Chapter 319

Ha-shal-leur was honestly speechless.

Just cutting off the head to escape the Up-hwa? It wasn’t impossible with the regenerative abilities of a hero-level beastman, but still…

‘What, is he a lizard or something?’

For her, it was a huge disappointment. She had saved one of her cherished techniques, Up-hwa, to use it as a surprise attack at the most effective moment… but who would have thought it would be rendered useless so easily.

If he was going to respond like that, attacking him with Up-hwa wouldn’t mean much. She didn’t even think the same trick would work twice.

‘Maybe if I could somehow set his head on fire, it might work…’

But Ryurik wasn’t an idiot. If Up-hwa targeted his head, he would block it immediately.

All he had to do was raise his arm to block and then cut it off.

“A strange power you wield. An unquenchable fire… I thought the Ka`har stayed away from sorcery?”

“It’s not sorcery, it’s a technique!”

Ha-shal-leur shot back at Ryurik as she charged toward him.

It wasn’t entirely wrong. The power the Ka`har defined as sorcery was limited to magic, holy power, and spells manifested through mana.

Up-hwa, a flame ignited through life force, could be seen as part of a technique, much like heroic epics.

[What sophistry. Anyone can see it’s sorcery. Before you awakened and utilized it through life force, you were spewing mana all over the place.]

Of course, given that the source of the rising flame was a rune engraved on her right wrist, it was nothing but sophistry, as Hersela had said.

“…Well, it doesn’t matter anyway. Come on, let’s fight again! Surely this isn’t your full strength?”

“What, are you going to go easy on me if I’m weaker than you?”

Ha-shal-leur, now looking like a tattered rag, taunted as she threw off her ruined coat.

Ryurik grinned fiercely, spreading his regenerated claws wide.

“Don’t be ridiculous. The weak are just prey!”

“That’s exactly why you need to die!”

Ha-shal-leur roared as she charged at Ryurik.

The longsword and claws danced, spitting flames.

Ha-shal-leur swung her sword to deflect Ryurik’s slashes and twisted his stabbing claws with Ice Blade, fighting like a madwoman.

The swirling aftermath shook the surroundings, and droplets of blood scattered like red dew on the ground.

[Find a way to dodge! I can’t block everything for you!]

It was Hersela’s role to absorb the attacks Ha-shal-leur missed.

Red chains wrapped around Ryurik’s limbs, slowing his attacks, and layers of life force shielded Ha-shal-leur’s body like armor.

Focusing on defense meant she couldn’t attack, which was humiliating for her, but there was no other choice.

Even though her body was stronger than before, taking Ryurik’s attacks head-on—which might even surpass her own strength—was almost suicidal.

If she didn’t want to explode and spill her guts, she had to block. She didn’t have the regenerative abilities of a beastman.

“Woooooh!”

“Kyaaaaah!”

The two beasts roared, collided, and fell apart repeatedly.

They ran horizontally along the walls, swinging their arms, and used the falling debris as stepping stones to clash mid-air.

They crashed into the ground, tearing up the earth, only to get back up and roar again.

It was a sight that neither beastmen nor humans could believe was a fight between their own kind.

“Throwing them into icy water seems impossible…”

Freide, who was fighting Oleg, muttered with a bitter laugh.

Even to her, a master, this didn’t look like a human fight.

Every time they clashed and fell apart, the walls and ground shattered as if two dragons were tangled in chaos.

If this kept up, the historic Paleun Castle might turn into ruins. The towers and buildings inside the outer walls were already half-collapsed.

They were clearly creatures of flesh and bone, but it was hard to believe.

Towers crumbled, brick houses were smashed to pieces, and yet they emerged unscathed. How could anyone call that a living being?

It was more like a giant iron ball wreaking havoc everywhere.

It was a good thing Ha-shal-leur avoided crowded areas, or the casualties would have been a bloodbath.

—

Ha-shal-leur, buried in the rubble of a warehouse, shook her head and got back up.

Blood oozed from her torn wounds, staining the fur she wore red.

If it weren’t for the armor Asha had improved, her bones would have been shattered. The once gleaming silver armor was now stripped of most of its rivets and split open, resembling a gutted fish.

‘This isn’t easy.’

