“Bwahaha, ahahaha? Kihihihi!! Oh my! Kyahahahaha…!”
Da-hong doubled over laughing.
Tears welled in her eyes.
Truly.
This was the best.
A guy with absolutely nothing to his name.
The sight of him bolting out ready to die.
How naive could he be.
*If the summoner dies, the contract is broken.*
“Ha….”
What an utterly naive idea.
If she decided to cut off Se-ha’s arms and legs, gouge out his eyes, and lock him away for the rest of his life—just what kind of reaction would he make?
On top of that, Da-hong didn’t need any such constraint to exist here.
Because Da-hong was an intruder who had forced her way into the summoning ritual from the start.
In other words, whether Se-ha lived or died had absolutely nothing to do with her.
…But then again, it wasn’t entirely bad, either.
“Se-ha!”
I-sol and Ha-rin ran.
They ran with everything they had, but keeping pace with a skeletal knight whose lower half was that of a horse was beyond them.
Thud-thud-thud-thud——!!
The sound of hoofbeats thundered through the air.
The chipped longsword was raised high.
Se-ha squeezed his eyes shut.
Thwack.
“Ugh——!”
But no matter how long he waited, no impact came.
He opened his eyes.
Da-hong was standing in front of him.
She had caught the longsword with her bare hands.
“Did your legs have an earthquake? That’s genuinely hilarious.”
Da-hong released the sword, and the skeletal knight staggered.
“Ugh, ugh!”
Se-ha kept forcing his trembling legs to move.
The skeletal knight’s burning eye sockets tracked Se-ha.
The longsword swung toward him again.
Clang!
Da-hong raised her arm and knocked the blade aside.
“…!”
Having its attack interrupted twice, the skeletal knight finally turned its gaze toward Da-hong.
“Since I got to see something entertaining, I’ll specially play along with your little plan.”
“!”
Se-ha’s eyes went wide.
“Kuooo!!”
The skeletal knight arched its torso back as if enraged and brought its sword crashing down toward Da-hong.
Da-hong twisted her body, dodging the blade with ease, then reached out toward the skeletal knight’s body.
“Watch closely, Se-ha. This is something you can do too.”
“…?”
Magical energy gathered from every part of Da-hong’s body.
The gathered power was fired with full force from her palm.
Boom!
The shockwave sent the skeletal knight skidding back.
“…You’re using mana directly!?”
Se-ha’s eyes went wide.
“Even without learning formal magic, if you do it this way, you can deliver a physical impact using mana itself. It’s extremely inefficient, though.”
“….”
Se-ha stood there in a daze, staring at his own hands as if something had just clicked.
“What are you doing!”
Just then, Ha-rin came sprinting over and shoved Se-ha aside with her shoulder.
Clang!!
She caught the longsword with her axe.
Thud!
Se-ha landed hard on his backside.
“Th-thanks…!”
“Get up, you idiot!”
Ha-rin pushed back against the blade with all her strength.
“Haaah!”
I-sol appeared from a blind spot and thrust her sword forward.
Thunk!
The skeletal knight raised its shield and blocked the blade coming from behind.
But….
Crash!
Jin-ho came barreling in like a tank with his tower shield raised and slammed into the knight.
Clatter.
The skeletal knight lurched wildly.
“Alright, go.”
Da-hong jerked her chin toward Se-ha as if to say *now*.
Se-ha, still on the ground, clasped both hands together and drew up his mana.
Shwooo!
He felt a massive surge of mana gathering in his arms.
He aimed for the head.
Boom!
A mana shot fired from his palms with tremendous recoil.
Crack!
“…!”
A fracture split across the skeletal knight’s jawbone.
The impact must have been significant—the blue light in its eye sockets flickered wildly.
“It landed! First damage!”
Jin-ho shouted.
“Hyah!”
Ha-rin didn’t miss the opening and swung her axe.
Crunch!
The axe blade cleaved through the breastplate and shattered the ribs beneath.
Bone fragments flew.
“Got it!”
I-sol shouted.
“…Kraaagh!!!”
But the skeletal knight didn’t fall.
If anything, it let out a furious roar and began thrashing wildly.
Crash——!
Hooves slammed into the ground.
Jin-ho raised his shield, but the impact drove him back.
I-sol, landing on the ground, pulled Se-ha to his feet.
“You okay?”
“Y-yeah!”
Crash!
Se-ha looked up to see Jin-ho and Ha-rin trading blows back and forth against the rampaging skeletal knight.
Se-ha reached out his hands once more.
