Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 133

Chapter 133: Episode 40. The Wind Blows (2)

The silence went away after a few seconds.

Then all the undead in that place started talking with each other.

“Who is that?”

“Preemptive attack? I don’t want to be a kamikaze!”

“Who brought that guy?”

Most undead was not keen on my idea. Of course, I did not expect a welcoming response. After all, I was a newcomer to the town. Today was my first meeting, and I boldly offered my suggestion to everyone.

Jeff was stern. Torium covered his face. They could not dare try to defend me in front of the crowd. Otherwise, the rest of the undead would get mad at them, too.

“Stop!” the lord, who was watching the disquiet crowd, commanded and stood up.

The Ghoul looked twice as tall as a regular zombie.

“I have not seen such a passionate undead for a while. Preemptive attack, that is quite bold. Are you confident about yourself? It looks like you’re only a regular zombie, though.”

The indolent Ghoul left his seat and slowly approached me.

I had my makeup on. I looked a bit aggressive, but I appeared more or less like a zombie.

“My appearance does not reflect my strength,” I stated confidently.

Even if one got stronger, their appearance did not necessarily change accordingly. What would change were their intrinsic traits. There were exceptions, though. In case of an enormous improvement, sometimes their appearance changed.

The lord transformed from a zombie into a Ghoul, but only his height doubled. It was not a huge change. Furthermore, the change in his physical appearance did not imply any modifications in his power.

A good example of changes in intrinsic traits, such as strength, was the two horns and wings that I got after I turned into a darker version of myself. Such physical changes were a result of my getting tremendously more powerful than I was. They were different from the changes that the lord went through.

“What you’re saying is that you can perhaps beat me.”

“If you want to truly defend this place, follow my order. I will keep this place safe from the enemy.”

Holding Rage, I spoke as though I was doing the lord a favor.

When the skeleton soldiers heard my words, they started to surround me.

“Ha! I’m quite impressed. Show me what you’ve got then. If you’re bluffing, my skeleton soldiers will tear you apart, you mercenary.”

There were seven skeleton soldiers, and they were nothing more than a piece of cake to me.

The soldiers were, at most, intermediate monsters of poor qualities. In fact, they were most likely to be low monsters.

I looked around. Even though I was strong, there was no way I could confront the enemy’s army solely by myself. I needed help from the undead around me.

I had to make them help me, even if they did not want to. In order to make my plan work, I had to establish myself first in front of them.

What should I do then?

“You’re kidding me.”

My hard work for the last 20 days surely paid off. I got more familiar with the swordsmanship of Highendall. I did not receive additional statistics and was low in mana. However, such disadvantages were rather helpful in this situation. I could not use the Moonlight Drop, but I believed that the swordsmanship itself would do the job.

At the same time, I thought that using the skills of Highendall to fight such low monsters was a waste of my energy and effort.

I put Rage back in the sheath.

Boom!

I decided to fight with my fists.

Boom!

The skeleton soldiers were too slow to be a match for me.

I struck and completely broke their faces. My punch knocked off a soldier. It did not take more than 20 seconds to knock off all of the seven skeleton soldiers.

I cleaned off the skeleton pieces on my fists and looked at Torium.

“I have a question for you. How do you select a new lord?”

Torium was not only surprised with what he had witnessed, but also of what he had just heard from me.

“Usually, those who worked for the Commander of South select one. However, they wouldn’t come to such a barren place like our town, so we have chosen the strongest one among us.”

After all, I did not reveal my full strength when I was sparring with Jeff.

I had two reasons: First, Jeff was not my match. Second, I just wanted to check my body condition during our previous sparring.

Of course, Jeff could also handle seven skeleton soldiers. However, he wouldn’t have been able to knock off all of them in just 20 seconds with bare hands.

It was a piece of cake for me. I was even ready to fight Dullahan, and I was confident about myself.

“I like how you choose the strongest one as your lord.”

“Our current lord has done great work, taking care of our land for the past 50 years. If you want to become a new lord, you must prove to us that you are much more powerful than the current lord,” Torium informed me.

He implied that I must overwhelm the Ghoul.

I agreed.

