Temple Of The Serpent (3)

Once again, the Count stepped forward, shielding the Nagas with his body.

The moment the first arrow exploded, a second arrow followed, flying to the exact same spot. It was nearly tailing the first arrow, timed to strike right when the Count’s magic detonated the initial arrow.

‘Nice attempt! But still!’

The Count’s magic condensed, and the second arrow also exploded.

“Haha! Ah?!”

The Count laughed, but a third arrow immediately flew to the same spot. Before the magical barrier could fully form, the arrow struck the Count square in the mouth.

“Good!”

Azadine cheered, but the Count rolled backward and stood up again.

“Hahaha. Impressive. Truly remarkable, Messenger Clan. Such incredible skill!”

Although the Count’s mouth had been torn, a snake’s tongue soon emerged from within.

-Crack, crack!

His body began to twist and transform.

“It hurts! It hurts! A human would have died!”

“……”

The Count started transforming into a Naga with gleaming white scales. Meanwhile, Azadine grew increasingly frustrated.

‘Damn it. I should’ve aimed for the other Nagas.’

Azadine had fired to test whether the Count could block three consecutive shots, emptying his quiver in the process. Now, the Count was not only unscathed but also transforming into a massive, four-armed monstrosity, far larger than the other Nagas.

Standing upright, his upper body alone was the size of an ogre. Although his mouth bore the scar Azadine had left, the injury was only a deep cut to him, not fatal.

“You’ve wounded me. Be proud, Messenger!”

The Count grabbed a massive greatsword leaning against the wall—a weapon likely beyond the limits of what a human could wield. Holding it in one hand, he lifted a bronze torch stand with the other, using it as a spear to strike at Azadine.

The idol’s height would normally place Azadine out of reach, but the Count’s immense size allowed his attacks to connect. Azadine flipped through the air, dodging the strike, and performed a feat mid-air, securing his bow to his waist.

“Impressive!”

The Count was visibly excited by Azadine’s agility.

‘This is bad. I’m out of arrows. What now?’

The idol was no longer a safe vantage point.

The Nagas were casting spells, the mummies were steadily rising, and remaining here any longer was both meaningless and dangerous.

It was time to retreat. By climbing back up the way he had come, he could use the terrain to escape the mummies, as they were too clumsy to follow.

But if he did that…

‘The refugees will die.’

If the army emerged from this underground passage, the refugee camp outside would be their first target. The drought-displaced refugees in Salasma would be slaughtered, their blood feeding the undead army.

The mummies seemed to require large amounts of blood to activate, as evidenced by how the blood from the Pits of Despair strengthened their bodies.

“No choice then!”

Azadine leapt down from the idol, landing on the ground below.

“Haha! How bold! You intend to fight rather than run?”

The Count marveled at Azadine’s courage in abandoning a high ground advantage.

“Let’s see what you can do!”

The Count swung his sword, but Azadine dodged it with precise movements.

-“The Art of Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon—Twilight, from Kazas’ Grimoire!”

Azadine used the Messenger Clan’s signature illusionary technique, weaving multiple shadows through sheer body movements to evade the Count’s strikes.

-“The Art of Flower, Bird, Wind, and Moon—Dusk, from Kazas’ Grimoire!”

He closed the distance in an instant, but the Count blocked the strike with the bronze torch stand.

-Clang!

Azadine’s blade slashed through the bronze stand, sparks flying, and then cut into the Count’s torso. However, the Count retaliated by swinging his massive Naga tail, striking Azadine. Blood splattered as Azadine was hurled into the air.

“Hah!”

The Count admired Azadine’s skill. Despite being struck, Azadine had minimized the impact by twisting his body mid-air.

-Thud!

Azadine flipped in the air, regained his balance, and landed safely. However…

-Drip…

Blood trickled from Azadine’s nose. To the Count, it had felt like a harmless tap, but to Azadine, it was akin to colliding with a charging bull. Even though he had lessened the impact, it wasn’t without consequence.

“Hmm.”

Azadine wiped the blood from his nose and inspected his blade.

The edge was dulled.

Though it had cut through the bronze stand and scored the Count’s torso, the Count’s scales had only suffered minor tears. While the injury would have been fatal to a human, it was nothing significant to the massive Naga.

‘This sword served me well. I should’ve brought more, but I couldn’t carry many weapons during a stealth mission.’

While Azadine usually had his Kerim goat carry an abundance of weapons, he was limited during infiltration. Of course, if Azadine died here, the stockpile of weapons would be meaningless.

As Azadine fought the Count, the Naga sorcerers succeeded in raising about eight mummy soldiers.

-Growl!

“Assist the Count!”

The sorcerers directed the newly awakened mummies toward Azadine.

