Night Crawler (6)

“You there, naga woman! What’s your name?”

“And you, human man, what’s your name?”

The nagas interrogated both Shati and Azadine.

“Her name is Shati…”

Azadine said while subtly pressuring her, tightening his arms around her as he held her.

In that moment, Shati realized just how foolish her earlier thoughts of strangling Azadine with her tail or body had been. His grip alone made her feel like she would be crushed.

‘What kind of monstrous strength does this warm-blooded creature have?! He’s terrifying!’

With no choice, Shati used the name of a fellow sorcerer who had died during Azadine’s raid on the Count’s fortress.

“He is Kapella.”

“Kapella and Shati, you say…”

“So they’re the ones sent to Count Salasma? Just as we thought!”

“What’s going on here? And who were the ones shooting arrows from behind?”

“More importantly, there’s this…”

Azadine placed a longsword on the ground. However, he didn’t let go of the dagger concealed in his hand. Instead, he reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book.

The moment the nagas saw the luminous white paper, they gasped in awe.

“The Heavenly King’s Book!”

“A copy of it!”

“Yes, I came here to deliver this to you.”

As the nagas focused their attention on the Heavenly King’s Book, Azadine subtly lowered his head.

“Everyone, get down!”

Shati screamed a warning, but it was too late.

Swiik!

Azadine hurled arrows at the nagas.

The naga youths hastily tried to defend themselves, but one of them, standing too close to Azadine, was struck directly in the head by an arrow. Another raised a shield to block the attack, but the arrow pierced through the shield and embedded itself in their face.

“Gah!”

The arrows were glowing blue. Azadine had used Blue Steel Arrow, acquired from the Emperor’s Messenger Nefti, to penetrate the nagas’ defenses. Even though the arrowheads had dulled from prior use, the Blue Steel Arrow still pierced their shields like paper and deeply injured the naga youths.

“Kyaah!”

Shati bared her fangs and raised her claws to attack, but Azadine swung his hidden dagger, striking her jaw.

Crack!

Shati’s fangs broke, and blood sprayed as the blow knocked her down. Despite being larger than a human, the naga couldn’t withstand Azadine’s strike and fell heavily to the ground.

“Ugh!”

Scott McGreen, the orc necromancer, had already suspected Azadine’s intentions and reacted quickly.

“Ghoul!”

The ghoul—a corpse transformed by a malevolent spirit—charged at Azadine on all fours. But as the ghoul lunged, Azadine picked up the longsword he had placed on the ground and swung it, sending the creature flying to the side.

‘Impossible!’

Scott wheeled himself backward. His necromancy-powered wheelchair slid rapidly as he retreated. He raised a barrier of undead around him to block Azadine’s approach.

Or so he thought.

A longsword came hurtling toward him in a straight line. Azadine had thrown the sword with such force that it resembled a ballista bolt, its trajectory deadly and unyielding. If it hit, it would skewer him straight through.

‘Damn it!’

Scott’s undead minions moved to intercept the flying sword, but they weren’t fast enough. Their sluggish movements couldn’t keep up with the speed of the attack.

At that moment, a shadow emerged from behind Scott.

[Kraaah!]

It was the Night Crawler. The massive shadow wraith swung its claws, deflecting Azadine’s thrown sword.

“This again.”

Azadine grimaced at the Night Crawler’s flawless interception.

‘Any normal necromancer would’ve been dead after the first arrow attack. Yet he survived that, and now this? That shadow wraith… it’s been troubling me since I first saw it. It’s unbelievably strong. What should I do?’

But then, something strange happened. The orc’s face turned a deeper green, and the shadow wraith suddenly grabbed his head and lifted him into the air.

[The debt is due, Scott McGreen! It’s time to pay the price!]

“N-no!”

Scott tried to chant a spell, but the wraith opened its mouth wide and swallowed him whole.

“…What?”

Azadine, watching from a distance, was taken aback by the sudden turn of events.

[Kahahahaha!]

The shadow wraith’s form grew darker and more solid.

‘So that’s how it works. It absorbs the caster into its body to use as a power source for manifesting fully in this world.’

Azadine realized that the orc had been consumed as a source of magic for the wraith’s sustained presence. Summoning spells, especially those that brought beings from another realm, often required a living caster as a conduit. This shadow wraith, being both a malevolent spirit and a demonic entity, demanded such a sacrifice to remain in this world. Once its debt was unpaid, it devoured the caster.

[Now despair, human!]

The empowered shadow wraith unleashed a thick, oppressive darkness that enveloped the nearby undead.

“Kyaaah!”

“Graaah!”

The darkness wrapped around the undead, forming armor and muscles for their bodies.

Azadine, seeing the wraith’s massive form grow even more imposing, quickly turned to flee. There was no reason to waste strength fighting such a powerful entity, especially since it wouldn’t remain stable for long.

‘I couldn’t figure out what the nagas are up to here, but there’s no point in exhausting myself further. I’m still not fully healed.’

As Azadine fled, the nagas also began retreating. The nagas Azadine had shot in the face weren’t dead—their kind could only be killed by destroying the brain entirely.

