Chapter 248. What Happened Twice Will... (8)
[This is for my tail!]
“You won’t touch Lotte!”
I barely made it in time to guard Lotte. It was thanks to knowing who he was attacking that i got there on time. I immediately shot my spear towards the ceiling of his opened mouth.
[I won’t fall for this twice!]
“I’ll say the same thing!”
Before my spear struck him, a radiant blue light shone from his belly, and he spat out an incredible amount of lightning. The Chaotic Spear lost its strength and was reflected back into my hands. I had expected this much to happen. With a firm mind, I drew forth the power of Absolute Soul and circulated Peruta Circuit.
“Peika, we’re going all out!”
[Don’t worry, Master! Believe in me that believes in Master!]
Peruta Circuit’s spinning surged fiercely and a whirlpool swirled around me. The Hermit King’s powerful lightning was absorbed into the path of Peruta Circuit and flowed into me. If I moved, Lotte would be hit by the lightning once more. To make sure no one was hurt by his lightning, I planned to receive all of his lightning myself.
[Do you seek death!?]
“You want to kill me with this? Keep dreaming!”
The giant whirlpool I created hindered my vision, but it was the best for stopping the Hermit King’s movements and his lightning. Even though Peruta Circuit’s powerful spinning seemed like it wanted to break my body, I sped it up without hesitation. Following the whirlpool, the Hermit King’s lightning was directed to only target me.
“Huuuu... Haaaap!”
I withstood the pain. The conditions were all met. The lightning elemental Peika was infused in my body, and Peruta Circuit was the best tool for manipulating mana. In addition, I had the power to transform hostile mana into mine, Absolute Soul!
I opened my golden Evil Eyes and shouted.
“Let’s go!”
[Foolish, you think your Evil Eyes can stop me!?]
“Huaaaaaap!”
In an instant, a portion of the Hermit King’s wild lightning began to follow my control. The blue lightning began to turn golden, as I felt both pain from the ferocious lightning and joy from turning it into a power I could control. The Hermit King shouted in shock.
[Your Evil Eyes can control lightning!?]
“I wish!”
Although his body emitted more and more lightning, I received them all without hesitation. My health fell, while my magic power rose. Using this magic power, I restored my damaged body. It was a conversion of mana and health. Peruta Circuit had the ability to heal injured internal organs.
[Dear Husband, you’ll die if you continue!]
“Don’t worry about me and look after Lotte! Attack the Hermit King when you can!”
[Lalalala~!]
While unintelligible screams rang in my ears, Plene’s silvery singing voice rose. Her song calmed my mind and filled my body with strength.
The lightning that had mostly become golden by now circulated around my body following Peruta Circuit’s flow and clashed with the blue lightning that continued to assault me. I held my spear up once again. The Hermit King seemed to have given up on devouring Lotte, as he approached me with a glaring look.
[I don’t know how you know the Lava King, but I’ll engrave into your brain the fact that I am stronger!]
“Go ahead.”
Immediately, the Hermit King disappeared again. For somehow holding the lofty title of a king, he acted more like a lowly assassin.
The golden lightning surged as I poured it into my spear and shot it forward. The lightning didn’t disperse just because I was underwater. Like a laser beam, the lightning struck the mouth of the Hermit King who appeared in the path of my attack. It seemed that although he was able to wield lightning didn’t mean he had resistance to lightning, as the surface of his giant mouth was burnt black. He shouted in shock.
[How did you find out!?]
“Because of your awful smell!”
[Kuaaaaa!]
Pure lightning crackled as if to boil the surrounding ocean water. From what I could tell, these king-level bastards were all powerful, but could only use their abilities in the simplest ways! I was about to thrust forward with my spear, when I realized I had a new power I could freely use.
“Trishula!”
[Trishula manifests in your spear for 30 minutes. Your spear technique’s rank increases by one. When attacking, you have a 10% chance to deal three consecutive damage.]
