Temple Of The Serpent (4)

To the Count, the Naga sorcerers were not just allies but also his lovers. Watching them being harmed drove him to fury. As he moved toward Azadine, the arrows Mediam had fired earlier fell from his body.

“Thanks!”

Azadine picked up the fallen arrows from the ground.

“Shaaa!”

“Kyaaak!”

The mummy soldiers shielded the Naga sorcerers with their bodies, protecting them from Azadine’s arrows. However, Azadine charged at a nearby mummy, used its shoulder as a springboard, and fired an arrow mid-air.

“Kyaah….”

One of the sorcerers was in bad shape.

“You wretch!”

Enraged, the Count couldn’t hold back and swung his weapon at Azadine, who darted between the mummy soldiers. The Count, indifferent to collateral damage, struck the mummies with his massive blows.

-Thud!

The mummy soldiers were smashed to pieces, but Azadine had already retreated to another area. The Count, now frustrated, found himself colliding with the mummies as his large Naga form struggled to maneuver in the underground passage.

“You’re destroying your precious mummy soldiers yourself!”

“You insolent brat!”

The Count charged in rage, but Azadine continued to evade by weaving through the soldiers, using them to dodge the Count’s attacks.

As the Count tried to corner him, Azadine called out to Mediam.

“Mediam! Can you drop more rope?”

“Yes!”

“Great, let’s do this!”

Azadine slung his bow over his shoulder and sprinted toward the idol. The furious Count raised his sword to strike, but hesitated—attacking recklessly could damage the idol.

“As I expected!”

Azadine leaped onto the Naga idol.

-Whoosh!

A bronze torch stand flew toward him. The Count, anticipating Azadine’s leap, hurled the torch’s stand. Yet Azadine feigned a powerful jump, then ducked low to avoid the projectile.

“I knew you’d aim for my first jump!”

Taunting the Count, Azadine jumped and grabbed the rope Mediam had lowered.

“Ah! Are you okay?”

“Can you pull me up?”

“Ismail’s trying, but he says it’s too heavy!”

Ismail, struggling with the pulley system above, moved too slowly to lift Azadine.

“Ismail! Just secure the rope!”

“What?!”

Mediam was startled by the command. Meanwhile, the Count cast a spell, hurling blood-spears toward Azadine.

“Hmph!”

Hanging from the rope, Azadine swung his body like a giant pendulum, narrowly avoiding the incoming attacks.

“Not so fast!”

-Slash!

One blood-spear struck Azadine!

“Azadine!”

Mediam, hanging slightly higher on the rope, cried out in shock. However, Azadine held the rope steady and raised something in his hand.

“This thing’s solid. I like it!”

It was the head of a halberd. He had used it like a tonfa to deflect the incoming blood-spear.

“You scum!”

The enraged Count lunged at Azadine with his greatsword. Azadine used the momentum of the rope’s swing to push off the wall, running upward in a spiral motion while still holding the rope.

Scaling the wall in this way, he dodged the Count’s attack.

“Argh!”

The Count’s missed strike sent his massive body crashing between the idol and the wall.

-Crack!

Under the weight of the Count’s body, the Naga idol crumbled.

“As expected of a descendant of the Yaegas God Tribe. Even as a Naga, you refuse to bow to the Kurt Tribe. Incredible! Smashing the Cobra Queen’s idol!”

Mocking him, Azadine climbed the rope, escaping into the Pits of Despair.

“Ah!”

Mediam, panting heavily, climbed up after him and sighed in relief.

“Huff… Are you okay, Azadine?”

“Yes, thanks to you. I owe you one. Things could’ve gone much worse if you hadn’t shown up.”

“Things already seem bad enough…”

Ismail remarked as he pointed toward the Count, who was now climbing the wall after them.

“Let’s get out of here!”

“Yeah!”

The Count, dragging his massive body up the wall, caused the floor of the Pits of Despair to crack under his weight.

Azadine, Mediam, and Ismail retraced their steps, passing the dissection lab used for making mummies, and arrived at the first floor of the rear annex.

There, they encountered undead marionettes—corpses with blades attached to their limbs, moving like puppets on strings.

“What are these?”

The undead marionettes, powered by muscle tissue to move their blade-embedded limbs, threatened Azadine and his companions.

“What the hell is this now?”

“These weren’t here when we came in… The Count’s palace is crawling with monsters.”

Mediam grew uneasy at the new obstacle blocking their retreat. In the darkness, a sorcerer was controlling the corpses.

Unseen by Azadine’s group, the sorcerer manipulated the undead marionettes with magic. The marionettes spun and danced as they approached, exuding an ominous aura. However, Azadine remained calm.

“Do we have any arrows left?”

“Here.”

Ismail handed Azadine arrows from his quiver. Azadine had instructed Mediam and Ismail to bring plenty of arrows, and they had followed his orders diligently.