Similarly, Shati, whose fang had been broken by Azadine’s dagger, got back on her feet and ran after him with all her might.

“Huff… Azahdin!”

Shati called out his name in the old Aragasa dialect. Her broken fang caused her to lisp, but Azadine was shocked to hear her call his name.

At that moment, the shadow wraith trailing behind lunged toward one of the nagas lagging behind Azadine.

“Tch!”

Azadine hurled his dagger backward, aiming for the Night Crawler’s core—the heart that still held the orc necromancer. As expected, the wraith overreacted and blocked the dagger.

“Scatter and run!”

Azadine yelled at the nagas to flee and bolted forward himself. Shati ran after him, while the other nagas kept their distance, creating space between themselves and Azadine. Once they were far enough, the nagas began chanting a spell.

“Ah!”

Ahead of Azadine, thick thorny vines sprouted from the ground. Though only calf-high, the brambles were covered in sharp thorns that clung to fabric and flesh, creating an effective obstacle.

‘Oh, so that’s how you want to play? Fine, keep it up—I’m better at this game than you are!’

Azadine adjusted his direction to avoid the brambles.

While the Night Crawler chased after Azadine, the undead wrapped in shadows veered toward the nagas.

“Ugh!”

“Damn it!”

The injured nagas found themselves surrounded by the undead. They initially dismissed the creatures as ordinary zombies and drew their large curved swords to attack.

Clang!

The sound of steel rang out as their blades struck the undead.

“What?!”

“This is bad!”

The black shadows coating the undead acted as armor, deflecting the swords. The shadow-clad undead charged at the nagas, plunging them into chaos.

‘Well, I can leave the nagas to the undead. That just leaves….’

Azadine turned his attention to Shati, who was running after him, and the Night Crawler closing in behind her.

“H-help me!”

Shati cried out to Azadine.

“What? Are you out of your mind?”

She had just betrayed him, yet now she was asking for his help? Azadine was dumbfounded by her audacity but, for reasons even he didn’t fully understand, decided to help. He unstrapped the Moon Horn Bow from his waist and strung it.

“Hey, undead!”

Azadine drew an arrow—a black steel bolt he had once fired at Ject—and nocked it. To Shati’s shock, he then pulled out a copy of the Heavenly King’s Book and wrapped its pages around the arrow.

“Let’s see if you can despair now, undead!”

Azadine fired the black steel arrow. It shot forth with terrifying speed, aimed directly at the Night Crawler’s heart—the orc necromancer’s core.

Thwack!

The Night Crawler raised its arm to block the arrow, but the black steel bolt shattered its arm and drove straight into its body.

[Khah!?]

The Night Crawler reeled from the impact, staggered, and fell backward.

“Gahk!”

From within the wraith’s heart, the orc necromancer emerged, coughing and gasping for air.

“Ugh…”

“Good. It’s working.”

Azadine pulled out another page from the Heavenly King’s Book, gripping it tightly as he charged at the wraith.

[You fool! Do you think you can simply hit me with the Heavenly King’s Book like some common spellbook?]

The Night Crawler absorbed the surrounding darkness to regenerate its shattered arm and tried to engulf the exposed orc necromancer back into its core.

But Azadine swept his cloak toward the orc’s position and struck with a resounding blow.

Thunderous Strike of the Clear Sky! Kazas Grimoire!

A technique meant for scattering swarms of vermin or rats, it gained an added potency when enhanced by the Heavenly King’s Book, unleashing white energy that disrupted the darkness.

[Arrgh! How reckless!]

“Orc!”

Azadine grabbed the necromancer’s arm, yanking him free from the Night Crawler’s chest.

“Use your strength! What good are muscles if you don’t use them?!”

“Ugh, but… my muscles grow too much….”

Despite his complaints, the orc gritted his teeth and used his strength to help Azadine pull him free from the wraith.

“Grr!”

As the orc escaped, the Night Crawler, having lost its power source, began to weaken rapidly.

“Banish it, now!”

Azadine barked the order. The orc formed hand seals and chanted.

“The debt has been paid! Begone, Night Crawler!”

The wraith let out countless tortured screams.

[Kyaaah!]

[No!]

[This isn’t over!]

The Night Crawler lashed out one last time, aiming at Azadine and the orc, but Azadine grabbed the orc by the collar and leaped out of its reach.

The wraith’s final thrashings faded, and its form dissolved into nothingness. With its disappearance, the shadow armor and muscles surrounding the undead dissipated as well, reducing them to ordinary corpses.

The nagas used the opportunity to leap over the now-defenseless undead and flee.

“We’ll remember this, traitor!”

“Betrayer!”

They cursed Shati as they ran.

“Ugh, no! That’s not true!”

Shati was livid with frustration. She had done everything she could to help—risking her life and even breaking a fang in the process. Yet to the nagas, she was nothing more than a traitor to her kind.

‘Might as well have Azadine shoot them with his bow and finish them off….’

The thought crossed her mind, but Azadine seemed more interested in dealing with the orc necromancer.

“Ah, what bad timing. Looks like I’m out of arrows,”

Azadine muttered casually as he helped the orc to his feet.