Chapter 90

VOLUME 2: CHAPTER 90 – BELLAN, THE WAND OF DESTRUCTION

Status

RaceGoblinLevel21ClassKing; RulerPossessed SkillsRuler of the Demon Children of Chaos; Defiant Soul; World Devouring Howl; Swordsmanship A-; Dominator; King’s Soul; Ruler’s Wisdom III; Household of the Gods; One-Eyed Snake’s Evil Eye; The King's Dance at the Edge of Death; Magic Manipulation; Soul of the Berserk King; Third Impact (The Third Chant); Instinct; Blessing of the Underworld GoddessDivine ProtectionGoddess of the Underworld (Altesia)AttributesDarkness; DeathSubordinate BeastsHigh Kobold Hasu (Lv1); Gastra (Lv20); Cynthia (Lv20); Orc King (Bui) (Lv40)Abnormal StatusBlessing of the One-Eyed Snake; Protection of the Twin-Headed Snake

The sounds of iron clashing resounded throughout the forest.

“Avenge Gi De!”

Though clad in flames, a staff was a staff, and the ancient beast warrior, Gi Gi, found his hands numbed after a failed attempt to cut it down.

Sparks flashed as Gi De’s axe clashed into Bellan’s iron wand, who managed to flick back his attack over his head.

“A worthy opponent. I thank god for this opportunity.” The Wand of Destruction, Bellan, smiled, elated at having found a worthy opponent.

“GUuRUuRUUGAAaa!” Gi Gi roared as he sent a flurry of attacks to Bellan.

The Wand of Destruction, Bellan, was a first rate adventurer, and he endured Gi Gi’s attacks. But the battle around them had started to avoid them. The druids Gi Za brought had completely changed the battlefield.

There weren’t many among the humans who were trained to fight mages. Battling mages required extensive training or an ancient grade equipment or a blessing from a god. Such things were naturally beyond the reach of the common soldier.

All the more so when the soldiers Gowen led were mostly young soldiers in their latter 10s to 20s, picked up from farmer families. The power to battle against magic was something they wouldn’t even dream of.

To make things worse, it was currently the time of the night god, the very time in which the druids could exhibit their greatest power. As Gi Za’s blade of wind howled madly, killing everything in its path, Gi Do casted his own wind spell to block the humans’ path.

As the druids exterminated the surrounding humans, the goblins who had charged ahead competed over which one was more daring.

“What’s the matter? You’re getting slower!” Yugil received a goblin’s blade that came sweeping from the feet with his shield, but the great power sent his shield flying. The goblins led by Gi Gu Verbena were only normals, but they moved with perfect coordination, to the point that they were almost like Gi Gu’s limbs. One dealt with Yugil’s shield, while the other two attacked Vitz from both sides.

Vitz might have been an experienced adventurer, but even he couldn’t just slip through a pincer attack. By the time Yugil recovered, he saw Vitz being hit with another blow.

Carelessly charging in could get one killed.

“Damn! Yugil, are you alive!?”

But at this rate, they’ll just end up being killed by Gi Gu anyway.

“Ku…”

As Yugil picked himself back up, this time the goblins turned their attention to Vitz. They came at him with a pincer attack just like before, which he dodged, but waiting for him after he rolled was an axe to his neck. A metallic sound resounded, as Yugil’s shield had made it in time. If not for that, Vitz would have surely died.

“From above,” Gi Gu said, prompting one of the goblins to leap.

Yugil’s eyes followed the goblin up as it rose, but Gi Gu’s axe was already headed for his legs. Vitz managed to cover him and block the axe with his sword, keeping him alive. Yet who knew for how long? With the battle this difficult, it was only a matter of time before they broke.

“Damnit, is god asleep? If I live through this, I swear I’m converting to an apostate sect,” Vitz cursed as he let Yugil watch his back.

“O god, have mercy.God Bless”

Were those words uttered by a god or a demon?

