Chapter 639

– Kwaaaang!

Or-han burst out, scattering molten rock like a fountain. Lava covered his entire body, dripping down, but as Hersela had expected, there wasn’t even a scratch on his body. It was still as solid as a steel tower, as tough as black iron.

Just like Durandal, which had found its master, it seemed as if the concept of “indestructibility” itself had been manifested in reality. It appeared impossible for any weapon in this world to harm that body.

“As expected.”

Hersela clicked her tongue softly and charged at him once more.

“Kyaaaah!”

With a roar full of killing intent, she swung her longsword. But it was useless.

The blade aimed at Or-han’s neck stopped with a metallic clang, and Hersela’s left hand, which had shot out like lightning, was caught in Or-han’s grip. The ice blade, crushed by his superhuman grip, let out a shrill scream.

Hersela frowned as she felt a tingling sensation in her wrist.

“Let go!”

Her right foot shot out toward Or-han’s abdomen. It wasn’t meant to deal damage but to push him away. Unfortunately for Hersela, her foot didn’t even reach his abdomen.

“Haap!”

Before her kick could land, Or-han whipped his arm like a whip and slammed her body into the ground.

Her body, wrapped in a crimson current, slammed into the ground. Lava surged like a waterspout, and the ground beneath cracked open.

“Kuh…!”

Hersela let out a single groan.

Her head shook like a small boat in a storm. Her flesh quivered, slapping her chin.

Her consciousness blurred for a moment. Her survival instincts surged, taking over her fading awareness. Her body moved reflexively, executing the most appropriate counterattack her body remembered.

A joint lock. A technique she had honed in the days when she lacked the strength to break armor, now unconsciously unleashed.

Hersela’s hands gripped Or-han’s wrists, and her legs wrapped around his arm.

Her pale calves pressed down on his neck and collarbone, and his arm was firmly locked between her thighs, as if caught in a vice.

Using all her limbs, Hersela hung onto Or-han’s arm, pulling it deep into her embrace as she arched her back. It was a technique meant to break the elbow and shoulder joints of an armored enemy and rip the arm out.

“Huh…!”

Or-han let out a bewildered gasp.

The perfectly executed joint lock had dealt him a significant blow—not to his body, but to his mind.

The moment Hersela grabbed his arm and pulled, Or-han, utterly panicked, tried with all his might to shake her off. He was so startled that even his Indestructible Body faltered for a moment.

It wasn’t the pain in his joints. His body was no different from armor itself, so a joint lock wouldn’t injure him.

What shocked Or-han wasn’t the joint lock itself, but the fact that she had used it in *this* situation.

“Get off!”

Or-han, ignoring the sensations running through his arm, slammed Hersela into the cavern wall. A loud boom echoed as the half-melted rock spewed lava like blood.

“Kuh…!”

The impact on her back loosened Hersela’s legs slightly.

It was a small opening, but Or-han didn’t miss it. In decades of combat, few situations had been more urgent, so his nerves were sharper than ever.

“Kaaah!”

With a roar resembling a tiger’s, Or-han grabbed Hersela’s calf with his other hand and swung her sideways with all his might.

He wanted to instill a sense of crisis in her—that if she kept targeting his arm, her leg would be ripped out first.

The giant’s left arm swung like a typhoon. Hersela let go of Or-han’s right arm without much resistance.

She had instinctively applied the joint lock, but as soon as her consciousness returned, she realized what she was doing.

‘What am I even doing…?!’

Embarrassment, confusion, and a sudden wave of shame made Hersela release the arm she was holding.

Though vengeance and hatred had soaked her bones, driving her to a savage killing intent, her reason couldn’t accept clinging naked to her enemy’s arm.

After all, clinging wouldn’t even injure him.

Or-han, trying to shake Hersela off, and Hersela, trying to let go of Or-han’s arm, moved in the same direction for a brief moment.

As a result, Hersela’s body was thrown like a shot put—

– Kwaaaang!

—and slammed into the ceiling of the underground cavern.

The rock supporting the ceiling couldn’t withstand the impact and shattered.

Amid the rain of broken rock, Hersela, her cheeks slightly flushed, fixed her falling body to the ceiling with the tentacles of her Life Force Technique and glared at Or-han. The steam mixed with blood boiling around her obscured her complexion.

—

“……Targeting my joints is pointless.”

Or-han, who had violently shaken off Ha-shal-leur, uttered only that one sentence.

His tone was arrogant, as if boasting about the sturdiness of his Indestructible Body, but in reality, it was closer to a plea for her not to use joint locks on him.

‘What kind of mess is this?’

Despite his overbearing tone, Or-han felt an indescribable sense of exhaustion. The fight he had imagined with Ha-shal-leur—a clash of strength, skill, and killing intent—was nothing like this.

There was no grand battle, no clash of wills, no severing of the indestructible. Just a naked girl clinging to his arm and him beating her in the same state.

How would this look to others? His fighting spirit waned like a cooling corpse. The boiling fighting spirit subsided, and even the sense of crisis from being trapped faded.

‘Do I have to fight like this? Until the end?’

In less than ten minutes of fighting, he had already seen enough. If they continued until one of them died, what else would he have to endure? The thought alone was unbearable.

‘…Is this how it feels?’

Feeling a sigh escape him, Or-han unconsciously slumped his shoulders slightly. For the first time in his life, he felt the urge to give up a fight.

“……Let’s talk for a moment.”

He wanted to try persuading her again, even though it had failed once before.

—

“Nonsense. I have no intention of talking to the enemy. All I want to hear is your dying breath.”

Hersela, clinging to the ceiling like a spider, responded coldly.

She had no desire to talk to Or-han. Any conversation would only fuel her rage. It had always been that way, and now was no different.

“And yet, you were chattering away just a moment ago.”

“That was… no, never mind. What’s the point of talking?”

Hersela, about to explain indignantly, closed her mouth.

“To someone who’s about to die.”

The conversation with Or-han hadn’t been her but the presence of Pleb inhabiting her body. However, Hersela had no intention of explaining her companion’s existence.

So, she stopped talking and kicked off the ceiling, charging at Or-han.

‘Fighting up close will just get me grabbed and swung around. Then…!’

Hersela’s tactics changed.

Instead of repeating meaningless attacks with Durandal and the Ice Blade, she picked up floating chunks of rock and hurled them, using the tentacles of her Life Force Technique like hooks to leap freely between walls and ceilings, dodging Or-han’s counterattacks.

Her movements were like a mix of a wasp and a gorilla.

Or-han kicked away the incoming rocks, shattered half-melted stone pillars, and swung them like maces. Massive rocks collided violently, creating thunderous booms.

“…Is this for Ai-mel-ra’s revenge?”

“Don’t you dare speak my mother’s name! How dare you!”

Hersela, who had resolved not to speak to Or-han, immediately broke that resolve when Ai-mel-ra’s name was mentioned. Like a dragon whose reverse scale had been torn off, she roared and rampaged fiercely.

“Audacity, huh. You must think I neglected and abandoned Ai-mel-ra. But that’s a misunderstanding. I—”

Or-han finally tried to explain the truth of the misunderstanding he had left unresolved for nearly a decade. Whether it was a daughter growing stronger through hatred or whatever, he no longer wanted to fight like this.

The sensation of the joint lock on his right arm had left a massive psychological scar, robbing him of his fighting spirit.

“What are you trying to say? That leaving my mother in Gold Flower Palace and not even showing up at her funeral was all for a good reason?”

Hersela, reacting to the word “misunderstanding,” shot Or-han a look of contempt.

“I already know all that.”

She spat out words Or-han could never have anticipated.