Temple Of The Serpent (5)

“Not yet. It’s not over yet….”

The Count, consumed by rage, searched frantically for Azadine. His dreams and ambitions could not end here.

If he could defeat that Messenger, regroup the remaining mummy soldiers, and request additional support from the Kurt Tribe and the Nagas of Nagashura, including their queen, Debyslin, this loss could still be reversed.

After all, there were plenty of corpses, and even more humans to turn into corpses. The drought would persist, and the world would continue to spiral into chaos.

In this state, Debyslin and the Kurt Tribe would not abandon him.

Would they?

-Rumble….

With a terrifying force, the Count’s body began to grow. His already ogre-sized upper body doubled in size, and his tail lengthened as well.

The massive greatsword that once looked like a dagger to him now seemed as small as a fork.

“Hmph! Of course, they wouldn’t abandon me!”

The Count hastened his pursuit of Azadine.

The enraged Count charged at Azadine, uprooting a massive tree torch stand and swinging it like a club.

“What the…? Is he in some kind of growth spurt? He just keeps getting bigger!”

Azadine, shocked by the Count’s increasing size, vaulted over the garden wall.

-Crumble!

The decorative brick wall, designed to create shade for the garden, crumbled far more easily than Azadine had anticipated.

“Ugh!”

Azadine screamed as debris rained down, narrowly dodging the falling fragments by rolling away. The Count’s tail lashed out, barely missing Azadine’s head. The slight unevenness of the garden terrain created just enough space for Azadine to avoid the strike.

“Damn it, you slippery little pest!”

Frustrated by Azadine’s agility, the Count twisted his massive body to give chase. However, his larger size had slowed his reactions. Azadine used the opportunity to slip into the flower garden connected to the fountain made of large ceramic vases.

“You won’t escape!”

With one sweep, the Count smashed through the garden. However, Azadine used the obstacles to momentarily obscure the Count’s view and changed direction to evade him.

The Count fumed. Every time he guessed that Azadine had dodged left, the Messenger moved right. If he assumed Azadine had retreated, the Messenger charged diagonally forward instead.

It was as if his every move was being read, leaving the Count with the infuriating sensation of being outmaneuvered, akin to losing repeatedly in a game of rock-paper-scissors or cards.

“You little…!”

The Count swung wildly, but Azadine deftly dodged each attack. Meanwhile, Azadine organized his quiver and secured the iron sword he had taken from a mummy soldier to his belt—all while on the move.

‘Honestly… impressive. He truly is an imperial Messenger!’

Despite his grudging admiration, the Count pressed on with the chase.

Though Azadine’s skills were remarkable, the Count’s enlarged size expanded his attack range. While his slower reactions gave Azadine an advantage, the sheer area covered by each swing or lash forced Azadine to sprint at full speed to avoid them.

No human could sustain such exertion indefinitely. Azadine, breathing heavily, was using every ounce of strength to stay ahead.

‘Damn it, I’ll die at this rate.’

Azadine felt the gravity of the situation. He shouted to Mediam and Ismail.

“Mediam! Ismail! Get out of here!”

“What?! But—”

“Take care of the mummy soldiers and escape!”

“What about you?”

“If I don’t hold this thing back, you’ll both be in danger! Don’t worry about me.”

Azadine retrieved arrows that had fallen to the ground—leftover from when they had first entered the garden. He refilled his quiver and gathered as many arrows as he could carry in his hand.

“Alright!”

Azadine dipped some of the arrows into the venom that had pooled on the ground from the Count’s earlier attacks.

-Sizzle!

He fired the venom-tipped arrows at the Count, but the latter summoned a magical barrier to deflect them.

Even if he used up all his arrows, could they pierce the barrier and the Count’s now-thicker scales?

‘This is hopeless.’

As despair crept in, Mediam suddenly fired an arrow from Azadine’s flank. Despite his instructions to retreat, she aimed directly at the Count.

However, her bow wasn’t powerful enough to pierce the Count’s scales. If her arrows couldn’t harm the ogre-sized Count earlier, they would fare even worse now that his size had doubled.

Even Azadine wasn’t confident his strongest shot could penetrate at this range without perfect conditions. But Mediam’s arrow wasn’t just an ordinary arrow.

-“Flowers, birds, wind, moon—White Crane!”

The arrow flew farther than usual, striking the Count’s barrier. At that moment, the barrier shattered into fragments. Mediam had imbued her arrow with magic, nullifying the Count’s protective shield.

“What?!”

With the barrier gone, Azadine’s venom-tipped arrows struck the Count’s body.

“Nice!”

Azadine praised Mediam’s well-timed assistance. But she wasn’t alone.

-“Flowers, birds, wind, moon—Golden Crane!”

