1,000,000 Karma: My Reward Is a Quiet Life-Chapter 97: Cursed Creation
"--" Noah remained quiet, keeping his theories to himself.
It seemed more than welcome by the impervious mercenary, who rushed in without disgracing his own joy. A moment of hesitation, one false lapse in judgment–the result would be unsavory for him, to say the least.
[Martial Master] [A- Rank Dueling Skill] 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
Rather than the art of axe-swinging or magecraft, he utilized his own body as a weapon, meeting the mercenary equal on the battlefield. Again, Hugo lunged at him, reaching to grab a hold of him like a serpent attempting to bind its prey.
He countered with a quick step forward, leading with his fist, though the nimble mercenary slipped right by his knuckles.
"Now you're gettin' it!" Hugo shouted.
Despite being a rather brawny man, the mercenary hopped up, wrapping his legs around the young man's arm and grabbing a hold of his wrist in a quick action. It was so unnaturally agile that it took a moment for Noah to process what happened until feeling the joints in his arm being cranked.
"Ghh–?!"
[Enhance] [Burst]
Before the merciless grip could snap his arm, he flexed his entire body with his utmost effort. Lifting his arm, he slammed the mercenary against the stone—CRACK.
The impact shattered the floor, though only a laughing gasp poured out from Hugo's mouth.
"—You're pretty good! I'm starting to get motivated now—yeah, real motivated!"
From a laid out position, the hired fighter leapt up with a single kick of his legs, leading forward with his forehead. Noah stepped back, though he was a moment too slow, leading their foreheads to meet with a brutal collision.
The only thought in his rattled mind was "ow."
A simple, perhaps animalistic thought, but one nonetheless as he winced, stepping back.
'Who the hell headbutts like that…?' The perturbed thought arrived with a huff.
Hugo laughed as his own forehead was split open by the impact, licking up the blood that slid down to his lip, "That's it, that's it! I'm waking up now!"
[Red Engine]
As his own head bled openly onto his face, feeling the warmth cascade over his nose, his heart thumped wildly.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
["While it was true that Hugo avoided conflict if necessary while on the job, it wasn't because the brutal man was fearful of battle.
It was because Hugo was acutely aware of the man he became once his heart roared—a maniac that sought pleasure in violence."]
"Make it fun! C'mon! C'mon!" Hugo urged, running right for him like a stumbling beast.
It was a completely unorthodox style; Noah could only liken it to a drunken predator—unpredictable and vicious.
A straight palm slammed against his chest, pushing the air out of his lungs forcibly.
'Can't breathe—' He briefly thought.
As his boots slid back, his body ached, not responding to the core mechanism of "breathing." Without giving him a moment to recover, the thrilled mercenary rushed forward, grabbing onto his wrist and elbow.
Noah knew immediately what the vicious man's plan was, fighting to resist the intense grip.
[Ethereal Shift] [B-Rank Exorcist Skill]
A feeling of nausea and weightlessness overwhelmed his body, momentarily going from his physical form to an incorporeal one not unlike that of a ghost.
'Woah–?" Hugo reacted as his grip slipped through nothing.
It only lasted a moment before he shifted back into a physical state, though using the moment of confusion to deliver a spinning kick delivered straight into his foe's sternum.
"Hoooh!" Hugo expelled a breath before smiling as scarlet coated his teeth.
'Slashes and magic are ineffective, but physical attacks work well enough. No, they're almost super effective. Compared to how strong he feels, a kick like that shouldn't have had that much damage behind it. It must be some kind of trade-off,' Noah analyzed.
["In truth, the infamous mercenary possessed two blessings:
"The Skin of Ares", a boon from the God of War allowing one to be only cut by divinity.
"The Curse of Ogon", a double-edged sword of the divine man-beast. It makes one incredibly resistant to magic, but in exchange, physical attacks are twice as dangerous."]
"Do you hear it? That rhythm, that melody…" Hugo said, licking the blood from his lips as he tapped his own chest, bathed in ecstasy. "Our hearts are singing the same song, my partner."
"Partner?" Noah repeated in disgust at being grouped together with the freakish soul.
