Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Episode 27. Archduke Oculus (2)

Oculus’ face changed slightly. There were hints of interest in his face.

“You are the first demon to walk into the center of my forest.”

Ah… That was why Oculus looked interested.

Olmotte was the largest forest in this world.

And Oculus was the owner of this forest.

It took me a year to find him since the day I challenged him. I would never do that again; I wasted a year looking for Oculus.

He was still a jerk, though. Thinking about our previous encounter made me frown.

“And today you will feel how it is like to have your head cut off for the first time. I wonder if you can find that interesting.”

Spitting out the words, I coldly stared at him. Oculus’ three dukes arrived and stood by him. They were ready to attack me at any time. Even when I was talking with Oculus, I was ready to chop his head off with the Dark Sword. Because of my preparation, the dukes dared not start attacking me.

“You sure have gotten stronger… However, one should learn when to surrender, too. I am curious about how you managed to get two of the highest monsters and got stronger. I think we will see each other again in the future.”

Oculus was calm. First of all, his three dukes were guarding him by his side. He was also highly confident with his own abilities. Furthermore, he was also leading in the battle. He did not need to hurry.

Finally, he was confident that he could beat me at any time.

Turning his head, Oculus looked at Maxium.

“I will punish that undead, who had dared to attack my demons’ dungeons. Give the Malicious Commander to me and leave.”

“I cannot do that.”

I wanted to leave without any friction. However, the Malicious Commander knew the Clue for Awakening. Above all that, I did not want to surrender like this.

Oculus was calm and confident, and I was fine with that. However, I could not allow him to have such an attitude while confronting me. My first goal was to make the archduke nervous and surprised. If I surrendered now, it meant that I was the weaker one. So I spoke quietly.

“Anger.”

[Thanks to the large mana bonus (98), your strength, agility, and health point increased by nine, respectively.]

[Your intelligence dropped by twenty, but your pure intelligence is above seventy-six. The ‘Astral Code’ enhanced your intrinsic characteristics. As a result, you are no longer affected by the abnormal effects of ‘Anger.’]

My strength was 106, agility, 101, and health point, 96.

Thanks to the blessing of Paranormal, two of my abilities were above one hundred.

Blood vessels shrunk and my heart started to beat faster. I was not affected by abnormal effects. However, due to the largely reduced intelligence, I received a penalty from the skill of Anger.

“I cannot use Anger with Indolence…”

Had I tried to use both Anger and Indolence at the same time, I would be out of my mind again. I could also end up attacking my monsters, which I did not want to risk.

Anger was good enough.

I was conscious but I would still get easily aroused.

I found myself gritting my teeth.

My sword shivered. The surrounding area became darker.

Raising my eyes, I directly looked at Oculus.

Oculus, who sensed the danger, raised his eyebrows. Green branches immediately grew from his body. The roots dug into the ground and they became an unshakable tree.

Oculus was following his instincts. He could feel that my transformation was unusual.

The skill that Oculus just used was called “Naturalization,” which was an epic-graded skill. One disadvantage of this skill was that the user could not move. However, such a skill provided tremendous defense and power; it was a special skill that only Oculus could use!

Swish!

Thousands of branches grew longer and were aiming at me. From the ground, the roots stretched out and tried to confine my movements.

Being strong was not enough to avoid this kind of attack.

However, when I looked around while holding Anger, I could find small but clear openings. Agility was connected to extrasensory. When my agility was above one hundred, I started to see what I could not in the past.

I kept my head as cool as possible, and I fixed my eyes on Oculus.

“Oculus, you will learn a lesson today.”

He would realize that I was no longer a novice that was bouncing around in Devildom.

Oculus would learn that I was his true “Opponent,” who would threaten his throne!

I started to move slowly, aiming for the openings.

Then there was the Malicious Commander Maxium.

He was slaughtering enemies in the battlefield, while also keeping his eyes on his master, who was charging in the duel. The commander could feel the presence of the mana emanating from the heart, which proved that not only was his master the emperor, but he also could be felt from far away.