“Go,” the White Hand of Life pointed when she appeared as the soldiers following behind her gripped their spears tight and fought the goblins.

“Trifling soldiers!” As Gi Gu swung his arms, the three goblins under him made a blood bath of the soldiers. But as if without any regard for themselves, the soldiers threw themselves at the goblins despite their wounds. One of them even managed to strike out his spear at Gi Gu.

Although shocked, Gi Gu parried that spear before quickly lopping off the head of the soldier.

“…What did you do?” Gi Gu looked down on the now unmoving soldier, then turned his eyes to glare at the White Hand of Life.

“It seems they hated you so much they couldn’t stand living under the same sky as you… even if it meant dying themselves,” the White Hand of Life smiled just like a god or a demon.

“O-Oi!” Vitz called out upon seeing how odd the soldiers acted.

But the White Hand of Life just smiled at him as always. “We should retreat now. I believe this too is the will of god.”

“Just what did you…”

“The soldiers themselves wished for this: to become god’s vanguards.”

The soldiers were wounded and their legs were even broken, but they stood up easily as if all was right with the world. Then in the next instant, they let out a bloodcurdling battle cry and ran toward the goblins. One of those soldiers was the same soldier Vitz had lent a shoulder to last night.

“Oi!” Vitz called out, but the soldier didn’t even turn to him as he threw himself at the goblins.

“What in the hell did you do!?” Vitz asked in a panicked voice.

To which the girl smiled despite the hellish background that was war. “It is simply the will of god. Don’t you think it’s exceeding beautiful when you think of it that way?”

◆◇◇

Scout Leader Yuan was leading the way when he heard the goblin king’s voice, prompting him to up the pace.

“…Sir, the wounded won’t be able to follow like this,” one of his men said.

But he did not slow down even for a moment. In fact, he hurried even more. The truth was that he was simply following Gowen’s command to leave the forest, but the men didn’t see it that way. To them he was simply a coward.

“Scout Leader Yuan!” A soldier grabbed his shoulder, forcing Yuan to finally turn around. “Are you planning on abandoning our comrades!?”

“No! But at this rate…”

The two was just about to start arguing when a voice bellowed, silencing the two.

“This voice!” Yuan said.

“It’s near!” The soldier said.

“We’re going now! We need to get as far away as we can!” Yuan said.

The soldiers all moved at Yuan’s words. It didn’t matter whether they were wounded or not, the king’s voice was like a stimulant that forced them to drag their bodies.

“Just a little bit more and we’ll be able to contact the others outside. If we can just get to them, we’ll be able to fight back against the goblins!” Yuan said to encourage the soldiers.

But then the forest swayed, the dry leaves stirred, and all of the sudden, hope seemed to vanish, even as the morn was about to greet the dark, even as the end seemed closer than ever.

“GURUuuuAAaa!!”

By the time Yuan turned when a howl and a scream resounded together, it was too late. Wielding black flames in his hand, the goblin king tore apart the soldiers.

“Tch… protect the wounded! Those who can fight, form a wall! It’s just one goblin! It we put everything on the line, we’ll be able to kill it!”

The goblin king danced at the center of the soldiers’ formation, wielding the flames of hell to easily and effortlessly tear through armors of iron, while he sent soldiers flying with his rock-hard fists.

Then he picked up one of the spearmen with one hand, and threw him at the line of spears the soldiers had formed. Yet despite that overwhelming physical prowess of his that could even easily pick a man up and throw him, what truly terrified the soldiers was his clever mind that prompted him to break their line in that exact moment.

“GURUuuuUAaaAAa!”

Each time the goblin king howled, the pressure bearing down grew stronger. The very air felt like led, as moving one’s limbs became almost as difficult as in water. One of the soldiers tried to strike the king from behind, but the strong tail of the king whipped at him, effortlessly crushing his armor and knocking him out.

“Fix the formation! Those wounded… just make a run for it!” Yuan hastily said, thinking something needed to be done, but his orders only caused the group fighting in the frontline to crumble.