Hugo nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, partners in this dance of death! One of us will ferry the other to the realm of the dead! A song exclusive to our ears! But alas…It must come to an end, I'm afraid."
All of the energy sapped from the mercenary's tone as he saluted as if signaling his leave. Noah was confused, standing his ground before from the distant walls, bodies broke through the old stone.
From all sides, the undead poured in, dozens of the ravenous zombies rushing in with their hunger pointed at the uninvited guest.
'Husk? A lot of them, too—' Noah looked around.
He intended to go after the mercenary, though the swarm of undead closed off any attempt the moment the thought crossed his mind. If he knew anything about the concept of "zombies", one bite would be problematic.
As they closed in, he swung his axe, cutting through multiple at once as their bodies split into rotten pieces. By the time he cleared away a few, another wave rushed in, blinded by their unending hunger.
'Alright, let's go this route–' He thought.
With a flick of his wrist, a wave of fire was cast out, sweeping up the rotten soldiers in the supreme heat. As the flames dispersed, he immediately followed up with a volley of electricity, properly frying those in his path.
"Hfff…" He exhaled, watching the scattered parts of the undead drop.
Somehow, there was no experience garnered, much to his own confusion. While he accepted nothing earned, what brought his mind to a pause was the phenomena that followed:
The scattered bits and pieces of the husks moved on their own, coalescing into one point.
'What…is that?' He questioned.
It took a lot to genuinely disturb his sturdy soul, though what he witnessed shook his being. Squelching filled the accursed ruins as the rotten flesh pressed into one singularity, merging into one sphere of repugnant meat.
All of the putrid matter squished and molded before being shaped into a comprehensible form: an amalgamation of dead meat, towering with four arms and a tail ending in a hand.
[Anomalous Entity]
[…Unable to process…]
[Estimated level: 25+]
'It formed from the corpses? What the hell is that thing?' He questioned.
While confusion plagued his mind in equality to caution, the rotten anomaly rushed in his direction with horrifying agility. Out of pure reflex, he swung his axe without reservation, leaving the giant cleaved right in half—
A surprising result, even for the one who swung the weapon. He looked back as the bisected amalgamation fell right past him.
'…No, that didn't feel right,' he considered.
The doubt was realized as the faceless corpse rose to its feet, reconnecting itself as its own decrepit flesh stitched itself together.
In the midst of its gruesome process, he snapped his fingers, gifting the horror a bolt of lightning to its chest. A hole was made through its chest, only to reform with its bubbling flesh refilling itself within moments.
'It healed,' he observed.
The amalgam zombie responded with an action taken from the furthest depths of possibility–
Like an acrobat from hell, the goliath leapt up, spinning before descending with an overhead kick aimed to crush him entirely.
[Tintri]
He slipped back as the putrid foot collapsed onto the stone, splitting the tiles with an eruption of strength that surpassed any expectations. The anomalous tyrant's own leg burst from the impact of its own making, only to reform itself instantaneously while pointing its many hands towards the elusive human.
At its hands, diseased blood coalesced, manipulated into shards that shot in Noah's direction.
[The Snake's Eye]
He maneuvered himself swiftly, slipping through the path of the projectiles of blood, not wanting a single part of himself to make contact with the putrid substance. After evading the dozens of bloody shards, he looked back to the walls they collided with.
The stone sizzled, eroding away as if rotting like dead flesh as chunks crumbled to the floor.
'Glad I didn't get hit by that…What's in that blood?' He questioned.
In order to create space between himself and the rotten tyrant, he commanded an assembly of walls to emerge from the ground, using the earthen material as layers of defense. He was given a moment to breathe, using what he'd seen to consider just what it was he was even fighting.
'This thing was made from the remains of all the husks I wiped out. I probably got rid of a few dozen, but this thing is way stronger than the sum of its parts. The Followers of Goetia, Hugo…What they're planning for Coudale–this is what it's about. If that's really their goal, then this is worse than I thought. They want to use the people of Coudale as fuel, to create something like this but on a much higher scale,' he theorized, feeling his heart thumping nervously in his chest at the idea.
