Chapter 108 – The Monarch (２)

Orca’s Footsteps.

That was what let Gijun dodge the Monarch’s attack.

But that didn’t mean he could let his guard down.

Once a minute.

It cranked his movement speed to the max for 10 seconds, but Extreme Speed could only be used once every 60 seconds.

That meant for the remaining 60 seconds, he’d have to evade the Monarch’s attacks without it.

No choice. I’ll just have to concentrate harder.

Then the Monarch moved again.

Her movement was fast, as expected.

But it wasn’t so fast that he lost track of her entirely like the first time.

I need to focus on adapting to her movements first.

Still, he didn’t make any rash attempts to attack.

No matter how you looked at it, the Monarch was stronger than him.

Even faster too.

Launching a reckless attack at an opponent stronger and faster than yourself? He’d be lucky to break even.

But I’m not just standing there and taking it either.

That was exactly it.

Grimtus’s Thorn Gauntlet.

Thanks to its damage-reflection effect, each time he dodged an attack, he kept piling damage onto the Monarch.

The moment the Monarch’s sword moved again.

Gijun watched that movement closely.

He pushed his focus to the limit, and the fleeting instant felt like an eternity.

Now.

The instant the Monarch’s sword closed in on him,

Gijun used Orca’s Footsteps and Strong Wind to evade the strike.

Sssshhhh!

The Monarch’s sword sliced through Gijun’s robe.

As expected, dodging it perfectly wasn’t easy.

Her blade didn’t hit his body, but the robe he was wearing was torn apart.

In the same moment, blood sprayed from the Monarch again.

Her eyes narrowed.

By now, the Monarch must have realized something was wrong.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

The Monarch asked.

Not that Gijun owed her an answer.

“Pointless.”

Of course, the damage meant nothing to her.

She regenerated the wound in an instant and surged toward him again.

Flash!

Her body dissolved into black light, and a violent surge of Magi erupted from Gijun’s left.

Sssshriek!

Gijun barely twisted his body out of her attack’s path, and in the same breath, blood sprayed across her form again.

“Do you think such tricks will work on me!”

Whoosh!

The sword from his opposite side hurtled toward him.

There was no dodging it.

Her strike sought a perfect blind spot as it lanced in.

If her speed were slow, it might be manageable, but given the Monarch’s overwhelming velocity, this attack left no viable escape.

Then.

Flash!

Light burst from around Gijun’s body.

Fireball.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BANG!

Gijun’s Fireballs rained down on the Monarch.

In that instant, her attack trajectory skewed.

Using the brief opening, Gijun managed to evade her strike.

CRASH!

The Magi clinging to her sword battered the innocent corridor ceiling.

‘I’m getting used to it.’

Even now, Gijun was slowly acclimating to the Monarch’s movements.

Her attacks remained blindingly fast—still nearly impossible to track with the eye.

But Gijun relied not on sight but on his own senses.

And though imperfect, he was beginning to feel her motions.

The Monarch’s assault came at him again.

Gijun dodged once more.

For blows he couldn’t evade, he used Fireball and Strong Wind in tandem to divert their path.

‘Just a little more….’

Gijun gritted his teeth.

He wanted to strike back at the Monarch right now, but it wasn’t time yet.

All the magic he currently had was focused on blocking and dodging her attacks.

*

‘What a slippery bastard.’

Liberta narrowed her eyes.

There was a reason he’d climbed the tower at such terrifying speed.

She never imagined he could evade her attacks to this extent.

Worse, every time she struck, an inexplicable counterattack landed on her.

It was a counter she couldn’t ignore.

It didn’t inflict fatal wounds on her, but the irritation each strike carried was undeniable.

‘I’ll speed things up.’

She had no desire to drag this fight out.

She needed to end this as quickly as possible.

Only then could she set her grand scheme in motion.

Hmmmm—

Magi seethed around her body.

Her form grew lighter.

And her sword moved again.

Flash!

The moment her blade aimed for the mage—

She sensed it.

‘He took the bait.’

She knew.

She knew the mage was gradually adapting to her movements.

Truth be told, she was a little surprised.

She hadn’t expected him to dodge her attacks this cleanly.

The fight was dragging on longer than she’d anticipated—that much was undeniable.

So she changed her plan.

Corner the Seeker into a trap.

Slowly, deliberately letting him adapt to her movements, she drove the Seeker into a tight spot.

And just as the mage felt he’d grown accustomed to her rhythm—

She accelerated.

Faster than the speed he’d already grown used to.

There was no way he could evade this one.

He’d let his guard down.

Surely, he thought he’d keep dodging her strikes this time too.

Crack!

Her Sword arced toward the Seeker—

And he stood frozen, not even daring to react.

But then—

“…?”

Liberta’s eyes narrowed.

Clang!

Her Sword had been blocked—by empty air.

…What the—?

In that moment of utter incomprehension—

Ssshhlick!

Blood sprayed from her body once more.

“…Kh…”

The damage was far from trivial.

But she paid it no mind.

Liberta spotted an unknown membrane shimmering around the Seeker’s body.

More cheap tricks.

Still, she dismissed it as nothing.

It was just some kind of defensive spell.

And a paltry defense like that—she’d just break through it, that was all.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Liberta poured every ounce of Strength into her assault.