Ismail fired a magic-enhanced arrow. Knowing Azadine’s next target was the Count’s right eye, Ismail’s arrow flew directly toward the Count’s face before veering right and striking near his eye. The arrow exploded on impact, spreading shockwaves across the Count’s entire face.

“Aaargh!”

The Count screamed in agony.

“Stop treating me like a child! I’m part of the Aragasa too!”

Mediam retorted, firing another magic-imbued arrow.

“Damn it!”

The Count grabbed a handful of broken brick fragments from the ground, intending to hurl them at Mediam and Ismail, but Azadine fired a venomous arrow at that moment.

-Thud!

Azadine’s rapid-fire technique usually involved half-drawn arrows for speed, but this time he fully drew the bowstring and even used a loaded bow technique to increase velocity further.

The Aragasa Archery Technique!

His effort paid off as the arrow pierced through the Count’s scales and embedded itself deeply under his right eye. The arrow’s tail was buried so completely it was invisible.

“Graaah!”

The Count writhed in pain, rolling on the ground. While he narrowly avoided the arrow hitting his eyeball directly, the venom-tipped arrow lodged into his ocular muscles. His right eye’s vision would soon falter.

With a sharp object stuck in his eye’s rotation muscles, every movement tore the muscle further, injecting venom with each shift. Though his size prevented immediate blindness or incapacitation, the agony left the Count unable to open his eyes properly.

“You wretches!”

Azadine fired another venomous arrow, aiming to blind the Count completely. This was his chance to turn the tide!

But it was a mistake.

This time, the Count ignored the pain and charged. Disregarding the arrow embedded in his eye, he lunged at Azadine.

“Ugh!”

Azadine used the Twilight Step to evade the greatsword strike, but the Count’s tail followed up. Azadine raised the crude iron sword he’d taken from a mummy soldier and blocked the tail, but the force launched him backward.

The blow sent Azadine flying onto the gallery roof connecting the garden and the bell tower. While he absorbed most of the impact, this time the strike hit harder.

“How is he still alive after that?!”

The Count was shocked to find that his tail strike had barely harmed Azadine. Despite his massive size, Azadine had once again mitigated the force by leaping back just in time.

“Urgh….”

Azadine’s nosebleed started anew, and his head rang with thunderous pain. Though no bones were broken, his entire body throbbed as if pummeled by a powerful blow.

The crude iron sword shattered into pieces, unable to withstand the impact. The Count’s enhanced size had significantly increased the power of his attacks.

Azadine quickly employed the Kazas Breathing Technique, regulating his blood flow and internal injuries as he braced himself for recovery.

If the Count or even a nearby mummy soldier attacked now, Azadine wouldn’t survive.

“Graaah!”

But the Count was in bad shape too.

His left eye’s vision was impaired from a venom arrow, and his right eye, though functional, was inflamed and itchy. Still, in his rage, he charged toward Azadine, swinging his greatsword and bronze torch stand as he moved. Azadine dodged backward into the bell tower.

“W-who are you?”

Soldiers were hiding in the bell tower. Terrified by the mummy soldiers and the rampaging Naga monster, they had taken refuge there.

“If you don’t mind, may I borrow some weapons?”

Azadine paused as he spoke. The roof of the bell tower was partially burned and missing. Charred rafters hung precariously overhead.

Inside, planks supporting the tower’s structure had been removed to prevent the fire from spreading further.

“Get out of here! The bell tower is going to collapse!”

“What? That’s….”

“I’ll buy you time, now go!”

Azadine picked up his bow, climbed the bell tower’s window, and began firing arrows.

“Kyaaak!”

The Count roared in frustration and approached the bell tower.

“Take the back exit!”

“Yes!”

“Understood!”

The soldiers fled as Azadine ordered.

“Good! Now then….”

Azadine grabbed the bell’s rope and began climbing upward.

“You wretch!”

The Count, enraged, cast a spell. Blood spears shot toward the bell tower, piercing through the windows and shooting upward toward Azadine.

“Did he die?”

The Count pondered as he watched.

-Rumble!

Suddenly, the bell tower began to collapse.

“What?!”

As the Count reeled in surprise, Azadine leaped from the tower’s top, gripping the halberd head in his hand, and plunged it into the Count’s skull.

-“Flowers, birds, wind, moon—Thunderbolt, Kazas Grimoire!”

The halberd strike resembled a lightning bolt, delivering a shockwave that penetrated the Count’s thick skull and reverberated within.

“Gah?!”

Debris from the collapsing tower rained down. Most devastatingly, charred rafters, sharpened by fire, impaled the Count’s body. Azadine had carefully adjusted his trajectory using the bell rope to ensure the attack struck with precision.

“You… insane….”

Screaming in agony, the Count was impaled by the beams and buried under the tower’s wreckage.