Ch-172
—
Auril felt as though even her mind was growing a little sturdier.
Emotions she could never have felt in the forest, desires she had never been exposed to—touching them now, she was growing the way a child becomes an adult, little by little. Auril too was moving forward like that.
Calmly organizing her thoughts, Auril looked toward the arena.
For on both sides, Randolph and the Champion had begun to reveal themselves.
‘…!’
And the moment she saw the Champion, Auril shuddered faintly.
Because she knew the instant she laid eyes on him.
A presence so overwhelmingly vast she could feel it on her skin.
A blue aura coiled around the Champion like a dragon.
…He’s strong.
Perhaps even stronger than Karas.
But this wasn’t simply a matter of strength.
“He’s clearly human, and yet…”
Human.
The Champion was unmistakably human.
But through an elf’s eyes, he did not align with ordinary humans.
“Human… mixed in?”
Several scents overlapped.
Not the scent of a single human, but the scents of many.
A human cannot naturally bear multiple human scents.
But the fact that many human scents were mixed meant they truly were mixed.
His body.
His organs.
Countless parts of him—
Had been replaced with those of other humans, spliced together to form that figure.
And they weren’t merely ordinary human parts, either.
“Warriors who once dominated an era. And…”
The bodies of those who had reached their peak in their respective fields.
He was a creation assembled from people who had pushed themselves until they could climb no further.
Moreover—
“There’s an incredibly old scent mixed in too.”
A musty smell that seemed easily thousands of years old lingered among the others.
How was that even possible?
If the body was thousands of years old, then it would be from before the continent rose into the sky.
Yet a human corpse begins to decay after mere days.
Auril had never heard of anyone capable of retrieving a corpse preserved for thousands of years, seamlessly stitching it together like this, and reviving it.
Not even a powerful lich capable of resurrecting the dead, nor the Death Kings of Cramdel, could produce an undead of this caliber.
Let alone something that wasn’t even undead.
“And that’s not all. He’s still replacing parts with stronger bodies even now…!”
Crack.
Auril clenched her fist.
The Champion was currently in the middle of constant enhancement.
There were easily over a hundred scents mixed into him.
A hundred people’s bodies residing within that one frame was impossible—
Unless he was continuously replacing them.
“Ah…”
Realizing this, Auril trembled.
If Randolph were to lose… one of his body parts might become the Champion’s next replacement.
Judging from the surging energies, it wasn’t just the physical body being taken. The skills and qualifications of the replaced individual seemed to be stolen as well.
Meaning the title of High Druid itself could be taken from him.
A monster among monsters, who had ingrained into his body over a hundred techniques, and fully absorbed the strength of those who had reached true mastery!
And then, suddenly, Auril realized something.
A single bodily organ—one he had never replaced despite all these thousands of years of enhancement.
The moment she identified it, her eyes began to shake wildly.
“How… how do you defeat something like that?”
*
*
Thump! Thump!
His heart raced.
When was the last time his heart beat like this?
Certainly not at any point in the past year.
But back then, he had only been watching.
“Wilhelm’s successor!”
Now, the one who inherited Wilhelm’s techniques stood before him.
Perhaps not Wilhelm himself, but merely facing someone who had inherited his techniques was enough.
He would finally be able to let go—at least to some degree.
No—more than letting go.
“…I can become stronger.”
The Champion was a man who had perfectly mastered Wilhelm’s techniques.
Techniques he himself had failed to pull off were being executed flawlessly before his eyes.
If so, with the Emperor Penguin’s body, he would surely be able to perfectly reproduce the Wilhelm techniques stored in his memory.
To reach that absolute realm of swordsmanship—
The qualification he could not earn a year ago!
He would finally attain it.
—Seize it. Cut it away by force. Stitch it into yourself. Make it all yours!
A voice echoed in his head.
“…Mm.”
The Champion shook his head once.
‘What on earth was I just thinking?’
His skull felt like it might split apart.
That demonic whisper, coming at regular intervals.
He didn’t know when it began, but lately, it had been growing more frequent.
“The match between the Emperor Penguin and the Champion begins!”
“Uwoooooooh!!”
“Waaaaaaaah!!!”
With the start of the match, the crowd roared.
None of that mattered.
The Champion had only one task now: defeat the opponent before him.
‘Azure Dragon Kick.’
Guo-o-o-o-o!