Shwoo——!
Boom!
Even in the middle of its rampage, the skeletal knight precisely blocked Se-ha’s attack.
Its burning eye sockets turned toward him.
It had registered Se-ha as the most irritating target.
Clop-clop!
“Whoa!”
The skeletal knight kicked off the ground with force.
Jin-ho tried to block its advance, but without his weight properly set, it wasn’t enough.
The moment the knight’s shadow fell over Se-ha—
Ting!
Da-hong cut in and knocked the sword aside once more.
“Da-hong!”
“Unni!”
“You’re really getting your money’s worth out of me, huh?”
“That one wasn’t intentional, I swear…!”
“Nice work, summon!”
Crunch!
Ha-rin’s axe, arriving a beat late, sheared off the knight’s shoulder blade.
The one on the side that had been holding the shield.
“Kraaagh!!”
The enraged skeletal knight swung its sword toward Ha-rin’s red hair.
But even that was blocked by a shield that darted in just in time.
“Keep it up just like this! We win as long as we hold out!”
Ha-rin shouted that and began supporting Jin-ho’s tanking.
The skeletal knight, as if sensing its own end, abandoned all defense and began thrashing wildly.
“Se-ha, let’s go too!”
“…!”
Not alone—*we*.
Se-ha’s eyes lit up with joy.
I-sol raised her sword and charged forward, and Se-ha clasped both hands together once more.
The momentum had shifted.
What had been a razor-thin fight at three against one began to tip sharply the moment Se-ha joined in.
Se-ha drew his mana to its limit and fired shot after shot.
Every time a mana shot connected, the skeletal knight reeled heavily, and right after, Ha-rin’s axe flashed and bone fragments flew.
They traded blows back and forth for a good while.
“Krgh….”
The skeletal knight opened its half-shattered jawbone and let out a slow, low groan.
Then, gradually, its body began to collapse.
Clatter, crash, clatter!
A heap of bones spilled to the ground.
The light faded from the skull’s eye sockets.
“…Is it over?”
Jin-ho said, gasping for breath.
I-sol poked at the pile of bones with the tip of her sword.
Nothing moved.
“Phew——!”
Ha-rin lowered her axe and let out a long breath.
Her hair was a mess, plastered down with sweat.
“We actually beat it!?”
“Hey! You can’t say that out loud!”
Ha-rin bumped her shoulder hard into Se-ha’s.
Se-ha staggered.
Despite her words, Ha-rin’s expression didn’t look annoyed in the slightest.
If anything, she looked pleased.
“But hey, turns out you can do it when you try, huh?”
“Uh, y-yeah?”
Ha-rin enthusiastically slapped Se-ha on the shoulder.
Se-ha was caught off guard by the sudden friendliness.
Ha-rin, who had been itching to tear into him at every turn—why was she suddenly acting like this…?
I-sol sheathed her sword and turned to look at Da-hong.
“Thank you. Unni.”
“It was nothing.”
Da-hong shrugged.
Se-ha stared blankly at the scattered pile of bones.
His first fight.
His first damage dealt.
His first time fighting alongside Team One.
“Heh….”
A laugh escaped him.
Ha-rin tapped his shoulder again.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Huh? Oh, just….”
The corners of Ha-rin’s mouth were turned up.
“Hurry up and grab the magic stone so we can get out. Ugh! What a pain this was!”
“Still, a B-minus monster showing up in a C-rank Gate means we’ll get proper credit for it.”
“Writing the report is going to be the real problem now.”
The mood among everyone had turned warm and easy.
Se-ha watched them and smiled.
At that moment.
Fwoosh.
The lantern went out.
“…?”
Se-ha shook the lantern.
It didn’t come back on.
“What? The battery should be fine?”
“Is it broken?”
But.
Fwoosh.
The other lanterns began going out one by one.
I-sol’s.
Jin-ho’s.
Ha-rin’s.
Complete darkness settled over them.
“Why is this….”
The temperature around them plummeted.
All at once.
The body that had been soaked in sweat just moments ago felt like it was freezing solid.
White breath misted from Se-ha’s lips.
He could feel mana draining away.
Ha-rin picked her axe back up.
“Han I-sol….”
“Shh.”
Everyone gripped their weapons tight.
Something was coming.
Something on an entirely different level from the skeletal knight.
And then.
Laughter rang out.
“Kuhahahaha——.”
“…!”
It felt like the blood in their bodies had gone ice cold.
“It has been a long time since I felt warmth.”
