in blood.
When the count surpassed ten, Hwayo’s head, which had been bleeding, reverted to its original state.
With blood streaming down her fine forehead, Lucrecia remarked, “Hah, looks a lot better now that you’ve shed some blood.”
[…Ah, I remembered. You’re the Hero. It may not seem like it now, but… .]
Hwayo muttered as if just recalling it, and Lucrecia’s forehead twitched with a visible vein.
“Yeah, this──.”
In a situation where it seemed like a horrible curse word was about to be spoken, Yeon-woo used shadow arms and his right hand to clamp his ears shut. He simply didn’t want the kids to hear this.
(To be continued in the next chapter)