The Shadowed Legacy of the Soulless Messenger [EN]: Chapter 73

“Not yet. Not yet….”

The Count, enraged, searched for Azadin. His dream, his ambition, was not over yet.

If he could defeat that herald, reorganize the remaining mummy soldiers, and request additional support from the Kurt gods and the Nagas of Nagashura… it was a loss that could be sufficiently reversed.

There were plenty of corpses anyway. And plenty of humans to turn into corpses. The drought would continue, and this world would fall into chaos.

And with things having gone this far, the Kurt gods and the Naga queen, Debislin, would not abandon him.

Indeed….

-Krrrrrr….

With terrifying power, the Count’s body was growing. The Count’s upper body, which had been the size of an ogre, had almost doubled, and his tail had also grown longer.

The large greatsword, which had looked like a dagger when he was the size of an ogre, now felt as small as a fork.

“Hah! As expected, they wouldn’t abandon me!”

The Count hurried, chasing after Azadin.

*********

The enraged Count charged towards Azadin, picked up a huge wooden torch stand nearby, and began swinging it like a club.

“What, what is this? Is he in a growth spurt? He keeps getting bigger?”

Seeing the Count, who was clearly only the size of an ogre, growing larger and larger, Azadin was horrified and jumped over the backyard wall.

-Thud!

It was a pile of landscaping bricks made to create shade in the garden, so he didn’t expect it to be very strong, but it broke far too easily.

“Ugh!”

Azadin screamed, rolling to avoid the falling debris. The Count’s tail narrowly missed Azadin’s head. There was a slight curve in the backyard, so even when the Count swung his tail, he managed to slip through the gap.

“Ugh! You sly bastard!”

The Count was shocked by Azadin’s quickness and turned his body, but as he had grown larger, his reactions had slowed. Taking advantage of that gap, Azadin fled into the flower garden connected to the large ceramic fountain.

“Not a chance!”

That place was also completely destroyed with just one sweep from the Count. However, Azadin used the obstacles to briefly escape the Count’s sight, effectively changing direction to flee.

From the Count’s perspective, it was infuriating. If he thought Azadin had fled to the left and attacked to the left, he would slip to the right. If he thought he had gone behind and went straight, he would instead cut in diagonally from the front and turn around.

That he was doing this every time meant that his moves were being read too easily, which gave him the unpleasant feeling of being on a losing streak in a game of rock-paper-scissors or a card game.

“You little…!”

The Count attacked, but each time Azadin skillfully dodged, and even while running, he was organizing his quiver and putting the iron sword he had taken from a mummy soldier into his belt.

‘Honestly… amazing! As expected of the Emperor’s herald!’

The Count was impressed by his movements and continued to chase Azadin.

No matter how great Azadin was, the Count’s attack range had widened as he grew larger. His reaction speed had decreased, but the attack range was so wide when he swung or swept that Azadin had to sprint every time to avoid it.

As a human, his stamina couldn’t possibly hold out. Indeed, Azadin was panting, dodging with all his might every moment.

*********

‘Damn it, I’m going to die like this.’

Azadin was definitely feeling the crisis. He shouted to Midiam and Ishmael.

“Midiam! Ishmael! Escape!”

“What?! But!”

“Get out while dealing with the mummy soldiers!”

“What about you?”

“If I don’t stop him, you’ll be in danger too! Don’t worry.”

Azadin retrieved the arrows that had fallen on the ground. They were the arrows that he had told Midiam and Ishmael to shoot when they first entered this backyard villa.

Azadin filled his quiver with them, and held the rest in his hand.

“Alright!”

Azadin dipped some of the arrows he was holding into the ground. There was poison that the Count had spewed on the ground, and he was coating the arrowheads with it.

-Whoosh!

Azadin shot the poisoned arrows he had made, but the Count deployed a barrier to block them. Would he be able to pierce the barrier by wasting arrows, and could he pierce the giant Count’s scales?

‘I’m screwed.’

It was then that Midiam’s arrow flew from his side. Midiam had specifically shot an arrow at the Count, even though Azadin had told her to flee.

But her bow was weak, so it wouldn’t be able to pierce the Count’s scales… It hadn’t even worked when he was the size of an ogre, and now that he was more than twice that size, his scales were even thicker.

Even Azadin couldn’t be sure he could pierce the scales unless he was very close and pulled the bow all the way back to shoot with a strong bow. But the arrow Midiam shot was not just an ordinary arrow.

-‘Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, White Crane!’

The arrow, which had flown much farther than its usual range, hit the Count’s barrier, and suddenly it shattered. Midiam’s magic had destroyed the Count’s large arrow barrier.

“Cough?!”

As the barrier suddenly disappeared, the poisoned arrow that Azadin had shot pierced the Count’s body again.

“Oh, that’s amazing!”

Azadin was impressed by Midiam’s timely assistance. And that wasn’t all.

-‘Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, Yellow Crane!’

Ishmael also shot an arrow with magic on it. Knowing that Azadin’s next target was the Count’s right eye, the arrow flew right in front of the Count’s nose, then curved to the right and hit near his right eye. Then, the arrow exploded on its own, shocking the Count’s entire skin.

“Kyak!”

The Count screamed.