Besides their quivers, they had bundles of arrows stored in their packs. Azadine took one and, guided by his sharp eyesight, located the sorcerer radiating black magic.

-Swish!

The arrow pierced through wooden obstacles and struck the sorcerer controlling the marionettes.

“Argh! How… how did you find me?! I erased my presence completely!”

The sorcerer screamed as they dropped their human guise and transformed into a Naga. But…

-Swish, swish!

Azadine fired additional arrows, one of which completely destroyed the transforming Naga’s head. With the sorcerer dead, the marionettes collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

“Nagas are tough. It takes that many arrows to kill one? Then those Naga sorcerers from earlier might still be alive.”

Azadine briefly considered going back to finish off the sorcerers but decided against it—it would be far too dangerous.

Even if saving the refugees justified his actions, it wouldn’t be fair to Mediam and Ismail, who had risked their lives to rescue him.

‘I can’t waste the life they helped save.’

Since other Nagas likely knew the magic to awaken the mummy soldiers, retreating was the best option.

“Let’s go!”

“Huh, you seemed really grateful to me just now. Ugh, I can’t help it. You’re falling for me, just like my peers back home!”

“…What are you even talking about?”

With Mediam spouting nonsense, Azadine led their escape from the rear annex.

As Azadine emerged outside, the mummy soldiers patrolling the grounds spotted them and began to approach.

-Rumble!

The roof of the rear annex collapsed, revealing the Count in his massive Naga form, his upper body as large as an ogre’s.

“Messenger Clan!”

Enraged, the Count charged at Azadine, swinging his greatsword. Azadine leaped over the fountain in the courtyard to evade, but…

-Crack!

The fountain, made of terracotta tiles, shattered under the Count’s strike.

-Whoosh!

Rolling to the side, Azadine fired an arrow, but the Count conjured a magical shield, detonating the arrow before it could hit.

“It’s useless! You cannot stop my ambition!”

“Then it’s not useless.”

“What?”

“If your ambition is being thwarted, it’s clearly not useless.”

“I meant your arrows, you fool! Ugh, never mind! I’ll shred you into a thousand pieces!”

The furious Count charged again. Azadine raised his left hand and shouted to Mediam and Ismail.

“Aim for the right eye!”

He then tossed several arrows into the air and prepared to rapid-fire.

Mediam and Ismail, understanding Azadine’s signal, began shooting at the Count’s left eye. Among Messenger Clan members, it was common to use misleading signals during combat, a tactic ingrained through childhood training.

Although they hadn’t coordinated such signals beforehand, the trio’s instincts aligned, and they all targeted the Count’s left eye.

“This…!”

Despite the Count’s massive size, his eye was a small target in the dark, no bigger than a pebble at this distance. However, Mediam and Ismail’s arrows were highly accurate, and Azadine’s rapid-fire shots were precise as well.

The Count opened his mouth and sprayed venom like a fountain, deflecting the arrows.

“Ah!”

“Dodge it!”

Azadine dodged the venom and retreated once again.

As the mummy soldiers swarmed, Azadine grabbed one, tore a weapon from its grasp, and threw the soldier’s body into the path of the venom.

“Ugh! Damn it!”

Black magic from the mummy seeped into Azadine’s hand. Even touching the cursed undead caused the Curse of Weakness to invade his body.

Thankfully, the venom was blocked, and Azadine now wielded a crude but effective iron blade taken from the mummy soldier.

“Grrr!”

The Count clicked his tongue in frustration. While Mediam and Ismail’s arrows were deflected by the venom spray, Azadine’s arrow had retained enough power to strike near the Count’s left eye.

The arrow, drenched in venom, pierced through the scales around the Count’s eye. Since the venom entered through the wound, it began spreading into the Count’s bloodstream.

A snake’s venom immunity doesn’t extend to its own poison. For venomous creatures, their toxins are just as harmful if they enter their bloodstream. While the Count’s massive size meant the venom wouldn’t kill him, it was enough to impair his vision.

His left eye grew blurry as the venom spread through the surrounding blood vessels, gradually rendering him blind on that side.

“Damn it! Clever little wretch! You’re full of tricks!”

Despite his rage, the Count couldn’t help but admire Azadine. He had infiltrated this far, fought relentlessly, and, though clearly fatigued, continued to evade attacks and deliver frustratingly effective counterattacks.

This Messenger wasn’t just fighting for survival; he was risking everything to protect the refugees—people who weren’t even of his race or nation.

‘How laughable! An irreverent heretic, a so-called King Slayer, acting like a paragon of chivalry!’

The other Messengers the Count had defeated, like Harad and Kevna, hadn’t been like this. He had the misfortune of facing a rare and devout Messenger, one determined to thwart his ambitions.