Ha-shal-leur let out a sigh mixed with steam. Her body, overworked and burning. It felt like her blood was boiling.

The enemy was stronger than she thought, and the fight was dragging on longer than she expected.

For Ha-shal-leur, Ryurik was an opponent with poor compatibility.

Her fighting style wasn’t just about swordsmanship…

Using all limbs in a chaotic brawl, adding the tentacles of life force and fire magic.

It was a method of overwhelming the enemy with various means and immense power.

However, against Ryurik, most of these means were practically sealed off.

Any means other than a sword would instantly regenerate upon injury, rendering them meaningless.

On the other hand, Ryurik was actively utilizing his regenerative abilities.

He dodged or endured shallow slashes with mere body movements, never allowing any potentially fatal attacks.

If his arm was about to be cut off, he would sever it himself before it could be slashed. If an attack aimed for his neck, he would rip off his own head and throw it far away to avoid the blow.

Even if Durandal’s slashes could counter his regeneration, as long as he preemptively severed himself, there would be no issue with regeneration.

By now, severed limbs and headless bodies were scattered all over the castle.

“No matter how much he can regenerate, who would have thought there’d be a madman who rips off his own head…?!”

Hasharl glared at Ryurik, who had been flung far away, with a disgusted expression.

Her first impression of him was that he seemed cold and rational, but after fighting him, she realized there was no lunatic quite like him.

“Even the beastmen in the original story didn’t pull off such stunts.”

However, she couldn’t deny that it was an effective tactic.

There had been several opportunities to land a fatal blow, but each time he avoided it, leaving Hasharl with nothing more than shallow cuts on Ryurik’s skin.

Every time he regenerated from major damage, a slight opening appeared, but he would immediately create distance, making it hard to capitalize on it.

Hasharl herself, though battered here and there, had only suffered minor injuries.

“…Should I use the Reverse Heaven Sword?”

Her heroic technique, Reverse Heaven, compresses time to deliver slashes with the same power but at an accelerated speed. With that, she could likely cut Ryurik down before he could sever himself to dodge.

The problem was, like with her fire magic, once she revealed it, the opponent would have a chance to counter. Additionally, after using Reverse Heaven, she would inevitably expose a momentary opening.

Because of this, Hasharl had been saving her ultimate technique for a decisive moment.

There had been a few opportunities to attack his neck, but considering Ryurik’s resilience, a mere slash to the neck wouldn’t be enough.

Unless she completely severed it, only cutting halfway through his thick neck muscles would likely leave him alive for a while, and in that case, it would be Hasharl who was in danger.

“At best, it would be a mutual kill.”

Hasharl had no intention of heading to the afterlife alongside some wolf-like lunatic.

To use the Reverse Heaven Sword, she needed to get close enough to decapitate him or create a situation where he couldn’t counterattack.

—

While the two superhumans were tearing the castle to ruins in their fierce battle, the castle walls were also being drenched in thick blood.

The blood of beasts and the entrails of humans mixed together, flowing like a stream, and scattered corpses piled up like hills.

On the cracked and shattered walls, soldiers, mixed-blood beastmen, knights, pure-blood warriors, masters, and grand warriors clashed endlessly, each aiming for the other’s life.

Karl gritted his teeth at the far-from-favorable situation.

Thanks to Count Medean’s efforts, the gap in strength had been somewhat bridged, but that alone wasn’t enough to guarantee victory.

She had incapacitated four grand warriors.

The black wolf with its head severed hadn’t gotten up, and the hyena beastman who had been throwing javelins had retreated to the rear after suffering a fatal injury… but the remaining two were a problem.

One had lost a leg to an exploding javelin, but in other words, it was just a single leg. Even with silver-inflicted wounds, enough time had passed for them to recover.

In fact, Abigail, the leopard beastman whose arm had been blown off by Milia’s silver arrow, was already swinging dual swords with a fully regenerated arm.

Damien was swinging his greatsword, and Milia was firing arrows to hold them off, but taking them down seemed far off.

– Kwaaaang!

A thunderous explosion. The twisted and crumpled castle gate screamed.

As Karl had expected, Basil and Victor’s injuries were almost fully healed. Their attacks began to crush the castle gate.