The reason that the heart was inside a demon did not matter. Maxium was impressed with his master fighting other demons with overwhelming power. He was thrilled.

The commander thought about the emperor, who annihilated everything. The emperor used to stab through the throats of numerous enemies who charged at him. The image of the emperor overlapped with Randalph, who was fighting on the battlefield. The emperor, who would get stronger in crises, had finally been born again as the god of war here.

“For the mighty emperor!”

Maxium swung his golden sword.

The color of the sword used to be faded. Now, the commander’s sword was glowing in all its glory.

The commander then thought about the great emperor again. He had been struggling alone in the battlefield. He told himself that it was his duty as the emperor’s knight to bravely charge and support the emperor!

Creak! Creak!

The skeleton soldiers started to move. They were moving towards their emperor. If anyone stood in their way, the soldiers would chop off the enemy’s head and continued moving forward. If their feet were cut, then they used their arms as feet. If their arms were cut, too, then they used their jaws to walk. And if they lost their jaws, they crawled.

Now the table had turned. The fight was tight and intense.

At the same time, the Griffin and other monsters were fighting very well.

Maxium hated monsters, but he did not mind monsters that worked for the emperor. In fact, he was helping the emperor’s monsters in the battle in all ways possible.

“Haha! Now look! Demons cannot defeat our mighty emperor and his overwhelming power!”

Maxium was swinging his sword and smiling at the same time.

The four demons looked very strong, even to Maxium. And one of the four seemed to be in a different league than the others.

However, they were demons after all. They were of no match to the emperor. Although the emperor had not fully recovered his original strength, Maxium did not doubt his emperor at all.

There were some close moments, but Maxium felt that the emperor became tremendously powerful when he was fighting certain demons. The change was so dramatic that it even made the atmosphere vibrate.

Then the struggle began.

“For! Our! Great! Emperor!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The skeleton soldiers banged their swords to their shields. The loud sound of banging rang in the battlefield.

It was a war cry for the emperor’s victory in the battle.

There cannot be a defeat and there should not be a defeat. Victory was the only way for Randalph to prove himself.

Maxium’s gaze was fixated on the fight between the emperor and the demons.

“Hahaha!”

He was very happy.

Despite the burden as a guardian, Randalph was dominating his enemies just like how the emperor fought demons a long time ago.

Oculus, who was hiding behind the tree, frowned as more and more his branches were cut off. He still had a large number of branches left, but he could not rest easy. The branches, which were cut by the Dark Sword, could not sprout again. If Randalph swung the Dark Sword repeatedly, then he would ultimately lose all of his branches.

The three dukes of his could not even participate in the fight between Randalph and him. They could not find any openings.

Maxium thought about himself.

He wondered if he could participate in the ongoing fight between the two.

Then he shook his head. The fight was very fierce and of a different sort.

The commander’s body shook from the urge to fight, but he calmed himself down and clenched his fists.

The emperor had assigned him a role in the battlefield, and this was where he should stay. The commander believed that his duty was taking care of the rest of the battle, so that when the emperor eliminated his enemy, he did not have extra work.

Slash!

At that very moment, the emperor’s sword slashed the demon’s body. It was not a critical hit, but it was a hit after all.

The emperor looked more relaxed. He did not recover all of his memory, but his smile was similar to the one the commander had seen a long time ago. The smile was that of a victor.

Looking at the emperor, Maxium realized something.

…He realized that the emperor was victorious!

“Our god has returned!”

It felt as though the heart, which had stopped a long time ago, started beating once again.

Ten minutes passed.

The blessing of Paranormal was gone.

At the same time, I managed to leave a long scar on Oculus’ side.

“The next is his throat.”

Giggle!

I laughed heartily.

Oculus looked like he was panicking.

“Are you… are you really Randalph Bruciel?”

“What do you think I am?”

“You, who are you?”

Oculus could not believe that I was the same Randalph Bruciel.

