“Keep the Captain covered!” Kweiv shouted, reminding the others.
Kweiv charged forward first.
With Adrian absent, Kweiv had become the strongest person in the group after the Captain.
He drew all four blades and shot forward like an arrow, his momentum as swift as the wind and as fierce as lightning.
“Blade Tempest: Sixteenfold Slash!”
Kweiv stomped against the ground and instantly leaped into the air.
He moved so quickly that not even a speck of dust had time to rise from the ground.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared behind the Mountain Demon and unleashed an incredibly rapid barrage of sword strikes toward its arms.
For a moment, blades flashed in every direction.
Cold silver sword light surrounded the Mountain Demon’s body, blood spraying through the air.
Blinding streaks of light lingered in the darkness like phantom blades, creating a terrifying spectacle.
Unfortunately, the Mountain Demon’s wounds quickly healed.
“I never realized it before, but this chef actually has such incredible swordsmanship?!” Elik stared at Kweiv in amazement.
He had personally experienced the terrifying toughness of the Mountain Demon’s body just now.
His own attacks could only leave behind faint white marks, yet Kweiv had managed to carve so many wounds into it.
“I want that many arms too.
They look really cool.”
Lucas walked over beside Elik and smacked his lips.
“They’d certainly make chopping vegetables much easier!” Kweiv laughed.
He used the force generated by the Mountain Demon’s swing to leap back to the ground.
“It’s right behind you, Kweiv!” Elik shouted.
Kweiv’s previous attack had completely enraged the Mountain Demon.
After entering its second stage, its speed had increased dramatically.
It took only a few steps for it to reach Kweiv, who was talking with his companions.
Kweiv could already feel the cold wind against the back of his neck.
He tried to turn around, but it was already too late.
The enormous spiked club was only a few centimeters from his head.
Everyone stared in horror, unable to imagine what the scene would look like after the blow landed.
It would undoubtedly be gruesome.
“Finisher coming through!”
Just then, a figure seemed to vanish from sight before suddenly appearing beside the Mountain Demon.
He grabbed the Mountain Demon from the side and leaped into the air.
“What?!”
Everyone was stunned.
Kweiv was drenched in cold sweat.
He turned around and his eyes widened even further at the sight.
Valsa, standing just over two meters tall, had wrapped his arms around the Mountain Demon, which was more than twenty meters tall.
He soared dozens of meters into the air with it, spinning two and a half times before reaching the peak of his jump.
[The Show Stopper]!
Valsa’s eyes widened fiercely.
Every muscle in his body bulged, veins standing out as he gathered all his strength.
Then, like Mount Tai crashing down from the heavens, he slammed the Mountain Demon toward the ground.
“CRUSH!!!”
BOOM!!!
A tremendous explosion rang out.
Huge rocks continued collapsing from the walls of the crater, while the earth split apart in all directions.
A massive crater appeared amid the clouds of dust.
“It’s not over yet!”
[Haymaker]!
The next moment, golden light erupted from Valsa’s body.
His fist carried an overwhelming force as he punched forward with everything he had.
BANG!!!
A colossal shockwave swept outward, sending everyone stumbling backward.
“No matter how many times I see the Captain use this move, it still shocks me!”
“Yeah!
It’s ridiculously powerful!
He doesn’t even seem human!”
As for the Mountain Spirits who were witnessing such a scene for the first time, their eyes nearly bulged out of their heads.
What kind of monster did we actually invite to help us…?
The dust gradually cleared.
Valsa stood tall, his black hair whipping wildly around him, an overwhelming aura of dominance radiating from his entire body.
Opposite him, a huge hole had been blasted through the center of the Mountain Demon’s body.
All of its internal organs within the center had vanished.
There wasn’t even any blood flowing from the wound.
The instant [Haymaker] struck, everything inside had been vaporized.
“It’s unbelievable.
We couldn’t even scratch this monster despite putting all our strength into it, yet the Captain actually blasted a hole straight through its body.”