The soldiers managed to recover their formation, but the crowd of running soldiers blocked their way, causing them to effortlessly die under the goblin king’s hand.

Yuan was powerless as he watched all this take place.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!!” Yuan cursed as he grit his teeth and pulled out his sword. “If it weren’t for you!”

As the goblin king cut down the two soldiers beside Yuan, he slipped underneath their corpses to reach the king’s chest. Turning his hips, he struck at the goblin king. His sword grazed the king’s side, wounding him, but in the next moment, the goblin king’s tail flicked, and Yuan found himself crashing into a tree.

“Scout Leader Yuan!”

That was the last thing Yuan heard.

◆◇◇

“Ga Ga GAaRUGUaaGAAa!”

The spear swung, and with it came another head. The iron spear Gi Zu had taken as prize was so worn down it was painful to look at, but the Mad Dog skill drove Gi Zu to keep fighting despite that. He crushed, thrust, kicked all who stood in his way.

He fought with a fervor that suggested he wouldn’t hold back even against an ally, and he recklessly charged toward the humans just like a mad dog.

The sight of Gi Zu killing everything in his path, the wounded and the fighting soldiers alike, finally forced a platoon leader to personally block his way.

“Attack it from both sides! I’ll take it on from in front!”

It didn’t matter that he had to postpone giving orders to the rest of the army, what mattered now was dealing with Gi Zu.

Two healthy swordsmen took position at Gi Zu’s flanks.

Gi Zu went straight up ahead with his spear, ignoring the two, but his spear was struck down, and then sealed as the platoon leader stepped over it, then finally, the two soldiers by the flanks struck down their swords at Gi Zu.

“Nu!?”

But Gi Zu’s strength was multiplied several times by the skill, Mad Dog, allowing him to take back his distorted spear to strike at the approaching soldiers. When he turned to the platoon leader—

“Don’t look down on us!” The platoon leader said as he swung widely to cut Gi Zu’s arm.

“GUuuaaAaa!?”

Blood spurted, but the platoon leader did not stop. He cut again from the shoulder to the thigh, and another from the arm to the shin. But even as steam rose from Gi Zu’s body, he kept standing.

Gi Zu struck out his spear with fury, but that spear was easily parried with skill, allowing the platoon leader to take away his spear.

“Die!”

The platoon struck to cut Gi Zu from his shoulder down, when—

“GURURURUuuAaGAGAAa!”

“—!?”

Gi Zu jumped into the platoon leader, allowing his shoulder to take the blow to stop the attack.

“Impudent!”

He couldn’t cut down Gi Zu being this close. He needed to separate themselves first, but Gi Zu held on tightly to his armor. For a moment the vision of the platoon leader shook. By the time his vision was clear again, Gi Zu’s mouth was wide open, showing his sharp canine teeth.

The sound of armor being removed resounded as the breastplate distorted and Gi Zu’s fangs buried deeply into platoon leader’s neck, then using his hands, Gi Zu ripped off the platoon leader’s head.

The platoon leader couldn’t even scream before he died. As Gi Zu stepped over his corpse, he eyed a flame-wielding man.

“GURUuuGAGAGAaa!”

Hate filled Gi Zu as he attacked his next prey.

◇◇◆

Fire burned his wounds. As the sound of flesh roasting sounded, the Wand of Destruction, Bellan’s, iron wand fended off Gi Gi’s axe.

But then one of the beasts of the beast tamers came for his legs.

“Hmph.” Bellan’s burning wand swung from the top of his head down to crush the brains of the beast, instantly killing it.

“Go!Toto” Gi Gi said as he rode his triple head, looking just like a knight that rode on a beast instead of a horse.

“Ridiculous! To think you would actually fight me mounted!” Bellan ran right into Gi Gi as he kept his body close to the ground. He was so close to it it looked like he would fall, but instead, he picked up a small stone to throw at Gi Gi.

“Ku!?”

Gi Gi faltered for just a moment, but that was enough for Bellan.