I could understand the disbelief. It was no surprise that I looked completely different from back then in Devildom. Tens of years had passed since, and I had even come back from the previous life. A lot of things had happened, and I, too, had changed a lot.

Oculus must have thought that I had gotten a little bit stronger, but he was wrong. He could no longer talk about his “interest.” The archduke was not confident and did not look relaxed anymore.

“Archduke Oculus!”

Oculus’ dukes came close to him. However, Oculus stretched out his hand and prevented his dukes from coming closer. Then he started speaking.

“I have come very close to the essence of life through my Naturalization skill. And the skill empowered me with knowledge. You are not Randalph Bruciel.”

“That is funny. Now that you are stuck, are you trying to escape from reality?”

“You are…”

Oculus tried to say something, but he stopped. It seemed that he still wanted to speak out, but Oculus looked unsure about something, which made him clamped up. Oculus did not look like his usual self.

He hesitated for another ten seconds and then shook his head.

“This fight is no longer helpful for both of us. I know that one of your skills is now gone, and you will get weak soon. Why don’t we stop the fight?”

Oculus was correct. I was not affected by the abnormal effects of Anger, but I would not be able to maintain Anger. I was slowly losing my mind; if the fight lasted longer, there would be more loss than gain.

“What? Haha!”

However, I could not help but laugh out loud.

One of the four archdukes, Oculus, had asked for a truce.

“You sure have gotten stronger in an unusual way. If you are lucky enough now, you may even be able to kill me. However, just like the others, you cannot avoid death.”

Oculus’ words were correct again. It was very likely that everything would go as Oculus foresaw. The battle was fierce, but I was beginning to lose. Furthermore, if the three dukes and the rest of the monsters joined the fight, I may not be able to escape from Oculus.

“Do you really think so?”

However, I could not simply admit that Oculus was correct, especially when I was in front of him.

“Then do you wish to fight until the end?”

Oculus clicked his tongue; he must have thought that I was foolish.

“Give me one of your arms. Then I will consider a truce.”

I made an offer.

I could not let him get away like that.

On top of that… it was better for me if Oculus survived.

If Oculus died now, then the balance of power would be broken. Because there were four archdukes constantly keeping each other on their toes, everything was rather peaceful. If Oculus was gone and his demons joined one of the remaining archdukes, the power balance would be broken, and there would be chaos.

If I wanted to get rid of Oculus, I must eliminate all of the demons in his faction first. And such was the strategy that I was playing against Ufa. It was too early to use this strategy on Oculus’ faction.

“One arm… The price is cheaper than I thought.”

Oculus also knew that if a part of his body was cut by the Dark Sword, it would not regrow. However, he gently accepted my offer. He must have changed his mind.

“Archduke Oculus!”

Oculus’ dukes became furious.

However, Oculus did not seem to be moved.

“Do not worry. I have earned a very important piece of information today. It is much more valuable than an arm.”

Then all of the dukes became silent.

Oculus suppressed their complaints with just a few words.

“Is he bluffing?”

Oculus had taken many actions that I could not understand. It was hard to tell if he was truthful at that moment. I personally thought that Oculus was bluffing, but there was always a chance that he was not. There must be a reason that his dukes were so submissive.

“Cut it off.”

Oculus stopped using his skill of Naturalization and stretched his right arm out.

He had taken a step back and decided to sacrifice his arm. Oculus was an archduke, and such an offer was almost impossible, had it been a different situation.

I grabbed Anger tightly.

Then…

Slash!

Bump!

The battle came to an end. Oculus and his demons and monsters started to retreat.

I returned to my side with Oculus’ right arm pierced with the end of my sword.

When I came back and took a look around, everything was such a mess.

There were twenty thousand soldiers in the beginning, but that number had been halved in just an hour and a half. The reduced number showed how fierce the battle was.

“Emperor!”

The Malicious Commander Maxium came to me at once.

He tried to dismount from his horse and kneel down, but I stopped him.

I tightly grabbed Maxium by the shoulder, and I directly looked into his eyes.

“Tell me how I can awaken my heart.”