When I used one of Shiva’s power’s, Trishula, a brilliant red aura descended on the Chaotic Spear. Setting aside Trishula’s actual effects, just being able to manifest a god’s power in my weapon for 30 minutes a day was amazing. It meant I could kill a world’s enemy without having to use Overlord!
[The aura of an ominous god!]
The Hermit King’s presence disappeared once again. I indifferently swung Trishula and shot out its red aura.
“Stop hiding and fight me directly!”
[Kuaaaa!]
A huge ball of blue lightning was flying towards me. The Hermit King had appeared above me and spat out lightning. Wasn’t he supposed to be an electric ray!?
[The ability to wield lightning is not something a mere human can have!]
“But you’re going to die to a mere human!”
Believing in the power of Peruta Circuit that enveloped me, I charged towards the lightning ball. At that moment, Licorice used her magic. Because she was taking so long, I thought she was using a massive attack magic, but it turned out that my guess was wrong. The large scarlet aura from her magic quickly flew towards me.
[Don’t die, Dear Husband!]
“What, you can buff too!?”
The moment Licorice’s magic hit me, I felt like everything in the world was rushing towards me.
[Succubus Queen’s highest rank magic, ‘Love’, activates. Your affinity to everything in the world increases. The increase is proportional to the receiver’s charm!]
Dear god. I could see why she took so long to use this magic. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to do much against the Hermit King, she had used her strongest magic to support me!
Affinity was a terrifying factor in battle. Just by having one’s affinity increased, one’s ability to control the elements increased and one’s resistance also increased. The Hermit King’s giant ball of lightning wasn’t so overbearing anymore! Plus, as my affinity to water had also increased, my movements also became more natural. Having my affinity increased was what allowed for this miracle to happen!
In the next moment, I clashed with the ball of lightning. I could hear someone’s scream, but...
[You won’t even have the time to feel pain!]
“Of course... not!”
The giant ball of lightning was slowly absorbed into my body. Peruta Circuit’s spin was fiercer than ever before, and Mad Typhoon, strengthened by a rank with Trishula’s power, used this spin to rouse an aura stronger than ever before.
[Peruta – Mad Typhoon became level 5. You perfectly resonated the flow of Peruta Circuit with your spear. You obtained the basis to cut and pulverize any energy in the world.]
“Perfect timing!”
The ball of blue lightning shrunk and began to change in color. What I just did was nothing special. With the power Licorice gave me, I could wield lightning however I wanted! Even if it belonged to the world’s enemy!
“Lightning... is under my control!”
“Kuaaaa!”
[You used Frozen Roar! All enemies in the battlefield freezes in place. All allies temporarily become super-armored and has all abilities increased by 50%. Your chance of landing a critical hit doubles when fighting enemies affected by Frozen Roar.]
[It did not have a great effect against your enemy!]
[You think a roar of this level can suppress me!?]
Despite Frozen Roar’s power, his lightning became fiercer. It made sense that he was good at hiding since he was the Hermit King, but how was it fair that he was so skilled in wielding an element!? I widened my eyes while making the lightning mine. With Mad Typhoon, I forcefully drew in the lightning I couldn’t suppress and infused it with my spear. Immediately afterwards, I only shot forth the energy stored in my spear.
“Eat this! Divine Speed, Heroic Strike!”
I wasn’t thrusting my spear, nor was I striking down with it. As long as I concentrated my entire body’s energy into a single point and shot it out as an aura, I could call it a Heroic Strike!
The new version of Heroic Strike, birthed from the pinnacle of spear technique and mana control, showed its effectiveness immediately. A platinum colored aura that I shot forward flew through the air like a beam of light and struck the Hermit King directly.
It penetrated the Hermit King’s mouth and left through the end of his tail. The difference between the attack just now and the aura I shot out before that burned the surface of his mouth was the difference between a BB gun pellet and a 85mm cannon ball.
Although the previous attack used close to 100,000 mana from my maximum of 180,000, with the mana I received from his lightning attack, it wasn’t a big problem!
[Kuaaak!]
“Can you still say you control lightning!?”
[Don’t... Don’t think you can be so arrogant after only a small penetration wound!]