Kwa-jijijik!
The Azure Dragon erupted with a thunderous roar, crashing down upon the Emperor Penguin.
Now then.
How far could Wilhelm’s successor withstand him?
The 108 unique techniques he had mastered to the realm of true artistry.
He hoped the successor could at least block half.
*
*
Familiar.
That vast presence and momentum—like an Azure Dragon—was familiar.
When the Champion stamped his foot on the ground, I was certain.
‘Azure Dragon Kick.’
A dragon burst upward from the ground, surging toward me in a single strike.
Azure Dragon Kick.
And I knew the one who used this technique.
‘…Azure Dragon Legend. That’s a skill from my alt.’
It felt like getting hit hard in the head.
Azure Dragon Legend.
A hidden-job character I painstakingly raised: “Descendant of the Azure Dragon.”
Azure Dragon Kick was the strongest transcendence skill of Azure Dragon Legend.
But the Champion was definitely not Azure Dragon Legend.
Azure Dragon Legend was located in a place completely unrelated to the Tower of the War God.
After all, that character was stuck in Azure Dragon Mountain, unable to escape the shadow of being a “descendant.”
Guo-o-o-o-o!
I watched the Azure Dragon descending upon me.
This Azure Dragon contained far greater completeness than the Heavenly Dragon Kick my alt used.
A far more perfect dragon form.
‘…Huh.’
What is this?
The Champion was using the skills of the alt I raised—but in a more perfected form.
Impossible, and yet happening right before me.
‘Earth of Genesis Reversal.’
Genesis Reversal, Earth Aspect.
A sword technique that resonates with and dismantles all attacks.
That Azure Dragon was originally my alt’s skill.
I thrust my blade forward and shredded the dragon’s core apart.
“Ahh, as expected!”
The Champion shouted with delight.
I frowned inwardly.
Anyone would think it was just a simple thrust.
Yet he recognized it?
He had grasped Wilhelm’s swordsmanship—understood the principles of Genesis Reversal?
‘The Champion swallowed Wilhelm’s star.’
And he swallowed the Sun Star as well.
Perhaps some of Wilhelm’s memories remained.
“Sword of the Four Dragons!”
A black shimmer rose around his left arm. His arm itself had become a blade possessing the nature of a death dragon.
A skill my alt, Azure Dragon Legend, could never use.
It too was a transcendence skill—one-of-a-kind.
How many unique skills was he using? Skills that even one character would be hard-pressed to possess.
‘…Interesting.’
He certainly wasn’t normal.
But clashing with him directly made one thing clear.
‘A mixed existence. That’s why this is possible.’
Mixed.
The Champion’s body was no longer his own.
Countless fragments fused into a single whole.
Different from a chimera.
A chimera merely uses the replaced body’s functions, but the Champion seemed able to use the techniques as well.
Chang! Chaaang!
Kwaaaang!
We clashed, countered, and continued exchanging attacks.
The ever-changing skills and forms made him absurdly troublesome to face.
“Unity of Sword and Body!”
He shouted the skill names on purpose, enjoying it.
It seemed he truly wanted to see how far I could block him.
…But then.
At the skill name he uttered, I grimaced.
Unity of Sword and Body?
‘…Pollock Conan?’
Pollock Conan.
A swordmaster I raised with 10,000 SP.
But he died. Reset, everything lost.
However, Unity of Sword and Body was Pollock Conan’s transcendence sword art.
Only a true master who had become one with the sword could invoke it.
The Champion was using the skill of a character who had already died.
*He definitely died in the Hellworm Pit Dungeon.*
The Hellworm Pit Dungeon.
A dungeon I discovered by chance—one that only I knew about.
How had he even found the corpse that should have been there?
Chae-e-e-eng!
He didn’t give me any room to continue the thought.
His speed grew even faster.
The tip of his blade grew far more precise.
Unity of Sword and Body was an unavoidable attack—there was no way to simply deflect it.
And for 30 seconds, it raised a special stat, critical rate, to 100%. Even if I blocked it, the damage accumulated.
A unique skill usable only by Pollock Conan.
The best course was to avoid clashing at all during its duration.
That was how broken a unique skill was.
*How many unique skills does this guy even have?*
At this point, I was getting curious.
Just how many unique skills this bastard possessed.
And the secret behind the body he carried.
*
*
