Rimgorg’s battle-axe fell with enough force to split the earth.
The king of the Ogres swung the hammer in his hand and struck it away.
BOOM!
Along with a roar loud enough to split the eardrums, the blade of the battle-axe vibrated.
WHOOOSH!
The Ogre Lord brought its forearm down like another hammer, and Rimgorg was knocked back, sent flying.
The moment the Ogre Lord tried to follow up by crushing him with its hammer, Rimgorg sprang to his feet and rammed the lord with his forehead.
THWACK!
Even after receiving a powerful impact to the jaw, the Ogre Lord grinned.
Rimgorg possessed abnormal strength, enough to crush ordinary Ogres, but the durability of that Ogre Lord, exceptional even among Ogres, was on an entirely different level.
WHOOSH!
The Ogre Lord swung its pillar-like foot like an iron mace, and Rimgorg, struck by that blow, flew away while spraying blood.
GRRRRAAAAAR!
Rimgorg was also different from ordinary Orcs. Even after taking considerable damage, perhaps because his thick neck had absorbed the shock, he forced himself back to his feet.
He grinned in the same way. Of course, with his teeth broken and blood streaming from his nose, he did not look good.
“He has a temper.”
It was a detail that showed why he could be recognized as a competitor for Overlord’s Talent.
What was surprising was that, judging from the state of his teeth, he was still a growing Orc.
If one gauged his ultimate growth potential, it meant that the Orc chosen by Overlord’s Talent had a higher peak than the Ogre Lord currently enjoying its prime.
He certainly had the qualities to be called an Orc Warlord.
Of course, even so, considering that he had been preserved inside a Gate and had a record left behind in the Tower, he must have failed to fulfill his will and ended up subordinated.
In truth, that was none of Jeong Hyeon-su’s concern.
WHOOSH!
Rimgorg was reckless as he emitted a fiery battle aura, a power that Hunters called mana and the knights and warriors of the fantasy worlds encountered within Gates called aura.
With peerless strength, he revealed a fighting spirit that showed why the opportunity of the Overlord had been given to him.
However.
BOOOOM!
“Tsk.”
It was easy enough to understand.
It was good that he charged in without looking back and did not retreat even before the strong.
THUD!
But even so, when an egg struck a rock, the only thing that happened was that the egg broke.
Jeong Hyeon-su had never lived that way. In his previous life, his alias had been the Dark King.
Although he had been stabbed in the back by Seon Woo-hyeon and killed at the very end, he was not the type to fight a battle he was going to lose in the first place.
One had to destroy the enemy decisively, but keep the odds of victory in mind, dig in relentlessly for that victory, and retreat when it was time to retreat.
Only survival was strength.
Even with the trait Overlord’s Talent on the line, if it truly seemed absurdly impossible, he would naturally give it up.
After being sent flying by the Ogre Lord’s powerful punch, Rimgorg’s reactions gradually slowed.
“Hey, pig.”
Jeong Hyeon-su, who had been watching for a moment, stepped forward. The Ogre Lord stopped when it saw Jeong Hyeon-su dragging his lowered zanbato along the ground.
“I am talking to you, bastard.”
The Ogre Lord snorted.
Rimgorg was also growling, but Jeong Hyeon-su ignored him completely and immediately closed the distance with the Ogre Lord.
Sensing that something was unusual, the Ogre Lord reacted.
BOOM!
Jeong Hyeon-su simply hurled the zanbato.
There was not much force behind it.
The Ogre Lord seemed to think the same, and the moment it tried to knock it away from the front…
WHOOSH!
Jeong Hyeon-su reached out his hand.
It was a method martial artists called the Seizing-Hand Technique. The attack coiled in like a snake, and the Ogre Lord was caught in a counter-motion.
That was because he had aimed at the opening by taking the moment the thrown zanbato would strike and the moment the Ogre Lord would try to respond, then linking them into a single breath.
The Ogre Lord had no choice but to make a decision.
It would ignore the paper-thin body of the human.
It was the moment it tried to knock away the flying zanbato.
CRACK.
Jeong Hyeon-su’s fist, concentrated with the Heavenly Tyrant Ghost King Art.
The attack of the human it had looked down upon struck its elbow, and pain followed.
The bodies of humans and Ogres were different. However, as long as they were living creatures, weaknesses existed.
Furthermore, because it handled battle aura, the vital meridian points spoken of by human martial artists clearly existed as well, and those also served as weaknesses.
THUNK!
Jeong Hyeon-su’s mana, embedded in the area of the elbow where battle aura condensed, seeped into the Ogre’s interior.
It was a principle that martial artists commonly called Penetrating Force.
Penetrating Force followed the Seizing-Hand Technique, which had been timed perfectly.
Thanks to that, the Ogre Lord’s reaction was forcibly delayed, and the zanbato he had thrown became embedded in its shoulder as well.
GRAAAAAAAAR!
Jeong Hyeon-su had no need to pull it out himself.
The Ogre Lord, seized by rage after allowing itself to be attacked by a human no different from a single meal, used its other hand to pull out the embedded zanbato and swing it.
Jeong Hyeon-su, who had naturally expected it to do exactly that, had already dodged.
Im Hyeon-min was at a loss for words.
Even as he launched Fireballs for support fire, he could not understand how Jeong Hyeon-su could strike and withdraw so precisely, delivering definite damage each time.
Armed with a powerful body and innate belligerence, the Ogre kept attacking even while gushing blood, but it was clear that its reaction speed had slowed.
In the meantime, the Ogre rampaged violently.
GRRAAAAH!
Jeong Hyeon-su naturally predicted and dodged the attack it launched with its intact arm.