Two voices overlapped as one.
A voice brimming with life, and a voice utterly hollow—both at once.
Everyone turned in the same direction.
There was a black flame floating in the air.
No—looking more closely, it was a person in a robe.
Half of the face was nothing but bone.
The flame was rising from the empty eye socket.
A living body and a dead body coexisting in one form.
A being in the process of becoming a lich.
An S-rank monster.
A demi-lich.
“Hah….”
Jin-ho sucked in a sharp breath.
Aura of dread.
His body had shrunk back at the overwhelming presence before him.
And the same was true for Ha-rin and I-sol.
“H-how….”
The axe and sword began to tremble.
“Young, sturdy bodies. There is not a single one here that displeases me.”
The demi-lich stroked its fleshed jaw with a skeletal hand, as if delighted.
“Hm?”
Then it spotted Da-hong and narrowed its eyes.
“I sensed something unaffected by my aura—and here there is a demon.”
Step.
The demi-lich walked toward Da-hong.
Its corroded ceremonial robes dragged along the floor.
Red eyes and black eye-flame met.
“Tch, merely a lower demon…. Well, the appearance is not unpleasant. But this one would be useless even as experimental material.”
The demi-lich seemed to lose interest in Da-hong and turned its head away.
Clang!!
Ha-rin froze in place, axe mid-swing.
“Ngh…!”
“Oh? You can still move within my aura. Impressive.”
The demi-lich ran its hand along the massive axe blade hovering before its face.
“You have slain the most monsters here.”
“….”
“Decided.”
The demi-lich smiled in a way that made the skin crawl.
“As it happens, I was in need of a new body to inhabit. Young and fresh.”
“…!”
“The gender is a slight inconvenience, but. Not bad. The appearance suits my taste as well.”
“…Shut up! You disgusting creature…!”
“Kuhehe.”
The demi-lich let out an amused chuckle.
A bony hand slowly stroked Ha-rin’s jaw.
“I find myself curious what kind of screams your soul will make.”
“Stop!”
Se-ha shouted.
The demi-lich didn’t even acknowledge him.
“——Ngh!”
Ha-rin bit down hard on her lip and closed her eyes.
At the edges of her tightly shut eyelids, tears had gathered from sheer terror.
Just then.
Click.
Da-hong walked past the two of them.
“…?”
“…?”
The demi-lich and Ha-rin both stared blankly after Da-hong.
“…What are you doing?”
Da-hong didn’t answer.
Instead, she walked to a corner of the boss room and crouched down in front of something.
“…That is.”
“Mew~.”
A kitten.
No—not an ordinary cat.
A red gemstone was set into the cat’s forehead, a pair of small horns grew from its head, and tiny wings spread from its back.
“A Behemoth cub?”
Se-ha murmured.
“Cute.”
The Behemoth, apparently frightened of Da-hong, puffed up its fur and trembled.
“There, there.”
Da-hong slowly stroked the Behemoth.
“…Do not touch my specimen without permission. Demon.”
The demi-lich spoke in a low voice, clearly displeased.
“Is this yours?”
Da-hong said without taking her eyes off the Behemoth.
“…If it is.”
“Can I take it?”
Crash!
A black fireball detonated against Da-hong.
“Da-hong!”
Se-ha cried out.
“Insolent wretch. Had you stayed quiet, you might have kept your life.”
The demi-lich muttered.
But.
The smoke cleared.
“…What?”
“♪~”
Da-hong was humming to herself, tickling the Behemoth with her finger.
“Hiss——! Hiss——!”
The Behemoth had flopped onto its side and was threatening Da-hong’s finger with everything it had.
“Se-ha, let’s keep this one.”
“Da-hong…? That’s not a cat, you know?”
“That’s fine. I want this one.” Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Se-ha said it like it was absurd, but Da-hong’s mind was made up.
The demi-lich stared at the scene in blank disbelief before its expression twisted with fury.
“…How dare you! You mock me?”
Whoosh!
Dozens of magic circles materialized in the air.
Only then did Da-hong glance over at the demi-lich.
“Die!”
Whoosh——!!
All the magic circles blazed with light at once.
An explosion rang out.
The cavern filled with smoke.
“Aaagh——!!”
The team members couldn’t keep their footing.
“Kuhaha! How do you like that!?”
The demi-lich laughed loudly.
But….
Thwack!
The demi-lich’s face exploded outward.
A single small pebble had come flying.
Splatter.
As if time had been rewound, the shattered head restored itself.
“What…?”