With that, he disappeared once again. His large body, which could easily swallow our guild house, was nowhere to be seen, as if it was erased completely from this world.
[I’ll admit it.]
His voice rang out.
[I am the weakest of the five kings.]
I grinned. His lightning had finally submitted to me, flowing around me with a golden color through Peruta Circuit’s rotation. Why didn’t the water discharge it? That water was also layered on top of the golden lightning, flowing around me in a whirlpool. I could feel that I was mastering Peruta Circuit bit by bit.
[Everyone wanted my death and wanted to take away my title of a king.]
“I’m sure they did.”
He ignored my sarcastic remark and continued.
[But I survived for countless years and arrived on this Earth. If you want, I’ll kindly tell you the reason.]
In an instant, my left arm was pierced through. It had happened suddenly without a trace.
[Dear Husband!]
“Don’t come close! Stay on the defensive!”
The pierced area was so small that my armor wasn’t even fragmented. Still, it was true that an attack had penetrated through my arm. I withstood the pain I felt from my arm and held up my spear. The feeling in my left arm was strange. I felt like it wouldn’t last long. It couldn’t be naturally healed either. I needed to use the Elixir in my inventory. To use it, I needed to kill the Hermit King.
[Next is your heart.]
“Overlord!”
I quickly used Overlord. I couldn’t save it anymore. This fight would end in the next five, no, one minute!
[You have a truly powerful aura. You are worthy of calling yourself a Hero. However, a powerful strength...!]
My left foot was pierced through. I grit my teeth and roused the power of Overlord, dying the golden lightning around me black. The Peruta Circuit that was engraved firmly into my body made screeching noises as it writhed in pain.
[... becomes weak when you lose focus. I wonder how long it will take until the energy staying in your heart disappears. Next, your thigh.]
In the next instant, my thigh was pierced through. The energy of Enigma was boiling, but it still couldn’t defend against the Hermit King’s attack. I had no choice. Right now, I couldn’t protect all of my body against his attacks.
[Kuk, it’s a truly powerful energy, one that can threaten our king... that bastard! Having to follow his commands is painful, so I will kill you here and consume the world’s power!]
This time, it was my stomach. Cough. I almost lost control of Overlord, but I clenched my teeth and accelerated the circulation of mana. The Hermit King burst into laughter.
[Kuhahaha! Where is your confidence now? Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve? Use those things you call skills! It is truly laughable, seeing you using the same energy but calling it different names! Kuhaha!]
Right arm, then the shin! After being attacked two more times, I was losing control of Overlord. The power residing in my spear was powerful to say the least, but without a target, it couldn’t do anything.
[Are you prepared to die?]
“Kuk... You insect like bastard.”
[Insect... How fitting. For someone struggling like you!]
He’s coming! Aiming for my heart!
In that instant, I widened my eyes and used Divine Speed. I activated Sacrifice, strengthened my close-range skill’s attack with the Twin-headed Ogre’s Tattoo, and used Devourer after confirming that my health had fallen below 10%. At the same time, I neglected all defense and focused the entire rotation of Peruta Circuit into Mad Typhoon. There was only one thing left to do.
I thrusted my spear forward. Without shaking in the slightest, the spear jolted forward through the water and stopped suddenly. However, the boundless energy stored in the spear was completely used up. Seeing as how two more impacts resounded, it seemed Trishula’s effect was miraculously activated.
[Critical Hit!]
[Cough.]
I coughed up a mouthful of blood. As the blood diffused through the water, I thought I needed to drink a potion if I didn’t want to die.
[How did you... know... kuk!]
A giant reaper’s scythe appeared in the air, slicing through the empty water before disappearing.
That was it. Once might have been a different story, but after being hit by my all-or-nothing attack thrice and sliced by the reaper’s scythe, even a Hermit Emperor much less a Hermit King could survive.
[Grand Raid success!]
Hearing the message noona’s cheer, I nodded and murmured.
“That’s why I called you an insect.”
Just like that, I defeated the world’s enemy alone. If I tried it again, I might end up as a beehive, damn it.