Each strike cost her no small amount of blood in return—

But that was just the bastard Seeker’s desperate thrashing.

The Seeker struggled to readjust to her renewed speed, but the pace she’d pushed beyond was simply impossible for him to evade.

Soon enough, his head would tumble across the floor.

And then she would claim his soul as an offering.

Wait for me.

She murmured that silent prayer—and moved her Sword again.

Clang!

Under the relentless barrage of Liberta’s blows, the membrane around the Seeker finally shattered.

Ssshhlick!

More blood gushed from her own body, but such pain meant nothing to her.

At last…

The moment she sensed the barrier break—

Her Sword moved once more.

But then—

Whoosh!

“…?!”

A black orb appeared from nowhere.

It shot straight toward her.

And then—

BOOM!

The instant it touched her body—

“K-Kh…!”

An impossible shockwave wracked her entire frame.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaah!”

Blam! Blam! Blam! CRASH!

Unable to withstand the impact, her body slammed into a far wall, blood pouring from her mouth.

“C-Cough…!”

The worst part was—even then, Liberta had no idea what had just hit her.

*

‘Did you think I was stupid?’

Gijun thought to himself.

‘I never once believed your Strength was all you had.’

Of course, even as he adapted to the Monarch’s movements, Gijun kept a constant, watchful eye on her.

Because he knew she’d pull out a new Skill sooner or later.

And that it would almost certainly be something related to speed.

That prediction hit the mark.

Just when Gijun had grown used to the Monarch’s rhythm, her speed abruptly kicked up another notch.

Was he able to adapt to the faster strikes instantly just because he’d expected it? No.

But while he couldn’t dodge perfectly, it wasn’t impossible to avoid them entirely either.

So Gijun decided to minimize the damage.

There was a way.

‘Shroud of Darkness.’

A Skill that pushes resistance to dark-attribute attacks to its absolute limit.

Stack that with the Primordial Blessing Gijun carried, and even the Monarch’s strongest strikes could be sufficiently countered.

Provided they didn’t actually land on him, that is.

And so Gijun weathered the Monarch’s assault.

Slowly, he adapted once more to that accelerated pace.

Then, the moment the Shroud of Darkness expired, Gijun detonated the sphere in which the Monarch’s concentrated attacks had been sealed.

‘That Damage actually hit her.’

The instant that sphere—condensed from dozens of the Monarch’s genuine attacks—struck Liberta, the Monarch herself vomited blood and went flying into the far wall.

‘I have to press this now.’

Gijun had no intention of letting this opening slip away.

Even if Liberta was already healing her wounds at a dazzling speed.

This was the perfect timing to strike at the Monarch.

Flash!

The moment Gijun began casting Fireball.

Boom! Ba-ba-ba-boom!

Spear-shaped Fireballs streamed relentlessly toward the Monarch.

Gijun never stopped casting.

The instant one Fireball struck the Monarch, he was already casting the next.

And that Fireball, too, rained down on her.

The process repeated without end.

Over and over, without pause.

KABOOM! Ba-ba-ba-BOOM!

The entire vast lobby shook.

Everything within it began to break apart and catch fire.

Still, Gijun did not stop.

He could not afford to waste the opportunity he had so surely seized.

And then….

BOOOOOOM!

From where the Monarch had fallen, a black shockwave erupted, sweeping across the area.

Ba-ba-ba-BOOM!

By the time Gijun hastily erected a Strong Wind barrier to block the wave….

“…Krrrk… Krrrgh….”

The Monarch’s form came into view.

She was bleeding from every part of her body now, leaning against the wall with wounds so severe she could barely stand.

Gijun tried to begin casting Fireball again.

But just then.

Flash!

The Monarch’s figure vanished.

In an instant, she surged toward Gijun.

The Monarch knew it, too.

She could no longer afford to ignore him.

And she could no longer afford to give him an opening to strike.

So despite the horrific pain, she gritted her teeth and drove her sword at Gijun with everything she had.

But there was one thing she didn’t know.

‘I saved this for just this moment.’

Gijun still had a card left to play.

‘Extreme Speed.’

The new effect of Orca’s Footsteps: Extreme Speed.

Gijun activated it.

And the moment he stepped forward, the Wind Blade was already in his hand.

Shwaaaaa!

A fierce gale whipped around Gijun’s body as,

Flash!

the Monarch’s sword split the air, its black light blazing.

But her blade’s tip met nothing.

Shwaaack!

Instead, it was her own body that erupted with blood.

“K-kuh…!”

Her chest — already gouged by the relentless Fireball barrage — was now struck again by the Wind Blade and the cutting effect of Orca’s Footsteps.

Fwoosh!

Blood gushed out like a fountain.

And that was only the beginning.

Shwack! Shwish-shwish-shwish-shwish!

Gijun’s Wind Blade kept hammering the Monarch’s body without pause.

Her wounds multiplied relentlessly.

Gijun didn’t stop.

The moment he confirmed her body was torn beyond the point of dodging,

The instantly cast Fireball, backed away, combined them, and transformed the spell’s shape.

Whoooosh—

What emerged was a blazing Spear.

An immense Spear.

Flash!

It gleamed, then shot toward the Monarch.