"Hey, you Naga woman! What's your name?"
"Man, what's your name?"
The Nagas also asked Shati and Azadin for their names.
"This woman's name is Shati..."
Azadin said that while subtly putting pressure on Shati. He tightened his arms around the torso that was holding Shati up.
At that moment, Shati realized how futile it had been to think she could strangle Azadin with her snake tail and body. Instead, it felt like her own body was about to burst from his grip.
'What kind of human has this strength?! These warm-blooded creatures are terrifying!'
Having no choice, Shati gave the name of a fallen companion from the Count's estate when Azadin had attacked.
"He is Capella."
"Capella and Shati... you say."
"They're the ones who went to Count Salasma?! I knew it!"
"What's going on? Who were those guys shooting arrows from behind?"
"More importantly, this..."
Azadin placed his longsword on the ground. Of course, he did not let go of the dagger hidden in the hand holding Shati. Instead, he laid the longsword down and pulled out a copy of the Book of the Divine King from his robe with his free hand.
The moment they saw the luminous white paper, the Nagas gasped in awe.
"Book of the Divine King!"
"A copy of the Book of the Divine King!"
"Yes, I'm here to deliver this."
As the Nagas' attention focused on the Book of the Divine King, Azadin subtly bowed his head.
"Everyone, get out of the way!"
Shati shouted at the top of her lungs in warning. But it was already too late.
—Swish!
Azadin threw an arrow at the Nagas.
The startled young Nagas tried to defend themselves, but the one closest to Azadin had his head pierced straight through. Another who belatedly raised his shield managed to block the arrow, only for it to punch through the shield and lodge into his face.
"Ugh!"
The arrow was blue. Azadin had used Azure Steel Arrows, which he had obtained from Nefti, the 75th herald of the Emperor, to pierce through the Nagas' shields and wound them.
Even though the arrow had already been used once, making the arrowhead slightly dull, the Azure Steel Arrow still tore through the shield like paper and sank deep into the young Nagas' faces.
"Kyaaak!"
Shati bared her claws and fangs, but Azadin swung the dagger hidden in his hand and struck her mouth.
—Crack!
Her fangs shattered, spraying blood. Despite being larger than a human, the Naga couldn't withstand Azadin's attack and was sent flying.
"Ugh!"
Scott McGreen, the orc necromancer, had already been suspicious of Azadin, so he reacted quickly.
"Ghoul!"
A ghoul, a wretched corpse mutated by an evil spirit, leaped at Azadin like a four-legged beast. But when Azadin grabbed the longsword he had set down and swung it, the ghoul was sent flying sideways.
'That's absurd!'
Scott rolled his wheelchair backward. The necromantic magic that controlled the chair made it slide back at an alarming speed. He then arranged his undead into a wall to block any incoming charges.
Or so he thought…
A longsword flew straight toward him.
Azadin had thrown his sword like throwing knife.
The sword, hurled by hand, flew with the force of a ballista bolt. If it hit, it would skewer him clean through.
'Ah, damn it!'
The undead controlled by Scott tried to block it with their bodies, but the attack was too fast for their sluggish movements to react in time.
At that moment, a shadow demon burst from Scott's shadow.
[Kaaak!]
It was a Nightcrawler.
The massive shadow wraith swung its claws and deflected Azadin's thrown sword.
"Tch."
Azadin was shocked that his perfect attack had been blocked once again by the Night Crawler.
'Any other necromancer would've died from the first arrow strike, yet he survived that and now this? That shadow wraith is troublesome. I knew from the first time I saw it—it's an incredibly powerful monster. What should I do?'
But then, the face of the orc controlling the creature turned dark green.
The shadow demon suddenly grabbed the orc's head and lifted him high.
[Your credit is due, Scott McGreen! It's time to pay your price!]
"Agh, no!"
The orc necromancer tried to chant a spell, but the shadow demon opened its maw wide and swallowed him whole.
But then…
"Huh?"
Azadin, watching the scene, was caught off guard.
[Kuhahahaha!]
The Night Crawler's body thickened.
'Ah, I see. It absorbed the necromancer's body to use as a mana source to manifest itself fully in this world.'
Azadin clicked his tongue, realizing that the orc had become the Nightcrawler's fuel.
Summoning or extra-planar magic required sacrifices and devotion from beings of this world for long-term manifestation. The Nightcrawler was both a wraith and a demon-like entity, meaning it needed a living mage as a medium to remain here. It had likely granted favors while gradually accumulating a debt, only to devour its summoner in the end.
[Now, despair, human!]
A dark aura burst forth from the Nightcrawler, enveloping the surrounding undead.
"Kyaaaah!"
"Kraah!"
The shadows engulfed the undead, turning into their armor and muscles.
Seeing the Nightcrawler grow massive, Azadin quickly turned and fled.
A powerful wraith-type monster like that wouldn't last long anyway. There was no point in wasting energy fighting it.
'It's a shame I couldn't figure out what the Nagas were doing here, but there's no reason to tire myself out. I'm not even fully healed yet.'
As Azadin escaped, the Nagas also began to flee.
The Nagas Azadin had shot in the face weren't dead yet. A Naga wouldn't die easily unless its brain was thoroughly destroyed.
Likewise, Shati, despite her broken fang, got up and ran.
"Hah! A-Asahdin!"