“You treat me like a child, but I’m also an Aragasa!” [Aragasa: A clan known for their archery skills and magical abilities.]

Midiam said, firing another arrow with magic on it.

“Damn it!”

The Count picked up a handful of broken brick fragments from the ground to attack Midiam and Ishmael, but then Azadin shot a poisoned arrow.

-Thwack!

Azadin’s rapid-fire technique was to quickly fire arrows by only pulling them halfway. But now, instead of rapid-firing, he pulled it all the way back and even added force to increase the speed of the arrow.

Aragasa Archery!

Whether it was because of Azadin’s efforts, the arrow pierced the scales and lodged deep under his eyelid. The arrow was completely buried, with only the tail end visible.

“Kyak!”

The Count writhed and rolled around. He barely managed to avoid the arrow directly hitting his eyeball, but since the poisoned arrow had pierced his ocular rotator muscle, his right eye would soon have vision problems.

What would happen if sharp sand got into his eye, and it happened to be stuck in the ocular rotator muscle, so that every time he moved, it would continue to tear the muscle and inject poison?

He wouldn’t go blind or be injured immediately because he had grown so large, but the Count couldn’t open his eyes properly because of the pain.

“You bastards!”

Azadin shot additional poisoned arrows, aiming for the area around the Count’s eyes. If he could blind the Count completely at this opportunity, he could win!

But that was a mistake.

*********

This time, the Count charged instead. Ignoring the arrow stuck in his eyeball, the Count charged and attacked Azadin.

“Ugh!”

Azadin deployed his Earth Cover [Earth Cover: A defensive technique that uses earth magic to create a temporary shield] to avoid the Count’s greatsword attack, but at that moment, the tail came in. Azadin used the barbaric iron sword he had on his belt to block the Count’s tail, and then threw himself back to absorb the impact, but….

Unlike the first time, this time he took quite a severe blow. The Count’s tail had flown in while he was shooting arrows, so he had used one hand to hold the iron sword and block the attack.

Azadin, who had not fully absorbed the impact, flew onto the buildings in the backyard and landed on the gallery roof connecting the backyard and the bell tower.

“H-How are you still alive in this situation?”

The Count was shocked to realize that he could barely feel the reaction of his tail. Azadin had once again absorbed most of the impact of the Count’s tail swing and survived by throwing himself away. However….

“Kuh….”

The nosebleed that had stopped started again. Nothing was broken, but his head was ringing and thunder was crashing in his ears.

He felt pain as if his head, abdomen, pelvis, and legs had been thoroughly beaten all over with a strong punch. The mummy soldier’s iron sword was completely shattered.

The power of the attack had increased as the Count’s body had grown. Moreover, since he had used only one hand to wield the iron sword and block the attack, Azadin used the Kazas Hese breathing technique [Kazas Hese: A breathing technique used to control internal organs and blood flow] to control his throbbing internal organs and blood flow and tried to recover as quickly as possible.

If the Count had attacked at this time, or even if there had been a mummy soldier nearby, Azadin would have been dead.

“Kuaaaak!”

But the Count’s situation was not good either.

His left eye was not working well because of the poisoned arrow, and his right eye was still okay, but it was also painful and itchy. The enraged Count charged at Azadin, swinging his sword and torch stand, but he dodged by throwing himself back into the bell tower, even in his injured state.

*********

“W-What are you?”

There were soldiers hiding in the bell tower. They had fled in fear when the mummy soldiers appeared and the giant snake monster went on a rampage.

“If it’s okay, can I borrow some weapons?”

Azadin said, then paused. The roof of this bell tower was burned and had fallen, and the remaining burnt rafters were still above his head.

The inside of the bell tower was supported by several planks, and the soldiers had removed the planks to prevent the tower from collapsing due to the fire spreading inside.

“You guys, run away! This bell tower is collapsing!”

“What? Th-That’s….”

“I’ll buy you some time, so hurry!”

Azadin picked up his Moon-Crescent Bow again and went up to the bell tower window, shooting an arrow from there.

“Kyaak!”

The Count, enraged, approached the bell tower.

“Through the back door!”

“O-Okay… yes!”

“A-Alright!”

The soldiers escaped according to Azadin’s orders.

“Alright! Then!”

Azadin grabbed the bell rope and began to climb up.

“You bastard!”

The Count cast a spell to catch Azadin. Spears of blood flew, piercing the inside of the bell window, then changed direction inside the bell tower and soared towards the sky.

“Is he dead?”

It was when the Count had that question.

-Krrrrrr!

Suddenly, the bell tower began to collapse.

“Huh?!”

At that moment when the Count was flustered, Azadin, holding the head of a halberd in his hand, jumped from the top of the bell tower and slammed it down on the Count’s head.

-‘Flower, Bird, Wind, Moon, Wall Thunder, Kazas Hese!’

A powerful shockwave, reminiscent of lightning, penetrated the Count’s thick skull and was transmitted inside.

“Cough?!”

Instantly, fragments of the bell tower rained down. Above all, the sharply cut rafter pillars, which had been burned and left pointed, pierced the Count’s body. Azadin had used the bell tower rope to control the direction he was flying in.

“Y-You crazy….”

The Count screamed, pierced by the rafters and buried under the bell tower.