“That’s you.
I carved several wounds into it.”
Kweiv glanced sideways at Elik with a teasing smile.
“Damn it!
What good does that do?!
It heals in a second!”
Under Kweiv’s mocking gaze, Elik immediately exploded in protest.
“You couldn’t even break through its defenses…”
“You—!”
“Hahahahaha!”
Seeing that the threat had disappeared, everyone finally relaxed.
The Mountain Spirits, meanwhile, were already in tears of joy.
The threat that had plagued their race for countless years had finally been eliminated!
Valsa stared at the Mountain Demon quietly for a while longer.
Only after completely confirming that there was no trace of life left did he turn and leave.
The Mountain Spirit Chief was overcome with emotion.
Tears filled his eyes as he dropped to his knees before Valsa.
“Captain!
Thank you for eliminating the calamity that has plagued the Mountain Spirit race for thousands of years!”
The Mountain Spirits’ attitude toward Valsa was no longer simply that of treating him as a friend.
There was now an immense amount of respect in their eyes.
It wasn’t merely because Valsa had eliminated the disaster that had tormented them.
It was also because they feared his overwhelming strength.
If Valsa wanted to, he could easily sweep through the entire island without suffering the slightest injury.
Valsa frowned.
With one hand, he directly grabbed the Chief by the collar and lifted him up.
“I don’t like seeing people bowing like this.”
“Yes… yes!”
The Chief hurriedly lowered his head and nodded.
…
Dawn broke.
A pale white glow appeared along the horizon as the mist within the crater gradually dispersed.
Everyone could finally see the full appearance of the place.
It was a massive pit with dust-covered black stone covering the ground and dark-red cliffs surrounding it.
White bones were scattered everywhere across the bottom.
“I was just about to ask.
Forget how strong this thing was—how did something with this level of intelligence manage to drive your entire race to such a desperate situation?
It’s hard for me to believe.”
The Chief stammered.
“This… uh, I’m not sure either.
That’s what’s recorded in our historical records.
In theory, they should possess the intelligence of an ordinary person.
Perhaps they lost it after being sealed for such a long time…”
Valsa thought about it for a moment before nodding.
He accepted the explanation.
Besides, this thing wasn’t particularly powerful.
It hadn’t even posed as much of a threat to him as the giant shark had.
To date, there still hadn’t been a creature capable of taking one of Valsa’s [Haymaker] punches head-on.
“Since everything here has been resolved, let’s head back,” Ang Lance suggested.
“Mm… This place is completely barren, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything worth searching for.
Let’s go back.”
Soon, news spread throughout the tribe that the disaster the Mountain Spirits had feared for generations had been completely eliminated by the outsiders.
Everyone celebrated.
They brought out their finest aged liquor and all kinds of ingredients from their homes, preparing to hold a massive feast in the village square.
The Chief invited Valsa and his crew to join them.
Naturally, they had no reason to refuse.
Adrian soon arrived with the remaining dozens of crew members as well.
When he heard that the Captain and the other officers had encountered such a powerful enemy, he kept complaining about why they had made him stay behind to guard the ships.
His complaints had everyone laughing.
The feast continued in full swing.
After this battle, the members of the Overlord Pirates had become eternal friends of the Mountain Spirit race.
Towering trees spread their branches overhead like enormous parasols, so even when the feast continued into midday, nobody felt the slightest bit of heat.
“Not bad!
This is good liquor!”
Valsa picked up a wooden cup and took a sip.
“Of course!
This is liquor our Mountain Spirit race has brewed for hundreds of years!”
The Chief sat on a wooden stool beside several oak barrels and glass bottles covered in strange inscriptions.
The liquor Valsa was drinking came from those very containers.
The Mountain Spirits had named it Wave-Song Wine.
“To sing proudly into the wind atop towering waves—that is the spirit of a true hero of the sea who commands the storm!”
◇ THE STORY DOESN’T END HERE…
◇
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