Shati called Azadin's name in the old Aragasa dialect. It was because her broken fang made her pronunciation slur, but hearing his name spoken that way shook Azadin.
The Nightcrawler, unable to keep up with Azadin's speed, turned to attack the slower Nagas instead.
"Tch!"
Azadin threw his dagger toward the Nightcrawler's heart. That heart should contain the remnants of the orc necromancer it had absorbed.
As expected, the Nightcrawler overreacted, hurriedly blocking the dagger.
"Split up and run!"
Azadin ordered the Nagas to scatter while he sprinted ahead. Shati followed closely behind him, while the other Nagas veered away.
As the distance between Azadin and the Nagas grew, they began casting spells.
"Ah!"
Thick vines sprouted from the ground in front of Azadin. Though only ankle-high, they had thorns that clung to flesh and fabric, tearing and ensnaring their target. A perfect obstacle.
'Oh, so they want to play dirty? You guys mess with me, I mess with you harder!'
Azadin changed direction to avoid the thorny vines.
The Nightcrawler chased after him, but the undead wrapped in shadows pursued the Nagas instead.
"Kuh!"
"Damn it!"
The injured Nagas found themselves surrounded by the undead. They had assumed the undead were ordinary, so they drew their massive curved blades and swung them—
—Clang!
A metallic sound rang out from the zombie's body.
"Huh?!"
"This is bad!"
The black shadow armor clanged as it deflected the blades. The undead clad in black armor lunged at the Nagas, and chaos erupted.
'Well, I can leave that to the undead. The real problem is…'
Azadin looked at Shati, who was chasing after him, and behind her, the Nightcrawler that was closing in.
"H-help me!"
Shati called out to Azadin.
"What? Are you out of your mind?"
She had just betrayed him and attacked him, and now she was asking for help?
Azadin was baffled by Shati's shamelessness but, for some reason, changed his mind. He unfastened the Moon Horn Bow from his waist and strung the bowstring.
"Hey, undead!"
Azadin pulled out a Black Steel Arrow from his quiver—the same one he had shot at Zekt. Then, surprisingly, he took out a page from the copy of the Book of the Divine King and wrapped it around the arrow.
"Here, undead! Despair all you want!"
Azadin fired the Black Steel Arrow. The arrow shot out from his bow with terrifying force, aiming straight for the heart of the Nightcrawler, where the orc necromancer resided.
—Thud!
The Nightcrawler raised its arm to block, but the Black Steel Arrow shattered its arm and burrowed into its torso, landing a direct hit.
[Krrgh?!]
Even the Nightcrawler was taken aback by the force. Azadin's arrow had broken through its arm and struck its heart.
—Thud!
The Nightcrawler staggered backward and collapsed.
"Gahk!?"
From within its heart, the orc necromancer emerged.
"Ugh…"
"Good, it worked."
Azadin pulled out another page from the copy of the Book of the Divine King, gripped it in his hand, and charged toward the Nightcrawler.
[Fool! Do you think you can just hit me with the Book of the Divine King? Using a grimoire against me?]
The Nightcrawler immediately absorbed the surrounding darkness to regenerate its severed arm and tried to bury the struggling orc necromancer back inside its chest.
But Azadin swung his cloak over the area where the orc was embedded and simultaneously struck with his palm.
—Azure Thunderclap! Kazas Haeseo!
Originally, this technique spread its impact widely to deal with swarms of insects or rats, but with the pages of the Book of the Divine King layered over it, the force was imbued with white magic, sweeping away the darkness.
[Kraaagh?! How reckless!]
"Orc!"
Azadin reached out, grabbed the orc necromancer's arm that was buried in the Nightcrawler's chest, and yanked him out.
"Use your strength! What's the point of all those muscles?!"
"Ugh, this is bad for muscle growth…"
Despite his complaints, the orc necromancer grasped Azadin's hand, strained his muscles, and freed himself from the Nightcrawler's body.
"Kh…!"
With the orc extracted, the Nightcrawler, having lost its mana source, rapidly weakened.
"Banish it, now!"
Azadin commanded. The orc formed hand seals and began chanting.
"The price of our contract has been paid! Return now, Nightcrawler!"
Immediately, countless wails of evil spirits echoed from the Nightcrawler.
[Kyaaaaaaah!]
[Nooo!]
[This… this is not the end!]
The enraged Nightcrawler swung its arm, aiming at Azadin and the orc necromancer, but Azadin grabbed the orc by the scruff of his neck and leaped away, dodging the attack.
As the Nightcrawler faded and gradually disappeared, the undead also lost their supply of magic. The black armor and muscles that covered them vanished. More than that, the necromantic magic itself unraveled, and they reverted to ordinary corpses.
Taking advantage of this, the Nagas swiftly jumped over the undead's encirclement and fled.
"J-just you wait!"
"Traitor!"
They gritted their teeth at Shati as they ran.
"Ugh, n-no, that's not it!"
Shati was beyond frustrated. She had done everything in her power to save them, even jumping at Azadin and getting her fang broken in the process. But to the Nagas, she was nothing more than a traitor who had betrayed her kin.
'At this point, he might as well shoot them with his bow…'
Shati entertained the thought, but Azadin seemed more focused on dealing with the orc necromancer than stopping the fleeing Nagas.
"Damn, I just ran out of arrows in my quiver. If only I had more."
Azadin made an offhand remark as he helped the orc stand up.