I smiled as a thought occurred to me. ‘I would have to be the undead’s lord if I wanted them to obey my order, even if they didn’t like it.’

“The incompetent may not rule others.”

“Can you fight the lord and the 20 strongest undead in the town without killing any of them? If you can, you’ll be our new lord!”

Torium noticed the hidden intentions behind my questions, and he was trying to set up a stage.

He spoke before any other undead could collect their thoughts.

The undead wanted to witness an epic match, and I was confident that I could show them one.

“You’re quite good. But don’t be too arrogant. You knocked off only seven skeleton soldiers…”

The Ghoul, who was also shocked, took out his sword.

Then the 20 strongest undead surrounded their lord.

Jeff was one of them, but he looked very happy. The undead had looked miserable until a few minutes ago when I stood up against the lord.

“I’ll pay back for the 20 losses that I have against him!”

Such was the reason that Jeff was happy.

The undead, who were gathered for the discussion, quickly made a space in the center for us. I charged at the 20 strongest undead of the town.

It was a match between one demon and 21 undead.

Furthermore, these undead were stronger than skeleton soldiers. However, they were no match for me.

‘It will be harder not to kill them,’ I thought.

I took out Rage and hesitated for a moment.

I had to beat them, not kill them.

Knocking off all of them was easy, but I was not sure if I could control myself so as not to kill them.

***

Dullahan was a species whose height were about three meters. They were also one of the strongest undead species, and they carried their faces with their hands.

“I don’t understand Magdalene’s intention for sending me to such a small town.”

Soulrem was a Dullahan leader, with a thousand other Dullahans at his command.

He was constantly complaining as though he did not like the order that he received.

Commander Magdalene could completely wipe off the southern part of the Underworld. However, the commander wanted to minimize any losses, and he strictly followed guerrilla tactics with his army. As a result, Magdalene had a complete command of the southern land.

The problem was that not all southern parts were the same.

Some parts were more barren than the others.

“It’s the middle of nowhere. Phew!”

Soulrem could not see anything but badlands. He had been traveling for the past few days, but the landscape did not change at all. His target was only a half day away, but the Dullahan was regretful that the town appeared pretty much the same.

He did not have any choices. After all, the town was part of the southern part of the Underworld, and Commander Magdalene sent the Dullahan to the conquest. Soulrem could not refuse the order.

“Should I persuade them to surrender?” one of the skeleton wizards asked me.

Soulrem raised hands, which were holding his face up to the wizard’s height. Then he looked into the wizard’s eyes and spoke.

“Persuade? We don’t need to. I will wipe them all to de-stress.”

When Soulrem was about to put his dark sword around his shoulder, one of his soldiers interrupted him, “Sir, something is approaching us.”

“I know. I saw that.”

One person was bravely charging at an army of thousands of soldiers.

“Is he out of his mind?” Soulrem commented.

The person was getting closer, and he did not seem to slow down.

Skeleton archers took out their bows, ready to fire when commanded.

Then they fired poisonous arrows at once. However, it did not stop the person from coming towards them. He was rather speeding up.

“He’s crazy.”

Soulrem laughed.

He knew that the person would die soon no matter what.

Boom!

The person hit hard, something exploded, and skeleton soldiers were thrown away.

My target was the area where I drew lines on the map.

I was going to penetrate the enemy until that line.

“I need to be quicker,” I told myself.

I felt renewed and alive.

After the initial collision, I was fighting the enemies only with my sword.

I was not using any skills or relying on additional statistics.

I pushed myself to the limit and surpassed it. I accelerated quickly, and I could feel that my muscles were screaming out of pain.

“Harder,” I urged myself.

Slash!

I swung my sword hard. I could not continue fighting at this rate for long, but I did not care.

The harder I pushed myself, the stronger I would get. The fight was very tight, but I knew that I could only improve when I was in danger. I had forgotten this for a long time. Only after I got weak and spent much time sparring could I remember this lesson again.

Then I saw Dullahan Soulrem…

He was carrying his face on one hand and a huge sword on the other. The undead started to move slowly.

“You’re not going home alive!”

I slaughtered over 200 undead by myself, and I was on the verge of reaching my target. Then Soulrem intervened.