In the gap created afterward, Jeong Hyeon-su stepped on the Ogre’s knee and leaped.
Like a rocket being launched, Jeong Hyeon-su slammed his forehead into the Ogre’s jaw.
THWACK!
When the jaw joint was struck, the brain usually shook.
However, against an Ogre packed with a tough oral structure, sturdy bones, and dense muscles, it did not do much damage.
“Damn it.”
Im Hyeon-min thought that disaster had finally struck.
The Ogre brought down the elbow of its intact arm. It looked as though Jeong Hyeon-su could never block it.
Just as Im Hyeon-min was about to chant a binding spell to save Jeong Hyeon-su…
CRAAAAACK!
The Ogre’s left shoulder was torn clean away.
“Wh-what is that…?”
The scene was so absurd that his spell nearly fell apart.
At the exact moment the elbow came down, Jeong Hyeon-su precisely diverted the attack, then aimed at the opening created by it and tore apart the wound in the Ogre’s shoulder entirely.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAGH!
A scream mixed with rage and pain swept across the brutal battlefield.
It was a deep wound, to the point that the inner structure of the shoulder cartilage and bones could be seen. The Ogre thrashed about from the wound created by the Tyrant Heaven Energy Jeong Hyeon-su had condensed when he tore it open.
It was the result of supremely seasoned combat management.
“Whew.”
But the person in question was still dissatisfied.
Whether it was the boss of a B-Rank Gate or whatever else, he deeply disliked the current state of his body, which made his breath run hot in a fight against such a creature.
Of course, that thought lasted only for a moment.
“It is about time to finish this, is it not?”
The Ogre Lord’s rage had soared to its limit. As if proving it, battle aura fierce enough to make the skin sting was swirling in every direction.
The vast quantity of battle aura showed why the Ogre Lord was a lord. It was clear to see that it was preparing a final blow by condensing all of it into one and releasing it.
— This is enough. Retreat.
Im Hyeon-min’s Magic Voice reached Jeong Hyeon-su’s ears.
A calamity-like blow was about to fall. There was no one who could not predict it.
Ogre Blaster!
It was a blow said to be used only by powerful Ogres.
The condensed battle aura alone made it hard to breathe. Even among the final bosses of B-Rank Gates, it seemed to be at the very top.
A single trajectory was drawn.
THUD! THUD!
It charged forward, shattering the ground. It carried ultimate destructive power, as if it would sweep away everything in a straight line.
Even as the blow flashed forward, gouging trenches into the ground, Jeong Hyeon-su paid it no heed and simply stood there calmly.
“What on earth is he doing?”
“Could it be Mana Exhaustion?”
At his subordinate’s words, Im Hyeon-min prepared binding magic again. He intended to bind Jeong Hyeon-su and drag him away to save him.
If Garam’s successor and currently the hottest Hunter in Korea died here, the aftermath would be difficult to bear.
Fortunately, just as his magic was about to reach Jeong Hyeon-su…
“Hm?”
Im Hyeon-min discovered a missile falling from the sky.
A missile?
Why would something like that suddenly appear in a fantasy world?
He wondered if he had seen it wrong, but the thing falling down was definitely a missile.
BOOOOOM!
Soon after, an explosion erupted.
But something was different.
It was not a powerful burst of flame that swallowed the surrounding area.
However.
“Uh, uh…?”
Im Hyeon-min realized that the magic he had chanted to save Jeong Hyeon-su had vanished.
Not only that, but every spell cast by the raid party he had led was being nullified.
Naturally, the same applied to anything that used mana as its source.
The Ogre Blaster released by the Ogre had disappeared without a trace of its majestic force.
Im Hyeon-min opened his mouth as he looked at the Ogre, which had been left with only its fist thrust out.
“A… ANP?”
No matter how one looked at it, this was ANP. It was a terrible item that was nothing short of poison to mages, so there was no way he would fail to recognize it.
However……
‘How on earth does that bastard have that……?’
That was how difficult ANP was to acquire.
It was something that should only barely appear as a reward above the fortieth floor of the Tower or in dungeons above S-Rank.
Im Hyeon-min had not even imagined that Jeong Hyeon-su had brazenly extorted it from a Gate.
However, the Ogre Lord was just as flustered. Its decisive one-hit-kill strike had been neutralized by a single ANP, and of course, Jeong Hyeon-su did not leave that alone.
WHOOOOSH!
His own mana had also been blown away, but Jeong Hyeon-su’s zanbato split the air.
Ogre Blaster was a one-hit-kill skill. Naturally, a backlash followed and left the user unable to fight, so there was no way for the Ogre Lord to respond.
SLASH.
It was the moment when the pure physical body he had trained until now shone.
Of course, it did not meet the Dark King’s standards, but the zanbato he swung with all his might severed the Ogre Lord’s neck.
Since the final boss of the Gate had died, the clear was naturally as good as secured.
“The Margrave has arrived!”
“It is the knight order!”
Soon after, countless warhorses appeared from behind the gorge.
This had been designed so that while defending, at the moment of despair, the Margrave would arrive like that.
But before they could even taste that despair, Im Hyeon-min could only click his tongue at the unprecedented result created by a single man.
‘That bastard is insane.’
And that insane bastard……
Carrying the Ogre Lord’s head, he walked toward Rimgorg, who was rolling on the ground.
“We still have business left between us, do we not?”
Rimgorg growled.
Looking at Rimgorg as he revealed his battle aura, Jeong Hyeon-su said, “Give up.”
As if he naturally had no intention of doing so, Rimgorg raised his battle aura, and Jeong Hyeon-su threw a tremendous punch at him.