“Gue!”

Bellan looked like he would crash into the triple head when he suddenly dodged to the side and cut the triple head’s legs. Gi Gi tried to swing his axe, but by that time, Bellan had long retreated behind him. The triple head tumbled onto the ground, and Bellan leisurely approached Gi Gi.

To Gi Gi’s fortune, he managed to crawl out from under the Triple Head in time to receive Bellan’s attack.

“…It was fun, but this is the end!”

Their weapons locked as their wand and axe clashed against each other, but then Bellan’s flames suddenly started burning even fiercer. Those flames gradually reached Gi Gi to burn his skin.

“GUuRUGAGAAagaa!”

Gi Gi ferociously roared out, but just when it seemed all hope was lost, Gi Zu came jumping at Bellan’s seemingly defenseless back. Bellan was a first-rate adventurer, however, so it was only a given that he would be capable of sensing that dense killing intent coming at him from behind.

Bellan smacked his lips as he turned, jumping back to make some distance between him and the two goblins. Then as he fixed his grip on his wand, his hand touched it to make the fire smaller, gathering it solely around the red jewel at the tip of his wand.

“The second one is a mad dog… Damn, these guys really know how to keep you entertained.” An overly ferocious smile appeared on the former knight, Bellan’s, face.

The fearless Gi Zu ran toward him. At the same time, Gi Gi did so as well.

“GAGAGAaaAa!”

The strength behind that arm was far greater than any Gi Zu could normally muster, but Bellan leisurely saw through it all. As he tried to swing his wand, however, Gi Gi’s axe came.

“I’ll fight with you.” Gi Gi made use of Gi Zu’s wild attacks to lock Bellan down. Gi Gi always worked alongside beasts, so it was easy for him to match his movements with the wildly charging Gi Zu.

His axe locked with Bellan’s wand again, but the one with the advantage this time was him. If he could just keep Bellan locked down like this, Gi Zu would be able to finish Bellan off.

With a setup like this, even Bellan would have no choice but to fight defensively… or at least he should have no choice, but…

After Bellan distanced himself from them, he parried their blows as he kept stepping back. Gi Zu’s skill was actually poor at suppressing people. Yet even without knowing that, Bellan calmly rendered Gi Zu’s mad charge useless and fended off Gi Gi’s axe.

“Go!Toto Gi Zu!” Gi Gi said.

“You call this teamwork!? Even kids are better off!” Bellan spat.

Bellan brushed aside Gi Zu’s wrathful charge, and then swung his wand at Gi Gi’s axe.

“What’s wrong, goblin!? Think you can avenge your friend like this!?” Bellan said as they found their weapons locked again.

“Don’t look down on me, human!”

Gi Gi forcefully pushed Bellan away, but Bellan struck out with his fist before they separated, causing Gi Gi’s axe to fall.

Yet despite that, the one who was shocked was actually Bellan.

Because the place he was pushed to was none other than the place where the triple head was. The three heads of the triple head bit at Bellan’s two legs, effectively sealing them.

“You planned this…”

Gi Gi’s order to “Go!Toto” was not actually directed to Gi Zu, but to the triple head.

As Gi Gi picked up his axe, he swung it sidewards to Bellan to inflict a fatal wound, but Bellan used the recoil from that attack to break free of the triple head

“Spectacular, but…”

Even Bellan’s guts started to spill out as the blood from within violently flowed out. But despite that, he continued to hold onto his wand and stand fearlessly in the middle of the road.

“Go, young ones! Blood Oath of the Flying Swan’s Wand of Destruction, Bellan, shall hold this line!!”

That was directed to Gowen’s remaining young soldiers in the battlefield.

“The sin of trespassing into the forest lies with all! You think we’ll let them escape!?” Gi Gi said as he ordered his subordinates to send out the wild dogs.

When the wild dogs passed by Bellan, his wand swung, and their heads were crushed.

Though fatally wounded, the man’s valiant spirit burned valiantly as ever.