However, his interception did not matter. His timing was perfect.

I wanted to knock off the strongest enemy when I was most tired. Putting myself in such a situation was risky because I could end up losing. However, the thrill of beating my enemy would double if I won.

‘I want to get stronger,’ I thought.

Clang!

Two swords clashed.

At that very moment, something happened.

“Whoa!”

“Kill them all!”

“Help the lord!”

Reinforcements arrived through the pathway that I had created.

Soulrem was not a normal Dullahan. He was a level higher than other Dullahans.

It was fair to say that Soulrem was a high monster of level two.

However, the Dullahan was still manageable, and I bit my lips hard.

Boom!

I was slightly inferior to Soulrem when it came to pure strength. I got pushed away once and rolled over the floor. A skeleton soldier nearby penetrated my thigh. An arrow also hit my chest.

‘I’m used to this,’ I pondered.

Wounds and pain would not stop me.

I took out the sword and the arrow, which were stuck on my thigh and chest, respectively. Then I raised Rage again. It was harder to move than before, but the battle was still going on.

“For Commander Magdalene!”

Soulrem must have thought that he was about to win the duel with me. He raised his sword. The loyal soldier called out his commander’s name.

The Dullahan reminded me of the Malicious Commander Maxium. He also called out the emperor’s name in a similar manner. I was not the emperor that he was desperately seeking, but I had the emperor’s heart.

This heart was very similar to me. It would not easily stop, and I felt very familiar with it.

The more dangerous the situation was, the stronger I became, and so was this heart.

“You’re going to die soon!”

Soulrem thought that his victory was near, but he could not finish the battle as easily as he thought. Frowning, he looked at me as though he had never seen anyone as tenacious as I was.

As the battle pressed on, his expressions changed: frown into surprise, surprise into shock.

“You little—”

“Phew!”

I breathed in heavily and raised Rage.

On the tip of Rage was the head of Soulrem’s head.

One needed to destroy both the head and the heart of a Dullahan to completely kill him.

“Now, the next target is the body.”

“I’ll kill you!”

Slash!

I cut the Dullahan’s head into two.

Smiling, I threw the Dullahan’s broken head at the body, which was charging at me.

“Whoa!”

“We won! We won!”

“Hurray!”

“Hail the lord Randalf Bruciel!”

Four undead soldiers fought this battle, and 200 of them survived.

On the other hand, the enemies were completely wiped out.

It was a grand victory.

“I never thought that he could solely penetrate the center of the enemy’s formation.”

“Did you see him fighting Soulrem? It gave me goosebumps!”

I put Rage back into the sheath and approached the soldiers. Torium greeted me first.

“Congratulations on your victory.”

“You speak differently.”

“Any undead must respect his lord.”

I remembered him saying the same thing when I came to the town.

“Am I the lord for real?”

“You told us to wait until you penetrate through the center of the enemy’s formation. And you requested if we could come and help you, or otherwise run away. All of us fought in the battle, and that means that we accepted you, Randalf Bruciel, as our new lord.”

There were 400 undead here.

The rest, about a hundred, were waiting in the castle.

They were more cautious than the 400 undead. They did not come, because they wanted to run away quickly in case I lost.

I let them be. After all, whether I could penetrate the enemy’s formation would determine the success of the battle. Had I failed, all of us would have died anyway.

“I will send a messenger to the Commander of South. We must let him know that we have a new lord. The town was running fine without much of the previous lord’s management, so I don’t think you’ll have much to do.”

“There are still the 100 undead who have not accepted me as their lord.”

They had seen how powerful I was, but they did not accompany me to the battle.

Torium laughed somewhat bitterly.

“One cannot go against the flow. Anyway, I think there will be a feast tonight. Everyone is excited.”

The other undead were looking at me.

I did not mind the attention.

“Ah, perhaps you are the first one to defend our land against Magdalene. The Commander of South might contact you separately if he finds out.”

“Okay.”

I answered carelessly.

I was tired, too.

I needed some rest.

Turning around, I headed back to the town.

Behind me was Torium, who spoke quietly.

“The wind started blowing. This wind will bring rest and peace to everyone.”