Da-hong emerged from the smoke, holding the Behemoth.
Not a single strand of hair was out of place.
“…How—impossible! A mere lower demon…!”
“You’re noisy.”
Da-hong stroked the Behemoth’s back with a bored expression.
The Behemoth, clearly terrified, trembled but this time didn’t resist.
“What trick did you use! Answer me——!”
Slash!
The demi-lich’s head rolled off.
“Stop yelling. You smell like rot.”
“…?”
Its expression was one of pure disbelief.
The lich caught its falling head with one hand and set it back on its neck.
*What was that just now?
I couldn’t see it at all.*
The demi-lich’s heart beat.
“…?”
It was a heart that had stopped moving long ago.
And yet it was suddenly beating?
It felt an involuntary urge to swallow.
“…I see.”
This was curiosity.
Curiosity about magic it didn’t know, about the unknown.
Excitement at the prospect of capturing that demon and studying it!
“You…. You are no ordinary lower demon, are you?”
Da-hong still didn’t answer, and instead walked forward with steady, clicking steps.
“Kuhehe, it has been a long time since I felt this way.”
Far more magic circles than before spread open.
Da-hong lifted the Behemoth and set it on top of Se-ha’s head where he sat collapsed on the ground.
The Behemoth stayed still.
Se-ha blinked and looked up at Da-hong.
“Receive this——!”
Crash!
The demi-lich’s head slammed into the wall.
“…?”
The demi-lich barely managed to roll its eyes to assess the situation.
The original spot had been dozens of meters from the wall.
And yet somehow, it was now embedded in it.
“Krgh?”
The moment it tried to voice its confusion through its shattered jaw—
Crack——!
A massive fracture split through the cliff face.
Beneath a pale white fist, crushed fragments of skull crumbled and fell.
Boom!
Black mana exploded.
The demi-lich’s body was swallowed by smoke and vanished, only to reappear far away.
“Hah…! Useless! My body——!”
Thwack!
A massive hole was punched through its torso.
“Kugh…!”
Black blood rose in the demi-lich’s throat.
The demi-lich frantically waved its hands.
Magic circles deployed again.
Black lightning rained down wildly toward Da-hong.
Da-hong dodged every bolt and closed in on the demi-lich at blinding speed.
Thud.
With a sound like something being driven in, the lich’s vision was swallowed by darkness.
Da-hong’s hand blade had been driven into its face.
The demi-lich stumbled back.
Clatter.
Bone fragments reconnected as the demi-lich regenerated.
“Kuhehe, kuhahahaha——!”
The demi-lich forced out a laugh.
“Useless! No matter how many times you break my body——!”
Slash!
The body split into hundreds of pieces.
Regenerated.
“As long as my Life Vessel exists, I cannot die! Unless you find it——!”
Crash——!!
The chest was obliterated.
Regenerated.
Crack——!!
The skull burst.
Regenerated.
Whoosh——!!
The entire body burned away to nothing.
Regenerated.
“Stop!!! Stop it! This is meaningless! No matter what you do…!”
But Da-hong didn’t stop.
Crash——!!
Crash——!!
The laughter drained from the demi-lich’s voice.
What if.
Just maybe.
What if, by some remote chance.
If it kept dying like this.
And the life force stored in the Life Vessel ran completely dry.
Then what would happen to it?
“…Wait, demon!”
Thwack——!!
“Let us talk…!”
Crash——!!
Died.
Regenerated.
Died.
Regenerated.
Died.
Regenerated.
Died.
Regenerated.
“Hah…!”
The demi-lich collapsed to the floor.
Regenerated.
But.
It was slower.
Noticeably slower than before.
The demi-lich grew desperate.
“Stop! I will give you the Behemoth! So please, just stop…!”
Da-hong looked down at it.
“You want me to stop?”
“Yes, I’m begging you. So please…!”
“No.”
Da-hong grinned.
“Kraaagh!”
Crack.
From somewhere, the faint sound of something fracturing.
“Stop——!!!!”
Crash——!!
Regenerated.
Crash——!!
Regenerated.
Regenerated.
Regenerated.
Regenerated.
And then.
Slower.
Even slower.
“Impossible…. The life force in the Life Vessel…!?”
Clang——
The demi-lich went rigid.
“…Ah.”
The flame on the skeletal side of its face went out.
The light vanished from its eyes.
“This… this can’t be…. I… I have lived for hundreds of years….”
The demi-lich slowly crumbled.
Where the demi-lich had stood, only black ash and a filthy ceremonial robe remained.