Chapter 348 (1/2)
* * *
Fluff—
Pure-white clouds enveloped Ellid’s falling body.
Su-hyeun had summoned the Somersault cloud to catch Ellid and then leaped up into the air to check up on the dragon.
“What was he doing after undoing his human appearance?”
Ellid was currently in the figure of the dragon emperor that Su-hyeun saw quite some time ago.
Even if Miru had learned the giantification through the Cintamani’s power, it was still a little kid compared to the size of the one referred to as the dragon emperor, Ellid.
Although he was currently wounded and unconscious, the sense of pressure Ellid gave off was still quite considerable.
“Hey, Miru, I need your help.”
Gya-ong—
Miru activated its giantification after Su-hyeun asked it.
It transformed into a giant dragon and flew above Ellid, and almost at the same time, crimson-hued magical energy enveloped the dragon emperor’s body.
Buzz, wuuuuuung—
Shu-shushushu—
The wounds on Ellid’s body began healing gradually little by little.
Now normally, it would have been the end with the healing of the wounds, but Miru was the descendant of the red dragons, and its healing magic was working a little differently this time.
Simply put, it was exhibiting the power of its bloodline.
Its magic went beyond healing wounds and even helped recover Ellid’s lost vitality. Thanks to it, Ellid didn’t need a long time to regain consciousness.
Grrrrr—
Ellid woke back up while growling softly.
His crimson eyes gleamed sharply as he opened his maw.
“That was really close, wasn’t it?”
That observation was surprisingly human-like.
Su-hyeun, waiting for Ellid to open his eyes within this grave atmosphere, asked a question while watching the dragon leisurely stand back up, “Where did you go to get beaten up so badly?”
“How can you be so sure that I got beaten up?”
“Because it doesn’t look like you went there to dish out a beating, you know.” Su-hyeun sighed in relief once Ellid regained consciousness without an issue. “Was it that bastard?”
“Well, I somehow ran into that bastard, you see. It seems that it is getting ready to move once more.”
“When you say it’s getting ready…?”
“It’s getting hungry, so it wants to devour the rest of the world.”
Su-hyeun’s expression became grave at Ellid’s reply.
The reason why he hadn’t yet made an intentional move was that the general outline of the goal of this trial wasn’t to “attack” but to “defend”—to protect the village for one month.
And to meet that goal, Su-hyeun made sure not to stray too far away from the village if he could help it. This was his reason why he didn’t seek out the predator despite knowing of its existence.
He didn’t see the need to deliberately awaken a bastard that was slumbering away with a full tummy.
But now, such a creature had begun moving again.
“How long do you think that bastard will take to get here?”
“I think its main body won’t start moving right away.”
“Its main body?” Su-hyeun made a puzzled face at Ellid’s answer.
He realized that in order to use that term, there had to be other clone-like creatures.
“You will see soon enough without me explaining it.”
Grrrr—
Ellid managed to sit up and stared into the distant horizon. Su-hyeun also turned his head in that direction and immediately activated the Sage’s Eye.
What his vision caught just then was a horde of “something” rushing from afar like a jet-black tsunami wave.
“I barely kept my life, but it looks like I still can’t afford to take it easy just yet.”
* * *
Chwa-aaaaah—
A tall wall of ice finished materializing all around the village. It completely surrounded the village and boasted dozen-plus meters in thickness.
“This should be enough to block out what’s happening on the outside.”
While saying that, Ellid lightly dusted his hands. He looked so full of energy that it seemed like him almost dying earlier was an illusion.
He must’ve been feeling fatigued right now, but even then, he showed no signs of discomfort while casting magic of this scale.
Su-hyeun asked, “Is it alright for you not to rest?”
“It’s not a problem for me since you’ll be the one fighting in the frontline, anyway,” chuckled Ellid while placing his hands on his back.
Su-hyeun asked because he was worried about the dragon’s condition, but hearing such a thing from the proverbial horse’s mouth irritated him for some reason.
“Hah, hahaha…”
Ellid narrowed his eyes while looking at Su-hyeun who was awkwardly chuckling away.
“Once you stop those things, the bastard will show up next.” Ellid kept staring at Su-hyeun and asked, “Are you confident?”
“Confidence, huh?”
Su-hyeun didn’t know anything about this world’s predator. He had no clue as to how many worlds that thing had devoured already or just how strong the bastard was in reality.
In that regard, that thing was not all that different from Fafnir.
Besides…
“I never felt something like that before.”
For obvious reasons, Su-hyeun never really felt confident about it. More correctly, he hadn’t given the matter much thought until now.
He believed that it would be completely pointless to estimate his chances at victory.
“I don’t have anywhere to escape to, anyway,” he thought.
Shu-ka-ahk—
Su-hyeun unsheathed his sword and leaped down to the ground below.
Before long, the horde of enemies rushing in had come close enough to be seen by naked eyes.
He slowly walked over to them and scanned the faces of each enemy.
“Looks like they are similar to zombies.”
These creatures had darkened bones and skin, while Death Aura continued to leak out from their entire bodies.
From their appearances alone, they didn’t seem all that different from regular zombies, the walking dead, that Su-hyeun was already familiar with.
However, something about their atmosphere seemed different. Not only that but the level of Death Aura leaking out from them was also far more lethal than some toxins emitted by regular monsters.
“Well, in that case…”
Whoooooosh—
Winds wrapped around the Palm Leaf Sword’s blade.
“Should I find out how tough they are?”
Ka-boom—
Fwhooooosh—!
The moment Su-hyeun’s sword swung forward, a humongous wall of wind spread out in all directions.
The wind split into tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands of strands and began tearing into the blackened zombies. Their flesh and bones were torn apart into pieces and cast up in the maelstrom, and then, piles of bones and deeply rotten bloody bits rained down to the ground.
Tumble, drip, thud—
Guh-uh-uh-uh—
The surviving zombies staggered back up to their feet.
Su-hyeun furrowed his brows and observed them.
Half.
About half of the zombies swept up by the Palm Leaf had been killed off. In other words, the other half had not been defeated yet.
Zombies that were strong enough not to get ripped apart even after getting sucked into the Palm Leaf’s attack?
Such a thing did not exist within Su-hyeun’s common sense.