The mummies charged at him, wielding crude iron blades, their bodies emanating a black mist of curses. The curse of weakness spread as the mummies advanced.

“Damn it!”

Azadine slid across the ground, dodging the attack of a charging mummy soldier, and slashed its torso with his sword. However, it felt more like cutting through a sack of sand. Despite its side being severed, the mummy soldier turned back toward him, its wounds rapidly filled and sealed by absorbed blood.

The blood used to create the Pits of Despair was clearly meant to fuel the mummy soldiers.

‘Damn it! My sword….’

While Azadine glanced at his weapon, another mummy soldier lunged at him, leaving him no time to dodge. In desperation, he kicked the charging mummy soldier away.

Upon contact with the cursed creature, dark magic seeped into Azadine’s body.

-Bang!

The sheer force of Azadine’s kick nearly ripped the mummy soldier’s spine from its body, but Azadine wasn’t left unscathed.

“Ugh!”

Fortunately, Azadine’s innate resistance to magic protected him from serious harm. Even so, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the mummy soldiers was unwise.

“Hmm!”

The Count stepped back to avoid harming his carefully created mummy soldiers. As a massive Naga, his involvement in the battle could easily crush his own soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Naga sorcerers continued to awaken more mummy soldiers.

‘I need to stop the spellcasters….’

Azadine dodged the advancing mummy soldiers and moved toward the Nagas. However, the Nagas, now in their serpentine forms, slithered agilely between the soldiers, continuing to chant spells and raise more undead.

‘It’s too dangerous to keep fighting here. But retreating….’

Azadine glanced up at the wall he had climbed earlier. The Count, now of monstrous size, could strike him off the wall with his torch stand or greatsword faster than he could climb.

As the mummy soldiers slowly encircled him, the Count smirked, confident that Azadine was now under his control.

“Haha. So, ready to talk now, Messenger? What do you think? Will you serve me? Have you changed your mind?”

“Serve you? You mean, help you kill people alongside these mummies? And in return, what? Good food? Sleeping with Naga women? Doesn’t sound like an appealing offer.”

“Then why didn’t you flee? Why stay and fight?”

“To protect the civilians.”

“The civilians? You mean the refugees? Those vermin? Why? Do they hold any value?”

“I don’t want my world filled with only undead.”

“A world that isn’t even yours?”

“You people only feel ownership after conquering something. What a shallow, narrow worldview.”

“You people?”

The Count realized that Azadine was likening him to someone else.

“I don’t need to conquer the world to call it mine.”

“Ridiculous. That’s just a loser’s self-consolation.”

The Count noticed Azadine, despite having no arrows, picking up his bow and drawing its string.

“What are you planning to do?”

“Thanks for the chat—it gave me a moment to recover. I’ll do this!”

Without even looking, Azadine nocked his sword onto the bowstring and shot it backward.

-Thud!

The sword struck the chest of a distracted Naga sorcerer.

“Kyah!”

“Sister!”

The other Naga sorcerer screamed in horror as her companion collapsed. Though the sword’s edge was dulled, it flew with terrifying speed, inflicting a fatal wound.

Even more astonishing was Azadine’s archery—shooting a heavy sword with such precision and power defied belief.

“You insolent wretch!”

The Count roared in fury. Enraged by the injury to his Naga lover, he lunged at Azadine.

“Over here!”

An arrow struck the Count’s head from above. A blonde girl dangled upside down on a rope, having descended from the Pits of Despair into the underground hall.

“Still alive, Azadine?”

“Yes! Didn’t I tell you not to come here…?”

“Aren’t you glad I did?”

“Thanks, I guess! Damn it!”

Azadine felt both gratitude and frustration toward Mediam. Though he had told her to stay outside, her arrival provided an opening for a counterattack.

“You insolent brat!”

Mediam fired arrows at the Count, but her bow couldn’t penetrate his thick scales.

“Mediam! Redirect your fire to me!”

“Yes!”

Following Azadine’s instruction, Mediam shifted her aim and shot arrows at him.

“Has she lost her mind?”

Even the enraged Count paused, baffled. But Azadine caught Mediam’s arrow mid-air, nocked it to his bow, and fired it back with far greater speed and force.

The redirected arrow pierced another Naga sorcerer.

“Kyah!”

“Rapid fire!”

“Are you sure you can handle it?!”

Mediam asked while continuously shooting. Azadine kicked the first arrow into the air, caught the second, and fired it at another Naga. He then grabbed the kicked arrow and launched it, striking a mummy soldier in the head and killing it before hitting another Naga sorcerer.

Azadine focused on eliminating the Naga sorcerers who were raising the mummy soldiers.